    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [May 12, 2003]
    [Pages 470-477]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Omaha, Nebraska
    May 12, 2003

        The President. Thank you all very much. Thank you all for coming. It
    is--I'm so glad to be back in Nebraska. Thanks for coming by to say
    hello. It's an honor to be here. Brad, I want to
    thank you very much for opening up your fine facility to the entourage
    that travels with me and all these fine folks. I appreciate the
    entrepreneurial spirit of Airlite Plastics. I want to thank all the
    good, hard-working folks that work here to make this company a going
    concern. I appreciate your hospitality, and I want to congratulate you
    on your new building. It's a beautiful facility.
        I'm here to talk about some important matters facing this country.
    But before I do, I want to remind you about something in this
    administration: One half of the ticket was born right here in Nebraska.
    Our great Vice President, Dick Cheney, was born
    in Nebraska. No wonder he's given me such good advice.
        Thanks for coming out. I'm really proud to be introduced by Chuck
    Hagel. He's a fine United States Senator and a
    good friend. I appreciate him. He mentioned the Governor. I'm proud to
    call Mike Johanns my friend, and I'm glad he's
    here. And I appreciate the first lady of
    the State of Nebraska joining us here today too. It's good to see you
    all. Thanks for coming.
        I also appreciate so very much Ben Nelson
    Benjamin for coming, and his wife, Diane.

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    I'm honored you all are here. I'm pleased to have you here. Thanks for
    coming.
        You've done a pretty good job about selecting Congressmen--well,
    better than a pretty good job. You've done a great job here in Nebraska.
    I'm proud that Doug Bereuter is here and Lee
    Terry and Tom Osborne--all
    of them fine Members, and all of them good to work with. And you know
    what else--you let a man come across the border today to come here. And
    that would be Congressman Steve King from right
    across the way in Iowa.
        I'm honored the Lieutenant Governor is
    here. I'm honored the secretary of state is
    here. I'm honored the attorney general is here.
    I'm honored the State treasurer is here. I'm
    honored the State auditor is here. And I'm
    honored you all are here too. Thanks for coming.
        Before we talk about the issue facing this country and our
    responsibilities and how we're going to assume those responsibilities, I
    do want to talk about a lady I met at the airport today, a woman named
    Anne Carroll.
        Audience member. Woo-hoo!
        The President. Well, somebody's heard of her. That's good.
    [Laughter] You're probably wondering why I would even mention Anne
    Carroll. Well, let me tell you why. You see,
    there's a lot of talk across our country and around the world about
    America's muscle. They talk about our military might. They talk about
    our strength, but they overlook the true strength of the country. The
    true strength of the country is the heart and soul of the individuals in
    this country.
        Anne Carroll volunteers her time. She's
    very actively involved in the Habitat for Humanity and the International
    Meals on Wheels. She's involved with helping make somebody else's life
    better. You know, the great strength of America happens when a neighbor
    loves a neighbor in need.
        The great strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the
    American people. Don't ever let them tell you the great strength is the
    military strength. No, that's good. That helps. [Laughter] But we're a
    loving nation and a compassionate nation and a decent nation.
        And I want to thank Anne Carroll, and I
    want to thank all of you all who work hard to help a neighbor in need.
    And keep doing it. The best way to have a compassionate tomorrow for all
    our citizens is to put your arm around somebody who hurts and say, ``I
    love you. What can I do to help?''
        Now, we've been tested. This Nation has been tested. As Chuck reminded you, I was here on that fateful day. The enemy
    hit us. They thought we were going to fold our tent. They thought we
    were weak. They thought we were afraid. But what they've seen in the
    last 20 months is a relentless campaign against global terror, because
    we love our freedoms. What they have seen is a nation which stands
    strong when it comes to doing our duty and assuming our responsibilities
    to fight terror and to make our people more secure.
        It wasn't all that long ago that we sent our troops into Afghanistan
    in order to uphold the doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist,
    you're just as guilty as the terrorists,'' to uphold that doctrine that
    says, ``If you feed or hide a terrorist, we will hold you to account
    just like we're going to hold the terrorists to account.'' And the
    Taliban found out what we meant.
        As a result of the skill and bravery of the United States and our
    coalition friends and allies, we have freed the people of Afghanistan
    from the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of
    mankind. And now, as a result of our decisions and actions, many young
    girls go to school for the first time in Afghanistan.
