Text 2023, 895 rader
Skriven 2006-01-19 23:33:42 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0601192) for Thu, 2006 Jan 19
====================================================
===========================================================================
President Highlights Importance of Small Business in Economic Growth
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 19, 2006

President Highlights Importance of Small Business in Economic Growth
JK Moving _
Sterling, Virginia


˙˙˙˙˙Fact Sheet: President Bush's Pro-Growth and Small Business Agenda
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Small Business
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Jobs and Economy

10:06 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for having me. Please be seated. Thanks for coming to
say hello. What I thought I'd do is share some thoughts with you and then
answer questions for a while. Before I do, I want to thank Randy and the
Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce for setting this up. I appreciate you
all coming.

I've got something to say, and I hope you do, as well, as we have a
conversation about how to make sure this economy of ours continues to stay
robust and strong, so people can find work and realize their dreams.

Before I talk about the economy, I do want to say Laura sends her regrets.
She came home last night about 12:45 a.m. She just came back from Africa,
where he and my daughter, Barbara, and Condi Rice went to witness the
swearing-in of the first elected woman President on the continent of
Africa. (Applause.) They had a great trip. She said it was an inspiring
inauguration. I just wish she'd have tiptoed in a little quieter.
(Laughter.)

She's doing great. One of the best things about the presidency is how close
our family has remained. And how wonderful a wife and mother she is. And
the American people are getting to see that.

Speaking about families, Chuck Kuhn's family is pretty remarkable. Turns
out his mother works for him. (Laughter.) That's the opposite in my family.
(Laughter.) I need a little advice on how to -- (laughter) -- restructure
the chain of command in the Bush family. (Laughter.) But I love being here
in a place where a guy who had a dream at age 17 -- that's how old Chuck
was when he started to act on his entrepreneurial instincts -- said, if I
work hard and if I'm smart and if I figure out what the market wants, I can
build something that I call my own. And 23 years later, we're standing,
obviously, in what has become a very successful business enterprise.
Successful because he is thriving and expanding. Successful because he has
provided people a good place to make a living.

And so I want to thank you, Chuck, for being a great entrepreneur.
(Applause.)

I want to thank the folks who work here for setting this deal up. I'm here
to talk abut how to make sure that America is the place where the
entrepreneur can succeed. That's what we're really here to discuss, isn't
it? And it's a wonderful place to have that discussion.

Before we get there, I want to thank the Attorney General, Bob McDonnell,
of the state of Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia, for being here.
Appreciate you. (Applause.) He's sitting next to an old governor buddy of
mine -- Bill Graves, he was the governor of Kansas during the time I was
governor of Texas. And I used to remind him he made a really smart move
when he married a woman from Texas. (Laughter.) Still married, aren't you?
Yes. (Laughter.) Good move. (Laughter.) The best deal that's ever happened
to you. It's great to see you. Bill is the President and CEO of the
American Trucking Association. I want to thank all the other state and
local officials who are here, but most importantly I want to thank the
small business owners who are here.

I was interested to find out that Loudoun County is the home of 10,000
small businesses, 80 percent of which have got 10 employees or less. It's
pretty strong isn't it? Amazing. (Applause.) Probably one of the reasons
why you're growing so fast is that people realize this is a good place to
take risk.

And that's really the role of government, when you think about it. I like
to tell people the role of government is not to try to create wealth;
that's not the role of government. Oh, sure, the role of government is to
help the poor and help the elderly with medicine -- but it's not to try to
create overall wealth. The role of government is to create an environment
in which people are willing to risk capital, to take risk; an environment
in which people are willing to work to realize their dreams -- just like
here at this trucking company. That's the fundamental policy -- principle
on which I'm basing my decisions as I ask Congress to think about how to
make sure the economic growth that is now prevalent in America continues.

We have got a robust economy, but it wasn't necessarily going to be that
way -- when you think about what we've been through, it kind of helps point
to what good policy may be. We've been through a stock market correction.
We've been through corporate scandals, which affected the confidence of
people. We have been through a terrorist attack, which hurt our economy. We
have been through war. We have had significant natural disasters. All of
which could have sent us into a downward spiral had we not put good policy
in place.

We've overcome these issues, and I believe one of the main reasons why is
because we let people keep more of their own money. I asked Congress for
tax relief. I believe strongly that if the entrepreneurs of America have
more money in their pocket they will use it to expand their businesses. I
believe very strongly that if a consumer has more money in their pocket,
they will demand extra goods and services; and when somebody demands an
extra good and service in a market economy, somebody is going to produce it
to meet that demand.

And so I went to Congress and said, look, we've got problems; let's be
aggressive about how we address it; let's cut the taxes on everybody.
(Applause.) I remember the debate, they said only some people should have
tax cuts. So we lowered rates for everybody. If you all have tax relief,
everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief; you ought not to try to play
favorites with who gets it and who doesn't get it.

