    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [December 5, 2003]
    [Pages 1684-1689]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Discussion With Staff Members at the Home Depot in
    Halethorpe, Maryland
    December 5, 2003

        The President. Thank you all. I left my credit card at home.
    [Laughter] Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here at a great
    company. I really appreciate the spirit of the company. I appreciate the
    fact that this company cares about the people who work here. And that's
    really what we're here to talk about, is people working and realizing
    their dream. I want people working in the country.
        I want you to know, I'm an optimistic guy for a lot of reasons. I've
    seen what we've been through. I want to remind you what this country has
    been through in order to get to where we are today.
        First, we were in recession. You know that better than me, what that
    means. It means fewer people coming in to buy things, as far as you're
    concerned. And the recession started in 2001, early 2001. We started to
    come out of the recession a little bit; you probably felt it around the
    summer of 2001, maybe fall of 2001. And then the enemy hit us, and that
    hurt.
        Again, those of you on the frontlines of the retail business know
    what I'm talking about. The cash registers weren't ringing quite as
    much, and people weren't coming through the aisles quite as much. And it
    hurt us. It hurt the country a lot. It kind of changed our attitude, and
    it should change your attitude. We should never forget the lessons of
    September the 11th, 2001. I have an obligation; the Congressmen who are
    here have an obligation. I want to thank Roscoe Bartlett and Dutch

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    Ruppersberger and Ben
    Cardin, whose district this is. We have
    an obligation to do everything we can to keep this country secure, to
    never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, to find the enemy
    before they come again, to stay on the offensive, and to bring these
    killers to justice, which is what we're going to do.
        But it hurt our economy when they attacked us, of course. Not only
    did it change foreign policy--in other words, we can't sit there and
    pick and choose what threat we deal with. Now that we have become
    vulnerable, we're going to have deal with the threats before they mature
    and come upon us. But it hurt our economy. It hurt us pretty bad.
        And then we started to recover, and I just wanted to remember
    another thing we've overcome. Some of the corporate citizens of America
    forgot what it meant to be a responsible citizen. This guy's a responsible guy. See, some of them didn't tell
    the truth, though. We had some of our citizens not tell the truth. They
    forgot what it meant to be a leader, and it hurt the confidence of the
    people. You might remember that period of time. There were these
    scandals, and people began to wonder whether or not there was honesty in
    the system. By the way, the way you deal with that, of course, is you
    find them and you put them into jail. Those who lie, cheat, and steal go
    to jail.
        And then, as you know, I made the decision to deal with threats. As
    we saw, we put the doctrine out that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist,
    you're just as guilty as the terrorists.'' And the Taliban, we took them
    down for the sake of our own security and for the sake of the long-
    suffering people of Afghanistan.
        And then I obviously made the decision to go into Iraq--and by the
    way, a free and peaceful Iraq is in our Nation's interest; it's in our
    security interest--that affected the economy. When you turned on your
    TV, it said, ``America is marching to war.'' That's not very conducive
    for--that's not a very positive statement. It doesn't build a lot of
    confidence--people, you know, marching to war, why would I want to
    invest in my home? Or why would I want to come to Home Depot if we're
    fixing to go to war?
        So we've overcome a lot, when you think about it. Today the
    unemployment rate dropped, as you may know, from 6 percent to 5.9
    percent. More workers are going to work. Over 380,000 have joined the
    workforce in the last couple of months. We've overcome a lot. We're a
    strong country, a strong economy. A lot of it has to do with the fact
    that we got the best workers in the world. Our productivity is high. I
    hope some of it has to do--I know some of it has to do--I hope you
    understand some of it has to do with the fact that the role of
    Government can help create growth. See, when a person has more money in
    their pocket, they're likely to come to Home Depot.
        Participant. Right.
        The President. If they have less money in their pocket, they may not
    come here. And so I worked with the Congress--I want to thank
    Congressman Ehrlich, when he was in
    the Congress, now Governor Ehrlich. We cut taxes on people. It's your
    money to begin with, by the way. You've got more money to spend. And
    when you have more money to spend, it increases demand for a good or a
    service. And when that demand increases for a good or a service,
    somebody has to produce it.
        And so the tax relief went for everybody, not just the favorite few.
    Everybody got tax relief. And it helped the economy. It also helped
    small business. You're going to hear from some entrepreneurs here. And
    by the way, most new jobs in America are created by small businesses.
    We're happy to have the Home Depot job, don't get me wrong. [Laughter]
    But the truth is, most new jobs are started by the entrepreneurs. And so
    you're wondering why we've got small-business owners here, because I
    want you to hear from them. I

