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State of the Union 1991 1/29/91 [OA 6029]
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State of the Union 1991 1/29/91 [OA 6029]
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George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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State of the Union 1991, 1/29/91 [OA 6029]
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 29, 1991
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON THE STATE OF THE UNION
The U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C.
9:09 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, and Mr. Speaker, and
members of the United States Congress. I come to this House of the
people to speak to you and all Americans, certain that we stand at a
defining hour. Halfway around the world, we are engaged in a great
struggle in the skies and on the seas and sands. We know why we're
there. We are Americans -- part of something larger than ourselves.
For two centuries, we've done the hard work of freedom. And tonight,
we lead the world in facing down a threat to decency and humanity.
What is at stake is more than one small country; it is a
big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn
together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of
mankind -- peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is
a world worthy of our struggle and worthy of our children's future.
(Applause.)
The community of nations has resolutely gathered to
condemn and repel lawless aggression. Saddam Hussein's unprovoked
invasion -- his ruthless, systematic rape of a peaceful neighbor --
violated everything the community of nations holds dear. The world
has said this aggression would not stand -- and it will not stand.
(Applause.)
Together, we have resisted the trap of appeasement,
cynicism, and isolation that gives temptation to tyrants. The world
has answered Saddam's invasion with 12 United Nations resolutions,
starting with a demand for Iraq's immediate and unconditional
withdrawal and backed up by forces from 28 countries of six
continents. With few exceptions, the world now stands as one.
The end of the Cold War has been a victory for all
humanity. A year and a half ago, in Germany, I said that our goal
was a Europe whole and free. Tonight, Germany is united. Europe has
become whole and free -- and America's leadership was instrumental in
making it possible. (Applause.)
Our relationship to the Soviet Union is important, not
only to us, but to the world. That relationship has helped to shape
these and other historic changes. But like many other nations, we
have been deeply concerned by the violence in the Baltics, and we
have communicated that concern to the Soviet leadership.
The principle that has guided us is simple: Our
objective is to help the Baltic peoples achieve their aspirations,
not to punish the Soviet Union. (Applause.) In our recent
discussions with the Soviet leadership, we have been given
representations which, if fulfilled, would result in the withdrawal
of some Soviet forces, a reopening of dialogue with the Republics,
and a move away from violence.
We will watch carefully as the situation develops. And
we will maintain our contact with the Soviet leadership to encourage
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continued commitment to democratization and reform. (Applause.) If
it is possible, I want to continue to build a lasting basis for
U.S. -Soviet cooperation, for a more peaceful future for all mankind.
The triumph of democratic ideas in Eastern Europe and
Latin America, and the continuing struggle for freedom elsewhere all
around the world all confirm the wisdom of our nation's founders.
Tonight, we work to achieve another victory -- a victory
over tyranny and savage aggression.
We in this Union enter the last decade of the 20th
century thankful for our blessings, steadfast in our purpose, aware
of our difficulties, and responsive to our duties at home and around
the world.
For two centuries, America has served the world as an
inspiring example of freedom and democracy. For generations, America
has led the struggle to preserve and extend the blessings of liberty.
And today, in a rapidly changing world, American leadership is
indispensable. Americans know that leadership brings burdens and
sacrifices. But we also know why the hopes of humanity turn to us.
We are Americans: we have a unique responsibility to do the hard
work of freedom. And when we do, freedom works. (Applause.)
The conviction and courage we see in the Persian Gulf
today is simply the American character in action. The indomitable
spirit that is contributing to this victory for world peace and
justice is the same spirit that gives us the power and the potential
to meet our toughest challenges at home.
We are resolute and resourceful. If we can selflessly
confront evil for the sake of good in a land so far away, then surely
we can make this land all that it should be. If anyone tells you
that America's best days are behind her, they're looking the wrong
way. (Applause.)
Tonight, I come before this House and the American people
with an appeal for renewal. This is not merely a call for new
government initiatives; it is a call for new initiative in
government, in our communities, and from every American -- to prepare
for the next American century.
America has always led by example. So who among us will
set this example? Which of our citizens will lead us in this next
American century? Everyone who steps forward today -- to get one
addict off drugs, to convince one troubled teenager not to give up on
life, to comfort one AIDS patient, to help one hungry child.
We have within our reach the promise of a renewed
America. We can find meaning and reward by serving some purpose
higher than ourselves -- a shining purpose, the illumination of a
thousand points of light. And it is expressed by all who know the
irresistible force of a child's hand, of a friend who stands by you
and stays there -- a volunteer's generous gesture, an idea that is
simply right.
The problems before us may be different, but the key to
solving them remains the same. It is the individual -- the
individual who steps forward. And the state of our Union is the
union of each of us, one to the other -- the sum of our friendships,
marriages, families, and communities.
We all have something to give. So if you know how to
read, find someone who can't. If you've got a hammer, find a. nail.
If you're not hungry, not lonely, not in trouble, seek out someone
who is. Join the community of conscience. Do the hard work of
freedom. And that will define the state of our Union. (Applause.)
Since the birth of our nation, "We the people" has been
the source of our strength. What government can do alone is limited
-- but the potential of the American people knows no limits.
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We are a nation of rock-solid realism and clear-eyed
idealism. We are Americans. We are the nation that believes in the
future. We are the nation that can shape the future. And we've
begun to do just that -- by strengthening the power and choice of
individuals and families.
Together, these last two years, we've put dollars for
child care directly in the hands of parents instead of bureaucracies.
(Applause.) Unshackled the potential of Americans with disabilities.
(Applause.) Applied the creativity of the marketplace in the service
of the environment, for clean air; and made home ownership possible
for more Americans. (Applause.)
The strength of a democracy is not in bureaucracy. It is
in the people and their communities. In everything we do, let us
unleash the potential of our most precious resource -- our citizens,
our citizens themselves. We must return to families, communities,
counties, cities, states, and institutions of every kind the power to
chart their own destiny, and the freedom and opportunity provided by
strong economic growth. And that's what America is all about.
(Applause.)
I know tonight in some regions of our country, people are
in genuine economic distress. And I hear them.
Earlier this month, Kathy Blackwell, of Massachusetts,
wrote me about what can happen when the economy slows down, saying,
"My heart is aching, and I think that you should know your people out
here are hurting badly.'
I understand. And I'm not unrealistic about the future.
But there are reasons to be optimistic about our economy.
First, we don't have to fight double-digit inflation.
Second, most industries won't have to make big cuts in production
because they don't have big inventories piled up. And third, our
exports are running solid and strong. In fact, American businesses
are exporting at a record rate.
So let's put these times in perspective. Together, since
1981, we've created almost 20 million jobs, cut inflation in half,
and cut interest rates in half.
And, yes, the largest peacetime economic expansion in
history has been temporarily interrupted. But our economy is still
over twice as large as our closest competitor.
We will get this recession behind us and return to growth
soon. (Applause.) We will get on our way to a new record of
expansion and achieve the competitive strength that will carry us
into the next American century.
We should focus our efforts today on encouraging economic
growth, investing in the future, and giving power and opportunity to
the individual. (Applause.)
We must begin with control of federal spending.
(Applause.) That's why I'm submitting a budget that holds the growth
in spending to less than the rate of inflation. And that's why, amid
all the sound and fury of last year's budget debate, we put into law
new, enforceable spending caps -- so that future spending debates
will mean a battle of ideas, not a bidding war. (Applause.)
Though controversial, the budget agreement finally put
the federal government on a pay-as-you-go plan and cut the growth of
debt by nearly $500 billion. And that frees funds for saving and
job-creating investment.
Now, let's do more. My budget again includes tax-free
family savings accounts; penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs for
first-time home buyers -- (applause) -- and to increase jobs and
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growth, a reduced tax for long-term capital gains. (Applause.)
I know there are differences among us -- (laughter) --
about the impact and the effects of a capital gains incentive. So
tonight, I'm asking the congressional leaders and the Federal Reserve
to cooperate with us in a study, led by Chairman Alan Greenspan, to
sort out our technical differences so that we can avoid a return to
unproductive partisan bickering. (Applause.)
But just as our efforts will bring economic growth now
and in the future, they must also be matched by long-term investments
for the next American century.
That requires a forward-looking plan of action -- and
that's exactly what we will be sending to the Congress. We've
prepared a detailed series of proposals that include:
A budget that promotes investment in America's future --
in children, education, infrastructure, space, and high technology;
legislation to achieve excellence in education --
building on the partnership forged with the 50 governors at the
Education Summit, enabling parents to choose their children's schools
and helping to make America number one in math and science; --
(applause) --
a blueprint for a new national highway system -- a
critical investment in our transportation infrastructure; --
(applause) --
a research and development agenda that includes record
levels of federal investment, and a permanent tax credit to
strengthen private R&D and to create jobs; -- (applause) --
a comprehensive national energy strategy that calls for
energy conservation and efficiency, increased development, and
greater use of alternative fuels; -- (applause) --
a banking reform plan to bring America's financial system
into the 21st century so that our banks remain safe and secure and
can continue to make job-creating loans for our factories, our
businesses and home-buyers.
You know, I do think there has been too much pessimism.
Sound banks should be making sound loans now -- and interest rates
should be lower, now. (Applause.)
In addition to these proposals, we must recognize that
our economic strength depends on being competitive in world markets.
We must continue to expand American exports. A successful Uruguay
Round of world trade negotiations will create more real jobs and more
real growth for all nations. You and I know that if the playing
field is level, America's workers and farmers can out-work,
out-produce anyone, anytime, anywhere. (Applause.)
And with a Mexican Free Trade Agreement and our
Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, we can help our partners
strengthen their economies and move toward a free trade zone
throughout this entire hemisphere. (Applause.)
The budget also includes a plan of action right here at
home to put more power and opportunity in the hands of the
individual. And that means new incentives to create jobs in our
inner cities, by encouraging investment through enterprise zones. It
also means tenant control and ownership of public housing. Freedom
and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They
are the birthright of every American. (Applause.)
Civil rights are also crucial to protecting equal
opportunity. (Applause.) Every one of us has a responsibility to
speak out against racism, bigotry, and hate. (Applause.) We will
continue our vigorous enforcement of existing statutes, and I will
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once again press the Congress to strengthen the laws against
employment discrimination without resorting to the use of unfair
preferences. (Applause.)
We're determined to protect another fundamental civil
right -- freedom from crime and the fear that stalks our cities. The
Attorney General will soon convene a crime summit of our nation's law
enforcement officials. And to help us support them, we need tough
crime control legislation, and we need it now. (Applause.)
And as we fight crime, we will fully implement our
national strategy for combatting drug abuse. Recent data show that
we are making progress, but much remains to be done. We will not
rest until the day of the dealer is over, forever. (Applause.)
Good health care is every American's right and every
American's responsibility. And so we are proposing an aggressive
program of new prevention initiatives -- for infants, for children,
for adults, and for the elderly -- to promote a healthier America and
to help keep costs from spiralling. (Applause.)
