[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
[December 5, 2005]
[Pages 1809-1817]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the National Economy in Kernersville, North Carolina
December 5, 2005

    Thanks for having me. Thanks for letting me come by to John Deere-
Hitachi. I'm here to talk about our economy. No better place to talk 
about our economy, in a place where people are working hard and where 
they're productive, where they're making a product people want. The 
economy of the United States is strong, and I'm here--how we're going to 
work together to keep it stronger.
    First, I want to thank the workers of this facility for letting me 
come by to interrupt your work day. I'll try to keep my comments brief 
so you can get back to work. [Laughter] I appreciate the job you're 
doing. This is a remarkable facility, a facility of high technology, of 
good management, and great, skilled workers.
    I appreciate being back in the State of North Carolina. I was 
somewhat disappointed to learn that North Carolina is the best place to 
do business in the United States--I thought that might have been Texas. 
[Laughter]
     I'm traveling today with the Secretary of the Treasury, John 
Snow. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us. 
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez 
is with me today. These two men are involved with making sure that this 
economy stays strong, that we create an environment for people to be 
able to grow their businesses and employ people.
     I'm proud to be here with Senator Richard Burr of the great State of North Carolina. He's a good, down-
to-earth fellow who is a strong Member of the United States Senate. And 
he brings--every time I see him, he brings this message, he says, ``You 
make sure you remember the people of North Carolina.'' Which I do.
     I appreciate Congresswoman Virginia 
Foxx--we're right here in her congressional district--she's doing an 
excellent job on behalf of the people of this part of the world. I 
appreciate my longtime friend Congressman Howard Coble from the State of North Carolina. Finally, I'm proud 
to be traveling with a Congressman who doesn't look old enough to be a 
Congressman--[laughter]--that's Patrick McHenry, and he's doing a fine job, as well, in the United States 
Congress.
     I want to thank the mayor of Kernersville for joining us. I appreciate all the other State and local 
officials.
    I want to thank Ron Morrison for the--he's 
the operation manager, in case you've never heard of him--for giving me 
a tour. He's sure proud of this facility. He's proud of the safety 
record, and he's proud of the skill of the people who work here. I 
appreciate Al Seeba, Jim Jenkins, and Hitoshi Manabe. Thank you 
all for having me.
    Government does not create wealth. American and businesses and 
workers and farmers and entrepreneurs create the wealth for this 
country. And so the role of the Government is to create an environment 
where the small business can grow into a big business, where the 
entrepreneur can flourish, where people who dream about owning a home 
are able to own a home. In our economy, our most precious

[[Page 1810]]

resource is the talent of the American worker, and there is no limit to 
what we can do when people have the freedom to make a better life for 
themselves and their family.
    Ours is a confident and optimistic nation, and our trust in the 
American people has brought us through some pretty tough times. In the 
past 5 years, our economy has endured a stock market collapse, a 
recession, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, high energy costs, and 
devastating natural disasters. These were all shocks to our economy, 
which I felt required decisive action. I believe that economy grows when 
people are allowed to keep more of their own money, to be able to save 
and to spend.
    And so I called on the United States Congress to let the people keep 
more of their own money, to cut their taxes. And Congress responded. We 
lowered your taxes and gave you an opportunity to keep more of what you 
earn and let you decide how best to spend your own money. We cut taxes 
on families by lowering the tax rates and by doubling the child credit 
and reducing the marriage penalty. I felt we shouldn't penalize 
marriage; I thought we ought to reward marriage in the Tax Code.
    These cuts are making a real difference to American families. I just 
met one of your coworkers, Kirby Hartsell. 
Kirby is an Air Force veteran; he did a tour in South Korea. He and his 
wife, Carol, have three children, 
Olivia, David, 
and Claire. When we cut the taxes, the 
Hartsells received a refund check that they put in the bank for 
themselves and to save for their children. This year, the Hartsells 
saved $2,200 on their 2004 Federal taxes because of our tax cuts. Now, I 
know some in Washington say that's not a lot of money--well, it's a lot 
of money to the Hartsells. And when the folks in Washington, DC, say 
that our working families don't need that tax relief, they ought to come 
right here to North Carolina and talk to the Hartsells, just like I did.
    We not only reduced the taxes on individuals and families; we cut 
the taxes on dividends and capital gains to encourage job-creating 
investment. I understand most new jobs in America--and I hope you 
understand this too--most new jobs in America are created by small-
business owners. And so we cut the taxes. We cut the taxes for our small 
businesses. Most small businesses pay taxes at the individual income tax 
rate. And so when you hear us talking about lowering the taxes on 
individuals, I want you to connect that with lowering taxes on small 
businesses. And we created incentives for small businesses to invest in 
new equipment so that they can expand and create jobs. To help our 
farmers and entrepreneurs pass on a lifetime of hard work to their loved 
ones, we put the death tax on the road to extinction.
    Now, some of those people up in Washington said the tax cuts 
wouldn't work. In the spring of 2003, one Democrat leader called tax 
relief a tragedy and said it would not create jobs or grow the economy. 
Another Democratic leader said the tax cuts ``are ruining our economy 
and costing us jobs.'' All that comes with the job, by the way--doing 
what you think is right, and people laying out the criticism. But I want 
to remind people of the facts: Since those words were spoken, our 
economy has added nearly 4\1/2\ million new jobs.
    Just this past Friday, the latest figures show our economy added 
215,000 jobs in the month of November alone. Our unemployment rate is 
down to 5 percent. That's lower than the average of the 1970s, the 
1980s, and 1990s. The latest numbers also show the economy grew at 4.3 
percent last quarter. And it has been growing at near that average for 
more than 2 years. This economy of ours is on the move. People are being 
able to find work, and that's what's important to me. I want Americans 
working. I want anybody who wants a job to be able to find work--good 
paying, steady work--and that's what's happening in America.

