Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ The United States is not the only nation that engages in reconnaissance flights around the world. There are many, many, many nations that engage in reconnaissance flights around the world, for the reason that they do help protect the peace. ”

“ He believes it's one of the most compassionate actions you can take as a leader, is to let people keep their own money, so they can make their own decisions on how to use it for their child care, for their education needs of their children, to take care of ailing parents. That's the President's purpose in securing tax relief. ”

“ The President does not believe that out of a flash point of something very sensitive and very emotional, government leaders should rush to action and rush to decision on something like that. It's reflective of his style, which is to be deliberative, to be thoughtful, and not to seek to exploit events to force actions on something that needs to be thoroughly and carefully walked through, I think time to bring about a national consensus on how to get things done. ”

“ Q Does the President believe it's necessary now for reconnaissance flights over near China to be escorted to avoid the kind of near, or actual collision confrontation we had? MR. FLEISCHER: Let me make two points on that, David. Number one, the United States will always reserve the right to operate over international waters and international airspace to protect the needs of our neighbors, to promote regional stability and secure peace; which is why our nation, and many other nations, fly reconnaissance missions. ”

“ The ability of the United States to know if there are any hostile threats to our men and women, to our servicemen and to our allies helps keep the world free and strong. And that's why these missions are important. Q When you say many, many nations fly these flights, can you point to some that China -- I know that Rumsfeld mentioned last week that China is among the nations that fly reconnaissance flights in Asia. ”

“ That's a lot of money in people's pockets. I think that's something that most Americans would welcome. Q Can I follow up on that, about concerns about the level of spending in the Senate budget. Is the White House open to any kind of deficit spending just to get a big tax cut out there, that there is an agreement on spending? MR. FLEISCHER: Well, it's just not necessary. The size of the surplus is so big that there's no need to have deficit spending. ”

“ But it's a very sensitive time -- sensitive for law enforcement, who the President is a strong supporter of; and it's sensitive for people in the community who have a lot of concerns that they don't believe were being addressed. ”

“ I remind you that DOE has a rather large police force under its direct jurisdiction. So this administration is already carefully walking through a series of steps, a series of actions, so that we can eliminate racial profiling. But the President is not going to do it -- to use any one incident. He will do it as a result of a thoughtful, careful manner, that unites Americans in how to get it done. Q Ari, a follow up to that. This has been going on, I mean nationally, for years. And then in Cincinnati, it's been going on for a while. ”

“ And the first evidence of those determined choices will come in that meeting on Wednesday, and the President wants to hear what the Chinese have to say. He hopes that what they say will be productive and will lead to a diminution of difficulties in the region. Q Ari, first of all, how can you say that there is no finger-pointing when you said that it's clear that the Chinese have been taunting American flights since before this administration, into the Clinton administration. How can you say that? And, two, is there a time line for America to get this spy plane back that we had? ”