[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 42 (Friday, April 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3215-S3217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S3215]]
                             FISCAL CANCER

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, elected upon a promise to eliminate 
``waste, fraud and abuse,'' President Ronald Reagan appointed the Grace 
Commission to root through the government, eliminating obsolete 
programs and those whose costs exceeded their benefits. At the 
conclusion of its crusade the Grace Commission published a thick book 
entitled ``War on Waste.'' Ironically at that very moment the biggest 
waste of all was being created--a soaring debt and wasteful interest 
costs. Everyone with a credit card realizes there is no free lunch. The 
amount you borrow must be paid back--plus interest costs on the amount 
borrowed. Government is no different. As the national debt increases, 
interest costs compound and must be paid annually. Historically, 
interest costs have not been a burden. From the beginning of the 
Republic until 1981, borrowing of the United States for all government 
including the cost of all the wars from the Revolution through World 
War II, Korea and Vietnam was less than one trillion dollars. And 
interest cost was less than $100 million. But in the past 17 years 
without the cost of a war (Desert Storm paid for by the Kuwaitis and 
Saudis), the national debt has quintupled to $5.6 trillion; and 
interest costs on the debt have increased to $365 billion a year. 
Spending of a billion a day for interest is added to the debt, 
increasing the debt and increasing the spending for interest. With a 
gas tax, we obtain highways; with this interest ``tax,'' we get 
nothing. Waste!
  Tragically, this waste goes unnoticed. This is intended. The scam is 
known as the ``unified budget.'' The ``unified budget'' is not the 
actual income and spending of government. Rather it is the spending by 
government beyond its income while reporting a smaller deficit by 
borrowing from the special purposes funds. Of course, this doesn't 
reduce the deficit; it just moves the deficit out of sight from general 
government into these trust funds. For example, the actual deficit for 
FY 1998 as reported by the Congressional Budget Office is $153 billion. 
But the President and Congress report a ``unified'' deficit of $7.7 
billion by borrowing $161 billion from various trust funds. 
Accordingly, we have created deficits in the following trust funds: 
Social Security--$732 billion; Medicare--$146 billion; Military 
Retirement--$133 billion; Civilian Retirement--$460 billion; 
Unemployment Compensation--$72 billion; Highways--$23 billion; 
Airports--$10 billion; Railroad Retirement--$20 billion; All Others--
$55 billion.
  It should be emphasized that for Social Security this is against the 
law. In 1983, the Greenspan Commission called for a high payroll tax 
with the intent of not just balancing the Social Security budget but to 
build a surplus to pay for the retirement of the baby boomers in the 
next century. Section 21 of the Greenspan Commission report called for 
the Social Security Trust to be removed from the ``unified budget'' so 
that the fund could remain solvent to the year 2056. Accordingly, 
President Bush signed Section 13301 of the Budget Act prohibiting the 
President or Congress from reporting a budget using Social Security 
trust funds. But the President and the Congress continue to ignore the 
law. They do so with the sanction of the Chairman of the Federal 
Reserve Alan Greenspan and the financial world. Corporate America would 
rather government incur these horrendous deficits than come into the 
bond market with its sharp elbows, crowding out corporate finance and 
raising interest rates.
  There's a difference between the corporate economy and the country's 
economy. The corporate economy has as its goal higher profits. The 
country's economy has as its goal the good of society. For example, the 
corporate economy reaps higher profits by moving its manufacture 
offshore to a low wage country. But the country's economy suffers from 
a loss of manufacturing jobs.
  A nation's strength rests as if upon a three-legged stool. The one 
leg of values is unquestioned: the United States readily sacrifices to 
feed the hungry in Somalia and bring democracy to Haiti and Bosnia. The 
second leg of military strength is unquestioned. The third leg of 
economic strength has become fractured. For 50 years we sacrificed our 
economy in order to keep the alliance together in the Cold War. We 
willingly gave up markets and manufacture. While today's industry is 
competitive, valuable high-paying manufacturing jobs have become 
depleted. In the past 10 years, the United States has gone from 26% of 
its work force in manufacture to 13%. At a forum of Third World 
countries, the former head of Sony, Akio Morita stated that the 
emerging countries must develop a strong manufacturing sector in order 
to become a nation state. And then Morita admonished, ``That world 
power which loses its manufacturing capacity will cease to be a world 
power.'' Perhaps Morita had in mind the materials of basic production 
or defense. But more importantly manufacture is the job of the middle 
class. As you lose your middle class, you lose the strength of 
democracy. Sure, employment is at an all-time high. But service and 
part-time jobs are replacing the high-paid manufacturing jobs. The 
corporate economy wins, the country economy loses.

