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Bill Clinton 1996 Bill Clinton 1996 August 29, 1996










ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

United Center
Chicago, Illinois

August 29, 1996

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, my fellow Democrats, and my fellow Americans: Thank you for your nomination. I don't know if I can find a fancy way to say this, but I accept. (Applause.)

So many -- so many have contributed to the record we have made for the American people, but one above all -- my partner, my friend, and the best Vice President in our history, Al Gore. (Applause.)

Tonight, I thank the city of Chicago, its great Mayor and its wonderful people for this magnificent convention. (Applause.) I love Chicago for many reasons -- for your powerful spirit, your sports teams, your lively politics, but most of all, for the love and light of my life, Chicago's daughter, Hillary. (Applause.)

Four years ago, you and I set forth on a journey to bring our vision to our country, to keep the American Dream alive for all who were willing to work for it, to make our American community stronger, to keep America the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity.

Four years ago, with high unemployment, stagnant wages, crime, welfare and the deficit on the rise, with a host of unmet challenges and a rising tide of cynicism, I told you about a place I was born -- and I told you that I still believed in a place called Hope. (Applause.)

Well, for four years now, to realize our vision we have pursued a simple but profound strategy -- opportunity for all, responsibility from all, a strong united American community.

Four days ago, as you were making your way here, I began a train ride to make my way to Chicago through America's heartland. I wanted to see the faces, I wanted to hear the voices of the people for whom I have worked and fought these last four years. And did I ever see them.

I met an ingenious businesswoman who was once on welfare in West Virginia; a brave police officer, shot and paralyzed, now a civic leader in Kentucky; an autoworker in Ohio once unemployed now proud to be working in the oldest auto plant in America to help make America number one in auto production again for the first time in 20 years. (Applause.) I met a grandmother fighting for her grandson's environment in Michigan. And I stood with two wonderful little children proudly reading from their favorite book, "The Little Engine that Could." (Applause.)

At every stop, large and exuberant crowds greeted me and, maybe more important, when we just rolled through little towns there were always schoolchildren there waving their American flags, all of them believing in America and its future. I would not have missed that trip for all the world, for that trip showed me that hope is back in America. We are on the right track to the 21st century. (Applause.)

Look at the facts, just look at the facts: 4.4 million Americans now living in a home of their own for the first time; hundreds of thousands of women have started their own new businesses. More minorities own businesses than ever before. Record numbers of new small businesses and exports.

Look at what's happened. We have the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation and home mortgages in 28 years. (Applause.) Look at what happened -- 10 million new jobs, over half of them high-wage jobs; 10 million workers getting the raise they deserve with the minimum wage law; 25 million people now having protection in their health insurance because the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill says you can't lose your insurance anymore when you change jobs, even if somebody in your family has been sick; 40 million Americans with more pension security; a tax cut for 15 million of our hardest working -- hardest pressed Americans, and all small businesses; 12 million Americans -- 12 million of them -- taking advantage of the Family and Medical Leave law so they can be good parents and good workers. (Applause.)

Ten million students have saved money on their college loans. We are making our democracy work. (Applause.)

We have also passed political reform, the line-item veto, the motor voter bill, tougher registration laws for lobbyists, making Congress live under the laws they impose on the private sector, stopping unfunded mandates to state and local government. We've come a long way; we've got one more thing to do. Will you help me get campaign finance reform in the next four years? (Applause.)

We have increased our investments in research and technology. We have increased investments in breast cancer research dramatically. We are developing a supercomputer -- a supercomputer that will do more calculating in a second than a person with a hand-held calculator can do in 30,000 years. More rapid development of drugs to deal with HIV and AIDS and moving them to the market quicker have almost doubled life expectancy in only four years. And we are looking at no limit in sight to that. We'll keep going until normal life is returned to people who deal with this. (Applause.)

Our country is still the strongest force for peace and freedom on Earth. On issues that once before tore us apart, we have changed the old politics of Washington. For too long, leaders in Washington asked, who's to blame. But we asked, what are we going to do. (Applause.)

On crime -- we're putting 100,000 police on the streets. We made three strikes and you're out the law of the land. We stopped 60,000 felons, fugitives and stalkers from getting handguns under the Brady Bill. (Applause.) We banned assault rifles. We supported tougher punishment and prevention programs to keep our children from drugs and gangs and violence.

Four years now -- for four years now the crime rate in America has gone down. (Applause.)

On welfare, we worked with states to launch a quiet revolution. Today there are 1.8 million fewer people on welfare than there were the day I took the oath of office. (Applause.) We are moving people from welfare to work.

We have increased child support collections by 40 percent. The federal work force is the smallest it has been since John Kennedy. And the deficit has come down for four years in a row for the first time since before the Civil War, down 60 percent on the way to zero. We will do it. (Applause.)

We are on the right track to the 21st century. We are on the right track. But our work is not finished. What should we do? First, let us consider how to proceed. Again I say the question is no longer who's to blame, but what to do.

I believe that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp and Ross Perot love our country, and they have worked hard to serve it. It is legitimate, even necessary, to compare our record with theirs, our proposals for the future with theirs. And I expect them to make a vigorous effort to do the same.

But I will not attack. I will not attack them personally or permit others to do it in this party if I can prevent it. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, this must be -- this must be a campaign of ideas, not a campaign of insults. The American people deserve it. (Applause.)

Now, here's the main idea: I love and revere the rich and proud history of America. And I am determined to take our best traditions into the future. But with all respect, we do not need to build a bridge to the past. We need to build a bridge to the future. And that is what I commit to you to do. (Applause.)

So tonight -- tonight let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges and protect our values. Let us build a bridge to help our parents raise their children, to help young people and adults to get the education and training they need, to make our streets safer, to help Americans succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come, and to maintain our world leadership for peace and freedom. Let us resolve to build that bridge. (Applause.)

Tonight, my fellow Americans, I ask all of our fellow citizens to join me and to join you in building that bridge to the 21st century. Four years from now, just four years from now -- think of it -- we begin a new century, full of enormous possibilities. We have to give the American people the tools they need to make the most of their God-given potential. We must make the basic bargain of opportunity and responsibility available to all Americans, not just a few. That is the promise of the Democratic Party. That is the promise of America. (Applause.)

I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we expand opportunity through education, where computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards, where highly-trained teachers demand peak performance from our students, where every eight-year-old can point to a book and say, I can read it myself. (Applause.)

By the year 2000, the single most critical thing we can do is to give every single American who wants it the chance to go to college. (Applause.) We must make two years of college just as universal in four years as a high school education is today. And we can do it. (Applause.) We can do it, and we should cut taxes to do it.

I propose a $1,500 a year tuition tax credit for Americans, a Hope Scholarship for the first two years of college to make the typical community college education available to every American. (Applause.)

I believe every working family ought also to be able to deduct up to $10,000 in college tuition costs per year for education after that. (Applause.) I believe the families of this country ought to be able to save money for college in a tax-free IRA; save it year in and year out, withdraw it for college education without penalty. (Applause.)

We should not tax middle-income Americans for the money they spend on college. We'll get the money back down the road many times over. (Applause.)

I want to say here, before I go further, that these tax cuts and every other one I mention tonight, are all fully paid for in my balanced budget plan, line by line, dime by dime. And they focus on education. (Applause.)

Now, one thing so many of our fellow Americans are learning is that education no longer stops on graduation day. I have proposed a new G.I. Bill for American Workers -- a $2,600 grant for unemployed and underemployed Americans so that they can get the training and the skills they need to go back to work at better paying jobs -- good high-skilled jobs for a good future. (Applause.)

But we must demand excellence at every level of education. We must insist that our students learn the old basics we learned and the new basics they have to know for the next century. Tonight let us set a clear national goal: All children should be able to read on their own by the 3rd grade. (Applause.) When 40 percent of our eight-year-olds cannot read as well as they should, we have to do something. I want to send 30,000 reading specialists and national service corps members to mobilize a voluntary army of one million reading tutors for 3rd-graders all across America. (Applause.) They will teach our young children to read.

Let me say to our parents, you have to lead the way. Every tired night you spend reading a book to your child will be worth it many times over. I know that HIllary and I still talk about the books we read to Chelsea when we were so tired we could hardly stay awake. We still remember them, and more important, so does she. But we're going to help the parents of this country make every child able to read for himself or herself by the age of 8, by the 3rd grade. Do you believe we can do that? (Applause.) Will you help us do that? (Applause.)

We must give parents, all parents, the right to choose which public school their children will attend, and to let teachers form new charter schools, with a charter they can keep only if they do a good job. We must keep our schools open late so that young people have someplace to go and something to say yes to and stay off the street. (Applause.)

We must require that our students pass tough tests to keep moving up in school. A diploma has to mean something when they get out. (Applause.) We should reward teachers that are doing a good job, remove those who don't measure up. But in every case, never forget that none of us would be here tonight if it weren't for our teachers. I know I wouldn't. We ought to lift them up, not tear them down. (Applause.)

We need schools that will take our children into the next century. We need schools that are rebuilt and modernized with an unprecedented commitment from the national government to increase school construction; and with every single library and classroom in America connected to the Information Superhighway by the year 2000. (Applause.)

Now, folks, if we do these things, every 8-year-old will be able to read; every 12-year-old will be able to log in on the Internet; every 18-year-old will be able to go to college. And all Americans will have the knowledge they need to cross that bridge to the 21st century. (Applause.)

I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we create a strong and growing economy, to preserve the legacy of opportunity for the next generation by balancing our budget in a way that protects our values, and ensuring that every family will be able to own and protect the value of their most important asset, their home.

Tonight let us proclaim to the American people we will balance the budget. And let us also proclaim, we will do it in a way that preserves Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment, the integrity of our pensions, the strength of our people. (Applause.)

Now, last year, when the Republican Congress sent me a budget that violated those values and principles, I vetoed it. And I would do it again tomorrow. (Applause.) I could never allow cuts that devastate education for our children, that pollute our environment, that end the guarantee of health care for those who are served under Medicaid, that end our duty, or violate our duty to our parents through Medicare. I just couldn't do that. As long as I'm President, I'll never let it happen. (Applause.)

And it doesn't matter if they try again, as they did before, to use the blackmail threat of a shutdown of the federal government to force these things on the American people. We didn't let it happen before. We won't let it happen again. (Applause.)

Of course, there is a better answer to this dilemma. We could have the right kind of balanced budget with a new Congress -- a Democratic Congress. (Applause.)

I want to balance the budget with real cuts in government, in waste. I want a plan that invests in education, as mine does, in technology, and, yes, in research, as Christopher Reeve so powerfully reminded us we must do. (Applause.)

And my plan gives Americans tax cuts that will help our economy to grow. I want to expand IRAs so that young people can save tax-free to buy a first home. Tonight I propose a new tax cut for homeownership that says to every middle-income working family in this country, if you sell your home you will not have to pay a capital gains tax on it ever -- not ever. (Applause.) I want every American to be able to hear those beautiful words, "welcome home." (Applause.)

Let me say again, every tax cut I call for tonight is targeted; it's responsible; and it is paid for within my balanced budget plan. My tax cuts will not undermine our economy. They will speed economic growth.

We should cut taxes for the family, sending a child to college, for the worker returning to college, for the family saving to buy a home or for long-term health care, and a $500-per-child credit for middle-income families raising their children who need help with child care and what the children will do after school. That is the right way to cut taxes -- pro-family, pro-education, pro-economic growth. (Applause.)

Now, our opponents have put forward a very different plan, a risky $550 billion tax scheme that will force them to ask for even bigger cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment than they passed and I vetoed last year. But even then, they will not cover the costs of their scheme, so that, even then, this plan will explode the deficit, which will increase interest rates by two percent, according to their own estimates last year. It will require huge cuts in the very investments we need to grow and to grow together, and at the same time slow down the economy.

You know what higher interest rates mean. To you it means a higher mortgage payment, a higher car payment, a higher credit card payment. To our economy it means business people will not borrow as much money, invest as much money, create as many new jobs, create as much wealth, raise as many wages. Do we really want to make that same mistake all over again?

AUDIENCE: Nooo!

THE PRESIDENT: Do we really want to stop economic growth again?

AUDIENCE: Nooo!

THE PRESIDENT: Do we really want to start piling up another mountain of debt?

AUDIENCE: Nooo!

THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to bring back the recession of 1991 and '92?

AUDIENCE: Nooo!

THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to weaken our bridge to the 21st century?

AUDIENCE: Nooo!

THE PRESIDENT: Of course, we don't.

We have an obligation, you and I, to leave our children a legacy of opportunity, not a legacy of debt. Our budget would be balanced today, we would have a surplus today, if we didn't have to make the interest payments on the debt run up in the 12 years before the Clinton-Gore administration took office. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: So let me say this is one of those areas in which I respectfully disagree with my opponent. I don't believe we should bet the farm, and I certainly don't believe we should bet the country. We should stay on the right track to the 21st century. (Applause.)

Opportunity alone is not enough. I want to build an America in the 21st century in which all Americans take personal responsibility for themselves, their families, their communities, and their country. I want our nation to take responsibility to make sure that every single child can look out the window in the morning and see a whole community getting up and going to work.

We want these young people to know the thrill of the first paycheck, the challenge of starting that first business, the pride in following in a parent's footsteps. The welfare reform law I signed last week gives America a chance, but not a guarantee, to have that kind of new beginning; to have a new social bargain with the poor guaranteeing health care, child care, and nutrition for the children, but requiring able-bodied parents to work for the income.

Now I say to all of you, whether you supported the law or opposed it, but especially to those who supported it, we have a responsibility, we have a moral obligation to make sure the people who are being required to work have the opportunity to work. We must make sure the jobs are there. (Applause.)

There should be one million new jobs for welfare recipients by the year 2000. States under this law can now take the money that was spent on the welfare check and use it to help businesses provide paychecks. I challenge every state to do it soon.

I propose also to give businesses a tax credit for every person hired off welfare and kept employed. I propose to offer private job placement firms a bonus for every welfare recipient they place in a job who stays in it. (Applause.) And more important, I want to help communities put welfare recipients to work right now, without delay, repairing schools, making their neighborhoods clean and safe, making them shine again. There's lots of work to be done out there. Our cities can find ways to put people to work and bring dignity and strength back to these families. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, I have spent an enormous amount of time with our dear friend the late Ron Brown, and with Secretary Kantor and others opening markets for America around the world. And I'm proud of every one we opened. But let us never forget, the greatest untapped market for American enterprise is right here in America -- in the inner cities, in the rural areas, who have not felt this recovery. With investment and business and jobs, they can become our partners in the future. And it's a great opportunity we ought not to pass up. (Applause.)

I propose more empowerment zones like the one we have right here in Chicago to draw business into poor neighborhoods. I propose more community development banks, like the South Shore Bank right here in Chicago, to help people in those neighborhoods start their own small businesses. More jobs; more incomes; new markets for America right here at home making welfare reform a reality. (Applause.)

Now, folks, you cheered -- and I thank you -- but the government can only do so much. The private sector has to provide most of these jobs. So I want to say again, tonight I challenge every business person in America who has ever complained about the failure of the welfare system to try to hire somebody off welfare, and try hard. (Applause.) Thank you.

After all, the welfare system you used to complain about is not here anymore. There is no more "who's to blame" on welfare. Now the only question is what to do. And we all have a responsibility, especially those who have criticized what was passed and who have asked for a change, and who have the ability to give poor people a chance to grow and support their families. I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that ends the permanent under class, that lifts up the poor and ends their isolation, their exile, and they're not forgotten anymore. (Applause.) Thank you.

THE AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: I want to build a bridge to the 21st century where our children are not killing other children anymore; where children's lives are not shattered by violence at home or in the school yard; where a generation of young people are not left to raise themselves on the streets.

With more police and punishment and prevention, the crime rate has dropped for four years in a row now. But we cannot rest, because we know it's still too high. We cannot rest until crime is a shocking exception to our daily lives, not news as usual. Will you stay with me until we reach that good day? (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, we all owe a great debt to Sarah and Jim Brady -- and I'm glad they took their wrong turn and wound up in Chicago. I was glad to see that. (Applause.) It is to them we owe the good news that 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers couldn't get handguns because of the Brady Bill. But not a single hunter in Arkansas or New Hampshire or Illinois or anyplace else missed a hunting season.

But now I say we should extend the Brady Bill, because anyone who has committed an act of domestic violence against a spouse or a child should not buy a gun. (Applause.)

And we must ban those cop-killer bullets. They are designed for one reason only, to kill police officers. We ask the police to keep us safe. We owe it to them to help keep them safe while they do their job for us. (Applause.)

We should pass a victim's rights constitutional amendment because victims deserved to be heard, they need to know when an assailant is released. They need to know these things, and the only way to guarantee them is through a constitutional amendment.

We have made a great deal of progress. Even the crime rate among young people is finally coming down. So it is very, very painful to me that drug use among young people is up. Drugs nearly killed my brother when he was a young man. And I hate them. He fought back. He's here tonight with his wife, his little boy is here, and I'm really proud of him. (Applause.)

But I learned something -- I learned something in going through that long nightmare with our family. And I can tell you, something has happened to some of our young people -- they simply don't think these drugs are dangerous anymore, or they think the risk is acceptable. So beginning with our parents, and without regard to our party, we have to renew our energy to teach this generation of young people the hard, cold truth -- drugs are deadly, drugs are wrong, drugs can cost you your life. (Applause.)

General Barry McCaffrey, the four star General who led our fight against drugs in Latin America, now leads our crusade against drugs at home -- stopping more drugs at our borders, cracking down on those who sell them and, most important of all, pursuing a national antidrug strategy whose primary aim is to turn our children away from drugs. I call on Congress to give him every cent of funding we have requested for this strategy, and to do it now. (Applause.)

There is more we will do. We should say to parolees, we will test you for drugs; if you go back on them we will send you back to jail. We will say to gangs, we will break you with the same anti-racketeering law we used to mob bosses in jail; you're not going to kill our kids anymore or turn them into murderers before they're teenagers. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, if we're going to build that bridge to the 21st century we have to make our children free -- free of the vice grip of guns and gangs and drugs; free to build lives of hope.

I want to build a bridge to the 21st century with a strong American community, beginning with strong families; an America where all children are cherished and protected from destructive forces, where parents can succeed at home and at work.

Everywhere I've gone in America, people come up and talk to me about their struggle with the demands of work and their desire to do a better job with their children. The very first person I ever saw fight that battle was here with me four years ago, and tonight I miss her very, very much. My irrepressible, hard-working, always optimistic mother did the best she could for her (my) brother and me, often against very stiff odds. I learned from her just how much love and determination can overcome.

But from her and from our life, I also learned that no parent can do it alone. And no parent should have to. She had the kind of help every parent deserves -- from our neighbors, our friends, our teachers, our pastors, our doctors, and so many more.

You know, when I started out in public life with a lot of my friends from the Arkansas delegation down here -- (applause) -- there used to be a saying from time to time that every man who runs for public office will claim that he was born in a log cabin he built with his own hands. (Laughter.) Well, my mother knew better. And she made sure I did, too. Long before she even met Hillary, my mother knew it takes a village, and she was grateful for the support she got. (Applause.)

As Tipper Gore and Hillary said on Tuesday, we have, all of us in our administration, worked hard to support families in raising their children and succeeding at work. But we must do more. We should extend the Family and Medical Leave law to give parents some time off to take their children to regular doctor's appointments or attend those parent-teacher conferences at school. That is a key determination of their success. (Applause.)

We should pass a flex-time law that allows employees to take their overtime pay in money or in time off, depending on what's better for their family. (Applause.)

The FDA has adopted new measures to reduce advertising and sales of cigarettes to children. (Applause.) The Vice President spoke so movingly of it last night. But let me remind you, my fellow Americans, that is very much an issue in this election, because that battle is far from over, and the two candidates have different views. I pledge to America's parents that I will see this effort all the way through. (Applause.)

Working with the entertainment industry, we're giving parents the V-chip. TV shows are being rated for content so parents will be able to make a judgment about whether their small children should see them. And three hours of quality children's programming every week, on every network, are on the way. (Applause.)

The Kennedy-Kassebaum law says every American can keep his or her health insurance if they have to change jobs, even if someone in their family has been sick. That is a very important thing. But tonight we should spell out the next steps. The first thing we ought to do is to extend the benefits of health care to people who are unemployed. I propose in my balanced budget plan paid for to help unemployed families keep their health insurance for up to six months. (Applause.)

A parent may be without a job, but no child should be without a doctor. And let me say again, as the First Lady did on Tuesday, we should protect mothers and newborn babies from being forced out of the hospital in less than 48 hours. (Applause.)

We respect the individual conscience of every American on the painful issue of abortion, but believe as a matter of law that this decision should be left to a woman, her conscience, her doctor and her God. (Applause.) But abortion should not only be -- abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare. That's why I helped to establish and support a national effort to reduce out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy. And that is why we must promote adoption. (Applause.)

Last week the minimum wage bill I signed contained a $5,000 credit to families who adopt children; even more if the children have disabilities. It put an end to racial discrimination in the adoption process. It was a good thing for America. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, already there are tens of thousands of children out there who need a good home with loving parents. I hope more of them will find it now. (Applause.)

I want to build a bridge to the 21st century with a clean and safe environment. We are making our food safer from pesticides. We're protecting our drinking water and our air from poisons. We saved Yellowstone from mining. (Applause.) We established the largest national park south of Alaska in the Mojave Desert in California. We are working to save the precious Florida Everglades. (Applause.)

And when the leaders of this Congress invited the polluters into the back room to roll back 25 years of environmental protections that both parties had always supported, I said no. (Applause.)

But we must do more. Today 10 million children live within just four miles of a toxic waste dump. We have cleaned up 197 of those dumps in the last three years, more than in the previous 12 years combined. In the next four years, we propose to clean up 500 more -- two-thirds of all that are left, and the most dangerous ones. (Applause.) Our children should grow up next to parks, not poison. (Applause.)

We should make it a crime even to attempt to pollute. We should freeze the serious polluter's property until they clean up the problems they create. (Applause.) We should make it easier for families to find out about toxic chemicals in their neighborhoods so they can do more to protect their own children. These are the things that we must do to build that bridge to the 21st century. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that makes sure we are still the nation with the world's strongest defense; that our foreign policy still advances the values of our American community in the community of nations. Our bridge to the future must include bridges to other nations, because we remain the world's indispensable nation to advance prosperity, peace and freedom, and to keep our own children safe from the dangers of terror and weapons of mass destruction.

We have helped to bring democracy to Haiti and peace to Bosnia. (Applause.) Now the peace sign on the White House lawn between the Israelis and the Palestinians must embrace more of Israel's neighbors. The deep desire for peace that Hillary and I felt when we walked the streets of Belfast and Derry must become real for all the people of Northern Ireland. (Applause.) And Cuba must finally join the community of democracies. (Applause.)

Nothing in our lifetimes has been more heartening than when people of the former Soviet Union and Central Europe broke the grip of communism. We have aided their progress and I am proud of it. And I will continue our strong partnership with a democratic Russia. (Applause.) And we will bring some of Central Europe's new democracies into NATO, so that they will never question their own freedom in the future. (Applause.)

Our American exports are at record levels. In the next four years, we have to break down even more barriers to them, reaching out to Latin America, to Africa, to other countries in Asia, making sure that our workers and our products -- the world's finest -- have the benefit of free and fair trade. (Applause.)

In the last four years, we have frozen North Korea's nuclear weapons program. And I am proud to say that tonight there is not a single Russian nuclear missile pointed at an American child. (Applause.)

Now we must enforce and ratify without delay measures that further reduce nuclear arsenals, banish poison gas, and ban nuclear tests once and for all. (Applause.)

We have made investments, new investments, in our most important defense asset -- our magnificent men and women in uniform. (Applause.) By the year 2000 we also will have increased funding to modernize our weapons systems by 40 percent. These commitments will make sure that our military remains the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the entire world. (Applause.)

We are developing a sensible national missile defense, but we must not -- not now, not by the year 2000 -- squander $60 billion on an unproved, ineffective Star Wars program that could be obsolete tomorrow. (Applause.)

We are fighting terrorism on all fronts with a three-pronged strategy. First, we are working to rally a world coalition with zero tolerance for terrorism. Just this month I signed a law imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key sectors of the Iranian and Libyan economies. As long as Iran trains, supports and protects terrorists, as long as Libya refuses to give up the people who blew up Pan Am 103, they will pay a price from the United States. (Applause.)

Second, we must give law enforcement the tools they need to take the fight to terrorists. We need new laws to crack down on money laundering and to prosecute and punish those who commit violent acts against American citizens abroad; to add chemical markers or taggents to gunpowder used in bombs so we can crack the bomb makers; to extend the same power police now have against organized crime to save lives by tapping all the phones that terrorists use. Terrorists are as big a threat to our future, perhaps bigger, than organized crime. Why should we have two different standards for a common threat to the safety of America and our children? (Applause.)

We need, in short, the laws that Congress refused to pass. And I ask them again, please, as an American, not a partisan matter, pass these laws now. (Applause.)

Third, we will improve airport and air travel security. I have asked the Vice President to establish a commission and report back to me on ways to do this. But now we will install the most sophisticated bomb-detection equipment in all our major airports. We will search every airplane flying to or from America from another nation -- every flight, every cargo hold, every cabin, every time. (Applause.)

My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I know that in most election seasons foreign policy is not a matter of great interest in the debates in the barbershops and the cafes of America, on the plat floors and at the bowling alleys. But there are times -- there are times when only America can make the difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression, between life and death. We cannot save all the world's children, but we can save many of them. We cannot become the world's policeman, but where our values and our interests are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must act and we must lead. That is our job, and we are better, stronger, and safer because we are doing it. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, let me say one last time, we can only build our bridge to the 21st century if we build it together, and if we're willing to walk arm and arm across that bridge together. I have spent so much of your time that you gave me these last four years to be your President worrying about the problems of Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Burundi. What do these places have in common? People are killing each other and butchering children because they are different from one another. They share the same piece of land, but they are different from one another -- they hate their race, their tribe, their ethnic group, their religion.

We have seen the terrible, terrible price that people pay when they insist on fighting and killing their neighbors over their differences. In our own country we have seen America pay a terrible price for any form of discrimination. And we have seen us grow stronger as we have steadily let more and more of our hatreds and our fears go; as we have given more and more of our people the chance to live their dreams.

That is why the flame of our Statue of Liberty, like the Olympic flame carried all across America by thousands of citizen heroes, will always, always, burn brighter than the fires that burn our churches, our synagogues, our mosques. Always. (Applause.)

