[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book II)]
[July 2, 2004]
[Pages 1224-1233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Discussion With Small-Business Entrepreneurs
July 2, 2004

    The President. Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thanks for 
coming. I am glad you're here. We're here today to talk about the 
economic security of our fellow citizens. One of my most important jobs 
is to help create an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit 
flourishes, because I believe that the fact that America is a heaven for 
the entrepreneur is one of the real strengths of our country. I know 
that when the entrepreneur feels confident, when the small-business 
owner invests, it's more likely people will be able to find a job.
    I'm interested in people working. I want people being able to go to 
work and coming home, saying, ``I'm doing my duty as a mom or a dad to 
put food on the table,'' or ``I've got an opportunity to set aside hard-
earned money for my child's education.'' That's what I'm interested in. 
And one way to do that is to make sure the small-business part of our 
economy is vibrant, strong, energized, and confident. And I think it is.
    The economy of the United States has been through a lot. If you 
really think about it, it's pretty remarkable to be able to stand up and 
say to you that our economy is strong and getting stronger, that we're 
witnessing steady, consistent growth. After all, we've been through a 
recession, a national emergency, a war, corporate scandals. We've got an 
economy which is changing. The nature of the job base is changing. And 
all that means it's been a difficult period of time. Yet we're strong. 
We're getting stronger. We're witnessing steady growth--steady growth. 
And that's important. We don't need boom- or bust-type growth, we want 
just steady, consistent growth so that our fellow citizens will be able 
to find a job and so that the small-business sector will feel confident 
about expanding.

[[Page 1225]]

    I was pleased to see that consumer confidence is at a 2-year high. 
That's an indication that the economy is strong and getting better. When 
people are confident, they tend to be a part of the decisionmaking 
process amongst millions of deciders that say the future is going to be 
better.
    I've just met with some small-business owners. I'm going to 
introduce them here in a second. They're confident. The first thing I 
listened for was, do they have confidence in their voices? Were they 
saying to me, ``Gosh, I'm confident enough to make investment''? That's 
what you listen for if you're somebody trying to be able to report to 
the economy about the nature of our economy. To a person, to a business, 
they were saying, ``You bet; I'm confident about the future of the 
country. Therefore I'm going to invest more,'' which I'm going to talk a 
little bit about here in a second.
    Real after-tax incomes are up 11 percent since December of 2000. To 
me, that's a vital statistic. Real after-tax incomes--that means that 
the amount of money in somebody's wallet is increasing. That's what we 
want to hear, isn't it, particularly if you're somebody who has got a 
wallet. [Laughter] It's a good sign when people are working and keeping 
more of their own money. That's what we want.
    Homeownership rates are at an alltime high. That's an important 
statistic, particularly if you believe the more people that own 
something, the better off our society is. That's what I believe. We want 
more people owning their own small business. We want more people owning 
their own home. See, when somebody owns their own home, they can say, 
``This is my property. Welcome to my home.'' They don't say, ``Welcome 
to the Government's home.'' They say, ``Welcome to my home,'' which is 
an important part of not only consumer confidence but it's an important 
part of making sure people have a interest in the future of our country. 
If you own something, you want to make sure Government makes the right 
decision so you can continue to own it.
    And we've got--homeownership rate is at an alltime high. And a 
particularly important part of that statistic is minority homeownership 
rates are at an alltime high. See, we not only want--when I'm talking 
about ownership, I'm talking about ownership for all people, not just a 
certain type of person. We want ownership to be a part of every 
neighborhood. And it's happening in America. It's really what makes us 
such a wonderful country, isn't it, when people from all walks of life 
can say, ``I own something.'' And this administration will continue to 
make sure the ownership society, or the ability for people to own their 
own business or home, remains strong and vibrant.
    Manufacturers are reporting increased activity more than any time in 
20 years. We've had concern in the country about whether or not the 
manufacturing sector would remain vibrant and strong, and the reports 
are that the activity is as good as it's been over the past 20 years. 
That's a pretty good sign, isn't it? I was told today--reminded today 
that the Purchasing Managers Index is now above 60 for its 8th straight 
month. That doesn't mean anything unless you're somebody who follows all 
the numbers that comes out of Washington. But what it does mean is it 
confirms the notion that manufacturing activity is as good as it's been 
in 20 years. And that's very positive.
    Today we got a new jobs report out. The jobs increased by 112,000 in 
June, which means we've had a total of 1.5 million new jobs since last 
August. To me, that shows the steady growth. It's one thing to be 
reporting the GDP numbers are up; it's another thing to be able to say 
more Americans are working. And that's what we want. We want people 
going to work. We want people to be able to come home and say, ``Boy, 
how was work--it was great.'' [Laughter] ``I enjoy working.''

