Remarks by President Trump at a Roundtable Discussion on Tax Reform
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MS. THORNTON: The reason I'm here is because I wrote a letter to you. And I didn't really think it was going to be read, but it was. They're listening. So - and the subject of my letter was to let you know that this tax cut and jobs plan was affecting us positively. We also wanted to let you know that we were here supporting you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. THORNTON: My husband Kevin was - he worked in a steel mill, and it closed down in 2012, due to the company going bankrupt. So he was then - there were a lot of people who actually lost their jobs at that time. Our whole area was saturated with unemployed. And then he spent the next one and a half years retraining, and then at the same time searching for a job.
Fortunately, I was employed for one of those years - the first year of it. I then became legally blind and could no longer work - couldn't drive. And we have no transportation, public, in our area.
Also - so essentially what happened was we fell on such hard times that we had to surrender our car to be repossessed. We almost lost our home, and then we struggled every day to make ends meet. We basically lived off of my credit cards and both of our unemployment, which still wasn't enough to cover.
Finally, he found a job January of 2014. He's still with them. But because of the tax cut and the job plan, they're taking out a lot less taxes than what they had been prior to before.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great.
MS. THORNTON: We have actually seen, in several checks, two to three hundred dollars less taxes than what they did before the plan. (Applause.)
And those are real numbers. I actually went back and looked at his income and the taxes before and after, and I was amazed. So it really is working. So I do want to thank you, Mr. President, for making our lives a lot less - more enjoyable.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. (Applause.) Thank you.
MS. THORNTON: And this is my husband, Kevin.
THE PRESIDENT: Hi. Kevin, would you like to say something?
MR. THORNTON: Yes. First of all, thank you, Mr. President, for inviting us, for giving us the opportunity to tell you our story. I've been a lifelong resident of Hubbard - a small city just northeast of Youngstown. And in 2000, I started working for what would be known as RG Steel, and stayed there until its closing in June of 2012. They told us all to go home, the mill had gone into bankruptcy. Fifty days later, the mill was sold for scrap.
All of us that worked there, we loved that place. We really did. And we were all deeply impacted. There were 700 of us, and we all lost our jobs. I was out of work, as she had said, for a year and a half. And there was a brief period in time where we went with no income at all. No paycheck. Nothing coming into that house.
But thankfully, thankfully, in January of 2014, I found employment with the current company I'm working with. And it's a great company too, with great people, and room for us to expand and grow. I had to drive an hour and a half though to one of their facilities. And I did that for three years until recently I was able to relocate to a facility closer to home, and that took off a burden for me.
The company I'm employed with has been seeing huge amounts of demand for their product. They have - this tax cut that we are having is enabling them to purchase new machinery, open up buildings they previously had closed, and to hire more people.
And I didn't think that I would ever be able to say this in my life, but I think I can now - at this rate, I think I'll be able to be gainfully employed until my retirement.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Good. (Applause.) Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Thank you. I've been hearing that from steel companies, and in particular from U.S. Steel, where I was with the president, as I said. And he - they're just talking about opening plants now and so many things have changed. And that's because of our stance, and also on the tariffs - the 25 percent tariffs on steel, 10 percent on aluminum. Plus, it gives us the - right now, other countries want to negotiate with us because of it. And you're seeing things happening.
Again, we're going to take care of our people. We've been taking care of a lot of the world, and they never appreciated it. A lot of this world never appreciated what we do. We fight wars for them and we fight all sorts of things, and then they take advantage of us on trade, on top of everything else.
So we're going to keep a lot of friends, but they're going to respect us again, and they've started to respect us again, and that makes me feel very good. So thank you, Kevin. (Applause.)
MS. SHEELY: Thank you, Mr. President -
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. SHEELY: - for having us here today. And I'm truly honored. I'm Sherry Sheely, COO of Sheely's Furniture and Appliance, and we are located in North Lima, Ohio, just south of Youngstown. We've been in business for 66 years. We're family-owned and operated, second generation. We have 148 awesome employees, several are here today. And we do an annual sales volume of $34 million.
It's because of the dedication and hard work of our employees that Sheely's earned the number one Independent Furniture Retailer of America Award a few years ago.
THE PRESIDENT: Whoa, wow. (Applause.)
MS. SHEELY: I'd like to recognize my husband, Dale Sheely, sitting here in the front row. He is our president. It was his father who started the company in 1952 with a pick-up truck and a hot water heater.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great.
MS. SHEELY: I mean, Sheely's Furniture, I believe, is truly the American Dream success story.
And I have to say that immediately upon your election - which Dale and I were more relieved that you can even imagine - (laughter) -
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. SHEELY: - we chose to move forward with an addition to our showroom. We had contemplated that for about seven or eight years, didn't feel it was the right time. But we felt, with your strong leadership, that now was the time to reinvest in our company. So in the next two weeks, we're going to be opening our new bargain bonus center, and everybody at the store is very excited.
THE PRESIDENT: Great. That's great.
MS. SHEELY: So thank you very much for that.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you. Great. (Applause.)
