    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
    [April 18, 2008]
    [Pages 523-529]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the America's Small Business Summit
    April 18, 2008

        Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate you being here in the
    Nation's Capital. I know most of you have come from out of town, which
    is good. It means you're brave souls to be here on tax week. [Laughter]
    The Holy Father was here as well, which is
    good, because it will take a miracle to keep the IRS out of your pocket.
    [Laughter]
        It's been a fabulous week, and I do welcome you here. And I want to
    thank you for being dreamers and doers. One of the reasons I spend a lot
    of time talking about our small-business owners in America is because I
    truly believe you represent what makes America great, and it's the idea
    to have your own dreams, form your own businesses, create employment
    opportunities for citizens in the communities in which you live.
        I grew up in Midland, and, gosh, I remember a lot of the--
    [applause]. There

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    you go. I remember--it's not exactly the biggest city in America. On the
    other hand, it's the kind of place that you know the--you knew the local
    shop person or the--my friend Jackie Hanks's Uncle Brutus had the local
    grocery store. And it was just that fabric of the community was the
    small-business owners.
        And so I'm so thrilled you're here. I really appreciate you giving
    me a chance to come and visit some--talk some policy with you. I
    appreciate Tom for introducing me--
    president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber. They do great work in Washington,
    DC, trying to make sure that there is no harm and that there is good
    policy in order to encourage people to invest and save.
        I want to thank my friend Andy Card
    who's here. Thanks for being here, Andy--my Chief of Staff in the first
    4 years of the Presidency, did a fabulous job. He's a decent, honorable
    man, a guy I'm proud to call friend.
        You know, this summit's occurring at a very trying time for our
    economy. You know that better than anybody else. We had--we've had a
    good run. I mean, we had 52 months of uninterrupted job growth, and
    that's a record. And now our economy has slowed. It's--businesses are
    being squeezed by high energy prices and high health care prices.
    Workers and families are anxious on a variety of fronts, including
    mortgage--making mortgage bills and higher price for food and gasoline.
    It's a tough time for America.
        The--you know, we saw this coming. Last I can remember is talking to
    our team last year, and they said, there's a slowdown coming. And so we
    took some action. And I do want to thank Members of the Congress and
    members of the chamber for working on a--what I believe is going to be a
    very effective progrowth stimulus package. Now, we actually showed that
    it's possible for Republicans and Democrats to set aside the political
    wrangling that takes place here in Washington and focus on what's best
    for the American people.
        And I want to describe this package to you and to remind our fellow
    citizens that soon, a significant amount of money will be coming in
    their mailboxes, which is going to help the small-business sector. It's
    going to help families, and it's going to help the small-business
    sector, which helps the American economy. After all, you create 70
    percent of the new jobs in America. And so the first thing that's going
    to happen is, is that the consumers will get a boost, in that tax
    rebates will be sent out to about 130 million American households. Now,
    these rebates will return up to $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married
    couples, and $300 per child. When the rebates start to go out in a
    couple of weeks--which they haven't started to go out yet; Secretary
    Paulson tells me by the second week of May, the money is going to start
    moving--a family of four could receive a tax rebate up to $1,800.
        Now, here in Washington, that's like--people say, that's not very
    much money. Well, if you're out there worrying about your--about meeting
    bills or saving for your kids' education, that's a lot of money. And the
    purpose is to make a difference to the families and to encourage them
    and give them confidence so they can go spend, you know, buy products
    from you.
        Secondly, the stimulus package provides incentives for business to
    invest in new plant and equipment and new technologies. Entrepreneurs
    like yourself should use this incentive to expand your business; it's
    the whole purpose of it. And the reason why we're trying to provide
    incentives for businesses, both large and small, is because when you
    have the incentive to go purchase a piece of equipment, somebody has got
    to make the equipment. It has a ripple effect throughout the economy.
    And this stimulus package has been in place for about 2 months, and
    small businesses are beginning to use it.

