[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 10 (Monday, March 8, 2004)]
[Pages 332-340]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion on the National Economy in Bakersfield, 
California

March 4, 2004

    The President. John, thanks. Thanks for having me. First, I want to 
thank your employees for putting up with my entourage. [Laughter] It's 
kind of grown since the last time I was here in Bakersfield. [Laughter]
    We are here to talk about the economy. I want to--I'm going to have 
some help here in talking about the economy, people on the frontlines of 
job creation, people on the frontline of raising their families. Before 
I do so, I do want to thank you, John, and your family for kind of 
setting such a great example of what it means to be close family and 
heralding the entrepreneurial spirit. One of the things I love about 
America is the entrepreneurial spirit, the fact that people can own 
their own assets, can start their own business, can realize such a 
hopeful future, because they own something. We're here at what we call a 
family-owned business. It's an integral part of America.
    When I heard I was coming for Rain for Rent--[laughter]--I was 
thinking about my days in west Texas. [Laughter] We were always looking 
for a little rain and were willing to rent it. [Laughter] But I do want 
to thank your mom and dad, Jerry and Mary, for welcoming me here, and I 
want to thank your whole family for turning out.
    I've spent some quality time in Bakersfield--1949. I don't remember 
much about it. [Laughter] But I was talking to old Number 41--that would 
be my dad--2 nights ago, and I told him I was going out to Bakersfield. 
And he said, ``Tell the folks out there that Barbara and I have got fond 
memories of our days living here.'' Good, decent, honorable, hard-
working people in Bakersfield--that's the way it was then, and that's 
the way it is today. And we're glad to be here.
    I want to thank Sharon Thomas, the wife of a guy I call the 
Chairman; that would be Congressman Bill Thomas. Sharon, thanks for 
coming today. Bill Thomas is doing a really good job for the people of 
California and Bakersfield. He's doing a great job for the country. He 
is a strong leader. We've done a lot working together, some of which I'm 
about to discuss with you.
    I want to thank the mayor, Harvey Hall. He met me at the airport. He 
drove over in the limousine. Harvey, thanks. He said, ``Have you got any 
advice?'' I said, ``Yes, fill the potholes.'' [Laughter]
    We've got members of the State senate. Roy Ashburn is with us. I've 
known Roy for a while. He's a good fellow. State assembly--Bill Maze is 
with us. I thank Bill for being here. I want to thank all the local 
officials and all the citizens who have taken time out

[[Page 333]]

of your day to come by and to listen to what I hope is an educational 
dialog.
    I want to thank a lady named Dana Karcher, who came out to the 
airport. I don't know if you know Dana or not; you probably don't. But 
she is a volunteer in your community. You know what she's done? She's 
decided--she's involved with Keep Bakersfield Beautiful. She understands 
that if you're interested in the quality of life in the community in 
which you live, it starts at the grassroots level, that people have got 
to take responsibility for the lives and, in this case, the beauty of a 
place you love and call home. She's a volunteer.
    A lot of times we talk about the strength of the country in terms of 
our military. Make no mistake about it, we're going to keep our military 
strong in order to keep the peace. And we're going to talk here today 
about people working and people being able to have savings and wealth. 
But the true strength of the country lies in the hearts and souls of our 
citizens. That's what makes America really strong, the fact that we've 
got loving and decent and honorable citizens willing to help out at the 
local level, willing to take responsibility, willing to love a neighbor 
just like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    If you're a member of the army of compassion here in Bakersfield, 
California, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you're 
interested in serving your community, find a way to make somebody's life 
better, make a neighbor's life more hopeful, and you'll be making a 
great contribution to our Nation. So Dana, thanks for coming. Appreciate 
the example you've set. Keep doing what you're doing.
    This economy of ours is strengthening, and that's positive. See, we 
want people working here in America. We not only want people working in 
America, we want people who are working to be comfortable that their job 
is going to be here tomorrow.
    I'm an optimistic fellow about our economy because I've seen what 
we've been through. And I want to remind you right quick what this 
country has been through and the challenges this economy had faced over 
the last 3 years. First, we went through a recession. That means we were 
going backwards. We weren't growing. That means there was a lot of 
uncertainty for planners and small-business people. That meant people 
were losing their jobs.
    And we started to come out of that recession, and the enemy hit us 
on September the 11th, 2001. And the attack hurt us. The attack hurt our 
economy. The attack also changed our psychology in a way. See, we used 
to think oceans could protect us from harm, but we learned a tough 
lesson that day, which means whoever has the honor of holding the Oval 
Office must take every threat seriously, must deal with threats before 
they become imminent, must be firm with our resolve to keep America 
secure, must never relent to the enemies that would harm us because of 
what we love. And we began to recover from the attacks on September the 
11th because we're a strong people, we're resilient, because there's an 
ownership society, a culture of ownership in America.
    And then we had to deal with another problem here in America, and 
that is, we had some of our fellow citizens forgot what it meant to be a 
responsible citizen. Corporate CEOs didn't tell the truth to their 
shareholders and their employees. And that began to affect the 
psychology of the country. People think--people who invest began to say, 
``Well, I'm not so sure I believe these numbers,'' people who work 
beginning to wonder whether or not in big corporate America, that what 
they're being told is right. But we acted. We passed tough new laws. 
You're beginning to see the consequences of people making irresponsible 
decisions. They need to pay a price for their irresponsibility, and they 
will, in order to set a clear example. In America, we're not going to 
tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of our country.
    And then I made a tough decision to deal with Mr. Saddam Hussein. I 
saw--[applause]--I just want to, right quick, remind you that I looked 
at the intelligence and saw a threat. The Congress looked at the same 
intelligence, and they saw a threat. The United Nations Security Council 
looked at that intelligence, and it saw a threat.
    I took my message to the United Nations. I said, ``This is a world 
problem. Let's deal with it. You've given him resolution after 
resolution after resolution to disarm for a reason, because you saw a 
threat.'' And after

