For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 3, 2003
President Bush Discusses Economy, Small Business in Wisconsin
Remarks by the President on the Economy
Midwest Airlines Center
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
10:29 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. Thanks for the warm welcome.
It's nice to be back in Milwaukee. Today I'm going to talk about some
of the challenges which face our country and why I believe our country
can overcome any challenge we face.
One of the reasons I'm optimistic about the future of our economy
is because of the entrepreneurial spirit of America, the
entrepreneurial spirit that is strong in Milwaukee and in the great
state of Wisconsin; the fact that there are people who are risk takers
and job creators, and people who, like me, see a better future for
those who are looking for work.
I'm here to herald the small businesses which are the strength of
the economy of the United States of America. (Applause.)
I want to thank Tim for inviting a few of his friends here today.
(Laughter.) Thanks for coming out. Thanks for your leadership, Tim.
I appreciate your willingness to give me a chance to talk about our
country.
I traveled today with a man who you trained well, a person who
serves in my Cabinet, in one of the most difficult jobs of all,
Secretary of Health and Human Services. He represents our country with
class and distinction, and that is Tommy Thompson. (Applause.)
Where's Tommy? There you go. (Applause.)
Let us not get carried away. (Laughter.) You know him well. He's
a good guy.
Today I also had the privilege of flying from Washington to
Milwaukee with three members of the congressional delegation from the
great state of Wisconsin: Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, and Paul
Ryan. These are fine -- (applause). We had a great visit on the
plane. There is no air raids on Air Force One, by the way.
(Laughter.) And it's a chance for us to talk about issues of concern
and one thing is clear, the three love the state of Wisconsin and they
represent you well, and I'm proud to call them friends, and I enjoy
working with them. I enjoy working with them to try to change the tone
in Washington, to elevate the discourse, to get rid of needless
politics and partisan bickering and focus on the people's business.
They understand what I'm talking about, and they're good, strong
leaders.
I want to thank the members of the State House who have come
today. Jack Voight, who is the State Treasurer; Mary Panzer, who is
the State Senate Majority Leader; Steve Foti is the State Assembly
Majority Leader. I want to thank you all for coming, as well.
(Applause.) There's a lot of local officials here, starting with Scott
Walker, the county executive. (Applause.) The sheriff is here, David
Clarke. (Applause.) I want to thank everybody else for coming, too.
Today when I landed, I met a fellow named Roy Bubeck. You don't
know Bubeck at all, and I didn't either -- maybe some of you do. The
reason I herald him is because he is a soldier in the army of
compassion. He's one of these kind citizens who has decided to make a
difference in other people's lives. A lot of times we talk about the
strength of America, and people automatically think about maybe the
size of our wallet or the strength of our military. No, the strength
of our country is the fact that we've got fantastic citizens who hurt
when somebody hurts, who worry when somebody needs help.
Roy runs Badger Mutual Insurance Company. He understands that he
employs a lot of really decent folks who care about the community in
which they live. And he's assumed his responsibility as a CEO in this
way: he offers paid leave to employees to go out and help in a
neighborhood. He's encouraged people in his company to mentor a
child. He's encouraged people to go tutor, so that if a child is
having trouble learning to read, he or she can succeed in life. What
I'm telling you is, he is encouraging people of compassion by providing
leave for those folks in their business.
No, the strength of this country is the fact that when communities
all across America, when we find somebody who hurts, there is some good
soul willing to stand up and say, I love you. America's greatness is
the heart and soul of the American people. (Applause.)
And I want to thank Roy for his leadership and encourage others who
are CEOs in corporate America to encourage those who've heard the call
to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself to do so by
good corporate policy.
I said we had faced some challenges. I want to review some of the
challenges we faced, if we can kind of summarize the obstacles we
overcome, you'll see why I'm such an optimistic person, because we have
overcome a lot as a nation.
First of all, the market -- stock market began a decline in March
of 2000. That affected a lot of citizens, because we are slowly but
surely becoming an ownership society in America. More and more people
are owning equities or bonds as a result of 401(k)s or pension plans.
A stock market decline affects people. They affect their pocketbooks,
they affect their -- obviously, their wealth. And the market began a
decline. In early 2001, we had a recession, three-quarters of negative
growth. In other words, our economy was not doing very well.
We acted, and Congress -- with the Congress, we acted by passing
tax relief. And by far, the vast majority of economic historians would
say that as a result of the tax relief, the recession was shallow
because we started coming out after three-quarters.
