[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 13 (Monday, March 29, 2004)]
[Pages 451-460]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

March 24, 2004

    Thank you all. Thank you for that warm welcome. Sientese, por favor. 
Bienvenidos. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for having me. [Laughter] I 
love to be in the presence of entrepreneurs, people who are willing to 
dream and to work to realize their dreams, which is really what America 
has been, is, and should be all about.
    I appreciate the fact that it's the entrepreneurs here in America 
that take the risks and create the new jobs, do the hard work that's 
helping our economy go forward. You see, by pursuing your own dreams 
you're making the American Dream possible for more. You're helping to 
make sure that others can realize the potential of our country. Every 
day you show faith in what we stand for in America, and I'm here to tell 
you, the country is grateful to you. And I want to thank you for what 
you do.
    What I want to do is talk about, today, the challenges facing our 
economy and how to put good policies in place to unleash the 
entrepreneurial spirit of America--that's what we're really here to talk 
about--and talk about the need for--to make sure we've got a small-
business sector that is vibrant, strong, growing, confident, optimistic 
about the future. And there are some things Government can do. 
Government can't create wealth, but it can create an environment in 
which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish. And that's what I'm here 
to talk about today.
    I want to thank Hector--he's the Small Business Administration 
head--for joining me. I had the honor of meeting Hector, Sr., right 
before we came out here. Hector and I are lucky. We've both got good 
dads. [Laughter] So, Hector Barreto, Sr., I appreciate you here. He's 
the co-founder of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
    I appreciate my friend John Snow, who is the Secretary of Treasury. 
Mr. Secretary, thanks for coming to share some thoughts.

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I appreciate your wisdom. He's a smart guy. [Laughter] He knows what I 
know, that it's best not to be thinking about economic theory; it's best 
to be thinking how to unleash the great creativity of the American 
people. It's the best economic policy there is.
    I appreciate so very much J.R. Gonzales, the chairman and acting 
president of the U.S. Chamber. I want to thank Tina Cordova, the vice 
chair, for having me here. I see my friend Massey Villarreal. He's an 
old friend from Texas. I don't know if there's any Texanos here. 
[Applause] Yes. Tell them hello back home. [Laughter] Tell them I 
remember where I came from, and I'm not going to change because of polls 
and focus groups. I'm going to take the--I'm bringing the principles 
that I was raised with here. I'm going to stand on principle. I'm going 
to work as hard as I can for the American people, and I'm not going to 
change what I believe just because some are trying to change me.
    And one of the things I believe is this country is a great country. 
That's what I believe. I believe it is a great country for a lot of 
reasons. You know what I believe? I believe it's a great country because 
if you're willing to work for a dream, you can own your own business. To 
me, that's great, when somebody can start with little and end up with a 
lot, and that's what we've got to encourage here in this country.
    I want to remind you that we have reason to be optimistic about the 
economy, particularly when you realize what we have been through as a 
nation. Beginning in 2001, the economy headed into a recession. The 
definition of a recession, of course, is three quarters of negative 
growth. So in the first three quarters of 2001, we were going backwards. 
That made it hard. I'm sure many of you remember the period. If you're a 
small-business owner, it's difficult to survive in a recession. If 
you're a worker, there's a lot of uncertainty during a recession.
    The stock market, by the way, had begun its decline in March of 
2000, and that affects a lot of people. It affects people's confidence 
when they see their savings begin to dwindle.
    As well--we began to recover, by the way, and then we got attacked. 
And the attack did a couple of things. Obviously, it changed how one 
must conduct foreign policy. In other words, we have to deal with 
threats early, before they materialize. Oceans no longer protect us like 
we used to think. And therefore, when we see a threat, we have to deal 
with it. But the other way it affected us, it hurt our economy. Make no 
mistake about it, we lost nearly a million jobs as a result of the 
attack. But we began to recover from that. We're a strong country. We 
said loud and clear to the enemy, ``You can't intimidate us. We refuse 
to quit. We're determined to move forward as a nation.''
    And then we found out that some of--corporate citizens or U.S. 
citizens who happen to be in corporate America didn't tell the truth, 
and that hurt our confidence. See, the system counts on people being 
honest and open, particularly when it comes to cashflow numbers and 
earnings per share. And the dishonesty of some in corporate America cost 
people their jobs and cost a lot of savings, but we acted. We passed 
tough reforms. As you can see on your TV screens, wrongdoers are being 
held to account. The message is, we're not going to tolerate dishonesty 
in the boardrooms of America.
