    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [March 30, 2004]
    [Pages 477-488]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the National Economy in Appleton, Wisconsin
    March 30, 2004

        Thank you all very much. I appreciate the warm welcome. Please be
    seated. It can get pretty cold here in the winter, but that's a really
    warm welcome, for which I'm grateful. Thanks so much for coming out.
        Bill, thank you for your kind introduction. Thank you for putting up
    with my entourage. Thank you for setting this deal up.
        I've got some things I want to share with the good people of Fox
    Valley and Wisconsin, some of the challenges that we face as a country,
    my absolute determination to overcome those challenges, to lead our
    Nation for a better day for every citizen.
        I've got a lot of friends here in this State. I took one of them
    with me. [Laughter] And that was Tommy Thompson. Tommy is doing a great job. I gave him a tough job to do,
    and he's handling it with such class. He's really a fine, fine leader.
    You trained him well. [Laughter] I was looking for him on his Harley,
    driving in today, but I guess at 38 degrees, it's a little chilly to be
    on your Harley. [Laughter] But he

    [[Page 478]]

    sends his best, and I want to thank you very much for raising Tommy the
    right way.
        I also want to thank all the entrepreneurs who are here. One of
    things--I love to be in the presence of entrepreneurs and small-business
    owners and dreamers and doers. After all, it's--to me, it's one of the
    characteristics of our country, the fact that we're an optimistic
    people, the fact that we're risktakers, the fact that we're job
    creators, that we care about our fellow citizens. The characteristics of
    America are what really enable me to say that there's no challenge we
    can't overcome by working together. I appreciate so very much the--
    [applause].
        I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce, Fox Cities Chamber of
    Commerce for hosting me. I want to appreciate the mayor, Tim
    Hanna, for coming out to say hello. My
    advice to the mayor is, fill the potholes and empty the garbage.
    [Laughter] All will be well. [Laughter] But Tim, I appreciate it. It's
    good to see you again. Thank you for your leadership and your service. I
    want to thank all the State and local officials who have come today. I
    also appreciate your service to your communities and your State.
        Today when I landed, I met Gloria Grandone. Where are you, Gloria? There she is, up there. Gloria
    is a volunteer, a person who is a mentor, a person who is involved with
    helping people go to college, a person who helps people become more
    self-sufficient and financially secure. The reason I bring up Gloria and
    her willingness to volunteer, see, I think that happens to be the
    strength of the country, the fact that there are fellow citizens who
    love a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves.
        Oftentimes, America is described as being strong because of our
    military--we'll keep our military strong--or we're described as being a
    strong nation because we're wealthy compared to other nations. And
    that's good, by the way. It's better to be a wealthy nation than a poor
    nation. But nevertheless, that's not our strength. Our strength lies in
    the hearts and souls of our citizens. Our strength in America exists
    because there are people like Gloria who are
    willing to take time out of their life to help somebody.
        My call to our fellow citizens is to love your neighbor like you'd
    like to be loved yourself. Mentor a child. Put your arm around somebody
    who hurts. Find shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry. All of us
    working together can change America, one soul at a time.
    Gloria, thank you for the example you set.
        Let me walk through the last little bit of history so that when I
    make my point that we've overcome challenges, you'll understand the
    challenges that we have overcome. First of all, the stock market began
    to decline in March of 2000. That matters, by the way, if you're
    concerned about savings and you own stocks. In other words, the
    psychology of the country began to get affected when people started
    opening up their accounts of their portfolios and noticed that their
    worth was diminishing. A lot of people who retired noticed their worth
    was diminishing. Pension funds--if you run a 401(k), you noticed that
    things were changing.
        And then the country headed into a recession in early 2001. A
    recession means we're going backwards, not forwards. A recession is
    negative growth for three quarters. If you ask any business leader here,
    they can tell you what it's like to try to manage during a recession.
    There's uncertainty. Your workers are getting anxious. Sometimes you had
    to lay people off. A recession is tough for a country to handle. It's a
    challenge. The challenge is how do you come out of the recession. We
    passed tax cuts, which I'm going to talk about in a minute, which made
    the recession one of the shallowest in our Nation's history.
        But then we had another challenge shortly thereafter, and that is an
    enemy attacked us. We weren't thinking about attacks in