[[Page 1226]]

    I met two good workers from North Carolina here today. I'm about to 
introduce the owners of their company. But they were here. They said, 
``We're working and feeling good about it.'' And that's really good news 
for our economy.
    I want to thank you all for coming. I appreciate--I can see a lot of 
members of my administration here. I don't want to try to go through 
them all except for Secretary Evans, the 
Secretary of Commerce. He's doing a fantastic job of running a very 
important Cabinet office of my Government.
    But thank you all for being here. I see a lot of familiar faces. I 
see a lot of entrepreneurs. I see a lot of people who represent 
entrepreneurs here in Washington. You're doing a fine job of helping the 
United States Congress understand the proper role of Government is to 
encourage investment, encourage business formation. And that's why the 
tax relief package we passed was so important, particularly in the face 
of a recession and in the face of an emergency. It came at the right 
time. And I want to thank the people here who worked with us to convince 
Congress to trust the people with their own money. That's really what 
the debate was about, wasn't it: Who do you want to spend your money? 
Obviously, the Government needs to spend some of it to make sure we've 
got a military and make sure we fulfill certain functions. But at this 
point in our economic history, it made sense to let you have your own 
money to spend so that the economy would grow.
    We based a lot of our decisionmaking on the knowledge that if you 
have more money in your pocket, if there's more after-tax pay in your 
pocket, you'll demand additional goods and services. And when you do so, 
in a market economy, if it's functioning properly, somebody will produce 
the goods or services. And when that happens, it kind of stabilizes the 
job base and then, eventually, allows for more people to go back to 
work. And that's what we're seeing--and that's what we're seeing.
    Much of the job growth--the stimulus package was aimed at small 
businesses, because we knew that 70 percent of new jobs are created by 
small businesses. We were aware of that. And so therefore, when we went 
to Congress, we said, ``As you reduce the tax burden on the American 
people, make sure you understand the effect that tax reductions can have 
on the decisionmakers who hire most of the new people--that would be 
your small-business owner.'' A vital part of our package was to 
encourage investment in the small-business sector of our country, and 
it's paying off.
    See, when the small-business owners of America feel confident and 
feel comfortable in investing in plant and equipment or in new services, 
it stimulates a vibrant part of our economy. That's what happens. The 
cornerstone of our policy, if the truth be known, was to trust 
individuals with their own money and to encourage the small-business 
sector to grow so people could find work.
    And we did so in two specific ways. One, we encouraged investment by 
allowing for accelerated depreciation. That basically is a fancy word 
for saying if you buy a plant or equipment or new computer programs, it 
will really cost you less because you're able to deduct it faster from 
your income. That's an important part of encouraging people to make 
investment decisions.
    The other thing was, is that we reduced all taxes. You see, our 
theory was if you pay taxes, you ought to get a tax relief, not if 
you're a certain--in a certain bracket you get tax relief. If you're 
going to have tax relief, the best, most fairest way to have tax relief 
is to say everybody gets tax relief, not just a few people. And that's 
what we did. Here in Washington, you know, there tends to be class 
warfare. It says only certain people get tax relief, or if you're 
labeled ``the rich'' you don't get tax relief. Our view was, all tax 
relief was the fairest way to do it.

