Text 2480, 609 rader
Skriven 2006-04-13 23:34:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0604132) for Thu, 2006 Apr 13
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President Bush Addresses Small Business Week Conference
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 13, 2006

President Bush Addresses Small Business Week Conference
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C

President's Remarks view

˙˙˙˙˙ Fact Sheet: The President's Small Business Agenda: Helping
Entrepreneurs Prosper ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Small Business

10:46 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. (Applause.) Thanks for
coming. So I see Eric behind the stage. I said, congratulations on being
the Small Business Owner of the Year. And he said, "You know, if I thought
part of the prize was having to stand in front of those cameras and
introduce you, I might not have accepted it." (Laughter.) But I appreciate
your introduction, Eric. Thanks.

I want to thank you all for allowing me to come by to celebrate the Small
Business Week with you. You know, I'm an MBA, but I got to tell you, the
most instructive part of my understanding about how the economy works --
when I was trying to meet a payroll. The entrepreneurs of this country not
only create and run their own businesses, they work hard, but I've learned
that it's a calling to run your own business. I mean, there's something
special about somebody who stands up and says, I got a dream, I got a hope.

The great thing about the entrepreneur in the small business sector of our
economy is that you provide great steam and strength to the growth of our
economy. And today I want to talk to you about why the small business owner
is at the cornerstone of our pro-growth economic policies, and what we
intend to do to make sure that the environment for taking risk is strong
and viable here in this country.

Before I do, I want to say thanks to Eric's wife, as well, for being here.
I appreciate my friend, Hector Barreto. He's the Administrator of the SBA.
Thank you for being here, Hector. Thanks for serving. (Applause.) I also
had the honor of congratulating Andrew Field, who is the founder and
President of PrintingForLess.com., Livingston, Montana, for being the
runner-up; as well as Barbara and Leroy Shatto, owners of Shatto Milk
Company, Osborn, Missouri, for also being runner-up to the SBA Small
Business Persons of the Year.

This economy of ours is good. It's strong. It's a good time to be a small
business owner in America. After all, we grew at a healthy rate of 3.5
percent last year. That's the fastest rate of any major industrialized
economy. We've now had 17 straight quarters of economic expansion. Real
after-tax income has grown by more than 8 percent since 2001. After-tax
means money in your pocket, that's what that means. That means, on average,
Americans have an income that is $2,100 higher this year than it was at the
beginning of 2001 -- that's after adjusting for inflation.

More Americans own a home today than ever before in history; more
minorities own a home today than ever before in our history. And that's
positive news for this economy. (Applause.) Consumer confidence is at its
highest point in nearly four years. Productivity is high, and it's on the
rise. And that's good news for American entrepreneurs and really good news
for American workers. Productivity increases improves the lives of our
fellow citizens over time. Manufacturing activity is strong. This economy
is going well, and the small business owner is leading the way. (Applause.)

It's really important for our country to understand this fact: Small
businesses are vital for our workers. Small businesses create two out of
every three new jobs. And they account for nearly half of the country's
overall employment. Think about that. Two out of every three new jobs are
created by the entrepreneur. That's why it makes sense to have the small
business at the cornerstone of a pro-growth economic policy.

Recently our economic reports showed that this economy added 211,000 jobs
in the month of March. Over the last two-and-a-half years, we've added 5.1
million new jobs. This is the 31st straight month -- (applause) -- 31st
straight month that the American economy has added jobs. The national
unemployment rate is down to 4.7 percent. That's lower than the average
rate of the past four decades. When small businesses grow, the American
economy benefits. (Applause.)

Small businesses are vital for our communities. You sponsor Little League
teams, and you donate to local charities and community drives, and you
serve on your school boards and hospital boards and different community
groups. Without our small businesses and entrepreneurs, our communities
would be less vibrant and less welcoming. I appreciate the fact that you're
close to your customers. Your hard work and investment is the lifeblood of
our cities all across the country.

