Bush questions "sense of uncertainty" in the wake of our "amazing" economy

Bush_Eats_Beef

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Fri Feb-17-06 05:59 PM
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Bush questions "sense of uncertainty" in the wake of our "amazing" economy

President Discusses Global War on Terror Following Briefing at CENTCOM

Tampa, Florida

February 17, 2006

First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know. (Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can grow.

And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7 percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3 percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that, there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.

And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world. And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low. (Applause.)

And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the budget. (Applause.)

In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get -- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem. It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our cars, for example.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060217-4.html

U.S. President George W. Bush answers a question from the audience during remarks on securing America in Tampa, Florida, February 17, 2006. Bush flew to Florida to visit the U.S. Central Command headquarters and make remarks on the 'War on Terror'. REUTERS/Jason Reed