[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book II)]
[September 9, 2004]
[Pages 1962-1970]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks in Colmar, Pennsylvania
September 9, 2004
The President. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all very much.
Please be seated. Thank you all for coming. Thanks for the welcome. It's
good to be back in Pennsylvania--again. It just seems like I was here
yesterday. [Laughter] I was--[laughter]--kind of. But I'm glad to be
here. I really appreciate you all coming out. Spirits are high. I'm
feeling great about life.
I really appreciate being here at Byers Choice. Thank you all for
your hospitality. You sure know how to make a President feel welcome.
We're here because I want to talk about the economy some and a plan to
keep this economy moving forward so people can realize their dreams. And
it's such a wonderful place to come because the entrepreneurial spirit
here is strong.
[[Page 1963]]
This is a company that was formed by Bob and
Joyce Byers----
[At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. We are here--I appreciate you coming to Byers. It's
such an honor to meet Bob and Joyce Byers. They are--they had a dream, and they wanted to build a
small company into a large company, and they've done so. They started
their company in the 1960s. They found a good idea--they thought of the
idea. Government didn't think of the idea. They did. They decided to
take risk. They hired people wisely. They invested wisely, and their
company is growing. And I appreciate the contribution they've made.
They've got a fantastic customer base, because they----
[The disturbance continued.]
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. We are here because the entrepreneurial spirit is
strong, because there is an optimism in this room that says it can
remain stronger. The Byers
have got a significant customer base, which means they understand how to
run a business, and my mother is one of their
customers. [Laughter]
And so what we're going to talk about today is our economy and how
to keep it growing and how to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is
strong so people can realize their dreams. Today I want to discuss with
you the plan I have to keep us on the path to growth and opportunity, a
plan that I'm convinced that when Americans listen to, they'll put me
and Dick Cheney back in office for 4 more years.
So I told Laura I was coming here, and she
said, ``Give everybody my best.'' She's great. She's a fantastic mom and
a great wife. She is a wonderful First Lady. So when I asked her to
marry me, she said, ``Fine, just so long as I don't have to give any
political speeches.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you won't have to give
a speech.'' Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. She gave a
great speech the other night. People got to see her heart and her
compassion.
I appreciate Congressman Jim Greenwood a lot. I must confess to you that when I heard he was
retiring, I got a little mad at him, because I've enjoyed working with
him. He is a good, decent, honorable man. And I appreciate you.
I appreciate the fact that Arlen Specter
is with us today. I hope you put him back into office for 6 more years.
There he is. I enjoy working with Arlen. He's a good, independent
thinker, and he's a good--fine United States Senator, and we'll work
well together during the next 4 years.
I want to thank Pat Toomey for joining
us today as well. He's a class act. I appreciate--I told this to Pat on
Air Force One, I said, ``I appreciate the way he handled himself after a
tough primary.'' He's coming together. He's working for the ticket, and
that shows what kind of guy he is. And I'm honored you're here, Pat.
Where is Mayor Joe? Mr. Mayor. Thank
you for coming, Mr. Mayor. I'm proud you're here. [Applause] Yes. I
always like to stay in touch with the local power. [Laughter] Sure
enough, there he is. Thanks for coming, Mayor. I appreciate you being
here.
Mike Fitzpatrick is with us
today. I appreciate you coming, Mike. Appreciate you being here. Tom
Corbett is with us today. Appreciate
you coming, Tom. Good luck. I want to thank all the candidates who are
here and the grassroots activists. I'm traveling your State and
traveling the country to ask people not only for the vote but for their
help. And I hope you go register voters, find people to show up to the
polls. We have a duty in America to vote and--so thanks for the work
you're doing. And when you get them to the polls, headed
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to the polls, remind them, if they want a safer America, a stronger
America, and a better America, to put me and Dick Cheney back in there.
Eunice Sanchez is with us. Where are you,
Eunice? There she is. Thanks. And you've got your son and daughter.
