[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 15, 1992]
[Pages 1565-1567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1565]]


Remarks to Jeppesen Sanderson Employees in Englewood, Colorado
September 15, 1992

    The President. Good morning, Colorado. Thank you all. Thank you very 
much. Frank, thank you, Frank, for that introduction. Greetings to all: 
Captain Jeppesen and Paul Sanderson; Horst Bergmann; master of 
ceremonies, Mark, here; Natalie Meyer, our great Colorado secretary of 
state; and Gale Norton, Colorado's wonderful attorney general. It's 
great to be with all of them.
    And let me salute our party leaders who are here, Bruce Benson, Ed 
Jones, Mary Daubman, and the rest of the Colorado Republican team. 
You're doing a great job. And we are going to win this State.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. That's the idea. You got it, you got the message. 
Now, I'm delighted to see such a great crowd, a fantastic crowd. I'm 
sure you were told that you'd hear from a guy who loves a good fight, 
loves to be behind, pull it out at the last minute. Unfortunately, John 
Elway couldn't be here today. [Laughter] But I'm proud to be here. It's 
the beginning of a new era for America. And I'm proud to be the first 
President to visit Colorado and say, the cold war is over, and freedom 
finished first.
    But this election is about more than the past; it's about the 
future. It's about what kind of country we're going to leave for the 
young kids here today. Here's our challenge: In the next century, 
America must be not only a military superpower but also an export 
superpower and an economic superpower. This year you're going to hear 
two very different versions of how we get there. I want to have us look 
forward, to prepare our kids to compete, to save and invest, and to 
strengthen the American family. And if we can do this, when it comes to 
the new challenges of the nineties, America will finish first again. We 
have and we will do it again.
    A Grand Canyon divides me and my opponent on the issues; two 
candidates, two very different philosophies. You see it in every issue 
that we care about: education, health care, economic growth, creating 
jobs. My Agenda for American Renewal lays out the answers, shows us the 
way as clear as a Jeppesen dataplan. And that is very, very clear, if 
you know anything about this company.
    I put my trust in the American people, the same people who made this 
country the greatest economic power the world has ever seen. I want more 
competition to keep health care costs down. I want more competition, to 
give parents the power to choose their kids' schools, to make our 
schools the very best in the entire world. But for my opponent, it 
doesn't matter what the problem is, he always sees the same solution: He 
wants more Government mandates, more Government regulations, and more 
Government burdens on workers and businesses.
    Governor Clinton wants to give Government more power. And I want to 
give you, the American people, more power. Governor Clinton wants to 
make the bureaucrat's life easy, to provide one-size-fits-all service in 
schools and in day care. I want you to be able to choose your schools 
and choose your day care so that we make your lives easier.
    Now, business people here might be a little frightened of this one, 
but my opponent is for what they call an industrial policy, where 
Government planners decide how high the American economy will go, and if 
you try to go any further, they'll tax you down to Earth.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. And I want to unleash the incredible power of 
entrepreneurial capitalism so you can climb as high as your dreams will 
carry you. And that's what this debate is about: the role of Government 
in America. It's not just the difference between big Government and 
smaller; it's the difference between a big Government that thinks it 
knows best and a smaller Government that believes you know better. 
That's the fundamental difference.
    And when it comes to taxes and spending, the difference couldn't be 
more clear. I hold a firm belief that a Government is too

[[Page 1566]]