    And then we overcame a significant hurdle as well. I just told you 
we had to deal with threats before they materialize. I made a tough but 
correct decision to join with the rest of the world--or the United 
Nations Security Council, and say, ``Disarm, Saddam Hussein. For the 
sake of world security and world peace, you disarm. We've told you to do 
so for 12 years, and you haven't. Now you have one final chance to do 
so.'' And he wouldn't, of course, and so we led a coalition to remove 
Saddam Hussein. He was in defiance, and now he's in jail. And by the 
way, the world is better off for it, and America is more secure.
    But that decision affected our economy. The decisionmaking process 
affected the economy. Remember turning on your TV screen and seeing 
``March to War.'' That's an incredibly negative thought. And in the 
world of finance and job creation, it's important to be hopeful and 
optimistic. People are more likely to invest if they're hopeful and 
optimistic about the future. And when you're looking on your TV screens 
and you see

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``March to War,'' it made it difficult for people to see a better 
future. Now we're marching to peace. The march to war is over, and the 
march to peace has begun, and the world is becoming more peaceful.
    My point to you is that we faced a lot of challenges in a brief 
period of time. In 3 years, we've overcome a lot because of the strength 
and the character of the American people and the strength of the 
entrepreneurial spirit. Think about where we are today. Inflation is 
low. Interest rates are low. That's helpful, by the way, if you're a 
businessowner. Mortgage rates are low. Homeownership is at the highest 
rate ever. That's what we want. If we want people--we want people--more 
people to own their own business. We also want people to own their own 
home. It's part of the American experience, and it's happening here.
    Manufacturing activity is on the rise. The unemployment rate today 
is lower than the average rate in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. 
Thanks to our productive workers--and we're very productive--and to the 
visionary business leaders, small and large, the United States is the 
fastest growing major industrialized economy in the world.
    We have overcome a lot because of the strength of our country. And 
members of the Hispanic Chamber are playing an essential part in the 
progress, so I'm here to thank you for that. According to the most 
recent data, Hispanic-owned companies employ about 1.4 million Americans 
and carry a payroll of nearly $30 billion. Our economy is stronger and 
society is better because Hispanic-owned businesses are thriving all 
across the country.
    One of the main reasons why the recession that I described to you is 
the shortest in modern history is because we acted with tax relief. And 
I want to describe to you why I felt it was so strong to promote tax 
relief here in Washington. First, if an American has more of their own 
money in their pocket, they're more likely to demand a good or a 
service. And in our marketplace, when somebody demands a good or a 
service, somebody is going to produce the good or a service. And when 
somebody produces that good or a service, somebody is more likely to 
keep a job or find work. That's the economic theory behind the tax 
relief.
    But there's really more to it than that. When you reduce taxes on 
everybody who pays individual income taxes, the way many small 
businesses are structured in America, you're really helping the small-
business sector. If you're a sole proprietorship or a Subchapter S 
corporation, you pay tax at the individual income-tax rate, and 
therefore, when you're cutting income taxes on the individual, you're 
really cutting taxes on small businesses. And when a small business gets 
tax relief, it means they've got more money in their company treasury in 
which to invest and/or expand. That's what tax relief does.
    As well, as you may recall, we raised the amount of money you can 
deduct for capital purchases from 25,000 to $100,000 for small 
businesses, all aimed at encouraging investment, all aimed at 
stimulating the economy. Because when you go out and invest, somebody 
has to make the product that you're purchasing, and when somebody makes 
that product, somebody is more likely to find work or keep a job.
    As well we did some other things in the tax relief. We increased the 
child credit to $1,000 per child. That means it makes it easier for moms 
and dads to raise their families. We reduced the marriage penalty. What 
kind of Tax Code is it that penalizes marriage? It's not a very wise Tax 
Code, so we reduced the marriage penalty.
    We also did something else. And that is we put the death tax on its 
way to extinction. I think that's important for--see, I think that's 
important to enhance the entrepreneurial spirit. Look, if you're a 
small-business owner, like many of you are, you know that when you're 
profitable you get to pay taxes to Uncle Sam. But the death tax means 
you not only pay him when you're living, you pay him when you die. And 
that makes it awfully hard for you, who've started your own business, 
who've built up your assets, to pass on your assets to whomever you 
want.
