REPORTER: Sir, would you consider bringing — or asking Congress to come back early and finish the economic stimulus?
DUBYA: No.
REPORTER: Are you angry at anyone in Congress?
DUBYA: No, I'm not angry at all. I'm joyous. I welcome the holiday season. No, but I don't intend to bring them back early.
REPORTER: What is the impact of not passing a stimulus before the end of the year?
DUBYA: Well, the impact was it was disappointing.
REPORTER: What about for the American people?
DUBYA: Well, we'll just have to see. We'll have to see what the effects are. And we'll have time when they come back to take a look-see at the state of the economy. We're continuing to get mixed signals. Hopefully, the economy will be good, but we'll just have to — we'll deal with it when we get back.

More money in people's pockets mean more economic activity.

Listen to your mother.

I hurt, that coming into the holiday season, that you're not working. But I admire your courage for going out to try to improve yourselves so you can find jobs around here.

I believe — I think you ought to ask the — I wish you could have heard the discussion we had. Let me put it to you that way, where I believe people around this table, for example, believe it's important to be aggressive on the front end, that the risk-reward ratio is beneficial to be more aggressive on the front end. And obviously, we agree with that.

If you try to look at one isolated incident, it's easy to belittle $600 in a person's pocket. But $600 of additional disposable income all across America that amounts to billions of dollars will provide a part of the equation for economic recovery. Of course, if somebody buys a pencil, somebody's had to make it. But it is not just school supplies. That maybe kind of diminishes the effect of billions of dollars getting into the economy in a very quick period of time.

Why? Because it's something people ought to do. And I believe in supporting charities. As you know, every year when I put out my income tax returns, you see the fact that I do give to charities, give to my church. I haven't made up my mind yet.

Now, younger workers — our younger citizens — fully understand — I think the polls — it's more likely to see some of you go to Mars than to receive a check from the Social Security system.

It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce.

The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race.

America is, the harder you work, the easier the middle class ought to become, and the more money you get to keep.

I mean, these good folks are revolutionizing how businesses conduct their business. And, like them, I am very optimistic about our position in the world and about its influence on the United States. We're concerned about the short-term economic news, but long-term I'm optimistic. And so, I hope investors, you know — secondly, I hope investors hold investments for periods of time — that I've always found the best investments are those that you salt away based on economics.

Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession. We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work.

They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.

It's your money. You paid for it.

It's one thing about insurance, that's a Washington term.

A tax cut is really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an economic illness.

There's not going to be enough people in the system to take advantage of people like me.

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.

I would hope — I mean, I'm not going "hooray." I wish it wasn't as jittery. I wish it was stable because I'm not — I'm not so crass as to want to be the president at the expense of somebody's portfolio, but that does trouble me a little bit because I think — and I think — I think there's some uncertainty out there that's beginning to kind of creep into the conscious of investors.

I understand small business growth. I was one.

Some say give it [the Federal Budget Surplus] to the taxpayers who pay the bills. That some is George W. Bush.