[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[April 14, 1992]
[Pages 595-599]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Giddings & Lewis Employees and Local Chambers of Commerce in 
Fraser, Michigan

April 14, 1992
    Thank you very much. And Governor Engler, thank you; I'm proud to be 
introduced by our great Governor here. I want to salute our Secretary of 
Labor, Lynn Martin. You met her when she came in. She is doing a lot, an 
awful lot in terms of job retraining, in terms of hope and opportunity 
for America's workers. I want to thank the CEO of Giddings & Lewis, Bill 
Fife here, who greeted us and has given us a short tour. Thanks to some 
of the workers here in this wonderful plant and then to Barbara Hollett 
and Linda Walling and Geary Maiuri and James Williams, Warren and to all 
the others from the six chambers of commerce. May I thank you for being 
here. I just want you to know I'm delighted to be with you today.
    I'm sorry that Barbara Bush is not here. She's out in the State of 
Oregon today. But I take great pride in the fact that she's doing her 
part. I see these kids here trying to hit a blow for literacy in this 
country. And she asked me to extend her very best wishes.
    Now, I want to talk to you today about the things that we really 
must do together, Government and business, public servants, private 
citizens, to leave our children a legacy worthy of this great country of 
ours. You see, I am not one who is so pessimistic about America. We are 
the leaders of the world, the undisputed leaders of the world, and now 
we've got great things to do here at home. I think that we've got to 
agree on what that legacy is going to be. Clearly, we want a world at 
peace. People say to the American people, ``Well, how are things 
going?'' And I take great pride in the fact that, see these little kids 
here, they won't go to sleep at night worrying about nuclear warfare the 
way the generations preceding had done. We want a world at peace. We

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want strong, wholesome families, and we want an economy that provides 
rewarding jobs for all.
    More than any country on Earth, America has afforded each generation 
the opportunity to leave such a legacy. Today, we have that opportunity 
once again. The world is changing at a pace undreamed of a generation 
ago. And now America, which has led the world's transformation, must 
change as well. This afternoon I want to discuss five areas which I 
believe are overdue for reform, five key ways in which America must 
change if we are to honor coming generations with the legacy that they 
deserve.
    As business men and women and as Giddings & Lewis employees, you 
understand the urgency. For each of these five problems presents itself 
to you not as some abstraction but in the most immediate way, as a cost, 
a cost of doing business. Too often these costs are beyond your control, 
drawing resources away from your primary goals of expanding your 
companies and creating good jobs for your communities.
    When our legal system, and the Governor touched on this, becomes 
incapable of resolving disputes in a civil and timely manner, business 
loses the incentive to innovate, loses the incentive to take risks. And 
when health care costs escalate, business picks up much of the tab. And 
when Government imposes barriers to trade, business pays the cost in 
lost markets. And then when our kids, our children, leave school without 
rudimentary skills, business bears in the lost productivity. And when 
Government freezes in gridlock, business can no longer plan rationally 
for the future.
    So, let me start with Washington, and again, the Governor referred 
to that: If America is going to change, the Government must change. Ten 
days ago I presented seven specific proposals to cure the paralysis that 
grips the United States Congress. My proposals range from an elimination 
of these special-interest political action committees, these PAC's, 
elimination, not reduction but elimination; extends to a line-item veto, 
which will allow us at last to get a handle on this deficit that is 
mortgaging the future of these children here today. And I think it's 
high time that we limited the number of terms that Members of Congress 
may serve.
    My aim is simple: We must create a flexible Government, responsive 
to the common good. And I have tried, I have tried over the past 3 years 
to invest my administration with this sort of flexibility. Now, let me 
give you a few examples of special concern right here to Macomb County.
    A reformed Government knows its limits, refusing to impose undue 
burdens on business and consumers alike. For that reason, I've made it 
clear to Congress: This is no time to legislate an increase in the CAFE 
standards that would cost Americans jobs in the automotive industry. And 
I will not accept such legislation.
