[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[March 24, 1992]
[Pages 494-498]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the National American Wholesale Grocers Association

March 24, 1992
     Boyd, thank you very much for the good news and for the 
introduction. And let me just say I am very pleased to be here. And I 
want to salute your leaders: first, Boyd, who did the honors here; Bill 
Eacho, who's with me; Richard Niemann; and T.C. Godwin. And also, before 
I get going here, I want to single out a former Cabinet member, 
Agricultural Secretary Jack Block, who's doing an outstanding job for 
the common interest so well represented here today.
    And I am here to follow up on what I said Friday, but mainly to ask 
you to help me change this country, to make it stronger and make it 
better. And as Boyd so generously said, we have changed the world. We've 
won a great victory for world peace and freedom. And as President, 
believe me, I will stay fully engaged with the world. We have won the 
cold war. And I salute previ-

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ous Presidents for their role in keeping our defenses strong; my 
predecessor, Ronald Reagan, for his foresight in doing what he could to 
bring about the collapse of international communism.
    But now is no time to pull back from engagement in international 
affairs. So now let's put to work the same leadership that we used to 
change the world to change America. And let me tell you what that means: 
We'll leave a legacy of productive jobs for our citizens, with strong 
families secure in a more peaceful world.
    And I have a strategy to renew America and to keep our country 
strong in the next century. I proposed a plan to stimulate the economy 
without raising taxes and without increasing the Federal deficit, action 
to strengthen real estate, action to help young families buy that first 
home now. Get it done now. And I asked for action to create good jobs. 
One of those actions was to cut the tax on capital gains. It's not a 
break for the rich. It is a job-creation incentive.
    But the majority in Congress simply couldn't break their tax-and-
spend habits. And I asked for action to stimulate this economy, not 
stifle it. And I asked for a jobs bill. And they passed a bill to 
increase income taxes by $100 billion. And they turned their backs on 
that first-time homebuyer by failing to enact this $5,000 tax credit. 
They watered down the investment tax allowance that we had, an allowance 
that would have sped up depreciation and encouraged people to buy new 
capital equipment, given them incentives to do that. They stifled other 
reforms to help businesses modernize and compete. And then they tinkered 
with the capital gains tax. But if their plan were adopted, that tax 
would still be among the highest in the developed world.
    You people know this, but a lot of Americans don't. Japan and 
Germany tax capital gains at zero and at one percent. They don't even 
have--in essence don't have taxes on capital gains in one country and 
tax it at one percent in another. And we're to compete with all that in 
this highly competitive world.
    And yes, I was disappointed in the Congress. But frankly, I was not 
surprised. And so last Friday that tax bill came down, and I vetoed the 
tax increase. And that veto is going to be sustained. But not just to 
carp, then I announced actions that I would take on my own to do what I 
could to get the fat out of the Government, to cut the redtape that 
chokes our competitive spirit, and to get this country up to speed for 
the long haul.
    You and I have business experience. We know what the tax increase 
would really do. About 80 percent of the revenue increase resulting from 
the higher rates would come from, you guessed it, small businesses. More 
than a million small businesses would be affected, many of them crippled 
by that Democratic-leadership tax increase. Thousands of family-run 
grocery and convenience stores are in this category. Small family farms 
also could face financial ruin from such a tax increase.
    The bill I've just vetoed tried to raise the marginal rate for small 
family businesses and farms by about 18 percent. Now, just think about 
the impact of this on your own businesses. The grocery business, 
wholesale and retail, is fiercely competitive. I know you're being nice 
to the guy next to you here today, but when you go home, why, we'll 
understand if you go at each other. And why is it so competitive? You 
operate on the thinnest of profit margins; for wholesalers it's often 
less than a penny on the dollar. And if you had to face a big increase 
in the bracket where you pay most of your taxes, how would you cope? 
You'd feel pressure to cut back on the quality of your service. 
Competition would press you to hold out as long as possible before 
passing costs along to your customers. So you might have to eliminate 
jobs. Eventually everyone in the business would have to pass the costs 
along, and that would fuel inflation.
    Those are simple facts of life for people trying to make a living. 
But even as millions of American families were huddling over their 
kitchen tables to work on their tax returns, the liberal Congress tried 
to raise their taxes by $100 billion.
    Last Friday, as I say, I vetoed their massive tax increase. And I 
sent Congress my first line-item rescissions, cutting $3.6 billion in 
unneeded wasteful spending. These rescissions will serve notice to 
Congress that

