[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 4 (Monday, February 4, 2008)]
[Pages 132-135]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Robinson Helicopter Company in Torrance, California

January 30, 2008

    Thank you all. So my daughters are going to be envious I was 
introduced by Arnold. [Laughter] I appreciate you, Governor. Thanks for 
your strong leadership; thanks for your friendship. You know, California 
is a really important State for our country, and I think a lot of 
Californians appreciate the fact that you're steady at the helm. Thank 
you for having us.
    Frank, thank you very much for your hospitality. Some say, ``Why do 
you want to come to Robinson Helicopter Company?'' Well, first, I love 
entrepreneurs and dreamers. And your boy told me that you dreamt about a 
company, and you started it in your kitchen. Isn't it interesting? The 
company was started in the kitchen, and now he's got the Terminator 
coming by to herald the success. [Laughter] I mean, this is--I love 
America, because we stand for dreams that can be accomplished.
    And so the first reason I'm here is, I want to congratulate the 
Robinsons for living a dream and for giving people good work. Arnold and 
I had the pleasure of working the floor and shaking hands with people 
who are making a living for their families. And so you're building good 
helicopters, but more importantly, you're providing people a chance to 
work, and I appreciate that a lot.
    The other reason I'm here is, I want to spend a little time talking 
about the economy and about what we can do to help in the short term and 
in the long term.
    Before I do, I do want to also welcome Congresswoman Jane Harman. 
This is her district, and I'm proud to have traveled from Washington to 
California with her. Jane, thank you for coming; appreciate your time 
being here.
    And Dreier and Royce are with us too, as well--that would be 
Congressman Dreier and Congressman Royce. I appreciate you all joining 
us; thank you for your time. Mayor, thanks for coming.
    I hope you're confident about our economy. I am. We've got some 
short-term issues to deal with. Fourth quarter growth slowed to .6 
percent. In other words, there are signs that our economy are slowing. 
There's some uncertainty in the economy, but in the long run, you've got 
to be confident about your economy. Inflation is down; interest rates 
are low; productivity is high. Our economy is flexible; it is resilient. 
We've been through problems before. As a matter of fact, we've been 
through problems before since I was your President. We've had a 
recession, corporate scandals, an attack on the United States of 
America; we've had major national disasters. And every time, we've come 
through strong, and that what's going to happen this time too.
    But the Federal Government can help. We can have some smart policy 
out of Washington. And the smartest thing we can do is to help deal with 
the uncertainty by putting about $145 billion into your pockets so you 
can spend it, which will help this economy stay strong, and at the same 
time, part of that $145 billion is to provide incentives for businesses, 
large and small, to invest. See, when you provide an incentive for a 
company to invest, they go out and buy a machine. And when they buy that 
machine, somebody has to put labor into the machine; somebody is 
working.
    So the whole purpose of a stimulus package is to have something 
robust enough to make a difference, temporary enough that--so that we 
can balance our budget over time, and simple enough to be effective. And 
as the Governor mentioned, we reached an agreement with both Democrats 
and Republicans in the House of Representatives on a package that's 
simple, robust, and effective. And now the Senate is debating the issue. 
And I understand people having their points of view, and of course, we 
welcome points of view in Washington. There appears to be a lot of them 
up there. [Laughter]
    But whatever the Senate does, they should not delay this package. 
They should not keep money out of your pocket. The sooner you get a 
check, the more likely it is that the stimulus package will kick in and 
make a difference. So my attitude is, if you're truly interested in 
dealing with the slowdown of the economy, the Senate ought to accept the 
House package, pass it, and get it to my desk as soon as possible. 
That's what I want to talk about.

