We needed tax relief yesterday. Putting more money in the hands of consumers and small businesses is the right medicine for an ailing economy. It's also how the United States led the way in economic performance throughout the last century. The wealth that a nation enjoys is created, not by government programs, but by hardworking individuals encouraged to invest in a free society. As recent history has demonstrated, countries that have low taxes, limited regulation, and open trade grow faster, create more jobs, and enjoy higher standards of living than countries with big, centralized governments and high taxes.
People succeed when they are given a stake in the outcome.
I'm delighted to see our new president embrace tax relief in his first month of office. For eight years, we worked under storm clouds of resistance from the Oval Office, always ready to veto even the least of our tax proposals. This year, it's as though the clouds have been lifted. Thanks largely to the fiscally responsible work of Congress over the last six years, we now have a surplus large enough to pay down the government debt and return some of the money at the same time. As a result, Mr. Bush enters the White House with budget surpluses almost twice the size of those anticipated during his campaign.