    [[Page 479]]

    the scale of which they attacked us. It was a new thought for America.
    After all, most of us baby boomers grew up thinking that oceans would
    protect us forever. It changed our way of thinking. The attack means
    that anybody in a position like I'm in must deal with threats before
    they materialize. That's one of the lessons of September the 11th. We
    just can't sit back and hope that oceans protect us now. We must take
    every threat seriously.
        It also affected our economy. It hurt us economically. We lost a
    million jobs shortly after the attacks of September the 11th, and that
    hurt. Remember, we had to shut down the stock market. Airplanes weren't
    getting up in the air. It affected us; it just affected us. And yet,
    we're a strong nation who refused to be terrorized. We refused to give
    in to the terrorists.
        We resolved as a nation that we would do everything we can to
    protect our homeland. But the best way to protect the homeland is to
    chase the terrorists down and bring them to justice, which is precisely
    what we're doing.
        I laid out a doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're
    just as guilty as the terrorist.'' By the way, when the President says
    something, you better mean it. It turns out in this job--I, of course,
    meant it. And the Taliban found out what we meant. They didn't yield,
    and so I unleashed a great United States military. I did so to uphold
    the doctrine. We wiped out the ability for the terrorists to use
    Afghanistan as a training facility.
        We also liberated people, liberated about 25 million people from the
    clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind,
    so barbaric--[applause]. Now the country is changing. There's women's
    rights. There's equality under the law. Young girls now go to school,
    many for the first time ever, thanks to the United States and our
    coalition of liberators.
        We started to recover from September the 11th. The resolve of the
    country, by the way, is incredible when tested. It's a nation of people
    of deep character. Perhaps it's because we've got a lot of people of
    deep faith in our country.
        But we discovered shortly thereafter that there were some of our
    citizens who must have not been raised right, because they didn't tell
    the truth. There was corporate scandals in America that betrayed the
    trust. When somebody betrays the trust in our world, it can affect
    confidence. I mean, if you're not sure whether or not the accountants
    are telling the truth, it's hard to invest. These corporate wrongdoers
    cost people their jobs, cost a lot of people their savings. It affected
    our psychology. We had to overcome the hurdle.
        We passed tough laws, by the way, in Washington, and now the message
    is very clear: We will not tolerate wrongdoing in the boardrooms of
    America; we will hold you to account if you lie or cheat. But we
    overcame that.
        As I mentioned to you, it's important for this country never to
    forget the lessons of September the 11th, and that is, when we see a
    threat, we must deal with it before it fully materializes. That's one of
    the clear lessons of that horrible day in our history. I looked at
    intelligence from Iraq and saw a threat. The United States Congress
    looked at the same intelligence, and the Members of Congress saw a
    threat. The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence,
    and it saw a threat. And so, in the fall of 2002, I went to the United
    Nations Security Council and said, ``We all see a threat. Let's come
    together and deal with the threat. Let's say to Mr. Saddam
    Hussein, `You have one final chance to
    disclose and disarm, for the sake of peace and security.' ''
        A lot of people remembered that he was a
    person that had used weapons of mass destruction on his own people. He's
    a person that had terrorized the neighborhood. He's a person that was
    paying suiciders to kill innocent citizens. He's the person that
    tortured people. He's the person that had rape rooms. He's the person
    that had mass

    [[Page 480]]

