For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 18, 2002
President Emphasizes Job Creation in Economic Recovery
Remarks by the President to Employees of Albers Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Albers Manufacturing
O'Fallon, Missouri
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Gosh, thanks
for that warm welcome. It's great to be back in
Missouri. (Laughter.) And thank you for that
hospitality.
I'm so glad that I'm with the Senator today, he is a champion of
the small business person. I look forward to working with
him on some good legislation that understands the incredibly important
role that the small business person plays in America. And
here it is: on a practical sense, more new jobs are crated
by small business people than anybody else. (Applause.)
And I happen to think that the small business, the entrepreneur
represents one of the true strengths of our country. I mean,
after all, this is a country where if you've got a good idea and you're
willing to work hard and you're willing to take a little risk, you can
own your own business. It doesn't matter who you
are. (Applause.) It doesn't matter how you were
raised. It doesn't matter whether you were born in America.
What matters is, is that you're willing to dream and work for the
dream.
And so one of my jobs is to make sure that entrepreneurial spirit
is strong and alive in America; that it continues to flourish so that
the great America Dream of owning your own business is vibrant and
alive and well and when we go into the 21st century. And I
want to talk about that today, a little bit.
Before I do, I want to thank Rolf and the good folks here at Albers
for their hospitality. It's not easy to welcome the
President and the entourage -- (laughter) -- just a mere 14
vehicles. (Laughter.) But I do want to thank you
for your hospitality and all the employees with whom I just had an
interesting discussion about how to -- about what's on their mind,
about what's it like to work for a small business and how best -- what
the government can do to perhaps make the small business more vibrant
and/or deal with some of the needs that directly affect the employees.
Now, I want to thank the other small business owners who are
here. I love what you do. Again, as I repeat,
you're an incredibly important part of the future of the
country. Thanks for taking risks and for working
hard. I appreciate my friend, Hector Barreto, for
coming. He was born here in Missouri, raised in California,
and is doing a fine job as head of the Small Business Administration in
Washington, D.C.
I had the honor today, as well, of traveling with Jim Talent --
(applause) -- and four fine members of the Missouri congressional
delegation: Congressman Akin and Blunt, Congressman Hulshof
and Jo Ann Emerson. Thank you all for
coming. (Applause.)
I also was met at the airport today by a guy named Derek Rapp --
where are you, Derek? There you are. Got a good
seat, I see. (Laughter.) That's what you get for coming to
the airport. (Laughter.)
Here's Derek. Derek is the CEO of a small bio-tech
firm. He is an economic entrepreneur. But I'm
heralding Derek today because he's also a social
entrepreneur. He's a person that understands that with
freedom comes the responsibility to love a neighbor like you'd like to
be loved yourself. And I appreciate that spirit, Derek.
He started what's called St. Louis Cares. It is a
recruiting vehicle to help match people with kind hearts with people
who need kind hearts in their lives. And the reason I want
to talk about the Dereks of the world is because in order to win the
war against evil, this nation must continue to practice acts of decency
and kindness and goodness. (Applause.) That there
is no question that the entrepreneurial spirit in America makes us
unique, I think.
But one of our other strengths is the fact that our nation is a
kind nation and a compassionate nation and a nation where neighbor
loving neighbor is having a profound impact on the quality of our
country's life. And so one of the things -- and one of the reasons I
like to introduce a guy like Derek, is because it helps remind us all
about really one of the great strengths of our country, and that is our
people.
You know, government can't make people love one
another. I would sign the
law. (Laughter.) But people loving one another is
essential to having a bright future, so that everybody can experience
the great American Dream. And we've got pockets of persistent poverty
in our society, which I refuse to declare defeat -- I mean, I refuse to
allow them to continue on. And son one of the things that
we're trying to do is to encourage a faith-based initiative to spread
its wings all across America, to be able to capture this great
compassionate spirit. (Applause.)