  The North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico was an instrument 
of the corporate economy. Europe had long since abandoned the free 
trade approach for that of the common market. For a common market, 
there first must be developed entities of a free market such as 
property rights, labor rights, rights of appeal, a respected judiciary, 
etc. The Europeans taxed themselves some $5 billion over four years, 
building up these institutions of a free market in Greece and Portugal 
before joining in a trade treaty. Mexico has not developed these 
institutions. Ignoring experience, the corporate economy bulled its way 
for NAFTA approval and the results are well known. Promised an increase 
of 200,000 jobs, the United States has lost 400,000. Promised an 
increase in our balance of trade, the $5 billion plus balance has been 
replaced by a $17 billion negative balance. Promised an improvement in 
the drug problem, the drug problem has worsened. Promised a diminution 
in immigration from Mexico, it has increased. Even the Mexican worker 
has suffered a 20% loss in take-home pay. The $12 billion that the 
United States has paid out in bail-out--the monies that could have 
installed the institutions of a free market--have gone back to Wall 
Street. The corporate economy has benefitted with cheaper production in 
Mexico. But the country's economy is weakened. South Carolina, with all 
of its new industry, has suffered a net loss of 14,000 manufacturing 
jobs since NAFTA.
  The ``unified budget'' that projects surpluses is a loser. When the 
country borrows from its trust funds, it really doesn't borrow; it just 
moves the deficit out of sight. Corporate America could care less. They 
don't have to pay the bills. They don't have to worry about the future 
of America. But we in public office do. A day of reckoning is at hand. 
Already the biggest spending item in our budget is interest costs on 
the national debt. Bigger than defense. Bigger than Social Security. 
All waste. Should interest costs return to their normal rate of 10 
years ago, then by 2003, we will have to spend in excess of $500 
billion on interest charges--an annual waste of $500 billion. At that 
time, we will owe Social Security and the pension funds over $2 
trillion. Forced to raise money for these obligations, Congress will be 
scrambling to find enough money for entitlements and a limited defense 
much less obligations. There will be little money left for general 
government. At present, foreigners have been willing to buy the bonds, 
and lend the money to finance our deficits. In fact, they use their 
substantial holdings to leverage prevalence in trade negotiations by 
threatening from time to time to sell. Fearful that this will increase 
rates, our negotiators give in. Now with the Pacific Rim economy in 
shambles, it shouldn't surprise anyone if they don't show up at the 
next bond sales. Immediately, we would have higher interest rates. 
Today we have a foreign debt of $1.2 trillion. Already we have gone 
from the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor.
  According to the CBO, the FY 1998 budget is in deficit $184.1 
billion. Instead of surpluses, CBO projects deficits for the next five 
years for the sum total of $905 billion. But all across the land one 
hears shouts of ``Balanced Budgets'' and ``Surpluses as far as the eye 
can see.'' We are wasting with fiscal cancer, But the American people 
don't know. The media have put them to sleep with the ``unified 
budget.''

[[Page S3216]]

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to note the passing of 
another milestone by our esteemed Vice President and my good friend, Al 
Gore. On March 31, the Vice President celebrated his fiftieth 
birthday--in excellent humor and high spirits, I might add. Welcome to 
the ``Over 50'' club, Mr. Vice President.
  The passage of half a century of life is not a milestone everyone 
likes to celebrate. I know, having passed my fiftieth six years ago. 
But then again, I understand my colleague Senator Thurmond sent the 
Vice President a birthday greeting in which Senator Thurmond pointed 
out that he was running for president when Al Gore was born. Senator 
Thurmond will celebrate his 98th birthday in December.
  Al Gore has always been a man of exceptional accomplishment and 
character. His sense of wonder and enthusiasm for life is just as 
palpable today as it was years ago when we first met. There's no doubt 
he has been one of the most effective Vice Presidents in the history of 
our nation and I have no doubt he will be equally as effective in 
whatever future endeavors he chooses to pursue. I look forward to the 
21st century knowing the Vice President will be leading us there.
  Trudie Feldman of the Free Press has penned a worthy tribute to the 
Vice President. I ask unanimous consent that the text of this article 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                         [From the Free Press]

