[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
[March 11, 2004]
[Pages 357-367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion on the National Economy in Bay Shore, New York
March 11, 2004

    The President. Thanks for having me.
    Vincent Trapani.  Any time, any time. 
You can make the call; we're here.
    The President. I've been looking for some auto parts.
    Mr. Trapani. I can hook you up real 
easy.
    The President. That's good, yes.
    Mr. Trapani. I know a guy. [Laughter]
    The President. You know a guy? Here's what we're--we're here to talk 
about how the economy works and how people can find work. We've got some 
challenges to face. And Vince, I want to 
thank you for giving me the chance to come and visit with people 
involved in this community. We've got some entrepreneurs, and we've got 
some hard workers, and we've got some educators and people helping 
people get education. And that's what we're going to talk about.
    First, I want to thank you, Vince, and 
your family for greeting me. Nothing like being in the presence of an 
entrepreneur, somebody who dreams big dreams, works hard, and ends up 
employing good, hard-working people to provide a product somebody wants 
to buy.
    Mr. Trapani. That's the American Dream.
    The President. That is the American Dream. I said, ``Did you buy 
this company?'' He said, ``No, I started it 
on a shoestring.'' And it's one of the most fantastic aspects about our 
society, and frankly, it's the entrepreneurial spirit that we're 
heralding today that is enabling us to overcome a lot of obstacles.
    Before I talk about the obstacles, I do want to say thanks to my 
friend Governor George Pataki, the great 
Governor of this State. He's a great buddy of mine, and he and 
Libby are great friends of Laura and me as well. And he's doing a good job. He's a 
solid, solid, smart, capable public servant.
    I also flew down on the airplane today with two fine Members of the 
United States Congress--Peter King, from this 
part of the world. Peter, thank you for coming. If he looks different, 
he just had some cataract surgery so he doesn't wear his glasses 
anymore. I said, ``You're looking more beautiful than ever, 
Congressman.'' [Laughter] And I appreciate my friend Vito 
Fossella is with us today. Where are you, 
Vito? Glad you're here. These are two strong leaders. They care deeply 
about the citizens of the communities which they represent. They were 
talking New York the entire way from Washington, DC, to here, and I 
appreciate calling them friends.
    I'm also proud that Jim Garner, the 
mayor of Hempstead--thank you for coming, big Jim. Jim, he's the 
president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That's a big deal. And I 
want to thank you for working with the administration on urban policy.
    I appreciate very much all the local and State officials who are 
here. I know there's