[[Page 1811]]

    Americans are buying homes, and that's good news for this country. 
We hit an alltime high in October, in terms of home buying. More 
Americans now own their homes than any time in our Nation's history. 
Minority ownership--homeownership is at an alltime high in the United 
States of America. Real disposable income is up. Our consumers are 
confident. New orders for durable goods like machinery have risen 
sharply, and shipments of manufactured goods are up as well. Business 
activity in our manufacturing sector reported its 30th straight month of 
growth. In the past 5 years, productivity has grown at some of the 
fastest rates since the 1960s. Our small businesses are thriving. 
Fortunately, I didn't listen to the pessimists about tax cuts. The tax 
cuts are working.
    We've been wise with your money as well. Each year I've been in 
office, we've cut the rate of growth in nonsecurity discretionary 
spending. We're on track to reach our goal of cutting the budget deficit 
in half by 2009. Thanks to tax relief and spending restraint and 
progrowth economic policies, this economy is strong, businesses are 
booming, and the people in this country are working. See, we can't take 
this growth for granted. So we're moving forward with a comprehensive 
agenda that's going to keep the economy growing, to make sure people 
have got a hopeful future. Keeping this economy strong begins with a 
commitment to keeping your taxes low and, at the same time, being wise 
about how we spend your money.
    Unfortunately, just as we're seeing the evidence of how our tax cuts 
have helped the economy, we're hearing some voices in Washington that 
want to raise your taxes. The tax relief we set--that we delivered is 
set to expire in a couple of years. In other words, it's not permanent; 
it can go away. And unless Congress acts, you're going to get a big tax 
hike when that happens.
    Some even say, ``We should repeal the tax relief sooner.'' If that 
happens, a family of four making $60,000 today would see their Federal 
income taxes eventually go up by more than 50 percent. I want you to 
think about that. As you work hard and balance your family budgets and 
try to save for the future, back in Washington some folks want to take 
more out of your paycheck by rolling back the tax cuts. When you hear 
people say that we don't need to make the tax relief permanent, what 
they're really saying is, they're going to raise your taxes. One way to 
keep this economy growing is to have certainty in our Tax Code and to 
help you keep--and to keep--let you keep more of your paycheck, and so 
the United States Congress needs to make this tax relief permanent.
     We're going to redouble our efforts to restrain the spending 
appetite of the Federal Government. Listen, we're at war, and we're 
going to spend what it takes to support our troops in harm's way. And 
that means we've got to show real discipline in other areas of the 
Federal budget.
     Earlier this year, I submitted a budget that proposed an actual cut 
in nonsecurity discretionary spending. It's the most disciplined budget 
proposal since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and Congress is set 
to meet this target, and I appreciate their hard work. I also proposed 
to terminate or reduce more than 150 Government programs that are 
underperforming or not meeting needs of the American people. I'm pleased 
to report it looks like the Congress is poised to deliver savings on 
more than 90 of these programs. For the first time since 1997, Congress 
is poised to deliver more than $35 billion in savings in entitlement 
programs. By taking action to restrain spending, we're on our track to 
cut that deficit in half by 2009.
     But there's a lot of work that needs to be done. In the long term, 
the most significant deficits will occur as baby boomers retire and more 
people receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. There's unfunded 
liabilities in our Social Security and Medicare systems. That means that 
there's

