    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [June 19, 2003]
    [Pages 655-660]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Fridley, Minnesota
    June 19, 2003

        Thank you all very much. Forget the Spam; I like coming to Minnesota
    because of the people. [Laughter] Thanks for coming today, and I
    appreciate the warm welcome.
        Speaking about sports teams, I had the honor of hosting some sports
    teams there in the White House this week, two of which happened to be
    from the great State of Minnesota. It seems like the folks up here know
    how to play hockey. I welcomed the men's and women's hockey national
    champs from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and University of
    Minnesota-Duluth. And I've got to tell you, I was impressed by the
    character of the people on those teams. I know you're proud of them.
    It's an honor to have met them. They told me I'm going to see them next
    year, so--[laughter]--just like I saw them last year. [Laughter]
        But it's great to be here. I also want to thank the
    Hamiltons, Harold and Eleanor, for opening up their business to--[applause]. Harold
    told me that he started his business at the kitchen table. It's really
    what America is all about, when you think about it. Thirty years ago,
    Harold and Eleanor sat down at the kitchen table--it might have been
    before lunch or after lunch, I don't know which one--but they said,
    ``Why don't we see if we can't create an opportunity for not only our
    family but for others, an opportunity to work.''

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        That's what we call the entrepreneurial spirit. That's the spirit
    that enables Americans to realize if they work hard, they can achieve a
    dream. Good government recognizes the importance of the entrepreneurial
    spirit, and good government creates an environment in which the
    entrepreneur can flourish. And that's why I worked with the United
    States Congress to cut the taxes not only on the working people but on
    the entrepreneurs of America, so they can better realize their dreams.
        I want to thank Governor Tim Pawlenty for
    doing in office what he told you he was going to do. I appreciate your
    State auditor. She, along with Tim, traveled
    from the airport. There was no road rage today. [Laughter] If you got
    caught--if you got caught in the motorcade, I'm sorry. [Laughter] But we
    made it in record time from the airport. [Laughter]
        I appreciate other State leaders--the Lieutenant Governor is here; the  is here;
    the majority leader of the State house is here.
    Thank you all for coming. I'm honored you're here.
        I just had a chance to not only visit with the owner of this fine
    company, but I had a chance to visit with other entrepreneurs--some of
    whom I'll mention in my address--and some of the good folks who work for
    the companies, good, hard-working Minnesota folks who are going to
    receive significant tax benefit, significant tax relief.
        See, one of the things that I understand is, in Washington, DC, when
    we talk about money, we are not talking about the Government's money.
    We're talking about the people's money. And I had a chance to visit with
    some of the people whose money we're talking about, and what they intend
    to do with it. The message I heard over and over again from moms and
    dads was that they intend to save it for their children's future, and
    that's really important. It means people in this part of the world
    understand that a responsible society is one in which moms and dads
    understand their most important responsibility is to love their children
    with all your heart and all their soul.
        I met Deborah Simonet. She's an
    application developer for 3M. She's a single mom. That's the hardest job
    in America, being a single mom. And she is saving for her son's college
    education. She gets pretty good tax relief, over $1,000 worth of tax
    relief, money that she gets to decide how to use, money she can allocate
    according to her needs.
        I met the Steins, Jennifer and Terry. They've got five kids. They're a young family.
    He's working three jobs. She works a job at home, so she can not only
    put a little extra money on the table but take care of her kids as well.
    They're going to get good, substantial tax relief. For the sake of their
    children, they will have additional money. They get to decide to do with
    the money. It's their money, after all, to begin with.
        And this tax relief plan that I worked with Congress to pass
    recognizes that when you've got an economic issue, you've got a people
    issue. And the more money people have in their pocket, the more likely
    this economy is going to grow.
        There's been a lot made about the military might of the United
    States of America, and we're plenty tough. And we're plenty tough and
    plenty strong because we have a job to do, and that job is to protect
    America from the designs of terrorists who hate what we stand for. That
    is a charge we have been given. Protecting America is a charge we have
    been given, and it is a charge we will keep. And we have made it clear
    to people: If you harbor a terrorist, if you provide aid for a
    terrorist, you're just as guilty as any terrorist, and the United States
    of America will hold you to account.
