White House Gaggle

By Scott McClellan
White House Gaggle
By Scott McClellan
February 8, 2006

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, I want to get started. Good morning,
everyone. Let me run through the President's day, and I've also got a


special guest here with us today, our Deputy Budget Director, Joel
Kaplan, if you have any specific questions related to the budget that
you want to ask. But first, let me go back to the President's day.



The President had his usual briefings this morning. The President
had a very good visit with King Abdullah of Jordan. As he pointed out
in comments to the pool, the President also hosted the King for dinner
last night, along with some members of Congress. And the President and
the King gave you a readout, gave the press corps the readout of the
meeting that they had and the issues that they covered.



We're on our way to New Hampshire today. The President's focus in
his remarks is going to be on his budget strategy. The President will
be hitting on the key parts of the budget strategy. The President will
talk about how it begins with making sure that we keep taxes low, to
keep our economy growing. And then he'll talk about the importance of
making sure that we're funding our highest priorities and most important
priorities, like the war on terrorism, and continuing to pursue
pro-growth policies, and some of the initiatives he outlined in the
State of the Union address, obviously. But he'll also talk about how we
need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and spend taxpayer dollars
wisely.



And I think one area he'll touch on, as well, is how he's
encouraged by Congress's willingness to take up earmark reform. And
that's an important aspect of being good stewards of the taxpayer
dollars. And the President, in this budget and even in previous
budgets, has talked about the importance of having a sunset commission
to review programs, and talked about the importance of a line-item veto
and that can help us address some of these issues.



And finally, the President will touch on the importance of making
sure that government programs are producing results. In the budget
briefing the other day that Director Bolten had -- and Clay Johnson was
also there, and they talked the website that we put up -- ExpectMore.gov
-- and how we're holding programs accountable and measuring their
progress and seeing if they're achieving their intended results. That's
an important aspect of being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, as
well.



So that's really what the President will touch on in his remarks
today. And then after that, we return back to D.C., and the President
has a few other events on the schedule. First he's going to drop by a
meeting that -- staff-level meeting of CEOs from the Business
Roundtable. It's a closed event, but he'll be over in EEOB, Room 350.
And then he looks forward to signing the Deficit Reduction Act that was
just recently passed by Congress. And I think in those remarks he'll
talk about how the biggest challenge to our fiscal health is the
entitlement programs. They're on an unsustainable course, and this
Deficit Reduction Act is a first step to addressing some of those
problems. And I think he'll use that opportunity to talk about the
importance of addressing those long-term challenges and touch on the
bipartisan commission that he proposed. The President wants to work in
a bipartisan way to address these issues and find solutions as we move
forward so we protect these important programs for future generations.




And then, following that, in the Cabinet Room, the President will
be hosting the bicameral Republican leadership in Congress in the
Cabinet Room. And this will be an opportunity for the President to talk
about the 2006 agenda, the war on terrorism, the economy, and talk about
the budget that was just released, as well. And that's really the
President's day for today.



Q Coverage?



MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's a closed event. I don't know whether or
not any members will go to the stakeout. Obviously you all will be
there to cover that if they do. I don't know if Joel has anything to
add, or if you want to go straight to questions.



MR. KAPLAN: Actually, I thought you covered the budget strategy
pretty well, but I'll take any questions.



Q Among the programs you're slated to cut this term, even though
we don't know what they are because you haven't released it, are ones
that reportedly were already to be cut last year. Why have you gone for
the same programs when you know Congress isn't willing to make the cut?



MR. KAPLAN: Actually, what we found is that oftentimes Congress
will either do -- either in the first year they won't do as cut, but in
the second year, after we've had more of an opportunity to educate them
and be able to talk to the appropriators, they'll be more receptive to
it the second year around. We found that last year. Two years ago we
proposed I think 65 cuts or terminations, and we only achieved
reductions in 7 of them. Last year we proposed 150 for cuts or
terminations, and we achieved some or complete success in 89 of them.
Many of those were things that we had proposed in the previous year and
Congress hadn't acted on.



So we find that sometimes you got to just keep going back and
explaining why these programs aren't working, why they aren't a high
priority for the American people. And if you keep working at it you
tend to make some progress. And also some of them where we proposed and
elimination, Congress takes a reduction. So we come back and propose an
elimination the next year and they reduce it again and in the budget
world that's how you make progress.



Q The Manchester paper has an editorial today saying that the
President shouldn't think that he's fooling anybody, but it's actually a
very austere budget. What do you have to say in response to that? It's
fairly sharp, you may have seen it.



