Strengthening America's Economy and Creating Jobs in Wisconsin
Remarks by the President on the Economy
Fox Cities Performing Art Center
Appleton, Wisconsin
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. I appreciate the warm
welcome. Please be seated. It can get pretty cold here in the winter,
but that's a really warm welcome, for which I'm grateful. Thanks so
much for coming out.
Bill, thank you for your kind introduction. Thank you for putting
up with my entourage. Thank you for setting this deal up.
I've got some things I want to share with the good people of Fox
Valley and Wisconsin, some of the challenges that we face as a country;
my absolute determination to overcome those challenges, to lead our
nation for a better day for every citizen. I've got a lot of friends
here in this state -- I took one of them with me. (Laughter.) And
that was Tommy Thompson. (Applause.) Tommy is doing a great job. I
gave him a tough job to do and he's handling it with such class. He's
really a fine, fine leader. You trained him well. (Laughter.) I was
looking for him on his Harley, driving in today, but I guess at 38
degrees, it's a little chilly to be on your Harley. (Laughter.) But
he sends his best, and I want to thank you very much for raising Tommy
the right way.
I also want to thank all the entrepreneurs who are here. One of
things -- I love to be in the presence of entrepreneurs and small
business owners and dreamers and doers. After all, it's -- to me, it's
one of the characteristics of our country, the fact that we're an
optimistic people; the fact that we're risk-takers; the fact that we're
job creators, that we care about our fellow citizens. The
characteristics of America are what really enable me to say that
there's no challenge we can't overcome by working together.
(Applause.)
I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce, Fox Cities Chamber of
Commerce for hosting me. I want to appreciate the Mayor, Tim Hanna,
for coming out to say hello. My advice to the Mayor is fill the
potholes and empty the garbage. (Laughter.) All will be well.
(Laughter.) But, Tim, I appreciate it. It's good to see you again.
Thank you for your leadership and your service. I want to thank all
the state and local officials who have come today. I also appreciate
your service to your communities and your state.
Today, when I landed, I met Gloria Grandone. Where are you,
Gloria? There she is, up there. Gloria is a volunteer, a person who
is a mentor, a person who is involved with helping people go to
college, a person who helps people become more self-sufficient and
financially secure. The reason I bring up Gloria and her willingness
to volunteer, see, I think that happens to be the strength of the
country, the fact that there are fellow citizens who love a neighbor
just like they'd like to be loved themselves.
Oftentimes, America is described as being strong because of our
military. We'll keep our military strong. (Applause.) Or we're
described as being a strong nation because we're wealthy compared to
other nations. And that's good, by the way. It's better to be a
wealthy nation than a poor nation. But nevertheless, that's not our
strength. Our strength lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens.
Our strength in America exists because there are people like Gloria who
are willing to take time out of their life to help somebody.
My call to our fellow citizens is to love your neighbor like you'd
like to be loved yourself. Mentor a child. Put your arm around
somebody who hurts. Find shelter for the homeless, food for the
hungry. All of us working together can change America, one soul at a
time.
Gloria, thank you for the example you set. (Applause.)
Let me walk through the last little bit of history so that when I
make my point that we've overcome challenges, you'll understand the
challenges that we have overcome. First of all, the stock market began
to decline in March of 2000. That matters, by the way, if you're
concerned about savings and you own stocks. In other words, the
psychology of the country began to get affected when people started
opening up their accounts of their portfolios, and noticed that their
worth was diminishing. A lot of people who retired noticed their worth
was diminishing. Pension funds -- if you run a 401K, you noticed that
things were changing. And then the country headed into a recession in
early 2001.
A recession means we're going backwards, not forwards. A recession
is negative growth for three quarters. If you ask any business leader
here, they can tell you what it's like to try to manage during a
recession. There's uncertainty. Your workers are getting anxious.
Sometimes you had to lay people off. A recession is tough for a
country to handle; it's a challenge. The challenge is how do you come
out of the recession. We passed tax cuts, which I'm going to talk
about in a minute, which made the recession one of the shallowest in
our nation's history.
