For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 13, 2002
Remarks by the Vice President on Technology & Innovation at the Economic Forum
TIME: 10:05 a.m.
(Vice President Cheney enters forum.)
MR. ABRAHAM: It is my great pleasure to introduce the
vice president of the United States, Mr. Cheney.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Hello, Spence. I'm here
primarily to listen, so I don't plan to make a speech, and
maybe if I can sort of slide in and pick up in the middle of
the proceedings and listen as you go about your business will
be most useful. Politicians too often talk too much.
MR. ABRAHAM: Mr. Vice President, welcome. I know that
one of the topics that has been of interest in your office is
the role of innovation and technology. I was going to ask
Chancellor Fox just to kind of kick off this discussion, but
not by any means limited to that topic, to get us started.
MS. FOX: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Vice President, we have been talking about the
importance of technology has in driving the economy, and of
course how we can best make a (inaudible) flourish that would
encourage that technology. We believe that that involves
research investment. It also involves investment in
education, particularly in math and science education, those
who would conduct research and those that would teach in the
K-12 area. (Inaudible) We believe that will be expressed in
many technological innovations, in government, in education,
in the spectrum in which broad band infrastructure of the
company makes it accessible and affordable. (Inaudible) We
think that emphasis should be placed on accessible and
affordable coupled with a strong commitment to invest in the
future of our students is expressed potentially through this
in a math and science partnership. We think that working out
partnerships for both technology transfer as well as for the
education of our students will foster exactly the climate we
need for this technology to flourish.
MR. ABRAHAM: The floor is open.
MR. RUIZ: Comments on education. We strongly believe
that economic growth is driven from innovation and that
innovation at its root has great people and great people in
all walks of life and training. Some of the great people
going forward, of course, is our millions of children who
live in places like East Houston, East Austin, people who
have not had the opportunity, the access to quality
education, and I think one of the things that would be a
foundation for technology and innovation going forward will
be the emphasis on these millions of children who are great
Americans and great citizens, great residents of this
country, that all they are looking for is not a handout or to
be treated like victims but an opportunity to access quality
education. So I would strongly encourage that the
administration revisit an old issue. So I think it is
important that people who are not as economically (inaudible)
feel like they have an opportunity to access this quality education.
The second point I would make is we must continue to
provide an environment where free and fair economy can occur.
I think within the boundaries of this country as well as
outside the boundaries of this country, we have to nurture
this wonderful system we have created in this country for
free and fair economy has led to tremendous advances in
technology that has helped make life better. Outside of this
country we need to encourage the export administration act to
be done in such a way that it unhinders the ability of
businesses such as high tech to be able to compete globally
without the unnecessary bureaucracy of some unnecessary rules
that perhaps are outdated and need to be revisited. We think
that the work in this area has been very positive and should
provide a strong foundation to improve on that going forward.
Thank you.
MR. BALSAROTTI: Mr. Secretary, Mr. Vice President,
thank you very much for this opportunity for a small business
owner to be able to participate in this. My company,
Software to Go, only employs four people. We don't create
any technology, but we certainly have to explain it. We have
to sell it, install it, and then service it when something
goes wrong. What we've seen from the president's stimulus
package that has really helped us is the increase in the
accelerated depreciation. It may not sound like much. I
think it went from 20,000 to 24,000. However, I had an
architecture firm a block away from me that they are a good
customer, we had talked to them many times about what were
they going to do this year, replace the server, replace the
work stations, put a $10,000 plotter, color plotter that they
needed. When this change in the tax code came, I got a call
that said, "Let's do it all. We can take advantage of the
new tax code. Let's get it all. Let's get our firm back up
to the technology that we need." It resulted in about a
$32,000 order for me which is a very big order for my
business, helped my business, and it helped them as well.
MR. ABRAHAM: Yes. Nancy.
MS. BACON: I'd like to pick up on the comment Hector
had. We're a small company that does work in energy
technology and information technology. The point that Hector
made is about the people around the world. There are three
billion people in the world that live on less than $2 a day.
