Remarks in a discussion on the National Economy in Merrimack, New Hampshire - Week Ending Friday, January 30, 2004

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 2, 2004

January 29, 2004

The President. Thank you, Dale. Appreciate it. Thank you all. Be seated, please. It's nice to be back. I understand there's been some activity in the State of New Hampshire recently. [Laughter] I appreciate your hospitality. It's great to be back at Fidelity. It's good to see Mr. Johnson, Ned Johnson, who is the founder of this fantastic company. And Abby, the president--Abby Johnson. There is nothing wrong with a child following in the Father's footsteps. [Laughter]

It is really good to be back here again. I really appreciate you coming. We're going to have an interesting discussion today about the economy. And before we get to there, I do want to say something about some of the elected officials that have joined us, starting with your two United States Senators. My buddy Judd Gregg does a fabulous job for the people of New Hampshire, and I'm really proud he's here. Thank you, Judd. And so is Sununu--John Sununu is doing a fine job as well.

I am proud that Jeb Bradley, the Congressman from this district, traveled with me today. I appreciate Jeb's leadership and his friendship in the Congress. Thank you, Jeb. And of course, there's Charlie Bass, who is the other Congressman from this great State--good friend, fine Congressman. I appreciate you coming, Charlie.

I know we got State officials here. The attorney general is here; the leader of the senate is here; the speaker of the house is here. I appreciate Bernie Streeter, the mayor of Nashua, being here. It's good to see you again, Bernie. I want to thank a lot of my buddies who are on the Executive Council for the great State of New Hampshire. It's good to see Ruthie Griffin and Ray and Dave Wheeler. I appreciate you all coming. I'm honored that you're here.

Most of all, I want to thank you all for giving us a chance to talk about the economy. Before we do so, though, I do want to point out a citizen named Dan Hebert who is with us. Dan is a USA Freedom Cows volunteer. Two years ago, I started what's called the USA Freedom Corps. It was started to give people a chance to serve their communities. There's a lot of volunteering going on in this State, and you just witnessed an accolade for one.

But so we in Washington started this website for people to be able to tap into kind of modern technology to find out what was available in your area, if you wanted to follow your heart and serve your community. And Dan is one such person. He is a--he's using his 25 years in business to help youngsters understand the basics of the economy. In other words, he's mentoring a child.

We talk about the great strengths of our country--oftentimes, people think about the military might of America. And by the way, it is a great strength, and we're going to keep it that way. They talk about the wealth of the country. But the truth of the matter is, the strength of our country is the heart and soul of our citizens, people who are willing to volunteer time to serve in a cause greater than themselves, which is to help somebody who hurts or to lend a talent to help somebody achieve the American Dream.

And I appreciate all of you who are volunteering. I love it when I hear a company like Fidelity is at 3,500 man-hours of volunteer time. It speaks to the--it speaks to the charitable nature of the executives of this company, and it speaks to the great hearts of the employees.

Dan, I want to thank you for coming as well. I appreciate you coming out to the airport. I appreciate you setting an example. And if the people of New Hampshire are interested in serving your State, love your neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. Volunteer of your time to help somebody who hurts, and New Hampshire will be a better place when you do so.

We're here to talk about this economy. I want to remind you what our economy has been through. See, I'm really optimistic about the future. I think after you hear this discussion, I think you'll be optimistic--at least, if you pay attention to what you hear. [Laughter] But I'm optimistic because I know what we've been through, and I want you to think about what we've been through.

First, we had a recession in America. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. It was kind of a leading indicator of what was to come. And then the country went into a recession. The first three quarters of '01 were negative growth. When you have negative growth, it means people are not working. And times were tough. The people of New Hampshire know what I'm talking about. When that recession came, it was awfully hard for some people to be able to do their duty as a mom and a dad to put food on the table, because their work wasn't steady. And they were worried about employment, if they were working at all.

And then things started to get pretty good; we started coming out of it. And then the enemy hit us. And make no mistake about it, that affected America. It affected our economy in a big way. It also affected our psychology. There was a day when we thought oceans could protect us from an enemy, that we were okay if there was a threat overseas because oceans served as protection for America. September the 11th changed that forever. It changed that point of view, and the war affected us.