Border Patrol recently reported apprehending 7,000 unlawful migrants in a single week on just one part of the Texas border, a couple of weeks ago. Our immigration system is stretched far beyond the breaking point. To confront this national security crisis, last month I declared a national emergency. And when I see these people and they are good people some senators, mostly I tell you, the House has been fantastic. The House you know, backing we have had from the House has really been I am talking about in the last short period of time. There is a lot of spirit in the House, and I think in the Senate too, but we are going to have to see because we have a vote coming up. And a lot of people talk about precedent. That if we do this, the Democrats will use national emergency powers for something that we do not want. They are going to do that anyway, folks. The best way to stop that is to make sure that I win the election. That is the best way to stop that. They are going to do it anyway. They will do it anyway. I watch good people, they are friends of mine, We are very concerned with setting precedent. We are very concerned about setting precedent. I am very concerned with having murderers and drug traffickers, and drugs and drug cartels, pouring into our country. That is what I am concerned about. And the Democrats, they are going to do whatever they do if they get into power, and it will not have a damn thing to do with whether or not we approve our national emergency. Because let me tell you they do not like it when I say it but we are being invaded. We are being invaded by drugs, by people, by criminals. And we have to stop it. And we want people to come in, as I said before, but they have to come in legally and with merit. Previous presidents have used their national emergency power to promote democratic elections in Belarus, to ensure political stability in Burundi, and to defend the sovereignty of Lebanon. In Lebanon it is good. But we need it right here in our country. We have to use it for our country. Many emergency declarations have been used to protect people in faraway nations and distant lands. Now we are protecting, finally, our people. And we are proudly standing with the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement. Illegal immigration is also deeply unfair to American workers and taxpayers, including millions and millions of hardworking legal immigrants.


If you care about helping immigrants and care about their success, if you care about reducing poverty and raising living standards, then you must support a safe, strong, and very, very secure border. We need an immigration policy that helps all Americans thrive, flourish, prosper. We need an immigration policy that is going to be great for our corporations and our great companies. We need an immigration policy where people coming into our country can love our country and love our fellow citizens. And this includes shutting down sanctuary cities. And we want to end catch-and-release. We catch them, we realize they are a criminal, and we have to release them. They come onto our land, they put one foot on our land. We now have to take them through a massive court trial. Who does this? Other countries say, Get the hell out of here. We have to take them through court. So we catch them. We talk to them. If they are criminals, or if they are not, we release them. We say, Come back for a hearing in front of a judge. You know how many judges you need to do this? Three percent of the people come back for a trial. Not my fault I inherited this mess, but we are fixing it. We have to end chain migration, and we have to cancel the visa lottery. Every American, no matter where they are born, will benefit from the creation of a lawful immigration system. It is such you talk about an emergency. It is laughed at all over the world. We have people pouring in from not just the southern border in Mexico. They have a baby on our land. And then the parents come in with the baby because the baby is a citizen. They used to call it anchor babies but they do not use that term anymore because it does not sound nice. But one by one, we are finding ways. You know, they call them loopholes. A lot of our laws loopholes. Well, I am finding loopholes to get around the loophole. The Democrats in Congress do not want to touch any of it. Visa lottery that is where they put in the names; they put it in a lottery, and you pick, Oh, here is a wonderful person. You know, he killed four people. And then they get in and we say, Gee, that person just came into our country. He just robbed a store and killed somebody. Because they send us the people they do not want.

Remarks by President Trump at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference


The biggest form of subsidy we give to other nations. Immigration systems that prioritize the admission of those who can support themselves financially and contribute. We want people that can help themselves, that can support themselves. We support them from the day they come in until the day they die. We cannot do that as a country. We cannot afford to do that as a country. Sadly, on immigration and so many other issues, Democrat lawmakers have totally abandoned the American mainstream. But that is going to be good for us in 2020. They are embracing open borders, socialism, and extreme late-term abortion. Weeks ago, lawmakers in New York cheered as they passed legislation to allow babies to be ripped from the womb of their mother right up to the very moment of death. Then, in an act and a statement, the likes of which I do not think I have ever heard, in Virginia, the governor a Democrat stated that he would allow babies to be born, to be born outside. He would wrap them. He would take care of them. And then he will talk to the mother and the father as to what to be done. And if they did not want the child, who is now outside of the womb long outside of the womb they will execute the baby after birth. They will execute the baby after birth. This is a radical agenda by the Democrats. And when you put something up, as was just put up before the Senate, everybody on the Democrat side votes for it. They are lousy politicians and they have lousy policy. They have policy I could never sell if I wanted to. And the Republicans do not remember that. They vote in blocs. They have 47. We had a tremendous victory. We were given no credit. I cannot go and campaign for all of the people in the House. And guys like Meadows wins by so many points he does not need any help. He does not need it. I say, Mark, do you need any help? He will win by 30, 35. The ones that love Trump, the ones that are really the Trumpers like Meadows, Jordan, Gates, so many of them. I do not want to I could just name so many. They are the ones that win with that. I mean, it is like they do not even have an election. It is the ones that sort of they are a little shy about embracing what we are all about, they get clobbered.


But the good news is they are all starting to find that out. Just this week, Senate Democrats opposed legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children who survive abortions. Virtually every Democrat voted against protecting these precious babies. They vote in groups. And we did have that great victory. We won for 51. And two that we did not like got out. They retired because they had like very little support. We had 53 we picked up in the Senate. They were going to win the Senate, remember? And I will tell you, folks, I worked hard. I did 32 big, fat rallies. And those rallies brought us to a tremendous Senate victory so that we can continue onward with our judges and our approvals. And the fake news back there, they love to say Donald Trump suffered a big defeat. In all due respect for us, the Senate, far more important. We won the Senate and we had this, like, tremendous victory. We get no credit at all. They say, Donald Trump suffered a humiliating defeat. And one of the commentators and I appreciate it one of the shows where they were saying how I suffered a defeat, this commentator said, Excuse me, he did not run. Let us face it. You know, you can only do so much. And what they do not say is governor of Ohio, great guy. He won by seven with one day. He was down by six. One day into the election, I went out, I campaigned, worked hard, made a speech. It was a fantastic crowd like this. And all the people in the other ballrooms that are waiting for us. He was down by six; he won by seven. Then we have Georgia the governor of Georgia. He was losing in the primary by 10. I got a call from David Perdue and Sonny Perdue two great guys. Could you endorse him? And I checked him. And I said, I love this guy. He is down by 10. He won by 40. Can you believe that? I endorsed him, Mark. He won by 40. Then he had a tough race against the new star of the Democrat Party not Democratic. We have to do that. You know, it sounds prettier when we use Democratic. I even like I hate to say in the speech, the Democrat Party because it does not sound good. But that is all the more reason I use it, because it does not . They should change it because it sounds much better.


But then, he had an election against their star who followed me after the State of the Union Address. And they campaigned for her, and they worked so hard. And we kicked their ass. We had a rally at the airport, where 55,000 people showed up to the airport. They had three other hangars that were full. The problem was they gave the press, like these guys they gave the press too good a location because the people behind them could not see properly. I said, You are going to win the election. He won the election. He won it fairly easily, against their star. And now David Perdue is going to win for senator in 2020. And then and then we had Florida, and many others. And we have a candidate, Ron DeSantis a friend. He was running against, in the primary, somebody that was easily going to win. He was scheduled to be the next governor of Florida. But Ron has been great to me on the witch hunt. He is been a defender of me against these phony charges of Russia. My wife said, You never spoke to anybody from Russia, darling. But Ron DeSantis I like people that defend me. You know, when people defend me, I defend them. That is why I like Mark. That is why I like Mark Levin. And I am not sure a lot of people like him. He is tough as hell. But I like him. I love him. But then we have Florida. So, Ron DeSantis is at three. He calls up, Sir, can I have your endorsement? I said, Ron, you are at three. Your opponent is, I guess, agriculture commissioner has 22 million in the bank. He is up in the 20s or 30s. I said, Ron, do not make me do this, Ron. Because I know if he loses which almost never happens when I endorse somebody. Only one time, and that was because it was done in the middle of the day of the election. Nobody knew I did it. They got home, they said, I did not know Trump endorsed him. But I said, Ron, do not do it. I said, All right, I will do it. He went from 3 to 60. And then he ran against a guy who had unbelievable support. He had every celebrity go into Florida. He had money all over the place. And Ron was in there pitching, and I was in there pitching with him.