[[Page 334]]

September the 11th, it was time to disarm him so the threat wouldn't 
materialize. He said, ``Forget it.'' He chose defiance. Then I had a 
choice: Do I trust the word of a madman, or do I make the decision to 
defend America? I'll defend America every time.
    Laura reminded me one time about, on the TV screens, you started to 
see the banner ``March to War'' in the summer of 2002. That's not very 
conducive for investing capital. If you're an employer, if you're a 
small-business owner and all of a sudden you're thinking about marching 
to war, it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the economy. We 
overcame that. Now we're marching to peace, by the way. The world is 
more peaceful.
    But we've overcome all that. And the economy is getting stronger. 
Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Manufacturing is up. 
Homeownership is strong. The entrepreneurial spirit in America is alive 
and well, and one of the reasons why I think we're doing so good here in 
America is because of the tax relief we passed. It's because people have 
more money in their pockets.
    See, if you're interested in somebody finding work, you've got to 
put forth policies that encourage economic expansion, progrowth 
policies, progrowth in the private sector, not policies that grow the 
Federal Government but policies that grow the small-business sector of 
our economy. Most new jobs in America are created by small businesses.
    And so the plans that Chairman Thomas and I worked on all had in 
mind helping our individuals as well as helping small-business owners. 
See, we cut the taxes on everybody. We said, ``If you're going to have 
tax relief, everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief.'' We're not 
going to have people in Washington say, ``Okay, you get tax relief, and 
you don't.'' We had tax relief that was fair because everybody got it. 
And what's interesting about the tax relief, not only did it help 
families--and we're about to hear from some families who it helped--but 
it really helped small businesses. See, most small businesses are either 
sole proprietorships or Subchapter S corporations, which means they pay 
tax at the individual income tax level. And so when you cut taxes on the 
individuals, in many cases you're cutting taxes on the small businesses 
as well. And we want our small businesses to be strong. We want them to 
have more money to invest. We want them to have more money to expand. 
And the tax relief we passed is working because it invigorated the 
small-business sector of America.
    A couple other things I want to tell you, and then we're going to 
hear from others. I'm not filibustering. [Laughter] It's a long 
Washington word, isn't it? [Laughter] We did some other positive things.
    If you're raising a family in America, it's hard to do, and so we 
increased the child credit to $1,000 per child. We doubled the child 
credit to help families.
    We reduced the marriage penalty. It seems like to me you want the 
Tax Code to encourage marriage and not penalize it.
    We reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends. That's important 
for savers, particularly important for our seniors, many of whom rely 
upon income from their investment portfolio.
    We put the death tax on its way to extinction. Listen, the death tax 
is bad. It's bad for small businesses. It's bad for farmers. It is bad 
for ranchers. It makes no sense to tax a family's assets twice, once 
while you're making money and the next time after you die.
    So we've overcome a lot, and the policy we've passed is good policy. 
There's more to do. I want to share some thoughts with you right quick 
about what we need to do to make sure people can find a job or are 
comfortable about the job they have. We need an energy policy in 
America. We need to make sure our electricity systems are modern, and we 
need to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    We need to make sure we don't become isolated from the world. We 
don't need economic isolation. We need to have trade policy that treats 
America fairly. People can sell their products here. We want to be able 
to sell our products there. If you're good at something, you want to 
open up markets. Listen, we're really good at growing things. We want to 
sell our food overseas; we want to sell our beef overseas. We want to 
have a trade policy that is fair. We must fight off