But then we had another challenge shortly thereafter, and that is
an enemy attacked us. We weren't thinking about attacks in the scale
of which they attacked us. It was a new thought for America. After
all, most of us baby boomers grew up thinking that oceans would protect
us forever. It changed our way of thinking. The attack means that
anybody in a position like I'm in must deal with threats before they
materialize. That's one of the lessons of September the 11th. We just
can't sit back and hope that oceans protect us now. We must take every
threat seriously.
It also affected our economy. It hurt us economically. We lost a
million jobs shortly after the attacks of September the 11th, and that
hurt. Remember, we had to shut down the stock market. Airplanes
weren't getting up in the air. It affected us, it just affected us.
And yet, we're a strong nation who refused to be terrorized. We
refused to give in to the terrorists. (Applause.)
We resolved as a nation that we would do everything we can to
protect our homeland. But the best way to protect the homeland is to
chase the terrorists down and bring them to justice, which is precisely
what we're doing. (Applause.)
I laid out a doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
just as guilty as the terrorist. By the way, when the President says
something, you better mean it. It turns out in this job --
(applause.) I, of course, meant it. And the Taliban found out what we
meant. They didn't yield. So I unleashed a great United States
military. (Applause.) I did so to uphold the doctrine. We wiped out
the ability for the terrorists to use Afghanistan as a training
facility.
We also liberated people, liberated about 25 million people from
the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of
mankind -- so barbaric -- (applause.) Now the country is changing.
There's women's rights; there's equality under the law. Young girls
now go to school, many for the first time ever, thanks to the United
States and our coalition of liberators.
We started to recover from September the 11th. The resolve of the
country, by the way, is incredible when tested. It's a nation of
people of deep character. Perhaps it's because we've got a lot of deep
faith in our country. (Applause.) But we discovered shortly
thereafter that there were some of our citizens who must have not been
raised right, because they didn't tell the truth. There was corporate
scandals in America that betrayed the trust. When somebody betrays the
trust in our world, it can affect confidence. I mean, if you're not
sure whether or not the accountants are telling the truth, it's hard to
invest. These corporate wrongdoers cost people their jobs, cost a lot
of people their savings. It affected our psychology. We had to
overcome the hurdle.
We passed tough laws, by the way, in Washington. And now the
message is very clear: We will not tolerate wrongdoing in the
boardrooms of America. We will hold you to account if you lie or
cheat. (Applause.)
But we overcame that. As I mentioned to you, it's important for
this country never to forget the lessons of September the 11th, and
that is, when we see a threat, we must deal with it before it fully
materializes. That's one of the clear lessons of that horrible day in
our history. I looked at intelligence from Iraq and saw a threat. The
United States Congress looked at the same intelligence, and the members
of Congress saw a threat. The United Nations Security Council looked
at the intelligence and it saw a threat. And so, in the fall of 2002,
I went to the United Nations Security Council and said, we all see a
threat. Let's come together and deal with the threat. Let's say to
Mr. Saddam Hussein, you have one final chance to disclose and disarm,
for the sake of peace and security.
A lot of people remembered that he was a person that had used
weapons of mass destruction on his own people. He's a person that had
terrorized the neighborhood. He's a person that was paying suiciders
to kill innocent citizens. He's the person that tortured people. He's
the person that had rape rooms. He's the person that had mass graves.
He was a threat. Saddam Hussein once again chose defiance. And so I
had a choice to make: Do I trust the word of a madman, or do I take
action to defend America. Given that choice, I will defend our country
every time. (Applause.) This is an historic time. We're going to get
it right in Iraq. Iraq will emerge as a free society.
