[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[June 17, 1991]
[Pages 684-687]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Fundraising Dinner for Senatorial Candidate Bob Kasten in 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
June 17, 1991

    Thank you, Bob Kasten and Eva, great to be with you. I am so pleased 
to see an early supporter and great friend of mine who has certainly 
done a wonderful job in this State, and that is your outstanding 
Governor Tommy Thompson and his wife, Sue Ann. What a wonderful couple 
you have running this State.
    And your Lieutenant Governor is with us, Scott McCallum; your State 
treasurer Kate Zeuske. And, of course, I want to introduce somebody 
special with whom I've been traveling a great deal, a former Governor 
who is now leading our country towards what we call America 2000, a 
renaissance, a true renaissance, in education. And I mean Governor Lamar 
Alexander, who's standing right here. Lamar, please stand up.
    And as he and I contemplate the national problems, I can guarantee 
you that we can learn an awful lot not only from Bob Kasten in the 
Senate in his commitment to education but from the programs that Tommy 
Thompson has already put into effect to encourage excellence in 
education in this State.
    I'd be remiss if I didn't single out my old friend, John MacIver, 
who worked me to death back years ago and then stayed at my side when I 
was down and dusted me off. And he and a handful of others have been my 
most stalwart political supporters in this country. And he's actively 
involved in Bob Kasten's race, as I knew he would be--and thank God he 
is. To Mike Grebe, who is the Kasten chairman, as well as our national 
committeeman: always stepping up to the plate, always in a role of 
leadership, I salute him. And I am delighted to see others--Helen Bie, 
our national committeewoman is here. David Opitz, the chairman, our 
State chairman. And party's going to be important now as we move into 
1992. And Wayne Oldenberg, who is doing such an outstanding job as Bob 
Kasten's finance chairman.
    All of these people are making it happen. Bob tells me this is one 
of the largest fundraising events that he's ever had. And I think it's a 
tribute to him, of course, but

[[Page 685]]

also to the leadership that's gone into this event.
    I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting a little bit. I'm sorry if 
this has caused any unfounded excitement. One man heard that Bush was 
coming to town; he started a rumor that a major brewery was on its way 
back here, leaving St. Louis. [Laughter]
    But Bob supports me when I need it, and that's one of the reasons I 
accepted with alacrity his invitation. You've heard some about his 
accomplishments tonight--moved quickly into the ranks of senior Senate 
leadership, part of our leadership team in the United States Senate. He 
stood solidly by my side at times that weren't so easy leading up to 
Operation Desert Storm. He was there. He never wavered. He saw what we 
had to do to kick aggression back. And he was steadfast in his support, 
and I'll always be grateful to him for that.
    We had a little receiving line earlier, and I met two or three 
people that had been in Desert Storm--one, a member of the police 
department here; another who was at the dinner tonight. And I couldn't 
help but remember that Bob went to Egypt to visit Wisconsin's own 128th 
and 440th--reached out and told them that they had his support.
    You know, he's carved out a niche as a top spokesman for economic 
growth, for environmental stewardship, for educational excellence that I 
mentioned, and for American international leadership, and, of course, 
for cheese. [Laughter]
    A few months back, we held a meeting to discuss Soviet affairs in 
the Middle East. And we talked then about many of the issues that occupy 
the headlines these days: how to promote economic reform in the Soviet 
Union. And I must tell you I'm looking forward, if we can iron out these 
difficulties that remain on START--the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks--
to meet with Mr. Gorbachev to talk further about reform in the Soviet 
Union. And this week we'll be receiving the newly-elected, first elected 
head of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin, in Washington, DC. And I'm 
looking forward to that.
    But as Bob and I wrestled with these weighty problems of 
international affairs--where we should go next in the Middle East peace 
talks, how to verify the arms control agreements with the Soviets--it 
was a productive meeting, and I learned a lot. But every few minutes or 
so, Bob, who knew more about the subjects at hand than many of those 
that were around that table, would weave in a mention of dairy price 
supports for Wisconsin farmers. What I'm saying is, he knows who sent 
him there to Washington, and he's never forgotten it. And that's why I 
think he's going to be reelected, and reelected big. He gives a new 
meaning to the term ``sacred cow,'' I might add. [Laughter]
    We've reached an interesting point in this administration. And I 
think as you look back in this nation's history, our performance in the 
Gulf--and I say ours: I'm talking about the young men and women who were 
over there, their performance in Desert Storm. I'm talking about the 
superb job done by the military commanders there and in the Pentagon and 
by the leadership given by our Secretary, Dick Cheney. Our performance 
demonstrated that America will do the right thing when duty calls. And 
they will help a country halfway around the world that's been overrun by 
a brutal dictator. And they will work with other nations to build an 
unbeatable consensus in an unconquerable military force. And they will 
risk their finest sons and daughters, all in defense of liberty.
    We haven't lost it. We found something special out of Desert Storm. 
Go with us, go with Barbara and me around this country. It's not 
politics. You go to places we couldn't get one vote if we tried. And the 
American people are out there with their flags and their enthusiasm and 
the rediscovery of who we are: a country that will stand up against 
aggression and win--and win promptly and win confidently.
    And there was another lesson; there was another lesson out of this. 
We learned that the Presidency as an institution is charged to respond 
to such situations. The President has a unique responsibility to build 
the kind of national and international support that is necessary to 
build democracy and to defend liberty in cases that we saw halfway 
around the world.
    But we've also learned that the kind of

