Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ The President believes this fall will be a good opportunity for the Congress to take up his plan to improve and strengthen Medicare by giving seniors prescription drug coverage, as well as to put the Medicare system on more permanent financial -- a stronger financial footing, as is also clear in today's report in the Mid-Session Review. Medicare spends more money than it takes in. There is no Medicare surplus, and that's a problem for any senior citizen and particularly for middle-age people who will soon become senior citizens who want to rely on Medicare program. ”

“ President Bush recognizes that there are many employers in many parts of our society that benefit from having immigrants come to the United States and work in this country. We are a richer nation for it. The President is working with the government of Mexico. There is a Cabinet-level group that is working with their counterparts in Mexico and I'm not going to get into any more specifics than that. But the President does view immigration as a major strength for the United States and as a border governor, the President has seen the wonderful strength of immigrants to the United States. ”

“ The ABM treaty, which was enacted in the early 1970s, severely hamstrings and limits the ability of the United States to research and test the best way to protect the American people and our allies from launch of missiles that were unthinkable in the early '70s. Technology has changed the world to the point where there are nations that didn't even want to read the ABM treaty that are now in a position to launch missiles or are assuming a position to launch missiles but they are not party to the ABM treaty. ”

“ The President has laid out a budget that reflects the priorities that he thinks are the most important. And he is particularly worried about those in the Congress who are now talking about raising taxes. He thinks that's unnecessary and the only reason they want to raise taxes is so they can once again increase government spending. As the President indicated in Missouri, he will oppose any efforts to increase taxes on the American people. ”

“ The President has the obligation to protect the existing budget resolution so people don't bust it like they did last year by spending more money that would imperil Social Security. And that was one of the points the President made yesterday in his speech in Missouri. And I think that's also why you hear a lot of complaining by the Democrats in the Congress that the surplus has so-called dwindled because they want to dwindle it through more spending. They're not happy there is not a bigger surplus for them to spend. ”

“ Despite the fiscal downturn in the budget makes very clear and the President is very pleased that there will be a second largest surplus in history, even after taking into account the increases in spending for education that the President has sought, the increases in spending for defense that the President has sought, as well, of course, as the tax cut that is now the law of the land that the President believes very strongly will result in more growth, which will lead to higher surpluses down the road. ”

“ So from his point of view, whatever the surplus is, there are people in Washington who are going to try to spend it down to zero. So the fact of the matter is, the education increases the President has asked for are already taken into account in the budget. The defense increases the President has asked for are taken into account in the budget. The tax cut which the President believes will propel the economy back into strong growth are already taken into account in the budget. When you look at what's left in the operating side of the budget, it's about $1 billion. ”

“ The United States is committed to moving forward to protect itself and to protect other nations from accidental or rogue missile launches from nations that would not comply with international norms. So the President is committed to protecting the country. It's unclear exactly when the tests will lead to a bumping into the ABM treaty. But the question was about whether there is an artificial deadline imposed this November. There is no such artificial deadline. There will be continued efforts to develop a missile defense system and to continue with the research to protect the United States. ”

“ The hospital fund has a trust fund that takes in more than it spends, but the whole rest of Medicare, which is the bulk of Medicare, meaning any time somebody visits their doctors, that's not financed out of the trust fund. That's financed out of operating money of which there is not sufficient money. ”

“ So if there are additional tax cuts that would require diminution of money in the Treasury, people are going to have to take a look at spending reductions for those tax cuts. Q Ari, Canadian newspapers report stories today about Prime Minister's Chretien's phone call yesterday with the President, in which Chretien apparently said, he warned the President that if the United States wants free trade on oil and gas, then the United States should then open up its markets without these big tariffs on Canadian soft-wood lumber. ”

“ The argument that the Democrats are making seems to be that there isn't enough money for adequate funding for national priorities, that there is simply -- MR. FLEISCHER: The argument the Democrats are making is, we want a bigger surplus so we can spend it down so there is no surplus. That's the argument the Democrats are making. ”

“ Did the administration request that they do what ahead of time? Q Pay their corporate taxes ahead of time. MR. FLEISCHER: Not that I'm aware of. But that's not uncommon for any time there is a deadline -- in this case, October 1st -- of when taxes are due, that some payments fall before it, some payments fall after it. It's not uncommon at all. As you can imagine, any time there is any calendar-driven deadline, some actions can fall before it, some after it. The bulk of the corporate tax payments would be made in fiscal 2002. ”

“ Well, there are going to be times the President makes phone calls and we don't read out each and every phone call the President makes. As you can imagine, the President makes or receives, depending on the day, scores of phone calls a day. ”

“ He likes talking to staff. Q Real quick, Ari, I wondered if the President had any comments on Minority Leader Gephardt's remarks Sunday on Meet the Press? When asked about the budget squeeze, he indicated that maybe there should be cuts in education, health care and defense spending. Has the President had any reaction? MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the President would be very troubled if anybody sought to cut education increases that he thinks are vital to improve our public schools and to help our children. He does not think that's a wise approach. ”