I'll tell you a very interesting story. I was having a kobe beef
with Prime Minister Koizumi from Japan. Laura and I were over there --
and by the way, she sends her greetings. She's a great First Lady, I
might add. (Applause.) It was a very interesting conversation because
we're talking about how we should work together to deal with Mr. Kim
Jung-il and the nuclear weapons program on the Korean Peninsula. We
were working together on a common threat. It dawned on me in the midst
of the conversation, had we not gotten the post-World War II piece
right, an American President and a Japanese Prime Minister wouldn't be
talking about how to deal with a common threat. It also dawned on me
during the course of the conversation that when we get it right in
Iraq, some day an American president will be talking to an elected
president or prime minister of a country in the heart of the Middle
East, talking about how to deal with the threats of a future
generation.
These are historic times. A free and democratic Iraq will change
the world. (Applause.)
It's a hard job in Iraq. After all, there are terrorists who want
to stop the progress of liberty. And there's a reason: They
understand that a free society is not in their interests. A free
society is a peaceful society. A free society is one that will put the
conditions of terrorism out of business. That's why we love freedom in
America. See, the other thing I believe in, I believe that freedom is
not America's gift to the world. I believe freedom is the Almighty's
gift to each man and woman in this world. (Applause.)
On your TV screens, starting in 2002, were the words "March to
War." I don't know if you remember that. That's not conducive for
creating jobs. Think about what it means, march to war. It's a
negative thought. One of the hurdles we had to overcome was the
business about going to war. If you're trying to plan your future,
whether you're an employer or employee, you're not going to be all that
optimistic, thinking that your country's marching to war. We're now
marching to peace. We've overcome that hurdle.
We've overcome four major hurdles, when you think about it. People
say, how can you be so optimistic about our country? And the answer
is, because I've seen what we've come through. And guess what? Our
economy is growing; interest rates are low; inflation is low. Home
ownership rates are the highest in history. More people are owning
their home. There is a minority home ownership gap in America, but now
more minorities own a home than ever before, which is incredibly
positive. When people own something, they have a vital stake in the
future of this country. Manufacturing activity is up. The
unemployment rate today is lower than the average rate in the 1970s,
1980s and 1990s. We've overcome a lot. (Applause.)
Wisconsin is helping lead the growth of this country. Farms,
factories and offices are shipping high-quality goods all across
America, and all throughout the world. The state's unemployment rate
is down from a year ago, below the national average, I might add. The
economy is on a path of growth because we acted.
You see, the role of government is not to create wealth, but to
create an environment that encourages economic vitality and growth; is
to create the grounds for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish.
That's the role of government. And that's why I went to Congress and
said, listen, we've got problems, economic problems, and the best way
to deal with those problems is let people keep more of their own
money. (Applause.) When a person has more of her own money, she
demands an additional good or a service. And the way our economy
works, somebody will meet that new demand for a good or a service by
producing a good or a service. And when somebody produces a good or a
service, somebody is more likely to keep a job or find work. That's
the way the economy works. The tax relief came at just the right
time.
We also accomplished some other objectives in the tax relief.
Remember, I argued that if we're going to provide tax relief, let's
provide it for everybody who pays taxes, so that government is not in
the business of picking winners and losers when it comes to tax
relief. The fairest way to deal with tax relief is to say, if you pay
taxes, you get relief. (Applause.)
We also increased the child credit to $1,000 per child. By the
way, that's very helpful if you happen to be a mom or a dad.
(Applause.) We reduced the marriage penalty. My question to the
Congress is, what kind of tax code is it that penalizes marriage? We
ought to be encouraging marriage. (Applause.)
After-tax incomes in America have been lifted by 8.4 percent since
the end of 2000. People have got more money. It's making a big
difference.
I also want you to know I understand job creation. Seventy percent
of all new jobs are created by small businesses. It seems like if
that's the case, and you're worried about somebody finding work, you
want to make sure the small business agenda is vibrant and foremost on
our agenda. And it is. Because, you see, most small businesses are
sub-chapter S or sole proprietorships. I see a lot of people nodding
their heads. A sole proprietorship or sub-chapter S corporation means
that the business pays tax at the individual income tax. And if you're
paying tax at the individual income tax as a small business, and all
taxes get reduced, small businesses have got more money to invest and
to expand.