MR. KAPLAN: Well, we think this is a very restrained budget.
Obviously, as Scott mentioned, it funds the national priorities and
tightens the belt elsewhere. As the President mentioned in his State of
the Union, the real fiscal danger that we have in the future are the
unfunded obligations in our entitlement programs -- that's basically
three programs: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The President
took the lead last year in proposing the reform in Social Security. He
proposed reforms to the Medicaid program last year and fought real hard
to get some of those reforms with Republican votes in Congress, and
achieved that. That will be reflected in the bill he signs today.



In this year's budget he's proposing about $36 billion in reforms
to the Medicare program over five years, and he's proposed the
bipartisan commission to look at some of the longer-term structural
reforms that are necessary. So we think the President is going after
the places that present the greatest danger and he looks forward to
getting as much bipartisan cooperation on that as possible.



Q In the out-years there aren't any accommodations for the war
in Iraq, additional hurricane relief, or the effects of the AMT. Is it
realistic to think that he can achieve his deficit reduction goal simply
with spending cuts and economic growth, and tax revenue that comes from
that?



MR. KAPLAN: Yes, we do think it's realistic. For the war, the
deficit estimates that are in the budget that we released on Monday
include the effects of an additional $70 billion -- that's the estimate
of what will be needed for the remainder of this year in Iraq and
Afghanistan -- $50 billion as essentially a placeholder and allowance
for fiscal year 2007. Beyond that, we just don't think it would be
responsible to try to speculate on what the cost of the war will be
because it's completely dependent on what the pace of operations is.
And obviously, we've got a very fluid security situation in Iraq and
Afghanistan and a very fluid political situation.



On the AMT, the President has been clear that while we are
including the effects of AMT relief for this year, which has deficit
impacts in '06 and '07, we believe that the AMT needs to be addressed in
the context of a broader look at the tax code, that the AMT is so
integrally intertwined with the whole code at this point, that it's not
really appropriate to just try to address the AMT in these one-year
patches. So we think we can do it; we need to do it in order to
simplify the code and minimize the burden on taxpayers. But we think we
can do it in a revenue-neutral way.



Q You guys are pushing this performance assessment rating
system, which for all we know is a feedback loop in which programs the
OMB already undervalues automatically get low ratings. What can you
tell us about how this thing works that we can actually trust that this
is something that doesn't just dis domestic programs --



MR. KAPLAN: Well, the first thing is I would invite you to go
online to ExpectMore.gov. It's very voluminous, and it has -- this is
-- this is something the administration has worked really hard on over
about a four-year period to develop objective questions.



And we have -- this is a year-long process with agencies where we
go to the program experts in the agencies and ask them how do they
answer these questions. And then there's a discussion and -- I don't
want to say negotiation -- but we have a long period of back-and-forth
with the agencies in trying to make sure that we're objectively
answering those questions so that we have a sense of whether we can
actually measure what the programs are achieving for the American
people. And once we can -- and we've got adequate performance measures
in place, if we see that they're not working, sometimes we propose to
eliminate them; other times we propose to -- propose additional funding
because we've been able to identify what it is we need to do to fix the
program.



So I think most of the agencies would say that although it's a
time-consuming and laborious process, it's very helpful to them and it's
helpful to managers to ask the questions. Basically, this is a -- it's
a formal way of doing what managers ought to be doing in any program and
in any business, which is figure out what is the purpose of your
program, how do you know if it's working -- what are your metrics for
determining whether it's actually achieving what Congress and the
American people asked it to do -- and then if it's not, identify what
means -- what mechanisms you're going to do to improve it. It's pretty
basic stuff, but it's just putting it in -- ensuring that people
actually do it, which hasn't historically been done in the federal
government.



Q Are non-political people helping to make the judgments?



MR. KAPLAN: Primarily non-political people. It's done by the
professional career examiners at OMB with their counterparts at the
agencies. It's -- there's a senior political person at OMB in each sort
of subject area. But this is real time-consuming, in the weeds kind of
work that we have about 500-plus career examiners to do. And the OMB
career staff is extraordinary.



So we think it's a terrific process. And I think career people at
the agencies would agree, although, obviously it's hard. It makes
people answer hard questions about whether what they're doing is
actually working and coming up with fixes if it's not.



MR. McCLELLAN: Okay, thank you.



Q On the cartoons, can you just clarify whether the President
thinks it was appropriate for them to be published and republished? And
what is his position on that?