[[Page 686]]

consensus is more difficult to build when it comes to doing business at 
home. Do you remember right after Desert Storm ended, people were saying 
now if the President would take this newfound credibility that we all 
earned in the Gulf--that everybody did--and use it for domestic 
problems, that would be great. That would be wonderful.
    Well, the American people want to take on economic problems, 
educational problems, environmental problems. And they want to fight 
crime. They want to improve race relations and fight against 
discrimination in the workplace and reshape, as Bob mentioned, the 
national defense and join the exciting economic cooperation and 
competition beyond our borders.
    But if we really want to mount an all-out assault on these problems, 
we need more good people in the United States Senate, more dedicated 
people, more imaginative people, and we must return those that are doing 
the job for this country. And I'm talking about Bob Kasten, for one.
    Some of the Democrats' ideas to how we do this domestic Desert Storm 
is to do it their way. I wasn't elected to do it their way. I was 
elected to do it our way, the sensible way.
    Working with this Senator, we proposed a comprehensive economic 
growth package. It holds the line on Federal spending. And a lot came 
out of that budget agreement, controversial though it was. It holds the 
line on taxes. It cuts the capital gains rate. It facilitates savings, 
and everybody involved in business knows that our country has terribly 
low savings rates. It makes it easier for poor and middle class 
Americans to become successful entrepreneurs, to take a risk to start 
something. Small business is the backbone of this country--employment 
and everything else, productivity and employment. And so, we need more 
of it.
    And I believe if we could get more Republicans, we'd do much better 
on the economic front. As it is now, I'm playing defense in the House; 
I'm playing defense in the Senate. Thank God we had 21 vetoes, and every 
single one of them was sustained. We've got to keep bad things from 
happening and then get more people so we can make good things happen in 
the Senate.
    We're embarked, as I said, with credit to Lamar Alexander, on a 
nonpartisan or a bipartisan educational revolution that would put power 
in the hands of people. It would let parents, not the bureaucrats, make 
the crucial choice of which schools their children should attend. And 
you in Wisconsin, and especially right here in Milwaukee, understand 
what I'm talking about because you led the way in terms of choice for 
this country.
    I'm still very worried about our neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods 
that can afford it the least are most afflicted by crime. And we've 
tried for more than 2 years to persuade Congress to pass a comprehensive 
anticrime package--one that protects police, protects citizens, helps 
the victims, and puts the dangerous criminals behind bars. And we've 
asked the Congress to adopt a modest transportation package to make it 
easier for commuters to travel from home to work and back without having 
to sit for hours in traffic.
    We've created a strong civil rights package to strengthen our laws 
against those who discriminate. And specifically, our package seeks to 
eliminate discrimination in the workplace, and it encourages all 
Americans to view civil rights as a shared commitment and goal rather 
than an invitation to litigation. And we need more good people in the 
Senate and the House to get these three initiatives moving and moving 
fast.
    And we have done something that I think all Americans, regardless of 
party, wanted. They wanted to get this defense spending under control. 
And yes, we've proposed restructuring our Armed Forces in a way that 
pares down our military, pares it down certainly in terms of spending as 
a percentage of our GNP and just real reductions, as well, in spending.
    And we do this without reducing the readiness. 
But I need people to support that concept and not just come into the 
Congress with some meat ax without regard to whatever might come up in 
the future. Perhaps there would be another Desert Storm, and I want our 
forces to be able to respond, respond rapidly, go in, get the job done, 
and come out. And that's only going to be done if we have a program for 
defense that has reductions but also keeps in mind the

