[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 49 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[Pages 1756-1760]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion With Employers and Employees at the Home Depot 
in Halethorpe, Maryland

December 5, 2003

    The President. Thank you all. I left my credit card at home. 
[Laughter] Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here at a great 
company. I really appreciate the spirit of the company. I appreciate the 
fact that this company cares about the people who work here. And that's 
really what we're here to talk about, is people working and realizing 
their dream. I want people working in the country.
    I want you to know, I'm an optimistic guy for a lot of reasons. I've 
seen what we've been through. I want to remind you what this country has 
been through in order to get to where we are today.
    First, we were in recession. You know that better than me, what that 
means. It means fewer people coming in to buy things, as far as you're 
concerned. And the recession started in 2001, early 2001. We started to 
come out of the recession a little bit; you probably felt it around the 
summer of 2001, maybe fall of 2001. And then the enemy hit us, and that 
hurt.
    Again, those of you on the frontlines of the retail business know 
what I'm talking about. The cash registers weren't ringing quite as 
much, and people weren't coming through the aisles quite as much. And it 
hurt us. It hurt the country a lot. It kind of changed our attitude, and 
it should change your attitude. We should never forget the lessons of 
September the 11th, 2001. I have an obligation; the Congressmen who are 
here have an obligation. I want to thank Roscoe Bartlett and Dutch 
Ruppersberger and Ben Cardin, whose district this is. We have an 
obligation to do everything we can to keep this country secure, to never 
forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, to find the enemy before 
they come again, to stay on the offensive, and to bring these killers to 
justice, which is what we're going to do.
    But it hurt our economy when they attacked us, of course. Not only 
did it change foreign policy--in other words, we can't sit there and 
pick and choose what threat we deal with. Now that we have become 
vulnerable, we're going to have deal with the threats before they mature 
and come upon us. But it hurt our economy. It hurt us pretty bad.
    And then we started to recover, and I just wanted to remember 
another thing we've overcome. Some of the corporate citizens of America 
forgot what it meant to be a responsible citizen. This guy's a 
responsible guy. See, some of them didn't tell the truth, though. We had 
some of our citizens not tell the truth. They forgot what it meant to be 
a leader, and it hurt the confidence of the people. You might remember 
that period of time. There were these scandals, and people

[[Page 1757]]