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a lot of members of the statehouse and the senate and the local 
governments. I appreciate you coming out to say hello. It's an honor 
that you would show up and say hi to the President.
    I'm also very proud of the fact that John DiGiano is here. Where are you, John? He's a buddy of mine. 
There you are. Hi, John. Is Mama with you--is your wife with you? There 
she is, oh, yes. John is just a good buddy. I had to say hello to him. 
He's a friend. He's one of the great Americans, and he's the dad of a 
great American family. And I'm proud you came, John. Thank you all for 
being here.
    Today at the airport, I met Rich McKeon. 
You probably never heard of Rich. Rich is a volunteer. He's a mentor. 
He's involved with Operation Hope, teaches youngsters about the--
financial math, about how the economy works. He's been a member of Big 
Brothers and Big Sisters. The reason I bring up Rich is because a lot of 
times we talk about the strength of our country. One of the strengths, 
of course, is our military, and by the way, I'm going to keep it strong. 
Another strength is the fact that we've got--that we're a wealthy nation 
compared to others, and we intend to keep it that way. But the true 
strength is the hearts and souls of our citizens. That's really the 
strength of America.
    The strength of this country--you know, we can change the country 
one heart at a time when somebody takes time out of their lives to love 
a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. And that happens. That 
happens in every neighborhood in America. It happens whether Government 
says, ``Do it,'' or not. People follow their heart because they hear a 
higher calling.
    Here's old Rich. He's working to make a 
living, and yet he's taking time out of his life to surround a child 
with love and to give a child a little extra knowledge. Where are you, 
Rich? Thank you for coming. I appreciate your service.
    My call is if you want to serve your country like Rich is, find a 
way to help somebody in need. Many of you probably are, and if you are, 
thanks a lot from the bottom of this Nation's collective heart.
    Listen, we've overcome a lot. See, I'm sitting here next to 
Vince, and he's optimistic about the future. 
He just told me he was. And I don't think you were faking----
    Mr. Trapani. There's no question about 
that.
    The President. See----
    Mr. Trapani. We live in a great country.
    The President. Well, that too. And--but I want you to remember what 
we've been through, just to keep this conversation in perspective, about 
why we should be optimistic about what this--the future of this country.
    First of all, we went through a recession. That means things were 
going backwards. The stock market started to decline--that affects 
people who had savings--in March of 2000. And then we had negative 
growth. And during negative growth, people who work for a living begin 
to wonder whether or not there's going to be a job. That's what that 
means. There's uncertainty. Business leaders and planners wonder whether 
or not the markets are going to be available for them to sell a product.
    And we started to recover, and then the enemy hit us. And you know 
what it meant to have the enemy hit us, particularly in neighborhoods 
like these. John knows what it meant to have 
the enemy hit us. It was a devastating blow. It was a blow to our 
psychology. It was a blow to our economy.
    By the way, this Nation rallied. It rallied, in large part, thanks 
to the citizens of the great State of New York, because they refused to 
be intimidated by terrorists and killers. It rallied because of the 
courage of the firefighters and police officers that people all around 
the country got to know via their television set. That's--it rallied. 
We're a strong nation.

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    And yet, that attack hurt us. It hurt us economically. They say over 
a million jobs were lost because of that attack. And then we started to 
recover, because we're a strong nation full of strong people. And then 
we found out some of the corporate citizens of America forgot what it 
meant to be a responsible citizen. In other words, they didn't tell the 
truth. They didn't tell the truth to their shareholders. They didn't 
tell the truth to their employees. But we passed tough laws. And by the 
way, that hurt the economy. If you can't have trust in the business 
leaders of an economy, the economy will suffer. It hurt. And so we 
passed tough laws. And so we're running them--these people are being 
held to account, let me put it to you that way. Justice is being 
delivered. We will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.
    And then I made a tough but necessary decision. The lesson of 
September 11th is this: We must deal with threats before they fully 
materialize. If you think there's a threat, you must deal with it early, 
before it is too late. That's the lesson of September the 11th. It's a 
lesson people must never forget.
    I looked at the intelligence in Iraq and saw a threat. The United 
States Congress looked at the same intelligence; they saw a threat. The 
United Nations Security Council, right up the road there, looked at the 
intelligence, and it saw a threat. And so I went to the U.N. and said, 
``Look, let's deal with the man. He needs to 
reveal, disclose, and destroy weapons programs. That's what he needs to 
do.'' The world spoke, not just the United States of America. We spoke. 
He chose defiance. I had a choice to make at that point in time: Either 
trust the word of somebody who had deceived the world and had used 
weapons of mass destruction on his own people, or defend America. And 
given that choice, I will defend our country every time.
    The march to war hurt the economy. Laura 
reminded me a while ago that--she said, ``Remember what was on the TV 
screens''--she calls me George W.--``George W.'' I call her First Lady. 
No, anyway--[laughter]. She said, ``We said `March to War' on our TV 
screens.'' It's hard to run a business if you're marching to war. It's 
not conducive to capital investment. Marching to war is a negative 
thought, and if you're in the business world and you're trying to hire 
people or you're looking for work, it's not a conducive time to do so. 
Now we're marching to peace. We took the tough decision, but now we're 
marching to peace. We've overcome a lot, and our economy is growing.
    We've got robust growth in the last half of 2003. Inflation is low. 
Interest rates are low. Manufacturing activity is up. Homeownership is 
at the highest rate ever. Unemployment rate is at 5.6 percent. There's 
still more to do; don't get me wrong. There's still people looking for 
work. There's still people worried about the job they now hold. And I'm 
going to talk a little bit about that before we get to some of our 
participants.
    But let me remind you why I think we were able to overcome all we 
did. One, the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America, and we intend 
to keep it that way. Two, the workers of America are the best in the 
world, the most productive, best, hardest working people on the face of 
the Earth. And three, we cut the taxes. If a family has more money to 
spend, it means they're going to demand an additional good or a service. 
And when they do, somebody is going to produce the good or a service. 
And when somebody produces it, somebody is going to work. That's what 
that means. When somebody goes and buys a car because of the extra money 
they've got in their pocket, they just might be buying a part for that 
car right from this shop right here. At least Vince wants them to.
    Mr. Trapani. That's okay by me.
    The President. And if they buy a part for the car manufactured here, 
it means

