    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 9 (Monday, March 7, 2005)]
    [Pages 328-332]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks to the National Governors Association Conference

    February 28, 2005

        The President. Thank you. Please be seated. Didn't take you long to
    get back. [Laughter] Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did last night.
    It was--Marvin was great.
        I'd like to have a few--I'll make a few opening comments, and then
    I'll be glad to field some questions. First, I want to thank Governor
    Warner and Governor Huckabee for leading the NGA; I appreciate the job
    you've done. I thought the messaging in our local newspapers here was
    very positive: ``Governors coming together to try to figure out how to
    solve common problems.'' It's a good message for all of us here in
    Washington to hear. This town can be fairly bitter at times, and I
    remember fondly my days of working with people in both parties to try to
    get positive things done for my State. I hope that the spirit in which
    you all have come to Washington spreads throughout the Nation's Capital.
        I appreciate the members of my Cabinet who are here. Your name is?
        Secretary Johanns. Johanns. [Laughter]
        The President. It takes a while to get to know every member of the
    Cabinet. [Laughter] And Mike Leavitt and Chertoff--oh, there you are.
    Good, yes. I appreciate--I hope you find these folks as candid and as

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    bright as I have found them. I really appreciate all three members of my
    Cabinet willing to come and serve in Washington. As you know, your
    administration can be defined by who you surround yourself with, and
    I've surrounded myself with good, capable people--and I hope you found
    that to be the case--candid, open people that are interested in working
    with our Governors.
        And we've had some challenges that we have faced together. Our
    economy, as you know, got rocked by a recession and then an attack and
    corporate scandals. But I'm pleased to know that your budgets are
    improving, that revenues are on the rise. That's because the economy is
    growing, and we're adding jobs. And the fundamental question is, how do
    we keep the economic growth alive? I spend a lot of time thinking about
    that here in Washington. I brought some ideas forward to the Congress,
    such as making sure the tax relief that we passed is permanent, that
    people are able to predict their tax rates in a better way so that they
    can plan. Part of making sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong is so
    there's a kind of certainty. And we're working with Congress to make
    sure there's certainty.
        The Tax Code, itself, needs to be reformed. I think the Tax Code is
    one that inhibits the flow of capital and growth. And so I've called
    upon former Senators Mack and Breaux to bring forth some ideas about how
    to simplify the Tax Code to make it more entrepreneurial-friendly. That
    report should come out this summer. It will be an interesting challenge,
    but it's one that is a necessary challenge for Congress to work to
    simplify the code.
        We've started with legal reform here. I hope--I encourage you all in
    your own States to do the same thing. It turns out America is one of the
    most litigious countries in the world, and that makes it hard to compete
    in a global society. We are at a competitive disadvantage when we sue
    each other so much. And we've got a good class-action bill out of the
    House and the Senate. We're working on asbestos reform, and I'm working
    hard to create a consensus that the scales of justice ought to be
    balanced. And I think a lot of people will tell you they're not balanced
    now. So we want to work here in Washington on legal reform; we hope you
    do.
        I'll continue to work to open up markets and, at the same time,
    enforce our rules to make sure the playing field is level. It's good for
    your farmers that they're selling products overseas. It's good for your
    entrepreneurs that they can open up markets. What's not good is when the
    rules are unfair. And so we'll continue to work to enforce laws on the
    books.
        We need an energy plan--we've got an energy plan; we need an energy
    bill. And I want to thank you for your support of the Clear Skies
    legislation. That will help some of you who are having trouble meeting
    your clean air requirements to do so without affecting your economies.
    And I want to--I asked you to clap a couple of times during dinner last
    night. [Laughter] I appreciate you--thank you, Joe; yes, it was a good
    singer.
        Look, what I'm telling you is, we're going to deal directly with the
    twin deficits--the trade deficit. And the best way to deal with that is
    to make America the best place in the world to do business. By working
    to sustain economic growth, you're also working to make sure this is a
    good place to do business. That's the best way to deal with one aspect
    of the twin deficits.
        And the other part of the twin deficit, of course, is the budget
    deficit. And you've seen our view, our attitude about that. And so I
    presented a good, lean budget to the Congress. It sets priorities; it
    meets priorities. It, in essence, does what you do. It says, ``If a
    program isn't working, don't fund it, or if it duplicates efforts,
    streamline.''
        And as you know, we have--we're working with our Governors to figure
    out ways to deal with not only discretionary spending issues but
    mandatory spending issues, such as Medicaid. We want Medicaid to work.
    We want poor children covered by SCHIP. But we also recognize that the
    system needs to be reformed, and we want to work with you to do so.
    There's no better group of people to work with than the Governors. The
    Governor is on the frontline of Medicaid, I know full well. We're
    worried about intergovernmental transfers, and so we put that on the
    table for discussion, so that the system works the way it's supposed to
    work.

