Text 4055, 457 rader
Skriven 2007-02-14 23:31:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0702141) for Wed, 2007 Feb 14
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Vice President's Remarks at the National Association of Manufacturers
Breakfast Meeting
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
February 14, 2007

Vice President's Remarks at the National Association of Manufacturers
Breakfast Meeting
J.W. Marriott Washington, D.C.



8:30 A.M. EST

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Thank you all very much. Thank you, John,
and I appreciate the warm welcome and the chance to be here today with all
of you. I especially want to welcome everybody from out of town. It's good
to be here. The streets are kind of bad outside, but I guess you're all
staying in the hotel, so that wasn't a worry for all of you. But the good
news is, the federal government's shut down today. (Laughter.) So
everybody's safe. (Laughter.) Just consider this your Valentine's Day
present. (Laughter.)

I see many friends in the room this morning, starting, of course, with John
Engler, who invited me here -- a great friend of mine for many, many years,
a fine public servant, and obviously now a great leader for America's
manufacturers.

As members of the NAM, you belong to a respected organization, and you lead
a vital sector of the nation's economy. Our manufacturers have faced the
unrelenting challenges of competition and globalization, and you've shown
the best qualities of the free enterprise system. Manufacturing drives the
growth of this economy; it accounts for the majority of America's exports;
and it gets more productive each and every year. That productivity, in
turn, has helped the export of manufactured goods reach their highest level
in history. All by itself, America's manufacturing sector would be the
eighth largest economy in the entire world. The members of the NAM know a
thing or two about hard work and high quality. You're people of energy and
commitment and creativity. And I might add, in this time of national
challenge, you're also good citizens -- patriots, veterans, and civic
leaders who proudly fly the flag and support the men and women of the
United States military. (Applause.)

This week in Washington you've brought together leading manufacturers from
across the country -- including, I'm told, at least one with facilities in
the best place of all, my home state of Wyoming. Welcome to Washington.

It was my good fortune to serve Wyoming for more than a decade in the House
of Representatives, and I was better equipped for the job every time I got
advice and input from leaders in the private sector. Folks in Washington
simply cannot know the real impact of the laws we make unless we hear from
the people who live under those laws. And if the goal is economic growth
and more jobs, Washington needs to listen to the ones who actually go out
there and make the risk, invest the money, build the plants, hire the
workers, and do everything else that makes this economy go.

That's why I'm glad you're here for meetings with members of the
administration and members of Congress. There's a lot on the agenda. And
with a new Congress and a divided government, more than a few people wonder
if we can get anything done in the nation's capital. The fact is that we
can, and the American people are expecting us to. We have bigger business
here than any issue that may set us apart. Our job is to ensure the
strength and the success of America in the world. And that work begins
right here at home.

Our strength and success depend on a healthy, growing economy -- and by
most any measure, that is what we have today. America has now seen five
years of uninterrupted economic growth, in a recovery that has generated
nearly seven-and-a-half million new jobs. When people across the world look
at our economy they see low inflation, low unemployment, and the fastest
growth of any major industrialized nation in the world. Wages are rising,
too, allowing families to meet their budgets and to build a better future.

To continue this progress, I believe we need to operate by the philosophy
of Ronald Reagan -- that government should "work with us, not over us; to
stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government," Reagan said, "can and
must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle
it."

Those principles set an agenda for our country. Nobody can sit in an office
in Washington, D.C. and decide to create prosperity. What we can do, and
what we must do, is create an environment in which consumers have the
confidence to spend, savers the confidence to save, and entrepreneurs the
confidence to invest and to hire new employees. And one of the surest ways
to create that climate is to leave as many resources as possible in the
hands of the people themselves.

For that reason, at the start of this Administration in 2001, President
Bush asked Congress to pass significant, broad-based tax relief. And the
House and the Senate, with bipartisan support, responded with historic
pro-growth legislation. We reduced taxes for every American who pays income
taxes. We doubled the child tax credit and reduced the marriage penalty. In
2003, we created new incentives for small businesses to invest. And in
order to lower the cost of capital, and to encourage firms to expand and to
hire new workers, we reduced the tax rate on dividends and capital gains.