    graves. He was a threat. Saddam Hussein once again chose defiance, and
    so I had a choice to make: Do I trust the word of a madman, or do I take
    action to defend America. Given that choice, I will defend our country
    every time.
        This is an historic time. We're going to get it right in Iraq. Iraq
    will emerge as a free society.
        I'll tell you a very interesting story. I was having Kobe beef with
    Prime Minister Koizumi from Japan.
    Laura and I were over there, and by the way, she
    sends her greetings. She's a great First Lady, I might add. Very
    interesting conversation, because we're talking about how we should work
    together to deal with Mr. Kim Chong-il and the
    nuclear weapons program on the Korean Peninsula. In other words, we were
    working together on a common threat. It dawned on me in the midst of the
    conversation, had we not gotten the post-World War II peace right, an
    American President and a Japanese Prime Minister wouldn't be talking
    about how to deal with a common threat. It also dawned on me during the
    course of the conversation that when we get it right in Iraq, some day
    an American President will be talking to an elected President or Prime
    Minister of a country in the heart of the Middle East, talking about how
    to deal with the threats of a future generation.
        These are historic times. A free and democratic Iraq will change the
    world.
        It's a hard job in Iraq. After all, there are terrorists who want to
    stop the progress of liberty. And there's a reason: They understand that
    a free society is not in their interests; a free society is a peaceful
    society; a free society is one that will put the conditions of terrorism
    out of business. That's why we love freedom in America. See, the other
    thing I believe in, I believe that freedom is not America's gift to the
    world. I believe freedom is the Almighty's gift to each man and woman in
    this world.
        On your TV screens, starting in 2002, were the words ``March to
    War.'' I don't know if you remember that. That's not conducive for
    creating jobs. Think about what it means, ``March to War.'' It's a
    negative thought. One of the hurdles we had to overcome was the business
    about going to war. If you're trying to plan your future, whether you're
    an employer or employee, you're not going to be all that optimistic,
    thinking that your country's marching to war. We're now marching to
    peace. We've overcome that hurdle.
        We've overcome four major hurdles, when you think about it. People
    say, ``How can you be so optimistic about our country?'' And the answer
    is, ``Because I've seen what we've come through.'' And guess what? Our
    economy is growing. Interest rates are low. Inflation is low.
    Homeownership rates are the highest in history. More people are owning
    their home. There is a minority homeownership gap in America, but now
    more minorities own a home than ever before, which is incredibly
    positive. When people own something, they have a vital stake in the
    future of this country. Manufacturing activity is up. The unemployment
    rate today is lower than the average rate in the 1970s, 1980s, and
    1990s. We've overcome a lot.
        Wisconsin is helping lead the growth of this country. Farms,
    factories, and offices are shipping high-quality goods all across
    America and all throughout the world. The State's unemployment rate is
    down from a year ago, below the national average, I might add. The
    economy is on a path of growth because we acted.
        You see, the role of Government is not to create wealth but to
    create an environment that encourages economic vitality and growth, is
    to create the grounds for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. That's
    the role of Government. And that's why I went to Congress and said,
    ``Listen, we've got problems, economic problems, and the best way to
    deal with those problems is let people keep more of their own money.''
    When a person has more of her own money, she demands an additional good
    or a service.

    [[Page 481]]