Some would say, well, maybe the recession should have run its
course, maybe it should have been deep, and you shouldn't have had the
tax relief. My concern is about the people who are looking for work.
You see, I'm not worried about the numbers. What I am worried about is
the lives affected by recession. Shallow recession was good because
fewer people were laid off, fewer people hurt, fewer people were
worried about their -- about their future.
Things started getting going okay, though. And then we were
attacked on September the 11th, 2001, and that hurt us. It hurt the
economy. But it hurt our psyche, as well. See, we grew up in a time
when we thought oceans could protect us, that there may have been
threats overseas, but we could pick or choose which threats to deal
with because we were invulnerable here in America. And that changed on
that fateful day. All of a sudden, it became apparent to all of us
that an enemy could hurt us at home, an enemy that hates what we stand
for.
Our security became threatened. We had a new responsibility in
Washington, D.C., and at the state level, and at the local level to do
everything we can to secure the homeland. We have a new charge to
keep. September the 11th not only affected us in the pocketbook, it
changed the strategic vision of our country, that we just couldn't see
threats gathering overseas and ignore them, that we had to deal with
them before they came to hit us.
The realities of September the 11th changed the way America must
view threats. I vowed on September the 11th -- after September the
11th, that I would do everything in my power, with a great country, to
hunt down those who killed Americans, plotted against Americans, and
bring them to justice. And that's exactly what we are doing.
(Applause.)
Thanks to a lot of brave Americans and coalition friends, we're
dismantling al Qaeda, person by person. It doesn't matter how long it
takes, we will complete the job, for the security of our country. I
also put a doctrine out after September the 11th, 2001, that said, if
you harbor a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, if you feed a
terrorist, you are just as guilty as the terrorist, and we have upheld
that doctrine. (Applause.)
We upheld that doctrine in Afghanistan. The Taliban was a regime
which allowed for the al Qaeda to train, it gave them safe haven. At
the same time, by the way, one of the most barbaric regimes in the
history of mankind. The United States led a coalition to not only
uphold that doctrine, but to free the people of Afghanistan. We
believe strongly in this country that freedom is not America's gift to
the world, we believe strongly that freedom is God's gift to every
individual in the world. (Applause.)
Thanks to the United States and our coalition, the Afghan people
are free from the Taliban, America is more secure, and young girls --
many young girls for the first time now go to school. (Applause.) We
not only acted to make our country more secure, to do our duty to deal
with threats or the potential threats, but at the same time we freed
people.
We took action in Iraq, as well. I made it clear that we wanted to
work with the international community, we want to enforce the United
Nations resolutions that time and time again had called for Mr. Saddam
Hussein to disclose and destroy weapons of mass destruction. He
ignored the world, he chose defiance. He is no more, and the world is
a better place because of it. (Applause.)
Yesterday, Dr. David Kay and his team reported to the Congress
about three months of investigations into the regime of Saddam Hussein
and his weapons programs. It's an interim report. By the way, it was
completed under incredibly difficult circumstances.
Let me tell you what the report said. It states that Saddam
Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories.
They had a live strain of deadly agent called botulinum. And he had
sophisticated concealment efforts. In other words, he's hiding his
programs. He had advanced design work done on prohibited long-range
missiles.
The report summarized the regime's efforts this way, and I quote
Dr. Kay, his report. "Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two
decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and it was
elaborately shielded by security and deception operations that
continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom." That's what
this man stated in his report. That's what the report said.
Specifically, Dr. Kay's team discovered what the report calls,
"Dozens of WMD related program activities and significant amounts of
equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the
inspections that began in late 2002." In addition to these extensive
concealment efforts, Dr. Kay found systematic destruction of evidence
of the illegal activities.
This interim progress report is not final. Extensive work remains
to be done on his biological, chemical and nuclear programs. But these
findings already make clear that Saddam Hussein actively deceived the
international community, was in clear violation of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1441 and was a danger to the world. The
world is a better place when we got rid of Saddam Hussein. (Applause.)
We have more work to do in Iraq. A free Iraq, a peaceful Iraq will
help change an area of the world that needs peace and freedom. A
peaceful Iraq and a free Iraq is part of our campaign to rid the world
of terror. And that's why the thugs in Iraq still resist us, because
they can't stand the thought of free societies. They understand what
freedom means. See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations
don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass
destruction. There will be a free and peaceful Iraq. What's taking
place in Iraq is the evolution of a society, to be democratic in nation
-- nature, a society in which the people are better off.