        We're bringing Al Qaida to justice. And for those we haven't brought
    to justice yet, we're hot on their trail. We're close by. We've got them
    on the run, and we'll keep them on the run. We sent a clear message

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    to the Taliban in Afghanistan: ``If you harbor and train terrorists, you
    will be held to account.'' The Taliban is no more, and the people of
    Afghanistan are free, thanks to America and our friends and allies.
        We sent a clear message to Saddam Hussein: ``Disarm. The world has asked you to disarm for 12
    solid years, and now is the time, for the security of America and our
    friends and for peace in the world, for you to disarm.'' And we gave him
    plenty chance to do so, and he chose to defy the United States and our
    friends and allies. The regime of Saddam Hussein is no more. America is
    more secure; the world is more peaceful; and the long-suffering people
    of Iraq are now free.
        This Nation is plenty strong militarily, but it's not the true
    strength of America. The true strength of America is the fact that we've
    got millions of fellow citizens who are willing to love a neighbor just
    like they would like to be loved themselves. That's the real strength of
    this country, because we're a deep and compassionate nation. When we see
    suffering, whether it be here at home or abroad, we care.
        So today when I landed, I met a fellow named Ron Strauss. He is a--works for Cargill Cares Volunteer Council. He's
    just one of thousands of people here in the State of Minnesota that
    understand their job is to help somebody who hurts. He volunteers time
    to make a difference in somebody's life. He is willing to serve his
    country and his community by helping mentor a child, or by starting a
    Boys or Girls Club, or being a Scout leader amongst young kids, setting
    a good example, teaching somebody to read. There's all kinds of ways in
    which you can help serve your Nation by loving somebody like you would
    like to be loved yourself. I want to thank Ron for coming. And I want to
    thank all who are volunteering to make Minnesota a compassionate State.
        And if you're interested in serving, just go to USA Freedom Corps on
    the computer, pull it up on the Internet, and there's all kinds of ways
    for you to serve our Nation. No, this country is militarily strong, but
    our true strength is the heart of our fellow citizens.
        We have faced challenge in this Nation. We faced challenges to our
    security; we faced challenges to our economic security as well. I mean,
    starting in early '01, this Nation was in recession, which is three
    quarters of negative growth, a recession which affected the Treasury of
    the United States of America but, more significantly, a recession which
    affected the pocketbooks of our American citizens. Too many people who
    wanted to work couldn't find a job.
        And things started to get kind of righted, a little better. Then all
    of a sudden the terrorists hit us, and the attacks of September the
    11th, 2001, affected the economy of the United States. It hurt our
    economy. But we were strong, and we were resilient.
        And then we found out some of our fellow citizens were not
    responsible citizens because they cooked the books. They had a
    responsibility to shareholder and employee, and they didn't tell the
    truth. They had positions of responsibility as CEOs in corporate
    America, and they didn't assume those positions responsibly. And the
    corporate scandals affected the psychology of the country, kind of shook
    our confidence a little bit.
        And then we had war. And when you hear about war all the time on
    your TV screens, the speculation of war and the discussion of war, it's
    not conducive to a confident tomorrow.
        But we acted. We acted by holding corporate scoundrels to account.
    We said loud and clear, if you cheat the shareholder and your employees,
    you will be held responsible for those decisions.
        The world is now more peaceful because we acted.
        But we also acted in concert with many in the United States Congress
    by passing two significant tax relief packages. You see, we understand
    that when things are slow

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    in the economy, you've got to increase demands for good and services.
    And the best way to increase demand for good and services, so that
    somebody will produce a good or a service--and when somebody produces a
    good or a service, somebody is more likely to find work--is to let
    people keep more of their own money. That tax relief package we passed 2
    years ago helped make the recession one of the shallowest in our
    Nation's history. And then I just finished signing another tax relief
    package, and that package is going to be good for a lot of folks. And I
    believe it's going to put wind at our back as this economy recovers from
    what has been a very tough period of time.
        Right here in Minnesota, companies are adjusting withholding tables
    so that the working folks of this State will see more take-home pay. Tax
    relief not only means more take-home pay, but if you happen to be a mom
    or a dad with young children, you'll see the child credit go up from
    $600 a child to $1,000 a child. And a lot of those checks are going to
    be in the mail to you for the differential this July. As some of them
    like to say in Washington, the check's in the mail. [Laughter] In this
    case, it better be--[laughter]--or somebody's going to be looking for
    work. [Laughter]
        As well, Congress is debating further relief for a family with
    children, further extension of the child credit. I urge them to complete
    the work on this legislation soon and get it to my desk.