MS. SHEELY: And then we were more excited when your tax cut bill -
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. SHEELY: - passed in December. And at that time, Dale and I wanted to reward all of our employees. We decided to wait a few months so it would be a surprise. So in March of this year, we awarded all of our fulltime employees a $1,000 bonus, and we gave all of our part-time employees -
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Great. (Applause.)
MS. SHEELY: And we gave all of our part-time employees a $500 bonus.
THE PRESIDENT: Great.
MS. SHEELY: And I must say, Mr. President, they were so excited. It was totally unexpected. We had several employees who got so emotional, they cried.
Just Thursday, one of our delivery drivers came into my office and said, "Sherry, I have to tell you. I thank you again for my $1,000 bonus. I was going to use it to do repairs this summer, but I chose to do something different." And he said, "I just put a $1,000 down payment on a vacation I'm taking my family on this summer."
THE PRESIDENT: That's great.
MS. SHEELY: So that means a lot to Dale and I.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you, Sherry. That's beautiful. Thank you. Say hello to that gentleman. Thank you. (Applause.)
MS. SHEELY: I do want to thank you for everything you're doing for this country. I want to encourage you to stay the course. And if you ever have any time of any kind of discouragement, I want you to realize that there's millions of Americans across this country, like my husband and I, who pray for you, your family, your safety, and your success. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Great. Thank you, Sherry.
MS. SHEELY: Thank you. Thank you for making furniture great again, and thank you for making America great again.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, thank you very much. That's great. (Applause.) Thank you, Sherry. Please.
MS. SHEELY: And I'd like you to hear from one of our employees.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you. Thank you. So nice.
MS. STRAWHECKER: Mr. President, my name is Chantell Strawhecker. I have been with Sheely's for 22 years as a furniture sales associate and designer. I'm also a very proud daughter of a coalminer. My husband Mark and I live in Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour north of Pittsburgh, and we have two amazing children. Our daughter Brittany is 23. She's a nurse's aid at a local nursing home.
And one of your biggest fans - our 17-year-old son, Dylan, who graduates this year. When Sherry asked if I wanted to come, she knew how much Dylan respected you, and so she did invite him also. So he's very excited to be here.
Our health insurance comes through my husband's employer. And before Obamacare, we had no premiums; we had no deductibles. Once Obamacare came into effect, my husband's employer - which is just a small company - was unable to cover the premiums any longer. So we now have very high premiums and also higher deductibles.
Last year, we had two medical situations - involving my son, and then later on in the year, my husband - that required several days in the hospital. And my husband actually has more surgeries coming. And with the bonus that you made possible, we were able to pay down some of our medical bills.
So I just really want to thank you, Mr. President and the Sheelys, for making that possibly for our family.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That's so nice. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's great.
You know, you mention Obamacare; it's been a disaster. And we are - we actually had it beaten except for one vote. You remember that beautiful night. It was defeated, but one vote changed. They changed. But one of those things. But we've actually done a great job because in the tax cut plan, we got rid of the individual mandate, which is the most unpopular part. (Applause.)
And now we're going to be doing other things, like association health insurance, and we have our great Secretary of Labor, who is in charge of that. And I guess, over the next few weeks, we're going to have a very, very big announcement on healthcare. We have a few of them because Alex Azar also is going to be making a big statement.
So by the time we do these various plans that we're doing - and they're fantastic for people, and they cost the government relatively little. And maybe I could ask Alex Acosta to say a few words about it. Secretary of Labor.
SECRETARY ACOSTA: Mr. President, thank you. And so, you know, the story that you shared with us is a story we've heard from so many Americans. There are 11 million Americans and their families that work for small businesses that can no longer afford healthcare. And that's a big, big problem. Right?
And so, one of the things that folks don't know is that Obamacare puts a greater burden on small businesses than on corporations. And so the President's vision is: Is there a way that small businesses can band together so they can just get the same access to healthcare as the big corporations?
So we're working on a proposal to do just that. And the President is very focused on this. And that's something that the Department of Labor is hoping to announce in the very, very near future. That's going to be transformative. Eleven million Americans and their families at small businesses that don't have access to healthcare that could have that access under association healthcare plans. (Applause.)
And let me just add one final word. The President touched on the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. And I just wanted to say that the President has made promises to the American people. He's promised to cut taxes, and the taxes have been cut. And he's promised that we're going to find jobs and create jobs. And the Trump economy has created, since his election, 3.2 million new jobs. (Applause.)
And since the tax cuts alone - the Trump economy has created, since the tax cuts alone, 800,000 new jobs. That's transforming lives. (Applause.) Promises made and promises kept. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Alex. Great. (Applause.)
I think maybe I'm going to ask Jim. You know, Jim Renacci has been really terrific. He's represented Ohio for a long time. He had a successful - he's a very successful businessman. And he's now, as you know, running for the Senate against Sherrod Brown, who does not think the way we think. And when it comes to borders, when it comes to so much - and remember, it's also the vote because they're going to vote as a bloc.
And the Democrats are very weak on borders, very weak on healthcare. The healthcare that they had is a disaster, and it's coming to an end. Very weak on - you look at the borders; they don't want the wall. Even if we have to think about closing up the country for a while, we're going to get the wall. We have no choice. We have absolutely no choice, and we're going to get tremendous security in our country.
Go Back
