Watson Coleman: “Thank you, Mr. President. I love that chart. Let's go back to Jimmy Carter: 18 percent inflation, 23 percent interest…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. I love that chart. Let's go back to Jimmy Carter: 18 percent inflation, 23 percent interest rates, long lines at the gas pump. You talk about turning a sow's ear into a silk purse, that chart does it. But let's talk about reality and let's get away from the abstract. I agree with my colleague from North Dakota: Let's get away from what the economists say. I want to quote Joan Thompson, executive vice president and CFO of Midwest Wire and Cable in St. Paul, Minnesota, a small business. She says: Our company will be stronger, continue to grow and provide more jobs with these type of incentives [we have seen in the tax cut]. She singled out the increase in small business expensing for new investment and increase in first year bonus depreciation as two keys in her company's resurgence. Cirrus Manufacturing, one of the largest private employers in Duluth, MN, an area up north that suffered a lot of job loss right after the tax cut was passed--they sell private airplanes--talked about how they got sales that all of a sudden happened, that had been on hold for ages, because of the increase in depreciation. I am not going to talk about charts. I am going to talk about reality. I have to hit one other thing about reality; and that is, the reality is we were hit with September 11. We were hit with Enron and Worldcom. We were hit with the burst of the dot.coms. And we have come back. And why? That is the choice here today.…”