Small businesses are vital to building a more hopeful future for this
country. When you open up a shop or lease a factory or offer a new service,
you take a risk. Risk-taking takes vision, and risk-taking takes courage.
And it's -- the risk-takers are people who help define the vibrancy of an
economy.

I thought Ronald Reagan put it best when he said the entrepreneurs are the
"explorers of the modern era." Welcome to exploration -- and thank you for
betting on a brighter future, and thank you for adding optimism into the
soul of this country.

Opening a small business is a great opportunity for a lot of folks to
realize their dreams. I believe that we should promote an ownership society
in America. We want people owning something in this society. Women now own
more than one-quarter of the businesses in our country. (Applause.) The
number of women-owned businesses is growing strongly. Hispanic Americans
are opening their own businesses, and those businesses are opening at a
rate at three times faster than the national average. And those are
positive developments for a society.

It's been said that having your own business means working 80 hours a week
so you can avoid working 40 hours a week for somebody else. (Laughter.)
Owning your own business is a great responsibility. But there is a strong
reward in being independent. And I hope there's a strong reward in your
understanding that you're contributing mightily to this great nation.

And so how do we continue to help people realize this sense of
independence? My philosophy of government is this: Government's role is not
to create wealth; the job of the government is to create an environment in
which people are willing to take risk, in which entrepreneurship
flourishes. And that's a strategy I've been pursuing and I'm going to
continue to pursue. And so today I want to talk to you about three broad
areas where we can continue to work to make sure this environment is good
for the small business owner. And that includes taxes and spending and
health care and expansion of opportunities here and abroad.

First, creating an environment where small businesses can flourish begins
with keeping taxes low, and spending your money wisely. (Applause.) We've
overcome a lot in this economy, and I want to thank you for your hard work
in helping us overcome a lot. The history of the past five years has -- the
economic history of the past five years has shown this country's capacity
to overcome some pretty major hurdles. We've overcome a stock market
correction, a recession, a vicious attack on the United States of America.
We've overcome war and we've overcome natural disasters.

I told you what the statistics were about how fast this economy is growing.
It's really amazing when you put it in the context of what you helped us
overcome. And I believe one of the reasons we've overcome these hurdles is
because we put pro-growth economic policies in place, starting with real,
substantial tax cuts. (Applause.)

We cut the taxes for everybody who paid taxes. It wasn't one of these tax
deals where, you know, okay, you're okay, you're not; therefore, you get
tax relief, you don't. That's -- I didn't think that was fair. You might
remember, we lowered taxes on families by cutting the rates and by doubling
child credit. We reduced the marriage penalty. Didn't make much sense to
tax marriage. (Laughter.) We passed something else that I think makes a lot
of sense for the small business owner and the farmer and the rancher, is
that we put the death tax on the way to extinction. (Applause.)

The problem with that is that it comes back to life in 2011. Congress needs
to set aside politics and get rid of the death tax, for the sake of our
small business owners. It makes no sense for you to have to pay taxes while
you're alive, and then pay taxes on the same business after you die.
(Applause.)

We cut the taxes on the small business owners. If you want the small
business sector to grow, if you recognize two-thirds of new jobs are
created by small businesses, it makes sense to let small businesses keep
more of the money they make. After all, when a small business owner has got
more money in his or her treasury, you're likely to expand your business.
You talk to some of these business -- the folks who won the business award,
I said, how many jobs -- how many employees did you have five years ago and
how many do you have today?

You had how many five years ago?

MR. HOOVER: Twenty-four.

THE PRESIDENT: Twenty-four five years ago, and over 100 --

MR. HOOVER: -- 107.

THE PRESIDENT: -- 107. His business expanded. That's what we want.
Two-thirds of new jobs are created by small business owners, and when small
business owners have more money in their treasuries, they're likely to
expand. I also recognize that many small business owners are either a sole
proprietorship or -- a small business is a sole proprietorship, or a
subchapter-S corporation, or a limited partnership, which means that the
principals pay tax, the business pays tax at the individual income tax
level. So when we reduce taxes on individuals, we are really reducing taxes
on small businesses, as well. (Applause.)

