[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[March 4, 1992]
[Pages 378-381]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Bush-Quayle Fundraising Dinner in Miami, Florida

March 4, 1992
    Thank you all. Please be seated. And Zach, Dr. Zachariah, thank you, 
sir, for that wonderful introduction, for all you do, and I am very, 
very grateful to you. I want to thank Father Murphy for his thoughtful 
invocation; the national finance chairman, you met Bobby Holt; but the 
national finance cochairman, my old friend Alec Courtelis; and another 
good longtime friend, Jack Laughery; to our campaign manager in Florida, 
no nepotism involved, I just chose the best, Jeb Bush. And may I salute 
one who gives us so much support, gives me so much support in 
Washington, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Where is she? Right here. 
And State senator Lincoln Diaz-Balart who we just met over here. Thank 
you, sir. And Van Poole, our State chairman, where's Van? He's right 
down here somewhere at the end. I salute him. And, of course, our Dade 
County chairman, our masterful master of ceremonies, Armando Codina. 
Thank you, Armando.
    It is a pleasure to be here tonight. And we have much to do these 
next few months because we've much to do in these next few years. 
Together we can finish what we've started, and we can move this country 
forward. And to do that, I need your support. Help me win the Presidency 
for 4 more years. I ask your support for the simplest reason: We believe 
in the same things, jobs, family, peace, the fundamentally important 
things. And Zach, thank you for your very kind words about my grasp of 
and leadership in the field of foreign affairs.
    We know that taxes are too high in this country because the 
Government is too big and it spends too much. And we believe in a strong 
defense. We believe in family and faith, responsibility and respect, 
community and country. And we know that we put America first when we put 
America's families first. The National League of Cities' mayors came to 
me, and they said the 
major problem in the cities is the dissolution, the diminution of the 
American

[[Page 379]]

family. And we've got to do something about that.
    So often today's politicians do the easy thing, the popular thing. 
But it's the tough decisions that tell you something important about 
character and principle. For I believe in things that don't change from 
one election to the next, things that guide each one of us every single 
day of the year.
    During my Presidency I've been blessed to take part in a new era in 
America's history. And let's face it, my friends, the cold war is over, 
and America won. And we are the leader of the entire world. And the 
Soviet Union collapsed, and imperial communism is dead.
    Last week marked a special birthday, the battle of Grito de Baire in 
Cuba's war of independence. We support independence. We want freedom and 
prosperity for the Cuban people and an end to Castro's totalitarian 
regime. But look around the world. Castro has become an outcast even 
among the dictators. And his beaches are not borders, they're the 
confines of freedom. For years, the Cuban community--and I salute Jorge 
Mas and so many others here tonight--the Cuban community has energized 
Miami. And someday freedom-loving people will change that island for the 
better, just like America has changed the world. It's going to happen. 
You can bet on it. It is inevitable.
    And now tonight, I want to talk about how Republican leadership is 
changing America. We're changing it by setting right what is simply on 
the wrong track in our country.
    Take our courts, for example. There's something wrong when the 
rights of the criminal are more important than the rights of the victim. 
And I am proud of our tough stand on crime, although if Congress passed 
my crime bill, we could be doing a lot better. We could be a lot 
tougher. And I'm proud of our judicial appointments, judges who 
interpret and do not legislate from the Federal bench.
    And there are other things that are wrong. When kids can't say a 
voluntary prayer in school or when fathers stop coaching Little League 
because they're afraid of liability suits, that too is wrong, and the 
same when people stop volunteering to help each other because they fear 
ambulance-chasers. This isn't the America we want. This isn't the way 
it's supposed to be, all these lawsuits out there. These days a sharp 
lawyer would tell the Good Samaritan, ``Keep on walking.'' I want to 
change that, so I've proposed reforms to our system to reduce the number 
of frivolous lawsuits.
    Now, I don't want to get in trouble with the Bar Association, but I 
once quoted to someone that line, ``An apple a day keeps the doctor 
away.'' And he said, ``What works for lawyers?'' [Laughter] Legal reform 
will help our legal process work. But, you know, the real answer for 
solving problems is to be more concerned with helping each other than 
suing each other. We're going to try to correct that from this legal 
reform bill I have before the Congress.
    Can't stop there though, not until we reform our health care system. 
Not because it doesn't offer the world's highest quality of health care; 
it does. I think everybody would agree on that. But we've got to reform 
it because too many people simply don't have access to health insurance. 
Too many people worry that they'll lose their insurance if they change 
jobs, or, worse still, if they lose their job. And anybody who's had 
even minor surgery knows that health care costs are going through the 
roof.
    What's the solution? Not to go down the road of socialized medicine. 
All that means is long lines and impersonal service. And as I said at 
lunch, we can get that, long lines, impersonal service, at the 
department of motor vehicles. [Laughter] My idea, and we've got a good 
plan to do this, is to make insurance available to all, rich and poor 
alike, availability, keep the quality high, the bureaucracy low, and 
preserve choice. The last thing we want is the Government assigning you 
a doctor.
    And I want you to know I'd written this before I knew there were 
going to be 200 doctors here tonight. [Laughter] But since I have your 
attention, I have an ache in my shoulder and a small headache, and I'd 
like to know what to do about it. [Laughter]
    Health care reform means improving the system. And there's another 
area where reform means changing the system. And

