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American Business Conference, 4/4/89 [2]
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021969SS
MASTERI
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 3/30/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 3/31/89 NOON
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT UNTERMEYER away
BATES
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than NOON, Friday, March 31, 1989, with an info copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
1989
(Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
30 1:30 p.m.
PM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Gordon wndler
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job. as a member of my team
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
the personal savings rate has hit 5.2 percent or better for the
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke
3
future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
Gorden whecler
targets. Discussions w/ Congressional leaders on the bud-
get have thus far been constuctive on a # of fronts -
Escal and otherwise.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
grow. It will bring in $4.3 billion more in tax revenues,
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
whealer Gordon
so I can't tell you how they're going But we're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market ---
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken
but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity --
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
the players -- superintendents and administrators, school boards,
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.
021969SS
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
3/30/89
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 3/31/89 NOON
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
BOSKIN
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than NOON, Friday, March 31, 1989, with an info copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
See comments
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
1989
(Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
30 1:30 p.m.
PM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job.
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
weicher
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
5873
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
to
the personal savings rate has hit 5.2 percent or better for the
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke
3
on future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
targets.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
Weicher
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
aloan
5873
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
8,
grow. It will bring in $4.3 billion more in tax revenues,
in fiscal year 199
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
so I can't tell you how they're going. But we're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
unable
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
to numbers verify
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market --
weiches
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
wenefits
weicher
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
5873 Compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken.. but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
Weicker 5873
continues to
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity --
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
the players -- superintendents and administrators, school boards,
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.
BATE'S As
(Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
1:30 p.m.
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job.
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
averaged
the personal savings rate has hit 5.2 percent or better for the
Bates x2n4
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke on
3
future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
targets.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
Bates
*2174
grow. It will bring in $4.8 billion more in tax revenues ,In
1990
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
so I can't tell you how they're going. But we're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market --
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity --
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
the players -- superintendents and administrators, school boards,
parents
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 31, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS
FROM:
ROBERT J. PORTMAN RJP
ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: American Business
Conference
Pursuant to your staffing memorandum of March 30, 1989, Counsel's
Office has reviewed the above-referenced draft remarks. We have
no legal objection to the content of these remarks.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
CC: James W. Cicconi
March 31, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR JIM CICCONI
FROM;
DENISE SCHWARZ
OFFICE OF CABINET AFFAIRS
SUBJECT;
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS; AMERICAN BUSINESS
CONFERENCE
LOG #021969SS
We have reviewed the attached and have incorporated our
comments.
Attachment
CC: Chriss Winston
021969SS
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
3/30/89
3/31/89 NOON
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
WINSTON
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than NOON, Friday, March 31, 1989, with an info copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
1989 (Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
30 1:30 p.m.
PM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job.
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
the personal savings rate has averaged. hit 5.2 percent or better for the
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke
3
future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
targets.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
grow. It will bring in $4.& 8 billion more in tax revenues in 1990,
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
so I can't tell you how they're going. But we're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market --
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken
but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity --
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
parents,
the players -- superintendents and administrators school boards,
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.
021969SS
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 3/30/89
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 3/31/89 NOON
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
WINSTON
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than NOON, Friday, March 31, 1989, with an info copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
changes phoned in
on master
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
1989 (Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
30 1:30 p.m.
PM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job as am ember of my team.
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
the personal savings rate has hit 5.2 percent or better for the
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke
3
future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
targets. Discussions with concressional leaders have
thus far been constructive oh a number of front-
fiscal and otherwise.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
grow. It will bring in $4.3 billion more in tax revenues,
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
so I can't tell you how they re going Aut We're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market --
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken
but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity --
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
the players -- superintendents and administrators, school boards,
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.
021969SS
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 3/30/89
3/31/89 NOON
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
ROGERS
CARD
WINSTON
CICCONI
PINKERTON
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122, x2930,
no later than NOON, Friday, March 31, 1989, with an info copy
to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
ok/
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
1989 (Lange/Martin)
March 30, 1989
30 1:30 p.m.
PM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
AMERICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE
ROOM 450, OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1989
2:00 P.M.
I've met with this group three times, over the last eight
years -- and every meeting has been a resounding success. So
I've got a mind to ask: Why can't we equal or exceed that kind
of contact over the next eight years?
Among the many close friends I have in the ABC, I'd like to
mention your former vice chairman, now Commerce Secretary, Bob
Mosbacher. Like all of you, he knows what it means to take
risks, to build a business, and to keep America first. He's
already doing a superb job.
To be sitting in this room today, as ABC members, you've had
to keep your earnings at three times the growth of the economy,
plus inflation. Now, if Bob can just make that happen for every
business in America
I'll make him the Business Czar and we can
all go fishing.
You run the kind of high-growth businesses that represent
the most dynamic, entrepreneurial segment of the American
economy. And this government knows better than to fix what's
already working.
2
So this afternoon I'm going to address two areas of concern
to you: the economics of enterprise -- and the imperative for
education reform.
For anyone running a business, sound investment and
flexibility in the marketplace are more important than ever.