Look around this hall tonight, and to our fellow Americans watching on television, you look around this hall tonight -- there is every conceivable difference here among the people who are gathered. (Applause.) If we want to build that bridge to the 21st century we have to be willing to say loud and clear, if you believe in the values of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, if you're willing to work hard and play by the rules, you are part of our family and we're proud to be with you. (Applause.)

You cheer now, because you know this is true. You know this is true. When you walk out of this hall, think about it. Live by it.

We still have too many Americans who give in to their fears of those who are different from then. Not so long ago, swastikas were painted on the doors of some African American members of our Special Forces at Fort Bragg. Folks, for those of you who don't know what they do, the Special Forces are just what the name says -- they are special forces. If I walk off this stage tonight and call them on the telephone and tell them to go halfway around the world and risk their lives for you and be there by tomorrow at noon, they will do it. They do not deserve to have swastikas on their doors. (Applause.)

So look around here, look around here -- old or young, healthy as a horse or a person with a disability that hasn't kept you down, man or woman, Native American, native born, immigrant, straight or gay -- (applause) -- whatever; the test ought to be I believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. I believe in religious liberty. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in working hard and playing by the rules. I'm showing up for work tomorrow. I'm building that bridge to the 21st century. That ought to be the test. (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, 68 nights from tonight the American people will face once again a critical moment of decision. We're going to choose the last President of the 20th century and the first President of the 21st century. (Applause.) But the real choice is not that. The real choice is whether we will build a bridge to the future or a bridge to the past; about whether we believe our best days are still out there or our best days are behind us; about whether we want a country of people all working together or one where you're on your own.

Let us commit ourselves this night to rise up and build the bridge we know we ought to build all the way to the 21st century. (Applause.) Let us have faith -- and let us have faith -- faith -- American faith that we are not leaving our greatness behind. We're going to carry it right on with us into that new century -- a century of new challenge and unlimited promise.

Let us, in short, do the work that is before us, so that when our time here is over, we will all watch the sun go down -- as we all must -- and say truly, we have prepared our children for the dawn.

My fellow Americans, after these four good, hard years, I still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America.

Thank you, God bless you, and good night. (Applause.)



ADDRESS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT
TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

United Center
Chicago, Illinois

August 28, 1996

Four years ago you gave me your nomination to be Vice President. And tonight I want to say from the bottom of my heart: Thank you for the opportunity to serve our country and for the privilege of working beside a President who has done so much to lift the lives of America's families.

Tradition holds that this speech be delivered tomorrow night. But President Clinton asked me to speak tonight. And you can probably guess the reason.

My reputation for excitement.

I've been watching the convention. I've seen you doing the macarena. And if I could have your silence, I'd like to do the Al Gore version of the macarena. Want to see me do it again?

Four years ago, America faced a set of problems our leaders lacked the courage to confront. Our nation was not creating jobs. Our jobs were not increasing pay. Our people were running in place. Our nation was falling behind.

Four years later we meet in this great city of Chicago, the place Carl Sandberg called "the city of the Big Shoulders... with lifted head so proud to be alive... and strong." Four years later, Democrats are proud. Our hopes are alive. And America is strong.

Bill Clinton's leadership is paying off. How can you tell?

By what the American people have achieved themselves. Just look at what all of us have created together these last four years.

Ten million new jobs. A deficit cut in half. A smaller, leaner reinvented government working better and costing less. Unemployment and inflation both down. Record exports. Wages on the rise. An economy moving forward.

Empowerment zones bringing neighborhoods back to life. Classrooms being connected to the information superhighway. Communities given the right to know about environmental dangers. Toxic wastes being cleaned up. Rivers and lakes reclaimed and thriving.

An America not just better off, but better.

And our strength at home has led to greater respect abroad. Nuclear missiles no longer targeted at our cities. Democracy replacing tyranny in Haiti. Peace replacing war in Bosnia. Leadership toward reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Middle East.

While our nation has made great progress, we have much more to do. And we are here to declare that the man who can help us fashion this better future is President Bill Clinton.

The President's opponent, Senator Bob Dole, is a good and decent man. We honor his service to America, and his personal courage in fighting back from injuries sustained in battle. Though we disagree with his ideas, only the unknowing would deny him the respect he deserves.

But make no mistake: there is a profound difference in outlook between the President and the man who seeks his office. In his speech from San Diego, Senator Dole offered himself as a bridge to the past. Tonight Bill Clinton and I offer ourselves as a bridge to the future.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "Humanity is divided between the past and the future... between memory and hope." It is easy to understand the nostalgic appeal of the party of memory and the men who lead it. But let there be no doubt: the future lies with the party of hope -- and the man from Hope who leads it.

We Americans write our own history. And the chapters of which we're proudest are the ones where we had the courage to change.

Time and again, Americans have seen the need for change and have taken the initiative to bring that change to life. But always with a struggle. Always there were opponents. Senator Dole was there. We remember. We remember that he voted against the creation of Medicare. Against the creation of Medicaid. Against the Clean Air Act. Against Head Start. Against the Peace Corps in the Sixties, and AmeriCorps in the Nineties. He even voted against the funds to send a man to the moon.

That pessimistic view of America is very different from ours. And we saw it in the budget that Senator Dole and Speaker Gingrich tried to slip past the American people last fall. Their budget doubled Medicare premiums while slashing benefits. Wiped out a meaningful guarantee of nursing home care for seniors. Ended the guarantee of decent medical care for disabled children. Rolled back protections for our air and our water. Increased the cost of college while making student loans harder to get. Terminated anti-drug programs for our schools. And raised taxes on the hardest hit working families.

They passed their reckless plan, and demanded that President Clinton sign it. They shut the government down. Twice. They thought Bill Clinton would buckle under the pressure, cave in to their demands.

But they did not know the true measure of this man. He never flinched or wavered. He never stooped to their level. And of course, he never attacked his opponent's wife.

Bill Clinton took Speaker Gingrich and Senator Bob Dole into the Oval Office. I was there. I remember. And said: "As long as I occupy this office you will never enact this plan. Because as long as I am President, I won't let you."

That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want someone in the Oval Office who will rubber stamp their plan. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want a President who will appoint the next three justices of the Supreme Court so they can control all three branches of government and take away a woman's right to choose. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want to give health insurance rip-off artists a license to change Medicare, to let this program for our seniors wither on the vine. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want to outlaw all affirmative action and many other measures to reach out to those who want to reach up. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want to cut education and undermine our public schools ... put down teachers instead of lifting up students. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

They want to give free reign to lobbyists for the biggest polluters in America to rewrite our environmental laws allowing more poison in our air and water, and then auction off our natural wonders piece by piece. That's why they want to replace Bill Clinton. But we won't let them.

We will not; we cannot; we must not let them.

And you know what? We can make Bill Clinton's job a lot easier by making Dick Gephardt Speaker of the House and Tom Daschle Senate majority leader.

You can judge a president by the enemies he's willing to make. You know that someone who's been attacked as much as Bill Clinton is doing something right. America has never changed without a president willing to confront the status quo and take on the forces of greed and indifference. It has changed only when we have had a president with a vision to tackle the real problems that really matter to our families. That's what this president has done.

Families don't eat or breathe political slogans. They thrive or fail according to how they handle each day's challenges.

When your alarm goes off in the morning, if your family is like mine, everybody starts rushing around, getting ready for school and work. When one of your children reaches for cereal and fruit, you shouldn't have to worry about whether the food is safe. That's why just this month, President Clinton brought farmers and environmentalists together and signed an historic law to keep dangerous pesticides off our fruits and vegetables.

When you pour a glass of water for each member of your family at the breakfast table, you shouldn't have to wonder: "Should I buy bottled water. We really can't afford it." That's why President Clinton signed the Safe Drinking Water Act to give families more peace of mind that their water will be pure and safe.

When you notice your child staring at a television set, and watching violent and explicit images he or she is not old enough to handle, you shouldn't be forced to choose between throwing the TV out of the house and monitoring every second that child watches. That is why, last month, the president persuaded the broadcasters to agree to air three hours of quality educational programming each week.

And that is why we're giving parents a new tool, the V- chip, to keep violent and explicit programming out of their homes and away from their kids. When our children turn on the TV, let them learn how to read and add and spell and think, not how to kill.

If one of your children has an operation, or some other serious health problem, you shouldn't have to choose between taking care of that child or keeping your job. That is why Bill Clinton fought to pass the Family and Medical Leave Law -- so parents can get time off work to care for a sick child, bond with a newborn, or tend to an aging relative.

When your children do well in school and head toward graduation, they shouldn't have to wonder about whether their family can afford to send them to college. That's why President Clinton expanded scholarships, student loans and Pell Grants. And that's why he wants to give parents a tax credit to pay $ 1500 per year for tuition to make college more affordable for every family.

If the business where you work is changing in ways that cause you to think about getting a different kind of job, you ought to be able to get the training and education you need to learn new skills and plan for the future. That's why President Clinton is proposing a tax credit so if you go to a community college, you can take every dollar you pay right off your taxes. If you take responsibility, President Clinton will give you the opportunity to learn.

And if you see an opportunity to move to a better job, you shouldn't feel forced to stay in your old job because of your health insurance. Even if you have some pre-existing condition, you should be able to change jobs and keep your health insurance. That is why President Clinton passed the Kennedy-Kassebaum law.

American families shouldn't have to feel imprisoned in their homes because of crime. We have a right to streets and neighborhoods that are safe. That is why President Clinton fought for the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban.

And that is why President Clinton is putting 100,000 new community police officers on our streets and sidewalks.

These problems are real, and they must be addressed. It's been a long time since we've had a President so in tune with the issues that touch the real lives of America's families. It's been a long time since we've had a President willing to fight the powerful forces that often seem to stand in the way.

As a result, with Bill Clinton's leadership, our nation is moving forward with confidence. Americans don't believe our best days are behind us. We see better days ahead, because we have the courage to meet our challenges and protect our values. And now once again, in pursuit of the American Dream, we are crossing the bridge to the future.

Thirty-three years ago this very day, one American told us about his dream. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on that August afternoon, and described the America that he saw in his mind's eye. He called on our nation "to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children."

How do we build an America worthy of this dream? Is it with brick and mortar? Is it with second-hand smoke and rear-view mirrors? Or do we build in the nearest well-raised child? By shepherding, guiding and protecting our children's souls, we build a better America; the American spirit lives within that child. The child grows up to believe in it. To add new vision to it.

It is not a vision of a distant future nor a remote past --- but a constant accumulation of our best instincts and noblest aspirations. From the spirit of our Founding Fathers to the courage of today's families, it is one vision. It is an American vision. It is the vision of President Bill Clinton.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless America.

Source: Clinton Gore '96 Website Bob Dole 1996 Bob Dole 1996 August 15, 1996










August 15, 1996

Remarks by Senator Bob Dole
Dole Accepts Nomination
San Diego, California

The folks in Hollywood would be happy to know that I finally found a movie I liked -- the one I just saw.

This is a big night for me, and I'm ready. We're ready to go.

Thank you, California. And thank you, San Diego for hosting the greatest Republican convention of them all. The greatest of them all.

Thank you, President Ford and President Bush. And God bless you, Nancy Reagan for your moving tribute to President Reagan.

By the way, I spoke to President Reagan this afternoon, and I made him a promise that we would win one more for the Gipper. Are you ready?

Thank you. And he appreciated it very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, delegates to the convention, and fellow citizens, I cannot say it more clearly than in plain speaking. I accept your nomination to lead our party once again to the Presidency of the United States.

And I am profoundly moved by your confidence and trust, and I look forward to leading America into the next century. But this is not my moment, it is yours. It is yours, Elizabeth. It is yours, Robin. It is yours, Jack and Joanne Kemp.

And do not think I have forgotten whose moment this is above all. It is for the people of America that I stand here tonight, and by their generous leave. And as my voice echoes across darkness and desert, as it is heard over car radios on coastal roads, and as it travels above farmland and suburb, deep into the heart of cities that, from space, look tonight like strings of sparkling diamonds, I can tell you that I know whose moment this is: It is yours. It is yours entirely.

And who am I that stands before you tonight?

I was born in Russell, Kansas, a small town in the middle of the prairie surrounded by wheat and oil wells. As my neighbors and friends from Russell, who tonight sit in front of this hall, know well, Russell, though not the West, looks out upon the West.

And like most small towns on the plains, it is a place where no one grows up without an intimate knowledge of distance.

And the first thing you learn on the prairie is the relative size of a man compared to the lay of the land. And under the immense sky where I was born and raised, a man is very small, and if he thinks otherwise, he is wrong.
I come from good people, very good people, and I'm proud of it. My father's name was Doran and my mother's name was Bina. I loved them and there's no moment when my memory of them and my love for them does not overshadow anything I do -- even this, even here -- and there is no height to which I have risen that is high enough to allow me to allow me to forget them -- to allow me to forget where I came from, and where I stand and how I stand -- with my feet on the ground, just a man at the mercy of God.

And this perspective has been strengthened and solidified by a certain wisdom that I owe not to any achievement of my own, but to the gracious compensations of age.

Now I know that in some quarters I may not -- may be expected to run from this, the truth of this, but I was born in 1923, and facts are better than dreams and good presidents and good candidates don't run from the truth.

I do not need the presidency to make or refresh my soul. That false hope I will gladly leave to others. For greatness lies not in what office you hold, but on how honest you are in how you face adversity and in your willingness to stand fast in hard places.

Age has its advantages.

Let me be the bridge to an America than only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith and confidence in action.

And to those who say it was never so, that America's not been better, I say you're wrong. And I know because I was there. And I have seen it. And I remember.

And our nation, though wounded and scathed, has outlasted revolutions, civil war, world war, racial oppression and economic catastrophe. We have fought and prevailed on almost every continent. And in almost every sea.

We have even lost. But we have lasted, and we have always come through.

And what enabled us to accomplish this has little to do with the values of the present. After decades of assault upon what made America great, upon supposedly obsolete values, what have we reaped? What have we created? What do we have?

What we have in the opinions of millions of Americans is crime and drugs, illegitimacy, abortion, the abdication of duty, and the abandonment of children.

And after the virtual devastation of the American family, the rock upon which this country was founded, we are told that it takes a village, that is collective, and thus the state, to raise a child.

The state is now more involved than it ever has been in the raising of children. And children are now more neglected, more abused and more mistreated than they have been in our time.

This is not a coincidence. This is not a coincidence. And with all due respect, I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child.

If I could by magic restore to every child who lacks a father or a mother that father or that mother, I would. And though I cannot, I would never turn my back on them. And I shall as President vote measures that keep families whole.

And I'm here to tell you that permissive and destructive behavior must be opposed. That honor and liberty must be restored and that individual accountability must replace collective excuse.

And I'm here to say I am here to say to America, do not abandon the great traditions that stretch to the dawn of our history. Do not topple the pillars of those beliefs -- God, family, honor, duty, country -- that have brought us through time, and time, and time, and time again.

And to those who believe that I am too combative, I say if I am combative, it is for love of country. It is to uphold a standard that I was I was born and bread to defend. And to those who believe that I live and breathe compromise, I say that in politics honorable compromise is no sin. It is what protects us from absolutism and intolerance.

But one must never compromise in regard to God and family and honor and duty and country. And I'm here to set a marker, that all may know that it is possible to rise in politics, with these things firmly in mind, not compromised and never abandoned, never abandoned.

For the old values endure and though they may sleep and though they may falter, they endure. I know this is true. And to anyone who believes that restraint honor and trust in the people cannot be returned to government, I say follow me, follow me.

Only right conduct, only right conduct distinguishes a great nation from one that cannot rise above itself. It has never been otherwise.

Right conduct every day, at every level, in all facets of life. The decision of a child not to use drugs; of a student not to cheat; of a young woman or a young man to serve when called; of a screenwriter to refuse to add to mountains of trash; of a businessman not to bribe; of a politician to cast a vote or take action that will put his office or his chances of victory at risk, but which is right.

And why have so many of us -- and I do not exclude myself, for I am not the model of perfection -- why have so many of us been failing these tests for so long? The answer is not a mystery. It is to the contrary quite simple and can be given quite simply.

It is because for too long we have had a leadership that has been unwilling to risk the truth, to speak without calculation, to sacrifice itself.

An administration, in its very existence, communicates this day by day until it flows down like rain and the rain becomes a river and the river becomes a flood.

Which is more important, wealth or honor?

It is not as was said by the victors four years ago, the economy stupid. It's a kind of nation we are. It's whether we still possess the wit and determination to deal with many questions including economic questions, but certainly not limited to them. All things do not flow from wealth or poverty. I know this firsthand and so do you.

All things flow from doing what is right.

The cry of this nation lies not in its material wealth but in courage, and sacrifice and honor. We tend to forget when leaders forget. And we tend to remember it when they remember it.

The high office of the presidency requires not a continuous four year campaign for re-election, but rather broad oversight and attention to three essential areas: the material, the moral and the nation's survival in that ascending order of importance.

In the last presidential election, you the people were gravely insulted. You were told that the material was not only the most important of these three, but in fact, really the only one that mattered.

I don't hold to that for a moment. No one can deny the importance of material well-being. And in this regard, it is time to recognize we have surrendered too much of our economic liberty. I do not appreciate the value of economic liberty nearly as much for what it has done in keeping us fed, as to what it's done in keeping us free.

The freedom of the marketplace is not merely the best guarantor of our prosperity. It is the chief guarantor of our rights, and a government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy.

And our opponents portray the right to enjoy the fruits of one's own time and labor as a kind selfishness against which they must fight for the good of the nation. But they are deeply mistaken, for when they gather to themselves the authority to take the earnings and direct the activities of the people, they are fighting not for our sake but for the power to tell us what to do.

And you now work from the first of January to May just to pay your taxes so that the party of government can satisfy its priorities with the sweat of your brow because they think that what you would do with your own money would be morally and practically less admirable than what they would do with it.
And that simply has got to stop. It's got to stop in America.

It is demeaning to the nation that within the Clinton administration, a core of the elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned, should have the power to fund with your earnings their dubious and self-serving schemes.

Somewhere, a grandmother couldn't afford to call her granddaughter, or a child went without a book, or a family couldn't afford that first home because there was just not enough money to make the call, or to buy the book, or to pay the mortgage. Or, for that matter, to do many other things that one has the right and often the obligation to do.

Why? Because some genius in the Clinton administration took the money to fund yet another theory, yet another program and yet another bureaucracy. Are they taking care of you, or are they taking care of themselves?

I have asked myself that question. And I say, let the people be free. Free to keep. Let the people be free to keep as much of what they earn as the government can strain with all its might not to take, not the other way around.

I trust the American people to work in the best interest of the people. And I believe that every family, wage earner and small business in America can do better -- if only we have the right policies in Washington, D.C.

And make no mistake about it, my economic program is the right policy for America and for the future, and for the next century.

Here's what it will mean to you. Here's what it will mean to you. It means you will have a president who will urge Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

It means you will have a president and a Congress who have the will to balance the budget by the year 2002. It means you will have a president who will reduce taxes 15 percent across-the-board for every taxpayer in America.

And it will include a $500 per child tax credit for lower and middle income families in America. Taxes for a family of four making $35,000 a year would be reduced by more than half -- 56 percent to be exact. And that's a big, big reduction.

It means you will have a president who will help small businesses, the businesses that create most new jobs, by reducing the capital gains tax rate by 50 percent. Cut it in half. It means you will have a president who will end the IRS as we know it.

It means you will have a president who will expand individual retirement accounts, repeal President Clinton's Social Security tax increase, provide estate tax relief, reduce government regulations, reform our civil justice system, provide educational opportunity scholarships and a host of other proposals that will create more opportunity for all Americans and all across America.

And I will not stop there. Working with Jack Kemp and a Republican Congress I will not be satisfied until we have reformed our entire tax code and made it fairer and flatter and simpler for the American people.

The principle involved here is time-honored and true, and that is, it's your money. You shouldn't have to apologize for wanting to keep what you earn. To the contrary, the government should apologize for taking too much of it.

The Clinton administration -- the Clinton administration just doesn't get it. And that's why they have got to go.

The president -- the president's content with the way things are. I am not. We must commit ourselves to a far more ambitious path that puts growth, expanding opportunities, rising incomes and soaring prosperity at the heart of national policy.

We must also commit ourselves to a trade policy that does not suppress pay and threaten American jobs. And by any measure, the trade policies of the Clinton administration has been a disaster. Trade deficits are skyrocketing and middle income families are paying the price.

My administration will fully enforce our trade laws and not let our national sovereignty be infringed by the World Trade Organization or any other international body.

Jack Kemp and I will restore the promise of America and get the economy moving again, and we'll do so without leaving anybody behind.

And I have learned in my own life, from my own experience that not every man, woman or child can make it on their own. And that in time of need, the bridge between failure and success can be the government itself. And given all that I have experienced, I shall always remember those in need. That is why I helped to save Social Security in 1983 and that is why I will be, I will be the president who preserves and strengthens and protects Medicare for America's senior citizens.

For I will never forget the man who rode on a train from Kansas to Michigan to see his son who was thought to be dying in an Army hospital. When he arrived, his feet were swollen and he could hardly walk because he had to make the trip from Kansas to Michigan standing up most of the way.

Who was that man? He was my father. My father was poor and I love my father. Do you imagine for one minute that as I sign the bills that will set the economy free, I will not be faithful to Americans in need? You can be certain that I will.

For to do otherwise would be to betray those whom I love and honor most. And I will betray nothing.

Let me speak about immigration. Yes. Let me speak about immigration. The right and obligation of a sovereign nation to control its borders is beyond debate. We should not have here a single illegal immigrant.

But the question of immigration is broader than that, and let me specific. A family from Mexico arrives this morning legally has as much right to the American Dream as the direct descents of the Founding Fathers.

The Republican Party is broad and inclusive. It represents -- The Republican Party is broad and inclusive. It represents many streams of opinion and many points of view.

But if there's anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion, then let me remind you, tonight this hall belongs to the Party of Lincoln. And the exits which are clearly marked are for you to walk out of as I stand this ground without compromise.

And though, I can only look up -- and though I can look up, and at a very steep angle, to Washington and Lincoln, let me remind you of their concern for the sometimes delicate unity of the people.

The notion that we are and should be one people rather than "peoples" of the United States seems so self-evident and obvious that it's hard for me to imagine that I must defend it. When I was growing up in Russell, Kansas, it was clear to me that my pride and my home were in America, not in any faction, and not in any division.

In this I was heeding, even as I do unto this day, Washington's eloquent rejection of factionalism. I was honoring, even as I do unto this day, Lincoln's word, his life and his sacrifice. The principle of unity has been with us in all our successes.

The 10th Mountain Division, in which I served in Italy, and the Black troops of the 92ndm Division who fought nearby were the proof for me once again of the truth I'm here trying to convey.

The war was fought just a generation after America's greatest and most intense period of immigration. And yet when the blood of the sons of immigrants and the grandsons of slaves fell on foreign fields, it was American blood. In it you could not read the ethnic particulars of the soldier who died next to you. He was an American.

And when I think how we learned this lesson I wonder how we could have unlearned it. Is the principle of unity, so hard-fought and at the cost of so many lives, having been contested again and again in our history, and at such a terrible price, to be casually abandoned to the urge to divide?
The answer is no.

Must we give in to the senseless drive to break apart that which is beautiful and whole and good?

And so tonight I call on every American to rise above all that may divide us, and to defend the unity of the nation for the honor of generations past, and the sake of those to come.

The Constitution of the United States mandates equal protection under the law. This is not code language for racism. It is plain speaking against it.

And the guiding light in my administration will be that in this country, we have no rank order by birth, no claim to favoritism by race, no expectation of judgment other than it be even-handed. And we cannot guarantee the outcome, but we shall guarantee the opportunity in America.

I will speak plainly -- I will speak plainly on another subject of importance. We're not educating all of our children. Too many are being forced to absorb the fads of the moment.

Not for the nothing are we the biggest education spenders and among the lowest education achievers among the leading industrial nations.

The teachers unions nominated Bill Clinton in 1992. They're funding his re-election now. And they, his most reliable supporters, know he will maintain the status quo.

And I say this -- I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions. I say this, if education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying.

And to the teachers union, I say, when I am president, I will disregard your political power for the sake of the parents, the children, the schools and the nation. I plan to enrich your vocabulary with those words you fear -- school choice and competition and opportunity scholarships.

All this for low and middle income families so that you will join the rest of us in accountability, while others compete with you for the commendable privilege of giving our children a real education.

There is no reason why those who live on any street in America should not have the same right as the person who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the right to send your child to the school of your choice.

And if we want to reduce crime -- if we want to reduce crime and drug use and teen pregnancies, let's start by giving all our children a first-class education.

And I also want these children to inherit a country that is far safer than it is at present. I seek for our children and grandchildren a world more open and with more opportunity than ever before.

But in wanting these young Americans to be able to make the best of this, I want first and foremost for them to be safe. I want to remove the shadow that darkens opportunities for every man, woman and child in America.

We are a nation paralyzed by crime. And it's time to end that in America.

And to do so, I mean to attack the root cause of crime -- criminals, criminals, violent criminals.

And as our many and voracious criminals go to bed tonight, at say, 6:00 in the morning, they had better pray that I lose this election because if I win, the lives of violent criminals are going to be hell.

During the Reagan administration -- during the Reagan administration we abolished parole at the federal level. In the Dole administration we will work with the nation's governors to abolish parole for violent criminals all across America. And with my national instant check initiative, we will keep all guns out of the hands of criminals.

And I have been asked if I have a litmus tests for judges. I do.

My litmus test for judges is that they be intolerant of outrage; that their passion is not to amend, but to interpret the Constitution that they are restrained in regard to those who live within the law, and strict with those who break it.

And for those who say that I should not make President Clinton's liberal judicial appointments an issue in this campaign, I have a simple response. I have heard your argument.

The motion is denied.

I save my respect for the Constitution, not for those who would ignore it, violate it or replace it with conceptions of their own fancy.

My administration will zealously protect civil and constitutional rights while never forgetting that our primary duty is protecting law abiding citizens, everybody in this hall.

I have no intention of ignoring violent -- I said violent criminals, understanding them or buying them off. A nation that cannot defend itself from outrage does not deserve to survive. And a president who cannot lead itself against those who prey upon it does not deserve to be president of the United States of America.

I am prepared to risk more political capital in defense of domestic tranquility than any president you have ever known. The time for such risk is long overdue.

