[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 16 (Monday, April 28, 2008)]
[Pages 583-587]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on National Small Business Week

April 23, 2008

    Welcome. I'm glad you're here. Thanks for coming. Nothing better, 
being in the East Room of the White House with successful entrepreneurs, 
small-business owners, dreamers, and doers who really add such richness 
to our country. So I welcome you here. I'm glad you're here. It's 
exciting to be here, isn't it? Yes, after 7\1/2\ years, it's still 
exciting for me too. And I'm really glad you're here.
    I want to thank Steve Preston. He's done a fantastic job as the head 
of the SBA; so good that I named him to be the Secretary of Housing and 
Urban Development. And I congratulate you, Steve, for taking the job. 
I'm looking forward to getting the Senate to take up your nomination 
quickly and get you approved.
    So, Small Business Week--the truth of the matter is, every day ought 
to be small business day in America because--[applause]. People say, 
why? Well, first of all, small businesses create over two-thirds of all 
new jobs in America. And if you want your economy to grow, and if you 
want the country to be hopeful, it seems like you ought to be 
celebrating the talent and the energy of our small-business owners 
daily. But we've decided to do it week--yearly--Small Business Week. I 
presume that's 1 week out of the year. [Laughter]
    And so the first thing I've got to do is congratulate all the award 
winners who are here. Thanks. It's--owning a small business is hard. 
It's not an easy experience. I've had the pleasure of getting to meet a 
lot of small-business owners during my time as, first, Governor of Texas 
and then President of the country. And you'll be amazed at how many 
times people have said, well, you know, it all started around the 
kitchen table. You'll also be amazed at how many family members are 
involved in the creation and operation of a small business. And our 
fellow citizens wouldn't be amazed to know that the number of hours 
required to make sure the business is going is a lot. But the thing that 
struck me the most, besides the fact that people are willing to dream 
and work hard, is how proud the small-business owner is of the employees 
with whom the person works and how caring the owner is to make sure that 
those who've helped the business succeed are treated well.
    I have the pleasure of welcoming and recognizing one Shawn 
Christopher Boyer, who happens to be the recipient of the Small Business 
Owner of the Year. Now, Shawn started off by helping a friend search 
online for an internship, and he got an idea for a business right there. 
Sometimes that happens. You know, it's just like, click. And the idea 
was to create a web site to help unemployed Americans with job 
opportunities. And actually, I asked him to leave a business card 
because it seems like I might be looking here after a while. [Laughter]
    He started his business with just two employees. I bet you a lot of 
the winners here can say, ``I started my business with one or two 
employees.'' He has grown--got 100 employees now. He is--earnings have 
grown from almost $900,000 in '03 to over $11 million 4 years later. And 
as I just told you, he was named National Small Business Person of the 
Year. I met with Shawn; the CFO, David Bosher; Tennille; as well as his 
dad.

[[Page 584]]

And I want to congratulate you, Shawn. Welcome to the White House, and I 
really wish you all the very best.
    Angela Timm--where's Angela? Oh, there you are. Thank you, Angela. 
She started a company in her home that sells music boxes and framed 
messages that offer words of hope and inspiration. She's gone through 
what a lot of other small-business owners go through, which is good 
times and bad times. And the fundamental question is, do you have the 
perseverance to endure the bad time and the humility to handle the good 
times?
    In 2004, her business hit hard times. She had a good idea, but 
sometimes everything doesn't go well for you in the business world. The 
company's line of credit was maxed out. They had to let managers go, and 
her home was hit by a tornado. Her family and Angela held on through the 
adversity. They recovered. They hired back employees. In recent years, 
they have seen sales in the millions, with healthy profits. And that is 
why she's the runner-up Small Business Owner of the Year.
    And the reason I bring up these two stories--we could be here for 
the other 48 stories, which would have a lot of similarities. I 
appreciate you all coming together to share stories, to reach out to 
others who wonder what it's like to be an entrepreneur, to help others 
realize the great wonders of ownership, and to make sure that as you 
tell the story, that people are realistic about what it takes to 
succeed.
    Government has a role to play as well, and that is to create an 
environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. I mean, as I 
remind people, that Government doesn't create success in a small 
business. Matter of fact, Government can pass policies that make it 
harder to succeed in small business. Government's got to be mindful of 
the contribution of the entrepreneur and make sure that the environment 
is such that people feel comfortable dreaming and owning and expanding.
    And so I know you're going to be speaking to elected officials, and 
I've got a few suggestions about what you might offer them in the way of 
advice. First, you might suggest to Members of Congress that they let 
you keep your money--in other words, to keep taxes low. This is 
obviously a difficult time for the economy, and I like to say it's a 
rough patch. And the reason I call it that is because I'm confident that 
with good policies and hard work, we'll come out stronger than we were 
entering. But nevertheless, it's tough. And it's tough on small-business 
owners.
    We did take action in which, rather than just analyzing the 
situation, we saw this coming and moved swiftly with Members of Congress 
from both parties, believe it or not--actually got something done in a 
constructive way without feeling like they had to call each other names. 
And it's a progrowth package which will provide tax rebates to more than 
130 million American households. And that ought to help--that ought to 
help stimulate consumption. The money hadn't hit yet. It's going to be 
there--start moving in the second week of May.
    The stimulus package also provides incentives for businesses like 
yours to invest in new equipment and technology this year. In other 
words, it's a temporary stimulus package aimed at dealing with the rough 
patch that we've entered into, but it's got to be robust enough to 
matter. So when you're affecting 130 million households, that's robust. 
And when you're affecting all the businesses in the United States, 
that's a robust message.
    And the reason why it's important to stimulate investment is because 
if tax policy can encourage you to buy a piece of equipment, one, it 
helps your business be more productive, but also somebody has got to 
make the equipment. And if somebody is making the equipment, then 
somebody has got to buy the supplies to make the equipment, and it kind 
of ripples throughout the economy.
    So the idea was to provide stimulus to businesses and to provide--
give money to the taxpayers so that they can go out and purchase things 
and remain active consumers. And it's going to take a while for this to 
have an effect. The experts tell me that--you got these economists that 
say, on the one hand, and on the other hand--if they had three hands, it 
would be three opinions, but nevertheless--all due respect to some of my 
economist friends here. [Laughter] But pretty well consensus that the 
stimulus package, when it takes full effect, will affect our