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that this workforce is more stable. That's what that means. Tax relief 
worked.
    And you hear a lot of talk in Washington about tax relief and taxing 
the rich and all that business. Let me tell you something. First, good 
policy says you cut the taxes on everybody who pays taxes, not try to 
pick and choose. Secondly, we increased the child credit to $1,000 per 
child to help families, and you're going to hear about some families who 
have been helped by this. The other thing we did is we reduced the 
marriage penalty. I mean, it doesn't seem to make much sense to penalize 
marriage when you're trying to encourage marriage in our society, yet 
the Tax Code did. And we made that better.
    But you know what else we did--and this is important for people to 
understand when you hear this talk about the Tax Code. When you cut the 
taxes on individuals, you really reduce the taxes on small businesses as 
well, because most small businesses are sole proprietorships and 
Subchapter S corporations. And you see, when you cut the taxes on a 
small business, it gives that small-business owner more money to invest. 
And when that person invests, it means somebody is more likely to keep a 
job. Make no mistake about this: That tax cut was good for the small 
businesses of the United States of America, and that's one of the 
reasons why this economy is so strong.
    A couple of other things, if you don't mind.
    Mr. Trapani. Any time. [Laughter]
    The President. Thank you, sir.
    I told you there's more work to do. Let me tell you some of the 
things that we need to do. These tax cuts expire, which means taxes are 
going up on people. That's what that means. When you hear, ``We're going 
to repeal the tax cuts,'' that's Washington, DC, code for ``I'm fixing 
to raise your taxes.'' That's what that means. It doesn't make any sense 
to raise taxes on people who are beginning to employ people. If you're a 
small business, we shouldn't be raising the taxes on the small-business 
owners. We shouldn't be raising taxes on the hard-working families. It 
makes no sense to take money out of the pockets of the people that are 
driving this economy forward, and so we need to make the tax cuts 
permanent. Congress needs to listen to the voices of the people.
    There's too many junk lawsuits in our society. We need tort reform 
in order for people to be--expand their businesses. You hear talk about 
outsourcing; I'm as concerned about outsourcing as the next person. But 
the way to deal with outsourcing is to make America a better place to do 
business, not a worse place. Raising taxes will make it harder to create 
jobs. Lawsuits make it harder to create jobs. We need an energy policy 
so people can plan their businesses around a solid supply of energy. We 
need to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we want to 
make sure jobs stay here.
    You know how else you make sure that jobs stay home, is you have a 
health care policy that's reasonable and the prices are--and we do 
something about the high cost of health care for employees and 
employers. There's three things, the practical things we can do: one, 
associated health care plans to allow small businesses to pool risk in 
order to be able to have affordable health care for their employees; 
health savings accounts, which will help employees and employers better 
afford health care; and national medical liability reform to stop the 
junk lawsuits which are running up the cost of health care for these 
businesses.
    One other thing we need to make sure of, we need to make sure we 
don't become isolated from the world. It's what I call economic 
isolationism. It's beginning to creep into the dialog. People are 
saying, ``Well, we'll stop jobs from going overseas by making sure we 
put up walls and barriers between the United States and the rest of the 
world.'' That's lousy policy. You're about to hear a businessowner that 
relies upon exports. People work for him