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    want you to hear what it means to have a little more money in your
    pocket.
        Most small businesses pay tax at the individual income tax level.
    See, these two small businesses do--you're Subchapter S's, which means
    when the taxes come out, you pay like you're an individual, your
    business does. Which means when you reduce individual taxes, really what
    you're doing is you're making a big difference for small businesses
    across America so that they can grow and hire new people. If small
    businesses create most new jobs, then it makes sense to reward small
    businesses for labor and risk by reducing their taxes, which we did.
        And we did a couple of other smart things. If you're married, you
    ought not to be penalized in the Tax Code. It seems like the Tax Code
    ought to encourage people to be married, not discourage them from being
    married.
        We know how hard it is to raise a child, and therefore, we increased
    the child credit to $1,000 per child. That helps if you're a mom or a
    dad. And actually, this summer I remember going--I think it was to
    Philadelphia, where they were making the checks. I said, ``The check is
    in the mail.'' After I said it, I felt a little nervous. [Laughter]
    Fortunately, it was in the mail. And so you got the difference between
    the child credit today and the new child credit of $1,000 per child.
    That's important--that's important relief. That's part of the money
    going into your pocket.
        We also provided incentives for small businesses to make investment.
    When small businesses invest in machinery or computer equipment,
    somebody has to build it, see. And when somebody builds that machine,
    somebody is more likely to find work. And so, in other words, we passed
    a plan that makes sense.
        Part of the things you'll hear me talk about is how to continue the
    growth. I mean, we're growing. This economy is good. It can be better,
    so more people find work. One of the ways to make sure this economy
    continues to grow is to make all the tax relief we passed permanent.
    See, it's about to--it's going to go away in phases. The child credit is
    going to go back down. The marriage penalty will go back up. Taxes will
    go back up unless we make this permanent. It doesn't make any sense to
    have a Tax Code that gyrates like that. You need stability in your Tax
    Code, particularly for the small-business owners and planners.
        So one thing that I want you to take away from here is that if
    you're interested in job creation and job growth for the future, the tax
    relief we passed must become permanent.
        I want to thank all the local officials who have come, by the way. I
    know the Lieutenant Governor is here. I want
    to thank the Members of the House and the Senate. It turns out when a
    President shows up, all kinds of people come. [Laughter] And I want to
    thank you for being here. It's an honor to be here. I look forward to
    maybe shaking a couple of hands on the way out and--yes. Pretty soon.
    Yes, pictures, we'll get a picture. Maybe buy a chainsaw. [Laughter]
        Participant. We carry your brand. [Laughter]
        The President. Why don't we start off--we've got a man here who is
    building homes. One of the interesting things about our policy is that
    when interest rates go low, it provides incentive for people to buy a
    home; you know, it pushes mortgages down. We want a lot of people owning
    homes. We've got a minority homeownership gap in America, by the way,
    we've got to close. See, we just don't want one segment of our
    population owning homes. We want everybody owning a home. We want
    everybody to feel comfortable.
        I put a plan up to the Congress to do that, help with downpayments,
    to make sure the fine print in the contract becomes a little larger so
    everybody understands what they're signing before they go in. It makes
    people a little nervous when you--

