Less than 50 days until graduation and my undergraduate college students are starting to get a little nervous. Some know where they are going when they leave school – graduate school or a job offer on the heels of an internship. But many of these intelligent, well-qualified and hard-working students are wondering how and when they might have a chance to apply all they have learned in the past four years and begin their careers. Unfortunately, entry-level jobs appear to be in short supply and competition for spots in graduate schools is fierce. 

In the last three years, adversity has also revealed the fundamental strengths of the American economy. We have come through recession, and terrorist attack, and corporate scandals, and the uncertainties of war. And because you acted to stimulate our economy with tax relief, this economy is strong, and growing stronger. (Applause.) 

You have doubled the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, reduced the marriage penalty, begun to phase out the death tax, reduced taxes on capital gains and stock dividends, cut taxes on small businesses, and you have lowered taxes for every American who pays income taxes. 

Americans took those dollars and put them to work, driving this economy forward. The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years; new home construction, the highest in almost 20 years; home ownership rates, the highest ever. Manufacturing activity is increasing. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Exports are growing. Productivity is high, and jobs are on the rise. (applause)