And we now have a great governor in the state of Florida. And I could mention many others other governors, many other states. But I am not going to bore you with it. And I think I really think that it is incredible what we did in the midterms. Remember, You cannot win unless you win the state of Ohio. We got the governor of Ohio, and he is great. We love you, Mike. As we defend American values at home, we are also defending. We have secured all sorts of funding, all sorts of record everything. And we will never forget our military. We will never forget our veterans. We are taking care of our veterans like they have never been taken care of before. We just got them Choice, so now they can go see a doctor. Now they can go and see a doctor instead of waiting on line for weeks and weeks and weeks. And we got them Accountability. You could not fire anybody in the VA. You had sadists. You had people that took advantage of our veterans. They have hit them. You could not fire them. You had thieves that were stealing openly stealing. You could not fire them. Now you look at the guy, you say, Get the hell out of here. Nobody thought we could get it. For 40 years they tried to get it. For 40 years they tried to get it; they could not get it. And VA Choice, they thought for many, many decades they'd been trying to get VA Choice. You could not get it. Now, instead of waiting on line for two days, nine days, three weeks people were dying. People that were not very sick would be dead by the time they saw a doctor, six weeks later. Now these great veterans, if there is a big wait, they go outside, they go to a local doctor. We pay the bills. And we actually save a lot of money, if you can believe it. And I got that approved after 44 years of being unable to get it approved for our veterans. We love our veterans. And just in finishing up, as you know, I just returned from Vietnam, where I had very productive meetings with Chairman Kim Jong Un. We have developed a good relationship very good and made great historic progress. Donald Trump should not, under any circumstances, be doing this or that. You know, they are telling me how to negotiate. One administration gave billions of dollars to him and got nothing. And we have not given him anything yet.


I look forward to maybe doing something at some point. I am going to get other countries to give. Because every once in a while, you have to walk, because the deal was not a deal that was acceptable to me. I do not like these deals that politicians make. They make a deal just for the sake of doing it. I do not want to do that. I want to make a deal that either works, or let us not make it. But the one thing we have, though, is we have no testing, no missiles going up, no rockets going up. We got our great people back. We get our great, great people. And that includes our beautiful, beautiful Otto Otto Warmbier whose parents I have gotten to know, who is incredible. And I am in such a horrible position, because in one way I have to negotiate. In the other way, I love Mr. and Mrs. Warmbier, and I love Otto. And a lot of what I do with respect to North Korea, and any success that we hopefully have and we have had a lot. We are given no credit. They do not remember that, in the last days of the Obama administration, rockets were flying all over the place, nuclear testing was going on. They were being shoved over three, four inches. We are getting the remains back of a lot of our soldiers from many, many years ago. Mike Pence was in Hawaii. It was one of the most beautiful ceremonies. We have made a lot of progress, and we will continue to make progress. And I really think what we are doing there is very important. But we actually had to walk, but I think we had a very good meeting. In fact, when I came home, they put out a statement that, actually, they were willing to do much less on the sanction front. North Korea has an incredible, brilliant economic future, if they make a deal. But they do not have any economic future if they have nuclear weapons. It is really a bad thing for them. I think we learned a lot over the last couple of days. And that is an important thing, especially when we are dealing with this kind of a situation. For years, you watched as your leaders apologized for America. You saw that. Now you have a President who is standing up for America.


Today I want to talk to you about our Nation's duty to ensure that all America's seniors can enjoy their golden years as healthy as modern medicine will allow. I want to talk about my plan to strengthen and modernize Medicare and the important steps we can take to encourage older Americans to undergo health screenings that can save their lives and improve the quality of their lives. For 34 years now, Medicare has been the cornerstone of our efforts to protect the health of the disabled and our seniors. Last month at the White House, I unveiled a fiscally responsible plan to secure and modernize this vital program for the 21st century. The plan will strengthen Medicare by controlling cost, promoting competition, and dedicating a significant portion of the budget surplus to keeping the Trust Fund solvent until the year 2027. And my plan will modernize Medicare by matching its benefits to the latest advances of modern medicine. Since Medicare's founding in 1965, a medical revolution has transformed health care in America. Once the cure for many illnesses was a scalpel; now, just as likely, it is a pharmaceutical. That is why I made helping seniors afford the prescription drugs essential to modern medical care a key part of the Medicare plan. But even as we modernize Medicare with the prescription drug benefit, we also must modernize Medicare's preventive care benefits. Today, doctors have new tools to detect and prevent diseases earlier and more effectively than ever. And for millions, early detection can mean the difference between a full recovery and a bleak prognosis. For instance, if prostate cancer is caught early, the survival rate is 99 percent; but if it is not , the rate can be a discouraging 31 percent. In 1997 we worked across party lines to expand Medicare coverage for preventive services. But too few seniors still are using this benefit. Last year just one in seven older women received a mammogram covered by Medicare. For many seniors on fixed incomes, who every day must struggle to pay for food, rent, and other necessities, the cost of even a modest copayment can be prohibitive, and that can cost lives. It makes no sense for Medicare to put up roadblocks to screenings and then turn around and pick up the hospital bills its screenings might have avoided. No one should have to undergo a dangerous surgical procedure that could have been prevented by a simple test. No senior should have to hesitate to get the preventive care they need.

The President's Radio Address


I am glad to have the chance of being present at the formal dedication of this new building, which in its management stands in line of succession to a series of buildings, themselves typifying in no small degree the extraordinary development of the public school system of the United States. It was some sixty-four years ago that this institution was first established under a man of great eminence alike in the work of pedagogy and in other fields- Professor Biggs. At the time when it was started the public-school system of the United States had begun and was in the process of its first development. The development of the high school, especially during the last half century, has been literally phenomenal. Nothing like our present system of education was known in earlier times. No such system of popular education for the people by the representatives of the people existed. It is, of course, a mere truism to say that the stability and future welfare of our institutions of government depend upon the grade of citizenship turned out from our public schools. And no body of public servants, no body of individuals associated in private life, are better worth the admiration and respect of all who value citizenship at its true worth, than the body composed of the teachers in the public schools throughout the length and breadth of this Union. They have to deal with citizenship in the raw and turn it out something like a finished product. I think that all of us who also endeavor to deal with that citizenship in the raw in our own homes appreciate the burden and the responsibility. The training given in the public schools must, of course, be not merely a training in intellect, but a training in what counts for infinitely more than intellect-a training in character. And the chief factor in that training must be the personal equation of the teachers; the influence exerted, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, by the man or woman who stands in so peculiar a relation to the boys and girls under his or her care-a relation closer, more intricate, and more vital in its after-effects than any other relation save that of parent and child. Wherever a burden of that kind is laid, those who carry it necessarily carry a great responsibility. Scant should be our patience with any man or woman doing a bit of work vitally worth doing, who does not approach it in the spirit of sincere love for the work, and of desire to do it well for the work's sake.

Remarks at the Dedicatory Exercises of the New High School Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Doubtless most of you remember the old distinction drawn between the two kinds of work, the work done for the sake of the fee and the work done for the sake of the work itself. The man or woman in public or private life who ever works only for the sake of the reward that comes outside of the work, will in the long run do poor work. The man or woman who does work worth doing is the man or woman who lives, who breathes that work; with whom it is ever present in his or her soul; whose ambition is to do it well and to feel rewarded by the thought of having done it well. That man, that woman, puts the whole country under an obligation. As a body all those connected with the education of our people are entitled to the heartiest praise from all lovers of their country, because as a body they are devoting heart and soul to the welfare of those under them. It is a poor type of school nowadays that has not a good playground attached. It is not so long since, in my own city at least, this was held as revolutionary doctrine, especially in the crowded quarters where playgrounds were most needed. People said they did not need play grounds. They expected to make good citizens of the boys and girls who, when they were not in school, were put upon the streets in the crowded quarters of New York to play at the kind of games alone that they could play at in the streets. We have passed that stage. I think we realize what a good healthy play ground means to children. I think we understand not only the effects for good upon their bodies, but for good upon their minds. We need healthy bodies. Sometimes you can develop character by the direct inculcation of moral precept; a good deal more often you cannot. You develop it less by precept than by your practice. Let it come as an incident of the association with you; as an incident to the general tone of the whole body, the tone which in the aggregate we all create. Is not that the experience of all of you, in dealing with these children in the schools, in dealing with them in the family, in dealing with them in bodies any where? They are quick to take the tone of those to whom they look up, and if they do not look up to you, then you can preach virtue all you wish, but the effect will be small.