Now the results are clear for all to see: the Bush tax policy has been
right for the country. If you think of all that has happened in these
eventful years -- the recession we inherited, terrorist attacks, two wars,
corporate scandals, natural disasters, and a tripling in the price of oil
-- it's remarkable how tremendously resilient this economy has been. In
fact, since 2001, our GDP has grown by 16 percent. Let me put that another
way: In less than six years' time, the American economy has expanded by an
amount greater than the entire economy of Canada.

Milton Friedman once said that "most economic fallacies derive from the
tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one can gain only at the
expense of another." We've shown once again that the right policies can
make the pie a lot bigger, and that gains can be widely shared. We've also
disproven maybe the biggest, most persistent fallacy in Washington, and
that's the idea that pro-growth tax cuts are incompatible with fiscal
discipline.

The fact is that pro-growth tax cuts once again have helped to drive an
economic expansion that has, in turn, generated higher-than-projected
revenues. You might also recall that back in 2004, President Bush set a
goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009. This pledge was greeted with
great skepticism, to put it mildly. Yet we met that target in 2006, three
years ahead of schedule.

All told, federal tax receipts have gone up by more than $520 billion in
the last two years. That's the largest two-year increase in our history. By
now it's time for even the skeptics to admit that a lower federal tax
burden is a powerful driver of investment, growth, and new jobs for
American workers. And that increased economic activity, in turn, generates
revenue for the federal government. (Applause.)

Despite the growth in revenues, we still have to hold the line on spending
-- and on that score there's plenty to do. Last week the President
submitted a budget that continues reducing the deficit each year, and
balances the budget by 2012 without new taxes. To meet that goal, we need
to set the right priorities. The first priority is to remember that we are
a nation at war, and we cannot cut corners on homeland security or defense.
Enemies are trying to hit us again and kill more Americans inside our own
country. Overseas, we have troops in the field and reinforcements on the
way. Job number one is to provide the resources necessary to protect the
American people, and to meet all the needs of the United States Armed
Forces.

Setting priorities for the budget also means dealing with the matter of
Congressional earmarks -- those items that get slipped into spending bills
at the last minute. There were more than 10,000 of them alone in 2005. And
90 percent of earmarks never make it to the floor of the House or Senate --
they're simply dropped into committee reports and aren't even part of the
legislation. Congress didn't pass them into law. The President didn't sign
them into law. Yet somehow they get treated as having the force of law.
We're going to work with Congress to reform the budget process to get these
earmarks under control. (Applause.)

Spending discipline, budget reform, and, yes, entitlement reform are vital
to keeping our economy strong. And so is a low-tax policy that promotes
growth, rewards enterprise, and keeps government within its proper limits.
Under current law, many of the Bush tax cuts are still set to expire over
the next few years. We feel strongly that Congress should make all of the
tax cuts permanent -- and that includes ending the federal death tax.
(Applause.)

We're also committed to ensuring that America remains the world's leading
innovator. One way to do that is to extend the R_

If America is to remain the world's leading innovator, and the world's
largest economy, and the world's biggest exporter, we also have to make
sure this country is always the world's best place to do business. A good
place to start is health care. This nation's health care system is second
to none. But many employers will tell you that health insurance is one of
the fastest-growing costs they face. Every year they find it harder and
harder to cover their workers, and those rising costs absorb resources that
might otherwise go for pay raises for the work force.

The President has a comprehensive agenda to help Americans gain better
access to private health insurance. In the last Congress we improved access
to care with Health Savings Accounts, which allow a person to save money
for medical expenses tax free, and to keep that money even if they move to
a different job. We continue to press for Association Health Plans, so that
small firms can join together to get health care at the same discount as
big companies. And all Americans will be better off if Congress passes
medical liability reform, so that health costs are not driven up any
further by trial lawyers and predatory lawsuits. (Applause.)