    And the way our economy works, somebody will meet that new demand for a
    good or a service by producing a good or a service. And when somebody
    produces a good or a service, somebody is more likely to keep a job or
    find work. That's the way the economy works. The tax relief came at just
    the right time.
        We also accomplished some other objectives in the tax relief.
    Remember, I argued that if we're going to provide tax relief, let's
    provide it for everybody who pays taxes, so that Government is not in
    the business of picking winners and losers when it comes to tax relief.
    The fairest way to deal with tax relief is to say, ``If you pay taxes,
    you get relief.''
        We also increased the child credit to $1,000 per child. By the way,
    that's very helpful if you happen to be a mom or a dad. We reduced the
    marriage penalty. My question to the Congress is, what kind of Tax Code
    is it that penalizes marriage? We ought to be encouraging marriage.
    After-tax incomes in America have been lifted by 8.4 percent since the
    end of 2000. People have got more money, and it's making a big
    difference.
        I also want you to know I understand job creation. Seventy percent
    of all new jobs are created by small businesses. It seems like, if
    that's the case and you're worried about somebody finding work, you want
    to make sure the small-business agenda is vibrant and foremost on our
    agenda. And it is. Because, you see, most small businesses are
    Subchapter S or sole proprietorships. I see a lot of people nodding
    their heads. A sole proprietorship or Subchapter S corporation means
    that the business pays tax at the individual income tax. And if you're
    paying tax at the individual income tax as a small business and all
    taxes get reduced, small businesses have got more money to invest and to
    expand.
        We also provided incentives for capital investment. We raised the
    amount of the limit to $100,000 from $25,000 that the small business can
    deduct for new capital expenditures. What I'm telling you is, is that
    small business is a direct beneficiary of the tax plan that we passed.
    It's an integral part of making sure that the environment for the
    entrepreneurial spirit is just right.
        Another way to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong is to
    get rid of the death tax. The death tax is a bad tax. A lot of farmers
    want to leave their farm to their family and not to the Government. A
    lot of small-business owners are dreaming big dreams, not only because
    they want to help somebody find a job but they also want to leave their
    business to whomever they choose. The problem with the death tax is,
    they tax you while you're alive, and then they tax you again after you
    die. And that doesn't seem fair. And a lot of people who own a small
    business or a farm, in order to pay the death tax, have to liquidate
    their assets in order to do so, which means it is impossible to pass
    your assets on, in many cases, to whomever you choose. Congress wisely
    put the death tax on its way to extinction, for the good of the
    entrepreneurial spirit here in America.
        This economy is going through a fundamental change. We're growing,
    which is great. One of the reasons we're growing is because we're
    incredibly productive. You've heard about productivity increases. That
    means one worker that used to be able to produce 5 units can now produce
    15 units. That's what productivity means. A productive society is a
    society that will generate more wealth, and that's very positive. In
    other words, the more productive you are, the wealthier your society
    becomes. A productive society means America will remain more
    competitive, will be able to expand and grow, not only internally but
    externally, because if you're a productive company here in America, you
    have a better chance to compete. And remember, our system is based upon
    competition. If you're a productive company in America, you have a
    better chance to compete with companies overseas.

    [[Page 482]]

        It's a fact that the more productive you are as a worker, the better
    you get paid. But the problem is, as I mentioned, many companies are
    able to fill new orders and don't have the--don't have a need to expand
    because they're more productive. In other words, it's possible to grow
    our economy and not have people find new jobs. And that's a problem we
    face today for some workers.
        This is called a period of transition. That's an economist's word
    for things aren't going too well for you. [Laughter] And I understand
    that. I understand that people are worried about the job they have.
    They're worried about whether their children can stay close to home
    where they were raised and find work. A productive society is positive
    in many ways, but for the worker who needs new skills, it's not so
    positive in the short term.
        So we have got to do something about it. We've got to deal with the
    economy the way it is. Many people are working, and more and more people
    are working. But there are some who, frankly, feel like they're being
    left behind, and that's not right. The role of Government is more than
    just providing unemployment insurance; it's to provide a sound strategy
    to make sure our economy continues to grow and people find the skills
    necessary to be productive employees in the 21st century. Those are the
    challenges we face.
        Some in our Nation's Capital respond a little differently than I
    will. They want to increase Federal spending dramatically. The problem
    with that plan is somebody has to pay for it, and that somebody is going
    to be you. That's who will pay for it. In order to pay for more
    spending, you'll hear the language ``tax on the rich.'' When you start
    raising income-tax rates up, you're raising on small businesses. If the
    tax relief helps small businesses, the corollary to that is that when
    you raise those taxes, it means small businesses are going to pay. If 70
    percent of the new jobs are created by small businesses, it makes
    absolutely no sense to be taking money out of their coffers to expand
    the role of the Federal Government.
        Tax and spend is the enemy of job creation. Taxing and spending in
    excessive amounts in Washington, DC, is not creating an environment for
    the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. Quite the contrary. It will
    diminish demand. It will make it difficult for people to start their own
    businesses and to expand.
        There's another issue we're facing as well in the Nation's Capital.
    That's whether or not we're going to build walls around America, whether
    we're going to isolate ourselves from the world. I call it ``economic
    isolationism.'' When you hear people talk about, ``Let us reconsider
    free trade agreements,'' what they're really saying is, is that perhaps
    we ought to wall ourself off from the rest of the world. See, I think
    that would be absolutely wrong for America to be so pessimistic about
    our ability to compete that we've become economic isolationists, that we
    erect barriers to trade, that we're so--that we lack confidence, that we
    say to our farmers and ranchers, our entrepreneurs that we don't think
    you can compete. See, I believe just the opposite. I believe this Nation
    can compete anywhere, anytime, anyplace, so long as the rules are fair.
        Look at it this way. America's got 5 percent of the world's
    population. That means there's 95 percent of the people out there that
    should be buying products that say ``Made in the USA.'' It's important
    to understand that exports, the ability to sell overseas, to be able to
    make something here in Wisconsin and sell it elsewhere, is an important
    part of your economy. Dairy farmers are selling their goods overseas.
        I read this, and I wasn't quite sure--it says that Wisconsin cheese
    is being sold in France. [Laughter] That's a good cheese. Oshkosh Truck
    sells overseas. Harley Davidson sells overseas. Wisconsin exports last

