[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 40 (Monday, October 8, 2007)]
[Pages 1312-1313]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the National Economy and Homeland Security

October 5, 2007

    I want to thank members of my economic team for coming into the Oval 
Office this morning to bring some good news here for America's families 
and America's working people. The--last month, our economy added 110,000 
new jobs. And that's good news for people here in our country. It's an 
indicator that this economy is a vibrant and strong economy.
    The folks briefed me on the fact that they are--numbers for July and 
August were revised--the job numbers, job creation numbers. And this 
economy added 118,000 new jobs in July and August as well. This means--
with these revisions, it means that we've had 49 consecutive months of 
job creation. And that's the longest uninterrupted job growth on record 
for our country.
    You know, I am really pleased with the economic news, but I don't 
take good news for granted. I understand people are worried about their 
mortgage payments or concerned about sending their child to college. I 
know that people are concerned whether or not they're going to have 
enough money to meet their needs. And so my call to the United States 
Congress is, keep taxes low. If you want this economy continue to grow 
and if you want to reinforce the fact that we've got--entrepreneurship 
is strong and people are working, don't raise taxes.
    And I'm looking forward to working with the Congress to set 
priorities on how we spend the people's money. But I also am going to 
make it very clear to people in Congress that we're not going to raise 
the taxes on the working people.
    And so I'm real pleased. I thank you all for coming in to bring this 
good news to me. It's--this good news is a real tribute to the hard-
working Americans, the people out there working hard to put food on the 
table. And it's a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of the country.
    I want to say something else. There's been a lot of talk in the 
newspapers and on TV about a program that I put in motion to detain and 
question terrorists and extremists. I have put this program in place for 
a reason, and that is to better protect the American people. And when we 
find somebody who may have information regarding an--a potential attack 
on America, you bet we're going to detain them, and you bet we're going 
to question them, because the American people expect us to find out 
information, actionable intelligence so we can help them, help protect 
them. That's our job.
    Secondly, this Government does not torture people. You know, we 
stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.
    Thirdly, there are highly trained professionals questioning these 
extremists and terrorists. In other words, we got professionals who are 
trained in this kind of work to get information that will protect the 
American people. And by the way, we have gotten information from these 
high-value detainees that have helped protect you.
    And finally, the techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to 
appropriate Members of the United States Congress. The American people 
expect their Government to take action to protect them from further 
attack. And that's exactly what this Government is doing, and that's 
exactly what we'll continue to do.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:54 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.

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