I met with Bernie Kerik this morning in the Oval Office. He's a
former police commissioner in New York City. He was charged with going
to Baghdad to help the Iraqis develop a police force. When he got
there, there was no police force. The place was in shambles. And in a
very quick period of time -- remember, we've been there for about four
months-plus. He helped develop a police force. Over 37,000 Iraqis now
are patrolling the streets of Baghdad to make it a safer place.
The reason I bring this up is we'll work hard to bring the thugs
and terrorists to justice in Baghdad. We would rather fight them there
than our own streets. But, eventually, Iraq will be safe and secure
because the Iraqi people have made the decision to live a peaceful and
free life. And it's happening. It's happening every day. We will
stay the course. We will not be intimidated by thugs who are trying to
create fear, and the conditions for us to remove. A free Iraq is
essential to making sure that America and the future generations of
America are able to live in peace and freedom. (Applause.)
No, the attacks of September the 11th, and the march to war leading
up to the Iraqi excursion, affected the psychology of the country. We
had a recession, and we had the attacks, the national emergency, plus
the march to war. But we're a strong country. We're a resilient
country because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong and things seem to
be okay.
We also had another hurdle to cross, and that is we had some
corporate CEOs that forgot their responsibility to our society. They
didn't tell the truth. They didn't tell the truth to their employees
and their shareholders. They failed to uphold the high standards
expected in America. And, therefore, they're going to pay the price.
(Applause.) We expect -- we expect people in positions of
responsibility, to behave responsibly and to tell the truth.
(Applause.)
We passed tough laws. I want to thank the Congress for working on
those laws. And we're holding people to account. By far, the vast
majority of people in corporate America are honest, decent folks. But
we need to send a signal that we expect honesty throughout our
country.
And then the country wasn't -- government wasn't -- the economy
wasn't growing like we wanted, and so I called Congress back into
action one more time on tax relief, historic tax relief. We passed tax
relief. It's based upon this theory: when somebody has more money in
their pocket, they're more likely to demand a good or a service. And
in our society, when you demand a good or a service, somebody is going
to produce the good or a service. And when somebody meets that demand
with production, it means somebody is more likely to be able to find a
job. The tax relief we passed, letting people keep more of their own
money, is an essential ingredient to making sure people can find work
in America. (Applause.)
So we expanded the child credit from $600 to $1,000 per child, and
worked with Congress to get that extra $400 per child paid out to
families this summer. The check was in the mail, and it actually got
to you, I hope. (Applause.)
We reduced the effects of the marriage penalty. What kind of tax
code is it that discourages marriage? It's a tax code that needed to
be changed. (Applause.) We cut the taxes on dividends and capital
gains to help encourage investment and savings. This action
particularly helped many seniors, because a lot of seniors rely upon
investment income to live on. And as a positive effect, it also helped
with capital formation.
We reduced the taxes on everybody who pays taxes -- we didn't pick
or choose, everybody who pays taxes will get a reduction. (Applause.)
This is an important part of the tax relief plan, what I just
described, the reduction of taxes on everybody who pays, because it has
an incredibly positive effect on small businesses. Cutting the
individual tax rates has got an effect on small businesses, because
most small businesses are subchapter S corporations or sole
proprietorships, which means they pay tax at the individual tax rate.
It's very important for our countrymen to understand that part of
the tax relief plan. Two-thirds of those who pay the top rate in our
tax code, individual tax code, are small business owners. Seventy
percent of new jobs in America are created by small businesses.
(Applause.) It seems to make sense, if you're trying to create new
jobs, to allow small businesses to keep more of their own money. If 70
percent of the new jobs in America are created by small business, and
by reducing all tax rates puts money into small business' pockets, it
seems to make sense that people ought to be supporting the tax cuts all
across America. (Applause.)
The tax relief plan meant more capital in the pockets of the small
business owners, which means somebody is more likely to find a job, and
that's what we're here talking about. We care about our fellow
citizens. We want to make sure somebody who is hurting has a chance to
succeed in life by working. We also encouraged investment to small
businesses by increasing the annual expense deduction of investments
from $25,000 to $100,000. See, that encourages people to buy a piece
of equipment, for example.
Today, I met with three business owners here from the Milwaukee
area. I met with Al Hentzen. Al has got a -- what he calls a general
industrial business. It provides paints and coatings for industry.