Thank you, Madam Attorney General, for all the great work you do. our United States Attorney, Alan Bersin; the Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner, Doris Meissner; the person who was very active in helping me pass the crime bill which put these police officers on our streets, former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk, I am delighted to see you here. I want to thank all the officers who are here from the Customs, the Border Patrol, Immigration, from Chula Vista, from San Diego. I especially want to thank these uniformed officers who give their lives to make our lives safer and all the community citizens groups who work with them. Ladies and gentlemen, when I came to California and to San Diego 4 years ago and I listened and attempted to learn what was going on here, I saw an enormous amount of potential and a lot of stress. Mostly what people talked to me about then were two problems, the economy and the problem of crime and illegal immigration. I spent a lot of time here 4 years ago and had the opportunity to come back often since. If you will forgive me just one personal note, this is the first time I have come back to San Diego since the death of my friend Larry Lawrence, who served this country so well as our Ambassador to Switzerland, and I miss him now, coming back here, and I want to thank him for what he did for me here. Anyway, what we tried to do was to develop a serious approach, to work with you, to help you seize control of your destiny, and to help you do more of what you were already inclined to do. On the economy, I'd like to make just a couple of comments. Because we are building two new ships for our national defense, the San Diego shipyards are busy, securing another 4,000 jobs until the year 2000. Because in 1993 and 1994 the Congress agreed to invest in defense conversion, in high technology research and development and new environmental technologies and biotechnology, jobs are being created here that have a real future to grow in number and to strengthen and diversify the economy of this area. Because we have started work on a new sewage treatment plant and we are proposing to step up our sand reclamation efforts, thanks in no small measure to the relentless efforts of Congressman Filner, we are ensuring that the San Diego beaches will be enjoyed by children and their children for generations to come.

Remarks to the Community in San Diego, California


But we all know that America has had, building over years and years and years, a serious problem of illegal immigration which has aggravated the crime problem along our borders. The Attorney General talked about some of the progress we have made. She gave me a report today which reviews where we are and what we have done. So as we have worked hard to bring the crime rate down all over America, we have made special efforts in our border communities, because we know that we have special responsibilities there. They have to be enforced, and the consequences of their enforcement or their failure to be enforced have to be borne primarily by the National Government. I have done what I could to get more money into California in very difficult fiscal circumstances in Washington to help you deal with the costs of illegal immigration-more than ever before- and I will continue to work on that. I agreed with what the district attorney said when he said there is a difference in being a safer community and a safe community. I agreed with what the sheriff said when he said that we'd never fully solve this problem until both the United States and our friends in Mexico are working together in a long-term and consistent way. But think about how far we have come in the last 3 1/2 years. Three and a half years ago, many people believed that these problems were totally intractable, that drugs would always flow freely, that illegal immigration would always be rampant, that criminal immigrants deported for crimes they committed here in America would return the very next day to commit crimes again. For a lot of years people in public life at election time talked tough about immigration, but did not do much about it. We tried to change that. We tried to substitute deeds for words. It is a pretty good practice in a lot of areas of life, and I think it is worked pretty well here. We will work with you to give you the tools you need to patrol your streets, protect your children, secure our common border. And you have to do what you can to help the police to bring the crime rate down and make your community safe. San Diego has the 5th lowest crime rate in the country of the 75 biggest urban areas. I actually believe when the numbers come out this year, you will be even lower than that. And it is a great tribute to the work that you have done together.


Let me say, again, while the job is far from over-and we have a lot of work to do-the report I got from the Justice Department makes clear that we have begun to turn border communities under siege into communities where law and order and safety and security are once again the order of the day. I want to say too, again, I am glad that we are working to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America, that we are putting community policing in every community in the country that is willing to receive it. But what really makes it work are law enforcement officers committed to it and citizens groups working on it. Today I had a very impressive briefing from people involved in the San Diego citizens patrol in the Safe Streets Now program. So I ask you, do not stop now. We need more citizens working with more police officers until crime is the exception, not the rule. When you are surprised when you hear about a crime, then you will know you have got a safe community. And you need to continue to do it. The second thing we are doing is to put criminals behind bars. And after they serve their time, if they do not belong here in the first place, they are being deported. The crime bill gave us the weapons we need to do things that had not been done before to deal with the problems of criminal activities by illegal immigrants. As of January of last year, we have arrested more than 1,700 criminal aliens and prosecuted them on Federal felony charges because they returned to America after having been deported in the first place. We are changing the policy of this country on that problem. We are also making strides in getting control of our border. We have added Border Patrol agents, in San Diego alone increasing by 762 the number of agents who are working for you by the end of this year. In El Paso, our border guards stand so close together, they can actually all see each other. Here in San Diego, control has been taken back of Imperial Beach from the criminals and the illegals. We deployed underground sensors, infrared night scopes, encrypted radios. We built miles of new fences, installed thousands of watts of new lighting. I heard what was said earlier about the threats facing San Diego residents in East County, particularly with the onset of the fire season. Today I have asked the Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, to send 20 more law enforcement officers to Cleveland National Forest, and they will be there by the close of business today.


Let me say one final word of appreciation here to the cooperation between the Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials. What they have done here today, over the last several months-I mean, it ought to be something that we all take for granted. It ought to be the rule in every jurisdiction in America. And I tell you, that is what we are trying to create for all the citizens of the United States, wherever they live. And I am very proud of what they have done. They have put aside politics and put the people of this community first, their safety first, their future first. That is why there has been an 84 percent increase in felony drug prosecutions in one year. That is why murders and robberies and car thefts have dropped so much, because they are all working together and working for you, instead of protecting their turf and playing politics. And I say, God bless them, we need more like them all over this country. Let me just say one other thing that affects Americans a long way from you, but I bet you have all identified with them in the past few months. Even as we crack down on illegal immigration and do more than has ever been done before on that, we must never forget that we are all a nation of immigrants and, except for the Native Americans, we all came from somewhere else. Our incredible diversity is a source of our rich potential as we move into this global society. Anybody who is willing to work hard, obey the law, respect their neighbors, and follow the values inherent in the Constitution ought to have a chance in America, and that ought to be the rule here. And because we are people and because we are imperfect, the country will always have problems. But we really fall into a dangerous trap when we start blaming our problems on other people just because they are different from us. I say that because even though I am a long way from there, my heart has been in my native South for the last several weeks as we have dealt with this incredible rash of church burnings. That is just another way of people finding a way-trying to blame somebody else or put down somebody else or put distance between them and someone else in a totally dehumanizing way, forgetting that everybody should be treated equally before the law, in the eyes of our fellow Americans, just as we are before God Almighty. Just 2 days ago, I reported to the American people about what we were doing to deal with the church bombings.


I greatly appreciate it. I love beautiful rooms, and this is one of them. I want to thank you, President. I am honored to be here in a city where, as it is been said many times before, the impossible has become the possible. And thanks to the 11 leaders in this room, I think that the expression will become the story of this incredible initiative. I want to congratulate you on the great job you have done. This region has special significance to me because, as you know, my wife, is from Slovenia. We spoke about it. And she loves Slovenia. Every one of your nations has an inspiring story. You have overcame years of oppression, and you all are united by the hope that your citizens will flourish, your commerce will prosper, and your countries will absolutely thrive. That is what is going to happen, because I know the people. This is the spirit of hope that brings us all together. We are here at this historic gathering to launch a new future for open, fair, and affordable energy markets that bring greater security and prosperity to all of our citizens. We are sitting on massive energy, and we are now exporters of energy. So one of you need energy, just give us a call. On behalf of the American people, let me say that we stand with the Three Seas nations. We support your drive for greater prosperity and security. We applaud your initiative to expand infrastructure. We welcome this historic opportunity to deepen our economic partnership with your region. It is been 28 years since your brave citizens lifted the Iron Curtain and defeated communism, yet much of the infrastructure within Central and Eastern Europe has remained a relic of the old Soviet era. Your people have been held back by the old roads, railways, and pipelines that still operate on restrictive systems. The Three Seas Initiative will transform and rebuild the entire region and ensure that your infrastructure, like your commitment to freedom and rule of law, binds you to all of Europe and, indeed, to the West. The United States also strongly supports the creation of the Three Seas Business Forum so that your countries can build cutting-edge projects with the best talent in the energy industry, and do so under budget and ahead of schedule. under budget and ahead of schedule. New energy infrastructure is essential to this rebuilding effort. We hope that the Three Seas nations will advance the same goals we are working on to achieve for our people in America. Our stock market just hit an alltime high.

Remarks at the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Warsaw, Poland


We have, I think, 16 years the in 16 years, it is the lowest unemployment rate. We are rebuilding it, adding billions and billions of dollars of new equipment, the best equipment in the world. We make the best equipment in the world by far. We are adding many billions of dollars of brandnew equipment. We have taken off restrictions, and people are really moving hard. So when I say that the stock market is at an alltime high, we have picked up in market value almost $4 trillion since November 8, which was the election. Four trillion dollars, it is a lot of money. Personally, I picked up nothing, but that is all right. Greater access to energy markets, fewer barriers to energy trade and development and strengthening energy security is what we are looking to do. The Three Seas Initiative has the potential to accomplish all of these essential objectives and very quickly because you have incredible people, and they will get it done quickly. I congratulate your nations for already beginning the critical projects that open us up to greater access, and you will be totally open and have access to energy markets and remove barriers to energy trade, such as floating LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk. Did you ever hear of that? You know all about that. I will bet you know all about it. These projects and many others are crucial to ensuring that your nations continue to diversify your energy sources, suppliers, and routes. I also applaud Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria for pursuing a pipeline from the Black Sea. We just approved a big pipeline also, the Keystone Pipeline. It was under consideration for many, many years, and it was dead, and I approved it in my first day of office. And it is now under construction. The United States is proud to see that our abundant energy resources are already helping the Three Seas nations achieve much-needed energy diversification. In fact, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Government and people of Poland for receiving their first shipment of U.S. liquefied natural gas last month. And you made a very good deal, I understand. The United States will never use energy to coerce your nations, and we cannot allow others to do so. You do not want to have a monopoly or a monopolistic situation. The United States is firmly committed to open, fair, and competitive markets for global energy trade.


