For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
June 25, 2004
VP Discusses the Economy in Michigan
Remarks by the Vice President at Duro-Last Roofing and Plastatech
Saginaw, Michigan
12:27 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. I'm trying to figure out 9-8-9 for
Bush-Cheney. Okay, we'll take it. (Laughter.) I thought, 9-8-9, what
could that possibly be? But delighted to be here this morning and have
an opportunity to spend some time with all of you. And I want to thank
you, Tom, for that kind introduction, and thank Tom, along with Kathy
Allen and Sharon Sny for leading the tour of this outstanding facility
this morning. And I also want to thank all the workers at Duro-Last
and Plastatech for your hospitality today, we really appreciate your
letting us come by to spend a little bit of time with you.
I started my day at the White House this morning, and it's my
pleasure to bring greetings to all of you from our President, George
W. Bush. (Applause.)
My wife, Lynne, is traveling with me this morning. (Applause.) And
we will soon celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. (Applause.) And
our fourth grandchild arrives in about a week. (Applause.) But I
explain to people lots of times that the election of 1952 had an
enormous bearing on the fact that we got married. In 1952, I was
living in Lincoln, Nebraska with my folks -- dad worked for the Soil
Conservation Service. Dwight Eisenhower got elected President that
year. And when he got elected he reorganized the Agriculture
Department and dad got transferred to Casper, Wyoming, which is where
Lynne was living.
So we moved to Casper, I was 13 years old. We met, went to high
school together, and, as I said, we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary
here in about a month. But I explained to a group of people the other
night, if it hadn't been for Dwight Eisenhower's election victory in
1952, Lynne would have married somebody else. (Laughter.) And she
said, right, and now he'd be Vice President of the United States.
(Laughter and applause.)
It's great to be back in Michigan. We were in Grand Rapids not
long ago, and Lynne and I have been looking forward to this visit
today. It's always refreshing to get out of Washington and come out to
the real world. (Laughter.) And Michigan has a long tradition of
independence, of enterprise and of confidence in the future. Here in
Saginaw and around the state, people value hard work and honesty and
devote themselves to building strong families and communities. Thanks
to resourceful entrepreneurs and to some of the most productive workers
in the world, Michigan is the capital of manufacturing for cars, trucks
and SUVs. And as the Pistons showed the Lakers last week -- (applause)
-- you clearly know a few things about basketball in this state.
(Laughter.)
But I see Michigan's optimistic spirit right here in Saginaw. And
like many companies in the state, you've faced challenges these past
few years and you've overcome them all. Customers are ordering, the
company is expanding, you're adding new jobs. It's not hard to figure
out why you've been such a success: You have a quality product, a
strong business plan and some of the most dedicated workers in the
industry. You follow in the superb tradition of your founder, John
Burt, a business leader fondly remembered today.
You're meeting the high standards that John Burt set for his
company. And Duro-Last established a new record for sales last year
and you're on pace to break that record this year. You also added 20
new employers [sic] last year, as Tom pointed out, and I know you're
not finished growing yet. I'm told you're planning to expand the ranks
with more workers in the next few months. It's a strong, prosperous
company, and on the President's behalf, I want to congratulate you for
a winning strategy and a winning team. (Applause.)
One of the President's goals for our nation is a healthy, vigorous,
growing economy, and that starts with our free enterprise system. We
understand, as you do, that the role of government is not to create
wealth, the role of government is to create an environment that rewards
enterprise so that employers and entrepreneurs have the confidence to
expand, to invest, and to hire new workers. That is the principle
behind our pro-growth agenda, and I believe we've made significant
progress these last few years.
These last three-and-a-half years have brought many challenges to
Michigan and to America, and our economy has been through a lot. We
faced recession, the terrorist attack of 9/11, and the uncertainties
that exist in a time of war. Yet, we've met these challenges and now
we see an economy that gets bigger and better every day -- and thanks
to the steady effort of American workers and entrepreneurs, and thanks
to the sound policy of our President, George W. Bush.
Our pro-growth strategy begins with leaving more money in the hands
of the American workers who earn it. So we proposed and we delivered
significant tax relief. (Applause.) Taken together, the Bush tax
relief achieved a major economic goal: We reduced the federal tax
burden on every American who pays income taxes.
When we passed those tax relief measures, some people back in
Washington had their doubts. They said tax relief wouldn't matter to
most people. Sure enough, some people are still saying that. Every
once in a while you see one of them on the nightly news. (Laughter.)
But out here in Saginaw, things look different. Because of President
Bush's tax relief, more than three-point million [sic] taxpayers in
Michigan have seen their income tax bills reduced. More than 1.2
million married couples in Michigan are benefiting from marriage
penalty relief. And over 900,000 families here in Michigan have
benefited from the increase in the child tax credit. (Applause.)
The average savings from the President's across-the-board tax cuts
topped $1,500. The critics say that's not much -- but it sure feels
like a lot when you have to send it to Washington, and we did the right
thing by returning it. (Applause.)
By leaving more money in the economy, tax relief has also helped
more Americans find new jobs. Small and medium-sized businesses create
most of the new jobs in this country, so we designed a tax relief to
help businesses expand and to hire more workers. We cut marginal tax
rates to benefit sole proprietors who pay business taxes at the
individual income tax rate. We increased the annual deduction for
equipment purchases by small businesses, from $25,000 to $100,000. And
for the good of farmers, ranchers and family businesses, we began to
phase out the unfair federal death tax. (Applause.)
Tax relief takes time to have an impact on the economy. But now
we're seeing the good results here in the Midwest and all across the
country. Over 700,000 business owners in Michigan have seen their
federal tax burden go down since 2001. They've put their tax savings
to good use -- they're hiring more workers. More than 8,300 Michigan
workers found new jobs in May, almost 30,000 since February. Since
December, your unemployment rate has dropped more than a full
percentage point, from 7.6 down to 6.5 percent. (Applause.)
