[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 30, 1992]
[Pages 2091-2096]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Kentucky Fried Chicken Convention in Nashville, Tennessee
October 30, 1992

    The President. Thank you, John Cranor. Thank you very much. Thank 
you, John and Kitty, and president Kyle Craig, and John Neal, Charlie 
Middleton, and all the other franchise leaders. It is, indeed, a 
pleasure to be here. I want to salute the man that walked in with me, 
one of the truly great leaders that has ever been in the United States 
Senate, now in private business, but my dear friend and really a real 
statesman, Senator Howard Baker, who's with us here today.
    Well, we're getting down to the wire. And you know, in this campaign 
we've been to many States, towns large and small in every corner of this 
great Nation. Yet I still have one burning question: Where the heck is 
Lake Edna? [Laughter] Just kidding. Steve Provost works with me--and was 
with this company--is at my side, and he gave me all the advice, all the 
hints about this fantastic get-together here.
    But my friends over here in the national media, and I use that term 
advisedly--[laughter]--want to know exactly--oh, I love that bumper 
sticker, ``Annoy the Media. Re-elect Bush''--[laughter]--and everybody 
knows what it means. I appeal for amnesty to these guys, particularly 
the guys that are doing the heavy lifting, you know who you are over 
here, and the photo dogs and others. If you want to join me in taking 
out your wrath on the media, which is a little dangerous because they 
have the last word, I suggest we look at the faceless talking heads on 
those Sunday morning talk shows, those Republicans and Democrats who 
have written me off long ago. We're

[[Page 2092]]

going to show them next Tuesday.
    But I do believe that these friends in the media want to know 
exactly why I stopped by this convention, and I'll tell you the real 
reason. You see, just last week all the pollsters and pundits said the 
election was over. The media carried stories about my opponent planning 
his transition, all but measuring the drapes in the White House. So I 
came here today because I heard you were experimenting with home 
delivery and I want to give you my address: 1600 Pennsylvania. 
[Laughter] And when we call for delivery you can reach us there any time 
because, I don't care what all the pundits say, Barbara and I don't 
think we'll be moving out until 1996. So you've got our number.
    Next Tuesday, in all seriousness--and I appreciate what your 
president said because this is a serious subject, the election, a 
privilege really--next Tuesday we will all participate in this great 
ritual of democracy. The choice that you make that day will cast its 
shadow forward in history. I came here today to talk with you hard-
working businesswomen, businessmen about the choice you face.
    My opponent says this election is about change, and with that I 
agree. But being in favor of change is like being in favor of the Sun 
coming up tomorrow. Change is going to happen. The real question is not 
who is for change but whose change will make your life better and make 
the world safer.
    Over the past 4 years, we have seen change of almost Biblical 
proportion. For 50 years we stood up for freedom; we stood up for a 
policy of peace through strength. Today, at last, at long last, the cold 
war is finally over. Our kids grew up crawling under desks in those 
duck-and-cover drills in the sixties. During the Cuban missile crisis we 
stood on the brink of armageddon. And in the eighties families huddled 
together in fear to watch that TV movie, remember, ``The Day After.'' 
Always the shadow of the cold war lingered right outside our window. You 
talk change, well, all that has changed. Our children and our 
grandchildren go to sleep tonight without that same fear of nuclear war.
    But do we feel like celebrating? Well, not exactly. There's work to 
be done right here at home in America, creating new industries and 
better schools, certainly more affordable health care. Whose philosophy 
should we follow? Well, the cold war was won not by tanks, not by guns 
but by this simple idea called freedom. Across the globe people are 
coming to understand that government is not their superior, not their 
savior; it is their servant. In the midst of a global economic slowdown, 
we are proving once again that freedom works. Despite all our 
challenges, our economy is growing faster than Japan and Germany, faster 
than Canada, clearly faster than Eastern Europe.
    But here's the irony. At the very moment when the rest of the world 
is moving our way, my opponent Governor Clinton wants us to move the old 
way, move their way. Governor Clinton likes to say he is, quote, 
``different.'' [Laughter] Okay. No, different than the old tax-and-spend 
liberals. But if you look at the details, you see nothing different at 
all. He talks of the power of the marketplace, but promises $150 billion 
in new taxes, more than Mondale and Dukakis combined. Most of those 
taxes will be paid by small business and the middle class. He says he 
wants to cut the deficit, but he calls for at least $220 billion in new 
spending. All those billions just begin to pay for all the promises.
    Let me give you one timely example. Last night, Governor Clinton was 
in New Jersey making another promise. He called for a national offensive 
against AIDS. He called, though, for a massive increase in Federal 
funding and creation of an AIDS czar in Washington. Well, what Governor 
Clinton didn't mention is that he has done very little for AIDS at home 
in Arkansas. He didn't say that this year we spent $4.9 billion on AIDS, 
a 118-percent increase since I took office. More Federal resources are 
devoted to research and prevention of AIDS than any other disease 
including cancer, 10 times as much per victim of AIDS as per victim of 
cancer, far more than spent on heart disease. Yes, AIDS is a national 
tragedy. But we don't need a bureaucratic czar in our Nation's Capital. 
We need more compassion in our hometowns, more education, more caring.
    A President has to set priorities because it's your money that we're 
talking about.