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        I had the honor of meeting Darlene Miller. You may know Darlene. She's from a--she's got a
    manufacturing concern in Minnesota called Permac Industries. She is--
    bought the company 14 years ago, and since then, she's expanded it
    dramatically. She's nearly doubled her manufacturing space last year,
    and now she needs some equipment to fill the space. And so thanks to the
    stimulus package, she told me she's going to purchase much of that
    equipment this year instead of spacing it out over time. In other words,
    the incentives have encouraged Darlene to make a purchase this year. She
    expects these investments to expand manufacturing capacity by 25
    percent, and then she plans to hire at least five more workers.
        The reason I bring up this example is this how--this is how
    incentives work. Darlene was incented--
    received an incentive to purchase machinery, to fill some space, to make
    sure she becomes more competitive. And in so doing, it not only causes
    somebody else to have to make the machinery, but she's now going to hire
    more people. She also had a pretty good achievement at--and she received
    another good achievement, I understand. After all, she's the Chamber of
    Commerce's National Small Business Owner of the Year.
        And I met a guy named Tom Sawner. Now,
    he's an old fighter pilot, which means there's no wall he can run
    through. He's a doer, an achiever, and he's got him a small business
    called Educational Options. And he provides web-based curricula to
    schools all across the country. He is purchasing new computers, servers,
    routers, and cars to expand his business because of the stimulus
    package, because of the incentives.
        He said the stimulus plan has helped
    give him the confidence to expand his workforce. This year, so far, he
    has hired four new employees, and he plans to bring on a dozen more. In
    his words, he said that the stimulus package has made a huge difference.
    And the stimulus package is making a huge difference because small-
    business owners, like the two I mentioned, are taking advantage of the
    stimulus plan to boost investment, which then helps boost jobs.
        It's going to take awhile for these changes to be reflected in our
    economy. The advisers--economic advisers and many outside experts
    believe that much of the impact of the stimulus will be felt starting in
    the third quarter, which begins in July. That's what the experts say.
    There should be no doubt in anybody's mind, though, that we'll recover
    from this slowdown. And we're going to bounce back strong, and the small
    businesses of America are going to lead the way.
        We designed this package so it would be temporary and robust enough
    to have an effect. And so we need to be thinking in the longer term as
    well. And one way that--I mean, one thing Congress has got to understand
    is that there is--what small-business owners don't need is uncertainty.
    And one place where there's uncertainty is in the Tax Code, as well as
    trade. And I want to spend some time on taxes and trade today.
        We've--as Tom mentioned, we've cut
    taxes. And I truly believe in the philosophy that you can spend your own
    money better than the government can. Obviously, there's a--[applause]--
    we've got needs in Washington, DC. We're fighting a war. We want to make
    sure our troops are well funded. We want to take care of those who can't
    help themselves. I mean, there's serious needs. But I also know that the
    more money that's available in Washington, the more people will figure
    out how to spend it.
        And I truly believe what I mean: I think it's important for
    government to trust the collective wisdom of the American people. And
    that's why I was such a strong believer in tax relief. I also knew that
    we needed to make sure you had more money in your treasuries to help us
    get out of a recession,

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    to recover from war and corporate scandal and natural disasters.
        The--I'm also confident a lot of people in America may have
    forgotten what it was like before the tax relief. And the problem is, is
    that we're on schedule for there to be an unpleasant reminder of what it
    was like before tax relief, because unless Congress acts, almost all the
    tax relief we delivered will expire in 2010. If Congress were to let
    this happen, tax rates will rise across the board, the marriage penalty
    will return in full force, the child tax credit will be cut in half, and
    every income payer--income tax payer in America will receive a tax hike.
        What I don't think a lot of people in Washington fully understand is
    that small-business owners are going to bear a heavy burden if the tax
    rates go back up. And the reason why is, is that most small-business
    owners are subchapter S corporations or partnerships or LLCs that pay
    their business taxes at individual rates. So if the individual rates go
    up, it directly affects millions of small businesses in America.
        Taxes on capital gains and dividends would go up, which would
    discourage the investment you need to expand. And the death tax would
    come back to life. The--overall, it is estimated that small-business
    owners would face an average tax increase of more than $4,000 per year.
    That would stifle enterprise; it would hurt workers. The last thing
    small-business owners need is higher taxes. I believe strongly that to
    make sure this economy recovers and stays strong, there needs to be
    certainty in the Tax Code. And the best way for Congress to make sure
    there's certainty is to make the tax relief we passed permanent.
        I want to talk--spend a little time on trade. Last year--and this is
    important for you to understand--last year, exports accounted for more
    than 40 percent of our growth. This is a critical contribution to our
    economy at any time, but especially now. With the economy slowing,
    exports are providing a valuable contribution to economic activity. And
    Congress has an opportunity to expand access to key export markets.
        In other words, there's an opportunity for Congress to say that
    let's continue to have this kind of economic vitality, as a result of
    exports, permeate throughout our economy. And they've got an opportunity
    with--to vote on trade agreements with three democratic allies and
    friends: Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.
        I want to spend some time talking about Colombia today because this
    is the first of these agreements to be considered. Unfortunately,
    leaders on Capitol Hill seem to have put special interests ahead of the
    economic and strategic interests of our Nation, because the Speaker of
    the House recently changed House rules in the
    middle of the game so she can put off a vote on the Colombia free trade
    agreement. If this decision stands, it will kill the agreement, and
    American small-business owners and workers will likely be hurt the most.
        And here's why. Almost all of Colombia's exports to the United
    States enter our country duty free, but the 9,000 American businesses
    that export to Colombia, including 8,000 small and midsized firms, face
    substantial tariffs on their products. The Congress has passed laws in
    the past that enable Colombian goods to come here duty free; the vast
    majority of our products face taxes to go into their countries. And most
    of the people facing those taxes are small-business owners.
        And this problem is easy to resolve. The free trade agreement would
    immediately eliminate most tariffs on American exports to Colombia.
    That's what the free trade agreement does. My attitude is, just treat us
    the way we treat you. All we want to do is have a level playing field in
    which to compete. By level the playing field--by leveling the playing
    field, American products would be more competitive in Colombia, and it
    would help American businesses.

