Text 788, 280 rader
Skriven 2005-04-18 23:34:10 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (050418) for Mon, 2005 Apr 18
===================================================
===========================================================================
Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 18, 2005

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En route Columbia, South Carolina



  þ President's Schedule
  þ Interviews with the President
  þ North Korea
  þ John Bolton
  þ Social Security
  þ Gaza withdrawal/Prime Minister Sharon

11:15 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: Good morning. The President had his usual briefings this
morning. Following that he met with his Secretary of State. When we arrive
in South Carolina, this will be the 22nd state we've gone to as part of our
outreach to the American people on the need to act on Social Security
reform this year.

As you are aware, the President will be speaking to a joint session of the
legislature. And I expect one of the things that the President will talk
about in his remarks is that the American people elected us to go to
Washington to solve problems and take on the difficult issues. And one
example he'll point to is what the members of the legislature in South
Carolina did. South Carolina faced some tough economic challenges in recent
years and their economic growth slowed dramatically and they had to face a
tough fiscal situation. The legislature came together and came up with a
bipartisan solution to avert the fiscal crisis. They not only erased their
deficit, but they did so two years ahead of time, and the President will
point to that as an example of what we need to do in Washington.

I expect that one of the things he'll emphasize in his remarks is that
Congress needs to come together and make the tough choices to make Social
Security permanently sound for our children and grandchildren. And so that
will be one of the points of emphasis in his remarks. I expect he'll
continue to talk about the problems facing Social Security and the need to
make it permanently sound, as well as make it a better deal for our
children and grandchildren. So, anyway, that's the focus of his remarks
today.

Then we return back to D.C. and the President has got a couple of
interviews today. He's doing an interview with Ron Insana this afternoon
when we get back, and this will be an opportunity for the President to talk
about Social Security and to talk about his energy plan and the need to act
on it, and it will be an opportunity to talk about other domestic
priorities as well -- I'm sure that may come up in the interview.

And then following that, the President will be doing an interview with the
Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. And this is an opportunity for the
President to speak directly with the people of Lebanon. It's an opportunity
to let the people of Lebanon know that the international community is
united in their support as they move forward to a sovereign, independent
nation that is free from outside interference and intimidation. And so
those are the two interviews he has on the schedule.

Traveling with us today we've got Senators DeMint and Graham, and
Congressmen Brown and Wilson, and we'll be joined by two others on the way
back, Congressmen Barrett and Inglis will join us on the way back, in
addition to those four.

Q When are those interviews going to be aired?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me double-check, we'll double-check on the Lebanese one.
I'm sure that Ron Insana will be going to air this evening, I would
suspect, with his -- as well as probably tomorrow morning, some of it.

Q Will you guys be putting out transcripts of those?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, those are -- well, I take that back, maybe on the
Lebanon one; we tend to do the foreign interviews, so on that one, probably
would.

Okay, questions?

Q Any reaction to the story that North Korea may be preparing to ramp up
its development of nuclear weapons again?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, all parties in the region have made it clear
to North Korea that they want to see a nuclear-free peninsula. North Korea
previously made a commitment to come back to the six-party talks so that we
can move forward on the proposal that we previously outlined. And North
Korea's failure to follow through on that commitment and its provocative
words and actions only further isolate it. And so we continue to join with
our partners in the region calling on North Korea to come back to the talks
so that we can talk about how we move forward in a substantive way on the
proposal that we outlined.

Q Are you giving any thought to taking them to the United Nations Security
Council?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, if North Korea refuses to come back to the six-party
talks, then I fully expect we would consult with our partners in the region
about the next steps, and that's certainly one possibility.

Q How much longer are you going to let this go on?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we're continuing to work closely with our partners in
the region and urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks. They made
a commitment to do so and we want to see them follow through on that. But,
again, if they -- you know, I don't know that we've set a timetable, but if
they refuse to come back to the talks, then we would have to consult with
our partners and look at the next steps.

Q Do you have any concerns about these charges against John Bolton, as
published in The Post today, that he was trying to keep information about
Iran from Secretary Powell and some other officials?

MR. McCLELLAN: John Bolton is exactly the kind of person that we need at
the United Nations. He is an effective diplomat who has a proven record of
results and so we hope that the Senate will move forward quickly and
confirm his nomination. The President appointed him because he believes
he's the best person to be our ambassador during these times when the
United Nations is talking about reform. And the United Nations needs to
move forward on reform.

As far as issues that have come up, I mean, John Bolton has been addressing
those in his testimony and we hope the Senate will move forward quickly on
his nomination.

Q Senator Graham has said that he doesn't think the President is doing
enough to address the solvency problem in Social Security and he said he
expects that maybe we'll hear more about it today. Does the President have
plans to talk about that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Absolutely, and he has been talking about the need to make
sure that Social Security is permanently sound for our children and
grandchildren. And I expect in his remarks he'll talk about how Social
Security has been a very successful program and it has worked well for
those who are currently retired; it's working well for them.