[[Page 2093]]

And if you look at Governor Clinton closely, you see a philosophy where 
bureaucrats in Washington carve out the exact same programs to try and 
solve problems facing people in Nashville or Nashua or anywhere. You 
might call this old-fashioned idea trample-down economics: Tramples down 
business with these deadly new mandates and regulations, tramples down 
individual initiative with higher taxes, and tramples down the dreams of 
people with the power of that bureaucracy, the power of bureaucrats. In 
this age of global transition it will not work, and I think most 
Americans know it.
    It doesn't make sense that restaurant owners will somehow get richer 
by giving more of your money to the IRS.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. It doesn't make sense it will get the deficit down by 
giving Government more money. He uses the word ``to invest.'' The 
Government doesn't invest. Private business does. Give them more money 
to spend. At a time when every organization is decentralizing power, why 
turn back to a central bureaucracy in Washington?
    Yet, saying this isn't enough. We've got real problems here in 
America. You see them every single day in your communities. You hire 
high school graduates who can't figure out how to run the cash register. 
You strive to give your people health insurance, but the cost just keeps 
going through the roof. Those of you who run restaurants in the cities 
see the problems of crime and drugs and poverty right up close, 
firsthand. So it's not enough to criticize the old way. Government must 
find a new way to help.
    I'm a conservative, and to me being a conservative means to renew, 
to reinvigorate what has always made America great, and that is the 
power of the individual. During this campaign many have sought to 
portray the choice between, quote, ``activist Government'' and a 
trickle-down approach to Government. But the real choice is not between 
activism and passivity. The real choice is between a liberal 
bureaucratic Government that seeks to impose solutions on everybody else 
and a conservative activist Government that gives individuals, 
businesses, and families the means to make their own choices through 
competition and economic opportunity.
    Let me give you a couple of specific examples. Start with education. 
Governor Clinton worked with me when we set for the first time in 
history six national education goals, first time in history. I give him 
credit for that effort; he was very active in it, deserves credit. But 
as a candidate for President, Governor Clinton has adopted the agenda of 
the status quo. He wants to pour more money into the same failed 
education system, a system where funds are controlled tightly by central 
bureaucracies, where powerful unions, the teachers union, the NEA, block 
real reform, and where we spend as much per pupil as any nation but 
Switzerland. But we don't get an adequate return on our investment.
    But tinkering with the system won't do it. It is my view it simply 
will not get the job done. So I want to put power in the hands of the 
teachers themselves, not the union. So I want to use competition to 
improve our schools. Our ``GI bill'' for kids provides scholarships for 
elementary and high school students so that every parent, rich and poor, 
can choose the best schools for their kids, public, private, and 
religious. Somebody asked me, won't that make the public schools worse? 
Where it's been tried, in Milwaukee and other places, it doesn't. The 
public schools that aren't chosen do what you have to do: compete and do 
better.
    And it isn't a violation of church and state. It's like the GI bill; 
the money goes to the families. It does not violate church and state. 
It's a good idea. It's a new idea. And we ought to try it.
    Now, you see the same differences in health care. Governor Clinton 
has offered three plans in this campaign. One said to all of you, 
either offer care on your own or pay a new payroll tax, at least 7 
percent. Now, many experts said it was a backdoor way to get Government 
directly involved in running health care. Now Governor Clinton wants to 
control the price of health are by setting up a big board in Washington, 
DC, to set prices. And I say Government cannot lower prices by fiat; 
only competition can. Government doesn't need to tell you what doctor to 
see. And we don't need to inflict small business with any more mandates

