 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Please seated and thank you very much and welcome to the White House. Small business administration really runs a tough conference, still going after 5.30 on a Friday afternoon. Washington, you could be practically alone by this time. Well, why do I have this feeling that there are packed bags all over Washington just waiting for me to finish? But I'm glad you could squeeze me into the tail end of the conference. First I want to say what an excellent job Jim Sanders is doing as administrator of the Small Business Administration. He has swiftly redirected SBA toward the future and I'm sure he'll keep it moving that way. I also want to thank you members of the National Advisory Council for your contributions. You've done such a good job advising SBA, how would you like to go up on the hill and give a little advice? Let me say I have only the warmest words of thanks and admiration for the entire small business community. I have the highest respect for your creativity and flexibility and I never tire of reminding folks that you create most of the new jobs. And in spite of publicity to the contrary, statistics also show that small businesses were less affected by the recession than large firms. There were tens of thousands more small businesses opening up last year than closing down. Now I realize it was a little difficult for people to understand or know that that was happening because they only kept reporting the one figure of those that were having trouble in leaving and they never said how many at the same time were starting up as new businesses. But your contributions are more than economic. You symbolize the American dream of what an individual can accomplish with hard work and freedom. America's become what she is because of your dreams. I came to this office and this historic house carrying with me the same hopes and values that you hold. And I'm committed to defending what all of us here cherish, economic freedom and prosperity. Our economic recovery package was designed to serve these goals and we're succeeding. We reduced the outrageous double digit inflation of 1980 to just one half of one percent for the last six months. And what's more, we're going to keep inflation down. The prime interest rate, which was a staggering twenty one and a half percent when we took office is down to ten and a half and then a few banks, ten percent. And we're not finished with it yet. The leading economic indicators are up. Consumer confidence is up. Production is up. Retail sales are up. Real wages are up. And I'm up as well. This recovery is like a newborn cold. Its legs are a little spindly, wobbly at first. But if we all do our part, no time at all, it'll be frisky and kicking. As I said a few weeks ago when I think one of the best, most solid indicators of all is that when our program hadn't started working yet, they called it rigonomics. I'm wondering what they're going to call it now that it's working. They certainly didn't mean it as a compliment at the time. But we're stimulating savings and investment by reducing tax rates. All personal tax rates, as you know, are being reduced another 10 percent this July for a total of 25 percent. And that's the first real reduction in nearly 20 years. This is especially important to small businesses because 85 percent of all businesses file their taxes as individual. And of course indexing will protect Americans from being pushed into higher and higher tax brackets in the future. And now that things are going well with the recovery, it's no surprise that some of the big spenders in Congress are thinking about legislation to mess it all up. You've heard the talk about repealing the third year of the tax cut and repealing indexing. Well, the Congress can pass such legislation. They can pass it till the cows come home. And I still won't sign it. I've told some. I've told some people I'm sleeping with a pen under my pillow so I won't have to waste a second in vetoing anything of that kind that comes along. And let me get out my megaphone and make it a little clearer in case the message hasn't reached the appropriate ears. I will veto such tax increases and send them back to the Congress before the ink is even dry. You know, there's one man here who especially appreciates the economic freedom and opportunity that I've been talking about today. He's a member of your minority small business committee, Carlos Perez. He and his family fled Cuba about 20 years ago, arriving in the United States with nothing except hope, determination, and $27. And today he has a successful importing business in Coral Gables, Florida. And Carlos understands freedom. He understands opportunity. And he understands the great hope that America offers. I'm proud that Carlos Perez is now an American. And I'm proud that he's standing among us today because he represents the very best spirit of American small business. And I pledge to Carlos and to you and to small business people all over our nation that we will keep America free. We'll keep America prosperous. And I thank all of you for being here today. God bless you. And now I understand I'm going in the other room and going to get a chance to say hello to you individually in the next room. So I'll get off of here because it is late on a Friday afternoon.