[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 25 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[Pages 765-770]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Business Community in Elizabeth, New Jersey

June 16, 2003

    Thanks for the warm New Jersey welcome. Thanks for giving me a 
chance to come by and share some thoughts with you about the challenges 
that this country faces.
    First, I'll tell you it was good to be with my dad over Father's 
Day. I hope you all had a good Father's Day as well. Spent a lot of time 
fishing together and caught a few fish--[laughter]--but thanks for 
letting me come by.
    I just came from Orange, New Jersey, and--went by the Andrea Foods 
pasta factory. That's you. The Savignanos and the Wilkinsons were there, 
Rose Marie and Michael. They're the sons and daughters of Andrea and 
Dora, who started the business. It's so refreshing to see the American 
Dream alive and well, just like it is at Andrea Foods.
    I was struck by the diversity of Orange, New Jersey. I saw a lot of 
different nationalities as I drove through. It reminded me of a couple 
of things about our country, one, that we are the land of opportunity 
and the land of hope and we will keep it that way. We're also a--part of 
being a land of opportunity means that we must continue to foster what I 
call the ownership society, to encourage value and honor, owning--people 
owning their own business or owning their own home, maybe someday owning 
their own pension plan in the security--Social Security system, having 
the right to make choices in the health care sector. Those things that 
makes America strong and unique is not only are we a hopeful land and a 
diverse land, but we're a land that honors ownership.
    Today I want to talk about the importance of small businesses. I 
want to herald the entrepreneurs. I want to say thanks to those who have 
taken risk. And I want to remind our fellow citizens that in order for 
our economy to recover, we must remember the strength and the importance 
of the small-business owner in America.
    So I want to thank all the small-business owners who are here today. 
Thank you for taking risk. Thank you for employing a lot of our fellow 
Americans. I want to thank the associations who helped put this event 
together.
    I want to thank Hector Barreto, who is the Administrator of the 
Small Business Administration. I want to thank him for his kind 
introduction. I want to thank him for his work in helping to create an 
environment in which people from all walks of life are willing to risk 
capital to own their own business.
    I want to thank the mayors who are joining us today. I want to thank 
the folks that I had a chance to visit with at Andrea Foods. I visited 
with entrepreneurs, visited with taxpayers; I mentioned Michael and Rose 
Marie. I also talked to John Cicero and the Harveys, Paul and Lisa. 
These are people who will benefit from the tax relief plan because 
they're married, because they pay taxes, and because they have children.
    And I met the Memmelaars, father and son, of Royal Master Grinder, a 
small business company right here in this part of the world. I met Pat 
Mulhern of Mulhern Belting * Company. We sat around the table, and I 
listened to the concerns of both taxpayer employee as well as small-
business owner. And the concerns are great, but the concerns can be 
solved.
    * White House correction.
    Probably the greatest concern about making sure that--that our 
country is confident

[[Page 766]]

