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The President: Good morning, everybody.
It is good to be here at Ernest Maier Block.
I just had a chance to take a quick tour,
a look around with Brendan Quinn,
President and CEO of Ernest Maier,
and it's a remarkable story.
Brendan came here initially to help a family business,
turn it around; it was experiencing losses.
He ended up purchasing the company and now has grown it
enormously, has terrific employees here.
He provides full health insurance to them.
They are supporting their families,
and even during this difficult downturn he hasn't had to lay
anybody off and is still confident about his growth.
So we're just very proud of him and what this company has accomplished.
These are the guys that build serious stuff --
concrete blocks, bricks for walls that are thick,
difficult to move, and can stop anything in their path --
sort of like the way I feel about Congress sometimes.
But this is a family business that's been here over 80 years.
They believe in investing in their workers.
They care about the environment, so they collect and process
using cooking oil from local restaurants to power some of
their equipment.
Their community cares about them, so business is growing.
Brendan has hired folks this year and with the smart
investments he's made, he hopes to continue that growth.
Small businesses like this one are the bricks and blocks of our
entire economy.
And over the past two years, my administration has been doing
everything we can to help encourage more success stories
like this -- because it is small businesses that will power our
growth and put our people back to work.
This morning, we learned that in the month of September,
our economy gained 64,000 jobs in the private sector.
July and August private sector job numbers were revised upwards.
So we've now seen nine straight months of private sector job
growth -- in all, more than 850,000 private sector jobs
gained this year, which is in sharp contrast to the almost
800,000 jobs that we were losing when I first took office.
But that news is tempered by a net job loss in September,
which was fueled in large measure by the end of temporary
Census jobs and by layoffs in state and local governments.
I should point out that these continuing layoffs by state and
local governments -- of teachers and police officers and
firefighters and the like -- would have been even worse
without the federal help that we've provided to states over
the last 20 months -- help that the Republicans in Congress have
consistently opposed.
I think the Republican position doesn't make much sense,
especially since the weakness in public sector employment is a
drag on the private sector as well.
So we need to continue to explore ways that we can help
states and local governments maintain workers who provide
vital services.
At the same time, we have to keep doing everything we can to
accelerate this recovery.
Yes, the trend line in private sector job growth is moving in
the right direction.
But I'm not interested in trends or figures as much as I am
interested in the people behind them --
the millions of honest, hardworking Americans swept up
in the most devastating recession of our lifetimes.
As I've said before, the only piece of economic news that
folks still looking for work want to hear is, "you're hired."
And everything we do is dedicated to make that happen.
Last week, for example, I signed into law the Small Business Jobs
Act -- a small business bill that does some big things.
And I want to mention three of them today.
First, within the 11 days since it took effect,
more than 2,000 small business owners have already received
more than a billion dollars' worth of new loans --
with more to come.
And beginning today, the Small Business Administration is
offering larger loans for folks who need them.
Second, it expands the tax cut for all the equipment investment
small businesses make this year --
something that Brendan is planning to take advantage of
here at Maier Block.
And we were just talking about his belief that the more we can
accelerate depreciation, the more likely we're going to see
businesses like his make these investments.
It's going to help small business owners upgrade their
plants and equipment, it will encourage large corporations to
get off the sidelines and start putting their profits back into
the economy, and it will accelerate $55 billion in tax
cuts for businesses that make job-creating investments over
the next year.
Third, it creates a new initiative to strengthen state
programs that spur private sector lending to small
businesses -- a step that will support $15 billion in new small
business loans across the country.
Maryland, for example, will be able to support $250 million in
new lending for businesses that are expanding and creating jobs
in communities like this one.
Thousands of small business owners across America had been
waiting for months for this bill to pass --
for the loans and tax cuts they have badly needed to grow their
businesses and hire new employees.
Unfortunately, it was held up all summer by a partisan
minority until a few courageous Republican senators put politics aside.
Just imagine the difference it could have made for small
businesses and our economy had it happened months before.
Putting the American people back to work, expanding opportunity,
rebuilding the economic security of the middle class is the moral
and national challenge of our time.
It is too important to fall prey to pure partisanship or blind ideology.
This bill's rapid results prove that when we work together,
we can get a lot done.
And that's what the great debate we're having today is all about.
I believe that instead of extending tax loopholes that
encourage investments in overseas jobs,
we should permanently extend the tax credit that goes to
companies for all the research and innovation they do right
here in America.
I believe that instead of borrowing another $700 billion
we don't have to give tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of
Americans who don't need them, we should permanently extend the
tax cuts for middle-class families.
They're the folks who saw their wages and incomes flat-line over
the past decade, and they're the ones who deserve a break.
And I believe that instead of sitting still,
we should invest in rebuilding America's roads and railways and runways.
Too many American workers have been out of work for months,
even years -- and that doesn't do anybody any good when there
is so much of America to rebuild.
Our infrastructure is falling far behind what the rest of the
world is doing, and upgrading it is vital to our economy and our
future competitiveness.
This is a project worthy of America's efforts.
It's something that engineers, economists,
governors and mayors of every political stripe support,
and many of them issued a sobering report about this
challenge last week.
And on Monday, I will be meeting with some of them at the White
House to discuss how we can put Americans to work doing what
they do best -- building America.
As I've said many times before, it took us a long time to get
out of where we are right now.
And the damage left by this recession is so deep that it's
going to take a long time to get out.
It will take determination, persistence, and,
most importantly, the will to act --
all elements that the American people have in abundance.
And if we summon that spirit now, if we keep moving forward,
I'm absolutely convinced that we will rebuild our economy,
we will put our people back to work,
and we'll come through these tough days to brighter and
better days ahead.
And I want to thank Brendan not only for his hospitality here
today but somebody who's got the courage and the foresight and
the skills to create a terrific business that's supporting so
many families.
Thank you very much.