[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 14 (Monday, April 5, 2004)]
[Pages 497-506]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the National Economy in Appleton, Wisconsin

March 30, 2004

    Thank you all very much. I appreciate the warm welcome. Please be 
seated. It can get pretty cold here in the winter, but that's a really 
warm welcome, for which I'm grateful. Thanks so much for coming out.
    Bill, thank you for your kind introduction. Thank you for putting up 
with my entourage. Thank you for setting this deal up.
    I've got some things I want to share with the good people of Fox 
Valley and Wisconsin, some of the challenges that we face as a country, 
my absolute determination to overcome those challenges, to lead our 
Nation for a better day for every citizen.
    I've got a lot of friends here in this State. I took one of them 
with me. [Laughter] And that was Tommy Thompson. Tommy is doing a great 
job. I gave him a tough job to do, and he's handling it with such class. 
He's really a fine, fine leader. You trained him well. [Laughter] I was 
looking for him on his Harley, driving in today, but I guess at 38 
degrees, it's a little chilly to be on your Harley. [Laughter] But he 
sends his best, and I want to thank you very much for raising Tommy the 
right way.
    I also want to thank all the entrepreneurs who are here. One of 
things--I love to be in the presence of entrepreneurs and small-business 
owners and dreamers and doers. After all, it's--to me, it's one of the 
characteristics of our country, the fact that we're an optimistic 
people, the fact that we're risktakers, the fact that we're job 
creators, that we care about our fellow citizens. The characteristics of 
America are what really enable me to say that there's no challenge we 
can't overcome by working together. I appreciate so very much the--
[applause].
    I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce, Fox Cities Chamber of 
Commerce for hosting me. I want to appreciate the mayor, Tim Hanna, for 
coming out to say hello. My advice to the mayor is, fill the potholes 
and empty the garbage. [Laughter] All will be well. [Laughter] But Tim, 
I appreciate it. It's good to see you again. Thank you for your 
leadership and your service. I want to thank all the State and local 
officials who have come today. I also appreciate your service to your 
communities and your State.
    Today when I landed, I met Gloria Grandone. Where are you, Gloria? 
There she is, up there. Gloria is a volunteer, a person who is a mentor, 
a person who is involved with helping people go to college, a person who 
helps people become more self-sufficient and financially secure. The 
reason I bring up Gloria and her willingness to volunteer, see, I think 
that happens to be the strength of the country, the fact that there are 
fellow citizens who love a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved 
themselves.
    Oftentimes, America is described as being strong because of our 
military--we'll keep our military strong--or we're described as being a 
strong nation because we're wealthy compared to other nations. And 
that's good, by the way. It's better to be a wealthy nation than a poor 
nation. But nevertheless, that's not our strength. Our strength lies in 
the

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hearts and souls of our citizens. Our strength in America exists because 
there are people like Gloria who are willing to take time out of their 
life to help somebody.
    My call to our fellow citizens is to love your neighbor like you'd 
like to be loved yourself. Mentor a child. Put your arm around somebody 
who hurts. Find shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry. All of us 
working together can change America, one soul at a time. Gloria, thank 
you for the example you set.
    Let me walk through the last little bit of history so that when I 
make my point that we've overcome challenges, you'll understand the 
challenges that we have overcome. First of all, the stock market began 
to decline in March of 2000. That matters, by the way, if you're 
concerned about savings and you own stocks. In other words, the 
psychology of the country began to get affected when people started 
opening up their accounts of their portfolios and noticed that their 
worth was diminishing. A lot of people who retired noticed their worth 
was diminishing. Pension funds--if you run a 401(k), you noticed that 
things were changing.
    And then the country headed into a recession in early 2001. A 
recession means we're going backwards, not forwards. A recession is 
negative growth for three quarters. If you ask any business leader here, 
they can tell you what it's like to try to manage during a recession. 
There's uncertainty. Your workers are getting anxious. Sometimes you had 
to lay people off. A recession is tough for a country to handle. It's a 
challenge. The challenge is how do you come out of the recession. We 
passed tax cuts, which I'm going to talk about in a minute, which made 
the recession one of the shallowest in our Nation's history.