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the days of wasteful spending are over. And it is a step symbolic of the 
power that 43 Governors have, the line-item veto. Incidentally, at their 
recent national meeting, the Nation's Governors, Democrat and 
Republican, went on record calling for line-item veto authority for the 
President. And I need that authority.
    I'm also fighting for economic growth through actions that don't 
need to be passed by the Congress. Some things I need Congress to do; 
other things we can do without. Take a look at Government regulation. 
Day by day, rule by rule, and industry by industry, we are winning 
battles against overregulation. We're winning victories for common sense 
and freedom.
    Just last Thursday, for example, our administration announced 
reforms on nutrition labeling for meat and poultry. Our reforms will 
keep our food supply every bit as safe, and I have responsibility for 
that, but we will reduce the burden and expense of regulation on 
American consumers and on our hard-working food producers and grocers. 
If Congress sends me any legislation that would overregulate economy, 
I'm going to veto it as soon as it reaches my desk.
    Now, if we Americans are going to hone our skills and really compete 
in the years ahead, we've got a lot more to do. And I want to have us 
keep our sights on the next American century. And when I think of 
America in the year 2000, I think of five strategic concerns mentioned 
in my address to the Nation last Friday.
    First, we must change and renew our schools. We must become a Nation 
of students, educating ourselves throughout our lifetimes in the best 
system of schools, colleges, and universities in the entire world. And 
this is going to take revolutionary change. Most of our States and 
hundreds of local communities are committed to change. They have joined 
me already in a crusade that we call America 2000, an exciting program 
to revolutionize education.
    Business-as-usual is not going to help us reach our national 
education goals. We need to get behind world-class standards, new 
curriculum frameworks, break-the-mold schools, voluntary national 
testing. And a centerpiece of our plan is the belief that schools will 
do their best when parents enjoy real freedom and real responsibility to 
choose their children's schools, public, private, and religious. School 
choice for parents is an idea whose time has come.
    Second, we need to make our excellent health care system more 
affordable and more available to Americans. We've got the highest 
quality health care in the entire world, but everyone should have access 
to it. And we all know the problems: Too many people don't have health 
insurance, and health care costs are going right through the roof. And 
we also know that the answer doesn't lie in costly and coercive plans 
like the scheme to make employers ``play or pay.'' And the answer 
certainly isn't these nationalized, these socialized medicine plans. 
Nationalized health care would be a national disaster.
    The way I propose that we help our society deal with this is based 
on markets and choice. Just as in education, vouchers are a key part of 
my strategy for giving Americans a fairer and more affordable health 
care system. And our answer is to change our health care system for the 
better, not ruin it. And we're going to keep fighting for this sensible 
plan.
    Third--and I know you're going to agree with this one--we need 
fundamental legal reform to stop the epidemic of lawsuits. You all know 
the litany. You hear it in your communities. You hear it in your 
businesses. Things are so out of hand that some parents refuse to coach 
Little League for fear of liability lawsuits. Some doctors won't deliver 
babies anymore because of malpractice suits. Well, just imagine what we 
could achieve if we spent as much time helping each other as we do suing 
each other.
    And the costs of litigation and liability on small business are 
absolutely staggering, horrendous. You know, in 1989 there were 18 
million lawsuits filed in America, 18 million. And that's why I've again 
asked Congress to pass my civil justice reform bill which will help 
people resolve problems through means other than the courtroom. And it 
will help put a stop to frivolous lawsuits and reduce the drag on our 
economy caused by excessive litigation. And I need your help. I need 
your help with the Con-

