For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
September 30, 2003
VP Remarks at State of Commerce Luncheon
Remarks by the Vice President at the State of Commerce Luncheon During the National Minority Enterprise Development Week ConferenceThe Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington, D.C.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you all very much. And I
want to wish you all good afternoon. And, Don, thank you very much for
the introduction. One of the great pleasures of public service -- and
I've done a good deal of it over the years now, but are the
relationships and the friendships you build with the people that you
serve with. And one of the highlights of my time in the Bush
administration is being able to work very closely with this man. He
does a superb for all of us and for all of you. And we owe him a great
debt of gratitude for giving up his private life and making the
sacrifices that go with public service. So, Don, thank you very much.
(Applause.)
Now, I know from looking at the schedule, the sooner I finish the
speech, the sooner you'll have lunch. (Laughter.) So I'll try to keep
things moving.
But I'm pleased, on behalf of the President, to welcome all of you
to this important conference in Washington. Every year, the nation
observes Minority Enterprise Development Week, a tradition that, as Don
pointed out, President Reagan began some 20 years ago.
From the smallest towns to the neighborhoods of our great cities,
minority entrepreneurs are providing goods and services, jobs for
workers, a daily example of the effort and the resourcefulness that
make our economy go. Starting and building a business is one of the
most challenging and rewarding things you can do. All of you know what
it means to set a goal, take a risk, assemble a team and accept
responsibility. You know the satisfaction that comes with hard-earned
success.
Our administration is committed to an agenda of free enterprise and
equal opportunity so that every person in America has a chance to work
and to rise in the world. Our priority is to make it easier for an
American to start a small business, easier for a small business to grow
into a large one. When entrepreneurs prosper, our nation is stronger
and our people are more likely to find work.
Most minority enterprises are small businesses, the very sector
that creates most of the new jobs in America, and supplies the
innovation that drives our prosperity. America must always be an
ownership society, where hard work is rewarded and where the spirit of
entrepreneurship is strong.
Events of the last few years have revealed the amazing resilience
of our nation's economy. Throughout our history, recessions have
typically resulted from single, unexpected shocks such as spikes in
energy prices, or sudden shifts in markets. Since 2000, our economy
has been dealt not just one shock, but a whole set of challenges with
few parallels in American history.
First, the stock market began a steady decline, starting in the
summer of 2000, as investors began to realize that the economy was not
healthy. Businesses cut their budget for new investment in technology
and equipment. And by early 2001, the economy was in recession. Then
our nation was attacked by terrorists on September 11th of that year.
And these terrorists brought terrible grief to our people and the
attacks were clearly a shock to the economy.
Under the President's leadership, America has responded. We've set
out to hunt down the terrorists and to bring them to justice. The
President and I know that the security of the American people is our
primary responsibility. We take that job seriously. We've reorganized
the government to protect the homeland; and with a broad coalition, we
are taking action against terrorists around the world. We're on the
offensive. We will stay on offense, and we will prevail over the
terrorists. (Applause.)
In order to counter the recession and the economic impact of the
terrorist attacks, we delivered tax relief -- because when families and
small businesses are hurting, the best way to help them is to let them
keep more of what they earn. After all, the money we spend in
Washington is not the government's money -- it's the people's money.
(Applause.)
When the American people have more to spend, more to save, more to
invest, our economy moves forward. And those who need work are more
likely to find a job. We expanded the child tax credit from $600 to
$1,000. We reduced the marriage penalty. We cut the top rate of taxes
on dividends and capital gains, helping seniors and others who rely on
investments in their retirements. Because of our actions in 2001 and
2003, a married couple with two children and a household income of
$40,000 will see their federal income tax bill this year fall from
$1,978 to only $45. (Applause.) Tax relief is critical to our small
businesses. And for the sake of America's entrepreneurs, farmers and
ranchers, we are also bringing the death tax to an end. (Applause.)
Many of you file as subchapter S corporations, or sole
proprietorships, and pay taxes at the individual level. And many pay
taxes at the top rate. By lowering your income tax rates, we can help
you grow. And that means somebody is more likely to find work. Tax
relief for small businesses means more new jobs in America.
There are some in this city who suggest that we should repeal the
tax relief and raise taxes. They need to get the message that small
businesses deserve tax relief, because the more money our small
businesses can keep, the more jobs the nation will have. (Applause.)
Under the tax relief package that the President signed this past
May, we raised the annual expense deduction for capital investments
from $25,000 to $100,000 -- a sure way to promote investment in new
equipment and software.
We believe all of these policies have set the stage for sustained
growth in our economy. A recent survey of small businesses shows
rising optimism among owners, evidence of improving sales, and more
plans to invest and hire new workers.
There are other good signs, as well. Inflation is low. After-tax
incomes are rising. Home ownership is near record highs, and
productivity is high and rising. Factory orders, particularly for high
tech equipment, have begun climbing.
As the economy continues to improve, though, we must not be
complacent. The President and I are concerned about our fellow
citizens who are looking for work, and we won't be satisfied until
every person who wants to work can find a job. So we are at work on a
six-point plan to strengthen small businesses, as Don mentioned, to
build employer confidence and to help create new jobs.