began to wonder whether or not there was honesty in the system. By the 
way, the way you deal with that, of course, is you find them and you put 
them into jail. Those who lie, cheat, and steal go to jail.
    And then, as you know, I made the decision to deal with threats. As 
we saw, we put the doctrine out that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, 
you're just as guilty as the terrorists.'' And the Taliban, we took them 
down for the sake of our own security and for the sake of the long-
suffering people of Afghanistan.
    And then I obviously made the decision to go into Iraq--and by the 
way, a free and peaceful Iraq is in our Nation's interest; it's in our 
security interest--that affected the economy. When you turned on your 
TV, it said, ``America is marching to war.'' That's not very conducive 
for--that's not a very positive statement. It doesn't build a lot of 
confidence--people, you know, marching to war, why would I want to 
invest in my home? Or why would I want to come to Home Depot if we're 
fixing to go to war?
    So we've overcome a lot, when you think about it. Today the 
unemployment rate dropped, as you may know, from 6 percent to 5.9 
percent. More workers are going to work. Over 380,000 have joined the 
workforce in the last couple of months. We've overcome a lot. We're a 
strong country, a strong economy. A lot of it has to do with the fact 
that we got the best workers in the world. Our productivity is high. I 
hope some of it has to do--I know some of it has to do--I hope you 
understand some of it has to do with the fact that the role of 
Government can help create growth. See, when a person has more money in 
their pocket, they're likely to come to Home Depot.
    Participant. Right.
    The President. If they have less money in their pocket, they may not 
come here. And so I worked with the Congress--I want to thank 
Congressman Ehrlich, when he was in the Congress, now Governor Ehrlich. 
We cut taxes on people. It's your money to begin with, by the way. 
You've got more money to spend. And when you have more money to spend, 
it increases demand for a good or a service. And when that demand 
increases for a good or a service, somebody has to produce it.
    And so the tax relief went for everybody, not just the favorite few. 
Everybody got tax relief. And it helped the economy. It also helped 
small business. You're going to hear from some entrepreneurs here. And 
by the way, most new jobs in America are created by small businesses. 
We're happy to have the Home Depot job, don't get me wrong. [Laughter] 
But the truth is, most new jobs are started by the entrepreneurs. And so 
you're wondering why we've got small-business owners here, because I 
want you to hear from them. I want you to hear what it means to have a 
little more money in your pocket.
    Most small businesses pay tax at the individual income tax level. 
See, these two small businesses do--you're Subchapter S's, which means 
when the taxes come out, you pay like you're an individual, your 
business does. Which means when you reduce individual taxes, really what 
you're doing is you're making a big difference for small businesses 
across America so that they can grow and hire new people. If small 
businesses create most new jobs, then it makes sense to reward small 
businesses for labor and risk by reducing their taxes, which we did.
    And we did a couple of other smart things. If you're married, you 
ought not to be penalized in the Tax Code. It seems like the Tax Code 
ought to encourage people to be married, not discourage them from being 
married.
    We know how hard it is to raise a child, and therefore, we increased 
the child credit to $1,000 per child. That helps if you're a mom or a 
dad. And actually, this summer I remember going--I think it was to 
Philadelphia, where they were making the checks. I said, ``The check is 
in the mail.'' After I said it, I felt a little nervous. [Laughter] 
Fortunately, it was in the mail. And so you got the difference between 
the child credit today and the new child credit of $1,000 per child. 
That's important--that's important relief. That's part of the money 
going into your pocket.
    We also provided incentives for small businesses to make investment. 
When small businesses invest in machinery or computer equipment, 
somebody has to build it, see.

[[Page 1758]]

And when somebody builds that machine, somebody is more likely to find 
work. And so, in other words, we passed a plan that makes sense.
    Part of the things you'll hear me talk about is how to continue the 
growth. I mean, we're growing. This economy is good. It can be better, 
so more people find work. One of the ways to make sure this economy 
continues to grow is to make all the tax relief we passed permanent. 
See, it's about to--it's going to go away in phases. The child credit is 
going to go back down. The marriage penalty will go back up. Taxes will 
go back up unless we make this permanent. It doesn't make any sense to 
have a Tax Code that gyrates like that. You need stability in your Tax 
Code, particularly for the small-business owners and planners.
    So one thing that I want you to take away from here is that if 
you're interested in job creation and job growth for the future, the tax 
relief we passed must become permanent.
    I want to thank all the local officials who have come, by the way. I 
know the Lieutenant Governor is here. I want to thank the Members of the 
House and the Senate. It turns out when a President shows up, all kinds 
of people come. [Laughter] And I want to thank you for being here. It's 
an honor to be here. I look forward to maybe shaking a couple of hands 
on the way out and--yes. Pretty soon. Yes, pictures, we'll get a 
picture. Maybe buy a chainsaw. [Laughter]
    Participant. We carry your brand. [Laughter]
    The President. Why don't we start off--we've got a man here who is 
building homes. One of the interesting things about our policy is that 
when interest rates go low, it provides incentive for people to buy a 
home; you know, it pushes mortgages down. We want a lot of people owning 
homes. We've got a minority homeownership gap in America, by the way, 
we've got to close. See, we just don't want one segment of our 
population owning homes. We want everybody owning a home. We want 
everybody to feel comfortable.
    I put a plan up to the Congress to do that, help with downpayments, 
to make sure the fine print in the contract becomes a little larger so 
everybody understands what they're signing before they go in. It makes 
people a little nervous when you--particularly the first-time homebuyer, 
if you know what I mean. So we've got programs to help educate. We've 
got programs to simplify the process. We've got programs to help with 
the downpayment. Low interest rates help.
    And our man here, Jim Montgomery, is an owner. He's an entrepreneur. 
By the way, he is at one of these companies, a Subchapter S, it's 
called, that pays taxes at the individual rate. So when we cut his taxes 
individually, we also cut taxes on his business, so he can more likely 
be able to hire somebody else. He wants to hire and expand. But Jim, 
welcome. Tell us about your business. Tell us what's on your mind. It's 
your chance to tell the Governor and Lieutenant Governor if you don't 
like things here in Maryland. [Laughter] If you don't like things at the 
Federal level, write your Congressman. [Laughter]

[The discussion continued.]