America will be a faithful and dependable partner in the export and sale of our high-quality and low-cost energy resources and technology. We make the best technology, and we make the best, best technology for fighter jets and ships and equipment, military weapons. All over the world, they talk about the greatness of our military equipment. So when you buy and as you buy military equipment, hopefully, you will be thinking only of the United States. With the expanded trade and new infrastructure, we will unleash incredible energy innovation that is safe, responsible, and environmentally friendly. The United States supports a commonsense approach to protecting natural resources, one that responsibly balances economic growth, job creation, and energy security. We invite all countries to work with us to achieve this objective and to develop innovative technologies that empower nations around the world to be faithful stewards of their natural resources, while lifting millions out of poverty and into great and beautiful futures. The Three Seas Initiative will not only empower your people to prosper, but it will ensure that your nations remain sovereign, secure, and free from foreign coercion. When your nations are strong, all the free nations of Europe are stronger, and the West becomes stronger as well. Together, our Nation and yours can bring greater peace, prosperity, and safety to all of our people. This summit ushers in the next great energy frontier. This is largely about energy, because we are that great exporter. We have just become what is going on in our country is incredible, and I hope you take advantage of it by using these resources. I am thrilled to join you today, and I want everyone to know that the United States supports your bold efforts. These projects will improve countless lives across the region and throughout the world. America will be your strongest ally and steadfast partner in this truly historic initiative. And we stand ready, willing, and able to help with your energy needs and other needs as they come along.


I come before you tonight to report on the State of the Union for the third time. I come here to thank you and to add my tribute, once more, to the Nation's gratitude for this, the 89th Congress. This Congress has already reserved for itself an honored chapter in the history of America. Our Nation tonight is engaged in a brutal and bitter conflict in Vietnam. Later on I want to discuss that struggle in some detail with you. It just must be the center of our concerns. But we will not permit those who fire upon us in Vietnam to win a victory over the desires and the intentions of all the American people. This Nation is mighty enough, its society is healthy enough, its people are strong enough, to pursue our goals in the rest of the world while still building a Great Society here at home. And that is what I have come here to ask of you tonight. I recommend that you provide the resources to carry forward, with full vigor, the great health and education programs that you enacted into law last year. I recommend that we prosecute with vigor and determination our war on poverty. I recommend that you give a new and daring direction to our foreign aid program, designed to make a maximum attack on hunger and disease and ignorance in those countries that are determined to help themselves, and to help those nations that are trying to control population growth. I recommend that you make it possible to expand trade between the United States and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. I recommend to you a program to rebuild completely, on a scale never before attempted, entire central and slum areas of several of our cities in America. I recommend that you attack the wasteful and degrading poisoning of our rivers, and, as the cornerstone of this effort, clean completely entire large river basins. I recommend that you meet the growing menace of crime in the streets by building up law enforcement and by revitalizing the entire Federal system from prevention to probation. I recommend that you take additional steps to insure equal justice to all of our people by effectively enforcing nondiscrimination in Federal and State jury selection, by making it a serious Federal crime to obstruct public and private efforts to secure civil rights, and by outlawing discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. I recommend that you help me modernize and streamline the Federal Government by creating a new Cabinet level Department of Transportation and reorganizing several existing agencies.

Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union.


In turn, I will restructure our civil service in the top grades so that men and women can easily be assigned to jobs where they are most needed, and ability will be both required as well as rewarded. I will ask you to make it possible for Members of the House of Representatives to work more effectively in the service of the Nation through a constitutional amendment extending the term of a Congressman to 4 years, concurrent with that of the ENTITY. Because of Vietnam we cannot do all that we should, or all that we would like to do. We will ruthlessly attack waste and inefficiency. We will make sure that every dollar is spent with the thrift and with the commonsense which recognizes how hard the taxpayer worked in order to earn it. We will continue to meet the needs of our people by continuing to develop the Great Society. Last year alone the wealth that we produced increased $47 billion, and it will soar again this year to a total over $720 billion. Because our economic policies have produced rising revenues, if you approve every program that I recommend tonight, our total budget deficit will be one of the lowest in many years. Total spending in the administrative budget will be $112.8 billion. On a cash basis which is the way that you and I keep our family budget the Federal budget next year will actually show a surplus. That is to say, if we include all the money that your Government will take in and all the money that your Government will spend, your Government next year will collect one-half billion dollars more than it will spend in the year 1967. I have not come here tonight to ask for pleasant luxuries or for idle pleasures. I have come here to recommend that you, the representatives of the richest Nation on earth, you, the elected servants of a people who live in abundance unmatched on this globe, you bring the most urgent decencies of life to all of your fellow Americans. Who will they sacrifice? Are they going to sacrifice the children who seek the learning, or the sick who need medical care, or the families who dwell in squalor now brightened by the hope of home? Will they sacrifice opportunity for the distressed, the beauty of our land, the hope of our poor? Time may require further sacrifices. And if it does, then we will make them. But we will not heed those who wring it from the hopes of the unfortunate here in a land of plenty. I believe that we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.


The major obstacle to peace is the settlement activities. Would you request from Prime Minister Olmert a freeze on the settlements? I think the major obstacle to peace is going to be the politics of both Palestinians and Israelis trying to take advantage of the difficult work that these two leaders are going to have to do to define a state; that is what I think. I think that extremists, in some instances, will try to stop the peace. I believe there is a lot of forces at play in Israel that will try to stop these two men from defining what a state will look like. And my job is to help them stay on the big picture and have the confidence necessary to make tough decisions. But there is a mechanism to deal with that, and that is the roadmap commission, for the best word-is the trilateral commission, which we head, to deal with these roadmap issues. Now, we can solve those-we can work through those problems, but the key is to define a state. And the reason I believe it is because these two men, with whom I have spent a fair amount of time, are committed. The state will come into being subject to a roadmap. But the first step is to define what is possible; here is what a state will look like. And that is very important for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. Well, the key is for me to convince the two leaders to work through the hard issues. I will help them, but in order for there to be lasting peace, they have got to come to the table; they have got to negotiate it. And what ends up happening in this process is that the leaders will commit, and then they will get their committees to work, and it gets stuck. And that is when I will have to work with Condi Rice to unstick it, just to keep it moving. One thing is, is that they know that they have got a good partner in peace in me. They also know that I am not going to be in office a year from now, so there is a certain urgency to get this state defined. And my trip is going to be to just kind of keep momentum. One, it was a chance for the Palestinians and the Israelis to know that the United States is serious about helping them, and equally importantly, it gave the world a chance to come to the table. The rest of the Middle East was there, and that is an important movement.

George W. Bush Interview With Nadia Bilbassy Charters of Al Arabiya Television


It is going to be important for both Israel and the Palestinians to know that an agreement they reach will be supported by the Middle East. And so part of my-one of the goals of my trip is to remind our friends and allies in the Middle East that they have got to be supportive of the Middle East peace process as well. And I am going to want to know- and I am going to tell them, yes, I am, but we expect you to be constructive players too. Exactly, but, I mean, can you elaborate a little bit about this? I mean, what more can you do? But you see, to get it to this place-I mean, a visit is important, but I am on the phone a lot, and Condi is on the phone a lot. And there is a reason why the timing of this visit is what it is. I mean, there was an intifada when I first came into office. I mean, I supported it as the first American President ever to support it. The Israelis, under Ariel Sharon, came to the conclusion that this is in their interests. We are pushing a lot, let me put it to you that way. I repeat to you, though, that the notion that somehow America can impose its will on two parties, I do not think it works. And so you just got to-I hope that as a result of this interview and my trip, the people come away with the notion that George Bush understands now is the time to move. I mean, people know that you are close friend of Israel. What would you want to do to win hearts and minds of the Palestinians, to assure them that the United States is a fair broker in the peace process? You know, I have heard that. I have heard that, Well, George Bush is so pro-Israeli he does not -he cannot possibly care about the plight of the Palestinian person. I would hope that my record, one of liberation and-liberation, by the way, not only from dictatorship, but from the disease around the world, like ENTITY/ENTITY or malaria-is one that will say to people, he cares about the human condition, that he cares about each individual, that my religion teaches me to love your neighbor.