We also provided incentives for capital investment. We raised the
amount of the limit to $100,000 from $25,000 that the small business
can deduct for new capital expenditures. What I'm telling you is, is
that small business is a direct beneficiary of the tax plan that we
passed. It's an integral part of making sure that the environment for
the entrepreneurial spirit is just right.
Another way to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong is to
get rid of the death tax. The death tax is a bad tax. (Applause.) A
lot of farmers want to leave their farm to their family and not to the
government. A lot of small business owners are dreaming big dreams,
not only because they want to help somebody find a job, but they also
want to leave their business to whomever they choose. The problem with
the death tax is they tax you while you're alive, and then they tax you
again after you die. And that doesn't seem fair. And a lot of people
-- and a lot of people who own a small business or a farm, in order to
pay the death tax, have to liquidate their assets in order to do so,
which means it is impossible to pass your assets on, in many cases, to
whomever you choose. Congress wisely put the death tax on its way to
extinction, for the good of the entrepreneurial spirit here in
America. (Applause.)
This economy is going through a fundamental change. We're growing,
which is great. One of the reasons we're growing is because we're
incredibly productive. You've heard about productivity increases.
That means one worker that used to be able to produce five units can
now produce 15 units. That's what productivity means. A productive
society is a society that will generate more wealth. And that's very
positive. In other words, the more productive you are, the wealthier
your society becomes. A productive society means America will remain
more competitive, will be able to expand and grow, not only internally,
but externally, because if you're a productive company here in America,
you have a better chance to compete. And remember, our system is based
upon competition. If you're a productive company in America, you have
a better chance to compete with companies overseas.
It's a fact that the more productive you are as a worker, the
better you get paid. But the problem is, as I mentioned, many
companies are able to fill new orders and don't have the -- don't have
a need to expand because they're more productive. In other words, it's
possible to grow our economy and not have people find new jobs. And
that's a problem we face today for some workers.
This is called a period of transition. That's an economist's word
for things aren't going too well for you. (Laughter.) And I
understand that. I understand that people are worried about the job
they have. They're worried about whether their children can stay close
to home where they were raised and find work. A productive society is
positive in many ways, but for the worker who needs new skills, it's
not so positive in the short-term.
So we have to do something about it. We've got to deal with the
economy the way it is. Many people are working, and more and more
people are working, but there are some who, frankly, feel like they're
being left behind, and that's not right. The role of government is
more than just providing unemployment insurance. It's to provide a
sound strategy to make sure our economy continues to grow and people
find the skills necessary to be productive employees in the 21st
century. Those are the challenges we face.
Some in our Nation's Capital respond a little differently than I
will. They want to increase federal spending dramatically. The
problem with that plan is somebody has to pay for it, and that somebody
is going to be you. That's who will pay for it. In order to pay for
more spending, you'll hear the language, "tax on the rich." When you
start raising income tax rates up, you're raising on small businesses.
If the tax relief helps small businesses, the corollary to that is that
when you raise those taxes, it means small businesses are going to
pay. If 70 percent of the new jobs are created by small businesses, it
makes absolutely no sense to be taking money out of their coffers to
expand the role of the federal government. (Applause.)
Tax and spend is the enemy of job creation. Taxing and spending in
excessive amounts in Washington, D.C. is not creating an environment
for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. Quite the contrary. It
will diminish demand. It will make it difficult for people to start
their own businesses and to expand.
There's another issue we're facing, as well, in the Nation's
Capital. That's whether or not we're going to build walls around
America; whether we're going to isolate ourselves from the world. I
call it "economic isolationism." When you hear people talk about let
us reconsider free trade agreements, what they're really saying is, is
that perhaps we ought to wall ourself off from the rest of the world.