    [[Page 1687]]

    particularly the first-time homebuyer, if you know what I mean. So we've
    got programs to help educate. We've got programs to simplify the
    process. We've got programs to help with the downpayment. Low interest
    rates help.
        And our man here, Jim Montgomery, is
    an owner. He's an entrepreneur. By the way, he is at one of these
    companies, a Subchapter S, it's called, that pays taxes at the
    individual rate. So when we cut his taxes individually, we also cut
    taxes on his business, so he can more likely be able to hire somebody
    else. He wants to hire and expand. But Jim, welcome. Tell us about your
    business. Tell us what's on your mind. It's your chance to tell the
    Governor and Lieutenant
    Governor if you don't like things here in
    Maryland. [Laughter] If you don't like things at the Federal level,
    write your Congressman. [Laughter]

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Yes. Well, that is a tax cut. That was part of it. In
    other words, when you provide an incentive for somebody to buy
    equipment--that's what Jim is talking
    about--it means somebody has to make the equipment or somebody has got
    to sell the equipment, in your case. And I appreciate you bringing that
    up, because it's an integral part of the tax plan, to encourage
    investment. And investment means jobs. And that's what we're really
    talking about, jobs. See, I'm glad he's building homes. I'm glad people
    are owning homes, but I'm also glad there's an incentive for him to go
    out and buy additional equipment. Somebody has got to make that
    equipment. And when somebody makes that equipment, somebody is working,
    and that's what we're really talking about. We're talking about the
    human dignity that comes from people being able to find a job.
        Thank you for being an entrepreneur.
        James Montgomery. You're welcome.
        The President. Yes, I appreciate your spirit. See, one of the great
    strengths of America is what we call the entrepreneurial spirit. It's a
    chance for--to create an environment so people like Jim feel comfortable about building their own business.
    And it's an exciting part of our economy and a vibrant part, just like
    the Bell Nursery folks here. We've got an owner; we've got a regional
    manager. Tell us about your business, Gary.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. A couple of points she
    made. One of the things that's interesting, low interest rates allow
    people to refinance their homes. You all know better than a lot the
    effects of refinancing. I mean, people refinance, come in with a little
    cash, it gives them a chance to remodel.
        Secondly, I do want to mention a couple of things that are important
    for small businesses. One, health care, it's important for large
    businesses, really important for small businesses. It's difficult for a
    small business to provide health care, because they don't have any
    purchasing power. What we need to do is allow small businesses to
    accumulate purchasing power. It's called associated health care plans.
    If you've got more people demanding, it means you can reduce the price.
    We need the associated health care plans.
        Another thing that affects all business, by the way, but especially
    hurts small businesses, are excessive regulations. I mean, if you've got
    four employees, you don't want to be spending a lot of time filling out
    paperwork. The Governor, I know, is
    working hard to reduce excessive paperwork at the State level. We're
    doing so at the Federal level. Look, I readily concede we've got a lot
    more to do. There's a lot of paperwork, a lot of regulation.
        Another thing that's a problem is lawsuits. They get to be a problem
    on these small-business owners and large-business owners. Medical
    liability reform is an issue we need. I'll tell you why. They're driving
    up the cost of your medicine, and it's making fewer doctors practice
    medicine. Medicine ought to be affordable and ought to