[[Page 1812]]

a lot of baby boomers retiring who have been promised more benefits with 
fewer people paying into the system. That's what that means. And unless 
we do something about it--these unfunded liabilities--we're going to put 
a great burden on our children and our grandchildren.
     Reform of Social Security and Medicare is an important issue for 
the American people. And I've been talking about it, and I'm going to 
keep talking about it, because I strongly believe the United States 
Congress has an obligation to do something about it. My attitude is, 
when you get elected to office in Washington, DC, you have an obligation 
to confront problems, not pass them on to future generations and future 
Congresses.
     Our approach on spending is clear: Working families have to set 
priorities for their spending, and so should the Federal Government. 
Unfortunately, we have too many politicians back in Washington who 
preach fiscal discipline while voting against spending cuts--and too 
many who think the only answer for runaway spending is to raise your 
taxes. My solution is to keep your taxes low and to be fiscally sound 
about how we use your money.
     As we think about ways to make sure this economy remains strong 
today and strong tomorrow, one thing we've got to work on is our energy. 
I mean, we've got to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy if 
we want this economy to remain vibrant. High gasoline and heating costs 
are a tax on the working people, and they're a tax on small businesses, 
and they drain the budgets of people working hard. They make it 
expensive for people to run their companies, and they both affect our 
economic and national security. So our goal is to work for a day in 
which America is no longer dependent, beginning with less dependent on 
foreign sources of energy.
     We made a pretty good start with an energy bill I signed this 
summer. It encourages conservation, and that makes sense. One way to 
become less dependent on foreign sources of energy is to use less of it. 
We made--we're spending money on making sure we can burn coal in a clean 
way. Clean coal technologies make a lot of sense. We've got a lot of 
coal in the United States of America, and we need to figure out how to 
use it cleanly. We need to do a better job of making sure we can get 
natural gas from overseas, liquified natural gas into the United States. 
We don't have enough liquified natural gas portals to allow that gas to 
come here, and we need to expand that in the United States.
     We're promoting renewable sources of energy like ethanol and 
biodiesel. It makes sense to be able to use corn or soybeans to power 
our automobiles. I mean, one of these days, hopefully, the President 
sits down, opens up the crop report and says, ``My, we've got a lot of 
corn; it means we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy.'' It 
makes sense to explore that. We're spending money on hydrogen. One of 
these days, I hope your grandchildren or your children can start a car 
and have hydrogen being the source of power.
     So we've got a good bill on the table that I signed. But we've got 
to do more. We've got to do more. Listen, Katrina hit us, and Rita hit 
us, and we realize how dependent and how fragile our infrastructure is 
when it comes to gasoline. Listen, your prices went up. I know that. And 
these storms show that we've got bottlenecks in the system, and there 
are shortages. Now, fortunately, today's gasoline prices are down nearly 
to what they were before Katrina and Rita, and that's good news. But we 
ought to take notice of what happened. Congress needs to pass 
legislation that will allow us to build and expand refineries. Do you 
realize we have not built a new refinery in the United States since the 
early 1970s? In order to take the pressure off your pocketbook, it seems 
to make sense to me that we need to expand the amount of supply of 
gasoline. The more gasoline there is available for our consumers, the 
less pressure there will be.

[[Page 1813]]