I have spoken clearly about my belief that-I believe-I pray to the same God as a Muslim prays-that the freedom agenda is really aimed at liberating people, and that the hope is, is that there will be an active, real Palestinian state so people can realize their dreams. But they are going to have to be-they are going to have to do some work. They are going to have to have security forces that protect the average person. They are going to have to have institutions that bring confidence for the Palestinians. They have to have the ability to attract investment. The Palestinians are great entrepreneurs, and if just given a chance, I am confident the business community will flourish. And most importantly, though, they are going to have to reject the extremists who murder innocent people. And by the way, we are engaged in a great ideological struggle. I mean, in retrospect, would you regret not being involved earlier in the peace process, 7 years ago? I think that you would find that I have been very much involved in the peace process when you look at the facts. And the reason we have been able to have this successful conference in Annapolis is because people's attitudes lined up in-kind of in the same direction. So this is the right time, you say? --for the couple of years of my administration. It took a while to convince people that the two-state solution was in the security interests of both parties. One was the intifada, which made it awfully hard to discuss peace at that time. It just-it created the conditions that made it more difficult to get people's minds in the right place to begin the process. And so now I think we have got the stars lined up, and I think we got a shot, and I am going for it. I know he is telling me-- Part of the visit, as well, is Iran and the Gulf States. What exactly do you want from the Gulf States regarding Iran? And would you ask for their cooperation in case of a military strike? First of all, I will assure the Gulf States that I believe we can solve this problem diplomatically. Secondly, will-they are going to want more from me than I am going to want from them. They are going to want to know what this NIE was all about.


And I am going to remind them that at my press conference when I explained the NIE, I clearly said, Iran was, is, and will be a danger if they are allowed to enrich, because they can take the knowledge on how to enrich and convert it to a covert program. If they have had one-a program once, they can easily start a program. And so I view the Iranian regime as a danger. I also believe that the Iranian people are not bad-they are good people-and that they can have a better way forward. Well, what are you going to do about it? It is one thing to define the problem, do you have a strategy? And if you say you can solve it diplomatically, what is your strategy? And I will explain the strategy of economic isolation, that-you know, it is sad; we really do not need to have to be in this position. If the Iranian Government would suspend their enrichment programs, like the international community has demanded, there is a better way forward for them. But they say that they need this program. And my answer is, is that if you need it, then why have not you been transparent and disclosed it and honest about it? And what were you doing with a military-secret military program in the first place? And so I view Iran as a danger; I truly do. And I do not view the people as a danger, I view the Government as a danger. But will it be harder for you to try to convince the Gulf States what-the American position after the intelligence report? The fact that I am having to explain it means it is harder after the report. But I believe I will be able to convince them. What they want to know is whether or not I think they are a danger. They want to know whether I think it is a danger and are we committed to helping people achieve security. And part of the trip is to tell people, yes, we have got-we are engaged to help you, if you want our help to enhance security. Now, look, nobody wants to be dictated to, and I am certainly not going to do that. I am there to reassure and to look people in the eye and say, I believe Iran is a threat, we have a strategy to deal with it, and we want to work with you. Did you ever discuss a military option with the Gulf States? Will I ever do that?


No, I have not , because I believe we can solve this diplomatically. On the other hand, as you have heard me say many times since you cover the White House, that all options must be on the table in order to make sure diplomacy is effective. Secretary Gates told Al Arabiya in an interview recently that the diplomatic option is still 100 percent in focus. Does that mean that you are going to still pressure Iran on the diplomatic front? We will continue to pressure them on the diplomatic front. And it is hard, because sometimes people are more interested in market share for their goods than they are for achieving peace. And so I have spent a lot of time with allies in Europe, for example, convincing them of the importance of working together to send a common message to the Iranian regime. So yes, the diplomatic option is on the table, and it is active, and we are working hard. On the Syria issue-I do not know if I am allowed to ask one-- All you got to do is ask; I will handle it. On the Syria issue, I mean, we already talked about-you actually told me that you-patience with Asad is running out. But we still have no Lebanese election. What does it mean? What can you do? Is it sanction against Syria? What can you do? Well, what we can do is make sure that the world understands our position and try to convince them that we ought to work together to say to the Syrians, let Sleiman go forward. That is the President that the people want there in Beirut, and he ought to go forward. And that is going to be on my agenda when I talk to friends and allies in the Middle East, that-and we can collectively send the message to President Asad. We have sanctioned Syria, and I am looking at different ways to keep sending a tough message because, so far, he has shown no willingness to be constructive on Lebanon or in dealing with a militant Hamas or in stopping suiciders from heading into Iraq- in other words, some reasonable things that we would like to see done in order to improve relations which he has not done. We are working very carefully-closely with the French, for example. I have had a conversation with President Sarkozy on the subject. I will be talking to my friend King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia on the subject, who has got a very keen interest in seeing to it that the Lebanese democracy goes forward.


And so we have got a very good chance to have a more focused, concerted, universal message that President Asad, I hope, will listen to. But some will say they might wait for another year until you leave office, and then-- Well, he could try that. But in the meantime, there will be others around who he will have irritated as a result of his stubbornness. And so yes, I mean, he could try to wait me out, but there is other leaders in the world that are as equally concerned as I am about Syria not letting the Presidency go forward and really hurting this very important democracy in the Middle East. Lebanon's survival as a democracy is, in my judgment, very important for the world. And Syria is-has been-when we passed the resolution out of the United Nations, it worked. And yet as opposed to honoring the notion of staying out of the-and to stop obstructing politics- Syria has just not been helpful at all. So will you impose sanction on Syria? We have already, and we are looking at different options, of course. Well, we are always looking for ways to make sure that we are effective. To show that you actually supporting Prime Minister Siniora, why not visiting Lebanon on this trip? You have to just-I have got only so much time. We have had plenty of high-ranking officials go to support Prime Minister Siniora. I think about Condi, and I think about Admiral Fallon, who I sent over there to help analyze what the Lebanese forces need. Listen, I was very impressed when Prime Minister Siniora made the decision to move Lebanese forces into the extremist stronghold and dealt with them. That is what you are supposed to do. And in order to have a safe and secure society, the state has got to show that it can provide security for the people and not tolerate pockets of extreme radicals who are murderous in their intentions, and he did. And right after that, I sent Admiral Fallon in to say, look, we need to help strengthen this man. He showed courage and leadership, and he needs to have a military that is able to function at the behest of a state to provide security. And so we are in the process of inventorying and analyzing and seeing how we can help from that perspective. But do you hope the election will go forward in Lebanon?


They keep delaying it, and I am convinced a lot of it has to do with the fact that Syria is not helpful. If you want to be isolated, if you want to be-or if you want-you have a choice: Do you want to be isolated, or a part of the world? You can make the choice. You can hang out with a limited number of friends, like Iran, or you can have better relations in the neighborhood and in the world. Step one is to get out of the way of these Presidential elections. They have got a good candidate. A lot of people agree that this is the person, and now Syria needs to get out of the way. Sir, on the Iraq issue, the security has improved. Does that mean you are going to withdraw troops by the end of the year? Our troops decisions will be made based upon the considered recommendations of our commanders. And success in Iraq is essential, and therefore, I will make the decisions along with those recommendations based upon success. There is still a lot of work to be done, however, and I am-you know what thrills me the most is that the average Iraqi's life is becoming more hopeful. Here is what I tell people. the chance for that child to grow up in peace and to realize dreams; a chance for the child to go outside and play and not fear harm. There is still too many suiciders, but the level of violence is declining. I did not see this, but I was told that the celebrations at New Year's Eve in Baghdad were festive. And life is coming back, and it is -that is exciting to me. And just to follow up on that, the generals were saying that Iran and Syria actually has been playing a role in stopping the suiciders of coming to Iraq. Would you credit them for that at least? I am not willing to credit the Iranians yet. I do not have enough evidence. One general said that, then he corrected his story. I think so long as we are finding sophisticated IEDs-that could only have been manufactured in Iran, that are killing innocent people inside Iraq-that is cause for concern. I am willing to have dialogues with the Iranians about Iraq in Iraq, but our message will be, if we catch you providing arms and trained-training people, then we will -we are going to hold them to account. You just got to understand that.