There's a healthy debate in this town about cutting taxes; I understand
that. Some in this town said cutting taxes would ruin the economy. Some of
them said, you cut taxes, this economy is going to look like the Great
Depression. As a matter of fact, on the day when the Republicans in the
House and the Senate were finalizing the 2003 tax cuts, one of the Democrat
leaders said these tax cutes would do nothing to create jobs. That person
was wrong 5.1 million times over in the last two-and-a-half years.
(Applause.)

And there's an ongoing debate about the taxes. Some in Washington proposed
that we raise your taxes, either by repealing the tax cuts or letting them
all expire. These are the same folks who said, if you keep your own money,
that would be irresponsible and reckless policy. Those folks were wrong
then and they're wrong now. To keep the small business sector strong and
create jobs, Congress needs to make the tax relief permanent. (Applause.)

And they can start when they get back by sending me a bill that extends the
tax cuts we delivered on dividends and capital gains, so that our
businesses and investors can plan with confidence. Uncertainty in the tax
code makes it hard for investors to plan. Uncertainty in the tax code makes
it hard for small business owners to plan. We need certainty in this tax
code, and Congress needs to make those tax cuts permanent. (Applause.)

Oh, I know you'll hear the argument that says, well, we got to raise your
taxes in order to balance the budget. That's not the way Washington, D.C.,
works. I've been here long enough to tell you it's not going to work that
way. What will end up happening is they're going to raise your taxes, and
then they're going to figure out new ways to spend your money. The best way
to balance this budget, the best way to cut the deficit in half by 2009, is
to keep the pro-growth economic policies in place and be wise about how we
spend your money. (Applause.)

And that starts with setting priorities. I think you know something about
setting priorities. When you run your business, you got to set priorities.
And we got to set them here in Washington. So long as we've got people in
harm's way, so long as we've got men and women in our uniform in a time of
war, the number one priority of this government is to make sure they got
all what it takes to be victorious in the war on terror. (Applause.)

We're making progress on what's called discretionary spending. The last two
budgets I've submitted have actually cut discretionary spending, except
that which is applied for our military and homeland defense. And that
required hard work by the Congress. But it's not enough, in order to get
this deficit cut in half by 2009 and keep this economy growing. One way
Congress can help is to pass the line-item veto. It's an important tool to
help bring fiscal discipline here to Washington, D.C.

And the idea has received bipartisan support. I was very pleased that my
opponent in the 2004 campaign, Senator John Kerry, came down to the White
House the other day and expressed his support for a line-item veto. He
campaigned on a line-item veto, and now he's supporting the administration
with a line-item veto. And other Democrats and Republicans must give the
President the chance to trim out that part of the budget which does not
meet our priorities. And I hope Congress passes this important piece of
legislation quickly as a sign of reform.

In the long-term, though, the biggest challenge facing our -- facing the
budgets of the United States are those inherent in mandatory programs. And
that would be Social Security and Medicare. We got a problem in these
programs because there's a lot of people just like me getting ready to
retire. (Laughter.) As a matter of fact, my retirement age -- my
eligibility age for Social Security just happens to come in 2008.
(Laughter.) I hate to admit I'm turning 60 this year. I can see some other
folks out there fixing to turn 60 this year, as well. (Laughter.) And
there's a lot of us. There's a lot of baby boomers who are living longer
and are promised more benefits than the previous generation. And the system
can't be sustained. It's just not going to work.

And there's -- there's an unfunded liability problem that faces this
generation today, and it's going to be especially acute for a generation
coming up. And Congress needs to take my offer to sit down at the table in
good faith. We need people from both political parties putting their ideas
on the table about how we can deal with Social Security and Medicare, how
we can do our job. I tell people the job of a President is to confront
problems and not to pass them on to future Presidents and future
Congresses. And that's what the Congress ought to do, set aside needless
politics and do what's right for the American people. And I'm going to work
with them to do so.