        And we're still on the hunt. There's still Al Qaida operatives
    moving around. And we're going to stay on the hunt until we bring them
    to justice. We have a duty in this country to defend our freedoms. We
    have a responsibility to future generations of America to uphold our
    responsibility to

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    make this country secure. And we assume those duties, and we accept that
    responsibility.
        And so today, as I speak, there are Special Forces teams on the
    hunt, on the prowl. We're running down leads. We're cutting off their
    money. We're working with a vast coalition of nations which love
    freedom, and we'll stay on the hunt until we have totally dismantled the
    Al Qaida network to make this world more free.
        And part of the war on terror was dealing with the dictator in Iraq.
    Part of making this country more secure and the world more peaceful was
    going into Iraq and removing a dictator who had defied resolution after
    resolution after resolution from the international community, a dictator
    with known terrorist connections, a dictator who had weapons of mass
    destruction. No, we sent in some of the bravest of the brave. And as a
    result of their courage and sacrifice, America is more secure; the
    neighborhood is more peaceful; the world is more peaceful; and the Iraqi
    people are free.
        I want to thank very much the folks from Offutt Air Force Base who
    went over to the theater--the 55th, Fighting 55th went. About 1,500 of
    them participated in making sure the Al Faw Peninsula was secure, helped
    hunt down enemy Scud missiles, helped the recovery of seven POWs in
    northern Iraq. I'm proud to call them fellow Americans. For those of you
    who have got a loved one wearing this Nation's uniform, you thank them,
    and you tell them the Commander in Chief is incredibly proud.
        We haven't been at this long. It wasn't all that long ago that I
    gave Secretary Rumsfeld the orders to
    move in--less than 2 months ago that our military, along with others,
    started to liberate Iraq, but we're making progress toward achieving our
    objective. Our objective is to make the world more peaceful, and the
    best way to make the world more peaceful is to promote freedom. In
    America, we believe a free society is a society which is less likely to
    create terror activities. A free society is one in which people are more
    likely to channel their God-given talents in a constructive and positive
    way.
        No, we're in Iraq until Iraq is free, completely free. We will help
    rebuild that country. People with food on the table and with their
    lights on in their house and people that can move around freely without
    fear of a gang attacking them, these are people that are more likely to
    develop a society which is a free society. So first things first. And it
    doesn't matter how long it takes. The United States will put the
    conditions right, along with our allies, create the conditions necessary
    for Iraq to be run by the Iraqis, an Iraq of, for, and by the Iraqi
    people, and then we'll come home.
        There is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions that this
    country has taken to defend ourselves, the world is a more peaceful
    place. And there is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions this
    Nation has taken to defend ourselves, freedom has a better chance to
    take hold all across the world. I'm proud of this country. I'm proud of
    the decisions and actions we have taken, and I'm proud of the values we
    hold dear to our hearts.
        And while we continue to work on the homeland security, we've got to
    remember that part of a secure nation is one in which people have job
    security, in which people can find a job if they're looking for work.
    And I'm concerned about that. That interest--unemployment rate hit 6
    percent the other day. And that ought to be a wake-up call to Members of
    the United States Congress that we've got an issue here in this country,
    and we need policies that will get people back to work.
        I'm optimistic about our future because, like you, I have seen what
    we have overcome. Let me review the history right quick. The stock
    market started to decline in March of 2000. And since this is now an
    ownership society, it affected a lot of

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    people. A lot of people count on their stocks as part of their
    retirement package. If you're a teacher, you care about the stock
    market. If you're a policeman, you care about the stock market. If
    you're an average citizen, it's likely you care about the stock market,
    because your pension plans or your 401(k)s are invested.
        And so the market started going down in March of 2000, and then we
    went into a recession. That's three quarters of negative growth. From
    January of 2001, for the three quarters ending--starting January 2001,
    we were negative. That meant we were going backwards, meant the economy
    was going down. It meant people were beginning to hurt. And we started
    getting our feet underneath us and started making some progress; then
    the enemy hit us. They attacked us, and it affected us. Obviously, took
    a lot of lives, and we mourn for those lives, and we mourn for those
    families who still suffer as a result of that attack.
        But it also affected the psychology of the country. You see, we
    thought oceans could protect us forever. And we realized we were
    vulnerable under the--in this new era in which we live. But the country
    came back together. We rallied, and then, all of a sudden, some of our
    fellow citizens--we discovered that some of our citizens forgot what it
    was like to be a responsible citizen and they cooked the books. They
    were CEOs of corporate America, and they forgot they have a
    responsibility to shareholders and employees to tell the truth. They got
    a bad case of big-shot-itis. [Laughter] But they're now learning that
    they're going to be held to account if they don't tell the truth.