[[Page 335]]

economic isolationism for the sake of American consumers, American 
entrepreneurs, and American workers.
    We need less regulation. These small-business owners will tell you, 
many times they fill out too much paperwork. They ought to be focused on 
helping people find work instead of spending hours on paperwork that 
probably is never read.
    We need tort reform in America. We need to make sure that--frivolous 
lawsuits make it hard for people to hire; they just do.
    Health care costs are rising. We need to do something about health 
care costs. We need what we call associated health care plans that allow 
small businesses to pool risk so their employees get reasonably priced 
health care. We need to expand health savings accounts, which is a 
fantastic opportunity, by the way, for small-business owners and 
employees to be able to have health care at affordable price--health 
insurance at affordable prices.
    We need national medical liability reform. Frivolous lawsuits drive 
up the cost of health care. The Congress passed a good bill. It is stuck 
in the Senate. The most powerful lobby in Washington, DC, in some 
estimates, are the trial lawyers. We need to make sure that doctors 
don't get run out of business and health care costs don't get run up 
because of these frivolous and junk lawsuits. Congress has got to pass 
medical liability reform.
    And finally, we need to make sure the tax cuts are permanent. See, 
the tax cuts are set to expire. That's what a lot of people don't 
understand. This is an important part of the dialog in Washington, DC, 
now, is how to make sure the economy continues to grow. These job 
creators need certainty in the Tax Code. You can't have taxes go down 
one year and up the next. They need certainty when it comes to planning. 
They need to be able to have certainty when it comes to their investment 
deductibility. That's what they need.
    And yet aspects of the Tax Code are set to expire. Interesting 
enough, in the year '05, the child credit is going to go back down 
unless Congress acts. That means a tax increase on these hard-working 
people. If Congress doesn't step up and act, the child credit is going 
to go down, which means these good folks are going to pay greater taxes 
next year. The marriage penalty relief, it goes up, which means if 
you're married, you're going to pay higher taxes in '05. The expansion 
of the 10-percent bracket no longer will exist. It's going to be 
changed, which means people are going to pay higher taxes.
    It doesn't make any sense to be paying higher taxes in 2005. This 
economy is strengthening. It will weaken our economy unless Congress 
acts. Members of Congress must hear this message loud and clear: We need 
tax permanency. At the very least, they must make permanent the tax--
child credit, the tax relief from the marriage penalty, the tax relief 
from the expanded 10-percent bracket. For the sake of American families, 
for the sake of jobs, Congress must not raise the taxes on the hard-
working people of America.
    And so we're here to talk about the economy. And I'm pretty well 
talked out--[laughter]--much to your pleasure. [Laughter] John, why 
don't you tell us what it's like to run a family-owned business. 
Obviously, it is capital-intensive. By ``capital-intensive,'' I mean it 
costs a lot to have one of those pumps there. He has to buy it, and then 
he goes out and rents it. And so it's a business that--obviously, you've 
got good, hard-working people you rely upon. But it's a business that 
requires, you know, some strong asset management. And so, why don't you 
tell us what it's like to run your own business. Somebody may be out 
there listening that wants to start their own business. And it's an 
opportunity for people to learn the great joy and the frustrations and 
the responsibility of being an entrepreneur here in America.
    John Lake. Well, I'll give it a shot.
    The President. I'm not worried about you. [Laughter]

[At this point, John W. Lake, president, Rain for Rent, made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. How much are you going to spend next year, do you 
think?
    Mr. Lake. About $30 million buying capital assets for rent.
    The President. Yes. See, when he says he's going to spend $30 
million, that means somebody or a group of people are going to go out 
there and manufacture $30 million

[[Page 336]]

worth of products, which means somebody is going to find work. See, if 
we increase demand through tax policy--in other words, demand means I 
want an additional good or a service. In this case, he's saying he wants 
$30 million worth of goods. The way our economy works is that in 
response to that demand, somebody is going to produce something. And 
when they produce it, it means somebody is going to work.
    So when you hear about economic policy and you hear about investment 
and you hear people say investment equals jobs, think about John. John 
is buying $30 million worth of equipment, which means somebody in 
Ardmore and Wichita Falls, Texas, is more likely to have a job. And 
that's how this economy works.
    And I appreciate that very much, you explaining that. Let me ask you 
something, are you going to hire anybody this year? [Laughter]
    Mr. Lake. Yes, sir. Right now we're looking for 46 more people. And 
actually, we've grown 24 percent since 9/11.
    The President. Well, that's fantastic. That's great.