    The President. Yes. Well, that is a tax cut. That was part of it. In 
other words, when you provide an incentive for somebody to buy 
equipment--that's what Jim is talking about--it means somebody has to 
make the equipment or somebody has got to sell the equipment, in your 
case. And I appreciate you bringing that up, because it's an integral 
part of the tax plan, to encourage investment. And investment means 
jobs. And that's what we're really talking about, jobs. See, I'm glad 
he's building homes. I'm glad people are owning homes, but I'm also glad 
there's an incentive for him to go out and buy additional equipment. 
Somebody has got to make that equipment. And when somebody makes that 
equipment, somebody is working, and that's what we're really talking 
about. We're talking about the human dignity that comes from people 
being able to find a job.
    Thank you for being an entrepreneur.
    James Montgomery. You're welcome.
    The President. Yes, I appreciate your spirit. See, one of the great 
strengths of America is what we call the entrepreneurial spirit. It's a 
chance for--to create an environment so people like Jim feel comfortable 
about building their own business. And it's an exciting part of our 
economy and a vibrant

[[Page 1759]]

part, just like the Bell Nursery folks here. We've got an owner; we've 
got a regional manager. Tell us about your business, Gary.

[The discussion continued.]

    The President. A couple of points she made. One of the things that's 
interesting, low interest rates allow people to refinance their homes. 
You all know better than a lot the effects of refinancing. I mean, 
people refinance, come in with a little cash, it gives them a chance to 
remodel.
    Secondly, I do want to mention a couple of things that are important 
for small businesses. One, health care, it's important for large 
businesses, really important for small businesses. It's difficult for a 
small business to provide health care, because they don't have any 
purchasing power. What we need to do is allow small businesses to 
accumulate purchasing power. It's called associated health care plans. 
If you've got more people demanding, it means you can reduce the price. 
We need the associated health care plans.
    Another thing that affects all business, by the way, but especially 
hurts small businesses, are excessive regulations. I mean, if you've got 
four employees, you don't want to be spending a lot of time filling out 
paperwork. The Governor, I know, is working hard to reduce excessive 
paperwork at the State level. We're doing so at the Federal level. Look, 
I readily concede we've got a lot more to do. There's a lot of 
paperwork, a lot of regulation.
    Another thing that's a problem is lawsuits. They get to be a problem 
on these small-business owners and large-business owners. Medical 
liability reform is an issue we need. I'll tell you why. They're driving 
up the cost of your medicine, and it's making fewer doctors practice 
medicine. Medicine ought to be affordable and ought to be available. And 
these lawsuits--everybody ought to be able to sue, don't get me wrong. 
We just don't want the junk lawsuits and the frivolous lawsuits and the 
lawyers who are simply fishing for a rich settlement to be prevalent.
    Anyway, I'm interested in hearing how this great company works. 
Obviously, I heard the enthusiasm--[laughter]--when I was coming in. But 
John, why don't you start off, and then you can introduce your fellow 
workers.

[The discussion continued.]