Let me dive right in and talk about this issue of tax inversion, this issue of American companies going overseas to reduce their U.S. tax bill or get rid of it. I take it you are not calling it illegal. What I am saying is that companies thrive in the United States in part because they benefit from the best university system in the world, the best infrastructure -- although I'd like to see us do a little better on infrastructure. You know, there are a whole range of benefits that have helped to build companies, create value, create profits. For you to continue to benefit from that entire architecture that helps you thrive, but move your technical address simply to avoid paying taxes, is neither fair nor is it something that is going to be good for the country over the long term. And this is basically taking advantage of tax provisions that are technically legal , but I think most people would say if you are doing business here, if you are basically still an American company, but you are simply changing your mailing address in order to avoid paying taxes, then you are really not doing right by the country and by the American people. Some people would respond that, you know what, these guys are hired to maximize profit. And they are doing basically what they were hired to do. And in fact, it is plenty American for them to try to make as much profit as they can, hire as many people as they can as a result. Well, keep in mind that what we are trying to do is to say that if you simply acquire a small company in Ireland or some other country to take advantage of the low tax rate, you start saying we are now magically an Irish company, despite the fact that you may only have a hundred employees there And you have got 10,000 employees in the United States. You are just gaming the system. You continue to benefit in all kinds a ways from being an American company. It is true that, you know, there are a lot of things that may be legal that probably are not the right thing to do by the country. People are paid to maximize profits. They are also paid to make sure that they are thinking about, in addition to shareholder value, how do you grow a company over the long term? And this kind of strategy, I think, undermines people's confidence in how companies are thinking about their responsibilities to the country as a whole. ENTITY, this is your sixth year in office here.

Interview with Steve Liesman of CNBC's Fast Money


Democrats seem to support corporate tax reform and Republicans seem to support it. Your critics suggest that you have not put the presidential muscle behind this issue, certainly the way you did health care or the way you did stimulus early on in your presidency. Well, we reached out repeatedly to both Democrats and Republicans. If we lower corporate tax rates and close loopholes, there is going to be more certainty in terms of what corporations pay. They will benefit from a lower but more certain tax rate. It also allows us then to close some of the loopholes that permit companies to artificially shift profits overseas so they are avoiding tax compliance. It would allow us potentially to have companies who have profits overseas to start bringing some of those profits back and reinvesting in the United States. So there is a whole bunch of good reasons why we should do it. I will be honest with you ENTITY. And they have trouble getting stuff done right now even when they say they want to do something. And I have said to the speaker, I have said to Majority Leader Reid, that we are prepared and we have put forward very specific proposals in terms of how we can get this done. Invariably, it takes some time to work through a big tax reform piece of legislation. When Ronald Reagan last did it back in '86, '87, it was about a year-and-a-half-long process. And I think that the people should expect that this administration will be foursquare behind it as long as the goal of tax reform is to simplify the system, make it fair, as opposed to simply slashing corporate rates while maintaining a bunch of loopholes that are not productive and are not creating jobs and value here in America. Well, let us move from talking about the guys in the C suites to average Americans here. What will you tell average American viewer about the outlook for the economy? Your former economic advisor, Larry Summers says we may be in for a period here in America of lower growth for a protracted period of time. Do you believe in that forecast? And are you concerned that that means we are not going to be able to meet the entitlement promises that we have made without cutting those entitlements and/or raising taxes? You know, I am always bullish about America over the long term. And if you think about where we were, ENTITY, when I came into office and where we are now, it is pretty hard to find an economic measure where we are not significantly better off.


I do not have to tell you about the stock market and where that is gone; corporate profits, record highs; but also unemployment now lower than it was pre-Lehman. We remain the most dynamic, innovative economy in the world. We have this huge comparative advantage when it comes to energy. We are now producing more oil than we import, first time in a couple of decades, even as we are massively increasing clean energy. And when it comes to deficits, we have cut them by more than half. And when it comes to health care, we are slowing the growth of health care inflation to the lowest levels in 50 years. So there are a lot of things there that I will - that give me confidence we are poised to take off. But there are some things that are holding us back. The main thing that is holding us back is inaction by our federal government on things like infrastructure, on raising the minimum wage, on doing some things that would help middle-class families feel a little bit of relief. If we do those things, then we are going to be in pretty good shape. It is true, coming out of a financial crisis - historically, when you look at worldwide trends, it is hard when you have a big financial crisis that precipitates a recession. The good news is, because of the resilience of the American people, but also in part because of some good policies and quick action on our part, we have recovered faster and stronger than most counterparts around the world. I can confirm most of your data as the economics reporter for CNBC. And I think you have heard me on the stump talk about this is the source of anxiety for the American people. Now these are 20-, 30-year trends that we have been seeing, a larger and larger portion of increased productivity and increased profits accruing to the very top of the economic pyramid, and the vast majority of middle class folks and folks who are trying to work in the middle class, not seeing higher incomes, higher wages. There are policies we can put in place that can help that. Some of it has to do with globalization. Some of it has to do with technology. Some of it has to do with what some have called a shift to a more winner-take-all economy, because capital's mobile and workers are not and they have less leverage. But we know that if we raise the minimum wage, that is 28 million people who get helped.


We know that if we invest in the $2 trillion of deferred maintenance that we have on infrastructure, that you have got a whole bunch of guys and gals in hard hats who can start going to work. That gives them additional income. That in turn means more customers for businesses. Historically, when the middle class is doing well and people are rising in the middle class, lo and behold, business does well also. You talked about the stock market earlier. It is now at near-record levels almost every day. Are you concerned there is a bubble out there like we had in '01 and '08? Well, you know, I try to avoid commenting on the day-to-day trends in the stock market. I think what is true is that the Federal Reserve has properly focused on the need for us to bring unemployment down. The cost of unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, as well as unemployment for young people just getting started in their careers, that is something that has devastating effects on the economy for generations, or for decades to come. So I think Janet Yellen has said this is a focus of ours right now. What that does mean is when you have got low interest rates that there is a lot of money looking for returns. And that is probably boosted the stock market significantly. My estimation is that, you know, you have got a lot of savvy investors out there. You have got people who recognize that what goes up can come down as well. I will leave it up to them to make determinations about whether valuations and stock prices are too high. I am more concerned about the day-to-day fundamentals. And if we get those fundamentals right, then I am pretty confident that we can do very well in the next decade. You have said a bunch of times that getting the wealthy to pay a little bit more. And you have succeeded in raising that top tax rate to 39 percent, or rolling back the tax cuts. Is there a limit to how much you believe the government should take from an individual in terms of a top tax rate? You know, I do not have a particular number in mind, but if you look at our history, we are still well below what, you know, the marginal tax rates were under Dwight Eisenhower or, you know, all the way up even through Ronald Reagan. Tax rates are still lower on average for most folks.


And what that means is that we probably can make some more headway in closing loopholes that folks take advantage of, as opposed to necessarily raising marginal rates. I have talked about this before. You know, I have got friends of mine who are hedge-fund managers, and they do not always like to hear it, but some, I think, will readily acknowledge if you are making a billion dollars a year and you are paying 15 percent on that billion dollars when your secretary's paying 20 percent, 23 percent, you know, that is not fair. And if we close some of those loopholes, not just carried interest but a range that we know are not economically productive, then sure, some folks do not get to take advantage of stuff they should've been taking advantage of anyway. But that also means we can finance government, keep our deficits under control, and invest in the things that we need to grow over the long term. There is no doubt that the economies of Russia and Europe have intertwined, primarily around the energy sector. And it makes some Europeans more concerned about a robust response to the violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity that Russia's been conducting when it comes to Ukraine. The good news is that, despite some of those commercial concerns, we have seen Europe move with us - not always as fast as we'd like, but they get there. And sadly, tragically, the shooting down of this Malaysian Airlines airliner and the recognition that it is likely it was shot down and it is also likely that it was conducted by non-state actors that were provided incredibly powerful weapons by the Russian government - all that, I think, may stiffen the spine of my European partners moving forward. I want to ask you about Israel. What do you make of these - the FAA banning these flights and then lifting it? Do you think it is safe for Americans to fly to Israel? You know, we have not made decisions when it comes to airline safety based on not just politics, but even our strong alliance with Israel. We have to just look at the facts. The initial ban that was imposed by the FAA was based on Israel needing to show us that, in fact, it was safe for commercial airlines to fly in. They worked through a checklist of concerns and mitigation measures that needed to be taken. Having completed those, and convinced the FAA, we moved forward.


