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April 15, 2004

Thank you for having me. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. [Laughter] I really am glad to be able to come and talk to you about how to make sure people have a chance to make a living. That's what we're really here to talk about: How can people put food on the table; how can communities be vibrant and grow.

Chuck Grassley said I appreciate rural America. I do, so much so that I call Crawford, Texas my home. That's rural America. I think we've got about 661 people--until I arrive. [Laughter]

I appreciate the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines for hosting this. I know we've got people from States other than Iowa, like Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota. Glad you all are here. Thanks for coming by and giving me a chance to visit.

My attitude about rural America is--from the President's perspective--is that if we can make the economy strong, rural America will benefit. It's hard to talk about the health of rural America unless the overall economy is growing. I mean, it's nice to have kind of visions about how to bring development to your community, but if the economy is stagnant, it's hard to get there.

So what I want to do today is talk about the economy of the United States and how we can leave lasting prosperity, to make sure that you understand what I think the role of the Federal Government is, which is to create an environment in which the farmer and rancher can make a living, in which the small-business person can realize their dreams. Because the truth of the matter is, when you really think about rural America, rural America's vitality depends upon the health of the agricultural sector. The economy of our rural America depends upon the vitality of small businesses.

Sure, you get some big businesses to move into your communities, and that's good, and I'd work hard to try to recruit them if I were you. But true economic vitality, the vitality that will last beyond just an economic spurt is one that recognizes the importance of the entrepreneur and the farmer and the rancher.

I want to thank my friend Chuck Grassley for introducing me. I've spent some quality time with Senator Grassley here in Iowa. You might remember the 2000 caucuses. He showed me a lot of the State--by car. [Laughter] I'll never forget driving the backroads of Iowa, and Chairman Grassley--I call him "Mr. Chairman"--he's a powerful guy, so I put a fancy title to his name--the Chairman says, "I know that farmer there." And then he'd go by and say, "I remember meeting that farmer there." He knew every farmer on the back roads of Iowa. No wonder he's such a popular person in this great State. He's doing a great job, by the way. I appreciate working for him. He is--he brought some of those good Iowa values to the Congress. And Mr. Chairman, it's great to be with you, and I want to thank you for your continued leadership.

I also had the honor of meeting Randy Newman, and I want to thank Randy for being the chairman of the FHLB board of directors. I want to thank the members of the board who are here as well and associate members from around the Midwest.

I had the honor of landing at the airport and also being greeted today by the other Senator from the State of Iowa. Senator Tom Harkin is with us. Mr. Senator, thank you for your hospitality and your graciousness for coming out to the airport. I'm pleased you're here.

I thank Congressman Tom Latham as well as Congressman Leonard Boswell. Boswell made sure I knew that I was in his district. [Laughter] I want to thank both Members of the Congress for serving your State.

I want to thank--I'm a member of the ex-Governors club. Those are those of us who are fortunate to be Governors of a State. I'm a member, proud alumnus. I see another member of the ex-Governors club with us today. That would be former Governor Bob Ray of the State of Iowa. Good to see you, Bob. Thank you for coming.

Also when I landed, I met an interesting person named Sarah Sindlinger. Sarah is right there. You don't know Sarah yet, but you're about to find out about this remarkable American. She is a 16-year-older. She has volunteered over 150 hours of time. See, she's a high school junior, and she said, "What can I do to make my community a better place?" And instead of just asking the question, she's actually acted on the question. She has volunteered in a daycare center. She has volunteered in a library. She understands the value of mentoring. She has worked in a hospital. She's been a best buddy to a fellow student in the special education program.

You know, the reason I bring up Sarah is this: There's a lot of talk about the strength of America, and we're strong. We're plenty strong. We're strong militarily. I will keep us strong militarily. We're strong economically, and we need to get stronger economically. But the true strength of the country is in the hearts and souls of our citizens. See, that's the really good strength of America. You know that if you live in rural America. You know what I'm talking about, the notion of people taking time out of their lives to make their community a better place.

Sarah is here because she is a soldier in the army of compassion. She's a part of the true strength of the country. She's a soul who's willing to dedicate her time to love a neighbor just like she'd like to be loved herself. My call to you as you do your work in your community is to continue to rally that compassion to help change America, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.

Sarah, I'm honored you're here. Thank you for setting such a fine example, and may God continue to bless your soul and your spirit.

It is nice of you all to welcome somebody from the Federal Government on tax day. [Laughter] There's a lot of people filling out their tax--putting in their taxes today. Laura and I put in ours a little early. See, the newspapers wanted to see what I paid. That's just part of the job. [Laughter] People expect that from their public servants, and I'm more than happy to participate in that aspect of public life. People also expect from their public service a wise stewardship of the taxpayers' money. People also expect that we keep the Federal tax burden as low as possible, which was one of my pledges to the American people. I take that responsibility seriously. And I want to thank Senator Grassley for his help in reducing the tax burden on the American people.

Tax day is something most people really don't look forward to. But this year, it's a little better because of the tax relief we delivered, and the economy is stronger for it.

I mentioned small businesses as a part of the strategy to make sure rural America is strong. A major component of the tax relief was aimed at our small businesses. See, most small businesses are Subchapter S corporations or limited partnerships and, therefore, pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. And therefore, when you heard the fact that we lowered individual income taxes, I want you to think about more money in the pockets of small businesses so they can expand and hire new people.

A lot of the tax relief that we passed was aimed at our seniors. By reducing the taxes on dividends, we've helped our seniors. You've got seniors living in rural America. It's good that they have a little more money in their pocket.

A lot of the tax relief we passed was aimed at people with children. We've raised the child credit to $1,000. Some of the tax relief we passed was trying to mitigate the effects of the marriage penalty. It didn't seem like--make much sense to me that we would tax marriage in a country where we are trying to encourage marriages and stable families.

The tax relief we passed is driving--helping to drive the economy forward, and it came at about the right time--just the right time, for that matter--because we're emerging from a period of incredible economic challenges. Rural America has been challenged economically, just like the rest of America has been challenged economically. We went through a recession. The recession hurt. It hurt in all sectors of our country. Recession means that we had negative growth for three quarters. Negative growth meant it was hard for people to find work. Negative growth meant it wax hard to be optimistic about the future. And yet, we overcame that recession. I will argue that the tax relief made the recession one of the most shallow in American economic history.

Right after we started recovering from that, we got attacked. The attacks hurt us all. The attacks on America hurt every single American. The attacks on America hurt our economy. We lost nearly one million jobs in just 3 months after September the 11th, 2001. Some of those jobs were in rural America.