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    be available. And these lawsuits--everybody ought to be able to sue,
    don't get me wrong. We just don't want the junk lawsuits and the
    frivolous lawsuits and the lawyers who are simply fishing for a rich
    settlement to be prevalent.
        Anyway, I'm interested in hearing how this great company works.
    Obviously, I heard the enthusiasm--[laughter]--when I was coming in. But
    John, why don't you start off, and then you
    can introduce your fellow workers.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Let me ask you a
    question. So what's your feel? You're hearing from people when they're
    coming through, shopping, and----
        John Ferraiuolo. I've got to tell you,
    our business in this store, this year, is about 18 percent better than
    last year. So where last year things were a little bit of a struggle--I
    think the enthusiasm and interest in people, the confidence level as
    people came in shopping wasn't quite there--people are now going from
    last year, I think, doing projects that were maybe necessities, I see
    people doing a little dreaming again and wanting to step themselves up
    and move forward and doing some wanting in their purchasing as opposed
    to just necessities.
        The President. That's good, yes. John,
    by the way--he probably doesn't want me to tell you this, but I'm going
    to tell you anyway. He got $1,200 of tax relief as a result of the tax
    reductions. Probably considered a fair amount of money, I would guess.
        Mr. Ferraiuolo. That's an awfully great
    amount of money. What happened there, I think last year--a few months
    ago, when my wife came home, she found a check in the mail, and you know
    what----
        The President. Thank goodness. [Laughter]
        Mr. Ferraiuolo. I'm going to--basically,
    she said, ``Sign here. I'll do it for you.''
        The President. That's right. Yes. [Laughter]
        Mr. Ferraiuolo. And then she went
    shopping, and she took the chance to buy herself a few treats. And I
    think with the rest of it, one of the things I've been able to do is up
    my 401(k) contributions----
        The President. That's good.
        Mr. Ferraiuolo. ----as opposed to--so I
    keep a little bit more of that money for my future.
        The President. That's wonderful.
        Brandy, you're a manager, store manager.
    Tell us your history here, and----

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. One of the things I like to talk about is the need
    for us to be a responsible society; people take responsibility for the
    decisions they make in life; people take responsibility--people seize
    opportunity. The thing I like about Jessica's story is she's willing to seize an opportunity. If
    you notice, she came looking, she worked hard to find a position, and
    now she's found a company that is doing its responsibility--in other
    words, helping people realize their dreams. And that's a very important
    part of corporate America. It's one of the reasons I like Bob, is he
    understands that, see.
        One of the things that this company does is it provides volunteer
    time and encourages people to help--love your neighbor like you'd like
    to be loved yourself. One of the things about America is--look, we've
    just gone through an interesting story, that says to me that things look
    pretty good for the economy, and we've been through a lot. In other
    words, it's a fabulous country, because we'll handle every challenge put
    in front of us, every challenge, because we've got wonderful people.
        The strength of this country, though, is not our military, although
    we'll keep it strong. It's strong. It needs to stay strong and will.
    It's not a--thank you, sir. And by the way, thanks for supporting the
    military. And if you've got a loved one over there, you tell them the
    Commander in

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    Chief is incredibly proud, proud of what they're doing.
        Participant. They're right out there.
        The President. Where?
        Participant. This young man right here.
        The President. Thank you for your service. I appreciate you, thanks.
        Participant. He just came home.
        The President. Yes. That's great. It's not--strength is not our
    military. It's not our wallet. It's the heart and soul of the American
    people. That's the strength. And the fact that this company is willing
    to say, you know, ``Follow your heart and go help somebody who hurts,''
    is an important part of keeping this country strong. It really is. The
    fact that people are willing to hear the universal call to love a
    neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself is really an important
    part of this Nation. And it's a vital part of the Nation. So for those
    of you who are dreaming big dreams and working for them, like
    Jessica is, thanks for doing that--like our
    business owners--I appreciate that. It's important that you dream big
    dreams and work hard.
        For those of you who are helping people realize their dreams, I
    thank you as well. It's just an incredibly vital part of a bright future
    for our country. There's nothing America can't achieve--nothing we can't
    achieve. You know why? Because this country is full of fabulous people.
    It's my honor to be with a lot of them here today.
        Thank you for coming. God bless. Thank you for your time.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. at the Lansdowne Home Depot. In
    his remarks, he referred to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., and Lt. Gov.
    Michael Steele of Maryland; James Montgomery, owner, James S. Montgomery
    & Sons; Gary Mangum, co-owner, and Alison Anderson, regional manager,
    Bell Nursery; John Ferraiuolo, store manager, and Jessica Adamson, paint
    associate, Lansdowne Home Depot; Brandy Foble, store manager, Ellicott
    City Home Depot; and Robert Nardelli, chairman, president, and chief
    executive officer, The Home Depot, Inc.