something we're all looking to avoid and all of us are kind of in the agene business whether we like it or not evergreen commons focuses on older adults fifty in a bob and i would talk a little bit about i know some of you know us really well but i talk a little bit about what is it we're doing what we're paying attention to and how are we doing our logo that is evergreen commons or you'll see evergreen underneath this is living fully as we age and place them and know what the age in place concept is all about but heard that topic before the idea is most of us would like to live in our residence of choice as long as possible live in your residence of choice as long as possible we like to live in communities that would support that and part of it is having the systems together to do exactly that how do we support living in your residence of choice become in an age friendly community so that isn't just about commerce world it's also about the social sector community community supporting that never bring commons is a community benefit organisation some people would call us a five hundred one c three it's an interesting term but i'd rather say so what does exactly do we do to benefit the community to even deserve a tax break if you were so there's two parts of it  commons you've heard that term we've been around for thirty one years but recently renamed our community center to be called the commons of evergreen a community center for active living we have four thousand members and if you drive by it some people can think up to people actually live there yes they do live there during the day but they've got to go home at night to sleep ok so we don't have any residents but inside of that community center for active living and if you know this but is also on the olympic training facility we actually have senior libyans in their training gold medal winners training from olympic training facility to playing pickle ball from a sol therapy pool to a wood shop and a world class wood shop pretty cool french class single groups walking groups i will studies about five hundred people a day come into our community center from around the area to live life fully about fifty volunteers come every day ok not only for the community center to help run it but also to day center which is just down the street we deliver over one hundred meals today into the community through meals on wheels looking for volunteers all of them help us do that so focus not older adults community centers the first car that's part of evergreen commons the second is the day center for assisted care sixteenth and river right behind the old e file building the day centers for those who need assistance care for the day people suffering from or maybe just recovery for something but needs twenty four seven care and that facility has been designed to have be a safe place for older adults to have a good day i mean what kinds of therapies inside of that place s again ministry place for those who again want to age and place but the caregivers need some assistance during the day of this great place to be so they centers a place for the day for adults who need assisted care and we have in home services where we have folks who go to people's homes to give again the people living at home but they need some assistance just because of again the aging process so we get also offer that services so those are the kind of the three areas the community center the days are in home services all supporting this idea of living fully as we age and place and we are all aging if you are older than fifty years old you could be a member so what would you be joining the cons ok the community center and affairs of our regular governmental affairs clinic candidate forum we have several of our local candidates in the room today and they will have the opportunity to introduce themselves next week monday october sevent leader who is just demonstrating excellence creativity initiative perfection who also serves as a role model for young women who give back to her if she had improved the quality of life for all of us here so this year we were have local chambers and so i'm just really honored just caesium of the able to join us today she's been described by the washingtonian magazine as one of the one hundred most powerful women in washington and that's a rarity because in her broad base and we gather the hundred smartest and most powerful together every year and this is i don't mean like the biggest urban you know metro chamber you know powered by size i mean this marist most western michigan is really an amazing and we've been amazed by the beauty we've been amazed by the history really it's a wonderful part of the country to be in the business success and what a success the local economy  is and it's just then this has been a wonderful trip said thank you for having me we are as i said a minute ago really familiar with the work that you're doing here not only because it's so successful and because jane is such a good advocate but b she process and one of five star accreditation in her very first attempt and when i tell you that that means that you know a lot about this chamber immediately know a lock out this chamber and also tell you a secret this chamber one that  patient on its first attempt and that almost never happens it's a real credit to the work that you're all doing into your leadership and to the engagement of the business community here in western michigan so for all the businesses that are here t chamber so strong thank you very much i'm not sure that you can know what a help it is to ask on a national level and how much we appreciate that the difference that you are individually meeting in this community just adds to it that this is a community do nationwide and i know there are a lot of small business owners in this room and i needed to sacrifice it takes to do that because i did it for eight years i have my own small business and i know the risk and the passion that on a napkin and we saw that every logo we certainly got on the napkin and then you see the sign go up and how great it feels the satisfaction of being able to say to people what i'm convinced are the most beautiful words in the english language which are you got the job hiring people how good it feels to create jobs and benefits in your community and a lot of probably you know i was proud of that to my little start oh it once was the one hundred thirty fifth fastest growing company according to a magazine we were stealing market share from decades old firms it felt really good except when it felt really bad you know and i think a lot of what big companies and government don't understand