    Most small businesses know what I'm talking about. You know, you 
can't--you have to sell the business just to pay the inheritance taxes. 
And that dims the entrepreneurial spirit. It doesn't increase the 
entrepreneurial

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spirit. It makes it more difficult for the entrepreneur to realize his 
or her dream, because part of the dream of the entrepreneur is to leave 
his or her business to whomever he or she wants. That's part of the 
experience, and the death tax gets in the way. It's a lousy tax. And we 
passed good policy to get rid of it, for the sake of the entrepreneurial 
spirit.
    What I'm telling you is, these are--this is what we--when you hear 
the word ``progrowth,'' these are progrowth policies, all aimed at 
growing not the Government but all aimed at growing the private sector. 
Seventy percent of most new jobs are--70 percent of new jobs are created 
by small businesses. And so when you hear me talk progrowth, we're 
talking about progrowth in the small-business sector.
    What's interesting about the economy today, and you know this as 
well as I do, that the economy is experiencing some change, some 
fundamental changes. Take, for example, productivity. Productivity has 
grown faster over the last 2 years than at any time in more than 50 
years, because of new technologies, technologies that are changing the 
way we do business. Productivity means one worker can produce 10 widgets 
today, when it took--one worker could produce 2 widgets in the same 
amount of time in years past. It's kind of a simple definition. We call 
that a Texas definition. [Laughter]
    Higher productivity is good, by the way. It's a good thing for the 
economy. It's good for your business. It helps you--when you become more 
productive, it means you're better at competing. You can make a product 
that satisfies consumer demand in a more efficient and, sometimes, less 
costly way. And that's good.
    Productive businesses are more likely to grow, and that's good. 
That's what we want. We want growth in order for people to work. 
Productive workers receive better wages. If you're working in America 
and you become more productive, you get paid better. That's just a fact 
of life. The quality of your life goes up. The more--the better worker 
you are, the more productive you are, the more likely you're going to 
make more money for your family.
    A more productive economy leads to greater national wealth. In other 
words, it helps the individual, but it also helps the Nation. We become 
a wealthier nation.
    But there's some challenges with an economy that is more productive. 
Think of it this way: Companies fill new orders and expand operations 
without needing to hire new workers. If you're more productive, you can 
expand your business to meet expanding demand, and you may not need to 
hire an additional worker to do so. And that creates a problem for 
somebody looking for work. And that's what I'm interested in, by the 
way. You know, the unemployment rate is low, but so long as anybody is 
looking for work and can't find a job, it says to me, we've got an issue 
here in America.
    The other thing that productivity requires is an acknowledgment that 
new jobs require new skills. If you think about it, things are changing 
in the workplace, and we better have an education system that 
encourages--that allows workers to find the new skills necessary to be 
able to meet the challenges and new jobs of the 21st century.
    There's workers who are concerned here in the country. I hear it all 
the time. There are workers concerned about jobs going overseas. They're 
worried about changes in the economy. They wonder whether or not, as the 
economy changes, he or she will have the skills necessary to survive. 
They're worried about whether their children can find a good job close 
to home. They're worried about whether or not their health care and 
their benefits, retirement benefits, will exist.
    Here in Washington, you hear the economists say we're in a time of 
transition. I just want people to understand--know that I know that 
transition is not easy for people in our country. Transition unsettles 
the nerves. And so there's some things we've got to do to help, to help 
our workers and to help our entrepreneurs. And that--and I'm talking 
about something more than just unemployment insurance. There's some 
strategies that need to be in place, progrowth, proworker strategies to 
make sure that the American experience is reached all throughout the 
country.
    One thing we can't do is go back to the old policies of tax and 
spend in Washington.

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I think you're going to find the old tax-and-spend philosophy will drain 
the entrepreneurial spirit, because when you hear ``tax and spend,'' it 
means somebody has got to pay more taxes. And guess who gets stuck with 
them? Small-business owners, people who are beginning to realize their 
dreams.
    And the other thing we've got to do is reject economic isolationism. 
We can't isolate ourself from the world and expect to have a growing 
economy. There are some here--I'm just going to tell you what you're 
going to hear, when you hear this, ``We're going to raise taxes on the 
rich.'' Just remember, most small businesses are sole proprietorships 
and Subchapter S corporations. And guess what? If you're one of those, 
you're rich, according to the definition here in Washington, DC. Raising 
taxes on small businesses would be a disaster for our economy.
