[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 27, 1992]
[Pages 2014-2017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Paducah, Kentucky
October 27, 1992

    The President. Thank you very much.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Four more! Thank you. Thank you very much, Gerald 
McRaney. I am proud to have ``Major Dad,'' Gerald McRaney, at my side. 
And I am grateful to him for his loyal support. Let me just say at the 
outset I'm very pleased to be here, back again, back for me in this 
great part of----
    Audience member. Kentucky.
    The President. I was going to say, of western Kentucky. But let me 
point it out this way. Every place I go, every place I go, I see signs 
that say, ``Clean House!'' I want to see David Williams elected to the 
United States Senate, and I want to see Steve Hamrick elected to the 
United States Congress. Let's clean House!
    May I thank your Mayor, Gerry Montgomery; Bob Gable, our State 
chairman. And it is great to be in Paducah. You should have seen it, 
flying in with these fall colors. It makes you agree with the guy who 
said, ``Heaven is a Kentucky kind of place.''
    Here we come down to the wire with 7 days to go. It's like a close 
race at Bluegrass Downs, and we're closing the gap. And in 7 days, we 
are pulling ahead at the finish line to win this election.
    You know, I was very pleased today that the figures came out 
refuting the Clinton-Gore claim of how bad everything is. The figures 
came out for growth in the third quarter, and the economy of the United 
States led Europe, led Canada, led Japan, and we grew at 2.7 percent, 
2.7 percent. All you get from Clinton and Gore is bad news. That is good 
growth, and we're going to do even better.
    You know, Mac referred to this, and I hate to ruin such a lovely 
day, but I must

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do this, because for months the Clinton-Gore crowd have been telling 
everybody how bad everything is and that he's going to make things 
better, that Clinton will make things better. Let me just remind you, as 
a southern State, and a good one at that, and Arkansas has some 
wonderful people, but let me remind you of just a few statistics on the 
Arkansas record. They are 50th in the quality of environmental 
initiatives. They are 50th in the percentage of adults with college 
degrees. They are 50th in per capita spending on criminal justice. They 
are 49th--getting better--in per capita spending on police protection; 
48th in percentage of adults with a high school diploma; 48th in 
spending on corrections; 46th in teachers' salaries; 45th in the overall 
well-being of children. And this man said in a debate, he wants to do 
for America what he's done for Arkansas. We cannot let him do that.
    Imagine trying to bring a record like that. He did point out one 
thing: In the debate, you may remember, he said that the work had gone 
up, jobs had gone up in Arkansas one year. That was this year. He's been 
out of the State 85 percent of the time. That's why it went up. For 10 
years, for 10 years they averaged 30 percent of the national average.
    So, enough for Arkansas. Now look what he wants to do to this 
country. He's already said he wants to raise $150 billion in new taxes. 
He's already said $220 billion in new spending. That is trickle-down 
Government. The numbers don't add up, and the middle class of America, 
watch out. He says he'll sock it to the rich, but he's coming after your 
wallet. He's coming after you. Don't let him do it to America.
    He talks about change, change, change. We changed inflation. It was 
changed when you had a Democrat in the White House and Democrat 
Congress. You had inflation at 15 percent. You had interest rates at 
21.5 percent. He wants change. That's what he'll bring us, and we're not 
going to let him do it. You listen to that kind of change, and change is 
all you'll have left in your pocket, believe me. We cannot go back. Here 
is the economy growing, and we cannot go back to those failed policies 
that brought us a ``misery index'' going right out through Gore's ozone 
layer.
    You know, you hear from the--I'm kind of down. Some of you may have 
noticed my favorite bumper sticker. I don't see it around here. Is it up 
there? There it is. And everybody knows what it means. Everyone knows 
what it means, ``Annoy the Media. Reelect Bush.'' You know and I know 
that inasmuch as we've got some wonderful people traveling with us, let 
me say, don't take it out on the photographers. Don't take it out on 
these guys with the cameras and the boom mikes. They're all good folks. 
Take it out on those talking heads in the national press that come on 
and tell us everything that's bad about America.
    Harry Truman had it right. Talked about 50 reporters who were 
talking the same thing about gloom and doom. He said, ``They couldn't 
know enough to pound sand in a rathole.'' That's true. And we are going 
to win the election in spite of these mournful polls.
    Here is why: Employment is at 93 percent in this country. Inflation 
is down, only 2.5, 3 percent. Home mortgage rates, as I mentioned to 
you, interest rates were 21.5; now they're down around 8. The gross 
domestic figures today: 2.7 percent. We have grown for six straight 
quarters. And all you hear is gloom and doom from Clinton and Gore. 
We're moving, and we're going to lead the world to recovery.
    We've got a good plan to hold the line on this domestic spending and 
get that tax base down and lower the deficit by helping small business. 
Governor Clinton says, ``Look, I want to have the Government invest.'' 
The Government never made a sound investment in its life. The investment 
is small business, and that's where we want it to be.
    You know how he wants to do it all, is to cut the muscle out of our 
defense. We have cut defense because we were successful in standing up 
against aggression around the world, and we must not cut into the muscle 
of defense. You throw millions of people out of work needlessly, have an 
adverse effect on where we've landed at Fort Campbell. Look, the Soviet 
bear may be dead, but there are wolves out there, and we must keep our 
eyes open and keep America

