I, personally, have a working relationship with Vladimir Putin and that's very important. I've got a warm relationship with him. It's a relationship where I can sit down with him and ask him direct questions as to why he's made the decisions he's made. It's a relationship where he questions me about what the intentions of the United States may be. It's one that I value, and I think it's an important relationship not only for the United States to have, but it's an important relationship for countries in Europe for the United States to have a relationship with Vladimir Putin.

That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three — three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?

This is the Oval Office. It's a shrine to democracy. And we treat it that way. When people walk in here, they — they don't come in here in bathing suits and flip-flops. They come in here dressed like they'd come to a shrine. It is to be respected and honored because the Office of Bush is bigger than the person who occupies it. It's one of the great things about a true democracy — is that the institutions outlast the individuals, and therefore, there's stability in the process.

I've come to realize that the nature of the German people are such that war is very abhorrent, that Germany is a country now that is — no matter where they sit on the political spectrum, Germans are — just don't like war. And I can understand that.

The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany.

Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country.

And so the people in the Middle East must understand that this [the abuse of Iraqi prisoners] was horrible.

And so long as I'm the President, we will be determined, steadfast, and strong as we pursue those people who kill innocent lives because they hate freedom.

It's an unimaginable honor to be the President of such a fabulous country. I say "fabulous country" because there is no doubt in my mind we can achieve anything we put our mind to.

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.

You see, here's what America and Americans believe — that freedom is not America's gift to the world, that freedom is the Almighty's gift to each and every individual who lives in the world.

A free society is one in which will mean more likely a peaceful partner in a troubled neighborhood.

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