    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [March 26, 2004]
    [Pages 459-468]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Albuquerque, New Mexico
    March 26, 2004

        Thank you very much. Thank you all. You all be seated, please.
    Thanks for coming. [Laughter]
        I am glad to be in New Mexico. The sun is bright, and the people are
    friendly. Thanks for having me. We're here to talk about homeownership.
    We're here to talk about helping people realize their dreams. We're here
    to talk about making sure the business environment, particularly for
    small businesses, is strong and open so that people can realize their
    dream of owning their own business. We're here to talk about the great
    courage of America.

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        Before I begin, I do want to thank my friend Alphonso
    Jackson. He's the Acting Secretary. That
    means that the Senate hasn't approved him yet. [Laughter] So I made sure
    he sat next to Senator Domenici on the
    airplane. [Laughter]
        But I've known Alphonso for a long
    time. He was the head of the Dallas Housing Authority. He did a great
    job of making sure the Housing Authority worked well. Now he's in
    Washington with me to make sure that the HUD works well. We want money
    being spent to help people buy homes. That's what we want. We want more
    people owning their own home in America. And Alphonso, I want to thank
    you.
        I want to thank John Kaltenbach, who
    helped arrange this event. I want to thank the members of the Home
    Builders Association of Central New Mexico. I want to thank all the
    entrepreneurs who are here. I want to thank the builders who are here.
        I want to thank Senator Pete Domenici.
    He flew down with me. This guy is a fabulous United States Senator. He's
    really a good one. That's why, when I try to get things done, I make
    sure Pete Domenici knows what we're trying to do. He's accomplished. He
    also loves New Mexico a lot. He loves the people here.
        And so does Heather Wilson--Heather Wilson, a great Congresswoman. She's really effective, got a
    decent soul. She's an accomplished, decent person, and I love working
    with her. They let old Steve Pearce in from
    eastern New Mexico. [Laughter] You might remember I was raised in
    Midland, Texas. As a matter of fact, that's where Laura is today. She's in Midland, right across the border
    from eastern New Mexico. She's visiting with her mother. But I've spent a lot of time in eastern New Mexico, so
    I know people like Steve Pearce, down-to-earth, honest, patriotic,
    willing to serve his country as the United States Congressman from that
    part of the world. Steve, thank you for coming with us today.
        I want to thank Mayor Bill Standley from
    the city of Farmington for coming down to say hello. Thank you, mayor,
    for being here--thank the other local officials who are here. It's good
    to be in front of a crowd where people are wearing ``gimme'' hats or
    cowboy hats. [Laughter] That doesn't happen all the time in Washington.
    Let me just say, it doesn't happen nearly enough in Washington.
    [Laughter]
        Today when I landed, I met a fellow named Irving Hall. Where are you, Irving? Right there. Stand up. Now you
    can sit down. [Laughter] Irving Hall works for our Government at the
    laboratories, the high tech--Sandia--I think you worked there, didn't
    you, Irving? Yes. He worked there, and came time to retire, and his boss
    said, ``What are you going to do, Irving?'' He said, ``Why don't you
    make a difference?'' I believe that's what your boss told--what you told
    me your boss said. See, he met me at the airplane. I'd never met Irving
    before. But the reason he did is because this fellow, upon retirement,
    decided he was going to do something to help somebody, that he was going
    dedicate his years of retirement for making somebody's life better by
    building homes for Habitat For Humanity.
        I love the spirit of voluntarism in America, the fact that people
    like Irving are willing to take time out of
    their life to make a difference in somebody else's life. A lot of times
    we talk about the strength of America being our military--it's part of
    our strength, and we intend to keep the military strong--or the size of
    our wallet, relative to other countries, and that's important. But the
    true strength of America is the heart and souls of the American people.
    That's the strength of our country, the fact that there are people
    willing to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself.
        And so, Irving, I want to thank you for
    setting such a good example for your community and your State and your
    Nation. I urge others to take time out of your life

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    to make a difference in a child who may be lonely, in helping somebody
    learn to read, by providing shelter for the homeless or food for the
    hungry, and in so doing, you will make America a hopeful place for all
    our citizens. Thank you, Irving.
        I am very optimistic about the future of this country for a lot of
    reasons. One, I know the character of the American people. When you know
    the character of the American people, you can't help but be optimistic
    because we're a can-do group of folks. We refuse to let anything get in
    our way. And we're able to overcome challenges, and we have overcome a
    lot of challenges during the past 3 years.