[[Page 1227]]

    And all tax relief, the theory of giving everybody tax relief who 
paid taxes, was especially beneficial to the small-business owners, 
because most small businesses pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. 
See, most small businesses structure their companies as what they call 
Subchapter S companies--you work for a Subchapter S company--or sole 
proprietorships. And therefore, when you reduce individual income taxes, 
you're reducing income taxes on small businesses as well. And the more 
money a small business has in their treasury, the more likely it is 
they're going to be able to expand and hire, presuming they've got a 
good product.
    Now, Government can't make you have a good product. [Laughter] We 
can't say to you, ``Gosh, we'll help you align what you supply with 
demand.'' You've got to figure that out yourself. That's not the role of 
Government. But once you figure it out, once you've figured out how to 
meet demand in the marketplace, we can provide incentives to encourage 
you to expand. And that's what we've done. And that's why the economy is 
steady and strong. I'm telling you, people are going back to work 
because the small-businesses sector of America is strong and vibrant and 
confident.
    Ed Kostenski is with us. There he is. Ed, 
stand up and be recognized. Thank you. He is from Jacksonville, Florida. 
I said--and by the way, he's got a business called Nationwide Equipment. 
I said, ``Did you start this business?'' He said, ``Yes, at my kitchen 
table.'' It sounds pretty American to me, doesn't it? [Laughter] You 
know how many small businesses have been started at their kitchen table 
or in their garage? Thousands by, by the way, people from all walks of 
life too. Ed is one who did that. He's got an S corporation--S corp, 
which means that when he sees the--all rates get reduced, he's really 
saying, ``The Congress wisely reduced the taxes on my business.'' That's 
an important part of encouraging Ed to move on. By the way, he said that 
his--the tax relief we passed in '01 helped him stay in business. And he 
is--not only is he in business, he's adding employees this year. He's 
added 14 this year. He'll hire another six before the year is out.
    He's excited about his business. If you 
don't believe me, just go ask him after the meeting. [Laughter] He's 
moving used Caterpillars overseas. He buys them, refurbishes them, and 
finds a market and sells them, which means we'd better not have trade 
barriers. I mean, when you hear people talk about open trade, fair 
trade, and free trade, think about Ed. He's able to sell machines. 
There's a need for them. He's able to compete globally, even though he 
is a small-business owner. A lot of small businesses benefit because our 
Government has decided to open markets as opposed to close markets. It's 
an important part, by the way, of making sure America is a good place to 
do business, is to be confident in our ability to compete, so long as 
the playing fields are fair across the world, which we'll make them 
fair. That's part of my job. Ed's job is to meet demand. My job is to 
make sure he's got the ability to do so with free and fair trade.
    He will invest $300,000 this year. That's a 
lot of money for a small business. One of the reasons he says he'll do 
so is because the tax savings on that investment will be about $50,000. 
See, that's what--when you hear me talk about incentives, that's what 
the tax relief plan does. It says, ``Ed, invest 300,000 and you'll save 
50,000 from what you normally would have.'' It's called an incentive.
    And our American citizens have got to understand the connection 
between investment and jobs. When Ed invests 
$300,000 to build a warehouse and a painting facility, somebody has got 
to come and build the warehouse. Somebody has got to manufacture the 
material for the warehouse. Somebody is going to provide the new 
painting equipment for the painting facility. Investment equals jobs. 
When somebody invests, like Ed, somebody has to provide the goods

[[Page 1228]]