We mitigated the damage of the marriage penalty. I always thought it was a
little contradictory to have a tax code that discouraged marriage. Seems
like to me we ought to encourage marriage in this country, and the tax code
ought to encourage that. (Applause.)

We lowered taxes on dividends and capital gains because we want to
encourage investment. We put the death tax on the road to extinction. The
death tax is a punitive tax for small businesses and farmers and ranchers.
It's a tax you pay -- you know, you're paying income tax, when you're
making money, you're paying tax to the government, that's fine. And then
you die and your heirs get to pay it all over again, and that doesn't seem
fair. It seems like to me that you want a tax system that encourages a
family member to be able to pass their assets on to whomever they choose
without the government making it impossible to do so. So the death tax was
put on its way to extinction. I said, put on its way to distinction, the
problem is the way the law was written, it's coming back to life in 2011,
which is going to make some interesting estate issues, particularly in
2010.

We increased the child credit. We want to help families who have got
children. One of the things that's really important for Congress to
recognize is that most new jobs in America are created by small businesses.
If you're interested in job growth, then you've got to be thinking about
where's the engine for growth? And it's the small business owner. Seventy
percent of new jobs in America are created by small business owners and
entrepreneurs. Many small businesses pay tax at the individual income tax
level: sole proprietorships, subchapter S. These are structures in which
people are able to grow their businesses, but they're advantageous to the
owners of business and, yet, you pay individual income tax rate.

So when you hear me talking about, we cut taxes on individuals, you also
have to recognize we cut taxes on small businesses. And if you want there
to be job creation to offset the trauma that our economy has been through,
our country has been through, then it makes sense to say to the job
creators, here is a little more money for you in your pocket.

We also encouraged investment. You might remember we made it tax
advantageous to increase investment in plant equipment if you're a small
business owner. All the policies that I'm describing to you were aimed at
saying to the small business sector: we understand your importance, here's
how to help you grow.

The other thing that you've got to understand in Washington is that you
hear a lot of debate about the deficit, and it's an important debate, don't
get me wrong. But in my judgment the best way to solve the deficit is to
grow the economy, not run up your taxes. There is a myth in Washington,
they say all we've got to do is just raise the taxes a little bit and we'll
solve the deficit. No, that's not how it works. They're going to run up
your taxes, but they're going to find new ways to spend the money and not
solve the deficit. That's how Washington works.

The best way, it seems like to me, to solve the deficit is to keep
pro-growth tax policies in place and do something on the spending side. And
so I'm working with Congress -- and I want to thank the Speaker and the
Leader for supporting and passing lean budgets. I say "lean" because we've
got one aspect of our budget that is not going to be lean. And that is any
time we've got a kid in harm's way, he or she is going to have the best
equipment, best training, best possible pay. That's what we owe the
families of our military. (Applause.)

But on non-security discretionary spending we've slowed it down every year
I've been in office. And, actually, the non-discretionary -- non-security
discretionary spending -- I'm from Texas -- (laughter) -- is lower in '06
than it was in '05. We've actually reduced non-security discretionary
spending. The issue for the budget is mandatory spending. That means you
don't have discretion over it, it's fixed by formula. The two biggest
programs we face, of course, are -- for mandatory spending increases are
Medicare and Social Security. And we're going to have to do something about
it, and a lot of folks in Washington don't want to do anything about it --
it's too hard, politically.

I want to share some thoughts with you about my view of "too hard,
politically." I think we're supposed to do the hard things, politically. I
think the job of a President and jobs of leaders in Congress from both
political parties should confront problems now and not pass them on to
future generations. And we've got a problem with Social Security and
Medicare and I'll tell you why. We've got a bunch of baby boomers like me
getting ready to retire. As a matter of fact, I'm 62 years old in the year
2008 -- it's a perfect fit. (Laughter.) And there are a lot of us. I'm
looking at some of them here. And we've been promised greater benefits than
previous generations.

The politicians that ran for office said, vote for me, I'll make sure your
Social Security benefits go faster than the rate of inflation. And as a
result of a lot of us retiring and fewer people paying into the system, the
deal is going broke. And it's hard for me to travel our country and look at
hardworking people paying payroll taxes to a system that I know is going
broke. And it should be hard for Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill,
as well.

And so I just want to assure you that no matter how hard it may seem for
some, I'm going to keep talking about it. That's the job of a President, is
to remind people of the challenges.

There's a long-term deficit issue as a result of a system which is out of
balance and out of kilter. And we need to do something about it now. We
have that obligation. The Senate has the chance -- or the House now has the
chance to pass a budget bill, or an appropriations bill, reconciliation
bill that actually starts to cut mandatory spending by making reforms. The
deal passed out of the House, passed out of the Senate, now it has to go
back to the House. And it would be a good faith gesture on people from both
political parties to say, we see we've got a problem on mandatory spending,
why don't we start reforming the system for the sake of future generations
of Americans.