It's time to give people more choice in government, by
reviving the ideal of the citizen politician who comes not to stay,
but to serve. And one of the reasons that there is so much support
across this country for term limitations is that the American people
are increasingly concerned about big-money influence in politics. So
we must look beyond the next election, to the next generation. And
the time has come to put the national interest above the special
interest -- and totally eliminate political action committees.
(Applause.)
And that would truly put more competition in elections,
and more power in the hands of individuals. And where power cannot
be put directly in the hands of the individual, it should be moved
closer to the people -- away from Washington.
The federal government too often treats government
programs as if they are of Washington, by Washington, and for
Washington. Once established, federal programs seem to become
immortal.
It's time for a more dynamic program life cycle: Some
programs should increase. Some should decrease. Some should be
terminated. And some should be consolidated and turned over to the
states. (Applause.)
My budget includes a list of programs for potential
turnover totalling more than $20 billion. Working with Congress and
the governors, I propose we select at least $15 billion in such
programs and turn them over to the states in a single consolidated
grant -- fully funded -- for flexible management by the states.
(Applause.)
The value -- the value of this turnover approach is
straightforward. It allows the federal government to reduce
overhead. It allows states to manage more flexibly and more
efficiently. It moves power and decision-making closer to the
people. And it reinforces a theme of this administration:
appreciation and encouragement of the innovative powers of "States as
Laboratories."
This nation was founded by leaders who understood that
power belongs in the hands of people. And they planned for the
future. And so must we -- here and all around the world.
As Americans, we know that there are times when we must
step forward and accept our responsibility to lead the world away
from the dark chaos of dictators, toward the brighter promise of a
better day.
Almost 50 years ago we began a long struggle against
aggressive totalitarianism. Now we face another defining hour for
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America and the world.
There is no one more devoted, more committed to the hard
work of freedom, than every soldier and sailor, every Marine, airman,
and Coastguardsman -- every man and woman now serving in the Persian
Gulf. (Applause.) Oh, how they deserve -- (applause) -- and what a
fitting tribute to them.
You see -- what a wonderful, fitting tribute to them.
Each of them has volunteered -- volunteered to provide for this
nation's defense -- and now they bravely struggle, to earn for
America, for the world, and for future generations, a just and
lasting peace.
Our commitment to them must be equal to their commitment
to their country. They are truly America's finest. (Applause.)
The war in the Gulf is not a war we wanted. We worked
hard to avoid war. For more than five months we, along with the Arab
League, the European Community, the United Nations, tried every
diplomatic avenue. U.N. Secretary General Perez de Cuellar;
Presidents Gorbachev, Mitterrand, Ozal, Mubarak, and Bendjedid; Kings
Fahd and Hassan; Prime Ministers Major and Andreotti -- just to name
a few -- all worked for a solution. But time and again, Saddam
Hussein flatly rejected the path of diplomacy and peace.
The world well knows how this conflict began and when:
It began on August 2nd, when Saddam invaded and sacked a small,
defenseless neighbor. And I am certain of how it will end. So that
peace can prevail, we will prevail. (Applause.) Thank you.
Tonight, I am pleased to report that we are on course.
Iraq's capacity to sustain war is being destroyed. Our investment,
our training, our planning -- all are paying off. Time will not be
Saddam's salvation.
Our purpose in the Persian Gulf remains constant: to
drive Iraq out of Kuwait, to restore Kuwait's legitimate government,
and to ensure the stability and security of this critical region.
Let me make clear what I mean by the region's stability
and security. We do not seek the destruction of Iraq, its culture,
or its people. Rather, we seek an Iraq that uses its great
resources, not to destroy, not to serve the ambitions of a tyrant,
but to build a better life for itself and its neighbors. We seek a
Persian Gulf where conflict is no longer the rule, where the strong
are neither tempted nor able to intimidate the weak.
Most Americans know instinctively why we are in the Gulf.
They know we had to stop Saddam now, not later. They know that this
brutal dictator will do anything; will use any weapon; will commit
any outrage, no matter how many innocents suffer.
They know we must make sure that control of the world's
oil resources does not fall into his hands, only to finance further
aggression. They know that we need to build a new, enduring peace --
based not on arms races and confrontation, but on shared principles
and the rule of law.
And we all realize that our responsibility to be the
catalyst for peace in the region does not end with the successful
conclusion of this war.
Democracy brings the undeniable value of thoughtful
dissent -- and we've heard some dissenting voices here at home --
some, a handful, reckless -- most responsible. But the fact that all
voices have the right to speak out is one of the reasons we've been
united in purpose and principle for 200 years. (Applause.)
Our progress in this great struggle is the result of
years of vigilance and a steadfast commitment to a strong defense.
Now, with remarkable technological advances like the Patriot missile,
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we can defend against ballistic missile attacks aimed at innocent
civilians.
Looking forward, I have directed that the SDI program be
refocused on providing protection from limited ballistic missile
strikes -- whatever their source. (Applause.) Let us pursue an SDI
program that can deal with any future threat to the United STates, to
our forces overseas, and to our friends and allies.
The quality of American technology, thanks to the
American worker, has enabled us to successfully deal with difficult
military conditions and help minimize precious loss of life. We have
given our men and women the very best. And they deserve it.
(Applause.)
We all have a special place in our hearts for the
families of our men and women serving in the Gulf. They are
represented here tonight by Mrs. Norman Schwarzkopf. (Applause.) We
are all very grateful to General Schwarzkopf and to all those serving
with him. And I might also recognize one who came with Mrs.
Schwarzkopf -- Alma Powell, the wife of the distinguished Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs. (Applause.) And to the families, let me say our
forces in the Gulf will not stay there one day longer than is
necessary to complete their mission. (Applause.)
The courage and success of the RAF pilots, of the
Kuwaiti, Saudi, French, the Canadians, the Italians, the pilots of
Qatar and Bahrain -- all are proof that for the first time since
World War II, the international community is united. The leadership
of the United Nations, once only a hoped-for ideal, is now confirming
its founders' vision. (Applause.)
I am heartened that we are not being asked to bear alone
the financial burdens of this struggle. Last year, our friends and
allies provided the bulk of the economic costs of Desert Shield. And
now, having received commitments of over $40 billion for the first
three months of 1991, I am confident they will do no less as we move
through Desert Storm. (Applause.)
But the world has to wonder what the dictator of Iraq is
thinking. If he thinks that by targeting innocent civilians in
Israel and Saudi Arabia, that he will gain advantage, he is dead
wrong. (Applause.) If he thinks that he will advance his cause
through tragic and despicable environmental terrorism, he is dead
wrong. (Applause.) And if he thinks that by abusing the coalition
prisoners of war he will benefit, he is dead wrong. (Applause.)
We will succeed in the Gulf. And when we do, the world
community will have sent an enduring warning to any dictator or
despot, present or future, who contemplates oulaw aggression.
The world can, therefore, seize this opportunity to
fulfill the long-held promise of a new world order, where brutality
will go unrewarded and aggression will meet collective resistance.
Yes, the United States bears a major share of leadership
in this effort. Among the nations of the world, only the United
States of America has both the moral standing and the means to back
it up. We're the only nation on this Earth that could assemble the
forces of peace. This is the burden of leadership and the strength
that has made America the beacon of freedom in a searching world.
This nation has never found glory in war. Our people
have never wanted to abandon the blessings of home and work for
distant lands and deadly conflict. If we fight in anger, it is only
because we have to fight at all. And all of us yearn for a world
where we will never have to fight again.
Each of us will measure within ourselves the value of
this great struggle. Any cost in lives -- any cost -- is beyond our
power to measure. But the cost of closing our eyes to aggression is
beyond mankind's power to imagine.
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This we do know: Our cause is just. Our cause is moral.
Our cause is right. (Applause.)
Let future generations understand the burden and the
blessings of freedom. Let them say we stood where duty required us
to stand.
Let them know that, together, we affirmed America and the
world as a community of conscience.
The winds of change are with us now. The forces of
freedom are together, united. We move toward the next century more
confident than ever that we have the will at home and abroad to do
what must be done, the hard work of freedom.
May God bless the United States of America. Thank you
very, very much. (Applause.)
END
9:57 P.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON 91 JAN 25 PM 1: 16
JAN 25 P2: 21
January 25, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR PHILLIP BRADY
FROM:
C. BOYDEN GRAY
Attached are the proposed insert. on Campaign Finance Reform and
Civil Rights for the State of the Union Address.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Date: 1/25
91
TO:
CHRISS WINSTON
FROM: JOHN S. GARDNER
Special Assistant to the President
and Assistant Staff Secretary
Phil showed only p. 8 of the
draft to Boyden; attached is
Boyden's response.
Thanks.
J.
Proposed Statement on Civil Rights
Nothing can be more important than civil rights in providing
equal opportunity for all Americans. We will continue our
vigorous enforcement of existing statutes, and I will once again
press the Congress to strengthen the laws against employment
discrimination. Discrimination against the members of any group
is intolerable, but quotas and preferences are as intolerable as
other forms of discrimination.
The real battle for equal opportunity, however, will require
us to go beyond eliminating discrimination and to take on crime
and drugs and to break down barriers to education, job training,
and entrepreneurship. Education and training are indispensable
tools for those at the bottom of the economic ladder to be able
to realize their dreams and contribute to America's ability to
compete in the global marketplace.
That is why the package of empowerment legislation I propose
to accomplish this is the most urgent portion of my civil rights
agenda.
Proposed Statement on Campaign Finance Reform
This should be the year the Congress enacts serious and
comprehensive campaign finance reform. This year -- not next --
is the time for us to act to curb special interest influence in
the electoral process and by doing so, restore competition in
elections. Elimination of special interest political action
committees is an essential element of this reform. If these PACs
can continue to favor House incumbents over challengers by the
astounding ratio of 25-1, as they did in 1990, elections will
cease to have much meaning. It's no wonder there is a growing
sentiment across America for term limits. And there's much more
that must be done.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
AND WIRE TRANSMISSION
UNTIL 9:00 PM (EST)
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1991
THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
FACT SHEET
The President's 1991 State of the Union address discussed:
A New World Order
Preparing for the Next American Century
The War in the Gulf
The President explained that he came to speak to the Congress
and all Americans "certain that we stand at a defining hour."
I. A NEW WORLD ORDER
A.
Peace and the Rule of Law
The President declared that what is at stake in the Persian
Gulf is more than just the independence of Kuwait. It is a new
world order where diverse nations are brought together to give
permanence to the universal aspirations of mankind:
Peace and security;
Freedom; and
The rule of law.
The world has "resisted the trap of appeasement, cynicism, and
isolation" and is united in demanding Iraq's immediate and
unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. We are working to
achieve victory over tyranny and lawless aggression. America
has "a unique responsibility to do the hard work of freedom."
-2-
B.
Constructive Change
The President noted that "the end of the Cold War has been a
victory for all humanity Germany is united. Europe has
become whole and free -- and America's leadership was
instrumental in making it possible."