    But then we had another challenge shortly thereafter, and that is an 
enemy attacked us. We weren't thinking about attacks in the scale of 
which they attacked us. It was a new thought for America. After all, 
most of us baby boomers grew up thinking that oceans would protect us 
forever. It changed our way of thinking. The attack means that anybody 
in a position like I'm in must deal with threats before they 
materialize. That's one of the lessons of September the 11th. We just 
can't sit back and hope that oceans protect us now. We must take every 
threat seriously.
    It also affected our economy. It hurt us economically. We lost a 
million jobs shortly after the attacks of September the 11th, and that 
hurt. Remember, we had to shut down the stock market. Airplanes weren't 
getting up in the air. It affected us; it just affected us. And yet, 
we're a strong nation who refused to be terrorized. We refused to give 
in to the terrorists.
    We resolved as a nation that we would do everything we can to 
protect our homeland. But the best way to protect the homeland is to 
chase the terrorists down and bring them to justice, which is precisely 
what we're doing.
    I laid out a doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're 
just as guilty as the terrorist.'' By the way, when the President says 
something, you better mean it. It turns out in this job--I, of course, 
meant it. And the Taliban found out what we meant. They didn't yield, 
and so I unleashed a great United States military. I did so to uphold 
the doctrine. We wiped out the ability for the terrorists to use 
Afghanistan as a training facility.
    We also liberated people, liberated about 25 million people from the 
clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind, 
so barbaric--[applause]. Now the country is changing. There's women's 
rights. There's equality under the law. Young girls now go to school, 
many for the first time ever, thanks to the United States and our 
coalition of liberators.
    We started to recover from September the 11th. The resolve of the 
country, by the way, is incredible when tested. It's a nation of people 
of deep character. Perhaps it's because we've got a lot of people of 
deep faith in our country.
    But we discovered shortly thereafter that there were some of our 
citizens who must have not been raised right, because they didn't tell 
the truth. There was corporate scandals in America that betrayed the 
trust. When somebody betrays the trust in our world, it can affect 
confidence. I mean, if you're not sure whether or not the accountants 
are telling the truth, it's hard to invest. These corporate wrongdoers 
cost people

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their jobs, cost a lot of people their savings. It affected our 
psychology. We had to overcome the hurdle.
    We passed tough laws, by the way, in Washington, and now the message 
is very clear: We will not tolerate wrongdoing in the boardrooms of 
America; we will hold you to account if you lie or cheat. But we 
overcame that.
    As I mentioned to you, it's important for this country never to 
forget the lessons of September the 11th, and that is, when we see a 
threat, we must deal with it before it fully materializes. That's one of 
the clear lessons of that horrible day in our history. I looked at 
intelligence from Iraq and saw a threat. The United States Congress 
looked at the same intelligence, and the Members of Congress saw a 
threat. The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence, 
and it saw a threat. And so, in the fall of 2002, I went to the United 
Nations Security Council and said, ``We all see a threat. Let's come 
together and deal with the threat. Let's say to Mr. Saddam Hussein, `You 
have one final chance to disclose and disarm, for the sake of peace and 
security.' ''
    A lot of people remembered that he was a person that had used 
weapons of mass destruction on his own people. He's a person that had 
terrorized the neighborhood. He's a person that was paying suiciders to 
kill innocent citizens. He's the person that tortured people. He's the 
person that had rape rooms. He's the person that had mass graves. He was 
a threat. Saddam Hussein once again chose defiance, and so I had a 
choice to make: Do I trust the word of a madman, or do I take action to 
defend America. Given that choice, I will defend our country every time.
    This is an historic time. We're going to get it right in Iraq. Iraq 
will emerge as a free society.
    I'll tell you a very interesting story. I was having kobe beef with 
Prime Minister Koizumi from Japan. Laura and I were over there, and by 
the way, she sends her greetings. She's a great First Lady, I might add. 
