Here's PART 1, roughly the first half of what FNC did show (as in ... it's snack time at cgk's house - so I'll finish in a bit :-D )...
Enjoy! (and please excuse the typos)
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PRESIDENT BUSH'S REMARKS AT 3M IN MINNESOTA
Feb 2, 2006
President Bush: (applause) Thanks for coming... appreciate the warm welcome. Gotta take my post-it note off my speech here.( ..laughter/applause - Pres sticks post-it note to front of podium facing audience... it falls off he looks over sees it on the ground, crowd says "AWW!")... MY FAULT, MY FAULT! (laughter/applause)... Shoulda cleaned off the podium (laughter), I see the governor out there he says 'you wanna have some lunch?' I say 'yeah sure what you serving?'. He says 'ludafisk'. I say 'no I think I'll eat on Air Force One' (laughter)... It's great to see you governor, thank you for being here, Laura and I are delighted to be here at 3M. Glad to be with the Governor and 1st Lady, the Lt. Governor. I was greeted by your Chairman and CEO - George W. (laughter/applause.) I'll just call you W. (more laughter/applause). Thanks for having me, I appreciate it, I wanna thank Jay Hennonfeld, the Sr VP for the tour we just went on. I want to thank all the employees here for giving me a chance to come by and visit.
I really want to send a message to the United States of America that in order for us to keep the standard of living we're accustomed to, that in order for us to be the leader in the world that we want to be - that we must remain a flexible, technologically-based economy. You know, it's amazing when you come to 3M to talk to George W about the number of products you make.... and products that most people take for granted but products many of which started in a laboratory as a result of a really smart, capable person making the technological advances necessary to get these products to market. Innovation is a vital part of the future of the United States of America and the fundamental question is How do we keep our society innovative? That's what I'm here to talk about. You know, it's - one way for our fellow citizens to understand the importance of innovation and technology is just think about what has taken place over 25 years.
For a 59 year old guy that doesn't seem like much these days (laughter). If you're 26 that seems like a lot. 25 years ago most Americans used the typewriter. Isn't that interesting? 25 years ago they had such things as pay phones. (laughter). Now we're using cell phones. Carbon paper was used - for those youngsters here, carbon paper is kind of a messy way (laughter) to duplicate things. Now we're using laser printers. They had bank tellers that were distributing most money in those days... 25 years ago you had to go to the bank and say to the teller 'Good day may I have some money?' now you can go to the ATM machine. Technology is changing the way we think. I don't know if you remember those awful trips when you had to drive with your family and play the license plate game? (laughter) Now we got the DVDs - right there in the car!
Technology happens quickly, if you remain an innovative society and it's those technological improvements that help create high-paying jobs and enhances the standard of living for the American people. You realize that economists say that as much as half our nation's economic growth in the past half century is directly due to technological progress fueled by research and development. The kind of research and development you do right here. Think about that. One half of the progress of our economy is due to research and development. But if that's the case, if that's the truth, we gotta make sure we continue to encourage research and development.
The technology has enabled us to be the preeminent economy in the world. I think it's good that we're the preeminent economy in the world. I think it's good for the American people that we're in a leadership position. And the reason why I think it's good 'cause when you lead your people benefit. By being a leader in the economy of the world it means somebody is more likely to find work. And somebody's able to likely to realize dreams and opportunity. I say we're the preeminent economy of the world because the facts bear me out. We're growing faster than other major industrialized nations. We've added 4.6 million new jobs in 2 1/2 years that's more than Japan and the European Union combined. And the fundamental question is 1) Do we want to remain the leader? and 2) How do we do it?
There are some, there is some uncertainty in America today, and I can understand why. There's uncertainty when it comes to our economy. People begin to see competitors emerge. India and China. I'm a fellow who likes competition. I think it's good to have competition, I think it makes us do things better. But some people in our country look at competition and say 'we can't possibly compete with China or India or other places and therefore why don't we just think about walling ourselves off?' That's called protectionism. It's a trend we need to worry about. See there's uncertainty when people see jobs go overseas. I can understand that. Somebody's working hard all their life and all of a sudden their job gets moved overseas because of competition. That creates uncertainty in the work place. One of the reactions to that uncertainty could be 'well I'm tired of competing, maybe what we need to do instead of competing is leave ourselves apart from the world.'
But the United States of America has been through this before, this isn't a new thought. If you look at our history, our economic history, you'll find that we've been through periods of protectionism before. If you look at our foreign policy history, you'll find that there've been periods of isolationism before. I think that to... the first thing I want to share with you is that it's important for us not to lose our confidence in changing times. It's important for us not to fear competition, but welcome it. There's a global economy; The internet has really changed a lot when you think about it. I happen to think it's good news that countries are becoming more wealthy. That through the global competition that people's lives are improving. I believe that because most Americans, all Americans believe in the dignity of every human being.
But I take a practical look at it, and so should you at 3M. You oughta say 'we welcome this developing world, this new economy because wealth (..buys...??..) our products. In other words, instead of saying 'we fear the competiton, the global economy frightens us', the United States of America oughta say 'we want more people to be able to buy our products'. And so what I'm telling you is - I think the role of government is to shape the future not fear the future. And I think the role of a President is to say the American people: 'Be bold, be confident, and if we do the right things we will remain a leader in the world.'
(break for part 1)