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| $200 and a welding machine |
May 22, 2003 |
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Dear Friends,
Ted Martinez started his business with $200 and a welding machine. Now he employs 130 people and built a new manufacturing building on the outskirts of Bernalillo. Ted’s wife, Dina, said that the place had never been cleaner. Every employee pitched in cleaning the grounds and moving the equipment so that 3000 people could join them for a very special day. The President of the United States was coming.
 Heather visited with people in the audience soon after President Bush spoke.
The recession is over, but the recovery is not as strong as any of us would like. And until everyone who wants a job can get a job, we still have work to do.
Businesses like MCT Industries in Bernalillo is where the jobs come from. Eight of every ten new jobs created come from small business. Government cannot create wealth, but government can create the conditions for entrepreneurs and business people to create jobs.
The House and Senate have both passed economic stimulus bills to try to give a further spark to this economic recovery. This week, the two sides of Capitol Hill are negotiating to fashion a compromise that we will send to the President. It isn’t over until long after it happens, but it is starting to look like the tax bill will focus on small business and encourage Americans to continue to invest in America.
The compromise will probably expand the amount that small business can “expense” in the first year when the business buys new equipment from $25,000 to $100,000 a year so that they don’t have to depreciate that capital investment over a long period of time. That is a strong encouragement for businesses to go ahead and buy the new computers, or get the new compressor. And every new piece of equipment improves the productivity of American workers, but it also is built and maintained and operated, which creates jobs.
I was talking recently with a man who has run his family propane delivery company for forty-five years. He asked about the tax bill and I told him about this expensing provision. He was surprised because he had heard it was only going to go up to $50,000. He immediately said, “Well, that’s great. If it’s $100,000, I can go ahead and buy a new truck and we’ll have to hire one new man to drive it.”
 President Bush waves to the audience as Claudine Martinez, MCT`s general counsel, introduces him.
That’s what we want to hear. And that’s what the President of the United States had to talk about in Bernalillo.
Wish you were here,
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