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because he's able to export. One in five factory jobs in America exist 
because they're selling products somewhere else. Six million people in 
this country work as a result of somebody saying, ``This workforce of 
ours is so good, I'm going to build a plant''--like Honda right outside 
of Cleveland, Ohio, for example. Consumer prices will go up if we wall 
ourselves from the rest of the world. Economic isolationism is bad 
economic policy, and it will cost people jobs. It will make it harder 
for you to keep your work.
    So what I want to do is, I want to take a different tack. You see, 
our markets are pretty open for other people. And what we're going to do 
is tell other people, ``If our markets are open for you, you open yours 
for us.'' You see, we want to have trade, but trade that is fair. 
Level--we want a level playing field. We can outcompete with anybody. 
See, pessimistic people say, ``America can't compete.'' An optimistic 
person says, ``We can compete with anybody, just let's make sure the 
rules are fair and the playing field is level.''
    No, this plan of ours is a plan that says we're not going to have 
outsourcing because we want to make sure we've got better jobs right 
here at home--better, high-paying, high-quality jobs. And the way to do 
that is have an optimistic, progrowth economic policy. And that's what I 
intend to put forth to the United States Congress.
    You ready to go? I've been talking too much. And if there appears to 
be a lot of hot air in here, it's probably because of me. [Laughter]
    Robert Silverstein is with us today. 
Let me just say, Robert does not make a living by talking too much, like 
I do. Robert is an entrepreneur. He's got a very interesting little 
business. And Robert, do you mind telling us what you do?

[At this point, Robert Silverstein, president, Orelube Corp., made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. Yes. Let me ask you, how many employees have you got?
    Mr. Silverstein. We've got 13 
employees right now.
    The President. So first of all, we're talking to a small-business 
owner. You know how many businesses like Robert's are around the 
country? We're talking thousands and thousands and thousands of people 
who employ 20 people or less. It's really the backbone of the economy, 
when you think about it, isn't it? Small businesses, vibrant small 
businesses all over.
    Did you hire anybody recently?
    Mr. Silverstein. We just hired 
somebody this past November, and we just hired somebody this past 
February. That's two in the last 4 months, 5 months. And we plan this 
year to hire--a technology hire to boost the technology base of our 
company so we could expand our sales even further as well into these new 
countries that we're selling to now, as well as new countries.
    The President. So he's gone from, 
like, 12 to 15. I heard the other day somebody kind of belittling that, 
that--oh, they were talking about a small business that only increased 
their employees by two or three people. You see, a country is vibrant 
when you've got small businesses who are optimistic and excited and are 
willing to take on additional employees. It's not the three--just three 
employees of Robert. There are thousands of Roberts who are hiring 
people. Most new jobs in America are created by small-business owners. 
And good Government policy, good tax policy rewards entrepreneurs like 
Robert.
    So, Robert, I want to thank you for 
coming. I want to thank you for employing people. I want to tell you 
something: If we fall prey to economic isolationism, the jobs that he 
now has in his company are going to be vulnerable. If he can't export, 
if there's trade wars, if people throw up barriers, his people won't be 
working. We need to be confident in this country. We need to say, ``If 
you're going to accept--if we're going to accept your product, you