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        It turns out that if you're an exporter, your workers are likely to
    get paid more money. It's good for American workers to be working for
    companies that export into other markets, and it's good for small
    businesses. Yet after 500 days that we signed the agreement with
    Colombia, the one-sided trading relationship remains in place because
    the Congress has failed to act.
        The obstruction has another consequence. Congress is signaling to a
    watching hemisphere--people in the hemisphere, our own neighborhood, are
    watching to see how the United States Congress reacts to our friends.
    They're wondering whether or not America can be trusted to support our
    friends.
        And we've got a friend in President Uribe of Colombia. He's a steadfast ally. He has transformed
    his country from the brink of a failing state to a stable democracy with
    a growing economy. He has partnered with the United States of America in
    the fight against drugs and terror. He has responded to virtually every
    request of the United States Congress, including revising the free trade
    agreement to include some of the most rigorous labor and environmental
    protections in history. He's done all this while under violent assault
    from a terrorist organization called FARC, and he's done all this facing
    intimidation from anti-American regimes in the region.
        It's hard to imagine any leader in the world who has proven more
    worthy of our support and friendship. Yet Congress's response is to
    complain that Colombia still has not done enough. In particular, some
    Members of Congress have charged that the Colombian Government is not
    doing enough to prevent violence against unionists. Well, President
    Uribe has taken historic measures to
    reduce violence against unionists. As a results, according to the
    Colombian Government, Colombian unionists are now less likely to be
    homicide victims than members of the general population. And as
    President Uribe has made clear, one of the best ways to improve security
    even further is to provide more jobs, which is exactly what a free trade
    agreement will do. By rejecting this agreement after all Colombia has
    done, leaders in Congress would send a terrible message.
        They had an editorial in the Washington Post the other day that
    summed up Congress's message this way: ``Drop Dead, Colombia.'' Well,
    the congressional leadership's decision to turn its back on Colombia is
    especially hypocritical because Democrats are often the loudest voices
    for more diplomacy and greater sensitivity to our allies. The Colombia
    agreement is a textbook example of this approach, and yet the
    Speaker chose to use unprecedented tactics to
    kill it.
        Leaders in Congress have made a serious error. It's a serious error
    for economic reasons, and it's a serious error for security reasons.
    They have--it's not too late, however, for them to get it right. This
    week, a long list of senior officials from Democratic administrations
    and Democrats from previous Congresses signed a letter urging Congress
    to approve this agreement this year. And they wrote, ``We feel that the
    treaty should be considered as soon as possible and that any obstacles
    be quickly and amicably resolved.'' I couldn't agree more. I urge the
    leaders in Congress to reconsider their position and recognize the
    stakes at hand and approve the Colombia agreement as soon as possible.
        There are other things we can do to help small businesses weather
    the difficult time and, equally importantly, remain competitive for a
    long time to come. One, Congress should work to make health care more
    affordable and available by expanding health savings accounts, by
    confronting junk medical lawsuits that are running good doctors out of
    practice and running up the cost of health care for small businesses,
    allowing businesses--small businesses to pool together across State
    lines--it's called association health plans--across State lines to get
    the same discounts on health insurance that big businesses get.