               At 50, Al Gore Looks Forward To Year 2000

                         (By Trude B. Feldman)

       Albert Gore Jr.'s 1965 yearbook at St. Albans Episcopal 
     School for Boys in Washington, D.C., notes: ``It probably 
     won't be long before the popular and well-respected Al Gore 
     reaches the top . . . When he does, his classmates will 
     remark, `I knew that guy was going somewhere.' ''
       Now, 33 years later, Mr. Gore is the 45th Vice President of 
     the United States, and in the year 2000, he expects to seek 
     the presidency.
       On Tuesday, Mr. Gore will be 50 years old, and in a 
     birthday interview, he told me, ``I feel no sense of dread 
     about turning 50--at least, not yet. Each decade of my life 
     has been better than the previous one. As time goes on, I 
     enjoy life more. I'm amazed at how much I learn each day.''
       What motivates the vice president?
       ``The job itself motivates me, and there is much 
     satisfaction in it,'' he reflects. ``What the president and I 
     do now has tremendous potential to help bring about a better 
     world for our children and grandchildren.''
       Sitting in his White House office for the 45-minute 
     exclusive interview, Mr. Gore, whose youthful zest for life 
     belies his chronological age, is hearty and fit.
       His voice grows softer and he looks back on his 50 years.
       ``I have the same enthusiasm for life that I had 25 years 
     ago,'' he says. ``Meaningful, hard work has always been an 
     important part of my life. I try to maximize the use of every 
     minute, and I'm frustrated by inefficiencies that waste 
     time.''
       Because of his ever-demanding schedule, he admits to 
     irritation when there isn't sufficient time or preparation 
     for the day's agenda. The key to his energy and strength of 
     purpose, he says, is that he takes good care of himself, 
     nurtures his family and maintains a healthful perspective and 
     positive outlook.
       How has the vice presidency matured Mr. Gore?
       ``Maturity results from attending to the level of 
     difficulty demanded by the decisions that must be made in the 
     White House--by the president, and often by me and others,'' 
     he responds. ``That level exceeds by several orders of 
     magnitude the decisions that need to be made in nearly any 
     other setting.


                         far-reaching decisions

       ``For instance, life and death may sometimes hang in the 
     balance in the decisions we make in the White House--and 
     possibly on a grand scale, profoundly affecting the future of 
     the United States as well as the world. On any given day, 
     there may be several far-reaching and complex decisions to be 
     made. The burden falls primarily on the president, but when 
     he asks me for advice and analyses, I share that burden. 
     These conflicting and sensitive issues test a persons' mental 
     and physical stamina.''
       What most surprises Mr. Gore is the multiplicity of issues 
     which he and the president must tackle simultaneously.
       ``Before working at the White House, I imagined that one 
     would have the luxury of resolving a world-class problem 
     before going on to the next one,'' he says. ``But the reality 
     is that the problems come in twos, threes, fours and fives. 
     It is an arduous, but invaluable, maturing experience.''
       Mr. Gore and the president eat lunch in the Oval Office 
     once a week when only the two discuss the vast array of 
     matters.
       ``We have a unique relationship,'' Mr. Gore says. ``Each 
     day we talk frequently, and on particular problems, I give 
     him my candid judgment. The president's stamina, 
     extraordinary capacity for work, and insightfulness inspire 
     me. I see, up close, his dedication to the job, and I marvel 
     at his ability to articulate--with practical policies--his 
     understanding of our citizenry.''
       As for the impact the campaign finance hearings are having 
     on Mr. Gore, he says, ``Going through this sometimes trying 
     period has matured me as a leader. It has called upon my 
     ability to focus on the people's business, even while being 
     subjected to sharp, often unwarranted attacks. As a result, I 
     have developed a thicker skin.''
       Given the relentless attempts at character assassination, 
     why does Mr. Gore want to remain in public life?
       ``Public service is the path I've chosen, and I am 
     committed to it,'' he says, ``Accepting the downside is as 
     necessary as accepting the enormous satisfactions in helping 
     to move American in the right direction.
       ``As for handling personal attacks, I draw from experience 
     in journalism, and I try to avoid taking the criticism 
     personally. Reporters and editors have jobs to do. Some do 
     them well, some less well. After three national campaigns, 16 
     years in Congress and five years in the White House, I 
     recognize the ebb and flow of criticism and know how to keep 
     it all in perspective. What endures is who you really are, 
     what you really believe in, and what and how you apply your 
     efforts. As the president and I move toward our goals, we 
     expect to make a dent in the prevalent cynicism regarding its 
     leaders.
       The vice president is convinced that the international 
     community is hungry for both civility and spiritual revival.
       Asksed whether he is concerned about the present decline in 
     the civility, he responds, ``Yes, I think there is an 
     increase in factionalism and a new intensity of acrimony in 
     many of the critiques aimed at the president and me. Perhaps, 
     from their perspective, Republicans feel the same. In 
     previous periods of American history, there might have been 
     times when partisan bitterness was even greater. For the 
     modern era, the current level of vitriol seems 
     unprecedented.''


