2001 US press briefings
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:38 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. Let me begin with a personnel announcement. The President today announced his intention to nominate Hans Hertell to be Ambassador of the United States to the Dominican Republic.
Also I just want to advise you that at 4:15 p.m. this afternoon a senior administration official will come to the podium here for a background readout on the meeting with the President of Macedonia, which will take place just before that time.
And with that, I'm pleased to take your questions.
Q Tomorrow, President Bush is receiving President Fox. I would like to ask you if you can give us something in advance maybe about the issue of immigration, the request of President Fox to open borders to immigrants?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think there will be a series of topics discussed at that meeting. It will be the importance of our bilateral relationship. Trade issues will come up. I'd anticipate energy issues may come up. Immigration may come up.
As you know, yesterday the President sent a letter to members of Congress expressing his support for extending the deadline so that family members who would otherwise have to leave the United States in order to apply for legal status in the United States will not be forced to break up with their families.
That's part of the President's approach, that we should be a welcoming nation to immigrants. I anticipate those topics could come up tomorrow.
Q Ari, congressional Republicans say that they have reached a deal on not just the tax part, but the spending as part of the President's budget blueprint, with a 5 percent increase in overall government spending, that they're going to announce it when they come here at 100 p.m. Would the White House support the 5 percent increase in government spending?
MR. FLEISCHER: There will be an event about 1:00 p.m., and I think you will hear the President at that time discuss what's been discussed on the Hill, the terms of this agreement. And the President is looking forward to that. But it looks like, at my last count, it was 4.9 percent.
Q No preview on how the White House feels about that? It's something you can accept, I guess.
MR. FLEISCHER: I think the President will express it, himself.
Q Ari, why does the President think he hasn't had more success with moderates, in terms of convincing them or -- one or two, however many he needs to jump ship and support the tax cut that he wanted, the size and the spending at the level he wanted?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think that's a question you need to put to others -- they should explain their actions. It's not for the White House to explain that. But, you know, the President, when you take a look back from the beginning of the campaign when he started talking about tax relief, when he announced his tax proposal on December 1st, I think it was, in 1999, and to where we are today, the President is nothing but pleased with what has taken place and how real this matter has now become and how the American people are about to get tax relief.
From the beginning, he never expected to get everything his way entirely -- never. He is extraordinarily pleased that he is getting so much of what he sought on behalf of the American people. This tax relief package will be the largest tax relief package in a generation. It will be the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan, and the President is nothing but pleased with the result of the negotiations as a result of the willingness of many Democrats to come together and support him -- Democrats who have broken with their party because they, too, like President Bush, believe in bipartisanship and putting the country first, which is what this agreement represents.
Q Ari, on Social Security, if the President knows what his principles are and if he has stacked this commission with people who agree with those principles and all that's left are the details, why does he need a commission? What does he have the executive branch for? Is this just political cover?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the commission, as the President said this afternoon and this morning in the Rose Garden, is designed to help formulate many of the specific policies that will be necessary to implement the Social Security proposal the President wants to submit to the Congress.
But the reason the President has proposed this commission is because he doesn't want a commission that is covered in dust or is left in the dust. He doesn't want a commission that results in gridlock. He wants a commission that results in action.