Remarks in Sioux City, Iowa

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, August 23, 2004

When it came time for providing tax relief, when it came time--which really means just letting you keep more of your own money. Sometimes you hear them in Washington say, "Well, we're going to give them some Government money." [Laughter] That's not Government money. No, that's the people's money. That's whose money it is. We said, "If you pay tax, you ought to get relief." It seems like to be the fair way to do things, instead of trying to pick winners and losers. If you're a mom or a dad, you got relief. We increased the child credit. We provided rebel from the marriage penalty. I never quite understood a Tax Code that penalizes marriage. It seems like policy ought to encourage marriage in America. We helped our small businesses, and this time, the check actually was in the mail. [Laughter]

Because we acted, our economy, since last summer, has grown at a rate as fast as any in nearly 20 years. This economy is strong, It's getting stronger. We've added about 1.5 million new jobs. The national unemployment rate is 5.5 percent, and right here in the State of Iowa, your unemployment rate is 4.3 percent.

And there's more work to be done. I'm running because I understand that we've got to continue with a pro-growth, pro-entrepreneur, pro-agricultural policy in order to make sure this economy stays strong and people can find work. You know, when I campaigned before, I said, "Give me a chance, and I'll stay focused on the agricultural economy of America." See, I understand, good agricultural policy is good economic policy for this country.

We passed a good farm bill, and it's working. Farm income is up. Property values are up. Our farmers and ranchers are making a good living, and that's good for the American economy. And we also did something else to help our farm economy, put the death tax on its way to extinction. The problem is, unless you have a President and Congress who understands how devastating the death tax is to our agricultural economy and our small-business economy, it's going to come back to life in 2011, It's going to make it kind of strange in 2010. I believe we ought to get rid of the death tax forever.

In order to make sure jobs stay here in America and people can find work, we need an energy policy which makes us less dependent on foreign sources of energy. That's why I am a strong supporter of alternative sources of energy like ethanol and biodiesel. Someday my hope is that somebody walks in the Oval Office and plops a report right in front of the President and says, ' The corn crop is up, and we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy."

In order to make sure we've got jobs here, we must have wise trade policy, See, I believe in free trade, and I believe in fair trade. I believe the job of this administration is to reject economic isolationism and open up markets. One reason the farm economy is high is because not only are our farmers feeding Americans; they're feeding people all around the world.

In order to make sure we've got jobs here, we need less regulations and less lawsuits against our employers. In order to make sure we've got jobs here, we must not overspend your money, and we must keep your taxes low. And that's an issue in this campaign.