The President is also asking Congress to pass tax reform to help make
coverage more affordable and accessible. Part of the reason health care is
so expensive today is that the tax code penalizes Americans who are not
covered at work, and it subsidizes people who choose the most expensive
plans. To fix that, we're proposing a standard deduction for every worker
who has private health insurance, no matter where they get it from. We're
not touching the corporate tax side; employers will still be able to
expense the cost of compensation for their workers. What's new is that
employers and workers will be better able to choose the right mix of wages
and health insurance, without the tax code distorting those decisions.

Under the President's plan, more than 100 million Americans now covered by
employer-provided insurance would actually have lower tax bills. This
reform would also level the playing field, so the self-employed or small
business worker would get the same tax advantage available to the big
company. This would be a positive step toward covering the millions in our
country who aren't covered at work and struggle to afford it on their own.
We believe changing the tax code is absolutely necessary to getting
coverage to more Americans, and to getting a handle on the rising costs of
health care.

In this world, America's strength and success have long relied on stable,
affordable supplies of energy. As the President told Congress last month,
it's in the nation's vital interest to diversify the energy supply, and
that the way forward is through technology. We've invested about $10
billion to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy sources. We're
changing the way America generates electricity, by investing in clean coal
technology, wind and solar power, and safe nuclear power. We're also seeing
great promise in new battery technology that will allow automobiles to go
20 or more miles on stored power -- and we're talking here about real cars,
not just little ones that look like golf carts.

We're determined to maintain America's leadership in economic growth, in
technology development, and in environmental stewardship. The President has
proposed much greater usage of renewable fuels, with higher vehicle fuel
economy, and more domestic production -- all of which is intended to
enhance our energy security. It's also very important to increase domestic
oil and gas production in environmentally responsible ways, in places like
the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and off the shores of willing states.
(Applause.) We took an important step last December, when the President
signed a bill that opens up new areas of production of the Outer
Continental Shelf. To further protect Americans against sudden disruptions
in the oil supply, he's also directed the Department of Energy to refill
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and asked Congress to double its current
capacity -- and the sooner we do that, the better.

America's strength and success also depends on a confident, forward-looking
trade policy. The NAM has hosted President Bush, and you know our
administration's basic outlook on global trade. We believe in fairness. The
United States has opened up our market to other countries, and they need to
do the same for us. Trade is worthwhile only if the buying and selling is
fair and square on both sides, across the board.

When we took office, America had only a few free trade agreements in
effect. Now we have more than a dozen. And even though those countries make
up less than one-tenth of the global economy, they take in more than 40
percent of America's exports. That's good for your sector, because one in
every six manufacturing jobs is tied directly to trade. It's in our
national interest to have a world that trades in freedom. So we're asking
Congress to extend Trade Promotion Authority, and we're committed to
completing the Doha round of trade talks. (Applause.)

Manufacturers understand, better than most, that trade can be disruptive
for some of our fellow citizens. Some economists say that's part of the
price we pay to have such a dynamic, flexible economy. But we can help
fellow citizens who take the hardest hit. To ease the transition for those
Americans, we've provided more direct assistance for retraining, for
relocation, and community college aid than any other administration.
Government cannot prevent the transformation of the economy -- indeed, a
dynamic economy is one of our great strengths -- but we can and will help
these workers to get back in the game.

America has the finest labor force in the world, and part of that labor
force is composed of men and women from other nations. All of us have roots
in some other part of the world, and the United States is a better country
for the striving spirit of immigrants. Yet borders and laws alike must be
respected. We must know, at all times, who is in our country and why they
are here. We must reform our policies on highly skilled immigrants so
America continues to attract the best and the brightest in the world. And
we can take pressure off the border with a temporary worker program here at
home. The time has come for comprehensive, fair-minded immigration reform,
and we're asking Congress to pass it into law this year.