    We've got to produce and refine more crude oil and natural gas here 
at home in environmentally sensitive ways. And we can do that. The most 
promising site for energy in America is the Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge in Alaska. I don't know if you realize this, but technology today 
enables us to take a very small portion of the land--2,000 acres out of 
19 million acres--and use that 2,000-acre site to exploit the oil and 
gas resources in that vast area, with little or no impact on the land or 
wildlife. And that's important for people to understand, the facts 
involved. Developing this tiny area could yield up to a million barrels 
of oil a day. That's a million barrels of oil a day less from a foreign 
source of energy. I can't tell you how important I think it is for the 
United States Congress to authorize a progrowth, projob, proenvironment 
exploration of ANWR.
    We prosper as a country when our working people can look to the 
future with confidence. And people are more confident when they own 
something. And that's why I've promoted an ownership society, an 
ownership society in which people own their own homes and have control 
over their health care accounts. They can own their own small 
businesses. Americans need to know that their hard work will be rewarded 
and that the institutions they depend upon are reliable. And so I want 
to talk about some reforms and some ideas for job training and health 
care.
    We need to prepare Americans to take advantage of the opportunities 
of the 21st century. One thing is certain, is that this economy of ours 
changes, and as it changes, we've got to make sure the workers have got 
the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. It's one of 
the real challenges of our society.
    I'm a big believer, by the way, in community centers--community 
colleges. I think they work. I think they work well, because they are 
available, and they're affordable, and they have got flexibility in 
their curriculum. I know that firsthand, that you've got a good system 
here in North Carolina because I've been to some of your community 
colleges. I've been to Forsyth Technical Community College. I've seen 
workers who were in the textile industry receiving help necessary to go 
back to school to become health care workers. And with a little bit of 
Government help, they are able to gain new skills and find permanent 
work at better pay. And that's really the challenge ahead of us, isn't 
it, to make sure that we match our workers' desire to work with the 
skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.
    We've got a good program out of Washington, DC. It's $125 million a 
year in grants to help community colleges. More importantly, it's to 
help the workers going to community colleges. I'm working with Congress 
to make sure that we work with these schools that are developing 
curriculum for jobs which actually exist. We don't need people being 
trained for work where jobs don't exist; we need people being able to 
match the job demand with the curriculum. And it's happening. Congress 
needs to renew the job training program for our community college system 
and give us more flexibility to make sure that the money actually gets 
to the workers, not to the bureaucracies involved with the program.
    We need a health care system that makes sure that health care is 
available and affordable for all our people. And we need a health care 
system that puts patients in charge of the health care decisions, that 
offers greater choice, and allows you to have control over your plan. 
There's a new product called health savings accounts, HSAs, and they're 
a step toward consumer-driven health care.
    Now, let me try to explain this to you. Under this type of plan, you 
or your employer can put money tax-free into what they call a health 
savings account. And you use that money in your account for routine 
medical expenses. And if you don't use it all up, you can roll it over 
to the next

[[Page 1814]]

year, tax free. And the money in the account earns interest tax-free. In 
other words, it's a tax-free account. The money goes in tax-free. It 
stays in tax-free, and it comes out tax-free. And it's your money, and 
you control it, and you pay routine health care expenses.
    And you couple that with a high-deductible insurance policy--paid by 
yourself, if you're self-employed, or your company--that pays for 
catastrophic care above a certain deductible if you get really sick or 
you get really hurt. Now, the advantage of this program is that, one, 
you make the decisions. Secondly, you own the HSA, and if you happen to 
change jobs--listen, we're in a society where people are changing jobs. 
And one of the uncertainty that comes with job changes is that you--a 
fellow or a woman worries about health care. Under this plan, it's your 
own health care plan, and you can take it with you to your next 
employer. And the employer can help you with your HSA, if that's the 
deal you're able to strike with them. In other words, if you own your 
health care plan, it brings certainty into your life. It makes your 
future more stable.
    These high-deductible policies have lower premiums, and that's what 
you've got to know, which provide savings for the self-employed or the 
small-business owner or for the large company. People are beginning to 
understand the advantages of health savings accounts. Since I signed a 
bill into law that allowed for the existence of health savings accounts, 
a million Americans have enrolled, most are families with children. And 
nearly 40 percent of HSA owners were uninsured before they got their 
account. Now, we're going to strengthen health savings accounts, make 
them more available and more affordable so people have more choices when 
it comes to health care.
    Now, that's just one part of a comprehensive health initiative. 
Congress needs to pass association health plans. I don't know if there's 
any small-business owners here--small businesses sometimes have trouble 
affording health care. They need to be allowed to pool risk across 
jurisdictional boundaries so they can buy health insurance at the same 
discounts that big companies are able to buy health insurance.
    The Federal Government has a responsibility to the elderly and the 
poor when it comes to health care. That's a commitment our Government 
made. My attitude is, if you're going to provide health care for the 
elderly, it ought to be good health care. That's why we had the most 
substantive reforms of Medicare since Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 
President, since the program was formed. The Medicare plan that is now 
available for our seniors includes prescription drug coverage and a wide 
variety of choices for our seniors to choose from. And it's going to 
become available this January, and if you've got a mother and father on 
Medicare, I strongly urge you to look on the Internet for medicare.gov, 
and take a look and explain to your mother or father the options 
available. It's a good deal. It makes sense to have a modern, reformed 
Medicare system for our seniors.
    We're going to take care of the poor with Medicaid and to make sure 
there's a strong safety net available for the poor citizens in the 
United States. And we're going to be wise about how we set up systems. 
Since I took office, we've opened or expanded more than 800 community 
health centers, places for the poor and the indigent to get primary 
health care. It makes sense to make sure that people go to a primary 
care facility, such as a health center, and not an emergency room of a 
hospital.
    We need to expand information technology in health care, which a lot 
of the experts are convinced will lower the cost of health care to the 
American citizens. To make health care available and affordable, we need 
medical liability reform. When your doctors get sued, it means there's 
going to be fewer doctors practicing medicine, and when your doctors get 
sued, it