that he needs. And when somebody provides the goods he needs, somebody 
is working to provide the good he needs. And that's how this economy 
works. He says, ``With that money I don't send back to the IRS, I can 
expand right here.'' [Laughter] Those are his words.
    What Ed is saying is what a lot of people 
around the country tell me, is, ``I can spend my money far wiser than 
the Federal Government can.'' And I appreciate that spirit and that 
attitude. That's why the tax relief we passed was so important.
    The Maxwells are here--Joan and Owen 
Maxwell. You two know them. See, they're their 
boss. No, those aren't the Maxwells. The Maxwells are over here. There 
they are. Thanks for coming. They're from Edenton, North Carolina. 
They've got their own boat manufacturing company. I asked them how the 
fishing was off the coast of North Carolina. [Laughter] They manufacture 
center console boats. That's a pretty neat little business, isn't it? 
And they said their business is good. As a matter of fact, they're 
wisely trying to pre-sell their inventories. That's a smart idea.
    Demand is up for their boats, I suspect because they produce a good-quality 
boat at a reasonable price. If you make a lousy-quality boat at a high 
price, no one's going to buy them. [Laughter] So they're good 
businesspeople. They've added 20 workers in the last 6 months. They're 
expanding their business. They're going to invest $750,000 this year in 
molds for their boat-building business. Somebody has got to make the 
molds. There's some worker making the molds that they're buying. And the 
tax relief plan we passed will save them $100,000 on that investment.
    You see, there's a connection between good tax policy and 
decisionmaking. They're more likely to purchase $750,000 worth of molds 
when they realize they 
have $100,000 worth of savings in so doing. And that's why it's 
important for our citizens to be able to draw the connection between tax 
relief and decisionmaking that leads to more jobs.
    One of the interesting things the 
Maxwells have done--and I really appreciate 
this--is that they have teamed up with a local community college to 
devise a course to train them for people coming into their industry, the 
boat-manufacturing industry. That's a wise, wise use of a very important 
community asset, which is the community colleges.
    I've met some people in North Carolina who, because of the changing 
economy, had to go from the textile industry to the health care 
industry. A lot of people in North Carolina used to work for textiles 
and are looking for new work. And, wisely, the health care industry has 
used the community college system to train people--for really good jobs, 
by the way.
    Now, the person is going to have to want to be trained. But the 
community college and the local businesses have to provide the 
curriculum. Government, by the way, helps pay the salary in a lot of 
cases. And it's a wise use of taxpayers' money, and it's a wise use of 
local taxpayers' money, to provide training for people so they can find 
work.
    One of the real bottlenecks we're going to have in America as our 
economy changes and continues to grow is whether or not the worker is 
going to have the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. 
One of the real challenges to make sure that America is the best place 
to do business in the world, so people will be able to continue to find 
work, is to make sure our education system functions well. And one way 
to make it function well is for the Federal Government to work with 
community colleges and local businesses to devise curriculum to train 
people for the jobs which actually exist. And I want to thank 
the Maxwells for being 
a part of this kind of practical move in education all across the 
country.
    Joan says, ``There are a lot of 
opportunities where people can use these skills.

[[Page 1229]]

We're literally building our workforce for the future here.'' That's the 
way we think in the administration. We're thinking about the future. 
We're thinking about how to make sure that the momentum that we have 
developed in the economy not only stays strong in the immediate years, 
but how is it going to look 10 years from now. So we've got to start 
planning for the future. We've got to understand the decisions we're 
making today are going to make it more likely that the small-business 
sector, the entrepreneurial spirit of America will remain very strong 
tomorrow.
    And part of that is to make sure the education system not only 
teaches our youngsters how to read, write and add and subtract now, 
before it is too late, but it's also to make sure that our community 
colleges are able to put curriculum in place to train people for jobs 
which will exist.
    So I want to thank the Maxwells for being here. I appreciate your spirit, and thank you 
for hiring people.
    We've got--John Biagas is with us. John, 
thank you for coming--Newport News, Virginia. Newport News, Virginia--
John purchased his business in 1997. He took a gamble and said, ``I'm 
going to buy the business from the previous owner.'' I think he said 
they might have had a million dollars' worth of sales in 1997. They're 
over 14 now. That's pretty good growth, isn't it, in a 5-year period of 
time. This entrepreneur has taken a business that had a pretty good 
sales base, but he's expanded it 15 times in 5 years. I can't wait to 
see what you look like 5 years from now, John. [Laughter] By the way, it 
won't be very good if they raise taxes on you. See, one of the things--
if John is thinking about what his business will look like 5 years from 
now, I can predict to him if we run up the taxes on Subchapter S 
corporations by raising, for example, the top rate, his business isn't 
going to look quite as good as it would if--when we keep taxes low.
    John is an S corp. In other words, all the 
talk about running up the top rate affects his business. When you hear 
them in Washington saying, ``We're going to run up the top rate,'' just 
remember this is a tax on small businesses. And you don't want to tax 
small businesses, because small businesses are providing the economic 
momentum necessary for us to have created 1.5 million jobs since August. 
We want that job creation to continue to go on.
    Raising taxes will make it more likely somebody won't be able to 
find a job. You know why? Because it affects businesses like 
John's, that's why. When you start taking money 
out of John's coffers, it means he's less likely to expand. He is a 
full-service electrical and general contractor. That's his job. He hired 
8 people in the last 2 months. He wants to hire 8 to 10 more this year. 
That's positive.
    I think we're beginning to see a trend here. [Laughter] Small 
businesses are hiring--8 people here, 10 people there--but it adds up, 
because there's millions of small businesses all across America. Small 
business is the cornerstone of the great American enterprise system. Not 
only that, it's the cornerstone of a hopeful country, isn't it, the kind 
of country you have where John, who was one of 
14 raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana--the youngest of 14, I might add--
can go to the family reunion, which I suspect is quite large--
[laughter]--and says, ``By the way, my business is doing pretty darn 
good.'' It's a great American story, isn't it, where somebody who has a 
dream and is willing to work to realize a dream is able to do so. Our 
job is to make sure those dreams stay alive--the dreams stay alive.
    He'll save $60,000 in taxes this year on 
$350,000 of investment in new trucks. When you hear the investment 
numbers in small businesses, it is heartening, because, I repeat, when 
people invest, they create jobs. That's how jobs are created. John says, 
``The cash we're able to keep in the business helps a lot. It helps us 
look forward to the future.'' That's what he said. That's what you want 
to hear. You