Your concern about a lack of savings is clearly motivated by a
lack of domestic investment capital for American industry. Now,
the personal savings rate has hit 5.2 percent or better for the
past three months. That's good news. But we cannot relax.
The working paper you released last month on overconsumption
was another reminder that the deficit must be brought under
control. So let me reassure you -- this government will not
become the fiscal equivalent of Overeaters Anonymous.
Accountability in government demands that we put an end to this
spending spiral.
You know, when George Kaufman -- that famous wit from the
Algonquin Round Table -- was at a party, he heard a self-made
millionaire boasting to a circle of people, "I was born into the
world without a single penny." And Kaufman answered, "Oh really.
When I was born, I owed twelve dollars."
Well, we don't have to let the deficit play a cruel joke
3
future generations. Next year alone, federal tax revenues will
rise by more than $80 billion. And we're going to use those
funds to bring the deficit down below the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
targets.
To spur greater investment in American business, we need to
bring our taxation of capital gains down -- in line with that of
our trading partners. In the budget we've proposed to Congress,
we want to restore the differential to 15 percent on long-held
assets.
How many of you, as you built your businesses, were able to
just walk up to a bank and get equity? Few, if any. Most of you
probably raised capital by offering people a share of the
business -- and a stake in the outcome.
Cutting the capital gains rate means more of that can
happen. It will give businesses more of the capital they need to
grow. It will bring in $4.3 billion more in tax revenues,
according to the Treasury. And it will create more new jobs.
That's no tax break for the rich. That's a fair shake for
every American.
The budget consultations are being held behind closed doors;
so I can't tell you how they're going. But we're determined to
4
work with this Congress -- we're counting on their cooperation,
to find answers we can all live with.
We want to build on the energy and initiative of American
business -- and we're determined to avoid burdensome mandates
that only enforce solutions of uniform mediocrity. We don't want
to limit the flexibility of managers and workers, who are trying
to find their own best solutions. And you know, many are already
succeeding.
Chamber of Commerce estimates suggest that workers are
receiving more fringe benefits than ever before. Total benefits
in 1987 were up 163 percent in a decade. And it is the market --
not government -- that is responsible for this growth.
Nearly eighty percent of growth in the fringe share of
compensation is due to voluntary action by employers. Only 21
percent is due to government requirements. We want to keep it
that way.
A "mandated benefit" is a contradiction in terms. How would
you feel if your doctor said, "Well, nothing's broken
but
we're going to put you in a full-body cast anyway." No thanks.
A hallmark of this administration will be its focus on the
future -- and the importance we attach to making the right kinds
5
of investment. You don't make your money on short-term, day-to-
day trades -- you make it through sound long-term planning.
There can be no investment more urgent -- or more compelling
for the future of American business, and this country as a whole,
than education. In this, all of us have a stake in the outcome.
As labor markets get tighter in the coming years, many of
you are going to be facing shortages of skilled people. Some
managers are already worried about a scarcity of science and
engineering graduates. And you've all read the surveys that show
Pacific Rim students outperforming our own.
Our best students can compete with anyone in the world.
We're not on the verge of some intellectual brown-out. But in
order to give business more of the people it needs to compete --
to help build America's prosperity -- and to give more of our
young people the skills they need to share in that prosperity ---
we have made education a national priority.
Tomorrow, I will send to the Congress an education package.
We want to reward merit schools that make progress in terms of
raising student achievement, and reducing drug use and drop-out
rates. We're promoting parental choice and educational quality,
through magnet schools of excellence.
6
We want to provide alternative certification of teachers and
principals, to broaden the pool of talent available; President's
Awards to outstanding teachers; Urban Emergency Grants to
provide comprehensive help in fighting drugs for school districts
under seige; a National Science Scholars program for high school
seniors; and additional endowment matching grants for
historically black colleges and universities, which occupy a
unique and vital position in American higher education.
We are committed to a program of education reform that will
give our young people a solid foundation for the future. But to
make lasting improvements in education, we'll need to get all of
the players -- superintendents and administrators, school boards,
local business leaders, teachers' unions -- around the table,
working together.
This will demand accountability from all of us. It will
require the best kind of collective effort, from all directions
-- but it holds the promise of real progress.
Many of you have been prime movers, spending a remarkable
amount of your own time making good on that promise. More than
a third of you serve on local school boards, public or private --
or on the board of a local college or university.
7
Others among you have established a program with a local
community college, or "adopted" a school, or taught part-time, or
promoted science education across a school district. That's the
kind of involvement that, while it isn't always easy, leads to
the kind of educational reform that lasts. Consider yourself one
in a thousand -- you know, points of light.
By investing your time and talents toward the education of
our young people, you're helping to bring about something vital
-- a fundamental cultural shift, that reasserts the value of
learning in this country.
You're breathing new life into an idea that has always been
a testament to the American spirit: that doing well demands
doing good.
Nothing I might tell you would say it better than your own
mission statement, which says ABC executives "believe their own
business success carries with it a responsibility to help expand
economic opportunity throughout the economy."
As business leaders, you understand the power of interests
held in common. Education is the one investment that guarantees
economic opportunity -- for every individual, and every business
in America. Thank you. And God bless you.