See, I think that would be absolutely wrong for America to be so
pessimistic about our ability to compete that we've become economic
isolationists; that we erect barriers to trade; that we're so -- that
we lack confidence; that we say to our farmers and ranchers, our
entrepreneurs, that we don't think you can compete. See, I believe
just the opposite. I believe this nation can compete anywhere, any
time, anyplace, so long as the rules are fair. (Applause.)
Look at it this way. America's got five percent of the world's
population. That means there's 95 percent of the people out there that
should be buying products that say "Made in the USA." (Applause.)
It's important to understand that exports, the ability to sell
overseas, to be able to make something here in Wisconsin and sell it
elsewhere, is an important part of your economy. Dairy farmers are
selling their goods overseas.
I read this and I wasn't quite sure -- it says that Wisconsin
cheese is being sold in France. (Laughter.) That's a good cheese.
(Applause.) Oshkosh Truck sells overseas. Harley Davidson sells
overseas. (Applause.) Wisconsin exports last year were worth $11.5
billion. See, Wisconsin is making products the world wants to buy.
(Applause.) Wisconsin's exports to Canada rose last year. Exports to
Mexico rose. Exports to China rose fourfold in the last four years.
In other words, people are finding jobs here in Wisconsin because
they're helping make products that people want in other countries.
Exports equal jobs. It's important for people to understand that.
Nationwide, 97 percent of all U.S. exporters are small and
medium-sized businesses. You know, a lot of folks say, exports, you
got to be a big guy to be able to export. No, there's a lot of small
business owners and entrepreneurs and medium-sized businesses that are
making products, good and services, that people want. An important
part of our economy is the small business sector, as I told you.
Companies with fewer than 20 employees make up nearly 70 percent of all
U.S. exporting firms. So when you hear the talk about, let's wall off
America from the rest of the world, I want you to remember that we're
talking about walling off small businesses from opportunities --
opportunities to sell a product, and therefore, opportunities to
eventually hire somebody.
The other thing it's important for people to understand is that
foreign companies recognize how great the U.S. work force is. I mean,
we've very good at what we do. We've got fantastic workers here in
America, incredibly productive people. And therefore, there's a lot of
foreign-owned companies that are interested in bringing their business
here. A hundred thousand workers in Wisconsin work for foreign-owned
companies, half of them in manufacturing. Fiskars Brands employs U.S.
workers. It's a Finnish company. Kikkoman Foods, they make soy
sauce. They employ U.S. personnel.
In other words, when you hear about trade, just remember, trade
means selling product overseas, but it also means welcoming foreign
capital here in the United States to employ people, so they can find
work. It's an important part of the equation to know that confident
trade policy not only means the sale of goods, but confident trade
policy means people want to set up their plants here.
I was in Greer, South Carolina, at a BMW plant, selling BMWs into
Germany. We've got great workers in America. We ought not to be
fearful of the future; we ought to be confident of our capacity to
compete.
And so, the question is, what do we do about trade policy? And
that's what I want to spend a little time talking about. Five -- for
five decades, Presidents have made the decision that the U.S. market
should be open, for the good of our consumers. In other words, when
there's competition, it generally means better price. Other markets
haven't been open to U.S. goods. So it seems like to me, the logical
thing to do, rather than shutting down our own market, which will hurt
consumers and hurt opportunity, is to spend time opening up other
people's markets. And so when you hear me talk about negotiating trade
agreements, really what we're doing is leveling the playing field.
What we're really doing is make sure America has a chance to compete on
the same terms that people can sell into our market. (Applause.)
And if they don't respond, there's some things we can do. See, if
we say, our market is open and yours isn't, so open yours up -- rather
than shutting ours down and creating trade wars, which will jeopardize
jobs, make it harder for small business to exist, there are things we
can do. For example, we filed the first World Trade Organization case
against China because of their unfair tax policy. We got Canada to
stop exporting subsidized dairy products into the United States. We
won a major international case against Mexico's telecommunications
barriers. In other words, this administration is not going to --
refuses to accept the doctrine of economic isolationism, but instead,
says, we'll use the tools necessary to make sure that the playing field
is level.