and optimistic is to make sure the country is secure. People want to 
have a secure environment in which to risk capital. And therefore, our 
biggest challenge, or one of the biggest challenges, is to make sure 
that we continue to fight and win the war on terror.
    In Washington, DC, and at the State level and at the local level we 
all have what I call a charge to keep, which is to do everything we can 
to protect the American homeland. And that only--not only means making 
sure that we cooperate better at the Federal, State, and local level and 
do a better job with our borders and our ports to communicate better, 
but it also means that we've got to stay on the offensive. The best way 
to protect the homeland is to hunt the killers down, one at a time, and 
bring them to justice, which is what America will do.
    On September the 11th, our country was shocked--this part of the 
world was particularly shocked--at the violence, the sudden violence 
done. We were shocked into recognizing that oceans can no longer protect 
us from harm, and therefore we have the serious charge to keep.
    And we acted. This Nation acted because this Nation will not be 
intimidated. This Nation will not be blackmailed by terror. This Nation 
will do what it takes to defend something we hold dear to our hearts, 
and that is our freedom. And we acted. We acted on a doctrine that says, 
``We will bring you to justice because of what you did to the American 
citizens. And if, by the way, if you harbor a killer, if you feed a 
killer, if you hide a killer, you're just as guilty as the killer.'' We 
acted, and the Taliban no longer is in power in Afghanistan, which is 
not only good for the security of the free world; it is incredibly good 
for the people who suffered in Afghanistan under barbaric rule.
    This Nation acted to a threat from the dictator of Iraq. Now, there 
are some who would like to rewrite history; revisionist historians is 
what I like to call them. Saddam Hussein was a threat to America and the 
free world in '91, in '98, in 2003. He continually ignored the demands 
of the free world, so the United States and friends and allies acted. 
And one thing is for certain--and this is for certain: Saddam Hussein is 
no longer a threat to the United States and our friends and allies.
    We've got a lot of brave troops still on the move, still looking for 
terrorists. We're cooperating with our friends and allies. We're sharing 
intelligence. We're running down their money trails. But one thing is 
certain for the American people to know, that this Government will use 
whatever technologies and skill is necessary to secure America by 
hunting down those who would harm us, one person at a time. It is a 
charge we have been given, and it is a charge we will keep.
    We also had to deal with an economy which was not as strong as it 
was--that we wanted it to be. My attitude is, if somebody is looking for 
work and they can't find a job, we got an issue. And therefore, we 
acted. I went in front of the United States Congress when I first got 
elected and said, ``This Nation is--looks like it's in recession. We 
need to let people have more of their own money in order to stall off 
the recession.''
    You see, when the economy is grinding down, when it's not as strong 
as it should be, when demand is lax, the best way to deal with an 
economic slowdown is to let people have more of their own money, is let 
people spend their own money, increase demand for goods and services, 
which is exactly what we did. And we had one of the shallowest 
recessions in our Nation's history as a result of the tax relief plan.
    But then the terrorists hit us. September the 11th was a shock not 
only to our national conscious; it hurt our economy. And we began to get 
our bearings and get our feet on the ground, and then another shock 
happened to America. We discovered that some of our corporate citizens 
forgot what it meant to be a responsible leader. Some of our corporate 
leaders didn't tell the truth, tried to fudge the facts, weren't honest 
with the shareholders and their employees. And that hurt the confidence 
of our economy. By the way, they will pay a price for not telling the 
truth.
    But we needed more action, so I went in front of the Congress this 
year and I said, ``Let's come together. Let's set aside all the party 
politics and partisan bickering and remember why we're in Washington in 
the first place. We're there to do what's right for the

[[Page 767]]

American people. We must care about how to help somebody find work. 
That's what we ought to be focused on, not partisanship but what's right 
for the American people.''
    And thankfully, enough of us got together and passed a tax relief 
plan that will allow the American people to have more money in their 
pocket, that will encourage businesses to make more investment, and that 
says to investors, ``We want you to invest more.'' The tax relief 
proposal was based on a simple principle. It starts with, the money we 
spend in Washington is not the Government's money; it's the people's 
money.
    And when you've got additional money in your pocket, you're going to 
demand a good or a service. And when you demand a good or a service in 
this economy, somebody is going to meet that demand. Somebody will 
produce the good or a service. And when that happens, somebody is more 
likely to find work. That's the basis of the tax relief plan, the jobs-
and-growth package that I proposed and that was passed.
    And here's what was accomplished. We've lowered taxes all across the 
board, so that people have more take-home pay. And that's important, not 
only for the individual consumer and the taxpayer, but that's equally 
important for small businesses. And the reason it's important for small 
business is most small businesses are Subchapter S or sole 
proprietorships, which means they pay taxes at the individual level. So 
when you hear me talk about reducing individual tax rates, the American 
people have got to understand that means capital infusion into the small 
businesses of America, which means somebody is more likely to find work 
when small businesses have more money to invest and more money to spend.
    The child tax credit has been expanded from $1,000--to $1,000 from 
$600, and the $400 differential will be in the mail by July. I was going 
to say, ``Check's in the mail.'' [Laughter] Better be in the mail. 
[Laughter] Somebody might be looking for work in Washington. [Laughter]
    We reduced the marriage penalty, which helps a million New Jersey 
couples. We have cut the top rate of taxes of dividends and capital 
gains to 15 percent. Small businesses under the bill that I signed can 
deduct up to $100,000--up from $25,000--in new equipment from their 
taxes. And if they invest more than $100,000, they qualify for a 50-
percent bonus depreciation that further reduces the cost of investment.
    These are important incentives for economic vitality and growth. 
These are so important that people like Andrea Foods is now 
contemplating new capital investment. They're contemplating buying new 
machines that will make their business more productive. Productivity is 
an important part of any small business. It enables you to better 
compete. It means it's more likely you'll have a stable workforce. It 
means you can get a better return on dollars spent.
    These good folks at Andrea make 1,200 pounds of pasta every minute. 
I saw a lot of calories grinding through. [Laughter] Yet, Rose Marie and 
Michael are not satisfied with the production level of their company. 
They want to expand. They want to make more jobs available in the 
neighborhood in which they work. They want to be able to compete better. 
And so they're now contemplating a new--buying a new pasta cooker and a 
new flash freezer, which will expand their production by 50 percent. 
They took a look at the tax relief plan; they calculated the benefits; 
they said, ``It makes sense for us to buy new machinery so that we can 
expand.''
    And that's really important. It's not only important for their 
business. It's likely that if this--if all goes well, they'll add 20 
more employees. But it's pretty darn important for the person who's 
going to manufacture their machine and sell it to them. In other words, 
their decision has more to--has much more to do than just inside their 
own business. Their decision affects other people as well, and that's 
why this part of the law is so important.
    And so when Michael turns around and orders a pasta cooker, he may 
talk to John at MBC Food and Machinery in Hackensack, New Jersey. After 
all, they've been doing business with each other for quite a while. At 
least their dads have been doing business with each other for quite a 
while. They've had a history of working together.

