[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.