        Let me remind you of what we have overcome as a nation. We have
    overcome a recession. That means things are going backwards. A recession
    is a time when things are going backwards, where people are having
    trouble finding work, where there's not much hope in certain quarters of
    our country. We overcame that. And as we came out of a recession--and by
    the way, the stock market had begun to decline in March of 2000. The
    recession began in early '01. And when the stock market declined, that
    too affects people's attitudes. When you think about it, there's a lot
    of retired folks who look at their portfolios and see it going down.
    That's kind of a discouraging moment when that happens. You begin to
    wonder whether all the savings you put aside are going to be there when
    you really need them most.
        And as we started to come out of the recession, we got attacked by
    an enemy on September the 11th, 2001, and it affected us. We lost nearly
    1 million jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th attack. It also
    affected the way we have to think in America. We used to think that
    oceans can protect us. We now realized that America can be a
    battleground, and therefore, we have to do everything in our power to
    protect America. We're doing everything at home we can. But I'm going to
    tell you, the best way to protect America is to stay on the offense and
    get the terrorists before they get us. September the 11th affected us.
    It was one of the challenges that I talked about.
        We also had some corporate scandals that affected the confidence of
    America. You know, it's important in a system like ours that people have
    confidence in balance sheets and numbers. If you're an investor or an
    employee or a shareholder, you've got to have--trust people. And yet
    there are some people who betrayed the trust. We had some corporate
    citizens who were not responsible. They didn't do their duty as
    responsible citizens.
        We passed tough laws. The three
    Members here worked
    with us. We sent a clear message: We're not going to tolerate dishonesty
    in the boardrooms of America. You cannot lie and cheat shareholders and
    employees without consequences in this country. But we overcame that.
    We're overcoming it.
        And then I made a choice to defend the security of the country,
    which also affected our economy and affected the confidence of the
    people. September the 11th taught a lesson. It's an important lesson for
    America. We must deal with threats before they fully materialize. That's
    the lesson of September the 11th. You can't see what you think is a
    threat and hope it goes away. You used to could when the oceans
    protected us, but the lesson of September the 11th is, is when the
    President sees a threat, we must deal with it before it comes to
    fruition through death on our own soils, for example.
        I looked at the intelligence and saw a threat in Iraq. The United
    States Congress looked at the same intelligence, and they saw a threat.
    The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence, and it
    saw a threat. In fall of 2002, I went back to the United Nations. I
    said, ``Look, why don't we deal with this threat together? We all see a
    threat, so why don't we get Saddam Hussein to
    do what the world has been demanding to do for over a decade,

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    which is to reveal the weapons programs and get rid of him, for the sake
    of the security of the world. Your choice, Mr. Saddam.'' He said, ``No,
    I'm not interested.''
        You see, given that choice whether to trust the word of a
    madman, a man who had used chemical weapons
    on his own people, or to defend our country, I will choose to defend
    America every time. [Applause] Thank you all.
        The challenge we overcame was the fact that on your TV screens you
    saw the words ``Marching to War.'' I don't know if you remember that or
    not. As we were trying to get Saddam to
    disarm peacefully through the United Nations and the collective will of
    the world, you see ``March to War.'' That's hard if you're a business
    person. It's hard to risk capital or expand your business when the
    country is marching to war. It's not a good thought. Or if you're a
    consumer, maybe thinking about buying a house, if you look on your TV
    screens that say ``March to War,'' you're not so sure you want to buy
    the house then, because you're not sure what the consequences of
    marching to war will be.
        Now we're marching to peace. We're marching to peace, and the world
    is better off. We've overcome that obstacle. And the reason I say we've
    overcome these four things is, I want to remind you of the facts.
        First, our economy is growing. It's strong, and it's getting
    stronger. Secondly, inflation is low, and interest rates are low.
    Manufacturing activity is up. The unemployment rate today is lower than
    the average rate in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. New Mexico's
    unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, down from 6 percent a year ago. Things
    are improving. Things are getting better. Thanks to being the most
    productive workforce in America--and I might say thanks to good
    policies--this economy is strong, and it's getting stronger.
        I look forward to continuing to make the argument that the reason
    why things are improving, besides the fact that the character of this
    country is strong, is that we let people keep more of their own money.