                        dangers of factionalism

       He adds: ``Our founders, particularly James Madison, warned 
     against the dangers of factionalism. In some ways, the impact 
     of television and the Internet on the news media may make our 
     system more vulnerable to this poison. Political leaders need 
     to tone down the level of antipathy that has been creeping 
     into our national debates. In fact, I'm now working on how to 
     address this problem.''
       If the vice president could relive his 50 years, he says he 
     would not change anything in his personal life, except for 
     the year 1989. While many people consider reaching 50 the 
     turning point in their lives, for Al Gore, that turning point 
     was in April 1989, when his then 7-year-old son, Albert III, 
     was struck by a car while leaving a Baltimore Orioles 
     baseball game. (He sustained a broken leg, broken ribs and 
     damage to his internal organs.)
       Mr. Gore recalls ``The accident, which almost claimed my 
     son's life, brought home to me in a sudden, overwhelming way 
     the sense of temporality one associates with life's turning 
     points.
       Now 15, Albert is fully recovered, and one of his fathers 
     greatest joys is attending athletic events in which his son 
     participates.
       Mr. Gore, whose controlled demeanor is often interpreted as 
     aloofness, is actually friendly and compassionate. He even 
     admits to a sentimental streak, and he was recently moved by 
     the movie Titanic and its reminder of the uncertainties and 
     brevity of life.
       Mr. Gore runs or jogs some 20 to 25 miles a week, when he 
     is not training for longer races. In addition to running laps 
     around his residence, he often jobs when he travels. Walking, 
     jogging, hiking, bicycling and swimming, he says, have 
     replaced more risky exercise such as full-court basketball, 
     which led to a torn Achilles tendon three years ago.
       ``My long recuperation on crutches,'' he adds, ``taught me 
     to leave the slam dunks to younger people.''
       Nevertheless, in the recent Marine Corps Marathon--in a 
     steady rain--he ran the entire 26 miles with two of his 
     daughters, Karenna, 24, and Kristin, 20.
       ``It was a first-time marathon for the three of us,'' he 
     notes. ``We'll never forget that rich experience, and I 
     consider it a personal milestone. As exhausted as I was at 
     the finish--over four hours later--I had a tremendous sense 
     of accomplishment. And as a father, it was a delight to have 
     my daughters each slow down, to run alongside me, encouraging 
     me to finish. I might have missed the marathon but for their 
     insistence that I train for, and enter it.''
       Perhaps the only American vice president to run in and 
     complete a marathon, Mr. Gore points to the connection 
     between good physical and mental health.
       ``Jogging helps me to cope with the pressures of my job,'' 
     he says. ``If I'm able to run for some two hours, I use the 
     time to think through whatever is on my mind.''
       Citing one example, Mr. Gore says that when he addressed 
     congregants at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Dr. 
     Martin Luther King's birthday in January, he was able, while 
     jogging earlier, to clarify his message. And during his 
     remarks that day, he proposed--as part of the President's 
     Initiative on Race--the largest single increase in the 
     enforcement of civil rights laws in 20 years.
       Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Hospital 
     for Women, and he grew up

