[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.