        So we overcame corporate scandal, and we're still overcoming those
    scandals. We've been through a lot, when you think about it. And yet,
    we're growing. The economy is still moving forward. As a matter of fact,
    we're one of the best economies amongst the industrialized world. And
    that's positive. But we're not growing fast enough. We're not growing
    fast enough because too many of our citizens are looking for work. And
    so long as somebody's looking for work that wants to work, says to me
    we've got a problem.
        And therefore, I laid out a plan to deal with it. And it starts--
    based on this principle. It says, if you're worried about people finding
    work--in other words, one of the problems we have is we're such a
    productive economy. We've got the best workers in the world, by the way;
    the productivity rates are way up in America. But the more productive
    you are, it means there's better output per worker, which means you
    better increase demand if you're trying to create new jobs. In other
    words, if one worker can do more work, you've got to create the need for
    more work in order to make a job available for somebody looking for
    work.
        And the best way to do that is to stimulate a demand for good and
    services, and the only way to stimulate a demand for good and services
    in our economy is to let people keep more of their own money. And notice
    I said, ``more of their own money.'' Sometimes in the Washington
    debate--I noticed Senator Hagel emphasized that
    as well. See, he knows what I know: Sometimes in Washington, people
    forget whose money we're talking about. You hear them say, ``Well, the
    Government's money--well, we're going to spend the Government's money
    here,'' or ``We'll do this with the Government's money.'' We're not
    talking about the Government's money. We're talking about the people's
    money. It's your money.
        And the more of your own money you have, the more likely it is our
    economy is going to grow. See, the more money you have in your pocket,
    it increases demand for goods and services. And when there's an
    increased demand for goods or increased demand for services in our
    society, in our marketplace, somebody is going to produce the good or a
    service. And as somebody produces that additional good or a service, it
    means somebody is more likely

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    to find a job. And we're here talking about one thing, jobs for the
    American people. That's what we're here talking about.
        So here is what I have proposed. Here's what I've proposed. First of
    all, you've got to recognize we did cut the taxes on everybody who paid
    taxes in 2001. And that made sense. We reduced the penalty in the
    marriage penalty. We increased the child credit. But the problem was, is
    that in 2001, it seemed okay to phase those tax relief, those tax cuts
    in over a 3- to 5- to 7-year period. Well, we know you need that tax
    relief right now. If you're a person looking for a job, you're not
    interested in tax relief in 7 years. If you're out there looking for
    work, you want it today.
        And so I submitted to the United States Congress, strongly supported
    by the people here, that let's just make it happen now. Let's not wait.
    Let's get tax relief to the American people as quickly as possible. And
    so that's what we've done. That's part of the plan. A significant part
    of the plan is to accelerate the tax relief in place for everybody who
    pays taxes.
        You'll hear all kinds of rhetoric out of Washington. They'll say,
    ``This plan only benefits the rich. I can't be for this, because only
    the rich people benefit.'' Well, it's interesting they would say that. I
    just met with a bunch of your fellow citizens who disagree with that
    concept. I had the honor of having a roundtable discussion prior to
    coming into this hall, and I met with some good, hard-working folks from
    this part of the world.
        The Madrigals are
    with us today, and so is their extended family--[laughter]--Kim and
    Greg. They've got a son, Noah, and a daughter,
    Marina. They're hard-working people. They're
    worried about their future. This tax relief will provide them $900 in
    tax relief a year. That's not 900 for 1 year; that's 900 for a series of
    years. That's $900 this year, next year, next--and all of a sudden, it
    gives them $900 to start planning for their future. They get to decide
    what to do with their own money. It's their money. They ought to decide
    what to do with it.
        They're going to talk about making sure that they started a college
    savings account for their children. All of a sudden, the idea of sending
    their children to college is a little less onerous, because there's tax
    relief. They save that money. They said, ``We both had to work through
    college. We never had anything set aside for us''--this is what
    Kim says--``so it's important that we provide
    something for our kids so they don't have to do all the struggling we
    had to do.'' That's a fantastic parent who believes that way. They
    understand their most important responsibility is to love their children
    with all their heart. This tax relief helps them.
        Jenny Theisen's with us. Her
    husband is a staff sergeant out at Offutt.