    [[Page 483]]

    year were worth $11.5 billion. See, Wisconsin is making products the
    world wants to buy. Wisconsin's exports to Canada rose last year.
    Exports to Mexico rose. Exports to China rose fourfold in the last 4
    years. In other words, people are finding jobs here in Wisconsin because
    they're helping make products that people want in other countries.
    Exports equal jobs. It's important for people to understand that.
        Nationwide, 97 percent of all U.S. exporters are small and medium-
    sized businesses. You know, a lot of folks say, ``Exports--you got to be
    a big guy to be able to export.'' No, there's a lot of small-business
    owners and entrepreneurs and medium-sized businesses that are making
    products, goods, and services, that people want. An important part of
    our economy is the small-business sector, as I told you. Companies with
    fewer than 20 employees make up nearly 70 percent of all U.S. exporting
    firms. So when you hear the talk about, ``Let's wall off America from
    the rest of the world,'' I want you to remember that we're talking about
    walling off small businesses from opportunities--opportunities to sell a
    product and, therefore, opportunities to eventually hire somebody.
        The other thing it's important for people to understand is that
    foreign companies recognize how great the U.S. workforce is. I mean,
    we're very good at what we do. We've got fantastic workers here in
    America, incredibly productive people. And therefore, there's a lot of
    foreign-owned companies that are interested in bringing their business
    here. A hundred thousand workers in Wisconsin work for foreign-owned
    companies, half of them in manufacturing. Fiskars Brands employs U.S.
    workers. It's a Finnish company. Kikkoman Foods, they make soy sauce.
    They employ U.S. personnel.
        In other words, when you hear about trade, just remember, trade
    means selling product overseas, but it also means welcoming foreign
    capital here in the United States to employ people, so they can find
    work. It's an important part of the equation to know that confident
    trade policy not only means the sale of goods, but confident trade
    policy means people want to set up their plants here.
        I was in Greer, South Carolina, at a BMW plant selling BMWs into
    Germany. We've got great workers in America. We ought not to be fearful
    of the future. We ought to be confident of our capacity to compete.
        And so, the question is, what do we do about trade policy? And
    that's what I want to spend a little time talking about. Five--for five
    decades, Presidents have made the decision that U.S. markets should be
    open, for the good of our consumers. In other words, when there's
    competition, it generally means better price. Other markets haven't been
    open to U.S. goods. So it seems like to me, the logical thing to do,
    rather than shutting down our own market, which will hurt consumers and
    hurt opportunity, is to spend time opening up other people's markets.
    And so when you hear me talk about negotiating trade agreements, really
    what we're doing is leveling the playing field. What we're really doing
    is make sure America has a chance to compete on the same terms that
    people can sell into our market.
        And if they don't respond, there's some things we can do. See, if we
    say, ``Our market is open, and yours isn't, so open yours up,'' rather
    than shutting ours down and creating trade wars which will jeopardize
    jobs, make it harder for small business to exist, there are things we
    can do. For example, we filed the first World Trade Organization case
    against China because of their unfair tax policy. We got Canada to stop
    exporting subsidized dairy products into the United States. We won a
    major international case against Mexico's telecommunications barriers.
    In other words, this administration is not going to--refuses to accept
    the doctrine of economic isolationism but instead says, ``We'll use the