C. U.S.-Soviet Relations
The President stated that "our relationship with the Soviet
Union is important, not only to us, but to the world." It has
contributed to positive, historic change.
The President also noted that "like many other nations, we have
been deeply concerned by the violence in the Baltics." The
President stated that in discussions with the Soviet leadership
"we have been given representations, which, if fulfilled, would
result in the withdrawal of some Soviet forces, a reopening of
dialogue with the Republics, and a move away from violence."
We will watch carefully as the situation develops; we will also
maintain our contacts with Soviet leaders to encourage
democratization and reform.
II. PREPARING FOR THE NEXT AMERICAN CENTURY
The President asserted that the spirit that is winning a
victory for world peace and justice in the Persian Gulf is "the
same spirit that gives us the power and the potential to meet
our toughest challenges at home." The President called for
"new initiative in government, in our communities, and from
every American, to prepare for the next American century."
The President encouraged all Americans to join the "community
of conscience", asserting that "we have within our reach the
promise of a renewed America." He said "we can find meaning
and reward by serving some purpose higher than ourselves.
The President called for "strengthening the power and freedom
of choice of individuals and families.' He declared that "the
strength of a democracy is not in bureaucracy," but "in the
people and their communities." The President called for the
unleashing of "the potential of our most precious resource
our citizens." This should be done by returning to "families,
communities, counties, cities, states, and institutions of
every kind, the power to chart their own destiny."
-3-
A.
Encouraging Economic Growth
The President explained that he understands the genuine
economic distress experienced by many Americans. He
offered three reasons to be optimistic about the economy:
-
Inflation is low;
-
Inventories are low; and
-
Exports are strong.
The President expressed confidence that "we will get this
recession behind us, and return to growth -- soon."
Controlling Federal Spending and Enforcing the Budget
Agreement
The President declared that strong economic growth
requires control of Federal spending. He will transmit a
budget that holds the growth in spending to less than the
rate of inflation.
The budget agreement put the Federal government on a pay-
as-you-go plan and cut the growth of debt by nearly $500
billion.
Encouraging Savings and Investment
The President explained that the budget agreement helped
free private funds for savings and job-creating
investment.
In addition, the President announced that his budget again
includes:
Tax-free family savings accounts;
Penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs for first-
time home buyers; and
A strengthened long-term capital gains
incentive.
He also asked congressional leaders, the Administration,
and the Federal Reserve to cooperate in a study, led by
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, to reach
technical agreement on the budgetary and other economic
effects of a strengthened capital gains incentive.
-4-
B.
Investing in the Future
The President said that we must match incentives for
economic growth today with long-term investments for the
next American century.
Budget Priorities
The President indicated that his FY 1992 budget priorities
will include promoting investments in children, education,
infrastructure, space, and high technology.
Strengthening Education
The President will propose a new Educational Excellence
Act which contains strategic initiatives to improve the
learning achievement of all Americans and to restructure
the nation's educational system. Initiatives in the
Educational Excellence Act will:
Stimulate fundamental reform and restructure our
education system through promoting educational
choice and alternative certification for
teachers and principals.
Promote local control and innovation in
education by providing increased flexibility in
funding at the Federal and state levels in
exchange for enhanced accountability.
Assist educators in their mission to improve
student performance by: rewarding schools that
demonstrate improved achievement among students;
rewarding excellent teachers; and providing
innovation in training school administrators.
Provide incentives to school districts to design
and implement innovative approaches to
mathematics and science education; enhance the
endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities; and contribute to improving
literacy.
-5-
Strengthening Transportation Infrastructure
The President believes a strong highway system is a
critical investment for our economic success. He
indicated that he would shortly outline the details of a
new National Highway System managed in partnership with
the States.
Enhancing Research and Development
To strengthen our research and development capability and
economic competitiveness the President will propose:
A record Federal budget commitment to science
and expanding the frontiers of knowledge,
including basic research and making government
research more available to the private sector
for speedier commercialization;
Increased support for generic or enabling
technologies at the pre-competitive stage of R&D
in such areas as high-performance computing, new
energy technologies, and advanced manufacturing
and materials; and
Making permanent the R&E tax credit.
Reducing Energy Vulnerability
The President will soon present a comprehensive National
Energy Strategy that calls for energy conservation and
efficiency, increased domestic energy development, and
greater use of alternative fuels. The elements of the
strategy are designed to:
Foster economic growth through the availability
of ample supplies of reasonably priced energy;
Enhance energy security by reducing
vulnerability to oil disruptions; and
Increase research and development of a wide
range of promising energy technologies.
Providing Financial Security
The President said that we will continue to make sure
banks are safe, sound, and able to provide adequate credit
-6-
for job-creating loans for factories, businesses, and
homebuyers.
He stated that "sound banks should be making more sound
loans, now -- and interest rates should be lower, now.
"
The Treasury will shortly unveil a plan to bring America's
financial system into the 21st century. The elements of
the plan are designed to:
Continue to protect the deposits of America's
workers and savers;
Assure the safety, soundness, and
competitiveness of our financial institutions;
Create a regulatory system that is strong,
simple, and streamlined; and
Move toward a deposit insurance fund that is
well capitalized with industry funds.
Expanding World Trade
The President called for an expansion of world trade, to
create new opportunities for U.S. exports, which have
grown by 23 percent over the past two years to nearly $400
billion. His priorities include:
-
Strengthening and expanding the world trading system
through the swift and successful completion of the
Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
These negotiations aim to open markets
worldwide, lower government subsidies and trade
barriers that distort agricultural markets, and
establish rules of fair play in areas vital to
U.S. competitiveness -- such as services,
agriculture, and high technology.
The lower trade barriers that would result from
a successful Uruguay Round could increase world
output by approximately $5 trillion over the
next ten years, and U.S. output by $1 trillion.
-
A U.S. - Mexico Free Trade Agreement (FTA), first
endorsed by President Bush and Mexico's President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari in June 1990.
-7-
A comprehensive FTA would aim to eliminate
barriers to trade in goods and services and
investment between the United States and Mexico,
as well as provide for the protection of
intellectual property rights.
It would free trade totalling $59 billion
between the two countries.
The FTA might also include Canada, thus creating
the world's largest market, with 360 million
consumers and $6 trillion in total output.
Implementing the Enterprise for the Americas
Initiative, launched by President Bush last June.
The President's initiative aims to spur economic
growth and create jobs among the nations of the
Western Hemisphere by removing barriers to trade
and investment, and by reducing debt burdens.
The initiative envisions the eventual
development of a hemispheric zone of free trade.
The United States has begun the process of
opening markets to trade and investment with
over a dozen countries in the region.
The President will propose legislation to enable
full implementation of the investment and debt
reduction portions of the initiative.
-
Export Promotion. The Administration will be taking
quality and export programs to cities around the
country, to make certain that more U.S. firms know
the export potential of top quality goods and
services.
C.
Giving Power and Opportunity to the Individual
The President announced an action plan to "put more power
and opportunity in the hands of the individual."
Creating Job Opportunities
The President called for new incentives to create jobs in
our inner cities by encouraging investment through
enterprise zones.
-8-
Increasing Home Ownership
The President also called for increasing tenant ownership
and control of public housing to help build the bonds of
community in neighborhoods that need help.
Fighting Discrimination
The President stated that "civil rights are also crucial
to protecting equal opportunity." He called on all
Americans to speak out against racism, bigotry, and hate.
The President indicated that "we will continue our
vigorous enforcement of existing statutes," and promised
to press the Congress again "to strengthen the laws
against employment discrimination without resorting to the
use of unfair preferences."
Protecting People From Crime and Combatting Drug Abuse
The President described freedom from crime as a basic
civil right and said that we must eradicate the fear that
stalks our cities.
-
He announced that the Attorney General will soon
convene a Crime Summit of our nation's law
enforcement officials.
-
He called for prompt action on tough crime control
legislation. The President will propose legislation
that will include:
A meaningful Federal death penalty for the most
heinous crimes with procedures to ensure its
fair and colorblind application;
Habeas corpus reform to reduce unnecessarily
repetitive appeals that clog the courts and
delay justice;
Exclusionary rule reform to ensure that evidence
gathered by law enforcement officials in a good
faith belief that they are acting lawfully can
be used to help courts establish the truth;
Provisions to strengthen Federal laws concerning
the safety of women by modifying rules on the
-9-
admissibility of evidence in cases of sex
crimes, enhancing penalties for the distribution
of illegal drugs to pregnant women, increasing
penalties for recidivist sex offenders, and
offering greater protection for victims below
the age of sixteen; and
New authority to enhance international
cooperation among law enforcement officials to
combat international criminal activity,
including international terrorism.
The President noted that recent data shows we are
making progress in reducing drug abuse, but that much
remains to be done. The Administration will soon
release the third edition of the National Drug
Control Strategy.
This comprehensive strategy includes increased
resources for drug prevention and education,
treatment, law enforcement, and international
initiatives.
Enhancing Good Health Through Prevention
The President stated that good health is every American's
right and responsibility. He announced that he will
propose an aggressive program of new prevention
initiatives to promote a healthier America and to help
control costs.
The initiatives are designed to make Americans of all ages
healthier.
Infant health will be improved through an
initiative that targets cities with
exceptionally high infant mortality rates;
Children will benefit from large increases in
immunization resources;
Adults will benefit from new efforts to promote
physical activity and reduce injury, reduce
tobacco use, and implementation of a new program
to detect breast and cervical cancer; and
Elderly women will benefit from mammography
services newly available to Medicare
beneficiaries.
-10-
Giving People More Choice in Government
The President urged "reviving the ideal of the citizen
politician who comes not to stay, but to serve."
He endorsed term limitations in order to reduce
the influence of special interests.
He also endorsed election reform -- total
elimination of Political Action Committees -- as
necessary to put more power in the hands of
individuals.
D.
Moving Government Closer to the People
The President said that "where power cannot be put
directly in the hands of the individual, it should be
moved closer to the people -- away from Washington."
The President called for a more dynamic program life
cycle.
Some programs should increase;
Some should decrease;
Some should be terminated; and
Some should be consolidated and turned over to
the States.
The President's Budget includes a list of potential
programs for turnover totalling more than $20 billion.
Working with the Governors and the Congress, the President
proposed selecting at least $15 billion in such programs
and turning them over to the States in a single
consolidated grant, fully funded, for flexible management
by the States. This initiative will:
Allow the Federal Government to reduce overhead;
Allow States to manage more flexibly and
efficiently;
Move power and decision-making closer to the
people; and
Encourage the innovative power of "States as
Laboratories."
-11-
III. THE WAR IN THE GULF
A.
The Heroism of Our Servicemen and Servicewomen
The President said that, in this defining hour for America
and the world, "there is no one more devoted, more
committed to the hard work of freedom than every soldier
and sailor, every Marine, airman and Coastguardsman --
every man and woman now serving in the Persian Gulf.' He
stated that our commitment to them must match their
commitment to their country.