He's been in business 80 years. He explained to me that the tax relief
plan that we passed encouraged him and helped him add 12 new employees
this year. You see, there's a lot of Al's all across America. If the
plan helped Al, there's no telling how many other people made the same
decision Al did. You add 12 here, you add 12 there, you add 50 here,
and all of a sudden people are finding work. Small businesses create
70 percent of the new jobs. The tax plan we passed encouraged Al, Al
Hentzen, to add 12 new employees this year, and he's optimistic about
adding more next year. (Applause.)
Al Hentzen says, we're not putting tax relief back into our
pockets. This is what the leader of this small business. or medium-
size business says. It goes right back into the company, whether in
new people, or in machinery. And you see, when Al and his company
decides to buy a machine, somebody has got to make the machine. And
that means somebody in the machine-making company is more likely to
find a job, as well. When Al makes a decision, he increases demand for
a product. That demand for that product will be met in our
marketplace. The more demand there is for a product, the more likely
one of our citizens is going to find work.
I talked to John Stollenwerk today. He runs Allen-Edmonds. I
happen to have one of his products on my feet. (Laughter and
applause.) You probably think this is a gross pander. (Laughter.)
But I wear John Stollenwerk's products nearly every day, except when
I'm running. (Laughter.) He makes a great product. One of the
world's finest shoes.
He bought the company 20 years ago, he made the conscious decision
to fix it up to make the right decisions so he could keep people
working here in Wisconsin. He says, not only am I successful because
of the products we make, but I'm successful because of the people that
work with him. I appreciate that attitude. You see, there's a
company, CEO, that focuses on his employees, and understands that
without good employees, he's not going anywhere.
He bought a million dollars worth of equipment because of the
incentives we put into the tax package. That's a million dollars of
purchases in the marketplace. Somebody is meeting the demand for that
million dollars' worth of equipment. He says, I will take the money
and invest it. This is the money that he has saved from the tax relief
plan. He's a subchapter S corporation. They pay taxes at the
individual rates. When we cut the individual rates, he ends up with
more cash flow, plus the incentives on the investment side. He says, I
will take that money and invest it and spend it, and I will do it more
efficiently than the federal government could. (Applause.)
Big John Weise is with us today. I say "big John" because he's a
big guy. (Laughter.) His business is called F. Barkow, Inc. He helps
get glass windows safely to factories and construction sites. This
company has been doing this for 125 years. They have gone from
horse-drawn carriages to now make products for trucks to move glass.
He told me that as a result of the tax plan passed by the Congress,
now in effect, that he is going to purchase a turret press to replace
the one that his company has had in place since 1971. Somebody is
going to make that turret press for him. There's somebody who's
getting a job because John has decided to make an additional purchase
because of the tax relief plan.
As well, the new turret press -- a 1971 press may be a good press,
but it's not going to be as good as one manufactured 34 years later, or
33 years later. See, technology is changing. When he gets the new
press, it's going to make him more productive. And as a more
productive company, it means he can compete better. So not only is the
decision he made good for the turret manufacturer, it's good to making
sure his company can stay competitive, so he can compete. We have a
competitive marketplace.
New investment helps our owners and our companies compete. That's
what we want, we want open competition. It's good for consumers, it's
good for America that we compete. This tax relief helped him a lot,
and it helped him make a lot of good decisions. He wants a new fork
lift, two new welding machines, a metal cutter. In other words, the
tax relief increased demand. It's helping him make his company more
productive. But the people who are making the products for John's
company are also likely to find work.
No, the tax relief we passed was necessary for economic vitality.
If you're interested in job creation, you need to support this tax
relief that we passed. (Applause.) You wonder why I say, support it,
because I'm going to tell you a little later on, it's fixing to go
away, unless we do something about it. But in the meantime, I do want
to share with you the fact that there is some positive signs that we're
growing. Inflation is low, after-tax incomes are rising, home
ownership is near record highs.
That's great, by the way. We want people owning things in our
society. You know, America is better off when we're an ownership
society. If you own something, you have a stake in the future of our
country. We want people from all walks of life owning a home. We have
a minority home ownership gap in America, and we've got to do something
about it. And I've submitted a good, solid plan to the United States
Congress, and I hope they act on it. We want more people owning things
in America. Productivity is high. In other words, our workers are
incredibly efficient. We've got the best workers in the world, and our
productivity is high. (Applause.)
Today there was a report on unemployment, which shows that we added
57,000 new jobs in America. It's the first time that's happened in
seven months. Things are getting better. But there's still work to
do. A lot of Wisconsin manufacturers hurt. It's tough sledding, tough
times, and I understand that. We've got manufacturers in a lot of
parts of our country that are lagging the rest of economic -- economic
vitality. It's a slow sector. And what I'm about to describe to you
is what more we can do to not only help our small businesses, but help
our manufacturing sectors, to create the conditions so the
manufacturing sector can compete and survive and succeed.
