[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 8 (Monday, March 3, 2008)]
[Pages 266-269]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks During a Meeting With the National Governors Association 
Conference

February 25, 2008

    The President. Thank you very much. I'm supposed to stall to wait 
for the press corps. [Laughter] Chairman, thanks. Let me see your book 
there, will you? That thing right there, yes. Mr. Vice Chairman, thank 
you, sir. Hope you enjoyed last night.
    Governor Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania. Yes, it was great.
    The President. It was great, yes. It was fun. I am proud to announce 
to you that Janet Creighton is running the Intergovernmental Affairs 
Office for us. She looks forward to working with you. I look forward to 
hearing from you. There's a lot we can do to--for the next 10 months to 
work together. I like to tell people, you know, I'm going to finish 
strong, and I want to work with you as I do so.
    A couple of areas I want to talk about, then I'll answer a couple of 
questions. And then evidently, we're going to have a 100th anniversary 
picture.
    We share a responsibility to protect our country. I get briefed 
every morning about threats we face, and they're real. Now--and 
therefore, the question is, what do you do

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about them? In my judgment, we have got to give the professionals who 
work hard to protect us all the tools they need. To put it bluntly: If 
the enemy is calling to America, we really need to know what they're 
saying, and we need to know what they're thinking, and we need to know 
what--who they're talking to.
    It's--this is a different kind of struggle than we've ever faced 
before. It's essential that we understand the mentality of these 
killers. And so therefore, we worked with Congress to protect--pass the 
Protect America Act, which everybody knows has expired. And I want to 
share with you the core of the problem. And the problem is, should 
companies who are believed to have helped us--after 9/11 'til today--get 
information necessary to protect the country be sued? And my answer is, 
absolutely not. They shouldn't be sued for a couple of reasons.
    One, it's not fair. Our Government told them that their 
participation was necessary--and it was and still is--and that what we 
had asked them to do was legal. And now they're getting sued for 
billions of dollars, and it's not fair. And it will create doubt amongst 
private sector folks who we need to help protect us.
    Secondly, such lawsuits would require disclosure of information, 
which will make it harder to protect the country. You can imagine, when 
people start defending themselves, they're going to be asked all kinds 
of questions about tactics used. It makes absolutely no sense to give 
the enemy more knowledge about what the United States is doing to 
protect the American people.
    Finally, it'll make it harder to convince companies to participate 
in the future. I mean, if you've done something that you think is 
perfectly legal and all of a sudden you're facing billions of dollars of 
lawsuits, it's going to be hard to provide--with credibility--assurances 
that we can go forward.
    The Senate passed a good bill. You know, there's all kinds of talk 
about how this is a partisan issue. This is not a partisan issue. There 
is a very strong bipartisan bill that passed the Senate, and it's a bill 
that we can live with. And it's a bill that should be put on the House 
floor for a vote, up or down.
    What I do want to share with you is that there's a lot of good 
folks, and you know it too. And I want to thank you all very much for 
these counterterrorism cells. I look at the Governor of New York; they 
got an unbelievably good cell--fusion center in New York City. And 
around our country, particularly in key areas, the cooperation between 
the Federal Government and the State government and the local government 
is superb. And I appreciate you all for providing really good leadership 
on this issue. It's an important, vital issue for the country.
    Secondly, today--and I see that you've been given this book. This is 
a book which describes the faith-based and community organization 
initiative. And it breaks out by State the unbelievably good work that's 
taking place in your States.
    Now, as you know, I'm a big believer that government ought to 
empower people who have got a great capacity to help change people's 
lives. Sometimes I like to say, government is not a very loving 
organization; it's an organization of law and justice. But there are 
thousands of loving people who are willing, if given help, to interface 
with brothers and sisters across the country that need help. And so this 
report is one that describes the Federal-State collaborative that's 
taken place.
    There's 35 faith-based offices set up around--in different States. 
And for those of you who've got them, I thank you. We want to help you--
want to coordinate. If you don't have one, I strongly urge you to take a 
look at what other Governors have done.
    Billions of dollars have now gone into help these different 
community or faith-based groups meet specific needs. One such need is to 
help children whose parents may be in prison realize there is hope and 
love. Seventy thousand kids have been affected by this program. Another 
one is to help prisoners reenter society. It's a relatively new program 
and--but so far, we've helped--you've helped 10,000 people readjust.
    Another is to provide script for somebody who needs help on drugs 
and alcohol and can redeem this at a regular counseling center or a 
faith-based center. But the whole purpose is to focus on results. You 
know, we