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strong.
    And here's the way we're going to do it. We're going to create more 
jobs in America through exports. We make the best product. We have the 
best workers anywhere in the world. You build cars right in this State 
that are sold over in the Middle East. We are going to create more jobs 
through free and fair trade, not by listening to the waffle iron of 
Clinton and Gore.
    Small business creates two-thirds of the new jobs, and they need 
relief from taxation, they need relief from regulation and, yes, they 
need relief from litigation. We are suing each other too much and caring 
for each other too little.
    So I propose tax relief for small business. What does Mr. Gore, the 
Ozone Man, propose? A carbon tax. He suggests it in his book, a carbon 
tax. That's supposed to do something about the environment, but I'll 
tell you what it would do to industry in Kentucky: drive it right into 
the ground. We're not going to let him do that. We have a good record on 
the environment, a good, sound record. But you do not have to go to the 
extreme and throw a lot of families out of work to keep the Sierra Club 
happy.
    I mentioned legal reform. One thing we've got to do is make it so 
that these Little League coaches aren't afraid to coach, that doctors 
are no longer afraid to deliver babies, that a person going by the 
highway is not scared to stop and help his fellow American because of a 
lawsuit. We sue each other too much. Help me get some Congressmen that 
are willing to put a cap on these outrageous lawsuits.
    We've got a great health care plan to make insurance provided to the 
poorest of the poor through vouchers, through--give tax credits to the 
next group of overtaxed Americans, to bring insurance to all, to make 
insurance go from job to job with the person that has the insurance. But 
we do not do what Clinton and Gore want to do, create some Government 
board and let Government ration health care. We're not going to do that.
    In education, I see these kids, and it is priority. We've got an 
America 2000 program that bypasses that all-powerful, dictatorial 
teachers' union and goes to the teachers and works with them to 
strengthen education. God bless our teachers. We are working--college 
grants for kids are up under my administration by far. Spending for 
education is up. Now we've got to go with America 2000 and literally 
reinvent our public schools. And that's another idea. Let's give the 
parents the right to choose and help them do it, public, private, or 
religious schools.
    You know, everyplace I go we're helped by police officers. And let 
me be very clear: I don't think we need anybody on the Supreme Court 
that is going to go on there like Governor Cuomo, one suggested by Mr. 
Clinton. We need people on there that will interpret the Constitution, 
not legislate, and those who will have a little more sympathy for the 
victims of crime and a little less for the criminal elements.
    The Democrats talk tough, the liberal Democrats, about crime. But 
let me tell you something: The other day I had a visit in the Oval 
Office from eight individuals, grassroots family men, all coming up 
there. They said, ``We are for you for President,'' and they represented 
the Fraternal Order of Police of Little Rock, Arkansas. I was proud to 
have their support.
    In the next term we are going to reform Government. We're going to 
get the deficit down. I ask you to send people to Washington, only those 
who will do the following: Give us a balanced budget amendment to the 
Constitution. Give us a taxpayers' check-off so you can check 10 percent 
of your taxes, and make that money go to lowering the deficit. Give me a 
line-item veto and let me try to cut the deficit.
    You know, in one of our debates Governor Clinton said it's not the 
character of the President, it is ``the character of the Presidency.'' 
And I beg to differ. I think they are interlocked. I do not believe you 
can have a candidate who tries to be on all sides of all issues.
    Here's what he said on the Persian Gulf war. That was not an easy 
decision, to send someone else's son, someone else's daughter 
into combat. A President has to make it, and he can't say ``maybe,'' or 
he can't say ``but.'' I made a tough call. But here's what Governor 
Clinton said. He said, ``I agree