[[Page 768]]

    But would--John has seven employees busy on the--would keep seven 
more employees busy if this machine order comes in. And he's excited 
about it, obviously. He's hoping Michael makes the right decision. 
[Laughter] Maybe we can arrange a contract right here. [Laughter]
    But it all happened as a result for Congress coming together and 
asking the fundamental questions, ``How do we get this economy going 
again? What can we do that's wise enough to encourage investment, 
particularly at the small-business level?'' The ability to expense 
capital dollars more quickly for small businesses and in greater amounts 
for small businesses is an incredibly important part of economic growth 
because small businesses provide most of the new jobs created in 
America.
    And that was the common story I heard this morning by the small-
business owners, ``We intend to take advantage of the smart things you 
did in the Tax Code in order to increase employment and to make sure our 
businesses are more productive.''
    We've also got other problems that we need to deal with here in 
America to make sure our small businesses grow. One of those problems is 
too many lawsuits. People are getting sued too often. We've had some 
abuse in the class action lawsuits, which make life more expensive here 
in America. And I appreciate very much the House of Representatives 
dealing with this issue. And I strongly support the measures they took, 
the reform on class action, which makes the--easier for class action 
suits to end up in Federal court. This has got better restraint on the 
excesses that sometimes take place as a result of class action lawsuits.
    In other words, in order--if you get into Federal court, it makes it 
easier to stop lawyers from shopping around the country looking for a 
favorable court. Because generally what happens is, in a class action 
suit, the people who are suing get very little and the lawyers filing 
the suit get a whole lot. And that doesn't seem fair to the Congress, 
and it doesn't seem fair to me, and the Senate needs to act.
    I'm concerned and mindful about what paperwork and regulations do to 
small businesses. So I put out an Executive order that requires all 
Federal regulatory agencies to minimize the burden on our small 
businesses. And I expect Hector to make sure that the burden is 
minimized on the small businesses. We've got an issue e-mailing--
[applause].
    I'm concerned about the fact that we don't have a national energy 
policy. You know, this country has made a wise decision to protect our 
air and water, and that's good. In order to protect our air, many of the 
powerplants have switched to natural gas. Natural gas is a clean-burning 
fuel.
    The problem is, we don't have a policy that encourages the 
exploration for natural gas, so demand is going up for natural gas and 
supply isn't. And that's why you're seeing the price rise. We need 
commonsense energy policy in America. We need an energy policy that 
makes us less dependent on foreign sources of energy, and we need an 
energy policy that uses our technologies in such a way that we can 
explore, in environmentally safe ways, for additional supplies of 
natural gas. When demand for a product goes up and supply doesn't follow 
that demand, prices will rise.
    The Congress must act. I have proposed commonsense, reasonable 
energy policy for America. The House has passed a bill. The Senate is 
debating the bill. For the sake of American consumers and small 
businesses, we need a national energy policy.
    I understand the cost of health insurance to small businesses. I 
understand the need for us to put good policy in place that doesn't 
nationalize health care, that doesn't make the Federal Government the 
end-all for health care, but a policy that addresses concerns. For 
example, health clinics for the poor all across America are necessary to 
take the strain off of small businesses as well as community hospitals. 
We need to have associate health care plans to allow small businesses to 
come together and pool risk, which will take the pressure of rising 
premiums.
    We need to help our docs. If one of the things we need is accessible 
and affordable health care, it makes sense to push for medical liability 
reform. We got too many junk lawsuits that cause docs--[applause]. In a 
litigious society, particularly for doctors, doctors and hospitals will 
practice what's called

