I know that folks here have concerns about this law.  And I understand it.  If you’re running a business right now and you’re seeing these escalating¹（上升的） health care costs, your instinct is if I’ve got even more laws on top of me, that’s going to increase my costs even more.  I understand that suspicion, that skepticism.

But the non-partisan congressional watchdogs at the CBO estimate that health care tax credits will be worth nearly $40 billion for small businesses over the next decade -- $40 billion, directly to small businesses who are doing the right thing by their employees.

And experts –- not just from the government, but also those commissioned by the Business Roundtable –- suggest that health insurance reform could ultimately save large employers anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 per family -- your employees and your bottom line.

I’ve said in the State of the Union and I’ll repeat here today:  I am willing and happy to look at other ideas to improve the law, including incentives² to improve patient safety and medical malpractice reforms.  And I want to correct a flaw that’s already placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on too many small businesses, and I appreciate the Chamber’s help in doing that.

But we have to recognize that some common-sense regulations often will make sense for your businesses, as well as your families, as well as your neighbors, as well as your coworkers.  Of course, your responsibility goes beyond recognizing the need for certain standards and safeguards.  If we’re fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports to help you compete, the benefits can’t just translate into greater profits and bonuses（奖金） for those at the top.  They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that expanding trade and opening markets will lift their standards of living as well as your bottom line.

We can’t go back to the kind of economy and culture that we saw in the years leading up to the recession, where growth and gains in productivity just didn’t translate into rising incomes and opportunity for the middle class.  That’s not something necessarily we can legislate³, but it’s something that all of us have to take responsibility for thinking about.  How do we make sure that everybody’s got a stake in trade, everybody’s got a stake in increasing exports, everybody’s got a stake in rising productivity?  Because ordinary folks end up seeing their standards of living rise as well.  That’s always been the American promise.  That’s what JFK meant when he said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  Too many boats have been left behind, stuck in the mud.

And if we as a nation are going to invest in innovation, that innovation should lead to new jobs and manufacturing on our shores.  The end result of tax breaks and investments can’t simply be that new breakthroughs and technologies are discovered here in America, but then the manufacturing takes place overseas.  That, too, breaks the social compact.  It makes people feel as if the game is fixed⁴ and they’re not benefiting from the extraordinary discoveries that take place here.

So the key to our success has never been just developing new ideas; it’s also been making new products.  So Intel pioneers the microchip, then puts thousands to work building them in Silicon⁵ Valley.  Henry Ford⁶ perfects the assembly line, and then puts a generation to work in the factories of Detroit.  That’s how we built the largest middle class in the world.  Those folks working in those plants, they go out and they buy a Ford.  They buy a personal computer.  And the economy grows for everyone.  And that’s how we’ll create the base of knowledge and skills that propel the next inventions and the next ideas.

Right now, businesses across this country are proving that America can compete.  Caterpillar⁷ is opening a new plant to build excavators（挖掘机） in Texas that used to be shipped from Japan.  In Tennessee, Whirlpool is opening their first new U.S. factory in more than a decade.  Dow is building a new plant in Michigan to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.  A company called Geomagic, a software maker⁸, decided⁹ to close down its overseas centers in China and Europe and move their R&D here to the United States.  These companies are bringing jobs back to our shores.  And that’s good for everybody.