[Mr. Lake made further remarks.]

    The President. Let me tell you something about what we need to do to 
make sure people are employable, is to get people educated in the first 
place, make sure the Bakersfield school systems teach people how to read 
and write and add and subtract, make sure there is job training for the 
jobs which actually exist. We've got some really good people who want to 
work; they just need the skills. That's why the community college system 
here in California, all around the country, is an important part of job 
training, so that you can match desire to work with the skills necessary 
to work.
    And so John is looking for 34. There's a lot of Johns around this 
country who are looking for workers. See, 34 workers here, 50 there, 2 
or 3 here, and this job base is beginning to expand. The economy is 
strengthening because of the decisionmaking that is taking place. Part 
of those decisions that he made was the result of tax policy. He's what 
you call a Subchapter S corporation. When we cut the taxes on 
individuals, it helps this. You heard him say he didn't have dividends 
for a while. You know what he's doing? He's putting the money back in 
the company for the sake of the workers.
    That's one of the wonderful things about the entrepreneurial spirit 
here in America. These owners understand that they've got to have good 
workers and take care of their workers. And I suspect working here for 
this great company is a pleasure.
    All right. You did a good job. [Laughter]
    Mr. Lake. Thank you, sir.
    The President. Les, tell us about yourself. Victory Circle company.

[Les DenHerder, president, Victory Circle, Inc., made brief remarks.]

    The President. You are a Subchapter S corporation.
    Mr. DenHerder. Yes, we're a Subchapter S.
    The President. Okay, if I can just remind everybody, that means he 
pays taxes at the individual income tax rate at the corporate level. In 
other words--I shouldn't say ``the corporate level.'' The taxes paid at 
the corporate level flow through to the individual income tax--to the 
individual, so therefore individual income taxes affect his small 
business, a better way to put it.
    Mr. DenHerder. Absolutely. And not only that, with capital 
investment, we're able to make use of some of the tax credits there. 
This year we're planning on spending probably around $50,000 for 
additional equipment, and that will probably save us, like, 7,000 
because of the tax laws.
    The President. Yes. See, the new tax laws said if he invests, he 
saves $7,000. So it encourages people to invest. What are you going to 
buy? Do you know yet?
    Mr. DenHerder. Some more welders and pipe-bending equipment.
    The President. Yes, so somebody has got to make it. That's how the 
economy works. He makes a decision. It affects a lot of people, the 
decision you make. So when you hear ``tax relief,'' I hope people 
connect tax relief with decisionmaking and decisionmaking to jobs. 
That's what we're talking about. That's why the tax relief was important 
for job creation.

[[Page 337]]

    Okay, I'm going to be looking for your product the next time I start 
a NASCAR race. [Laughter]
    Mr. DenHerder. That's good.
    The President. It was unbelievable. Thanks for coming. How many--any 
chances of hiring anybody this year?
    Mr. DenHerder. We're probably going to hire two to three people this 
year.
    The President. That's good, see. And you've got how many now?
    Mr. DenHerder. We've got 14 now.
    The President. There are a lot of companies, a lot in America, with 
20 or fewer employees. And when he says he's going to hire two more, 
that's really good news. A lot of people are feeling confident and 
optimistic about our future, so they can say, ``I'm going to hire two 
more.'' They can sit here and tell the President in front of all the 
cameras, ``I'm going to hire two more people.'' [Laughter] That's 
confidence.
    All right, Chris, tell us your business.

[Chris DiSalvo, president, GMC Roofing and Building Paper Products, 
Inc., made brief remarks, mentioning his wife, Wilma, and concluding as 
follows.]

    Mr. DiSalvo. So in February----
    The President. I got a good wife too. [Laughter]

[Mr. DiSalvo made further remarks, mentioning his operations manager, 
Leo Martin, and concluding as follows.]

    Mr. DiSalvo. He's watching the plant.
    The President. He's working. [Laughter]
    Mr. DiSalvo. Exactly.
    The President. Leo is doing the right thing.

[Mr. DiSalvo made further remarks.]

