Vance addresses small business owner's economic concerns, says progress "will take time"

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] You didn't campaign, you and President

[0:02] Trump on it's going to take time. Rome

[0:04] wasn't built in a day. You've got to be

[0:05] patient. And there are voters here who

[0:07] are wondering when are the benefits of

[0:09] their vote in 2024 going to show up in

[0:12] their bank accounts. Uh and we do have

[0:13] one uh voter here like that. It's Sandy

[0:15] Johnson. She's from Wood Haven,

[0:17] Michigan. Sandy, uh could you There she

[0:20] is. Sandy, the floor is yours. You've

[0:21] got a question.

[0:22] >> I'm so nervous.

[0:23] >> Don't be nervous.

[0:24] >> It's all right. Don't worry,

[0:26] >> Sandy. I'm I'm nervous, too. You just

[0:28] got to power through it.

[0:30] Thank you for this opportunity. I really

[0:33] appreciate it. Um, President Trump, when

[0:36] he was campaigning, he promised a golden

[0:39] age of economy if he got elected.

[0:43] Ever since the president has been

[0:45] elected, our business, an amusement

[0:48] center, restaurant, and bar has

[0:51] struggled. We're barely making ends

[0:54] meet.

[0:55] Um you your administration has done um

[1:00] many good positive things that we're

[1:02] very grateful for, but none of it has

[1:06] really trickled down to our business.

[1:09] What is being done to change the economy

[1:12] so that the normal American has money to

[1:16] spend on small businesses like ours? We

[1:20] understand these things take time, but

[1:22] when can we expect to see a change?

[1:25] >> Sure. First of all, there are some

[1:27] things that we've done that I'm very,

[1:28] very proud of. No taxes on overtime, no

[1:31] taxes on tips, no taxes uh on people who

[1:34] are earning social security income,

[1:36] which my attitude is, you paid into this

[1:37] your entire life. Why is it being taxed

[1:39] on the way out when it comes back into

[1:40] your pocket? We've eliminated those

[1:42] taxes, and that hopefully is going to

[1:44] create more money. I think it already

[1:46] has created more money. this tax season,

[1:48] we had the best tax season in American

[1:49] history in terms of refunds for

[1:51] Americans, and that's going to put more

[1:52] money into your pockets. But I I take

[1:54] your point that this hasn't flown down

[1:56] to your business entirely. And I I want

[1:58] to just be honest about this because

[1:59] Tony, you made a point. You you said we

[2:01] didn't campaign on Rome wasn't built in

[2:03] a day. But I I think fundamentally if if

[2:05] you go back to the speeches that I was

[2:07] making and that President Trump was

[2:08] making, what broke the United States, as

[2:11] much as I might like to criticize Joe

[2:13] Biden, but it was a bipartisan

[2:15] multigenerational failure to underinvest

[2:18] in American workers, to underinvest in

[2:20] American manufacturing, to ship all of

[2:22] our good jobs overseas. And of course,

[2:24] if all the good jobs are overseas, then

[2:25] people here in Michigan can't spend

[2:27] money at your family business. and and

[2:29] what we have tried to do and I think

[2:31] that we've already seen some significant

[2:33] signs of progress. We've seen over a

[2:35] million jobs created since Donald Trump

[2:37] was president. By the way, those jobs

[2:39] unlike in the last administration, all

[2:41] of the net job growth went to American

[2:44] citizens rather than under the Biden

[2:46] administration went to the foreign born.

[2:47] We and let me just there you're seeing

[2:50] 11 trillion dollars of new investment

[2:52] coming to the United States of America.

[2:54] Now, where you see that in the jobs

[2:55] numbers right now and and think about it

[2:57] kind of makes sense. I was like, why are

[2:58] we seeing more in construction than

[3:00] manufacturing? And somebody said, well,

[3:02] you got to build the factories first.

[3:03] That's the construction. And then the

[3:05] manufacturing jobs come online. And in

[3:07] Michigan, GM, Ford, we've seen massive

[3:11] Stellantis, massive new investments in

[3:13] Michigan auto factories. And so what I

[3:15] really believe, and I grew up in a town

[3:18] where it's like every other year or

[3:21] maybe every other month, you would see

[3:22] some new factory close down. you find

[3:25] out that some friend of yours lost their

[3:26] job or their dad lost their job, their

[3:28] mom lost their their their gainful

[3:30] employment. And as you know, it's not

[3:31] just a wage. It's also your sense of

[3:33] dignity and purpose is that mistake

[3:35] happened over my entire life. Closing

[3:38] down factories rather than reinvesting

[3:39] in America and American workers. We are

[3:42] turning the tide on this. And I think

[3:43] there are all these things I pointed to

[3:45] that show signs of progress. But Sandy,

[3:47] I'll be the first person to tell you

[3:48] that just as this country wasn't broken

[3:50] in one presidential term, it's going to

[3:52] take more than 18 months to fix things

[3:54] and turn them around.

[3:55] >> So, Vice President Vance, there's a big

[3:57] difference between what you're saying

[3:58] right now and what President Trump says

[4:00] when he's out on the trail. He says it's

[4:01] an A+ economy. You say it's going to

[4:04] take time. You say you're frustrated at

[4:06] times. Which is it?

[4:07] >> Well, I think that what the president is

[4:09] saying is that we are seeing all of

[4:10] these massive new investments come into

[4:13] our country. But he would be the first

[4:14] person to tell you that you got to build

[4:16] the factories first before you can

[4:17] employ the workers working in those

[4:18] factories. But to her point, you see

[4:20] that it's it's not an A+ economy if you

[4:22] hear stories like this.

[4:24] >> Well, I think what we're doing is we're

[4:25] turning the ship around, Sandy. That's

[4:27] what I would say. And by the way, Sandy,

[4:29] there are things that we we look, we

[4:30] need to do more and we can certainly do

[4:32] better. One of the things I'm proudest

[4:34] of is that we at the Small Business

[4:36] Administration, I'm sure an agency that

[4:38] that is very close to your heart, we've

[4:40] uncovered tens of billions of dollars of

[4:42] fraud so that we can make better small

[4:44] business loans to businesses like yours.

[4:46] We want the money to go to you and not

[4:48] to the fraudster. So, there are things

[4:49] that we're doing and we've just got to

[4:51] keep working at it. And I go back to

[4:53] Kean's point here, and I'll just be very

[4:55] brief on this, but is is when I hear the

[4:58] Democrats, what I hear very often is

[5:01] them complaining about problems,

[5:04] sometimes problems that they themselves

[5:06] created. When a Democrat talks to me

[5:08] about high energy prices and that same

[5:10] Democrat supported the Green New Deal, I

[5:12] say, "You are the reason why this

[5:14] happened and we are trying to fix it.

[5:16] But I'm not going to lie to you and tell

[5:17] you that it's going to be fixed

[5:18] overnight. We've made a lot of progress,

[5:19] but there's a lot more to