Pres. Trump thank you. Thank you. [cheers] pres. Trump thank you. Wow. Happy birthday to you happy birthday, dear president happy birthday to you [cheers and applause] pres. Trump very nice. Wow. That is very, very nice. Please. You must like what i am about to say. [laughter] pres. Trump we all like what we are about to say and we work very hard on it. Thank you for joining us on this magnificent day in the rose garden. Special place. We are here to announce the latest historic action that we are taking to help millions of americans receive highquality and very Affordable Health care, something so important. We have been working on it long and hard. Certain group in these first few rows have been working very long and very hard. I want to thank you. We are delighted to be joined today by Vice President mike pence. Mike, thank you very much. [applause] addition, i want to express my gratitude to secretary steven mnuchin. Steve, thanks you very much. [applause] pres. Trump alex acosta. Secretary, thank you. A man who has been working very hard for this day, secretary alex azar. Thank you, alex. [applause] pres. Trump and also with us, our acting administrator of the Small Business administration. Good, chris,. Hi. Congratulations, by the way. [applause] pres. Trump you liking it . I hear you are. Jovita. U, thank you very much. [applause] pres. Trump i want to extend a special welcome to the many Small Business owners who are here. We have a lot of them in a mist and thank you very much. This is a big advantage for you or you can take care of a lot of great people taken care of. Thank you for being here. Small Business Optimism is soaring in our booming and big economy. Today we give you even more reason for your confidence in the future. 2017, is ago, october signed an executive order to increase Health Care Choice and competition all across our nation. Since that time might administration has worked tirelessly to expand options and drive down the cost of health care for the american people. We took swift action to open shortterm health plans and Association Health plans to millions and millions of americans. Many of these options are already reducing the cost of Health Insurance premiums by up to 60 and really more than that. We also have launched a new initiative to bring down the price of prescription drugs. We are Holding Big Pharma accountable, and i must say, take form a has also been working with us to get prices down. Pharma has also been working with us to get prices down. We have had support from the democrats we could get it down even more. We have prices down quite a bit, and this year is the first year, alex acosta, right, in 53 years that drug prices have come down. I want to congratulate you and all the people that have worked so hard. [applause] pres. Trump first year. And we could get them down a lot more if we had a little support in congress, and i think we will get that support. I think that has to be a joint. Bilateral,ng to be we are going to get it done, and we are going to get it done quickly. We are going to get support. I have spoken to democrats and they are in support of it. We will have to get them to raise their hand. If we do, we will get tremendous cuts in drug prices. Thank you, alex will do we have asked congress to support an initiative to find a breakthrough cure for childhood cancers, and we have begun a Public Health campaign to eradicate aids in america once in for all. That is taking place like nobody would believe. Were looking at 10year plan command at the end of 10 years we will be in good shape. Who wouldve thought that was possible just a short time ago . Were making dramatic strides in combating the opioid epidemic. We havent down by a we have it down by a number of almost 17 this year. When i heard it, i thought they made a mistake. I said, thats not a real number. It is very much a real number. Kellyanne and all the people who worked on that, that is a tremendous achievement. Worked with the medical profession and with doctors and with everybody. To think it is 17 in one year, that is rich tremendous achievement. Thank you very much. [applause] and we are now working with congress to pass legislation that ends surprised medical billing. We will have another big announcement in two weeks, un related, but something that will have a profound effect on things we have been talking about over the last two and half years. It is going to be something really incredible. That will take place over the next two weeks. It will be a really big announcement. Nobody knows what it is. It will be a big surprise. It will be a very pleasant one. No americans should be blindsided by bills for medical services they never agreed to in advance. We are promoting Price Transparency to force competition and drive down costs , and that is what is happening, and that is one of the recent we are getting the drug prices stopping from those tremendous increases that have taken effect for so many years, for so many decades going only in one we haven, up, and now them breaking even going down. We are defending medicare and Social Security for our great seniors. We have eliminated obamacares deeply unpopular individual mandate penalty. You know how bad that was. [applause] think of it, you paid a tremendous amount of money for the privilege of paying so that you dont have to pay for that insurance, ok bad insurance, ok . How that does that get . But we have eliminated that. We are sending a lot of money. It is a terrific thing. We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions, always. We are always going to protect the patients with preexisting conditions. [applause] pres. Trump and today im pleased to announce another groundbreaking action. We are dramatically increasing the ability of americans to access more Affordable Health insurance through options and through their employers. We are doing so by expanding Health Reimbursement arrangements, or hras, as they are commonly known. Hras will allow American Workers to shop for the plan that is right for them and their family and have their employer cover the cost. It is a reasonable cost, and people are going to be getting tremendous benefits. This will be possible because hras will now receive the same tax treatment that other employerprovided health plans have always enjoyed. There was a lot of restrictions, and it was impossible until now. This is something that time has come. As really,ar, it really been a success. I think of for many people this will be the way of the