1992-08-22
The President. Roll up your sleeves; we're going to work. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. Thank you so very much for that welcome. I reminded them over in a little rainstorm in a rally in Georgia of a country song, ``If you're going to see a rainbow, you've got to stand a little rain.'' And you've sure done it. Thank you.
We are going to have a rainbow. We are going to win this election for the American people. May I thank Emory Folmar; and of course, my good friend Governor Guy Hunt, your Governor, I support him all the way; single out two Members of the United States Congress, Sonny Callahan and Bill Dickinson, old friends, both doing a great job; my fishing pal Ray Scott, Sportsman of the Year for Alabama.
Let me say this magic city is a wonderful place to start a magic campaign. I've got a feeling this fall we're going to use that magic to make some Democrats disappear, disappear from the Presidency, disappear from the House. There's a very important battle going on this fall, big battle this fall: two fiercely determined rivals locked in gridlock, locked in combat. And I'm not just sure whether this thing's going to be won by the War Eagles or by the Crimson Tide, but nevertheless, that's your business.
Hey, I did like it, though, when George Archer won the Senior PGA Tournament around here. I would have loved those big headlines, ``George comes on strong, pulls off big win.'' Help me do that in the fall, because we are coming on strong, and we're taking our case to the American people. We're bypassing those talk shows and going to you, the American people, saying, ``Give us your support.''
The reason we'll win is we're talking about entirely different directions for this country, different agenda. It's a choice about the character of the person you want to lead this Nation and the direction you want us to go. I believe I am the person to have that support.
All the other side does is talk about change, change, change. But the thing that must guide change are things that never change. We believe in a strong defense, in strong families, in leaving the world a better place for our children.
Think for a minute, just think for one minute about the world of change that we've seen the last 4 years: the Berlin Wall down; millions of people took their fresh first breath of freedom; and America, her strength and ideals intact, won the cold war. And you, the taxpayers, helped get that job done. These changes are not accidental. The world changed because America remained true to her unchanging principles. So when Governor Clinton says we're ridiculed around the world, he is disconnected. We are respected around the world.
My opponent said I spent too much time on national security and standing up against aggression, too much time on foreign policy. Let me tell you something. When I took office I saw the chance to help finish off imperial communism, and I did it with the help of the American people. I saw the chance to help rid our children's dreams of the nuclear nightmare, to help them live in a safer world. I did it with your help, and I am proud of it. And that is important. So let them criticize and carp. I will never apologize for one single minute that I have met trying to make this world a more peaceful place for all the young people here today.
The challenge now: to build a more prosperous and secure nation right here at home. And so for these next 73 days I'm going to ask the American people: Who do you trust to bring it all home?
Audience members. Bush! Bush! Bush!
The President. Bring it home, foreign policy, security policy, and economic policy, so that it can make a difference to you right here in these neighborhoods, right here in Alabama. I ask for your support based on my experience, my ideas, and my character. Let me say this. I share Alabama's commitment to family values, and we will never forget: We are one Nation under God, one Nation under God.
So we start right now, right here. I do believe here's a principle with which I differ from my opponent, the Governor of Arkansas. I believe our Government is too big, and it spends too much of your money. I believe the deficit is a dark cloud on our children's future. You know it, and I know it. And I put forward a program to do something about it.
If the Congress sends me any bill spending one penny more than I requested, I will veto it fast, right on the spot, faster than the sales of Millie's book. I've repeatedly proposed cuts in the Federal spending to deflate the deficit. This year alone, I called for the elimination of 200 specific programs and 4,000 wasteful projects, and this gridlocked Congress has said no and diverted your money to pork barrel projects. So here's the proposal: If Congress needs more help curing its addiction, I say let's give the American people a chance. Give the people the power to dedicate up to 10 percent of their tax dollars directly to the deficit. If Congress won't cut the deficit, the American people will. Give the people that power.
Let me repeat what I said at our convention. As we get these appropriate spending reductions, I will propose a tax cut to give you more money to pay your bills, businesses more incentives to create the jobs that this economy needs. We've got to do both: lower spending and lower taxes.
One other thing, one other point: We've got to give the small businesses a shot in the arm around here. They're the ones that create two-thirds of America's jobs. Think of them right here in the mall, McMillan's or Norton's Florist, right here in this area. If we're going to get this economy moving, small business needs relief from taxation, from regulation, and yes, from these crazy lawsuits that are killing us off.
