[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[January 15, 1992]
[Pages 105-109]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Cabletron Systems Employees in Rochester, New Hampshire

January 15, 1992
    You guys are fired up. Thank you very much. What is it about the 
water around this place? You guys just standing out here for 2 hours and 
being so darn nice. But thanks for the welcome. I appreciate it. To 
Craig and Bob, let me phrase it this way: Who would have thought that I 
would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with two guys

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who but a handful of years ago had a dream and who together, with some 
very able men and women I want to mention in just a minute, made this 
happen.
    I mean, this is America, and it's strong, and it's wonderful. And I 
am all fired up and pleased with the reception here but, more important, 
pleased to see the quality of the work and the pride in the work. It 
just reinforces my view that we've got to resist this siren's call of 
protection and continue to send our quality goods wherever the market 
is, domestic or foreign. And I'm going to keep on trying to open these 
foreign markets to fairplay. And if we succeed in that, these goods are 
going to compete. They are quality goods. And I'll tell you, that's the 
strong lesson I'd take back to Washington, DC.
    I had a chance to chat with some of you all's associates in there. 
And I will single out but two because I wrote down their names. But 
Dominique MacDonald and Frank McWilliams--I don't know whether you have 
to have a ``Mc'' to work in the quality end of this thing, but I don't 
think they were programmed by one of these machines out here--both of 
them telling me about how their fellow workers took pride in what they 
were doing. And then you hear Craig and Bob reflect this, too, the Tom 
Selleck and the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the high-tech world up here.
    I was briefed on this visit by my longtime friend and the able 
Governor of this State, Judd Gregg, who I'm proud to say is running our 
campaign in this very important State, who's with us here. I'm also 
pleased that we have Bob Smith, one of the two great Senators from New 
Hampshire, and also Bill Zeliff, the Congressman here, and then Ed 
DuPont, the State Senate leader.
    Let me just say this. I'm not up here to assign blame. Look, I know 
some people aren't doing as well here as the people at Cabletron. I'm 
sure people here have friends and family that they wonder whether 
they're going to have a job. So, I will accept my share of the 
responsibility as President of the United States. And I will state to 
you my determination to do everything I can to turn this economy around. 
But let me put it in stark political terms. If the growth initiatives 
that I have been proposing for the last three State of the Union 
Messages had been supported by more people like Senator Smith and 
Congressman Zeliff and Senator Rudman, we would have this economy on the 
move.
    We can stimulate the growth through sensible tax policy in this 
country, and that's what I will be proposing in the State of the Union 
once again. Then I'm going to look to the American people, including 
everybody here: Help me. Help me get a sensible program through this 
Congress that's still back in the dark ages of Government intervention, 
liberal spending, and more taxes. That's not what's needed.
    I'm impressed with the spirit here, the creation of more jobs. And 
believe me, the rest of the State can succeed if we give them the proper 
support in Washington, DC, in terms of stimulation of the economy. I'm 
going to have to resist the siren's call, obviously, for protection. 
It's coming at me from the right, way out on the right, coming at me 
from the left. But you guys--I forget what the export figures are here. 
They're strong, 28 percent in something like 5 years. That's a 
tremendous growth. That means jobs. And it isn't just Cabletronics, 
other countries. And if we go back the protection route, why, we are 
simply going to dry up markets and invite retaliation from other 
countries.
    I got criticized for this trip to Japan, not just for throwing up on 
the Prime Minister. [Laughter] You've got to admit when I get sick for 
24 hours I do it with a certain flair, you know. [Laughter] But all that 
aside, some people--``Well, the President shouldn't do this, hat in 
hand.'' My eye. What I was doing was saying to these foreign leaders, 
look, give us a shot at these markets. We're not asking for protection. 
We're not asking for quotas like some of this silly Democrat legislation 
that I'm going to have to knock on its--knock down when I get back to 
Washington, DC. [Laughter] What we're asking for is access to the other 
guy's market.
    And let me tell you something. I will bring the same kind of 
leadership, world leadership, we brought to Desert Storm to these 
economic questions around the world. We will expand our markets abroad. 
And I