    That's what tax relief is. When you got more of your own money in your
    pocket, pretty good chance you're going to demand an additional good or
    a service. And when you demand an additional good or a service, somebody
    is going to provide it for you. And when somebody provides an additional
    good or a service, somebody is more likely to keep a job or to find a
    job. That's the way the economy works.
        And so the tax relief we passed came at the right time. The
    recession was a shallow recession, thanks to the tax relief. The tax
    relief helped families because we raised the child credit to $1,000 per
    child. The tax relief helped marriages because we reduced the marriage
    penalty. What kind of Tax Code is it that penalizes marriage, by the
    way? We helped our seniors by reducing the taxes on dividends.
        We also helped the small-business community a lot in our tax relief
    plan. I'll tell you why. Most small businesses are sole proprietorships
    or Subchapter S corporations, which means they pay tax at the individual
    income-tax rate. So when you hear me talking about reducing all taxes, I
    want you to think about the benefit that does for the small-business
    community. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are created by small-
    business owners. And therefore, if you're worried about job creation, it
    makes sense to stimulate the small-business sector of this country, and
    the tax relief did exactly that.
        One of the great successes of this period of time, a period of time
    that had a lot of challenges, is the fact that housing starts and
    homeownership are incredibly strong right now. Low interest rates help.
    It makes it easier, obviously, to afford a mortgage, but so did the tax
    policies. See, when people feel more confident they're going to have
    money in their pocket, they're more likely to go out and buy a home.
        The home sales were the highest ever recently. That's exciting news
    for the country, when you think about it--good for the

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    builders--[laughter]--but more importantly, it's good for the owners. We
    want people owning something in America. That's what we want. The great
    dream about America is, ``I can own my own home,'' people say, or ``I
    can own my own business,'' like many back here do, or ``I can own and
    manage my own health care account or my own retirement account.''
        See, we want more people owning something because when somebody owns
    something, they have a vital stake in the future of the country. The
    more people who own their home, the better off America is, and we're
    making good progress. Our Nation's 68-percent homeownership rate is the
    highest ever. More people own homes now than ever before in the
    country's history, and that's exciting for the future of America.
        There's a homeownership gap in America that exists for minorities,
    and we've got to do something about it. So Alphonso mentioned the goal--
    I set a good goal, which is adding 5.5 million new minority homeowners
    in America by the end of the decade. When we're talking about
    homeownership, we're talking about for everybody. That's what I'm
    talking about. The more people who own their home, the better off
    America will be.
        Since then, since I laid out the goal, more than 1.5 million
    minority families have become homeowners. And for the first time ever,
    more than half of minority households own their own home. We're making
    progress closing the gap. But more importantly, people are understanding
    what it means to be a buyer and an owner. People understand what it
    means to say, ``This is my house.''
        Lori Benavidez is with us. Lori, thank
    you for coming. She's a mom of two. She brought her own mother with
    her--that would your grandmother. [Laughter] Lori is--when I met her
    backstage--the kind of person that you want really owning a home because
    she's so thrilled with the idea. We helped her. I say we--people here in
    this part of the world did. We got a program that helps people who rent
    through Voucher 8 programs to afford a downpayment. It helps them take
    some of those payments and set it aside for a downpayment so that she
    can afford to buy her own home. What she did is she got counseling
    services. I know there's some--we'll talk a little bit about that in a
    second.
        Let me tell you what she said, though,
    about owning her first home. She said, ``I never thought the day would
    happen when my girls and I would be sitting in our own home. It's a
    miracle,'' she said. Yes, Lori said, ``You made it possible.'' I think
    she told me that. I said, ``No, Lori, you made it possible. You're the
    reason why the miracle happened,'' because she decided she wanted to
    follow her dream. And the role of Government is to help people realize
    their dream, not stand in the way of dreams but to make it easier for
    people to realize their dream.
        And there are practical ways to do that. One practical way is to
    help people with a downpayment. There are low-income citizens in our
    country who simply cannot afford a downpayment. They may be able to
    afford the mortgage over time, but they--one of the hurdles for
    homeownership is, ``I can't--I don't want to put the money up. I just
    don't have that kind of cash to make the downpayment,'' people will say.
        I'm sure some homebuilders and real estate agents know what I'm
    talking about. They say, ``I think this is what I want to live out my
    dream, but I can't put up the money.'' So the Government has a chance to
    help, in my judgment. I want to thank very much the Congress working on
    the--providing money to help people with their downpayment on their
    home, the practical way to encourage more people to own a home, to give
    them a chance. There will be $900,000 coming in May to help families in
    this State afford a downpayment.
