[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 28, 1992]
[Pages 2040-2044]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Columbus, Ohio
October 28, 1992

    The President. Thank you very much. What a fantastic rally. Thank 
you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, let me first say that I get 
this wonderful feeling that things are really moving across this 
country. And you look at this crowd and say, ``This is it. It's going to 
happen. It is going to happen.''
    May I thank Arnold Schwarzenegger. We all know him and respect him. 
But let me tell you one thing in all seriousness. A while back I asked 
him to head our fitness program for the entire Nation. He's been to 
every single State, and he is doing a first-class job, all pro bono, for 
this country. And I am very, very grateful to him.
    I am delighted that Bruce Willis--let me tell you about that one. 
Arnold and I have been together for a long time. In fact, it was 4 years 
ago that he was at my side, not very far from here, as we were coming 
down the stretch. Bruce Willis called me up and he said, ``I have had it 
with the United States Congress.'' The polls weren't so hot then, and he 
said, ``I want to help you.'' And here he is, and I am very, very 
grateful

[[Page 2041]]

to him. As for the Oak Ridge Boys, the same thing. You may remember the 
convention back in 1988. They have been at my side through thick and 
thin, and I am delighted that they came all this way to be with us.
    Two members of the family are with me, my daughter-in-law Margaret 
and my sister, Ann Ellis. We're going to put the family push on this 
thing now as we come down to the wire.
    And of course, I am so proud to have heading up our effort here your 
great Governor, George Voinovich. And speaking of Governors, I was so 
pleased to see the Caribou Man, Jim Rhodes over here, a former Governor 
of this State; and Chalmers Wylie, the Congressman; and Bob Taft and so 
many others. I especially want to say thank you to your Mayor. Greg is 
doing a great job, Greg Lashutka. I am proud to see him every time I 
come here.
    Now, I want you all to do something: Everyplace we go, we see a lot 
of signs that reflect changing Congress. How about changing Senate and 
sending Mike DeWine to the United States Senate? And elect Debbie Pryce 
to the House of Representatives. Clean House! Clean House! No more 
gridlock! We are going to sit down with that new Congress and get things 
done for this country.
    And may I thank another one from Columbus, Dewey Stokes, who is the 
president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. I am very proud to 
have been endorsed by the National Fraternal Order of Police. We back 
our law enforcement officers, and we'll continue to do that.
    And I want to thank John Fisher and Dick McFerson of Nationwide 
Insurance for letting us use this fantastic facility and being a part of 
all of this.
    And now to the business at hand: You've got a choice on Tuesday 
between a vast difference in experience, difference in philosophy, and, 
yes, character. And on that basis I ask for your support. I don't want 
to ruin this beautiful rally, but I think it is only fair right down to 
the wire that we point out the record of the person that would like to 
have this job. And I'm talking about the Arkansas record of Governor 
Clinton. Sorry to ruin this upbeat meeting, but let me just give you a 
few statistics. We have heard everything that's coming out of Governor 
Clinton and the Ozone Man. We've heard everything that they think is 
wrong. Well, let me tell you about Arkansas. They are 50th--and they're 
good people, we lived right next door to them, good people and they're 
entitled to something better than this--50th in the quality of 
environmental initiatives; 50th in the percentage of adults with college 
degrees; 50th in per capita spending on criminal justice; 49th on police 
protection; 48th--getting better--on adults with a high school diploma; 
48th on spending on corrections; 46th in the whole country on teachers' 
salaries; and 45th in the overall well-being of children.
    And Governor Clinton said in that debate ``I want to do for this 
country what I've done for Arkansas.'' No way! No way!
    And I've got only two more things here, I believe, to say about 
Arkansas. But you've got to hear them, and then I'll get on to the 
positive aspects. He talks about Arkansas leading in job growth. They 
had one good year. That was 1991, when he's out of the State 85 percent 
of the time. And he's been Governor for 10 years and they were 30 
percent of the Nation on that one.
    And the other one is there's an AP story today--talk about the 
Arkansas miracle--AP story today detailing how the Arkansas Medicaid 
program has been mismanaged, projected now to be $120 million in the 
hole, a huge amount for a tiny little State. And the story includes 
tales of secret meetings--go read it--between Governor Clinton and the 
legislature to try to figure out whether to raise taxes after the 
election. It sounds like Governor Clinton better clean up his mess in 
Arkansas before fooling around with the United States of America.
    No, we can't have that kind of change. Governor Clinton and Ozone, 
all they do is talk about change. Well, let me tell you something, what 
kind of change we get--if you went back to the last time we had one of 
those Democrats in the White House and a Democrat Congress, you had 
interest rates at 21.5 percent, and you had inflation at 15 percent, and 
you had a ``misery index'' at 20.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!