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with the minority,'' that means those who wanted to let sanctions work; 
if we'd listened to that, Saddam Hussein would be in Saudi Arabia today. 
``I agree with the minority, but I guess I would have voted with the 
majority.'' You cannot flip-flop and waffle if you want to be President 
of the United States.
    He says one thing about right-to-work laws in right-to-work States 
and then goes up to the powerful union bosses and said he's against 
that. He says, ``Well, maybe I'll be for term limits,'' which I support, 
and then he says he's against term limits. You cannot flip-flop. You 
cannot do this. It would be like him judging the Hatfield and McCoy 
feud: ``I guess I would have agreed with the arguments that the McCoys 
made, but I would have sided with the Hatfields.'' That is not 
leadership. [Laughter]
    What is troubling America is a pattern of deception. Everyone's 
aware of politics, but when you're going for President, you cannot be 
followed by this pattern of deception. You can't lead the American 
people by misleading the American people.
    I have differed with Governor Clinton on the war and on his own 
service. My position is clear. And some people differed with me on the 
Vietnam war. But I'll tell you the thing I do not understand. I simply 
do not understand a person whose peers are dying in Vietnam, some of 
whom are held in Hanoi prisons, going to England to organize 
demonstrations against the United States. We cannot have that. What will 
he tell a young man or a young woman as Commander in Chief if they said, 
``Oh, no, we want to go off and organize demonstrations''?
    We differ on the draft, on what he did. But the problem is the 
pattern. He said, ``I'll bring out all my records on April 17th,'' and 
we haven't seen anything. It isn't his choice about the war. It's the 
idea that he tried to have it both ways. And you can't do that if you're 
a leader.
    You know, all around America, people look to the United States, and 
they look to the President of the United States for moral leadership. 
And so when you go into that booth, I ask this question--we see our 
economy recovering; we know people are hurting--but you ask the 
question: Who do you trust and who has the character to lead this great 
country?
    Barbara and I--I know one other good reason to keep me as President. 
We've got the best First Lady you possibly could have. But she and I 
have tried very hard to keep the public trust. I think most people by 
now know that we've been blessed by a strong and wonderful family. We 
have faith in God. We believe we are one Nation under God. Now it's not 
a question of needing to be President of the United States. It is a 
question that we have literally changed the world. These kids go to bed 
at night without that same fear of nuclear war that their mother and dad 
had.
    Now what I want to do is bring that same leadership and lift these 
kids up, convince them that the opportunity is bright. Execute our 
program, the agenda for America's renewal, increase our exports.
    Let me end this way: Clinton and Gore say we're a nation in decline. 
They say we're south of Germany and a little better than Sri Lanka. Let 
me tell you something: They ought to open their eyes. We are the most 
respected nation in the whole world. We are the leader of the world. I 
ask for your support. I ask for your vote to lead us to new prosperity 
for every American young person here today.
    Thank you. Thank you, and God bless you. What a spectacular rally. 
What a wonderful, wonderful turnout in western Kentucky. This is superb. 
Thank you.

                    Note: The President spoke at 12:36 p.m. at Paducah 
                        Community College.