[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[February 1, 2008]
[Pages 142-145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at Hallmark Cards, Inc., in Kansas City
February 1, 2008

    Thank you all. Thank you for letting me come by to say hello. A 
couple of observations: One, you work for a fabulous company of caring 
people. I appreciate, Don, your 
hospitality. I am still trying to recover from the kindergarten 
experience. [Laughter] I mean, you talk about sapping a person's energy. 
[Laughter] But it was a fabulous experience.
    I got to see Hallmark cards being made, and the fella kindly made me 
one that said, ``For your daughters.'' It was sweet; it just didn't have any warning in 
there about how to conduct myself for the upcoming wedding. [Laughter]
    I'm here in Kansas City for a couple of reasons. One, I do want to 
spend a little time on the economy. I had breakfast this morning with 
entrepreneurs, small-business owners. I want to find out what's on their 
mind. I will tell you that there's a sense of optimism, I was pleased to 
hear. People are confident about the future--at least, these 
businessowners were--and they should be. Interest rates are low; 
inflation is low; productivity is high. But there are certainly some 
troubling signs. There's serious signs that the economy is weakening and 
that we got to do something about it.
    Today we got such a sign when after 52 consecutive months of job 
creation, we lost 17,000 jobs. The unemployment rate went down, but 
nevertheless, a serious matter is, is that for the first time in 52 
months that we didn't create jobs.
    And so the question is, what do we do about it? Does Government have 
a responsibility, and if so, what is it? I do think Government has a 
responsibility. I think Government can take decisive action to help us 
deal with this period of uncertainty.
    One such action is to help people stay in their homes. We got--some 
of our citizens purchased mortgages that they can't afford now. 
Hopefully, the reason--hopefully, they didn't get deceived, and if they 
did, the Government has a responsibility to take care of that. In other 
words, we don't want people buying a mortgage and

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the person who sold them the mortgage didn't fully disclose the reset 
inherent in a subprime note.
    But we can help people stay in their homes by connecting the 
borrower with the mortgage industry. Now, what makes it difficult in 
this day and age is that when I bought a home, I sat down with the 
savings and loan officer. And had I gotten in a financial bind, I would 
have gone back to that same officer and said, you own my note; help me 
refinance so I can stay in my home. Today, that financial institution 
probably doesn't own the note anymore; somebody else owns the note. And 
therefore, we're trying to make sure we connect the borrower with 
somebody in the mortgage industry that will help them refinance.
    And that's why we started what's called the HOPE NOW Alliance. 
Secretary Paulson and Secretary 
Jackson are bringing people together 
from the private sector, and they couple that with an information 
campaign, so that people who have a subprime loan know how to refinance 
and can find somebody to help them refinance. And it's been a 
complicated matter, but nevertheless, we're very much engaged in helping 
people sort through what is definitely a difficult period in their life.
    The Government can help. The Federal Housing Administration has got 
the capacity to help refinance homes, and they need to expand the 
authority of the FHA to do it. And Congress needs to get that bill 
passed. I mean, this will be a positive step toward helping people stay 
in homes. And that's what we want to do. See, you notice I'm not saying, 
we're going to bail out the lenders. We're going to help the individual 
person be able to keep their home. It's in the interest of the country 
we do that.
    Secondly, there's bonding authorities, tax-exempt bonding 
authorities, that are now used to help people buy new homes. States and 
local governments ought to be able to use that money to help people stay 
in the home they have. And that will be helpful as well. And so here are 
some constructive measures that we can take. There's a cyclicality when 
it comes to the housing interests--housing industry. But in the 
meantime, or during this down cycle, we want to help individual 
Americans.
    Secondly, a concern is whether or not our consumers will lose 
confidence in our economy. You don't want that to happen at Hallmark. 
You want the consumers to still buy your product on a regular basis. And 
one way to address that issue is to have a temporary, robust tax rebate. 
And that's what we're working on in Congress. You hear this discussion 
of a stimulus package. Well, a key component of that package is to get--
give you some of your money back so you can spend it.
    And the House of Representatives passed a good package. The 
administration worked with the House--it may surprise you that 
Republicans and Democrats can actually get something done in a 
constructive fashion, but it happened in this case, for the good of the 
country. And now the Senate is debating the bill, and it's very 
important for the Senate to finish their work quickly cause the sooner 
we can get money into our consumers' hands, the more likely it is, is 
that this economy will get back--recover from this period of 
uncertainty.
    The fundamentals are strong. We're just in a rough patch, as 
witnessed by the employment figures today. And I'm confident we can get 
through this rough patch. And one way to do it is to--for Congress and 
the administration to work collaboratively and get this deal done.
    Now, a key component, as well, of a growth package is to encourage 
businesses to invest. And why would you do that? Well, if Hallmark buys 
a new piece of equipment, somebody has to make that equipment. In other 
words, job creation happens when people make investments. And if you, 
therefore, stimulate businesses, both large and small, to make 
investments this year, as quickly as possible, it means somebody is more 
likely to keep work and the economy will continue to be strong.