One of my hopes is out of this evil that was done to our country,
is that people, young people understand that living in America is
wonderful -- but it also requires an effort to make the communities in
which they live a better place, that we've got to work to usher in an
era of personal responsibility. And part of that era of
personal responsibility is not only, you know, obviously taking
advantage of the material wealth available if you work hard and have
got a good idea, but that there's much greater promise and hope than
materialism, itself. Materialism, itself, is a dead end;
that the idea of trying to work to help somebody in need is a powerful
part of having a full and complete life.
And, therefor, I ask all of you and all the good folks in Missouri,
if you're already helping a neighbor in need, thank you, and continue
doing it. But if you're looking for a way to make your life
more full, more complete, mentor a child or help somebody who is
shut-in, or go to a church or synagogue and mosque and say, what can we
do to feed somebody who needs some food? I mean, there are
all kinds of ways that you can help.
And by helping, you stand squarely in the face of the evil doers
that hate America. (Applause.)
One way to make sure America is strong is to rally the compassion.
Another way is to make sure that our economy is strong. I
want to tell you right up front that I do not think the role of
government is to try to create wealth. That's not the role
of government.
The role of government is to create an environment in which people
are willing to take risk. (Applause.) The role of
government is to create an economic climate in which the Rolf's of the
world say, gosh, I've got a good idea, I want to take a
risk. And, therefore, employ people. That's
really what I view my job is. If there's roadblocks, to
eliminate them. And if there's ways to make the environment better, do
so.
I wanted to talk a little bit about that. High taxes is
a road block. (Applause.) High tax rates discourage
investment. And when you discourage investment, you
discourage job creation. And, therefore, working with people
in Congress, both the House and the Senate, we worked to reduce the tax
burden on working people in America. And it came at exactly
the right time. Tax relief was
vital. (Applause.) It was vital for our economic
future, because when you give people more of their own money to spend,
they demand. And when they demand, somebody
produces. And when somebody produces, somebody gets to
work. (Applause.)
But the other thing that was important about tax relief is that it
is -- recognizes the importance of small business, because many small
businesses are unincorporated. Many small businesses are
sole proprietors, or are limited partnerships. And by
cutting the personal rates, all personal rates, what we are in effect
doing for the small business community was encouraging cash
flow. And more cash flow on small business owners means more
jobs.
And so one of the crucial things we've done to address the economic
recession and its slowdown, and the effects it caused on working
people, was to say, let's give people their own money
back. (Applause.) For a while they were talking
about taking away that tax relief -- "they" being some people in
Washington, D.C. I couldn't imagine anybody saying in the
midst of a recession, we're going to raise taxes. They were
reading the wrong textbook,
Senator. (Laughter.) Anybody in their right mind
knows that if you're interested in making the economy more vital, you
let people keep more of their own money. I don't hear much
of that talk anymore now that the plan looks like it's working.
But even though the economic news has been positive, in my
judgment, we're not out of the woods yet. We've got to keep
working for policies in place that encourage more job
creation. And one of the other things we did that was
interesting, and I think important to the formation of small
businesses, is that we dealt with an issue that discourages small
businesses, at least in this sense.
If you're Rolf, and you build up your business, and build up your
assets through years of hard work, you ought to have the -- you ought
to be able to make the decision of who gets to own that business after
you move on. (Applause.) And the death tax made
it awfully difficult for you to make that decision. You see,
if you're a small business owner, and you're not public, for example,
if you're a privately held company, the death tax would cause your
heirs to have to liquidate the assets that you built up over a
lifetime. It was a terrible tax. We put it on its
way to extinction. But I call upon the Congress to make the
elimination of the death tax permanent in the tax
code. (Applause.)
We decided to do more in Washington to deal with this attack on
9/11, particularly from how it affected people's lives. One
of my big concerns has been and still continues to be the fact that
some of our American workers lost jobs as a result of the enemy
attack. And my attitude is, anybody who wants to work and
can't find work is a problem for me to have to deal
with. And there's a lot of Americans who want to work and
can't find work. And so we decided to do something about
it.
