[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[February 12, 1992]
[Pages 238-240]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters in Concord

February 12, 1992
    Thanks for that welcome back. And Dick, thank you so very much, and 
may I salute you, sir; the Governor, of course. And we've got our 
officials here, Senator Rudman, Congressman Zeliff, and former Governor 
John Sununu. And I'm just delighted to be here.
    Before I say anything else, I see some new faces in law enforcement 
here and firefighting. And I see some older faces in law enforcement 
and, sorry, firefighting here. [Laughter] But I just want to say that 
Barbara and I are grateful to those of you with whom we've interacted 
over the last 12 years in one way or another, mainly over on the eastern 
part of the State, over on the seacoast. So many of you have had these 
odd hours, and I'm sure we've inconvenienced your families, but we are 
very grateful to each and every one of you. And of course, we're 
grateful for your service to your State, and we're grateful for your 
line of service. I hope that our administration will stay with this 
position of backing the firefighters and backing those out in law 
enforcement all the way.
    I want to just mention a couple of things today in terms of the 
changes in the world. I won't give you the full load on foreign policy 
or the changes that have happened. But you know, we're having some tough 
times here. And I think it's good that we sometimes keep things in full 
perspective.
    We've seen an awful lot of change in the world in the last few 
years. We've seen communism crumble in Eastern Europe.

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Many of you are young enough to have remembered when you climbed under 
the desks as schoolchildren for the antinuclear drills that we had in 
those days. And thank God that the world has changed enough so that your 
kids and my grandkids don't have quite as much to worry about on that 
front.
    I, of course, was proud of the way New Hampshire responded, starting 
with the legislature's endorsement but really beginning with the service 
of the men and women from this State that served in Desert Storm. It was 
a superb operation. And there was a pride across this State, I'm sure, 
that still exists, pride in the way this country and this State came 
together in support of those young men and women. And they served us 
well, and they set a great example.
    And you know, these are cynical days now because we're in this crazy 
political season. And it's a dance that we go through every 4 years. But 
I can tell you from a good deal of experience dealing with other 
countries that we are the envy of the world. And we are clearly the 
leader of the world. And as long as I'm President, I'm going to do my 
level-best to see that we remain the leader of the free world.
    I do not want to make this a partisan political appearance. It's 
hard not to these days, but I don't want to do it. But I did make a 
pitch to the legislature today for support for an economic program that 
avoids the quick fixes, that would stimulate the economy, particularly 
the homebuying business and homebuilding business in this country. We've 
put forward some incentives, laserlike incentives that, in my view and 
in the view of most economists that have looked at it, would really 
stimulate that area of the economy that has normally led this country 
out of recession. I'm talking about the real estate business generally, 
and I'm talking about homebuying and homebuilding. And so, take a look 
at that. I hope that it's something that will have the broad support, 
transcending party, all across this country.
    Actually, I've set a deadline for the United States Congress, 
saying, look, we can get this thing done. So I set a deadline in that 
State of the Union Message for March 20th. I said, ``Let's move by then. 
We can do it.'' And we can do it. And then we can have all of the 
political debate and the political arguments afterward. But let's pass 
these seven points. And I've been challenging the Congress today to do 
that, and I hope those of you that agree with me will weigh in, although 
our Members of Congress here are very well in tune with this and way out 
front in support of it. So, the deadline is March 20th, and we're going 
to go after them in every way possible.
    We've all heard the saying, and you all have lived it, really, 
``Take a bite out of crime.'' Well, Congress got a little backwards; 
they took a bite out of our crime bill. What we're trying to do there is 
to pass a strong anticrime bill that will support the law enforcement 
officers of this country. There's one that does transcend party, and it 
should transcend ideology, liberal or conservative. It is just sound 
common sense. I hope that you all will take a look at it because it 
backs the police officers. It backs those that are out there in DEA or 
wherever else they are in this antinarcotics fight, and it puts in tough 
provisions. There are some 60 tough provisions that have been avoided by 
the Congress that need to be passed.
    I know that some of these prosecutors want the bill that's before 
the Congress to be vetoed or not to be passed. I want to see a strong 
bill. We've still got a chance now with the new Congress to get a strong 
bill that will back you in your work. We do not need loopholes for 
violent criminals, and I will fight against that. And I will fight to 
toughen the law and have the law that's a little kinder and gentler to 
the victim of crime and a little less so to the criminal. And that's our 
philosophy, and we're going to work on it.
    So, the last thing I would say to you all is that these are tough 
times, I know. But I will say this, that I am very privileged and proud 
to be the President of the United States. All these kids come up and, 
``Can I have a question?'' ``What is it?'' ``What's it like to be 
President?'' And they ask this all the time. It's not an easy question 
to answer because it's a great big country, and we have enormous 
responsibilities around the world. But the more I think about that and 
the more I look at my own personal life and

[[Page 240]]

try to figure things out for the future, the more grateful I am for 
family and the more grateful I am for friends.
    You might think when you got to be President that some other things 
would transcend all of this, but they don't. And I think of people in 
this room--and I won't embarrass anyone by singling them out--whether 
they're firefighters or whether they're police officers or in the State 
or local police or whether they're superintendents or whether they're 
bosses, like some standing up here. But we Bushes count our blessings 
for friends. And we are very, very grateful to all of you for this warm 
reception, and we won't let you down. Thank you very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2:52 p.m. at the 
                        Department of Safety in the James H. Hayes 
                        Building. In his remarks, he referred to Richard 
                        M. Flynn, commissioner, New Hampshire Department 
                        of Safety.