FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

October 8, 2004
JS-2000

The Honorable John W. Snow
Prepared Remarks: The Toledo Center for Family Business
Toledo, OH
October 8, 2004

Good morning; it's great to be home in Toledo!

I'm proud to have grown up here, and it's always great to come back. Toledo will always be home to me.

Furthermore, I'm delighted to be visiting the Toledo Center for Family Business. I think that family businesses are taken for granted far too often, and it's terrific to see a group of people so devoted to the study of something that is such a powerful economic phenomenon in this country.

When you run a family business, you face challenges that few outside of your world appreciate. From acquiring investment capital – which often means signing up for a new credit card – to resolving conflicts among family members… from  managing employees to negotiating contracts with vendors… from paying the taxes bills to paying the insurance bills and puzzling through all those regulations. Your challenges are constant and incredibly varied. And yet you persevere to maintain your status as this country's strongest economic force and premier job creator.

Everyone here today is on the front lines of our country's economic recovery and growth, and I value the work that each of you are doing.  

I know that it hasn't been easy. As a manufacturing state, Ohio has recently felt the pain of an economy that was in decline. The citizens of this area have lost jobs. Getting them back to work is a top priority for President Bush, and for me.

We understand that bad economic times hit the Buckeye state hard. And the effort to get your economy on solid footing, to a place where you can expand, grow and create more jobs, is a continuing priority; as the President has often said we will not be satisfied until everyone looking for work can find a job.

Some things we know for certain. Like the fact that new jobs cannot come soon enough for the people who have lost theirs. The question is: where will those jobs come from?

The short answer to that question: the jobs will come from the people in this room today.

That's why the President's goal is to make sure that the work you do, on the front lines of job creation and economic growth, isn't over-burdened by unfair levels of taxation and regulation. We know that, as small-business owners and operators, you simply ask for two things from your government: fairness and freedom.

You seek the freedom to start up a new business venture, to run it and grow it, or to close the door and go fishing if that's what you want to do. You also want to be treated fairly, and you deserve nothing less.

In exchange for fairness and freedom, your unspoken promise to your country and our economy is: job creation and the fuel our economic engine runs on. This is why we've got to keep tax rates low on business owners like you, and on every American who pays taxes.

An important, ongoing truth of the American economy is this: the government won't choose what jobs are created; entrepreneurs and innovators will. Government's responsibility is to make sure they have the freedom to do so.

That's why entrepreneurs and small-business owners are at the heart of President George W. Bush's economic policies. The President understands that creating an environment in which you can flourish is the essential ingredient in any recipe for economic growth.

Free and fair trade is an important element in this. Ninety-seven percent of all identified exporters are small businesses like yours. Free trade helps you, and it helps to create more higher-paying jobs for American workers by opening new markets for American products and services, bringing lower prices and more choices to American consumers, and attracting foreign companies to invest and hire in the United States. America is economically stronger when we participate fully in the worldwide economy. When 95% of the potential customers for American products live outside the U.S., America must reject policies that would result in economic isolationism. Here in Ohio thousands of workers' jobs depend on trade agreements that enable Ohio-made products to compete in markets around the world. Since the enactment of NAFTA in 1994, Ohio's exports to Mexico have tripled, and last year exports totaled more than two billion dollars. Since the end of 2000, Ohio's exports increased more than any state in the country. Exports are clearly vital to our Nation's economic strength.

The President appreciates that small businesses create two-thirds of new private sector jobs in America. He knows that you employ more than half of all workers, and account for more than half of the output of our economy. As the President often says, what's good for small business is good for America. Because when small business is growing, the American economy is growing.

That's why the President's tax cuts allowed small-business owners like you to keep more of your business income, and encouraged you to invest in the growth of their companies. For example, nearly 860,000 business taxpayers here in Ohio will save money on their 2004 taxes.

Similarly, the tax cuts have allowed individuals to keep more of their income. More than 4.4 million Ohio taxpayers will have lower income tax bills in 2004 thanks to the tax relief.   

The results of letting people keep more of their own money, and spend it how they see fit, have helped put our nation on the right track. We've had 12 straight months of job growth. More people than ever before own their own homes, and new homes are being purchased every day. People are finding new jobs. They have more money in their pockets and can better afford things from cars to appliances to shoes for their children. That said, we are not satisfied.

Our economy has come a long way. When he took office, President Bush inherited an economy in steep decline. The stock market bubble had been pierced. We were then shocked by terrorist attacks and wounded by reprehensible behavior by corporate CEOs that hurt employees, investors and investor confidence.

We are fortunate that our economy is the most open, flexible, adaptive and resilient in the world. Our powerful core elements – small-business owners and entrepreneurs, an outstanding workforce, and the simple fact that we operate as a free market – have enabled us to recover from those very difficult economic times.

Sound monetary policy from the Federal Reserve Board helped to stimulate our recovery as well. Lower interest rates encouraged investment, which is critical for economic recovery and growth.

Finally, President Bush's tax cuts gave our economy the oxygen it needed to right itself, and continue on a path of growth and job creation.

How to help our economy right itself when it is in distress is a lesson in American history. We know from long experience that our economy responds best to the very thing that created it: freedom.

Freedom from excessive taxation. Freedom from abusive, frivolous lawsuits and of course freedom from terrorist assaults.

As I said before, small firms like yours also respond to fairness. That's why the President wants to bring fairness to the purchase of health insurance by allowing you to pool your purchasing power to buy your policies anywhere in the U.S., putting you on a better footing with bigger businesses – that's only fair. The President believes in small businesses, and the spirit of enterprise it represents. He wants you to have a level playing field. That's why he has worked so hard to bring the perspective of small business to government regulations.

When freedom, fairness and American entrepreneurs are combined, the end product is jobs and growth.

We have plenty of work to do – in Ohio and across America. But if we continue on the path of freedom and making sure individuals, entrepreneurs and family businesses have an open and fair environment in which they can work and grow, our best economic days will remain ahead of us and I am optimistic about our future.

Thank you so much for having me here today; I look forward to our discussion.