For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 20, 2001
Remarks by the President
To Business Roundtable the East Room
3:17 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. Well, welcome to the White
House. (Laughter.) The Vice President and I are
honored to be with you today. As I understand it, I'm to
speak, the Vice President is to speak Colin Powell is to speak, and
Zoellick is to speak. And so I thank you all for your
interest.
Since I'm not going to be here to introduce
the Vice President, Dick Cheney is a fabulous partner. Many
of you know him -- he brings a lot of good judgment and a steady
hand. And my administration is going to be successful of the
players in it, and he's going to be one of the key
players. And I'm really honored that he's here, and honored
that he's the Vice President. (Applause.)
Zoellick is doing a pretty good job,
too. (Laughter.) I know because I got to see him
in action in Europe. I had an interesting experience in
Europe. First of all, it's a huge honor to represent America
overseas. And it was an important trip because it gave me a chance to
reenforce my administration's commitment to the European alliances --
to NATO, to the expansion of NATO, to working with the European Union
and the expansion of the European Union.
There were some doubts in Europe as to whether
or not ours would be a nation that would be internationalists with an
American flavor. And they found out that we
are. And I come home feeling upbeat about the relationships
that I made and about the messages I was able to deliver.
And secondly, I had a very good visit with Mr.
Putin. I wasn't sure what to make of the man. I
always was withholding judgment until I had a chance to meet
him. But I found him to be a forward-thinking person, and
someone with whom our nation should and will work to bring security to
that part of the world, and to bring prosperity, hopefully through
trade, to the Russian people.
One of the things he asked is that I assemble
a delegation, headed by somebody close to me. So I picked
Don Evans, who is not only my close friend, but Secretary of Commerce,
to travel to Russia with some entrepreneurs and some American business
people. And we will do that this summer. I
believe he's interested in having a good relationship, and I know I
am. And that's a pretty good start.
But one of the things that I got to see Bob
Zoellick in action on was our discussions about trade with the
Europeans. I was able to make a firm commitment to our
European partners that we want trade. We want open
markets. We want to do everything in our power to make trade
easier, not harder. I also reminded them that it's important
for our economy to grow. If you want to trade with the United States,
it's important to have a trading partner whose economy is vital and
strong, where capital is flowing freely.
That's why I assured them that we were on the
right track when it came to balancing our environmental needs and
economic growth, and assured them that we share the same goal of
reducing CO2, but we will do so in a way that doesn't damage our
economy; that we believe that you can have economic vitality and good
stewardship of our resources.
And we also -- I reminded them that one of the
things our nation needed to do was to develop a sound energy
plan. It comes as a surprise to some that ours is the first
administration who's willing to develop an energy plan. And
not only willing to develop one, but to defend it. An energy
plan that Dick will describe in detail, that's based upon sound
conservation, more supply and the ability to get supply to consumers.
We had a great discussion, and what I'd like
to do before I talk about asking your help on a key legislative matter
when it comes to trade, is I'd like to thank you first for helping on
tax relief. Our economy is sputtering. Many of
you know that firsthand. And I believe that the best we can
do in government, at least in our part of government, is to provide
fiscal stimulus.
And the package that we have done is a good
package. It's one that will not only put money in the hands
of American consumers, it is one also that brings some certainty into
the tax code. In other words, it's certain that tax relief
is going to happen, and hopefully, that will stimulate confidence in
the entrepreneurial sector.
Secondly, a lot of folks don't understand
this, but there's a lot of small businesses that will benefit from the
reduction of all rates, not just a few, but all rates. Many
of the small business owners and the entrepreneurs in our respective
states pay tax rates at the personal level, not the corporate
level. They're sole proprietors, they're mom-and-pops that
pay personal income taxes. And when you drop that top rate
like we did, it's going to stimulate economic growth and the flow of
capital throughout our economy, which is going to be important to
recovery. And so I want to thank you for the tax relief
package. It was necessary, it was important, and it was
timely. (Applause.)
And, secondly, I want to thank you for your
help on an education plan. It passed the House, the bill passed the
Senate 91 to 8. And it's now headed to
conference. And I hope that the leadership will move that
bill to get it to my desk so that public school districts can plan for
the reforms inherent in the package. It's important to get
that bill signed as soon as possible so that these school districts
that are beginning to wonder what federal dollars mean in the coming
school year will have time to plan. They don't need to play
politics with the school bill. This bill rises above
partisan politics.
It's important to get it going. The
inherent reforms in the bill are these. One, we set high
standards and high expectations. It's -- the philosophy is
fairly simple. It says, every child can
learn. Secondly, we believe in local control of
schools. We spend federal money without a lot of
strings. There's a lot more flexibility now at the local
level.
It recognizes -- this bill recognizes that one
size does not fit all when it comes to educating
children. The issues in Texas, in south Texas, are different
from the issues in Vermont or Connecticut. And the issues in
south Texas are different from the issues in north
Texas. There needs to be flexibility when it comes to
developing the tactics necessary to make sure every child learns.
But the cornerstone of reform in this bill
says this: It says, if you receive federal money, you must
measure. This is a major overhaul of the education
philosophy. It says, in return for federal help, you the
school districts and the states must develop strong accountability
measures so that we know, we know whether children are
learning. It's a paradigm shift, to use a fancy word.
All of a sudden, we're beginning to ask the
question, do you know what you're supposed to know? At
present or in the recent past, a question was asked, how old are
you? Well, if you're six, we'll just move you here. And if
you're 10, you're supposed to be here, and if you're 14, you're
here. It was a process-driven world that shuffled many kids
through our system without asking the question, what do you know?
And without saying, if you don't know what
you're supposed to know, we'll make sure you do early, before it's too
late. This is a great piece of legislation and many of you
helped work on it, and I want to thank you for that very
much. (Applause.)
