Remarks to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Legislative Conference

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, April 25, 2005

April 20, 2005

Thank you all. Thank you all for the warm welcome. Please be seated. Thank you. Thank you, Al, for your kind introduction. I've had this good man by my side for quite a while. When I was the Governor of Texas, we worked together. [Applause] There you go. [Laughter] And now as the President of these United States, I'm proud to serve with Al Gonzales as our Attorney General.

I want to thank you for allowing me to come and speak to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It's an honor to be here. I see a lot of friends--I was going to say a lot of old friends, but--[laughter]--some of you are younger than I am.

I appreciate your hard work and your commitment to the entrepreneurial spirit of America. You know, one of the great things about our country is, the entrepreneurial spirit is strong. The dream of owning your own business is alive. The willingness for people to take risk is an important part of our society, and as a result, small businesses are being created throughout all our society, and the job base is increasing as a result.

I look forward to working with you the next 4 years to keep the prosperity of our country going. We share a common goal to make sure the American Dream is available for all. El Sueno Americano es para todos. [Laughter] This is the land of opportunity, and it must remain the land of opportunity, where our origins matter less than our aspirations. And this country's success depends not on accident of birth but on personal effort and drive and determination. And so I'll continue to work with you to create a society where personal effort is rewarded and opportunity is within the reach of every one of our citizens.

In order to make sure opportunity is within the reach of every one of our citizens, we've got to have an economy that continues to grow and expand. Today I have come to talk about ways to make sure our economy continues to grow and expand, with special emphasis on an energy policy. To create jobs and prosperity in a new century, energy must be abundant and affordable for all our citizens. That means we've got to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

I appreciate Hector Barreto joining us today. He's been the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Thanks for your good work. I want to thank the leadership of the Chamber. Thank you all for having me. I appreciate the chance to come and talk about a really important part of making sure America stays competitive and jobs continue to grow, and that's a sound energy policy. I want to thank the members of the Hispanic Chamber for allowing me and Al to come by to say hello.

You see, one of the things I do want to share with you is we've got an ambitious agenda to keep the country safe and prosperous and free. The war on terror continues. We're still at war. There is an enemy that still would like to harm America, an enemy which hates what we stand for. I can assure you that this administration will be relentless, untiring in our efforts to bring the enemy to justice. We will work with our friends and allies to keep the pressure on these people. Our most important job in America is to keep this country secure, and that's exactly what we'll work hard to do.

I'll work with Al and other members of my Cabinet to make sure that we do everything we can to improve the security at home. But I want you to know what I think. I think in the long run, the best way to protect America, the best way to spread the peace, the best way to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren is to spread freedom around the world. I do not believe freedom is America's gift to the world. You've just got to know that about our foreign policy. I do believe that freedom is a gift from the Almighty to each person in this world. And I know that free societies will be peaceful societies.

At home, we'll continue to pursue progrowth economic policies so that America is the best place in the world to risk capital and do business. Listen, we have faced a lot; you know it just as well as I have. You have been on the frontlines of job creation. You understand what this economy has been through. We've been through a stock market decline. We have been through corporate scandals. We've been through a terrorist attack. We've been through a recession and an ongoing war. But we have confronted the challenges head-on. This economy of ours today is the fastest growing of any major industrialized nation. Economists see solid growth for the years ahead, and that's positive.

I don't know if you know this or not, but we've now added more than 3 million jobs over the past 22 months. Today, more Americans are working than any time in our Nation's history. The unemployment rate amongst Hispanics has dropped to 5.7 percent--a figure still too high, but that is down from 8.4 percent over the past 2 years. Today, more Hispanics own their own homes than ever before in our Nation's history. The Small Business Administration is lending to Hispanic-owned companies a lot. The lending has nearly doubled since I took office in 2001. The thing about the Hispanic community that I know well--I was taught this by a lot of my friends in Texas--is that the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in the Latino community. There are a lot of great businessowners and risktakers, people who know what they're doing when it comes to running a business and creating jobs.