Things are going well, by the way, in the economy. We added 4.6 million new
jobs since April of 2003. What I'm telling you is the tax plan is working
and here's why I can say it to you without having to throw some hot air
your way. Since April of 2003, 4.6 million new jobs have been created --
not by government, but by entrepreneurs. We had a national unemployment
rate of 4.9 percent -- I think it's 2 percent, 2-point-something percent
here in Loudoun County. (Applause.) The economy grew at 4.1 percent in the
third quarter. And that's in spite of high energy prices -- or higher
energy prices and two storms. Think about that. Think of how robust our
economy is when it's growing at 4.1 percent in the third quarter of this
year, in the face of storm and high energy prices -- it's got to affect
your business, doesn't it, all those high energy prices. And, yet, you're
growing.

In other words, we've got an economy that is robust. The interesting
statistic is the manufacturing activity has been up for 31 straight months.
You hear a lot of talk about manufacturers and the trouble with
manufacturers and of course there are some trouble. But we've had growth
for 31 straight months. Productivity is up. That's a really important
statistic for our country because productivity -- as a worker becomes more
productive, as the workforce is more productive, higher wages follow,
that's just a fact of life.

Do you realize that from 1973 to 1995, productivity in America grew at 1.4
percent. At that rate, the standard of living doubles every 50 years.
Today, our productivity is up, averaged 3.4 percent over the past five
years. In other words, we're more productive as time goes on. Technology
enables our workers to be more productive. Education enables our workers to
be more productive. Smart business leaders are constantly trying to figure
out how to make their companies more productive. The more productive a
workforce is, the faster incomes go up.

So what I'm saying is things are going fine. I mean, you know, we've got
more minorities than ever before in our country owning their own home. Home
ownership is on the rise. And the fundamental question facing us is what do
we do to keep it going. What do we do? Well, first thing is, Congress needs
to make the tax relief permanent. (Applause.) This relief is set to expire.
The easy course is, of course, say, well, then just let it expire. That's a
tax increase if the tax relief expires. When you hear people say, well,
we're not going to make it permanent

-- what they're telling you is they're going to run up your taxes, that's
what they're saying.

Failure to make tax relief permanent is a tax raise on the working people
and the small businesses in this country. If you're a small business owner,
there's got to be certainty in the tax code. Congress needs to put
themselves in the shoes of people who are trying to plan. Good business
owners, good small business owners don't think two months in advance, they
think years in advance; they're making capital schedules; they're thinking
about how to grow their company; they're constantly strategizing.
Uncertainty in the tax code makes it hard for the small business sector to
stay confident and to make investments. And when there is uncertainty, it
makes it harder for this economy to show steady growth.

So people need to make this tax cut permanent so we don't take money out of
your pocket. And we need to make the tax cuts permanent so there will be
certainty when it comes time for small businesses to plan.

I understand there's a problem in health care and I suspect during the
question and answer we'll get questions on health care. One of the biggest
problems our small businesses have is the increase in health care. The role
of government in my judgment is to take care of the poor through Medicaid
and community health centers. The role of the government in my judgment is
to take of the elderly through a Medicare program which is modern, and by
the way, provides choices for our seniors. But I also think the role of
government is to encourage a direct relationship between the consumer/the
patient, and the provider/the doctor, without a lot of go-between.

I think that -- I know that small businesses should be allowed the same
affordability of health care that big businesses get by being able to pool
across jurisdictional boundaries, pool your risk. If you're a restaurant
owner in here Loudoun County and a restaurant owner in Crawford -- I think
there are a couple of restaurants here. (Laughter.) If not, there will be.
No, there is a good one, The Coffee Shop -- I mean, Coffee Station, excuse
me. But they should be allowed to pool their risk across jurisdictional
boundaries. In other words, the larger the risk pool, the more employees
you're able to get in a risk pool, the easier it is to manage your costs
when it comes to health insurance. You can't do that now. And Congress
should encourage you to be able to pool risk.

An interesting product available is called health savings accounts. I
strongly urge small business owner here to look at them. It's an innovative
product that enables the small business owner and the employee to combine,
to work together to come up with a plan where the employee owns it. It
provides for a high deductible catastrophic plan, coupled with tax-free
contributions in the plan, basically gives the consumer control over his or
her medical decisions. The plan can grow tax-free, which is an
encouragement for people to make wise decisions about how they treat their
body. If you have a catastrophic event, the insurance kicks in and covers
it. It's portable. If you change jobs, you can take it with you. It's an
interesting idea.

It certainly stands in stark contrast with a system in which the federal
government gets to make the consumers decisions, or tells the providers
what they can charge. It's the opposite of federal control. It is patient
control.

We need do a lot on information technology. The health care industry is
inefficient in that you've still got people filing out forms with
handwritten notes. And doctors can't write anyway -- (laughter) -- and it
creates a lot of confusion, as you can imagine.