B.
We Are on Course
The President said that while we worked hard to avoid war,
Saddam Hussein repeatedly rejected the path of diplomacy
and peace. But we will prevail; we are on course.
"Iraq's capacity to sustain war is being destroyed
Time
will not be Saddam's salvation.
C.
Objectives in the Gulf
The President reaffirmed our objectives:
Drive Iraq from Kuwait. Iraq must comply with all
relevant United Nations resolutions.
Restore Kuwait's legitimate government. Kuwait will
once again be free.
Ensure stability and security in the Gulf region. It
is our hope that Iraq will live as a peaceful and
cooperative member of the family of nations.
The President stated that most Americans know
instinctively why we are in the Gulf -- "we had to stop
Saddam now, not later." The President noted the
undeniable value of thoughtful dissent. The right to
speak out "is one of the reasons we've been united in
purpose and principle for 200 years."
D.
Strategic Benefits of High Technology
The President observed that our progress in the Gulf is
the result of using American technology and economic
-12-
strength to minimize the risk to human life. Our men and
women have the best and deserve the best.
The President directed that the Strategic Defense
Initiative (SDI) program be refocused on providing
protection from limited ballistic missile strikes -- from
whatever their source.
E.
The Unity of the International Community
The President observed that for the first time in the
post-war era, the international community is united. It
has an opportunity to fulfill the long-held promise of a
new world order -- where brutality goes unrewarded, and
aggression meets collective resistance.
The President praised the courage and success of the
pilots of the coalition countries and the leadership
provided by the United Nations, an organization that is
now confirming its founders' vision.
The President also commended our friends and allies who
have provided the bulk of the financial costs of Desert
Shield, and expressed confidence that they will similarly
financially support Desert Storm.
F.
U.S. Determination is Great
The President stated that Saddam will not benefit from
targeting innocent civilians, from environmental
terrorism, or by abusing POWs. We will succeed, and in
the process send a powerful message to any dictator or
despot who would follow Saddam's lead.
G.
The Special Role of U.S. Leadership
The President stated that "the United States bears a major
share of leadership" in the Gulf War effort. He noted
that the burden of leadership is a "strength that has made
America the beacon of freedom in a searching world."
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 30, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR GOVERNOR SUNUNU
FROM:
ROGER B. PORTER
SUBJECT:
State of the Union Address: Themes
My discussions with virtually all the major executive
departments and agencies regarding their ideas and suggestions
for the President's State of the Union Address at the end of
next month have yielded both much consensus and the expected
interest from most departments in having particular programs or
policies mentioned.
1. The virtue of a thematic approach.
There is consensus, at least in principle, on the value of
a thematic rather than a programmatic approach. The
programmatic approach easily cascades into a laundry list of
particular programs. It may please some specific
constituencies that they were mentioned, but it rarely inspires
the listener or conveys a sense of direction.
2. Foreign Policy.
The situation with respect to foreign policy has changed
dramatically since last January. Then, there was clear
euphoria over the events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union. The Soviet empire was crumbling and the Cold War
ending, if not over.
Today, foreign policy discussions are understandably
dominated by the situation in the Persian Gulf and the central
question of whether Saddam Hussein will withdraw Iraqi troops
from Kuwait by January 15. And, if he does not, what will
follow.
Whatever transpires between January 15 and January 29 when
the President is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union
Address, the situation in the Persian Gulf will appropriately
play a prominent part in the speech.
This is an opportunity to convey a tone of prudent
decisiveness. The Vietnam experience is still a vivid memory
in the minds of most adult Americans. They remember the loss
of life, the unsatisfactory resolution, and the lack of
decisiveness in concluding the conflict.
-2-
This is also an occasion to place events in the Middle
East into a larger context of what has happened during the past
two years and of the new world order the President is seeking
to establish during this decade. It is worth recalling the
positive developments of the past two years and the crucial
role played by American leadership and resolve in the spread of
democracy in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere, and
in the unification of Germany.
In addition to the Persian Gulf situation, the other major
foreign policy issue that merits attention in the foreign
policy section of the speech is the U.S.-Soviet relationship in
light of developments in the U.S.S.R.
The specifics of the foreign policy portion of the speech
are best left to others. I raise it here simply to flag that
given in current conditions, there is a compelling case for a more
prominent role for foreign policy in this year's State of the
Union Address than in many past years.
D: countries
3. Economic Policy.
concerned...
Much has also changed with respect to the economy since
last January. The National Bureau of Economic Research will
very
have technically declared that we are in a recession by January
29. The economic data that will be released between now and
outry it
the State of the Union will almost certainly not be
encouraging.
gLAIN CONFRENT WAY
Consumer confidence has plunged and remains low. Perhaps
through
more than anything else, the portion of the speech dealing with
the economy needs to convey confidence both in the short-term
entory,
and the longer-term. It is important that the President convey
that he is following economic developments closely, and that he
remind Americans of the fundamental strength and resilience of
Mation.
the U.S. economy.
solid
ports
This is an opportunity for him to convey his conviction
that we face a major economic challenge, not simply in
restoring adequate levels of economic growth now, but also in
inton
Outtook
competing internationally during the coming decade and beyond.
smic
Here he can outline the principles and policies that he feels
are crucial to the U.S. achieving these two goals.
The dominant characteristic of the President's economic
policies is an emphasis on growth (increasing the size of the
economic pie) rather than on distributional issues (how to
divide up the economic pie).
Growth depends on deploying resources efficiently, and
this involves economic arrangements that are flexible,
1 Need Briper growth
2
Became more competed in fold econ.
-3-
adaptable, and innovative. It means eschewing protectionism,
resisting the allure of mandated benefits, and promoting
genuine competition. This is a philosophy that we have
successfully urged in the global marketplace of ideas over the
last several decades. We not only need to preach it, but
practice it.
solationsin
But economic growth also requires that we have adequate
Dection
resources to deploy efficiently and this means the need to make
crucial investments in the future. These investments involve
physical, intellectual (R&D), and human capital.
The economic portion of the speech dealing with the short-
term will need to focus on fiscal and monetary policy:
The Budget: We are going to live within our means
and restrain government spending
cirt wastetul spending
Tax Policy: Either announce a package of tax
measures to stimulate economic growth and deal with
the recession through tax policy (This would include
some or all of the following measures urged by
Secretary Kemp: capital gains reduction, rolling back
the Social Security payroll tax increase, increasing
the personal exemption, and the Family Savings Plan,
IRAs for first-time homebuyers, and enterprise zones)
or
Announce that the tax provisions in last year's
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act were the ransom to
get the Democrats to agree to a deficit reduction
package and that the President will hold the line on
new taxes.
Were
Dectiver
O
Interest rates and monetary policy: We are pursuing
boase
1.
a fiscal policy consistent with a monetary policy
orb-
that will bring interest rates down. Perhaps also
'Fed)
mention the need for balance on the part of banking
Sase up.
regulators in assuring safety and soundness while
See Routon
facilitating economic growth referencing the so-
called credit crunch.
safety & soundresse
funking, and also
O
Jobs: Convey that the President is confident that
vovide adequate credit.
the economic slowdown we are experiencing will be
relatively short and shallow and that the
unemployment compensation system will effectively
handle those who are unemployed.
The portion dealing with the longer-term can emphasize a
series of needed investments and policy priorities:
[SHORTHERE] vz that
problem?)
Strengthening our financial system (Treasury banking
reform proposals) ;
sall
Strengthening our education system (Revised education
excellence act; education reforms including math-
science initiative; a partnership with governors on
(will Baug)
education goals; and a partnership of parents,
students, teachers, and community leaders) ;
Strengthening our research and development capacity
(Federal spending on R&D and federal commitment to
enhancing commercialization of the results of federal
research)
;
Reducing our energy vulnerability (referencing the
National Energy Strategy) ;
will
for
Enhancing our transportation infrastructure (National
(padling)
Highway Program) ;
20ss l'vedone an
Expanding world trade (Commitment to successful
Uruguay Round, Mexican Free Trade Agreement, export
entire
promotion effort).
"oe
calletter
4.
Domestic Policy
Inside the beltway, and in much of the press, recent weeks
have witnessed a steady stream of stories suggesting that the
Administration has a limited (or little in the way of a)
domestic agenda. The State of the Union provides a great
opportunity to articulate successfully our agenda.
The President can point out the progress we have made by
briefly noting some of the successes of the last two years
(declines in drug use, legislation passed dealing with clean
air, child care, immigration, Americans with Disabilities, the
minimum wage, and agricultural programs) before turning to the
remaining agenda.
Three themes, two of which are closely interrelated, form
the core of our domestic policy agenda beyond the economic
priorities outlined above.
a. Kinder, Gentler.
The phrase a kinder, gentler nation is favorably
identified with the President. It is illustrated in our
successfully focusing more resources (Medicaid, WIC, Head
Start) on those with the greatest needs as well as enacting
child care and the Americans with Disabilities legislation.
-5-
Kinder, gentler is also reflected in improving the health
care of Americans. While we are not recommending an overhaul
of the nation's health care system, we are advancing a series
of prevention initiatives dealing with:
America
Infant immunization;
Smoking (including a smoking executive order);
Infant mortality;
Breast and cervical cancer.
We must reduce the amount of defensive medicine that is
practiced in the U.S. if we are to bring down the spiraling
costs of our health care system and will do SO with a series of
measures designed to reform our medical malpractice system.
We must also enact food safety legislation to help protect
the safety of our food supply in a cost effective manner.
b. Opportunity and Empowerment
A related theme is that of opportunity and empowerment.
The President has long championed civil rights, crime control,
and replacing dependency with self-reliance. In advancing this
part of his domestic agenda the President can observe that
America has always been a land of opportunity where individuals
have had rights and have also accepted responsibility.
We must protect those rights. Americans have a right not
to suffer discrimination. They have a right to the protection
of their persons and property.
This means removing drugs from our neighborhoods and drug
dealers and criminals from our streets. It means protecting
the civil rights of all our citizens.
Americans also have a right and a responsibility to chart
their own destiny. We must remove barriers to individuals
fulfilling their responsibilities. Our system today often puts
bureaucrats in charge of making decisions that properly should
be made by individuals.
This means fostering a new system that operates not merely
as a safety net, but instead as a ladder out of poverty. It
means cutting through bureaucracy, taking the resources we are
spending on a multitude of government programs and targeting
them to those who need them most. It means focusing on
-6-
results. It means expressing genuine confidence in Americans
to take responsibility and to seize the opportunities we will
make available to them.
We will provide incentives to create jobs in our inner
cities, and to assist public housing tenants in managing and
even owning public housing. We will support the nationwide
movement to enable parents to choose the schools their children
will attend.
A series of measures will help empower Americans:
We 20tholf of Now--
Comprehensive crime control legislation, and announce
a Summit Conference with State and local officials to
combat violent crime and drugs;
Enterprise zones (jobs) ;
Choice in education;
Tenant ownership of public housing (HOPE);
Civil rights legislation that does not enshrine
quotas.
