[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 32 (Monday, August 13, 2007)]
[Pages 1054-1056]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Economic Advisers

August 8, 2007

    Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. Thank you for your hospitality. We're 
pleased to be here at the Treasury Department.
    This morning I spoke with Governor Huntsman of Utah. He gave me an 
update on the efforts to rescue the trapped miners. I told him our 
Nation's thoughts and prayers are with the miners and their families and 
that the Federal Government will help in any way we can.
    I just finished a productive meeting with members of my economic 
team. We discussed our thriving economy and what we need to do to keep 
it that way. We care a lot about whether our fellow citizens are working 
and whether or not they've got money in their pockets to save, spend, or 
invest as they see fit. We talked about America's role in the global 
economy.
    My administration follows a simple philosophy: Our economy prospers 
when we trust the American people with their own paychecks. When I came 
to office in 2001, our Nation was headed toward a recession. And so we 
acted. We acted on the philosophy I just described, and we cut the taxes 
across the board. And the American people have used this money to fuel 
an economic resurgence.
    Since 2003, our economy has added more than 8.3 million new jobs and 
almost 4 years of uninterrupted growth. The economy continues to grow at 
a steady pace, and during the most recent quarter, it grew at an annual 
rate of 3.4 percent. Unemployment is low. Real after-tax income has 
increased by an average of more than $3,400 per person since I took 
office.
    Tax cuts let Americans keep their own money; it stimulates 
entrepreneurship. And we have a debate here in Washington over tax cuts. 
Democrats in Congress want to increase taxes and turn them into 
additional Government programs, and I strongly oppose that approach.
    We want the people to keep more of their own money because we 
understand that the American economy, entrepreneurs and small-business 
owners are the ones who create jobs. The genius of our free market 
economy is that it grows from the bottom up, through the college student 
who starts up a business in a parent's garage, or a stay-at-home mom who 
works out of a home office, or the small-business owner who dreams of 
growing his or her enterprise into a big business.
    The entrepreneurial spirit has helped our economy keep pace with new 
technologies, and America is a leader in innovation. Twelve years ago, 
eBay did not exist. Today, eBay is a global business that reported 
nearly $6 billion in net revenues last year. Hundreds of thousands of 
Americans now make part of their living by selling products on that web

[[Page 1055]]

site. EBay is an entrepreneurial success story that has helped thousands 
of Americans become entrepreneurs themselves.
    Recently in Nashville, I met a woman who runs a bun company. She 
cooks bread. Her name was Cordia Harrington. She carved out a foothold 
in the industry and has built five small businesses. Her businesses 
employ 260 people. She makes a good product. My point is, this is the 
enterprising spirit that we must support and encourage here in 
Washington, DC.
    I appreciate the fact that Hank Paulson agreed to join my 
administration after a long career as one of the world's most successful 
investment bankers. Here's how he puts it. He said, ``This is far and 
away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime.'' 
In other words, not only is our economy strong but so is the economies 
around the world. You know, when you grow your economy and--it's good 
news for the Treasury and good news for the deficit.
    When people earn money, tax revenues go up. This year, tax revenues 
are expected to be $167 billion higher than last year's because the 
economy is growing. Growing tax revenues combined with spending 
restraint has helped us drive down the Federal deficit, and we were able 
to do so without raising the taxes on the people who work or without 
raising taxes on small-business owners or farmers. Estimates show the 
deficit will drop to $205 billion this year. That is well below the 
average of the past 40 years as a percentage of our economy.
    Earlier this year, I proposed a budget that will completely 
eliminate the Federal deficit within the next 5 years and produce 
surplus by 2012. We can achieve this, but it's going to require spending 
restraint, and it's going to require keeping taxes low to keep this 
economy growing.
    Not everybody agrees with this approach. There's been a heated 
debate so far in Congress, and I suspect there will be a lot of heat 
when they come back, because Democrats in Congress got a significant 
appetite for more Federal spending. They passed a budget resolution that 
includes an extra $205 billion in discretionary spending over the next 5 
years. That averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per 
hour, $78,000 per minute. Put another way, it's about $1,300 in higher 
spending every second of every minute of every hour of every day of 
every year for the next 5 years.
    Now, somebody is going to have to pay for it. And that, of course, 
will be the hard-working American people will have to pay for that 
excessive spending. If the majority in Congress gets it way, American 
families, small businesses will face a massive tax hike. It would amount 
to the largest tax increase in American history.
    Now, look, I recognize the Democrats control the Congress and, with 
it, the power of the purse. I also have some power, and it's called the 
veto. And I have the votes in Congress to sustain vetoes, and therefore, 
I will use the veto to keep your taxes low and to keep Federal spending 
under control.
    When Members of Congress return from their August recess, they'll 
have less than a month to pass the 12 spending bills needed to keep the 
Federal Government running before the end of the fiscal year on 
September 30th. They need to pass these spending bills, one at a time, 
before the deadline. In a time of war, I ask them to start by sending me 
the spending bill for the Department of Defense, so I can sign that into 
law.
    There's some long-term challenges to our economy, and we need to 
work together to address those challenges. One way to address the 
challenges is to continue opening up markets for America's goods and 
services, and the best way to do that is to expand free trade. We've 
negotiated new free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and 
Korea. And now the Congress needs to carry out its responsibilities and 
approve these agreements.
    We're going to work hard to conclude the Doha round of trade 
negotiations, all aiming to open up new opportunities for U.S. producers 
and aiming to fulfill a great calling, and that is to help eliminate 
poverty around the world.
    We need to reform our health care system by making private health 
insurance more affordable and available. We need to reduce our 
dependence on foreign oil by promoting alternative fuels. We need to 
confront the rising cost of entitlement programs like Medicare and 
Medicaid and Social Security.

[[Page 1056]]

I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to come up with 
sensible solutions to solve these problems, so that we can say we solved 
the problems, and not pass them on to future generations.
    I'm an optimistic person, particularly when it comes to the ability 
of Americans to create and dream and work hard. I'll be less optimistic 
if Congress has its way and raises taxes on the American people. And 
that's why we're going to work hard not to let them do so. We'll keep 
good policies in place. We want this to be the land of dreamers and 
doers. I love the stories of the small-business owner in Nashville or 
the idea that eBay didn't exist 12 years ago and now is a booming, 
thriving enterprise. The purpose of government is to make it more 
possible for people to realize dreams and to enhance the entrepreneurial 
spirit. That has been the policies of this administration, and it will 
continue to be the policies of this administration.
    Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:44 p.m. at the Department of the 
Treasury. In his remarks, he referred to Cordia Harrington, chief 
executive officer, the Bun Companies.