These lawsuits are costing our economy billions of dollars each year, and we're fighting now to reform our legal system. As a Nation, very candidly, we need to sue each other less and care for each other more. About 460 days ago, May 15th, 1991, I sent my first plan to control these outrageous lawsuits up to the Congress. It is still sitting there, blocked by Congressmen beholden to that powerful lawyers' lobby, gridlocked in this liberal Democrat-controlled Congress. I say: Let's change the Congress. Let's clean House.
Audience members. Clean the House! Clean the House! Clean the House!
The President. Very true. Elect these guys. I'm coming to them in just a minute. Let me just remind you, I hate to ruin a wonderful day like this, but let me remind you what Governor Clinton wants.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He's gotten the fever. He's gotten that liberal Democratic fever, and he's not even there yet. He wants to raise Government spending, he's already proposed this, by 0 billion. He wants to raise taxes, the biggest increase in history, by 0 billion. And to that, I say: No way, Governor. No way.
They talk about change. The only thing you'll have left in your pocket, if this guy gets in, is change, I'll tell you that. They always want to put Government first. That's not so surprising. When you've spent most of your life in Government, Government is pretty much all you see. I spent half my adult life, thank heavens, in the private sector. I earned my belief in limited Government from working out, having a job, holding a job, working in the oilfields, building a business, and meeting a payroll. That is a good credential for anybody that wants to be President of the United States of America.
I learned what all of you have learned and some are now learning. That's where I learned how jobs are created, that you can't have employees without employers. That's where I learned in this country that Government works for the people, not the other way around.
But in all fairness -- we've got to be fair in this election -- Governor Clinton is not the only one who has forgotten that lesson, if he ever knew it. There's a whole party of his colleagues right up there on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, who have spent their entire lives on the Government payroll. I call them the gridlocked Democratic liberal-controlled Congress, and I don't believe the Governor can stand up to them. The last thing we need is a rubber-check Congress and a rubber-stamp President. We don't need that.
And look, I've tried to work with this Congress. You all remember at the Inaugural Address I said, ``People didn't send us here to bicker, they sent us here to get something done.'' I held out my hand, and these old mossbacks bit it off. Enough! We've got to change the Congress.
So we're talking clean House. We need Spencer Bachus here for the Sixth District. We need Terry Everett for the Second District, Don Sledge for the Third, Mickey Strickland for the Fourth, Terry Smith for the Fifth, and Kervin Jones for the Seventh. And then we can clean House.
While we're at it, the Senate needs a little work. Those liberals that control that Senate are blocking me every inch of the way. Give us Richard Sellers for the Senate. Make change. Make change.
Look, I know this and you know it: Americans are tired of the blame game, sick of all the excuses, tired of these people up there acting like they're the candidates for the next episode of ``American Gladiators''. But I'll tell you this: I am tired of it, too. Every American knows the truth. Congress -- look at the post office, look at the bank -- they have become corrupt, conceited, confused, a body of these PAC's, perks, privileges, partisanship, and paralysis. We must change the Congress with which Bill Clinton is interlocked.
You ask him when he comes south. He talks about change. What about changing the one institution whose control hasn't changed in 38 years, since he was 7 years old? The Congress. They have a lower rate of turnover than the Soviet Politburo.
So it's time to say, ``Enough is enough.'' If you want to get rid of that deadlock, give me some new faces in that Congress and watch this country move forward. There is so much to do: a balanced budget amendment, locking this line-item veto into place so we can cut that spending. Give the parents some choice in the schools that their kids attend -- private, public, or religious. Give us that kind of a positive change.
I know this is a long race and that some have counted us out. Oh boy, are we having some problems with the national media. They don't know good news when they see it. They are going to know change when they see it. And we're going to win this in the final analysis on this basis because I trust the American people, and I hope I have earned the trust of the American people.
When I think of the great patriotism shown by this wonderful State of Alabama and I think of those men and women that served in Desert Storm and I think of the opposition I had in the Congress, I say let's change it. So if we're faced with a problem again, we can solve it just as quick as we did Desert Storm in spite of that opposition.
So, my message is this -- after once again saying thanks. I can't tell you what this does for the spirit, this, the largest rally, as Emory told me, he's ever seen around here.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. So you tell the opposition we stand for family values. And the best evidence of this, standing right here with me today, is Barbara Bush, who does so much for literacy in this country.
Audience members. Barbara! Barbara! Barbara!
The President. You tell them we stand for family and faith and one Nation under God. And then go tell the gridlocked Congress and Governor Clinton: If you can't run with the big dogs, stay under the porch.
Thank you all very much.
Note: The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. at the Riverchase Galleria shopping mall. In his remarks, he referred to Emory Fowler, Mayor of Montgomery. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.