[[Page S3217]]

     in the nation's capital, where he cut his political teeth. He 
     can remember sitting on then-Vice President Richard Nixon's 
     lap during a Senate session he attended with his father, then 
     a U.S. Senator from Tennessee.
       Mr. Gore also spent some of his formative years on the 
     family farm in Carthage, Tenn., where his chores included 
     grooming cattle and feeding chickens. (That farm is where he 
     will join his parents for a birthday get-together Tuesday 
     morning. Later, he will return to Washington for a festive 
     celebration with other family members and friends.)
       Mr. Gore began a career in journalism in the U.S. Army when 
     he was stationed near Saigon, South Vietnam, and wrote for 
     The Brigade. Back home, he was a general assignment writer 
     for The Tennessean in Nashville. During some six years there, 
     he covered the police beat; wrote obituaries, features and 
     editorials; and was an investigator reporter.
       The unusual actions of politicians, who were the subject of 
     his investigations, stimulated his curiosity, and soon the 
     dynamics of how politicians make decisions became of interest 
     to him.
       ``In journalism, I learned how to gather information and 
     communicate it,'' he says. ``I soon became confident that I 
     could better serve the country in the political arena. Rather 
     than reporting on the need for change, I wanted to help bring 
     it about. So in 1976, after intense but brief consideration, 
     I ran for Congress from Tennessee's Fourth District.''
       Elected at age 28, Rep. Gore soon emerged as a forceful 
     proponent of consumer rights. He was also involved in 
     groundbreaking investigative hearings. But he was most proud 
     of his work in bringing about legislation requiring that 
     infant formula sold in the United States meet certain 
     nutritional and safety standards.
       When Tennessee's Sen. Howard Baker retired in 1984, Rep. 
     Gore won Sen. Baker's seat and became active in science, 
     technology and defense issues. He led a six-year effort to 
     link school and research centers with America's most powerful 
     computers on a high-speed ``Information Superhighway'' and is 
     credited with coining that phrase.
       While Mr. Gore has had few regrets over the past 50 years, 
     he allows that there have been some harsh words he'd like to 
     retract.
       ``When I think if the unkind words that have passed my 
     lips, with few exceptions, I wish I could take them back,'' 
     he says. ``On the other hand, I feel I've had more than my 
     share of blessings. I'm blessed with a wonderful wife who has 
     been a salvation for me in many ways. Tipper and I have known 
     each other since we were teen-agers. We have grown, learned 
     and changed as we matured together, and she has taught me 
     more about life than anyone else.
       ``If people think I'm stiff now, they should have seen me 
     before she worked me over--evidently, not enough yet.''
       (Mrs. Gore recently led the U.S. presidential delegation to 
     the Winter Olympics in Japan, accompanied by Albert III and 
     Karenna. Daughter Sarah 19, was unable to miss her classes at 
     Harvard.)


                             Joy of family

       Mr. Gore went on to describe their four children as a 
     source of joy for Tipper and him. ``Each child is a blessing 
     beyond measure,'' he says. ``I'm also blessed with caring 
     parents who provided me with a generous set of opportunities 
     and the encouragement and confidence . . . that I could 
     achieve on my own.''
       He credits his mother, Pauline, a former attorney; and his 
     father Albert Sr., with instilling in him a respect for 
     principles and values that still motivates him.
       ``My parents were wise and firm in raising me and my older 
     sister, Nancy,'' he remembers. ``They endowed us with 
     spiritual strength and the kind of security that comes with 
     steady parental affection and guidance. The way they treated 
     us and each other had a profound influence on me.''
       Mr. Gore also recalls that his parents taught, by deed as 
     well as by word, that discrimination and prejudice are sins 
     that should not be condoned.
       He vividly recalls that, as an 8-year-old, he lived in a 
     small house, halfway up a hill, near a mansion. On the day 
     that property changed hands, the neighbors were invited to an 
     ``open house.''
       ``In the mansion's basement, my father pointed to the dark, 
     dank stone walls, and the cold metal rings in a row, and 
     explained that they had been used as slave rings,'' Mr. Gore 
     remembers.