We need to have legal reform. You can't have a legal system -- I mean, a
medical system that's available and affordable when you've got your doctors
being sued. Do you realize we've got a crisis when it comes to OB/GYNs in
America. These good docs who have got the great compassionate job of taking
care of youngin's, they're getting run out of business because of frivolous
and junk lawsuits. It makes no sense.

When I first came to Washington, I said, you know, this is a state issue.
But the problem with all these junk lawsuits is that they cause doctors to
practice defensive medicine. In other words, they prescribe more than they
should because they're afraid of getting sued. And when you practice
defensive medicine it makes the cost of medicine go up. And when you couple
that with increasing premiums, it costs us a lot of money at the federal
level -- I'm talking billions a year as the result of junk lawsuits. And
good small business owners have trouble affording health care; part of the
reason why is because of these junk lawsuits. And so I've decided this is a
national issue that requires a national response. We need medical liability
reform in Washington, D.C. so that health care is available and affordable.
(Applause.)

Laura always says I get too long-winded when I come to one of these deals
-- (laughter) and so I'll try to rein it in here. I've got something to
say, though.

We've got do something about lawsuits, in general, not just medical
lawsuits. One of the things I hear a lot from small business owners is
they're afraid of getting sued. I mean, we've got a society which is
litigious in nature. People are just suing right and left. That makes it --
that runs up the cost of staying in business. It makes it harder for people
to work. Of course, if you have a legitimate lawsuit, you ought to get --
have your day in court. Everybody understands that. It's just these
frivolous lawsuits.

We're trying to do some things about it in Washington. We've got class
action lawsuit reform passed. We're trying to get asbestos reform passed.
We got bankruptcy passed. We got manufacturers liability passed when it
comes to firearms. I mean, we're making some progress when it comes to
lawsuit reform. I urge the Attorney General here to -- and urge the
Governor in the Commonwealth to pass good lawsuit reform, as well. It's a
really important issue for the vibrancy of our economy.

Energy, real quick. Look, we're hooked on foreign sources of oil and we
need to do something about it, pure and simple. I've got a strong faith in
technology being able to lead away from a hydrocarbon society. It's going
to take a while. But the federal government has a role to invest in
research and development. I envision the day when we're using corn, corn
husks, different kind of grasses to be able to convert into energy.

Down in Brazil they've got enormous amounts of energy they get from their
sugarcane. Their automobiles are flex-fuel automobiles; they're able to
convert from gasoline to ethanol made by sugarcane on an easy basis. I
mean, it's coming. And the role of the federal government is to encourage
these new technologies, to be able to make us less dependent on foreign
sources of oil.

We need to be -- we ought to have more nuclear power in the United States
of America. It's clean, it's renewable, it's safer than it ever was in the
past. And we need to be thinking about how we can use solar batteries
better. I mean, there's a lot of things we can be doing. I'm confident that
with the right policies and the right incentives, technology will help us
diversify away from a hydrocarbon world.

But we've got plenty of certain kinds of hydrocarbons we can use: coal. I'm
also convinced, with the right expenditure of money, that we'll be able to
have zero emissions coal-fired plants that will make us less dependent --
do you realize we've got about 250 years of coal here in America? It seems
like to me a wise investment is to figure out how to use that coal in a way
that heats your homes and fuels your businesses, and at the same time,
protects the environment. So we have to think about how to incorporate new
technologies to diversify away from foreign sources of energy, not only for
economic security, but for national security purposes.

I want to talk real quick about trade. I believe it's important to open up
markets. I think it's a mistake for this country to go isolationist when it
comes to economic policy. Do you realize we're 5 percent of the world's
population, which means 95 percent of the rest of them could be customers,
so long as we've got a level playing field. My job is to make sure that if
you're producing a product, that it has fair access to markets. We ought to
treat people -- people ought to treat us just like we treat them. And I'm a
strong believer that if the playing field is level, this country can
compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere. And if we can't, we ought to
figure out why not. Competition is good, so long as it's fair competition.

And, finally, I want to talk about education. As you expand your
businesses, as they become -- as they change because of technology, you're
going to need a workforce that is capable of filling the jobs. We've got to
make sure we get education right in the United States, otherwise the jobs
of the 21st century are going to go somewhere else. This is a competitive
world in which we live; there's no way to deny that there's competition in
the world. We can play like it. We can put up foolish, short-term economic
policies that will hurt the small business sector, protectionist policies
-- but it's a competitive world. And people are going to go to where the
skill sets of the labor market are such that they'll be able to produce the
products of the 21st century. It's a reality.

So what do you do about it? Well, the first thing you do about it is you
make sure your kids at the elementary school get an education; teach them
how to read, write and add and subtract. The No Child Left Behind Act is a
great piece of legislation. I think as small business owners you'll
understand where I'm coming from. It says you've got to measure to
determine whether or not you're succeeding.