And in defending our nation from external threats, the requirements of survival cannot merely be finessed. There is no room for margin of error. On this subject perhaps more than any other, a president must level with the people and be prepared to take political risks. And I would rather do what is called for in this regard and be unappreciated, than fail to do so and win universal acclaim.

And it must be said because of misguided priorities there have been massive cuts in funding for our national security. I believe President Clinton has failed to adequately provide for our defense. And for whatever reason the neglect, it is irresponsible.

I ask that you consider these crystal-clear differences. He believes that it is acceptable to ask our military forces to more with less. I do not.

He defends giving a green light to a terrorist state, Iran, to expand its influence in Europe. And he relies on the United Nations to punish Libyan terrorists who murdered American citizens. I will not. He believes that defending our people and our territory from missile attack is unnecessary. I do not.

And on my first day in office, I will put America on a course that will end our vulnerability to missile attack and rebuild our armed forces.

It is a course President Clinton has refused to take. And on my first day in office, I will put terrorists on notice. If you harm one American, you harm all Americans. And America will pursue you to the ends of the earth.

In short, don't mess with us if you're not prepared to suffer the consequences.

And furthermore, the lesson has always been clear, if we are prepared to defend, if we are prepared to fight many wars and greater wars than any wars that come, we will have to fight fewer wars and lesser wars and perhaps no wars at all.

It has always been so and will ever be so. And I'm not the first to say that the long gray line has never failed us, and it never has.

For those who might be sharply taken aback and thinking of Vietnam, think again. For in Vietnam the long gray line did not fail us, we failed it in Vietnam.

The American soldier -- the American soldier was not made for the casual and arrogant treatment that he suffered there, where he was committed without clear purpose or resolve, bound by rules that prevented victory, and kept waiting in the valley of the shadow of death for 10 years while the nation invaded the undebatable question of his honor.

No, the American soldier was not to be thrown into battle without a clear purpose or resolve, not made to be abandoned in the field of battle, not made to give his life for indifference or lack of respect. And I will never commit the American soldier to an ordeal without the prospect of victory.

And when I am president, and when I am president every man, and every women in our armed forces will know the president is Commander-in-Chief, not Boutros Boutros-Ghali or any other UN Secretary General.

This I owe not only to the living, but to the dead, to every patriot, to every patriot grave, to the ghosts of Valley Forge, of Flanders Field, of Bataan, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and the Gulf.

This I owe to the men who died on the streets of Mogadishu not three year ago, to the shadows on the bluffs of Normandy, to the foot soldiers who never came home, to the airmen who fell to earth, and the sailors who rest perpetually at sea.

This is not an issue of politics, but far graver than that. Like the bond of trust between parent and child, it is the lifeblood of the nation. It commands not only sacrifice but a grace in leadership embodying both caution and daring at the same time. And this we owe not only to ourselves. Our Allies demand consistency and resolve, which they deserve from us as we deserve it from them. But even if they falter, we cannot, for history has made us the leader, and we are obliged by history to keep the highest standard possible.

And in this regard may I remind you of the nation's debt to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush. President Nixon engaged China and the Soviet Union with diplomatic genius. President Ford, who gave me my start in 1976, stood fast in a time of great difficulty, and with the greatest of dignity. Were it not for President Reagan, the Soviet Union would still be standing today.

He brought the Cold War to an end, not, as some demanded, through compromise and surrender -- but by winning it. That's how he brought the Cold War to an end.

And President Bush, with a mastery that words fail to convey, guided the Gulf War coalition and its military forces to victory. A war that might have lasted years and taken the lives of tens of thousands of Americans passed so swiftly and passed so smoothly that history has yet to catch its breath and give him the credit he is due.

History is like that. History is like that. Whenever we forget its singular presence, it gives us a lesson in grace and awe.

And when I look back on my life, I see less and less of myself and more and more a history of this civilization that we have made that is called America.

And I am content and always will be content to see my own story subsumed in great events, the greatest of which is the simple onward procession of the American people. What a high privilege it is to be at the center in these times -- and this I owe to you, the American people.

I owe everything to you. And to make things right, and to close the circle, I will return to you as much as I possibly can. It is incumbent upon me to do so. It is my duty and my deepest desire. And so tonight, I respectfully -- I respectfully ask for your blessing and your support.

The election will not be decided -- the election will not be decided by the polls or by the opinion-makers or by the pundits.

It will be decided by you. It will be decided by you.

And I ask for your vote so that I may bring you an administration that is able, honest, and trusts in you.

For the fundamental issue is not of policy, but of trust -- not merely whether the people trust the president, but whether the president and his party trust the people, trust in their goodness and their genius for recovery.

That's what the election is all about.

For the government cannot direct the people, the people must direct the government.

This is not the outlook of my opponent -- and he is my opponent, not my enemy.

And though he has tried of late to be a good Republican ... and I expect him here tonight ... there are certain distinctions that even he cannot blur. There are distinctions between the two great parties that will be debated and must be debated in the next 82 days.

He and his party brought us the biggest tax increase in the history of America. And we are the party of lower taxes -- we are the party of lower taxes and greater opportunity.

We are the party whose resolve did not flag as the Cold War dragged on. We did not tremble before a Soviet giant that was just about to fall, and we did not have to be begged to take up arms against Saddam Hussein.

We are not the party, as drug use has soared and doubled among the young, hears no evil, sees no evil, and just cannot say, "Just say no."

We are the party that trusts in the people. I trust in the people. That is the heart of all I have tried to say tonight.

My friends, a presidential campaign is more than a contest of candidates, more than a clash of opposing philosophies.

It is a mirror held up to America. It is a measurement of who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. For as much inspiration as we may draw from a glorious past, we recognize American preeminently as a country of tomorrow. For we were placed here for a purpose, by a higher power. There's no doubt about it.

Every soldier in uniform, every school child who recites the Pledge of Allegiance, every citizen who places her hand on her heart when the flag goes by, recognizes and responds to our American destiny.

Optimism is in our blood. I know this as few others can. There once was a time when I doubted the future. But I have learned as many of you have learned that obstacles can be overcome.

And I have unlimited confidence in the wisdom of our people and the future of our country.

Tonight, I stand before you tested by adversity, made sensitive by hardship, a fighter by principle, and the most optimistic man in America.

My life is proof that America is a land without limits. And with my feet on the ground and my heart filled with hope, I put my faith in you and in the God who loves us all. For I am convinced that America's best days are yet to come.

May God bless you. And may God bless America. Thank you very much.

August 15, 1996
Remarks by Jack Kemp
Kemp Accepts Nomination
San Diego, California

Abraham Lincoln believed you serve your party best by serving our country first. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot think of a better way of serving our nation than by electing Bob Dole President of the United States of America.

And by the way, this time let's reelect a Republican Congress to help Bob Dole restore the
American dream. That's what is important in 1996. It's just that we need to re-elect our Republican Congress.

Tonight, here in San Diego, Bob Dole and I begin this campaign to take our message of growth, hope, leadership and cultural renewal to all Americans.

As I said in Russell, Kansas, Bob Dole's hometown, last Saturday, we're going to take our cause from the boroughs of New York to the barrios of California. We're not going to leave anyone out of this cause and this campaign.

We're going to carry the word to every man, woman and child of every color and background that today, on the eve of the new American century, it's time to renew the American promise and to recapture the American dream, and to give our nation a new birth of freedom with liberty, equality and justice for all. That's what it means to be a Republican.

Tonight, I'm putting our opponents on notice. We're going to ask for the support of every single American. Our appeal of boundless opportunity crosses every barrier of geography, race and belief in America. We're not going to leave anybody out of this opportunity

We may not get every vote. Now, listen to me for a moment. We may not get every vote, but we'll speak to every heart. In word and action, we will represent the entire American family. That's what we must be all about.

And so, in the spirit of Mr. Lincoln, who believed that the purpose of a great party was not to defeat the other party. The purpose of a truly great party is to provide superior ideas, principled leadership and a compelling cause, and in that spirit, I accept your nomination for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America.

Thank you. OK, I accept, I accept, I accept. I had to say it.

Our convention is not just the meeting of a political party; our convention is a celebration of ideas. Our goal is not just to win, but to be worthy of winning.

This is a great nation with a great mission, and last night we nominated a leader whose stature is equal to that calling, a man whose words convey a quiet strength, who knows what it means to sacrifice for others, to sacrifice for his country, and to demonstrate courage under fire; who brings together all parties and backgrounds in a common cause.

In recent years it has been a presidential practice when delivering the State of the Union address to introduce heroes in the balcony. Next year, when Bob Dole delivers the State of the Union address there'll be a hero at the podium.

There is another hero with us tonight. He's here in our hearts, he's here in our spirit. He's here in our minds. He brought America back and restored America's spirit. He gave us a decade of prosperity and expanding horizons. Make no mistake about it, communism came down, not because it fell, but because he pushed it.

Thank you, Ronald Reagan. The Gipper.

Our campaign -- for just a moment, let me talk about this campaign, this cause -- is dedicated to completing that revolution. I'm sure he's watching us. So let me just say to him, on behalf of all of us who love him, thanks to the Gipper.

And tonight is the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole, and all the great Republicans who precede us and upon whose shoulders we stand, we begin our campaign to restore the adventure of the American dream.

With the end of the Cold War, all the "isms" of the 20th century -- Fascism, Nazism, Communism, Socialism, and the evil of Apartheidism -- have failed, except one. Only democracy has shown itself true to the hopes of all mankind. We must be that party

You see, democratic capitalism is not just the hope of wealth, but it's the hope of justice. When we look into the face of poverty, we see the pain, the despair and need of human beings. But above all, in every face of every child, we must see the image of God.

You see, the Creator of All has planted the seed of creativity in every single one of us, the desire within every child of God to work and build and improve our lot in life, and that of our families and those we love. And in our work, and in the act of creating that is part of all labor, we discover that part within ourselves that is divine. I believe the ultimate imperative for growth and opportunity is to advance human dignity.

Dr. Martin Luther King believed that we must see a sleeping hero in every soul. I belive America must establish policies that summon those heroes and call forth their boundless potential and that of the human spirit. But our fullest potential will never be achieved by following leaders who call us to timid tasks, diminished dreams and some era of limits.

You see, every generation faces a choice: hope or despair -- to plan for scarcity or to embrace the possibilities. Societies throughout history believed they had reached the frontiers of human accomplishment. But in every age, those who trusted that divine spark of imagination discovered that vastly greater horizons still lay ahead.

You see, Americans do not accept limits. We transcended those limits. We do not settle for things as they are. We are intent on succeeding.

I learned this as a lesson as a young boy growing up in the street in Los Angeles, California. My dad was a truck driver.

My daddy was a truck driver. He and my uncle bought the truck, started a trucking company, put four boys through college. From them and my mom, a teacher, I learned to never give up. Now I want you to know tonight, from the bottom of my heart, to me, faith, freedom and family, as well as life, are the greatest gifts of God to all humanity. It is precious and we need to be that party.

Today America is on the threshold of the greatest period of economic activity, technological development and entrepreneurial adventure in the history of the world. We have before us tomorrows that are even more thrilling than our more glorious of yesterdays.

And yet the genius of the American people is being stifled. Our economy is growing at the slowest pace in any recovery in this century. The income of working men and woman in America is dropping or stagnant. And there's kind of a gnawing feeling throughout our nation that -- in some way, for some reason -- just something wrong.

Our friends in the other party say the economy is great. It's moving forward. It's moving, like a ship dragging an anchor, the anchor of taxes, and excessive regulations and big government and bureaucracy.

They say it's the best we do and the best we can hope for. But that's because they have put their entire trust in government rather than people. They want a government that runs our lives, runs our businesses, runs our schools. You see, they just don't believe in the unlimited possibilities that freedom can bring.

Today, the Democratic Party is not democratic. They are elitist. They don't have faith in people. They have in government. They trust government more than markets. And that's why they raised taxes on middle income families. That's why they tried to nationalize health care. That's why that today they say they are "unalterably opposed" to cutting taxes on the American family.

That's the problem with elitists -- they think they know better than the people. But the truth is, there's a wisdom, there's an intelligence in ordinary women and men far superior to the greatest so-called experts that have every lived. That's what our party must be all about.
The Democratic Party is the party of the status quo. And as of tonight, with Bob Dole as our leader, we are the party of change.

Our first step will be to balance the budget with a strategy that combines economy in government with the type of tax cuts designed to liberate the productive genius of the American people.

Now, of course, the naysayers in the Clinton White House say it can't be done. They've got to say that. They don't know Bob Dole and they don't know Jack Kemp.

As Bob and I have said before and will continue to say throughout this campaign, with a pro-growth Republican Congress, balancing the budget while cutting taxes is just a matter of presidential will. If you have it, you can do it. Bob Dole has it. And Bob Dole will do it.

You can count on it.

And guess what? And guess what? And guess what?

All the critics aside, I'm going to be with him, at his side, every step of the way. And so will you, so will you.

But this is just the beginning. But this is just the beginning. This is the first step.

We're going to scrap the whole fatally flawed tax code of America, and replace it with a flatter, fairer, simpler, pro-family, pro-growth tax code for the 21st century. We can do it.

And guess what? Guess what? Guess what? That's rhetorical. You don't have to answer.

We're going to end the IRS and its intrusiveness as we have known it these past 83 years.

We're going to start with a 15 percent across-the-board tax rate cut. There's going to be tax relief and a $500 per child tax credit. We're going to cut the capital gains tax in half, and not apologize for it.

We're going to take the side of the worker, the side of the saver, the entrepreneur, the family. The American people can use their money more wisely than can government. It's time they had more of a chance, and we're going to give them that opportunity, that chance.

That's what this is all about.

Here we are, on the eve of the 21st century, in the middle of that technological revolution that is transforming the world in which we live. But how can it be that so many families find themselves struggling just to keep even, or just to get by?

And I want to say this from the heart -- that as long as it takes two earners to do what one earner used to do, how can anybody say this economy is good enough for the American people?

Our tax cut will mean that parents will have more time to spend with their children -- and with each other. It means that a working parent can afford to take a job that lets them maybe be home when the kids come home from school. It means that the struggling, single mother in the inner city of America will find it easier to get out of poverty and to work off the welfare system which is a drag on her hopes and aspirations.

We cannot forget, my friends, that a single mom and her children in this country cannot be left out of our great revolution for this country.

The American society as a whole can never achieve the outer- reaches of its potential so long as it tolerates the inner cities of despair. And I can tell you that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp will not tolerate that despair in our nation's cities.

I read the account by a reporter -- I read the report -- when I was at Housing and Urban Development, I read the account of a reporter of his conversation with a 10-year-old child at Henry Horner public housing in Chicago, which I had had the honor of visiting.

The reporter told in his book that he asked the little boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. The little boy said, "If I grow up, I'd like to be a bus driver."

He said, "If I grow up." He said "If" -- not when. At the age of 10 he wasn't sure he'd even make it to adulthood.

Think how much poorer our nation is, and deprived of, not allowing that child to reach his or her potential. And those like him. Think how much richer our nation will be when every single child is able to grow up to reach for his or her God-given potential -- including those who come to America. Including those who are willing to risk everything to come to this nation.

My friends, we are a nation of immigrants. And as the former president of Notre Dame University, Father Theodore Hesburgh, said, the reason we have to close the back door of illegal immigration is so that we can keep open the front door of legal immigration.

That is what it means to be in America.

You see, our goal is not just a more prosperous America, but a better America. An America that recognizes the infinite worthwhile of every individual and, like the Good Shepherd, leaves the 99 to find the one stray lamb.

An America that honors all its institutions -- the values that moms and dads want to pass on to their children.

An America that makes the ideal of equality a daily reality -- equality of opportunity, equality in human dignity, equality before the laws of mankind as well as in the eyes of God.

An America that transcends the boundaries between the races with the revolutionary power of the simple, yet profound idea to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We must remember all that is at stake in America's cultural renewal -- not just the wealth of our nation but the meaning as well.

Today, more than ever before, America's ideals and ideas grip the imaginations of women and men in every corner of the globe. And isn't it exciting -- isn't it exciting to think, that it's 1776 -- only this time all over the world?

You know, President Reagan spoke of America as a shining city on a hill, a light unto nations. And in decades past, so many of those who looked for that light did so from behind a wall and barbed wire, and tyrannical regimes.

Now, because the American people stood strong, those people are free.

Freedom is not free. It's never guaranteed. Our nation and its president must be strong enough to stand up for freedom against all who would challenge it.

A world of peace. A world of hope. That's what America's economic and cultural renewal means at home and around the world. This is what our cause is all about. This is why we'll elect Bob Dole the next president. This is why we need a Republican Congress.

And I want you to know, the other night I was honored, I was so honored to be part of that tribute, so meaningfully to President Reagan. Afterwards. Mrs. Reagan said she was touched by my calling Ronald Reagan the last lion of the 20th century. Well, I said history will record that.

I believe America is fortunate that last night you, and you, and you nominated a leader worthy of succeeding President Reagan -- a man with the strength, the determination and the vision to do the job that lies ahead.

And I want you to know tonight from the bottom of my heart, I believe Bob Dole will be the first lion of the 21st century.

Thank you. Ross Perot 1996 Ross Perot 1996 August 18, 1996










Ross Perot
Reform Party Nomination Acceptance Speech
Valley Forge, PA – August 18, 1996

It’s great to be with you tonight. I want to thank all of the people — Max Dat, Bill Gaylord, Tony Volpentest and all the others who put this together.

I have to tell you a story about my mother and the rescue in Iran. She was dying of cancer. I went into her hospital room to tell her I had to go into Iran. When I finished she looked me in the eye and said these are your men. You sent them over there. They didn’t do anything wrong. The government can’t get them out. It’s your responsibility to get them out. God bless her.

You saw the beautiful picture of Bill and Paul reunited with their families. Guess who left the hospital and was sitting at the curb at the airport watching them? She was.

I’m going to tell you another story. I met Max after the war, but the first indication I had that he was in trouble came from prisoners of war who had gone all the way into Thailand as Saigon was falling and were going back to Vietnam. Now how’s that for courage? To rescue Dat, Captain Howard Rutledge, a Navy Captain Retired, called me and said Ross, we need financial help. He explained the problem. I said give me a few hours to try to get him out and we were lucky we got him out.

I waned you to hear that story of men who spent eight years in hell and then went back in because of their commitment to Max Dat.

I hope that all of you tomorrow think how discouraged we get when we break a fingernail. Isn’t Tony Volpentest a role model for all of us? No matter what’s going on, I hope that every single one of you will be watching tomorrow night when he goes for the gold.

Thank you for creating the Reform Party. It’s a historic event. Something like this only happens about once every hundred years in this country.

I am honored and I am humbled that you have chosen me as your candidate to be president. You have my solemn promise that I will only act in the best interest of our country. This is your country. I will be your servant. I will only belong to you, the people, and I am absolutely committed, irrevocably committed, to passing on a better world to our children and grandchildren.

After watching this introduction, surely you will know that I have literally lived the American Dream. I want to make sure that some other kid who is a nobody from nowhere has that same opportunity. I’m here today because I am absolutely determined to keep the dream alive, and we will pass on a better, stronger country to the next generation.

I would like to compliment Governor Lamm on his speech and thank him for his participation. Thank you, Dick.

Have you listened to the messages from the other parties during the last weeks? Do their promises for 1996 sound familiar? Who first brought these issues to the American people? You did. Isn’t it terrific that in just four years they’ve repented, been reborn and you are setting the agenda for ‘96. God bless you.

Now, there is a question for everybody in the good ole USA. Do you think they will keep those promises? Remember Lech Welesa’s message to our Congress when he said, “Words are plentiful, but deeds are precious.” We are here in Valley Forge tonight to remind everybody that the people who created this country made incredible sacrifices. That’s why we have the convention here. They fought barefooted in the snow in this part of Pennsylvania.

Has anybody here ever heard the name Benjamin Fell? Somebody has. Wonderful. He manufactured shoes and leather goods in the Valley Forge area during the Revolution. He was shocked when he saw George Washington’s men barefoot and suffering in December 1777. He immediately started making shoes for the soldiers. He filled his house and attic with soldiers. He was expelled from the Quaker church for participating in the war. The British posted a reward for his capture, but he kept on making shoes for Washington’s soldiers. Now that’s what we need! Here’s what is on his tombstone: To the memory of Benjamin Fell, a patriot and a Christian, a friend of George Washington and a friend of God.

The only reason I know that story is that my wife Margot is a direct descendent of Benjamin Fell and I have a grandson named Benjamin Fell Mulford.

Our ancestors came across the ocean in sailing ships you wouldn’t go across a lake in. When they arrived there was nothing here. They built their tiny little cabins and they did it with neighbors helping one another, not federal grants. They came here because they wanted to be free. And they wanted to practice the religion of their choice, and after 200 years, too many of us take those privileges for granted. We must not forget they are precious and they are fragile. Now, the immigrants who came later applied to become American citizens, waited their turn and came through Ellis Island. Once they left Ellis Island, they were on their own. There were no social programs to take care of them. They scrambled, made do and they built the greatest country in the history of man.

It’s important for all of you to know that I am a very ordinary person of average intelligence and all of my success has come from surrounding myself with people who are far more intelligent than I am, and they have carried me from victory to victory to victory. One good example is Mort Meyerson. He’s the great creative builder of EDS. His grandfather had to flee Russia because he was Jewish. After leaving Ellis Island, he lived in an attic in New York for two years to save enough money to buy a train ticket to Fort Worth. He moved to Fort Worth, married, raised a great son, Mort’s dad. If you could meet Mort’s mother and father, you would see why he’s creative and successful. When he became president of EDS, Mort made sure his grandfather was present at the announcement. After we had formally announced it, his 95-year-old grandfather ran down, he literally ran down at 95, hugged Mort and said these words that I will never forget: “Through you I have realized the dream I had as a young man when I came to America.” Now isn’t that what this great country is all about?

Think of the pioneers who headed West in covered wagons. Where did they eat? There were no McDonald’s restaurants. At the end of the day, they hunted for food. Some found food, others did not find food and guess what? Those who found food shared it with those who did not. Now that’s a great country.

Well, surely there was a network of Holiday Inns across the country for these people to stop at night and have a good night’s sleep. They circled the wagons, slept on the ground and they took turns standing guard protecting one another. No wonder we’re such a great nation. It’s built on solid ground.

Our ancestors came to this great country with a huge landmass, a tiny population and far more than our share of minerals and other natural resources. In the old days, our ancestors would move into an area, creatively strip it of its natural resources and the word would get out, “Go West, young man, go West.” We’ve got over 260 million people in this country. We’ve populated it from coast to coast. We cannot leave our problems behind. We have to solve them where we are and we’re not. But you and I, millions of us together will, right?

The pilgrims, the pioneers and those who survived the Depression were proud, independent people who took care of themselves and looked after one another. They were hunters, they were survivors. History teaches us that when you take these skills away from people by looking after them, you destroy those skills, but more important, you destroy their self-respect, their pride and their dignity, and you also do that when you take a good person’s job away from them and send it over to Asia at 25 cents an hour.

If you want an example nobody can argue with, let’s take the American Indian. Look at what the Indians accomplished before we put them on the reservation and look at the damage we did to these great people by taking care of people who had been proud, independent hunters, warriors, survivors and empire builders.

As you think about the future of our great country with all the facts that you have in your head, and we are dedicated to getting into the heads of every single American before November, I’d like for you to consider these words written by Alexander Tytler in 1787, he said a democracy can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always will vote for candidates who promise the people benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy.

Does that seem familiar to you here? Okay. But here’s the most telling thing he said. He said the average age of a democracy is 200 years. George Washington, our first president, was sworn in 207 years ago. The clock is ticking. You are the minuteman. You’ve got to stop plowing and pick up and get organized and vote in November to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The future of our country rests in our hands. We have to decide who we are. Are we a proud, free independent people? Or in the words of the song, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” are we little sheep who are lost in the woods, but would be good if we had someone to watch over us? We are a proud, free, independent people. Shouldn’t we go back to the principles this great country was founded on that we take care of ourselves? And then, then we go out and take care of people who can’t take care of themselves and need our help, right?

Now, we have big government taking care of us. Isn’t that wonderful? But, do they do a very good job?

We haven’t figured out that big government doesn’t have any money to take care of us until we send taxes to Washington where the special interests who pay for their Hollywood-style political campaigns to manipulate our votes then decide how our money will be spent and that’s the reason you’re not getting your dollar’s worth out of that routine. Right now we’ve created a government where we have more lawyers inside the Beltway in Washington than they have in all of Japan. And lobbying is now an $8.4 billion-a-year industry and that’s bigger than the annual budgets of 57 nations. Are you getting any benefit from that? No.

You bought the ticket. You didn’t get the results. In 1995, the elected leaders from both of the parties publicly shook hands on National Television and agreed to form a task force on campaign financial reform and lobbying. Remember that? God bless them. They were going to hit the line and do it because they knew they had to do it to get your votes. The bad news is they never did it. They just shook hands.

Where I come from, a handshake was worth more than a written contract is today. A handshake at that level ought to be worth something. After sending us that feel-good message they went out and spent the year raising money for 1996 from the special interests. And as we sit here tonight, there’s a big party at the Waldorf Astoria. I know the room. It may hold 800 people. And I heard over television today they’re going to raise $8 million. I’ll let you figure out what they’re charging per plate for that.

Isn’t this a compelling argument that the people who own this country should have their own political party with no special interests controlling it?

Now, we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to face problems and solve them and step one is to identify the problems. Let’s review them to see what we have to do to pass on a better, stronger country to children in the 21st century and make it the greatest in our country’s history. Our country’s major problems are caused by huge social programs that were never designed to work properly and have generated major cost overruns. These major cost overruns have created massive debt. In addition, we have seriously damaged our job base with poorly negotiated trade agreements and that has caused our tax base to deteriorate. It all fits together like pieces in a puzzle.

Today, the two political parties have created the number one growth industry and I want to give them full credit for that. The U.S. government makes our other major industries look insignificant. People are saying what product do they make, Ross? They don’t make one. Well, then, where do they get the money for this great new industry? From you. Well, how do the customers feel about this giant new industry? Only 19 percent of the American people trust this giant new industry. That’s how they feel. .

Okay. But now look, we’ve got this huge thing going. Does it make a profit? No. Does it lose money? Yes. How much money does it have in the bank? None. Does it have any debt? Yes. And you know it’s five trillion dollars, right?