These measures can work to create an America where
dependency is supplanted by opportunity. Where it is being
tried it is working already.
C. A Sense of Stewardship
A third element in our domestic agenda embraces both the
environment and service. Shortly after he came into office the
President reminded Americans that this country was founded by
individuals who had a powerful sense of the possibilities of
this land, and who had an equally powerful sense of their
responsibilities to posterity, as Thomas Jefferson said, unto
the thousandth generation. It is captured by the term
stewardship.
The founders recognized that we are stewards of this land
and that we have a responsibility to it and to each other. As
a nation we have taken several major steps forward to enhance
our environment these past two years. The Clean Air Act and
much other environmental legislation enacted during the past
Congress has placed us on a new course.
While we do not have an environmental legislative agenda
similar to the Clean Air Act we can reference:
-7-
Encouraging stewardship through voluntary recycling.
Announce a federal recycling executive order that
will show the federal government leading by example.
America the Beautiful
Encouraging tree planting to help meet our goal of
planting 1 billion trees a year over the coming
decade.
This would also be an appropriate section to include a
reference to a sense of stewardship to others through service
and all that Americans have done in creating a thousand points
of light.
5. Values
The values that run through the speech are freedom,
growth, opportunity, and responsibility. They are the elements
that make for a strong nation and strong families.
Strong nations and strong families are ones that provide
AA:
a
their members with both roots and wings Our roots and
traditions remain strong. We have fashioned alliances and
provided leadership that have produced stability and security
in a troubled world. We have championed market-oriented
economic arrangements that have brought prosperity to ourselves
and others.
But we also need wings to take us to the next frontier.
We must make a pattern of investments in our future. We must
take responsibility for producing a kinder, gentler society.
We must open wide the doors of opportunity and responsibility
for all our citizens. And we must pass on to the next
generation a better land.
Other Possibilities
Two other possible initiatives that focus on political
institutional reform include:
1. Campaign finance reform; and
2. Term limitations for members of Congress.
Another rhetorical device that might be used is the
concept of partnership. One possibility in this regard is to
talk about a "New Partnership" with the states.
The elements of this "New Partnership" would include:
-8-
1. Crime
O
Convening a Crime Summit with state and local
law enforcement officials. I have discussed
this for sometime with the Attorney General. A
good deal of planning has already been completed
by the Department of Justice.
2. Education
O
Continuing the partnership established at
Charlottsville and with the National Education
Goals Panel.
3.
Transportation Infrastructure
O
The new National Highway System.
(see dov)
For Discussion
12-31-90
1991 State of the Union
Draft Outline
I.
Introduction
A.
A challenging, exciting world. We are fortunate to
live in these times.
B.
Proud to serve as President of this great country.
We have a long and honorable tradition that includes
a heritage of freedom, growth, and opportunity.
C.
We have important responsibilities around the world
and at home. It is about those responsibilities that
we all share that I want to talk tonight.
II. Foreign Policy
A.
Discussion of Gulf Situation
B.
Discussion of U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations
C.
Other
III. Economic Policy
A.
Discussion of current state of the economy and the
outlook.
B.
Face two major challenges:
1.
Restoring adequate levels of economic growth;
and
2.
Competing internationally during the coming
decade and beyond.
C.
Our economic policy built around concept of growth:
1.
Fiscal policy
O
We will live within our means and restrain
government spending. Will adhere to the
spending restraints in the budget
agreement.
O
Tax policy to be decided.
-2-
2.
Interest rates and credit
O
Pursuing a fiscal policy consistent with
bringing interest rates down.
O
Need for balance on the part of banking
regulators in assuring safety and soundness
while facilitating economic growth and
adequate credit.
3.
Jobs
O
Economic slowdown expected to be relatively
short and shallow. UI system will
effectively assist those who are
unemployed.
4.
Growth depends on deploying resources
efficiently, and this involves economic
arrangements that are flexible, adaptable, and
innovative. It means eschewing protectionism,
resisting the allure of mandated benefits, and
promoting genuine competition.
D.
Growth and competitiveness also requires a series of
needed investments in the future and policy
priorities:
1.
Strengthening our financial system (Treasury
banking reform proposals).
2.
Strengthening our education system (Revised
educational excellence act; education reforms
including math-science initiative; a partnership
with governors on education goals) ;
3.
Strengthening our research and development
capacity (Federal spending on R&D and federal
commitment to enhancing commercialization of the
results of federal research)
;
4.
Reducing our energy vulnerability (referencing
the National Energy Strategy) ;
5.
Enhancing our transportation infrastructure
(National Highway Program) ;
6.
Expanding world trade (Commitment to successful
Uruguay Round, Mexican Free Trade Agreement,
export promotion effort).
-3-
IV.
Domestic Policy
A.
Progress we have made in the past two years:
O
Declines in drug use, legislation passed dealing
with clean air, child care, immigration,
Americans with Disabilities, national service,
minimum wage, and agricultural programs.
B.
Kinder, Gentler.
1.
Have successfully focused more resources
(medicaid, WIC, Head Start) on those with the
greatest needs.
2.
Must improve the health care of Americans. Not
recommending an overhaul of the nation's health
care system, but are advancing a series of
prevention initiatives dealing with:
-
Infant immunization
-
Smoking (including smoking executive order)
-
Infant mortality
-
Breast and cervical cancer
3.
Must reduce amount of defensive medicine to help
restrain health care costs and will do so with a
series of measures to reform of medical
malpractice system.
4.
Must enact food safety legislation to help
protect the safety of our food supply in a cost
effective manner.
C.
Opportunity and Empowerment
1.
America a land of opportunity where individuals
have had rights and accepted responsibility.
2.
We must protect those rights. Americans have a
right not to suffer discrimination. Have a
right to the protection of their person and
property.
This means removing drugs from our neighborhoods
and drug dealers and criminals from our streets.
It means protecting the civil rights of all our
citizens.
-4-
3.
Americans have a right and responsibility to
chart their own destiny. Must remove barriers
to individuals fulfilling their
responsibilities. Our system today often puts
bureaucrats in charge of making decisions that
properly should be made by individuals.
This means fostering a new system that operates
not merely as a safety net, but instead as a
ladder out of poverty. It means cutting through
bureaucracy, taking the resources we are
spending on a multitude of government programs
and targeting them on those who need them most.
4.
We will provide incentives to create jobs in our
inner cities, and to assist public housing
tenants in managing and even owning public
housing. We will support the nationwide
movement to enable parents to choose the schools
their children will attend.
5.
A series of measures will help empower
Americans:
-
Comprehensive crime control legislation,
and announce a Crime Summit Conference with
state and local officials to combat violent
crime and drugs.
-
Enterprise zones (jobs) ;
-
Choice in education;
-
Tenant ownership of public housing (HOPE) ;
-
Civil rights legislation that does not
enshrine quotas.
These measures can work to create an American
where dependency is supplanted by opportunity.
D.
A Sense of Stewardship
1.
Country founded by individuals who had a
powerful sense of their responsibilities to
posterity. We are stewards of this land and
have a responsibility to it and to each other.
2.
Have taken several major steps to enhance our
environment these past two years. Clean Air Act
and other environmental legislation has placed
-5-
us on a new course.
3.
Encouraging stewardship through voluntary
recycling. Announce a federal recycling
executive order that shows the federal
government leading by example.
4.
America the Beautiful
5.
Encouraging tree planting to help meet our goal
of planting 1 billion trees a year over the
coming decade.
6.
This would be an appropriate section to include
a reference to a sense of stewardship to others
through service and all that Americans have done
in creating a thousand points of light.
V.
Values
A.
Freedom, growth, opportunity, responsibility are the
elements that make for a strong nation and strong
families.
B.
Strong nations and strong families are ones that
provide their members with both roots and wings. Our
roots and traditions remain strong. We have
fashioned alliances and provided leadership that have
produce stability and security in a troubled world.
We have championed market-oriented economic
arrangements that have brought prosperity to
ourselves and others.
C.
But we also need wings to take us to the next
frontier. We must make a pattern of investments in
our future. We must take responsibility for
producing a kinder, gentler society. We must open
wide the doors of opportunity and responsibility for
all our citizens. And we must pass on to the next
generation a better land.
3 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
STATE OF THE UNION MATERIAL
EMPOWERMENT
NOTES:
I.
"THE NEW INDEPENDENCE"
We must sell empowerment by appealing to the most basic of
American values.
"Reliance on government is dependence--and what
the people of our ghettos need is not greater
dependence, but full independence."
--Robert F. Kennedy, 1966
A.
Bush: "We know what works--freedom works." I've seen this
line again and again. People like it, they remember it.
Perhaps it should be restated.
1.
Note: while advising Beth and me on our Massachusetts
fundraiser, Ron Kaufman insisted that the people of
that state wanted both change and order: a change from
liberal policies that had obviously failed, yet order
as an alternative to liberal chaos. The same might
apply in selling empowerment.
The empowerment agenda is to dispersed to either
portend the hatchet-fall of change, or summarize order
unambiguously. One of the key principles that can be
distilled from it, however, is choice/freedom.
2.
Empowerment as "Freedom" and "Independence" is
consistent with traditional conservative agenda:
Weyrich talks about how this agenda has habitually been
couched in negative terms--anti-communism, anti-big
government, anti-egalitarianism. The common thread
running through these "anti's," however, is this: pro-
freedom, pro-individual freedom.
3.
Applying free-marketplace ideas to social problems:
Empowerment as the linkage of Jeffersonian democracy
and Adam Smith's economic system. Again, we know what
works--freedom works--in the marketplace as in society.
4.
In simplifying the concept of empowerment we might
stress the link between effort and reward. When the
bureaucratic welfare state severs that link, it denies
the most fundamental aspect of human nature.
B.
Americans believe in hard work: "A hand up, not a hand-
out. " (I will track down this source). Posit: the Work
Ethic VS. The Entitlement Ethic.
Hand in hand with the work ethic is the belief in The
American Dream, and faith that the ordinary American can
achieve that dream.
Pink:
" idealism about human potential "
"
pragmatism about human nature
"
1.
The ladder and the safety net: The safety net imagery
is fine as long as it is, as Pink describes it, a
"safety net that catches people when they fall, not
that traps them forever in poverty
"
But how about that ladder--fit is with a hand-up,
suggests showing people the way, and lets us talk about
those "bottom rungs" and how central they are to our
vision of opportunity. It has to do with hope.
2.
Hope VS. despair: The American Dream VS. "the deep and
dreamless sleep" (O Little Town of Bethlehem).
C.
THE NEW INDEPENDENCE IN THE CURRENT CULTURAL CONTEXT
Flip on any talk show and be assured that 80% of the topics
will be some variation on the theme of "Dependency." You're
either co-dependent, alcohol-dependent, food-addicted, sex-
addicted, love-addicted, ad nauseum and if you're not
dependent, you're in denial. By describing the Old Paradigm
system which fosters dependence, you've caught the public's
attention--and you have their empathy. Watch them nod, here
come the kleenex.