[[Page 2042]]

    The President. We are not going to go back to those failed days. You 
talk about change, you talk about change, that's all you guys will have 
left in your pocket if we get those people in there.
    Now, there's bad news for Governor Clinton, because there is good 
news for the Nation. If you listen to them, you'd think everything was a 
recession and disaster. Yesterday it came out that for the sixth 
straight quarter we have had growth. It grew at 2.7 percent, and 
personal income is the highest in 9 months. The country's beginning to 
move. Don't set it back.
    A lot of people are hurting in this country. And we care about them 
and we've got to help them. But the last thing we need is to get the 
Federal Government further involved. Governor Clinton talks about 
Government investing. Government never created a decent job in its life. 
It is small business that needs to be stimulated, and small business 
that does the investing. He wants to raise taxes and raise spending so 
the Government can invest. I want to get the taxes down and spending 
down so the people can invest.
    You know, Governor Clinton's got one idea. He wants to tax foreign 
investment that would threaten here in this State 150,000 jobs. They're 
bringing jobs here from overseas. Let's not seek retaliation. Let's open 
markets abroad. Free and fair trade, not protection.
    And if there are any auto workers out here--this is a great auto 
State--if there are any auto workers or any people who work in companies 
that supply things for the auto industry, Governor Clinton and Ozone 
want to go for 40- to 45-miles-per-gallon CAFE--that's the fuel 
efficiency standards--that would cost Ohio 20,000 jobs. We've got a good 
environmental record, but let's not go to the extreme.
    Small business, small business creates two-thirds of the new jobs. 
And they need relief, they don't need more taxation. They need relief 
from taxation, relief from regulation, and yes, relief from these crazy 
lawsuits. You know, we spend too much on this, and we need to put some 
caps on these crazy lawsuits. When a doctor is afraid to practice 
medicine and deliver a baby, when a Little League coach is afraid to 
coach for fear some nutty trial lawyer will come along and sue them, 
why, that means we are suing each other too much and caring for each 
other too little in this country. Let's put a cap on these lawsuits.
    So in addition to holding the line on spending and taxes, I want to 
get a good health care program. Governor Clinton wants to set up, of 
course, a Government board. We don't need the Government to do it. 
Here's what we need to do. Provide insurance to the poorest of the poor 
through vouchers; give credits to those, the most overtaxed Americans; 
get pooling of insurance so we can bring it to every single family. But 
keep the quality of medical care up by keeping the Government out of the 
medical business. We've got the best health care plan.
    And we've got the best education plan. And it's already working, 
because the gridlock guys don't get too much of their hands on this one. 
Seventeen hundred communities have already started revolutionizing 
education. We spend more than every country per capita than Switzerland, 
and we're not getting the results. Let's help us put the emphasis, and 
support the teachers and not the teachers union. Let's give the parents 
a choice of public, private, and religious schools. That will make 
public education better. That will make public education better, not 
worse. It worked for the GI bill after World War II. It will work now if 
we try it for K through 12.
    On crime, let me be very clear where I stand. I am not interested in 
legislation that shows more sympathy for the criminal than for the 
victims of crime. Toughen it up. Toughen it up, and back our law 
enforcement officers. Bring in these good programs like our ``Weed and 
Seed'' program that weeds out the criminals and then seeds these tough 
neighborhoods with hope. That's what we've got to do. Homeownership. 
Enterprise zones. We've got to encourage the communities, not try to 
legislate from Washington, DC.
    And while we're at it, with this new Congress, we're going to sit 
down with them right after the election--we're not going to wait for 
anything to happen--sit down with them. And I'm going to say, all right, 
we