[[Page 2094]]

from Washington, DC.
    But we've got to do something about health care. So here's my 
alternative, and I'm convinced with the new Congress we can get it 
through: Offer tax incentives for small businesses so that you can 
afford to buy health care on your own. Let small businesses pool the 
coverage so you can get the same price breaks as AT&T or IBM. For people 
who are too poor to pay taxes, we will give vouchers so that they can 
choose the care they want. Freedom, putting people over bureaucracy, 
these are the principles that we offer.
    My opponent trusts Government to choose the best place for child 
care. I fought for and won a new law that gives low income parents the 
freedom to use Federal money for child care wherever they want to, 
whether a government center or a church. And when it comes to deciding 
where your child spends the day, rich or poor, it doesn't matter, 
Government should not limit your options. Parents ought to have the 
freedom to do what they think is right.
    My opponent thinks Government can pick the industries of the future 
with your money. I talk about cutting capital gains and investment tax 
allowances, giving first-time homebuyers a tax credit, because you know 
what to do best with your money, better than any bureaucrat.
    Governor Clinton says that it's okay that we have Members of 
Congress who serve decade after decade in Washington. I trust America's 
judgment, so I want to limit the terms of Members of Congress and give 
Government back to the people.
    Now, when you look at the election in these terms, you see a clear 
choice. Governor Clinton dreams of expanding the American Government. I 
want to work to expand the American dream. I offer an agenda for helping 
people by giving you and your families the power to make your own 
choices, shape your own destiny. We call it the Agenda for American 
Renewal. It's a comprehensive, integrated approach to fixing our 
schools, reforming our health care, right-sizing Government, and 
creating here in America the world's first $10 trillion economy.
    My agenda includes 13 priorities for the first year of my second 
term, but 3 dwarf all others. First, America needs jobs, not in a while, 
not tomorrow but now. This week new numbers came out indicating that our 
economy grew at 2.7 percent last quarter, the sixth straight quarter of 
growth. It's a long way from the depression that Governor Clinton talks 
about. But look, we must do better. We don't need higher taxes so that 
Government can put more people to work. We need incentives to grow, to 
cut Government redtape and make more credit available so that you can 
put more people to work.
    While we are strengthening small business, we will open new foreign 
markets for our products by winning congressional approval of our free 
trade treaty with Canada and Mexico. The bottom line is this: More trade 
creates more high paying jobs for all Americans. They make the charge 
that free trade agreements will ship our jobs overseas. My question is: 
If that's the case, lower labor rates is the determining factor, why 
isn't Haiti the industrial capital of the world? Decisions are made on 
other things. We will create more jobs with opening up export markets.
    Our third priority is health care. I already mentioned some of my 
ideas, but the need for action is urgent. We simply cannot control the 
deficit, we simply cannot make our companies even more competitive until 
we make health care more affordable and more accessible for you and all 
your workers.
    Those are the three. As we're working on these priorities, we'll be 
working on others. One special priority is to reform our crazy legal 
system. It's gotten out of hand. I'm sure many of you fear the customer 
who will try to rip off the system by sticking you with a frivolous 
lawsuit. America now spends up to $200 billion every year on direct 
payments to lawyers. People say, ``So what?'' As the Wall Street Journal 
said this week, ``If we could devote just some of that money to 
productive activity, we could do far more for our economy than all the 
Government investment that Governor Clinton promises.'' For our economy, 
for productivity, for our national sanity, we must sue each other less 
and care for each other more. It is a crying shame when your neighbors

[[Page 2095]]

can't coach Little League because of a frivolous lawsuit, or someone 
sees a victim along the side of the highway and doesn't dare stop 
because he or she remembers a case of where a lawyer came on and said, 
``Oh, you shouldn't have moved that person, and we're going to sue 
you.'' We can't do that. We are a caring country. We've got to put caps 
on these outrageous liability claims.
    We also, obviously, we must reduce this deficit, but not by raising 
taxes but by getting ahold of spending, cutting spending. We need a 
balanced budget amendment. We need a line-item veto so the President can 
cross out frivolous expenditures. This one isn't easy, but we need to 
cap the growth of the mandatory programs. Set Social Security aside, 
except Social Security, but get ahold of the growth of those mandatory 
programs that make up two-thirds of the President's budget. And we need 
a check-off on your tax return so each taxpayer can earmark up to 10 
percent of his taxes to be used for nothing but getting the debt off our 
children's shoulders.
    We have simply got to restore hope to our inner cities. And so I 
will work with the new Congress to get tougher crime laws, to battle 
more on this drug problem--we're making some progress there but we've 
got to do better--to reform the welfare system and to attract and keep 
business. All using this principle of putting faith and power not in 
bureaucracies but instead in real people. And perhaps most important, we 
will reform and right-size Government, subject it to the same discipline 
as every other large organization in America.
    Now, that then is our agenda for America's renewal, and it builds on 
the foundation we've laid for the last 4 years. But it's what I've been 
talking about on the campaign trail and what I will fight for in my 
second term. Obviously you must be thinking, well, it sounds great, but 
what will be different? After all, today there is a gridlock in 
Congress, gridlock in Washington. If people want arguments and shouting, 
they can turn on their TV talk shows, but they expect and deserve better 
from their elected officials.
    I understand this, but I really believe we have an historic, unique 
opportunity before us. After next week there may be up to as many as 150 
new Members of Congress from both parties, all who have heard the same 
rumble of discontent across our land. So I plan to use the time between 
November through January to meet with all the new Members of Congress 
and to shape a legislative package in a way that will guarantee swift 
passage. The time to move for a new President, with no politics over the 
horizon, and a reelected President, is early in the first term. Politics 
aside, sit down with Democrats and Republicans and get the people's 
business done fast.
    We will set deadlines for decisions, and we'll meet them. We'll put 
aside partisan politics, as I tried to do in the very first term--and we 
did get some very good things done early in the first term--and we'll 
abandon this politics as usual. When we confronted Saddam Hussein we saw 
that when America turns its attention to a problem, we can do literally 
anything. We can mobilize for war. We can mobilize for hurricanes. Let's 
mobilize for our economy and get this country moving again.
    If we need to, we'll go beyond Washington. Already our America 2000 
education reform effort involves parents and teachers and business 
leaders in over 2,000 communities, and this will be a model for other 
efforts. America's desire for positive change requires building new 
coalitions and taking advantage of grassroots power, and we will.
    That then is my action plan. But what about Governor Clinton? In 
June, he promised to present his 100-day plan even before the election. 
That's 4 days away. No plan, no plan has been sighted yet, and the 
reason is simple. You're more apt to see a UFO than you are his plan. 
[Laughter] The reason is simple: The numbers, his numbers, just don't 
add up. He's promised too much. His new congressional friends want to 
raise the ante even higher, and the result will be more spending, a 
bigger deficit, continued gridlock.
    My agenda offers an alternative. We can break the gridlock without 
breaking the bank. A vote for our philosophy is a vote for change that 
really matters; a vote for change that builds on our strengths, not ac- 
centuates our weaknesses; a vote for a phi-

