How are we doing? It is great to be in northeastern Pennsylvania. I see a beautiful baby back there. Thank you for bringing him. How you doing, buddy? He's like get me out of here. Get me out of here. He'll worry about politics later. He's not old enough to vote. So, let me just say a few things about where we are before I get into what I want to talk about, which is the One Big, Beautiful Bill in the way that it's going to bring Pennsylvania roaring back and American manufacturing roaring back to life.
And that's this. This is a beautiful, great facility and a great business. And what it means to have a great American machining company right here in northeastern Pennsylvania is a few things. First of all, it means that this facility employs people who are participating in the proud tradition of American manufacturing of making great, big, and beautiful things with American workers and with American hands.
And I know a lot of you participate in that work every day. But I've got a bit of a personal connection to this facility because my -- my father who passed away a couple of years ago, my father, when I was born, worked in a machine shop in Hamilton, Ohio in southwestern Ohio, business called Hamilton Tool.
And eventually, like a lot of businesses like that, Hamilton Tool was not doing too well because what the Chinese and other Asian, primarily Mexican manufacturing economies were doing is they were stealing American jobs. They were making it easier to undercut the wages of American workers, and the United States lost a lot of great, big, beautiful factories during that period thanks in large part because of bad decisions made by American leadership.
And to have a business like this in northeastern Pennsylvania, I'm sure it hasn't been easy. You've got 36 employees here, and I know every single one of them work hard every day. But this is a great, great company, a great American success story. And while you guys thrived with bad policy coming from Washington DC, I think that you're going to take off into a rocket ship with good policy coming from Washington DC under Donald J. Trump's leadership.
And my dad's name was Don. This is Don's machine shop. So, I think it's appropriate to be here and to -- to Don, Don, Dave, and Dan -- that's tough to remember, trust me. Thank you all for building a great business here in northeastern Pennsylvania. And thank you all for having me and all these great people here to celebrate the accomplishments of the last six months.
Now, I know we're here to talk about the Big, Beautiful Bill, and we're here to talk about American manufacturing, but I thought it'd be OK, especially since Kelly Loeffler, our great SBA administrator -- she's doing a hell of a job. Kelly, thank you for being here. Thank you for doing everything that you do. And, you know, Kelly did such a good job talking about what the Big, Beautiful Bill would do for all of you I don't think I have to talk about anything except for what I want to talk about, so we'll get to that in a second.
But I don't know if you all saw this headline because I know every single American here cares about border security. Is that right? And I think it's -- it's one of the great things that we've done in this administration is we kept our promise that we were going to close down the American southern border, shut off the flow of fentanyl, and start prioritizing American workers over Mexican drug cartels for a change.
That is a great accomplishment. Now, it turns out The New York Times is not the biggest fan of what we've been doing at the border under the Trump administration. So, they had this headline -- and I'm not kidding you, this is not a joke headline. I'm going to read you verbatim what the New York Times said just a couple of days ago.
And I quote, I was one of Biden's border advisers. Here's how to fix our immigration system. What would he know about fixing our immigration system? It was the Biden administration that broke our immigration system. So, we've been having a little bit of fun around the office. So, the Department of Homeland Security their -- their take on this was I was Humpty Dumpty.
Here's how to sit on a wall. [Laughter] But be careful what you wish for now. Not -- we're in northeastern Pennsylvania. I assume that this is Eagles territory. Is that right? OK. Some dissension here. We've got a lot of Eagles fans, but not 100 percent Eagles fans here. But -- congratulations by the way on last year.
But this is what a buddy of mine sent me. He said I'm a Cincinnati Bengals player. Here's how you win Super Bowls. And that that cut a little deep for -- the football fans out there will know. That was not a cool thing for that guy to say, but this is what we're dealing with, my friends. We're dealing with a new administration, a new day, and a president who is fixing what was broken during the last administration.
I think we're all proud of that and proud to be here to celebrate it. And here's what I am most proud of. What I am most proud of over the last six months -- the border is -- is important and it's -- it's great and it's incredible that we're able to go from the worst open border to a closed border in just a couple of weeks under President Trump's leadership.
