[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[January 23, 1992]
[Pages 135-137]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 135]]

Remarks to the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors

January 23, 1992
    Thank you very much, and welcome to all of you. Thanks to Alan 
Kranowitz for all his fine work and, of course, to my friend Dirk 
VanDongen, over here. History, a little history, I understand that he's 
celebrating his 25th anniversary with the NAW this year. And I might say 
to those who haven't worked with him closely, as I have, that he does a 
superb job for sound economic principles, most of which affect the NAW 
but some of which don't. But he's in there for these solid principles 
day in and day out. And I am very grateful to him for that.
    I want to welcome Jay Church and Jimmy Taylor, who just welcomed me. 
Thank our Chief of Staff, Sam Skinner, who's come into a tough job, 
taken the ball, running with it and doing a first-class job. I 
understand you also heard from Lou Sullivan, a great Secretary of HHS, 
and then, of course, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell. So 
I hope, through these two avenues and then Sam, you've gotten some feel 
in a little more detail as to what it is we're trying to do. I'm 
delighted to have this chance to speak to the certain key and most 
influential people of NAW.
    The last time we got together I could hardly speak at all. 
[Laughter] I know it's good to leave them speechless, but I don't think 
the speaker is the one they have in mind. But look at it this way, I 
could have thrown up on the front row here and--[laughter]--you've got 
to admit when I get the flu it's really dramatic. I don't want to dwell 
on that subject, but one, it was embarrassing, and two, in 24 hours I 
just felt like a million bucks again. So, I have a funny feeling that a 
lot of people in this country maybe understood getting the flu. But 
nevertheless, that's history, and I'm just delighted to be here and see 
you all today.
    You probably read a lot about it: We are working hard on a State of 
the Union Message for next week. I believe that people that think as you 
do will be pleased with the results. I'm going to use that occasion to 
continue to push for the things we stand for, and that means jobs. It 
means a strong and growing economy and a marketplace that's free of 
needless interference. It means telling Congress that we've got to hold 
the line on Government spending. And yes, there's a lot of pressures for 
more and more Federal money. That means taxpayers' money, incidentally. 
I still understand that point. [Laughter] And yet I think it is my 
responsibility to recognize that the deficit is outrageously large and 
that we have got to say no from time to time to these fantastically 
good-sounding but horribly detrimental spending plans. And I plan to 
bring that point up. We have got to hold the line on spending.
    You here at NAW have been a tremendous help through the years in 
working for a commonsense approach to the economy. In fact, I count on 
the NAW's expertise in more ways than you realize, having just asked 
Nick Calio, an alumnus, to return to help us work on Capitol Hill. Many 
of you may not have met him, but he was here and then went over to NAW 
and will be returning to head up a very important part of our White 
House organization.
    Let's face it, this is an election year. And so you're going to hear 
all kinds of proposals out there promoting a lot of gimmicks. Given the 
fact this country is hurting, people are hurting, you're going to see a 
lot of quick fixes that will supposedly turn the economy around. I don't 
believe we need them. I think we've got to set commonsense goals, stick 
with them, and then, as I say, in the State of the Union Message I'll be 
making specific proposals as to how to help more rapidly achieve those 
goals.
    Any plan that truly prepares our economy for the future has got to 
meet five tests. One, it must stimulate investment that's necessary to 
create jobs. Secondly, it's got to bolster the real estate values and 
increase home sales. One of the disturbing things in these slow times 
has been the diminution of a family's fundamental balance sheet that 
comes from the marking down of homes and real estate. And so we've got 
to bolster