Very interesting conversation, because we're talking about how we should 
work together to deal with Mr. Kim Chong-il and the nuclear weapons 
program on the Korean Peninsula. In other words, we were working 
together on a common threat. It dawned on me in the midst of the 
conversation, had we not gotten the post-World War II peace right, an 
American President and a Japanese Prime Minister wouldn't be talking 
about how to deal with a common threat. It also dawned on me during the 
course of the conversation that when we get it right in Iraq, some day 
an American President will be talking to an elected President or Prime 
Minister of a country in the heart of the Middle East, talking about how 
to deal with the threats of a future generation.
    These are historic times. A free and democratic Iraq will change the 
world.
    It's a hard job in Iraq. After all, there are terrorists who want to 
stop the progress of liberty. And there's a reason: They understand that 
a free society is not in their interests; a free society is a peaceful 
society; a free society is one that will put the conditions of terrorism 
out of business. That's why we love freedom in America. See, the other 
thing I believe in, I believe that freedom is not America's gift to the 
world. I believe freedom is the Almighty's gift to each man and woman in 
this world.
    On your TV screens, starting in 2002, were the words ``March to 
War.'' I don't know if you remember that. That's not conducive for 
creating jobs. Think about what it means, ``March to War.'' It's a 
negative thought. One of the hurdles we had to overcome was the business 
about going to war. If you're trying to plan your future, whether you're 
an employer or employee, you're not going to be all that optimistic, 
thinking that your country's marching to war. We're now marching to 
peace. We've overcome that hurdle.
    We've overcome four major hurdles, when you think about it. People 
say, ``How can you be so optimistic about our country?'' And the answer 
is, ``Because I've seen what we've come through.'' And guess what? Our 
economy is growing. Interest rates are low. Inflation is low. 
Homeownership rates are the highest in history. More people are owning 
their home. There is a minority homeownership gap in America, but now 
more minorities own a home than ever before, which is incredibly 
positive. When people own something, they have a vital stake in the 
future

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of this country. Manufacturing activity is up. The unemployment rate 
today is lower than the average rate in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. 
We've overcome a lot.
    Wisconsin is helping lead the growth of this country. Farms, 
factories, and offices are shipping high-quality goods all across 
America and all throughout the world. The State's unemployment rate is 
down from a year ago, below the national average, I might add. The 
economy is on a path of growth because we acted.
    You see, the role of Government is not to create wealth but to 
create an environment that encourages economic vitality and growth, is 
to create the grounds for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. That's 
the role of Government. And that's why I went to Congress and said, 
``Listen, we've got problems, economic problems, and the best way to 
deal with those problems is let people keep more of their own money.'' 
When a person has more of her own money, she demands an additional good 
or a service. And the way our economy works, somebody will meet that new 
demand for a good or a service by producing a good or a service. And 
when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody is more likely to 
keep a job or find work. That's the way the economy works. The tax 
relief came at just the right time.
    We also accomplished some other objectives in the tax relief. 
Remember, I argued that if we're going to provide tax relief, let's 
provide it for everybody who pays taxes, so that Government is not in 
the business of picking winners and losers when it comes to tax relief. 
The fairest way to deal with tax relief is to say, ``If you pay taxes, 
you get relief.''
    We also increased the child credit to $1,000 per child. By the way, 
that's very helpful if you happen to be a mom or a dad. We reduced the 
marriage penalty. My question to the Congress is, what kind of Tax Code 
is it that penalizes marriage? We ought to be encouraging marriage. 
After-tax incomes in America have been lifted by 8.4 percent since the 
end of 2000. People have got more money, and it's making a big 
difference.
    I also want you to know I understand job creation. Seventy percent 
of all new jobs are created by small businesses. It seems like, if 
that's the case and you're worried about somebody finding work, you want 
to make sure the small-business agenda is vibrant and foremost on our 
agenda. And it is. Because, you see, most small businesses are 
Subchapter S or sole proprietorships. I see a lot of people nodding 
their heads. A sole proprietorship or Subchapter S corporation means 
that the business pays tax at the individual income tax. And if you're 
paying tax at the individual income tax as a small business and all 
taxes get reduced, small businesses have got more money to invest and to 
expand.