First of all, we decided to make sure that the people got an
unemployment check. If their benefits were about to run out,
we extended the amount for unemployment benefits. And that
was the right thing to do. But I understand people don't want an
unemployment check, they want a permanent paycheck. And
therefore we asked Congress and worked with members of Congress who
understand capital how best to create jobs. What can we do
to make sure that the true part of an economic stimulus package is
jobs, its central core, is how to create more jobs.
We passed a bill that encourages investment in plant and equipment,
because we think that will be the best thing that will encourage job
creation. And we stayed with it, and worked hard, and got a
good vote out of the House and a good vote out of the
Senate. And I was honored to be able to sign that bill,
which I think is going to be a good part of encouraging investment in
job creation.
I also want to take it a step father. I've giving a
speech tomorrow on -- specifically on how best to deal with issues
related to small business. I want to talk to you about two
issues real quick. One is what's called Section 179
Expensing. Now, if you're not an accountant I guess it's
kind of hard to understand. But see if I can explain
it. You know, okay,
good. (Laughter.) Okay,
fine. (Laughter.)
Here's what it means. It increases the maximum
deductions small businesses can take when they invest in new plant and
equipment. Right now the law lets small businesses
immediately deduct the full cost of the first $24,000 of investment
when they invest less than $200,000 a year. Okay. So what I
think we ought to do in order to encourage small business to make more
investment, is to increase the limit from $200,000 to $325,000, and
allow for the first year deduction of $40,000. (Applause.)
Let me see if I can put this into English, or
Texan. (Laughter.) I'm trying to put in place
something that will encourage Rolf to go buy a new piece of machinery
-- which he says he wants to buy -- to provide proper incentive for
Rolf to go buy a new machine that will make his business more
competitive, and therefore more likely to be able to hire somebody;
that will help the manufacturer of the machine employ somebody; that
will have an effect throughout the entire economy. And it
seems like to me if small businesses are vital for the future of our
country, if small businesses provide most of the new work -- for people
looking for work, and we're worried about people finding jobs, why
don't we put something in place that encourages small business
growth? And that's exactly what this does. (Applause.)
One of the things I heard from the good folks who work here is that
they're concerned about their health care costs. And if
you're a small business owner, or somebody who works for a small
business, you're concerned about health care costs. And I
don't blame you. I heard what Rolf is going
through. I've heard what the people are worried
about. Here is one idea to help small businesses deal with
high premiums.
One of the reasons small business owners have to pay high premiums
is because they cannot spread the risk of the health care across a lot
of folks. Large corporate America, because of the size of
their work force, can spread risk throughout a big work force, and
therefore pay less cost for health care.
If one of the cost drivers is the need to have more people to
spread risk, why don't we try to figure out a way to allow Rolf to pool
his risk with other small businesses? And so one of the good
ideas -- Jim sponsored this bill; I know that Kit is for it -- is to
allow for what we call associated health plans, which says that if
you're a member of the NFIB, for example, the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, that they can pool a multitude of small
businesses together, thereby driving down the cost of health care.
It makes sense. It is good for small
businesses. It is very good for the people who work for
small businesses. And it is beyond me why Congress can't
figure out why this doesn't -- shouldn't work. And so I'm
calling on them to give this plan a hard look, and get it passed for
the good of the American economy. (Applause.)
So today I wanted to talk to you about how we fight evil with acts
of decency and kindness at home, how we make sure we've got economic
security for all Americans. But I also want to mention to
you pretty quickly that I also understand that my most important job is
to defend America, is to make sure that we -- (applause) -- is to
secure the homeland; is to prevent the enemy from hitting us again.