1.
From passive recipients of bureaucracies, to active
self-confident members of the economy and their
communities. Turning victims of poverty into creators
of their own destiny.
2.
Kemp: the "pride and dignity of ownership."
Miscellaneous: also in tune with the popular culture, labeling
the entrenched bureaucracies "The Untouchables. "
D.
SHIP METAPHOR
When we think of immigrants coming to America, and the poor
living in America, we can recognize that they are both
"huddled masses yearning to breathe free the homeless,
tempest-tossed. (Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus:
Inscription for the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor).
The immigrants, however, had hope, a vision of the Statue of
Liberty who promises: "I lift my lamp beside the golden
door."
Empowerment gives the individual both hope and vision,
empowering him to be, like Conrad's Secret Sharer: "a free
man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny."
A ship is a vision of decisive forward motion. Hope fuels
that motion, and without hope people become a ship adrift in
a sea of despair. Empowerment lets people plot their own
course, choose their own destiny.
Mario Cuomo once made the charge that Republicans believe
that the wagon (America) won't make it to the frontier
unless some our weak, our old and our young are left behind.
This is the kind of remark that shuts us out of the
Democrats' corner on the compassion market. How about
turning this around and re-outfitting it for the ship
metaphor: "We all want the same destination for that ship we
call America, and we all refuse to leave anyone behind. The
simple truth is with some policies, the safety net becomes a
trap, in which some Americans must be constantly towed
behind, drowning in perpetual poverty." (wasted human
potential=dolphins caught in fishing nets)
Feulner: "The conservative agenda can never be brought to
full flower simply by rearranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic called the federal bureaucracy." While the poor are
drowning in its wake.
The poor languishing, locked in steerage. Some think the
solution is to slip more money under the door. I think we
should hand them the keys.
D.
Possible segue out of battle in the Gulf to domestic battle
against poverty, despair, crime, and drugs.
II. THE BUREAUCRATIC WELFARE STATE CRUMBLES ABROAD, BUT HOLDS
FAST AT HOME.
Pink: "The recent events in Eastern Europe are sending
America a message that it should already know."
Pink paraphrased: 'Where leaders are slow to learn,
their citizens are quick to teach them.' 1
A.
The Great Irony: As the rest of the world is turning to
freedom, liberating human potential, some here at home are
still clutching to the old order, empowering bureaucracy and
not the individual.
B.
In segue out of foreign affairs, and in principle:
Empowerment, and what it means for America is essential if
America is to continue its global leadership.
C.
*!*!*!* Kemp talks about the similarities between Eastern
European and Third World economies on one hand, and inner
city poverty on the other. He goes on to deliniate the two
economies operating in the United States
>
By
making
this analogy, and describing the two American economies, we
discredit Old Paradigm policies without even touching the
"D" word or the "L" word. Americans know the enormous
distinction between the energy of capitalist economies and
the stasis of centralized/bureaucratized economies. They
recognize that socialism has been decisively discredited.
Making this analogy takes the first step towards both
exposing the Welfare State for what it is while marking it
"to be thrown out. "
III. RECAPTURING THE COMPASSION MARKET: "PEOPLE DON'T CARE THAT
YOU KNOW UNTIL THEY KNOW THAT YOU CARE" (KEMP)
A.
Kemp points out that Bob Kuttner of the New Republic wrote
that polls continue to show that the voters trust
Republicans more than Democrats to conduct foreign policy,
manage the economy, hold down inflation, and resist higher
taxes. Democrats still win out on the question of who cares
more about the common American. Kuttner concludes that if
the Republicans can ever capture this issue as well, the
Democrats might as well go out of business.
B.
Acknowledge that, as Americans, we all can recognize the
problems in society, and we all want to see things get
better. Then set out our distinctive vision of how that is
to be accomplished.
Pink: "I'm here as a representative of the Bush
White House and as a Republican to tell you that
we have just as much desire to end homelessness,
improve education, lift up the underclass and
realize the goals of most liberals. However
I
am also here to tell you that if we want to
improve the lives of people, then we are going to
have to go about solving them in a different way. "
C.
One way of showing that we care is to point out that the Old
Order, or the Old Dependency patronized the poor by treating
them as if they were fundamentally different whereas The New
Independence recognizes in them the same dreams and
aspirations of all Americans.
"And to those Americans who need help, those struggling
to make ends meet--we're not going to tell them they
need one more bureaucracy to show them how to run their
lives. Those Americans share the same dreams and human
potential of all Americans. But what they need is a
hand-up, not just another handout."
EXCERPTS:
1)
"A Conservative Vision for America's Future: Putting Faith
on Agenda" --Paul Weyrich
"While the American people may no longer worship false
idols, they have yet to be evangelized to the true faith.
This is especially evident in the domain of policy, where
liberalism remains competitive, perhaps even dominant. This
remains so for three reasons. First liberals possess a
coherent agenda, a vision which is a fertile source of
policy initiatives. Second, liberalism is an elite movement
and elites are able more easily to translate their ideas
into policy. And third, the liberal movement rests on a
network of discrete, readily mobilized constituencies which
form strong grass roots coalitions."
"The liberals, even though they are temporarily discredited,
are still putting forward new ideas (federal day care,
homosexual rights, disarmament and the peace dividend) and
conservatives have to do more than just say no to the
conservative agenda
"
COMMUNICATION OF AGENDA MUST DELINIATE DIFFERENCES: "A new
conservative agenda must be a catalyst both for good policy
and for the rebuilding of a conservative movement. It is
not sufficient for conservatives to put forward good policy
ideas. It is also necessary that those ideas create
constructive polarization- that they highlight the
difference between the conservative and liberal world view,
build conservative constituencies and divide liberal ones
and communicate a clear alternative vision to the public.'
"A new conservative agenda must speak to the concerns
Americans feel. And these are not the same concerns to
which we have responded for two decades In terms of the
traditional indicators--the economic statistics, the world
situation--the American people should be content and at
ease. They should see the future as a 'golden age. But
they do not ordinary Americans feel insecure about their
present and their future. They worry that their children
might be entrapped by drugs or that the schools will fail to
give them a decent education. They worry abut crime and the
emergence of an apparently permanent underclass. They worry
that their children will be unable to live the American
dream--own their homes or support their families adequately.
They worry abut declining economic productivity, and that
tomorrow will be worse, not better than today. II
"The unifying theme in these concerns is a sense of cultural
breakdown, a loss of the moral standards and ideals of
excellence that make society function To be effective in
this way, our agenda must root itself in the ideals and
beliefs which Americans actually hold. America is strong
and good because of the virtues which its people have
historically lived and which they continue to live today. "
"More and more, decision-making authority must be located at
the lowest possible administrative level. Conservatives
must try to focus policy on the neighborhood. "
"We have traditionally championed the free market as both a
force for prosperity and a moral imperative among free
men
But we should also recognize that while a free market
is preferable to other forms of economic organization, its
benefits are not equally felt. Poverty, especially among
working people, is the Achilles heel of the free market. "
"Our goal must be to empower those who are in need to escape
the culture of dependence and to become self-sufficient.
The test of every benefit must be: does it offer the poor a
real chance to escape welfare?"
"Among the new underclass, functional culture has collapsed.
Traditional prohibitions against instant sensual
gratification and crime have broken down. Traditional
institutions--the family, the neighborhood, the church, the
school--have lost their hold. Traditional culture has
yielded to a culture of dependence. If we hope to combat
the consolidation of the underclass, then our policies must
foster a culture of responsibility, work and self-respect.
To do this, we should link government assistance to behavior
that fosters self-sufficiency."
"Martin Luther King was right when he described the family
as the 'main educational agency of mankind. The ability of
parents to select the educational environment for their
children is both a right and the cornerstone of educational
excellence. "
"No one is free if he lives in fear of crime When Americans
are denied this right, the sense of community and trust
deteriorate; the culture suffers We must ensure that
Americans are secure in their person and property We must
ensure that justice--to the accused, to the victim, and to
society- is served.'
"The drug trade contributes to our rising crime rate. Half
of all arrestees test positive for drug use Drug use in the
workplace leads to accidents and injuries (1987 Baltimore
Amtrak disaster) and costs American business tens of
billions of dollars annually due to lost productivity,
increased absenteeism, workplace accidents, medical costs
and theft
Moreover, drug abuse leads to dependence and
undermines the cultural values of self-respect, personal
responsibility and self-reliance.
"
our new conservative agenda can and must affirm the
cultural values that make America work. It must speak to
the concerns that Americans feel. It must rely on
traditional virtues to solve our new problems
Most of all,
by affirming traditional values and the common sense of
mainstream Americans, our agenda will effectively polarize
the political debate and expose the left-wing agenda as the
product of a fringe element hostile to our culture and our
civilization."
2)
"The Beginning of The New Paradigm Society" (Pink's New
Paradigm Manifesto)
CATCH THE GLOBAL WAVE: "The old order is crumbling;
centralized bureaucratic structures, both public and
private, are breaking up. Old political, economic, and
social assumptions are giving way to the new desire--the new
demand--for freedom and fulfillment that is sweeping the
planet."
"The New Paradigm puts its faith in people: in their ability
to learn and create and produce and adapt, provided they are
given the freedom and the incentive to do so."
"Thus, guided by firm principles: devotion to individual
freedom and human rights; a commitment to problem solving
while retaining openness and decentralization--and rejection
of crippling sentimental reliance on rigid statim (sic?) and
failed techniques--we proclaim The New Paradigm Society."
"Our institutions are failing all of us as they fail the
less fortunate. Centralized bureaucracies have proven
themselves unable to translate our wealth and compassion
into opportunity and a better life for every American. "
"We believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. " (Ship
metaphor)
" the 1990's will be different from the 1980's. Indeed,
this year's events (1989 I assume) around the globe
underscore that the 1990's will be radically different from
the 1980's. "
Pink quotes Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., Pres of the Hudson
Institute as saying recently:
Americans will be less
and less prone to be herded into unions, political parties
or other group identities for the convenience of
experimenting paternalists. They will make their own
decisions with declining guidance from government at any
level. Government that sees these citizens not as objects
of therapy but as persons of innate dignity, will be
relevant government. Government that measures its success
by the scarcity, not the annual increase, of its dependent
clients, can still be active government. Government that
constantly searches for ways to attract, liberate and
incentivize human talent will be successful government. " "
"We believe in freedom: social, intellectual, and economic.
We believe that the benefits of freedom are tangible and
indivisible."
"We believe that the creativity and energy that comes from
freedom is the prime mover of human progress. We believe
that innovation is better than reaction."
"We believe that decentralization is better than
centralization. Decentralization, as we have learned, is a
better strategy for dealing with a complex world."