    The President. How did the tax relief help you?

[Mr. DiSalvo made further remarks.]

    The President. Isn't it a fabulous story? Forty-nine, were you?
    Mr. DiSalvo. Yes, sir.
    The President. Forty-nine, yes, really young-sounding. [Laughter] He 
starts his own business. He has a desire to own something. The job of 
Government is to create an environment that encourages and enhances the 
entrepreneurial spirit. The job of Government is not to create jobs but 
to create an environment in which people feel comfortable about taking 
risk to realize their dreams.
    I love the stories about your granddad working his way through the 
Depression and feeling confident enough to start this business and that 
you and your dad have had the great privilege of growing it and 
modernizing it and diversifying it to meet the new challenges of our 
economy.
    I love the idea of a guy buying his company and turning it into 
something. And I love the idea of somebody saying, ``I want to own my 
own company. I want to start it.'' It's such an important part of our 
American story. And I intend to keep the entrepreneurial spirit as 
strong as possible because I understand that when the small-business 
sector of our economy is vibrant and confident and optimistic, people 
are more likely to find a job. Now--good job, guys, really good job.
    Okay, Ismael Diaz is with us. He is a manager. Ismael, tell us about 
yourself.

    Mr. Diaz. Well, I'm--technically, I just work in the engineering 
department. [Laughter] I'll let my boss know I got a promotion.

    The President. Well, I just made you a manager. Yes. 
Congratulations, you got a promotion. [Laughter]

    Mr. Lake. Congratulations, Ismael. [Laughter]
    The President. Yes.

[Mr. Diaz, engineer/project manager, Rain for Rent, made brief remarks.]

    The President. How many of your--how many in your family had ever 
been to college prior to you?
    Mr. Diaz. None.
    The President. Yes.
    Mr. Diaz. So we're the first generation to go.

[Mr. Diaz made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Diaz. I never particularly paid attention to taxes until I had 
kids, was married, had a mortgage payment.

[[Page 338]]

    The President. 'Til you started to pay some.
    Mr. Diaz. Exactly. [Laughter]

[Mr. Diaz made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Diaz. I have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old with my wife, 
America, who is out in the audience. And--she's out there.
    The President. Can you imagine if my name were America? [Laughter]
    Mr. Diaz. It makes for some interesting conversation.
    The President. That's right, yes.
    Mr. Diaz. It's an icebreaker.
    The President. It is. [Laughter]

[Mr. Diaz made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Diaz. When you go in one year paying a thousand bucks to the 
next year getting a $3,000 refund, that's a pretty quick flip-flop from 
one year to the next.
    The President. Yes.
    Mr. Diaz. And what it allowed us to do was have my wife start 
working full-time. She's a schoolteacher, and I understand you're fond 
of schoolteachers.
    The President. Thank you. Appreciate you doing that.

[Mr. Diaz made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Diaz. And we'd take the refund money, invest it in college funds 
for our two little kids.
    The President. Fantastic.
    Mr. Diaz. If we have any more, we'll do the same for them.
    The President. That's good.
    Mr. Diaz. It's up to her. [Laughter]
    The President. I don't think we want to go there, Ismael. [Laughter]
    Mr. Diaz. So I know it's--if taxes do go up, we'll feel that impact 
immediately.
    The President. Yes. Listen, here's--what he's saying is--and it's a 
fundamental argument about taxes--obviously, we got to meet priorities. 
We got a war to win. We got things to do in Washington. But I always 
felt that with the economy slowing down, we want the Ismaels of the 
world to have more money to make their life easier, to increase demand. 
And I would argue with people that this good man can spend his money far 
more wisely than the Federal Government can spend his money.
    He said he had $3,150 in tax savings. That's a lot of money for a 
young family. That's a lot of security. Notice what he said, he said, 
``We're beginning to set money aside for our kids.'' I oftentimes say 
it's important for us to have a culture of personal responsibility, and 
it starts with moms and dads loving their children with all their heart 
and all their soul. And that's what Ismael has signaled to us.
    If Congress doesn't act, his taxes go up by $2,000. It's a $2,000 
tax increase. Congress must listen to the voices of people like Ismael. 
Two thousand less dollars in his pocket is going to make a difference to 
his family. So when you hear, ``Oh, I don't want to make the tax cuts 
permanent,'' you translate to that, ``We're to raise Ismael's taxes.'' 
That's what they're saying.
    Now, we got with us as well Theresa--oh, let me say something about 
Ismael's dad. Where is his dad? Is he here? There he is. Thanks for 
coming, sir. He came here and worked hard, and he stood in line and 
became a citizen. And that's what needs to happen with immigration 
policy. Look, we need to--we don't need blanket amnesty here in America. 
What we need is, we need to help people find work in a legal way.
    Your dad did it the legal way. He came and worked because he wanted 
to be a good dad, and he earned a living. And he stood in line in a 
legal way and then became a citizen of this country. I put forth a 
plan--we were talking to these employers; they don't know whether 
they're hiring somebody here who's legally or not. We need a temporary-
worker plan. That is not an amnesty plan; it's a worker plan to make 
sure the employers here in America are able to find the laborers that 
other Americans won't do, in a legal way. We need to make sure we treat 
people humanely in this country. And I want to thank you for the 
example. Think about that, how American is that: The guy works all his 
life so his son can go to college.
    Theresa is with us. Theresa Avila is the sales representative.
    Ms. Avila. Yes.
    The President. Is that an accurate assessment?