    [[Page 484]]

    tools necessary to make sure that the playing field is level.''
        Japan is buying American apples. If you're an apple grower, that's
    good news. India is buying American almonds. My point is, not only are
    we focused on industries like the semiconductor industry, we want people
    buying U.S. farm products too. We're good at growing things here in the
    United States.
        Open trade means fair trade. It means that the buyer and the
    seller--that if we're a buying nation, it means the selling nation must
    open its markets too. That's what I'm talking about. It's important to
    be confident here in America because we're good at what we do, and our
    policies ought to reflect that.
        A lot of talk about jobs going overseas. There's a lot of
    uncertainty in the marketplace for some people looking for work. I
    understand that--I understand that. But the best way to deal with that
    in my judgment is to make sure America remains the best place in the
    world to do business so that our job base will expand. The more vibrant
    the small-business sector, the more likely it is somebody's going to
    find work. The more vibrant the business sector, the more likely it is
    jobs will stay right here at home. That's what people have got to
    understand.
        Let me talk real quick about some things we need to do. We need to
    stop harassing small-business owners and entrepreneurs with endless
    amounts of regulation and paperwork. I know there's a lot of Federal
    forms. My problem is, I can't guarantee that they're ever read.
        Secondly, like you, I'm concerned about the rising costs of health
    care. It's an issue for consumers. It's an issue for employers. If you
    talk to small-business owners, they're concerned about being able to
    provide their employees with a good package for health care. There are
    some things we can do. One thing we must not do is turn over the health
    care industry to the Federal Government. There's a philosophical tug-of-
    war in Washington, DC. I believe the Federal Government would make
    matters worse. I believe the marketplace and empowering consumers will
    make matters better.
        One way we can control health care costs is to allow small
    businesses to share risk through association health care plans. In other
    words, big companies are able to pool risk because they've got a lot of
    employees over which they can spread risk. Small businesses don't have
    that advantage. I believe small businesses ought to be able to pool risk
    across jurisdictional boundary to get the same benefits, the same
    economies of purchase, that big businesses get.
        We passed a new aspect to health care, which I think a lot of small-
    business owners and employees will find very interesting. They're called
    health savings accounts. This is the opportunity for people to put money
    into a health savings account tax-free, earn money tax-free, withdraw it
    tax-free to meet certain health care costs, and then any major medical
    or larger health care costs are covered by a catastrophic plan. Now,
    what this does is it puts the consumer back in charge of health care
    decisions, as opposed to bureaucracies or Government. What it also does
    is it helps control the cost of health care. If you look into it as a
    small-business employer, I think you'll find it is an imaginative way to
    help your employees have affordable health care.
        The other thing we need to do in order to make sure we hold the cost
    of health care down is to have medical liability reform at the Federal
    level. There's too many junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of
    medicine. A lot of docs practice defensive medicine because they're
    afraid of getting sued. But guess who pays? Small-business owners and
    employees, that's who pays. A lot of docs are tired of getting sued, so
    they're moving out. Maybe it's happened in your community. That means
    not only is the cost of medicine going up, the cost of health care going
    up, but there's fewer docs available to practice their trade.

    [[Page 485]]

