[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 32 (Monday, August 9, 2004)]
[Pages 1402-1403]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

July 31, 2004

    Good morning. This week, we received encouraging reports that show 
our economy is gaining strength. Consumer confidence hit a 2-year high 
in July. Existing home sales hit an alltime new record in June. The 
homeownership rate has hit a new alltime high. And since last summer, 
our economy has grown at a rate as fast as any in nearly 20 years.
    These gains in our economy have come at a time when Americans are 
benefiting from the full effects of tax relief. I have traveled across 
America meeting small-business owners who are investing tax savings into 
new equipment, and I have met families who are using tax savings to pay 
for their children's needs. All of this added economic activity is 
creating opportunity. Since last August, Americans have started work at 
more than

[[Page 1403]]

1.5 million new jobs, many of them in high-growth, high-paying 
industries.
    The impact of our growing economy is being felt in Washington, where 
estimates of Government deficits are shrinking. My administration now 
forecasts that the combined deficits in 2004 and 2005 will be about $100 
billion less than previously expected, and because of my policy of 
strengthening the economy while enforcing spending discipline in 
Washington, we remain on pace to reduce the deficit by half in the next 
5 years.
    These are hopeful signs, and we must make sure our economy continues 
to gain momentum. Families are working hard to make ends meet, and these 
families depend on good policies in Washington that promote growth, new 
jobs, and new opportunities.
    Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act, we are improving our public 
schools so students learn basic skills like reading, writing, math, and 
science. We have expanded Pell grant college scholarships so that more 
students can attend college, and we are helping community colleges train 
workers for the new high-skill jobs being created in our growing 
economy.
    We're giving individuals more control over their health care dollars 
through newly created health savings accounts, and we must also address 
the rising costs of health care by enacting commonsense reforms in our 
medical liability system. We must continue to open up foreign markets to 
American goods, because on a level playing field, American workers and 
farmers and entrepreneurs can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere.
    We must enact reforms to our legal system so hard-working 
entrepreneurs are not run out of business by frivolous lawsuits. We must 
have a national energy policy so we become less dependent on foreign 
sources of energy. We must have sensible regulations so that America's 
job creators can focus on satisfying their customers and not bureaucrats 
in Government.
    And we must keep taxes low on American families and small businesses 
by making the tax relief we have passed permanent. Thanks to tax relief 
enacted since 2001, a family of four earning $40,000 a year now pays 
nearly $2,000 less in Federal taxes. That is enough to pay the average 
home electricity bill for more than a year or fill up the gas tank of 
two cars for an entire year. To millions of hard-working Americans, tax 
relief has been the difference in helping make ends meet.
    This is a crucial time for our economy. We have emerged from a 
period of great challenge. Terrorist attacks, recession, and corporate 
scandal hurt the wallets of millions of Americans, but these shocks to 
our economy did not damage our spirit. We're a hard-working and 
resilient nation. Our economy is on a rising path, and together, we will 
bring our prosperity to every corner of America.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 1:40 p.m. on July 30 at the Amway 
Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids, MI, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on July 31. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on July 30 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.