First, people are more likely to find work if we can control health
care cost. We can help in Washington by allowing small businesses to
work together by shopping for health insurance. By banding together
and pooling their risk, small businesses would have the same bargaining
power as big companies. Business owners know how important health care
is to families, and we want to make it easier for you to provide those
benefits to your employees.
To keep health coverage affordable, Congress should pass medical
liability reform this year. Frivolous lawsuits are forcing doctors to
stop practicing medicine, especially doctors who specialize in taking
care of new mothers and delivering their babies. Too many doctors
across the country are struggling with the cost of liability insurance
premiums. Too often, physicians are closing their practices and moving
to states where insurance premiums are lower. Those that remain often
have to order unnecessary tests and procedures just to avoid the
possibility of a lawsuit. This defensive medicine drives up health
care cost, and all Americans pay those bills.
This is a national problem -- it needs a national solution. The
time has come for Congress to set reasonable limits on the litigation
culture. We need a cap of $250,000 on non-economic damages, and we
need reasonable limits on punitive damages. The House has already
passed a good bill reforming medical liability. Now the Senate needs
to act. No one was ever healed by a frivolous lawsuit.
Second, junk lawsuits are harming not only our health care system,
they're hurting our entire economy. Frivolous litigation increases the
cost of doing business all across America. Industry estimates say it
is a $200 billion burden on our economy. We need effective legal
reform. Class actions and mass tort cases that reach across state
lines should be tried in federal court so that lawyers cannot shop
around the country looking for a state court with a favorable judge.
(Applause.)
The system should not reward lawyers who go fishing for
settlements. When there's a verdict or a settlement, the money should
go to the people who are harmed, not to the lawyers. (Applause.) The
House of Representatives has acted with a strong bipartisan majority to
support these reforms. The Senate should do the same.
Third, we need a sound, national energy policy. Growing businesses
depend on steady, affordable, and reliable supplies of energy. We
learned an important lesson during the blackout that hit the Northeast
this summer: this nation needs an energy policy that will make sure
our electrical grid is up to date, and that reliability standards for
those who deliver electricity are mandatory, not voluntary.
(Applause.) We need a policy that encourages the development of new
sources of energy in an environmentally friendly way.
Our administration submitted an energy plan to the Congress over
two years ago. Now it's time for Congress to complete its work and to
send the President an energy bill that he can sign into law. For the
sake of national security and our economic security, America needs to
be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
Fourth, we must continue to reduce the burden of needless
regulation on employers. Small business owners work hard. You don't
have time to fill out unnecessary forms and fight through the
bureaucracy. (Applause.) The SBA has calculated the hidden costs of
regulation amount to $7,000 per worker, and that slows job creation in
America. Our administration is committed to reducing the burden of
overregulation and making the rules simpler to understand. Small
businesses should be focused on growing our economy and creating new
jobs, not on fulfilling ineffective mandates from Washington, D.C.
(Applause.)
This policy is already yielding results. For example, by
simplifying tax forms for small business owners, we've saved America's
entrepreneurs an estimated 61 million hours of nonproductive work. And
that's a good start.
Fifth, we're pursuing free trade with willing partners around the
globe. When the rules are fair and enforced, the playing field is
level, our workers, farmers, and ranchers can compete with anybody in
the world.
Sixth, we need to make sure that tax relief is permanent.
Businesses and families need to have the confidence that all of the
benefits of tax relief that we've passed will not disappear in coming
years. Because of a quirk in the legislation, tax cuts will go away
and taxes will go back up unless we act. Small business owners are
happy to see the death tax disappears in 2010. But you may not be
happy to know that the death tax is scheduled to rise from the dead in
2011. (Laughter.) The incentives for small business investment are
set to vanish in 2006. The child credit falls back to $700 from $1,000
in 2005. If we do not make tax relief permanent, the taxes on a family
of four with $40,000 in income will go up $922 a year in the year
2005.
When we passed tax relief, Americans did not expect to see higher
taxes sneak in through the back door. If Congress is really interested
in job creation, they will make every one of these tax cuts permanent.
(Applause.)
Here in Washington, we have to stay focused on the needs of the
country. We are fighting a war against terror around the world. And
we must give our armed forces every resource they need to succeed.
(Applause.) We are defending the homeland, and we cannot afford to cut
corners in protecting the American people. The cost of war and the
impact of recession have created a budget deficit. We must respond in
two ways: We must keep pursuing a pro-growth agenda, because faster
growth will create new jobs and generate more revenue for the
government, and we must maintain spending discipline on non-priority
items in Washington, D.C.
When we came into office, discretionary spending rose 8.7 percent
that year. The President's budget for this year calls for
discretionary spending to rise only 4 percent. If Congress stays on
the path of spending restraint the President has proposed, we can meet
the nation's priorities and still cut the deficit in half over the next
five years.
That's a full agenda, and one we're moving forward on every day.
This is a time of testing for the American people -- both at home and
abroad. And we have shown the world the kind of people we are. Our
confidence and optimism have never wavered. We are defending the peace
of the world. We are bringing freedom to corners of the world that
have not known freedom for decades, if ever. And we are building the
prosperity of our country, by turning loose the great energy and
enterprise of the American people. As entrepreneurs, you have shown
great drive and determination. Your spirit, your hard work, and your
faith in the future are making this nation stronger every day. You
have the President's respect and my own. Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
END 12:40 P.M. EDT
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