Well, as business people out there working hard all day trying to make a living you say, well, how does it avoid going bankrupt? Let’s look on page 18 of the President’s 1997 budget, and here is the record. We have assets of 2.3 trillion dollars. We have liabilities of $5.2 trillion dollars. We have a negative net worth in the federal government of $2.9 trillion. And guess who’s going to have to pick up all of that? We are. See, you’re the only source of money.

Well, but they left something out. They left out $17 trillion worth of guarantees. So that negative worth is almost $20 trillion.

So that’s where we are today. Now, do you get this kind of straight talk from the other political parties? Would you rather hear this kind of talk from me, or do you want me to get tears in my eyes leaning over the audience and saying “I feel your pain?”

Do you want a president who led the fight to get GATT and NAFTA passed and then stood up in public on national television and said he was against both of them last week? Remember that one, don’t you?

Remember that song -- We had a movie a few years ago with Dolly Parton in it, “The Best Little ‘You know What’ in Texas?” The sheriff had this song, “Ooh, I love to do the little side step. Now you see me, now you don’t and here I go.” Keep that in mind when you watch these guys.

Can we count on the two political parties? Can we count on the two political parties to solve these problems? They are the problem, right?

Now, if you got a friend that’s drinking too much, the first thing he’s got to do is admit it right? They won’t admit we have a problem and they cannot come up with real solutions. Instead of giving you advice, they hire professional speech writers and seek help from Hollywood’s finest to manipulate you into casting an emotional vote and boy, has it been working. We’re going to get the facts out to the American people, and we’re going to kill that little snake this time, right?

Well, wait a minute. Surely the President’s huge tax increase in 1993 will balance the budget and we’ll live happily ever after. No. Look at this slide and you will see that it’s a little trick. The deficit kind of floats in there until the year 2000. That’s two terms in the White House, and then it takes off like a rocket. Ross, where did you get those numbers? Those are official government numbers.

Next let’s go to page 25 – if you’re still not convinced we have to act – in the President’s 1995 budget. You will find that he predicts the next generation to be born, a little baby born tonight, your children and grandchildren, will pay an 82 percent tax rate. That is the end of the American Dream. It’s now up to 84 percent. You don’t give the people negative information, so you quit printing it in the budget.

Now, can we agree if nothing else will motivate you on a bad day, that will. Are we going to pass this burden onto our children and grandchildren? The Office of Management and Budget forecasts after the big tax increase that the national debt in the year 2020 will be increasing at the rate every year of $1.4 trillion. It’s just five trillion now. It will be going up $1.4 trillion. You say what about in 2030? By then it will be going up to $4.1 trillion a year, or 4/5 of the entire debt today.

Has all this debt benefited the people? We should be in Utopia, right? The standard of living is down for 4 out of 5 Americans. Many workers who were making $440 a week are now making $270 a week if they have a job. After taxes, two paychecks today with a man and a wife both working to give the children a middle class life are worth about the purchasing power of a single paycheck 25 years ago. Conclusion: Over the last 35 years, we tried big government. It didn’t work. We can’t keep on this routine. The two parties you say who gave us this five trillion dollar debt? Neither party takes responsibility but there was nobody else there.

Okay. Do you remember in the Presidential debate in 1992 they were saying I didn’t have any experience. I said, you’re right. I don’t have any experience running up a $5 trillion debt, and I don’t want to. How big is $5 trillion? Nobody can relate to it. Here’s a way you figure it out. We don’t have five trillion dollars of currency in print, and I think if you took all the money in existence to go pay the debt, you wouldn’t have five trillion dollar. That let’s us know that’s too much debt. Now that is nothing compared to what will happen in the 21st century if we don’t stop the bleeding now. Let’s get a tourniquet and stop the bleeding in November 1996. If you don’t the debt will climb to $7 trillion by the year 2000 so we have to.

Now why did the two parties let this happen? How does our government finance this debt? Seventy percent of our debt is financed short-term. It’s like having your house payment month-to-month. The purpose is to create the illusion of short-term deficits, but when interest rates start going up again, we’ve seen short-term as high as 16 percent a year in our lifetime. The deficit will increase at the rate of $35 billion a year. We can’t let that happen.

If this is the instrument panel of a fighter airplane, you’d eject at this point. But you can’t eject because this is our home. This is the greatest country in the world. We’ve got to pick up a hammer and start repairing the roof.

If I haven’t gotten your attention yet, last year we paid $233 billion in interest. Everybody west of the Mississippi River’s taxes are used to pay interest on the debt. How would you like to live in California and hear that? The good news is yours is still working on problems, but when you look at that map, you can see that line is moving east. They’ll get you pretty soon with that. Why did the parties let this happen? I don’t know.

We all know about the budget deficit but we’ve got two deficits. We never talk about the other one because the special interests demanded it in return for their campaign money, and the boys in Washington delivered it, and that is the trade deficit.

U.S. merchandise trade deficit last year was $174 billion. That’s the largest of any nation in the history of man. In 1950, 90 percent of the goods sold in this country were made in the USA. Today less than 50 percent of the goods sold in this country are made in the USA. Two million manufacturing jobs have gone to Asia. 500,000 jobs have gone to Mexico. In any event, NAFTA was supposed to be a money-maker, right? No wonder the guys who voted for it are now telling you they’re against it. Cumulative NAFTA deficit is $52 billion and growing like a weed. Did NAFTA cause a giant sucking sound? Okay.

Do you remember how we were ridiculed and derided? Somebody said I’d rather be right than president. In this situation, we’ve got to be right and president to clean out this mess. Thanks you.

Now, you add up our cumulative trade deficits for the last ten years, it exceeds a trillion dollars. Study what all the economists say. We can’t exist with that. We’re the biggest market in the world for goods and services. Everybody wants to sell to us. Europe doesn’t make dumb trade deals with Japan. We’re the only industrialized nation in the world with China. We better find somebody who knows how to horse trade. Don’t you think? God bless my Dad. He taught me this as a boy. Thank you.

Okay. Now, since this is just exploding our job base and tax base which would give us the ability to balance our budget and pay our debts, why did both parties, and I mean they were bound at the hip on this one, pass these stupid trade deals? I’m for fair free trade. I’m against stupid trade. This is stupid trade.

You know the answer, and I want to make sure all the American people know the answer. The special interests who paid for their campaigns and all that glitz you saw last week, and you’ll see next week. Our conventions cost about $800,000 together. They spent over thirty million on theirs. I think ours are better than theirs.

Don’t you think if we had that kind of plain thinking in Washington. I remember in ‘92 they spent 20, 30 million dollars apiece. We spent a million and a half getting petitions signed. I think we made the point that we’re more cost effective than they are.

Now, everywhere I go, people ask me, “Ross, what’s the problem with Medicare and Medicaid?” In 1965, when we created Medicare, the spending forecast for 1990 was $9 billion. The actual spending was $98 billion. The reason it’s in trouble, they never designed it to work.

Now, let’s go to Medicaid. Massive legislation, massive funding failure — you wouldn’t make a screwdriver that way. Medicare and Medicaid are more complex than putting a man on the moon. In the 1960’s when Medicaid was created, they told the taxpayers in 1990 it won’t cost more than a billion dollars. It cost $41 billion.

The annual cost of Medicare and Medicaid today is $250 billion a year. The two parties let this happen. Why? And they let it keep on happening. The special interests who fund their campaigns are making huge amounts of money at your expense. We’ll stop them.

I encourage you to read a book we published on this subject. The title of the book is Intensive Care, We Must Save Medicare and Medicaid Now. The devil is in the details and the details are in the book. Our government forecast the cost of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security in the year 2030 will be $3.9 trillion. That’s more than twice as much money than we spend each year to operate our whole country today. Once you see something like that coming, you stop it quick. And we will after ‘96.

What’s the problem with Social Security? Everybody thinks it’s a pension fund. It’s pay-as-you-go. It comes in this week and goes out next week to retired people. You say, then how did it ever work? In 1945, we had 42 people that worked for every person retired. By 1950, that number dropped to 16 people that worked for every person retired. We raised rates, expanded benefits, kept on working.

Today, we only have 3.3 people at work for every person retired and we’re headed to two people at work for every person retired in the year 2020. We must transition Social Security from a pay-as-you-go fund to a true pension fund. Nobody in the Reform Party would ever tolerate taking Social Security away from retired people. Let me make that point.

But the sooner we start the transition, the better we’ll be. The most unselfish people in this country are the retired people. They are our heroes. They survived the Depression. They fought in World War I, World War II and Korea, and on and on and on and they are our heroes. We rejoice they’re living longer. I hope they live forever.

But, if you really care about other people, then you put together plans that will work for those people, right? And you don’t sit there with tears in your eyes and say, I’ll protect Social Security as you know it. You can’t sit through your term, because that won’t work over the long term. Why didn’t they face this issue? They think it will cost them votes. I’d rather lose the election than lie about Social Security.

Somebody was giving one of the candidates a hard time about he never kept his promises, and his right-hand man came on television and says he keeps the promises he intends to keep. I pledge to you, any promise we make is a promise we will fight, bleed and do whatever else it takes to keep it to the American people.

Now, down to more things. There’s a new book out on Social Security written by Pete Peterson. I urge you to read it to get the facts. It’s called Will We Grow Up or Grow Older? Get those facts. The book will be out in three or four weeks. It’s terrific. I’ve had a chance to read it. The details are there.

Now, all the political experts across the country watching this program will be shocked and are shocked already that I’m talking about real problems and the fact that we have to face them and solve them in an acceptance speech. This is supposed to be Morning in America. You’re supposed to leave feeling giddy and good because I give you good news all night. We’re about getting the facts, taking action, producing results.

I want you all to know the only reason I do this and the only reason I asked my family to go through all this unpleasantness — Unfortunately that goes with politics — is that I am absolutely devoted to solving these problems. We’ve got a new book out, called The Dollar Crisis. Senator Paul Simon and I wrote it. It’s got a lot of detail about these issues we’ve been talking about. I hope you’ll read it. Get the facts.

We must have a new tax system. We know that. The first step in solving any problem is to define the problem.

Watch my lips, Washington, if you want to solve a problem, carefully, thoughtfully and rationally, define it. One of the things to do is look at history. You aren’t going to believe this one. Before our nation was formed, the total cost to run our government was 67 cents per person a year. Then, after our nation was formed, it went up to a dollar a year. Then 120 years later, in 1910, it was up to $6.75 per person a year. Now, we’re getting to be a pretty big nation.

Then, when we passed the income tax amendment in 1913 and 16 years later it had gone from $6.65 to $29 a person a year. Now, strap on your seat belt and don’t eject. Today, it’s $5,700 per year per person.

I hope I’ve made the point. When you’ve got a tax law that Congress can raise at will, see, it’s the percent that’s killing you, right? Forty percent of your paycheck now goes to taxes. Back in 1910, it was ten percent. Now — we know we’re not getting our money’s worth. Today, we pay more in taxes to our nation than we pay for food, clothing and shelter combined.

The new tax system has got to be fair, paperless and raise the necessary revenue. I will not run up and down the streets of America promising you hope, opportunity and growth, flat tax, flat tax, flat tax. If that is the best tax, that’s the one we’ll do. We’re going to look at all of them carefully, thoughtfully, and rationally. We’re going to use the computer as our wind tunnel. We’ll mail it, give it to you and move on to the next problem.

I am sick and tired of having a government where the benefits of our congressmen and the retirement plans of our congressmen and the people in the White House are better than those of the ordinary American citizen. They are your servants. Now, if you want them to feel your pain, let them have retirement and health insurance like yours, right?

Now, here on taxes, and this is my favorite. Any new tax program, whatever it is, must have a provision that Congress cannot raise taxes without putting it on the ballot in the next federal election and having the voters approve it. Now, imagine asking the voters to approve a tax increase. A third of the Senate is running , the entire house is running, the President is running. They won’t bring it up unless they need it and if they really need it, they will make the sacrifice. Now we have disciplined spending. Now, we put the cork in the bottle, right?

Everybody gets upset in Washington about that. If I’m going broke in business, I can’t force my stockholders to give me more money. Just because you mismanage our economy, why should you be able to force us to pay you more money? Why in a free society that has a government with an unbroken record of undisciplined spending, should the owners of the country — the people — not make the final decision to pay more taxes? They should.

As we approach the 1996 election, they’ve proposed solving these financial problems with a big tax cut. Since we cannot pay our bills, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to have a big spending cut first? You come to me and say, “Ross, I’m hopelessly in debt. I can’t pay my bills. Can you give me some good advice?” If I were the guys who proposed the tax cut idea, I’d look at you and smile and say, “God bless you, have them but your salary.” You would say, “Ross, I can’t pay my bills with my current salary. If I cut my salary, how can I pay my bills?” I’d say, “Let’s change the subject,” right?

Now, we have tried this supply-side economics in the eighties. It gave us the biggest increase in the deficit we’ve ever had. Even the people in the party that created it called it “Voodoo Economics.” I said in 1992, “If we ever do this again, we’ll be in deep voodoo.” And there we are.

I’ve got to talk to you about our public schools. It’s brain and wits time. As we approach the 21st century, we’ve got to have the greatest schools in the world. The creative and intellectual abilities of the American people will determine our future. In order to have a growing, expanding job base and a growing, expanding tax base and growing, expanding middle class, we have to have the world’s best educated workforce, period. This is the greatest legacy we can leave our children. No question, the greatest legacy we can leave our children.

In 1960 we had the finest schools in the world. Then the government took over, and 36 years after overspending $456 billion of federal money, our public schools rank at the bottom of the industrialized world. What happened? The federal government, run by the two political parties, got involved. Again, step one is to define the problem.

We have the largest number of functional illiterates in the industrialized world. At the 12th grade level, I’m sad to report 66 percent can’t meet the reading and writing standards, 73 percent can’t meet the geography standards, 84 percent can’t meet the mathematics standards and 89 percent can’t meet the history standards.

The major discipline problems in our schools in the 1940s were talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, getting out of line, wearing improper clothing and not putting paper in the waste basket. I can live with those, right? Here are our major discipline problems today: children carrying guns to school, drug abuse, suicide, pregnancy, rape, robbery and assault. Isn’t that sad?

Learning cannot occur in that environment. More importantly, why do parents allow their children to act this way? In a free society, isn’t it our job as parents to teach our children to behave and keep our children under control? When I was bad in school, what they did to me there wasn’t nearly as significant as what they did when I got home. My parents never read me my Miranda rights.

If we want our children to be competitive, we’ve got to have the finest schools in the world. It’s that simple. This will have to come from us, the people. We’ve got to restore local control over the schools. The schools must again become places of learning, not of play. We have to create small neighborhood schools near the child’s home, especially in the primary grades. We have to put greater emphasis on teachers. Today, we get preoccupied with building fancy buildings. We will not have great schools without extensive parental control and involvement. This is an overwhelming argument for having the school near the home.

We now know a great deal about how a child’s brain develops. The political experts are saying, “He’s not going to talk about how a child’s brain develops.” Yes, I am because that will drive what the school should be. It should be a major force in planning our schools. This is the kind of thinking we bring to Washington. The human brain develops billions of cells before a baby is born. Each cell has its own circuits. When a baby comes into the world, the brain is a jumble of disconnected circuits waiting to be connected. Some of these circuits are connected to allow the hear to beat and the baby to breathe, so on and so forth. A thousand trillion circuits literally unwired. That’s the only number I’ve ever seen that’s bigger than the national debt.

The love and attention a small child receives determines whether or not a child will tap his or her potential capacity. I can’t tell you how important it is to love them and hug them. My biggest concern would be that my grandchildren wouldn’t be able to walk. Nobody puts them down. Having read this I’m thrilled. Babies either learn how to learn, or fail to learn how to learn by the time they’re three. If you blindfold a baby for six months, the baby will be blind for life. The circuits can’t be wired.

In a baby six months old, the brain weighs 50 percent of what it will weigh as an adult even though the body weight is 20 percent. Then the brain grows quickly by the time the child is a few years old to half of his adult life. When a child is six years old, the brain has grown to 90 percent of its adult life and begins to shut down the unused circuits. Isn’t it a paradox that’s when we start school? After the circuits are shutting down? These circuits that represent sounds that form words are wired by the age of one year. A child learns to think well or poorly of himself by the time he’s 18 months, learns or fails how to learn by the time he’s three. The words the child hears before the child is 2 impact the total capacity of the child’s vocabulary.

Isn’t this fascinating? Math and logic take place from birth to four years. The learning window for music is three to ten years. With this knowledge, it’s obvious that traditional concepts regarding public education must be radically altered and please listen carefully to this particularly for disadvantaged children who don’t get all that early attention.

We can, we will and we must solve these problems. That’s the reason I want to be your president. I didn’t know it, but I’ve been preparing to do this for 40 years. I grew up having to manage money carefully. I grew up being taught not to waste money, pay cash for everything and keep money in the bank. I was fortunate enough to be put into an industry where I had to learn to design, engineer and make work very complex systems and make them work in a cost-effective manner. Isn’t this what our problem is ?

The only reason I’m here tonight is I want to solve those problems for the great people in this country. Thank you. Ordinary people in this country are capable of extraordinary achievements. you know that and I do. There’s nothing we can’t do. Keep in mind, it’s going to be tough for the next few months, but the same blow that shatters glass, hardens steel. You’ve been here, you’ve been through the fight and you are hard as steel, and boy, am I proud of you.

The other parties, have a fortune to spend from now on. They have almost a hundred million dollars under the federal election laws. We only get $29 million. I’ve got to go to the people in this country and ask for their support. I particularly go to the people who own the six billion small businesses and the 80 million people who work for them and ask them to send in small contributions. If this is worth fighting, you will have to contribute so we can get a semi-level playing field, so we can compete from now to November. If you want to send in a contribution, just send it to Perot ‘96, Post Office Box 96, Dallas, Texas. You don’t even have to write that down, right?

As we work together, I ask all of you to remember it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. The shadows will fall behind you if you walk into the light. All of the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of one little candle. Millions of good, decent people like you must light these candles that will lead us to victory and the light in 1996. You are the wind beneath the Reform party’s wings. It will be nothing without you. As we march forward together, we will lead the Spirit of ‘76 in ‘96, and in the middle of the effort, when things get tougher and tougher, and they will, just remember this: a bell is no bell until you ring it. Think of the Liberty Bell. And a song is no song until you sing it. Think of the Star Spangled Banner. Love in your heart isn’t put there to stay. Think of your children and grandchildren. Love isn’t love until you give it away. Think of the millions of people you can help. God bless you all. Thank you very much. Privilege to be with you. Thank you. Pleased to be with you.

My whole family, come on up now, thank you. This is my real wealth, forget the money. Thank you.

Wait just a minute. I’ve got good news. Guess who won the preliminaries at the Olympics this afternoon. Tony Volpentest won first place in the preliminaries in 11.66 seconds. The current world record was 11.67. He broke the record tonight. Tomorrow he goes for the gold. God bless you, Tony.

Now, did I marry well over my head?

I will leave with this story. I feel exactly like the poor lady who was walking down the street and a rich lady came up to her. The poor lady had her little children in each hand and the rich lady said, “Madam, where are your pearls?” The poor lady looked down at her children, drew herself up proudly, pointed to her children and said, “These are my pearls. These are my greatest riches.” Thank you very much.

I’ve got to run to go get on Larry King. Good to be with you! Steve Forbes 1996 Steve Forbes 1996 September 22, 1995










"A New Conservative Vision"
National Press Club
September 22, 1995
Steve Forbes' Presidential Announcement
It's no secret. I am here today to announce that I am running for President of the United States."

This is, to say the least, an unusual candidacy, and I expect there are a few skeptics in the room.

But, I am throwing my hat into the ring today in full confidence that this campaign for President can and will succeed.

For the last two decades I have been working in one of the most entrepreneurial sectors of American life, magazine publishing. And as any entrepreneur will tell you, the really big changes, the quantum leaps, are made by those who take risks and challenge the conventional wisdom, who do something new and unexpected.

This campaign will talk a lot about what entrepreneurship and the new economy mean to all Americans. I'll be taking a lot of risks -- saying what no other candidate is willing to, or dares. I'll be living what I'm preaching.

Usually candidates come to a race like this after years in either state or federal government. In the past, that may have been a good thing for the country. But no longer. Not today.

I am running because I believe this nation needs someone in the White House who can break the old patterns, someone who can unlock the stranglehold that the political class has on American life. An outsider who knows first hand, as I do, the promise of the new economy, who sees how government is dragging down all Americans and is determined to change it.

I am running because I believe the American people share the same desire for an end of politics as usual. I believe that they share the same vision of an unshackled future-- a future that embraces all the wonderful opportunities in the new economy.

I think a lot of people would agree, there is an empty feeling in this campaign so far. One reason is that none of the other candidates is raising high the banner of economic expansion and opportunity -- like John F. Kennedy did with his promise to "get this country moving again," and like Ronald Reagan did when he cut taxes and regulation and ushered in the longest peacetime expansion in American history.

But there are other reasons for the empty feeling. The fact is, the other candidates, on both sides, are insiders. And we all know that if the insiders had the answers, they would have implemented them by now.

That has been my life.

As so I am not an incrementalist...not a cautious suggester of cautious changes... not a compromiser with the bully state.

I reject the grim notion of the Washington Politicians that America must learn to make do with less -- that the American people have spent too much and now the American people must pay, that the wagon is heavy and crowded and now is the time to start throwing people off. And I reject the equally grim notion that the American people must constantly pay in taxes for the mistakes the politicians make in Washington -- such as a deficit, which despite years of bluster and two of the largest tax hikes in history --continues to grow.

I see a different reality, an America of vast potential -- greater than anything that has ever been seen before -- waiting to be released. I see an American economy that is the most innovative and productive and technologically advanced in the world -- hamstrung by high taxes and counter-productive regulations.

We are like the greatest marathon runner in the world, but we're trying to compete with two 50-pound cinder blocks chained to our legs. It's time to remove the dead weight of Washington, and let the American economy run free.

It's true that we're already changing.

In the election 1994, the people of America voted resoundingly and decisively against -- against higher taxes, against bigger government, against more intrusive rules and regulations, against assaults on family life, against socialized medicine, against the old way of doing things. And they voted against Bill Clinton, against his ideology and soft ambivalence, against his weak and aimless foreign policy

But in 1996 we can vote for. For a new way of doing things, a new Washington -- for a new America full of energy and dynamism and ready to lead the world.

I believe in my heart that the American family is the soul of this nation, and that if the political class would stop interfering we could build a family-friendly America.

I believe that the time-honored American values of hope, opportunity, family, faith and community are the moral bedrock of our nation -- and every action by Washington should be judged by one and only one criterion -- does it help or hurt those values.

Does it create stronger communities, stronger families? Does it create more opportunity, greater security, greater faith in the future?

The career politicians here in Washington, unaware of the fantastic growth waiting to burst forth in our economy, spend their time dividing up an ever shrinking pie. They take from one group in order to dole out favors to others, undermining our trust in the basic fairness of the American system and causing division, envy and bitterness. In order to get their way, they libel the good American people with accusations of racism, sexism and selfishness. And then they wonder why politics has turned into such a nasty business.

And they do this all in the guise of compassion. It reminds me of that old saying that the ten most frightening words in the English language are: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you."

America needs to take a new road, one toward an expansive future that is bigger and better than our past. That's why I'm proposing today, and will be talking about throughout my campaign, a liberation movement to take power away from Washington and put it in the hands of the people. A "Boston Tea Party," if you will, that puts an end to the taxing and spending party in Washington, DC. I mean to free the mighty American economy from political repression.

The first element is dramatic pro-growth tax cuts.

I'm not talking "revenue neutral" fiddling with the tax code, the usual game in Washington that pretends to cut some taxes while raising others. And I'm not talking about fiddling around the "margins," cutting taxes that only help the well-to-do.

I am talking about across the board tax cuts that are deep and wide and permanent, that reach down to all Americans and get the suffocating weight of the IRS off their backs.

Start by scrapping the tax code. Don't fiddle with it. Junk it. Throw it out. Bury it. Replace it with a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17 percent across the board and expands exemptions for individuals and children so that a family of four would pay no taxes on the first $36,000 of income.

Not one cent to the IRS on the first $36,000. Anything over that would be taxed at a flat, fair 17 percent.

The flat tax would be simple. You could fill it out on a postcard. It would be honest. It would eliminate the principal source of political corruption in Washington. It would be fair. Millions of people would be off the federal income tax rolls.

There would be no tax on Social Security. No tax on pensions. No tax on personal savings. It would zero out capital gains taxes. It would set off a boom by letting people keep more of what they earn and by lowering barriers to risk taking.

I will underline here this distinction between my proposal and those floated by other candidates in this political season:

I am straight forwardly calling for a tax cut to expand the economy and make everyone better off.

The old-style Washington politicians hide behind the deficit -- they give us shell games rather than tax cuts because their one principle is never, ever take money from Washington. As we all know, the deficit was the prime rationale for the last two tax hikes -- two of the largest tax hikes in American history -- which put the country on a down-ward spiral, destroying growth and -- guess what -- expanding the deficit.

I am proposing real tax cuts because I believe that growth is the key that will unlock the deficit prison.

Will I cut the budget? You bet. Commerce, Energy, Education, HUD, will be stripped of all but their essential functions. A whole alphabet soup of agencies will be eliminated. But cutting alone won't solve our problems.

The fact is, I don't just want less government -- I want better government. The way it is now, good men and good women come to Washington and get caught in a culture of corruption. They enter a place whose rules and realities almost force them to put their own interests before the country's. And they wind up becoming the very people they come here to fight.

I want to change the culture of Washington by changing the rules of the game. And to change the rules of the game, you have to do two things: You have to take away the politicians' power to manipulate the tax code, to trade tax loopholes for re-election money. And you have to limit their terms.

Do those things, and you change the dynamic completely. Do those things and you'll change Washington forever. Do those things, and the people will get their government back again.

And as President, the 17 percent flat tax will be only the beginning. I will continue to cut taxes from the bottom up, expanding family exemptions dollar for dollar for every cut in the budget. That will make it dramatic for all America to see -- that every dollar Congress chooses to spend on a pet project is coming right out of America's families pockets.

So I want not only a flat tax, but a flat tax that is a tax cut. And let me caution my party that we must beware the 'ER' candidates -- those who put the letters 'er' at the end of every word, like "I want a tax that's flatter, fairer, simpler." The 'ER' candidates will end up putting our country in the Emergency Room.

Another pillar of a family-friendly policy is sound money. That is, low mortgage rates.