    We also provided incentives for capital investment. We raised the 
amount of the limit to $100,000 from $25,000 that the small business can 
deduct for new capital expenditures. What I'm telling you is, is that 
small business is a direct beneficiary of the tax plan that we passed. 
It's an integral part of making sure that the environment for the 
entrepreneurial spirit is just right.
    Another way to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong is to 
get rid of the death tax. The death tax is a bad tax. A lot of farmers 
want to leave their farm to their family and not to the Government. A 
lot of small-business owners are dreaming big dreams, not only because 
they want to help somebody find a job but they also want to leave their 
business to whomever they choose. The problem with the death tax is, 
they tax you while you're alive, and then they tax you again after you 
die. And that doesn't seem fair. And a lot of people who own a small 
business or a farm, in order to pay the death tax, have to liquidate 
their assets in order to do so, which means it is impossible to pass 
your assets on, in many cases, to whomever you choose. Congress wisely 
put the death tax on its way to extinction, for the good of the 
entrepreneurial spirit here in America.
    This economy is going through a fundamental change. We're growing, 
which is great. One of the reasons we're growing is because we're 
incredibly productive. You've heard about productivity increases. That 
means one worker that used to be able to produce 5 units can now produce 
15 units. That's what productivity means. A productive society is a 
society that will generate more

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wealth, and that's very positive. In other words, the more productive 
you are, the wealthier your society becomes. A productive society means 
America will remain more competitive, will be able to expand and grow, 
not only internally but externally, because if you're a productive 
company here in America, you have a better chance to compete. And 
remember, our system is based upon competition. If you're a productive 
company in America, you have a better chance to compete with companies 
overseas.
    It's a fact that the more productive you are as a worker, the better 
you get paid. But the problem is, as I mentioned, many companies are 
able to fill new orders and don't have the--don't have a need to expand 
because they're more productive. In other words, it's possible to grow 
our economy and not have people find new jobs. And that's a problem we 
face today for some workers.
    This is called a period of transition. That's an economist's word 
for things aren't going too well for you. [Laughter] And I understand 
that. I understand that people are worried about the job they have. 
They're worried about whether their children can stay close to home 
where they were raised and find work. A productive society is positive 
in many ways, but for the worker who needs new skills, it's not so 
positive in the short term.
    So we have got to do something about it. We've got to deal with the 
economy the way it is. Many people are working, and more and more people 
are working. But there are some who, frankly, feel like they're being 
left behind, and that's not right. The role of Government is more than 
just providing unemployment insurance; it's to provide a sound strategy 
to make sure our economy continues to grow and people find the skills 
necessary to be productive employees in the 21st century. Those are the 
challenges we face.
    Some in our Nation's Capital respond a little differently than I 
will. They want to increase Federal spending dramatically. The problem 
with that plan is somebody has to pay for it, and that somebody is going 
to be you. That's who will pay for it. In order to pay for more 
spending, you'll hear the language ``tax on the rich.'' When you start 
raising income-tax rates up, you're raising on small businesses. If the 
tax relief helps small businesses, the corollary to that is that when 
you raise those taxes, it means small businesses are going to pay. If 70 
percent of the new jobs are created by small businesses, it makes 
absolutely no sense to be taking money out of their coffers to expand 
the role of the Federal Government.
    Tax and spend is the enemy of job creation. Taxing and spending in 
excessive amounts in Washington, DC, is not creating an environment for 
the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. Quite the contrary. It will 
diminish demand. It will make it difficult for people to start their own 
businesses and to expand.
    There's another issue we're facing as well in the Nation's Capital. 
That's whether or not we're going to build walls around America, whether 
we're going to isolate ourselves from the world. I call it ``economic 
isolationism.'' When you hear people talk about, ``Let us reconsider 
free trade agreements,'' what they're really saying is, is that perhaps 
we ought to wall ourself off from the rest of the world. See, I think 
that would be absolutely wrong for America to be so pessimistic about 
our ability to compete that we've become economic isolationists, that we 
erect barriers to trade, that we're so--that we lack confidence, that we 
say to our farmers and ranchers, our entrepreneurs that we don't think 
you can compete. See, I believe just the opposite. I believe this Nation 
can compete anywhere, any time, anyplace, so long as the rules are fair.