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will not listen to the protectionists.
    You did it the old-fashioned way: You took risks. You took pride. 
You built quality into what you're doing. And you can hold your heads 
up, and you can compete with anyone in the world. We've got to get that 
spirit going across the rest of this country. And I really believe we 
can do it. Yes, times are tough. And yes, unemployment is unacceptably 
high. But interest rates are down. Inflation is down, so you're not 
being wiped out by the cruelest tax of all. And we are poised now for a 
real recovery.
    I will repeat it for the third time today, but the first visit was 
over at Pease, and I want to see how we can assist in the economic 
development of Pease. We can make something positive. We have to cut 
back because we're doing better in terms of world peace. And because the 
way our soldiers performed in Desert Storm has now led to a more 
peaceful world, we're able to cut back. That's something that's being 
demanded, and I think properly so. And we will have more to say about 
that in the State of the Union.
    But I want to help and take something that is a difficult situation 
and turn it around and make it positive for the people of New Hampshire. 
And I believe we can do it. It's happened in other parts of the world. 
Waco, Texas, is a good place to look, and other places that had great 
big installations. They were turned to civilian use, and they made real 
progress. So, we want to go forward and help on that.
    But we need to keep this spirit alive. And over there at Pease this 
woman said to me, also a country music fan like I am, and she said, 
``Well, do you remember the song about the light at the end of the 
tunnel,'' and the song goes, ``I just hope it's not a train coming down 
through the tunnel.'' Well, good warning. But there is light at the end 
of the tunnel. And I told her my song that many of you have heard, ``If 
you want to see a rainbow, you've got to stand a little rain.''
    New Hampshire stood a lot of rain. And there is going to be a 
rainbow, because we are America. We can compete. And I'll take this case 
in the State of the Union, and I'll spell out the incentives that I 
think are smart. I'm going to have to resist some of these instant fixes 
that takes this so-called Federal money--that's yours, incidentally, if 
you're paying taxes--and kind of spreads it around out there in some 
giveaway fashion that sounds good and has appeal but does not stimulate 
the economy. So, we're going to do what we can to have sound fiscal 
policy.
    And as I say, I sure would like to have your help. Spill it over 
into Maine, or spill it over into Massachusetts, so we can get some more 
people in the Congress like those that are supporting me here and get 
the job done in Washington. I'm sick and tired of a Congress that thinks 
old thoughts and can do nothing but try to tear down the President of 
the United States. We need some changes in the Congress, and I'm going 
to fight for them.
    We made some progress on our Japanese trip there. We got 49 nonauto 
standards, these are standards just for access to market, cleared up. 
That was good. We signed dozens of literal market-opening agreements in 
these four countries that I visited. And I think that the business 
leaders who spoke out and said, in the computer business, that we at 
least--we get them to keep the agreements, but that we'd broken into the 
Government computer market. Here's a figure. We sell 40 percent of 
computers used in Japan--are American because they're good--and 
Government, Japanese Government, .04 percent. And what we think we've 
done now, and the computer industry agrees, is to break into that market 
and insist on fairplay. No tariffs, no subsidies needed, just the 
ability to let you guys that know what you're doing compete. That was 
what this trip was about. And as I say, I'm going to stay engaged, stay 
engaged in this all the way.
    We've got some other blessings in this country. You won't hear them 
in a primary. One thing, I'm a little tired of people telling me that 
I've just found New Hampshire. My God, I was growing up around here 
before some of you guys were born and certainly before some of these 
people that are now campaigning for President knew where New Hampshire 
was on a map. They've never been here before. They don't know the 
heartbeat of it. When a hur-