The house your parents or grandparents bought in the 1950's or '60s was probably bought with a 4 1/2 percent mortgage. But in the mid-1960s, the Washington politicians took control of our money and started manipulating it for their own ends. They sat here in Washington, pushed their levers and buttons, and turned the everyday economic reality from "Ozzie and Harriet" to "Nightmare on Elm Street."

The legacy of their power grab is the historically high interest rates that make families today slaves to their mortgages. High taxes and high mortgage rates have put families on a treadmill, and the treadmill is winning. This is why two family incomes today don't seem to do the job that one did in times past.

The answer: We must take our money out of the hands of the politicians. We can bring back 4 and 1/2 percent mortgages, lower interest rates, and give the economy a boost. As we did throughout our nation's history until the late 60's, we must tie the value of the dollar to a fixed measure, such as gold, so that a dollar today will be worth a dollar tomorrow.

Imagine what it would be like if you woke up tomorrow morning with a 17% flat tax that exempted the first $36,000 of income and a fixed long term mortgage of 4 1/2 percent. Imagine what that would do for family life.

We would see a renaissance the likes of which has never been seen before. Families could step off the tax treadmill; wage earners could relax a little, save more easily; parents would have more time to spend with their children and with each other; they would have more time to devote where it belongs -- to the home and hearth, where all true value lies.

It is only by restoring wholeness to our nation's families that wholeness will be returned to our nation.

It is only by a serious commitment to family values -- not just of rhetoric, but of resources -- that the moral and spiritual decline that so troubles us today will be arrested.

The family is the irreducible foundation of any civil, just and humane society and cannot be replaced -- and the liberal, ideological attempts to do so have disastrously ripped our social fabric.

Everyone talks about values -- this is a campaign after all -- but let me tell you how I see the values issue.

Values mean returning to the inspiration of our forefathers that all of us are created equal.

Values mean respecting parents enough to return control of the schools to them. That means giving parents the means to educate their children in the school of their choice.

Values mean having a government that keeps its promises, like on Social Security and like working on a plan to provide for younger workers who now know they will get nothing.

Values mean giving opportunity to all people by removing the red tape and taxes that suffocate our cities.

Values mean welfare programs that help people rather than destroy them.

Values mean real prison sentences for violent crimes.

Values also mean refinding our moral compass in this world as a leader and light among nations, a bastion of freedom, as strong as we are restrained. We need a President who has a U.S., not a U.N. foreign policy, one who understands that the wise and judicious use of American power is now, and has been, the best hope of the world. This world is still a dangerous place; peace through strength must still be our watchword.

At their most fundamental, I truly believe that values and economics are not separate issues -- they are the same issue. A flat tax will restore honesty to the tax code and give the people back their government. In such an atmosphere -- so different from the one we have now -- traditional American values will flourish. Thrift, hard work, and charity; individual responsibility and working towards shared goals; commitment to family and community; faith in the future. These will describe not just the America we want but the America we actually have.

Let us sew up our nation's tattered social fabric. Let's bind up the wounds caused by three decades of mistaken social policy that has undermined America's families. Let us alleviate the anxieties of parents, and broaden the future for our children; bring harmony and hope back to our lives, and return to the truths that have guided this country so well for so long.

The election before us is not just any election. We stand at the threshold of a new era of possibility. The next President's term will end on the cusp of a new century.

A new century that demands new thinking, new perspectives, the imagination and creativity of all the American people.

I am an optimist.

But I am well aware of the pitfalls of a national campaign. You don't give up the security and freedom of private life to go into the meatgrinder of presidential politics in the modern age, unless you have a serious purpose.

I have one. I intend to offer the American People something they haven't been offered so far: a vision and a voice, a true vision and an honest voice.

For the other candidates talk about a flat tax -- but I mean it, and I'll do it. They talk about term limits -- but I mean it, and I'll do it. They don't even dream about making our currency sound and stable, and never mind talking about it. But I'll talk about it, and I mean it, and I'll do it. The other candidates talk about changing the culture of Washington. But they are the culture of Washington.

I'm the one who will change Washington. Because I'm the one who means it.

We must re-discover and revitalize the American experiment, the essence of which is giving individuals the opportunity to discover and develop their God-given talents. In America, extraordinary deeds are done when seemingly ordinary people are allowed and encouraged to take responsibility for themselves, for their families and for their communities.

If the American experiment is renewed and re-energized, we will astound ourselves and the world with our opportunities and our achievements. The people of the world will ask themselves and their governments, "If America can do it, why can't we?" By following our example and our principles, they will.

And I'll leave you with a final thought. Fifteen years ago, in 1980, the candidacy of a man named Ronald Reagan was considered right here, at this great Press Club. And his prospects seemed so bad that when you listed candidates and their support, he got an asterisk. That's pretty much where I'm starting. But, like Reagan, that's not where I intend to finish.

I thank you all very much. And now, if you have any questions.

Source: Steve Forbes for President Official 1996 Web Site Pete Wilson 1996 Pete Wilson 1996 August 25, 1995 Morry Taylor 1996 Morry Taylor 1996 June 17, 1995 Dick Lugar 1996 Dick Lugar 1996 April 19, 1995










Senator Richard Lugar's Announcement Speech
Presidential Announcement, April 19, 1995

Twenty-eight years ago, I came to you, my friends and neighbors in my home town, to say that I would like to serve as your mayor to unite the real city of Indianapolis, and to forge a new standard of excellence that would inspire a nation whose cities were in crisis.

Today, surrounded by so many achievements of great Hoosiers who shared our vision and built to fulfill those dreams, I come to you with a new vision for our country.

I come to declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States.

As President of the United States, I will establish a new foundation for American optimism and strength. Together, we will exercise and enjoy the American Advantage. That advantage is our unique ability to build a new economic future for ourselves and our families; to assert strong and creative American leadership in the world; and to reinvigorate our traditional values of religious faith, of family, honesty, and integrity.

Americans want a leader they can trust.

The essence of presidential leadership is to make important changes in our country without dividing our country. Our nation remains a place of hope, freedom, and opportunity. American prosperity requires that America be secure. To achieve this, we must again have a President who understands and knows how to deal with the world around us; a President who can and will act decisively to use American power and influence to ensure America's safety well into the new century.

American prosperity and security, if they are to last and have meaning, require American spiritual renewal. We must rediscover and recommit to the values of faith and family, of integrity and personal responsibility. We must teach these to our children by what we say and by how we act.

The President must lead the way, by his own words, by his own commitment, and his own example.

These are the things we must do. These are the reasons I run.

These changes will never happen under President Clinton. These changes will happen under President Lugar.

Let me be just as candid about frequent comments on my candidacy. The conventional wisdom of generous columnists seems to be that Dick Lugar would be a good President. That he is intelligent, has broad experience, exercises courage and prudence appropriately. But that such a person is rarely nominated or elected.

A part of the conventional wisdom I gratefully receive. The conclusion, however, is a severe miscalculation of the wisdom of the American people. At bottom, it says that Americans will not elect the person they find best qualified for the Presidency.

I absolutely disagree. If I didn't, I wouldn't be running.

My candidacy is grounded on faith that Americans care deeply about their country. Faith that Americans know that the Presidency is not entertainment.

Faith that Americans are not only willing but eager to support a Presidential candidate who offers straight talk and serious action on the issues that affect their lives and their children's futures.

And that is exactly what I am going to do.

Under Republican leadership, the nation is rediscovering the vision that inspired the Founders. The vision of a free and independent people, with a Government carefully limited in its size and scope and in its power to control our lives.

As the standard bearer of my party, I will be committed to renewing this vision.

With the election of Republican majorities in the House and Senate, we have glimpsed it. Now we must secure it.

We must understand that the 1994 elections were not the "Republican Revolution" -- any more than the Declaration of Independence and the skirmishes at Concord and Lexington were "Revolutions."

Revolutions are hard fought and harder won. What lies ahead are Trenton on Christmas morn, and the snows at Valley Forge, and finally Yorktown.

The rhetoric of revolution need be hot; the first skirmishes must be won.

But now the Nation must be rallied to unite. To weather the winter that revolution may bring. And to embrace the revolution not for revenge on the old order, but for the promise to our children of the new order - a modern day return to the Founders' vision of limited government in a society lit bright by freedom and responsibility.

With the battle to renew that vision now joined, Americans will rally if united by leadership that sees them as one.

Opposing us, President Clinton and his advisers see Americans as many separate groups, each defined by its own narrow self-interest, each competing with the others for "its" share of the Federal budget, and each hooked on this or that Federal program.

That's what they think government is about. That's why they think Americans will bitterly resist spending cuts and deficit reduction. That's why the defenders of the old order seek to divide Americans by class or race or gender or geography.

That's why all those who cling to the old ways believe that someone who talks straight to the American people doesn't have a chance.

But they are wrong.

I believe that most Americans share a common allegiance to our country. A common commitment to our future, that transcends narrow self interest.

I believe that today, as throughout our history, most Americans want a President who will call on the better angels of our nature, and will unite the nation to face our common challenges head on. My vision for America sees a typical American family that actually enjoys better job prospects and more real income. Our paychecks will be bigger, our savings will be greater, and our hopes for the future will abound.

Most Americans are now trapped in a box that offers little chance for escape.

Our current economic framework of big federal deficits and an income tax that discourages savings, investment, and productivity traps most of us.

The Federal Reserve is trying to hold down real economic growth to two and a half percent annually by raising short term interest rates. That growth is simply too small to meet the hopes and dreams of most Americans. It is too small to meet our competition abroad.

In due course, the current trend of interest rate hikes will lead to declining growth and higher unemployment long before middle-Americans have a feeling of confidence about the future.

Presidential campaigns offer an opportunity for the American people to make a substantial change in course. Americans want a President who will offer strong and bold programs. I will work to adopt and enforce in the future a federal budget plan that offers a clear and reasonable path to balancing the federal budget in the next seven years.

We must be serious about cutting spending and balancing the federal budget. Every program in the federal government must be reviewed. That is what I have been doing as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and what I will do as President.

There will be hard choices. Waving your arms all around and making broad promises, pandering to this group and that, will not do.

As an Indiana farmer, I have advocated cutting farm subsidies by $15 billion. Farmers want to and should plant for the market, and not for the government. The government should not dictate the economy, the market and individual goals should.

The younger members of our families will have diminished hopes each year if we continually pile up more national debt and obligate more and more of our annual national budget to simply pay interest on an ever increasing mountain of debt.

In addition to balancing the budget, I favor abolishing the federal income tax and all of the Internal Revenue Service apparatus which has grown to collect and enforce the income tax.

Specifically, I propose to abolish completely the federal individual and corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, gift taxes, and inheritance taxes all at the same time. And with them all of the tax loopholes which have been created for special interests.

This means for every American that the money you earn will be yours. You may save it or you may spend it, but your paycheck will be bigger without the automatic income withholding deduction. You need not account for it, report it or hide it. If you spend it, you will pay a national retail sales tax.

You regain your privacy. You are no longer guilty until you prove your innocence to the IRS.

You regain the freedom of your time and labor. You will stop worrying about whether the family farm or store will have to be sold to pay estate taxes because there won't be gift or estate taxes anymore.

With savings and investments no longer taxed, Americans will enjoy an economic boom. There will be increased productivity, higher wages, and new investment from around the world attracted by our policy of no income taxes. American exports will surge because our competitive prices will be down sharply. This will mean hundreds of thousands of new productive jobs.

The problems of low and middle income citizens will be met simply and clearly. The new plan will not be more regressive.

The bottom line is new liberty for Americans and dynamic new growth in our job and income prospects.

We should achieve this goal in 1997 and be prepared to save, invest, and to grow for many years to come.

I am also determined to address national security and America's role in the world.

I know what some pollsters and pundits say. They contend that many Americans no longer care what happens beyond our borders and don't want to hear about it.

I've been told that my campaign for President is at a disadvantage because many believe I have the most experience and expertise in leading national security and foreign policy, subjects in which supposedly there is little voter interest.

Americans know better. Americans know that their President must be a skilled statesman precisely because what happens abroad can have a major impact at any time on what happens at home. Americans understand that their President must know what he is doing on national security. Otherwise he'll find himself making it up as he goes along, bouncing from one crisis to the next.

Americans understand that their President must know what he's doing as Commander-in-Chief. The price of inexperience when it comes to that Presidential duty will ultimately be paid in the blood of our sons and daughters.

In the Lugar Administration, Americans will have confidence that their President is up to the job. Americans will rest easier in the knowledge that the President standing watch over our country's safety and security is someone who actually knows what it means to stand a watch.

We are also going to take advantage -- for our children, and their children, and generations of Americans yet unborn -- of the unique window of opportunity presented by our victory in the Cold War. This is a special moment in history when American power and influence could be at their peak. A moment that cries out for leadership that understands how that power and influence can be harnessed and used to preserve our freedom and security well into the dawning new century.

We now have an opportunity to rid America and the world of the prospect of nuclear terror. Hundreds of warheads are even now being dismantled in the former Soviet Union because of a bipartisan initiative I spearheaded with Senator Sam Nunn. Now while that window of opportunity remains barely open, we must act to keep the weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists the world over.

Peoples from around the world regard the United States as a force for good and a refuge from the tragedies that afflict so many of their homelands. But even as the meaning of what it is to be an American still shines brightly, the moral and family values that have been the basis for our success have shown signs of erosion.

The results of this erosion can be seen throughout our society. One million adolescent women become pregnant every year. One in four babies delivered in America are born to unwed mothers. About 12 percent of American students drop out of school before completing a high school degree. Since 1988, teenage boys have been more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from all natural causes combined. And the typical child will watch 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 acts of violence on television before finishing elementary school.

The tragedy of these trends is felt by every American. We must learn anew and teach our children -- by what we say, and by how we act -- what we know to be right and what we know to be wrong.

The keys to a life of fulfillment are personal responsibility, not pleasure seeking. Integrity and faithfulness, and not their opposites.

Self-discipline, not self-indulgence.

I will work tirelessly with community leaders, with clergy of all faith, with those in the media and entertainment, and all who must be enlisted in our endeavor.

A president must rise to the challenge of reinvigorating American moral character, just as presidents in the past have used their inherent power to lead the nation through other crises of national spirit.

We remember the steadfast resolve imparted by Abraham Lincoln to the nation as it weathered the calamity of national division. In the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt used his persuasive voice to build hope and confidence. And Ronald Reagan gave us confidence that we would prevail against a totalitarian communist evil empire.

No president, alone, can repair the damage done to our national morale. But the President has the visibility, the symbolic assets, and a national mandate to lead a campaign for moral and family values, teaching by precept and example. This I will do.

As president I will work from my experience with state, county and municipal leaders to encourage innovative solutions where they really count -- in local communities and neighborhoods.

I will use the bully pulpit to promote a national atmosphere of personal responsibility to family and community. I will set a moral example as a good parent, a good spouse, a good neighbor, and a good citizen. I have been optimistic, resilient, and inclusive in building teams that share my idealism.

All of my life's experiences have prepared me for this challenge. I have been blessed with a strong, loving family. My mother Bertha, who nurtured me is with me here today. My late father, Marvin, whose strong counsel I still cherish instilled in me a sense of personal responsibility. My wife, Charlene, my loving partner for 38 years. My four sons -- Mark, Robert, John and David -- and seven grandchildren. They are my foundation.

I have been a lay minister in the Methodist Church. I believe in the sanctity of life. I was an Eagle Scout, and I pledged, "On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country."

As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, I went to the American Embassy in London and enlisted in the United States Navy. I served as an intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke, and I returned home to Indiana to help manage my family's farm and business.

With my brother, Tom, I helped those businesses to meet a payroll, make a profit, and find ways to grow and expand through exports.

I served on the Indianapolis School Board. I know government at its most local and important level.

While mayor of Indianapolis for eight years, we cut property tax rates five times, and served on the front lines of fighting crime, building neighborhoods, and founding health clinics.

For the past 18 years in the United States Senate, I have dedicated my best efforts to ensuring that American security and American interests in the world are guaranteed, and that the American economy prospers.

Our risks are too great, and our opportunities too many, not to have a President with the experience, character, and the resolve to lead this great country at this important time.

My vision for America is constant, constructive, hands-on American leadership in the world guided by presidential strength and wisdom.

A strong and growing economy in which average Americans see bigger paychecks, larger savings, and liberation from the current straight jacket of income taxes and federal deficits.

Belief in America's traditional values of family, honesty and responsibility.

That is the foundation of my vision for America.

This will be a long campaign. This will be a successful campaign. I have always been a long distance runner. This time, I plan to run for America.

And I plan to win for all Americans.

Thank you.

Source: Lugar for President 1996 Web Site Bob Dornan 1996 Bob Dornan 1996 April 13, 1995










Dornan's Announcement Speech
Presidential Announcement, April 13, 1995

My fellow citizens of the greatest nation in all of recorded history, you know why I come to you today with my wife, Sallie, my beautiful family, my sons-in-law, my daughter-in-law, all nine of our grandchildren: I come to you humbly as a nine-times elected member of the people's house, the House of Representatives, the greatest legislative body in the world and, to quote George Washington, 'the theater of action'. . . especially given the last hundred and some days.
This is an awesome quest for any man or any woman, to imagine that you could possibly lead a nation of over 264 million people with the added responsibility of being the commander-in-chief of what was just months ago over 2 million men and women serving in every corner of the world, let alone dealing with the title 'leader of the free world.' I don't know anyone ever in our history that has the perfect background, or even close to the proper background, to aspire to the highest executive post in this great land. But the sheer honor and humbling spirit of even beginning the quest to lead our nation is an opportunity that any American would treasure for the rest of their life.

I chose this memorial because, like the Vietnam Memorial, it represents the commitment of brave men and women far beyond what is demanded of us in all other areas of public life, including the chief executive's job.

I feel the spirit of my mother and father with me here today, and I'm dedicating my campaign to all those friends of mine whom I flew with in peace time in the happy innocent Eisenhower years who later disappeared into the mists of Southeast Asia.

Dave Hrdlicka-no remains recovered, a known POW for over five maybe six years. He just disappeared in Laos-my best friend in the Air Force. Dave was the godfather of my oldest son, Bob, standing in for my uncle Jack Haley. Sallie and I, with Sallie holding their oldest son during baptism, we were the godparents of Dave's oldest son, David Jr., who's now flying with American Airlines with a great Naval Aviator career behind him. Dave Hrdlicka's name is on the Vietnam Memorial, as is that of my classmates in pilot training who got their wings the same day in 1955 that I did-Bernie Conklin, shot down by a MIG while he was flying an old twin-engine EC-47. In the Pentagon file, I read his last words-';They've hit our number one engine. It's burning. I guess this is it for us." We finally got back Bernie's remains, decades later. We never had returned to us the remains of the only other redhead in my class; David Allison. I saw his ID card-serial number just a few numbers less than mine-returned by Hanoi in the Central Intelligence Laboratory in Hawaii-that was it. . . one small green plastic card. Then Wayne Fulham, lost on a mission over Hanoi, handsomest man I ever saw in an Air Force uniform. When he was shot down and the North Vietnamese claimed they operated on him for several hours in a Hanoi hospital, they referred to him in their press as an all-American Boy. [Bootsie], his widow, just helped in the November election to elect one of the new freshmen Congressmen from Tennessee.

For all of those men and others that I served with, who joined all those names on the Vietnam memorial, I dedicate this race. I run also for everyone in the military service since right up to Mogadishu and those who died on October 3rd and 4th and then again the night of the 6th when 19 of the finest men that this country could ever produce, from 20-year-old Rangers to 36-year old Delta Force commandos, and two young 10th Mountain Division troops-Bob Dole's division, the 10th-and the greatest helicopter pilots to ever fly, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Special Forces out of Fort Campbell. I dedicate myself also to all of those heroes, particularly the two Nodal of Honor winners, Randy Shugart, whose dad refused to shake Clinton's hand at the White House, and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon-they both left beautiful wives. Gary Gordon also left little Ian and Brittany behind. These men gave their lives so that others would live. It s in scripture, Saint John, 1 S 1 3-"Greater love than this no man has."

[image] Warrant Officer Michael Durant, in embracing me at Fort Campbell a few days after his return, said, "I owe my life to those two men." I promised, "Michael, I'll fight that they get the Medal of Honor." They did.

On the Medal of Honor, there is only one word- Valor. On this side wall of the Law Enforcement Memorial, it quotes the greatest historian of the Roman Empire, Tacitus. He said, "In valor there is hope." And it is at this memorial and at the Vietnam memorial where we can experience hope that America's days are not ending, that our third century can be our best, that the American dream can be restored. . . rebuilt.

Opposite Tacitus' words about valor are the stirring remarks about this memorial by of the 41st president of the United States, my friend and a decent man, a Navy carrier attack combat pilot, George Bush. Listen to what he said just four short years ago when this memorial was dedicated. President Bush standing about here told our nation this, "Carved on these walls is the story of America, of a continuing quest to preserve democracy and decency and to protect a national treasure that we call the American Dream.

Well, I stand her today because of that American Dream and this terrible and tragic conviction that it is disappearing before our eyes, that our culture is melting down, that moral decay is rotting the heart and the soul of our country, that Abraham Lincoln's worst fear for the nation he saved bay be unfolding. He had his only inaugural ball in this beautiful treasure of a building {National Pension Building} behind us and was dead within a few weeks in the morning hours of April 15, 1865.

Lincoln said, as a young 38-year-old man to a service club in Illinois, that American will never be conquered from without, that no despot will ever take a drink out of the Ohio River, that if America collapses as a civilization it will be because we destroyed ourselves. And I believe right now, a century and half after President Lincoln's warning to the United States, that America is poisoning herself, that we are destroying this God-blessed nation of ours, and I'm going to carry that message of warning to as many states as I can, and make sure that my good Republican friends in our primary races, every one of them a noble competitor hear and address my concerns. The eight of them stand head and shoulders in character and integrity above the occupant of the White House, but I want my friends; Bob Dole, our World War II hero, Phil Gramm, Pat Buchanan and Allen Keyes; my governor in California; Lamar Alexander, excellent former governor of Tennessee; Dick Lugar, who like me, has a deep interest in foreign affairs, and Arlen Specter- I mean- I said Allen Keyes-Arlen Specter, who like me wants a flat tax. It's new to him, I've been for it for 27 years.

All these good men, I want them to focus in on the social issues tearing our country apart. Yes we have an impending financial disaster that we approach at an ever increasing speed. Six trillion dollars of debt is absolutely a moral issue, and the debt will reach $6 trillion, by anybody's fair analysis before we begin, through a painful discipline-probably a 30 year process-to eliminate that debt.

The main focus of my announcement will be in New York City, on my 40th wedding anniversary, Sallie's birthday, this coming Easter Sunday. Before that we will be in that great Granite State with the wonderful motto 'Live Free or Die,' New Hampshire, on income tax day, Saturday the 1 5th. The Dornan family will visit two places where I will focus on moral decay at Exeter and economic collapse at Nashua.

But today on Thomas Jefferson's birthday tomorrow Good Friday will be a travel day-I am humbled to announce my declaration for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States of America. [applause]

Why do we go to New York City in three days? I was baptized in Saint Patrick's Cathedral the second month of FDR's first term. My parents were married at St. Pat's the June before Black Tuesday, the big Wall Street crash of 1929. I love my home town of my birth. I truly was born in Harlem-11Oth Street. It gives me excellent bragging rights with my friends in the Black; Caucus.

And I don't mind jumping Sallie's Easter birthday on this day because I want to take this opportunity on Thomas Jefferson's birthday, his 252nd birthday, to read for you a few perfect Jefferson quotes, before I briefly discuss our half hearted war on crime, in which not all Americans are fully engaged...not by any, measure. Most Americans are not in the fight at all We should always turn to our founders and framers in times of great change.

Thomas Jefferson, born April 13th, 1743, and one of the greatest intellects during of our first revolution, any changes I think has much to say to us in our current bloodless revolution. Quote One: "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election"-meaning choice-';between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt"-(and we're trillions beyond Thomas Jefferson's worst nightmare)- "that we must be taxed in our meat, in our drink, in our necessities and our comforts and our labors"-that's what we call income tax- "and in our amusements" that's what we call an amusement tax-"and our calling and our creeds"-that's the effort to drop the tax deduction for religious or charitable contributions-"we will have no time to think, no means of calling our managers"-the U.S. Congress- "to account, but only be glad to obtain sustenance by hiring ourselves"-to the IRS or to the Clinton administration-"to rivet the chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers"-that of course means us the U.S. taxpayers.

"And this tendency of all human governments, a departure from principle becoming a precedent till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery. And the forehorse of this frightful team is public debt. And in trainwretchedness and oppression.

We finally have the focus of the Grand Old Party on this massive debt, on our deficit spending, on oppressive tax increases. America is living through such a new day that I not only finally speak proudly of my 27 years of support for the concept of a flat tax, but now chairman Bill Archer of Ways and Means-(who in 1970 won George Bush's seat in the U.S. House)-says ';The flat tax can be a plateau,"-a flat tax plateau period-"Until we can turn to a tax on consumption so we can abolish the IRS and send almost 11,000 agents if they want to continue to serve their country into other pursuits, or preferably into the private sector to help create jobs."

By finally making drastic changes in our tax collection, we will save our citizens billions of dollars in lawyers and tax accountants as high as $30 billion. And we can run our government with a consumerism tax, where the rich will pay more because they garner unto themselves more goods, more services, more products. And with our poor-we can set a level of protection from taxation.

But I'm not here at this memorial only to discuss Thomas Jefferson's powerful words about oppressive big government. I'm here to discuss what those words of George Bush mean - democracy and decency, the two pillars of civilization. Any civilization worthy of the respect of its citizens and worthy of being recorded in history as a great culture where families feel safe and secure is established those pillars-liberty and virtue.

You cannot have true liberty unless people are virtuous. You cannot possibly hire enough men and women to wear blue and khaki to police effectively a land devoid of virtue. You can't hire enough U.S. attorneys or district attorneys or marshals or prison guards to keep peace in a country if a people has lost virtue. If the majority of citizens steal from one another and lie, and a handshake means nothing, and contracts mean nothing, then your culture has decayed past the point of no return.

You must have a virtuous people or a free marketplace doesn't work. Capitalism is a failure up and down the line. But conversely you cannot have virtue unless a people are truly free to make decent choices, to choose a moral path in life. Our forefathers-again Thomas Jefferson concluded our Declaration of Independence with the ringing words "With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives"-and some paid that full price-'our fortunes"-they were all bankrupted at the end of the 61/2 year struggle" and our sacred honor." This is the noble commitment that U.S. senators and men and women in the House of Representatives should make over and over.