Japan is buying American apples. If you're an apple grower, that's
good news. India is buying American almonds. My point is, not only
are we focused on industries like the semi-conductor industry, we want
people buying U.S. farm products, too. We're good at growing things
here in the United States. (Applause.)
Open trade means fair trade. It means that the buyer and the
seller -- that if we're a buying nation, it means the selling nation
must open its markets, too. That's what I'm talking about. It's
important to be confident here in America because we're good at what we
do and our policies ought to reflect that.
A lot of talk about jobs going overseas. There's a lot of
uncertainty in the marketplace. For some people looking for work, I
understand that. I understand that. But the best way to deal with
that in my judgment is to make sure America remains the best place in
the world to do business so that our job base will expand.
(Applause.) The more vibrant the small business sector, the more
likely it is somebody's going to find work. The more vibrant the
business sector, the more likely it is jobs will stay right here at
home. That's what people have got to understand.
Let me talk real quick about some things we need to do. We need to
stop harassing small business owners and entrepreneurs with endless
amounts of regulation and paperwork. (Applause.) I know there's a lot
of federal forms. My problem is, I can't guarantee that they're ever
read. (Applause.)
Secondly, like you, I'm concerned about the rising costs of health
care. (Applause.) It's an issue for consumers; it's an issue for
employers. If you talk to small business owners, they're concerned
about being able to provide their employees with a good package for
health care. There are some things we can do. One thing we must not
do is turn over the health care industry to the federal government.
(Applause.) There's a philosophical tug-of-war in Washington, D.C. I
believe the federal government would make matters worse. I believe the
marketplace and empowering consumers will make matters better.
One way we can control health care costs is to allow small
businesses to share risk through association health care plans. In
other words, big companies are able to pool risk because they've got a
lot of employees over which they can spread risk. Small businesses
don't have that advantage. I believe small businesses ought to be able
to pool risk across jurisdictional boundary to get the same benefits,
the same economies of purchase, that big businesses get.
We passed a new -- a new aspect to health care, which I think a lot
of small business owners and employees will find very interesting.
They're called health savings accounts. This is the opportunity for
people to put money into a health savings account tax-free, earn money
tax-free, withdraw it tax-free, to meet certain health care costs, and
then any major medical or larger health care costs are covered by a
catastrophic plan. Now, what this does is it puts the consumer back in
charge of health care decisions, as opposed to bureaucracies or
government. What it also does is it helps control the cost of health
care. If you look into it as a small business employer, I think you'll
find it is an imaginative way to help your employees have affordable
health care.
The other thing we need to do in order to make sure we hold the
cost of health care down is to have medical liability reform at the
federal level. There's too many junk lawsuits that are running up the
cost of medicine. (Applause.) A lot of docs practice defensive
medicine because they're afraid of getting sued. But guess who pays?
Small business owners and employees, that's who pays. A lot of docs
are tired of getting sued, so they're moving out. Maybe it's happened
in your community. That means not only is the cost of medicine going
up, the cost of health care going up, but there's fewer docs available
to practice their trade.
Listen, if you get hurt, you ought to have your day in court. But
the system in many places looks like a lottery, and there's only one
winner and those are the trial lawyers who sue and sue and sue.
(Applause.)
We need other tort reform to make sure America's a good place to do
business so jobs stay at home. We're close to getting a reform on
class-action lawsuits. Perhaps some of you have been caught up in
these class-actions lawsuits. It's -- again, sometimes it's a gravy
train, not for those who are the plaintiffs, but the people
representing the plaintiffs. We're close, but the trial bar is tough
in Washington, D.C. They're able to hold up a lot of stuff in the
United States Senate, which is discouraging, because good tort reform
will make it easier for people to find a job here at home; will make
sure the environment for the entrepreneurs is good and strong.