[[Page 769]]

preventative medicine. They will do tests--ask for tests, perform tests, 
just to protect themselves in a court of law. And that's expensive. And 
that becomes expensive for consumers. And then, of course, these 
lawsuits will cause doctors' premiums to go up. And that causes the 
consumers to have to pay more. Or in some cases, it causes doctors not 
to practice medicine. It drives them out of business. If you're 
interested in having a health care system that is--provides affordable 
and accessible health care, you ought to join the efforts to have 
medical liability reform.
    Now, when I came to Washington, DC, I took a look at the issue and I 
said, well--you know, having been a Governor, I said, ``Well, maybe 
these issues ought to be solved at the State level.'' Then I looked at 
the impact on our budgets. Preventative medicine and the high cost of 
litigation drives up the cost of Medicaid, drives up the cost of 
Medicare, drives up the cost of providing veterans with health care.
    I've come to the conclusion that all these lawsuits are a national 
issue and therefore require a national solution, and I've sent up an 
idea to the United States Congress that says that people ought to have 
their day in court; bad docs certainly ought to be punished; people 
ought to recover economic damages, but there ought to be a hard cap on 
non-economic damages and there ought to be a reasonable cap on punitive 
damages. In order to be able to get a handle on the cost--rising cost of 
health care, we ought to let our docs practice medicine without fear of 
a junk and frivolous lawsuit.
    Finally, when I get back to Washington here in an hour, I'm going to 
start again working on the Medicare reform package. I believe that this 
Nation can set aside the old-style politics and come together and make 
sure our seniors have got a health care system that is modern, that 
includes prescription drugs, and that allows our seniors the same 
opportunity that Federal employees have, which is the ability to choose 
a plan that best meets their needs. Listen, if choice in health care is 
good enough for Members of the United States Congress and their 
employees, it ought to be good enough for the seniors of the United 
States of America.
    We've got issues, but we're going to deal with them. We've got 
challenges, but there's no doubt in my mind we can overcome them. 
There's been a lot of talk around the world about the muscle of the 
United States of America, and we're pretty strong. But our military 
muscle is not the true strength of America. I mean, there's no question 
about it, we've got the capacity to fight and win war and therefore make 
the world more peaceful. There's no question about it, because of our 
technologies and the skill and bravery of our troops, we can now target 
the guilty and protect the innocent.
    But those who focus only on that don't really understand America. 
The strength of America is the heart of the American people. The 
strength of this country is the great compassion of the people who live 
here. Today when I got off the Air Force One, I met Marisa Fountainhas. 
You probably never heard of Marisa. She is a graduate of New Jersey 
Institute of Technology. But the reason I bring her up is because she 
volunteered at the St. John's soup kitchen. She decided that a patriotic 
American is somebody who does more than just put their hand over their 
heart and pay taxes or--hopefully less taxes now--[laughter]--but 
somebody who is willing to serve something greater than themselves.
    At the same time, Scott Stevens was there. You probably heard of old 
Scott. He just happened to win the Stanley Cup. The reason the two go 
together is because Marisa was recognized by the New Jersey Devils 
Foundation for her desire to make a difference in somebody's life and, 
therefore, was awarded a college scholarship. Marisa, thank you for 
coming. I'm glad you're here.
    But Scott volunteers as well. He's knocking heads on the ice, and 
then he's trying to save lives off the ice. [Laughter] He volunteers at 
the School Assembly Program. In other words, he's using his position to 
make a difference in somebody's life.
    There are people who hurt in America, people who wonder whether or 
not the American Dream is meant for them, people who hear the word 
``entrepreneurship'' and not sure what the heck that means. Our 
attitude--or my attitude is, so long as one of us hurt, we all hurt. And 
therefore, we have

[[Page 770]]

a responsibility as Americans to put our arms around somebody who hurts. 
And each of us can make a difference. The true strength of this country 
is the fact that there are millions of Marisas all across America, who 
without a Government law or without the President picking up the phone 
and saying, ``Would you help somebody in need,'' are doing it on their 
own. And as a result, this society is and can and will continue to 
change, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time, so that the 
bright lights of hope of this great country will be able to shine in 
every neighborhood, in every part of our land.
    No, listen, we're tough, which will make the world a more peaceful 
place and a more free place. But the true strength of the country, the 
true strength of America, happens when a neighbor loves a neighbor just 
like they'd like to be loved themselves, and it happens every day in 
America.
    Thank you all for coming. May God bless you, and may God continue to 
bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:47 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the 
Wyndham Newark Airport Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Rose Marie 
Wilkinson and Michael Savignano, co-owners, Andrea Foods, and their 
parents Andrea and Dora Savignano; John Cicero, machinist, MBC Food 
Machinery; Paul Harvey, manager, Royal Master Grinder, and his wife, 
Lisa; John Memmelaar, Sr., president and chief executive officer, and 
John Memmelaar, Jr., salesperson, Royal Master Grinder; Pat Mulhern, 
owner, Mulhern Belting, Inc.; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; 
Marisa Fountainhas, New Jersey Nets and Devils Foundation scholarship 
recipient; and Scott Stevens, team captain, New Jersey Devils. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.