[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 202 (Friday, December 21, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8012-S8013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMEMBERING PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I was honored to attend the ceremonies 
in the Capitol Rotunda and at Washington National Cathedral for former 
President George H.W. Bush. I first met President Bush when he was Vice 
President and I was the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. He 
visited Annapolis, and I presented him with a Maryland tie. He 
immediately took off his tie, which he gave to me, and put on the 
Maryland tie, which he wore with pride. He had a keen eye for detail, 
for the little things. I had a book on a shelf in my office which was 
still in the shrink-wrap packaging. He sent me a note--one of his 
thousands of famous personal notes--gently ribbing me, writing, ``It's 
good to see you are keeping up on your reading.''
  I thing George H.W. Bush may have been the most qualified person ever 
elected President, starting all the way back to his high school years 
at Phillips Academy Andover, where he was president of the senior 
class, secretary of the student council, a member of the editorial 
board of the school newspaper, and captain of the varsity baseball and 
soccer teams. He was one of the youngest aviators in the Navy at the 
beginning of World War II and was barely 20 when his Grumman TBM 
Avenger was hit by flak during an attack on Japanese installations on 
Chichijima. He calmly delivered his payload, scoring several hits, 
before flying as far away from the island as he could in a plane with 
its engines on fire. He bailed out and ended up in an inflatable raft 
for four hours before being rescued by the submarine USS Finback. He 
flew 58 combat missions, for which he received the Distinguished Flying 
Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to 
the USS San Jacinto.
  After his military service, he went to Yale University, graduating 
with a bachelor of arts degree in economics in 2\1/2\ years. He was 
president of his fraternity, captain of the Yale varsity baseball team, 
and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He could have stayed back east in 
Connecticut, where his father Prescott would be elected to the U.S. 
Senate in a special election in 1952, but George Bush moved to Texas 
with his wife Barbara and their young son George W. Bush, where he 
cofounded Zapata Petroleum Corporation. He was a successful businessman 
when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964, losing to the Democratic 
incumbent, Ralph Yarborough. Two years later, however, he was elected 
to the U.S. House of Representatives, and he won reelection in 1968. 
The Seventh District was conservative, but George Bush voted for the 
Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Fair Housing Act, and he supported 
birth control and a women's right to choose.
  In 1970, then-President Richard Nixon prevailed on George Bush to run 
for the U.S. Senate again. He did, but he lost again, this time to 
Lloyd Bentsen. President Nixon nominated him to serve as U.S. 
Ambassador to the United Nations, and the Senate confirmed the 
nomination unanimously. He served with distinction for 2 years. In 
1973, he

[[Page S8013]]

