[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 21, 1992]
[Pages 1909-1911]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1909]]

 .
Remarks at the State Fair in Raleigh, North Carolina
October 21, 1992

    The President. Thank you very, very much. And let me say at the 
outset, let me say at the beginning how proud I am to be standing here 
with your great Senator, Jesse Helms, and to be introduced by him. With 
us all day today is Strom Thurmond from South Carolina, another great 
leader, a man that is fighting for strong anticrime legislation in that 
Senate. Every place I go people talk about cleaning House, changing the 
Congress. Well, let's clean Senate and send Lauch Faircloth to the 
United States Senate.
    I've known your Governor, I've known Jim Martin for a long time. And 
I'm not saying this just because I'm here, but I think he has been one 
of the truly great Governors in the entire United States. And I served 
in the Congress with the man who must succeed him, when he was there, 
Jim Gardner. Please elect him to be Governor of this State. Speaking of 
cleaning House, let's get Vicky Goudie up there to try her part, and Don 
Davis, too. Then, of course, the real celebrity of the night, king over 
here, Richard Petty. You know, in the President you get a lot of 
thrills. One of mine was standing next to Richard at this last Daytona 
500 and hearing that crowd who worship him, embrace him with their 
cheers. It was a wonderful day in American sports, and I am proud to 
have Richard as my friend. Besides that, I was in this fair headquarters 
and I heard what he had to say--14 laps behind and moving and ended up 4 
ahead. I like that.
    Well, it's great to be at the fair, and you've got a lot of things 
going: cotton candy, cotton candy, cotton candy. [Laughter] I know you 
all are doing a lot at the fair, but did anyone see that debate Monday 
night? It's a marvelous thing, those--I don't particularly like them, 
but there's one good thing about those debates. You can get your message 
out unfiltered. It was a good thing because the American people saw a 
choice, a difference in philosophy, a difference in experience, and a 
difference in character.
    What I didn't get to do is to spell out in enough detail the 
Arkansas record. I'm sorry to ruin it, but I've got to tell you a little 
bit about it, because for 11 months the liberal Democrats, and Bill 
Clinton in the fore, have been misrepresenting my record. So I think the 
American people are entitled to know some facts about his record in 
Arkansas. Here we go.
    You won't be cheering when I get through these numbers: 50th in the 
quality of environmental initiatives; 50th in the percentage of adults 
with a college degree----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Sorry about that--50th in spending on criminal 
justice; 50th in spending on police protection; 49th in percentage of 
adults with a high school diploma; 48th in spending on corrections; 46th 
on teachers' salaries----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President.----45th in the overall well-being of children. Now, 
Governor Clinton said in the debate, ``I want to do for America what 
I've done for Arkansas.'' We cannot let him do that. We're not going to 
let him do that.
    Audience members. We want Bush! We want Bush! We want Bush!
    The President. You know, it's like taking the manager of the team 
that finished last in the Little League and saying, you go up and manage 
the Atlanta Braves. It doesn't work that way when you want to be 
President of the United States.
    Governor Clinton calls this change. Let me tell you something; he 
calls himself a candidate of change. Let's look close at what he offers: 
to openers, $150 billion in new taxes, bigger than Mondale and Dukakis 
together--we can't have that--and $220 billion in new spending when I 
last heard from him. Now he's changing the plan a little bit.
    Audience members. Waffle, waffle, waffle!
    The President. Hey, listen, I'm getting to the waffle house part. 
I'm just getting warmed up here, you guys.