    I know some who want to build barriers to trade. You hear a lot of 
talk about trade and the way to deal with certain problems is to wall us 
off from the world. I think it's wrong. I think it's bad policy, and I 
think a lot of Hispanic-owned businesses know what I'm talking about. 
Rather than building barriers, we need to break down barriers so that 
the American entrepreneur and American companies can sell American 
products on every continent in the world. The best policy to make sure 
jobs stay here at home and somebody can find a job is to open up markets 
for U.S. products. See, pessimistic people say, ``We can't compete. 
Therefore, let's throw up walls.'' Optimistic folks say, ``We can 
compete with anybody just so long as the playing field is level.'' And 
good policy says, ``Let's make the playing field level.''
    Look at it this way: Five percent of the world's population is right 
here in America--means 95 percent of potential customers are elsewhere. 
Ninety-seven percent of all U.S. exporters are small or medium-sized 
businesses. It's a pretty interesting statistic, isn't it? A lot of 
people in America think ``export''; they think ``big guys.'' The facts 
are that small businesses export a lot. Companies with fewer than 20 
employers--employees--make up nearly 70 percent of all exporting firms. 
Of all the businesses that sell overseas, sell a product in demand 
overseas, 70 percent are U.S. companies with less than 20 employees. 
That's small business.
    If we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of trade wars and 
throwing up barriers and walls between America and other markets, those 
small businesses will have little chance to survive. When you hear 
people talk about trade, I want you to remember this: Hispanic-owned 
businesses are selling car and truck parts, food, construction 
equipment, financial services, manufactured goods, and products all over 
the globe.
    I know my friends from Texas have realized and seen the benefits of 
NAFTA. Our trade with our friend Mexico has tripled over the past 
decade. When you triple trade, it means there's opportunity on both 
sides of the border for people to realize their dreams. We must not 
allow people to raise economic barriers.
    Look what it would do to companies like Ruiz Foods in Dinuba, 
California, where I went. The Ruiz family started in the kitchen. The 
story, by the way, may sound familiar to many of you here. It may not 
have started in the kitchen. It may start--your business may have 
started in a garage, or it may have started sitting around a dining room 
table. In this case, they started in a kitchen using Grandma Rosie's 
pots and pans to make enchiladas. They now produce 3.5 million burritos 
a day. And I want you to know, they are selling some of their frozen 
foods into Mexico. That's a pretty darn good burrito. [Laughter]
    Kim Ruiz Beck, the company's vice chairman--I think Kim is the 
daughter of the founder--said it was tough to break into the Mexican 
market. ``At first, there was some skepticism about how authentic we 
are. But there's a lot of trust in products that are made in the United 
States of America.'' What she said is darn wise. There is a lot of trust 
in the products that say ``Made in the USA.'' And therefore, it makes 
sense from a policy perspective to encourage more products to be sold 
that say ``Made in the USA.''
    If you're a person looking for work, you want the United States of 
America selling products and services from our country. It's good for 
job creation. Presidents of both parties have agreed that trade is good 
for the American economy. For over 50 years, that's

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been the case. In other words, we've opened up our markets. And it's 
been good for consumers, frankly, that people are able to sell into the 
markets. It's been good for small business when you're trying to buy 
something.
    But the real challenge is to make sure other countries open up their 
markets. That's the challenge. As opposed to saying, ``We're going to 
close our market, and we don't care about you,'' we ought to be saying 
the opposite: ``Our markets are open, and if you expect to trade with 
us, we want you to open yours.'' And so when you hear about trade 
agreements, that's what we're doing. We're making sure the playing field 
is level. We've done a trade agreement with Singapore and Chile. We 
recently completed negotiations with Morocco, Australia, and our friends 
in Central America.
    What's that mean? You hear ``trade agreement''--let me see if I can 
shed some light on what it means. There are 6,000 small and medium-sized 
businesses in America that export to Chile. When we opened up an 
agreement with Chile, it made it easier for 6,000 small and medium-sized 
businesses to sell product. When people are able to sell product into 
Chile, it means they're going to--likely somebody--they're more likely 
to hire somebody. That's why it's easy to connect jobs and trade. That's 
what I'm trying to explain. When you're selling into markets, it makes 
it more likely somebody is going to find work.
