Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Executive Order on Strengthening Retirement Security in America | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And tax cuts have resulted in millions of American workers receiving pay increases and bonuses. So today's action by President Trump is designed to make it easier for Americans to channel some of that rich economic opportunity not just into today, but into savings for their future.

    The President has asked the Department of Labor to consider expanding when employers, especially small and medium businesses, can band together to provide retirement plans.

    Now, these plans - in essence, 401(k)s - can include diversified investment options and automatic opt-out enrollment. 401(k) plans have a proven record. 401(k) plans have worked, and virtually all employees in large corporations have access to them. But there are about 42 million Americans - one third of the private workforce - that doesn't work for a large corporation but that works for a small business. And most of these small-business employers can't provide access to the same quality 401(k)s.

    With so many Americans working for small businesses and so many without access to workplace retirement plans, there's a real danger that today's economic opportunity will not translate into savings for the future.

    And so step back and imagine if all the small businesses here in Charlotte could band together and say, as a group, we're going to provide a retirement option for our employees administered by one central entity - the Chamber of Commerce for example, who's represented up here today - imagine the administrative savings, but also imagine the portability when an employee goes from one small business to another small business; it's the same 401(k) plan. A portable 401(k) plan from small business to small business.

    You know, 401(k) plans are a straightforward, proven vehicle used by millions of Americans working for larger employers. If it works for them, there is no reason whatsoever that it should not work for employees of small businesses too. (Applause.)

    Small-business employees don't deserve to be forgotten simply because they don't have and don't get the same attention as the large corporations. They deserve access to retirement benefits. And if as an association, chambers of commerce and others can start providing these retirement benefits, everyone will be better off.

    And so, Mr. President, thank you for this executive order. (Applause.)

    ADMINISTRATOR MCMAHON: (Laughter.) They're a little taller than I am.

    Good afternoon. It is really great to be back in my home state of North Carolina. It felt good to be home. (Applause.) And I want to thank President Trump for his continued support of America's 30 million small businesses.

    Today's executive order is a significant and important step toward increasing economic security for our American workers. It does that by reducing the regulatory hurdles that prevent millions of small businesses from providing workplace retirement plans.

    A significant percentage of small-business owners and employees are not saving the money that they need for retirement. Have you ever seen that commercial on television where people are in front of the big graph and it says, how do you - "Where do you think you are relative to having enough retirement dollars?" And few people hit that mark. With the 401(k) type of plan, a small business can not only provide a valued employee benefit, but also benefit from special tax incentives. And that's important for small businesses.

    As I travel the country, meeting with small business owners - and I've been to 44 states so far - I often hear they'd like to offer their employees retirement savings plans, but they just can't afford it. And the smaller the business, the more unlikely it is to be able to absorb the high cost inherent at administering employee retirement plans.

    The Multiple Employer Plans that Secretary Acosta has referred to will result in significantly more small businesses offering retirement savings plans to their employees. And the new plan will be implemented by simplifying regulations. Again, a hallmark of this presidency is simplifying and rolling back regulations. (Applause.) And we're going to roll them back. We're not going to introduce more.

    Small businesses are so important to our economy. They create two out of every three net new jobs in the private sector. And we want those entrepreneurs who take a risk on starting or growing a small business to know we're listening to you, and the President has your back.

    And to America's workers: The new plan is a powerful message that we care about your financial security. We want you to take an active role in saving for your future. But you don't have to do it alone. Right now, only about half of private sector workers in places with fewer than 100 employees even have access to workplace retirement plans. This action is going to make it easier for you to save and to be able to share in the benefits of our growing economy.

    Thank you very much, Mr. President. (Applause.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Linda. Thank you very much, both Alex and Linda. You do an incredible job.

    I'd like to now welcome up Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. Jerry does a phenomenal job running that group. Respected all over the country. Jerry, please. Say a few words? Thank you. (Applause.)

    HOWARD: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, the men and women who house America, the men and women who house North Carolina, are overwhelming small-business people who work and live in the same communities.

    This initiative that you are about to sign will enable them to help their neighbors, their employees to economic security and retirement.

    This initiative will help them compete against larger businesses in a very tight labor market, which is tight because of the success of your economy. And we're all grateful for that, but it is causing us a little bit of problems. (Laughter.)

    But this initiative is going to help us out a lot, Mr. President. This initiative simply is good for business, it's good for employees, it's good for communities, it's good for the economy.

    On behalf of the 130,000-member firms of the National Association of Home Builders and the 5 million people or more that we employ, we thank you for this, Mr. President. And we look forward to bringing it home to Main Street. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Jerry. And that is true. We have so many companies coming back to our country, which nobody thought was going to happen. And they want to be where the action is. And we're going to - I can tell you, we're going to start looking at, very seriously, merit-based immigration. We have to do it, because we need people. We need people to run these great companies that are coming in. (Applause.)

    And there are a lot of great people out there. We're not the bad guys. We want great people coming into our country, so we're going to look very strongly at merit-based to get people in that help the homebuilders and all of the companies that are coming back. Some of them left years ago. And everybody said they'll never be back. They're coming back and they're coming back fast. So we're going to be providing a lot of help to them because that's what we have to do.

    We call it "Make America Great Again." The fact is, we really - it's a very important element. Way ahead of schedule, as far as I'm concerned. I thought it was going to happen. But nobody had any idea it was going to happen this quickly. It's an amazing thing. A great thing what's happening to our country.

    If you look at steel, steel was a dead business. They were closing up one plant after another. And now, as you know, they were dumping steel all over the place, destroying our companies. And what they would have done when the companies are all destroyed, they would have sent us steel and they would have charged whatever we would have paid. We would have paid a fortune. Much more than we'll end up paying.