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        We're working with Congress, and I've been working with the folks in
    my administration, to help people who are creditworthy stay in their
    homes. There's a--I think it's very important that we not help
    speculators, but there are a lot of people that are wondering how to
    renegotiate their mortgage. I've explained to people, when I bought my
    first home in Midland, there was actually things such as savings and
    loans. And the person that actually lent the money owned the note. Well,
    these days, the people who are lending the money don't own the notes,
    and so it's difficult if you want to renegotiate to figure out who to
    renegotiate with.
        And so we've set up a plan called the HOPE NOW Alliance to help
    creditworthy homeowners renegotiate so they can deal with these reset
    mortgages and stay in their homes. We want people owning their home. We
    want people owning a businesses; we want people owning their own homes.
    We want to help them stay. And Congress can help by passing responsible
    legislation that modernizes the Federal Housing Administration, reforms
    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, allows State housing agencies to issue tax-
    free bonds to refinance subprime mortgages. There's a way to help
    people.
        Congress ought to help and, you know, prepare the workforce for the
    21st century. One of the concerns of Congress is that trade causes
    people to lose jobs. I understand that concern. That's why I'm a
    supporter of trade adjustment assistance. Congress needs to work with
    leaders of both parties to get a good trade adjustment assistance bill
    to my desk that I can sign into law.
        I also strongly believe that we want to make sure the No Child Left
    Behind Act continues to work. It's a--you measure every day; that's why
    you're successful businesspeople. I mean, you know what your business is
    doing. I believe we ought to extend that same principle to our public
    schools and ask a simple question: Can a child read at grade level? And
    in order to determine that, that's why you measure. And if the answer is
    yes, we all say, great. If the answer is no, the next question ought to
    be, then what are you going to do about it? And so the principle behind
    the No Child Left Behind Act is to set high standards, believe every
    child can learn, and measure to see if we're getting results. And
    Congress need not weaken such a good piece of legislation.
        And finally, one issue that you need to be aware of is that--is the
    issue on secret ballots when it comes to allowing workers to vote their
    conscience on whether to form a union or to remain unaffiliated.
    Congress is now considering--it passed out of the House, and the Senate,
    I'm told, is going to take this up. And I just want to put this on our
    collective radar screens, that Congress is considering card check
    legislation that would strip workers of a fundamental right--that is the
    right for secret ballot as to--whether to unionize or not. This bill
    would expose workers to intimidation, it violates the principles of our
    democracy, and if it were to reach my desk, I will veto it.
        The purpose of good policy in Washington should be to unleash the
    entrepreneurial spirit of the country. You can't make somebody an
    entrepreneur from government, but you can create an environment which
    encourages risk-taking and enables people to keep more of what they
    earn, lets somebody stay more in the shop than in the courthouse, helps
    people help their workers.
        We--and so some of the policies that I've just outlined are all
    aimed at creating an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurship.
    I was--I see all kinds of amazing things when I'm President; I read
    about them, of course. I love meeting with our entrepreneurs, and I love
    hearing the stories about how businesses get started. And a lot of
    times, believe it or not, there is--as I'm sure you know, that they all
    happen, like, at a kitchen table. And sure

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    enough, out of that simple idea and hard work--because I understand as
    well as anybody how hard it is to build a small business. I mean, it's
    not--it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of focus and
    patient spouses and sometimes spouses actually watching the money to
    make sure the other spouse doesn't blow it. [Laughter]
        So how about this guy. He is a guy who paid his way through college,
    and he--by diving into water hazards and selling the golf balls that he
    found. And evidently, he had this dream, and so he graduated and decided
    to take his idea and make it into an Internet golf shop. And it's a
    prosperous business, and he's creating jobs.
        Now, he didn't need a government program to figure out how to do
    that, it's his ingenuity. It was his desires to not only pay his own
    college education but then to convert that into something that would be
    good for consumers--obviously, if it wasn't good for consumers, he
    wouldn't have much of a business history--good for the people he's
    employed. And all he needed was the ability to dream and willingness to
    work hard. And this is what defines our country. It's the spirit that
    makes America so unique and so great. And that spirit is found in the
    room.
        And our--the role of government is to never stifle that spirit, is
    to encourage the spirit, reward the spirit, and always pay--and always
    remind our citizens that we are a vibrant and prosperous and hopeful
    nation, because we are a land blessed with vibrant and hopeful people.
        God bless you, and thanks for letting me come by.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:12 a.m. at the Renaissance Washington,
    DC Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Pope Benedict XVI; Thomas J.
    Donohue, president and chief executive officer, U.S. Chamber of
    Commerce; Darlene M. Miller, president and chief executive officer,
    Permac Industries; and Thomas E. Sawner, president and chief executive
    officer, Educational Options, Inc.