[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 1 (Monday, January 8, 2007)]
[Pages 4-5]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting

January 3, 2007

    Thank you all. We just finished our first Cabinet meeting of 2007. I 
want to thank my Cabinet officers for joining me here. We discussed our 
priorities for the next 2 years and how we plan to achieve them. The 
Congress has changed; our obligations to the country haven't changed.
    Tomorrow Members of the 110th Congress will take their oaths of 
office, and I congratulate them. I welcome their arrival into town. I'm 
looking forward to working with them and so are members of my Cabinet. 
We've all been entrusted with public office at a momentous time in our 
Nation's history, and together we have important things to do. It's time 
to set aside politics and focus on the future.
    I've been encouraged by the productive meetings that I've had with 
many of the new leaders of Congress, people from both parties. I want to 
thank them for coming down to the White House and talking to me about 
their ambitions and their goals for our country. I'm hopeful that 
Republicans and Democrats can find common ground to serve our folks, to 
do our jobs, to be constructive for our country.

[[Page 5]]

    One area where we must work together is that we've got to make sure 
we spend the people's money wisely. Over the past few years, progrowth 
economic policies have generated higher revenues. Together with spending 
restraint, these policies allowed us to meet our goal of cutting the 
budget deficit in half 3 years ahead of schedule. We did so without 
taxing the working people. We kept taxes low.
    It's now time to take the next step. Next month I will submit a 5-
year budget proposal that will balance the Federal budget by 2012. This 
budget will restrain spending while setting priorities. It will address 
the most urgent needs of our Nation, in particular the need to protect 
ourselves from radicals and terrorists, the need to win the war on 
terror, the need to maintain a strong national defense, and the need to 
keep this economy growing by making tax relief permanent.
    By balancing the budget through progrowth economic policies and 
spending restraint, we are better positioned to tackle longer term 
fiscal challenges facing our country, namely the entitlement programs. 
These programs need to be reformed for the sake of younger Americans. We 
need to reform Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid so future 
generations of Americans can benefit from these vital programs without 
bankrupting our country.
    Another area where we can work together is to reform the earmark 
process. One important message we all should take from the elections is 
that people want to end the secretive process by which Washington 
insiders are able to get billions of dollars directed to projects, many 
of them pork-barrel projects, that have never been reviewed or voted on 
by the Congress.
    Some of the earmarks are not even included in the legislation. They 
are stuffed into committee reports that have never been passed and are 
never signed into law. Earmarks often divert precious funds from vital 
priorities like national defense, and each year they cost the taxpayers 
billions of dollars.
    I appreciate the fact that Senator Byrd and Congressman Obey, the 
Democrats who will lead the appropriations process in the new Congress, 
heard the same message. For this year's budget, they pledged to maintain 
current levels of spending without additional earmarks. They agreed to a 
temporary moratorium on all earmarks. And this is a good start, and I 
appreciate their position. I also appreciate the fact that House 
Republicans last fall passed strong earmark reform idea--put forth 
earmark reform ideas. And I appreciate their hard work, but we need to 
do more.
    Here's my own view to end the ``dead of the night'' process: 
Congress needs to adopt real reform that requires full disclosure of the 
sponsors, the costs, the recipients, and the justifications for every 
earmark. Congress needs to stop the practice of concealing earmarks in 
so-called report language, and Congress needs to cut the number and cost 
of earmarks next year by at least half.
    To help rein in wasteful spending and restore fiscal discipline in 
Washington, I call on Congress to give the President the tool that 43 
Governors have, a line-item veto.
    These are just a few of the issues that we're going to need to work 
on in the year ahead. This new year brings new opportunities for 
progress, and I'm looking forward to working with the new Congress.
    Thank you for your time.

Note: The President spoke at 10:19 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.