Two billion of them have no electricity whatsoever. We'd
like to use some of our products, which I happened to bring.
These are our solar cells. They can be used and convert
sunlight directly into energy. I am particularly interested
in how we can (inaudible) If you have energy, you can have
lights, you can have pumping for clean water, you can have
pumping for irrigation. The list goes on and on. I'd like
to have the administration think about using U.S. high
technology in some of their programs. Particularly President
Bush has the $5 billion millennium challenge, and this was
put together in order to alleviate poverty, and part of the
things that we recognized was that people that are living in
poverty are not terrorists, but if you are hopeless and you
are in despair, you are very much more susceptible to people
who might be terrorists. And I think there can be something
that we can do good for the world, and being peaceful, we can
foster these new energy technologies which today global cost
effective away from the grid, and it will be very good for
economic growth. Thank you.
MR. ABRAHAM: Thank you.
MS. ALLEN: I'm Cindy Allen. I'm from Texas
Instruments, Incorporated, in Dallas, and I manage a
warehouse and factory. We've got 800 people, both hourly and
salaried professionals, and my experience is primarily
manufacturing from 20 years that I've been in the business.
I knew Dr. Ruiz in your earlier career.
The thing that concerns me most and really most
reflective of where our industry is today in manufacturing is
the concern that we have to stay competitive. If we don't
stay competitive on a worldwide scale, then we won't have
manufacturing business in this country, and that provides
jobs, and so my focus is how do we maintain competitiveness
so we can stay in the industry. (Inaudible) So how do we
maintain our productivity as compared to them? I've served
on a Semitech board, and we've visited many factories over
the world. What I've found is that they are focused on
winning. They also very well trained, very skilled at what
they do. So one thing that we can do is education, math and
science. We need to make sure in this country that we have
adequate focus on engineering, math and science as we get the
right resources not only in the states, but also if from
other countries that we can utilize in our industry because
the knowledge is one thing that drives us to be competitive.
The other is information. Information is power, and
connectivity of information leads to additional power. So
how do we continue down the path that we're going now in
terms of wireless connectivity, information sharing and using
that data so that we can have information at our fingertips
to keep us competitive? So I appreciate what you've done in
terms of the trade open access to markets. Countries like
China, we need to make sure that we penetrate that market to
create jobs for the states.
MR. ABRAHAM: Wayne.
MR. CLOUGH: (Inaudible) Innovation drives our economy.
I'd like to comment on university research because it has
been a source of innovative ideas, particularly in the 90s
partly because of the (inaudible) and the very positive act
on establishing (inaudible) from research funding university.
And then of forcing encouraging universities to partner with
private companies to innovate and develop new companies. In
the year 2000 there were 11,000 (inaudible)and 454 start-up
companies that came out of the university research primarily
sponsored by federal funding. Obviously start-up companies
have throwed down because the venture capital and much more
difficult for these companies to find this funding. The good
news is the Bush administration and Congress has supported R
and D. We have the largest R and D budget overall in the
nation's history this past year. So the good news is there
is lots of jobs here. We run one of the most (inaudible)
We have more people lined up to get in our incubator than
ever before. But we are having a hard time finding
(inaudible) and if I would encourage some notion that we need
to think about in the future, get more creative in public and
private partnership, to create angel funds, to get these
ideas out of the incubator where they tend to be stuck today
because we don't have enough (inaudible) because the ideas
are there and they will help drive the economy in the future.
MS. AERNI: Thank you, Mr. Vice President and Mr.
Secretary. I have a small communications company in the
midwest. To be exact, and first of all, I'd like to thank
the administration for the moratorium that is in effect on
the tax issue. I think that's very critical. When we talk
about competition, you have to talk about (inaudible), and I
know that the president and his (inaudible) has a great
concern that broad band be available to all rural and
disadvantaged people. I can tell you right now that we have
some problems with our communications. If you look at your
phone bill -- look at your phone bill tonight -- you will see
like my phone bill, that 60 percent of that goes to access
charges, subscriber line charges, university services, state
university services, and that's a real impediment to bring
broad band not only to rural communities, but also to the
disadvantaged. When I have to pay more in lawyer fees and
insurance fees, interconnect agreements to get into community
to bring broad band, there is something wrong with that.