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gress to pass this sensible approach.
    And fourth, we must reform Government in line with one of America's 
most important founding principles: strict limits on the size and power 
of Government. With a Federal Government that gobbles up a quarter of 
GNP, we can't really say we're as free as we should be. One quarter of 
all we produce as a Nation, as a people, goes to pay for the central 
Government. Now, that's just not right. And right now, the system is not 
accountable, effective, efficient, or even compassionate. And we need 
Government that knows its limits. But more important, we need a 
Government that works.
    We have got to fix a congressional system that's gone out of 
control. Congress, as an institution controlled by one party, the 
Democrats, for most of the past four decades, desperately needs reform. 
And I'm going to have more to say, constructively, about reforming 
Congress in not so many days from now, at a later date. But we can start 
by compelling Congress to be governed by the laws that they impose on 
people like you, such as civil rights law, wage and hour laws, fair 
labor standards. We must totally eliminate the special interest PAC's 
that give unfair advantage to incumbents in Congress and say yes to the 
people's call for term limits on Congress. My term is limited; the 
President's term is limited. And I believe theirs should be now if we 
want true reform.
    Fifth, we must work to expand our markets. Of all the legacies that 
I want to help create as your President, few could be more important 
than open and fair trade opportunities for our manufacturers and our 
service industries and also for our farmers and our food industries. 
Food and agriculture trade is the critical problem of world trade. The 
European Community spends more than 10 times, 10 times as much as we do 
on agricultural export subsidies. This cannot and must not go on.
    And I made that point in a very vigorous way to a very receptive 
Chancellor Kohl of Germany when he visited Camp David last weekend. His 
leadership will be vital if we are to break the deadlock in GATT and 
concluding the Uruguay round successfully. And I know from my talks that 
he wants to see a successful conclusion to the Uruguay round. So let me 
assure you, we'll be working as hard as possible the next few weeks to 
make a breakthrough in GATT. But as we see it, if there's no fair deal 
for agriculture, there simply cannot be a good GATT agreement. 
Agriculture is the key to getting this worked out.
    And I'm also working to open up the exciting market opportunities in 
Mexico. With nearly 100 million people next door, Mexico is already one 
of our best customers. And they'll buy a lot more American goods as soon 
as these negotiations are concluded. It is one of our fastest growing 
markets anywhere in the world. And the bottom line is: A good agreement 
with Mexico means more U.S. jobs.
    Last year, our exports around the world reached record levels. So 
the more trade barriers we can knock down the better. On a level playing 
field, I am absolutely convinced that Americans can outproduce, 
outperform anyone, anytime, anywhere. I have that kind of confidence in 
the American worker.
    On each of these challenges, there are two roads to take: One is 
reform; the other protects the status quo. You and I are gathered on 
Capitol Hill today because we share a common purpose. We're here in the 
neighborhood of a Congress that fails to heed calls for reform, that so 
far has failed to pass a simple but effective plan to help create jobs 
and build confidence. We're not simply going to complain about the 
Congress; we're going to try to change it.
    And there are hundreds of you here, hometown business leaders, who 
are the backbone of your community. And just after this speech, I 
understand that all of you are headed up the Hill to visit your Senators 
and Representatives. I hope you'll pass along my warmest thanks to those 
who have stood with us and urge all Members of Congress to support our 
long-term economic growth package, the five points I mentioned here 
today. It is just that important.
    This will be, for me, my final campaign. And I plan to fight as 
never before. I have had the privilege of being your President at the 
great turning point when freedom prevailed over imperial communism, when 
the

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Berlin Wall came down, when Iraq's aggression was defeated, ancient 
enemies talking peace in the Middle East, when democracy really got on 
the move in this, our own hemisphere. We are helping solidify a legacy 
of peace. But I cannot rest and you cannot rest until we help this 
country win another legacy: productive jobs for our citizens, with 
strong families secure in a more peaceful world. Working together, we 
changed the world. And now we can change America.
    Thank you all very, very much. And may God bless you in your 
important work.

                    Note: The President spoke at 11:04 a.m. at the Hyatt 
                        Regency Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to 
                        Boyd L. George, chairman of the board of 
                        governors, and John R. Block, president, 
                        National American Wholesale Grocers Association; 
                        William C. Eacho III, chairman of the board of 
                        directors, International Foodservice 
                        Distributors Association; Richard Niemann, vice 
                        chairman of the board of directors, Food 
                        Marketing Institute; and T.C. Godwin, Jr., 
                        chairman of the board, National Association of 
                        Convenience Stores.