[[Page 1230]]

want to hear your CEO of a small business saying, ``It helps me look 
forward to the future.'' You don't want people saying, ``Oh, gosh, life 
is going to be miserable because when we've been able to come through 
tough times.'' You want to say, ``I'm looking forward.'' Good policy in 
Washington always looks forward, not backwards.
    I'm going to talk about some things we can do to make sure, as 
John and others look forward, the environment is 
encouraging and conducive to economic investment. I just told you one, 
and that is to make sure the education system functions well. If you're 
a--somebody trying to hire people and you see that the education system 
is working well, you'll be able to look forward with confidence, because 
you'll know you'll be able to fulfill your workers' needs. You can't 
look forward if you're worried about finding somebody to meet a skill 
that you need.
    Joan Thompson is with us. She was 
talking about the level of worker--the skill level of the worker she 
needs. She's an owner in a--thank you, Joan--she's an owner in a--part-
owner of the Minnesota Wire and Cable Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. I 
say ``part-owner''--she's got nine other family members who own a piece 
of the business?
    Joan Thompson. Nine children and both 
parents----
    The President. Yes, 11 people, 11 owners. [Laughter] Family-owned 
business--it's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it, and it's got an 
American ring to it. There's a lot of family-owned businesses around our 
country. And one of the real difficulties for family-owned businesses is 
the fact that we tax a family's assets twice because of the death tax. 
It's important that Congress understand what the death tax does to 
capital formation and the ability for the small-business sector to 
invest.
    The--and I say ``you tax it twice''--when the Minnesota Wire and 
Cable Company makes a profit, it gets taxed. And I suspect you pay 
property taxes at the local level as well, and State taxes. And then 
when the--mom and dad move on, in many cases, that asset will be taxed 
again. And therefore, if the asset is illiquid, some people have to sell 
their business. You can't pass it on. I believe you ought to be able to 
pass your business on to whomever you choose without the Federal 
Government being in between you and the--and those who you designate to 
own the company.
    And so Congress, by the way, needs to hear from small-business 
owners and farmers and ranchers and--to tell Congress to complete the 
task we started. We put the death tax on the way to extinction; 
unfortunately--I think it's 2011--it pops up again. That's going to make 
the year 2010 an interesting year for estate planners. [Laughter] ``How 
do you want to handle this one,'' you know? [Laughter] ``I think I'll go 
ahead and keep on living.'' [Laughter] They just need to make the repeal 
of the death tax a permanent part of the Tax Code. It will be a major 
part of the simplification of the Tax Code too. I understand it takes up 
about 30 percent of the Tax Code, which is a real thick book. And it 
just doesn't--to me, it's bad policy. And it's bad policy for the 
Thompson family and a lot of other small-business owners around America.
    Joan's business is a custom design--
custom wire and cable assembly business. They've got customers with 
defense contractors and, particularly, health care. She likes to say, 
``We're a part of the armies of healers that are all across the country. 
We're helping people save lives.'' That's kind of a neat way to frame 
your business, isn't it?
    And it's going well. They've added 14 workers this year, tax savings 
of about $80,000 on $600,000 worth of investment. I said, ``What are you 
going to invest in?'' She said, ``Robotics.'' It's pretty interesting to 
hear a small business say, ``Robotics.'' I don't know whether small 
businesses were saying they were investing in robotics 20 years ago or 
not, but I bet they are over