[[Page 1815]]

means your cost of medicine goes up. And for the sake of affordable 
health care, we need medical liability reform now. In order to make sure 
the economy is--keeps going on, we need a comprehensive health care 
agenda that gives you the power for making medical decisions, not 
bureaucracies in Washington, DC.
    Now, for the good of the workers, we need to strengthen the rules 
governing private pensions as well. You know, most Americans work for 
private companies that offer traditional pensions. And most companies, 
like this one, are fulfilling their obligations to their employees and 
their retirees. But too many companies are not putting away the cash 
they need to fund the retirement promises they're making to their 
employees. In other words, they're saying, ``We'll make sure you got a 
retirement system,'' but they're not funding it. Therefore, when--if the 
company were to get into financial trouble and go bankrupt, their 
failure to live up to their promises, their failure to fund their 
pensions will leave retirees with pension checks that have been slashed.
    Now, the Federal Government insures these pensions, and that means 
that if more and more companies fail to meet their responsibilities, the 
Federal Government might have to step in and bail them out. In that 
case, it would not only be the retirees who are harmed by the companies 
not fulfilling their obligations, but it can mean the taxpayers as well. 
Every American has an interest in seeing to it that this system gets 
fixed. So whether you're a worker at a company with an underfunded 
pension or a taxpayer, it's what I want you to understand.
    In our society, we've had some companies--big companies go bankrupt, 
and workers at those companies know what I'm talking about. And so my 
message to corporate America is: You need to fulfill your promises. When 
you say to a worker, this is what they're going to get when they retire, 
you better put enough money in the account to make sure the worker gets 
that which you said.
    The Government's current pension rules are confusing and misleading. 
They allow companies to technically play by the rules and yet still not 
fund the promises they've made to their employees. And so Congress needs 
to straighten up these rules so that there's no confusion, so that 
everybody understands what I just said. I said, ``If you make a promise 
to a worker, you put enough money in the account to fulfill that 
promise.''
    So we proposed reforms to the pension rules that say this, that say 
that companies must accurately measure and report the financial status 
of their pension plans to make sure they're fulfilling the promises they 
make. This reform plan would give companies that underfund their 
pensions 7 years to catch up. That seems reasonable to me. We're going 
to give you a little time to do what you said you're going to do, but 
you're going to do what you said you're going to do.
    But some in Congress have said this reform is too tough, or some may 
be on the outskirts of Congress who have said the reform is too tough. 
And not only that, they want to weaken the current law even further. I 
believe that if you put in your hours, your pension should be there for 
you when you retire. Our workers need reform that significantly improves 
funding for these private pension plans, not a piece of legislation that 
weakens it. And I'm not going to sign a bill that weakens pension 
funding for the American workers.
    And, finally, keeping this economy strong means welcoming 
opportunities that a global economy offers, not fearing those 
opportunities. And this country is home to about 5 percent of the 
world's population, which means that 95 percent of potential customers 
live abroad. By opening up new markets for our goods and our farm 
products and our services, we can help this

[[Page 1816]]