When I have to pay the same price to bring broad band, which
is not rocket science, to a community of 321 that you have to
pay in Denver, Colorado, there is something wrong with that.
MR. ABRAHAM: Thank you.
MR. CAMPBELL: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Vice
President. My name is Don Campbell. I'm president and CEO
of Centech Communications, primarily telecommunication
support. I'd like to follow up on one comment made by Linda,
specifically relative to broad band communications. I think
one of the big issues that we're concerned with as a
professional service firm is what we perceive as an absence
of competition in that arena. As a result of that, a lot of
firms that are the larger firms aren't spending any large
amounts of capital dollars which really means it doesn't
drive everything else is dead. If they are not spending
money on equipment to build out the network, people aren't
manufacturing any to do that. (Inaudible) We as a
professional service firm aren't providing any engineering
support. So clearly the competition that Linda talks about
is real important in the broad band area.
I think the last -- other comment I'd like to make is
that it seems to me that as we begin to look at the whole
concept of broad band in the so-called ibicutous broad band
support, we also have to make sure that we have the
modalities in place in terms of software packages that is
referred to as (inaudible) provide service providers so that
people can begin using information more effectively, and I
think that's one of the big issues with our economy is that a
lot of us have computers, a lot of us has some access, but
there is no growth.
I just close by saying I think the two issues that I'd
like to bring up is really more competition in the broad band
area and support in terms of these ASP providers.
MR. ABRAHAM: Mr. Vice President, I know that you've got
two more sessions to get to, so without getting a cue here
that maybe this should be our last comment before you leave,
I'm going to (inaudible)
MS. GORNICK: Thank you very much for being here and
giving me the chance to speak. I have a little company in
Lexington, Kentucky. We are in the consumer electronics
industry and we manufacture stereo loud speakers, so if you
were in an audio file, you may find us and actually make a
buy here. You get two for that price.
I am very proud of the fact that we started this company
with money that we borrowed from our parents and actually
lost money for several years because we were
undercapitalized, and I'm a person that takes a lot of pride
in my self-reliance in my ability to have the dignity of
making -- being captain of my own ship, so to speak. I've
heard a lot of comments from people here today, and most of
you occupy a rather eptherial world that I am not a part of.
I am a much more ordinary citizen. One thing I do want to
say is that as all of you here are speaking and talking about
large sums of money that our government is spending, whether
it be well intended or for good purposes or not, it's money
that is not in the economy that is left for small people like
myself. I can't have a big lobbyist. I can't afford lawyers
and accountants. The confusion to me is about how one
accesses federal money, which is of no interest to me, by the
way. I again take a lot of pride in my self-reliance, but I
know -- I want to say to all of you that that is money that
is not available then to folks like myself who are willing to
take those risks. So in my view government spending has
subtracted that much. We don't know what opportunity costs
we have lost when we take involuntary transfers of money out
of the economy and decide from some high on place about where
is the best place to spend it. So I have a different point
of view than a lot of you here. The more money of mine that
you can leave with me, I promise you, I will do a very good
job creating jobs for people in this country. So my message
to you is whatever you can leave with me is a good thing.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: I will be happy to take that
message right to the top. I want to thank all of you for
your willingness to spend some time with us. We'll have the
opportunity when the individual sessions are finished to get
everybody again together with the president and spend some
time in sort of an overview, but it means a lot to us to have
folks like you that are out there in the every day world and
deal with these kind of problems and have the advantage of
your thinking. It is easy to sit in Washington and get a
disoriented picture of what goes on as opposed to getting out
here periodically and get out and talk to folks who are day
in and day out where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.
We appreciate that. We'll see you in a few minutes.
(Forum continued.)
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