        A practical way--another practical way to help people, first-time
    homebuyers is to make zero downpayment loans possible for

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    those whose mortgages are insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
    In other words, you go to your FHA administration, get your loan
    insured, then you don't have to pay a downpayment. Right now they have
    to pay a 3-percent downpayment. It doesn't sound like a lot to some.
    It's a lot to people who are struggling to make ends meet and who yet
    still want to realize their dream.
        Those are two practical ways to help people cross the hurdle--the
    initial hurdle of buying a home. By the way, if we can get the FHA plan
    in place, it will help 150,000 families buy homes in the first year
    alone. It's a practical way, again, of encouraging homeownership.
        I don't know if you saw Lori. She had a
    tear in her eye when I introduced her because of the thrill of owning
    her own home. We want Loris all over the country to feel the same way,
    to have that great sense of enthusiasm and joy about saying, ``This is
    my home. Welcome to my home.''
        The second way we can help is to make sure that Americans understand
    what it means to buy a home. You know, I don't know if you've looked at
    those forms, but there's a lot of fine print. [Laughter] And if you're
    nervous about fine print, like a lot of good citizens are, then that may
    become a stumbling block to buy a home. ``I'm not going to sign anything
    that's got all that fine print,'' people might say.
        And there's a practical way to help people, and that is through
    counseling services. You've got good counseling services right here in
    New Mexico. Home New Mexico is such a counseling service. Tierra del
    Sol, in Las Cruces, is a counseling service.
        Lori told me she got counseling services.
    I don't know if there's any counselors here, but there are people all
    across the country who get help through HUD, that sit down with people
    like Lori and explain what it means to buy a home, own a home, and the
    responsibilities with owning a home. They explain the credit policies.
    They explain what it means to make a monthly payment. They explain what
    the monthly payments will be. It's a way of compassionate people to help
    somebody who wants to realize their dream.
        As well, under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, people
    will have access to their credit report. And that's important. A lot of
    people have never seen their credit report before. Now you got access to
    it.
        See, what happens is, people go start to try to buy a home and up
    pops the credit report, and they say, ``Sorry, brother, your credit
    isn't any good. You can't buy a home.'' People need to be able to look
    at all the hurdles and impediments to buying a home as they go through
    the process. We don't want people to have their dreams crushed. We want
    people to realize dreams. And so I want to thank the counselors who are
    here for working with the Lori Benavidezes of the world, to explain to
    them what it means to be a homeowner.
        As well we've got to make sure affordable housing is available to
    more and more citizens. In other words, we've got to provide incentive
    for homebuilders to build low-income houses, and so I've proposed a
    single-family affordable housing tax credit. It's a good plan. It's a
    plan that will make more homes available in parts of America that--where
    a lot of homes haven't been built or rehabilitated. It's a good way to
    encourage people to build homes in barrios or inner cities. It's a good
    way to make sure affordable housing is more available to citizens from
    all walks of life.
        I also have called upon real estate and mortgage--the mortgage
    finance industry to join in our efforts in closing the minority
    homeownership gap to help low-income people buy a home. And more than
    two dozen major companies and organizations have stepped up. Suburban
    Mortgage outfit here in New Mexico as well as the Bank of Albuquerque
    have committed to extending more loans to low-income families and to
    financing the construction of more affordable homes. And I want to thank
    these

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    corporate citizens for stepping up to the plate and helping the country
    become a better country by encouraging more people to own their own
    piece of property.
        Homeownership is strong. We need to keep it that way. I want these
    builders back here employing people. I want people showing up for work.
    By the way, when it comes to work, we ought to have reasonable
    immigration policy. I bet you'd get a fair appraisal from some of the
    businessowners back here. They'll tell you that the immigration policy
    of this country isn't conducive for good economy; let me put it to you
    that way. I mean, you don't know if you're hiring somebody who's here
    legally or not legally.
        See, we got a policy that has encouraged forged documents and
    smugglers. My attitude is if you--a builder back here can't find an
    American willing to do the job, they ought to have the ability to put
    somebody on the job who can do the job. My attitude is, is that we ought
    to have a temporary-worker's card for people who are willing to work.
        This is not an amnesty program. I don't think it makes sense to have
    amnesty right now in the country. Amnesty would encourage further
    illegal immigration. And amnesty would say to those who have stood in
    line for a long period of time who want to be a legal citizen,
    ``Standing in line legally wasn't worth it. We're going to let somebody
    cut in line.''