[[Page 687]]

priorities that we must have established as we go through the last part 
of the nineties.
    I cite this because I think it's reasonable. I think we've got a 
good domestic program. I get sick and tired from hearing the Democrats 
out there crying that there's no domestic agenda. The problem is, they 
want their domestic agenda, the same old tired answers of the past--try 
to bring them into the future. And it's not going to work.
    How many of these important bills do you think Congress has passed? 
You guessed it: zero, none. We are going to keep fighting for our 
domestic Desert Storm, for our domestic agenda. But we can't do it if 
we're fighting against these tired old characters out of the past who 
want to go back and say, let the Federal Government solve all our 
problems. It's not going to work. It's failed in the past. We need new 
people in the Senate. And we need new people in the House. They're going 
to look at it just exactly that way.
    And let me say this: You can't blame Bob for the failures up there. 
He has fought for economic growth. He drafted the reforms that ought to 
save us $6 billion just in regulatory paperwork alone next year. And 
he's going to continue--that would continue to produce savings for years 
to come. He pushed for that capital gains reduction in spite of the 
demagogs saying this is a tax break for the rich. He pushed for it 
because he knew it would create more jobs. And he's pushed for progrowth 
tax changes. And he stood with us in promoting a new progressivity in 
education. And he's helping us very much, as I said, in our 2000--the 
America 2000 strategy.
    He supported our crime legislation. Compare his record with others, 
not just from Wisconsin, but others on the national scene like he is. He 
supported this. He supported better transportation for this State and 
for all of America. And he stood at our side on civil rights, trying to 
offer the extended hand of brotherhood and hope rather than divisive 
politics based on clashing claims, lawsuits, and quotas. Quotas is not 
the American way. We don't need that. We need fair play.
    So, I ask you to look at the facts. Cut through the rhetoric, look 
at the facts, and see what our bill does and see what the other bill 
does.
    I'm a little sick and tired of people saying we don't have a decent 
civil rights program. We do. We've got a good record. And I'll be darned 
if I'm going to knuckle into a handful of people inside the beltway who 
say jump and then the Democrat Senators say how high. It's too late.
    I don't have to remind you that after the Gulf war we asked Congress 
to pass just two bills out of all these I've mentioned in a 100 days, 
crime and transportation, and it didn't pass either. And I mentioned out 
there at the White House, if 100 isn't enough, let's give them another 
100. But let's get something done for America, and do it right.
    So, economic growth, education, crime, transportation, civil rights, 
defense--Bob Kasten is fighting for all these things. And I need more 
like him.
    So, the message is simply this--you know it: With your support and 
the support of others like you around the country, this administration 
won't have to rely on the veto as its weapon for improving legislation. 
It'll be able to look to a Congress ready, willing, and eager to serve 
the people. And Bob, let me just say you have my strong support. Let's 
do what it takes to win in 1992.
    Thank you all very much. Godspeed to all of you, and may God bless 
the United States of America. Thank you very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 6:30 p.m. in the 
                        Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center. In 
                        his remarks, he referred to Mr. Kasten's wife, 
                        Eva; Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin and his 
                        wife, Sue Ann; Scott McCallum and Kate Zeuske, 
                        Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor and treasurer; 
                        Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, former 
                        Governor of Tennessee; John MacIver, attorney 
                        with Michael, Best, and Friderich in Milwaukee, 
                        WI; Mike Grebe and Helen Bie, Republican 
                        National Committee delegates; David Opitz, State 
                        Republican Party chairman; Wayne Oldenberg, 
                        Kasten campaign finance chairman; President 
                        Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union; Boris 
                        Yeltsin, President of the Republic of Russia; 
                        Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney; and President 
                        Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Following his remarks, 
                        the President returned to Washington, DC.