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make sure you accept ours.'' We can compete with anybody. Robert's 
showing you he can do that.
    And I want to thank you for being a good business leader, 
Robert, and thanks for coming.
    All right, Vince. I met your dad. Yes, 
I've got a good one too--and mother, by the way. Are you still telling him what to do? 
Yes. Bar is still telling me what to do too. [Laughter]
    Listen, so Vince started his own 
business. By the way, Robert's 
grandfather started his. It's pretty neat, isn't it, to be talking to 
the grandson of an entrepreneur who had enough faith to leave it to the 
dad, and the dad passed it on to Robert.
    One of the problems we have, in order for families to leave 
businesses, is the death tax. The death tax is a bad tax. The death tax 
means we're going to tax a person's assets twice, once when they're 
living and the second time after they're not. And it is a bad tax. It 
makes it hard for entrepreneurs to build up their companies and leave 
their assets to whom they want to leave them to. The Congress started 
passing that--getting rid of the death tax, and we just got--one of the 
reasons why we need to make the tax cuts permanent is so the death tax 
is gone, so dreamers can leave their assets to whomever they want.
    Mr. Trapani. Fine by me.
    The President. Yes, I'm ready. Tell us about how you started. I 
mean, here you are, a good-looking guy, wondering what you're going to 
do with yourself.

[Mr. Trapani, president, U.S.A. Industries, Inc., made brief remarks.]

    The President. First of all, you're getting it a little backwards. 
Government doesn't create wealth. All Government does is create an 
environment for you who has got a good idea and willing to work to 
succeed. That's the difference between different visions of Government.
    Okay, he's a Subchapter S corporation, 
which means he pays tax at the individual income-tax rate. And so when 
you hear him talking tax for the rich, here he is. He's a small-business 
owner. They're trying to run his taxes up as a businessowner. It doesn't 
make any sense to be raising taxes on small businesses.
    Are you hiring anybody?
    Mr. Trapani. Well, let's put it this 
way: Last year we were fortunate enough to have 208 great employees. Now 
we're fortunate enough to have 221 employees. We're looking at the 
possibility--and we're out here discussing things with our real estate 
agent--about the possibility of another 30,000 square feet of 
manufacturing potential, which would possibly create another 20 to 25 
new jobs and, pray to God, more.
    The President. See, he's hiring people. 
Why do we want to take money out of his pocket when he's hiring people? 
We don't.
    Now, let me tell you another thing. Part of the Tax Code said that 
if you make an investment, you get a tax incentive to make the 
investment. In other words, we accelerated depreciation. That's a long 
word for saying we're trying to encourage the Vinces of the world to go 
out and buy some equipment. That was part of the tax plan. Some 
businesses need additional equipment--additional computers, additional 
software, and there was an incentive to go out and purchase them.
    Did you buy any equipment?
    Mr. Trapani. Oh, yes. [Laughter]
    The President. Could you share with us what it was? [Laughter]
    Mr. Trapani. It would be my pleasure. We 
spent a lot of our money basically in technology. It's technology, where 
we've spent our money in machinery and things like that--enable us to 
compete. We compete against----
    The President. What kind of machine?
    Mr. Trapani. We went out and we bought 
some heavy-duty air conditioning compressors, things like--not air 
conditioning--air compressors. And the reality of our air compressors, 
they're enabling us