Thanks for coming. I met Eunice. She works for the Amachi mentoring
program in Philadelphia. I don't know if you've heard of Amachi. I have.
I have been fortunate enough to be briefed by the people that run that
program. Amachi is a mentoring program for children with incarcerated
parents. I want you to think about what this good American citizen does.
She takes time out of her life to mentor a child to show there's love,
the possibility of love. I tell the people of this country that the
great strength of our country is the hearts and souls of the American
citizens. That's really the true strength of America. And the reason
I've asked--and the reason that Eunice has kindly come today is for me
to hold her up as an example for others--for others to recognize that
they can help change America, one heart and one soul at a time as well,
that our society is a compassionate society because people from all
walks of life put their arm around somebody who hurts and says, ``I love
you, and what can I do to help you?'' I appreciate you coming, Eunice.
God bless you, and thanks for coming.
I'm looking forward to this--I'm looking forward to the campaign.
I'm--there's some things I want to do for the next 4 years. [Laughter]
And I'm looking forward to telling the people of the country where I
stand and where I believe and where I'm going to lead the country. I'm
running with a clear and positive plan to build a safer world and a more
hopeful America. I'm running with what I call a compassionate
conservative philosophy, that Government should help people improve
their lives, not try to run their lives.
I believe it's the job of a President to confront problems, not to
pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. In the last 4
years, we have confronted economic problems. We have got some short-term
challenges that came from an economic downturn and a national emergency.
We've got some long-term challenges because our economy is changing. In
all these areas, we've acted, and we're moving forward. Today I want to
talk to you about some of the plans we have.
Remember the history. When you're out rounding up the vote, remind
the people what we have been through. When Dick Cheney and I took office in January--on January 20th of 2001,
our economy was heading into a recession, and the stock market had been
declining for 5 months prior to our arrival. Our Nation faced some
corporate scandals that cost people jobs and savings and shook our
confidence. Today, it is absolutely clear that we're not going to
tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.
America was attacked. Our economy lost nearly a million jobs after
that attack in just 3 months. We acted with a clear strategy. We
unleashed the energy and innovative spirit of America with the largest
tax relief in a generation. The tax relief provided small-business
owners the resources and incentives they need to expand and grow and
hire more workers. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. The small-
business sector of our economy is strong, and the tax relief helped
strengthen it.
We encouraged savings and investment by cutting taxes on dividends
and capital gains. Tax relief put money in the hands of American workers
so they could save for their retirement or for their home or for the
education of their children. My philosophy is, Government sets
priorities, funds its priorities, and lets the people keep as much money
as possible. I think you can spend your money better than the Federal
Government can.
We increased the child credit and reduced the marriage penalty. The
Tax Code
[[Page 1965]]
ought to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage. And the results
are clear. Our country has now seen 12 straight months of job gains.
Over the past year, we've added 1.7 million jobs. That is more than
Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and France combined. Unemployment
is down to 5.4 percent. That is nearly a full point below the rate in
the summer of 2003, and it is below the average of the 1970s, the 1980s,
and the 1990s.
Interest rates and mortgage rates are near historic lows. Our
economy is growing at rates as fast as any in the last 20 years. The
manufacturing sector is improving. When I took office, manufacturing
employment had been declining for almost 3 years. In the last 6 months
of the prior administration, more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs were
lost. We're turning that around. Since January, America has added
107,000 manufacturing jobs, including 22,000 last month alone. We are
making steady progress for American workers.
Because of the tax relief, the middle class is paying less in
Federal taxes. The average family of four with an income of $40,000 got
nearly a $2,000 tax cut. Real after-tax incomes are up almost 10 percent
since December of 2000. People have got more money in their pockets
because of the tax relief. Our economy is stronger because people are
keeping more of what they earn.
Listen, we also face long-term challenges in this economy. The
workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one
career, often with one company that provided health care and a pension.
That's the way it used to be. This world of ours is changing. By the
way, most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even
careers, many times during their lives. And in one of the most dramatic
shifts our society has seen, two-thirds of all moms also work outside
the home. This world of ours has changed. And yet, the institutions of
Government haven't changed.