[[Page 136]]

real estate values, increase home sales. That's number two. Number 
three, it must give Americans confidence that they will be able to 
afford the cost of raising a family. That means education; we've got 
some bold educational reforms. It means obtaining health care. And 
fourth, it must increase America's capacity to compete in a global 
economy. And finally, number five, it must control this wasteful 
Government spending and got to work to bringing this deficit down.
    And taken all together, these tests, I think, will separate serious 
proposals from the quick-fix proposals, the gimmicks. Some of my critics 
say they want to create jobs, and then they call for raising taxes and 
imposing even more mandates, centrally controlled mandates to hamstring 
businesses with Government redtape. Or they say they want to make the 
U.S. economy competitive, and then they call for building a fence around 
the United States of America, the old-fashioned siren's call of 
protection.
    These gimmicks are about politics. They are not about prosperity for 
the United States of America. And prosperity lies in opening markets, 
not closing them. And I'm pleased that recently, with our trip to Asia, 
we've been able to make progress in that regard without resorting to 
protectionism.
    Yesterday, for example, we signed a path-breaking agreement ensuring 
the U.S. computer companies will be able to compete and compete fairly 
for the Japanese Government, not the private sector there. We're already 
selling--40 percent of computers into Japan's private sector are U.S. 
But .4 percent, to give you an example, .4 percent of the Government-
bought computers are U.S. So, it can't be a question of quality. So, 
yesterday we signed this path-breaking agreement that ensures the U.S. 
computer companies will be allowed to compete fairly for Japanese 
Government, for the computer market of the Government. And that's what 
we should be doing, beating down the barriers to our exports.
    I mentioned health care. We must and will be doing something about 
that. I think I'll have sound proposals. But you'll also hear a lot of 
loose talk in an election year about health care. And I'm going to 
discuss this issue in depth and quite positively in my address next 
week. But we ought to be clear about a couple of health care principles 
at the start.
    First, Government efforts to centrally manage or mandate benefits 
produce more problems than they solve. And secondly, we must forgo 
approaches to the problem that cost jobs. Now this is a time to 
concentrate on creating jobs, not driving small businesses out of 
business. And that means don't overburden the small businesses with a 
lot of Federal mandates.
    I salute the NAW for its leadership in creating HEAL, the Health 
Care Early [Equity] Action League, a major coalition that promotes 
market-based solutions to the problems in our health care system. And I 
look forward to working with HEAL after I announce my health care plan.
    As each of you knows, what American businesses want is a fair shake 
from our trading partners and certainly from the Government. And let 
them go head-on-head in a world marketplace, and I am absolutely 
convinced the American companies can outthink, outwork, outcompete 
anyone in the world. The companies and the workers, the work force, they 
can do just that. And I share your faith, your undiminished faith in 
American business because, like you, I understand the values that have 
made American business the model for the whole world: Hard work, 
creativity, and certainly a willingness to take risks, to believe in 
your dreams and then make good on them.
    If we build on those values and if we use them as our guiding light, 
this economy is going to turn around. I am not a gloom-and-doom person 
about the American economy. We've been through an awful lot, but this 
economy will turn around, particularly if we take the approach to these 
economic issues that I've outlined here today. We're going to lead the 
world. We are the undisputed leader of the world. We ought not to forget 
that.
    There are some people in this room that are young enough to have 
children, young children that is. [Laughter] And I don't happen to fit 
into that category about young children, but I've got grandchildren. 
Some of you all have got little kids. And

[[Page 137]]

there's something rather nice that they're going to school, coming home, 
going to sleep at night, and not worrying about a nuclear conflict 
erupting and engulfing the whole world.
    We've got a lot to be grateful for in this country. We've got a lot 
of problems, but we're the leader of the world, and I intend to keep it 
just exactly that way. We're going to whip this economic problem we're 
facing. We are going to continue to lead the world. We are going to stay 
involved at home and certainly abroad, now and well into the next 
century.
    So, don't let the continuous pounding of what's wrong with this 
country obscure your fundamental confidence, your fundamental 
conviction, which is mine, that we are the greatest, freest country on 
the face of the Earth, and we're going to prevail.
    Thank you all very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 9:20 a.m. in Room 450 
                        of the Old Executive Office Building. In his 
                        remarks, he referred to the following 
                        association officers: Dirk VanDongen, president; 
                        Jay Church, chairman of the board; Jimmy Taylor, 
                        chairman-elect; and Alan Kranowitz, vice 
                        president for government relations.