[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 22, 1992]
[Pages 1915-1918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Arrival in Trenton, New Jersey
October 22, 1992

    The President. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, guys.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Thank you, New Jersey. Thank you, Chris. You know, 
everyplace I go, you see these signs that say, ``Clean House!'' If we 
had more Congressmen like Chris Smith, we wouldn't be saying, ``Clean 
House!'' And I want to salute not only Chris but Governor Tom Kean. What 
a great job he did for this wonderful State. I want to thank the Mayor, 
Rosemary Pramuck, and everybody else who's done a superb job on this 
rally.
    May I say that I am proud to share this stage with Joe Cicippio back 
here, a true American hero. Great courage, you talk about courage and 
stick with--my heavens, that man has shown us all an awful lot. And we 
learn from that kind of courage in this country. I want to thank him for 
his perseverance. And I am proud that our policy of not negotiating has 
freed all the American hostages.
    Well, I can hardly believe it, but 12 days from today, the fate of 
this country and, indeed, of the free world is in your hands. And I ask 
for your support for 4 more years to lead this Nation.
    It's going to spell out----
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. The question that Americans will answer and that the 
whole world will be watching for the answer to is: Whose idea do you 
trust to lead America out of this global recession, to create new jobs, 
and to keep trust and character in the White House?
    For 11 months, Governor Clinton and the other liberal Democrats have 
been running around distorting our record. So I want to just spend a 
little time, not ruin this beautiful day in New Jersey but a little time 
to remind America of Governor Clinton's own record in Arkansas. Here we 
go: They are--I think of this State and all we've done to work with the 
New Jersey officials to help clean up the beaches--in Arkansas, his 
record is the 50th in quality of environmental initiative; 50th in 
percentage of adults with college degrees; 50th in per capita spending 
on criminal justice; 49th--they're moving up--in per capita spending on 
police protection; of their students that graduate from high school, 75 
percent of those that go on to college need remedial education; 48th in 
the percentage of adults with high school diplomas; 48th in spending on 
corrections; 46th in teachers' salaries; 45th in the overall well-being 
of children. And the other night in that debate, he says, ``I want to do 
for America what I've done for Arkansas.'' No way.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. No way. It makes you think of the guy that's failed; 
he's 0 and 10 in the Little League, and he wants to manage the Braves. 
You can't do that.
    He calls this change. He calls himself the

[[Page 1916]]

candidate of change. Now, let's look a close look at what he offers. 
Chris mentioned it, $150 billion, this is for openers, $150 billion in 
new taxes; $220 billion in new spending. That is called trickle-down 
Government. It goes right from the top into your pocket. And we don't 
need that anymore. He says he's going to take it from the rich. I think 
everybody's heard that one before. He's not going to take it from the 
rich. If you drive a cab, teach school, trying to make ends meet in the 
household, watch your wallet, gang; he's coming after you. And we're not 
going to let it happen on November 3d.
    He says he can work with Congress. I remember the last time we 
elected a southern Governor to go up there and work with this 
spendthrift Congress. Thank God we've got guys like Chris. Let me remind 
you of what it was like, though, because that's what he wants to do; 
program sounds identical. When Jimmy Carter left office, same kind of 
situation: inflation wiping out every senior citizen, every family, 
every saver with 15 percent; and interest rates, remember, 21.5 percent. 
We do not need that kind of change. Family budgets were wiped out, 
hopelessness and despair, the world standing, not even believe in the 
credibility of the President of the United States. And that was changed. 
And if you listen to that kind of change, change is all you'll have left 
in your pocket. We don't need that.
    You heard my program the other night. We're going to get that 
Government spending down and get the tax rates under control and let the 
private sector provide the growth. Let small business move out and 
employ more people in this State.
    I'm not the kind of guy that likes to attack the media. I like to 
needle them once in a while, though. You remember the bumper sticker--
who's got one of those bumper stickers? I'd like to show it to you. It's 
my favorite, there it is, my favorite bumper sticker, ``Annoy the Media. 
Reelect President Bush.'' It's great. It's fantastic. I sure hope 
they've got a good sense of humor back there. [Laughter]
    But really, let me tell you this--we'll see how they play it tonight 
on the news. In early October, this was just announced today, the number 
of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to a 2-year 
low. Now, this is a good sign. We've still got big problems, but that's 
a good sign. We've had 3 months in a row with unemployment going down. 
But I don't hear too much noise about it out of here.
    I'm not saying we don't have problems. We've got plenty of them. But 
we're not going to improve them by raising taxes and raising Government 
spending, I'll guarantee you that.
    Here's what I want to do. I want to see us expand our markets 
abroad. You know, we've been in a global recession. The United States, 
you can't tell this from Clinton and Gore, the Ozone Man, but I'm 
telling you, the United States is leading all these world economies. 
It's not just my failure, if you listen to the Democrats. We're caught 
up in something global. And the way we'll get out of it is to increase 
our exports. New Jersey sells an awful lot of product abroad, sells a 
lot. Open these markets is what I say. Get those New Jersey products 
going into worldwide markets, and you watch us lead out of this 
recession.
    I'd like to pin down Governor Clinton on this one because he's got 
all kinds of mandates he wants to stick on small business. But one of 
them was his health care plan that would sock it to the small business. 
And instead of that, I believe that small business employs two-thirds of 
the people in this country. And they need relief from taxation and 
regulation and litigation.
    And I said yes, litigation. We need legal reform. We spend up to 
$200 billion a year on lawyers. I don't have anything against lawyers. I 
do have something against these crazy malpractice lawsuits, these 
lawsuits that keep a neighbor from helping a neighbor, afraid of getting 
sued, that keep a Little League coach afraid of coaching because some 
crackpot dad is going to sue him with a big trial lawyer at his side. We 
got to sue each other less and care for each other more.
    And yes, we need to do something about health care. But what we 
don't need: to get the Government to try to run it. Congress couldn't 
even run a two-bit bank and screwed up a two-bit post office. Now they 
want to run the health care.
    My plan provides insurance to the poor-