We are here at the White House today for a very unique event, an exclusive interview with ENTITY, in which the questions come from American people who have submitted me and chosen them online. My name is ENTITY, and I am ENTITY of news and politics at YouTube. We had a chance to do this before I was elected and had a great time, so I am glad we can do it again. Well, let us tell people a little bit about how this works. Five days ago, as you were delivering your State of the Union address, we opened up our Moderator platform on YouTube, where thousands of people have been submitting and voting on both video and text questions. Some of them, as you will see, were hard-hitting. But all of the questions you will see here today were voted into the top tier of the thousands of questions we received. And none of them have been chosen by the White House or seen by ENTITY. This should be a lot of fun. ENTITY, let us let Lehman Marcus in Silver Spring, Maryland, kick us off. He submitted this video to remind us of where things were a year ago. Marcus writes, ENTITY, I know there have been political setbacks to getting health-care reform done, but the 40 million people who have no insurance cannot wait. Will they be able to get insurance this year? We now have a bill that is come out from the House, come out from the Senate. And if you look at the core components of that legislation, what you have is 30 million people who get coverage, insurance reform so that people who have health insurance are going to be able to be protected from not being able to get it because of preexisting conditions, or suddenly losing their health care because, you know, the insurance company has some fine print that they did not read. It makes sure that we actually start bending the cost curve, controlling the rising premiums by instituting better practices in terms of how we reimburse doctors and how we ask hospitals to work together. We have already invested in electronic IT, electronic medical records, things that can help make the system more efficient. So we have this enormous opportunity. But the way the rules work in the United States Senate, you have got to have 60 votes for everything. After the special election in Massachusetts, we now only have 59.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


We are calling on our Republican colleagues to get behind a serious health-reform bill, one that actually provides not only the insurance reforms for people who do have health insurance, but also the coverage for folks who do not . My hope is -- is that they accept that invitation and that they work with us together over the next several weeks to get it done. Yeah. And the number-one question we got in health care came from Mr. Anderson in Texas, who asked, why are the health-care meetings and procedures not on C- SPAN, as promised? And then one of the top questions in the government reform category was Warren Hunter in Brooklyn, who said, how do you expect people in this country to trust you when you have repeatedly broken promises that were made on the campaign trail, most recently the promise to have a transparent health-care debate? Well, I -- I guess -- first of all, I would say that we have been certified by independent groups as the most transparent White House in history. We are the first White House since the founding of the republic to list every visitor that comes into the White House online so that you can look it up. People know more about the inner workings of this White House, the meetings we have. We have excluded lobbyists from boards and commissions. But we also report on any lobbyist who meets with anybody who is part of our -- part of our administration. So we have actually followed through on a lot of the commitments that we have made. And so Warren's mistaken in terms of how he characterized it. What is fair to say is that as the health-care process went forward, not every single aspect of it was on C-SPAN. Now, keep in mind, most of the action was in Congress. So every committee hearing that was taking place, both in the House and the Senate, those were all widely televised. The only ones that were not were meetings that I had with some of the legislative leadership, trying to get a sense from them in terms of what it was that they were trying to do. I have acknowledged that. And that is why as we move forward, making sure that in this last leg, these last five yards before we get to the goal line, that everybody understands exactly what is going on in the health care bill -- that there are no surprises, no secrets -- that is going to be an imperative. It is going to be one of my highest priorities.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


You know, the central focus of your State of the Union was obviously jobs. And a lot of people wrote in asking for some clarity around some of your plans for small businesses. I want to play you two video questions in a row. One year ago today, my wife and I were both let go from our jobs in corporate American within 48 hours of each other. We have since started a small business. And we employ a couple of people around us. What is being done to free up funding and encourage the growth of all the small businesses that have such a tremendous impact on our economy? how exactly are you planning on helping small businesses grow and prosper, besides simply providing tax breaks? Well, let me start with some specific issues that confront every small business all across the country. And it is absolutely true that if we can get small businesses back on their feet, then that is going to go a long way towards bringing the unemployment rate down, because that is the fastest generator of jobs across the country. Number one, small businesses really are still struggling with financing. You hear stories everywhere you go that even profitable, successful businesses are having trouble getting financing, because banks frankly just do not want to take the risk. After having taken way too many risk before, now they are taking no risk. And small businesses are punished for that. So we have expanded the SBA loan, the Small Business Administration loan, portfolio by about 70 percent. We have been waiving guarantees and fees, trying to streamline the process, just to get more capital into the hands of small businesses. It is important to see if we can give more incentives to small business. So, for example, we are just eliminating capital gains for small businesses, which is particularly important if you have got a start-up. Ten years from now, you may end up being successful with your small business, but suddenly you have got to pay taxes on it. If you can take that money and, instead of paying Uncle Sam, reinvest it in your business, you can grow it further. So we think that that is the kind of strategy that makes a lot of sense. We want to also make sure that we are providing tax credits for hiring of small businesses -- small businesses that are hiring new employees. And so we have got a whole range of proposals there. Now, in addition to the tax credits, in addition to the financing, one of the other things that, frankly, small businesses need is just a economic environment that is growing.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


And one of the things we are very proud of is the fact that we had a 6-percent contraction of the economy at the beginning of last year; this past quarter we had a 6-percent increase in the growth of the economy. That 12-percent swing offers greater opportunities for small businesses to prosper and thrive. One of the biggest burdens on small businesses is health-care costs. And probably nobody benefits more from our health-care proposals than small businesses, because what we are doing is we are saying that not only will you get tax credits to buy health insurance, but we are also going to let you pool, buy in to a big exchange so that you have the same purchasing power as a big company like -- Ford or, you know, Google is able to negotiate with insurance companies and get a good deal. Well, now small businesses, by pooling together in this exchange, are going to have that same leverage. That will help lower their costs. And for a lot of small businesses, it is not just a matter of giving health insurance to your employees; it is also just being able to buy health insurance for yourself. That will cut down on small businesses' costs and they will be able to, again, invest more in their business. You know, a lot of Americans saw what happened on Wall Street this past year, and they wrote in saying, you know, When are we going to get OUR bailout? Here is ENTITY from Florida, who submitted the number-one video question in the financial reform category. ENTITY, my name is ENTITY , from South Florida. I have a question about your -- program and why the banks are reluctant to modify loans of homeowners who can afford to stay in their homes. Now that taxpayers bailed them out, they refuse to help us out. And I would like to know what say you, ENTITY. Well, look, this is something that we have been dealing with since the beginning of this financial crisis. We set up a program for loan modification that so far about 4 million people have taken advantage of across the country. You have got about 800,000 people who have gotten loan modifications that are saving them an average of $550. The problem is -- is the number of people whose mortgages are underwater, here they actually have a home value that is now less than their mortgage, is a lot bigger than that. And you know, you saw declining values all across the country.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


So the amount of money that we have been able to get into this program has not met the entire need. We are now pushing the banks as hard as we can to make sure that not only do they do the most with the resources that we have been giving them, but that they also do a much better job of customer service with people who are coming to them. I get letters all the time of people who've gone through all kinds of hoops, filled out forms; the bank does not call them back, or after they have gone through a trial period, the bank says, Well, you know, we now think we should not give you a home modification. What we are trying to do is to increase transparency and force all the banks to tell us exactly what are you doing with your customers who want to stay in their homes, can afford to pay a mortgage but need something a little bit more limited. And I am -- I am hopeful that we are going to continue to see more and more people take advantage of it. Given the magnitude of the housing problem out there, that there are still going to be pockets of areas where the housing values have dropped so much that it is still going to be tough for a lot of people, and we are just going to have to work our way through this as the economy improves. ENTITY, let us lighten things up for a minute. We got a lot of people just submitting their ideas to you -- ideas for how to make the country better. They want to hear what you thought about them. Let us play sort of a faster round of a thing we will call Good Idea, Bad Idea. I will show you an idea. You say whether you think it is good or bad, and maybe just a few sentences about why you think that. First one comes from Aloha Tony in your home state of Hawaii. He says, ENTITY, our deficit is higher than ever, at $12 trillion. Will you consider allowing the private sector to buy and take over the most troubled government-run agencies, such as the U.S. Postal Service? There are examples where privatization makes sense, where people can do things much more efficiently. But oftentimes what you see is, companies want to buy those parts of a government-run operation that are profitable, and they do not want to do anything else.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


Everybody would love to have that high-end part of the business that FedEx and UPS are already in; business-to-business you make a lot of money. But do they want to deliver that postcard to a remote area somewhere in rural America that is a money-loser? Well, the U.S. Post Office provides universal service. Those companies would not want to provide universal service. My car-insurance company will allow me to take driver's ed classes to reduce my monthly premiums. Can we do the same thing for health insurance -- take classes in cooking, nutrition, stress management, communication, parenting, stopping smoking, maybe even exercise classes, and get a reduction on our monthly premiums? Well, I -- I think that the idea is a good one, and that is that if people are being healthy, that they should be able to get some incentives for that. And a lot of companies are starting to do that. We probably do not want the insurance companies, though, making those decisions, because insurance companies have every incentive to take the youngest, healthiest people and insure them, since they are less likely to have to pay out, and then leave older, sicker individuals out of their insurance pools. So it is important in any health-care program to make sure that the young and the healthy and the older and -- and the sicker are in a single pool. But what we should encourage are individual companies who provide incentives for wellness programs, smoking-cessation programs -- you know, that they are going to get a workout once in a while. Those things are something that we should encourage. And, you know, the first lady, Michelle ENTITY, she is really focusing right now on childhood wellness, healthy eating, getting exercise. That is a campaign that she is going to be pushing all year long. Let us get one more idea in here. This next one comes from Jay Leavers in Dover, Delaware, who writes, do you think it'd be worth looking at placing solar panels in all federal, state and school buildings as a way to cut energy costs and put that budget money to better use? And we want to do everything we can to encourage clean energy, and I have instructed the Department of Energy to make sure that our federal operations are employing the best possible clean-energy technology, alternative-energy technology.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


