Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at the American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, April 9, 2001

April 5, 2001

The President. My fellow Texan-[laughter]--by way of other States. [Laughter] It's good to see you again, Rich; thank you. I've had a great relationship with Rich in Austin, Texas. He occasionally opined in ways I didn't care for, but I always knew he was honest and open. He had his priorities straight: his country and his family. It's good to see members of his family here. I see you lowered your standards by inviting others from the Austin-American Statesman here to Washington today-[laughter]-particularly Herman. [Laughter]

At any rate, it's my honor to be here. It turns out every President since Warren Harding has spoken to this group. I found that interesting. Harding came here because he was a newspaperman himself. The rest of us just wanted to pander. [Laughter]

Of course, with a lot of attention you get as the President, you often occasionally get criticism, and I understand that. You know, I admit, I take it pretty well; after all, I was in baseball. But I wish some of the stories had come out differently.

And so, in the spirit of constructive criticism, I thought I'd make some suggestions to you as to some of the headlines I'd like to see in the future: "Cheney Cloned" [laughter]--"President Has Nothing To Do at All Now." [Laughter] "2 Million Over looked Ballots Suggest Bush Won California." [Laughter] "Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga Stumped By Name of U.S. President." [Laughter] "Gephardt Says Bush Tax Plan 'Just Makes Sense'." [Laughter] And finally: "Sammy Sosa Re turns to the Rangers"-[laughter]--"Says: 'I Want To Go Home'." [Laughter]

But I'm really not here to tell you your business. It's your job to tell everyone how to run theirs-[laughter]--and you do a pretty good job at it. Few American figures are more legendary than the hard-bitten but idealistic news editor. And I'm aware of that. After all, I've sat through what seems like hundreds of editorial boards. But I think of people like Benjamin Franklin or Horace Greeley or Meg Greenfield, who we all dearly miss.

As you know, we've had a serious of votes recently on a proposed budget. And that's what I'd like to talk about today. Sometimes the Washington filter makes it hard for me to get my message directly to people. And since I view you as people-[laughter]--I'd like to go directly to you.

The House passed a budget last week. To morrow we'll hear the final say on the Senate budget. The House and I agree: We need commonsense policies to safeguard Social Security and accelerate economic growth. And I hope the Senate joins us.

I've written a budget based upon my vision of an active and responsible Government. Now, I recognize Government has got important work to do; yet, active Government must also be focused and effective. Education is my top priority, and frankly, it ought to be your top priority, as well. After all, an industry which depends on the ability of people to read needs to be involved in education. Children who fail to master reading are going to be left behind in America, and we had better do something about it.

I know Rich Oppel has heard me talk a lot about waging a war on illiteracy. It was a focus of mine when I was the Governor of Texas. It will be a focus of mine as President, and that focus also will be the focus of the First Lady, as well.

My budget reflects the commitment to education. It increases--it has an 11 percent increase in the Department of Education. We triple funding for reading programs. We have got a big focus on early childhood development.

In my budget, we double the Medicare budget by the year 2011. We introduced a new prescription drug program. We finish the job of doubling medical research at the National Institutes of Health by 2003. Basic research gets big increases, as well.

My budget pays for ambitious new pro grams to mobilize faith-based and community groups, which fight poverty and addiction. We expand the Women's, Infants', and Children's nutrition program by $94 million this year--next year--the Federal contribution to drug treatment by 100 million, Head Start by 125 million, and programs to fight child abuse and neglect by $267 million.

We propose to put 900 million into the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the biggest conservation budget in U.S. history. Over 5 years, we'll devote 4.9 billion to repair and improve our national parks--again, the biggest increase in park upkeep in our Nation's history. We provide housing vouchers to 34,000 additional low income families and assist 130,000 others with the down payment on their first home. We support 1,200 new and expanded community health centers to double the number of patients served in those important institutions.

It's an ambitious agenda, and it doesn't come cheap. The total budget is 1.96 trillion in the year 2002. You know, when you hear all the litany of things we're spending money on, some people are beginning to wonder whatever happened to all the penny-pinching Republicans.

But I don't think this budget's too big for the critics, nor do I think it's too small. As I'm sure you can guess, I think it's just about right. We've prepared a budget with great care. I understand to budget is to choose, so I made choices. We identified priorities: education and health care, research, military pay, conservation, community and faith based organizations. I gave those priorities the funding they needed, while keeping over all discretionary spending at a responsible rate of 4 percent growth. The result is a budget that keeps our national commitment to Social Security and Medicare, and in creases the Federal budget by $100 billion from 2001 to 2002. A $100-billion increase in spending ought to be sufficient.