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    What he's talking about is saying to the working man in this 
country, give us more of the money. Let the Federal Government figure it 
out, and we'll let it trickle down to you. We do not need trickle-down 
Government. We need to cut taxes and cut spending and get the people a 
break.
    You hear Clinton talking about Herbert Hoover. He doesn't have to go 
back any further than Jimmy Carter. Let me remind you of this. Jesse 
alluded to this. You remember the ``misery index''? They invented it. 
The libs invented it, inflation and unemployment added together. It got 
up to 21 percent under Jimmy Carter, and it's 10 with us. We cut it in 
half. Everybody buying a home, or everybody trying to buy one, I ask you 
to remember what it was like when the Democrats controlled the White 
House and, as Jesse said, the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the 
Congress. Interest rates were 21.5 percent. And we don't need to go back 
to that for the good of America.
    This is change, all right. Change, that's what you're going to have 
left in your pocket if you put this guy in the White House.
    Let me tell you what else we've got to do. We've got to increase the 
markets for North Carolina products all around the world. We've got the 
best workers in the world in America. Now let's sell more abroad.
    We've got to get the tax burden off of small business. I mean build 
some incentives into it, investment tax allowance, capital gains, 
whatever it takes; less regulation, less taxation, because they provide 
two-thirds of the jobs for America. Relief for small business.
    Hey, fella, quiet.
    Then we've got to change the legal reform. We're suing each other 
too much in this country and not caring for each other enough. We've got 
to put some lid on the lawsuits in this country. Clinton is in the 
pocket of the trial lawyers, and we can't let that happen.
    On health care, I don't want to get the Government involved. I want 
to provide insurance for the poorest of the poor, and I want to do it 
through vouchers and tax credits and keep the quality but provide 
insurance for all Americans.
    On education, we are providing more grants to kids to go to college 
than at any time in the history of this country. Now I want to bring it 
down to the elementary, K through 12, and what I want to do is this: 
Give the parents the choice between private, public, and religious 
schools. Give them a break. That's going to help the public schools as 
well as the others.
    On crime, we've got to be a little tougher on the criminals and have 
a little more sympathy for the victims of crime. I might say I was very 
proud to have been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police from Little 
Rock, Arkansas.
    You know, they talk a lot over there on the other side about getting 
the deficit down. But here's three ideas for you. Let's pass a balanced 
budget amendment and make the Congress get it down. Here's another idea: 
Give the taxpayer a check-off on his income, 10 percent to go to reduce 
spending. Make them reduce that spending. Then give them a line-item 
veto. Let the President cut right through that waste. Three good ideas.
    My biggest problem with Governor Clinton is that he's on one side of 
the issue one day and on the other, the other day. We cannot let the 
White House turn into the waffle house. We can't do that. He'll take one 
position on right to work in the right-to-work State, and in the other 
States he says he's against it. On term limits, which I am in favor of, 
he is for it in one State and against it in another.
    On the Persian Gulf war, where the sons and daughters of North 
Carolina served with such distinction, here's what Governor Clinton 
said. Think of this in terms of the Commander in Chief of the Armed 
Forces. He said, ``Well, I agree with the minority, but I guess I would 
have voted with the majority.'' What kind of leadership is that?
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. You cannot lead the American people by misleading 
them. Nobody is perfect. If you make a mistake, admit it. That's the 
American way. Then go on about leading the country. But do not try to be 
all things to all people.
    Let me tell you this: I'm very sorry Bar-

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bara is not here because I think we've got the best First Lady we can 
possibly have. But she and I have tried very hard to uphold the public 
trust. The White House is your house. The Presidency is your Presidency. 
We have tried to keep that place decent and honorable so all the 
American people can look up to the White House.
    Let me just add that sometimes that telephone rings there at night, 
and you have to make a decision. You can't wait. You can't 
procrastinate. You can't take a poll or have a town meeting or have a 
referendum. You've got to make a decision. That's what being President 
is all about.
    I am very proud to have served my country in war. I put on a uniform 
and fought for the United States, and I am honored and proud to be 
President of the United States. I want to succeed in this campaign, not 
that I need the job, but I want to lift up these kids here today. We are 
in a global recession, a global slowdown. The United States economy is 
doing better than most of the European countries, Japan, Germany, 
Canada, you name it. But with my program, the one I have proposed, and 
with 150 new Members of Congress, we are going to lift this country up. 
We are going to help these kids here tonight. We are going to lead the 
way out of this into economic recovery.
    Thank you very much. And may God bless the United States of America. 
And may God bless the wonderful people of the State of North Carolina. 
Thank you very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 9 p.m. at the State 
                        Fair Grounds.