is that the excitement of getting new contract the excitement growth is tempered with the terror of meeting a growing payroll who good new clients wait to get to pay later have to get those employees now i've never met an employee who wants to get paid that way clients pay that ninety days  started speaking greek instead a whole bunch of words that people understand together but really the frustration getting tangled up in red tape and the red tape that the government can even accidentally confront us with a small business owners is really infuriating and it's almost a superior thing as when people dismiss the efforts of entrepreneurs and business people as if we didn't what we do isn't a big deal as if taking that risk isn't really hard or a lot of work and so these passions the kind of pride at creation but also the anger at how government can make it how easily that effort can be dismissed drove me to the u s chamber of commerce and in part it was because i realize that my experience which is really unique to me turned out to be not unique to all of you it's what businesses in west michigan and across the country face every day so the u s chamber of commerce works every day to try to create an environment where businesses like yours like mine can thrive where innovation is possible were risk is for more invaded and more opportunity is limitless and we are vigorously defending employers against attacks and promoting the idea that the private sector plays a really positive role in society and sense that america's job creators need that it's when business really is the one thing that works in this country i don't know about you but i take it really personally when the people who create jobs and opportunities are demonized and it's happening more and more often so today in the town to about those attacks what they look like how we answer them and most importantly how the business community can lead to solutions for some of our country's biggest problems so if you look at recent polls you will find that one third of all americans believe in u f o s i'm not making that up you will also find that the majority of americans the majority of americans believe they are smarter than the average american  there but there are other polls that are even harder to believe at least a quarter of our fellow citizens have a favorable view of socialist and this includes a whopping forty three percent of americans under the age of thirty barely half of all americans have a favorable view of capitalism the economic system that built this nation into the most powerful prosperous in advance of society in human history should this concern asked you bet if the polls are only part of the story if every day politicians on the left and the right are jumping on their silly boxes and telling the american people that those of us in business are greedy selfish of patriotic even crooked or they'll say you didn't know we build that distance you aren't really responsible for your success you have a government and day after day the regulators the legislators porson agencies at all levels are adding to the burdens that we as business people face as i said a minute ago how many people in government really understand what it's like to run a business and really understand that businesses business people especially small business owners are the hardest working people in america i know from experience that you are working all day all night too never it takes to meet that payroll to pay your bills and too often your reward for this extraordinary effort is being told by politicians that your success is not your own you're not hearing your weight you're not paying your fair share you're not part of the prop you're part of the problems in america are not part of the solutions i've always believed i was raised to believe that hard work was important that people could take responsible risk and that even reasonable profits were essential to succeeding in business this concept even the words are becoming kind of dirty i always believe the government should help spur and facilitate economic growth not undermine or destroy it and believed in the value of a free market system over the unbridled growth of unlimited government so what exactly makes the american free enterprise system unlike any one else in the world any other system in the world and better than the other system in the world we start with the fact that the united states is home to thirty three million businesses will start ups big companies and that's real economic democracy it's proof that virtually anyone in america can start or participate in some sort of business enterprise and your pedigree doesn't matter what matters is hard work creativity perseverance willingness to take a risk maybe and thanks to these thirty three million businesses one hundred ten million americans have the dignity of the job and the security of a page it's remarkable i won't reach you all the statistics that sounds written down here very politely and bullets but they talk about the of taxes that businesses pay the amount of investment in innovation in health and science and technology and what's remarkable about the numbers that you hear a number you hear a lot is that business you hear  accusation at the businesses don't pay enough in taxes really there's a three hundred fifty billion dollars number you hear that's just corporations and it doesn't count those of us who are sole proprietor proprietors rolling out filing as independent or is it as individuals and it doesn't count the tens of billions of dollars in philanthropy that business contributes every year you know i spent the weekend in grand rapids and you don't get anywhere in grand rapids that isn't the  and that connection back to the root of entrepreneurship of two friends who decided to start a business and what that meant to this region of the country at that time and in a continuing way i think is getting lost i think their stories are getting lost somehow visit nearly any community in the country and i guarantee you that those who are leading the voluntary philanthropic efforts are the business leaders we saw here this morning from personal volunteers to that what you're doing together as a community and none of this would be possible if your business is weren't successful and profitable the environment business people are too often portrayed as leaders we don't care about the air or the water or the land but i care about all of those things any clean water i want my daughter my grandchildren to live in a world that's clean we breathe that air and in fact since nine hundred seventy american businesses spent more than one point