Let me tell you what else has changed. Productivity has grown faster
over the last 3 years than any time in more than 40 years, in part
because technology is changing the way we do things. You'd rather use a
computer than a typewriter. You'd rather use a backhoe than a shovel.
[Laughter] That's productivity. But it also means that the same work can
be done by fewer workers. And that creates a problem for someone looking
for a job. That's why manufacturing still produces roughly the same
share of our GDP but with a smaller share of the workforce. So these are
some long-term challenges we face.
But it's a time of great opportunity. A time of change creates great
opportunity, so long as the Government takes the side of the workers and
the families here in America, so long as Government recognizes this: Our
fundamental systems, the Tax Code, health coverage, pension plans, and
worker training, were created for the world of yesterday--think about
that--not for tomorrow. I believe in the next 4 years, we've got to
transform these systems to help our citizens, to help prepare our
citizens, to help free citizens so they can realize the great dream of
our country.
And so you'll hear me talk a lot about changing systems to help
people, not increasing Government to stifle dreams. Obviously, in order
for people to realize their dreams, there has to be robust economic
growth. In order to make sure that the productivity increases don't
cause people not to be able to find a job, we got to grow this economy.
And that's what I want to talk to you about right quick, a plan to make
sure we continue to create jobs here in America.
First of all, in order to have jobs here, America must be the best
place in the world to do business. If you want people working here, it's
got to be the best place to risk capital, the best place to expand, the
best place to realize dreams. One way to make sure it's the best place
to do business is to reduce the regulatory burden on
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small businesses. You fill out a lot of paperwork if you're a small-
business owner in America. I can't promise you anybody in Government
ever reads it. [Laughter]
We want jobs here in the Philadelphia area. We want to make sure the
manufacturing sector is robust. Congress needs to get an energy plan to
my desk now. I submitted a plan 2 years ago. It's a plan that encourages
conservation, expands renewables, uses clean coal technologies. Listen,
we must become less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we want
jobs to remain in America.
In order to keep jobs here so people can realize their dreams, we
must open up markets for U.S. products. Listen, we've opened up our
markets, and it's good for consumers we've opened up our markets. If you
have more choices in the marketplace, you're likely to get the product
you want at a better price and better quality. And so what I'm saying to
countries like China is, ``Treat us the way we treat you.'' I believe
American farmers and manufacturers and businessowners can compete with
anybody, anywhere, anytime, so long as the rules are fair. What we will
do is reject economic isolationism. Economic isolationism will hurt
America's workers.
In order to make sure we create jobs here, we've got to do something
about these junk lawsuits that threaten employers. I believe strongly in
legal reform, because I understand personal injury lawyers should not
get richer at the expense of hard-working Americans and American
entrepreneurs.
Finally, in order to keep jobs here, we've got to be wise about how
we spend your money and keep your taxes low. Running up the taxes on the
entrepreneurs in America is bad economic policy.
I told you there's some systems that need to change. One system that
needs to change is the Federal Tax Code. It is too cumbersome. I tried
to hold it the other day--[laughter]--when I was campaigning in
Missouri. I'm in pretty good shape. It was hard to hold it. [Laughter]
It's got a million words in it. It takes the American people 6 billion
hours a year, every year, to file these forms. It is full of special
interest loopholes. For the sake of economic growth and for the sake of
fairness, we need to change the Tax Code. We need to make it simple and
easy to understand.
A changing world means that the skills necessary to fill the jobs of
the 21st century are changing, and it's something we've got to
recognize. And a changing economy is one that creates new opportunities.
But sometimes there's a skills gap. And that's why I believe we ought to
expand access to our community college systems, to make sure that the
workers have the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.