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est of the poor; says to the middle class, we're going to give you tax 
breaks; says that your health insurance will be portable if--leave one 
job, it goes with you; pools insurance so the rates come down; goes 
after malpractice; and it does not turn to the Government for rationing. 
Anytime Government rations, the price goes up. Let's get it down by 
pooling insurance.
    Tom Kean was and is one of the great education leaders in this 
country. He and I both know that our America 2000 program to literally 
revolutionize education is the way to go. What we are doing is trying to 
give parents a choice, say to a parent: You should be able to choose, 
and we'll help you, whether your kid goes to public school, private 
school, or a religious school.
    Governor Clinton always knocks my background, but did you know that 
he drove in from Hope into someplace else, a bigger place in Arkansas, 
to go to a parochial school? Forty-six percent of the schoolteachers in 
the public schools in Chicago send their kids to private school. If you 
give parents a choice, not only will the schools that are chosen 
improve, but it will show as it has in Milwaukee that those that are 
left behind will pick themselves up and compete and be better for those 
kids that are left there.
    I think of the police officers and the sheriff's department and 
those that are helping enforce the law here as dedicated Americans, and 
we owe them a vote of thanks for trying to keep our neighborhood free of 
these crackheads and backing up the law. And you don't get that way by 
coddling the bad elements.
    The other day, I told them at this last rally, it was a very moving 
meeting for me. Just before I left the White House, I think it was eight 
guys that came up to see me. And they were your basic grassroots family 
people, hard-working men, and they came to endorse me for President. And 
they were the Fraternal Order of Police from Little Rock, Arkansas.
    The last point, we got to reform the Government. We've got to get it 
right-sized. And I'll tell you what I'd do. I've got a program for 
getting the deficit down. Let me tell you what it is: Give the Nation 
the balanced budget amendment to make the Congress get it down.
    Give the taxpayer a check-off on his tax return. And if you feel as 
strongly about the deficit as your neighbor or as I do, check 10 percent 
of your taxes, send it in, and that 10 percent then will have to be 
offset by a reduction in Government spending. Congress can't do it, let 
the people do it.
    Forty-three Governors have this one--give the President the line-
item veto to cross out all this stuff.
    And I like the idea of giving the Congress back to the people, 
putting term limits on for the new Members of Congress.
    I'll tell you something, I think the defining moment in the debate 
was when Governor Clinton in Richmond said it's not the character of the 
President, he said, it's ``the character of the Presidency.'' And I say 
to everybody here, the two are interlocked. You cannot separate them. 
You cannot separate those two things.
    I'm not asking for sympathy; I'm just telling you sometimes those 
decisions are tough. Sometimes you've got to make a decision that 
doesn't keep anybody happy. Sometimes you have to make a decision that 
might send somebody else's son or someone else's daughter into harm's 
way, as I had to do in Desert Storm. And you cannot waffle. You've got 
to look the American people in the eye and say, this is what we're going 
to do. And if you make a mistake, admit it, and then go on about the 
people's business.
    But in time after time, Governor Clinton waffles, trying to make one 
person happy and then the group opposing him happy. And you can't do it, 
whether it's free trade or if it's right to work or whatever it is. 
Here's what he said on the war; here's what he said in Desert Storm--
how's this, try this one on for a Commander in Chief. He said, ``Well, I 
agreed with the minority.'' You remember the minority were telling me 
you can't do this, you can't do that, you've got to let sanctions work. 
``I agree with the minority, but I guess I would have voted with the 
majority.'' Leadership? That is a waffle house, and we can't have it for 
the American people.
    Now, every President, every decision the President makes in one way 
or another af-

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fects the lives of others. And let me tell you something about character 
and trust: I've messed up a time or two, but Barbara and I have worked 
hard to uphold the public trust by living there in that White House. 
We've tried to conduct ourselves with decency and honor because I do 
believe in duty, honor, and country.
    And now we're getting down to a choice: Who do you trust to be the 
leader of the free world and the President of the United States?
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Governor Clinton----
    Audience members. Bush! Bush! Bush!
    The President. Governor Clinton wants to win by saying we are a 
nation in decline. Somewhere, he puts it this way, somewhere less than 
Germany and a little more than Sri Lanka. Let me tell you something, we 
have problems. We have big, tough economic problems, and people are 
hurting. But we are the United States, the most respected nation on the 
face of the Earth. And I will not apologize for this country.
    I am proud that I served my country in uniform. I am proud to be 
serving as President. And I came here to say this: I need your support 
because I want to finish the job.
    And may God bless America. May God bless our great country. Thank 
you all very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2:07 p.m. at Trenton-
                        Robbinsville Airport. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to Joseph Cicippio, former American 
                        hostage held in Lebanon.