five trillion dollars on invents environmental compliance and invented a lot of the technology  making our air and reverse and water cleaner as a result we've seen enormous reductions in major pollutants and the united states has the cleanest and most efficient industrial base in the world in fact stronger economies do have cleaner environments  respond better faster to natural disasters so as americans we have a lot of good reasons to be proud of our free enterprise system it's not perfect there have been mistakes there have been there always will be bad apples but american free enterprise has generated more wealth prosperity broadly shared than any other system or country on earth and i'm going on about this because i feel like it's being lost in this relatively crazy around and shuffled around is missing something really important we were all raised as kind of a tenant you know we believed we would get educated we would work hard to pass these values on this love of country on it somehow that's getting lost and i that they're much more likely when they go home to their districts to hear from the kind of i don't use the word crazies that crazies on either side are much more likely to hear from people on either side of the polarity in our system a member of the freedom caucus and the member of the freedom caucus was very mad about something he was trying to get done and he pulled out his i phone this other member of congress who is now going in the meeting and within minutes every other congressman of the table line away from their customer after the floor in order to have that same response rate i don't know what you do but i'm telling you we've got to do it this story in one of our very values are at risk you know for those of you who've traveled there was a real difference in east and west germany there's a real difference right now in north and south korea and the economic system is at the heart of that and somehow our children are losing sight of that and i think our want believe that that comes from a good place it come a place of wanting everyone to do well and wanting prosperity and wanting to lift people up i think it comes from a good place but if we're not careful we'll lose one of the tenants i talked about a minute ago which is you can only offer other people opportunities once you're successful or profitable you can only give back to your community if you have something to give and i worry that if we don't explain to our children the benefits of free enterprise it's going to be really hard for them to take care of themselves let alone those who are under served and i understand that part of what's happening in this country whether it's your support for bernie sanders or your support for donald trump these people who are saying things that maybe people in middle have a hard time understanding i understand that some of that is how not here necessarily but a lot of our country economic performance is the really tough of the last decade and i was just reading this morning c n n money was saying this could be the worst year of economic growth since the great recession so you've got millions of able bodied americans left who've left the workforce you have millions who are discouraged that it is young people living at home middle class which is being squeezed by weight wage stagnation for higher costs for health care and college and as a country where falling behind your fine behind our investments in infrastructure we're not reforming our entire onus systems our education systems our tax systems and a lot of that comes from this real baby out with the bathwater and say that it was free enterprise that got us to this place we don't want to kind of double down on the policies of the last bunch of years that have helped produce the worst economic recovery since the  forty s but it is time for an honest examination of what's hobbling our economy and i do believe that one of the problems is the enormous amount of regulations just in the ones you do need some government regulation we all want food safety right we all have things that we want the government to do but these regulations they never go away and then they just pile more and more and more on and when i was running my business one of my problems was even knowing which ones to comply with which even trying to understand what i was supposed to do to be a good actor didn't last to between twenty twelve and twenty four t the complaints to the small business administration and small businesses increased sixty five percent sixty five percent from small businesses and one of the home depot has said very similar things so what does that mean what are the facts as they're amazons or home depot's that are starting right now what does that mean for our way of life the number of new firms created as a share of is down and it's down by nearly half in the last forty years think about all the jobs that are being created the paychecks that are being issued the life and insane products that aren't being invented or even a tax credit revenue  being generated to help resolve our massive debt problem we're paying more and more for government with fewer results and we're stifling the one force that could be the solution and that's american business so our message is very simple we want to do what we do dest create jobs prosperity and solutions for america most americans value the idea of success we all want a better life for our children it's time to unleash the creative genius and ceaseless energy and they can do spirit the american people that you so well demonstrate here so eventually most of the american thing as chamber congress has been traveling the country and trying to say these things out loud and trying to counter some of the voices that say that this is bad or business is crooked and we're trying to come out and say we don't believe that and we're really hopeful that you'll use your voices too and we know how hard you're working you're running your business is what we're hoping you'll take a time out to be a voice for what is good in society and for the way of life the way of government i think we all need whether it's voting getting out the vote making sure lawyers are voting we have a great wealth to vote for job bring my daughter in michigan but to say to all of you thank you for hard working for your communities and our country and i hope that you'll get just a little bit more vocal about how important business is about how business is the one thing in america that really works free enterprise and capitalism to our way of life and what we're trying to accomplish thank you for having  and we're like the rest of the country