    A reformed Government encourages innovation. Last October, by way of 
example, my administration joined with the Big Three, the automobile 
companies, to develop a new generation of batteries. And our goal: To 
make American car companies first in the world in producing competitive, 
electric cars by the year 2000.
    A reformed Government finds flexible means to reach its goals. Our 
approach to the 1990 Clean Air Act, which requires deep reductions in 
air pollution, is a good example. To help communities and industries 
meet the objectives of that act, we've initiated a ``cash for clunkers'' 
program, allowing States and companies to buy the high-polluting old 
cars, get them off the road, and use the reduction in pollution to 
satisfy our clean air standards.
    Flexibility, accountability, a willingness to innovate, Americans 
have a right to expect each of these from their Government and 
particularly from the United States Congress. Yet instead we get 
business-as-usual. I'll give you another example, dealing with a second 
area urgently in need of reform, the Nation's legal system. Our 
country--and this isn't true just of business, this is true of 
neighborhoods, true of towns and city government--our country is swamped 
in frivolous lawsuits. We tried to make a good start at reform in 1990 
when I introduced a bill to reform product liability laws. Congress 
wouldn't budge. So we reintroduced the reform again in 1991. And the 
Senate Democrats refuse even to bring that bill to

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a vote. In the House it's stuck in two, that's right, two separate 
committees.
    This inaction is inexcusable. America, regrettably, has become the 
most litigious society on Earth, and American companies pay the price, 
not only in dollars wasted but in lower productivity and a business 
environment hostile even to ordinary competitive practices. According to 
a recent survey, 40 percent of companies that had been the target of 
product liability suits have discontinued certain types of product 
research.
    None of our competitors is afflicted with this lawsuit madness. We 
must remove this ball and chain from our ability to compete worldwide. 
And our Competitiveness Council, led by the Vice President, has offered 
50 recommendations for legal reform, including reasonable limits to the 
discovery process, alternative means of resolving disputes, and a 
``loser pay'' rule that would discourage the frivolous lawsuits. I urge 
you to urge the Congress to help stop this lawsuit madness.
    We must help each other more and sue each other less. I'll give you 
an example. A lot of the people here in this plant, I'm sure, have kids 
in Little League. Some of you may coach Little League, like I did a 
thousand years ago. And some people are refusing to coach Little League 
because they're afraid of some frivolous lawsuit; doctors, afraid of 
delivering babies because of a frivolous lawsuit. We really have to 
change this litigious society into a more gentle and a more friendly 
society.
    Our comprehensive legal reform will be far-reaching, extending then 
into a third area critically in need of change, our Nation's health 
system. Everybody here, I'm sure, is concerned about the health care 
system. The litigation explosion has hit Michigan's health care hard. 
Every year your physicians and hospitals pay almost $500 million for 
medical liability coverage, $500 million. For the patient, that 
translates into an extra $300 added on to the average hospital bill.
    The trends are simply unsustainable. Some estimates say that by 
2030, the year 2030, that's only, what, 38 years away, we will spend 30 
cents of every dollar of national income on health care. Again, much of 
the burden falls on business. Right now, American corporations spend 
more on health care each year than they earn in after-tax profits. Now, 
we've got to stop this drain on our productivity.
    My proposed health care reform will build on our system's assets, 
especially in preserving the quality of care. We've still got the 
world's finest quality health care. We will reform the private insurance 
market and increase consumer choice. Through transferable tax credits we 
will bring coverage to those who are uninsured and control costs through 
market incentives. And we will avoid the pitfalls of what I would see as 
a nationalized care, with the rationing and the long waiting lines and 
the mediocre quality that comes with it. Health care reform must hew to 
this principle: Government has no business dictating what kind of health 
care you want to choose, dictating what kind of health care you receive.