I want you to know at home we're working overtime to do everything
we can, to make sure that doesn't happen. We're running down
every lead, every hint, every possible threat. We take
seriously, in America, because I still believe -- I still know there
are people out there that hate our freedoms. They can't
stand the idea of a society which welcomes a good idea, and if you've
got a good idea you can succeed. They don't like
freedom. They don't like freedom of religion, they don't
like freedom of speech, they don't like freedom of
politics. They just hate freedom. And therefore
-- and since we're the beacon of freedom, they want to attack us. And
we're doing everything we can to make sure they don't.
But the best way to defend the homeland is to find them where they
are, and bring them to justice. And that's precisely what
we're going to do. (Applause.) We've got a big
task ahead of us. And the good news is, the American people
understand the size of the task. After all, when you defend
freedom, freedom itself, it may take a while. And the people
know that. I've traveled the country enough to be able to
report to you all that the nation is united and patient.
We've made some pretty good progress in a little over six
months. It wasn't all that long ago that the enemy
miscalculated and attacked America, thinking that maybe we were such a
materialistic society, we wouldn't defend that which we hold dear to
our heart. I said early on, I said if you harbor a
terrorist, or you hide one, you're just as guilty as the
murderers. And the Taliban found out what we
meant. (Applause.) Thanks to a mighty United
States Military. (Applause.) And thanks to a vast
coalition of nations that love freedom.
We have run out of town -- run out of their offices, run out of
power a government that is one of the most repressive governments
history has ever seen. (Applause.) One of the
things that makes me most proud is that we didn't seek revenge, we
sought justice. And we went into Afghanistan not as
conquerors, but as liberators. (Applause.)
I want you to know that later on this week schools reopen in
Afghanistan -- and this is hard for Americans to believe, but for the
first time, young girls get to go to school, thanks to
America. (Applause.)
And so the first phase of the war, which was to hold people
accountable for harboring terrorists, is over with. That's
not to say some may decide to harbor them in the future, in which case
they now know the lessons that will -- they know I mean what I
say. Let me put it to you that way.
The second phase is to deny these killers sanctuary; it's to not
let them ever settle down and light anywhere; it's to treat them like
what they are, international terrorists and keep 'em on the
run. And that's what we're
doing. (Applause.) And I mean just that -- I mean
just that: get 'em on the run and keep 'em on the
run. And if that means months, and hunting them down, that's
exactly what this country is going to do. Listen, we caught a bunch of
them bunched up the other day. (Laughter.) And they're not
bunched up any more. (Applause.)
I have submitted a significant increase in the budget to the
Congress. I expect them to pass it. I know the senators are
with me, I know the members of the Congress are with me. We
need to make sure our troops are well trained, have got the best
equipment, get a pay raise. (Applause.) And I don't want
Congress messing with the budget. They have the right to
debate, I understand that. And I can understand -- they get
the right to spend. I propose, they dispose, I know
that. (Laughter.) But now is not the time to be
playing politics with the military budget. They need to get
it to my desk early. (Applause.) Generally, the
defense budget is the last one -- or the defense appropriation is the
last one to the President's desk. It ought to be the first
one this year. (Applause.)
I want you to know that history has called us into
action. History has placed a great responsibility at our
doorstep. And I will not miss this
opportunity. It is a chance to defend freedom. It
is a chance to make sure that our children and grandchildren grow up in
a peaceful world. Out of this evil will come some
good. America will be stronger at home, we'll be more
compassionate and more decent. Out of this evil will come, I
believe, a period of personal responsibility, a new culture -- as
reflected in flight 93, when people drove an airplane into the ground
to sacrifice for something greater than themselves.
And if we're tough and resolved and determined, like I know we're
going to be, out of this evil will come a more peaceful world for
generations to come. (Applause.)
As you can tell, I hope, I'm optimistic. And you'd be
optimistic, too, if you got to see what I see. See, I get to
travel the greatest land on the face of the earth. I am
optimistic because of the values that make America strong, and I am
optimistic because of the people who make her great.