trying to understand in this election really means and who we're going to be working with resetting a lot of time trying to ensure that there's a pro business senate and some people who actually want to govern and we've been working hard in the elections priority for us we really believe that there's a there's a solution right here to a lot of the jobs that we need in the growth that we need if we could unleash that potential energy trade is a higher priority of ours i know that's another thing that we're really losing the american people on we have to figure out how to tell that story better you know and it too often with trade we tell the story and it sounds like what we want to do is go abroad which is true our companies the markets we have many people we can sell things to but it's also true that it keeps prices quite low here and i think sometimes we don't tell the trade story now in terms of the consumer here and the impact here which we need to do a better job so you know that the energy to be a priority infrastructure is a priority one that might surprise you talking a lot about  reform if you just look at the numbers the amount of discretionary spending that is available to the united states to shrinking and the politicians don't seem to have the courage to stand up to the american people and say simple math tells you counterbalance that whether it's in the courts right we just sued on that overtime rule or whether it's going to the actual process the streamlining pradhan streamlining the permitting process or other ways that we can attack this regulatory overreach you that bradley foundation in wisconsin gave us a grant last year to study the impact of regulation on small business because it was it's not all in one place it's a hard argument to make actually and one of these we're trying to figure out is could we find an example either geography or industry would be example in some way that would help us tell the story we're compelling way the national level is i do think too often i used to say when i was a small business owner it's not that i thought government was trying to kill me not an intentional way it was more like a japanese movie where some monster was coming through town stepping on me without realizing i was a life force it just felt too big for me to deal with not that it was intentional so how do we employ a five story to something so big to make it proverbial proverbial horse by committee by the end so i do think regulation is a big deal i also think infrastructure is a big deal in the sense matter we don't have an intersection policy and both presidential candidates are saying that this would be a big priority of the errors and we're working with both transition teams to say ok but enough with the kind of be as shovel ready stimulus piece would real infrastructure investment look like that would create growth and create jobs down  local community right and that extends to energy to right what business isn't hard as you know about tax reform is that politicians tend to want to do it with this rifle shot and they want to change this little piece to either pay for this or this little piece to give relief to that group and the u s chamber we find it really hard right we'd like to see comprehensive tax reform that actually tackles the complexity of the whole problem lowers the rate overall takes care of some of the complexity of the system it's been really hard to get these ri shot moments but again you want to talk about something that's so complex and you have this this stalled political system how we get to conference on tax reform reform i don't know that's what we need my honest answer i don't know what the unit that the u s chamber of commerce has policy on it which would tell me it doesn't matter it would come to mind right now and this is just purely me personal view ok my personal view is that  if you read the federalist papers when they when the founders went through the choice to not determine honest they speak to it they understood what would happen then it should have entrenched interests they understood that lobbying would happen they understood what was going to happen and they still said that the evils of fact were less than the evils of not giving the people their choice and that any kind of limits people's choices and in the end the founders had to be against that i frequently minority dinner parties when i bring that out so i understand it is likely just as unpopular in my dinner parties i mean my husband alone and i do kind of understand that whole right but the real question i have is what would make a bit different again i'm just speaking for myself personally not for the u s chamber is the money in the system right how much money it takes to get the public's attention and much money it takes to be allowed to these days feels like a really big problem to fresh voices in entrenched people her to when i was running my company i got her to come to new york with me meet some financial services companies and we were riding up there and she told me this great story about being in boston right after boston and throughout scott brown for elizabeth warren right and she's in a crowd like that and the people are saying to her in the culinary you people in washington are so broken and you just get stuck and you're just entrenched and you just have these lobbyists and you don't get anything done it you inside the beltway people don't get anything and we said wait a minute when you send us these people we don't pick them you send us these people and you here in massachusetts had a moderate republican senator who was going to have to be moderate and have to be in the middle in order to keep being reelected in the largely democratic state and he threw for me you will partisan democrat and you sent us here and then you say that we can't get anything done  decided of who people are sending to washington is much more important and i'm looking for people who want to get things done and there's something i'm not i understand of the anger that goes to i want an outsider i want somebody talks like me i want somebody who's just mad at everybody and will go tear things up only they don't tear things out of there is obstinate you know and so at the end of the day look for people who actually want to govern and actually want to get things done because the country needs tax reform the tax the country needs regulatory reform we actually need trade you know the majority of our markets are not here majority of people world do not live here the stuff we want to buy and stuff we want to sell we need those people and we need all of the steel to get done and so you know send us