    Look at it this way. America's got 5 percent of the world's 
population. That means there's 95 percent of the people out there that 
should be buying products that say ``Made in the USA.'' It's important 
to understand that exports, the ability to sell overseas, to be able to 
make something here in Wisconsin and sell it elsewhere, is an important 
part of your economy. Dairy farmers are selling their goods overseas.
    I read this, and I wasn't quite sure--it says that Wisconsin cheese 
is being sold in France. [Laughter] That's a good cheese. Oshkosh Truck 
sells overseas. Harley Davidson sells overseas. Wisconsin exports last 
year were worth $11.5 billion. See, Wisconsin is making products the 
world wants to buy. Wisconsin's exports to Canada rose last year.

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Exports to Mexico rose. Exports to China rose fourfold in the last 4 
years. In other words, people are finding jobs here in Wisconsin because 
they're helping make products that people want in other countries. 
Exports equal jobs. It's important for people to understand that.
    Nationwide, 97 percent of all U.S. exporters are small and medium-
sized businesses. You know, a lot of folks say, ``Exports--you got to be 
a big guy to be able to export.'' No, there's a lot of small-business 
owners and entrepreneurs and medium-sized businesses that are making 
products, goods, and services, that people want. An important part of 
our economy is the small-business sector, as I told you. Companies with 
fewer than 20 employees make up nearly 70 percent of all U.S. exporting 
firms. So when you hear the talk about, ``Let's wall off America from 
the rest of the world,'' I want you to remember that we're talking about 
walling off small businesses from opportunities--opportunities to sell a 
product and, therefore, opportunities to eventually hire somebody.
    The other thing it's important for people to understand is that 
foreign companies recognize how great the U.S. workforce is. I mean, 
we're very good at what we do. We've got fantastic workers here in 
America, incredibly productive people. And therefore, there's a lot of 
foreign-owned companies that are interested in bringing their business 
here. A hundred thousand workers in Wisconsin work for foreign-owned 
companies, half of them in manufacturing. Fiskars Brands employs U.S. 
workers. It's a Finnish company. Kikkoman Foods, they make soy sauce. 
They employ U.S. personnel.
    In other words, when you hear about trade, just remember, trade 
means selling product overseas, but it also means welcoming foreign 
capital here in the United States to employ people, so they can find 
work. It's an important part of the equation to know that confident 
trade policy not only means the sale of goods, but confident trade 
policy means people want to set up their plants here.
    I was in Greer, South Carolina, at a BMW plant selling BMWs into 
Germany. We've got great workers in America. We ought not to be fearful 
of the future. We ought to be confident of our capacity to compete.
    And so, the question is, what do we do about trade policy? And 
that's what I want to spend a little time talking about. Five--for five 
decades, Presidents have made the decision that U.S. markets should be 
open, for the good of our consumers. In other words, when there's 
competition, it generally means better price. Other markets haven't been 
open to U.S. goods. So it seems like to me, the logical thing to do, 
rather than shutting down our own market, which will hurt consumers and 
hurt opportunity, is to spend time opening up other people's markets. 
And so when you hear me talk about negotiating trade agreements, really 
what we're doing is leveling the playing field. What we're really doing 
is make sure America has a chance to compete on the same terms that 
people can sell into our market.
    And if they don't respond, there's some things we can do. See, if we 
say, ``Our market is open, and yours isn't, so open yours up,'' rather 
than shutting ours down and creating trade wars which will jeopardize 
jobs, make it harder for small business to exist, there are things we 
can do. For example, we filed the first World Trade Organization case 
against China because of their unfair tax policy. We got Canada to stop 
exporting subsidized dairy products into the United States. We won a 
major international case against Mexico's telecommunications barriers. 
In other words, this administration is not going to--refuses to accept 
the doctrine of economic isolationism but instead says, ``We'll use the 
tools necessary to make sure that the playing field is level.''