First, Washington must put good forth -- good policies forth that
will help small businesses deal with health care costs. Health care
costs are on the rise. It affects a lot of small businesses. It makes
it tougher to cash flow, and to be positive and optimistic. One of the
things I think we need to do, and I think it would make a big
difference, is to allow small businesses to band together and to pool
their risks, called associated health care plans, so that they can have
the same purchasing power as big companies have. One way to help small
businesses control costs -- (applause). One way to help small
businesses control costs is for Congress to pass the associated health
care plans. I strongly support them. I think they're necessary.
And as well, in order to help control costs, we need medical
liability reform. I have analyzed, or had analyzed for me, what all
these lawsuits -- (laughter). I delegate. (Laughter.) Let me start
over. (Laughter.) People on my staff -- (laughter) -- looked at the
cost of preventative medicine. (Laughter.) You see, there's a lot of
lawsuits flying around which caused some docs to quit practicing
medicine, which makes medicine less available, and some docs to
practice preventative medicine so that if and when they get sued, they
can say they did everything possible in order to protect themselves
from lawsuit. That drives up the cost of medicine. It caused our
federal government billions of dollars. The practice of practicing
preventative medicine costs the government billions, which drives up
the cost of Medicaid and Medicare and veterans health costs.
Therefore, I've concluded that medical liability is a national
problem that requires a national solution. I've submitted a good plan
to the Congress. I want to thank the three members here who supported
medical liability reform in the House. It is stuck in the Senate. The
senators must understand -- that are holding up this bill -- that
medical liability reform is necessary. It's good for our small
business sector, which will be good for job creation. It is good for
American consumers. No one's ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit.
(Applause.)
We need to do something about class-action lawsuits, as well.
We've got a system today where people are able to shop a class-action
lawsuit for a sympathetic jury in the state courts, even though this is
federal in nature. In other words, they cross jurisdictional
boundaries. They're shopping it, who can find the best jury. And then
the lawyers get all the money and the people damaged don't. It's a
system that needs reform. There's a good bill that has passed the
House of Representatives. It is stuck in the Senate. (Laughter.)
It's an action that would allow class action and mass tort actions to
be tried in the federal courts. And the other reform is to let the
people who have been harmed to get the money, and not the lawyers. We
need class action reform, for the sake of job creation. We need tort
reform at the state level for the sake of job creation, as well.
We need a national energy policy. The manufacturing sector needs a
reliable supply of energy. The uncertainty that comes with an
antiquated electricity grid is difficult on the manufacturing sector.
The manufacturing sector consumes a lot of energy, and therefore this
nation needs a national energy plan. We need to use our technologies
to conserve better. We need to use our technologies to help develop
new sources of energy. I mean, I'd like to be growing our way out of
an energy crisis. We need ethanol, we need bio-fuels.
But we also need to make sure we emphasize clean coal technology.
We've got a lot of coal. We've got technological know-how. We've got
to make sure that the Congress passes a national energy strategy that
utilizes the resources at hand. What I'm telling you is, for the sake
of economic security and for the sake of national security, we need a
national energy strategy so we become less dependent on foreign sources
of energy. (Applause.)
Fourthly, we need less regulation on small businesses. Regulation
ties up all kinds of time that could be used for productive uses for
meeting demand. We're working on it at the federal level. I've
streamlined tax reporting requirements recently for America's small
businesses. The way we calculate it is, is this year, 2.6 million
small business owners will save 61 million hours as a result of tax
simplification. That's 61 million more hours that will go to help the
company compete. Some regulations are necessary; over-regulating is
not necessary. And it puts enormous strain, particularly on the small
business sector in America.
Fifth, we've got to have free trade policy that includes fair
trade. See, I believe if you're good at something, you ought to
promote it. I want Wisconsin's farmers selling their product
overseas. Allen-Edmonds sells 25 percent of their goods overseas. We
need to be knocking down trade barriers so we can sell our products to
other people. We also have got to make sure other people treat us
fairly. Our manufacturing sector needs to be fair -- treated fairly.
(Applause.)
So we've been talking to countries about currency policy to make
sure that the currency policies of a government don't disadvantage
America. Fair trade means currency policies is fair. The
manufacturing sector is concerned about the playing field being level.
