For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 31, 2001
Radio Address by the President to the Nation
Listen to the President's
Remarks
THE PRESIDENT: Good
morning. This week, the House of Representatives approved my
budget plan and next week the Senate will vote on it, as well.
My budget is shaped by a simple
commitment: we can address our country's needs and still be
responsible with taxpayers' money. And we can fund our
priorities without expanding government beyond the bounds of
responsibility.
Today, I want to give you a little more detail
about some of my top priorities: the education and health
and character of American children. My budget spends additional money
on these goals, and spends it in effective, creative
ways. We place a new national emphasis on teaching reading,
with a Reading First program to help all children learn to read by the
3rd grade.
Reading First will more than triple the
existing funding for federal reading programs, funding for early
intervention and teacher training. Another program called Early
Reading First will put the best reading methods to use in pre-school
and Head Start programs. Again, Early Reading First will
triple the existing funding for federal early reading programs.
My budget increases the funding for Head
Start, while giving it a clear mission: to prepare our
nation's most disadvantaged children to learn as soon as they enter
school.
My budget cares for children's health, as well
as for their minds. In 2002, we'll spend well over $25
billion on health coverage for children under Medicaid and related
programs. We invest more than a billion dollars, up 12
percent from 2001, in research into childhood diseases at the National
Institutes for Health. We fund 1,200 new community health
centers over the next five years, to bring better care to poor
children. Thirty percent of the health care center patients are under
12 years old.
We add $94 million to the Women, Infants and
Children nutrition program. In 2002, that program will aid
more than 7 million people. The Centers for Disease Control
will get a $22 million increase for their childhood immunization
program. My budget plan increases federal spending on child
care by $350 million, to reach a half million additional children.
We provide $200 million extra to provide
services for children, services that prevent child abuse and keep
families together. And we offer $60 million to help children
raised in the foster care system with the cost of college or vocational
training.
The values of our children must be a priority
of our nation. So my budget invests in abstinence education and drug
treatment. We create a new $67 million program that will
make grants to faith-based and community organizations who mentor the
children of parents in prison.
This is a long list, but I wanted to make a
point: my budget is active and
compassionate. Discretionary spending grows by a healthy,
responsible 4 percent, enough to meet our needs. We fund
goals like education, health and defense. We reduce debt at
a record rate. We set aside a fund for future
emergencies. We then have enough money to provide broad tax
relief, including relief from the marriage penalty and a doubling of
the child tax credit.
Those of us in Washington must always
understand the surplus is not the government's money. The
surplus is the people's money.
My budget has the right
balance. And I hope you'll encourage your representatives in
Congress to support my budget. And I thank you for
listening.
END
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