                           horror of slavery

       ``To this day, I have an image of the horror those rings 
     represented,'' he says. ``That experience helped shape my 
     sensitivities to the extremes of racism.
       ``Now, we must work harder to banish racist behavior. It 
     diminishes those who practice it as well as those who suffer 
     from it.''
       Spirituality is an integral part of Mr. Gore's makeup. 
     After graduating from Harvard university, he was ``open to 
     the call'' of becoming a minister, and he enrolled in 
     Vanderbilt University's School of Divinity.
       ``I was eager,'' he recalls, ``to study in a structured, 
     disciplined way the questions--`What is the purpose of life? 
     What are our duties to God? What is the nature of humankind?'
       ``I didn't find all the answers I sought, but I continued 
     to study. While my own Christian tradition has been the 
     bedrock of answers for me, I studied other traditions and 
     felt enriched by them as well.''
       Asked to describe the difference he made in the past five 
     years, Mr. Gore puts it this way:
       ``The closeness of my partnership with the president serves 
     the people in many ways. Because I retain his confidence, I 
     am able to advise him on virtually every policy matter, and 
     at his request, to take the lead in some of the 
     initiatives.''
       For example, Mr. Gore is involved in improving the 
     management of the Internal Revenue Service, and he says the 
     new IRS commissioner, Charles O. Rossotti, selected for his 
     management and systems analysis skills, will make the IRS 
     more people-oriented and bring the computers up to date.
       According to Sheldon S. Cohen, IRS commissioner in the 
     Johnson administration, Mr. Gore is working for a more 
     ``user-friendly'' government and supports Commissioner 
     Rossotti's two priorities: to modernize the computer system 
     and to enhance the taxpayers' rights.
       Mr. Rossotti says that in the five years Mr. Gore has been 
     at the helm of reinventing government, he steered a course 
     that will help renew the people's faith in government to 
     provide quality services.
       ``The vice president's visions and goals are woven 
     throughout our new report on the IRS,'' Mr. Rossotti adds. 
     ``He wants every taxpayer treated with fairness, and to 
     ensure that the IRS provides services that are consistently 
     as good as those in the private sector.''


                           women's well-being

       Turning to the needs of women and their well-being, Mr. 
     Gore says that they are major consumers of health care and 
     decision-makers for their families.
       ``Yet,'' he adds, ``there is evidence of unequal treatment 
     of women in our health care system. Women are less likely to 
     be referred to specialists, and three times as likely to be 
     told their medical condition is `all in their head.'
       ``I have started to address these issues through the 
     `Patient's Bill of Rights' and with the American Medical 
     Association.''
       He says that now that the AMA has a woman as president, she 
     will undoubtedly help raise awareness of health issues of 
     particular concern to women.
       (Dr. Nancy Dickey is the first female president of the AMA 
     in its 151-year history.)
       Al Gore often demonstrates that he places more value in the 
     power of knowledge than in the knowledge of power. This, he 
     maintains, is the cornerstone of his leadership philosophy.
       ``I follow this approach whether the issue is nuclear 
     disarmament, organ transplants, global warming or 
     telecommunications,'' he adds. ``I study a subject until I 
     thoroughly master it. Only then do I begin to formulate 
     appropriate policy initiatives.''
       Mr. Gore's diligence was attested to by President Clinton 
     when he recently disclosed to a Florida audience that he and 
     the vice president do not always agree, but that their 
     disagreements are among the most thought-provoking of his 
     presidency.
       ``And when I disagree with him,'' the president remarked, 
     ``I make sure I have my facts straight.''
       How will Mr. Gore's 50-year milestone affect the way he 
     lives the remainder of his life?
       ``I don't imagine it will have any significant impact in 
     and of itself,'' he said. ``But any time you pause and take 
     stock of your life, you are able to clarify the vision you 
     have for the future.''
       That vision is apparent in what Al Gore wishes for this 
     milestone.
       ``As I reach my 50th year, I am content,'' the vice 
     president said. ``So my birthday wish is that every person be 
     blessed with a renewed spirit of goodwill and that we all 
     work together for freedom and peace in a world where kindness 
     and justice prevail.''
       Asked how he wants to be remembered, Mr. Gore told me, 
     ``I'd like to be remembered as someone who made a very 
     positive difference for our country and as one who helped 
     create a brighter future for humanity.''

                          ____________________