[[Page 1231]]

the next 20 years if the incentives are properly structured, if small 
businesses are encouraged to invest, if the tax structure is such that 
it will make it easier for them to survive by making sure Government 
doesn't take too much of their money.
    She also invests in C&C machines. 
Everybody knows what they are. [Laughter] Somebody is making it. 
[Laughter] Somebody is a part of the manufacturing process that is 
making the C&C machine. In other words, there is a C&C machine maker--
[laughter]--that is employing people.
    And that's how it works. That's how the economy works. I've asked 
these four small-business owners to come and see us, because I want to 
share with you a couple of things. Let me tell you what she said. She 
said, ``The savings on the tax side gave us the confidence to launch 
another division in our small business.'' We're talking about investment 
in America. Investment equals jobs, and people are now confident to make 
investment because of good tax policy.
    The role of the Government is to create a sense of confidence by 
doing some smart things. In other words, the more money people have of 
their own money the more confident they'll be, particularly as this 
economy picks up steam.
    These are great stories, and I appreciate you all coming and letting 
us talk about your stories. They're uniquely American stories.
    And as we look forward with confidence, we want to make sure that we 
make good decisions. There's a couple of good decisions we need to make. 
One is--a bad decision would be to raise taxes on the American people. 
And some of the tax relief is set to expire. And if Congress doesn't 
make it permanent, that's called a tax increase. And they will be tagged 
with raising taxes on the American people. They should not raise taxes. 
We need good, consistent tax policy.
    If you're a small-business owner, you want there to be a constant in 
your life when it comes to planning. You've got too much to worry 
about--markets, your customer base--and you need to have certainty in 
the Tax Code. And the Congress needs to know that. And raising taxes 
creates uncertainty and will make it difficult for small-business owners 
to plan and invest.
    Secondly, health care costs are on the rise, and that makes it 
difficult for employer and employee. We must not allow the Federal 
Government to run our health care system in America. What we must do is 
to put good policy and plan in place, which will connect the patient-
doctor relationship and give people choices and decisionmaking powers in 
the marketplace. That's why I'm such a strong backer of health savings 
accounts. These can be tailored for small businesses. I would urge every 
small business in America to look at a health savings account. It's a 
good way to help control costs, and it's a good way to provide benefits 
for your workers.
    We need association health plans, which allows--small businesses 
will be able to share risk. And big business are able to get pretty good 
buys in health care because they're got a lot of employees. They can 
spread risk across a large number of employees. Small businesses don't 
have that same ability, unless Government allows them to share risk 
across jurisdictional boundaries. And that's what association health 
plans do.
    We need tort reform in America. Small businesses are threatened by--
if you ask people what affects their confidence in the future, they'll 
tell you, when they see junk lawsuits or have junk lawsuits filed 
against them. It threatens their existence. It makes it very difficult 
for people to plan with confidence. And let's face it, our society is 
too litigious. There's too many lawsuits, a lot of them frivolous and 
junk lawsuits. And there is a role for the Federal Government in this. 
We need to have class action reform. We need to have asbestos reform.

[[Page 1232]]

