[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 4, 1992]
[Pages 1474-1477]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1474]]


Remarks to the Community in Fredericksburg, Virginia
September 4, 1992

    The President. Thank you, Dori, very much. And thank all of you for 
this great welcome to this marvelous town. And may I salute two Members 
of Congress with me, Congressman George Allen, a good man, and to Herb 
Bateman, another great Congressman. Two State delegates that you all 
know well, Bill Howell and Bobby Orrock, they're with us today. And I 
want to thank your Mayor of 16 years, Lawrence Davies, who greeted us at 
the airport. You've got a lot to be proud of here. And I know that there 
are six Olympians from this area, two gold medal winners, and I salute 
all of them.
    I told Barbara I was coming down to a hardware store this morning. 
[Laughter] She told me I'd better come back with the tools to fix 
Millie's doghouse or else I'd be in one myself.
    But here we are in Fredericksburg to talk about small business. I'm 
going to ask you to bear with me because some of these points are 
serious points about the future of this country. And we want to drive 
home the fact that businesses like the one I just visited, 
Fredericksburg Hardware, and Goolrick's here do more than sell doorknobs 
and drywall, hairnets and lipsticks. Small business generates the hope 
and the pride and the jobs that hold America together.
    America's economy is working its way through a period of profound 
change. Many of the larger companies have retrenched and restructured. 
And I know those changes have been difficult for many working Americans. 
But American small businesses, they've shown the staying power, creating 
new products by the thousands and new jobs by the hundreds of thousands. 
And we are grateful to every small-business man and woman in this 
country. It is critical that we concentrate on the importance of small 
business to our economy. Because today, the defining challenge of the 
nineties is to reinvigorate our national economy so that we can win, we 
can win the competition in this whole new global economy.
    In this election, you're going to hear two very different versions 
of how to do this. My opponent's answer is to turn inward, to pretend 
that we can protect what we have. And ours is to look forward, to open 
new markets, to prepare our people to compete, to restore the social 
fabric of this country, and to save and invest, so that we can win. And 
that's why we've placed small business at the heart of our agenda for 
America's economic future. Small businesses employ over half our work 
force, create two-thirds of new American jobs. And they're the hothouse 
for innovation, risk-taking, and new ideas, the powerful locomotive that 
will take our economy right down the tracks, full steam ahead into the 
21st century. I am optimistic about this country.
    When it comes to renewing the American economy, my loyalty lies with 
small business. I've actually held a job in the private sector, 
something my opponent has not done, half my life in the private sector 
and half in public life. And I started a small business, built it from 
the ground up, know what it is to go out and work with partners and 
employees. And I know what it's like to sweat out a tough deal, to shop 
for credit, to try your darnedest to meet the next payroll--and even if 
I got ulcers to prove it. I believe that meeting a payroll is a good 
qualification for President of the United States of America.
    Now let me tell you what must be done to help small businesses here 
and across the country. We've got to give business the relief from 
excessive Government regulation. We need to increase access to credit 
and investment. And while Governor Clinton wants to raise taxes and has 
already proposed it, I want to cut the taxes on small business. And I 
need a change in Congress to get that done.
    I was out in western Michigan the other day, talking to a group of 
people and small business leaders. I met a guy who runs an asphalt 
paving company. And he said, ``Mr. President, when regulation doesn't 
make sense, it's the worker who pays with his job.'' And we are tackling 
this problem

[[Page 1475]]

head-on. In January, I ordered a freeze on Federal regulations. The 
business men and women have enough to worry about without Washington 
double-checking their every move.
    Regulation, less of it. But without the burden of overregulation, 
businesses can't grow without capital. The credit crunch has hit our 
small businesses hard. And that's why we've been working with bankers 
and regulators to ease that crunch. We have the SBA, the Small Business 
Administration, working double-time to help these credit-starved 
businesses. And this year, we have increased by more than 30 percent the 
general business loan guarantees offered through the Small Business 
Administration, more than $6 billion going to men and women with good 
ideas who want to turn those ideas into jobs. That's the kind of help 
Government should be giving these businesses.
    I've also been trying to work with that gridlocked Congress to 
provide even more credit relief.
    Audience members. Clean the House! Clean the House! Clean the House!
    The President. That's a good idea. And this morning, you're going to 
see the result. We've come here to Fredericksburg to sign a new piece of 
legislation. Typical of us--the Washington--it's got the name ``the 
Small Business Credit and Business Opportunity Enhancement Act.'' But 
it's going to loosen up credit even more for deserving small businesses. 
Not only does it increase the levels of SBA loans, it creates new ways 
of bringing investment to small business owners. It reaches out to women 
and minority entrepreneurs who want to get started. I've always believed 
that the best economic program is a job. And this bill gives more 
Americans the tools to create a job.
    Now, we're talking about regulation and credit. All that is good. 
But it won't do it if we cannot help take the monkey, that tax monkey, 
off the backs of small business. I am for lower taxes. He is for higher 
taxes. Already we've taken a number of steps to streamline the ways 
small businesses pay their taxes. One example: Right now, small 
businesses have to file payroll taxes twice a week. And that's a waste. 
I've proposed we change it to once a month, so business men and women 
can get back to the business of running their businesses.
    Now, the Clinton-Gore tax-and-spend ticket doesn't understand that 
taxing capital investment is bad. None of our industrial competitors 
taxes capital gains at our punitive rates. Almost half of all new 
businesses literally begin at home, when enterprisers convert their own 
nest eggs into capital. And it is time to reward this initiative. It is 
time to make us competitive with businesses around the world. It is time 
to cut that tax on capital gains so these small businesses can thrive.
    That's my agenda for small businesses: three obstacles, three 
concrete steps to clear those obstacles out of the way. Now let me just 
get into the politics here. Where does Governor Clinton stand on small 
business? It's a strange coincidence, but his plan has three parts, too: 
tax, tax, and tax.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. I see small business as the backbone of the American 
economy, and he sees it as a golden-egg-laying goose that ought to pay 
more in taxes.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. And he starts with a big idea. Here it is, you heard 
the proposal right from him: Mr. Clinton says that he wants $220 billion 
in new Government spending.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. We don't need $220 billion in new Government 
spending. [Applause] You're right. And how will he pay for it? Nobody 
knows for sure, but he's already advocating at least another $150 
billion in new taxes. And now he says he wants to soak the rich, raise 
taxes on the top 2 percent. What he won't tell you is this: Two out of 
every three business people hit by that tax increase are small 
businesses or family farmers. And these folks aren't millionaires; they 
are mom-and-pop operators. And we don't need to tax them any more. The 
Governor offers--you know that program--he offers the small business a 
reverse version of the ``Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.'' You may 
not live like a millionaire, but you can be taxed like one if you listen 
to Clinton and Gore. It is strange.
    Health care: He's also backing a health