There's another thing we need to do here in America. Look, if
you're a manufacturer in Wisconsin, you need to make sure you've got
energy so you can manufacture your product. We have a problem in
America because we don't have an energy plan. It doesn't make much
sense when you're a giant nation like ours not to have an energy plan,
but we can't get it out right now. It's stuck. I'm calling upon the
House and the Congress to reconcile their differences and get an energy
plan on my desk that will encourage -- to my desk -- that will
encourage clean coal technology so we can burn coal, a plentiful
supply, in a clean way, so that we can encourage more exploration of
natural gas.
Natural gas is absolutely vital for many manufacturers here in
Wisconsin. You've got to have energy in order to make sure your
business is viable. We need to modernize our electricity system. We
got a wake-up call last summer when parts of our country were shocked
by a rolling blackout. If you're a business owner, and you're trying
to expand your business, or you're trying to make a product, and if
you're worried about whether or not you're going to get any power, it's
very difficult to be optimistic about your future. We need to
encourage conservation. What we need is an energy plan so we're less
dependent on foreign sources of energy. (Applause.)
We're debating a highway bill right now in Congress. I look
forward
to signing a six-year bill without raising your gas taxes. We
don't need to be raising the federal gas tax. (Applause.) Gas taxes
would hurt the economy. There are some -- there are some in the other
party in Washington who would like to raise gas taxes. I think it
would be wrong. I think it would be damaging to the economy, not
positive to the economy.
Also, speaking about highways, the nation must stay on the leading
edge of technology. I want to make sure broadband -- broadband
technology is available for every home in America by the year 2007, and
that, shortly thereafter, there's adequate competition so consumers get
to choose. There's nothing like choice, by the way, if you're a
consumer, to make sure that a product stays reasonably priced.
And there are ways to do that. We ought not to tax access to
broadband at the United States -- in the United States Congress.
(Applause.) And we've got to make sure that the regulatory environment
is conducive to making sure broadband extends throughout America.
There's some practical things we can do. But for America to be
competitive, to make sure jobs stay at home, we've got to stay on the
leading edge of technological change. And the broadband technology is
going to be -- it's going to be just amazing. It's going to be amazing
for small business owners. It's going to be amazing for people who
work out of their home and are productive citizens. It's going to be
amazing for education opportunities. It's going to be amazing for
health care. We need it. And we need to get it out as quickly as
possible in a price-sensitive way for the consumers.
Finally, these tax cuts that I'm talking about are set to expire.
Congress giveth and the Congress taketh away. (Laughter.) And if
you're a small business owner, it's hard to plan for your future if
you're uncertain about your tax liabilities. If you're wondering
whether or not the tax -- taxes that -- tax relief today is going to be
taken away, it is not good for planning. People who plan need to have
a steady environment, not an unpredictable environment.
It's also not good if you're a mom or a dad raising your child to
be paying more taxes right now. And if Congress doesn't make the child
credit permanent, it means it's a tax increase on somebody with a
child. If you're married, that marriage penalty is going back up
unless Congress makes the tax relief permanent. If you are in the
10-percent bracket, it means that bracket is become squeezed if
Congress doesn't make the tax cuts permanent. For the sake of job
creation, for the sake of keeping jobs here at home, we need to make
the tax cuts a permanent part of our tax code. (Applause.)
Now that I've got you stuck here -- (laughter) -- we're going to
talk about education right quick. A economy which is changing, an
economy in transition is an economy that better make sure people are
educated to take advantage of the new jobs being created. In a lot of
parts of our country, there are jobs going begging because people don't
have the skills necessary to fill them. In some older industries, jobs
are not as prevalent as some of the new industries. Nurses, for
example. There's a nursing shortage. We've got to make sure people
get the skills necessary to be able to fill the new jobs.
We can't make somebody say -- decide to go to work. That's in
their mind. But we darn sure can help somebody get the skills
necessary to take advantage of the jobs which are being created. We
can help somebody become a more productive citizen. Remember, higher
productivity for a worker means better wages.