But the problem is in just three years, the baby boomers are going to be
retiring and that's when it's going to start putting strains on the system
and you're going to see it start heading toward the red. And the President
will go back through some of that, how you're going to see an increasing
number of people receiving benefits under Social Security, with a
decreasing number of people paying into the system. And that's why we need
to act now to make it permanently sound. It only gets worse, and each year
that we wait it's another $600 billion -- it's at least $600 billion a year
more each year that we wait. That's why we need to act now and that's why
the President will talk about the importance of coming together now to make
the difficult choices and act on this problem this year. That's what the
American people expect.

You know, I noticed over the weekend there was a wire story citing some
House Democratic aides saying that they were going to -- expressing that
they were having a new willingness to come to the table and talk about how
to move forward on a bipartisan solution. We would welcome that, if that's
the case. This House aide seemed to indicate that they were going to move
away from their strategy of simply saying, we're not going to come to the
table unless you do this or that.

And the President is going to make very clear again today that the door is
open, all ideas are welcome, now is the time to come to the table and talk
about how we move forward. So we hope that Democratic leaders have
recognized that they should stop blocking efforts to move forward on a
bipartisan solution.

Q There is a new ad out criticizing what it called activist judges, that
uses the President's face and his position. Has the President seen this ad,
and what's his reaction to it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Who is that ad by?

Q Has anybody at the White House -- did they --

MR. McCLELLAN: Who is the ad by?

Q It's by the Center for Justice Now, it's this group that's trying to
fight against the filibuster?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I haven't seen it. I don't think he has seen it, either.

Q If anyone at the White House saw it prior to the ad?

MR. McCLELLAN: Oh, I don't -- prior? I don't know. I'd have to check. I'd
have to check.

Q Has senior staff --

MR. McCLELLAN: I haven't heard any discussion of it amongst senior staff.

Q Are we near the end of the education phase?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you heard me say last week that we're continuing our
outreach efforts to the American people. It's important that not only that
they understand that there are problems facing Social Security, but they
understand the significance of those problems. And that's what the
President has been emphasizing as we travel across the United States.
That's what senior administration officials, members of his Cabinet, White
House staff have been emphasizing as they travel across the United States
in this 60-day push.

So we're still in that phase. It's still early in the process. This is a
difficult issue or it would have been solved a long time ago. But it is an
issue that needs to be addressed and needs to be addressed now. And that's
one of the things the President is emphasizing.

In terms of the next phase, when we focus even more on solutions, we'll be
continuing to talk with members of Congress about the next phase and how to
move forward together on those solutions. But we're -- you know, we're
continuing to have good discussions with members of Congress, Democrats and
Republicans alike, and the President is going to continue reaching out and
encouraging all people who have ideas to come to the table. This is a time
for all those who recognize the problems to come forward and talk about how
we can move forward together.

Q But in terms of venue, doing it as, like, a mini State of the Union
address venue versus an open forum, you know, that formula that we had seen
so many times -- does this sort of signal a change in types of ways of
presenting his ideas of Social Security versus, you know, the groups of
people, average citizens, sitting there in a roundtable?

MR. McCLELLAN: You're talking about the different formats? And Friday was a
different format. It was a way to --

Q That, sort of, venue --

MR. McCLELLAN: There are a number of different ways he's going to reach out
to the American people and talk to them about the problems facing Social
Security. I pointed out the example of the South Carolina legislature. This
is his first time to go into South Carolina and talk about the problems
facing Social Security since we began this big push in Congress.

And on Friday there was an opportunity to highlight the benefit of personal
retirement accounts and how millions of Americans right now have that
opportunity in some of their state programs -- state and local programs.
And we're going to be going to Galveston next Tuesday to highlight that
program and how well that program has worked for employees in Galveston.

Q Any reaction to -- Prime Minister Sharon says he's going to delay the
Gaza pullout until August because of a holiday.

MR. McCLELLAN: I've seen that report. We're not able to confirm that that's
the case. You know, Prime Minister Sharon is moving forward on the
disengagement plan, and what is important now is that the parties -- the
Israelis and Palestinians -- coordinate closely on the withdrawal. Prime
Minister Sharon made an offer to coordinate with Palestinian leaders, and
we hope the Palestinian leaders will take them up on that offer so that
they can be move forward in a coordinated way.

And that's all -- you know, one of the responsibilities the Quartet's new
envoy, James Wolfensohn, will be to help the Palestinians move forward on
institution-building in the Gaza as Israel pulls out of the area.

Q And what about the Israeli announcement they're going to build 50 new
homes on the West Bank?

MR. McCLELLAN: I saw that report, as well. We will be seeking clarification
from the government of Israel. Prime Minister Sharon reiterated his
commitment to the roadmap just last week in Crawford and his commitment to
the President's two-state vision. The roadmap has obligations for both
parties. Israel should not be expanding settlements, and the Palestinian
leaders need to act to dismantle terrorists' organizations. And I think the
President made his views very clear last week, as well, that Israel should
not expand settlements.

But on this one, we'll seek more information from the government of Israel
about this report. But we have a real opportunity before us, too, with the
Gaza withdrawal. And it's important that we seize this opportunity so that
we can move forward on the roadmap to the two-state vision.

Q Thank you.

END 11:29 A.M. EST

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/04/20050418.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)