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Skriven 2006-02-08 23:33:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0602086) for Wed, 2006 Feb 8
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Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 8, 2006

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route New Hampshire



10:22 A.M. EST

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, I want to get started. Good morning, everyone.
Let me run through the President's day, and I've also got a special guest
here with us today, our Deputy Budget Director, Joel Kaplan, if you have
any specific questions related to the budget that you want to ask. But
first, let me go back to the President's day.

The President had his usual briefings this morning. The President had a
very good visit with King Abdullah of Jordan. As he pointed out in comments
to the pool, the President also hosted the King for dinner last night,
along with some members of Congress. And the President and the King gave
you a readout, gave the press corps the readout of the meeting that they
had and the issues that they covered.

We're on our way to New Hampshire today. The President's focus in his
remarks is going to be on his budget strategy. The President will be
hitting on the key parts of the budget strategy. The President will talk
about how it begins with making sure that we keep taxes low, to keep our
economy growing. And then he'll talk about the importance of making sure
that we're funding our highest priorities and most important priorities,
like the war on terrorism, and continuing to pursue pro-growth policies,
and some of the initiatives he outlined in the State of the Union address,
obviously. But he'll also talk about how we need to be good stewards of
taxpayer dollars and spend taxpayer dollars wisely.

And I think one area he'll touch on, as well, is how he's encouraged by
Congress's willingness to take up earmark reform. And that's an important
aspect of being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. And the President,
in this budget and even in previous budgets, has talked about the
importance of having a sunset commission to review programs, and talked
about the importance of a line-item veto and that can help us address some
of these issues.

And finally, the President will touch on the importance of making sure that
government programs are producing results. In the budget briefing the other
day that Director Bolten had -- and Clay Johnson was also there, and they
talked the website that we put up -- ExpectMore.gov -- and how we're
holding programs accountable and measuring their progress and seeing if
they're achieving their intended results. That's an important aspect of
being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, as well.

So that's really what the President will touch on in his remarks today. And
then after that, we return back to D.C., and the President has a few other
events on the schedule. First he's going to drop by a meeting that --
staff-level meeting of CEOs from the Business Roundtable. It's a closed
event, but he'll be over in EEOB, Room 350. And then he looks forward to
signing the Deficit Reduction Act that was just recently passed by
Congress. And I think in those remarks he'll talk about how the biggest
challenge to our fiscal health is the entitlement programs. They're on an
unsustainable course, and this Deficit Reduction Act is a first step to
addressing some of those problems. And I think he'll use that opportunity
to talk about the importance of addressing those long-term challenges and
touch on the bipartisan commission that he proposed. The President wants to
work in a bipartisan way to address these issues and find solutions as we
move forward so we protect these important programs for future generations.

And then, following that, in the Cabinet Room, the President will be
hosting the bicameral Republican leadership in Congress in the Cabinet
Room. And this will be an opportunity for the President to talk about the
2006 agenda, the war on terrorism, the economy, and talk about the budget
that was just released, as well. And that's really the President's day for
today.

Q Coverage?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's a closed event. I don't know whether or not any
members will go to the stakeout. Obviously you all will be there to cover
that if they do. I don't know if Joel has anything to add, or if you want
to go straight to questions.

MR. KAPLAN: Actually, I thought you covered the budget strategy pretty
well, but I'll take any questions.

Q Among the programs you're slated to cut this term, even though we don't
know what they are because you haven't released it, are ones that
reportedly were already to be cut last year. Why have you gone for the same
programs when you know Congress isn't willing to make the cut?

MR. KAPLAN: Actually, what we found is that oftentimes Congress will either
do -- either in the first year they won't do as cut, but in the second
year, after we've had more of an opportunity to educate them and be able to
talk to the appropriators, they'll be more receptive to it the second year
around. We found that last year. Two years ago we proposed I think 65 cuts
or terminations, and we only achieved reductions in 7 of them. Last year we
proposed 150 for cuts or terminations, and we achieved some or complete
success in 89 of them. Many of those were things that we had proposed in
the previous year and Congress hadn't acted on.

So we find that sometimes you got to just keep going back and explaining
why these programs aren't working, why they aren't a high priority for the
American people. And if you keep working at it you tend to make some
progress. And also some of them where we proposed and elimination, Congress
takes a reduction. So we come back and propose an elimination the next year
and they reduce it again and in the budget world that's how you make
progress.