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ought to be asking what works, not the process. And so I appreciate you 
taking a look at this. Again, I want to thank you for your cooperation, 
to the extent that you feel comfortable doing so. It's making a huge 
difference in people's lives, and I congratulate you all.
    And finally, I want to spend a little time on health care. This 
obviously is a--you know, it's a tough issue here in Washington. And I 
do want to spend just a moment to explain to you the philosophy by which 
we'll be trying to get legislation passed out of the Congress.
    One, we share the same goal, accessible and affordable health care. 
Secondly, whatever we do must not undermine a health care system that is 
the best in the world. Our doctors are great; our technology is 
unbelievable; our hospitals are wonderful. And is it perfect? No. But it 
is the best in the world. Private medicine has worked in America, and 
the question is, can we strengthen it, rather than weaken it?
    And finally, I believe firmly that any good health care system is 
one that empowers individuals to be a better consumer, have more 
choices. And that was the whole spirit of the Medicare reforms. It's 
quite a controversial act up here in Washington. But time has passed, 
and there's some interesting news.
    First of all, the--inherent in the Medicare reform was one that made 
no sense not to provide prescription drugs for seniors. I mean, you 
know, people would go get an operation for a heart ailment. It would 
cost the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars, but we wouldn't 
pay for the pills that could prevent the heart operation from being 
needed in the first place. It just made no sense. Medicare was an old 
system, and it was antiquated. And I firmly believed it needed reform.
    Secondly, inherent in this reform was the idea of giving seniors a 
variety of choices. For example, now seniors have got choices for a 
different drug plan. Drug plans are now competing for the seniors' 
business. Seniors have got different options for other coverage in 
Medicare. And as a result of the competition, fostered by the fact that 
folks have got different decision points to make, they say, if you want 
my business, you're going to have to do better; in other words, a 
market-oriented approach--the estimated cost of Medicare is down by $240 
billion over 10 years. You might remember, there was--when the Medicare 
debate was started, they were firing out all kinds of numbers. Well, 
it's 240 billion less than initially anticipated. I believe competition 
works; markets make sense.
    And also in that bill was the health savings account reform, which 
gives individuals more decisionmaking over their own health care. It 
allows for a catastrophic policy and health--tax-free savings for monies 
not spent on ordinary expenses. It's a way, really, to enhance 
portability. Somebody told me the other day that if you're under 30 
years old, you're likely to have had seven jobs when you reach your 30th 
birthday. It's a different era. People are moving around. There's a--you 
know, it's an exciting time, but it's also a time that creates 
uncertainty, particularly when it comes to somebody being able to carry 
a good health care policy with them.
    So the notion is to empower consumers to be more in charge of their 
decisionmaking. There's now 4\1/2\ million people on HSAs. When given an 
opportunity, people are now taking a look at it. It's a difficult thing 
for people to understand. It's pretty complex. But nevertheless, when 
the consumers are being given more choices, more opportunities, with 
more knowledge--just like we're providing for our seniors--people make 
rational choices.
    There is more we can do here in Washington, DC. I don't know if 
you've studied our Tax Code, but it is biased against people who want to 
buy an individual policy. If you're working for a company, you get a 
benefit when it comes to health care. If you're in the individual 
marketplace, you pay with after-tax dollars. And it's unfair, and it 
creates discrepancies. And it makes it harder to make sure private 
insurance is available at reasonable prices--more reasonable prices to 
the individual, which affects small businesses, sole proprietorships, 
the people that are really the lifeblood of our economy.
    So I think Congress needs to make the Tax Code fair. Everybody ought 
to be treated the same in the Tax Code in order to encourage

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the development of a market for private individuals, which will help 
your small-business owners and obviously help families.
    Now, one of the interesting things that has taken place in the 
States, and one of--I think our jobs is--I said last night, you know, 
that the Governors are policy entrepreneurs. And I meant what I said. 
And I find it interesting that in certain States, like in Florida, 
private companies compete for Medicaid business. Like in Indiana, you 
know, Mitch has helped uninsured be able to participate in an HSA. Like 
in Oklahoma, you've helped the uninsured or low-income workers purchase 
health care through competition from--with Medicaid dollars.
    In other words, there's some wonderful things going on, all market-
driven. And we just want to facilitate those decisions because, in my 
judgment, the opposite of having the Government here in Washington be 
the decisionmaker will undermine private medicine, will make quality 
care more difficult.
    And so those are some of the thoughts I wanted to share with you. I 
appreciate you giving me time. I'll answer a couple of your questions. I 
thank the national press corps for joining us. See you later. [Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. in the State Dining Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Tim Pawlenty of 
Minnesota, chairman, and Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, vice 
chairman, National Governors Association; Janet Creighton, Deputy 
Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; 
Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York; and Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., of 
Indiana.