    And steel is a business that you have to have. Aluminum, also. Same thing. But you have to see what's happening with the steel industry. You don't get it. I mean, they don't tell you about it. Jobs are being produced. Plants are opening. U.S. Steel is opening up at least eight new plants. Nucor, other companies are opening up plants all over. (Applause.) It's a beautiful thing. It's an incredible thing what's going on with our country. It's incredible.

    So I'd like to now ask the President of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Bob Morgan, to come up and say a few words about what a great city this is and why we chose it for the Republican National Convention. That's an important one.

    Thank you. Come on up, please. (Applause.)

    MORGAN: Mr. President, you don't have time for me to talk about Charlotte. (Laughter.) I understand you're on a schedule.

    Thank you for this opportunity. Wow. Small business is a big part of Charlotte's story. In fact, there are more than 50,000 small businesses, those with fewer than 20 employees, who call the Charlotte region home.

    A significant number of these businesses are not able to bear the cost and the regulatory burdens of offering 401(k) retirement benefits.

    Mr. President, companies in Charlotte - big, small, and in between - are already benefitting from the tax and regulatory relief that you have delivered to the American people. Your announcement today and the promotion of association retirement plans will, I predict, positively impact many of our small businesses and the thousands of people that they currently employ.

    And let me say the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce would love to be first local association to implement one of these new plans. Thank you very much for choosing Charlotte for this announcement. (Applause.)

    THE PRESIDENT: So, already under our booming economy, retirement accounts and 40(k)s have flourished, and the stock market has gone up at levels that nobody thought possible Depending on which market you want to look at - over 50 percent, over 40 percent, 47 percent - all of them. They're going through the roof. And there's a long way to go. There's a long way to go.

    When we straighten out these terrible trade deals and when we make fair deals for our military, where we're not protecting every nation on Earth - some of whom are very wealthy - and they are not doing anything for us, when they start helping out and making it fair, you're going to see where we go. I mean, we have such potential in this country. Nobody has - I have never seen anything like it. Nobody has seen anything like it. And so our economy has a long way to go.

    Already, we've created, since election, more than 4 million jobs, including 156,000 jobs right here in North Carolina. (Applause.)

    You all know about economic growth going up to now - it was 4.1; now it's 4.2. That was revised two days ago. But unemployment filings have dropped to the lowest level - think of that - to the lowest level in over half a century.

    You've heard me say this many times; I'm very proud of it. Remember I used to say, "What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?" Because I'd read these horrible statistics - highest crime, worst education, all the bad things; lowest home ownership - about African Americans. And they've always voted for Democrats. Not all, but a big proportion.

    And I'd say, "What do you have to lose?" - after reading these horrible stats. And my people would say, "Oh, that's not a nice thing to say." I'd say, "But it's true." "What do you have to lose? Give us a shot."

    So this just came out - and I've been saying it for the last two weeks - African American unemployment recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded in our history. (Applause.) It's a big thing. (Applause). Huh?

    That's why Kanye West and Jim Brown - how good was Jim Brown? He came out in favor of Trump. And you know what? Nobody is going to say anything about it. (Laughter.) Big Jim Brown. He was some - some player.

    But a lot of folks have come out in favor of what I am doing because they see what's happening and how great it's been for the African American community, for the Hispanic American community, where unemployment has reached the lowest level also ever recorded. (Applause.) Likewise, for the Asian community, lowest ever recorded. (Applause.) And I jokingly say - I said it last night - we had an incredible rally in Indiana. Did anybody see that? It was incredible. (Applause.) Big ratings. You know what? If it didn't get the ratings, you wouldn't be seeing it. Big ratings.

    But I jokingly said last night, I said, "Women, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," because we have Asian, African American, Hispanic - almost all - the best in history. Women unemployment, it's only 65 years. So I said it last night, and I said, "I'm sorry. I'm trying hard." But it's the best number they've had in 65 years. But that's as good as history. (Applause.)

    But I think that within about three to four weeks, Deb - three to four weeks, I think what you're going to have is you'll have the best in history also. Because 65 years, we'll take that any day. But we're going to have something special.

    Our Pledge to American Workers has resulted in employers committing to train more than 4 million Americans. And that numbers just has increased to 5 million Americans, where employees are now willing to train. This was something that wasn't happening.

    As I said, we passed the biggest tax cuts. We got rid of the individual mandate, which was the most unpopular part of Obamacare. And we've really decimated Obamacare. (Applause.)

    And you know, one thing also, the Obamacare premiums were - previous to us - going up like rocket ships. They're not going up very much. We have really kept them down. And while we've taken - I mean, we have really changed that whole situation around. We've done a great job.

    And if you look at your premiums, nothing is perfect, but I'll tell you what, if the Democrats were running it - you were going up 120 percent, 150 percent - now you're just going up a very little bit. Some of them aren't going up at all.

    We've done a great job, but we're going to be getting rid of it entirely. But we got rid of the most - we got rid of the most obnoxious provision I think I've seen in just about any contract: You have the right to pay for the privilege of not having to pay for bad healthcare. In other words, you pay so that you don't have to pay. But that payment is a little less than the second payment. So you say, "Oh, I won't have healthcare, I'll pay not to have" - you're paying for not having healthcare. We got rid of it. That was a big thing. And very important for the employers. (Applause.) Huh? Very important.

    And this week we're working on Canada. We're working on a lot of different things. So last week it was Mexico. And this week it's Canada. And if we don't make a deal with Canada, that's just fine. But we'll see how it all works out.