[[Page 339]]

    Ms. Avila. That's correct, Mr. President.
    The President. Would you like to--would you like a promotion? 
[Laughter]
    Ms. Avila. Yes, sir, I would.
    The President. The tax cuts weren't big enough for all--[laughter]. 
Thank you, Theresa. Please.

[Ms. Avila, sales representative, Rain for Rent, made brief remarks, 
concluding as follows.]

    Ms. Avila. My daughter Amanda, she's 16. She goes to Liberty High 
School.
    The President. Does she have her driver's license?
    Ms. Avila. Almost. She's begging for it.
    The President. Yes. [Laughter] I've been through that before. 
[Laughter]
    Ms. Avila. And my daughter Alexandra, who is 9, she's a fourth 
grader. She's over there. She's in----
    The President. I see her. Hi, Alexandra.
    Ms. Avila. ----elementary.
    The President. She's a beautiful girl.
    Ms. Avila. Thank you.
    The President. She has a great smile.
    Ms. Avila. Thank you.

[Ms. Avila made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Ms. Avila. And I hope that with your help and your continued 
support, that we will be a successful family, a successful American 
family.
    The President. Yes, well, you are successful already. And I can tell 
that, listening to you.
    Ms. Avila. Thank you.
    The President. You're really successful, successful because you love 
your kids more than anything else, successful because you--you set 
education as priority for your family. This good family saved about 
$3,400 because of the tax relief. If Congress doesn't go up--act, their 
taxes are going up by $3,100, see?
    What's happening, by the way, is that people all of a sudden are 
going to be thrust into the alternative minimum tax bracket. Those are 
long words, but just trust me, it means you got a tax increase coming 
unless Congress acts. They need to make the child credit permanent. They 
need to make the marriage penalty relief permanent. They need to make 
sure the 10-percent bracket stays permanent. And they need to deal with 
the alternative minimum tax so these good, hard-working people don't pay 
more taxes in the year 2005.
    Is there anything else you want to say? Okay, well, listen, thank 
you all for coming. I hope this has been helpful in understanding how 
the economy works, how people make decisions, how families make 
decisions.
    You just heard Theresa say they helped--they did some work on their 
home. Well, somebody had to come and do it. When she took the tax 
relief, she had to go get somebody to come and do it. And the person who 
came to do it had to buy more supplies in order to make sure the house 
got fixed. That's how the economy works. There's a lot of decisionmaking 
that goes on. It's the millions of decisions by consumers and producers 
to meet the demand of those consumers that really makes a marketplace 
economy function. And Government can have a good role in encouraging the 
vitality of economy. And that's what the tax relief plan did. And that's 
why we've got to make sure that the benefits of tax relief don't go 
away. That's why we got to make sure that we're not raising the taxes on 
the people of this country.
    I'm optimistic about America because I understand the character of 
our people. We're people who work hard, dream big dreams, people who are 
responsible for the decisions we make, people who love our families. 
It's a fabulous country. We've overcome a lot, and the reason we have is 
because of the character of the American people.
    It's my honor to be here in the great city of Bakersfield, 
California. Thank you all for coming. May God bless you all. May God 
continue to bless our country.
    Good job, John.
    Mr. Lake. Thank you.
    The President. Good job.

Note: The President spoke at 9:40 a.m. at Rain for Rent. In his remarks, 
he referred to Mayor Harvey L. Hall of Bakersfield, CA; Roy Ashburn, 
California State senator; Bill Maze, California State assemblyman; and 
former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

[[Page 340]]