Q The Manchester paper has an editorial today saying that the President
shouldn't think that he's fooling anybody, but it's actually a very austere
budget. What do you have to say in response to that? It's fairly sharp, you
may have seen it.

MR. KAPLAN: Well, we think this is a very restrained budget. Obviously, as
Scott mentioned, it funds the national priorities and tightens the belt
elsewhere. As the President mentioned in his State of the Union, the real
fiscal danger that we have in the future are the unfunded obligations in
our entitlement programs -- that's basically three programs: Social
Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The President took the lead last year in
proposing the reform in Social Security. He proposed reforms to the
Medicaid program last year and fought real hard to get some of those
reforms with Republican votes in Congress, and achieved that. That will be
reflected in the bill he signs today.

In this year's budget he's proposing about $36 billion in reforms to the
Medicare program over five years, and he's proposed the bipartisan
commission to look at some of the longer-term structural reforms that are
necessary. So we think the President is going after the places that present
the greatest danger and he looks forward to getting as much bipartisan
cooperation on that as possible.

Q In the out-years there aren't any accommodations for the war in Iraq,
additional hurricane relief, or the effects of the AMT. Is it realistic to
think that he can achieve his deficit reduction goal simply with spending
cuts and economic growth, and tax revenue that comes from that?

MR. KAPLAN: Yes, we do think it's realistic. For the war, the deficit
estimates that are in the budget that we released on Monday include the
effects of an additional $70 billion -- that's the estimate of what will be
needed for the remainder of this year in Iraq and Afghanistan -- $50
billion as essentially a placeholder and allowance for fiscal year 2007.
Beyond that, we just don't think it would be responsible to try to
speculate on what the cost of the war will be because it's completely
dependent on what the pace of operations is. And obviously, we've got a
very fluid security situation in Iraq and Afghanistan and a very fluid
political situation.

On the AMT, the President has been clear that while we are including the
effects of AMT relief for this year, which has deficit impacts in '06 and
'07, we believe that the AMT needs to be addressed in the context of a
broader look at the tax code, that the AMT is so integrally intertwined
with the whole code at this point, that it's not really appropriate to just
try to address the AMT in these one-year patches. So we think we can do it;
we need to do it in order to simplify the code and minimize the burden on
taxpayers. But we think we can do it in a revenue-neutral way.

Q You guys are pushing this performance assessment rating system, which for
all we know is a feedback loop in which programs the OMB already
undervalues automatically get low ratings. What can you tell us about how
this thing works that we can actually trust that this is something that
doesn't just dis domestic programs --

MR. KAPLAN: Well, the first thing is I would invite you to go online to
ExpectMore.gov. It's very voluminous, and it has -- this is -- this is
something the administration has worked really hard on over about a
four-year period to develop objective questions.

And we have -- this is a year-long process with agencies where we go to the
program experts in the agencies and ask them how do they answer these
questions. And then there's a discussion and -- I don't want to say
negotiation -- but we have a long period of back-and-forth with the
agencies in trying to make sure that we're objectively answering those
questions so that we have a sense of whether we can actually measure what
the programs are achieving for the American people. And once we can -- and
we've got adequate performance measures in place, if we see that they're
not working, sometimes we propose to eliminate them; other times we propose
to -- propose additional funding because we've been able to identify what
it is we need to do to fix the program.

So I think most of the agencies would say that although it's a
time-consuming and laborious process, it's very helpful to them and it's
helpful to managers to ask the questions. Basically, this is a -- it's a
formal way of doing what managers ought to be doing in any program and in
any business, which is figure out what is the purpose of your program, how
do you know if it's working -- what are your metrics for determining
whether it's actually achieving what Congress and the American people asked
it to do -- and then if it's not, identify what means -- what mechanisms
you're going to do to improve it. It's pretty basic stuff, but it's just
putting it in -- ensuring that people actually do it, which hasn't
historically been done in the federal government.

Q Are non-political people helping to make the judgments?

MR. KAPLAN: Primarily non-political people. It's done by the professional
career examiners at OMB with their counterparts at the agencies. It's --
there's a senior political person at OMB in each sort of subject area. But
this is real time-consuming, in the weeds kind of work that we have about
500-plus career examiners to do. And the OMB career staff is extraordinary.

So we think it's a terrific process. And I think career people at the
agencies would agree, although, obviously it's hard. It makes people answer
hard questions about whether what they're doing is actually working and
coming up with fixes if it's not.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay, thank you.

