Text of Bush's Pre-Vacation Conference
By AP STAFF
Associated Press
August 10, 2007
(AP) -- Q: In your previous conversations with Prime Minister Maliki, have you been confident that he shares your view on Iraq (sic)?
BUSH: On Iran?
Yes. He knows that weaponry being smuggled in to Iraq from Iran and placed into the hands of extremists -- over which the government has no control, all aimed at killing innocent life -- is a destabilizing factor.
BUSH: He absolutely understands that. I don't know if you saw, yesterday, there was -- we talked to General, General Petraeus, or I talked to General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker yesterday.
I noticed, in the papers today, there was a description of a military operation that took place in Sadr City. The military operation in Sadr City was going after extremist elements, Shia extremist elements. And it was a very robust operation.
The -- obviously -- well, I shouldn't say obviously. It was done with the full understanding of the Maliki government. I don't know whether this extremist element had been fueled by Iran, but I do know that Maliki is committed against extremist elements who are trying to, you know, create enough chaos and confusion that this young government and young democracy is not able to progress.
So the first thing I looked for was commitment against the extremists. Second thing is: Does he understand with some extremist groups there's connections with Iran? And he does. And I'm confident.
Now, is he trying to get Iran to play a more constructive role? I presume he is. That doesn't -- that's -- what my question is -- what my message to him is, is that: When we catch you playing a nonconstructive role, there will be a price to pay.
Q: Mr. President, are you considering a plan to cut corporate taxes? Do you believe America's corporations are not making enough money these days?
BUSH: Actually we had an interesting discussion on this subject. And if you read carefully the penetrating report by the financial reporter -- like, semi-financial reporter -- you'll find that it was -- I was talking about an idea that has begun to surface as a result of meetings being held at the Treasury Department.
And the whole reason to look at corporate rates is to determine whether or not they make us less competitive in a global economy. If so, in other words, if the conclusion is is that our tax structure makes it harder for businesses to compete, therefore making it harder for people to find work over time, then we need to address the competitive imbalance in our tax code.
I also made it clear that we're at the very early stages of discussion and that, in my own judgment, anything that would be submitted to Congress, if submitted to all, would have to be revenue neutral.
And, therefore, what we'd really be talking about is a simplification of a very complex tax code that might be able to lower rates and, at the same time, simplify the code -- which is like shorthand for certain deductions would be taken away -- in other words, certain tax preferences in the code.
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