When I was 19, during my first week on active duty; I took a ball pen, and in the soft vinyl of a cheap Air Force folder, dreaming about becoming an F-86 "Saberjet" pilot, carved those words into my binder-"With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." Tourists are visiting Jefferson's beautiful memorial across the Tidal Basin at this moment during Easter vacation. Inside, around the rime of the rotunda's dome they read: 'I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal vigilance against every tyranny over the mind of man." Powerful? Yes, our founders Were committed to a nation of virtue, to the spiritual, to a respect for religion.

The First Amendment is not, a rejection of religion; religion-"the free exercise thereof' is mentioned in the amendment before freedom of speech, of the press, of the right for people to peaceably assemble and redress their government. The First Amendment starts off stating that Congress-that's me-shall respect no establishment of religion-no favoritism-and then the amendment says "or abridge the free exercise thereof." Clearly our founders and the framers of our inspired Constitution respected religion. Now we suffer a horribly polluted marketplace, a debased culture in Hollywood ridicules and assaults religion, tears valor and hope and virtue out of our country.

I'm very pleased that Bob Dole is reading over some of my speeches delivered on the House floor over the last 19 years. Bob was brilliant in Iowa this week, a wonderful kick off speech in his beautiful home Bible Belt-state of Kansas. A day later, he was excellent in Ohio, the state of presidents. I think I'm already having an effect on my competition, and I hadn't even declared until right now. [applause]

In this campaign, I'm going to insist we candidates discuss the morality crisis in our beautiful country. We are living through a meltdown of our cultures I repeat-we are witnessing advanced cultural meltdown-And we conservatives are going to reverse this tragedy. I'm an optimist about this challenge, because one of my political heroes, Winston Churchill, an inspiration to all politicians in republics? never apologized for saying that Western civilization was an example for the whole world with our representative government. And in a republic, the people rule, and can change anything, even meltdown.

[image] Ronald Reagan's last wonderful public appearance was in that building behind me, Lincoln's Pension Building. That's where he made us all laugh when he talked about "looking down at the White House, the beautiful home, the Ellipse, David Gergen-nothing has changed." That's when Margaret Thatcher reminded us again what a gift to the world Ronald Reagan was. He helped to break apart the evil empire. And isn't it beyond irony, beyond comprehension that in the same generation that conquered most of Communism, we begin to poison ourselves with rampant hedonism in the popular culture. Today's contradictions simply does not make sense.

I ask this of my fellow Republican primary voters, the focus of our primary process: please don't pick a candidate this early. Keep your powder dry. Keep your options open. Listen carefully to all nine of us. We do have a badly front-loaded primary process. The 1996 race is more like a 50-yard dash, unfortunately, than a longer more revealing contest. A long marathon would give more of a chance to the seven of us back in the pack. My pal Phil's got the early big money. Bob Dole has the name identification and big money from a wonderful, long federal career starting in Congress in 1961. They're both millionaires as are five of the remaining six. But now and then-message trumps money. Prayers are answered.

And what I say to my fellow candidates, let's make Americans proud of the Republican Party. Let's reach out, as it says in Proverbs, to the poor and to the helpless. Let's not let the media spin everything our fine Speaker Gingrich says, everything the nine of us say on the campaign trail. For example, let us explain the glory of our 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights and fight hard to restore power back to our governors...or to the people.

In Europe they refer to this country as "the States,?' not United, not America. To them, greater America is Canada, Mexico, it's all of South America. What fascinates Europeans is our concept of federalism, the power invested in our regional governors, the uniqueness of our States. Children in European schools memorize the names of our 50 states and love to recite them. Our children rarely learn the names of the nations of Europe with equal enthusiasm.

Our states are unique. Our presidential power is unique throughout all the governments of the world because every other county has opted for a parliamentary system.

Let's show our youth and let's show the world that the United States of America has its best years ahead of us. Let's try to be an inspiration to the world. Of course there is hope for our country, to stop the meltdown and recover. We honor these men and women in police work who give up their lives not just to protect our lives, but to protect our property, to give us the domestic tranquility that was mentioned in the Preamble to the Constitution, to help us reestablish the justice that is again mentioned in the Preamble as the reason to ordain and establish the Constitution.

I will walk around these beautiful grounds again today and answer your questions. There are brochures available that tell the historical background of this great memorial. May I point out that point out that my beautiful golden state of California has over 1,100 names of peace officers killed on duty on these walls. We will be adding 13 California officers' names next month. I hope the press will come to the ceremony here you'll learn something about that middle class kinship around the kitchen tables in those small villages or farms across America where a family will say to a young son or daughter ';yes, go for a career in the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, the Army, the Navy. It's a fine way to serve your country. Or the family may decide a great career is serving as a marshal, a deputy sheriff-"the khaki line,X' or as a police officer-the "thin blue line." We owe a great debt to the middle class of this country, those people who are living quiet productive lives, yes lives, of virtue, the solid family people of this country. That's who I intend to reach for. I want their support so that I can proudly serve as their president.

What' s our battle cry in this campaign-it's on the signs around here? Faith. . . Family. . . Freedom.

Without faith what does a people have?

Family. That's what I'm going to accentuate and why I'm proud to have my beautiful extended family with me here today.

And Freedom. And I don't mean just freedom for this country. I say to my friends in this primary process, we have an obligation to try and extend liberty-freedom where we can, where we are able to assist, even at some loss of life to our young men and women if we can explain the vital interests involved. We must impart democracy, freedom, and virtue wherever we can around the world. But remember this-when terrorist countries refer to the United States as The Great Satan and point out our frightening crime rate, our venereal disease rate, our children shooting children, our pornography, the hedonist filth on the soap operas, the filth on the talk shows, and the blasphemous language, the debasement of our language on most of the situation comedies and on the made for TV movies, and cable television. When I spoke to the CEO of one of America's greatest communications networks last week and asked him why as an Irish Catholic he couldn't stop the filth on his own network. I explained why I wouldn't let my grandchildren watch his network. Well, here's all this Irishman could say to me with his millions of dollars, private jet, country club memberships, gated communities and special lounges at airports and railroad stations: he said to me, "Congressman, things have sure changed haven't they?"

Well, yes sir, Mr. CEO, they have. And we're going to roll this decay back. We're going to restore the American dream. [applause] I am not going to watch as things fall apart. My favorite poet, William B. Yeats, wrote these words in 1939, the year Hitler began the world's most devastating war "Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed. And everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Well, ladies and gentlemen here's one congressman that has the conviction and is passionate about it. But don't let my passion mislead you. I have never yelled at my staff and I've tried to motivate my children by example, not by harshness; I have never in subcommittee or committee or at a press conference ever shown a mean streak, only passion. On the floor of the House, in the Well, yes, I've been a tough debater, but no tougher than Patrick Henry exclaiming, "Give me liberty or give me death." I apologize for nothing when it comes to conviction or where I have been indignant in House speeches. It's not easy to be in the minority for 40 years forsaken in that political desert. My heart goes out to all my friends on the other side of the aisle who are having a little difficulty getting used to minority status.

But let me advise you; if someone today is not publicly indignant about the bankruptcy policies of the government of this, the richest country ever- a government destroying the American dream economically, and if somebody in office is not publicly indignant saying "Let's stop this," about our cultural meltdown-our moral decline, I'll show you somebody who doesn't understand the facts. I'll show you somebody who's a pathetic bystander watching the destruction of their country before their eyes.

While I fear for our country's future, I have a fighter's heart... come with me. At least wish me well, watch me, and help me participate in this great debate. Bob Dornan will probably never retire. I'll probably die with my boots on, so I don't ever apologize for being part of a pension system that I never voted for by the way. I want to meet St. Peter still swinging. Like Teddy Roosevelt, I love the arena-the political arena George Washington called "the theater of action." I love the dust. And yes, I have I bled for my country. When I was smashed in the face by a jet fighter's canopy ejecting. I came as close to death as Bob Dole did but without suffering his pain-there's no pain involved with drowning, just fear and sadness.

I have offered to put my life on the line for South Korea, for Israel, for Hungary, for Berlin, for the Dominican Republic and for Vietnam. But God never willed it so that I would have to fire at another mother's son.

This is why I have a bond of love with cops and with the men and women in the military. I know the weight of that role of leadership and what it means to be Commander-in-Chief.

My grandsons over her to my right, Kevin and Colin, helped me fly on the roof of the Capitol, 194 flags for every man killed in Somalia, 44, 30 of those killed in action. I met with the families of the two Medal of Honor winners.

I asked Randy Shugart's dad, Herb why he refused to shake Clinton's hand at the White House Medal Of Honor ceremony. Clinton told Mr. [Herb] Shugart he didn't even know the about the operation in which Randy was killed. . . that he didn't know Addid had been flown by a US Army aircraft to Addis Ababa. And Herb Shugart, the father of a Medal of Honor winner, told me, "Mr. President, you're not worthy to be Commander-in-Chief. I have nothing else to say to you." [applause] I know what is entailed with the Commander-in-Chiefs job. It's disgraceful Bill Clinton doesn't even have a clue.

I'll close on this. One of my adversaries in the press-and brother, do they love their adversarial role-said ';Congressman, your passion in the Well, is that too strong for the White House? Might you not get us involved in a conflict" I pointed out to him that warriors or those trained to be combat ready warriors do not endanger the precious lives of their brothers and sisters in uniform unless, if all other means are exhausted, we can look their parents, their brother and sisters, their widows, their children in the eyes and tell them why their young heroes was asked to risk their young lives. Clinton cannot do that because he doesn't understand the careful, moral use of the power entrusted in the presidency. If you want to see tragic American history unfold be fore your reading eyes in one heartbreaking chapter after another about evil civilian leadership, I suggest you read Robert Strange MacNamara's rotten book, as I'm doing. Never again, will a war criminal like MacNamara soil our nation's honor.

Thank you for coming today and God bless you, everyone. It's going to be a lot of fun out there on the campaign trail. If someone can't enjoy this election process, they shouldn't declare. I think the door will close next month after Senator Lugar and Governor Pete Wilson enter the race.

We've got all nine grandchildren with us to head north to New Hampshire and we're going to have a good old time. Here's my Clinton countdown watch showing 572 days until the election. Sallie, what's your counting down until the inauguration? 648! Just add 76 days to mine and you have the inauguration day. I'm counting the hours and the days until we send the Clintons packing. This is going to be a great quest and a great American experience for our family and friends.

Source: Bob Dornan 1996 Website Bob Dole 1996 Bob Dole 1996 April 10, 1995










April 10, 1995
Remarks by Senator Bob Dole
Official Announcement
Topeka, Kansas

Thank you, Governor Graves, Senator Kassebaum. Good morning friends -- Elizabeth, Robin, and I thank you for that tremendous welcome. It's great to be in Kansas. Of course, I'm not the first Kansan to say, "there's no place like home." But for me, the words have special meaning. Wherever I have traveled in this life, I have never forgotten where I came from -- or where I go home to.

Whatever lessons I have applied in public life were first learned here as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. These days I spend much of my time in another capitol. You see many things from atop the hill in Washington where I work -- but you can see America from here.

Common sense and uncommon sensitivity: that's the Kansas way. It's what made Dwight Eisenhower a great general and a great President. And it's what prompted Alf Landon with his unique wisdom to say, "there are some intelligent people in Washington, but there are more of 'em in Kansas." I hasten to add the same applies to forty nine other states.

But then, Kansans have never had to look to Washington, DC for a sense of compassion or community. As a young man in a small town my parents taught me to put my trust in God, not government, and never confuse the two. Something else I learned, learned the hard way -- that while self reliance is an essential part of the American character, so is the spirit of community that reaches out to those wounded in body or soul.

When I went off to war it was to defend a community of values unique in all the world. I came back sustained by the love and generosity of friends and neighbors who renewed my sense of life's possibilities. Over the years they have given me opportunities for service which I can never hope to repay.

Because they restored my spirit in a time of trial I have dedicated myself to restoring the spirit of America. And so today, tempered by adversity, seasoned by experience, mindful of the world as it is -- yet confident it can be made better -- I have come home to Kansas with a grateful heart to declare that I am a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

The view many Americans see this morning is a sobering one. We are troubled about the direction our country is taking. Our values are under constant assault from our public and cultural institutions. We feel threatened by the random incidents of violent crime. Too many of our schools, which were once passports to opportunity, have become demoralizing places. Welfare has become a misery subsidy fostering illegitimacy and generations of dependency. And yet the deficit keeps growing, taxes keep increasing, and the government keeps demanding more and more authority over our lives.

None of this should come as a surprise. For much of this century power and wealth alike have flowed from grassroots Americans to a federal government which exploded to meet the twin crises of economic depression and global war. Yet, the lifejacket of one generation can become the straightjacket of the next. In giving to Washington our responsibility to address problems close to their source, Americans have unwittingly encouraged the Federal government to become too large, too remote, too unresponsive, and too undemocratic to be representative.

However, another America is waiting -- an America strong again in heart and sure of mind. I would like to lead us there.

Our problems are not too difficult to handle. It's just that our leaders have grown too isolated from places like Topeka -- embarrassed by the values here. They seem to have lost the idea that we are -- and must remain -- one nation under God. We are bound by our heritage to a set of common values: hard work, integrity, responsibility -- these values have always been the source of our strength and the glue that holds us together.

Our country must again have leaders who believe in our people and are proud of our values. We need leaders who will summon from each of us the best of our character, who will call us as a nation to our full potential. I want to be president so I can do this for America.

My mandate as President would be to rein in the Federal government in order to set free the spirit of the American people; to reconnect our government in Washington with the common sense values of our citizens; and to reassert American interests wherever and whenever they are challenged around the world.

My guide in this would be the final piece of the Bill of Rights -- the Tenth Amendment. It reads, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states ... or to the people."

When those words were written by our Founding Fathers more than 200 years ago, they were an affirmation of a radical new theory of politics -- a theory based on the need to limit the powers of the central government in order to unleash the unlimited potential of the people. The Federal government should do only those things specifically called for in the Constitution. All others should remain with the states or the people. It is a philosophy of freedom conceived in liberty, tested by history, yet too often ignored in Washington. I intend to restore it.

In the last election, the American people sent an unmistakable message to Washington. With rare clarity, they reaffirmed their faith in themselves and a healthy amount of skepticism about government.

If we are truly to rein in government, we must have a President who is more than a clever apologist for the status quo. In 1992, Bill Clinton ran for president as the candidate of change. In 1996, he will seek reelection as a candidate pledged to prevent change at all cost.

We need a President who will do more than say "no" to every spending cut, "no" to every attempt to return power and money to the states. We need a President who shares our values, embraces our agenda and who will lead the fight for the fundamental change America chose last November. We need a President who will say "yes" to the American people, and that is the kind of President I intend to be.

And while on the subject of creating a government that will say "yes" to the American people, let me make one fundamental belief crystal clear: we can cut taxes and balance the budget. Middle class families are forced to send too much of their hard-earned money to Washington. We should provide a tax credit for children and remove the marriage penalty to strengthen our families. And we should cut the capital gains tax to stimulate economic growth, create new jobs, and expand opportunity for all our people.

That is just the first step, not the last. We need a president committed to making our tax system lower, fairer, flatter, simpler -- so that ordinary people like you and me could fill out our tax form without a lawyer or an accountant or both.

Balancing the budget will also be a top priority; we cannot continue mortgaging our children's future. We will give the President the line item veto and we will give the American people a Balanced Budget Amendment.

But that is only the beginning. Reining in the government means streamlining the entire Federal bureaucracy, getting its nose out of places the government just shouldn't be. We should work our way through the alphabet soup of government, asking this question: Is this program a basic function of limited government, or is it an example of how government has lost faith in the judgment of our people?

The best place to begin is with four of the most ineffective, burdensome and meddlesome departments: Education, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, and Commerce. Together they spend more than $74 billion per year and employ more than 74,000 workers.

Let's close down the Education Department and spend the money on our children, not bureaucracies and red tape; and let's implement school choice to return power to parents. HUD has become a cash cow for big city mayors and the well-connected. We should give housing vouchers to those who need them and get the government out of the landlord business altogether. Energy would function better as an agency within the Department of Defense. And more than half of what the Department of Commerce does has nothing to do with commerce or trade -- duplicated by 71 other governmental departments, agencies, and offices.

And there are other questions we should ask. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Why is the Federal government in the culture business? In this explosion of the information age, why do we have a Corporation for Public Broadcasting?

There are a host of other areas that cry out for reform. I will be talking about them at greater length in the year ahead. Welfare is one. The Federal system has failed. Why are liberals in Washington so afraid to turn welfare decision-making over to our governors and state legislatures? There is already considerable evidence that they can do much better.

Affirmative action is another Federal policy out of control. Discrimination is wrong, immoral. This is America. We should have a color blind society. But fighting discrimination should never be used to divide Americans by race, ethnic background, or gender.

There is one area where the Federal government must work in partnership with our state and local governments -- and that area is crime. Today, a criminal committing a serious crime has less than a ten percent chance of going to jail. And once in jail that criminal will serve only a fraction of his sentence.

We should put an end to parole for violent offenders. Put limits on the endless and often frivolous appeals clogging our courts. Remove teenagers who commit serious, violent crimes from juvenile courts and try them as adults. We should be more concerned with the rights of victims than the privileges of criminals. And we must rededicate ourselves to the war on drugs.

Finally, let me touch for a moment on America's place in the world. There is one responsibility only the Federal government has, and that is to protect our freedom. We must never be reluctant about our greatness or ashamed of our national strength.

We must stop placing the agenda of the United Nations before the interests of the United States. When we take our revolution to the White House in 1996, we will vow that American policies will be determined by us, not by the United Nations. Let us remember that America has been the greatest force for good the world has ever known.

I was reminded of that on the 50th anniversary of D-Day last summer, when the eyes of the world were focused on the beaches of France. I was there and witnessed the emotion as memories came flooding back -- memories of the heroism, the sacrifices and pain men and women suffered.

Before visiting France, I traveled to Northern Italy where I served in the 10th Mountain Division. While revisiting the battle sites, I thought about why we had been sent there, about the America of our youth, the America we were risking our lives to protect, and about our hopes for the generations who would follow us. And then I thought about the America we live in now -- an America still great and still the beacon of freedom around the world, but an America that is headed in the wrong direction.

Standing there gazing across those peaceful fields I thought of why it is critical to have a president who knows what made America great, who knows what has been sacrificed to keep us free, and who would do all in his power to lead America back to her place in the sun.

My friends, I have the experience. I've been tested, tested in many ways. I am not afraid to lead, and I know the way. Let us rein in our government to set the spirit of the American people free. Let us renew our moral convictions and strengthen our families by returning to fundamental values. Together, let us reassert our rightful place as a great nation.

We should do it for ourselves -- we owe it to our children. We must act to be worthy of the gift our ancestors sacrificed so much for: to ensure the next century will dawn on a new beginning of American greatness ... prosperity ... and freedom. Let us do it together. Let us begin today.

Thank you.

Paid for by Dole/Kemp '96

Source: Dole/Kemp '96 Website Arlen Specter 1996 Arlen Specter 1996 March 30, 1995










Arlen Specter

PRESIDENTIAL ANNOUNCEMENT MARCH 30, 1995

Today, I offer my ideas -- my experience -- and my energy to the American people -- to lead our great nation into the 21st Century -- as the next President of the United States.

I do so humbly -- in the presence of the monuments of America's great presidents -- especially Abraham Lincoln -- the founder of the Republican Party -- whose deep commitment to equality and opportunity I share.

With the election of a Republican Congress in 1994 -- and a Republican President in 1996, -- we have a unique opportunity to move America toward unprecedented prosperity -- and unlimited economic opportunity for all Americans.

We do so by focusing on implementing our core Republican beliefs -- smaller government, -- less spending, -- lower taxes, -- civil rights and liberties -- strong national defense -- and effective arms control -- that will unleash the full potential of the American people.

In 1994, Republican Representatives won the House with a ten point contract -- the Contract with America. In 1996, I intend to win the other house -- the White House -- with ten commitments to America:

(l) to balance the budget through spending reduction;
(2) to begin to pay off the national debt;
(3) to foster economic growth through enactment of a flat tax;
(4) to reduce violent crime;
(5) to improve education with innovations like privatization and charter schools;
(6) to reform health care through the free market;
(7) to provide strong leadership in international affairs;
(8) to contain weapons of mass destruction;
(9) to control terrorism; and
(10) to champion tolerance and freedom, including a woman's right to choose.

These commitments embody my personal core beliefs as a fiscal and economic conservative and social libertarian.

I agree with Barry Goldwater when he said we must get government out of our pocketbooks -- off our backs -- and out of our bedrooms.

My commitment to America is to balance the Federal budget by the target date -- the year 2002. By balancing the budget by 2002, - - my commitment to America is to make the first payment on reducing the national debt by the year 2003 -- during the first presidential term of the 21st Century.

My commitment to America is to reduce the Federal bureaucracy, -- by eliminating the 12,000 pages of Internal Revenue Service regulations -- and most of the 110,000 IRS employees. That could be done -- by enacting my plan for a 20% flat tax. Americans would save 5 billion hours -- and $200 billion dollars a year -- by filing their tax returns on a postcard -- with only 10 lines with only two deductions: for home mortgage interest and charitable deductions.

Taxation is the noose-knot around the throat of enterprise and opportunity. The tax system that we use in America today is a national disgrace, -- with a dedicated deduction for every interest group -- and a loophole for every lobbyist.

Our current income tax system is bizarre, burdensome, and biased against growth. The flat tax will give the American people a system which is simple, -- fair -- and pro-growth. It would increase the gross national product by $2 trillion dollars within seven years -- by encouraging savings -- with no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. I believe the flat tax is an idea whose time has come. My plan will move America towards unprecedented prosperity, -- full employment -- and economic opportunity for all Americans.

I make a simple pledge: on the date of my inauguration -- at the end of my speech --, I will deliver a flat tax bill to the leaders of the Congress on the steps of the Capitol.

My commitment to America is to improve personal security for our citizens at home -- and abroad. From my hands on experience during 12 years in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, -- I am confident that violent crime can be cut as much as 50%. No more plea bargains with violent criminals. No more career criminals set free -- because there aren't enough jail cells to hold them. No more court-ordered prison caps that make criminals' comfort more important than citizens' safety. Let's begin with an early intervention for juvenile offenders -- with job training and education -- to see if they can be led away from a life of crime. But if they can't, -- if they become career criminals, -- let's lock them up till they are too old to be dangerous.

And finally, -- I will put the teeth back into the death penalty. I believe in deterrence. The best weapon we have in the battle against crime -- is the certainty of tough sentences -- for tough criminals -- swiftly carried out. Give every defendant a fair trial and fair appeal -- but once guilt has been decided and a sentence fairly imposed, -- don't let years of court delay in carrying out the death penalty -- make a mockery of justice. My commitment to America is to retain the free enterprise system -- that provides the best health care in the world -- for 85% of the American people -- and then to target the problems of spiraling costs, -- affordability -- and coverage on change of job, -- for pre-existing conditions -- and for those now excluded from health care plans.

My commitment to America is to restore our nation to its preeminent role in world affairs. From my vantage point as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, -- I see the need for a military force able to defend our vital interests. I see the need for a president who understands and identifies those vital interests -- I see the need for a president who projects a foreign policy -- that is more than a surprised reaction to world events.

My commitment to America is to pursue an aggressive foreign policy -- to stop rogue nations from developing weapons of mass destruction. I reject the President's deal which allows North Korea a window of up to five years without inspections. Those inspections are necessary to determine whether North Korea is developing nuclear weapons.

My commitment to America is to fight the scourge of international terrorism -- illustrated by the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York -- and the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway. At the outset of my presidency, I will move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem to implement the Sense of the Senate Resolution calling for recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capitol.

My commitment to America -- is to replace a President who has been inattentive, inactive and indecisive -- when it comes to America's interests abroad.

Today I have outlined goals and priorities I see for America. Even though we have this historic opportunity for these achievements, there are those in our party who would lead us down a different path -- and squander this unique moment in our nation's history -- by using our political capital -- to pursue a radical social agenda -- that would end a woman's right to choose -- and mandate school prayer.

When Pat Robertson says there is no constitutional doctrine of separation between Church and State, -- I say he is wrong. The First Amendment freedom of religion is as important today -- as when the Bill of Rights was written.

When Pat Buchanan calls for a Holy War in our society, -- I say he is wrong. We don't need holy wars, -- we need tolerance and simple humanity.

When Ralph Reed says a pro-choice Republican isn't qualified to be our President, -- I say the Republican Party will not be blackmailed. I and millions of other pro-choice Republicans -- will not be disenfranchised.

I believe there is an important place in public life -- for people with deep religious and moral convictions. I am one of them. When I look at teenage pregnancies, -- the high crime rate, -- the fact that many high school graduates cannot read their own diplomas, -- there is no doubt that people with deep religious and moral convictions must be active in the political process. But it is not Christian, -- or religious, -- or Judeo-Christian to bring God into politics; -- or to advocate the intolerance and exclusion.

I think Jack Kemp put it best -- when he said when it comes to moral values -- we must seek to persuade rather than impose. I want to take abortion out of politics. I want to keep the Republican Party focused on the vital economic and foreign policy issues -- and leave moral issues such as abortion to the conscience of the individual. I believe abortion is an issue to be decided by women -- not by big government.

I will lead the fight to strip the strident anti-choice language from the Republican National platform -- and replace it with language that respects human life, -- but also respects the diversity of opinion within our own Party on this issue. Let me say it as plainly as I can: Neither this nation -- nor this Party can afford a Republican candidate -- so captive to the demands of the intolerant right -- that we end up reelecting a President of the incompetent left.

Let me now speak from the heart -- about my vision of America's future, -- from the lessons of the past -- lessons passed on to me by the quiet example of my father, -- Harry Specter. Everything I learned about opportunity, hard work, and sacrifice, I learned from my father. A peasant in his native land. An American in this one.

You see, my father grew up in a small town in Russia called Batchkurina, -- in a one room hut with a dirt floor -- a hut he shared with his parents, -- seven brothers, -- and one sister. As the only Jewish family in the town, -- they were a convenient target for the slurs of the villagers -- and the threats of the Cossacks.

When he turned 18, he walked clear across the European Continent -- alone, uneducated and destitute -- and sailed in steerage -- looking for a better life in America. He found that better life, but it did not come easily. He would rise before dawn and work past dusk, -- earning a living any way and anywhere he could: driving a truck in the coal fields of Pennsylvania; -- selling blankets to farmers in the winter in Nebraska; -- and peddling cantaloupes door to door in the summer in Kansas; -- finally opening a modest business -- a junkyard in Russell, Kansas. Let me tell you something: A man who has walked across Europe to escape the Czar -- and the violent prejudice of his neighbors -- knows what America's promise of opportunity really means -- and he passed that on to me.

