[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.