To create an environment where small businesses flourish means that health
care has got to be affordable and available; is a health care system that
needs to make sure that we've got high-quality care at reasonable prices
for our people. The federal government has made a strong commitment to the
elderly, and we're going to keep that commitment. And by the way, if you've
got a mother or father who's eligible for Medicare, you need to make sure
he or she sees the new -- the benefits of this new drug -- prescription
drug coverage we've got. This is a good deal for the American seniors. And
we're working hard to make sure that American seniors realize that there is
a fine opportunity for them to improve their lot in life.

Listen, I couldn't stand the thought of seniors having to choose between an
electricity bill and pharmaceuticals. That didn't make any sense in our
country. And if you're a low-income senior listening today, you ought to
make sure you get hold of a representative from Medicare, or a friend, or a
church mate, or call 1-800-MEDICARE, or get your son or daughter to get on
medicare.gov -- and find out the benefits inherent in this program. If
you're one-third of the seniors who are income-qualified, the federal
government is going to pay 95 percent or more of your prescription drug
benefits.

And the federal government is going to keep its commitment to the poor, as
well, by making sure Medicaid works well, and by continuing to expand
community health centers. It makes sense for the taxpayers to help us build
community health centers for the poor and the indigent, to take the
pressure off of our emergency rooms in America's hospitals -- a place where
people can get reasonable primary care.

But for the rest of us, we have got to make sure that the system is
affordable and available without empowering the federal government to make
all the decisions for the business owners and the consumers and the
providers. There's a debate here in Washington, D.C. about who knows what
to do best about health care. And there's some folks who said the federal
government can handle it all, and I'm not one of them. I believe the best
health care system has the patient and the doctor central to the
decision-making of this important industry. And I also understand that
small businesses are hit hard by health care costs. As a matter of fact,
many of the working uninsured work for small businesses, because small
businesses cannot afford the health care they want to provide for their
employees.

And so here are some ideas to help. One, I think it's important to, as I
said, make sure the patient and the doctor are central to the health care
systems. And, therefore, I believe strongly in what's called health savings
accounts. And I think it's very important for the small business owners to
pay attention to the benefits of a health savings account for your
particular company.

Health savings accounts stand in contrast to the traditional insurance
system. The traditional insurance system, as you know, the employer
provides their employee with a plan that they pay for the deductible and a
small co-payment, and somebody else pays the bills. It's a third-party
payer system. And when somebody else pays the bills, you really don't care
about the cost -- unless you're having to pay for the rising premium.

Here's the way health savings accounts work. It says that, on the one hand,
you buy catastrophic insurance coverage at a low price, and on the other
hand, there is a cash account that covers the deductible of the
catastrophic plan, that's contributed into the plan by employer, employee,
or combination of both, tax-free. And that's -- you use that to pay for
your ordinary medical expenses, until the catastrophic plan kicks in. If
you don't spend the money, the interest on that money is tax-free, and you
roll it over to the next year that you -- in which you can contribute
again.

It turns out that the combination of the contribution, the cash
contribution into the tax-free health savings account, plus the premium on
the insurance plan, is generally less than third-party payer systems. Small
businesses can save money under this plan.

The plan also empowers the employee to make rational decisions about health
care. The more the consumer is involved in the quality and price of a
product, the more likely it is the product is not going to be increasing at
double-digits rates. Consumer involvement is an important aspect of quality
health care at affordable prices.

Over the past few years, the number of Americans who own health savings
accounts has gone from 1 million to 3 million. More than a third of those
who have chosen HSAs were previously uninsured. You know, if you're a young
person feeling relatively healthy, you may decide, I don't want any health
insurance, I'm never going to get sick. You might remember those days.
(Laughter.) Doesn't it make sense to be able to set aside money on a
tax-free basis that you earn tax-free to cover future medical costs? Health
savings accounts do just that. Forty percent of those who own an HSA have
family incomes below $50,000 a year. It's a really good idea and I strongly
urge you to look into them.

