President Bush Outlines An Agenda For Economic Growth [Spoke at Economic Club today]

The White House ^ | October 26, 2005 | Office of the Press Secretary

[syriacus]

Today, President Bush Addressed The Economic Club Of Washington D.C. And Discussed His Agenda For A Strong And Vibrant Economy. To ensure continued opportunity for America's workers and entrepreneurs, President Bush outlined a pro-growth agenda based on sound economic policy that promotes prosperity, productivity, and innovation in a global economy. He will keep government on the side of economic growth and job creation so America's businesses and workers can compete and prosper.

In The Face Of Challenges, The President Has Acted To Maintain Economic Growth. Over the past five years, the economy has endured the bursting of the stock market bubble, a recession, the attacks of September 11, corporate scandals, rising oil prices, and natural disasters. Each time, the President has acted to keep our economy moving by putting trust in the hard work and good sense of the American people. The President has cut taxes for everybody who pays income taxes, including families, small business owners, farmers, and entrepreneurs.

[syriacus]

I caught part of his speech at C-Span a short time ago.

The President seemed calm, clear-headed, and confident.

[syriacus]

Highlights of the speech, from what I remember, from the point when I tuned in, borrowing some of the text from Whitehouse.gov

  Nation's Education System Must Prepare A New Generation Of American Workers To Fill The Jobs Of The 21st Century.

The United States Must Have A Health Care System That Puts Patients In Charge Of Decisions, Offers Greater Choice, And Allows Workers To Own Their Own Health Care.

Reform And Strengthen The Nation s Health Care Safety Net. The government has opened or expanded more than 800 community health centers to improve care for those most in need. The President has renewed the promise of Medicare by signing into law a bill providing our seniors with preventive medicine, better health care choices, and, starting this coming January, a prescription drug benefit option for every Medicare recipient.

promoting the expanded use of information technology by computerizing medical records.

Government Needs To Address The Junk Lawsuits That Impose A Burden On Our Economy....

save Social Security for our children and grandchildren.

To Keep The Economy Growing And Creating Jobs, The Government Needs To Continue Opening Foreign Markets To American Products.

Trade Promotion Authority, The President Is Opening Foreign Markets To American Goods, Services And Farm Products.

break down trade barriers so that American products are welcomed and sold on every continent.

He said some problems, like Social Security, need to be dealt with now and he will not pass the problem to some future president.

He made a joke about his being 62 when he retires in 2008 (good timing for retirement)

[MineralMan]

Did he, by chance, mention cutting federal spending at all?

[cinives]

Or how about tax reform ?

We'd watch the economy expode with growth if we could get out from under the IRS and confiscatory tax rates.

[syriacus]

As I said above, I only summarized what I heard. The President must have spoken about spending cuts before I tuned in.

According to the WH press release he did discuss spending...

The Administration Will Continue To Keep Taxes Low And Work To Restrain Federal Spending.... To continue reducing the deficit, the President has submitted a disciplined budget that proposed an actual cut in spending on non-security discretionary programs and will keep the government on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009. As we help the people of the Gulf Coast rebuild, the President will work with Congress to further reduce unnecessary spending and cut programs that are not working so as to provide for emergency relief in a fiscally responsible way.