[[Page 1476]]

care plan called ``play or pay.'' I was just in here in the hardware 
store, talking to the people there about the escalating costs of health 
care. His plan will leave small businesses with two options: one, cut 
workers' wages to pay for mandated health care, or two, fire some 
workers and use the savings to cover the rest. And according to an 
independent Urban Institute study, the plan will lead to a 7-percent 
payroll tax for those businesses who don't play the Government's game. 
And another estimate says the tax will cost this country 700,000 jobs. 
We cannot afford to lose these jobs.
    So that's his plan. It's out there in black and white, $150 billion 
in new taxes, a new Government health care plan leading to a new payroll 
tax of 7 percent, not to mention a new training tax. Then you throw in 
an irresponsible slashing of our defense budget, and it all adds up to 
2.6 million, 2.6 million jobs lost. And we cannot have that.
    The differences between the Governor and me are based on two very 
different philosophies. Look again at the health care issue. This is of 
critical importance to small business. Over the past 2 years, 83 percent 
of small business owners have seen their health care costs increase. And 
at the same time, too many Americans are without coverage, or they're 
worried about losing the coverage they have.
    And so let's go right down the line. My health care reform will give 
tax breaks and credits to make health care more affordable, so that 30 
million people who can't get health care insurance will be safe and will 
have health care in the private sector. He prefers taxes. He says, let's 
raise taxes and compel people to participate. And I say, let's give tax 
incentives and encourage people to do what's right.
    And I want to use the force of competition--the force that's in 
action all along Main Street here--the force of competition to keep 
these medical costs down. He wants to put the Government in the business 
of setting health care prices. That will not work. I want to go after 
the root causes of health care. And he won't because the special 
interests won't let him.
    Now, let me tell you one that's important here. I'll give you an 
example. Last year alone, legal costs inflated our doctors' bills by $20 
billion dollars. And so we've targeted these malpractice insurance for 
reform, as one way to keep costs down. I don't think you should have to 
hire a lawyer when you want to see a doctor. But Governor Clinton stands 
against malpractice reform. And there is a simple reason. The trial 
lawyers of America, the same fat cats who are getting rich off those 
malpractice lawsuits, are his staunchest supporters. Here's what one 
Arkansas trial lawyer wrote about him, trying to raise money for the 
Clinton campaign: ``I can never remember an occasion where he failed to 
do what was right where we trial lawyers are concerned.'' Small 
businesses are drowning in litigation, and Governor Clinton wants to 
throw them a firehose. Well, help me get Congress to put an end to 
frivolous lawsuits. We'd be a lot better off if we sued each other less 
and cared for each other more in this country. I have had proposals up 
before this gridlocked Congress for 3 years in a row. And now you've got 
a man who wants to run for President that says he doesn't want to do 
anything about malpractice. Let's change that Congress. Help me get this 
malpractice under control.
    From taxes to regulators to health care to the litigation explosion, 
the election is a contest between two very different views of business 
and of how our economy works. And here is the bottom line. He talks a 
good game, but his policies threaten to tax and spend and regulate you 
right out of business. Small business should not be the big Government's 
piggy bank. We are trying to do what is right for the average family, 
right for the man and woman that are out there holding a job, working 
for a living. Reform welfare, help in every way we can to help the 
families in this country.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Let me tell you something. I was in a hardware store, 
and Mr. Janney said something to me. He said, ``You see my grandchildren 
here?'' He said, ``I am very happy that they're going to grow up, thanks 
to you and your administration, in a world that has less fear of nuclear 
weapons, an administration that bit the bullet and did what was right in 
Desert Storm.'' Now, give

[[Page 1477]]

us your support, and let's do what's right for the small-business man 
and woman in this country.
    May God bless you. May God bless all of you, and thank you very, 
very much. Thank you very much. Thank you all.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Now, if you've never seen legislation signed, watch 
this one, because I'm now going to sign the Small Business Credit and 
Business Opportunity Enhancement Act of 1992, an example of what we can 
do to put small business first.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

    Thank you all for coming.

                    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. at Goolrick's 
                        Pharmacy. In his remarks, he referred to Dori 
                        Eglevsky, president, Fredericksburg Chamber of 
                        Commerce, and H.M. Janney, owner/operator of 
                        Fredericksburg Hardware. H.R. 4111, approved 
                        September 4, was assigned Public Law No. 102-
                        366.