    Japan is buying American apples. If you're an apple grower, that's 
good news. India is buying American almonds. My point is, not only are 
we focused on industries like the semiconductor industry, we want people 
buying U.S. farm products too. We're good at growing things here in the 
United States.
    Open trade means fair trade. It means that the buyer and the 
seller--that if we're a buying nation, it means the selling nation must 
open its markets too. That's what I'm talking about. It's important to 
be confident here in America because we're good at what we do, and our 
policies ought to reflect that.

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    A lot of talk about jobs going overseas. There's a lot of 
uncertainty in the marketplace for some people looking for work. I 
understand that--I understand that. But the best way to deal with that 
in my judgment is to make sure America remains the best place in the 
world to do business so that our job base will expand. The more vibrant 
the small-business sector, the more likely it is somebody's going to 
find work. The more vibrant the business sector, the more likely it is 
jobs will stay right here at home. That's what people have got to 
understand.
    Let me talk real quick about some things we need to do. We need to 
stop harassing small-business owners and entrepreneurs with endless 
amounts of regulation and paperwork. I know there's a lot of Federal 
forms. My problem is, I can't guarantee that they're ever read.
    Secondly, like you, I'm concerned about the rising costs of health 
care. It's an issue for consumers. It's an issue for employers. If you 
talk to small-business owners, they're concerned about being able to 
provide their employees with a good package for health care. There are 
some things we can do. One thing we must not do is turn over the health 
care industry to the Federal Government. There's a philosophical tug-of-
war in Washington, DC. I believe the Federal Government would make 
matters worse. I believe the marketplace and empowering consumers will 
make matters better.
    One way we can control health care costs is to allow small 
businesses to share risk through association health care plans. In other 
words, big companies are able to pool risk because they've got a lot of 
employees over which they can spread risk. Small businesses don't have 
that advantage. I believe small businesses ought to be able to pool risk 
across jurisdictional boundary to get the same benefits, the same 
economies of purchase, that big businesses get.
    We passed a new aspect to health care, which I think a lot of small-
business owners and employees will find very interesting. They're called 
health savings accounts. This is the opportunity for people to put money 
into a health savings account tax-free, earn money tax-free, withdraw it 
tax-free to meet certain health care costs, and then any major medical 
or larger health care costs are covered by a catastrophic plan. Now, 
what this does is it puts the consumer back in charge of health care 
decisions, as opposed to bureaucracies or Government. What it also does 
is it helps control the cost of health care. If you look into it as a 
small-business employer, I think you'll find it is an imaginative way to 
help your employees have affordable health care.
    The other thing we need to do in order to make sure we hold the cost 
of health care down is to have medical liability reform at the Federal 
level. There's too many junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of 
medicine. A lot of docs practice defensive medicine because they're 
afraid of getting sued. But guess who pays? Small-business owners and 
employees, that's who pays. A lot of docs are tired of getting sued, so 
they're moving out. Maybe it's happened in your community. That means 
not only is the cost of medicine going up, the cost of health care going 
up, but there's fewer docs available to practice their trade.
    Listen, if you get hurt, you ought to have your day in court. But 
the system in many places looks like a lottery, and there's only one 
winner, and those are the trial lawyers who sue and sue and sue.
    We need other tort reform to make sure America's a good place to do 
business so jobs stay at home. We're close to getting a reform on class-
action lawsuits. Perhaps some of you have been caught up in these class-
actions lawsuits. It's--again, sometimes it's a gravy train, not for 
those who are the plaintiffs but the people representing the plaintiffs. 
We're close, but the trial bar is tough in Washington, DC. They're able 
to hold up a lot of stuff in the United States Senate, which is 
discouraging, because good tort reform will make it easier for people to 
find a job here at home, will make sure the environment for the 
entrepreneurs is good and strong.
