President Bush Discusses The Budget

October 15, 2007,THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thanks for coming. I may just take off my jacket, if that's all right. (Laughter.) Hope I didn't spill any sauce on my shirt after I had barbecue at the Whole Hog. (Laughter.) Thanks for coming. Thanks for giving me a chance to share some thoughts with you about what's going on in Washington, and then I'll be glad to answer some questions if you have any., First I do want to say thank you to John Paul Hammerschmidt for a lot of things -- one, being a good friend of my dad's, but more importantly, setting such a fine example for what public service should be about, which is honesty, integrity, and the willingness to serve something greater than himself. John Paul, I'm honored you're here, and thanks for -- (applause.),And you got followed by a pretty good fellow, there, in John Boozeman. I'm proud to call him friend. I hope you're proud to call him Congressman, because he's doing a fine job. (Applause.),I want to thank the Mayor of Rogers, Steve Womack. Thanks for your service to your community; thanks for being in the United States military. I appreciate you joining me for lunch, and enjoyed our conversation, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for what you're doing.,I want to thank members of the statehouse who are here, and local government who's here. I want to thank Raymond Burns, the President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, for hosting this event. I hope you find it to be informative. One of the things the President has to do is travel around the country explaining the situation and why things are happening, at least from my perspective. I'm looking forward to explaining it.,I do appreciate very much the members of the Chamber of Commerce who have enabled me to come by to visit with you. I want to thank the Chancellor of the mighty University of Arkansas, John White, for being here today. He hosted -- I keep pointing to he's a Razorback -- I understand. Look, I'm just a simple Texas guy who -- (laughter) -- who knows full well that it was a lot of times an unpleasant experience for the Longhorns to come up here and play. (Laughter.) But we're not going to talk about those old games, are we? We're talking about the future.,I appreciate Bill Stribling. He's the President of Stribling Packaging. I went by earlier today to his business and I had a chance to say hello to his employees. I did so because I wanted to remind America that in order for this economy to remain strong, we got to be mindful of the needs of small business owners. He's expanding his job base, and he's like thousands of other entrepreneurs around the country who are wondering whether or not the government is going to put policy in place that could affect his capacity to grow. And I want to spend a little time talking about that.,We actually had an historic couple of days. We're now in our 49th consecutive month of uninterrupted job growth. That's the longest -- (applause.) That's a record. That's the longest number of months in a row where new jobs have been created. And that's because our small businesses are doing well. And then the fundamental question is are we wise enough to keep policy in place to keep the small business sector strong?, The worst thing we could do is run up taxes as this economy is growing. It's the worst thing we could to the small business owner, is to change the depreciation schedules, or raise individual rates, particularly if you're a sub-chapter S or a limited partnership. And yet when you listen carefully to the budget debate, that's what you're fixing to get stuck with -- a tax raise. Unless, of course, I prevent them from raising your taxes, which I fully intend to do. (Applause.),The other historic fact was that our deficit as a percent of GDP is at 1.2 percent. Those are just numbers, but to put it in perspective, that's lower than the 40-year average. In other words, we're beginning to get control of that deficit. And the reason why is, is that a growing economy yields additional tax revenues, and then when you work with Congress to set priorities on how we spend your money -- in other words, we're fiscally sound on the expense side, you can reduce your deficit without raising taxes. And that's what we proved is possible. The deficit is $163 billion; that's about $60-some-odd-billion lower than we anticipated in February of this year, because we're growing the economy.,And we've also set priorities. One of the hardest things in Washington, D.C. to do that small businesses have to do all the time is to set priorities. Every program sounds like a great program, but without setting priorities the temptation is to overspend. The job of the President is to make sure that we don't overspend, and at the same time keep taxes low. That's why I submitted a budget that will balance the federal budget by 2012 without raising taxes.,Now, that's not what the leadership in the Congress wants me to do. They want the executive branch to accept an increase in spending over the next five years to $205 billion. Put that in perspective, that's $1,300 in new spending every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next five years. That's about $13,000 as long as it took me to say that -- (laughter) -- $205 billion of additional spending will mean they're going to have to raise taxes to pay for it. I think that would be bad for the economy. I don't think it makes sense to be taking money out of the pockets of the individuals in America, or money out of the pockets of small businesses -- particularly if we set priorities, we can fund that which we need to fund.,And so you're fixing to see what they call a fiscal showdown in Washington. One of the reasons why they --(applause) -- the Congress gets to propose, and if it doesn't meet needs, as far I'm concerned, I get to veto. And that's precisely what I intend to do. I wish Congress would get me some appropriations bills. (Applause.) I don't know if the people in Rogers understand our calendar, but the fiscal year ended on September the 30th. And yet I hadn't seen one appropriations bill. I think we're like 15 days into the fiscal year and not one appropriations bill has made it to my desk.,Congress needs to be responsible with your money, and they need to pass these appropriations bills, one at a time. And then we can work together to see whether or not they make fiscal sense for the United States. I don't think it makes sense, though, for a new Congress to come in and make promises about how they're going to be wise about what they're going to do with your money and get bills to my desk, and not be able to perform.,So I'm looking forward to getting back to Washington and remind people in the United States Congress that they said they were going to do a better job with getting these bills to my desk, and I'm going to remind them they hadn't got one yet. Not one bill has come out of United States Congress that appropriates your taxpayers' money.,Recently, I did make a decision to veto a piece of legislation. I want to spend a little time talking about why. And then I'll be glad to answer some questions. There's a -- what's called S-CHIP -- it's a Children's Health Insurance Program -- made it to my desk and I vetoed it. And I'm going to tell you why -- (applause) -- I'm going to tell you why.,First of all, it's important for our citizens to understand that we spend $35 billion a year for poor children's health care, through Medicaid -- $35 billion. So if you hear rhetoric out of Washington saying we're not taking care of poor children in America, they're just not reminding you of the fact that because of your generosity, we're spending $35 billion a year.,Secondly, a program was created to help poorer children with struggling families; when I was the governor of Texas, I supported it. And as President, I support it. But the piece of legislation I got doesn't focus on the poorer children. Many Americans don't understand a half a million kids eligible for this program that aren't getting help under the program.,The bill sent to me didn't say, we're going to focus on those half-million that are eligible; the bill sent to me said, we can expand eligibility for the program up to $83,000. I want you to think about that. If you're making up to $83,000 in certain states you're eligible for the program. And yet half a million poorer children aren't being helped. My attitude is, let's help the poorer children. Let's make sure the program does what it's supposed to do.,Now, there's some in Washington, D.C. who genuinely believe that the best health care policy is to expand the role of the federal government. I don't subscribe to that. I think the best health care policy is to encourage private medicine, is to make sure the decisions are between doctors and patients. (Applause.) And yet, if you're saying you can make up to $83,000 and be a part of this program, it sounds like to me somebody wants to extend the reach of the federal government into medicine. That's what it sounds like to me.,Another factor that came into my thinking was not only a half a million children not being taken care of under the program, and not only is the eligibility requirements being expanded way beyond the scope of the program -- which sounds like there's a nationalization of medicine going on here -- but in six or seven states, more money is spent on adults than children. In other words, these states have taken that money and hadn't used it for its initial purpose. So I vetoed the bill. The House is going to decide whether or not they're going to sustain my veto, and if they choose to sustain my veto, I call upon the leadership in the Congress to come to the table and let us make sure we get money to those families that are -- that the program was intended to help, first and foremost. (Applause.),So that's what I wanted to report to you. I thank you for giving me a chance to come and say hello. I'll be glad to answer some questions if you have any. And if not, I can keep talking, believe me. (Laughter.),You got one? Good. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yell it. If I don't like it, I'll just interpret it. (Laughter.),Q First of all, thank you for being here. And I've got two children. I was talking with my 15-year-old son about what would be a great question to ask the President had I -- if I had the opportunity, and we settled on this: In this day of information that's so accessible to all of us, if you're a 15- year-old looking for the truth, which is often hard to get -- an adult looking for the truth in election time or non-election time, where would you recommend someone that's hungry for the truth to go to get the truth about potential elected officials, programs to support, that kind of information?,THE PRESIDENT: Yes, great question. I guess if I was advising a 15-year-old child where to seek the truth, I would say go to your mother and father, is where I would ask them to seek the truth. (Applause.) And that's really one of the questions our society faces: Will a mom and dad be available for a child? Now, we all have different views of the truth; that's fine, I understand that. But the most important responsibility for a mom and dad is to really love that child with all their heart and all their soul and all their might.,And so, as far as you finding the truth, hopefully you're wise enough and old enough and experienced enough to be able to discern that which is true and not true. I'm sure you are. You wouldn't have come here to listen had you not been interested in coming -- getting enough data points so you could come to our conclusions.,That's the great thing about our society, is that we expect our individual citizens to be involved and you can reach your own conclusion you want to reach. And it's up to people like me to explain it as simply as possible so that hopefully you can understand. If I were advising somebody running for my job, or any job, I'd explain the philosophy behind my beliefs. See, I think what the American people really need to know is what do you believe in, in order for you to be able to make the wise kind of judgment who'd listen to.,I'd be glad to share some of my beliefs. I believe in the universality of freedom. So when you hear me talking about foreign policy, I want you to keep in mind the principle that I believe is true, and that I believe there's an Almighty and I believe a gift of the Almighty to each man, woman and child on the face of the Earth, regardless of their religion or the color of their skin, is liberty. That's what I believe. (Applause.),And a second belief I have is that you can spend your money better than the government can. (Applause.) We have needs -- we have needs in Washington. We got to fund a military; we got to fund help for the poor. But I do believe that the government has got to understand that the more money you have in your pocket, the better off our economy can be, and that the more money you have in your pocket, the more likely it is that you'll be able to realize hopes and dreams for your family because you set the priorities with your money. And that's just a fundamental difference of opinion.,So to answer your question, I'd be asking people, what's your value system like? And then, hopefully, you're wise enough to discern.,Okay. Yes, sir.,Q I have a transportation question for you -- Raymond Burns with the Rogers-Lowell Chamber. For business to continue to grow in Northwest Arkansas we're going to have to help with our transportation infrastructure. (Applause.) Apparently, that's our number-one issue. Given that we collect taxes on gasoline by the gallon, and fuel efficiency means there will be less taxes collected, going forward, what will the priority for transportation help be, sir?,THE PRESIDENT: The -- step one, in order to make sure that that which we collect gets spent equitably, is to make sure that the committees in the House and Senate that appropriate the monies don't take a lot of the money as special projects. In other words, what happens is, is that the Public Works Committee is the largest committee in the House -- are you on Public Works, Boozeman? Yes. (Laughter.) It sounds like I better be diplomatic in the answer. (Laughter.) So what happens is these members say, okay, I want this for my district, I want this for my district, I want this for my district, so they get a unanimous vote out of the committee -- was it unanimous last time? Yes, that's what I thought.