President Bush Addresses the 2008 Annual Meeting of the West Virginia Coal Association

BUSH: Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Thank you for your warm introduction. I have come to know your state very well. I've spent a lot of quality time here. I love its beauty, and I love its people. And I thank you for your warm greeting, and I'm proud to be here in Greenbrier.

This place has got a rich history. During the Cold War, this was Congress's designated meeting place in case of an emergency in Washington. Also the site of three championship golf courses. (Laughter.) You get to decide whether or not that was just a coincidence. (Laughter.)

I want to talk about the energy today. No better group of people to talk about energy with than people who actually take risk to find energy. I'm -- like you, I'm concerned about the price of gasoline people are paying. I know you're concerned about what it means for your workers. It's like a tax on the hard-working people here in America. So I'll spend a little time on that subject.

And I'm going to talk about the fact that this country needs a common-sense, realistic energy policy, that there's not a single solution, and that we got to work to have a comprehensive plan that takes advantage of our assets and is realistic and provides a hopeful future for our citizens.

As you know, I'm fixing to retire -- (laughter) -- in about six months. But I am going to sprint to the finish. And part of that sprint to the finish will be to continue to remind the American people that we need to be realistic and have common sense about today's energy needs and tomorrow's energy needs.

And I want to thank my friend Buck Harless for inviting me here. He's right, he came down to the governor's mansion, came down just to take a sniff. (Laughter.) And I appreciate his friendship and your friendship. I want to thank Andrew Jordan, who is the Chairman of the Board of the West Virginia Coal Association. I want to thank all the other members of the Board, and I want to thank you as risk-takers and entrepreneurs and dreamers and doers and job providers. And I welcome your family members who are here, too. Thanks for coming. It's good to be with old and young alike. (Laughter.) I appreciate Bill Raney, my friend. I've known Bill a long time; he's a good guy. And Bill, I want to thank you for being here today. You can applaud for Bill if you want. (Applause.)

I'm so pleased to be traveling with Congressman Nick Rahall today. I can't thank him enough. The Congress is in session. He's a -- he's got a chairmanship, and yet he took time to come down to fly down on Air Force One. I can't thank you enough -- it's not a bad way to travel, by the way. (Laughter.) But I appreciate you coming, Nick.

I thank -- want to thank the Secretary of State Betty Ireland. Betty has served this state with a lot of dignity. She came down from Charleston to encourage her old buddy -- me. (Laughter.) And I want to thank you for coming. I want to thank the Mayor, Debbie Fogus. Madam Mayor, thank you for being here today as well. All the other state and local officials who have kindly come. But most importantly, thank you.

This is a -- it's a challenging time. It's not the first time we've been through challenging times. I might remind you that in the beginning of my presidency there were some challenging times. We had a recession, and of course we got attacked. And yet, with good policy, and by trusting the ingenuity and the enterprise of the American people, we came through those times better than before. The same thing is going to happen this time.

We got some good news today, encouraging news. Not great news, but encouraging news -- that in the second quarter, the economy grew at a rate of 1.9 percent.

Now, it's not as good as we'd like it to be, but I want to remind you a few months ago there were predictions that the economy would shrink this quarter, not grow. But in fact, the opposite has happened. As a matter of fact, it's more than double the rate we saw in the first quarter; that's positive.

It's -- we saw the slowdown early, by the way. One of the jobs of people like me that you entrust is to see problems and react to them. Not like let problems fester and just hope for the best; it is to actually respond. And that's why we passed the stimulus package. Just so you know, up to now we've delivered $92 billion in stimulus payments. It fits into my philosophy of government, which is I'd rather you spend your money than the federal government spend your money.