Small Business Week, 1980 Remarks on Receiving the Report of the White House Commission on Small Business and Presenting the Small Business Person Awards

First of all, I want to thank Chairman Arthur Levitt and our Small Business Administration Director, Vernon Weaver, Congressman Neal Smith and other representatives of the Congress who are here, and all those participants who have joined with us on this very exciting and beautiful, and, I think, inspirational occasion.

There are times when I look upon the small business community with a great deal of—not only fond affection and memories but with yearning. [Laughter] And then I remember the accounts receivables and the equipment broken down in the midst of a crisis and the struggle to balance books at the end of the month, and I see all the advantages again of being a President of our great country. [Laughter]

There's no doubt in my mind that the small business conference and the way it was handled has been one of the major forces in strengthening the American economy and our free enterprise system. As a small businessman myself, I saw before entering national politics a great need for us to reassess the tremendous assets available to our Nation in the small business community, in all its breadth, and also to resolve some of the problems that have afflicted us for too long: restraints on the dynamism that's inherent within the entrepreneurial system, where we value innovation and the independence but the collective strength of those engaged in small business.

In 1977, after talking to Senator Nelson and to Neal Smith and others, I issued an Executive order establishing the procedure for the Small Business White House Conference. And following that, under the leadership of those who are assembled here with me, there were meetings and forums and discussions held in all of the 50 States, and of course in some of the territories as well. They led up to a very carefully prepared conference. And now this report to me, just delivered by the Chairman, contain, I understand, 60 recommendations, which will be assessed very carefully, some of which are already being pursued for consummation.

This report will be a milestone, and there's no doubt in my mind that at the end of this assessment period, when we are working together, not only with those assembled here but with the Congress and the other members of the business and labor community in our country, that we'll come back in 1982 with a good assessment of dynamism and progress. I expect to be here to participate in that assessment, hopefully not as a small businessman. [Laughter] But who knows? That's a judgment for the American people to make.

I wanted to take a few minutes to express to you, from the perspective of the Oval Office just to my right, some of the changes that are taking place very rapidly in the American economy, because all of you are part of it.

Just a few months ago it became obvious to me that the intense pressures of rapidly rising inflation and interest rates were crippling the American economy. Early in March, after meeting extensively with a large number of the key congressional leaders, we embarked upon an anti-inflation program whose implications had very far-reaching potential effect. The Congress urged me, for instance, to take these steps, and we jointly agreed. The pressures of a political election year are now working counter to the realization of those common commitments. But in spite of that we've made good progress.

We've seen a precipitous drop in recent days and weeks in interest rates. The bond market has been reestablished in its stable condition with a maximum degree of integrity. Some interest rates are actually lower now, as you know, than they were 12 months ago; and others are coming down quite rapidly. Mortgage interest rates, the prime rate are dropping more than 1 percent a week, and We hope that this downward trend will continue. We have early indications that the inflation rate is also being alleviated, and we believe that during these coming summer months we will have substantial progress to report when the Consumer Price Indexes are made public.

At the same time, however, it's inevitable that with this change will come the pressures of a recession, and we must all work together to minimize the adverse consequences of that change. Carefully targeted Federal programs, combined with a commitment by the private sector, can help to alleviate the pressures toward extremely high unemployment rates. We must make these common efforts more successful.

At the same time, we're dealing with a root cause of our economic problems, and that is excessive dependence on imported oil. We now expect that for 1980 we will send to foreign countries $90 billion in American money to pay for their oil. This is too much. It amounts to about $400 for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

Americans have made some progress. The first 5 months of this year we actually reduced oil imports by 1 million barrels of oil per day, a 12-percent drop in oil imports. But the pressures to discontinue this progress are tremendous, because it does require political courage in the Congress and in the executive branch, and it also requires some degree of sacrifice on the part of the American people.

For instance, when the congressional leaders came to see me in the Cabinet Room early in March, they asked me to impose an oil conservation fee amounting to 10 cents per gallon on gasoline. Now pressures on them are tending to reverse that action. This will undoubtedly result in a much higher level of OPEC oil prices during the coming months, and it will tend to make our allies and other major consuming nations reverse, perhaps, or stop their additional commitment to intense conservation measures.

It's a small price to pay. I took the action unilaterally; no congressional action was necessary. Now there are pressures in the Congress to take legal action to stop the imposition of this conservation fee.