        What I'm talking about is a worker plan, a plan that understands
    people coming up from Mexico want to put food on their table for their
    sons and daughters and that people right here behind me are looking for
    somebody to put roof--lay roof or lay tile, and they can't find workers
    here. In order to make sure the economy runs well, in order to make sure
    we treat people humanely, we need a temporary-worker plan. It makes
    sense to do that. I look forward to working with Congress to get
    something reasonable out.
        A couple of other things I've got on my mind I'd like to share with
    you about how to make sure America remains a good place to do business.
    You hear a lot of talk about jobs going overseas. Some are going
    overseas, and some from overseas are coming here. But the best way to
    make sure people can find work in America is to make sure the business
    environment, the entrepreneurial environment is strong and solid, that
    it's a good place to do business; let me put it to you that way. If you
    want people hiring people in America, we've got to make sure America's a
    good place to do business, a good place for our employers, and there's
    some things we need to do.
        We need tort reform in America--too many lawsuits. Ask these
    employers what it's like when you're threatened by a lawsuit or you see
    your neighbor threatened by a lawsuit. There's too many lawsuits in the
    country; there just is. There's reasonable tort reform. Congress
    passed--the House passed some class-action reform and some asbestos
    reform and medical liability reform. It's stuck in the Senate. As people
    tell you, the trial lawyers are a strong lobby up there in Washington,
    DC. But I'm going to keep pushing for tort reform because it's right,
    and it's the way to make sure America stays a competitive place to do
    business.
        Speaking about medical liability reform, another issue that plagues
    small-business owners and employers is the cost of health care. It's
    going up, and we need to address the cost of health care without letting
    the Federal Government run the program.
        And there are some practical ways to do that. One, I told you about
    medical liability reform that's got stuck in the Senate. But one of the
    reasons health care costs are going up is because of the frivolous and
    junk lawsuits that are threatening our docs and hospitals. And so
    therefore, docs and hospitals practice what's called defensive medicine
    in order to protect themselves in a court of law.

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        Listen, there's reasonable reform. But what's not reasonable is a
    system today when you've got trial lawyers who view the legal system as
    a lottery where they can hit the jackpot, where they can get a big
    salary. All that's going to do is make your health care costs too high.
        We need association health plans for small businesses so they can
    pool risk. If you're a small builder here in Albuquerque, it's hard to
    go into the marketplace and find affordable insurance for your hands.
    But if you're able to team up with other builders, not only in New
    Mexico but around the country, and pool risks just like big corporations
    do, you're going to be able to find more affordable health care for your
    employees.
        We also need to expand health savings accounts. This is a great
    idea, by the way, for small businesses and employees to be able to put
    money in tax-free, keep it in your plan tax-free, and take it out tax-
    free. You cover incidentals, and then you can have major medical to make
    sure you cover your big expenses. And believe me, this is a way for
    small businesses to be able to better afford health care.
        You know what else we need to do? We need an energy plan. Pete
    Domenici is in the lead on having an energy
    plan in the United States Senate. It's stuck in the Senate right now,
    and Pete's going to get it unstuck. He's going to need some help. You
    might want to write some other people up in Washington, DC, who aren't
    with us here today. This bill needs to get moving. We need to be--we
    need to encourage conservation. We need to encourage alternative sources
    of energy. We need to modernize the electricity grid. But for the sake
    of keeping jobs here at home and for the sake of expanding the economy,
    we need to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
        I'll tell you what else we need to do. Ask these builders what it's
    like to put up with Federal, State, and local regulations. I told
    Alphonso we've got to do something about
    it at the Federal level, and he says we are. So we'll watch him.
    [Laughter] He's got a--you don't need to fill out the same form to meet
    the same requirement at all three levels of government. Regulations cost
    small businesses a lot of money. It means you have less money in your
    pocket to expand your business and hire people; that's what that means.
    If you want to keep jobs here in America, we'll need to be--we need less
    paperwork.
        And by the way, I don't know, Alphonso may not agree with this, but I bet a lot of the paperwork
    that's filed up in the Federal Government is never read. [Laughter] And
    if that's the case, it's another reason to make sure we don't have too
    much paperwork.