"Modern technology disperses power. "
"In this decade, Presidents Reagan and Bush have accelerated
the collapse of totalitarianism. Now we have a chance to
consolidate this great victory for all time. Our vision is
not of an America as the policeman of the wold, but of an
America as a model
for people yearning to breathe free. "
"The 1980's have been, in the words of the journalist Paul
Gigot, the "Freedom Decade, " in which the limits of the
state were recognized
Meanwhile, here at home, an
infinitely more benign structure, the Welfare State, reached
its limits (even if this has not yet been as widely
recognized). "
That surefire anti-intellectual approach: "Men and women of
ideas, particularly in the academy, discuss the important
questions more and more only among themselves."
"
the old paradigm grinds to a halt, shot through with the
rust and corrosion of cynicism and opportunism."
II
we believe that economic growth and human fulfillment not
only should, but must go hand in hand with social justice
and a decent standard of living for all."
"If America is to be competitive, then every American--male
or female, black or white, young or old, handicapped or
disadvantaged--must have the opportunity to play a part. "
"
the times and the challenge require bold action. "
'Chronic social problems are proof that the old approaches,
based on the old system, are producing new failures."
"What might be called the more-money solution has not, so
far, worked Neither has the more-bureaucracy solution. "
"
the New Paradigm is characterized by increased choice;
empowerment of the poor, the left out, and the written off;
and increased personal responsibility."
"
centralized bureaucracies are collapsing of their own
dead weight- in the Soviet bloc, in the Third World, and in
the wretched islands of socialism and paternalism in
America--most dramatically, the inner cities."
"poverty pimps"
"
but of enthusiasm for real solutions that work, as
opposed to band-aids that fail to heal and in many cases
make the would worse, in spite of billions and billions of
dollars spent on treatment."
"
Americans and people everywhere cherish the right to
choose. "
"
the only power that people have is the power of an
alternative- in other words, choice."
"The New Paradigm says this about poverty and welfare: we
have learned in the past few decades of the great dangers of
dependency. The solution that Mickey Kaus and others have
suggested is a combination of self-help and compassion. For
the truly needy, those that absolutely cannot help
themselves, the New Paradigm Society pledges care and
dignity. For everyone else, we are committed to replacing
the current entitlement ethic with a new work ethic.' "
"Greater flexibility and greater choice are based on a
greater faith in the ability of the individual to know his
or her situation best
This optimism about human potential
is another tenet of the New Paradigm. "
"
the free market system offers the best long range
prospects for almost all, but our mission is uplift, not
thrift.' "
3)
"The New Paradigm: Human Aspirations, " Pink's speech to the
Reason Foundation. II
"The country is cynical about its capital. But that
cynicism is not directed toward President Bush. The
public's skepticism focuses on the centralized
bureaucracies--the IRS, the Postal Service, the Pentagon,
HUD, and of course, Congress. Voters distrust those
institutions that lack accountability to the people they
serve. The electorate distinguishes between those parts of
the government that function and those that don't. Think of
a machine that works and a squeaky wheel that needs grease.
One hums quietly, the other fails noisily."
"There is a new energy, a force that has cracked the Berlin
Wall, dismantled the Soviet Empire, freed Nelson Mandela,
and democratized Nicaragua. This new vitality has redefined
how the world works. It is bringing a new peaceful
integration of the international economy, with the prospect
of a better life for all humanity.
"The electricity of freedom and market forces around the
world has jolted the status quo here at home. "
"
most people agree on the goals this country should
achieve; whether we are Democrats or Republicans, black or
white, male or female, all of us want an educated young
generation, a roof over every head, racial and sexual
equality, and a clean environment. "
Pink quotes Gingrich: ""If any private enterprise in America
treated you the way you routinely get treated by government,
you would put them out of business.
"The New Paradigm has five characteristics: First,
governments are now subject to market forces in a way they
haven't been before
A self-monitoring and self-correcting
system leaves little room for the foolish social and
economic experiments of the 60s and 70s. If you don't deal
with reality, other people will!"
"Second, the New Paradigm is characterized by increasing
individual choice
Up to now, bureaucrats have been the
ones to decide what makes a good public school. President
Bush believes that parents should have a say. "
"Third, the New Paradigm is characterized by policies that
empower people to make choices for themselves
Empowerment
is the flip side of choice
"
"Fourth, the New Paradigm is characterized by
decentralization
As Bob Samuelson recently wrote in
Newsweek, Americans are not so much stingy as skeptical.
This skepticism--this immunity to bureaucratic baloney is a
healthy thing. It is the result of bitter experience, a
cumulative learning process."
"Fifth, the New Paradigm implies an emphasis on what works. "
"Representative (Polly) Williams has made us realize that
the challenge we face is not Left VS. Right, but Up VS.
Down. "
"
think back to the challenge that Henry V had to overcome
on St. Crispin's Day. Planning a victory against a foe that
outnumbered him five to one, he said, 'All things are ready,
if our minds be so.
4)
Gingrich reading Pink's speech before the World Future
Society into the Congressional Record:
" The Great Society, to pick one obvious example, has been
continuing, if well-intentioned failure because it too was
based on the false assumption that experts, wise bureaucrats
in league with university professors and politicians, could
somehow administer prosperity and equality from an office
building somewhere.
"
we must come to see our own institutional rigidities, in
a way analogous to the way the Eastern Europeans have come
to see theirs. "
" The guiding principle is accountability and feedback. "
"
if you believe that we ought to judge our schools by how
well they perform, not by how much money we spend on them--
if you believe that those schools will improve if parents
have a greater say in choosing the schools their children
will attend--if you believe that the best child care is the
one that responsible parents decide is best for themselves-
-if you believe in giving the poor a stake in their own
futures, say through tenant management and ownership of
public housing--if you believe, for that matter, that we
should measure the success of our welfare programs by how
many needy people pull themselves our of poverty--then
perhaps, you too see the outlines of the New Paradigm as it
emerges from the dawn. "
"'If we raise our taxes, the fact is we drive businesses and
investors out of the country. We lead them to build their
next factory in Mexico or Canada, Japan or Germany.
5)
"Conservative in a New Age, " Edwin J. Feulner, Jr.
"Let the record show that 1989 was the most significant year
in the most important decade since World War II
let the
record also show that the victory belongs to American
conservatives."
"In dealing with Moscow, the 1980s also reversed a decade
and a half of skittish self-doubt. We rebuilt our military
arsenal, dared the Kremlin to keep technological pace, and
kept our promise to our allies--doggedly ignoring massive
protests--to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Western
Europe. We allowed talks with the Soviets to collapse, and
refused to make new concessions simply to keep them at the
bargaining table. We even dared brand the Soviet Union 'the
Evil Empire, established the National Endowment for
Democracy to wage a global battle for public opinion, and
dared challenge 'containment,' the very centerpiece of our
own foreign policy, with a new vision: rolling back the
Soviet Empire. The Reagan Doctrine."
****"More than anything else, all of these momentous changes
mean one thing for conservatives: We have to recognize that
the world is dramatically different than the one we
inherited from the Carter-era doomsayers a decade ago. And
we have to act accordingly. This does not mean compromising
in any way the principles in which conservatives believe--
limited government, individual liberty, free enterprise, and
peace through strength But we have to recognize that we
have a chance like none other since the New Deal to reshape
the political landscape."
"
because of our success in rolling back communism, there
is no longer much consensus on what constitutes a
'conservative foreign policy, and in the public's mind
foreign policy has receded in importance."
"The conservative agenda can never be brought to full flower
simply be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic called
the federal bureaucracy. For the conservative revolution to
take root firmly, we must empower Americans to run their own
lives
As President Bush has said, the best anti-poverty
program is a job--a real job in the private sector, with a
real future. "
"It's not enough anymore simply to discredit liberalism; in
the new age, conservatives must show we can succeed where
liberalism has failed."
"We intend to see that the 1990s are remembered as the
decade of freedom--and of unprecedented opportunity for each
and every American."
6)
Beth's memo on "empowerment" meeting with Rep. Steve
Bartlett (R-Dallas).
A. Remarks by Bartlett
B. Republican Research Committee's release: House
Republicans target "Empowerment." "
C. Task Force on Empowerment release: legislative
measures to be studied, initiated.
D. Task Force on Empowerment release: QUOTES
E. Task Force on Empowerment release: excerpts from
Dept. of Education Regional Strategy Meeting on Choice
F. "The New Civil-Rights Era Begins With a Veto,' L.
Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal
G. 'Empowerment' is road to independence for
Americans, " Rep. Steve Bartlett, The Dallas Morning
News.
A.
Bartlett says that if empowerment is seen only as an agenda
for poor people, it will be seen as an "irrelevant little
trick."
Bartlett suggests that for speeches, we combine traces of
Goldwater '64 with Jesse Jackson's Operation Push.^R
Big selling point: use phrase "for all income levels"
(Bartlett says that then everyone will hear what they want
to hear in that--the poor will hear "poor;" the elderly,
"elderly;" the middle class, "middle class;' etc.).
D.
"The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for
wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or
land for himself; then labors on his own account another
while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him.
This is the just and generous and prosperous system which
opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent
energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all."
--Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress, Dec. 1861
"Our American answer to poverty is not to make the poor more
secure in their poverty, but to reach down and help them
lift themselves out of the rut of poverty and move with the
large majority along the road of hope and prosperity."
--Lyndon B. Johnson, August 1964
"The bigger a government grows, the smaller the people
grow."
--Sam Ervin
"Let us have the courage to speak the truth: Policies that
increase dependency and break up families are not
progressive, they're reactionary, even though they are
invariably promoted, passed and carried out in the name of
fairness, generosity, and compassion."
--Reagan, August 1983
"Parents are knowledgeable and they won't make empty
choices."
--Parents, East Harlem School District, Oct. '89
"Mr. Chairman, we don't want more public housing. We want
our own homes."
--South Bronx low-income housing resident, 1985
housing hearing.
F.
WHAT WORKS: "We decided to take risks and started the
schools of choice program We phased out programs that
didn't work, phased in programs that did work."
--School Administrator
"Parents must actively participate in education decision-
making; you can't leave it all up to the school to know your
child's needs and interests."
--Parent
"Choice means freedom--freedom for parents to select the
child's school; freedom for students to learn in a
supportive environment; and freedom for teachers to meet the
needs of their students.. "
--Teacher/Parent
EVEN AS THE OLD SYSTEM DRAINS FUTURE HUMAN POTENTIAL, IT
DRAINS CURRENT ECONOMIC POTENTIAL: "What is more expensive-
-educating our children successfully now, or welfare, drugs
and jail later?"
--Community activist
"We can't continue to graduate kids who have to punch a
picture of a hamburger because they can't read the word
'hamburger.
--Parent
G.
(Wall street Journal article)
"There's a growing consensus that whether it's public
schools or vagrancy laws the most important word for civil
rights is not 'quotas' but 'empowerment.
"Put it this way: Any vague bill is a quota bill."