economy continue to grow and create opportunity for people right here in 
our country.
    Out in Washington, there are economic isolationists, people who are 
afraid of new opportunities. I think they've got to have more faith in 
the American worker and in the entrepreneur. The folks in North Carolina 
are showing them why. Today, one of every 12 jobs in North Carolina is 
exported by--is supported by exports. In other words, one in 12 of the 
people who work in this State do so because they're selling a product 
overseas. And it's just not what you're sending overseas that is helping 
North Carolina grow; more than 200,000 North Carolinians have jobs 
because foreign companies have chosen to invest in the Tar Heel State. 
In other words, this is a good place to be. All across America, we see 
the same story: Foreign businesses come here because they recognize the 
quality and the skill and ethic of the American worker. That's why 
they're coming.
    This company is a good example of how trade has transformed American 
business. In 1837, an Illinois blacksmith named John Deere fashioned a 
steel plow that let pioneer farmers cut through prairie soil. Today, the 
company that this guy started ships products--ships combines made in 
Illinois to Russia. Interesting, isn't it? A lot of the Deere business 
is done overseas because the product is good. People want the Deere 
product. People realize that their society could become more productive 
if they use products made by John Deere.
    You've got an advantage right here in Kernersville. You've got an 
interesting joint venture with Hitachi. This plant is actually ``in-
sourcing.'' Over the past 4 years, this factory has taken on production 
that used to be done in Japan and Mexico. You've tripled your workforce. 
That's what opening markets means. It means good, steady work. It means 
good opportunity. In the 21st century, no economy can afford to be an 
island. And to create new opportunities for our workers, we need to keep 
this economy open to trade and investment. And we've got to make sure 
that everybody else treats us the way we treat them, that we want to 
have free trade, and we want to have fair trade.
    The textile industry in this State has been through tough times. I 
understand that. We just did a deal with Central America that says, 
``You treat us the way we treat you.'' Do you realize products going 
from the United States to Central America were taxed? Products coming 
the other way weren't. It seemed to make sense to level the playing 
field, which we're in the process of doing. But it also means that by 
working together with Central American partners, North Carolina textiles 
are more likely to be able to compete with Asian textiles.
    My predecessor worked to get China 
into the WTO. And one of the conditions was that the United States and 
other WTO members would take steps to prevent their markets from being 
flooded with cheap Chinese textiles. Last month, we reached an agreement 
with China to have them meet that obligation under the textile 
agreements. It's an important agreement. It means that not only are we 
for free trade with China, but we expect China to be fair with American 
textile companies and American workers. This agreement adds certainty 
and predictability for businesses in both America and China.
    Here's what I believe. I believe free trade is good for jobs. I 
believe opening markets for U.S. products is smart to do. I know we've 
got to make sure we have a level playing field because when we have a 
level playing field, the American worker, the American entrepreneur, and 
the American farmer can compete with anybody, anytime, anyplace.
    The greatest opportunity we do have to advance the goal of free and 
fair trade is through the Doha round of trade talks. The Doha trade 
round has great potential to boost jobs here in America. By reducing and 
eliminating tariffs and other barriers

[[Page 1817]]

on industrial goods and on farm goods--industrial goods like John Deere 
products, by the way--to end unfair subsidies and open up global markets 
for our services. Trade ministers will gather in Hong Kong next week for 
a critical meeting. I told our Trade Representative, Ambassador Rob 
Portman, that he's got to push for a 
bold and wide-ranging agreement. Opportunity increasingly depends on a 
free and fair trading global system, and our administration is going to 
continue to use our influence to bring greater opportunities for the 
American worker.
    You know, throughout the last century, we often heard pessimists 
telling us that our best days are behind us and that the future belongs 
to others. Our grandparents heard the pessimists in the 1930s and 1940s 
say that the future belonged to the central planners. Our parents heard 
the pessimists again in the 1950s when the Soviet Union launched the 
first satellite. Some of us remember hearing the pessimists in the 1970s 
and 1980s when we were told that America was tired and could no longer 
compete with Japan. At that moment, Ronald Reagan's tax cuts were just 
beginning to kick in, and that set off one of the largest economic 
expansions in our history. One newspaper editorialized about ``the 
stench of failure'' during that period of time.
    You know, the great thing about our history when you look at it is, 
the American people have always proved the pessimists wrong. At the 
start of a hopeful new century, the American worker is the most 
productive worker that human history has ever known. At the start of 
this new century, we have proven that progrowth economic policies out of 
Washington, DC, do work and can overcome some mighty obstacles. At the 
start of the century, we recommit ourselves to the notion that the more 
free people are, the better off your economy will be.
    This great country of ours is a place where people can start out 
with nothing and be able to raise a family and own a home or start a 
business. Through all my travels around the world, I'm always struck by 
how bright the future of America is. Our job in Washington is to keep 
that future bright and hopeful by making choices that reward hard work 
and enterprise. This economy is strong, and the best days are yet to 
come for the American economy.
    I'm honored you let me come by. I'm always glad to come back to 
North Carolina. And I'm particularly pleased to be with the good, fine 
folks right here at the Deere-Hitachi plant. May God bless you and your 
families, and may God continue to bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. at John Deere-Hitachi 
Construction Machinery Corp. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Curtis 
L. Swisher of Kernersville, NC; and James R. Jenkins, senior vice 
president and general counsel, Deere & Co.