In Connecticut earlier this month, I met a small business guy who runs a
retirement community. He said a-third of his employees now have HSAs --
health savings accounts. It's given them good coverage and it saved the
company $78,000 on health premiums. Health savings accounts make a lot of
sense, and we've got to make them stronger, not weaker here in Washington,
D.C.

One obstacle to expanding health savings accounts is the federal tax code.
Under current law, employers and employees pay no income tax or payroll tax
on any health insurance provided through the workplace. But if you buy
insurance on your own, you don't get the same tax break. And that means
that the self-employed, or the unemployed, or workers at companies that
don't provide health insurance are at a great disadvantage. So Congress
needs to end discrimination in the tax code and give Americans who buy HSA
policies on their own the same tax breaks that those who get their health
insurance from their employers. (Applause.)

Another problem with this tax code is that it limits the amount you can
contribute to your HSA tax-free. The limit is usually tied to your
deductible. Buy a high-deductible catastrophic plan and you can contribute
up to the deductible, by current law. But sometimes your out-of-pocket
expenses are greater than your deductible. It's especially important for
those with chronic illnesses. They often have expenses that go well beyond
their deductibles. And so we need to fix the tax code by raising the cap on
the amount of money you can put into your HSA tax-free. Raising this cap is
going to help Americans cover all their out-of-pocket expenses. And equally
important, raising this cap will help make sure this product is attractive
to people. We want people being able to have different options in the
marketplace. We want people directly involved in the decision-making of the
health care.

And by the way, I got another idea for small businesses, and that is
business -- small businesses ought to be allowed to pool risk across
jurisdictional boundaries so they can buy insurance at the same discount
big companies get. So I'm a strong believer in health -- association health
plans. (Applause.)

Congress needs to act on this -- it's a good idea for small businesses. I
mean, if people want the small business sector to flourish, then they ought
to help small businesses be able to afford health care. This is a rational
idea. It makes a lot of sense. The House has done its part, and now the
United States Senate needs to do its part, as well.

Here's another idea to make sure health care is affordable and available.
We got too many junk lawsuits running docs out of business and running up
the cost of your medicine. (Applause.) When it looks like you might get
sued, if you're a doctor, then you practice what's called defensive
medicine. In other words, you prescribe more than you should, more
procedures than necessary, because you're constantly thinking about how to
make sure you can make your case in front of a jury. These frivolous
lawsuits, this plethora of lawsuits, is running up the cost of health care
for you. It's not only causing your premiums to go up, but it's causing the
cost of medicine to go up, as doctors try to protect themselves against a
lawsuit.

And it affects the federal budget, by the way. As you know, we've got a lot
of health care here in Washington. We've got a Medicare system and a
Medicaid system and a veterans system. It is anticipated -- it is estimated
that we spend $28 billion extra a year because of the defensive practice of
medicine. And that's why I believe this issue is a federal problem that
requires a federal response, and the United States Congress needs to pass
medical liability reform this year. (Applause.)

A couple of other points I want to make on health care. In other words,
we've got a comprehensive strategy, that says, we've got a better vision
than having the federal government make all the decisions for you. It's a
vision that says, we're going to take care of the elderly and we're going
to help the poor. But it's also a vision that says, we trust consumers, and
we want the marketplace to function, and we want there to be reasonable
policy to help deal with the rising cost of health care.

One such way is to promote transparency, so patients know exactly what
their options are. When you really think about it, the health care field is
not a very transparent place when it comes to price and quality. I mean,
how many of you really ever shopped for health care? How many of you have
ever actually gotten on the Internet and tried to compare price before you
make a health care decision? Not many, because, one, the system has
somebody else paying the bills for you, and, two, there's not a lot of
transparency. So this government is going to continue to work with folks in
the health care field to make sure that price and quality are available to
you as a consumer. It's amazing what happens when people have information
at their fingertips before they make decisions.

