What I'm outraged about is that shareholders and employees didn't know all the facts about Enron. My own mother-in-law bought stock last summer, and it's not worth anything now. If she had known all the facts, I don't know what her decision would have been made, but she didn't know all the facts. And a lot of shareholders didn't know all the facts. And that's wrong.

And so our Government must do some

thing about it, must make sure that the accounting practices that have been going on for quite a while are addressed, make sure there's full disclosure and the cor

porate government's issues are wide open for everybody to understand.

If Congress is going to do its business, and should-the Congress also needs to stay focused on the American people. We're running a war. We've got to make sure our homeland is secure. And we've got to make sure people can find work. And we'll take care of our business.

Q. [Inaudible]-call the information about meetings between the Vice President. and Enron and energy policy, just to get

it out

The President. If somebody has got an accusation about some wrongdoing, just let me know. It's like when I talked with Don Evans and O'Neill, they told me they had spoke to Enron. I said, “Tell the people what you did." And if there's any accusations, if you've got anything on your mind-the energy report should speak for itself. We laid out the energy report; it's fully disclosed. People now know that we need an energy plan based upon conservation and increasing supplies and better transmission of energy. And there's no better place to talk about energy than right here in West Virginia, which is an energydependent State.

Q. The West Virginia coal miners, sir, what do you say to

The President. My answer is that with a comprehensive energy plan, they're going to be able to find work. And we need an energy plan. And there are ways to have coal exploration and coal development with a sensitivity toward our environment. West Virginia's Economic Development

Q. What about the West Virginian who's not into coal, the other part of the State that needs help so badly?

The President. Well, education is going to be the first step. People getting a good education are going to be able to find good work. And West Virginia has got an inter

esting, burgeoning tourist industry. They've got a good natural gas industry, and they've got a lot going for them. But a lot of it is going to be the ability to educate the people so they can find work. And that's why this education bill is a good piece of legislation.

Thank you all, pleasure.

NOTE: The exchange began at 12:40 p.m. during a tour of the Walker Machinery Co. Powertrain and Engine Rebuild Facility. In his remarks, the President referred to his mother-in-law, Jenna Welch.

Thank you very much. Well, thank you for that warm welcome. Steve, I appreciate the fact that everybody who works here has got a uniform on with my middle name. [Laughter] I don't know if he'll claim me as a relative, being a Walker. [Laughter] But hearing how you like to sing at parties in West Virginia, I'm not so sure I want to claim you. [Laughter]

But I'm honored you all would have me. I appreciate small-business owners, entrepreneurs, people who work hard, people who build a team. I want to thank the workers here for such a warm greeting. I also appreciate you for your high-quality work. You know, American workers are the best in the world, and Walker employees are some of the best workers in the world,

too.

I can't think of a better place to talk about economic security than at a place that works hard to create jobs and helps people keep a job and makes sure that people who work here are treated well, treated with respect.

At its core, an economic security plan for every American has got to be the goal

of our Government, and it begins with a good education and ends with secure retirement. And in between, much of one's life. depends on being able to find work, good, steady work. And that's how I approach decisions about our economy. I ask, are we creating an environment in which people can find work? My economic plan is summed up in one word: jobs. And that's what all of us in Washington ought to be asking: How do we create jobs for people who want to work in America?

I want to thank members of the West Virginia delegation who are with me. Shelley traveled with me from Washington. We flew down together; we had a good visit. Every time I talk to her, she constantly talks about West Virginia. Every time I talk to her, she doesn't necessarily do everything I tell her to. She's got kind of a West Virginia independent streak to her. [Laughter] But I'm proud to call her friend, and I'm also proud to call Jay Rockefeller friend. He and I are different love America. political parties, but that's okay. We both

The other day I had the honor of signing a piece of legislation at the White House, called the Safe and Stable Families Act. It's a really good piece of legislation. It's legislation that promotes adoption, legislation that helps foster care children. It's a legislation sponsored by Republicans and Democrats. Senator Rockefeller was one of the sponsors, and I sung his praises there, and I'm happy to come on his home turf and sing his praises here for this piece of legislation. So thank you, Senator Rockefeller, for doing it.