[[Page 380]]

I'm talking about welfare. Let's face it: Too often welfare encourages 
dependency instead of personal responsibility and the dignity of a job. 
And so we've asked all the Departments and Agencies to make it easier 
through the waiver process for State and local government to reform 
policies and help broken families. We need to help make families whole, 
help bring dignity back into their lives. And yes, that means going 
after the deadbeat fathers who run out on their children and leave some 
struggling mother to take care of the responsibility.
    There are so many issues out here. But this leads me, then, to the 
number one issue on the minds of all Americans: the economy, jobs. 
People out of jobs are looking for jobs, people who have jobs are 
worried they might lose it tomorrow, worried about their jobs, providing 
for their families, meeting the challenges of paying the bills, buying a 
home, setting aside for retirement.
    The American people want this economy to grow, to create and 
preserve jobs. So in January, some of you may remember it in the State 
of the Union, I unveiled a two-part plan. The first part gets business 
moving again, upgrading plant and equipment, hiring workers again. It 
uses incentives like an investment tax allowance that speeds up the 
depreciation, calls for Congress to wake up and understand how jobs are 
created and to cut the tax on capital gains which will create a lot of 
new small business jobs.
    Housing and real estate have led us out of recessions in slow times 
before. So to get housing back on its feet I unveiled several 
commonsense proposals to get people buying and building homes. These 
proposals will create in Florida alone an estimated 26,500 additional 
housing starts and 51,000 new construction jobs. Now, perhaps the most 
easily understood proposal is a $5,000 tax credit for first-time 
homebuyers, that young family together that needs just a little more to 
own their first home. People almost able to buy that first home could do 
it with that extra $5,000 in their pocket.
    Two hundred and three years ago on this very date the United States 
Congress met for the first time, this very date 203 years ago. I wonder 
what they would think today about the House Democrats' so-called plan. 
Here's the deal: 25 cents a day in temporary tax relief for 2 years, 
paid for, typical of them, by a large permanent tax increase. Now, over 
in the Senate, the bill the Democrats are working on is not much better 
than the one that's in the House. And its centerpiece is a huge tax 
increase. The last thing our economy needs now is a $100 billion tax 
hike, and they are not going to get it.
    Zach alluded to this, we drew a line in the sand in the Persian 
Gulf, and we kept our word. So I'll draw another line in the sand right 
now. If the Democrats send me nonsense like the bill passed through the 
House, I will send it right back. I will veto it the minute it hits my 
desk. We are not going to inflict this on the American people. Instead 
of their crazy political maneuvers, Congress ought to pass my plan to 
make America more competitive. Here's the deadline: March 20th, the 
first day of spring. Here's the challenge: Give American workers a 
spring break. No more games. No more empty gestures. Just pass my plan, 
and get this economy moving.
    Some question the need to act now. Well, let me repeat the story of 
a little boy who asked why his friend's grandmother read the Bible so 
much. ``I'm not sure,'' said his friend, ``but I think it's because 
she's cramming for her finals.'' Urgency counts in any world. And so I'm 
asking Congress to also pass the second part of my plan this year. It's 
a roadmap to make us competitive.
    Our plan revolutionizes America's education system. I was reading 
that the average eighth grader spends 4 times as much of his time 
watching TV as doing homework. TV should not be America's babysitter. We 
can change that by making our schools accountable and demand excellence. 
Our plan will get the billions of dollars of Government research and 
development more quickly to private sector businesses and workers. Good 
education, and then use our know-how to move our technology from the 
Government labs out into the competitive world.
    We have a commitment to children and strong families, and our plan 
provides tax relief to strengthen the family. We want to raise the tax 
deduction for children by