But you know what I'm really excited about? I'm really excited about the fact that for the first time in a very long time, workers' wages are rising faster than inflation. You're able to buy more. You're able to do more. And we're just getting started. For decades in this country the story was that blue collar workers in particular, they might get a little pay raise, or they might not get any pay raise at all, but it was never enough to keep pace with inflation.
No matter how hard you worked. No matter how hard -- you came to work every single day no matter how hard, how many overtime hours, for example, you put in, you were falling behind. Way too many good Pennsylvania families were falling behind. And under just six months of the president's leadership, we've got inflation is coming under control and blue collar wages are rising faster than they have risen in 60 years.
That is a testament to great presidential leadership and the great American people. And we're just getting started, my friends. The passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill. Now, of course the -- the mainstream media, the corporate press doesn't like what we accomplished. It doesn't like what we did but let me just talk a little bit about what this bill, about what this legislation means for you and your family.
And there are a few different things, a few different ways in which I think this will be transformational for the American people. You heard Kelly talk about this a little bit. How many, Don, of your 36 employees are putting in a lot of overtime every single week? I bet a lot of them are. You told me you got projects coming in so fast they're struggling to get people in to -- to -- to do all the jobs that are necessary.
Well, now, thanks to President Trump's leadership, if you work overtime, the federal government is not going to take a dime of that overtime. You earn that money, you ought to keep it in your pocket. And while we're on that topic, why is it -- you know, the -- the -- the Big, Beautiful Bill was about taxes.
It was about spending. It was about investing in America's future. But one of the most important things the president is doing and working on -- it doesn't get nearly the headlines -- is asking why is it that we force every single young person to get a big chunk of debt at a four-year college or university?
Why don't we give our young people more options? Because if we did, a lot of them would come and work at Don's machine shop, and that would be good for them, and it'd be good for American workers. You know, we think it's fine -- if you want to go to college, go to college. There's a lot of opportunity out there.
But if you want to work with your hands, if you want to build something, if you want to build a house, build a bridge, make one of these incredible orders that comes in to this small business right here in northeastern Pennsylvania, your government should not be forcing you to do what elites in Washington want you to do. You ought to be able to chart your own course in your own career path, and the Trump administration is going to fight for that.
But, you know, here are just some of the other things that we're doing with this One Big, Beautiful Bill. You know that we are creating the biggest tax breaks maybe in American history for investing in building in the United States of America. So, if you're a small business, if you're a medium sized business, if you want to invest in American workers, we are going to make it so you pay less taxes.
Invest in Americans, and your government ought to reward you. Isn't that common sense? But the crazy thing is, for years, our government has done the exact opposite. We have rewarded people who shipped American jobs overseas and penalized the great small businesses who invested right here in America right here at home, and the President Trump's leadership, we're flipping that on its head.
If you're building here, if you're making here, if you're working in the United States of America, we just gave you a big fat tax break. But if you're going to ship American jobs overseas, thanks to Donald Trump, you're going to pay a big fat tariff. It's time to invest in our own country and our own people once again.
And we're doing it. And here's the crazy thing. While we work so hard -- without a single Democrat in Congress supported this legislation, we worked so hard to get this legislation passed to cut your taxes, to prevent big tax increases, to make it easier to save and invest right here in this great country that all of us love.
Would you believe that the Democrats, they are attacking us every single day? And you know what their big line of attack is? Their big line of attack is that Donald Trump dares to put tariffs on foreign countries who try to bring their crap into the United States of America, and that's that -- that's interesting to me because Democrats seem to like everything that increases taxes.
If you've got a healthcare problem, they'll say, we'll just raise taxes, right? Healthcare costs in this country, we're working on it. They're way too expensive. Democrats say we'll just raise taxes. We got not enough people working. Democrats will say just raise taxes. That's their solution to every single problem.