We jointly committed ourselves to a balanced budget. That was a clear, public commitment by the Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, and myself, to the American people. In recent days, we have seen disturbing signs in the Congress that this commitment to a balanced budget might be in danger. Again, political pressures are intense, and I know from experience-because on occasion I've been on the opposite side—that when the small business community is organized, your voice is a powerful one in this Nation's Capital. And I hope that you will combine your efforts with my own to maintain these commitments to a responsible, effective economic policy for our Nation that will let us find our way successfully through this economic crisis brought about by extremely rapid increases in energy prices.

We are trying to deregulate your lives and to get the Government's nose out of your business to the maximum degree possible. It's a commitment that we've had together.

The Senate has already passed a trucking deregulation bill. If the House will pass the same bill, it will mean that American consumers will save $8 billion per year in transportation costs. We are already benefiting from the deregulation of the airline industry, the communication and telecommunications industry, banking and the finance industry, the railroad industry. We've made this progress already. And as we've assessed deregulation commitments, we've identified 138 different elements of possibilities wherein the Government can reduce its intrusion into your lives. We've done this without any derogation to the protection of the safety and health of the workers who are employed by you.

Let me say in closing that ours is a common commitment. There is no way to separate government from your lives, nor is there any way to separate your involvement from a successful government effort. It works both ways. And this common realization of an inevitable partnership in a free nation where a democracy prevails, where we believe in the free enterprise system and value each human life and the innovation and dynamism of it, the entrepreneurial experience on which we make plans for the future—these commitments are interrelated.

Vernon Weaver, this fine commission that worked under Arthur Levitt, the Members of the Congress who have been so intensely involved in the strengthening of a small business community, the President, and all of you share a common goal: to make sure that we make our Nation stronger and realize that historically we have always proven that in a time of test, in a time of rapid change, in a time of challenge, our country has never failed. And almost invariably—I can't think of any exceptions—when we have been tested severely, we have not only met that challenge successfully, but we have come out from it stronger and better and more united as a nation.

That's my conviction concerning the results of this present transitional phase, where we are accommodating for the first time in Americans' lives a restraint on unlimited energy sources. We can produce more energy ourselves, and we can conserve the energy that we use and, therefore, make our country stronger and more united to face the future.

It's hard to select leaders from among you, because small business men and women have always been leaders. You've always been willing to take a chance. You've always been willing to face competition and, if successful, then, of course, you made a better community as well as a better family for yourselves.

Today I would like to recognize with Vernon Weaver's help, the small business persons of the year, chosen from among very fine other members of the community, almost any one of whom could have been recognized as outstanding. Vernon?

First, I'd like to recognize the two runners-up in the competition for the outstanding small business person of the entire Nation, and I'd like to read the citations:

"The United States of America, Small Business Administration, presents the 1980 Small Business Person of the Year Award, National Second Place, to V. Scott Ankeny, Blue Earth, Minnesota." Mr. Ankeny is the head of the TAFCO Equipment Company in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and he exemplifies "the imagination, initiative, independence, and integrity by which the American small business person makes a vital contribution to the Nation, to the economy, and to the free enterprise system." Signed Vernon Weaver, Administrator, Small Business Administration, May 15, 1980.

I particularly want to recognize his wife, Audrey, who's probably responsible for his winning the award— [laughter] if my own family experience is any guide.

Now I'd like to ask Cletus Ernster to come forward, and I'd like to read the citation also:

"The United States of America, Small Business Administration, presents the 1980 Small Business Person of the Year Award, National Third Place, to Cletus P. Ernster, Cuero, Texas, for exemplifying the imagination, initiative, independence, and integrity by which the American small business person makes a vital contribution to the Nation, to the economy, and to the free enterprise system," again signed Vernon Weaver. Congratulations to you, Cletus, and his wife, Kathleen. He's the president of the Gulf Coast Products Company.

And now, I'd like to offer double congratulations to the winner of the national first place award:

"The United States of America, Small Business Administration, presents the 1980 Small Business Person of the Year Award, National First .Place, to George Thomas Spalding, Monroe City, Missouri." And his wife, Eva Jo.

I would also like to point out that Mr. Spalding is the president of the Diemakers, Incorporated, Monroe City, and this happens to be his 47th birthday today.

In closing my part of the ceremony, let me say that I'll do the best I can working with these three award winners, with Vernon Weaver and all the members of the Commission, who've done such an outstanding job, and with all of you and those you represent throughout the country to carry out as best we can the recommendations made by the White House conference, which was held early this year. And I have no doubt that after 2 years of hard work by all of us and with the inspiration of the ideals that have made our country so great, we will be successful in making it even greater in the future.

Thank you very much. Congratulations again.