And another way to help wring out the costs in health care is to help
encourage and expand the health care industry to adopt information
technology as an integral part of its industry. Many of you have done that.
Many of you have used information technology to help enhance the
productivity of your business. That's generally not the case in health
care. I mean, think about the guy who goes to the hospital, and he's
carrying the file with him where all the pages are handwritten. It's kind
of a problem in health care, since most doctors can't write legibly to
begin with. (Laughter.)

And so I believe we ought to work to make sure we have electronic health
records for each individual here in America that, one, protects your
safety, but, two, carries your history with you so that we help wring out
additional costs in medicine, and, at the same time, reduce errors. So
there's a comprehensive vision to make sure health care is available and
affordable, particularly for our small business owners.

I want to talk about something else, and that is how to make sure that
small businesses can expand here at home and abroad. First at home: The
Small Business Administration is working hard to make it easier for people
to start up companies. We understand that sometimes people have got a good
idea, but they're not sure how to get something started. They're a little
worried about the start-up. And so we've doubled the number of small
business loans out of the SBA since I came to office. And we've increased
the number of loans to minority entrepreneurs by 175 percent. I told Hector
I want people from all walks of life benefitting from government programs,
and he's done his job and I appreciate that. (Applause.)

Another important fact is we've lowered the cost of running the SBA by more
than 20 percent. And so we've increased the amount of our loans to the
entrepreneurs by 80 percent. By reducing the cost of granting a loan, it
makes the loan less expensive for you.

I'm also going to continue working up markets -- working to open up markets
overseas. I don't know if you realize this, but we're home to 5 percent of
the world's population. That means 95 percent of the potential customers
live outside of the United States. If you're good at making something or
growing something, it seems like you'd want to make sure your customer base
is expanded, that you have an opportunity to be able to access those
markets.

Today, small businesses account for about a quarter of this country's
exports. I find that to be an encouraging and interesting statistic. The
problem is that a lot of small businesses in certain markets find it very
difficult to navigate the bureaucracies and paperwork required to sell
their good or their service in a particular country. Big businesses have
got staffs of people who can do that; small businesses don't. And,
therefore, I think it is very important for the American citizen to
understand that when we work to expand free and fair trade, in one way,
we're helping to make sure the small business sector of this country
remains strong. The easier it is for somebody to sell a product in somebody
else's market, the more likely it is people will be able to find
opportunity here in the United States of America.

When I took office, we had three free trade agreements; now we've got free
trade agreements with 11 countries, and 18 more pending. I'm also pushing
for an ambitious conclusion to the Doha Round in the World Trade talks so
we can lower barriers and reduce regulations, to make it easier for people
to be able to sell in foreign markets. So we need to be confident in our
ability to compete. I believe the United States can out-compete anybody,
anytime, anywhere, so long as the rules are fair. (Applause.)

So one of the places -- one country that can show the world that it means
to be a trading partner that plays by the rules is China. This coming week,
next week, I'm going to meet with President Hu Jintao, and I look forward
to welcoming him to the White House. America values China as a trading
partner, but we expect China to live up to its commitments. China needs to
make itself more transparent. China needs to enforce intellectual property
rights. (Applause.) China needs to take additional steps to address the
trade imbalance between our countries. And China needs to move to a
flexible market-based currency. (Applause.)

This country needs to be confident about the future and we need to shape
the future. And one way we can shape the future is to make sure that we
stay on the leading edge of technology and research. And so I've called on
Congress to double funding for basic -- vital basic research. I think
that's a proper role for the federal government, to be involved with
helping the basic sciences expand new horizons. Congress needs to make the
research and development tax credit a permanent part of the tax code to
encourage private sector to do its part about making sure this country is
technologically advanced and innovative.

And our education system must make sure we set high standards, and measure,
and make sure that we're just not passing kids through the schools that
can't read and write. And I'm calling on Congress to encourage school
districts to have a special emphasis on math and science. We want our
children to be educated so they can lead the world. We want them educated
with the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.