Every job begins with one decision, and that is the decision by somebody to say, "I want to hire you." It comes as a surprise to some in Washington, though, when you think about that, that most of the hiring does not take place at the Government level. Of course, we create jobs by hiring people at the Government level. Most hiring takes place at small businesses. Most hiring takes place when an employer in the private sector says, "I need you to work for me." And so the job of the Government, if you think about it, is not to try to create wealth. That's not the job of the Government. The job of a Government is to create an environment in which more people are willing to hire more workers. If jobs are the most important part of one of my jobs, then I'm going to insist that people ask the question, how do we encourage people to hire more people? That's what we ought to be asking. And that's the role of Washington, DC.

It starts with making sure everybody is well educated. You know, every new product, every new service starts with a good idea. And then that needs to be carried out by talented, skilled, educated people. With a better educated workforce, our businesses, small and large, all across America are going to be able to innovate and make improvements. A better educated workforce will mean America is more productive, and higher productivity means more jobs and higher paychecks.

So we've got to get it right when it comes to education. And I'm proud to report this is one issue where a handful of us in Washington decided to put aside our political parties and focus on what was right for America. I had the honor of signing a very good piece of education legislation sponsored by, of all people in the Senate, Ted Kennedy. Now look, I traveled the country saying the guy is not a bad guy. [Laughter] I think I put him in shock. [Laughter] I know I put the people in Crawford, Texas' coffee shop in shock. [Laughter] But on this issue we worked well together, Republicans and Democrats. We showed the country that party is all right-I'm a proud Republican—it's not nearly as important as the education of our children.

One of the roles of Government is not

only to create an environment that is good for jobs but to remove obstacles, if they exist, for people having jobs. One of the obstacles that exists in our society is a public school system that simply shuffles children through the schools. It's so much easier to quit on a child, one that's supposedly hard to educate. And in some schools, in some school districts, and in some States, we've had the practice of just moving children through.

And that's not right in America. It is not right to quit on kids. And so now, as a result of this piece of legislation that both the Members here voted for, we askedwe say, "Look, if you get Federal money”and we're going to spend money, by the way, on certain areas in education, out of the Federal Government-"but if you get it, you've got to show us whether or not the children can read and write and add and subtract."

I'm asking the simple question, are we getting results with your money? And if not, do something different. If we're spending money, we expect children to learn to read. And if they can't, you'd better change, or otherwise, we're going to give parents different options, so that there is no child

trapped in a school that will not teach and will not change.

I want to assure you, I remembered where I came from. I trust the people of West Virginia to run the schools of West Virginia, so we passed power out of Washington to the States. But we expect high standards and high accountability and results. If what we're worried about is jobs, we've got to remove the obstacle for people finding good work by educating every child who lives in America.

But education doesn't just stop at the elementary school level or high school or college. This Nation has got to understand, as technology changes, we've got to make sure the workforce changes with it. And that's why I strongly support local job training programs.

We're increasing-significantly increasing the amount of job training in our-in the budget I submit to Congress. It recognizes there are a lot of good, hard-working people in America who received an education, that were skilled in one area, but the job base has shifted, and therefore, we better educate people to make sure that they can shift with the technologies. And as well, my 2003 budget increases funding for Job Corps, which is an effective program that will help disadvantaged young people learn how to work.

So one thing we can do to make sure that people find a job is to make sure our education system works well throughout its entirety. Another thing to make sure there's an opportunity to create more jobs is to have good tax policy that allows people to keep more money, more of their own money, that you can put more of your own money in your own pocket, and you can spend it.

When workers have more money-and by the way, it's your money to begin with. It's not the Government's money. Somebody said the other day, "Well, the Government is giving back the money." Well, it's not the Government's money; it's the people who work for a living's money. If you

have more of your own money, it means you're going to spend more. And if you spend more, somebody is going to have to make more of what you're spending it on, which means more likely somebody is going to find work. That's how the economy works.