    There are 4,000 medium and small business that export to Costa Rica; 
3,000 export to Honduras. By making the playing field more level, there 
is a greater opportunity that the small businesses around the United 
States will be able to find new markets and sell additional products and 
goods and services, which means somebody is more likely to find a job.
    A second way to make sure that jobs stay at home and that somebody 
is likely to find a job is to make sure that America is the best place 
in the world to do business, is to make sure the environment is right 
for capital formation, for business expansion, to make it easier, not 
harder, for our small businesses to exist and thrive and grow.
    There are some things we can do. One, there needs to be less 
regulations at the Federal, State, and local level on businesses and 
small businesses. It just doesn't make any sense for you to feel like--I 
see people nodding their heads. I mean, you fill out a lot of forms. I 
can't guarantee whether the form has ever been read, much less looked 
at. [Laughter] But nevertheless, endless regulations make it harder to 
be competitive and make it harder for businesses to stay at home.
    We've got legal problems in our country. Too many small-business 
owners get sued. There are too many frivolous and junk lawsuits. We need 
tort reform in America in order to make sure the job base can grow and 
expand. We're taking on some tort reform here in Washington. We've got a 
good class-action bill moving through the Congress. We've got some 
asbestos reform moving through the Congress. The trial lawyers here are 
awfully tough. I hope the small-business community is even tougher and 
works with Members of the United States Senate to make sure we can get 
meaningful tort reform out of the United States Congress, which will 
make it more likely somebody will be able to find a job.
    We need to make sure we help small businesses control health care 
costs. I've spent a lot of time talking to small businesses in forums 
around the country. I hear--a lot--people saying, ``I can't afford 
health care anymore.'' It's hard to be a compassionate employer if you 
can't provide health care to your employees. There are some practical 
things we can do.
    One, Congress needs to pass what's called associated health care 
plans, to allow small businesses to pool across jurisdictional 
boundary--pool risk across jurisdictional boundary, which will give 
small businesses in the aggregate the same purchasing power that big 
businesses have in order to drive down the cost of health care.
    I hope you all look into what's called health savings account--it's 
a part of the new Medicare law that I've signed--that will allow 
employees to save tax-free for routine medical expenses. You'll be able 
to contribute tax-free into your account, save tax-free in the account, 
withdraw money tax-free out of the account to pay for routine medical 
expenses.

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And their employers can provide coverage for major medical issues or 
major illnesses or injuries. It's a reasonable way to control costs. 
It's an interesting new product that's now being developed that I think 
you--small businesses will benefit, and so will your employees, most 
importantly.
    And finally, one of the reasons why health care costs are on the 
rise is there are--again, there's too many frivolous and junk lawsuits. 
There's a lot of docs who practice defensive medicine. Why? Because 
they're getting sued all the time. It's kind of like a giant lottery. 
Medicare liability lawsuits are like lotteries. The only problem is 
there's only one winner, and those are the people who take 40 percent of 
the win. That would be your lawyers, the trial lawyers. And we need to 
have national medical liability reform now. It passed the Congress. It 
is stuck in the Senate--passed the House, stuck in the Senate.
    To control health care costs, we need to have a reasonable legal 
system. If people get hurt, they ought to be able to sue a doc, but the 
rewards need to be reasonable. And we need to do things to cut down on 
these massive amounts of frivolous lawsuits. Frivolous lawsuits affect 
your business. They affect your business when you get sued, and they 
affect the cost of doing business.
    We also got to make sure we have affordable and reliable supplies of 
energy. If you're a small business in the manufacturing world, and 
you're wondering whether or not your gas bill is going to be--spikes or 
you're wondering whether or not--whether you're going to get electricity 
at all, it makes it awfully hard to plan and to grow. So we need a 
reasonable energy policy. We need to encourage conservation, of course. 
We need to work on alternative sources of energy. We need clean coal 
technology. We need to explore for more natural gas. But one thing is 
for certain: In order for our economic security and national security, 
we need to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    I think something that will benefit our economy and help the small-
business sector is to reform our immigration laws to help--I proposed a 
worker program here that says we can match a willing foreign worker with 
a employer in America so long as an American is not willing to do the 
job. Look, I know a lot of you are wondering whether or not you're 
hiring somebody who you should be hiring. And that's because the system 
is broken down. That's why you wonder that. My attitude is, rather than 
have people live in the shadows of our society, let's have an honest 
system. Let's say that if you're--if you need a worker, there's a way to 
help expedite your search for somebody in our country. But if you can't 
find anybody, you ought to be able to hire anybody you want, and 
therefore, we ought to have a temporary-worker card for people.