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ricane hits Portsmouth, it hits my house up there, not so far away from 
here. And when I was going to school, we used to compete into New 
Hampshire. And my daughter-in-law is from here.
    And one thing that really--I will clean this up for this marvelous 
audience--burns me up, put it that way, is this charge that I don't 
care. And I can understand it. Some people think you get to live in the 
White House, and you're dealing with all kinds of world figures. But we 
do care.
    At lunch this fellow asked me, he said, ``If you could get one 
message over to the people in New Hampshire, what would it like to be?'' 
And I thought that you can help me with the fiscal program or open up 
these markets or help us with crime or help us with our wonderful 
education program. But I said to him, ``Listen, I guess the one message 
would be, both Barbara and I care. We think we understand your 
heartbeat. When somebody hurts, we think we know enough about family to 
identify with that. And we care.'' And then we can build from there in 
terms of where this country ought to go.
    It was one year ago, one year ago that Desert Storm was fixin' to 
begin, as they say in another of my home States, Texas, one year ago. 
And you think back to the criticism--that goes with the job--from the 
media, the columnists, ``The President hasn't prepared the American 
people.'' Look back at the very people, some of whom are running today 
for President, criticizing me for moving forces. Look back at them 
telling me what I could not do as Commander in Chief. And we did it. You 
and I and those brilliant young men and women did it. And we lifted the 
spirits of America.
    I want to take that same leadership and lift the spirits of America 
in the economy. And we can do it if I can get some help in the United 
States Congress. That was the difference. They ask me what's the 
difference. Well, let me tell you guys. Let me tell you 250 mournful 
pundits what the difference was. I didn't have to go ask Senator Kennedy 
if I could declare war or go on and move these troops. I didn't have to. 
Listen, if I'd have listened to the leader of the United States Senate, 
George Mitchell, Saddam Hussein would be in Saudi Arabia, and you'd be 
paying 20 bucks a gallon for gasoline. Now, try that one on for size.
    I'm getting sick and tired, I am, every single night hearing one of 
these carping little liberal Democrats jumping all over my you-know-
what. [Laughter] And I can't wait for this campaign. And if I decide to 
become a candidate for President of the United States--[laughter]--why, 
I'm going to come right back up here and ask for your help.
    Look, there's a lot of problems out here, a lot of things wrong with 
our country. But there's an awful lot of things that are right about our 
country. Some people around here that may have been old enough to 
remember the conflict of the Vietnam war. There are some people around 
here that may have kids, parents--maybe in the 10th, 12th grade--who 
wonder, ``Hey, is my kid going to have to go off and do combat in a 
superpower war?''; who go to bed at night saying their prayers, as most 
families do, wondering about the fear of nuclear war. That's been 
diminished. I'll take the blame for some things, but please give us a 
little bit of credit for the fact that your kids and my grandkids have a 
chance to grow up now in a world that's much more peaceful. And that is 
fundamental.
    And the second thing I'd say is this: This ain't the easiest job in 
the world. But I didn't expect it would be. But I love it, every single 
minute, the challenge of trying to work for and hopefully improve the 
lot of the American people.
    And the longer I'm in this job, the more important I think are the 
values that I think of as New Hampshire values, your family values, I 
hope they're mine, of family, involvement of parents in the lives of 
these kids, the need to do better in education, the need for all of us 
to come together at the community level or family level to knock out 
this scourge of drugs. And there's some good news on that in terms of 
the teenager use of cocaine. There's some good things happening out 
there.
    But it's family and, yes, faith. Somebody reminded me of Abraham 
Lincoln's comments about, during the Civil War, praying. Of course, you 
feel that way. These are fun-

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damental values. And we have tried to live them. We have tried to 
emulate them. We have tried to advocate them. Thank God, Barbara Bush is 
out there hugging those kids and teaching people to read and serving, as 
she should, as an example to a lot of people in this country of a caring 
person. No political agenda, she just gives a darn.
    And so, I'll roll up my sleeves and get into the arena when they 
decide who they want to have as their nominee. But in the meantime, let 
me tell you this: I know how I got there. I know how I got this 
opportunity to serve as President of the United States. And I've tried 
to be a good President.
    Now, things aren't so good in some parts of this country. And we do 
care about it. But I believe there is a rainbow out there. And I need 
your help to prove it. So, I would appreciate your support. But whatever 
you decide, keep up this work. This is the America's spirit, alive and 
well and flourishing. May God bless our great country. And don't ever 
apologize for it.
    Thank you very much.

[At this point, Cabletron Systems officers presented a jacket to the 
President.]

    All right. Thank you all very much. That's great. Thank you.
    Thank you all very, very much. Good to be with you. I hope we can--
how long have you been standing out there? An hour? Two? Oh, no! A 
thousand apologies. But really, it's been a great day for the spirit. 
And I meant what I said. I am terribly impressed. And please keep doing 
this. People are learning; people understand. We've got some problems, 
but you're showing we also got some wonderful answers. Thanks a lot.

                    Note: The President spoke at 3:41 p.m. at Cabletron 
                        Systems, Inc. In his remarks, he referred to 
                        company officers Craig R. Benson, chairman of 
                        the board of directors, chief operating officer, 
                        and treasurer; S. Robert Levine, president and 
                        chief executive officer; Dominique R. MacDonald, 
                        sales trainer; and Frank McWilliams, test 
                        manager.