    I target then a fourth area for attention, like the others, 
absolutely critical for our success in the coming decades. With its 
global reach, this great company, Giddings & Lewis, exemplifies an 
indisputable truth about our future: If America is to succeed 
economically at home, we must succeed economically abroad. And in the 
postwar period, trade-related jobs have grown three times faster than 
the overall job creation. Exports have accounted for 70 percent of our 
economy's growth over the past 3 years. We will build on this success by 
continuing to open foreign markets to American goods and services, 
including the world's second largest market economy, Japan. And since I 
took office, our exports to Japan have grown 10 times faster than our 
imports from Japan, and our manufactured products are leading this 
expansion. That boom has already created an additional 200,000 jobs here 
at home.
    And that's why we made this now-famous trip to Japan. I heard some 
criticism of that trip, but let's get the facts straight about what we 
accomplished. Of special interest to many of you, for example, was the 
pledge by private Japanese companies to increase the purchase of U.S.-
made auto parts from $9 billion to $19 billion by 1994. And we didn't 
stop there. As a result of our trip, we've opened up Japan's $4 billion

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glass market, its $9 billion public-sector computer market, and its $27 
billion paper market, offering American business enormous opportunities 
to sell American goods; and that, of course, means to create American 
jobs. And if we are to take advantage of the opportunities, we must stay 
abroad.
    We must have a world-class work force. And yet the grim fact is 
undeniable: Our current education system is unable to produce the 
workers the highly competitive world market demands. The only solution 
left to us is radical change. That means we must literally reinvent 
American education. And on Thursday, I'm going to discuss the progress 
we've made in the year since we launched our America 2000 education 
initiative, a revolutionary movement that challenges every community to 
create what we call break-the-mold schools. We know how to do it. We set 
world-class standards for students. We redouble our efforts to rid our 
schools of drugs and violence, to cleanse Americans of this scourge that 
wastes so many young lives. And we make schools more accountable by 
forcing them to compete. And that means letting parents choose their 
children's schools, public, private, or religious. We must have that 
kind of choice to bring real competition into the classroom.
    And we need to take the same bold approach to job training, to 
provide Americans with the skills that this age of intense international 
competition demands. And I have developed such an approach, working with 
the Secretary here, and when Congress returns from recess, we will 
submit the ``Job Training 2000 Act.''
    Our current job training system is merely--it's kind of a crazy 
quilt of good intentions. Over the years Congress has put in place 
scores of training programs, but they are uncoordinated, sometimes 
redundant, and too often unaccountable. This year, seven different 
Federal Agencies will administer some 60 training programs at a cost of 
$18 billion.
    And with this jumble, is it any wonder that an 18-year-old, fresh 
from high school, doesn't know where to go for career guidance; or that 
an unemployed older worker, eager to learn a new trade, is confused 
about how to find training; or that a young parent on welfare, in search 
of a rewarding job, can't find advice on which trade school to attend or 
which career to pursue? Unscrupulous operators, these fly-by-night trade 
schools prey on this confusion, and they take advantage of the system's 
lack of accountability. And they recruit the naive or somebody that's so 
desperate even though they know it's bad, they're willing to take a 
chance, signing them up for thousands of dollars in grants or loans, 
offer a few weeks training, and then leave the people burdened with 
debt.
    A truly competitive America can't afford this waste of talent and 
energy. And it's not fair to the American worker. Job Training 2000 will 
disentangle that knot of Federal programs and make them serve the people 
who need them. And here are the key elements of this plan. First, it 
will create one-stop shopping for vocational training in every 
community. Second, it will certify programs so that they meet the needs 
of the local labor markets. And third, it will offer vouchers so 
aspiring workers can choose the training they want.
    Along with Job Training 2000, I'm going to submit to Congress an 
important new initiative. It's called the ``Youth Apprenticeship Act of 
1992.'' Apprenticeship is one of the surest routes into the world of 
work, and we need to make it more widely available to our young people. 