        As well, tax relief means a reduced marriage penalty. You see, we
    want the Tax Code to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage. Tax
    relief means lower rates on dividends and capital gains, now at 15
    percent, to help more than a half a million Minnesota savers.
        Tax relief means a lot for small business. You hear all the rhetoric
    coming out of Washington, DC, kind of class warfare rhetoric. But let me
    tell you why this tax relief is really good for American economy,
    besides encouraging more consumer spending and better consumer
    confidence: because most small businesses pay tax at the individual
    income-tax rate. If you're a Subchapter S or a sole proprietorship, you
    pay tax based upon what the individual pays. And so therefore, when I
    talk about tax relief, really what I'm talking about is more money into
    the treasuries of small businesses. And after all, that's important
    because 75 percent of the new jobs in America are created by small
    businesses all across this country.
        This tax relief package allowed for higher expense deduction for
    small businesses, from $25,000 a year to $100,000 a year. And if a small
    firm invests more than $100,000, it will then qualify for a 50 percent
    bonus depreciation. Let me tell you what all that means. It means people
    are more likely to buy equipment. If there's an incentive for capital
    expenditure and confidence is coming back, people are more likely to
    make that expenditure.
        Just ask the Hamiltons. Here at Micro Control, they've got 140 employees--up from
    2, 30 years ago. And so the fundamental question is, can those folks
    stay working, or can he add jobs? One of the ways you add jobs is to
    make the workforce more productive. And one of the ways you make the
    workforce more productive is you add equipment, which makes your workers
    more productive.
        And so I asked Harold, I said, ``You've
    seen the tax bill; you've seen what--I'm sure you've looked at the
    consequences of what this means for your company.'' He said, ``Yes, it
    means it's more likely we're going to hire a mechanical shaker.'' I
    didn't know what it meant. [Laughter] But I do know this, somebody is
    going to have to manufacture the mechanical shaker, which means somebody
    in some other plant is likely to find a job. He assures me the
    mechanical shaker makes his workforce more productive, which means not
    only the workers here are going to be likely to stay at work, but it may
    just mean he has to hire additional people to make that machine work.
    The Tax Code, the tax relief

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    plan, has encouraged Harold and his wife to
    make additional investment, which is good for the economy.
        I met Brian Dahl. He and his business
    partners purchased Capital Wood Products 12 years ago, and they moved it
    to St. Paul in the year 2000. What he wants to do to stay competitive is
    to purchase additional software. The tax bill that I signed provides
    incentives for Brian to purchase software so that his company is more
    productive. As he purchases the software, somebody has got to make it
    and sell it to him, and that somebody--means that they're more likely to
    stay at work.
        You see, when you provide incentives to the Tax Code and people make
    rational decisions because of those incentives, it has an effect beyond
    the wall of the company just making the decisions. It ripples throughout
    the economy. If you're interested in job creation, which is what I'm
    interested in, I want to see good public policy that encourages jobs to
    be created in the private sector. And that's exactly what we have done.
        Tim Rashleger is with us, with Milltronics
    Manufacturing. I met a couple of his employees. He wants them to keep
    working; that's what he wants. He's a little worried about his company's
    future. He analyzed the tax bill and said--in his words, not mine--he
    said, ``This could save our company.'' And not only that, he's going to
    make additional investments this year; I think he told me $250,000 worth
    of additional investments. The tax bill saves his company $26,000.
    That's a lot for Tim. It's good news for his employees. But there's a
    lot of Tims across the country, just not the Tim right here in this
    building. There are Tims all across America who are the entrepreneurs of
    this country, the job creators of this country, who are more likely
    going to expand their job base.
        Listen, I'm interested in one thing. I'm interested in helping
    people find work. I want people who want to work to be able to find a
    job. The tax bill we passed understands the significance of small
    business in our society. The tax bill we passed is really good for the
    American economy and will make it more likely somebody is going to find
    a job.