This administration will work to level that playing field. We can
compete with anybody. We just expect the rules to treat us fairly.
(Applause.)
Finally, this tax relief plan I described to you needs to be
permanent. You say, why isn't it permanent? Well, that's Washington.
(Laughter.) You see, in order to get it out of one of the bodies
there, they had to make the tax relief temporary. We got rid of the
death tax, it looked like, which is important for small business owners
and Wisconsin's farmers, and because we -- (applause). We don't
believe it's fair to tax a person's assets twice. If you're working
all your life to build up your small business, and you want to leave it
whoever you want to leave it to, they shouldn't -- that asset shouldn't
be taxed twice, shouldn't tax your income when you're making money, and
shouldn't tax it when you pass it on to your son, daughter, whoever you
want to pass it on to, it doesn't make -- we're working with the
Congress to get rid of it. It nearly got rid of, but because of a
quirk in the rules in the Senate, it will come back in 2011. It's kind
of hard to plan, isn't it? (Laughter.) You kind of phase it out, and
it pops back up.
The child credit, which has gone from $600 to $1,000, falls back to
$700 in 2005. The government giveth -- (laughter) ? and government
taketh away. Marriage penalty begins to scale back up. A family of
four making $40,000 income will go up $922 in the year 2005.
My point to the Congress is that people who invest capital in the
small business sector need certainty in the tax code. People who are
planning for the future need to know what the rules are going to be in
the future. And the idea of passing tax relief which is here one day
and gone tomorrow is not good for economic recovery. For the sake of
job creation, we need to put certainty in the tax code. All the tax
relief we passed must be permanent. (Applause.)
You will hear all kinds of reasons to raise taxes. One of them
will be the deficit. Yes, we have a deficit. Half the deficit is
caused by the fact that our country went into recession. When you go
into recession, there's less revenues coming into the Treasury. About
a quarter of our deficit was caused by the fact that we're at war. And
when we put our troops into harm's way, when we ask a lot of our young
men and women to sacrifice for our freedom and our security, they must
have the best pay, the best equipment and the best possible training.
(Applause.) We will spend what it takes to support our troops and we
will spend what it takes to defend the homeland. (Applause.)
About a quarter of the deficit came because we passed back taxes to
the people -- actually passed back your own money. And that was
necessary
to get the economy going. If half the deficit was caused because
we lost revenues, it seems to make sense that we want to crank up the
economy so we get those revenues back, the revenues come back in the
Treasury.
No, one quarter of the deficit was caused by the tax relief
necessary to stimulate economic growth, the tax relief that also was
necessary to make sure the recession was not so deep, that it didn't
hurt people.
So we have a deficit. The best way to solve the deficit -- and I
have submitted a budget to the Congress which will cut the deficit in
half for five years -- is to keep in place the economic vitality
package and to hold the line on unnecessary spending in Washington,
D.C., is to bring much needed fiscal discipline to our nation's
capital. (Applause.)
Now, we've been tested. This country has been tested.
Two-and-a-half years, a lot of circumstances has tested our resolve and
our character, and we met that test. This is a strong nation.
(Applause.)
We're not going to intimidated by thugs and killers. They don't
understand our nation. Those who attacked us thought we would fold
tent and kind of file a lawsuit. (Laughter.) They just don't
understand the resolve. They don't understand the courage of our
military. They don't understand our will to do our duty, which is to
protect the American people.
We're a strong nation. The entrepreneurial spirit in this country
is really strong. We've got people who put that sign out there, say,
the American Dream is meant for you, that if you want to own your own
business, get after it. The government's role is not to create wealth,
but the conditions in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish.
You're welcome to the American Dream, no matter who you are or
where you're from. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong, and that's
what's going to lead this recovery. The people are going to be able to
find work because the small business owners of America are risk takers,
bold thinkers, and love their country, and are willing to expand the
job base.
No, the spirit of America is strong. There are thousands of our
citizens who, when they see somebody who hurts, are loving them, like I
said earlier. There are people, when they see the hunger -- hungry,
provide the food. When they know somebody is homeless, provide the
shelter. There are people who are helping little children understand
what is necessary to learn to read. There are drug addicts who
suffer. Yet there are great faith-based programs in America who are
helping to heal hearts first, and then change habits. The faith of
this country - (applause.) We're a strong country because of our
values. We believe in justice, we believe in human dignity, and we
believe in freedom. And it is such an honor to represent this great
land.
May God bless you all, and may God bless America. Thank you all.
(Applause.)
END 11:15 A.M. CDT
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