And what we are seeing is more and more companies realize this is a win-win for them; not only is what they are doing environmentally sound, but it also, over the long term, saves money for them. Well, let us move back to the questions. And I have got to tell you, the number-one question that came in, in the jobs and economy category, had to do with the Internet. And it came from James -- Indianapolis. He said, an open Internet is a powerful engine for economic growth and new jobs. Letting large companies block and filter online content and services would stifle needed growth. What is your commitment to keeping Internet open and neutral in America? Well, I am a big believer in net neutrality. I campaigned on this. I continue to be a strong supporter of it. My FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, has indicated that he shares the view that we have got to keep the Internet open, that we do not want to create a bunch of gateways that prevent somebody who does not have a lot of money but has a good idea from being able to start their next YouTube or their next Google on the Internet. We are getting pushback, obviously, from some of the bigger carriers who would like to be able to charge more fees and extract more money from wealthier customers, but we think that runs counter to the whole spirit of openness that has made the Internet such a powerful engine for not only economic growth, but also for the generation of ideas and creativity. Well, you know, to get good jobs, I think many Americans realize they need a higher education. Here is a video question from Saginaw, Michigan. Dear ENTITY, as ENTITY who has 14 credits and three part-time jobs, just was wondering, what are your plans for -- plans to lower college tuition costs? You know, I know we are in a struggling economy right now, but any little bit that you can help would be appreciated. Well, ENTITY is right that, you know, college tuition costs are just crushing on a lot of folks. And this is something I remember from my own experience, because Michelle and I, we had college loans we kept on paying off for a decade after we had graduated from law school. We have already done a huge amount to increase Pell grants, to help increase the accessibility of college loans and grants at the college level, but we want to do more.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


And so we have put forward an initiative that is being debated in Congress and we hope to get passed this year, where if you have student loans, that you will not have to pay more than 10 percent of your income on those loans; that after 20 years, they will be forgiven; and if you have gone into public service, they will be forgiven after 10 years. That would provide a huge amount of relief for people. We still need to expand more the Pell grant program, make it both accessible to more people and raise the amount of tuition. In order to pay for this -- the best part of this is we can actually figure out how to pay for it, because right now you have got a lot of banks and financial-service companies who are still middlemen in the federally guaranteed loan programs. And if we can cut those middlemen out, then you have got several billion dollars that you can invest in the programs that I just described. This is something that I have made a top priority. I want us to once again have the highest college-graduation rates of any country in the world by 2020. Colleges and universities also, though, have to figure out how can they cut their costs. Because even if we are putting more and more loans in -- more and more money for loans, if the inflation in higher education keeps on skyrocketing, over time it is still going to gobble up all that extra money, and we will be right back where we started. So we have got to show more restraint at the college and university level in terms of ever- escalating costs. Well, let us back up a bit just from the specifics of education policy, and ask a more fundamental question, which comes from ENTITY in Ohio. As a math teacher, I want to know what you think it means to be an educated person. We know that if you have got a college education, you are going to make multiples of what you would make as a high school graduate, much less a high school dropout, over the course of lifetime. But its absolutely true that a high-quality education is not just a matter of being a good worker, it is also a matter of being a good citizen, it is also a matter of being able to think critically, evaluate the world around you, make sure that you can process all the information that is coming at us in a way that helps you make decisions about your own life, but also helps you participate in the life of the country.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


And, you know, I am a big believer that the most important thing that a kid can learn in school is how to learn and how to think. If, you know, Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, are asking questions, know how to poke holes in an argument, know how to make an argument themselves, know how to evaluate a complicated bunch of data, then I figure that they are going to be okay regardless of the career path that they are in. And I think that that requires more than just rote learning, although, you know, it certainly requires good habits and discipline in school. It also requires that in the classroom, they are getting the kind of creative teaching that is so important. And that is why our administration's initiated something called Race to the Top, where my secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has helped to design a competition among states so that they can foster the kinds of excellence in learning everywhere, not just in some schools, not just in some states, but in every school in every state. If states want money, we are going to reward excellence. And if -- and we will show them, you know, what has been proven to work in terms of encouraging the kind of critical thinking that all of our children need. ENTITY, the number-two category after jobs and the economy that people submitted to you was national security and foreign policy. And the number-one question came from a concerned conservative in Georgia, who asked about your plans for the war on terror. And then Sean from Pennsylvania followed it up with, Dear ENTITY, if we remove our troops from the war on terror, how will you continue to combat the threat of terrorism? al Qaeda and its extremist allies that have metastasized around the globe; that would attack us, attack our allies, attack bases and embassies around the world and most -- most sadly attack innocent people regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their religions. You know, al Qaeda is probably the biggest killer of innocent Muslims of any entity out there. Now, they employ terrorist tactics. And we have to fight them on all fronts. We have to fight them in very concrete ways in Afghanistan and along the border regions of Pakistan, where they are still holed up. They have spread to places like Yemen and Somalia. And we are working internationally with partners, to try limit their scope of operations and dismantle them in those regions. But we also have to battle them with ideas.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


We have to help work with the overwhelming majority of Muslims, who reject senseless violence of this sort, and to work to provide different pathways and different alternatives for people expressing whatever policy differences that they may have. And I think we have not done as good of a job on that front. We have to project economically, working in countries like a Yemen that is extraordinarily poor, to make sure that young people there have opportunity. The same is true in a place like Pakistan. So we want to use all of our national power to deal with the problem of these extremist organizations. But part of that does involve applications of military power. And that is why although it is the hardest decision that a commander in chief can make, to send our troops into battle, I thought it was very important to make sure that we had an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, to help train Afghan forces, so that they can start providing more effective security for their own country, in dealing with the Taliban, and ultimately allow us to remove our troops but still have a secure partner there that is not going to be able to use that region as a platform to attack the United States. Well, another central issue in the war on terror now is Guantanamo. And a lot of users wrote in about this. I think that question's actually about Sudan, which you did not actually address in your State of the Union, but it was actually the number-one-voted question, and it is a video from the Enough Project here in D.C. ENTITY, more than 3 million Darfuris fear returning home because of instability. Many fear that Sudan may be on the brink of war. What will you do to galvanize the international community to ensure that widespread violence does not occur in Sudan this year? Well, the situation -- Sudan has been heartbreaking, but also extremely difficult, and something that we started working on the day that I came into office. Our first task was, at that time, making sure that people who were in refugee camps in Darfur had access to basic water, food, other necessities of life. And this was after the Sudanese government in Khartoum had kicked out a whole bunch of nongovernmental organizations that were providing assistance there. We were able to get that assistance back in to help at least initially stabilize the situation. The next step in the challenge is to broker a lasting peace agreement between rebels who are still in the Darfur region and this -- this government.

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube


And I have got a special envoy who has been very active in trying to bring together the international community to get that deal brokered. Part of what makes it complicated is, you also have a conflict historically between northern Sudan and southern Sudan. They finally reached a agreement after a lot of work, but the Sudanese now -- the southern Sudanese now have an option where they may be seeking to secede from all of Sudan. That is another potential conflict that could create additional millions of refugees. And so what we are doing is trying to work with not only the regional powers, but the United Nations and other countries that have shown a great interest in this to see if we can broker a series of agreements that would stabilize the country, and then allow the refugees who are in Darfur to start moving back to their historic lands. Sadly, because of the genocide that took place earlier, a lot of those villages are now destroyed. And so thinking about how to resettle these populations in places that are viable economically, that have the resources to support populations, is a long-term development challenge that the international community is going to have to support. We continue to put pressure on the Sudanese government. If they are not cooperative in these efforts, then it is going to be appropriate for us to conclude that engagement does not work. And you know, we are going to have to apply additional pressure on Sudan in order to -- in order to achieve our objectives. But my hope is, is that we can broker agreements with all the parties involved to deal with what has been an enormous human tragedy in that region. Another question we missed from the deck, but it was about Guantanamo. And essentially, a user's saying, why is it taking so long to close down Guantanamo? Number one, you have got a whole bunch of individuals in Guantanamo, some of whom are very dangerous, some of whom were low- level fighters, some of whom the courts have determined should never have been put there in the first place. We have had to evaluate each of those cases -- hundreds of cases -- one by one to determine what these various categories are, and do it in a way that stands up to our standards of due process and legal scrutiny. Then we have got to figure out, if we are closing Guantanamo, where are we going to put them?

Interview With Steve Grove on YouTube