    There's another thing we need to do here in America. Look, if you're 
a manufacturer in Wisconsin, you need to make sure you've got energy so 
you can manufacture your product. We have a problem in America because 
we don't have an energy plan. It doesn't make much sense when you're a 
giant nation like ours not to have an energy plan,

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but we can't get it out right now. It's stuck. I'm calling upon the 
House and the Congress to reconcile their differences and get an energy 
plan on my desk that will encourage--to my desk that will encourage 
clean coal technology so we can burn coal, a plentiful supply, in a 
clean way, so that we can encourage more exploration of natural gas.
    Natural gas is absolutely vital for many manufacturers here in 
Wisconsin. You've got to have energy in order to make sure your business 
is viable. We need to modernize our electricity system. We got a wake-up 
call last summer when parts of our country were shocked by a rolling 
blackout. If you're a businessowner and you're trying to expand your 
business, if you're trying to make a product and if you're worried about 
whether or not you're going to get any power, it's very difficult to be 
optimistic about your future. We need to encourage conservation. What we 
need is an energy plan so we're less dependent on foreign sources of 
energy.
    We're debating a highway bill right now in Congress. I look forward 
to signing a 6-year bill without raising your gas taxes. We don't need 
to be raising the Federal gas tax. Gas taxes would hurt the economy. 
There are some in the other party in Washington who would like to raise 
gas taxes. I think it would be wrong. I think it would be damaging to 
the economy, not positive to the economy.
    Also, speaking about highways, the Nation must stay on the leading 
edge of technology. I want to make sure broadband technology is 
available for every home in America by the year 2007, and that, shortly 
thereafter, there's adequate competition so consumers get to choose. 
There's nothing like choice, by the way, if you're a consumer, to make 
sure that a product stays reasonably priced. And there are ways to do 
that.
    We ought not to tax access to broadband at the United States--in the 
United States Congress. And we've got to make sure that the regulatory 
environment is conducive to making sure broadband extends throughout 
America. There's some practical things we can do. But for America to be 
competitive, to make sure jobs stay at home, we've got to stay on the 
leading edge of technological change. And the broadband technology is 
going to be--it's going to be just amazing. It's going to be amazing for 
small-business owners. It's going to be amazing for people who work out 
of their home and are productive citizens. It's going to be amazing for 
education opportunities. It's going to be amazing for health care. We 
need it, and we need to get it out as quickly as possible in a price-
sensitive way for the consumers.
    Finally, these tax cuts that I'm talking about are set to expire. 
Congress giveth, and the Congress taketh away. [Laughter] And if you're 
a small-business owner, it's hard to plan for your future if you're 
uncertain about your tax liabilities. If you're wondering whether or not 
the tax--taxes that--tax relief today is going to be taken away, it is 
not good for planning. People who plan need to have a steady 
environment, not an unpredictable environment.
    It's also not good if you're a mom or a dad raising your child to be 
paying more taxes right now. And if Congress doesn't make the child 
credit permanent, it means it's a tax increase on somebody with a child. 
If you're married, that marriage penalty is going back up unless 
Congress makes the tax relief permanent. If you are in the 10-percent 
bracket, it means that bracket is going to become squeezed if Congress 
doesn't make the tax cuts permanent. For the sake of job creation, for 
the sake of keeping jobs here at home, we need to make the tax cuts a 
permanent part of our Tax Code.
    Now that I've got you stuck here--[laughter]--we're going to talk 
about education right quick. A economy which is changing, an economy in 
transition, is an economy that better make sure people are educated to 
take advantage of the new jobs being created. In a lot of parts of our 
country, there are jobs going begging because people don't have the 
skills necessary to fill them. In some older industries, jobs are not as 
prevalent as some of the new industries. Nurses, for example--there's a 
nursing shortage. We've got to make sure people get the skills necessary 
to be able to fill the new jobs.
    We can't make somebody say--decide to go to work. That's in their 
mind. But we darn sure can help somebody get the skills necessary to 
take advantage of the jobs which are being created. We can help somebody

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become a more productive citizen. Remember, higher productivity for a 
worker means better wages.