As well most new jobs in a changing--this changing world require 2
years of college. Yet only one in four of our students gets there. And
so we need early intervention programs in our high schools to solve
problems early, before they're too late. We need to have new focus on
math and science. As the No Child Left Behind Act begins to fill the
education pipeline with good readers, we will require a rigorous exam
before graduation from high school. See, what I'm telling you is, by
raising performance in high schools and expanding Pell grants for low-
and middle-income families, we will help more Americans start their
career with a college diploma.
These are changing times, and our economy is changing. And there are
communities around where manufacturing, textiles, and other jobs no
longer exist. There are poor communities in our country that need help
as well. And that's why, the other night at the convention, I announced
American opportunity zones. These zones will provide tax relief and
other incentives for new businesses to be created and to improve housing
and job training and bringing hope. In other words, in changing times,
there are ways to help communities that have suffered during changing
times, with good tax policy, good regulation policy, and good housing
policy.
[[Page 1967]]
Listen, in order to make sure jobs stay here, we've got to do
something about health care. We need to make sure health care is
available and affordable. Do you realize more than half the uninsured
are employees of small businesses? Small businesses are having trouble
affording health care. One way to help small businesses afford health
care is to allow small firms to join together to purchase insurance at
the discounts available to big companies.
We will offer tax credits to encourage small businesses and their
employees to set up health savings accounts. We'll provide direct help
for low-income Americans to purchase health savings accounts. These
accounts give workers the security of insurance against major illness,
the opportunity to save tax-free for routine health expenses, and the
freedom of knowing you can take your account with you whenever you
change jobs or careers.
I'm a big believer in community and rural health centers. These are
facilities where low-income Americans can get primary care. I believe
every poor county in America ought to have one of these facilities in
order to take the pressure off emergency rooms around the United States.
In order to make sure health care is available and affordable, we've
got to do something about these frivolous lawsuits that are running good
doctors out of practice and running up your health care costs. I
appreciate working with Jim Greenwood on
this issue. He figured it out, and I hope the people of this country
figure it out. These frivolous lawsuits are making it awfully hard for a
lot of docs to practice medicine. You're losing good docs. Greenwood was
telling me about the doctor that saved his dad's life, had to leave
practice because his premiums were too high. Many doctors, in order to
avoid litigation, practice defensive medicine. In other words, they run
up the costs of health care so if they ever get caught--pulled in front
of a court of law, they've got a defense. It's costing the taxpayers
about $28 billion a year; the defensive practice of medicine costs 28
billion a year. We have a national problem, and it requires a national
solution. I've submitted legislation that Greenwood got passed in the
House. It's stuck in the Senate because the trial lawyers are powerful
in the United States Senate.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. See, I don't think you can be pro-doctor, pro-
patient, and pro-trial-lawyer at the same time. I think you have to
choose. My opponent made his choice, and he put
him on the ticket. I made my choice. I am for
medical liability reform--now.
I'm looking forward to the debate on health care. I'm looking
forward to it. In all we do to improve health care in America, we'll
make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by
bureaucrats in Washington, DC.
Our labor laws need to change. We've got a lot of moms who are now
in the workplace. And yet, it's really hard for moms to find enough time
to do their duty as moms, see, because the rules--the labor laws are
stuck in the past. I think we need to have flex-time and comp-time to
allow families to be able to have more quality time.
In a changing world, ownership can bring stability to your life. One
of the most hopeful statistics of the last year or two has been that the
homeownership rate is at an alltime high in America. There's more
minority families who are opening up the door where they live and say,
``Welcome to my home. Come in to my house.'' It's a really important
part of a future, when more and more people can own their home. We've
got a plan to encourage homeownership in this country.
And we've got to make sure that our pension systems work, the Social
Security system works. If you're an older American, nothing will change.
The Social Security trust will fulfill its promise to you. If you're a
baby boomer, we're in pretty good shape when it comes to receiving the
promise
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of Social Security. But we need to worry about our children and
grandchildren when it comes to Social Security. I believe younger
workers ought to be able to take some of their taxes and set up a
personal savings account, to make sure the Social Security promise
that's made to them--an account that they can call their own, an account
that Government cannot take away, and an account that they can pass on
from one generation to the next.