Congress needs to get these bills passed and to my desk.
    We need medical liability reform as well at the Federal level. You 
see, junk and frivolous lawsuits cause docs to practice defensive 
medicine. And defensive medicine basically means, ``I'm going to 
prescribe more procedure than needed, so that when I get in a court of 
law, I'll be able to defend myself.'' And that runs up the cost of 
medicine, which hurts the patients, and it hurts the Federal Government 
because the Federal Government pays a lot of money for health care in 
Medicare and Medicaid and our veterans' benefits. And our budgets are 
affected by frivolous and junk lawsuits here at the Federal level. 
Therefore, I think it is a Federal problem that does require a Federal 
solution. And we proposed such a solution. The House of Representatives 
passed it. It got stuck in the Senate, because the trial lawyers are 
powerful in the Senate; that's why. And for the sake of small-business 
growth and for the sake of having a good economy in the future, we need 
to convince the United States Senate to pass meaningful and real tort 
reform. It's an important part--[applause].
    And finally, if you're a small-business owner, you need to know that 
you're going to have reliable and affordable sources of energy. There's 
a lot of concern about the manufacturing sector in America, and there 
should be. But a manufacturing sector has got a real problem if there 
are disruptions of energy supply, spikes in energy prices, and doesn't 
have reliable electricity.
    And so my administration recognized this early on. And we knew that 
if we were dependent upon foreign sources of energy it would create not 
only an economic security risk but a national security risk. And so we 
proposed ways to increase conservation. We promoted new technologies 
that will come into play in the out-years that will make us less 
reliable upon foreign sources of energy. We recognized that we can 
explore for energy in environmentally-friendly ways that we couldn't 20 
years ago. We promoted new electricity reliability standards. We've done 
a lot of things. And we proposed it to the United States Congress, and, 
of course, it's stuck. They're playing politics with the national energy 
policy.
    But if we're interested in making sure people can find work in 
America, if we want to be the best place to do business, if we want the 
entrepreneurial spirit to remain strong, we've got to develop an energy 
policy that makes us less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    I've told you Ed relies upon trade. He's 
moving used Cats, used John Deere, and used Case equipment overseas. He 
said when you look at it, you can't tell it's used, though, because he's 
got such good workers. [Laughter] They take a used piece of equipment 
and redo it, make it look like new, make it run like new, and sell it 
like old. [Laughter] And as he said, ``I am a small-business guy 
utilizing free trade.''
    America must reject economic isolationism if we're going to be a 
confident, growing nation. Listen, we're good at things. Look at old 
Ed; he's good at something. [Laughter] All he 
needs is a chance to sell it. And if we fall into trade wars because of 
politics, we will be doing a disservice to the entrepreneur in America. 
We're good at growing things. Our farmers ought to be selling soybeans 
everywhere in the world. And that's what we're trying to make sure other 
countries hear this--hear the philosophy of this administration. ``We're 
opening up our markets. Open up yours.'' That's what we're telling them.
    See, we know what's good for consumers: when people have more 
choice. If you're a consumer in America and you've got more goods to 
choose from, you're going to get better quality at a better price. 
That's how it works. And so we've said--not only have I said but other 
Presidents have said--Presidents before me have said, ``For the good of 
the American consumer, sell

[[Page 1233]]

us your goods and services here in America.''
    And now you've got an administration who is saying, ``Since we do 
that for you, you open up your markets.'' I told Evans and Zoellick, ``When we 
need to get tough with foreign nations that shut us out, get tough, 
because all we're interested in is a level playing field.'' That's what 
we want. We want our people treated fairly.
    You'll hear people say, ``Well, the best way to deal with this is to 
find out ways not to trade fairly, is to isolate us.'' That would be 
terrible for small businesses. And so this administration is confident 
in America because we're confident in Americans. We know we can--we're 
really good. We're really good at building things and growing things and 
selling things. And I intend to make sure that they have a good chance 
to do so, for the sake of American workers.
    This economy of ours is steady and strong--it's steady and strong. 
It's steady and strong, which means people are going back to work--1.5 
million jobs since last August. That is steady growth. And it's steady 
and strong because the American entrepreneur is strong and capable and 
willing to take risk. The entrepreneur is employing more people. The 
entrepreneur is investing. And the role of Government is to promote good 
policy that encourages the American entrepreneur.
    And the other thing about the entrepreneurial spirit that is so 
wonderful about our country is it doesn't matter whether you're the 
fourth generation to own your business or you're a first-generation 
American. Either way, you've got the opportunity to say, ``This is my 
business. I own it. I'm going to nurture it and grow it and, therefore, 
help others to find work.'' That's the cornerstone of the Bush economic 
policy. And it's working.
    I'm glad you all are here. God bless your efforts, and may God 
continue to bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 11:08 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.