        In order to make sure this country is hopeful and the economy
    expands and people feel secure, we need to deal with health care. We're
    on the verge of doing something really important for our seniors. We're
    going to make Medicare a modern system. And it's been hard to do in the
    past. But in the year 2003, it can be done. I believe it can be done.
        I met yesterday with a group of United States Senators from both
    political parties. The spirit is good there. The issue used to be called
    ``Medi-scare'' because people were afraid to talk about the issue
    because of the political ramifications. I hope we've put all that
    needless party politics aside and focused on doing what we want to do
    for our seniors and to have a health care system that is modern, a
    health care system which includes prescription drugs, and a health care
    system which gives seniors different choices so they can tailor their
    health care plans after their own needs. After all, Members of the
    Congress and their staffs have got the capacity to have choice in their
    health care systems. And my attitude is, if choice is good enough for
    the Members of the United States Congress, it's good enough for the
    seniors of the United States of America.
        The other issue regarding health care is whether or not health care
    is affordable and available, and one reason it's not in certain
    communities is because there's too many lawsuits. We've got too many
    junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care.
        Listen, we want to make sure anybody who is honestly injured ought
    to have their day in court, of course. And bad doctors ought to be held
    to account. But medical liability is like a lottery, and they're filing
    lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit, which causes premiums to go up,
    which means

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    your bills go up. And it means many doctors in hospitals practice
    preventative medicine, which means they prescribe more than is necessary
    in order to make sure they cover themselves in case of a lawsuit, which
    causes your costs to go up. And in a lot of places, docs just quit
    practicing, which is not good for America.
        Medical liability is a national issue--it drives the Medicaid
    budget; it drives the Medicare budget; it drives the veterans budget--
    and it requires a national solution. We've got a good bill out of the
    United States House of Representatives. We need to get it out of the
    United States Senate. And I would urge you to contact your United States
    Senators, one of whom I think is a pretty good vote on this issue.
        We're worried about regulation on small business in Washington, DC.
    We understand what regulation does to our small businesses. I believe in
    associated health care plans for small businesses, to allow small
    businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional lines so as to reduce the
    cost to small businesses and their employees. The House is taking this
    bill up today--timely subject. I hope they pass it. And when they do,
    the United States Senate must act for the sake of affordable health care
    for the employees of small businesses all across this country.
        And finally, we've got another issue, and that's the issue of
    energy. For the sake of this economy, we need an energy plan. Listen, I
    came to this good State and laid out an energy plan for Congress to
    consider. It was a plan that said we can do a better job of
    conservation, and we need to do that. We need to unleash new
    technologies.
        But we've got a--we've got a problem with natural gas here in
    America. The demand for natural gas is going up, but the supply isn't.
    And any time the demand for a product is going up and the supply is not
    going up, the price goes up. And our policy thus far on exploration for
    natural gas has not been very consumer-friendly. There's been a lot of
    false science put out about what exploration for natural gas would do to
    certain parts of our country.
        We're a technologically capable nation. We can explore for natural
    gas and protect our environment. We need a energy policy. We need an
    energy policy that not only helps the economic security of the United
    States; we need an energy policy that helps our national security, an
    energy policy which makes us less reliant on foreign sources of energy.
        And we've got a lot ahead of us to do, but I'm anxious to do the job
    that you want me to do. And I believe we can get that done. I believe
    it. Listen, I've seen this great spirit of this country. I've seen the
    determination of the American people, the fierce courage of those who
    wear our uniform, the love and compassion of those who are neighborhood
    healers and helpers. Now, we're lucky people to live in America. There
    is no challenge that we can't overcome. There's nothing we can't do when
    we put our mind to it. And I firmly believe because of the character of
    the American people, this world will be more peaceful; America will be
    more secure; and the people that live in this country will be more
    hopeful.
        I want to thank you all for coming today. May God bless you, and may
    God continue to bless the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:11 p.m. in the warehouse at Micro Control
    Co. In his remarks, he referred to Harold Hamilton, owner, Micro Control
    Co., and his wife, Eleanor; State Auditor Patricia Awada and Lt. Gov.
    Carol Molnau of Minnesota; Steve Sviggum, speaker, and Erik Paulsen,
    majority leader, Minnesota House of Representatives; former President
    Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Brian Dahl, owner, Capital Wood Products; and
    Tim Rashleger, owner, Milltronics Manufacturing.