became chairman of the Republican National Committee and survived 
Watergate with his reputation and integrity intact. President Gerald 
Ford appointed Bush to be chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the 
People's Republic of China. During the time he held this position, he 
was instrumental in improving U.S.-China relations.
  From January of 1976 to January of 1977, George Bush was Director of 
Central Intelligence and incoming President Jimmy Carter considered 
keeping Bush in the post. He left the Central Intelligence Agency and 
became a part-time professor at Rice University's Jones School of 
Business and a director at the prestigious Council on Foreign 
Relations.
  In 1980, George Bush ran for the Republican nomination for President, 
ultimately yielding to Ronald Reagan, who then chose Bush as his 
running mate. George Bush served as Vice President for 8 years and 
then, in 1988, became the first incumbent Vice President to be elected 
President in 152 years.
  George Bush brought all of these qualifications and experiences to 
the Oval Office. Now, he only served one term; he was defeated in his 
bid for reelection in 1992. But many commentators have noted that he 
may be the most successful one-term President in U.S. history. Indeed, 
his accomplishments in 4 years compare favorably with the 
accomplishments of many two-term Presidents. I think the key here is 
that he knew how to reach across the aisle and forge bipartisan 
compromises. I would like to highlight four.
  The first is the Acid Rain Program that was included in the Clean Air 
Act Amendments of 1990. The Acid Rain Program established a cap-and-
trade regime to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. Cap-
and-trade was originally a Republican idea to harness market forces for 
environmental protection. Environmental groups and Democrats were wary, 
initially, of the authorizations to emit SO2 and 
NOX, known as allowances. They worried that a ``property 
right'' in polluting was being established, but the program exceeded 
everyone's expectation and is one of the most successful environmental 
programs in history. When George W. Bush was President, the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, determined that the program has 
had a benefit-to-cost ratio of 40-1. Our technical knowledge of the 
best ways to structure cap-and-trade programs has grown exponentially 
since 1990; sadly, the political will has atrophied. Even though 
Republicans were the first to promote cap-and-trade, they have 
essentially abandoned the idea now, but President Bush saw the 
potential, and the enormous progress we have made in combatting acid 
rain is part of his environmental legacy that will endure.
  The second accomplishment is the Americans with Disabilities Act, 
ADA, which our retiring colleague, Senator Hatch, championed with then-
Senator Tom Harken from Iowa. President Bush signed ADA into law in 
1990, and it became known as the Emancipation Proclamation for people 
with disabilities. ADA literally changed the landscape of America by 
requiring buildings and transportation to be wheelchair accessible, and 
it required workplace accommodations for people with disabilities. 
Nearly 30 years after President Bush signed ADA into law, the 
improvements the ADA has made enjoy an 83 percent approval rating from 
the American public. Making life, education, and work more accessible 
to people with disabilities isn't just good for them; it is good for 
all of us as we benefit from the fuller contributions they are now able 
to make to society.
  The third accomplishment, I am sure, was difficult for President 
Bush, and it cost him Republican support in his bid to win reelection 
in 1992: the 1990 budget deal he negotiated with Congress. At the 1988 
Republican National Convention, he famously said, ``Read my lips: no 
new taxes.'' While he was a Texan by choice, he never lost the 
pragmatism characteristic of New Englanders. As a recession began to 
fuel a rise in budget deficits, he realized that he needed to work with 
a Congress controlled by Democrats and come up with a budget deal, 
stating ``it is clear to me that both the size of the deficit problem 
and the need for a package that can be enacted require all of the 
following: entitlement and mandatory program reform, tax revenue 
increases, growth incentives, discretionary spending reductions, 
orderly reductions in defense expenditures, and budget process 
reform.'' He understood that such a comprehensive framework is the only 
way to reduce the deficit. Unfortunately, the Trump administration and 
congressional Republicans still cling to the discredited notion of 
``supply-side'' economics, which President Bush famously called 
``voodoo economics,'' and our budget situation has become more and more 
precarious. I doubt President Trump is capable of displaying President 
Bush's pragmatism, deal-making ability, and willingness to sacrifice 
personal popularity for the greater good.
  His fourth accomplishment fell within his ``wheelhouse": foreign 
policy and personal diplomacy. He prudently, successfully navigated the 
fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Saddam 
Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. He showed remarkable but characteristic 
restraint when the Berlin Wall came down, and many historians credit 
that restraint with preventing a backlash from hardliners in Eastern 
Europe. Likewise, the relationship he carefully cultivated with Soviet 
Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, including negotiating the Strategic Arms 
Reduction Treaty, START, helped end the Cold War not with a bang, but 
with a whimper.
  Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Hussein invaded 
Kuwait in 1990, President Bush carefully assembled a coalition that 
consisted of our traditional allies but also the Soviet Union and, even 
more crucially, other Arab nations to drive him out. He went to 
Congress and received authorization for the use of military force when 
it became clear that international diplomacy would not succeed in 
dislodging Hussein. ``Operation Desert Storm'' was well-planned and 
well-executed and succeeded in liberating Kuwait in less than 2 months. 
While many people have argued that President Bush should have extended 
the war to remove Hussein from power, he made it clear from the start 
that was never his objective. He presciently argued that pursuing 
Hussein into Iraq would destabilize the region and lead to a lengthy 
military conflict. President Bush optimistically spoke of a ``New World 
Order'' characterized by an era of historic cooperation between 
nations. He helped to bring such order into existence. It seemed 
durable at the time. Now, we realize that it needs more careful 
attention and nurturing than we, perhaps, previously thought necessary.
  All of these accomplishments and more cemented George H.W. Bush's 
legacy. They alone would be impressive, but what became clear in the 
outpouring of respect and affection that followed his death is the 
acknowledgment of what a genuinely decent person he was. He was a 
humble and self-deprecating man. He respected our important 
institutions, and he respected people, including his opponents. He was 
deeply religious. He embraced the principle of noblesse oblige: to whom 
much is given, much more shall be required in return. As a result, he 
lived his life as a servant. He was committed to his country and to his 
beloved wife Barbara and his family, and to his friends. It seems he 
had an inexhaustible desire and capacity for making new friends from 
all walks of life, including former political adversaries such as the 
man who defeated him in the 1992 election, Bill Clinton. When President 
Bush spoke of his desire to see a ``kinder, gentler America,''--one 
illumined by a thousand points of light, he was sincere.
  Since President Bush has died, many commentators have said that he 
represented a bygone era. I certainly hope not. If we are to continue 
succeeding as a nation, his fundamental decency, pragmatism, kindness, 
bravery, self-sacrifice, persistence, and optimism shine a bright light 
on the path we should strive to follow. If we wish to honor President 
Bush, we should reflect on his character and temperament and other 
sterling qualities and seek to emulate them. He was a great man. 
Perhaps even more important, he was a good man.

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