    The President. Let me ask you a question. So what's your feel? 
You're hearing from people when they're coming through, shopping, and--
--
    John Ferraiuolo. I've got to tell you, our business in this store, 
this year, is about 18 percent better than last year. So where last year 
things were a little bit of a struggle--I think the enthusiasm and 
interest in people, the confidence level as people came in shopping 
wasn't quite there--people are now going from last year, I think, doing 
projects that were maybe necessities, I see people doing a little 
dreaming again and wanting to step themselves up and move forward and 
doing some wanting in their purchasing as opposed to just necessities.
    The President. That's good, yes. John, by the way--he probably 
doesn't want me to tell you this, but I'm going to tell you anyway. He 
got $1,200 of tax relief as a result of the tax reductions. Probably 
considered a fair amount of money, I would guess.
    Mr. Ferraiuolo. That's an awfully great amount of money. What 
happened there, I think last year--a few months ago, when my wife came 
home, she found a check in the mail, and you know what----
    The President. Thank goodness. [Laughter]
    Mr. Ferraiuolo. I'm going to--basically, she said, ``Sign here. I'll 
do it for you.''
    The President. That's right. Yes. [Laughter]
    Mr. Ferraiuolo. And then she went shopping, and she took the chance 
to buy herself a few treats. And I think with the rest of it, one of the 
things I've been able to do is up my 401(k) contributions----
    The President. That's good.
    Mr. Ferraiuolo. ----as opposed to--so I keep a little bit more of 
that money for my future.
    The President. That's wonderful.
    Brandy, you're a manager, store manager. Tell us your history here, 
and----

[The discussion continued.]

[[Page 1760]]

    The President. One of the things I like to talk about is the need 
for us to be a responsible society; people take responsibility for the 
decisions they make in life; people take responsibility--people seize 
opportunity. The thing I like about Jessica's story is she's willing to 
seize an opportunity. If you notice, she came looking, she worked hard 
to find a position, and now she's found a company that is doing its 
responsibility--in other words, helping people realize their dreams. And 
that's a very important part of corporate America. It's one of the 
reasons I like Bob, is he understands that, see.
    One of the things that this company does is it provides volunteer 
time and encourages people to help--love your neighbor like you'd like 
to be loved yourself. One of the things about America is--look, we've 
just gone through an interesting story, that says to me that things look 
pretty good for the economy, and we've been through a lot. In other 
words, it's a fabulous country, because we'll handle every challenge put 
in front of us, every challenge, because we've got wonderful people.
    The strength of this country, though, is not our military, although 
we'll keep it strong. It's strong. It needs to stay strong and will. 
It's not a--thank you, sir. And by the way, thanks for supporting the 
military. And if you've got a loved one over there, you tell them the 
Commander in Chief is incredibly proud, proud of what they're doing.
    Participant. They're right out there.
    The President. Where?
    Participant. This young man right here.
    The President. Thank you for your service. I appreciate you, thanks.
    Participant. He just came home.
    The President. Yes. That's great. It's not--strength is not our 
military. It's not our wallet. It's the heart and soul of the American 
people. That's the strength. And the fact that this company is willing 
to say, you know, ``Follow your heart and go help somebody who hurts,'' 
is an important part of keeping this country strong. It really is. The 
fact that people are willing to hear the universal call to love a 
neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself is really an important 
part of this Nation. And it's a vital part of the Nation. So for those 
of you who are dreaming big dreams and working for them, like Jessica 
is, thanks for doing that--like our business owners--I appreciate that. 
It's important that you dream big dreams and work hard.
    For those of you who are helping people realize their dreams, I 
thank you as well. It's just an incredibly vital part of a bright future 
for our country. There's nothing America can't achieve--nothing we can't 
achieve. You know why? Because this country is full of fabulous people. 
It's my honor to be with a lot of them here today.
    Thank you for coming. God bless. Thank you for your time.

Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. at the Lansdowne Home Depot. In 
his remarks, he referred to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., and Lt. Gov. 
Michael Steele of Maryland; James Montgomery, owner, James S. Montgomery 
& Sons; Gary Mangum, co-owner, and Alison Anderson, regional manager, 
Bell Nursery; John Ferraiuolo, store manager, and Jessica Adamson, paint 
associate, Lansdowne Home Depot; Brandy Foble, store manager, Ellicott 
City Home Depot; and Robert Nardelli, chairman, president, and chief 
executive officer, The Home Depot, Inc.