But you know the one group of people in the entire world that they don't seem interested in penalizing, it's foreign countries that take advantage of this country, and that's got to stop. Part of -- Part of the big, beautiful agenda is saying that if you're going to build something in the United States of America, we're going to reward you, and we're going to fight for you.
But if you want to build something overseas, you're going to pay a big fat tariff before you bring it back into the United States of America. And that's exactly how it should be. For the first time really in my lifetime -- I'm 40 years old. I turn 41 a couple of weeks, but don't remind me. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] I appreciate that.
I said don't remind me but thank you. But here's the thing. For the first time in my life, we significantly cut the long term spending problem that we have in this country. Because I see a lot of young people out here. And you know what I don't want to pass on to my kids and grandkids is this giant debt bomb that's hanging over their head for the rest of their lives.
And thanks to President Trump's leadership and thanks to a lot of hard work from Congressional Republicans, we are finally turning that around. Getting Washington spending under control -- in the same way that you've got to manage a household budget, the politicians in Washington ought to manage their budget in the exact same way.
And there are just a couple other things I want to talk about because of course northeastern Pennsylvania -- all of Pennsylvania is a proud energy producer state. And for too many years in this country, we've had presidential leadership that would rather us buy energy, oil, gas, of course, solar and wind from everybody else except for our own people.
And I don't think that made very much sense, did it? So, what we've done with this Big, Beautiful Bill is we've opened up new oil and gas leases in our own country. We're going to reward oil and gas countries for investing and building and developing in our country. And as Kelly said and the president says all the time, after four years of broken energy policy, we are finally going to drill, baby, drill and invest in American energy workers.
And I know you all love that. And the thing about drill, baby, drill, it's not just about the energy workers as much as we love them. It's about consumers who are paying less for gas and energy than they have in four years. That's a big deal. We're bringing energy cost down, and it happened very quickly. And here's the other important thing.
You know, one of the great advantages that we have in this country -- I think we've got two great advantages for our American manufacturers. First of all, we've got the best people and the best workers anywhere in the world, and we're proud of them. That's the first big advantage. The second big advantage is we can produce energy more cheaply in the United States of America than anywhere else in the world.
You look at some of these other countries, you look at China, you look at Mexico, you look at these other nations that we're competing with, and the biggest advantage we've got is that we can produce with American workers energy far more cheaply than they can. So, why do we have a president for four years, who said we're going to buy oil and gas from anybody else?
We have a president now who says we're going to buy oil and gas from Americans, from American workers and American families, and we're going to build great things doing it. And I want to say just -- just two more things about this -- this Big, Beautiful Bill. Number one, didn't get much headlines and you probably won't even be aware of it for 10, 12, 14 years down the road, but in the Big, Beautiful Bill, there was $1,000 for every newborn Americans to create a savings account and try to build some wealth for the next generation of Americans.
And I think that's a very big deal because you're going to have a bunch of kids who, of course, aren't aware of it today -- and this is a good argument, honey, for having a fourth child. But we'll talk about that later. [Laughter] $1,000 that over 18 years is going to compound and build something for themselves so that when they're ready to start off on a new life, when they're ready to come to Don's machine shop, when they're ready to start a small business or to go on to higher education, they've actually got real wealth built right here in the United States of America.
And that's thanks to the One Big, Beautiful Bill. Now, it's interesting, my friends, that the Democrats -- we couldn't get a single Democrat to vote for that bill. Couldn't get a single Democrat to vote for $1,000 for every newborn baby in the United States of America. And I realize the problem. If we had made that $1,000 accessible not to newborn American babies but to illegal aliens, I think we could have got the Democrats votes.
Because I don't know if you've seen, but the reason for being -- of the modern Democratic party seems to be to open up the American border and to put illegal aliens over the interests of American citizens. It's the craziest thing. I grew up in the presidency of Bill Clinton who had a lot of problems. Let's be clear.
But Bill Clinton was not the modern Democratic party when it came to these wide-open borders. He was not encouraging violence against our immigration enforcement officers. He was not voting against legislation that would help American citizens build wealth because whatever you want to say, today's Democrats are not the Democrats of the past.