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basically to do things more efficient. So besides the fact that the 
benefit of what the proposal in the tax plan was, we were able to save 
money on our utility costs. Now we're even more energy efficient.
    The President. See, there's a lot of talk about productivity 
increases. It means his workers are more 
productive. They can make more products in the same amount of time as 
before. That means they're more productive. And the reason they're more 
productive is because he bought some equipment. And one of the reasons 
why he bought some more equipment is because the Tax Code encouraged him 
to do so. Congress will take that away unless they make the tax cuts 
permanent, by the way.
    Let me tell you something else that's interesting, so that everybody 
understands. When he goes out and buys an 
air compressor, somebody has to make the air compressor. And when 
somebody makes the air compressor, it means somebody is more likely to 
find a job. The economy works when you stimulate small-business owners 
and consumers. It works as the result of people meeting demand. And 
that's what we tried to do. We tried to create more demand. We wanted 
Vince to say, ``I need a new compressor,'' and encourage him to buy it, 
and he did. His workers are more productive, he's more competitive, and 
somebody had to make the compressor. And that's the way the U.S. economy 
works with good Government policy.
    The problem is, is that when you're raising people's taxes and 
you're increasing their regulations and you're walling off America, you 
make it more difficult for Vince to be 
aggressive in creating more jobs. And that's why I'm glad you invited me 
here. Keep hiring people.
    Mr. Trapani. We intend to keep hiring 
people. But you have also created the environment. We have interest 
rates that enable us to go out and borrow, that--my parents don't 
remember how successful this here situation has become. So with the 
situation and the opportunities of lower interest rates, and more than 
anything, the tax savings--the tax savings that come back to people, 
that come back to America. My accountants are in the audience. They're 
happy.
    The President. Yes, good. I'm glad they're happy. Wait until you get 
their bill. [Laughter] Then you won't be happy.
    Okay. Pedro Ramos. Como esta, Pedro?
    Pedro Ramos. Bien.
    The President. Pedro works here. He's--how 
many children you got? Cuantos ninos?
    Mr. Ramos. I've got two children. I've got a 
wife. I've got a house. I own a house. I've been working for him almost 
14 years. I've been doing--he's been doing great for me. He's the best 
boss that I could have in this country. I think that I live in a very 
good country. We have such good opportunities in this country. I want to 
focus to get a better future for my children. My refund taxes, I always 
use it in my house, to fix my house. I invest all the money, my refund, 
in my house.
    The President. Pedro, where were you born?
    Mr. Ramos. I born in El Salvador.
    The President. El Salvador. Got a great President, by the way. Paco 
Flores is one of my good friends.
    Mr. Ramos. He said that you're good friends.
    The President. Yes, he's a good 
fellow. [Laughter] You worked here catorce anos?
    Mr. Ramos. Yes.
    The President. Fourteen years he's worked 
here?
    Mr. Ramos. Fourteen years, yes.
    The President. How old are your children?
    Mr. Ramos. The older one is 9.
    The President. Donde? Oh, there.
    Mr. Ramos. They're sitting right there. My 
wife is right there, also.
    The President. Oh, thanks.
    Mr. Ramos. The second one is 6 years old.
    The President. Six years old.

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    Mr. Ramos. Yes. I'm so proud of my children 
and my wife and my boys.
    The President. I want you to listen to what he said. He said, ``I took the tax relief and worked on my 
house.'' There's two things I want to share with you on that. One, 
there's nothing better than a society which encourages people to own 
something, isn't there? Either to own your own business--how about the 
fact that this is a fellow who was born in El Salvador, comes here to 
our country, and now owns his own home. Isn't that one of the 
spectacular aspects?
    The tax relief we passed--his family saved 
$1,900 in taxes. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot to people in 
Washington, probably. I know it sounds a lot to the Congressmen who are 
here. But that's a lot to Pedro. Think about that $1,900, what that can 
mean. That's, by the way, because of the child credit and the marriage 
penalty and reducing the 10-percent tax bracket. His family has 1,900 
more dollars of their own to spend.
    And so he made a decision. He said, ``I'm 
going to fix up my house.'' Well, you can't fix it up out of air. He's 
got to go buy things to fix it up with. I bet you bought some paint.
    Mr. Ramos. That's correct, yes.
    The President. Paint?
    Mr. Ramos. Yes, paint.
    The President. So somebody had to make the paint.
    Mr. Ramos. And this year I plan to use my 
refund to do my fence. I want to do all my--the outside of my house.
    The President. So that's good. That's how the economy works. Pedro 
takes the extra money in his pocket, and he 
goes--Home Depot? Where did you go?
    Mr. Ramos. I go to Home Depot. Right, yes. 
[Laughter]
    The President. See? Now you do. [Laughter] So he goes to Home Depot, and he buys something. Somebody had 
to make the product. The economy works when people demand things, and we 
increased demand. Let me tell you the problem: Congress needs to make 
the child credit and the marriage and the 10-percent bracket reductions 
permanent. Right now these are the parts of the Tax Code that begin to 
expire. They need to make all taxes permanent, and they need to start 
with these three. Otherwise, this good fellow pays $913 more in taxes 
next year. If they don't make the tax cuts permanent, it's a tax 
increase on Pedro. He pays more taxes. It makes no sense to be taxing 
this good family, right now, more money. It makes no sense. Congress 
needs to make the child credit and the marriage penalty and the 10-
percent bracket, as a beginning, make them permanent this year, so Pedro 
has got more money to spend.
    Good job. Good job.
    Okay, Maureen White is with us. This is a 
really interesting story here that we're about to hear. It is a--it is 
innovative and compassionate. Maureen is senior vice president-chief 
nurse--chief nurse executive--even better--[laughter]--of the North 
Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. She is here with Maria 
Rais. What? Yes, exactly--Maira Rais. [Laughter] 
As I was saying, Maira Rais, yes. But why don't you tell us about your 
program, about your vision, and maybe introduce Maira? Thanks.