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        We want to work with you as well on education matters. And I want to
    thank Governor Warner for leading the charge for high standards coming
    out of high schools. It was an appropriate and important message. Some
    in Congress may want to try to undermine No Child Left Behind. Forget
    it, we're not going to let them do it, because it's working. And I want
    to thank you all for implementing No Child Left Behind, using the powers
    of the--that the Federal--the flexibility the Federal Government has
    given you to achieve what we all want, which is an educated America. And
    the hopeful thing is, is that the achievement gap is closing in America.
    How do we know? Because we measure. So I want to congratulate you for
    the initial stages of making sure the education system works fully. And
    I look forward to working with the Governors on implementing ideas about
    how to make sure the high school systems work.
        We want to work with you on the Workforce Investment Act reform. And
    we train about--I think we spend about 4 billion a year and train
    200,000 people. I think we can do a little better job than 200,000
    people being trained with 4 billion a year. And so we want to work with
    our Governors to figure out ways to enhance flexibility, to get the job
    done, which is to train people for the jobs of the 21st century, and to
    utilize the fantastic community college systems that you all have helped
    build all around the country.
        We want to work with you on health issues. One of the things that we
    have done is expand community health centers. I hope you felt the impact
    in, particularly, your poor counties and poor neighborhoods by the
    expansion of community health centers. We've expanded or modernized some
    630 of them; we plan to do 700 more this year. It's a fantastic way to
    help take the pressure off your emergency rooms.
        I'm a big believer in health savings accounts, and I hope that you
    all look at health savings accounts as a way for small-business owners
    to be able to better afford insurance for their employees. It is a great
    way to enhance consumer participation in the medical marketplace and, at
    the same time, help small businesses address costs.
        I believe in association health plans that will allow small
    businesses to aggregate together, to pool risk, and to be able to buy
    insurance--to pool risk across jurisdictional boundaries. Now, I
    understand there are some issues. There are some people in your
    respective States, people who might have got a pretty good lock on
    selling insurance, that don't like this idea. But the objective is
    affordable insurance. And so I want to work with Congress to allow
    association health plans to expand.
        We've got an issue when it comes to medical liability reform. I can
    remember talking to ob-gyns from a lot of States. I'm trying to look
    around for Governors, particularly in some States that are in particular
    need of medical liability reform. I've come to the conclusion that this
    is a national issue. When I first got here, I said the States can handle
    it--until you look at what the cost of defensive medicine--what it costs
    to the Federal budget. It costs us billions of taxpayers' money. And
    I've concluded this is a national issue, and I'm working with Congress
    to get out a reasonable bill on medical liability reform. It's necessary
    if you believe that medicine ought to be affordable and available,
    because we've got a problem. When you've got ob-gyns being run out of
    business in America, you've got a problem in your States, and you know
    that. And so I look forward to taking on this issue again at the Federal
    level.
        A couple of other things I want to say, and then I'll answer some
    questions. Some of you are probably wondering why I took on the Social
    Security issue. After all, it had been called the third rail of American
    politics. I am because the demographics have changed dramatically, and
    you're beginning to see it in your States. You're seeing it through
    Medicaid. You know about it in Medicare. And of course you know about it
    in Social Security because most of us are baby boomers, and we're fixing
    to retire, and there's a lot of us. And yet, we've been promised bigger
    benefits than the previous generation, and we're living longer.
        So you've got baby boomers fixing to retire, who are living longer,
    who've been made a bigger promise than the previous generation, and the
    Government can't afford it. There's not enough workers contributing in
    the system. And we need to do something about it now. And I'm going to--
    I'm coming