        The other thing we need to do here in this country is to make the
    tax cuts we passed permanent. The way it works up there is, they passed
    the tax cuts so people have more money in their pocket, and they're set
    to expire. The child credit is going to go down next year unless the
    Senate and the House make the tax cuts permanent. The marriage penalty's
    going to go up next year. The 10-percent bracket expansion is going to
    shrink. In other words, it's a tax increase. We're fixing to get taxed
    if the Congress doesn't act. These
    three Members are
    strong supporters of making those aspects of the tax cuts permanent. It
    makes sense not to be taking money out of people's pockets just as this
    economy is beginning to recover. We want to keep demand strong. We want
    people being able to have their own money.
        I like to tell people, the people of the country spent their own
    money better than the Federal Government could have, and that's why the
    economy is getting stronger. So they need to make the tax cuts
    permanent. If you're a businessperson, you need to be able to plan. You
    don't want to think your taxes are going to be here today and gone
    tomorrow. You need certainty in the Tax Code. Ask any businessperson
    what it's like to run a business, and the more certain

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    the environment is in the future, the more likely it is they will be
    successful, and when they're successful, somebody will be able to find a
    job.
        I also want to talk about trade. Presidents before me in both
    political parties made decisions to make sure America's markets were
    open for goods produced overseas. It made sense in many ways. It helped
    keep consumer prices down. It helps the consumer when there's
    competition.
        My attitude is, if our markets are open, I want the other people's
    markets to be open. My attitude is, instead of walling each other off
    like the economic isolationists want us to do, let's be confident. Let's
    trust in our entrepreneurs. Let's understand our farmers and ranchers
    are the best at the world. Let's say, ``If you trade with us in an open
    way, you've got to open up your market.'' That's the Bush policy, ``You
    open up your market so we can compete.''
        Economic isolationism will lead to economic stagnation. We can't
    have that. If we want people working, we've got to be confident in our
    ability to compete. A lot of people make a living here in America
    because their products they make are sold overseas. We're good at things
    in this country. When you see that label ``Made in the USA,'' you know
    you got yourself a quality product. I want ``Made in the USA'' sold all
    over the world.
        What I'm telling you is in order to be--make sure people can find
    work and retain a job, we've got to make sure this economy grows. These
    are what we call progrowth policies. We say we understand that the
    vibrancy of the country is in the small-business sector. We're vibrant
    when we make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong.
        I want to talk about one other thing we've got to do to make sure
    this is a good place for people to realize their dreams and start a
    business and get well educated, is we've got to make sure this country
    is on the leading end of broadband technology. You see, new ideas and
    new businesses and new ways to educate people in Farmington, New Mexico,
    are going to occur when we're able to get information flowing across
    cables and telephone lines in a fast way. That's what broadband
    technology is. It means we'll open the highways of knowledge--new
    highways of knowledge.
        This country needs a national goal for broadband technology, for the
    spread of broadband technology. We ought to have a universal, affordable
    access for broadband technology by the year 2007, and then we ought to
    make sure as soon as possible thereafter, consumers have got plenty of
    choices when it comes to purchasing the broadband carrier. See, the more
    choices there are, the more the price will go down. And the more the
    price goes down, the more users there will be. And the more users there
    will be, the more likely it is America will stay on the competitive edge
    of world trade.
        The more users there are, the more likely it is people will be able
    to have interesting new ways to receive doctors' advices in the home.
    The more affordable broadband technology is, the more innovative we can
    be with education. It's important that we stay on the cutting edge of
    technological change, and one way to do so is to have a bold plan for
    broadband.
        Let me say one thing about broadband. We don't need to tax access to
    broadband. The Congress must not tax access to broadband technology if
    we want to spread it around.
        The role of Government is to create an environment in which the
    entrepreneurial spirit is strong and in which people are able to realize
    their dreams. And that's what we're here talking about, when you think
    about it. We're talking about making sure America is the place where
    dreams can be realized and people can own something. People can own
    their own business. People can own their own home. People have a chance
    to say, ``This is mine. This

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    is my property.'' And we're making good progress here, doing just that.
        Remember where I started? I talked about the hurdles we've overcome.
    We really have. The country is a strong country. It's overcome a lot,
    and there's more hurdles to overcome in the future. I'm confident of
    that. But you know what else I'm confident of? We'll overcome. This is
    such a great country, full of decent and honorable people.
        Thank you for coming. May God bless. Thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. at Expo New Mexico. In his
    remarks, he referred to John Kaltenbach, owner, John Kaltenbach Homes;
    and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.