THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 12, 2001
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON THE ECONOMY
The South Grounds
11:10 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I'm sending my eighth and
final economic report, prepared by the Council of Economic Advisors. I
want to thank Dr. Martin Baily, Katheryn Shaw, Robert Lawrence, and the CEA
staff for their fine work in analyzing America's new economy.
I also want to thank Secretary Summers, Gene Sperling, Jack Lew,
Sylvia Mathews, my entire economic team for all they have done these last
eight years to turn our country around and move us forward together.
Over the last eight years these annual economic reports have
helped to tell America's story -- a story of prosperity and progress, of
the hard work of our people, and the results of policies rooted in common
values and common sense. The message of this final report is clear: the
economy remains strong, on a sound foundation, with a bright future.
Eight years ago it was a very different story with 10 million of
our fellow citizens out of work, high interest rates, low confidence, a
deficit that was $290 billion and rising, a debt that had quadrupled in the
previous 12 years. The new course we charted to eliminate the deficit,
invest in education and the American people's future, and open overseas
markets for America's products, has worked. Year in and year out, we have
resisted politically attractive, but economically unwise temptations to
veer from the path of fiscal discipline.
We have, in the course of this effort, turned the record deficits
into record surpluses and produced the longest economic expansion in
history. We have not only had 22.5 million new jobs and the lowest
unemployment in 30 years, we've been able to add to the life of both
Medicare and Social Security, to help ease the burden on future
generations, and make the long-term solutions less difficult in the
present.
And we're on track that was unimaginable eight years ago when I
first came here, to get America out of debt at the end of this decade.
The evidence in this report shows that maintaining the path of
fiscal discipline is critical to keeping America on the path of economic
progress. Fiscal discipline has allowed the energy and entrepreneurship of
the American people to increase investment, productivity, and living
standards. Fiscal responsibility has given us lower interest rates, which,
by the end of the year, will be -- excuse me -- has given us not only lower
interest rates, it's given us surpluses that, by the end of the year, will
have permitted us to pay down about $560 billion off the national debt.
And I think all of us are very proud that we can leave that legacy to the
incoming administration and to the children of this country.
More important in an economic sense, perhaps, is that it has
lowered interest rates. By having the government pay back debt instead of
borrow more money, you have lower interest rates for business loans,
college loans, home loans, car loans. It amounts, on the average, to
$2,000 in mortgage payment savings a year for the average family; $200 in
car payments; $200 in college loan payments. It has also given us higher
growth.
Now, over the last couple of years, the economy was growing at a
blistering pace. Everyone knew that the rate of growth would ease off.
But that is not to say that the evidence suggests anything other than that
the expansion will and should continue.
So that's the context in which we have tried to work for eight
years, and the options that we leave to our successors. And there are many
options. I have repeatedly said America can afford a tax cut. But I do
not believe that the tax cut plus whatever spending plans there will be
should be so large as to take us off the path of fiscal discipline, for a
simple reason -- paying down the debt keeps interest rates lower. That
means stronger businesses, higher incomes, more jobs, a stronger market.
Keeping those long-term rates down is profoundly important.
So what I would hope for the future when the Congress deliberates
this and the President makes his proposal, the details are up to them --
I'm moving out of the policy business in just a few days here -- but I
would hope that the combined total of the tax cut and the spending plans
would not be so large as to call our commitment to fiscal discipline into
question in a way that would run the risk of returning to on-budget
deficits, higher interest rates, and in the process, would drain away the
savings that will be needed to deal with the Social Security and Medicare
challenges the retirement of the baby boomers will present.
Eight years of responsible budgets and fiscal responsibility have
put our country in a position to take advantage of our long-term
opportunities and to meet our long-term challenges. It's a path that I
hope we'll be able to stay on. I would like it very much if our country
were debt-free by the end of this decade, for the first time since 1835.
Even more, I would like it if we were able to free up 11 cents on
the dollar of the federal budget to deal with Social Security, Medicare,
invest in education, and provide further tax cuts in the future.
So I think we're in good shape. I think I'm leaving with all
options open. And the only cautionary point I want to make is I think that
the combined impact of spending and tax cuts I would hope would not be such
as to prevent us from continuing to pay down this debt, so we can keep
interest rates low and the economy strong over the long run.
Thank you.
Q Mr. President, survivors of the No Gun Ri killing say that
the U.S. report is a whitewash, and that your statement of regret does not
offer a sincere apology. How do you respond to that criticism? And did
you intend your statement of regret to be an apology?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think on a personal basis, as I said
yesterday, I don't think there is any difference in the two words. They
both mean that we are profoundly sorry for what happened, and that things
happened which were wrong.
I think the word which was agreed on, working with the Koreans,
pursuing the investigations, was thought to be appropriate in a, if you
will, a legal and a political sense, because the evidence was not clear
that there was responsibility for wrongdoing high enough in the chain of
command in the Army to say that, in effect, the government was responsible.
I think that was the real issue.
But I don't think -- from a purely human point of view, I don't
think there's any difference in the fact that we know things happened which
should not have happened, things were done which should not have been done,
innocent people died and others were wounded, their families were wounded
and remain wounded to the present day, and we are profoundly sorry about
that.
So I don't think in terms of the human impact and the
acknowledgement that things that happened that shouldn't have happened that
were wrong, I don't think there is any difference.