And at the same time, we've got to encourage them to complete a sound 
high school education that prepares them for a lifetime of learning. The 
act accomplishes both these goals, making it easier for kids in the 11th 
and 12th grades to combine on-the-job training with their regular 
studies at school. And when they graduate from school, they will have 
not only a certificate that attests to their job skills but a diploma 
that represents a substantial and varied education.
    Now, to get that ``Apprenticeship Act'' up and running, we will be 
offering demonstration grants to six States, California, Iowa, Maine, 
Oregon, Wisconsin, and right here in Michigan, as well as a series of 
local areas. We owe our young people, we owe every American who seeks to 
climb the ladder of economic advantage the finest job, the finest job 
training system the world

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can produce, and I mean to see that they get it.
    Therefore I want to challenge the United States Congress to pass 
both of these initiatives, Job Training 2000 and the ``Youth 
Apprenticeship Act,'' this session, before the Congress adjourns for the 
year. But as you know, I'm the first to admit that I can't always count 
on Congress to act, no matter how great the urgency. For real education 
reform I enlisted the help of the Nation's Governors. You may remember 
this a couple of years ago, we got together at Charlottesville, 
Virginia. So far 43 Governors have responded by enrolling their States 
in this program we call America 2000.
    And now I ask their help again. I call on the Governors here today, 
all of the Governors around the country, to initiate Job Training 2000 
strategies in their own States; several are already hard at work. And I 
ask every Governor to bring together labor and business leaders with 
local officials to consolidate their own job training programs. And 
wherever possible, my administration will grant waivers to accelerate 
these efforts. And we will provide incentive grants to help them get 
started.
    Each of the reforms that I've outlined here today--making Government 
accountable and flexible, restoring sanity to our legal system, ensuring 
quality health care for all, expanding world trade, and reinventing 
American education and job training for tomorrow's work force--each 
shares a single goal, to ensure that America remains the undisputed 
leader of the world, the freest, most prosperous and competitive Nation 
on Earth.
    And each of these reforms grows from a fundamental, uniquely 
American principle. Thomas Jefferson said it best: ``The pillars of our 
prosperity are the most thriving when left most free to individual 
enterprise.'' And in practice that means Government must trust the 
wisdom of markets more than the whims of bureaucrats. And the freely 
made decisions of the people must take precedence over the engineering 
schemes of Government. And all our institutions, from Congress to the 
local trade school, must be accountable to those that they serve.
    Over the last decade, America has changed the world. Today, we're 
blessed with the opportunity to change America. I couldn't help thinking 
about that sentence, ``Over the last decade, America has changed the 
world,'' as I was walking along the line here and reading the computer 
screen in English and then in what the man running the screen told me 
was Russian. I had to take his word for that. But here was a shipment 
going off, a machine going off to Russia. We have a tremendous 
opportunity, and I intend to see that we continue to lead the world. And 
in so doing, we will be offering enormous job opportunities, expanded 
job markets for the American worker. We cannot pull back. We cannot 
withdraw into some sphere of isolation.
    And so, as your President, I take great pride in the fact we've 
helped change the world. And now I can tell you we are going to make 
these changes at home that will enable us to remain the undisputed, the 
undisputed, admired leader of this changing world in which we live.
    Thank you all very much. And may God bless each and every one of you 
and your families. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank 
you very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2:50 p.m. at the 
                        Giddings & Lewis, Inc., plant. In his remarks, 
                        he referred to William Fife, Jr., chairman and 
                        chief executive officer, Giddings & Lewis; 
                        Barbara Hollett, executive director, Metro East 
                        Chamber of Commerce; Linda Walling, director, 
                        Sterling Heights Chamber of Commerce; Gary 
                        Maiuri, chairman, Central Macomb County Chamber 
                        of Commerce; and James Williams, chairman, 
                        Warren, Center Line, and Sterling Heights 
                        Chamber of Commerce.