[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
[January 21, 2006]
[Pages 99-100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
January 21, 2006

    Good morning. This past Thursday, I visited a thriving company in 
Loudoun County, Virginia, named JK Moving & Storage. I met with the 
owners and workers and with small-business people from the area, and I 
discussed my agenda to keep America's economy growing and to help our 
small businesses stay vibrant and strong.
    Our agenda for growing the economy and helping small businesses 
starts with wise tax policy. Our economy grows when American workers and 
families can keep more of their hard-earned money to spend, save, and 
invest as they see fit. Small businesses create most of the new jobs in 
our country, and tax relief helps them as well, because most small 
businesses pay taxes at individual income tax rates.
    So after I took office, we cut taxes on everyone who pays income 
taxes, leaving more money in the hands of workers and families and 
giving small businesses more resources to expand and hire. We increased 
the tax incentives for small businesses to invest in new equipment, and 
we cut taxes on dividends and capital gains. We also put the death tax 
on the road to extinction, because farmers and small-business owners 
should not be taxed twice after a lifetime of work.
    Thanks to tax relief, spending restraint, and the hard work of 
America's entrepreneurs and workers, our economy today is strong. We've 
added over 400,000 jobs in the last 2 months and over 4.6 million jobs 
since May 2003. Our unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, lower than the 
average rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Our economy grew at 4.1 
percent in the third quarter of 2005, and it has been growing at nearly 
that rate for 2 years. Real after-tax income has grown 7 percent per 
person since 2001. Productivity is high; inflation is contained; 
consumers are confident; and more Americans now own their homes than at 
any time in our Nation's history.
    Unfortunately, just as we are seeing how our tax cuts have created 
jobs and opportunity, some in Washington want to repeal the tax relief. 
Others want to just let it expire in a few years. Either way, they want 
to raise your taxes. If that happens, families across America would see 
their taxes increase dramatically. Small businesses would also pay 
higher taxes, which would mean less money to hire workers and buy new 
equipment. To keep our economy growing and our small-business sector 
strong, we need to ensure that you keep more of what you earn, so 
Congress needs to make the tax cuts permanent.
    For the sake of America's small businesses, workers, and families, 
we must also make health care more affordable and accessible. A new 
product known as health savings accounts helps control costs by allowing 
businesses or workers to buy low-cost insurance policies for 
catastrophic events and then save, tax free, for routine medical 
expenses. This year, I will ask Congress to take steps to make these 
accounts

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more available, more affordable, and more portable. Congress also needs 
to pass association health plans, which allow small businesses across 
the country to join together and pool risk so they can buy insurance at 
the same discounts big companies get.
    Our small businesses are confronting other challenges that we must 
address. Too many entrepreneurs face the threats of costly junk 
lawsuits. Last year, we passed bipartisan class-action reform to ease 
this burden. Now Congress needs to curb abusive asbestos litigation, 
pass medical liability reform to reduce the costs of frivolous 
litigation on our doctors and patients, and penalize those who abuse the 
legal system by repeatedly filing junk lawsuits.
    Rising energy costs are also a concern for small businesses, so 
we're going to continue to work to develop new technologies and 
alternative and renewable fuels that will make us less dependent on 
foreign sources of energy. And we will continue to open up new markets 
for small businesses so they can sell their products and services 
overseas. On a level playing field, I know our workers, farmers, and 
businesses can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere.
    America's economy is strong and growing stronger. Small businesses 
have been a driving force behind the tremendous growth and job creation 
of recent years. By adopting sound policies that help our small 
businesses continue to grow and expand, we will keep the economy moving 
forward and extend prosperity and hope in our country.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:50 a.m. on January 20 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on January 21. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
January 20 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.