MR. McCLELLAN: The President is reiterating what we have said
previously, and it's important for all of us to do so that are -- in
governments around the world. And so the points the President was
making was that, one, we condemn the violence that is taking place.
Two, we should -- it's important for everybody to promote tolerance and
respect for people of all backgrounds and of all religious faiths. The
President made the point that we're -- America is a tolerant and
understanding society. It's a society that welcomes people of all
faiths and from all communities. And we also are a society that
supports and respects the freedom of press. But there are also
responsibilities that come with that freedom. And the President
reiterated the call for all governments to act to restore calm and
prevent violence.



And so those are the points the President is emphasizing. And I
talked a little bit about it the other day, and talked about it -- and
we've talked about it previously within the administration. We
understand fully why Muslims find the cartoons offensive. And people
have the right to express their views and condemn what was published,
but they should do so in a peaceful way. And I think those are the
points that the President was touching on, as well.



Q To be clear, though, you don't want to be specific about what
governments should do to restore calm? In other words, if they should
urge their newspapers not to publish things like this? You're certainly
talking in generalities.



MR. McCLELLAN: I talked about the -- our support and respect for
freedom of press. And I talked the other day about how it's important
that people forcefully speak out not only when there's a situation like
this and condemn such cartoons, but also when what happens frequently in
the Arab world when there are cartoons or articles promoting
anti-Semitic views -- we should all be speaking out against those, as
well.



Q Did you talk to the President at all about the political
overtones of yesterday's ceremony, at the funeral? And if you didn't
talk to him, what do you think about it? Was it the place for that sort
of criticism?



MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think the President and Mrs. Bush were very
honored to attend the celebration of Mrs. King's life. This was a time
to pay tribute to her and all that she accomplished in life. The
President said she not only secured the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., but she built her own legacy, and she made many lasting
contributions to freedom and equality for all. And the President and
Mrs. Bush were honored to attend, and I think the President expressed
his views very clearly in his remarks that he made at the service.



And I don't know if you have a specific question about --



Q Do you think that --



MR. McCLELLAN: I think that it was a time to honor Mrs. King and
her life.



Q Do you think it was an appropriate place for former President
Carter and Bishop Lowery to attack --



MR. McCLELLAN: I think others can make those judgments. I think I
would say what I just did, that the President and Mrs. Bush were honored
to attend. And they feel blessed to have gotten to know Mrs. King, and
they're always going to cherish the time they spent with her. The
President had a good relationship with Coretta Scott King and he
appreciated that relationship very much.



Q The New York Times is reporting that Representative Heather
Wilson, who's a Republican, is calling for the House Intelligence
Committee to also now investigate the NSA surveillance program. Does
the President still feel confident that it is acceptable and legal
without going to Congress, now that so many Republicans are lining up
with questions about it?



MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, I don't know that I'd
necessarily agree with your characterization, "so many" -- I don't know
what necessarily that's based on. I'm not -- I wasn't quite clear from
the article exactly what was being called for. It made a general
reference to something. The Attorney General briefed the Senate
Judiciary Committee the other day; there are additional briefings going
on this week for the Intelligence Committees in both the House and
Senate today and tomorrow. Those are closed sessions. But this is a --
the terrorist surveillance program is a vital tool in our efforts to
prevent attacks from happening in America. And this is a hot pursuit
effort aimed at detecting and preventing attacks.



And so I think that the American people want the President to do
everything within his power to protect them. And that's exactly what
we're going to continue doing. And we will continue working with
Congress as we move forward. We have worked with Congress on this
previously, having briefed members more than a dozen times. And we -- I
think the Vice President talked a little bit last night, and the
President has talked about it previously -- we welcome ideas that they
have, and we will continue to listen to them.



Q Has he talked to Senator Specter since Monday's hearing, to
respond to some of the concerns he raised?



MR. McCLELLAN: I don't believe they have personally. I think we
-- our staff stays in close contact with congressional leaders on a
regular basis. And certainly we're -- as I mentioned today, the
President is going to be having some members over from both the House
and Senate to talk about important priorities for the -- for 2006 later
today.



Q -- will come up?



MR. McCLELLAN: I'll be there. We'll see. I don't know what
members are going to want to discuss in there. But I think most
Americans and most members recognize the importance of working together
to do all we can to protect the American people. And that's what this
is about. And that's why this tool is so vital. It's one tool. We
have a number of tools at our disposal, and we are going to use all of
them. And the President has not only the authority to do this, but he
has the responsibility to do this. And as General Hayden said, it's
been a very successful program.



Q Thank you.



MR. McCLELLAN: Thanks.