| The White House President George W. Bush |
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Excerpts from the Press Briefing by Claire Buchan, September 1, 2003 (Full Transcript)
QUESTION: Claire, we've lost 2.7 million jobs in the last three years. There's a lot of anxiety, a lot of pain. What words of encouragement is the President going to offer today to those people, to Americans feeling anxious?MS. BUCHAN: Well, a couple points on that, Scott. As you know, the President is always concerned when any American who wants to find a job can't find one, and who is looking for a job can't find a job, which is why he has worked so hard to create an environment where we create jobs, where our economy is growing stronger so that it is growing fast enough to create the number of jobs we need.
The economy began to slow in 2000, and the President took aggressive and bold action to put forward two major tax relief packages and growth packages, which has helped get the economy growing. And there are signs that the economy is improving. But the President still isn't satisfied, and he'll touch on all of those elements in his remarks today.
QUESTION: Is there anything specific that the President will offer to help speed things along?
MS. BUCHAN: Well, the President will talk about those initiatives that we have already enacted to help American workers, as well as items that remain on the table like liability reform, like energy legislation, the initiative to help people who are having a difficult time finding work -- he'll highlight that. And he'll also have at least one new item that he will mention in his remarks today.
QUESTION: What's that? Is it a good one?
MS. BUCHAN: It will be at least one new thing for you to report on.