    They've got children. They want to put money aside for their kids'
    saving. They maybe want to do a little remodeling. Now, you see, when
    somebody makes the decision to get a little extra money in their pocket,
    they decide to remodel, somebody's got to show up to the house to do the
    remodeling. Somebody's got to bring the hammer and the saw over and the
    paint. Somebody's got to go buy the paint. And all of a sudden, you
    start having a positive effect on the economy when the Jenny Theisens of
    this world start making decisions about changing the nature of her home.
        It's not just Jenny. There's going to be
    thousands of people like her who make the decision with her own money to
    remodel their homes. And all of a sudden, the remodeling industry gets a
    shot in the arm, and somebody is more likely to find work. When you
    leave money in somebody's pockets and they decide to spend it, it's
    going to have a positive effect all throughout the economy.
        I met with Julie and Tom Belt from Council Bluffs. They've got three young boys.
    They're going to save $1,375 a year. That's real money. That's money
    that's going to go into the pockets of good, solid,

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    middle-class citizens who will make decisions with that money, and it
    will begin to circulate through our economy.
        And I met the Bullers. [Applause] They're going to use some of that money to
    pay their cheering section. [Laughter] They're going to save $1,000 a
    month--a year, for the out-years.
        My point to you is, is that tax relief will have an incredibly
    positive effect on the hard-working people of this country, people who
    are working hard to get ahead, people who are struggling with the bills
    they got today and are worried about their future. Tax relief is good
    for American families. Tax relief is important and is needed for our
    economy.
        And let me tell you what else reducing the individual rates will do.
    It will serve as a stimulus for small business. Now, you see, most small
    businesses pay tax at the sole proprietorship, as a result of being a
    sole proprietorship or what they call a limited liability corporation or
    a Subchapter S. And that means they pay taxes at the individual income-
    tax rate. So if you're the traditional mom-and-pop business, you will
    pay--it's more likely you'll be paying taxes at the individual income-
    tax rate. When you hear people talk about--me talk about reducing income
    taxes on the individual, I want you to remember that it's also cutting
    taxes on the small businesses of America.
        And let me tell you why that's important. Most new jobs in America
    are created by small businesses. And if you're interested in job
    creation, you've got to do something about helping the small businesses
    of this country. And part of that package is to allow small businesses
    to deduct $75,000 a year on equipment purchases, as opposed to the
    current limitations of $25,000 a year.
        And so today I was down there in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was
    talking to some entrepreneurs and talking to a guy who owned his own
    garage. I can't remember how long--I think he's owned his business for
    20 years. He started off with two people. He's now up to maybe a couple
    of--you know, 20 people. Anyway, he's growing. And he told me, he said,
    ``If I'm allowed to expense more than $25,000, I'm likely to add on to
    my garage. And when I add on to my garage, it's going to mean I need
    somebody else to work in the garage''--because it can't sit empty. And
    then somebody is going to have to come and build the garage.
        What we've got to do in our society is increase the vitality of our
    small businesses and encourage small businesses to invest. When somebody
    invests, it means somebody has to provide the product. And when somebody
    has to provide a product, somebody is more likely to find work. The tax
    relief plan I submitted to the United States Congress has got one thing
    in mind, helping people find work.
        And the final aspect of the plan I want to talk to you about is the
    policy I've submitted to the Congress that will get rid of the double
    taxation of dividends. Some people say, ``Well, the double taxation of
    dividends isn't going to help anybody except the rich.'' Well, they
    don't understand the nature of our society, evidently. More and more and
    more people now own stocks. More people have got a stake in the future
    of the stock market because of retirement plans, for example.
        And therefore, it doesn't make any sense to penalize companies--if
    you're a stockholding society, it doesn't make any sense to penalize
    companies which distribute cash to the owners. That's a dividend. If
    you're an owner of the company, it seems like to me you want to maybe
    get a little something out of it besides the appreciation of the stock.
    You'd like to get a dividend.
        But we penalize that kind of behavior in America because we not only
    tax the company's profits; we then tax the distribution of the profits
    to the shareholders. We tax the same dollar twice, and that is not fair.
    It's not fair policy.
        It is not fair to tax the profits twice of our senior citizens.
    Sixty-four thousand seniors in Nebraska rely on dividends to meet

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    their financial needs. If you're worried about the senior citizen being
    able to live a comfortable life upon retirement, then you need to join
    us in getting rid of the double taxation of dividends. A lot of seniors
    count on dividend income in order to survive, and the double taxation of
    dividends penalizes those seniors.