And what we're getting ready to do as -- as, you know, we just -- we just finished one election in 2024, and of course, it went the right way. But what we're getting ready to do over the next year, over the next year and a half is to talk about these big wins. Because if we don't talk about them, we know too many in the fake news won't cover them.
And so, what I'd ask every single person to do is -- is -- is -- is take what I've said, of course, go and do the research yourself, but go and talk to your neighbors. Go and talk to your friends about what this bill does for America citizens, because we don't want to wake up in a year and a half and give the Democrats power back and realize that they're going to take $1,000 out of our hands to give it to illegal aliens.
We're going to invest in American workers and American families every single day, and that's my solemn promise to every person in this room. And I want to close here because I know, um, you know we're -- we're in the middle of the day and I appreciate y'all spend a little bit of time with me. I think I've already gone well over the 12 minutes they told me to speak.
But you -- you give a politician, a microphone, and what do you think's going to happen? [Audience member calls out "We love you, JD"] Thank you. I love you too. And I -- and I want to say a couple notes of thanks. First of all, you guys are very lucky to be represented by some high-quality leadership, and I want to give a shout out to -- to Congressman Bresnahan.
I think he's here. Congressman, thank you so much for everything that you've done. I think he's even younger and certainly better looking than I am. So, you guys are lucky here in northeastern Pennsylvania. And last but certainly not least, this is a fun job, my friends. Being the vice president of the United States is the greatest honor that I've ever had in my professional life, and it's all thanks to you that I'm here.
But it is a hell of a lot more fun to do it with somebody you love by your side. So, Usha, thank you for everything and thank you for making this possible. But I know a lot of us just -- just celebrated -- hopefully all of us celebrated the -- the July 4th holiday, the independence of our country. 249 years of American independence.
And of course, next year, we will celebrate 250 years, a quarter of a millennium of having the greatest country in the history of the world. And that's an awesome thing. And I'm not sure of course what you all did on the July 4th holiday, but we were actually in North Dakota, and I was at Teddy Roosevelt National Park or -- or the soon to become Teddy Roosevelt National Library.
They're still building it. And I'd never been to North Dakota before, and I was there of course with Usha and with our three kids. And my -- my little three-year-old daughter, she brought me this dandelion, and she -- she, you know -- it was one of these -- these dandelions where, you know, her little three-year-old lungs just couldn't blow these seeds all over this beautiful badland's hills.
And I'm looking out there, and I see the American flag, and I see these beautiful hills. And -- and -- and I -- and I help her out, and we see these dandelions floating over this beautiful American scenery. And I think to myself, my God, what a beautiful country we have and how lucky it is that our forefathers gave us this land to carve out a new nation and I think a new civilization.
And what I realize is, you know, in all of our jobs, you know, whether you're working at Don's Machining or whether you're the vice president of the United States, we're worried about the day to day. We're worried about the orders that come in. We're worried about, you know, clients that we've got to serve.
We're worried about, you know, getting the Big, Beautiful Bill passed and counting votes. That's what I was doing a lot in the last few weeks. But I realized that it's all in the service of something. It's all in the service of giving our kids the incredible opportunities that we've had. It's in the service of watching a child's face light up when she sees America's beauty.
And I saw it on her face and in her eyes for the first time realizing what a beautiful landscape this was. It's about the cookouts. It's about seeing our kids grow up and learn something that they have a passion for. It's about believing that the next generation is going to have a better life than we had because we worked our tails off to give it to them.
That's the American dream, my friends. That's what it's all about. And when I think about what this administration has accomplished over the last six months but, more importantly, when I think about what all of us as one big American family have accomplished over the last 249 years, all I can think about is it's time to keep building.
It's time to keep working. And it's time to make sure that these beautiful faces, these beautiful kids that I see in this audience that they're going to have a better life than we had. That is the promise of America, and we will never stop fighting to give it to the next generation. God bless you all and thank you for having me. It's great to be here.