Scott Horsley.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Last week members of your administration were boasting that your willingness to walk away from the Korean negotiations¹ led to a better deal.  Can you explain how this is --

THE PRESIDENT:  The difference is that if I didn’t get the Korea deal done on January 1st the taxes of middle-class America wouldn’t go up.  It’s pretty straightforward².  If we didn’t get the Korea deal done by January 1st, 2 million people weren’t suddenly looking at having no way to support their families.

And that’s why -- this goes to Chuck’s question as well about what’s going to be different in the future. You’ve got a situation here that was urgent for millions of people.  But as I recall, with the Korea free trade agreement, that was deemed by conventional wisdom as an example of us not getting something done.  I remember a story above the fold on that.  Then when we got it done with a better deal that has the endorsement³（认可，支持） of not only the U.S. auto⁴ companies but also of labor⁵, the story was sort of below the fold.  So I would just point that out.  I think -- I am happy to be tested over the next several months about our ability to negotiate with Republicans.

Q    Having bought that time now, do you hope to use this two-year window to push for a broader overhaul⁶（彻底检查） of the tax code?

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.  And the answer is yes.  Part of what I want to do is to essentially⁷ get the American people in a safe place so that we can then get the economy in a stable place.  And then we’re going to have to have a broad-based discussion across the country about our priorities.  And I started doing that yesterday down in North Carolina.

Here’s going to be the long-term issue.  We’ve had two years of emergency -- emergency economic action on the banking⁸ industry, the auto industry, on unemployment insurance, on a whole range of issues -- on state budgets.  The situation has now stabilized⁹, although for those folks who are out of work, it’s still an emergency.  So we’ve still got to focus short term on job growth.

But we’ve got to have a larger debate about how is this -- how is this country going to win the economic competition of the 21st century?  How are we going to make sure that we’ve got the best-trained workers in the world?  There was just a study that came out today showing how we’ve slipped even further when it comes to math education and science education.

So what are we doing to revamp our schools to make sure our kids can compete?  What are we doing in terms of research and development to make sure that innovation is still taking place here in the United States of America?  What are we doing about our infrastructure¹⁰ so that we have the best airports and the best roads and the best bridges?  And how are we going to pay for all that at a time when we’ve got both short-term deficit¹¹ problems, medium-term deficit problems, and long-term deficit problems?

Now, that’s going to be a big debate.  And it’s going to involve us sorting out what government functions are adding to our competitiveness and increasing opportunity and making sure that we’re growing the economy, and which aspects of the government aren’t helping¹².

And then we’ve got to figure out how do we pay for that.  And that’s going to mean looking at the tax code and saying, what’s fair, what’s efficient.  And I don’t think anybody thinks the tax code right now is fair or efficient.  But we’ve got to make sure that we don’t just paper over those problems by borrowing from China or Saudi Arabia.  And so that’s going to be a major conversation.

And in that context, I don’t see how the Republicans win that argument.  I don’t know how they’re going to be able to argue that extending permanently¹³ these high-end tax cuts is going to be good for our economy when, to offset¹⁴（抵消，弥补） them, we’d end up having to cut vital services for our kids, for our veterans, for our seniors.

But I’m happy to listen to their arguments.  And I think the American people will benefit from that debate.  And that’s going to be starting next year.