Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ Q There is, however, a limited amount of dollars in that surplus. Listen, the President's message is that we can have it all. We can have the debt reduction, we can have his big tax cut, we can have education, defense and other increases. We're in that kind of time frame in our history where we can have it all. MR. FLEISCHER: Well, frankly, we are a fortunate nation that we can wrestle with the reality of budget surpluses for as far as the eye can see. That is what the estimates tell us. We have money in the bank. There is an operating budget surplus, set aside all of Social Security's money. ”

“ The way debt works is you have certain debt obligations that are long-term, some that are short-term, some that are foreign nations, some that are U.S. savings bonds that many of our grandparents, for example, held or still hold, and many of us perhaps hold. The thrift savings plan, which is a program for federal workers that they can invest in their retirements, much like a lot of pension programs, where you can invest in markets. It's a tremendously popular program. And there are an awful lot of people who have their money, for their retirement savings, invested in government bonds. ”

“ On Medicare, and that reform takes money, I don't think anybody in government should begin with the premise that it takes money. They should focus on what reforms are necessary to deliver a program that works, and works well. ”

“ Q Ari, could I just come back to Medicare for a second? To accomplish Medicare reform it's going to take money. The Democratic National Committee has come out with a poll saying that 77 percent of the American people feel that President Bush's proposed tax cut is too big. And while you might dismiss that as a partisan poll, it squares with what a lot of other polls find, that a tax cut is a low priority for people, that they have other priorities, and that they are concerned that the size of President Bush's tax cut will squeeze those other priorities. ”

“ Have you seen them having much influence with this administration or with the Congress so far? MR. FLEISCHER: It gets to Peter's question. There are a lot of powerful special interests who are lining up now to protect attacks that, frankly, because of all the loopholes and end-arounds, creates a lot of work. And the President is going to continue to fight for its repeal. He thinks it's a wrong tax. He thinks it's wrong to tax people after they've worked their whole lives, to make them pay taxes again when they die. ”

“ Today, you have a whole change in health care delivery. You have skilled nursing facilities, you have home health care. All of that, frankly, is the fastest-rising portion of Medicare. You have prescription drugs, which really were not in widespread use back in 1965. And the Medicare program still is a 1965 model, all of which suggests that to get needed medical services to our seniors and to modernize Medicare, we have to have a government that is willing to reform the Medicare program and the President remains committed to it. Q Any proposed reforms, Ari? ”

“ So there you have a case on energy in the state that is most affected by energy where a state asked the federal government to take unilateral action to loosen regulatory procedures, to expedite permitting, which has now helped keep California's energy on line. ”

“ Q Will he talk about Social Security at all, or perhaps propose -- MR. FLEISCHER: I think that's likely. Q What about the commission proposal? Will that come up? MR. FLEISCHER: Stay tuned for the President. Q When will the President send his Medicare reform proposals up to Capitol Hill, and will they be modeled on the governors' program, which devolves to the states a lot of discretion in spending and in the actual structure of the program? MR. FLEISCHER: Nothing -- that's Medicaid, I think you're asking about. Medicare is not a state program. ”

“ He is aware of this effort launched by several millionaires and billionaires to keep the estate tax in place. He disagrees. And certainly, if the estate tax is repealed, as the President will continue to fight for, any individual American has the right to continue to send in extra money if they so choose. ”

“ There are some 60 education programs that the federal government runs that will be consolidated into five, streamlining it, more flexibility for the states to carry out the accountability and reforms in education. ”

“ Actually, the stepped-up basis on capital gains takes place on the day you die. So there's a lot of that. Q But, Ari, do you honestly think it's okay for Bill Gates and the like to transfer -- and there aren't going to be loopholes -- to transfer all of his wealth to his kids? There's so much money there. MR. FLEISCHER: We think it's wrong for the government to take people's money simply because they die, no matter who they are. Q I want to get to the spending side of the budget. A number of Republicans have started speaking gingerly about their concern over cuts. ”

“ It creates a new working group that will be a White House working group, together with members of the Cabinet -- many Cabinet Secretaries being involved. We will explore on a very detailed level what steps the federal government can take to streamline regulations to make it easier on the states to carry out reforms within state programs. ”