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want to get the deficit down. Here's a three-point plan, we'll make it a 
four-point plan. Here it is: Give us a balanced budget amendment; give 
us what the States have. Give us a check-off, give us a check-off so 
every taxpayer--don't have to do this, but you can--check 10 percent of 
your income tax if you want to, to be applied to lowering the Government 
deficit and making Congress comply. Three, give us what 43 Governors 
have. If these big spenders in Congress can't do it, let the President 
have a shot, a line-item veto. And four, let's give the Congress back to 
the people. The President's terms are limited. Why not limit the terms 
of Members of Congress?
    As we drive down to the wire here in this wonderfully exciting 
rally, let me point something else out. I've been talking about it, and 
I feel very strongly about it. Governor Clinton said in the debate it's 
not the character of the President, it's ``the character of the 
Presidency.'' Wrong. They are interlocked. You cannot separate the 
character of the President from the character of the Presidency. You 
can't do it. And you cannot be Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces if 
you flip-flop on every issue. You cannot be all things to all people as 
President. And if you make a mistake, and yes, I have, you look the 
people in the eye and say, I blew it, now let's get on about leading 
this great country.
    Governor Clinton will go to the auto guys, and he'll say that he's 
against CAFE standards. And yet he and Ozone go out and say, well, we've 
got to have 45 miles per gallon. That will drive auto workers out of 
business. On the one hand--you heard in the debate--the NAFTA agreement, 
the free trade agreement, yes, he's for it, ``but.'' You cannot have a 
lot of ``buts'' sitting there at that Oval Office, I'll tell you. In one 
part of the world he's for right-to-work, and then he'll go up and tell 
Mr. Kirkland and the rest of the labor guys he's against it. You can't 
do it. You've got to say what you're for.
    And when it comes to war and peace, you can't do what he did. Let me 
tell you, it is not easy when you have to commit somebody else's kid to 
go into battle. But I was tempered by fire. I believe in honor, duty, 
and service. I made a tough decision on that war. And we brought along 
this country. We did the right thing when we kicked Saddam Hussein out 
of Kuwait. And where was Governor Clinton? Where was Governor Clinton? 
Here's what he said. Here is what Governor Clinton said: ``I agree 
with''--I'm not giving him hell. It's like Truman said. Do you remember? 
He says, give 'em hell. He said, ``I'm just telling the truth, and they 
think it's hell.''
    Okay. Here's what he said. Here is what the man said. You remember, 
think back to what it was like then: all the demonstrations; all the 
press fighting us; all the different struggles going on; Congress 
dragging its feet; people telling me, well, you haven't sold the 
American people. Here's what Governor Clinton said when it came to that 
vote. He said, ``I agree with the arguments of the minority, but I guess 
I would have voted with the majority.'' You cannot make the White House 
into the waffle house. You can't do it.
    The Arkansas Gazette today said Bill Clinton is a master politician, 
but what principles, if any, informed his politics. The bottom line is, 
you cannot lead by misleading. You can't be all things to all people. 
You've got to do it like the umpire does, call it as you see it, and 
then go forward and lead this country.
    Let me say this. First place, I wish our great First Lady, Barbara 
Bush, were here. She would be thrilled to see this. And yes, we plan to 
keep Millie in the White House--I see the sign--because, you see, if I 
want foreign policy advice, I'd go to Millie before I'd go to Ozone and 
Governor Clinton.
    You know, you haven't read anything about--I haven't attacked the 
media yet. Stay tuned. Wait a minute. No, I want you to be kinder and 
gentler to the media traveling with us, especially those guys that are 
taking the pictures, carrying the mikes, and carrying those cameras all 
around. And yes, be grateful. Amnesty for the White House press. Take it 
out on these talking heads, Republicans, Democrats, whoever they are, 
come on every Sunday, tell you how to think, saying we're dead. We are 
going to show them they are wrong. We are going to prove them wrong. And 
here's why.

[[Page 2044]]

    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Here's why, here's how it's going to work. Here's how 
it's going to work and why all these critics and all these naysayers and 
all these people telling you that we have no chance are going to be 
wrong. It's going to boil down to this: First place, I believe that 
we're not a country in decline. I'm absolutely convinced that we are a 
rising nation, not a declining nation. Secondly, I know it's been tough 
out there for families and for kids, but we're moving. And I can say as 
the President of the United States I take great pride in the fact that 
these young kids here go to bed at night without the same fear of 
nuclear war as their mothers and dad did. And that is a significant 
accomplishment. The world is more peaceful, and the world has changed.
    People say to me, ``Listen, with Barbara at your side and your 5 
kids and your 12 grandkids, you've got it made. Why do you want to do 
this?'' Well, let me tell you, I finish what I start. I want to see us 
lift up these young people here today and make them understand that if 
we do what I've told you today I want to do, their lives are going to be 
better than the lives of their parents. And we are going to lead the 
entire world into economic recovery, and that means jobs for every 
American that wants to work.
    And so I'm not done yet. I ask you to go to the polls on Tuesday. I 
ask for your support on the basis of character and trust. And I will do 
my level-best to lead this country to new heights and new prosperity.
    Thank you, and may God bless the United States of America and keep 
her. Thank you very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 4:32 p.m. at Nationwide 
                        Plaza. In his remarks, he referred to Bob Taft, 
                        Ohio secretary of state.