America is also a country that takes very seriously the right of men and
women to work, and to organize within the law. The American labor movement
has a proud history and has long reflected a basic principle of our
democracy: fair elections decided by secret ballots. This principle will be
put to a test in Congress this year. It's important for everyone in the
debate to remember that secret ballots protect workers from intimidation,
and ensure the integrity of the process. (Applause.) Beyond that, if
workers do decide to form a union, they and their employer should be able
to negotiate without having terms forced on them. Our administration
rejects any attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers. We will defend
their right to vote yes or no by secret ballot, and their right to fair
bargaining. H.R. 800 violates these principles, and if it is sent to the
President, he will veto the bill. (Applause.)

Of these and many other priorities, ladies and gentlemen, the Congress has
heard from the President. Now it's time for Congress to hear from the
American people. Most of you come from outside Washington, and your voices
are going to make a difference in the months ahead. With more than 10,000
member organizations -- responsible for some 14 million jobs -- you, as
much as anybody, are affected by the outcome of the debates in this city.
By the same token, as much as any other private group, you can help shape
that outcome. You understand what makes our economy run -- how things are
made, how jobs are created, how to keep an economy growing. You're
respected in your communities, and known as voices of common sense. And
it's good that you're here.

The President and I hope to count on your support. We realize, of course,
that that support must be earned. So I'm prepared to do my part now, by
taking a few questions from the audience.

Thank you very much.

MR. ENGLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. That was terrific and
we appreciate the announcement on the card check legislation. That's
something that's strongly opposed by members of the NAM and a priority that
we're talking with the members of Congress on.

Let me -- I've got a few questions that were given to me. One deals with
the energy issue, and concerns the Secretary of Energy and testimony from
House Energy Committee -- apparently indicating that the Department of
Energy is unable to issue loan guarantees due to some of the language
that's in the House continuing resolution. And we've got about a hundred --
as many as 140 energy projects that are stalled because of this. I know
this is language going back to 2005. Is there any optimism or any
procedures that might be used to be able to move the projects forward under
current DOE guidelines? A little bit technical, but energy security is one
of the important principles that your administration has stood for and
something we're keenly in need of; we need kilowatts.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we're still wrestling with the CR and its impact,
in many respects. Last year we worked through two appropriations bills --
the defense bill and the MilCon bill, or homeland security bill. We were
left at the end of the year with all the other appropriations bills, and
instead of work through those and pass them as we ordinarily would, one by
one, or fold them all into an omnibus appropriations bill, in effect,
what's been done is a continuing resolution that expires tomorrow, I
believe.

And a CR is more restrictive than any of those other ways of going forward.
We're having trouble, for example, with the Base Closing and Realignment
Commission, the BRAC process, in terms of how those decisions to, in
effect, operate at last year's levels under the CR will affect all of these
other projects as well, too. Some adjustments are being made; I don't know
if that particular area is being addressed in the bill. They are trying to
take some of that into account, but it's going to be difficult to get much
flexibility built into the system, I would think, until we move forward
with this year's appropriations bills. That process should begin shortly.
And, of course, the CR will be in force until September, and then we'll
have new appropriations bills.

MR. ENGLER: U.S. economic competitiveness is certainly closely linked to
innovation and the success of the high tech industry. Will the
administration give priority to this question, to updating export controls
-- and I guess deemed exports, the workforce, as well, would be part of
that. But is that something that -- there's a lot of work being done on
that and we think there's some opportunities that sort of create a win-win
for both national security and U.S. exports.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There is -- this gets into the whole area of CFIUS,
important program that oversees these issues with respect to sensitive
subjects and acquisitions and so forth, and that legislation is being
revised now to try to strengthen that entire process. So I expect there
will be some legislative action in this area sometime this year.

MR. ENGLER: A couple of trade-related questions. The first one, recent news
reports suggest White House and Congress may be close to an agreement on
extending Trade Promotion Authority. Is that right? What about prospects
for free trade agreements -- Peru and Colombia -- and the negotiation of
others, like Korea? You addressed that in part in your prepared text, but
can you elaborate on where we are in working on a deal?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, our Trade Promotion Authority, of course, runs
out this year. And our ability to move forward to continue to advance the
trade agenda that we've had in the past is going to depend upon getting
Trade Promotion Authority extended. I think it's going to be a tough fight.
We're strongly supportive of it, and we think it's very important the
President continue to have that authority, but we're going to need help on
Capitol Hill, without question. And these trade issues have gotten to be
very, very difficult. The Central American Free Trade Agreement that we
passed here a year or two ago was, frankly, one of the toughest votes I've
been involved in, in the last six years. It was root, hog or die for every
single one of those votes.