Q On the cartoons, can you just clarify whether the President thinks it was
appropriate for them to be published and republished? And what is his
position on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President is reiterating what we have said previously,
and it's important for all of us to do so that are -- in governments around
the world. And so the points the President was making was that, one, we
condemn the violence that is taking place. Two, we should -- it's important
for everybody to promote tolerance and respect for people of all
backgrounds and of all religious faiths. The President made the point that
we're -- America is a tolerant and understanding society. It's a society
that welcomes people of all faiths and from all communities. And we also
are a society that supports and respects the freedom of press. But there
are also responsibilities that come with that freedom. And the President
reiterated the call for all governments to act to restore calm and prevent
violence.

And so those are the points the President is emphasizing. And I talked a
little bit about it the other day, and talked about it -- and we've talked
about it previously within the administration. We understand fully why
Muslims find the cartoons offensive. And people have the right to express
their views and condemn what was published, but they should do so in a
peaceful way. And I think those are the points that the President was
touching on, as well.

Q To be clear, though, you don't want to be specific about what governments
should do to restore calm? In other words, if they should urge their
newspapers not to publish things like this? You're certainly talking in
generalities.

MR. McCLELLAN: I talked about the -- our support and respect for freedom of
press. And I talked the other day about how it's important that people
forcefully speak out not only when there's a situation like this and
condemn such cartoons, but also when what happens frequently in the Arab
world when there are cartoons or articles promoting anti-Semitic views --
we should all be speaking out against those, as well.

Q Did you talk to the President at all about the political overtones of
yesterday's ceremony, at the funeral? And if you didn't talk to him, what
do you think about it? Was it the place for that sort of criticism?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think the President and Mrs. Bush were very honored
to attend the celebration of Mrs. King's life. This was a time to pay
tribute to her and all that she accomplished in life. The President said
she not only secured the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but she
built her own legacy, and she made many lasting contributions to freedom
and equality for all. And the President and Mrs. Bush were honored to
attend, and I think the President expressed his views very clearly in his
remarks that he made at the service.

And I don't know if you have a specific question about --

Q Do you think that --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that it was a time to honor Mrs. King and her life.

Q Do you think it was an appropriate place for former President Carter and
Bishop Lowery to attack --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think others can make those judgments. I think I would say
what I just did, that the President and Mrs. Bush were honored to attend.
And they feel blessed to have gotten to know Mrs. King, and they're always
going to cherish the time they spent with her. The President had a good
relationship with Coretta Scott King and he appreciated that relationship
very much.

Q The New York Times is reporting that Representative Heather Wilson, who's
a Republican, is calling for the House Intelligence Committee to also now
investigate the NSA surveillance program. Does the President still feel
confident that it is acceptable and legal without going to Congress, now
that so many Republicans are lining up with questions about it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, I don't know that I'd necessarily agree
with your characterization, "so many" -- I don't know what necessarily
that's based on. I'm not -- I wasn't quite clear from the article exactly
what was being called for. It made a general reference to something. The
Attorney General briefed the Senate Judiciary Committee the other day;
there are additional briefings going on this week for the Intelligence
Committees in both the House and Senate today and tomorrow. Those are
closed sessions. But this is a -- the terrorist surveillance program is a
vital tool in our efforts to prevent attacks from happening in America. And
this is a hot pursuit effort aimed at detecting and preventing attacks.

And so I think that the American people want the President to do everything
within his power to protect them. And that's exactly what we're going to
continue doing. And we will continue working with Congress as we move
forward. We have worked with Congress on this previously, having briefed
members more than a dozen times. And we -- I think the Vice President
talked a little bit last night, and the President has talked about it
previously -- we welcome ideas that they have, and we will continue to
listen to them.

Q Has he talked to Senator Specter since Monday's hearing, to respond to
some of the concerns he raised?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't believe they have personally. I think we -- our
staff stays in close contact with congressional leaders on a regular basis.
And certainly we're -- as I mentioned today, the President is going to be
having some members over from both the House and Senate to talk about
important priorities for the -- for 2006 later today.

Q -- will come up?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'll be there. We'll see. I don't know what members are
going to want to discuss in there. But I think most Americans and most
members recognize the importance of working together to do all we can to
protect the American people. And that's what this is about. And that's why
this tool is so vital. It's one tool. We have a number of tools at our
disposal, and we are going to use all of them. And the President has not
only the authority to do this, but he has the responsibility to do this.
And as General Hayden said, it's been a very successful program.

Q Thank you.

MR. McCLELLAN: Thanks.

END 10:40 A.M. EST

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