And I've got some plans to do so. It starts, by the way, by making
sure every child can read and write and add and subtract. We passed a
good law in Washington called the No Child Left Behind Act. The
principles behind that law are, one, we trust local people to make the
right decisions for the communities in which they live when it comes to
their public schools. But for the first time, the federal government
is asking the question, are we getting any return for our money we're
spending? It's called accountability. It means that -- (applause.)
We've increased the Title 1, or elementary and secondary school
budget by 49 percent since 2001, which is good. But, as importantly,
we've started to say to the state of Wisconsin: Measure, so we can
determine whether or not it's working. How can you tell whether or not
things are going well in the education system if you don't measure?
You can't. And guess what happens in a system that doesn't measure.
Kids just get shuffled through. And guess who gets shuffled through.
The so-called hard-to-teach. That would be low-income, inner-city,
African Americans, parents who may not speak English as a first
language. It's easy to quit on those kids. Just going to move them
through. What accountability says is that we're tired of moving kid
through. We're going to challenge the soft bigotry of low
expectations. We believe every child can learn. (Applause.)
Things are improving around the country because we are holding
people to account. By the way, the accountability system is not to
punish anybody. It's to determine whether or not the curriculum is
working. It's to make sure that the methodology makes sense. It's
also to catch problems early and correct them before it's too late.
There are some problems that are almost too late. We've got plans to
help junior high and high school kids learn the basics of reading and
math before it is too late -- pretty good intervention programs.
But one of the things I'm most excited about is using our community
college system. We've got a great strategy to make sure the community
college system is a vibrant part of job training programs all across
America. I hope you've got a good community college system here. The
definition of a good system, by the way, is one that is flexible and
open-minded, so that when employers come and say, these are the kinds
of people we need to hire, that the curriculum changes and actually
trains people for the jobs which exist.
There's nothing like the Chamber of Commerce being able to say,
we've got a fantastic community college system here. If you move your
business here, the community college will make sure -- will help train
people for the jobs you need. A more productive work is a worker
that's going to make more money.
I remember going to Mesa Community College and met a woman there
that was a graphic design artist. I think she'd been one for 15
years. She got a scholarship -- and by the way, there's money
available to help people go back to school. She got a scholarship to
go back to the community college and she took a technical course. Upon
graduation, which -- I can't remember the exact number of months it
was, but it was a reasonable period of time -- her starting job at
Cable One paid her more than her 15th year as a graphic design artist.
That's the definition of becoming a more productive worker. If you
increase your productivity by going back to school, it makes you
obviously more employable for the jobs which exist, but it also raises
your own standard of living. Education is a crucial part to make sure
that jobs here in America stay home and that the job base can expand in
a confident way.
So those are some reasonable things that the country needs to do:
to stand with the people, not stand against them; to make sure that we
unleash the great talent of America; to make sure that we capture the
entrepreneurial spirit which makes this country so unique and such an
exciting place for people to live; practical things to do to make sure
jobs stay here at home and people can work and do their duty as a
responsible citizen.
Let me conclude by telling -- speaking about responsibility, I do
think one of the interesting things that's happening in America is we
are ushering in a period of personal responsibility, which stands in
stark contrast to kind of an old culture which said if it feels good,
do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else. People in the
country are beginning to understand that there is a -- you're
responsible for loving your children. If you're fortunate enough to be
a mom or a dad, you're responsible for loving your child with all your
heart. (Applause.) If you're worried about the quality of the
education in which you -- in the community in which you live, you're
responsible for doing something about it. Just don't hope for some
magic response from a faraway government. (Applause.) If you're a CEO
in corporate America, you're responsible for telling the truth to your
shareholders and your employees. (Applause.) And in this new
responsibility society, each of us are responsible for loving our
neighbor just like we'd like to be loved ourselves.
We've got a fabulous country. There's nothing we can't overcome.
Thank you for coming today. May God bless you all. (Applause.)