In these proposals, we seek not to provide a Government program but
a greater path to opportunity and more freedom for you to decide what's
best for your life and, therefore, I believe, more opportunity for every
citizen. And we got a choice in this race. I mean, it's a clear choice.
See, I believe our opponent's philosophy is very
different from ours. If you carefully listen, he wants to expand
Government. Listen to the proposals. That's what he wants to do. What we
want to do is expand opportunity. He wants to give more power to
Washington by raising taxes and spending more money, and he's got a
record to match his promises. [Laughter]
Over two decades in Washington, he has voted
for higher income taxes, higher taxes on Social Security benefits.
That's part of his record. He repeatedly voted for higher taxes on small
businesses, higher taxes on gasoline. He voted against tax relief for
married couples, for increasing the child credit, and against expanding
tax-free retirement savings. We have a difference of opinion when it
comes to taxation. If you drive a car, Senator Kerry has voted for
higher taxes on you. If you have a job, he's voted for higher taxes on
you. If you're married or have children, he's voted for higher taxes on
you. The good news is, on the 2d of November, you have a chance to vote.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. There is a reason for supporting higher taxes,
because he wants to dramatically increase Government spending. It's part
of his platform. On the campaign trail, he's
proposed more than $2 trillion in new Federal spending so far.
[Laughter] And we still have 54 more days to go. Now, he says he's going
to pay for all that by raising taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of the
population. There's just one problem with that. My opponent's tax
increases would bring only about $650 billion in revenue over the next
10 years, see? And he wants to spend over 2 trillion. So you do the
math. [Laughter] The plan leaves him more than $1.4 trillion short. And
guess who would wind up paying the bill?
Now, one of his key economic advisers--one of my opponent's key economic advisers is saying
they won't give the details on how they would raise spending and lower
the deficit until after the election. [Laughter] Well, if they want to
hold back information until the people vote, you can bet it won't be
good news for the taxpayers. But America will reject the hidden Kerry
tax plan.
Raising taxes will be bad for our economy. Raising taxes will be bad
for the small-business sector of America. And I'll tell you why. Ninety
percent of small-business owners pay tax at the individual income-tax
level. Ninety percent of small-business owners are Subchapter S
corporations or sole proprietorship. Byers Choice is a Subchapter S
corporation. Now, if you're organized as a Subchapter S or sole
proprietorship, when you pay your tax, you fill out the individual
income-tax forms. And so when you talk about raising the top two
brackets in the individual taxes, you're talking about taxing companies
like Byers Choice. I don't see--and by the way, 70 percent of new jobs
in America are created by small businesses. Why does it make sense to
tax the job creators? It doesn't make sense to tax the job creators.
Bob said this, he said, ``That would hurt my
company.'' When he heard the plan to raise taxes to pay for promises,
political promises, he said, ``That would hurt my
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company. It would cut off jobs I plan to create.'' My opponent, by making political promises and by promising to tax
small businesses such as Byers Choice, would hurt our economy. I believe
in order to continue economic growth, we need an energy plan, good trade
policy, good regulatory policy, good legal policy, good health policy,
and we need to make the tax relief permanent.
In order to make sure we have sustained economic growth, we will
also continue to protect the homeland over the next 4 years. There's a
lot of good people working hard on your behalf. And we reorganized the
Department--departments to create the Department of Homeland Security so
we can better talk to each other, better respond to crisis, better deal
with emergency, better share intelligence. And we're getting better in
Washington, DC, about doing what is necessary to protect you. And
there's a lot of good people working hard to do so, and I appreciate it.
As the 9/11 Commission said, ``America is safer but not yet safe.'' I
agree. And so you just got to know there's some fine people at all
levels of government working hard.
But the best way to protect the homeland is to stay on the
offensive, is to find the terrorists. You cannot talk sense to these
people. You've seen how they behave. You saw the attacks of September
the 11th. You saw what happened to those Russian schoolchildren. America
must continue to lead the world. We will find them overseas so we do not
have to face them here at home.