And I certainly told the investigators I didn't want the
investigation whitewashed. We did our best to find out what happened, and
to determine the facts as best we could. And we issued a joint statement
and sort of path of proceeding with the Korean government -- I talked to
President Kim last night about it -- and we've done our best to do the
right thing.
Q Do you believe that President-elect Bush's comments about
the economy, slowing economy and the Vice President's comments about that
the economy is possibly heading towards recession is actually a
self-fulfilling prophecy and perhaps potentially dangerous talk?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't want to get into characterizing
that. I think it's not wise for me to do that, and not appropriate. I can
only tell you what I've tried to do for eight years. What I've tried to do
for eight years is to level with the American people based on the evidence,
and to be conservative in my estimates when it came to the tax cuts I
advocated and the spending I advocated.
The evidence is, the blue chip consensus is for growth of about
2.6 percent next year, slightly slower in the first half of the year and
more robust in the second half. And they have written that down from a
previous projection of something over 3 percent.
If we grow at 2.6 percent, then the unemployment rate should stay
around where it is now and we will continue to create new jobs. So that's
what the evidence is today. And if the evidence changes, then everyone
should look at what the facts are and act in an appropriate way. But the
experts who make a living doing this believe the economy will grow at 2.6
percent next year, slightly slower in the first six months, slightly more
robust in the second six months.
Q On the Middle East, can you say, having heard from what the
Israelis and Palestinians discussed at Erez, that it's now -- there's no
hope of an agreement on your watch between the two? Have you given up hope
on that?
THE PRESIDENT: No, but I've not tried to raise hopes, either.
They are -- they have a surprising amount of agreement and a few intense
points of controversy. And I think that there are all kinds of reasons why
an agreement on the big issues has always been kind of against the odds.
But they have continued to try, and they're trying now in a climate which
is much less negative than just a few days ago and the preceding weeks.
So this is really up to them. I'm working hard on it and I'm
spending time on it every day. But they have to decide. And I think the
United States will be very supportive of them if they do decide to do it.
And I'll do whatever I can to help.
Q Sir, can you tell us what your relationship was with James
Riady, and are you concerned at all by his decision to plead guilty to a
campaign finance offense and pay a large fine?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I knew him when he was in Arkansas and when
he owned -- his family owned part of a bank there, and I've kept up with
him since. And I have -- no, I'm not at all concerned about it. I think
that -- I think people should know what our campaign finance laws are and
should obey them.
Q Mr. President, how is the United States going to get Iraq to
give up information about Lt. Commander Speicher?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're working on that. Let me just say to
all of you, I agreed with the decision to take his name off the killed in
action list and put it on the missing in action list. I think it was the
right decision. But I do not want to raise false hopes here. We do not
have hard evidence that he is alive.
We have some evidence that what had been assumed to be the
evidence that he was lost in action is not so. And we're going to do our
best to find out if he is alive, and if he is, to get him out -- because as
a uniformed service person he should have been released by now, if he is
alive.
Q Mr. President, were you trying to call into question the
legitimacy of the Bush presidency with your remarks the other night?
THE PRESIDENT: In Chicago? No, I was trying to have a little
fun with Bill Daley. I mean, we were there in Chicago, he had just
introduced his brother, a bunch of his family members were there, all of
his friends were there, he'd been out of Chicago for sometime, and I was
trying to say what a good job he had done running the campaign. And we
were all just having a good time. It was all in good fun and everybody
laughed about it, and most everybody agreed with what I said who was there,
because it was all a bunch of Democrats, as you would expect.
But there was no -- I intended to have no impact on that. Let me
go back -- I have nothing to add on that question to what I said after the
Vice President said after his statement. We accept the decision of the
Supreme Court. It is the way our system works. And it's not the first
time or probably the last time the Supreme Court will make a decision with
which I do not agree, but I did not call into question his legitimacy. I
was having a good, old-fashioned little bit of fun with Bill Daley and his
brother and his friends, and my friends in Chicago. We were just having a
good time, and I was trying to say that I thought he did a fine job running
the Vice President's campaign, and I do think that. And I think he did a
fine job.
Q Mr. President, after the inauguration, you're going to
Chappaqua, is that correct?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.
Q Are you coming back to Washington or going to Arkansas or
staying in New York?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm going to live in New York. But I will come
-- and Hillary and I will spend weekends in New York and every now and then
I hope I can come down here and see her in the week. But if I get in the
newspapers I probably won't come anymore. I'd like to keep an appropriate
low profile for some time. I think it's important. And I want to take a
couple of months to rest. I've been working for 27 years now, pretty hard,
and I want to rest a little while and really think about the rest of my
life and how I can serve best. And that's what I want to do.
So I'll be mostly in New York. I'll be going to Arkansas to get
my library project up and going, and trying to think through exactly how
I'm going to do my foundation work, my service work. And we'll have a
transition office here for six months, as all former Presidents do, and
then I'll have an office in New York city after that, and maybe before six
months is up.
Q Are you really giving Socks away?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I don't know. I did better with the Arabs --
the Palestinians and the Israelis then I've done with Socks and Buddy.
(Laughter.) And I won't have as much space or as much help in managing
them, so I'm trying to figure out whether I can do it. Because I've had
that cat a long time. You know, we took him in as a stray back in
Arkansas, and I hate to give him up, although Betty and a lot of other
people here in the White House really love him. It's just another one of
those places where I haven't yet made peace. But I've got eight days.
(Laughter.)
Thank you.
END 11:25 A.M. EST
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