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    So the two key components of this package are, one, enhance 
consumerism by giving consumers money--it's not like a great gift; after 
all, it's your own money; we're just giving it back to you--and 
encouraging businesses to invest. I believe we can get this package 
done. I know it has to be done quickly. I appreciate the fact that the 
Senate is trying to work through this as quickly as possible. I'm just 
urging them to get it done, because the sooner this package makes it to 
my desk, that actually focuses on ways to stimulate growth, the better 
off our economy is going to be.
    Finally, we need to be thinking about how to effect economic growth 
in the long term. In other words, we'll deal with the short-term issue, 
but as we do so, we also need to be wise about the policy so that we can 
continue this period of growth that we've had.
    A couple points I want to make to you on that. One is it's important 
for Hallmark to be able to sell your cards overseas. I mean, the more 
people that are exposed to the Hallmark product, the more likely it is 
that they'll buy. You just want a chance to compete. And so trade is an 
important aspect of--to making sure our economy remains strong. There 
are some folks who worry about trade. They want to protect America from 
products from overseas. I am concerned about protectionism, and so 
should you, because if we end up having trade wars, it's going to be 
less likely Hallmark products will be sold overseas.
    My attitude is, just give us a chance; let's level the playing 
field. We can compete with anybody, anytime. We've got to have 
confidence in our capacity to compete in the world. And trade is an 
important aspect for keeping economic vitality alive.
    Education is important. You've got some awfully smart people working 
here, but they need to be--the future of Hallmark depends upon having an 
educated workforce. And that's the way it is in most U.S. companies.
    And so I'm very much focused on making sure our education system 
gets it right in the beginning--``right in the beginning'' means 
teaching kids to read and write and add and subtract. I cannot stand a 
system that refuses to measure. I think it's an appropriate question to 
ask, can a child read, and if not, what do you intend to do about it?
    Accountability is an integral part of making sure this system 
doesn't leave people behind. I am passionate on the subject of measuring 
because I used to be a Governor of a State, and I knew who got shuffled 
through the schools: inner-city kids. I mean, ``These are people too 
hard to educate; let's just move them through''--or parents who--kids 
whose parents don't speak English as a first language. It's unacceptable 
to America not to insist that every child gets a good education. And so 
I'm going to work with Congress on this No Child Left Behind law, which 
is a very important part of making sure the workforce of the future is 
educated and ready to compete in a global economy.
    Finally, taxes--there is a--you know, I'm sure you've heard that, 
well, we need more money in Washington; therefore, we're going to raise 
your taxes. Of course, it's disguised by saying, we're only going to tax 
rich people, but that's not the way it works. Rich people tend to hire 
lawyers and accountants, and you get stuck with the bill. We don't need 
more money. We need to prioritize your money. We need to be wise about 
how we spend your money.
    Raising taxes in a time of economic uncertainty would be bad for the 
economy, and it would be bad for our people. I believe we ought to trust 
Americans to spend their money. I mean, the truth of the matter is, you 
can spend it more wisely than the Government can. And so in my State of 
the Union the other day, I called upon Congress to make the tax cuts 
permanent. I want to deal with this aspect of uncertainty. See, if you 
think your tax bill is

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fixing to go up--which it is, unless Congress acts; it will be going up 
in a couple of years--it could change your behavior. It could cause 
people to pull back and not be confident about the future.
    And I also called on them to stop this business about putting 
special projects in legislation without being voted on. That doesn't 
make any sense. I mean, our process is one where there should be 
transparency and--like, if a project is important enough for a Member of 
Congress to slip into what's called a conference report, that project 
ought to be important enough for there to be a full vote--Members of 
Congress get to look at it and see if it makes any sense.
    So I've got an agenda for Congress. I'm looking forward to working 
with them on how to stimulate the economy in the short term, but make 
sure we remain a strong economy in the long term. And I'm looking 
forward to working with them. I like the spirit I found up in the Halls 
of Congress. There's still a little politics in Washington, DC, but 
that's not to say we can't work for the common good.
    And I appreciate you all giving me a chance to come by and visit 
with you. I hope you can tell I'm optimistic about the future of the 
country, realistic about the issues we face, and have--got a plan to 
deal with them. God bless you. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:47 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Donald J. Hall, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Hallmark 
Cards, Inc.