    And I've got some plans to do so. It starts, by the way, by making 
sure every child can read and write and add and subtract. We passed a 
good law in Washington. It's called the No Child Left Behind Act. The 
principles behind that law are, one, we trust local people to make the 
right decisions for the communities in which they live when it comes to 
their public schools. But for the first time, the Federal Government is 
asking the question, are we getting any return for our money we're 
spending? It's called accountability. It means that--[applause].
    We've increased the Title I or elementary and secondary school 
budget by 49 percent since 2001, which is good. But as importantly, 
we've started to say to the State of Wisconsin, ``Measure, so we can 
determine whether or not it's working.'' How can you tell whether or not 
things are going well in the education system if you don't measure? You 
can't. And guess what happens in a system that doesn't measure? Kids 
just get shuffled through. And guess who gets shuffled through? The so-
called hard-to-teach. That would be low-income, inner-city, African 
Americans, parents who may not speak English as a first language. It's 
easy to quit on those kids. ``Just going to move them through.'' What 
accountability says is that we're tired of moving kids through. We're 
going to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. We believe 
every child can learn.
    Things are improving around the country because we are holding 
people to account. By the way, the accountability system is not to 
punish anybody. It's to determine whether or not the curriculum is 
working. It's to make sure that the methodology makes sense. It's also 
to catch problems early and correct them before it's too late. There are 
some problems that are almost too late. We've got plans to help junior 
high and high school kids learn the basics of reading and math before it 
is too late--very good intervention programs.
    But one of the things I'm most excited about is using our community 
college system. We've got a great strategy to make sure the community 
college system is a vibrant part of job training programs all across 
America. I hope you've got a good community college system here. The 
definition of a good system, by the way, is one that is flexible and 
open-minded, so that when employers come and say, ``These are the kinds 
of people we need to hire,'' that the curriculum changes and actually 
trains people for the jobs which exist.
    There's nothing like the Chamber of Commerce being able to say, 
``We've got a fantastic community college system here. If you move your 
business here, the community college will make sure--will help train 
people for the jobs you need.'' A more productive worker is a worker 
that's going to make more money.
    I remember going to Mesa Community College and met a woman there 
that was a graphic design artist. I think she'd been one for 15 years. 
She got a scholarship--and by the way, there's money available to help 
people go back to school. She got a scholarship to go back to the 
community college, and she took a technical course. Upon graduation, 
which--I can't remember the exact number of months it was, but it was a 
reasonable period of time--her starting job at Cable One paid her more 
than her 15th year as a graphic design artist.
    That's the definition of becoming a more productive worker. If you 
increase your productivity by going back to school, it makes you 
obviously more employable for the jobs which exist, but it also raises 
your own standard of living. Education is a crucial part to make sure 
that jobs here in America stay home and that the job base can expand in 
a confident way.
    So those are some reasonable things that the country needs to do: to 
stand with the people, not stand against them; to make sure that we 
unleash the great talent of America; to make sure that we capture the 
entrepreneurial spirit which makes this country so unique and such an 
exciting place for people to live; practical things to do to make sure 
jobs stay here at home and people can work and do their duty as a 
responsible citizen.
    Let me conclude by telling--speaking about responsibility, I do 
think one of the interesting things that's happening in America is we 
are ushering in a period of personal responsibility, which stands in 
stark contrast to kind of an old culture which said, ``If it

[[Page 506]]

feels good, do it,'' and ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody 
else.'' People in the country are beginning to understand that there is 
a--you're responsible for loving your children. If you're fortunate 
enough to be a mom or a dad, you're responsible for loving your child 
with all your heart. If you're worried about the quality of the 
education in which you--in the community in which you live, you're 
responsible for doing something about it. Just don't hope for some magic 
response from a faraway Government. If you're a CEO in corporate 
America, you're responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders 
and your employees. And in this new responsibility society, each of us 
is responsible for loving our neighbor just like we'd like to be loved 
ourselves.
    We've got a fabulous country. There's nothing we can't overcome. 
Thank you for coming today. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. at the Fox Cities Performing 
Arts Center. In his remarks, he referred to Bill Welch, president, Fox 
Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry, who introduced the President; 
Mayor Tim Hanna of Appleton, WI; former President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim Chong-
il of North Korea.