[[Page 585]]

growth in the third quarter, which begins in July of this year.
    There's other work to be done on taxes. One of my concerns about tax 
policy is that it creates uncertainty. In other words, when you're 
trying to figure out a 5-year projection about your companies, you've 
got to be certain that the tax load that you now bear isn't going to 
increase. It's hard to plan. It's hard to have a successful small 
business if there's uncertainty in the environment. And one place where 
there can be a lot of uncertainty is whether or not your taxes are going 
to remain low. And the reason why that's the case is because the tax 
relief we passed is going to expire, some of it beginning in 2010.
    Now, the tax relief we passed, you might remember, cut taxes on all 
people who pay taxes. We have--and emphasis on families with children, 
for example. We tried to get rid of the death tax forever. A small-
business owner has got to be saying to Members of Congress: ``I don't 
want to be taxed twice; once when I'm alive, and once after I die''--
particularly if you own a small business. It's an unfair tax. Yet that 
tax, which is on the road to extinction, is going to come back to life.
    And equally damaging, as far as I'm concerned, is the fact that 
people are saying, we're going to let the personal income tax rates go 
back up. And, of course, the language is, ``only on the rich people.'' 
Well, the sad fact is, is that many of our small businesses are 
subchapter S corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships that pay tax at 
the individual income tax level. And so the tax relief we provided was 
in many ways--should have been called a small business tax relief plan. 
And the idea of saying that we're going to raise individual income tax 
rates really is counterproductive to making sure that the economy 
remains strong.
    If you're creating over two-thirds of the new jobs, why would we 
want to be taking money out of the treasuries of those job creators? 
Less money in your treasury means it's going to be harder for you to 
create the jobs necessary for this economy to be strong. If Congress 
truly cares about keeping this economy strong, they ought to have 
certainty in the Tax Code by making all the tax cuts we passed 
permanent.
    A couple other issues, now that I got you stuck here. [Laughter] 
Health care--I fully understand that you're concerned about affordable 
health care. You're concerned, obviously, because it affects your bottom 
line, but you're also more concerned because it affects the people you 
work with. And I understand that. And there's a choice that we can make 
in Government. One is, do we have kind of a wholesale plan sponsored 
by--executed by the Federal Government, or do we put policy in place 
that encourages the decisionmakers to be directly in touch with the 
providers? That's what I have tried to propose, and have proposed, such 
as health savings accounts.
    For those of you who have not explored health savings accounts, I 
strongly urge you to do so. It's a very powerful way for you to better 
afford health insurance and, at the same time, empower your employees.
    I believe Congress should change the Tax Code. If you're working for 
a big company in America, you get a better tax break than if you're 
working for--on your own or you're a contract employee. And so there 
ought to be a standard deduction for health insurance so that the bias 
in the Tax Code is eliminated.
    We ought to confront junk lawsuits that drive good docs out of 
practice and run up the cost of your health care.
    And finally, I strongly believe that Congress should allow small 
businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional boundaries. Those are long 
words. Like, if you're a restaurant guy in Texas, you ought be able to 
put your employees in the same risk pool as a restaurant person in 
Maryland. Those are called association health plans that will enable 
small businesses to be able to buy insurance at the same discounts that 
big businesses get. But what we shouldn't do is have a health care 
system where the decisions are made in Washington, DC, not made in your 
offices or between patients and doctors.
    I want to talk about an interesting issue that is getting a lot of 
attention these days, and that is the issue of trade and markets. And as 
you know by now, I hope, that I'm--I believe that it's in our interests 
to open up markets for U.S. products and goods and services. I also know 
it's in our interest to say to the world, treat us the way we treat you. 
In other words, all we want to do is