And as much as I learned from my father, -- everything I learned about compassion and family values, I learned from my mother, Lillie Specter. It was my mother who would tell me -- that in America, -- I could be anything I wanted to be -- even President. and I listened to her and I am still listening to her. From both my parents -- I learned the virtue of education because they had so little of it. My father had no formal education -- and my mother left school in the 8th grade to help support her family. My brother, my two sisters and I have shared in the American dream because of our educational opportunities -- so I am very, very deeply committed to education and economic opportunity for all Americans.

And so I stand before you today -- to declare my candidacy -- a man no more worthy than many, a man far less worthy -- than those giants who founded the nation -- and held it fast through revolutionary and civil wars, in whose shadows we stand today. But for all that, -- I stand before you today as a man willing to work with every ounce of my energy -- and every fiber of my determination -- to renew once again the dreams of freedom and opportunity -- that for 200 years have made this nation the envy of and the example for the entire world.

To all Americans, I optimistically say: tomorrow can be better than today.

To that cause -- I pledge my total dedication; in that cause, I ask my fellow Americans for their hearts, their hands, and their help.

Source: Arlen Specter for President Web Site Alan Keyes 1996 Alan Keyes 1996 March 25, 1995










Alan Keyes' Presidential Candidacy Announcement Speech
[applause] Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Praise God. Praise God, indeed.

[applause] I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much for that fantastic welcome.

I am very pleased and proud to be standing with all of you today, especially since I know that all of you are committed as I am to the principles and the success of the conservative cause in America. [applause] And I believe [applause] and I believe that we are also, all of us happy and confident in that cause today because we can look back over that last several years with the realization that there is no defeat strong enough to knock us out, and that those who mistakenly counted out the conservative cause and conservative values and conservative principles in America certainly had cause to think again last November [applause] when a conservative wind blew across this Country that nothing can stop. [applause and cheering]

We are [applause]... We are right now... we are right now still happy and many of us in our spirits still celebrating that triumph but I for one hope that we have not missed the signs. The signs that suggest that something began in November -- it certainly began amongst the people of this country. But I'll be honest with you. I am not sure it is yet completed amongst the leadership. I believe a strong and clear message was sent by the people of America and I suspect that some of the folks out there, particularly in the media -- they've tried everything they can to explain away the November result. They have interpreted it in every bad way possible. It's the result of mean spirited, angry, white males trying to take it back from America. All kinds of nasty stuff that they've been saying. But you know, the one thing they didn't get? The one thing they didn't get, I think, that was quite clear and was clear in all the polls and surveys I've seen. This was not an election that was about anger and resentment. It's not an election in November that was about money, and economics, and greed. It's an election that was about standing up for the basic values and principles that built this country and made it strong. [thunderous applause]

It was an election, [applause] It was an election, [applause] Thank you. [Keyes removes his watch from his wrist and sets it on the podium] It was an election, [applause] It was an election that was clearly aimed, I think, at one thing. I got a good strong message from it. It was a good strong message that Bill Clinton and the values that he represents, Bill Clinton and the culture that he represents, Bill Clinton and the people like Joycelyn Elders and Donna Shalala [spontaneous boos from audience] that he represents were roundly rejected by the American people, and I know that all over this country there are folks who are saying in their hearts they wish they didn't have to wait two more years to send them all packing! [thunderous applause; cheers]

But we've got to know [applause] ... We've got to know as well that there were some disturbing signs. That what began in November has yet to be completed even in some of the precincts of the Republican Party that benefited from it so much. I still have a question in my mind, which I put personally to every senator who voted for it, as to why it was in the Fall of last year after the American people sent the clear message that they wanted their money home and they wanted their power back in their hands at the grass roots that so many of them chose to vote for a treaty that put that power in the hands of unelected foreigners in the World Trade Organization. [thunderous applause] I do not understand those votes. [thunderous applause]

And I believe... I believe... I believe that every senator in the United States Senate, whatever Party label they wear, they owe an explanation to the American people as to why they cast their vote in such haste for a treaty that sacrifices the sovereignty of our people. They owe us an explanation and I think in the course of this election cycle they're gonna have lots of opportunities to provide it! [laughter; applause]

But you know, I see other signs as well on the horizon. And they are signs that disturb me even more deeply. The American people, I believe, sent a clear message about the values and principles they wish to see restored to our life and our politics. I don't think it was an accident that when the dust settled after the election in November, the Republicans took control of the Congress of the United States on the strength of victories overwhelmingly won by moral conservatives, by Pro-Life conservatives, [applause] by people who stood without shame, without apology for the basic values of right and justice that have been articulated in this country since the beginning. They were folks who stood up, not in the back rooms but right on the platforms and declared their support for the rights of the unborn. They were people who stood up, not in the back rooms but right on the platform and declared their willingness to champion the moral attitudes that are essential to the survival of our family life. And I believe that in the next few months in the course of this election season, we're going to have to put some other questions, pointedly, with civility, but with frankness to some of the leaders in the Republican Party. Given that the American people spoke so clearly of the need to address the underlying moral crisis of this time, why is it that so many of them seem willing to back away from that crisis, to back away from the issues that must be addressed if we're to get this country back on the right track. [applause]

I want to know, how it can be ... [applause] I want to know how it can be that there are those in the name of "big tent" and this and that other thing, but really, if you want to know it, for the sake of political expediency, who think that it's important for the Republican Party to back away from the stance of moral principle that it has stood for since its beginning.

And I want to spend the next few minutes, not just telling you what I stand for, cause I don't think that's enough. I want to spend a few minutes explaining why. Why it is that I believe that the issue of abortion and the Pro-Life issue is not just some issue that's on the table out there. It epitomizes the central issue of our time. For involved in it, is the question of how as a people we define our freedom. Do we define that freedom as the license to do whatever we please no matter what the consequences to innocent life, and human rights, and public principles of justice? Or do we define that freedom as the Founders did based upon respect for law, and personal and public moral discipline, and moral decency? The founders made it clear that freedom and limited government go hand and hand with decent character and respect for law and moral standard. [applause]

And I think that we make a grave error as a people if we believe that we can easily back away from their understanding. But in the course of the last several decades, we have been invited to do so. We have been invited by the Supreme Court of the United States to accept it as a principle of right, that the women of this country have the right arbitrarily to take the lives of their unborn children when they get in the way. Now I think that there are people, many people in this country, who believe that at the level of moral conscience that issue is decided. They know that abortion is a moral wrong. And not only is it people who'll line up on the side of the Pro-Life movement at all. No. There are others. As a matter of fact, if you look seriously at their position even the Pro-Abortion forces believe that abortion is morally wrong. They do.

Why is that Bill Clinton wants to make abortion "safe, legal and rare"? Last time I looked, the only thing that we think of as good when it's rare is a steak! Mostly, if you want something rare it's because you think it's wrong and shouldn't be around. And I believe that Bill Clinton has a bad conscience about abortion. I believe that Henry Foster couldn't decide whether he had done 7 or 60 or 200 or 700 abortions. He "misrepresented", to use the euphemism, his involvement with abortion. Now why would you do that?

If you've been praying outside of an abortion clinic and you manage to move the spirit of 7 or 8 ladies to save that unborn child and take another route toward adoption and keeping that baby, do you feel ashamed of it? [resounding response from audience "NO." ] Do you say, ah well... well, I didn't save those 6 babies yesterday. No, you don't say that because you're not ashamed of it. Henry Foster doesn't want to tell us how many abortions he performed because as he has said himself, he abhors abortion. He abhors it because he knows in his conscience and in his heart that it is morally wrong. And I'll tell you, [applause] I believe that the great majority of the American people believe it also, but they have a problem, some of them. They say: "I know it's morally wrong but I don't have a right to impose that view on anybody." They say: "It's a matter private conscience."

And you know, there are issues like that in America that are a matter of private conscience. And whether we disapprove or approve of the actions someone else is taking we know that we don't have the right with government coercion to interfere. That's what it means to have freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. That we do get to make different judgements about certain moral things. But when those moral things touch on the basic principles of our public life, when those moral things violate the basic premises that establish our identity as a people, when those moral choices go against the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence that declare that we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights, then we not only have the right -- WE HAVE THE *DUTY* to stand up and say: NO WE WILL NOT SACRIFICE THIS NATION'S PRINCIPLES. [standing ovation with thunderous applause]

We must [applause] ... we must also understand [applause]... but we must also understand that this issue not only has consequences for our principles, it has consequences for all the practical problems we face as a people. Now I realize that since I began trying to articulate what I believe to be the fundamental importance of the moral issues of our time, there have been people going around saying: "Now, that's not very practical. We've got to deal with these money problems. We've got to deal with these budget problems. We have important decisions to make about welfare reform and crime and so forth and so on. That Keyes is alright as an inspirational speaker, but as a practical matter we've got to get on with the business of government."

And I'm thinking to myself: "Who are we kidding here?" [laughter] Oh, think about it. When was the last time you read an article about poverty, about crime, about the problems in our educational system. When was the last time you read an article that had something to do with all the money that we are spending to deal with the consequences of illegitimate births and violence in the streets and violence in the classrooms and the schools that didn't point to one overriding truth, that every single one of those problems is tied to the disintegration of the marriage-based two parent family -- the most important moral institution in the land. [thunderous applause]

When [applause]... when are we gonna wake up, my friends? When are we gonna wake up?!

The moral problems of this country ARE its practical problems. The moral problems of this country, the failure to inculcate the discipline, the responsibility, the sense of loving obligation that is at the base and root of family life is driving every problem that we are trying desperately to pay for. And we will go on trying desperately to pay for those problems until we run this country into bankruptcy, if we finally don't turn and take a stand on the issues that matter most. [applause] It has got to end. [applause]

And you know, since I started and had the opportunity to articulate that a few weeks ago before a national audience, I want to tell you I've been overwhelmed by the response. Overwhelmed not just in the sense that our phone boards have been lit up and the folks at the Friends of Alan Keyes Committee have had a hard time keeping up with the response [female voice from audience: "We love you!"] I have been overwhelmed [male voice from the audience: "yes"] by the depth of feeling that people bring to this issue [another voice: "yes"]. You know, I believe that in the midst of all of the things we necessarily feel, we feel a lot of anger and indignation and frustration about the problems of our time, and sometimes we are tempted too to feel a lot of hopelessness. [another voice: "yes"] But in the last several weeks, as I have met this response from so many people around the country, it has been for me a rebirth of a profound sense of hope and confidence in America and her people.

Do you know, this country didn't become great by all the means that some of these people think, by the genius of scientists and political leaders and great ones hither and thither. That's not how this country was built. It was built on the struggle and the strength and the faith and the decency and the fear of God of so many millions of ordinary folks, whose names will never be written in the history books, about whom there will be no lines in the famous songs and stories of our era, but who -- every single one of them -- saw in their lives to live up to the basic standards of decency that would make them good mothers and fathers and friends and business people. They built this land. And I'll tell you something. We may look at the afternoon talk shows and the journalists and the TV shows every day and they may come across with the view that this country is greedy and mean and corrupt and full of licentiousness. But it is NOT so. We are still a country of decent folks and decent parents and decent families and decent business people and decent church going, believing people who mean to stand for what is right, not JUST in the public arena but in everything they do in their lives [applause] and they are there [applause] ... they are there in numbers. They are there in great numbers. They are there in numbers making the businesses and the families work.

And you know, it's time, I think, that we return to one simple basic standard. Not a standard of perfection. Let's be frank about that. None of us are free of our problems and our sins. You know the problem of our time isn't that we are sinners. We've always been sinners. The problem of our time is that so many people are tempted these days to repeal the difference between sin and not sin; right and wrong. Who don't want to feel the burden of guilt and shame that goes along with knowing that you stepped out of the right path -- but you know you never get back on the right path if you lose the sense of which way is north. We have lost our sense of direction and IT'S TIME THAT WE RISKED THE GUILT AND SHAME OF GETTING BACK WHERE WE BELONG. [applause]

We [applause] ... But we're gonna have a lot of help [applause] ... we're gonna have a lot of help, because that basic sense of right and wrong, that basic striving to do what is right that has helped this country get out of the mire of slavery and the mire of segregation and the mire of abuse of workers and women and children, that same sense of decency is at work in the country today. It's at work in the Pro-Life Movement demanding that we respect the lives of the unborn children. It's at work in the lives of home schoolers and people who have decided to take their responsibility for educating their children seriously.

It's at work in the lives of so many people who have decided that it's time to stand up and demand something we haven't gotten in a long time. And I for one plan to demand it. Cause I've been moved by the last several weeks. I've been moved by the recognition that there are people out there for whom the back room politicians won't speak. For whom those who aren't willing to put the issues of moral crisis and moral identity on the front burner of this nation's concern are not speaking.

And I have realized that in spite of whatever may be the challenge, and the difficulty, and the hardship involved, somebody has GOT to stand up and SPEAK FOR US! Somebody has GOT to STAND UP and FIGHT FOR US! [thunderous applause]

And so I have decided [applause] ... I have decided, and it was not an easy decision, and I want to call out four reasons why it wasn't easy --

Jocelyn would you bring the kids up here? Come on. Come on. Quickly now. [applause] Come on! Gotta move! Let's go! Come on. These are my reasons. I want to show you my reason why this decision was so difficult for me, cause I know that in the course of the next several months it means I'm going to have to spend a lot of time away from the most beautiful and important people in my life. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time away from home and family and kids and when you have a home and family, a wife and kids like I do, that IS a great sacrifice. [applause]

But I'll tell you something [applause] ... I'll tell you something. I believe that just as I take great pride in my family and in the love we feel for one another through ups and downs and hardships, I know that there are millions of Americans who take pride in THEIR families, and who are sick and tired of the culture we have allowed to develop in this country. A culture in the media, a culture in the journals, a culture on the television shows, a culture in the movies, a culture everywhere including in government policy, that has no respect for the parents, that has no respect for the families, that has no respect for the sacrifices we have to make to try to raise our children to be decent and clean and good.

And I believe that it's time [thunderous applause] and I believe that it's time [applause] ... it's time, my friends, we / have / got / now, right now, we've got to raise the banner. It's going to be a banner on which will be emblazoned, I believe, the simple basic principles of the Declaration of Independence. But I want to spend just a second to remind you of the real meaning of those principles. We always think about the rights, don't we? We always think about how it says we all have unalienable rights. Have you thought lately about where those rights are said to come from? They don't like to teach it in our schools anymore cause they've tried through this phoney doctrine of separation of church and state to separate GOD from our Country! [applause]

But the truth of the matter, the truth of the matter is that right there, not in a religious text of any sect or denomination, but in the fundamental statement of civic, public, principles of justice of our great nation, it was put very well: We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. From that endowment flows all of the institutions of self government we hold so dear. Because of that endowment we must have representative government and elections and due process. Everything we value as a free people flows from that one source that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights but there's one step nobody likes to take! Somebody could stand up and say: well so what if God endowed us with certain unalienable rights. So what! I've got the power. I've got the money. I've got the guns. We don't have to respect those rights. The other step that we've forgotten about is that if it means anything to have that endowment from God, then in order to respect it and respect the human rights of all, we must respect the authority of God. [applause]

And I'll tell you. For all the people out there who want to separate God from this country, I think it's quite clear from the Declaration that you separate God from America and you have separated this people from its freedom. WE / MUST / SAY / NO! [applause]

But in saying no [applause] ... in saying no we've got to remember something else, that that respect for God's Law and God's authority implies a discipline. It implies a responsibility. It implies a willingness no matter how often we go wrong, to respect the standard that distinguishes between right and wrong. It requires that even when it hurts. And even when it means with difficulty looking into the eyes of our children, and our sons, and our daughters, and our wives, and our sisters and our other relatives, we have to be willing to look at them and say, that we don't have the right to do what violates that fundamental charter of rights which comes to us from God.

If we want to remain a free people, then we will have to become again, a people able to respect the principles from which our freedom derives. We will have to become again a people capable of adopting the view of human nature that doesn't say passion excuses everything. But says instead that God has given us the ability and the wherewithal to govern our passions and to establish for ourselves a society in which freedom, because it is ordered and based on self government, is a blessing and not a curse.

And so I want to say, that I am going to be in the course of the next months and difficult as it may be, I'll be raising that standard, in the arena of Presidential politics, for I have decided [Alan begins to casually replace his watch on his wrist] to throw my hat in the ring [voice from audience: "YES!!!"] and I formally declare here and now, that I will be and am a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. [thunderous applause; standing ovation]

But I want to say something.. Thank you ... you've got to understand though...thank you...thank you...thank you...thank you...thank you... But can I ask you something? I want to ask it of you. I want to ask it of everybody who hears about this that people keep asking me in the media and elsewhere: "Well, what about your chances? Are your going to be able to win?" and so forth and so on, and I keep telling them that this is not a horse race! [laughter] And that even though they always talk about it if it is, that's degrading and debasing our politics.

I am, like anybody who gets involved in a race, there's something in my mind that will think someday about winning and losing. But I'll tell you something. I think we're all sick and tired of those folks who go out there and think so much about winning that they don't care how they win. Who think so much about winning [applause]... who think so much about winning that they are willing to back away from the issues of principle and right that make it worthwhile to win.

And I can state unequivocally that I have only one intention in this race. I am going to raise the banner of those principles on which we stand in common, Black and White, Christian and Jew, and Moslem and Hindu -- an American banner. And I am going to raise that banner in this politics. But I'd ask something of you. Cause I think if we're to take this Country back then each and every one of us will have to raise that banner in our families, and raise it in our businesses, and raise it in our schools and our churches and our communities, cause this can't be a campaign that's about winning power in the government. It's GOT to be a campaign that's about bringing back the responsibility that is the true source of power for our people. [thunderous applause]

And in that spirit [CNN special anchor, Joy, cuts in and CNN directors drop Alan in a large background window and cut the sound on Alan's continued speech to barely audible while Joy from a smaller window in the foreground but with full audio introduces Bill Schneider CNN political analyst.]

[Alan continues through the applause] And in that spirit ... and in that spirit ... and in that spirit ... we can move forward and we can drive these issues home to the hearts and minds of people knowing that win, lose, or draw, we will wake up the day after this campaign believing in our hearts with all our might that for what we did, for what we achieved, we have won a great victory for American principle, and THAT is the victory that matters most.

If you care about THAT. If you care about that victory, if you care about those principles, if you care about bringing this country back to the banner of family, and faith, and responsibility, and fear of God, then I invite you, win, lose, or draw, to stand with Alan Keyes.

Take your courage in your hands. Don't worry about the money. Don't worry about the backers. Don't worry about the endorsements cause there's only one endorsement that matters on the election day and that's the voice of the people and the Voice of God, and they will speak for us if we STAND for what is right.

Source: Alan Keyes for President 1996 Website Pat Buchanan 1996 Pat Buchanan 1996 March 20, 1995










Announcement Speech
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences
Monday, March 20, 1995

It is good to be back home again.

As you know, Shelley and I spent 10 wonderful weeks here in the winter of 1992, and we will never forget your generosity and your support when we came up here to New Hampshire, and you and I stood together to say to the national establishment of both parties, ''Turn around. You're going the wrong way!''

We may have lost that nomination, my friends, but you and I have won the battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party.

Four years ago, we came here to say no to tax hikes and no to quota bills, and now every Republican says no to tax hikes and no to quota bills and no to affirmative action.

So, we want first to welcome the prodigal sons home to their father's house.

But we shall remind them: The Buchanan Brigades are not leap-year conservatives. We have borne the day's heat. We have labored in these vineyards from the very first hour. And we stand here today to resume command of the revolution that we began here three years ago—because we intend to lead that revolution to triumph and into the White House in 1996.

But this campaign is not about yesterday. It is about tomorrow. It is about America's future. It is about taking America forward toward the dream of a Constitutional Republic that first stirred in the hearts of the boys who stood their ground on the Lexington Green and the men who held at the Concord Bridge. This campaign is about an America that once again looks out for our own people and our own country first.

Three years ago when I came to New Hampshire, I went up to the North Country on one of my first visits. I went up to the James River paper mill. It was a bad day, just before Christmas, and many of the workers at the plant had just been laid off. They were sullen and they were angry and they didn't want to talk to anyone.

So as I walked down that line of workers, I will never forget: Men shook my hand and looked away. Then one of them, with his head down, finally looked up, and with tears in his eyes said, ''Save our jobs.'' As I rode back down to Manchester, I wondered what it was I could do for that factory worker.

When I got back to Manchester that night, I read a story in the Union Leader about the U.S. Export-Import bank funding a new paper mill in Mexico.

What are we doing to our own people? What is an economy for if not so that workers and their families can enjoy the good life their parents knew, so that incomes rise with every year of hard work, and so that Americans once again enjoy the highest standard of living in the world? Isn't that what an economy is for?

Our American workers are the most productive in the world; our technology is the finest. Yet, the real incomes of American workers have fallen 20 percent in 20 years.

Why are our people not realizing the fruits of their labor?

I will tell you. Because we have a government that is frozen in the ice of its own indifference, a government that does not listen anymore to the forgotten men and women who work in the forges and factories and plants and businesses of this country.

We have, instead, a government that is too busy taking the phone calls from lobbyists for foreign countries and the corporate contributors of the Fortune 500.

Well, I have not forgotten that man at James River, and I have come back to give him my answer here in New Hampshire.

When I am elected president of the United States, there will be no more NAFTA sellouts of American workers. There will be no more GATT deals done for the benefit of Wall Street bankers. And there will be no more $50 billion bailouts of Third World socialists, whether in Moscow or Mexico City.

In a Buchanan White House, foreign lobbyists and corporate contributors will not sit at the head of the table. I will.

We're going to bring the jobs home and we're going keep America's jobs here, and when I walk into the Oval Office, we start looking out for America first.

So, to those factory workers in the North Country and to the small businessmen and businesswomen, I say to you: This campaign is about you. We are on you side.

Whatever happened to the idea of Americans as one nation, one people? Whatever happened to the good, old idea that all Americans, of all races, colors and creeds, were men and women to whom we owed loyalty, allegiance and love? What happened to the idea that America was a family going forward together?

When I was writing my column a couple of months ago, I read a story from New York about 58 new partners made at Goldman Sachs, each of whom had gotten a bonus of at least $5 million that year. Fine. One month later, the story ran that because profits were down at Goldman Sachs, 1,000 clerical workers were being laid off—1,000 men and women at the lowest levels at Goldman Sachs. That was a shameful act of corporate greed.

But let me tell you about another story. Down in LaGrange, Ga., I visited one of the most modern textile plants in America—only this textile plant had been burned to the ground. All the employees were saved, but the factory was a total ruin. And, after the fire, when the factory workers were called into the assembly hall of the administration building, they thought they were going to be told what so many others have been told before: Now that the plant has burned, we'll be moving to Mexico or Taiwan.

But the managers of the Milliken plant came down from Spartanburg and they said to these 600 workers: You are our family. We have suffered a loss together. We are going to look for a new job for every single worker in this plant, and beyond that, we're going to build a brand new Milliken plant, the most modern in the world, right here on this site in LaGrange, Ga. We want our workers to join together and help us build it.

And in August it will rise again. And every one of those workers will be kept on and brought back to his old job.

Isn't that the idea of free enterprise we Republicans and conservatives believe in? Isn't that the idea and the spirit of one people working together that we must recapture? So I say to the workers and managers at that textile plant down in LaGrange, Ga., and to all the other plants and businesses and small businesses around America: This campaign is about you. This fight is your fight.

And we Americans must also start recapturing our lost national sovereignty.

The men who stood at Lexington and at Concord Bridge, at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, they gave all they had, that the land they loved, might be a free, independent, sovereign nation.

Yet, today, our birthright of sovereignty, purchased with the blood of patriots, is being traded away for foreign money, handed over to faceless foreign bureaucrats at places like the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the U.N.

Look how far we have gone:

A year ago, two United States helicopters flying surveillance over northern Iraq were shot down by American fighter planes in a terrible incident of friendly fire. Captain Patrick McKenna of the Citadel, where I just visited, commanded one of those helicopters. Every American on board was killed. And when the story hit the news, the vice president, then visiting in Marrakesh at the World Trade Organization meeting, issued a statement that said the parents of these young men and women can be proud their sons and daughters died in the service of the United Nations.

But those young men and women didn't take an oath to the United Nations. They took an oath to defend the Constitution and the country we love. And let me say to you, when Pat Buchanan gets into that Oval Office as Commander in Chief, no young men and women will ever be sent into battle except under American officers and to fight under the American flag.

So let me say to those brave young patriots who have volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States to defend us, our peace and our security: This campaign is about you.

Look how far we have gone:

Rogue nations that despise America, right now, are plotting to build weapons of mass destruction and to buy or to build the missiles to deliver them to our country. Yet the United States of America remains naked to a missile attack. We have no defense. Why? Because a 20-year-old compact with a cheating Soviet regime, that has been dead half a decade, prevents us from building our missile defense.

Well, that dereliction of duty ends the day I take the oath.

I will maintain a military for the United States that is first on the land, first on the seas, first in the air, first in space—and I will not ask any nation's permission before I build a missile defense for the United States of America.

To those Americans who have served this country in her wars from Europe to the Pacific, from Korea to Vietnam: This campaign is about you. It is about never letting America's guard down again.

What is the matter with our leaders?

Every year millions of undocumented aliens break our laws, cross our borders, and demand social benefits paid for with the tax dollars of American citizens. California is being bankrupted. Texas, Florida and Arizona are begging Washington to do its duty and defend the states as the Constitution requires.

When I was in California in 1992, I spoke on this issue in San Diego. A woman came, uninvited, to the sheriff's office where I was holding a press conference, and asked if she could join me at that press conference. I said, ''Why?'' She said, ''I had a boy, a teen-age boy, who was killed in an automobile accident by drunken drivers who were on a spree, who had walked into this country, had no driver's license and did not belong here.''

Three months ago I talked, in the same city of San Diego, to a young Border Patrol agent. He had been decorated as a hero. He showed me the back of his head. There was a scar all over it. Illegal aliens had crossed the border, he went to apprehend them, and they waited to trap him. When he walked into their trap, they smashed his head with a rock and came to kill him. Only when he took out his gun and fired in self defense did his friends come and save his life.