I was concerned when I was the governor of Texas that we had an education
system that didn't measure and, therefore, we didn't know. And oftentimes
when you don't know whether a child can read and write and add and
subtract, they just end up being shuffled through the system. I believe
that we ought to measure. As a matter of fact, we are now measuring as a
result of the No Child Left Behind Act, that says we want to determine
whether or not you can read at grade level by the 3rd grade, and whether or
not you're grade level at the 4th grade and the 5th grade and so on. And if
not, here's some money to help you make sure the child is up at grade
level.

You cannot solve a problem until you diagnose a problem. And the No Child
Left Behind Act is a diagnostic tool for local school districts. We're not
telling you how to run your schools, that's up to you. We didn't design a
federal test; we just said, you design an accountability system. And it's
working. We have an achievement gap in America that is not right and needs
to be closed. We have too many African American kids not reading at grade
level and they should be, and I'd say a lot of that is due to just moving
kids through without determining early whether or not they've got the
skills necessary to read, write and add and subtract. And we're changing
that. The achievement gap is closing. It's a really positive development. I
can tell you how I know: because we measure and we solve problems early,
before it's too late.

We've got to have these same high standards in high school, with an
emphasis on math and science. We've got to use our community college system
to constantly upgrade the skills of people. As you know, the job market
changes. And the easiest thing for a society is to have technological
change; the hardest thing is to make sure that the education systems are
flexible enough to help the job market change with technology.

Community college is a great asset in our country. They're available,
they're affordable. And if they're run right, they have a curriculum that
changes with the times. They're not one of these institutions to just stay
stuck. They're an institution that says we're going to change our
curriculum to be able to educate people for the jobs which actually exist.
That's what we need to do, what I'm telling you.

So I'm going to go to Congress here pretty soon and call on them to put
economic policy, energy policy, health policy in place that understands
that this economy is strong, but we need to do the right things to keep it
going -- with the centerpiece of our economic policy being the small
business in America.

Anyway, that's all I've got to tell you right now. I'll be glad to answer a
few questions. (Applause.) Yes, sir.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: You have got a transportation problem.

Q (Inaudible) -- Northern Virginia. Down time in traffic is loss of
productive time for businesses and it's time away from home and family for
individuals. We don't get to use helicopters. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I won't in three years, either. (Laughter and applause.)

Q How can the federal government help states and localities address
transportation problems?

THE PRESIDENT: We passed the highway bill and it's set. Congress argued
about it and I argued with them about it, and it's a $270 billion-plus bill
that is the law for a period of time and now it's up to you to spend the
money allocated to you by formula in a wise way. I think it's an issue
where the federal government's responsibility is clear on the law, and that
is that we take the gasoline taxes and pass them back to you. But you get
to decide where the roads go. And that's probably the way it should be.

I was noticing that the inauguration -- or the campaign for governor here,
part of the campaign was roads. And that's good, that's the way it should
be. People say, vote for me, I'm going to do something about your roads, I
hear your problem with your roads. And so you want the decision-making
about the roads to be here at the local level. But the federal government's
role in highway is pretty well fixed for five or six years.

Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it out.

Q Yes, good morning. I'm a CPA here in Loudoun County.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q (Inaudible) -- and the IRS does not spend a lot of time auditing. The
last administration turned the IRS into a customer service department. And
here, the last three years, it's been reorganized. There's quite a few
people that do not comply. I really think that the IRS needs to get out
there and audit. I hope none of my clients are here. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's a very unbelievably interesting statement from a --
(laughter.) No, but you've got a good point. Look, here's the point the man
is saying. He's right. There are too many honest people -- first of all,
there are people who feel like they don't have to pay taxes, and that's not
fair to the millions of honest people who do. A tax system is --
(applause.)

Look, I don't know the inner workings of the IRS; I know there is strong
enforcement. And with the millions of filings, I would suspect there's
programs in place that highlight irregularities, that then call up the
audits. I don't think you can ever audit everybody, nor would you subscribe
for everybody being audited who files a return. But if there's flagrant
anomalies in reporting, I suspect they take a good look at it.

You'll be pleased to hear that I'm audited every year. (Laughter.) One way
or the other. More than happy to put out my income tax returns for my
friends in the press to scrutinize. (Laughter.) I see them nodding -- yes,
they love -- (laughter.) As it should be, by the way, for people in public
office. Those of us in public office have the high responsibility to uphold
the integrity of the process. And people ought to be held to high
standards. In Washington, D.C. there needs to be high standards for conduct
of public officials. (Applause.)

Yes, sir.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Homebuilder, good.

Q (Inaudible) -- substantially over the past housing boom. And I guess my
question is, as the consequence of this great housing boom has increased
the cost of housing so much not only in this area, but throughout the
country, it's very difficult for me to envision my kids being able to
afford a home, or even the workforce that drives much of our school systems
and our police and (inaudible). How do you see the federal government
helping this workforce, (inaudible) -- to be able to afford housing close
to where their jobs are?