[[Page 586]]

be treated fairly. And one of the interesting votes coming up here 
soon--hopefully, if the Speaker doesn't change her--does change her 
mind--which would be on the Colombia free trade agreement. And let me 
tell you why I think this is important.
    First of all, there are about 9,000 American businesses that export 
to Colombia. Most of those businesses, by far the vast majority, are 
midsized and small businesses. The problem is, is that that which they 
export generally faces significant tariffs. In other words, the product 
that they selling is more expensive because of the tariffs. On the other 
hand, as a result of congressional policy over the years, products 
coming from Colombia into the United States don't face tariffs. So 
American goods and services, mainly provided by midsized and small-sized 
businesses, are taxed going into Colombia, making it harder for those 
products to gain market access. On the other hand, as a result of years 
of policy, Colombian goods come here duty free.
    Now, doesn't it make sense to say to Colombia, we value our 
friendship, but we would like to be treated the way we treat you? And 
that's what the Colombia free trade agreement says. It--this is a bill 
that is beneficial to our small businesses and midsized businesses. It 
makes eminent sense to level the playing field. Yet, unfortunately, the 
leadership in the House of Representatives chose a unusual procedure to 
block a vote. I believe the bill will pass. I know that when people 
really analyze whether it's fair or not to be treated one way and yet 
Colombia be treated beneficially--say, well, why don't we just level the 
playing field?
    The other thing is this vote has got enormous national policy 
implications. First of all, it's in our interest to have a neighborhood 
that's free--when people who believe in rule of law and human rights--
support leaders in our neighborhood that are tough on dealing with 
narcotraffickers.
    In Colombia, there's a group called FARC, which is funded by, in 
large part, drugs; that are willing to use violence to advance their 
agenda. And they're threatening our ally. And President Uribe is taking 
them on in a way that doesn't violate the human rights of his people. 
He's a strong, strong leader. And yet if Congress turns down this 
agreement, it's like turning our back to an ally, which will encourage 
the voices of false populism in our neighborhood.
    And so I--this is an important vote. It's important for small 
businesses; it's important for our economy; and it's important for our 
national security interests. And the United States Congress must give it 
a vote on the floor of the House.
    So those are some of the things that are on my mind. [Laughter] You 
know, it's interesting; there's a portrait of a fellow that hangs here 
in the White House who--he failed at nearly every enterprise he started. 
He invested in a zinc mine, but lost his money. He invested in an oil 
company, but the company sold the lease to a--and it turned out to be a 
gusher, but he didn't own any of it at that point in time. He ran a 
store with a friend, but it went bankrupt after a few years. And yet he 
was arguably one of the finest Presidents we had, and that was Harry 
Truman.
    I'm convinced--I've never had a visit with Harry at all, but I'm 
convinced that he would say, ``The lessons I learned in trying to be a 
small-business owner are lessons that are important for a decisionmaker 
in the White House.'' And although it's hard to say he was a successful 
businessperson, he learned about hard work and determination and 
resilience and willing to face adversity with good spirit.
    And that is why I am honored to be with you today, because I'm 
confident that's what you've done. What you've chosen to do is not easy, 
but what you've chosen to do is important for our country. It's the 
collective decisions by our small-business owners that make America the 
envy of the world in many ways.
    I love it when people can say, ``I have a idea, and I am going to 
apply all my talent and all my effort to see the idea come to 
fruition.'' It is what made us great in the past, it's what makes us 
great today, and what is going to make us great in the future. And I 
hope you take great pride in the contributions that you're making to 
your community, your family, and your Nation.
    Thanks for coming. May God bless you.

[[Page 587]]

Note: The President spoke at 3:50 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Shawn C. Boyer, president and 
chief executive officer, David Bosher, senior vice president and chief 
financial officer, and Tennille Boyer, national account executive, 
SnagAJob.com, Inc.; J. Hardin Boyer, father of Mr. Boyer; and Angela 
Timm, founder and chief executive officer, Cottage Garden Collections.