mr. speaker , i am impressed with the fact that america is a land of vision and opportunity . 
my wife 's grandparents came through ellis island and began literally with nothing . 
by the second generation , both had become professionals and had made a great impact on their local economies , passed that on to the third generation with their children , adding value , working to create jobs in the long term . 
i think the exciting thing of the values of this nation is the people who have come here from every ethnic background , from every nation on this earth . 
the great diversity has one thing in common , that is , a unity of vision , of opportunity , of purpose that can be accomplished when we are part of something bigger than ourselves . 
when i look at the numbers right now in this nation from an unemployment standpoint , we stand at 5.2 percent , which is one of the lowest unemployments in the industrialized world , particularly in light of the fact that we are involved in a war that was forced upon us by global terrorists . 
when i look at the challenges that this nation has faced , there has been a great turnaround during the last 4 years . 
more than that , when i look to my own district , to the fourth district of kentucky , and the tremendous steps forward that have been made in the manufacturing economy , that have been made in technology and in the creation of jobs and in the development of industry and health sciences , i am excited about our future . 
i am excited about the potential for our young people to move forward and have the opportunity to create their own future , to create jobs , to start small businesses , to follow in the opportunity that i had when i finished my military service . 
after a time in industry , i chose to pursue that vision to start my own company and then end up helping other companies create jobs . 
i think one of the great things that we see a need for right now is to continue to remove the burden of regulations , to remove the burdensome tax code , to remove the impediments to individuals at every level of our economy , from starting their own businesses , from creating jobs in our communities , that will stay in our communities , to keep capital investment in those communities . 
i think there are several steps that are important . 
first , we need to bring about meaningful tax reform . 
i believe that the tax cuts that were enacted in the last congress need to be made permanent so that people can keep more of what they earn . 
i think it is important that the so-called death tax be completely eliminated . 
the reason why is it has nothing to do with the super-rich . 
it has to do with jobs in our communities , local farmers , small family farmers , people that own family businesses that have gone on for generations , to make sure that they have the opportunity to keep those jobs in the community . 
that is a tax that is pernicious . 
indeed , what it does is it hurts the very people it is intended to help because it removes the capital from our local economy . 
another thing that is necessary for us to do is to make sure that small business owners have the flexibility to overcome a burdensome tax code . 
if they see the opportunity in a good year to take advantage of capital investment to improve their competitiveness , to increase jobs in the local community or protect the jobs that they have , they should have that flexibility ; and i would like to see the ability to expense capital investment made permanent rather than renewing it as we have been doing over the past 18 years . 
education is an important area as well . 
we need to open up the tremendous opportunities to entrepreneurship that we have in our economy . 
i met recently with a new division of northern kentucky university , a pioneer in the university of kentucky system . 
they have their own school of entrepreneurship now to encourage this creation of jobs in the local economy , to show people how they can start a business , how they can add value , how they can help people create a nest egg and a job that will last for the long term and create other jobs that will strengthen our community . 
it is also important that we continue to invest in our university systems and vocational and technical education . 
the reason for this , working with public-private partnerships , working closely with our local communities from the federal government is to assure that we are staying on the cutting edge of technology innovation , looking for opportunity for the long term . 
in addition , it is also important that we look at reforms that will allow small businesses to function . 
we need to bring about meaningful health care reform . 
what does that mean ? 
small businesses need to have the ability to band together and form associations to reduce the cost of health care . 
i found in my own business that my premiums , if i had not been elected to congress , were going to increase 50 percent , from $ 1 , 200 to $ 1 , 800 a month , just for my family and my business . 
that is unconscionable . 
we need to encourage these small businesses and enact regulations that will allow them to cover more of their employees , more of our employees in the long term . 
in addition to that , we need to bring about meaningful medical liability reform as part of this health care reform . 
the reason for that is , first of all , to stop driving our doctors out of practice in many states . 
for example , in kentucky we have lost one-third of our ob-gyn doctors in the last 5 years due to medical liability costs . 
but at a small business and job creation level , it will be a job creator if we have some meaningful liability reforms , not only to keep our doctors but to keep the cost of health care provision low so that we could cover more of our employees and also be more competitive in the long term . 
in the end , there are a variety of steps that we can take . 
i am very excited about the potential of the american people . 
we have shown in a time of national adversity now that we can compete , that we can have a strong economy , that we can create jobs ; and when i look at one of the largest employers in northeastern kentucky , a very prominent steel mill that is creating jobs , that is hiring , that is competing effectively in the world economy now , i know that we are going to be successful . 