[[Page 381]]

$500. Make no mistake, I want this entire plan passed this year. I want 
it passed now.
    Behind all of this is an idea vital to America: To succeed 
economically at home, we have to lead economically abroad. Zach put his 
finger on the importance of America's leadership around the world. Some 
don't want us to lead. They think we ought to just shut out the rest of 
the world. And they're dead wrong. More than 200,000 jobs in Florida 
stem from manufactured exports. And last year, more than $13 billion in 
exports went out through the Miami customs district.
    You know that the way to create jobs is not to cut and run, not to 
pull back in some isolationistic sphere of protection; rather to open 
markets for our exports everywhere in the world. And I am going to fight 
hard in every foreign market to do just that. It is exports that have 
saved us in these rough times, and it is exports that will lead us into 
the most prosperous decade that lies ahead. And it's working. Our 
overall trade imbalance is down. Look at the figures. In 1988 the trade 
deficit stood at $119 billion. Today it's dropped to $66 billion, a 44-
percent drop in that relatively short period of time.
    Now, I believe the American people want to hear about how we're 
going to address all these challenges, our country's challenges. And 
they want to hear solutions, not just a lot of tearing this country down 
and telling America how bad everything is. We have an awful lot to be 
grateful for in this country. They want to hear about the solutions that 
will keep inflation low, get our confidence high, protect the savings of 
our elderly. Solutions that will win the war on drugs, and we are making 
great headway. And I salute Miami's heroic efforts in this battle 
against narcotics. We are winning. Witness the massive seizure of drugs 
in south Florida over the past several months. Witness the fact that 
drug use amongst teenagers is down by 60 percent in the last couple of 
years.
    We've got a lot to do in this country, and a lot to do. But I am 
absolutely confident that we will get the job done. And I'm going to 
fight hard in the Florida primary for these people, fight for what is 
right and good. I saw, in the 8 years my friend Ronald Reagan led 
America, how leadership matters. Last year, as Zach mentioned, we saw 
America stand tall again in the Persian Gulf. And I believe the next 5 
years are just too important to entrust to the inexperienced. So I ask 
for your help to keep our party strong, united so that we can win this 
fall.
    And yes, we have many challenges before us. But when haven't we? 
We're America. We're on the move. We're a country of change. And I 
guarantee you, we will meet every single challenge, each and every one 
of them, and meet them from the great Panhandle to the tip of the 
Florida Keys.
    And yes, there's an important primary next Tuesday, and then there's 
another election in November. And I guarantee you, I have never felt 
more confident about winning the primary and winning the general 
election. I've got to be a little careful; my mother's living up the 
coast here in Florida, so I've got to be careful. But I think I've been 
a good President, and I want to be your President for another 4 years. 
And I will give you my level-best and work my heart out for the 
greatest, freest country on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you, and may God bless America. Thank you all very, very much. 
What a great evening and a great day in Florida.

                    Note: The President spoke at 8:30 p.m. in the East 
                        Hall of the Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel. In his 
                        remarks, he referred to Zach Zachariah, Bush-
                        Quayle financial cochairman for Florida, and Van 
                        Poole, Florida Republican Party chairman. A tape 
                        was not available for verification of the 
                        content of these remarks.