[[Page 133]]

    I also want to talk about trade. Now, people in our country--let's 
be perfectly frank about it--you hear them say, trade isn't any good; it 
doesn't help. If I were a worker at Robinson, I'd be arguing against 
that. You've got good jobs here. People are working, and 70 percent of 
what you make gets sold overseas. So you can't tell the people at 
Robinson Helicopter that trade isn't good. When 70 percent of that which 
you manufacture gets sold somewhere else other than the United States, 
they ought to have a sign walking in here and say, trade is not only 
good, it is great, and we want the Federal Government to make it easier 
for us to sell products.
    That's what trade is really about, isn't it? If you're good at 
something--and you're good at making helicopters--then you ought to have 
your Government making it easier to sell your product, not harder. Mr. 
Robinson said 70 percent of the revenues from his company are a result 
of products being sold overseas. And that happens in a lot of companies 
in America, by the way. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that our 
growth last year, a third of that growth was caused by exports. When 
people are selling something overseas, it means somebody is working. And 
there's a lot of customers overseas.
    So one of the goals of this administration is to reduce trade 
barriers. The interesting thing about what I'm about to tell you on 
three free trade agreements that we're hoping Congress votes on here 
pretty soon is that we're not treated the same way. In other words, they 
got their goods and services coming to our country without a lot of 
tariffs. And when we're trying to sell into their countries, they're 
taxing it, which makes it much harder to sell.
    Reasonable policy says to nations, you treat us the way we treat 
you. That's all we're asking for. We're saying to countries, if your 
goods and services are coming here--which, by the way, are good for our 
consumers; like if you're a consumer, you want a lot of choices, you 
want a lot of different options. But we want to be treated equally too. 
Good trade policy is fair trade policy.
    And so these trade agreements I'm about to describe to you level the 
playing field. When I say level the playing field, it means we'll be 
treated equally. And that's important, because we can compete with 
anybody, anytime, anywhere, just as long as the rules are fair. That's 
what I think. I think our workers are the best in the world. I said in 
the State of the Union the other night, let's open the--level the 
playing field, open up markets, so the best workers in the world can 
have the fruits of their labor sold overseas. And that's what trade is 
all about. You got people in this country saying, ``Oh, trade doesn't 
matter.'' I'm telling you it matters. It matters to our economy, and it 
matters to the jobs right here at Robinson Manufacturer--Robinson 
Helicopter.
    The other interesting thing about trade is, if you're working for a 
company that's selling goods overseas, you're likely to be paid higher 
wages. Trade yields better pay.
    So what are you going to do about it, Mr. President? It's one thing 
to talk about the benefits of trade. Well, we've negotiated free trade 
agreements. In other words, we sat down with countries and said, let's 
get a free trade agreement in place. And we reduced barriers and tariffs 
through the negotiations, and there are three such agreements before the 
Congress. There was four; Congress recently passed a deal with Peru. And 
we want to do the same thing with Colombia and Panama and South Korea.
    Now, for the person working here at Robinson, I don't know if you 
know this, but when you try to sell into Colombia, part of your--part of 
the helicopter parts face a 5-percent surcharge. That makes it harder to 
sell something in--when something is taxed, it's harder to sell into a 
market.
    The free trade agreement we've negotiated will eliminate that 
surcharge. It makes it more likely that these products will be sold to 
Colombia and Panama. There's a 15-percent tax on the helicopter you 
manufacture. I've been told there's a 15-percent tax. I believe there's 
a 15-percent tax, and I know that a free trade agreement will reduce 
that tax, which means it's more likely you're going to sell a helicopter 
into Panama. And when you're more likely to sell a helicopter to Panama, 
it means you're more likely to keep work, that's what that means.
    Free trade means jobs for Americans. Free trade means good-paying 
jobs for Americans.