[Maureen White made brief remarks.]

    The President. Yes, you're doing great. Thank you. Very good job. 
Unbelievably articulate.
    Yes, Maureen was--first of all, is really 
well-spoken. [Laughter] I could take a lesson or two from you. 
[Laughter]
    A couple of points that I think are important: One, there are jobs. 
There are jobs that need workers. They need nurses. Oftentimes people 
don't have the skills necessary to be a nurse. This hospital, an 
incredibly responsible group of people, said, ``We'll train. We'll help. 
We'll pay for the training.'' And then the Nassau Community

[[Page 365]]

College stepped up and provided the curriculum, provided the trainers.
    We've got an issue in front of Congress, by the way, that will boost 
job training through the community college system. You hear people 
talking about--worrying about outsourcing and jobs moving overseas, and 
one reason why is because they don't have the skills necessary to take 
the jobs of the 21st century. We have an obligation in society to help 
train the people for the jobs which exist. And so job training has got 
to focus in smart, practical ways.
    Maureen talked about a really practical 
job training program. I want to thank the Nassau Community College 
people, if any are here, for being flexible and available to work with 
the hospital system to help people train to become nurses, to help them 
become skilled in the jobs which actually exist.
    I'll tell you one quick story, and then we're going to go to 
Maira. I was out in Arizona at a community 
college, and a woman who worked for a graphic artist--as a graphic 
design artist for 15 years, I believe it was, 12 or 15 years--a lot--and 
she went back to Mesa Community College and took a program to give her 
some additional skills in technology. And she stayed there for 6 
months--got paid by, by the way, worker displacement money that Congress 
has provided as the result of trade policies. If somebody loses a job 
because of trade, you can get money necessary to learn the skills for a 
new job. And she made more money in her first year of her new job, 
having gone to get new skills and to be more productive, than she did 
after 15 years of being a graphic artist. So not only does getting new 
skills help you find a job, it helps you find a higher paying job.
    And that's why, Maureen, I want to thank 
you for sharing your story. I want you to tell your hospital people 
thanks. I know my friend Fred Wilpon is on the 
board. I wish him all the best for the Mets this year--[laughter]--but 
tell him, as importantly, he's done a good job in the hospital.
    Maira, tell us about your story.

[Maira Rais, nurse assistant, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health 
System, made brief remarks.]