THE PRESIDENT: Markets adjust, and the role of the government is to make
sure the market is able to adjust in a way that is not precipitous and
disruptive. When you have wage and price controls, for example, in history,
it has tended to not allow the market to adjust in a smooth function, a
smooth way. It doesn't function properly. And, therefore, the consequences
of government trying to either manage price or demand is very severe.

So to answer your question, one role of the government is to make sure that
markets are given the flexibility to adjust in a way that doesn't cause
major disruption. If houses get too expensive, people will stop buying
them, which will cause people to adjust their spending habits.

Secondly, setting of interest rates affects your business. You'll be happy
to hear that the White House doesn't set interest rates. The Federal
Reserve Board sets interest rates. I get to name the Chairman; I named a
good guy in Ben Bernanke. But it's their job to be independent from the
political process and look at market forces -- in all aspects of our
economy -- to determine the interest rate to be set. Obviously, they look
at inflation, consumer demand, et cetera.

So to answer your question, the simple answer is, let the market function
properly. Let the market function properly. I guarantee that your kind of
question has been asked throughout the history of homebuilding -- you know,
prices for my homes are getting bid up so high that I'm afraid I'm not
going to have any consumers -- or my kid -- and yet, things cycle. That's
just the way it works. Economies should cycle. We just don't want the
cycles to be so severe that it gets disruptive so that you get thrown out
of business, for example, or somebody gets thrown out of work.

Yes, ma'am.

Q Thank you for coming to Loudoun County, Mr. President. I run a non-profit
that provides health care to the uninsured --

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

Q -- something near and dear to your heart -- 45 million uninsured people
in the country, and of course, Loudoun County is no different. We provide
health care free by volunteer physicians who are involved in a non-profit,
and it's a good private-public partnership. You talked about creating
health (inaudible) as part of the health care delivery systems. We, too,
are part of health care delivery systems. How do you see your role and the
government's role in helping us do what we do, when we've discovered
recently that we're not going away anytime in the near future?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Well, first, I think there ought to be -- well, first,
there are tax incentives to encourage people to contribute to your
non-governmental organization, which is good. That's what we want. We want
people to have a tax code such that if you give to your group, or a church,
synagogue, or mosque, or somebody whose job it is to help the unfortunate,
you get a deduction for it. Secondly, the uninsured is -- first of all,
there's the working uninsured; a lot of them work for small businesses
because small businesses can't afford insurance. A small business owner
would like to pay for the insurance, but the cost of medicine is
increasing.

And I just gave you two prescriptions for that. One is -- well, a bunch of
prescriptions -- to help control the cost and enable small businesses to be
able to manage the expense. If you stand alone as a small business owner,
10,000 businesses, 80 percent of which have got 10 employers or less, and
you try to buy insurance as an employer of 10 people, it's going to cost
you a heck of a lot more than if you try to buy insurance with your 10
people in a pool of 5,000 people. It's just the way insurance works. It's
called spreading the risk.

There are some in the uninsured world who simply choose not to buy
insurance. That would be your bulletproof 22-year-old person -- you know,
just out of college -- (laughter) -- I'm never going to be sick, nothing
ever bad is going to happen, I just don't think I'm going to want any.
(Laughter.)

Health savings account is an interesting opportunity for the young
22-year-old healthy person, who is able to put money aside, tax-free, and
watch that money grow, tax-free, and take the money out of the health
savings account, tax-free, coupled with a high deductible catastrophic
health plan. In other words, this is a product that will say to those who
choose, here's an opportunity for you. You start putting aside a thousand
dollars a year -- in other words, you buy a high deductible policy with a
thousand-dollar deductible, and you put the thousand dollars cash -- you
do, or your employer does, or however you negotiate it -- that thousand
dollar grows. And it can grow to be pretty substantial, particularly as
you're a healthy person, over a period of time, tax-free. And all of a
sudden, you've got quite a nest egg.

I'm going to call on Congress, by the way, to make these health savings
accounts more attractive, more portable, more individualized.

There are some who come to our country that don't have any health
insurance, but work. We've got immigrants coming that can't afford health
care. Their employers -- the type of job they have is one that doesn't lend
itself to health care. One way the government can help is to have community
health centers as primary care facilities, to deliver health care and take
the pressure off the emergency rooms. We're expanding these a lot. In my
judgment, it's a good use of taxpayers' money to provide health clinics for
the poor and the indigent, so that they don't go to where the health care
is more expensive, the emergency room, but go to where the health care --
primary health is more manageable.

And so there's a series of ways to address the issue. But the truth of the
matter is, government policy has got to aim at the increasing cost of
health care.