        Listen, if you get hurt, you ought to have your day in court. But
    the system in many places looks like a lottery, and there's only one
    winner, and those are the trial lawyers who sue and sue and sue.
        We need other tort reform to make sure America's a good place to do
    business so jobs stay at home. We're close to getting a reform on class-
    action lawsuits. Perhaps some of you have been caught up in these class-
    actions lawsuits. It's--again, sometimes it's a gravy train, not for
    those who are the plaintiffs but the people representing the plaintiffs.
    We're close, but the trial bar is tough in Washington, DC. They're able
    to hold up a lot of stuff in the United States Senate, which is
    discouraging, because good tort reform will make it easier for people to
    find a job here at home, will make sure the environment for the
    entrepreneurs is good and strong.
        There's another thing we need to do here in America. Look, if you're
    a manufacturer in Wisconsin, you need to make sure you've got energy so
    you can manufacture your product. We have a problem in America because
    we don't have an energy plan. It doesn't make much sense when you're a
    giant nation like ours not to have an energy plan, but we can't get it
    out right now. It's stuck. I'm calling upon the House and the Congress
    to reconcile their differences and get an energy plan on my desk that
    will encourage--to my desk that will encourage clean coal technology so
    we can burn coal, a plentiful supply, in a clean way, so that we can
    encourage more exploration of natural gas.
        Natural gas is absolutely vital for many manufacturers here in
    Wisconsin. You've got to have energy in order to make sure your business
    is viable. We need to modernize our electricity system. We got a wake-up
    call last summer when parts of our country were shocked by a rolling
    blackout. If you're a businessowner and you're trying to expand your
    business, if you're trying to make a product and if you're worried about
    whether or not you're going to get any power, it's very difficult to be
    optimistic about your future. We need to encourage conservation. What we
    need is an energy plan so we're less dependent on foreign sources of
    energy.
        We're debating a highway bill right now in Congress. I look forward
    to signing a 6-year bill without raising your gas taxes. We don't need
    to be raising the Federal gas tax. Gas taxes would hurt the economy.
    There are some in the other party in Washington who would like to raise
    gas taxes. I think it would be wrong. I think it would be damaging to
    the economy, not positive to the economy.
        Also, speaking about highways, the Nation must stay on the leading
    edge of technology. I want to make sure broadband technology is
    available for every home in America by the year 2007, and that, shortly
    thereafter, there's adequate competition so consumers get to choose.
    There's nothing like choice, by the way, if you're a consumer, to make
    sure that a product stays reasonably priced. And there are ways to do
    that.
        We ought not to tax access to broadband at the United States--in the
    United States Congress. And we've got to make sure that the regulatory
    environment is conducive to making sure broadband extends throughout
    America. There's some practical things we can do. But for America to be
    competitive, to make sure jobs stay at home, we've got to stay on the
    leading edge of technological change. And the broadband technology is
    going to be--it's going to be just amazing. It's going to be amazing for
    small-business owners. It's going to be amazing for people who work out
    of their home and are productive citizens. It's going to be amazing for
    education opportunities. It's going to be amazing for health care. We
    need it, and we need to get it out as quickly as possible in a price-
    sensitive way for the consumers.
        Finally, these tax cuts that I'm talking about are set to expire.
    Congress giveth, and the Congress taketh away. [Laughter]

    [[Page 486]]

    And if you're a small-business owner, it's hard to plan for your future
    if you're uncertain about your tax liabilities. If you're wondering
    whether or not the tax--taxes that--tax relief today is going to be
    taken away, it is not good for planning. People who plan need to have a
    steady environment, not an unpredictable environment.
        It's also not good if you're a mom or a dad raising your child to be
    paying more taxes right now. And if Congress doesn't make the child
    credit permanent, it means it's a tax increase on somebody with a child.
    If you're married, that marriage penalty is going back up unless
    Congress makes the tax relief permanent. If you are in the 10-percent
    bracket, it means that bracket is going to become squeezed if Congress
    doesn't make the tax cuts permanent. For the sake of job creation, for
    the sake of keeping jobs here at home, we need to make the tax cuts a
    permanent part of our Tax Code.
        Now that I've got you stuck here--[laughter]--we're going to talk
    about education right quick. A economy which is changing, an economy in
    transition, is an economy that better make sure people are educated to
    take advantage of the new jobs being created. In a lot of parts of our
    country, there are jobs going begging because people don't have the
    skills necessary to fill them. In some older industries, jobs are not as
    prevalent as some of the new industries. Nurses, for example--there's a
    nursing shortage. We've got to make sure people get the skills necessary
    to be able to fill the new jobs.
        We can't make somebody say--decide to go to work. That's in their
    mind. But we darn sure can help somebody get the skills necessary to
    take advantage of the jobs which are being created. We can help somebody
    become a more productive citizen. Remember, higher productivity for a
    worker means better wages.
        And I've got some plans to do so. It starts, by the way, by making
    sure every child can read and write and add and subtract. We passed a
    good law in Washington. It's called the No Child Left Behind Act. The
    principles behind that law are, one, we trust local people to make the
    right decisions for the communities in which they live when it comes to
    their public schools. But for the first time, the Federal Government is
    asking the question, are we getting any return for our money we're
    spending? It's called accountability. It means that--[applause].
        We've increased the Title I or elementary and secondary school
    budget by 49 percent since 2001, which is good. But as importantly,
    we've started to say to the State of Wisconsin, ``Measure, so we can
    determine whether or not it's working.'' How can you tell whether or not
    things are going well in the education system if you don't measure? You
    can't. And guess what happens in a system that doesn't measure? Kids
    just get shuffled through. And guess who gets shuffled through? The so-
    called hard-to-teach. That would be low-income, inner-city, African
    Americans, parents who may not speak English as a first language. It's
    easy to quit on those kids. ``Just going to move them through.'' What
    accountability says is that we're tired of moving kids through. We're
    going to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. We believe
    every child can learn.
        Things are improving around the country because we are holding
    people to account. By the way, the accountability system is not to
    punish anybody. It's to determine whether or not the curriculum is
    working. It's to make sure that the methodology makes sense. It's also
    to catch problems early and correct them before it's too late. There are
    some problems that are almost too late. We've got plans to help junior
    high and high school kids learn the basics of reading and math before it
    is too late--very good intervention programs.
        But one of the things I'm most excited about is using our community
    college system. We've got a great strategy to make