[[Page 2096]]

losophy that is right for your businesses, right for your families, 
right for America.
    Let me wrap up now with a word about character. Listen to the words 
of Horace Greeley. He said, ``Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, 
riches take wing; only character endures.'' I think that as you look 
back in history, hopefully now, I think that's especially true in the 
Presidency. Character matters, not just because of the plans you make 
but the crisis you never foresee.
    A couple of weeks ago my Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, gave a 
speech that didn't get a lot of attention. But he made an objective case 
that the world is still very uncertain. He said, and I quote, ``The next 
4 years may be far more challenging, far more difficult, the problems 
far more complex internationally than the problems we've just come 
through the past 4 years.'' We don't know where the next crisis will 
occur. But we do know this: When the next crisis happens, the entire 
world will look to the American President. They will look to his 
experience, and they will count on his character, on his word of honor.
    What is character? How do you define it? I'm not sure. But a friend 
of mine says it's acting alone the way you would act with a million 
people watching. As President you're never more alone than at times of a 
crisis. While nobody may be watching in the Oval Office, millions here 
and abroad will feel the impact of your judgment.
    It is easy, in the aftermath of Desert Storm, to portray the 
decision to go to war as an easy one, but it was not. Think back. It was 
not uniformly popular. The Democratic Congress had spent much of the 
fall parading experts who said we'd get into another Vietnam. They said 
a war would kill any hope for peace in the Middle East. What really got 
to me was the charge that I didn't care about the numbers of body bags 
that were coming back from the sands of Kuwait. The vote in the Congress 
was not overwhelming. Many said, let's give sanctions more time. But I 
made the tough decision, a decision to go to war, because I knew it was 
right, not because I knew it was popular.
    I remember well the cold, rainy February day at Camp David when the 
ground war to liberate Kuwait began, and how fervently I prayed that our 
plans would work and our young men and women would return home 
victorious and alive. This, then, is an awesome responsibility, to ask 
our young men and women to knock early on death's dark door--is a 
responsibility I believe I have fulfilled with honor and duty and, above 
all, integrity.
    That is your call on November 3d. Then the polls and the pundits 
don't matter any more. God bless them, it's all up to the people. When 
you enter that voting booth, please ask yourself three commonsense 
questions: Who has the right vision for America's future? Who can lead 
us through this global transition? And which candidate has the 
character? Who would you trust with your kids? Who would you trust in a 
crisis?
    Ideas, action, character. I have tried very hard to demonstrate that 
I have all three. So I ask for your support on November 3d.
    Thank you, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you 
very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 10:40 a.m. at the 
                        Opryland Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to 
                        John M. Cranor III, president and chief 
                        executive officer, Kentucky Fried Chicken; Kyle 
                        T. Craig, president, KFC-USA; John R. Neal, 
                        president, JRN, Inc.; Charles W. Middleton, 
                        president, KFC of Elizabethton; and Steven D. 
                        Provost, Assistant to the President and Chief 
                        Speech Writer.