Part of the issue in Medicare is the projections of health care costs going
up the way they are. The issues that small business owners face in the
short-term is increasing premiums. And so we need medical liability reform
to help address the costs. We need to encourage information technologies.
And I'm told that there would be a significant reduction of medical costs
as we modernize medicine and bring medicine into the 21st century through
the use of information technology.

Health savings accounts encourage consumers to pay attention to price.
There needs to be transparency in pricing. Do you realize the medical field
is one where you don't do any comparative shopping. When you buy tile, I
presume, for your house, you're out there shopping it. You know, say, look
what am I bid? You know, when you're buying pipe or things you put in the
wall, insulation. You're out there bidding price. There's no transparency
in pricing in medicine. You don't know whether the guy next is going to
offer a better deal when it comes to some kind of medical procedure.

It seems like to me the more transparency in pricing, the more likely it is
consumers will have an input into the cost of health care. And so these are
ways to address the cost of health care. Obviously, as health care costs --
the rate of increase is manageable, there will be less people coming in to
see you.

One of the reasons why the uninsured is going up because the cost is going
up. And so the government needs to address the cost. There is a debate in
Washington. Some will say the way to address the cost is to have the
federal government be the decider, the decider for the consumer, and the
decider for the provider, and that will be -- in my judgment -- terrible
for this country. And so this is -- we're talking about a very important
and interesting debate. And I'm going to continue pushing policies that
address cost and empower the patient and the doctor into a relationship
that is not only good for the patient but also one in which I think will
affect the pricing mechanisms, and the prices here in the country.

Yes, ma'am.

Q (Inaudible.) And we're proud of you Mr. President, and your --

THE PRESIDENT: Keep it up, will you? (Laughter.) About time.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Laughter and applause.) It's always good to have
a plant in every audience, you know? (Laughter.)

Q Well, the timing of this opportunity is uncanny. I want to thank you for
your unwavering support of the Veterans Administration. My father spent the
last two years at the Martinsburg, West Virginia VA, where he was loved and
respected and so well cared for. And we buried him two weeks ago in
Arlington, and it struck me then how strong the promise still is for our
veterans and our wonderful men and women of the service. And I thank you.
(Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. You know what I thought just when you said that at
first, our country is great because we've got a lot of people who have been
willing to serve. It's really important that we keep an all-volunteer
military. And one way to do that is to make sure that people are paid well,
or as good as you can pay them; that they're trained well; that their loved
ones have got adequate housing on the bases -- in other words, family life
is good; that the education systems work on our bases. But also after
service there is a health care system that will provide modern health care
for them.

So thanks for bringing that up. The volunteer Army is really an important
part of our nation and it's a really important part of fighting this war on
terror. We've got kids who know the stakes. They saw the attack on
September the 11th. They have made a conscious decision to swear-in to
serve the country. So thanks for brining that up. I just wanted to share
that with you, to tell you that our troops are always on my mind, their
families are always on my mind. And it's important to leave a legacy behind
of a strong military based upon patriotic Americans saying, "I want to
serve. I'm stepping up. Nobody is telling me to. I have made the decision
to do so."

Yes, sir.

Q Good morning, Mr. President, thank you for being here. My son is one of
those young men, at 18 years old almost -- I hope I don't cry, but I --

THE PRESIDENT: I hope you don't, too, because I will, as well, and then we
-- (laughter.)

Q Okay. He asked me to take him to the Army recruiter. He didn't drive yet,
but he wanted to go to the Army recruiter to join the Army. He's in the
National Guard in Christiansburg, Virginia. And he's also at the Virginia
Tech Corps of Cadets.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, good, thanks. (Applause.) I know you're proud of him.

Q Yes, I am.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

Q He sends his best wishes to you.

THE PRESIDENT: To the old Commander-in-Chief, that's a smart move, you
know? (Laughter.)

Q He and I discussed a question and I want to ask you. Most people in this
room today are leaders of some type. I'm a leader of an adult education
center for Marymount University. And my question to you is how do you
remain upbeat when you're surrounded by the burdens of leadership?

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. My faith and my family and my friends, for starters.
I like going home to be with my family. I was teasing about Laura waking me
up this morning at 12:45 a.m., but I'm glad she did. I take great pride in
my little girls. I'm not going to talk about them too much, otherwise these
people will put in the newspaper. And I'm trying -- (Laughter.) Right,
Jackson? I'm trying to spare them because I think that one of the hardest
decisions about going into public life is exposing people you love to the
public nature of public life.

I'm proud to tell you that my friends that I knew before I became in public
office are still my friends. One of the coolest things to do in my
presidential work, one of the -- (laughter) -- seeing if you're paying
attention up there -- (laughter) -- things I like to do is to welcome my
buddies, and Laura feels the same way, people we grew up with -- we both
grew up in Midland, Texas. I remember having some of my friends that I went
to 1st grade with, a guy I grew up across the street with, Michael Proctor,
they came up to have dinner at the White House. You know, and they kind of
walk in there. You can imagine what it's like. It's a great honor, pretty
awe-inspiring deal. They walk in there and, kind of, "What are you doing
here, Bush?" You know? (Laughter.)