    The President. You know something, the story you just heard from 
Maira is--it's a hard story. There's a lot of 
people that say, ``Well, I can't possibly go back to school and learn 
skills for the new jobs.'' But this economy of ours is in transition. 
There's fantastic opportunities. In some cases, however, people are 
going to need to go learn new skills in order to take advantage of the 
situation.
    And it's hard, I fully understand, if you're a mom and you're kind 
of wondering whether or not it makes sense. But I want anybody out there 
listening to listen to Maira's story, that you 
can improve yourself, that you can go back to school, and it can make a 
huge difference in your life. I would--am I putting words in your mouth 
to say it's making a big difference in your life?
    Ms. Rais. No, no, no, it's the truth. And I'm 
hoping when I graduate, work for North Shore, and I know my salary is 
going to be twice as much. So I'm looking forward for that. [Laughter]
    The President. Yes, she's got the chance to 
have three times her current salary as a result of having gone to 
school, paid for by her potential employer. And it's an amazing 
opportunity. And the reason why I'm so thrilled you all are here is that 
there are opportunities like that all over New York and the country. 
There's fantastic opportunities to gain new skills and become more 
productive, to take advantage of the new jobs of the 21st century.
    It's unsettling when the economy changes. I fully recognize that. 
But in the midst of a changing economy, there are fantastic 
opportunities. And here is a great story of Maira Rais, newly arrived to America--well, not newly arrived, been 
here

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since 1980--but nevertheless is seizing the moment, is taking advantage 
of the opportunity. And her salary is going to go up three times--and 
this good lady is going to have a better employee as a result of the 
training.
    By the way, their family saved $1,200 in tax relief. So when 
Congress starts thinking about whether or not to let those taxes go back 
up on the people, think about Maira. I'm not 
worried about the two Congressmen over here, by the way. [Laughter] They're solid. But I 
want people to think about Maira. That $1,200 means a lot to Maira and 
her family. I know it doesn't sound like a lot in Washington, DC, terms, 
but it's a lot to her.
    Ms. Rais. I can tell you what I did with 
those $1,200.
    The President. Well, why don't you tell us then.
    Ms. Rais. I really--because I have my son who 
is in college. He's graduating this May.
    The President. You don't look old enough to have a son in college.
    Ms. Rais. Yes.
    The President. He's graduating in May? Fantastic.
    Ms. Rais. Yes, but he's going to transfer--
he's looking forward to transfer to another college to complete his 
degree in business administration.
    The President. Fantastic.
    Ms. Rais. My daughter--two excellent students, honor students, so 
I'm proud of them and my whole family.
    The President. And so you're going to use the money to help your 
son?
    Ms. Rais. Well, I really did, because when I 
got the tax refund money, I used it for his books, my books that I had 
to pay for. It helped a great deal.
    The President. Now, see, the tax relief helped her go back to school 
so she can make three times the amount of money, 
possibly, than she was making. The tax relief helps average Americans. 
Congress needs to make the tax relief permanent; otherwise, she's going 
to be paying more taxes. It makes no sense to raise the taxes on Maira 
or Pedro or any of the entrepreneurs up here. 
We're doing good things with the--the people are doing good things with 
their own money. They're making this economy grow.
    Listen, I want to thank them for coming, and I want to thank you all 
for coming. I hope you get a--share the same sense of optimism I do 
about the future of our country. When you hear about the entrepreneurial 
stories, you've got to be optimistic. These guys are hiring people. They 
believe the future is going to be better. When you hear the story of 
compassion coming out of the local hospital, it's got to make you 
optimistic about the decency of the people of this country. And then 
when you hear about the stories of these hard-working citizens of our 
country who have got big dreams for their families, and willing to 
achieve those big dreams, it's got to make you optimistic. I really am.
    Listen, the strength of this country is in the hearts and souls of 
our citizens. I want to thank the citizens up here today for sharing 
your hearts and for sharing your souls. May God bless you all, and may 
God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 1:32 p.m. at U.S.A. Industries, Inc. In his 
remarks, he referred to Libby Pataki, wife of Gov. George E. Pataki of 
New York; President Francisco Flores Perez of El Salvador; and Fred 
Wilpon, owner, New York Mets.

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