        The double taxation of dividends will be good corporate reform. You
    see, we went through a period of time, as you might remember, where
    people said, ``Invest in my company. I've got a good story, but I don't
    have any cashflow. But give us a shot.'' Kind of the pie-in-the-sky
    theory of market investing. ``Go ahead and invest. I've got a good tale
    to tell, but no one seems to be buying my product.''
        The new economy also was tagged with reality by old economics. That
    is, if you run out of money, you're not going to be in business. If a
    dividend society is one which says in order to justify your story, in
    order to justify your existence, you've got to keep up a steady stream
    of dividends--you can't say pie-in-the-sky if you've promised the
    investor and the shareholder that they're going to get a dividend.
    You've got to perform. And so getting rid of the double taxation of
    dividends will cause more businesses to pay a dividend. It helps incent
    them to pay a dividend. And therefore, fancy footwork isn't going to
    work. The only thing that will work is making sure people have got a
    steady stream of dividends.
        And finally, getting rid of dividend--the double taxation of
    dividends will lower the cost of capital, will make it easier for people
    to raise money. And remember, when people have money to invest, it means
    somebody is more likely to find work. We estimate that getting rid of
    the double taxation of dividends will add 400,000 new jobs by the end of
    2004. I want Congress to take this proposition seriously. It's good for
    America.
        And we're making progress. We're making progress. I want to thank
    you for your interest in this issue. I ask you to continue working with
    the members of the Nebraska delegation, to let them know your feelings
    on this very important issue.
        Now, you'll hear people say, ``Well, we can't do this because
    there's a deficit''--if I just take a quick second and just tell you my
    views on that. I'm concerned about the deficit. You're concerned about
    the deficit, I know. But let me remind you why we have a deficit. We
    have a deficit because the economy slowed down, is why we have a
    deficit. When the economy goes into recession, it means less revenues
    are coming into the Treasury. Secondly, we have a deficit because I told
    the American people, ``If we ever put our soldiers in harm's way, we're
    going to pay whatever is necessary to win, to protect them, give them
    the best.'' And that's what we did. It's exactly what we did.
        Now, there's two ways to deal with that. One, you can raise the
    taxes in order to make up the deficit, which doesn't make any sense to
    me. It'll hurt the economy. If giving people more of their money means
    more jobs, taking away their money means less jobs. Or you can do our
    plan, which is hold the line on spending in Washington, DC, which is
    being realistic with the people's money. And I want to thank the Members
    up here that voted for that budget I submitted that holds discretionary
    spending to 4 percent.
        So you hold the line on the expense side, and you increase the
    revenues coming into the Treasury by increasing jobs, by increasing
    economic vitality. Yes, I'm concerned about the deficit, but I'm more
    concerned about the person looking for a job today. And this plan we've
    got not only will deal with the deficit in the long term but in the
    short term says, we care about the man or a woman looking for a place to
    work in America.
        I'm confident about our economic outlook, particularly confident
    when Congress does the right thing and lets you have more of your own
    money. We don't need to be

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    little-bitty in this deal. We need to be robust to get people back to
    work. We don't need to be afraid of the politics or afraid of the
    rhetoric. We need to be strong in our desire to do what is right for
    this economy. And what is right is a robust plan. And what is right is a
    strong plan which will get money in people's pockets, so you can decide
    what to do with it. And when you decide to do positive things with it,
    somebody's likely to find a job.
        No, there's no doubt in my mind that this country can overcome the
    obstacles that have been put in our way. There's no doubt in my mind
    that when we remain strong and diligent--and we will--America will be
    more secure. There's no doubt in my mind, as we continue to work hard
    for the values we believe, people will realize the beauty of freedom and
    the benefits of freedom. And therefore, the world will be more peaceful.
        There's no doubt in my mind that this economy is going to be strong,
    because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong and the people of this
    country are strong. We've got great workers. We've got a great system.
    There's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed, because there's no doubt in
    my mind we're the greatest nation on the face of the Earth because of
    the American people.
        Thank you for coming. May God bless, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:40 p.m. in the production line of the
    foam plant at Airlite Plastics. In his remarks, he referred to Brad
    Crosby, president, Airlite Plastics; Stephanie Johanns, wife of Gov.
    Mike Johanns of Nebraska; Senator E. Benjamin Nelson of Nebraska and his
    wife, Diane; Lt. Gov. David Heineman, Secretary of State John A. Gale,
    State Attorney General Jon Bruning, State Treasurer Lorelee Byrd, and
    State Auditor Kate Witek of Nebraska; and former President Saddam
    Hussein of Iraq. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a
    Spanish language transcript of these remarks.