    And it will help rout out the corruption and the fraud. You know 
what I'm talking about. The paperwork, you don't know where it comes 
from if you're hiring in the construction world. It doesn't make sense 
to have a system where Border Patrol is kind of searching for workers 
simply coming to our--people coming to our country to make a living for 
their families. They ought to be looking for terrorists and 
narcotraffickers, smugglers. And so a worker system would take the 
burden off of many at our borders.
    People often ask me, ``Do you support amnesty?'' I don't. You see--
and the reason I don't is because I'm afraid it would further illegal 
immigration as well as reward those who haven't lived to the law. We've 
got a lot of honest people who are trying to become citizens of the 
United States of America, who have stood in line for a long period of 
time, and it doesn't seem that we ought to have a worker system that 
allows somebody to cut in line. That's not fair. One of the things we 
are in America is we're fair. And people should--people who have been in 
line shouldn't be penalized for having taken the legal route up to now.
    But one thing is for certain: We've got to respect people who are in 
our country. We've got to treat them with decency, and when the system 
is broke, we need to reform it.
    Finally, in the Tax Code--you probably know this, but all the tax 
cuts I've described are set to expire. It's kind of hard to explain it, 
but that's just the way it is here in Washington. [Laughter] Child 
credit is going down next year, unless Congress acts. The marriage 
penalty goes up next year, unless Congress acts. The 10-percent bracket 
that had been expanded to include more people will go

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back to its original form, unless Congress acts. All tax rates go up in 
2011, and the death tax comes--the death tax doesn't expire after 2011. 
So it expires, and then in 2011 it shows back up. By the way, in 2010, 
that's going to make a lot of interesting choices for people. [Laughter] 
Anyway, it's hard to explain any rationale behind it. [Laughter]
    There's uncertainty in the Tax Code. If you're somebody thinking 
about investing and you've got an investment plan, a capital investment 
plan scheduled out, and you're uncertain whether or not you're going to 
get $100,000 worth of deduction or $25,000 worth of deduction, it makes 
you less bold when it comes to expanding your business.
    Uncertainty in the Tax Code creates indecision amongst people that 
we want to feel comfortable making decisions, particularly when it comes 
to buying capital goods or expanding the job base. And so rather than 
increasing taxes to pay for new programs, I've got a better idea for 
Congress. To keep the economy expanding, they need to make the tax cuts 
permanent.
    Finally, I do want to talk about how to make sure workers are better 
prepared--workers are prepared for the jobs that you're able to offer. 
There are some new jobs being created, quite a few, as a matter of fact. 
They're just in different sectors. I remember going down to North 
Carolina and hearing a textile worker talk about getting skills 
necessary to become a health worker. And in this particular case, the 
person was doing great. But you notice there had to be a transition. 
There are new jobs being created in fields in which some people don't 
have the skills necessary to fill the jobs. And that's of concern to 
governments at all levels. It should be.
    The place to start with making sure workers have got the skills is 
in early grades. I worked with Congress to pass the No Child Left Behind 
Act. Let me tell you the theory behind the act. I believe every child 
can learn. I know there are some circumstances when certain children are 
just shuffled through the school system, the ``hard to educate.'' Those 
are generally kids, by the way, whose parents don't speak English as a 
first language or inner-city kids. And we had a system in some school 
districts where--``Just shuffle through, please. Let's just get them out 
of the system.'' And as a result, too many of our children ended up not 
being able to read at grade level, and that's really sad.
    So we passed a new law called the No Child Left Behind Act that 
said, ``We're going to increase Federal money for Title I students.'' 
Those are the poorest students. But now we're going to ask the question 
whether or not the children can read and write and add and subtract. For 
the first time, the Federal Government is saying, ``In return for 
Federal money, measure. Measure because we believe every child can 
learn. We believe every child has worth, and we want to know. And we 
want to know early, before it's too late.''
    By measuring, we're able to determine whether a curriculum works. By 
measuring, we're able to determine whether a child needs extra help. 