We're making progress. We're making progress. Three-quarters of Al
Qaida's known leadership has been brought to justice. Because we upheld
doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as
guilty as the terrorists,'' the Taliban are no longer in power in
Afghanistan. Think about the progress in Afghanistan. It wasn't all that
long ago that young girls weren't allow to go to school and their moms
would be pulled in a public square and whipped if they didn't toe the
line of these barbaric people. And today, Afghanistan is an ally in the
war on terror. Over 10 million citizens have registered to vote in the
upcoming Presidential election. Amazing, isn't it? Freedom is on the
march in Afghanistan, and that's good for America.
In Iraq, we removed a sworn enemy of America who had ties to terror
and used weapons of mass destruction. Listen, I recognize we didn't find
the stockpiles we all thought were there--all of us thought were there.
But remember Saddam Hussein had the
capability of making weapons. He could have passed that capability on to
the enemy. And that's not a risk we could afford to take after September
the 11th. Knowing what I know today, I would have made the same
decision. America and the world are safer with Saddam in a prison cell.
We're making progress there. I'm impressed by Prime Minister
Allawi. He's a strong guy who believes that
democracy is the future of Iraq, and he's got hard work to do. It wasn't
all that long ago that people were brutalized by Saddam
Hussein. But we're making progress. There
will be elections in January of next year. It's amazing, when you think
about it. They've gone from tyranny to elections in a brief period of
time.
Our goal in Iraq is to--like it is in Afghanistan--is to help
provide enough stability so the political process can move forward, is
to train Iraqis and Afghan citizens so they can do the hard work of
defending their country against the few who want to thwart the desires
of the many, is to put those countries on the path to stability and
democracy as quickly as possible, and then bring our troops home.
I'm oftentimes asked what I tell those who--the loved ones of those
who lost their life in combat. I tell them this, I say, ``Your son or
daughter or wife or husband is serving during historic times.'' These
are times that will help make this world a more peaceful place. It's a
time
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for little children to be able to--when we get it right--for children to
grow up in a peaceful world. I tell them that in order to honor their
memory, we will complete the mission.
I say this: I believe in the power of liberty to transform lives.
That's what I believe. The core of my belief is that liberty has got the
incredible capacity to convert enemies to friends, tyrannical societies
to free societies. And that makes the world more peaceful, a peace we
all want.
You know, I tell people about my meetings with Prime Minister
Koizumi, the Prime Minister of Japan, who
is the Prime Minister of a country that my dad fought against, your dads and grandfathers fought
against. They were the sworn enemy of America some 60 years ago. And
today, I sit down at the table with him to discuss peace. He's an ally
in peace. And I'm able to do so because my predecessor Harry Truman and
other American citizens believed that the enemy could become a friend if
democracy took hold in Japan.
Now, there was a lot of skeptics and doubters during those days, and
you can understand why. We'd just been fighting these people. But
because they believed in the power of liberty to transform lives, they
helped Japan develop a self-governing democracy. And today, Japan is an
ally when it comes to keeping the peace. The Prime Minister and I talk about North Korea. We talk about Iraq.
We talk about humanitarian needs around the world. Someday, an American
President will be sitting down with a duly elected leader of Iraq, and
they're going to be talking about the peace, and they're going to look
back in history and say, ``Thank goodness America never forgot the power
of liberty to change lives.''
I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by today. As
you can see, I've got a plan to continue growing this economy so people
can realize their hopes and dreams; that I know what needs to be done
when it comes to securing this homeland and winning the war on terror;
that I believe strongly in the values that make us a great nation; and
that, with your help, we're going to win Pennsylvania and win a great
election in November.
God bless. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all.
Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. at Byers Choice. In his remarks,
he referred to Mike Fitzpatrick, candidate for Pennsylvania's Eighth
Congressional District; Tom Corbett, candidate for Pennsylvania State
Attorney General; Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi Interim
Government; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11
Commission).