But I really like it. And they're my friends. They help me keep -- help me
remind myself that what's important is what you believe. And leaders have
got to know the core principles on which you'll make decisions. And you
can't change. There's a lot of temptation to change to try to make people
want to like you. That's not the job of a leader. The job of a leader is to
know where he or she wants to lead and know the principles on which you'll
make decisions.

I take great comfort in having people around who can walk in my office and
tell me what's on their mind. Part of my job is -- they say, "what's your
job?" My job is decision-maker. I make a lot of decisions. Obviously, some
of which you've seen, and a lot of them you don't. And they're big ones and
little ones. But you make a lot of decisions. And if you don't -- if you're
uncertain about all the facts surrounding a decision, you've got to rely
upon people. And you've then got to create an environment in which people
are willing to come in and say, "here's what's on my mind."

It's important at the presidential level. It's important in business.
You've got to have people comfortable about saying, "Here's what I think
you ought to do, Mr. CEO." You've got to listen and have a -- I've always
believed in a flat organizational chart. I think the worst thing that can
happen for decision-makers is to get a filtered point of view.

And it's pretty hard as President, needless to say. But I've got a group of
people around me that are empowered to walk in. Condi Rice, when she walks
in, she comes in as a close friend, but as someone who knows that our
friendship will be sustained, whether she agrees with me or not. Rumsfeld
comes in -- and he's a crusty old guy who -- (laughter) -- and he's got an
opinion, and he tells it. And that's important. And that's the way it is
throughout the White House.

I like to tell people, the first decision I made as President was this --
the guy called me -- I was at the Blair House looking at my inaugural
speech, trying to get comfortable with it, get ready to go -- it was a
pretty big event coming up, and wanted to make sure that it worked well.
And he said, Mr. President-elect, what color rug do you want in the Oval
Office? I said, man, this is going to be a decision-making experience --
(laughter) -- what color rug do I want in the Oval Office? (Laughter.) He
said, no, I'm not kidding you. Turns out Presidents design rugs.
(Laughter.) Or somebody designs them for them. And I said, I don't know
anything about rug designing, so I delegated to Laura. (Laughter.)

Interestingly enough, the job of a leader is to think strategically. It's
important for your businesses, it's important for the country. And so she
said, tell me about the rug. And I said, I want it to say "optimistic
person comes here to work every day." It was the strategic thought for the
rug. She figured out the colors. And it looks like a sun, with nice, open
colors. You walk into that Oval Office, I think you're going to say, it
looks like, you know, this guy is optimistic. I'm optimistic -- by the way,
you can't lead your company and say, follow me, the world is not going to
be good. You're not going to have a lot of employees say, great, I love
working here, you know. (Laughter.) It's got to be, follow me, the world is
going to be better and I have a plan to do it.

And one reason I'm optimistic is because I'm sustained by my faith, family
and friends. I'm also sustained by the fact that I believe strongly in the
values of the United States of America: human rights, human dignity,
individuals count, freedom is the future of the world. And I'm sustained by
those beliefs.

And thanks for the question. It was an interesting question. (Applause.)

Yes.

Q On behalf of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, we welcome you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. Thanks for having me. You don't look old enough to
have run. (Laughter.)

Q I'm the youngest member of the board. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, is this your board, here?

Q This is -- (inaudible) --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, you certainly are the youngest, I can -- (laughter.)
He's a pretty young guy, too.

Q And you probably know we've got health savings accounts for our county
employees (inaudible).

THE PRESIDENT: Good move. Good move.

Q But on transportation, one of the solutions that I've been putting
forward is telework and expansion of broadband.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q (Inaudible) -- so that people don't get caught in traffic. But Congress
is contemplating revisions to the Telecommunication Act of '96 that would
essentially shut down the options that states and localities are exploring
to give broadband to every business and every home. So what is your thought
on, as we are falling behind in the world on delivering broadband to
businesses and homes and residences -- what will you do to --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I need to find out -- it's interesting you said that
because I laid out the opposite vision, which was that broadband ought to
be available and accessible all throughout the country by a set period of
time. I need to make sure I understand what you mean, Congress is trying to
unwind that vision, because it sounds like you and I share -- I believe
you. Thank you for the heads-up. I'll take a look.

You're very smart to -- part of the role of government is to create an
environment in which people are willing to risk capital. Broadband
expansion is part of creating an environment in which it will make it
easier for people to be competitive in this part of the world. It's a
brilliant idea. People are able to do so much more from their home,
particularly if you've got the technology capable of carrying information.

You're right -- want to make sure -- you mentioned that other nations are
ahead of us. True, we're catching up -- and we'll do better, by the way.
But if part of making sure that America is competitive, is to make sure
that we've got broadband available and accessible. One of the interesting
questions we're going to