    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [August 8, 2007]
    [Pages 1050-1052]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Meeting With Economic Advisers
    August 8, 2007

        Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary.
    Thank you for your hospitality. We're pleased to be here at the Treasury
    Department.
        This morning I spoke with Governor Huntsman of Utah. He gave me an update on the efforts to rescue
    the trapped miners. I told him our Nation's thoughts and prayers are
    with the miners and their families and that the Federal Government will
    help in any way we can.
        I just finished a productive meeting with members of my economic
    team. We discussed our thriving economy and what we need to do to keep
    it that way. We care a lot about whether our fellow citizens are working
    and whether or not they've got money in their pockets to save, spend, or
    invest as they see fit. We talked about America's role in the global
    economy.
        My administration follows a simple philosophy: Our economy prospers
    when we trust the American people with their own paychecks. When I came
    to office in 2001, our Nation was headed toward a recession. And so we
    acted. We acted on the philosophy I just described, and we cut the taxes
    across the board. And the American people have used this money to fuel
    an economic resurgence.
        Since 2003, our economy has added more than 8.3 million new jobs and
    almost 4 years of uninterrupted growth. The economy continues to grow at
    a steady pace, and during the most recent quarter, it grew at an annual
    rate of 3.4 percent. Unemployment is low. Real after-tax income has
    increased by an average of more than $3,400 per person since I took
    office.

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        Tax cuts let Americans keep their own money; it stimulates
    entrepreneurship. And we have a debate here in Washington over tax cuts.
    Democrats in Congress want to increase taxes and turn them into
    additional Government programs, and I strongly oppose that approach.
        We want the people to keep more of their own money because we
    understand that the American economy, entrepreneurs and small-business
    owners are the ones who create jobs. The genius of our free market
    economy is that it grows from the bottom up, through the college student
    who starts up a business in a parent's garage, or a stay-at-home mom who
    works out of a home office, or the small-business owner who dreams of
    growing his or her enterprise into a big business.
        The entrepreneurial spirit has helped our economy keep pace with new
    technologies, and America is a leader in innovation. Twelve years ago,
    eBay did not exist. Today, eBay is a global business that reported
    nearly $6 billion in net revenues last year. Hundreds of thousands of
    Americans now make part of their living by selling products on that web
    site. eBay is an entrepreneurial success story that has helped thousands
    of Americans become entrepreneurs themselves.
        Recently in Nashville, I met a woman who runs a bun company. She
    cooks bread. Her name was Cordia Harrington. She carved out a foothold in the industry and has
    built five small businesses. Her businesses employ 260 people. She makes
    a good product. My point is, this is the enterprising spirit that we
    must support and encourage here in Washington, DC.
        I appreciate the fact that Hank Paulson agreed to join my administration after a long career as
    one of the world's most successful investment bankers. Here's how he
    puts it. He said, ``This is far and away the strongest global economy
    I've seen in my business lifetime.'' In other words, not only is our
    economy strong but so is the economies around the world. You know, when
    you grow your economy and--it's good news for the Treasury and good news
    for the deficit.
        When people earn money, tax revenues go up. This year, tax revenues
    are expected to be $167 billion higher than last year's because the
    economy is growing. Growing tax revenues combined with spending
    restraint has helped us drive down the Federal deficit, and we were able
    to do so without raising the taxes on the people who work or without
    raising taxes on small-business owners or farmers. Estimates show the
    deficit will drop to $205 billion this year. That is well below the
    average of the past 40 years as a percentage of our economy.
        Earlier this year, I proposed a budget that will completely
    eliminate the Federal deficit within the next 5 years and produce
    surplus by 2012. We can achieve this, but it's going to require spending
    restraint, and it's going to require keeping taxes low to keep this
    economy growing.
        Not everybody agrees with this approach. There's been a heated
    debate so far in Congress, and I suspect there will be a lot of heat
    when they come back, because Democrats in Congress got a significant
    appetite for more Federal spending. They passed a budget resolution that
    includes an extra $205 billion in discretionary spending over the next 5
    years. That averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per
    hour, $78,000 per minute. Put another way, it's about $1,300 in higher
    spending every second of every minute of every hour of every day of
    every year for the next 5 years.
        Now, somebody is going to have to pay for it. And that, of course,
    would be the hard-working American people will have to pay for that
    excessive spending. If the majority in Congress gets it way, American
    families, small businesses will face a massive tax hike. It would amount
    to the largest tax increase in American history.
        Now, look, I recognize the Democrats control the Congress and, with
    it, the power of the purse. I also have some

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    power, and it's called the veto. And I have the votes in Congress to
    sustain vetoes, and therefore, I will use the veto to keep your taxes
    low and to keep Federal spending under control.
        When Members of Congress return from their August recess, they'll
    have less than a month to pass the 12 spending bills needed to keep the
    Federal Government running before the end of the fiscal year on
    September 30th. They need to pass these spending bills, one at a time,
    before the deadline. In a time of war, I ask them to start by sending me
    the spending bill for the Department of Defense, so I can sign that into
    law.
        There's some long-term challenges to our economy, and we need to
    work together to address those challenges. One way to address the
    challenges is to continue opening up markets for America's goods and
    services, and the best way to do that is to expand free trade. We've
    negotiated new free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and
    Korea. And now the Congress needs to carry out its responsibilities and
    approve these agreements.
        We're going to work hard to conclude the Doha round of trade
    negotiations, all aiming to open up new opportunities for U.S. producers
    and aiming to fulfill a great calling, and that is to help eliminate
    poverty around the world.
        We need to reform our health care system by making private health
    insurance more affordable and available. We need to reduce our
    dependence on foreign oil by promoting alternative fuels. We need to
    confront the rising cost of entitlement programs like Medicare and
    Medicaid and Social Security. I look forward to working with Republicans
    and Democrats to come up with sensible solutions to solve these
    problems, so that we can say we solved the problems, and not pass them
    on to future generations.
        I'm an optimistic person, particularly when it comes to the ability
    of Americans to create and dream and work hard. I'll be less optimistic
    if Congress has its way and raises taxes on the American people. And
    that's why we're going to work hard not to let them do so. We'll keep
    good policies in place. We want this to be the land of dreamers and
    doers. I love the stories of the small-business owner in Nashville or
    the idea that eBay didn't exist 12 years ago and now is a booming,
    thriving enterprise. The purpose of government is to make it more
    possible for people to realize dreams and to enhance the entrepreneurial
    spirit. That has been the policies of this administration, and it will
    continue to be the policies of this administration.
        Thank you all very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:44 p.m. at the Department of the
    Treasury. In his remarks, he referred to Cordia Harrington, chief
    executive officer, the Bun Companies.