The same with Walker. I want the Walkers to have more money to reinvest in their business. I want the Walkers to be able to have more cashflow so they can upgrade the equipment which the workers here use. It means it's more likely that somebody is going the find a job for the long term.

Now, there is kind of a wacky economic

theory going around Washington. It says,

"The more they take in your taxes, the better off you'll be." [Laughter] It doesn't make any economic sense. It doesn't make any dollars and cents. And here in West Virginia, like they do elsewhere, they've got to know this is nonsense.

This economy started slowing down last March. And so the tax cut we put in place for everybody who pays taxes came right at the right time. If you want to encourage an economy to recover, you let people keep more of their own money. If you want to slow down an economy, you stop tax cuts. You, in essence, take money away from people, and that's not right, folks. I'm worried about job security. The more money people have, the more likely it is you're going to be able to find work.

Now, I'm also worried about people who lost work because of the evil ones who attacked us. And I look forward to working with members of both political parties to extend unemployment benefits to those who lost their job and to help them with health care. Surely, we can come together to do that.

But any good economic stimulus plan must ask the question, how do we create more jobs? And one way to do that is to accelerate tax relief for workers, and the other way to do that is to make sure the Tax Code doesn't punish companies like

Walker. We ought to allow them to accelerate the depreciation schedule so it is more likely they will buy more equipment. And we've got to reform a Tax Code that makes them pay more taxes even though their profits are going down.

And it is time for a vote. It's time for people to set aside who's going to benefit on the nightly news, you know, whose picture is going to look the best. Let's get a vote up. Let's pass this bill. Let's quit talking about it, and let's get the bill going. Congress is coming back tomorrow, and I'm confident, if they listen to the people out there, they'll know it's time to get a piece of legislation moving that will help create jobs and help workers who got affected as a result of 9/11.

The next opportunity is to make sure that this Nation has an energy policy. This Nation needs an energy policy. Jobs depend on affordable energy. If there's a price spike or a disruption in supply, people may not have work. And it's also in our Nation's national security interests that we become less dependent on foreign sources of en

ergy.

And we're dependent. We're dependent on energy from some parts of the world where sometimes they like us and some times they don't. And we need to do something about it. We need an energy bill. We passed one out of the House of Representatives, and it's now time for the United States Senate to pass a good bill. It's one that says, "Of course we'll conserve more." All of us want to have new technologies that will make conservation a part of our life. And we can do a better job in America. One of these days, we're going to be driving automobiles that are fueled differently. And that's going to be exciting times for America. In other words, there's new technologies coming down, and we can encourage those technologies. So conservation, technological development have got to be an integral part of energy.

But folks, we need more supply. You know, I'm walking back here in the back,

and they said, "I'm now repairing a machine that digs for coal." We need to use coal. We've got a lot of it, and we need to make sure that we've got coal.

A lot of people don't realize that good energy policy means jobs. Bad energy policy means we might lose jobs. Good energy policy means we can create jobs.

I was with Jimmy Hoffa the other day, of the Teamsters, in his headquarters. I know, I mean, people don't expect a Republican to be hanging out with the Teamsters. [Laughter] But he and I share something in common: We worry about people who want to work. He worries about it as the head of a mighty union. I worry about it as the President.

See, I'm the President of everybody, not just a few. I'm the President of people whether they voted for me or not. I'm the President of union and nonunion. I'm the President of Republicans and Democrats and independents. And I share something in common with Jimmy, and that is how best to get jobs. That's why he and I both. know that the energy bill ought to make sure we can explore for natural gas and crude oil in Alaska. It's good for jobs. He knows what I know: That means work for people.

There's going to be a lot of work. And he knows what I know, as well: that we can do so in an environmentally friendly way, that we can have a footprint in this vast tundra that will not affect the environment and, at the same time, make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

Listen, finding oil and gas and coal in our own hemisphere-and nuclear power, for that matter-in our own hemisphere is in our national security interest. And I ask the Senate to put aside all the politics and get me a good energy bill. It's in the best interests for people trying to find work, and it's in the best interests of the United States of America.

We can create more opportunities by selling more products overseas. You know, I spent a lot of time as the Governor of