April 18, 2008 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thanks for ing. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thanks for the warm wele. I appreciate you being here in the Nation's Capital. I know most of you have e from out of town, which is good -- it means you're brave souls to be here on Tax Week. (Laughter.) The Holy Father was here, as well -- which is good, because it will take a miracle to keep the IRS out of your pocket. (Laughter.) It's been a fabulous week, and I do wele you here. And I want to thank you for being dreamers and doers. One of the reasons I spend a lot of time talking about our small business -- small business owners in America is because I truly believe you represent what makes America great, and it's the idea to have your own dreams, form your own businesses, create employment opportunities for citizens in the munities in which you live. I grew up in Midland, and, gosh, I remember a lot of the -- there you go -- (applause.) It's not exactly the biggest city in America. On the other hand, it's the kind of place that you know the -- you knew the local shop person or the -- my friend, Jackie Hanks's Uncle Brutus had the local grocery store. And it was just that -- that fabric of the munity was the small business owners. And so I'm so thrilled you're here. I really appreciate you giving me a chance to e and visit some -- talk some policy with you. I appreciate Tom for introducing me, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber. They do great work in Washington, D.C., trying to make sure that there is no harm and that there is good policy in order to encourage people to invest and save. I want to thank my friend, Andy Card, who's here. Thanks for being here, Andy -- my Chief of Staff in the first four years of the presidency; did a fabulous job. He's a decent, honorable man, and I'm proud of -- (applause.) You know, this summit is occurring at a very trying time for our economy. You know that better than anybody else. We had -- we've had a good run. I mean, we had 52 months of uninterrupted job growth, and that's a record. And now our economy has slowed. Businesses are being squeezed by high energy prices and high health care prices. Workers and families are anxious on a variety of fronts -- including mortgage -- making mortgage bills and higher price for food and gasoline. It's a tough time for America. You know, we saw this ing. The last I can remember is talking to our team last year, and they said, there's a slowdown ing. And so we took some action. And I do want to thank members of the Congress and members of the Chamber for working on what I believe is going to be a very effective pro-growth stimulus package. We actually showed that it's possible for Republicans and Democrats to set aside the political wrangling that takes place here in Washington and focus on what's best for the American people. And I want to describe this package to you, and to remind our fellow citizens that soon a significant amount of money will be ing in their mailboxes, which is going to help the small business sector. It's going to help families and it's going to help the small business sector, which helps the American economy. After all, you create 70 percent of the new jobs in America. And so the first thing that's going to happen is, is that the consumers will get a boost in that tax rebates will be sent out to about 130 million American households. Now, these rebates will return up to $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married couples, and $300 per child. When the rebates start to go out in a couple of weeks -- which they haven't started to go out yet; Secretary Paulson tells me, by the second week of May the money is going to start moving -- a family of four could receive a tax rebate up to $1,800. Now, here in Washington that's like -- people say, that's not very much money. Well, if you're out there worrying about your -- about meeting bills, or saving for your kids' education, that's a lot of money. And the purpose is to make a difference to the families and to encourage them and give them confidence so they can go spend, buy products from you.