We are witnessing the same positive results all across the
country. America added 248,000 new jobs in May alone, our ninth
consecutive month of job growth. And American businesses have created
jobs for nearly a million workers in the last 100 days; we've added
over 1.4 million jobs since last August. Manufacturing jobs have
increased for four straight months, and more manufacturers have been
reporting increased activity than at any time in the last 20 years.
That's good news for factory workers in Michigan, and we're confident
that more good news lies ahead.
The national unemployment rate has dropped to 5.6 percent, down
from its recent peak of 6.3 percent last June, and it's below the
average of the '70s, the '80s and the '90s. The results are clear:
The Bush tax relief is working. (Applause.)
We're seeing great progress in many other areas, as well. When we
passed tax relief, some said we'd cause a double-dip recession. They
were wrong. In fact, the economic growth over the last year has been
high -- at 4.8 percent -- GDP has grown at the highest --
second-highest fourth quarter rate in nearly 20 years. Interest rates
and inflation are low, productivity is high, business investment is
rising. In the past 12 months, Americans have seen their per capita
real disposable personal income -- the best measure of the money people
actually have in their pockets -- increase 3.3 percent, significantly
higher than the 1.4 percent in the year before President Bush took
office. The home ownership rate is the highest ever, construction
spending is rising. And that's good news for families who want to live
the American Dream. America's economy is moving in the right direction
-- don't let anyone tell you otherwise. (Applause.)
It's pretty clear the President's tax relief has done exactly what
it was designed to do: to add momentum to America's economy and to
help more people find jobs. Yet, for all our progress, there is still
plenty of work to do. We recognize there are still challenges,
especially in our manufacturing communities. That's why we'll keep
moving forward with a comprehensive pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda. The
President and I will not be satisfied until every American who wants to
work can find a job.
We intend to continue to reduce the number of mandates and
unnecessary regulations coming out of Washington, D.C. Our
administration has already streamlined tax reporting for small
businesses, and saved them more than 50 million hours of unproductive
work annually. We're going to continue that effort, and businesses
like yours should be able to spend their time working to grow, not
filling out useless paperwork to satisfy the bureaucracy in
Washington. (Applause.)
As you understand here in Michigan, a healthy, growing economy also
depends on affordable, reliable supplies of energy. We need to pass
sound energy legislation that promotes clean, efficient technology,
conservation and new domestic production. If we had started the
environmentally safe development of ANWR in Alaska 15 years ago, when
it was first proposed, that oil would now be arriving by pipeline at
the rate of up to a million barrels a day. For the sake of economic
security and our national security, Congress needs to pass legislation
to make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
(Applause.)
Our economy also needs lawsuit abuse reform. Junk and frivolous
lawsuits can ruin an honest business. (Applause.) They put people out
of work. They clog the courts, delaying justice for people with real
legal grievances. It's a lot easier for America's entrepreneurs to
hire new workers if they don't have to keep hiring lawyers.
(Applause.)
Here in Michigan and across the country, we also need to make sure
that frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits don't run good doctors out
of business and further drive up medical costs. (Applause.) No one
has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit, so Congress needs to pass
medical liability reform and they need to do it soon.
One of the vital choices facing our economy is the approach to
trade. We're going to keep working to bring down trade barriers so we
can open up more markets for American products. Michigan ranks 5th in
the nation in exports. Last year, businesses in this state had almost
$33 billion in sales outside the United States. Exports from Michigan
to Canada and Mexico have increased by over a third since passage of
NAFTA. Our policy of open trade is helping Michigan products reach
new, growing markets, as well. Exports from Michigan to China and
South Korea have increased almost 90 percent in the last five years.
And exports from Michigan to the United Arab Emirates nearly doubled
last year alone. Michigan is selling millions of dollars worth of cars
and chemical products and computers on the world market. Michigan is
making what the world wants to buy. (Applause.)
The next time you hear someone talk about putting up barriers to
trade, remind them that about 97 percent of America's exporters are
small or medium-sized companies, like Duro-Last and Plastatech.
(Applause.) Nationwide, one in five factory jobs depends directly on
trade. And a lot of those jobs are in manufacturing states like
Michigan. The surest way to threaten all of those jobs would be a
policy of tariffs and barriers and economic isolation. Some in
Washington still want to take that course, but we will not give in to
the temptation. For the sake of growth and jobs, and for the good of
our economic future, the United States of America must remain a
confident, successful, trading nation. (Applause.)
In order to generate more jobs and to maintain economic growth, we
also need to create certainty in the tax code. Families and
entrepreneurs need to be able to plan for the future. But unless
Congress acts, the tax relief recently passed -- and has proven so
successful -- will expire. Small businesses will lose incentives to
invest in new equipment. Marginal tax rates on sole proprietors and
families will increase. The income tax burden for a family of four
earning $40,000 a year will go up by almost a thousand dollars. And
small business owners, farmers, and entrepreneurs will see the death
tax rise from the dead. Higher taxes now will take us in exactly the
wrong direction. For the sake of jobs, and for the sake of American
families, Congress needs to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
(Applause.)
In Michigan and around the nation, American families, workers and
businesses have welcomed President Bush' tax relief, and used it to
drive the economy forward. And all Americans can be certain of this:
We're going to maintain a pro-growth, pro-entrepreneur, pro-job
strategy in Washington. With the right policies, and with the
incredible energy and talent of American workers, we'll keep the
strong, growing economy going and see even better days in the greatest
nation on earth.
Once again, I want to thank all of you for your hospitality,
congratulate you on your success, keep up the good work. Thank you
very much. (Applause.)
END 12:45 P.M. EDT
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