I gave a speech at Notre Dame where I talked
about the next step of welfare reform. I said that -- I
began with Lyndon Johnson's speech at the University of Texas in the
mid '60s, where he declared a war on poverty. I then said
that there was some unintended consequences of that war on
poverty. Many people became dependent upon
government. While it helped some and there are some fine
programs that came out of it, many folks became dependent upon
government, and many in our society became dependent on government to
provide compassion. In other words, people looked and said,
well don't worry, the federal government will solve the woes of our
citizenry. We don't have to do anything as citizens.
I then said that the reforms signed by
President Clinton and passed by a Republican Senate and House on
welfare reform address one half of the equation. It reduced
dependency upon government. It's now time to address the
compassionate side of effective welfare reform.
And one of the statistics I noted in my speech
was how abysmal corporate giving is to religious organizations whose
sole intent is to help people, people who have heard the call, what can
I do to help a neighbor in need; people who live by the golden
rule. And yet there are many charters of corporate America
that refuse -- or not refuse, just can't give, and don't want to give,
to organizations whose intent it is to exist in neighborhood after
neighborhood to solve people's lives by helping their
souls. And one of my calls to corporate America is, please
address the issue of funding faith-based and community based groups,
whose soul purpose it is to make somebody's life better.
One of the big initiatives I'm confident we're
going to get through the Congress is one that says, we understand there
are thousands of children who could easily be left behind in America,
particularly those whose parents may be in prison, or a parent is in
prison.
And what I want to do, and we put money in the
budget, is I want a mentoring programs all across the country, to
address specifically the needs of these children. I want
there to be some citizen who puts his arm around a child and says,
somebody loves you here in America. Somebody cares for you,
somebody feels your hurt and your pain. And you all can help
those programs, and I urge you to do so.
Many of you give to great causes, but please
don't forget the faith-based organizations that exist for the sole
purpose of loving a neighbor, just like you'd like to be loved
yourself.
And I want to ask your help, too, on
trade. I don't think Americans -- some Americans -- really
understand the benefit of trade; fully understand that trade helps
people who want to find work; that open trade is vital to -- for
economic growth. It's essential that we send the message out
that trade is good for the working men and women of America.
I've seen it in my own state. Texas
is a great beneficiary of NAFTA. And so is Mexico, which is the most
fantastic of all. We want our partners to
succeed. If Mexico is our friend, which I believe she is, we
want Mexico to be prosperous. We also want Mexico to be
prosperous because we want our people to be able to find work at home.
People are coming to America because they want
to feed their families. Family values does not stop at the Rio
Bravo. And America has got to understand
that. But America has also got to understand the hope of
free trade, not only with Mexico and Canada, but in our
hemisphere. And that's why we're -- that's why the first
meeting I had was the Summit of the Americas to talk about the Free
Trade Agreement of the Americas.
My belief is that when you have a secure
neighborhood and a prosperous neighborhood, America is better
off. And so the first summit I had with foreign leaders with
-- 34 democratically-elected leaders showed up in Quebec
City. And the cornerstone of those discussions was open
markets and free trade.
We're going to have another global -- another
round of global trade talks that Ambassador Zoellick is leading from my
administration. And we urge the European Union to cooperate
with us to begin those talks. But in order for me to be
effective on trade, I need trade promotion authority. I need
the ability to speak with a single voice for our country. I
need to have the capacity as an administration to negotiate free trade
agreements, without the fear of them being
undermined. Otherwise our trading partners are going to be
confused and concerned about an honest and open dialogue.
And yet, the President doesn't have trade
promotion authority. And so I'm asking you to help -- join
us, get this bill passed through the Congress. And we should
not let legitimate environmental labor concerns undermine the capacity
for the President to make good free trade agreements.
I explained to the critics in Congress --
there are some who are legitimately concerned about the environment and
labor. But I remind them that if you believe in trade, you
believe that prosperity will spread. If you believe in
trading with a country, it will help that country grow
economically. And a country that is more prosperous is one
more likely to be able to take care of their
environment. And one more prosperous is one more likely to
take care of their work force. And if you believe in
improving the environment and helping the labor conditions in
countries, don't wall off those countries. Don't create --
don't enhance poverty by refusing to allow there to be trade.
Now, there are some who want to put codicils
on the trade protection authority for one reason -- they don't like
free trade. They're protectionists and they're
isolationists. And we must reject that kind of thought here
in America. Free trade is good for America. It's
good for our trading partners. It will help alleviate
poverty.
And as importantly, it will help democracy
spread her wings. Because when you introduce the disciplines
and freedoms of a free market in an open market, it's amazing what
happens in totalitarian countries. They taste freedom in the
economy and they begin to ask for freedom with religion and freedom
with speech and freedom to express themselves in the ballot box.
Now, our nation is better off as a free
trading country and I am here to ask for your help. It's
important. It's a priority of my administration, and we're
going to dedicate the time and energy and effort to see if we can't get
a good bill through the United States Congress. (Applause.)
You might be able to tell, I'm kind of
enthusiastic about my work. (Laughter.) You would be, too,
if you got to see what I see. See, I get to see America from
a different perspective. I get to see America that is --
loves her government. Sometimes they like the
President. (Laughter.) But they care about the
country. This is a fantastic land. It is a land
of decent and caring and honorable citizens who really want the best
for their families and for their neighbors and for their country.
It is a huge honor to be the President of this
great land. We've got some great causes ahead of us, peace
and prosperity. But there is the mission also of lifting
this country's spirit. And I'm dedicated to doing
that. I want to call upon the best of America and American
citizens. And I'm enthusiastic about that calling, because I
truly believe it will leave this land a better place.
Thank you all for being here and God
bless. (Applause.)
END 2:35
P.M. EDT
|