I also recognize that in order for us to be competitive, we've got to get
off oil. I said in my State of the Union that the United States has a
problem -- we're addicted to oil. I know you probably thought that was kind
of weird for a Texan to say. (Laughter.) But I'm telling you we've got an
economic security problem because of our reliance upon fossil fuels, and
we've got a national security problem because of our reliance on fossil
fuels. (Applause.)

And I'm looking forward to working with Congress when they get back to make
sure we invest wisely in new technologies that will encourage additional
use of ethanol to power our automobiles; new technologies that will enable
us to develop plug-in batteries so that hybrid vehicles are able to drive
the first 40 miles on electricity, without using any gasoline; new
technologies that will encourage solar energy, and technologies that enable
us to develop a safe nuclear power industry. We're spending a lot of money
right now on clean coal technology. What I'm telling you is we've got a
comprehensive agenda and plan to take this country to a different era when
it comes to consuming energy, an era that will make us less dependent on
foreign sources of oil, enable us to be wise stewards of the environment.

I want to talk to you about another issue to make sure this country remains
competitive, and that's immigration. This is a highly emotional issue; it's
a vitally important issue. It's an issue that we need to conduct a debate
on in a way that is worthy of this country's best traditions. We are a land
of immigrants. Any immigration reform has got to improve the ability to
secure our borders and enforce our laws. We are a nation of laws. I don't
know if you realize this, but since 2001, we have turned back 6 million
folks trying to come into this country illegally. There are a lot of people
working hard down on our borders, and we're going to continue to modernize
the borders to enable them to do -- better do their jobs. But any effective
immigration reform must include a temporary worker program that includes a
legal way to match willing foreign workers with willing American employers
to fill the jobs Americans will not do.

This immigration program should not provide automatic citizenship or
amnesty. It should provide a chance for people to work here legally on a
temporary basis. Encouraging people to abide by the law is a necessary part
of our country -- the history of our country. Recognizing that people are
doing jobs here that nobody else will do is important for, perhaps, some of
you here in this audience. Making sure there are tamper-proof
identification cards so people can't cheat on the system makes sense to me.
Treating people with dignity makes sense to me. Making sure the system
doesn't force people into the shadows of our society, changing that system
for the better for security, and for decency makes sense to me. And the
Congress needs to set aside partisan differences and get a good bill to my
desk. (Applause.)

I was encouraged last week when members of the United States Senate reached
a promising bipartisan compromise on comprehensive immigration reform. That
was a hopeful sign. Unfortunately, the compromise was blocked by the Senate
Democratic Minority Leader. He refused to allow senators to move forward
and vote for amendments to the bill. It was a procedural gimmick that meant
he was singlehandedly thwarting the will of the American people and
impeding bipartisan efforts to secure this border, and make this
immigration system of ours more humane and rational. This town has got too
much politics to it. It's time to set aside needless partisan politics and
focus on what's right for the United States of America. (Applause.)

I appreciate being with people who are the entrepreneurs of this country.
The entrepreneurial spirit of America is strong, and I intend to keep it
strong. Look, I can't make you take risk, I can't make you dream; it's up
to you. But I can keep your taxes low to make it easier for you to realize
your dream. We can do something about health care costs, so that you can
realize the dream of making sure your employees have got health care
coverage. We can open up markets for you. We can make sure the environment
is strong, so people continue to realize their dreams.

I love a society in which people are able to pursue their dreams, no matter
who they are or where they're from. I think this really speaks to the
greatness of the United States of America -- a place where a person can
start with nothing and end up with something; a place where a small
business owner can grow to be a big business owner, if that's what he or
she desires. A society in which people are able to accomplish their dreams
is a whole society and a complete society. ]

Ours is a remarkable country because of the entrepreneurial spirit of
America. And I want to thank you for being a part of this great land of
ours. Thanks for what you do; thanks for expanding the job base. May God
bless you and may God continue to bless your families. (Applause.)

END 11:26 A.M. EDT

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