    [[Page 487]]

    sure the community college system is a vibrant part of job training
    programs all across America. I hope you've got a good community college
    system here. The definition of a good system, by the way, is one that is
    flexible and open-minded, so that when employers come and say, ``These
    are the kinds of people we need to hire,'' that the curriculum changes
    and actually trains people for the jobs which exist.
        There's nothing like the Chamber of Commerce being able to say,
    ``We've got a fantastic community college system here. If you move your
    business here, the community college will make sure--will help train
    people for the jobs you need.'' A more productive worker is a worker
    that's going to make more money.
        I remember going to Mesa Community College and met a woman there
    that was a graphic design artist. I think she'd been one for 15 years.
    She got a scholarship--and by the way, there's money available to help
    people go back to school. She got a scholarship to go back to the
    community college, and she took a technical course. Upon graduation,
    which--I can't remember the exact number of months it was, but it was a
    reasonable period of time--her starting job at Cable One paid her more
    than her 15th year as a graphic design artist.
        That's the definition of becoming a more productive worker. If you
    increase your productivity by going back to school, it makes you
    obviously more employable for the jobs which exist, but it also raises
    your own standard of living. Education is a crucial part to make sure
    that jobs here in America stay home and that the job base can expand in
    a confident way.
        So those are some reasonable things that the country needs to do: to
    stand with the people, not stand against them; to make sure that we
    unleash the great talent of America; to make sure that we capture the
    entrepreneurial spirit which makes this country so unique and such an
    exciting place for people to live; practical things to do to make sure
    jobs stay here at home and people can work and do their duty as a
    responsible citizen.
        Let me conclude by telling--speaking about responsibility, I do
    think one of the interesting things that's happening in America is we
    are ushering in a period of personal responsibility, which stands in
    stark contrast to kind of an old culture which said, ``If it feels good,
    do it,'' and, ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else.'' People
    in the country are beginning to understand that there is a--you're
    responsible for loving your children. If you're fortunate enough to be a
    mom or a dad, you're responsible for loving your child with all your
    heart. If you're worried about the quality of the education in which
    you--in the community in which you live, you're responsible for doing
    something about it. Just don't hope for some magic response from a
    faraway Government. If you're a CEO in corporate America, you're
    responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and your
    employees. And in this new responsibility society, each of us is
    responsible for loving our neighbor just like we'd like to be loved
    ourselves.
        We've got a fabulous country. There's nothing we can't overcome.
    Thank you for coming today. May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. at the Fox Cities Performing
    Arts Center. In his remarks, he referred to Bill Welch, president, Fox
    Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry, who introduced the President;
    Mayor Tim Hanna of Appleton, WI; former President Saddam Hussein of
    Iraq; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim Chong-
    il of North Korea.

    [[Page 488]]