Yet our leaders, timid and fearful of being called names, do nothing. Well, they have not invented the name I have not been called. So, the Custodians of Political Correctness do not frighten me. And I will do what is necessary to defend the borders of my country even if it means putting the National Guard all along our southern frontier.

So, to the people of California, Florida, Texas and Arizona being bankrupted paying the cost of Washington's dereliction of duty, to that brave Border Patrol agent and the men and women who serve with him, and to that woman who lost her boy because her government would not do its duty: This campaign is about you.

And as we defend our country from threats from abroad, we shall fight and win the cultural war for the soul of America. Because that struggle is about who we are, what we believe, and the kind of people we shall become. And that struggle is being waged every day in every town and school room of America.

When many of us were young, public schools and Catholic schools, Christian schools and Jewish schools, instructed children in their religious heritage and Judeo-Christian values, in what was right and what was wrong. We were taught about the greatness and goodness of this land we call God's country, in which we are all so fortunate to live.

When I was a little boy, 3 years old, 3-and-a-half-years old, my mother's four brothers, one by one, came down to our house, and said good-bye, and we took them to the bus station or the train station to send them off to Europe. Then we got reports from places like Anzio and Sicily, and, in the end, they all came home. But in our school days, when I was 5 years old or 6 years old, in first grade, occasionally we would go out in the playground and there would be a short ceremony for some fellow who did not come back from the Ardennes or Anzio or the Bulge.

And that's what we were taught, and that's what we loved.

But today, in too many of our schools our children are being robbed of their innocence. Their minds are being poisoned against their Judeo-Christian heritage, against America's heroes and against American history, against the values of faith and family and country.

Eternal truths that do not change from the Old and New Testament have been expelled from our public schools, and our children are being indoctrinated in moral relativism, and the propaganda of an anti-Western ideology.

Parents everywhere are fighting for their children. And to the mothers and fathers waging those battles, let me say: This campaign is your campaign. Your fight is our fight. You have my solemn word: I will shut down the U.S. Department of Education, and parental right will prevail in our public schools again.

''What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his immortal soul?'' That is true also of nations. No matter how rich and prosperous we may become in material things, we cannot lose this battle for the heart and soul of America.

For as de Tocqueville said long ago, America is a great country because she is a good country, and if she ceased to be good, she will cease to be great.

Yet, today, America's culture—movies, television, magazines, music—is polluted with lewdness and violence. Museums and art galleries welcome exhibits that mock our patriotism and our faith. Old institutions and symbols of an heroic, if tragic past—from Columbus Day to the Citadel at South Carolina, which graduated Captain McKenna, from Christmas carols in public schools to Southern war memorials—they are all under assault. This campaign to malign America's heroes and defile America's past has as its end: To turn America's children against what their parents believe and what they love.

But because our children are our future, we can't let that happen. We can't walk away from this battle. I pledge to you: I will use the bully pulpit of the Presidency of the United States, to the full extent of my power and ability, to defend American traditions and the values of faith, family, and country, from any and all directions. And, together, we will chase the purveyors of sex and violence back beneath the rocks whence they came.

So, to those who want to make our country America the beautiful again, and I mean beautiful in every way—This campaign is about you.

In the history of nations, we Americans are the freedom party. We are the first people, the only nation dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And nothing can stop to stop us from going forward to a new era of greatness, in a new century about to begin, if we only go forward together, as one people, one nation, under God.

So to these ends, and for these purposes, I humbly, but proudly, declare my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

Source: Pat Buchanan 1996 Website Lamar Alexander 1996 Lamar Alexander 1996 February 28, 1995










EMBARGOED UNTIL FEBRUARY 28, 1995, 10:00 A.M., E.S.T

The Maryville Address

Lamar Alexander



When I was appointed education secretary, one newspaper had this to say about where I had come from: "Lamar Alexander grew up in a lower middle class family in a small town in the mountains of Tennessee." That was all right with me but not -- I discovered when I called home the next week -- all right with my mother. She was literally reading Thessalonians to gather strength for how to deal with this slur on the family. "We never thought of ourselves that way, " she said. "You had a library card from the day you were three, and music lessons from the day you were four. You had everything you needed that was important."
Standing on the steps of our family home this morning, I was reminded that I grew up in this town of Maryville in such a privileged way. I had everything I needed that was important.
A few doors away was my grandfather's home. He was one of eighteen brothers and sisters. He ran away from these mountains when he was 11 years old, eventually became a railroad engineer out west, but got back home in time to sit on the porch and instruct me and the other children on Ruth Street, "Aim for the Top. There's more room there." So we grew up believing we could be the railroad engineer, or the principal like my father, or a concert pianist or the Governor -- or even the President of the United States. That was our picture of our future in this country.
This morning I walked from Ruth Street to Maryville High School, as I used to do. In those days, those four blocks were so filled with neighbors interested in my well being that I couldn't have gotten in much trouble even if there had been much trouble to get into.
My teachers taught me more than Algebra and music. I learned the importance of the pledge of allegiance, of telling the truth, of the greatness of this country and of our civilization, of the value of working and being on time, and of the difference between right and wrong.
Across from the school is the Presbyterian Church. If the church doors were open, we were there. Sunday morning, Sunday night fellowship, Monday night scouts, Wednesday prayer meeting, Thursday choir practice. Sometimes I even played the piano at revival meetings while my father led the singing.
And, of course, we were Republicans. One of my ancestors, when someone asked his politics, said, "I am a Presbyterian and a Republican. I fought to save the Union and I vote like I shot." So when I was ten years old my father brought me to this courthouse one Saturday morning to meet our Congressman. His name was Howard Baker, Sr. He gave me a dime. I will never forget it. And when I left I was sure I had met the most respected man I was ever likely to meet, other than my father, my grandfather and the preacher. I was taught to look up to Mr. Baker and what he did.

During the last five decades, I have had the opportunity to see my hometown and this country from almost every angle. I have walked across Tennessee and driven across America, even lived outside it in Australia for six months with my family. As education Secretary I was in classrooms in 101 cities. I know very well that this is the place -- America is still the country of opportunity.
I also know that not everyone today can imagine these opportunities for themselves in the same way I always have. Not everyone grew up with the privileges I had. And I believe those two things --- opportunity and privileges -- go hand in hand.
In 1991 I stood on a street corner in East Los Angeles with a principal who does that every day after school to discourage gangs from forming. The children were walking home through streets in which none of us would feel safe. They gave me a book of their poems entitled, "Farewell to the Morning." That was their view of their lives.
Some friends of our own children, now in their twenties, don't believe there is an American Dream anymore. This past summer, when I drove across America for two months, spending the night in homes, staying up late talking, I would ask, "Do you believe your children and your grandchildren will have more opportunities growing up in this country than you have had? Most people were afraid to say yes.
When Americans do not have an almost irrational belief in our unlimited future --and that each one of us has the opportunity to have a part of that future -- then we are losing what is unique about our country. We are losing the promise of American life.
I was also reminded on that drive across our country, that Americans know exactly why some of us are losing faith in our future. It is first, because of the arrogance of Washington, D.C. and, second, because of a collapse those institutions --the family, the neighborhood, the church and the schools -- that gave to me and to most of you -- the privileges that made us believe in my grandfather's advice, "Aim for the Top."
This anger at the arrogance of Washington, D.C., and this deep worry about what has been happening to our most basic institutions, produced a Republican Congress in November and gave birth to the opportunity for a new American revolution -- and the opportunity to turn that anger into hope.
The place to start is Washington, D.C. This is where I am different than most of the other candidates who will be seeking the nomination for President this year.
I have been a governor, a university president, and have helped to start a business that today has more than 1200 employees. I have worked for short terms for two Presidents, but unlike the other candidates -- I came home. I have spent about half the last 25 years in public service and half in the private sector. I live in Nashville, not Washington, D.C.

Where I come from has everything to do with where I stand.
Because I believe that parents and teachers know more about their children than anyone in Washington, I would abolish the U.S. Department of Education and move the responsibility back home. We know what to do.
I would not just fix welfare in Washington, I would end it and move the dollars back to you. We know what to do.
I would move most job training and law enforcement and Medicaid out of Washington, D.C. I have a short list of more than $200 billion worth of such policies and programs and decisions to send home. That would be a good start.
And I would fight for term limits and encourage the Congress to go home, too -- to spend six months at home with the people they represent -- because you know what they should do.

Someone asked me yesterday if the new Republican Congress is going too far. Just the reverse. I am afraid it will be too timid. The greatest danger Republicans have is this: now that we have captured Washington, we must not let Washington capture us.
For example, the Congress is considering legislation that would cut off welfare benefits after two years. I favor cutting off welfare benefits after two years, or perhaps sooner. But it is none of the business of Washington what Tennessee does about that. I trust Governor Sundquist and the people of this state to make that decision. We know what to do.
There is a federal crime bill that would require the state to adopt certain prison sentences in order to receive federal money. This sounds like Democrats giving orders from Washington, D.C.! If they want to set state prison sentences, they should resign and come home and run for governor or for the legislature or for sheriff. We are not too stupid to know what to do.
The worst thing we could do is to replace the arrogant empire we defeated with an arrogant empire of our own.
Because of where I come from, I believe we should spend less time trying to reinvent America in Washington, D.C. and more time trying to remember the principles that have made it such a remarkable country in the first place.
Equal opportunity is one of those first principles. That means scholarships and jobs should be for everybody and not based upon the color of your skin or where you came from. That is why as a student and governor I fought for civil rights, and as education secretary I said race-based scholarships were wrong.
The first Congress felt comfortable passing the First Amendment on one day and a national day of prayer called Thanksgiving on the next. That is why in 1981 I felt comfortable signing a law permitting a moment of silence including voluntary prayer in our schools.
My grandfather sold his farm to move his family into town so my father could attend Maryville High School. That is why I know that all families, especially poor families, should have the broadest possible choices of all schools. Parents, better than the government, know what that school should be.
I learned long time ago that it makes no sense for the government in Washington to spend $600 million more each day than it takes in. I am the only Republican candidate for President who has ever balanced a government budget. In eight years I balanced eight budgets, lowered the state debt and reduced the number of state employees.
Because I helped to start a business, I would cut the capital gains tax in a minute. That taught me that nothing else would better provide dollars to help growing companies create new jobs.
You and I know that it is dangerous for our country to reduce defense spending as a percentage of our wealth to its lowest level since 1940 when, in many ways, the world has never been more uncertain.
We know that for the last two years a "focus group Presidency" guided by overnight polling has been especially damaging to our foreign policy. The President's zigging and zagging has perplexed our allies and encouraged our enemies. When the United States is not strong and certain, the rest of the world becomes more unsettled and more dangerous.
We are proud that for the last ten years family incomes have grown more rapidly in Tennessee than in any other state. And we know how it happened. It is because we knew that Saturn and Nissan and thousands of small businesses -- not the government --created jobs, that it made sense to pay more for teaching well, that we didn't have to wait on Washington to build our own interstate highways, that the right to work law and stronger universities and the fifth lowest state taxes meant better jobs.

I believe that we know what to do -- that in Maryville and Concord and Des Moines and Austin and Tampa we are not too stupid to make decisions for ourselves about how to educate our children, to help the unfortunate, to build roads, to fight crime, to create jobs, to plan our own lives.

If the first place to start is Washington, D.C., then the next place to start is with you and me. Getting Washington out of our neighborhoods, won't mean much if we don't turn off our TVs and get into those neighborhoods.
The first place I stopped on my drive across America last summer was Henning, Tennessee, the home of my dear late friend -- our friend -- Alex Haley. Henning, about sixty miles north of Memphis, is a little town of 1200. When I arrived they were meeting in the city hall talking about their first drive-by shooting.
No one thought a federal crime bill would help. No one wanted the governor to send in troopers. They were talking about a 9 p.m. curfew for their children. About a community code of parental responsibility. About a city ordinance making parents pay for any damage their children cause to anyone else's property. They knew what to do --and that it was up to them to do it.

We must take responsibility for the future of our country, by taking responsibility for our own neighborhoods, schools, our families and ourselves.
Nobody else will do it for us. Washington can't do it -- that's a joke. The politicians can't do it -- won't happen. Only we the people can take responsibility for our future.
Our schools will be good when we decide they will be. We can have the power to choose the right one for our own child when we demand it.
Welfare reform will happen when citizens, not the government, penalize irresponsibility, encourage independence and offer a hand to the truly needy.
Streets will be safe when we decide that no wrong deed goes unpunished.
Families will become strong when we turn off the TV and spend more time with our children.

When I attended the Maryville schools, I carried a pen knife every day. So did most boys. Now there is a federal law against it. The federal law won't do any good at all. The reason none of us ever even thought of using our pen knives on each other was because of these homes we came from, these streets we walked through, these churches we attended, the teachers who taught us. We need a president who has the courage to say clearly and forcefully for as long as it takes for everybody to hear it, we know what to do and we must do it.

Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan, before he was elected to any public office, made an address called "A Time For Choosing." He said that in America freedom is our greatest value, and that then there were two great threats: communism abroad and big government at home.
Looking back over those last 30 years, I suppose we could say, one down and one to go. Communism, the evil empire, has virtually disappeared. But big government at home has become an arrogant empire, obnoxious and increasingly irrelevant in a telecommunications age. In every neighborhood in America, the government in Washington is stepping on the promise of American Life. The New American Revolution is about lifting that yoke from the backs of American teachers, farmers, business men and women, college presidents, and homeless shelter directors and giving us the freedom to make decisions for ourselves.
Ronald Reagan put it this way in 1964: "This is the issue of the election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan ourselves. "
That was also the issue of the election in 1994. It will be the issue of 1996, and for years to come. It took 30 years of unfashionable principled leadership by the last Republican Washington outsider who became President to help collapse the evil empire. Now is a good time to give another Republican Washington outsider the opportunity to help put some humility into the arrogant empire in Washington, D.C.

When I was five, that grandfather I told you about was a switch engineer on the Santa Fe railroad in Newton, Kansas. His job was to push each big engine into the roundhouse, put it on the turntable and head it in the right direction. Last year the people pushed America's engine into the roundhouse. The new Republican Congress is trying --but we need a new President to help turn it around and head it off in the right direction.

We need a President who is part of the people's revolution.

We need a President with the vision to paint a picture of America's future and lead us into the next millennium.

We don't need a President of Washington, D.C. We need a President of the entire United States of America.

Because I am absolutely committed to moving responsibility out of Washington, D.C. and giving us the freedom to make decisions for ourselves, because deep down in my heart I believe that we know what to do, and because I am determined to help renew the American spirit the old fashioned way, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block and family by family -- I am announcing today that I am a candidate for the office of President of the United States.

If you agree that the problem is the arrogance of Washington, D.C. and the answer is the character of our people, then this campaign is for you.

My friends, I invite you to Come On Along!

Thank you. God Bless You. God Bless the United States of America.

Source: Lamar Alexander for President Official Campaign Web Site Phil Gramm 1996 Phil Gramm 1996 February 24, 1995










Announcement Speech in College Station, Texas
February 24, 1995
Before I begin today, I want to thank Dale Laine, a student and dear friend of mine, class of 1978, who set up this event and whose dear, sweet, wonderful, loving mama Pat died last night at our event in Dallas. I want to ask each of you to remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

Twenty-seven years ago, I drove to College Station, Texas in a used Mercury with a back seat full of books to start what would be a 13-year teaching career and a lifelong love affair with Texas A&M University. (Cheers.)

It was here that I met and courted and married my wife, Wendy Lee Gramm. It was here that my two sons were born. It was here that I came and asked you to send me to Congress. It was here that I came back and asked you to let me trade in that little shovel that I was working with in the House for a bigger shovel in the United States Senate. (Applause.)

And I have come back today to ask you for a final promotion, and I've come to ask you for that promotion based on the work that I have done in the House, the work I have done in the Senate, and my commitment to see the job through until it's done.

On November the 8th, in the most decisive election since 1932, the American people said to their government, "Stop the taxing. Stop the spending. Stop the regulating." And they will be stopped. (Cheers/applause.) But our job is not finished. We are one victory away from changing the course of American history. We're one victory away from getting our money back and our freedom back and our country back, and that victory is a victory over Bill Clinton in 1996. (Applause.)

With a love for America and a resolve to make her right again, I today declare myself a candidate for president of the United States. (Applause.) (Chants from crowd.)

I'm running for president because I believe that if we don't change the policy of our government, if we don't change it soon, if we don't change it dramatically, in 20 years we're not going to be living in the same country that we grew up in. In 1950, the average American family with two little children sent one out of every 50 dollars it earned to Washington DC. Today that family is sending one out of every four dollars it earns to Washington DC. And if nothing changes soon, it's going to be one in three.

The odds that a boy born in America in 1974 will be murdered are higher than the odds were that a serviceman serving in World War II would be killed in combat. Last year over half of the children born in our big cities were born out of wedlock, and if this trend continues as it is, illegitimacy will be the norm and not the exception in America. I think the frightening but inescapable conclusion of any honest look at where we are as a nation has got to lead us to believe that we're either going to change the way we do our business or else we're going to lose the American dream.

There comes a time in the lives of families and businesses and even in the lives of great nations where you have to either face up to your problems or you're overwhelmed by them. I believe now is such a time for America. As a nation, we face tough choices. But those choices are no tougher than the choices that are faced up to and dealt with by working families and by businesses every day in America.

We have watched politicians for 30 years wring their hands about the budget deficit, but yet all we have to do to balance the federal budget is to freeze government spending at its current level and keep it there for three years. Now, I ask you, how many businesses represented here today have had to go through a tougher restructuring than that just to keep your doors open? How many families here today or families in your hometown have had to make tougher decisions than that when a job was lost or when a parent died? The difference is that families and businesses in America live in the real world. Our government has not lived in the real world for 40 years. And if I become president, that's going to change. (Cheers/applause.)

We need a leader that has the courage to tell our people the truth. We need a leader who has the vision to define solutions to our problems, solutions that people can understand and can believe in. And we need a leader who is tough enough to get the job done. In the next 20 months, I hope to convince the American people that I am that leader. (Applause.)

I want your vote, and I mean to earn it. But I know you're tired of promises, and I'm not asking you to accept me on faith. I want you to hear me out. But before you decide, read my record. (Cheers/applause.) As a Democrat member of the House, I authored the Reagan program. That program cut government spending, cut taxes and ignited the longest peacetime expansion in American history, an expansion that created 20 million new jobs. (Applause.) That budget rebuilt defense and set in place the cornerstone of a policy of peace through strength that won the Cold War and tore down the Berlin Wall and liberated Eastern Europe and changed the world. (Cheers/applause.)

Now, America and the people of my district were happy about that leadership, but Tip O'Neill and the Democrat bosses in the House hated it. So they took me off the Budget Committee. I felt the people of my district were being disenfranchised. But I'd been elected as a Democrat, and I felt if I simply changed parties and stayed in the Congress, something I had every right to do, that there might be some people who would feel betrayed. So against the best political advice, including the urging of my dear friend Lee Atwater, I resigned from the Congress, came back home and ran again as a Republican. (Cheers/applause.) No Republican had ever gotten more than a third of the vote in my district. But on Lincoln's birthday, February the 12th, 1983, I defeated 10 Democrats and I went back to Washington to finish the job. (Applause.)

As a freshman senator, when nobody else wanted to face up to the deficit, Warren Rudman and I wrote the Gramm-Rudman law, which was the only effort in a generation to do something about the deficit. And until Congress repealed it in 1990, it did bring the deficit down and it did slow down the rate of growth in government spending. And last year, in the darkest hour of the health care debate, when it looked like Bill Clinton was about to convince America that it made sense to tear down the greatest health care system the world had ever known to rebuild it in the image of the post office -- (laughter) -- when pollsters were saying it was political suicide to take on the Clinton health care bill head-on, when 20 Republican senators had signed on to a big-government compromise that raised taxes, I stood up and said, "The Clinton health care bill is going to pass over my cold, dead political body." (Cheers/applause.)

I am happy today to say that my political body is alive, the president's health care bill is deader than Elvis -- (cheers) --and Elvis may be back, but the president's health care bill will not be back. (Applause.) To paraphrase an old country and western song, I was conservative before conservative was cool. As president, I will balance the federal budget the way you balance your family budget and the way you balance your business's budget, and I will do it by setting priorities. And where no is the right answer, I will say no. (Applause.)

I will look at every program of the federal government and I will submit it to one simple test. It is a test that by the end of this campaign every person in every city and town in America will know and understand, and I call it the Dicky Flatt test. (Cheers.) I call it the Dicky Flatt test in honor of a printer from Mexia that you know because he introduced me here today. Many of you have met him and know him. Many of you have heard me speak about him. He works hard for a living. His print shop is open till 6:00 or 7:00 every weeknight, open till 5:00 on Saturday. And whether you see him at the PTA or the Boy Scouts or the Presbyterian Church, try as he may, he never quite gets that blue ink off the end of his fingers.

It's time for America to choose. Are we going to stay on this 30-year spending spree and squander the future of our country, or are we going to change policy and save the American dream? If I am elected president, I will make balancing the federal budget my number one priority and I will not run for re-election unless I get the job done. (Cheers/applause.) I want to cut government spending, I want to cut taxes, and I want to let families spend more of their own money on their own children, on their own businesses, on their own future.

The debate is not about how much money is going to be spent on education or housing or nutrition. The debate is about who ought to do the spending. Bill Clinton and the Democrats want the government to do the spending. I want the family to do the spending. I know the government and I know the family and I know the difference, and so do you. (Applause.)

The family is the most powerful engine for progress and human happiness in the history of mankind, and if I become president, we will put the family first. (Applause.) Our welfare system robs poor families of self-respect. It displaces fathers. It makes mothers dependent. And I mean to change it. (Cheers/applause.) I want to ask the people -- I want to ask the able-bodied men and women riding in the wagon on welfare to get out of the wagon and help the rest of us pull. (Cheers/applause.) We've got to stop giving people more and more money to have more and more children on welfare. (Cheers.) And we will change the welfare system because it hurts the very people that it's supposed to help, because it denies our fellow citizens access to the American dream. And because we love them, we're going to help them get it back. (Cheers/applause.)

You know, Bill Clinton still takes the old "blame society first" for crime. But if social spending prevented crime, Washington DC would be the safest spot on the planet. (Laughter.) I want to stop building prisons like Holiday Inns. (Cheers/applause.) I want to make prisoners work. (Cheers.) I want 10 years in prison without parole for possessing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime or a drug felony. (Cheers.) I want 20 years for discharging it, and I want the death penalty for killing somebody. (Cheers/applause.)

We don't have to live in a country where we open up the newspaper every morning and read that a robber, or a rapist, or a murder who has been convicted five or six times is back out on the street and they killed another child. I know how to fix that. And if I have to string barbed wire on every closed military base in America, I'm going to put these people in jail and keep them there. (Applause. Cheers.)

In taking the oath of office, I will swear to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees equal justice under law. And, as president, by executive order I will end quotas, preferences, and set asides. (Applause. Cheers.) I will fight for equal and unlimited opportunities for every American, but there will be special privilege for no one. (Applause. Cheers.)

The American dream -- the American dream has always been the deeply-held conviction that in America we have a land of opportunity, that in America hard work pays off, that in America you can do better than your parents did, and your children will have an opportunity to do better than you have done. My wife's grandfather came to this country as an indentured laborer to work in the sugarcane fields in Hawaii. My wife's father was the first Asian American ever to be an officer of a sugar company in the history of Hawaii. And under President Reagan and President Bush, my wife served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she oversaw the trading of all commodities and commodity futures in America, including the same cane sugar that her grandfather came to this country to harvest long ago. That is what the American dream is all about. (Applause.) That's American in action. And it's not the story of an extraordinary family; it's the story of an ordinary family in an extraordinary country. (Cheers.)

The United States of America cannot be a passive observer in world affairs. But we can't be the world's policemen either. (Cheers.) For our children's sake, and for the sake of humanity, we must be the leader of the world. And to be the leader of the world we must be strong. And that's why I am committed to the principle that even in a world where the lion and the lamb are about to lie down together, I want America to always be the lion. (Applause. Cheers.)

As president, I will stop the defense cuts. I will provide the pay and benefits necessary to continue to recruit the finest young men and women who have ever worn the uniform of this country. And we will provide them with the finest training and the best equipment that Americans can build. (Cheers.) As president, I will never send Americans into harm's way, unless our vital national interests are at stake, and unless our intervention can be decisive. And I will never send American troops into command under U.N. command. (Applause. Cheers.)

As a Texas senator, I have been called upon to console families of young men who have given their lives in the service of our country in Somalia and the Persian Gulf. And I want to promise you here today that I, as president, will never send your son or daughter anywhere in the world that I would not be willing to send my own sons. (Applause.)

In the postwar period we have been like a little rich kid in the middle of a slum with a cake. (Laughter.) And everybody's looked at this cake and they wanted a piece of it, and we've gone around cutting off pieces, handing it out. And people have hated us for it, because they wanted a bigger piece than we gave them. But what we have to share with a hungry world is not our cake, but the recipe that we use to bake that cake. (Applause.) That recipe is private property, free enterprise, and individual freedom. And in a Gramm administration we will keep the cake and share the recipe. (Applause.)

In just two years -- in just two years, the Clinton administration has squandered the prestige that Ronald Reagan and George Bush had elevated America to the status of the most powerful and respected country in the world. As president, I pledge to you that I will restore the full measure of respect that our unequal sacrifice in blood and treasury have forever earned for us in the world in which we live. (Applause.)

Unlike the current occupant of the White House, I know who I am. (Laughter. Cheers.) And I know what I believe. (Cheers.) And in this campaign I will speak in simple words that everyone will understand, because I want you to know how I feel in my heart. Neither of my parents graduated from high school, but my mother had a dream before I was born that I was going to college. I resisted.(Laughter.) They kept trying to inoculate me with learning. I failed the third, seventh and ninth grade. But my mamma prodded me every step of the way through college, to a Ph.D. in economics, because in the America that we grew up in, mothers' dreams did not die easily. (Applause. Cheers.)

Too many mothers' dreams are dying too easily in America today, and I want our America back. I want it back for those of us who have known it, and I want the American dream back for those who missed it the first time around. (Applause.) Almost 3,000 years ago, a prophet in Judea named Joel told his people, Your old men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions. America is not through dreaming. I want an America where families are limited only by the size of their dreams. I believe that America is worth fighting for, and with God's help I believe that we can and will win this fight. Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. (Applause. Cheers.)
Paid for by Phil Gramm for President, Inc.

Source: Phil Gramm For President Website

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