Today, the unemployment rate dropped, as you may know, from 6 percent to 5.9 percent.

We have an obligation to do everything we can to keep this country secure, to never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, to find the enemy before they come again, to stay on the offensive, and to bring these killers to justice, which is what we're going to do. But it hurt our economy when they attacked us, of course. Not only did it change foreign policy, in other words, we can't sit there and pick and choose what threat we deal with. Now that we have become vulnerable, we're going to have deal with the threats before they mature and come upon us. But it hurt our economy. It hurt us pretty bad.

See, when a person has more money in their pocket, they're likely to come to Home Depot.

Brian Stowell is here. ...He says the tax cuts helped a lot. That's his words, not mine. ...He's going to buy a new router, made in North Carolina. There's a router worker who's going to be a — benefit from his decision caused by tax relief.

And then we marched to war, war in Afghanistan and Iraq, all of which affected the people's confidence. That's a tough — tough hurdles to cross, when it came to our economy.

When somebody has more money in their pocket, they're more likely to demand a good or a service. And in our society, when you demand a good or a service, somebody is going to produce the good or a service.

You see, when Al and his company decides to buy a machine, somebody has got to make the machine. And that means somebody in the machine-making company is more likely to find a job, as well.

If you're working all your life to build up your small business, and you want to leave it whoever you want to leave it to, they shouldn't — that asset shouldn't be taxed twice, shouldn't tax your income when you're making money, and shouldn't tax it when you pass it on to your son, daughter, whoever you want to pass it on to, it doesn't make — we're working with the Congress to get rid of it.

A free and peaceful Iraq will save this country money in the long term. It's important to get it done now.

Higher productivity means that workers earn more.

Worker productivity accelerated last year at the fastest rate in more than a half century. This higher productivity means our workers receive higher wages.

As the economy kind of got going again, the enemy attacked us. September the 11th had a significant impact on our economy. And then we discovered some of our corporate CEOs forgot to tell the truth, and that affected confidence. And then as you may remember, Tom, we had the steady drumbeat to war. As I mentioned in my press conference the other day, on our TV screens there was a — on some TV screens — there was a constant reminder for the American people, "march to war." War is not a very pleasant subject in people's minds, it's not conducive for the investment of capital.

We got attacked in 9/11. And then corporate scandals started to bubble up to the surface, which created a — a lack of confidence in the system. And then we had the drumbeat to war. Remember on our TV screens — I'm not suggesting which network did this — but it said, "March to War," every day from last summer until the spring — "March to War, March to War." That's not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear, "March to War" all the time.

Paul Carrozza, who is an entrepreneur, a business entrepreneur, started with nothing except a good pair of legs, and started what they call RunTex.

We said loud and clear [to corporate scoundrels], if you cheat the shareholder and your employees, you will be held responsible for those decisions. The world is now more peaceful because we acted.

The crux of the plan I laid out said that if a person has more money in their pocket, they're likely to demand an additional good or a service. In our type of economy, when you demand a good or a service, somebody is going to produce the good or a service. And when somebody produces that good or a service, it's more likely a fellow citizen will find work.

I look forward to signing the economic recovery bill soon. The principle of the bill is pretty simple, that we believe the more money people have in their pockets, the more likely it is somebody is going to be able to find work in America. In other words, the more money somebody has, it means somebody is more likely to demand a good or a service, which means somebody will produce a good or a service, which means somebody is likely to find work.

And so today I was down there in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was talking to some entrepreneurs and talking to a guy who owned his own garage. I can't remember how long — I think he's owned his business for 20 years. He started off with two people. He's now up to maybe a couple of — you know, 20 people. Anyway, he's growing.

We got into deficit because the economy went into the recession — is how we got into deficit.

But one of the problems of being a productive economy is that a worker can — one worker puts out — there's better output per worker, let me put it to you that way.

[Jim Davis, an Arkansas small business owner] was reminding me that by getting rid of the double-taxation of dividends, he would save $5,700 — money, which, by the way, that he would seriously consider putting back into his insurance company. He'd like to hire two additional employees. The double-taxation — getting rid of the double-taxation of dividends would make it more likely two people would find work in Jim's business.

We got a recession because we went to war.

For the sake of job growth, let's put those tax cuts we've already got in place, in place today so people can find work.

And we had an emergency and a recession, which affected the revenue growth of the U.S. Treasury. I mean, the stock market went down. Some of the pie-in-the-sky projections didn't make, and the investors said, oops. The numbers weren't real. The investors said, well, it looks like the days of everything is going up may end. And so people started selling, and the markets went down. That affected the revenues coming into the U.S. Treasury. Recession — negative growth means less revenues. And so, of course, we've got a deficit.

But this nation has got a deficit because we have been through a war.

Last year, this company paid out more than $30 million in dividends — and a lot of that went to Timken employees. So when you hear politicians say the tax cut is only for the rich, they're talking about you.

The most interesting statistics about the entrepreneurial spirit is the number of Hispanic small businesses that are flourishing in our country.

Well, I agree with [Senator] Zell [Miller], with this economic theory — that when a person has more money in their pocket, they're likely to demand somebody to produce them a good or a service. In other words, you get money in your pocket — you say, well, I think I'd like this product, or I'd like this service. [Five minutes pass...] You'll hear in a minute what people do with extra money in their pockets. You know what they do? They invest, or they hire.

I know there's some concern about overstating of numbers, you know, invest in my company because the sky's the limit. We may not be cash flowing much, but the sky's the limit. Well, when you pay dividends, that sky's the limit business doesn't hunt. What only matters is whether or not they can distribute that cash they say they're going to distribute. It leads to conservative business practices. It leads to being people — more businesses being responsible with your money.

Twenty-three million businesses will receive over $2,000 in income tax relief. Now, that means a lot when you start thinking about the implications. I mean, you've got a one-man shop. $2,000 may mean the capacity to buy a machine, leverage the money to buy a machine, which means another job.

If we get rid of the double taxation of dividends, it means that one of the good investment vehicles for a child who is young today will be a dividend paying stock.

The more money they have in their more pockets — in their pockets, the more likely it is that somebody will find work.

Ten million seniors receive dividends. It's a part of their retirement package. It's a part of making sure the quality of life is high. A dividend is a part of a dollar that has gone through our system that has been taxed twice.

When a fellow American has more money in his or her pocket, they're more likely to demand a good or a service. And in the marketplace which we have in America, when somebody demands a good or a service, somebody is more likely willing to produce that good or a service.

But there is a difference of opinion about who best to spend your money in Washington, D.C. Sometimes they forget whose money you're spending. Listen to the rhetoric.

So I met a guy today named Joe.... He said, by allowing businesses to expense up to $75,000, it means somebody is more likely to buy a copying machine, or in this case, an architectural fancy machine.