Remarks on the national economy and a question-and-answer session in Maryland Heights, Missouri

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 5, 2008

May 2, 2008

The President. Thank you very much. Please be seated. Thank you. What he said was, "It's about time you made it." [Laughter] Dave was right; I was scheduled here at World Wide, and then the fires hit in California, and I went out there to help the people try to recover from the natural disaster. And I told him at the Christmas party there at the White House, I said, "I'm coming back." I've always felt like if you're a politician and you make a promise, yon better keep it. [Laughter] And so I have.

And the reason why I wanted to come then and wanted to come back is, I think it's very important for the President to recognize success and for the President to herald entrepreneurship. And so in meeting with Dave and Jim and the employees of this company, really what I'm saying is that the entrepreneurial spirit is 'alive and well here at World Wide.

You heard the man say that over the past 7 years, revenues have tripled, and they've expanded the job base by 500 people. And what's relevant for America is that it's the small-business sector--I don't know if you call yourself small anymore; you're probably a medium-sized business sector--[laughter]--that creates jobs. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are created by small--and medium-sized businesses. And if you're worried about the economy like I'm worried about the economy, then it makes sense to put policy in place that encourages investment and growth with the job creators.

And that's what I want to spend a little time talking to you about. But before I do so, I do want to thank the World Wide Technology employees. The truth of the matter is, this company is doing well cause you've got imaginative leadership, but you've also got great employees who are well-motivated, taken care of, inspired. And it's been my honor to meet some of your employees, and I look forward to answering some of your questions here in a minute.

I do want to thank the Governor of the State of Missouri for joining us. Governor Blunt, I'm proud you're here. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule. The Governor and I discussed the recent storms that have hit parts of Missouri. I assured him that we will stay in touch with his office and the emergency teams to make sure that if there needs to be a Federal response, we will be ready to give one. And obviously, for those who've lost their property today, we send our heartfelt condolences, and just want you to know that when natural disaster strikes, if the disaster is--merits it, there will be a ample and robust government response. So thanks for coming, Governor.

I'm also proud to be here with the United States Senator, Kit Bond from Missouri. Needless to say, he used his time on Air Force One to make sure I understood the issues that were facing the State of Missouri. We spent a little time talking about the Missouri River. And Todd Akin is with us too. Congressman, I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming.

So we're getting economic news. There's a lot of data beginning to move. On Wednesday, the--they talked about the fact that the economy in the first quarter grew at 0.6 percent. That's the same as it grew in the fourth quarter of last year. That's not good enough for America. It's positive growth, but we can do better than that. Today there was another report out that showed that we lost 20,000 jobs last month, even though the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent. In other words, the unemployment rate went down. And again, that's a sign that this economy is not as robust as any of us would like it.

The good news is, is that we anticipated this. Last fall, we started to get indications that the economy was going to slow down. And so I--believe it or not, you can actually work with Congress sometimes on--with people on both sides of the aisle, which is what we did; these two Members were incredibly constructive--to pass a stimulus package, progrowth package.

There's two aspects to that package I want to spend some time talking about. One of them is, is that you're going to get some money. It turns out, it's your own money, but you're going to get it back. [Laughter] Six hundred dollars per person, $1,200 per couple, $300 per child; a family of four will be getting a $1,800 check. And the reason why--and by the way, it's going to affect 130 million families. And the reason why that is good policy, first of all, it's a temporary tax relief, recognizing that we're going to recover. And this is to help stimulate that recovery. Secondly, we wanted to make sure that people were encouraged to be consumers. We wanted there to be consumption in our society, and no better way to stimulate consumption than to let you have some of your own money back.

Thirdly, it turns out that this money is going to be very helpful in helping people deal with high energy prices and food price. I'm going to spend a little time on energy here in a minute.

And fourthly, it's big enough. In other words, we didn't want to make a political statement; we wanted to make a statement that will affect this economy. When you're affecting 130 million households, with over $150 billion of progrowth package, it's going to affect us positively. The experts say that beginning--toward the end of this quarter and the beginning of next quarter, we should see some positive signs as a result of the progrowth economic package.