big and it spends too much of your money. And my opponent disagrees. 
Governor Clinton has already called--and get this now--it's in his plan 
for $200 billion in new spending. And Newsweek magazine says the real 
total could be 3 times higher. Right out of the box, he wants to raise 
taxes by $150 billion.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. And of course, he says he won't tax you. It's always 
somebody else: big corporations, foreign investors, the rich. He's even 
come up with a new twist. He's going to tax jobs, a new training tax and 
a health care system leading to a new 7-percent payroll tax, all to feed 
the overfed bureaucrats in Washington, DC.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. I didn't think you'd be enthusiastic about that. They 
say I think that every day is the Fourth of July. Well, Governor, I do. 
I do. I believe America's best days are ahead of us. But Governor 
Clinton seems to believe that every day is April 15th. And his tired old 
tax-and-spend philosophy is wrong for this country. We all know that 
because it's been tried before. And it would be like going back to the 
used car lot, picking up the lemon that you sold 12 years ago. Only this 
time it would have higher prices on it from inflation, skyrocketing 
interest rates for credit, and a hot air bag thrown in. [Laughter] 
America, this is not the deal for you.
    Now, I want you to listen closely to him this fall, but you're going 
to do that, because on issue after issue, he takes one position and then 
another. He's been spotted in more places than Elvis Presley on these 
issues. [Laughter] Let me give you some specifics. Take the issue, the 
question of whether to stand up to Saddam Hussein, the defining test of 
American leadership in the post-cold-war world. Two days after Congress 
followed my lead--and I had to fight to get them to do that--he said, 
and I quote, ``I guess I would have voted with the majority if it was a 
close vote. But I agree with the arguments the minority made.''
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Maybe that's why he wants an Oval Office--he spends 
all his time running around in circles. [Laughter] You cannot do that. 
Being President, the buck stops there. You can't be on all sides of 
every question. And when you're in that Oval Office, and when American 
lives are at stake, you can't take time out to check the latest opinion 
polls. I had to make the tough decision, and I'm proud of what America 
did in Desert Storm. And we did the right thing.
    How about one of the defining issues of the next 4 years: Whether 
we're going to continue to open new markets, tap new consumers around 
the world so we can create more jobs here at home, right here in 
Colorado, right here at Inverness. I know Americans aren't afraid of 
competition, because when we compete fairly, we win. And where does 
Governor Clinton stand? It depends on who he's standing in front of. 
Sometimes he's for opening markets. But when he talks to the 
protectionist lobby, he whips out his saxophone and plays a different 
tune. They asked him about our new plan to open markets in Mexico, and 
here's what he said: ``When I have a definitive opinion, I'll say so.'' 
You figure it out. Before he went to the labor unions, he was for the 
free trade agreement. And when he went there, he had serious 
reservations. On free trade he backpedals faster than Karl Mecklenburg. 
[Laughter]
    And I am going to continue to fight for new markets because, don't 
kid yourself, the American worker can still outcompete, outthink, and 
outcreate anyone in the entire world. And there's something else I want 
to do. I want to get rid of all these crazy lawsuits. They are costing 
our economy up to $200 billion in a single year. And I think that's 
crazy. Somebody asked me the other day, ``An apple a day keeps the 
doctor away, what works for lawyers?'' [Laughter]
    Now, my opponent doesn't think this is a problem. You've got Little 
League people that can't coach who are worried about suits. You've got 
doctors afraid to deliver babies. You have people out there doing good 
works, good Samaritan works on the highway, afraid they'll get sued if 
they stop to help somebody.
    Now, here's what the head of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association 
said, and I quote: ``I can never remember an occasion

[[Page 1567]]

where he''--and that's Governor Clinton--``failed to do the right thing 
where we trial lawyers are concerned.'' I don't want to do the right 
thing for the trial lawyers. I want to do right for the American people. 
And we have got to sue each other less and care for each other more.
    So these are some of the things that I'm fighting for. And you'd 
give me a big hand if you'd give me legislators in Washington who share 
our vision of America. Give me Bryan Day and Ray Aragon in the U.S. 
House of Representatives. And do me a special favor. You have a special 
candidate for the U.S. Senate, the father of the term-limit movement, 
Terry Considine. And he understands that Government exists to serve the 
people, not the other way. Give me Terry in the United States Senate, 
and watch us move this country forward.
    You see, I don't think America is a vast collection of interest 
groups to be appeased, the trial lawyers over here, big labor over 
there, environmental extremists on the other side, each clamoring for 
favors from Washington bureaucrats. I believe we are a nation of special 
individuals, not special interests. And I believe our genius lies in our 
people, in our families, in our communities, not in the Government.
    In this election I'm asking for a mandate to return power to the 
people, to let Government give you the means and then give you the 
chance to do it your way. And if you believe in this mandate, if you 
believe in these ideas, then I ask you to pull together. For the next 49 
days, I ask you to join me and fight for free trade, fight for great 
schools, fight for giving power to the people.
    The polls may show us behind today, but I know we are going to be 
ahead in November because we have the right ideas. We've done a lot. 
These young kids don't go to bed at night with the same fear of nuclear 
weapons and nuclear war that their brothers had or their sisters had. 
And that is good. That is good. And we have the right ideas to renew 
America, to make America stronger, safer, and more secure.
    Thank you. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you 
all very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 12:28 p.m. at Jeppesen 
                        Sanderson, Inc., in the Inverness Business Park. 
                        In his remarks, he referred to company officers 
                        Frank Kotulak, project leader, Elrey B. Jeppesen 
                        and Paul Sanderson, cofounders, and Horst 
                        Bergmann, president and chief executive officer; 
                        Mark Bohne, president, Arapahoe County 
                        Republican Men's Club, and vice president of 
                        public affairs, South Metro Denver Chamber of 
                        Commerce; Bruce Benson, Republican State 
                        chairman; Ed Jones, State cochair, Bush-Quayle 
                        '92; and Mary Daubman, Republican national 
                        committeewoman-elect.