future. The Previous Administration imposed crushing fines and other penalties on hras to prevent employees from selecting the plan of their choice. It was impossible. With todays action we are eliminating all of those restrictions, and thanks to the changes we are making, an estimated 11 million americans now choose their own plans with the help of the hras. This will increase the size thank you [applause] pres. Trump very great deal. This will increase the size of the individual market by at least 50 , improving choice, promoting competition, and lowering costs for the american people. Hras provide another important option to help even more employers offer great Health Insurance and benefits to the American Workers will being credible. They will be especially useful for small employers. And this made it 90 of the businesses an estimated 90 of the businesses that take advantage of hras have fewer than 20 employees. This announcement is a monumental victory for Small Businesses, for their workers, and previously uninsured americans will now have access to highquality health plans of their choice. With us today is one of our nations wonderful Small Business owners. Tony from maryland, and i will say tom where is . Tom . Are you out here someplace . I have not met tom. You are a handsome guy. [laughter] pres. Trump say a few words and let them know what has happened to you. Thank you. [applause] i would first of all, i would like to say happy birthday to the president. A lot of people for my office want to say happy birthday. Three years ago i spoke to the u. S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee about reinstating the Health Reimbursement benefit program that had existed previously. This was after the Obama Administration made it illegal for a business to help employees with a Health Insurance costs. At the time we have been helping our employees, some of whom had a serious medical conditions including cancer. After the obama ruling we had to stop all reimbursements, which caused a great bit of hardship for our employees. Ended upf them losing because they had to leave us and go to other companies that offer to Better Health benefits. I want to thank the president and the administration for supporting this new measure and all of his proSmall Business policies. We very much appreciate it in the Small Business community. This new rule allows Small Businesses to offer benefits to our employees that will help our employees with health care costs, provide more and Better Options for them and also for employers. Again, thank you very much, mr. President. [applause] thank you very much. Now by are joined right a Small Business owner from pennsylvania. Please come up, andrea, please. Hello. [applause] happy birthday. Good to see you. Burns,my name is andrea and im the director at richard s. Burns company, a familyown ed and operated construction, waste, and processing facility in philadelphia. We employ approximately 100 people, and right now my brother and i choose the Health Care Plan for all of those employees. They dont have the opportunity to choose the provider, the coverage, or the premiums. Us to giveould allow them the opportunity to choose the plan that is best for them. Thank you. Thank you. you did well. [applause] pres. Trump you did well, andrea. Thank you very much. It is going to be it will be a great difference. Ive repeatedly called on congress to work with us to bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs. It is all happening. More than 120 democrats in congress have signed up for the Bernie Sanders massive government takeover of health care. That is going to hurt a lot of people. It is going to hurt our country. Socialist health care would crush American Workers with higher taxes, long wait times, and far worse care. Their plan would eliminate medicare as we know it and terminate the private Health Insurance of 180 million americans and even more than that now. On my watch, we will never let that happen. We will never be a socialist country. [applause] pres. Trump we have to reject the socialist model that rations cess, andtricts asc forces patients on to endless witness. We believe in freedom, we believe in choice, we believe in the High Standard of care in the world anywhere in the world, and we believe American Families must always have the right and the power to choose the very best treatments, plans, doctors for themselves and for the loved ones. They need that freedom, they have to have that freedom, and that is exactly what todays action is all about. We are putting the people back in charge with more choice, better care, and a far lower cost. Other people will not be paying for their health care. We wont be raising taxes, we wont be taxing you to oblivion, we wont be raising the tax rates to 90 ive heard 90 . The only problem with that one, it doesnt come even close to taking care of the situation, so that means you have to go a lot higher than 90 . I dont think that is going to work too well in this country. We have lower taxes. We want to keep them down. Thats very important. [applause] pres. Trump and we will not rest until americans happy Health Care System they need have the Health Care System they need, a system that finally puts american patients first. I want to thank everyone for being here. It is a very important day, very special day. God bless you and god bless america. Thank you very much. [applause] pres. Trump thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] pres. Trump oh, do i look forward to running against them. Tuesday, President Donald Trump holds a rally in orlando, florida, officially launching his run for a second term. Atch live on cspan2, online cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. This weekend, American History tv has live twoday coverage of the annual Gettysburg CollegeCivil War Institute summer conference, starting saturday at 8 30 a. M. Eastern with a discussion on jubal early, with a professor from virginia commonwealth university. A look at matterna nat turners rebellion. The commonwealth expense of civil war soldiers. Then a Panel Discussion on the artifacts of the civil war, moderated by a professor from West Virginia university. On sunday our live coverage continues with a discussion on preserving Gettysburg National military parks, with Jennifer Murray of Oklahoma State university. Violence in the civil war. Than a look at the civil war and emancipation in the heart of america. Followed by a discussion on seeing the conflict through the eyes