So we need to continue to push hard on it, but I would hope it would be a
priority for the NAM to make sure your members of Congress understand how
important this is.

The Doha round, of course, is crucial here going forward. We continue to
work on it -- the round at Davos conference in Switzerland, here, a week or
two ago, the trade ministers met; the major countries that are involved in
these negotiations are trying to move the ball forward.

I'm told our people are somewhat more optimistic now than they were, when
they get that done. Right now, the focus in that negotiation is on
agriculture. That's the primary hangup. But the big winner here going
forward, if we can get the agriculture problem solved, is in the whole area
of services, which would be a huge boom to the American economy.

And so it's -- I'd say we're pushing the rock uphill. But we're still
pushing. We're going to continue to push hard. We think it's important not
to give up in our efforts to continue to advance an aggressive trade
agenda.

MR. ENGLER: I think we can do one more and still keep our promise to have
you free by 9:00 a.m. This one deals with -- specifically with China. Lots
of questions. But the U.S.-China trade relationship is certainly one that
has raised all kinds of issues with inside the NAM. There's an appreciation
for Secretary Paulson's strategic initiative that's underway, and a
recognition that the Chinese leadership is coming here in the spring --
their first visit here, but the return visit.

We've noted also -- and I know the issues like everything from currency to
intellectual property to the subsidization -- the administration has been
taking what seems to be a firmer line in terms of adhering to WTO
compliance. Is there anything relative just to the relationship with China
that you have -- can offer, I guess, to this audience some reassurance that
everybody has to play by the same rules? And I think, again, you said that
well in the remarks.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Sure. Well, I sense we're making progress where China
is concerned. It's always been a source of frustration for a lot of us. A
big problem I've had over the years is the intellectual property rights and
the fact that they don't treat -- or they don't live up to international
standards with respect to that.

And lots of times, when you go and address the issue, they'll talk a good
game, but then the follow-through is weak. And I remember being over there
once, meeting with a group of American businessmen in Shanghai, and we were
talking about the problem of intellectual property rights. And they were
telling me about a company that manufactures the Hummer, the General Motors
Hummer -- only it's not General Motors. It's a local company over there
doing this exact replica that looks exactly like the Hummer. And I asked
them, what do they say when you point out the fact that it's an exact
replica of an American product? They said, oh, it's just a coincidence.
(Laughter.)

So that's a problem, without question, and that attitude. But we hammer and
hammer and hammer at it. We have made progress in that regard. I think one
of the best and most positive developments, where China is concerned, has
been Hank Paulson coming on board, and Hank has devoted a lot of time to
this. He had great relationships in China before he gave up his job at
Goldman and joined the company -- administration as the Secretary of the
Treasury.

He had about half the Cabinet over there a few weeks ago to focus on this
whole range of issues. I think we've made progress on the currency front in
terms of getting them to allow their currency to float and not be as
directly pegged to the U.S. dollar as it has been in the past.

And what we've done now, I think, thanks to Hank's leadership, with the
President's active support, is to place a lot of these issues front and
center for the Chinese so they understand how important they are to us and
the importance of addressing these in terms of our overall relationship.
And so I think we've got them in a good place now. It will be a matter of
follow-through and continuing to push on that agenda. But when the
Secretary of the Treasury shows up in Beijing with half the U.S. Cabinet,
they know we're deadly serious and we want to work these issues and we want
to make progress on them. So we'll continue to push it.

MR. ENGLER: Ladies and gentlemen, lets give the Vice President a round of
applause. Thank you very much for joining us.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. (Applause.)

END 9:00 A.M. EST

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