[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 21, 1992]
[Pages 1903-1906]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Thomasville, North Carolina
October 21, 1992

    The President. What a great North Carolina day. Thank you, Governor 
Jim Martin. I'll tell you something, the people of North Carolina are 
lucky to have such a quality man of character leading this State as Jim 
Martin. Now we've got to keep that character and quality going by 
electing Jim Gardner to be the next Governor of North Carolina.
    I'm delighted to see a man here who supports me and supports our 
country so much. Congressman Howard Coble. If we had more like him they 
wouldn't be yelling ``Clean House!'' at me. We need more like him. While 
we're at it, we need to help our distinguished guest today, Senator 
Strom Thurmond, one of America's truly greats over here. We need to help 
him by cleaning Senate, and that means send our friend Lauch Faircloth 
to the United States Senate. Lauch Faircloth is one of the great--he'd 
be a great Senator. He'll go up there and change things, and the status 
quo is what's wrong. We need him in the Senate. Send him up there. He's 
doing just great.
    Then we've got another sportsman here. I think of North Carolina as 
a sporting State, one that loves athletics. Charlotte's coming on 
strong. We've got Darryl Waltrip right here, one of America's greats. So 
we've got them all, and now we're ready to go.
    Let me thank everybody responsible for this wonderful rally--the 
great bands from Thomasville, East Davidson, and Ledford High Schools. 
It's great to be here with last year's State champions, the Thomasville 
High School Bulldogs.
    Can I tell you something as a satisfied customer? You've got to make 
the best furniture in the entire world. Not only is it made right here, 
but also there's a certain generosity of spirit by the companies and the 
workers involved, because I'm told that you were sending furniture to 
the victims of Hurricane Andrew. That is the American spirit, and I'm 
very grateful to you.
    Now on to the business at hand. Did anybody watch that debate the 
other night? Let me tell you, I thought we did all right. I thought we 
did okay. But let me tell you this. What I think you saw was a vast 
difference in experience, certainly a vast difference in philosophy, and 
a vast difference in character, and character matters for President of 
the United States.
    Governor Clinton made a horrible comment. He said he wants to do for 
the United States what he's done for Arkansas. That would be terrible.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Let me click off some gloomy statistics, and then 
we'll get on to something a little more positive. Arkansas--he's got 
this Ozone Man on the ticket with him, you know, Gore. Arkansas ranks 
the 50th in quality of environmental standards. It ranks 50th in per 
capita spending on criminal justice. It ranks 49th in per capita 
spending on police protection. It ranks 48th in percentage of adults 
with high school diplomas. It is 48th on spending on corrections, 46th 
on teachers' salaries, and 45th in the overall well-being of children. 
You cannot take a failing Little League coach and put him on to coach 
the Atlanta Braves, manage the Braves.
    He calls this change. He says he's the candidate of change. Well, 
let's take a close look at what he offers. How about this one for 
openers, and he hasn't got there: $150

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billion in new taxes and $220 in new spending. That is trickle-down 
Government, and we don't need it in Washington, DC. He says he'd sock it 
to the rich. Watch out, middle America. Watch out, struggling nurse or 
family person. He's going to stick it right in your wallet, and you 
don't need that anymore. Let's get the taxes down and the spending down.
    The last time we got that kind of change, you don't have to go back 
to Herbert Hoover. Go back to when you had a liberal Democrat in the 
White House and you had a Democrat spendthrift Congress that Lauch 
Faircloth wants to change. Go back and take a look. That was in the days 
of Jimmy Carter. Now, do you remember what interest rates----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Sorry, gang, but it's true. Do you remember what the 
interest rates were? Twenty-one and a half percent. Twenty-one percent. 
Inflation was robbing every senior citizen in this country--15 percent. 
We cannot go back to that failed policy. You keep going with that kind 
of change, and change is all you'll have left in your pocket. We've got 
to do better.
    My philosophy is this: Cut the spending and cut the taxes and put 
more money, put more money into the pockets of the American working man. 
One way to do that is create more markets abroad. It's exports that have 
saved us in this global slowdown. We've got to increase exports, create 
more markets for the goods that are produced right here in North 
Carolina, and we can do it. But we can't do it by turning inward.
    It's small business that creates the jobs in this country, and we 
ought never to forget it. They create two-thirds of the new jobs. That 
means we need relief for taxation from small business. We need relief 
from regulation; and certainly, we need relief from litigation. We are 
suing each other too much in this country and caring for each other too 
little. Legal reform is what we need. It's a sorry thing when 
malpractice insurance is running health care costs up for every 
American. When a guy sees somebody lying by the highway and doesn't dare 
stop to help him because they're afraid some trial lawyer will come 
along and sue him, when a person doesn't coach Little League because 
he's scared of getting a lawsuit by some nutty lawyer, it is time to put 
a lid on this. Sue each other less, care for each other more.
    One big difference I've got is with him on health care. He wants to 
put a Government board in to kind of ration out the health care of this 
country. I want to make insurance available to the poorest of the poor. 
I want to give a tax credit to middle America so they can get a little 
relief, and make insurance available to everybody, but keep the quality 
up. We've got the best doctors in the world. Keep the quality up by 
keeping Government under control.
    A big difference on education. You see, he wants to put the control 
more in Washington. And I say this: We want to put control in the hands 
of the families. We did it in child care, and now I want to do it in 
school choice. Help parents send their kids to all schools, public 
schools, private schools, and religious schools. And he won't do that. I 
am proud that under my administration more money is going to kids to 
help them go to college than anytime in the history of this country.
    You know, as I ride along the rails and I see these crossings, I see 
law enforcement people out helping us at every crossing. Let me just say 
this: Strom Thurmond, one of the great leaders for strong anticrime 
legislation, is fighting in the Senate to make our laws tougher so that 
we back up our law enforcement officials and have more consideration for 
the victims of crime and less for the criminals. That's what we've got 
to do.
    And what is Arkansas' policy? Arkansas' prisoners spend 20 percent 
of their sentences in jail. That's not good enough.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. If a guy busts a law, and certainly, if they kill a 
law enforcement officer, they ought to stay there until they get on 
Willard Scott's program on that 100th birthday.
    You heard the difference the other day between how we get the 
Government spending down. I'll give you three ideas. You give us Lauch 
Faircloth, and we're going to help Strom get that job done: one, a 
balanced budget amendment; two, a taxpayers' check-off that says if 
you're con-