[[Page 134]]

And so Congress needs to pass these agreements for the sake of economic 
vitality. And Arnold talked about the effect for the State of 
California--you're selling hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of 
goods out of California to other parts of the world. And we need to keep 
that trend going. I mean, if we don't want to worry about our economy 
long term, you need your Government knocking down barriers to our 
products and on goods and services.
    Congress is going to have a vote coming up pretty soon on Colombia. 
If it were an easy vote, I wouldn't be talking about it, but it's going 
to be a tough vote. Some say trade hurts our economy. These are good, 
decent people. I just beg to disagree--I respectfully disagree and would 
ask them to think about the example of this company right here. Some say 
it really doesn't matter. I think it matters a lot to our standing in 
the world as to whether or not we support a friend.
    Colombia is an important country for our interests. They've got a 
good President, named President Uribe. And he inherited a tough deal, a 
tough situation, where he's fighting off drug lords and drug 
traffickers, people who are manufacturing drugs that come and pollute 
our kids. And he's taking the fight to this enemy. And he's an ally. And 
he wants this free trade agreement passed. It's in his country's 
interests.
    And if we reject this opportunity to support a friend with good 
economic policy, if we turn down this free trade agreement, it will hurt 
our relations in South America. It will give the voices of false 
populism something to say. It is in our strategic interests that we 
support democracies in our neighborhood. And it's in our strategic 
interest and our economic interest that the United States Congress 
passes this free trade agreement with Colombia.
    I'm looking forward to making the case for Panama and South Korea as 
well. The first vote coming up is Colombia. And I'm looking forward to 
traveling this country, talking to people about the benefits of free 
trade and the importance of this free trade agreement. We're also going 
to try to get a Doha round of trade, in other words, opening up--around 
the world, opening up trade.
    I hope you share the same concern I have about people living in 
terrible poverty. You know, we're in this ideological struggle against, 
I called them last night ``evil men,'' and I meant what I said. There 
are people that murder the innocent to achieve political objectives. And 
the only way they can sell their ideology is when they find hopeless 
people. And you can find hopeless people in places where there's no hope 
because the economies are sick. The best way to help people is not to 
give people your taxpayers' money, but to encourage enterprise through 
commerce and trade. So the Doha round is a great opportunity to advance 
prosperity around the world and deal a serious blow to those who exploit 
the hopeless.
    The other thing about trade that I want you to know is that 
sometimes when trade takes place, somebody loses work, and I understand 
that, and that's not a happy circumstance. And the Government has a--
ought to help people. One response is, okay, let's just don't trade at 
all, which would be bad, in my judgment. The other response is, let's 
have job training to help somebody get the skills necessary to fill the 
jobs of the 21st century. It's called trade adjustment assistance, and 
it's a vital program.
    And when you combine trade adjustment assistance with our community 
colleges, what you've got is a great opportunity to help people who've 
lost a job because of trade find the skills necessary to get a better 
paying job. And so for the critics who say, ``Well, people lose work,'' 
my answer is, the benefits for the country as a whole are important, but 
we will help you, the individual, get your life back together with good 
education.
    And finally, I want to say something about investment. It's very 
important for our country to be open for investment without sacrificing 
our national security. There's some countries around the world that have 
accumulated large amounts of money. Sometimes it's our money. And it 
makes sense to say to somebody, sure, you can invest in America. I 
noticed the other day one of these Wall Street firms had a big chunk of 
foreign money invest on their--in their balance sheet. We ought to say, 
you bet, absolutely, you're welcome to invest in the United States

[[Page 135]]

of America. Investment means jobs and productivity increases.
    Now, we're going to do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice national 
security. We'll analyze investments. But this Nation ought to not close 
our doors and be fearful. We ought to be confident because we're a great 
people. We've overcome problems throughout our history. There will be 
other problems in the future, and every time, we can overcome them.
    So I appreciate you giving me a chance, Mr. Robinson, to come and 
visit with you. I especially was pleased to meet your employees. It's a 
good group of folks, highly motivated and hard-working, and they were 
very hospitable, and for that, the Governor and I are very grateful.

    Governor, I've got my own helicopter driver, thank you. [Laughter] 
But I'm proud to be with you, and more importantly, I'm proud to be with 
you all. God bless America. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:51 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California; Frank Robinson, president and 
chief executive officer, and his son, Kurt Robinson, vice president for 
product support, Robinson Helicopter Company; and Mayor Frank Scotto of 
Torrance, CA.