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    to your States--I'm coming to a lot of States between now and whenever
    Congress decides to take this issue on, head-on--to remind people not
    only we have a problem, but we have an obligation to fix it. And I'm
    looking forward to this debate. I think this is a healthy use of our
    time in Washington, to see big problems and come together and fix them.
        Now, the Medicare bill hasn't taken an effect yet. But it too
    suffers from the same demographic issue, because you've got a lot of
    baby boomers that are going to retire, and the fundamental question is,
    how do we deal with it? My attitude--and I've told Congress, ``Let the
    reforms that we've just passed kick in.'' They hadn't kicked in yet--
    2006 is when you begin to have prescription drugs become available to
    seniors, and 2006 is when you're going to see drugs begin to replace--
    over time, drugs begin to replace hospital stays. See, the old system
    would pay for a heart surgery but not a dime for the prescription drugs
    that might prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first
    place. It was very cost-ineffective. Nor did it offer our seniors a
    modernized system. And so we look forward to working with you and
    Congress on Medicare reform after we solve the Social Security problem.
        And finally, I urge you to continue to take advantage of the Faith-
    Based Initiative. I believe that the best way to cure many of society's
    ills is to surround them with love, and faith-based groups exist purely
    because they want to love somebody or do love somebody. And we're
    working really hard to make sure that Federal money is accessible on a
    competitive basis to our faith-based programs around the country.
        I've traveled our country a lot, and I found these just fantastic
    institutions that are changing America one soul at a time. And I urge
    you, if you don't have an office, to set up a faith-based office and
    take advantage of the fantastic opportunity available to--that we're
    trying to make available to the faith community.
        You know, not every problem is going to be solved by a faith-based
    group, but at least you ought to include faith-based groups in the mix.
    It makes sense to me to make sure that taxpayers' money is accessible on
    a competitive basis. And it's all aimed--the program is all aimed at
    helping change this country for the better.
        Let me talk about foreign policy right quick. I know a lot of you
    have got Guard troops in Iraq. I want to thank you for supporting those
    troops. Whether you agree with my decision or not, you've done your duty
    as commanders in chief to support the troops, and I appreciate it a lot.
    But more importantly, they appreciate it, and their families appreciate
    it.
        I thought the hug at the State of the Union helped talk about the
    mission better than any words could have. And I hope that helped you
    when you explain to the families in your State what's happening. The
    gratitude of the Iraqi woman toward the American mom whose son had died
    was profound, gratitude that the country was free. And freedom is on the
    march. These are exciting times in our world.
        But I want to thank you for doing your duty and supporting those
    kids, men and women, who are over in harm's way. We're making progress
    there. The mission is to get the Iraqis in a position where they can
    defend themselves. And we'll try to do that as soon as possible, get it
    done as quickly as we can, and then our troops are coming home with the
    honor they've earned, as I said in the State of the Union.
        I'm looking forward to working with you all. I'm excited about the
    next 4 years. I've got the energy and the drive and the desire to do the
    best I possibly can to make America as hopeful and optimistic place as
    it possibly can be, and I know it can't be done without cooperation with
    the Governors.
        Thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:13 a.m. on the State Floor at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to composer Marvin Hamlisch, who
    performed at a dinner for the National Governors Association Conference
    the previous night; Gov. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, chairman, and Gov.
    Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, vice chairman, National Governors Association
    Executive Committee; former Senators Connie Mack, Chairman, and John B.
    Breaux, Vice Chairman, President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform;
    Gov. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia; and Janet Norwood, mother of Sgt.
    Byron Norwood, USMC, who was killed in Iraq on November 13, 2004, and
    Iraqi

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    citizen and political activist Safia Taleb al-Suhail, both of whom were
    guests of the First Lady at the President's State of the Union Address
    on February 2. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of these remarks.