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cerned about the deficit, check your tax return, and 10 percent of it 
has to go to lowering the deficit. If Congress can't make the 
priorities, make them cut right straight across the board until we get 
the job done. The last one is, I want that line-item veto. Forty-three 
Governors have it. Forty-three Governors have it. Let's stop that pork 
barrel spending, do what's right for the American people, but not do 
what's right for the reelection of every Member of the United States 
Congress. Frankly, I like the idea of turning the Congress back to the 
people by putting on term limits. The President is limited; why not the 
Congress?
    You know, the other night I guess one of the big differences came--
this was in the Richmond debate--when Governor Clinton said it's not the 
character of the President. He says it's ``the character of the 
Presidency.'' And to that I say, they're inseparable. You cannot 
separate it out, and character matters.
    The liberals don't like it when I talk about family values, but 
America knows what I mean. We've got to strengthen the family. They 
don't like it when I say, yes, we're one Nation under God. And we are, 
and we'd better never forget it.
    But my argument with the Governor of Arkansas is you can't please 
everybody. I found that out in this job. You've got to call them as you 
see them. If you make a mistake, you admit it. You don't try to cover it 
up and say one thing to one group and another thing to another group, 
and therein is a question of character. On everything from the right-to-
work laws, to term limits, to free trade, to the Persian Gulf, he's 
tried to be on one side and then another. And you cannot do that as 
President, and that is a matter of character.
    There's a pattern of deception here, and America better look at it. 
There is a pattern of deception. I love what Governor Martin said about 
the patriotism of this State, serving your country. And yes, North 
Carolina responded perhaps more than any other State in Desert Storm.
    But where was Governor Clinton? Where was Governor--never mind. 
Don't let this guy say that. You're going to get me in trouble with the 
media, and who would want to do that?
    But let me remind you of where this man that wants to be Commander 
in Chief of the Armed Forces--this one didn't happen 23 years ago, this 
one happened about a year and a half ago. And what he said was--at the 
time, I had to make a very tough decision, leading the country and the 
Congress to make a tough decision--he said this. He said, ``Well, I 
agreed with the minority, but I guess if it were a close vote, I guess 
if it were a close vote I would have voted with the majority.'' If we 
had listened to him, Governor Martin is right, Saddam Hussein would be 
in downtown Saudi Arabia and controlling the world oil supply and have a 
nuclear bomb. We didn't listen to that kind of waffle. We went ahead and 
made a tough decision. Character counts. Character matters. You cannot 
be all things to all people. And yes, it matters.
    Let me say this. First place, I wish Barbara Bush were here because 
I think we've got a great First Lady. But, you know, she and I have 
talked about this, and as you know, we are blessed in our family. We're 
blessed with a bunch of grandkids, blessed with five wonderful children. 
And so, life has treated us pretty good. But when people are hurting in 
this country you feel it. You feel it right in your heart. And so I want 
to win this election not because I need this job, but I want to continue 
to serve the American people and lift up the hopes of these kids. We 
have literally changed the world.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. We have literally changed the world. The kids in 
these bands over here go to bed at night without that same fear of 
nuclear war that gripped their parents, and that is substantial change 
for world peace.
    Now what we've got to do is take that same leadership with a new and 
changed Congress, and there will be one, and lift up America. We are 
not, as Clinton says, a nation in decline. We are the greatest, fairest, 
freest nation on the face of the Earth. And now let's make it better. 
Now let's make it better. Help me. But the change I'm talking about: 
Remember, send Lauch Faircloth to the United States Senate. We

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must change the Senate. Reelect Howard Coble. Let's move America 
forward.
    And thank you, and may God bless this greatest country on the face 
of the Earth. Thank you all very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 3:12 p.m. on the 
                        observation deck of the Spirit of America train.