There's money in the Federal budget to provide the extra help. By 
measuring, we can find out whether or not society is doing its duty to 
make sure every child gets a quality education. The No Child Left Behind 
Act is a great piece of legislation, and I will defend it with every 
fiber in my body.
    There are other things we need to do. There needs to be remedial 
education for high school kids. Listen, because we're late in the 
accountability process, we didn't know for a while whether or not kids 
were getting shuffled through, and there's probably some in high school 
that can't read. And now is the time to find those souls and make sure 
they read.
    Laura went down to a program in Florida the other day, a remedial 
education program, where they're able to take 10th graders, with intense 
education in a 6-month period, to get them up to--nearly to grade level 
or at grade level. There's some great things that are happening in 
education. The Federal Government has a responsibility to help State and 
local governments focus resources to make sure people aren't left 
behind.
    By the way, we need to do the same thing with math. It's hard, if 
you're an employer, to hire somebody who doesn't have math skills. I 
guess, maybe there's some businesses where it's not needed, but a lot of 
businesses, it's important to have the basic skills in math.

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    I tell you, another interesting opportunity is community colleges. 
Everybody can identify with the community college in the community in 
which they live, and there's some great community colleges. The 
interesting thing about community colleges is, is that the curriculum 
should be flexible. And when you can find a place of higher learning 
that's got a flexible curriculum, it means if you're an employer or a 
group of employers, you can go to your community college and say, 
``Look, we need nurses. Help us train nurses. Adjust your education 
system for the jobs which actually exist.''
    We've got a bold initiative coming out of Washington here to help 
the community colleges help people find jobs. And the other day, I was 
in Mesa Community College in the Phoenix area. I met with a lady who had 
worked as a graphic artist. I think she told me she had been there as a 
graphic artist for, like, 13, 15 years, something like that. Anyway, she 
goes back to the community college and takes a 6-month course, if I'm 
not mistaken, that enabled her to become hired by Cable One Company. She 
made more money in her first year at Cable One than she had made in her 
last year as a graphic artist.
    And it's important for us to provide those opportunities for as many 
people as possible. People are going to have to want to do this, by the 
way. Government--we can't say, ``Be ambitious.'' We can't say, ``It's--
you must change your habits.'' But we can say, ``Here's an opportunity 
for you, and we encourage you to gain the skills necessary so you can 
become an employable person,'' because this economy is generating jobs. 
And we want to be able to match the jobs with the skills needed for the 
job with the people who are looking for work, and that's a challenge. 
And that's something that I'm committed to doing.
    A couple of other things that I want to say, now that I got you. 
[Laughter] There was a period of time in the seventies and eighties--I 
don't know if you remember this or not--when a lot of people doubted 
America, doubted whether we can compete. Do you remember that? The 
Japanese were going to be the predominate economy in the

world, some would say, or the Germans would be. It was claimed that we 
weren't flexible enough. Our companies were--we had rigid rules, that 
the workers were not disciplined enough, that the American products 
really weren't good enough to compete. That's what a lot of people 
thought. Those were what we called the pessimists. And they were wrong. 
They were just flat wrong, obviously. I mean, America--we improved. We 
changed. We're flexible. Our education systems began to work better. The 
entrepreneurial spirit remained strong. We're the greatest economy in 
the world now, and it's important that we keep it that way with good 
policies.
    The economy is vibrant today. There are still people who hurt and 
looking for work, and that's why we've got to think about pro-growth, 
pro-entrepreneurial policies. We've got to be confident. But think about 
this. We sell computer chips to Japan. We produce BMWs in Greer, South 
Carolina, for export to Germany. We're exporting California wine to 
France. [Laughter] And we're selling Mexican food to Mexico.
    The role of Government is to get policies in place that encourage 
growth, that enhance the spirit of ownership and rely upon the American 
people. It's a safe bet, when we get the policies right, things will be 
great here in America, because--you know why? The American people are 
great. This country is full of people--our country is full of people who 
can rise to the challenge. Many people want to own something and, 
therefore, are willing to work for it, responsible, honorable, decent 
citizens who love their family, love their communities, and love their 
country. And it's a privilege to be the President of such a grand 
nation.
    Thank you for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 2:45 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel. In his 
remarks, he referred to Massey Villarreal, member, Board of Directors, 
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and former President Saddam Hussein 
of Iraq.

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