"Economist Thomas Sowell recently found disparities in
occupations at all times in all countries. Yet if this
(Congressional Civil-Rights) bill becomes law, Korean
groceries and black rap groups might have to swap
employees. "
"Whatever happened to domestic tranquility as a civil
right?"
H.
"'The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. With these words, Abraham Lincoln led the nation
into the revolutionary decade of the 1860s."
THE PROMISE OF THE 1960s HAS BEEN FAILED BY INCOMPETENT
BUREAUCRACY AND LACK OF FAITH IN HUMAN POTENTIAL:
"The federal government will spend $1.2 trillion this year,
10 times that spent in 1965. Even adjusting for inflation,
we'll spend well over double the 1965 budget. Yet today one
child in five lives in poverty, the same as in 1965.
Housing for low-income people remains unsafe and segregated.
Our educational system produces poorer student performance
than it did 25 years ago. Too many stay on welfare because
it doesn't pay to go to work. Many older Americans are
forced to retire before they want to."
7)
Latest "Empowerment" memo from Roger Porter (11/16/90)
"
I believe that power must always be kept close to the
individual--close to the hands that raise the family and run
the home
--Vice President Bush's Acceptance Speech, 8/16/88
" The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the people.
--U.S. Constitution, Amendment X
(Porter):
"Conservative policy-makers do not ignore human nature: they
build with it, not against it."
"Certainly, the changes sweeping Europe, Central America and
Asia all have a common thread: the yearning or will, to be
free."
"All three--opportunity, liberty and responsibility--are
preconditions of self-governance. And self-governance is
the key to freedom."
"The liberal objective is to 'do what's best' for people--
and liberals think they know what is best The President is
not out to shape society from on high, but to empower people
to change their own lives. If
"It has been costly not only in terms of wasted tax dollars
but in the wasted lives of the very people who were supposed
to benefit from the deals and great societies of the past."
George Bush: "'Volunteering is an act. It's an act of
heroism on a grand scale.
--4/10/89
" 'George Bush designed his child care policy so that
government empowers parents instead of trying to replace
them. "
--Invest in Our Children Fact Sheet, Oct '88
"'The results of giving tenants control have been
remarkable:
*More people pay their rent;
*Maintenance improves;
*Operating costs decline;
*Crime rates plummet;
*Employment goes up;
*Education receives a new boost--more kids stay in
school and go to college where none had ever gone
before.
--George Bush on the Homeless, Housing and Fair
Housing Fact Sheet, Sept. 22, '88.
"Clint Bolick of the Landmark Legal Foundation relates a
conversation he had with a public housing resident--and
former Black Panther--in St. Louis about our tenant power
initiative. She said 'the Democrats always say they want to
help us. But when we ask for the keys to the place, they
won't give them to us. They offer us more money instead.
You Republicans, you give us the keys. I'm starting to like
Republicans.
"Perhaps the real benefit is the renewal of opportunity--of
the American dream--where before there was only dependence
and despair."
EMPOWERMENT: " draws on strong currents of American
culture. In a battle of values pitting the individual
against the bureaucratic state, we know which value the
American people will support."
"We should not shrink from making bold proposals. Success
is not defined by what we convince a liberal Congress,
hostile to our philosophy, to enact. Success will be
defined by the way this country is governed 10 years from
now. "
8)
" 'Empowerment' Becomes Part of Bushspeak as '92 Election
Nears, " Burt Solomon, National Journal
"Empowerment is expected to be a theme, if not the
centerpiece, in next year's State of the Union message."
"Heritage Foundation domestic policy director Stuart Butler,
one of the concept's intellectual authors, describes it as
'trusting ordinary people' rather than a paternalistic
welfare state to make economic decisions."
"These ambiguities may prove useful to advocates of
empowerment in the forthcoming debate. Most of its
adherents are conservatives. But people of varying
political hues see in empowerment--as they see in Bush--
whatever they want."
9)
MK's Empowerment memo of Empowerment breakfast with Kemp:
Kemp thinks that if we can list six or eight programs in a
speech it will 'knock the socks off the liberals and their
zero-sum mentality' as well as re-unify the Republicans
under the pro-growth banner. Kemp thinks that the party is
now split--not between the Bush and Reagan wings--but
between the growth wing and the austerity wing.
Examples: "If you vote for George Bush in 1992, we will give
you the opportunity to own you own unit (of public
housing) "
"In the Bush Administration, we want one million new
homeowners from the ranks of low-income Americans."
"We want to double the number of black, hispanic and asian
owned business. "
CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT: We must encourage as many Americans
as we can to get involved in the economy. Unfortunately,
the capital gains tax is a transaction tax on all those
trying to get through the gate. We must lower the hoop--
and in the process we will most likely expand the tax base.
We must destroy the myth that capital gains tax cut=revenue
losses.
ANECDOTE ON OVERREGULATION: Capital and labor based
incentives. Kemp points to the case of Grace Capateo (?)
cited in W.S. Journal, who saved her pennies and nickels to
send her daughter to college. She save $3,000, then was
taken to court for violating AFDC rules ($1000 asset limit)
and fined $15,000. However, she didn't have $15,000 so they
just took her $3000. Kemp mentioned this in a speech and a
GOP businessman in the audience offered to pay for the
child's education.
Poor people aren't stupid, Kemp says, and if it's a better
deal to stay a single welfare mother than it is to get
married, get a job, or save money, then that's what you do.
10) Memo from Kemp: An Action Plan for Economic Empowerment of
People (this is the nitty gritty of empowerment policies and
proposals, I'll excerpt some, but for details look to
document--#11 in Empowerment file)
"People with access to property, jobs and quality education
have a stake in their community, more pride, and greater
incentive for productive social behavior. More importantly,
poor people with new and abundant economic opportunity have
hope for the future--the single greatest weapon against
poverty and despair."
"The Task Force believes that progress in ending poverty
begins by rejecting the notion that wealth is static, that
fairness means redistributionism, and that poverty is
perpetual."
WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW:
1. Evaluations of Existing Demonstration Projects
2. Recent Administration Accomplishments: The Administration
has already accomplished a great deal in its first two
years. For instance, the Congress enacted the President's
child care proposal and HOPE proposal, and expanded Head
Start. The President has promoted the idea that a
successful life must include voluntary service to others.
And the President's advocacy of educational choice has
helped to spark a grassroots movement across the country.
The recent budget agreement also included several
initiatives to empower people, such as the Earned Income Tax
Credit expansion ($12 billion over five year), the Child
Health Tax Credit ($5 billion over five years), and funding
for child care vouchers. All of these accomplishments are
part of the Administration's effort to protect and enhance
individual power.
3. Distributional Analysis and Services Integration
OPTIONS READY FOR POSSIBLE INCLUSION IN THE FY92 BUDGET AND
FOR USE IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS:
HOUSING: Fund HOPE: The President signed HOPE (Homeownership
and Opportunity for People Everywhere) legislation last
month (Nov '90) HOPE is a model empowerment initiative.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Promote Educational Choice:
--Chapter 1 scholarships
--Experimental metropolitan choice area
--Decentralization demonstration grants
Reintroduce Education Flexibility Legislation
Job Training in Public Housing
THE ECONOMY AND JOBS:
--Racial and sexual discrimination is an insidious barrier
to opportunity. The Bush Administration will continue in
its commitment to tear down these barriers wherever they
exist.
Restore a Lower Tax Rate for Capital Gains
Create Enterprise Zones
Repeal the Social Security Earnings Test
Repeal Davis-Bacon
Target SBA Loans
*Cottage Capitalism Initiative
*Upward Bound for Disadvantaged Young People
Revamp the Public Employment Service
FAMILY:
Restore the Value of the Personal Exemption
EMPOWERING WELFARE RECIPIENTS:
Test Approaches to Make Welfare Transitional
The 11 million Americans--an all time high--who receive
AFDC divide roughly into two groups. One will be on
welfare for two years or less. The other group, half of
the recipients at any time, is in the midst of a very
long period of receiving welfare--lasting eight years
or longer. This latter group becomes dependent on
public programs.
The welfare system must be transformed from one
fostering dependence to a system providing transitional
help that inevitably leads to work. The welfare system
must be given a mission: to return people to
independence.
Establish Social Policy Enterprise Zones
11) "Bush's 'new paradigm' stresses local power, " Wash Times:
"'Our principles--conservative principles--were always
right. And now the whole world can see that what's right
also is what works, Mr. Bush said.'
"Mr. Bush said his objective is to return power to cities
and states, saying he 'rejects the view that progress is
measured in money spent and bureaucracies built.
12) "The Right Discovers The Poor, " Broder
"'One of the main imperatives for conservatives, (Feulner)
told me, 'is to recapture the rhetoric of compassion."
13) "An Infusion of Vision, " Newsweek
"
the animating idea (of empowerment) is an intriguing one:
to bring marketplace solutions to the intractable problems
of the poor. "
"(the advocates of empowerment) see government as a
necessary engine of change--not by more taxing and
spending, but by liberation marketplace forces and
encouraging enterprise and self-reliance."
"Forcing the poor, especially mothers of young children, to
work seems draconian and heartless to traditional liberals
who have dubbed workfare proposals 'slave-fare.""
"Politicians have little incentive to vote for antipoverty
programs, especially ones opposed by powerful interest
groups. Still, some of the new ideas, like school choice,
do directly affect the middle class, who are increasingly
worried about the state of American education."
14) Pink's memo for Engeleiter: The Small Business
Administration and the Empowerment of the Poor:
"The flip-side of individual empowerment is a dispersal of
bureaucratic control over individuals. Decision-making
power is pushed downward and outward from the centralized
authority. This decentralization is happening worldwide.
Bureaucracies are being broken up. Old political alliances,
as well as cleavages, are dissolving. These phenomena go a
long way toward explaining why President Bush is so
extraordinarily popular, because the Bush Agenda is part of
the cutting edge of this decentralizing impulse."
****"The Bush Agenda resonates with the public because they
see the reflection of its underlying principles everywhere
around the world."
15) "NEO-NEO-ISM: Reflections on Hubble-ism, Rationalism, and
the Pursuit of Excellence (After the Fiscal Follies),"
Richard Darman:
THE BUDGET AGREEMENT:
"But let me not a few of the poor orphan's virtues:
*It is the largest deficit reduction program ever
enacted--with more than seven times the permanent level
of savings as achieved in the largest previous
reconciliation bill.
*It represents the first comprehensive reform and
restructuring of middle-class "entitlements farm,
housing, student loan, veterans, postal, and Medicare
programs--the largest portion of the budget, previously
thought to be untouchable.
*It establishes five-year caps on discretionary
spending--limiting non-defense spending to growth at
the inflation rate, reducing defense expenditures on an
orderly basis, and shrinking total discretionary
outlays from 10.7% of GNP in fiscal year '91 to about
7% in 1995.
*It establishes the toughest enforcement system ever--
extending the Gramm-Rudman sequester process and
strengthening it with spending caps, mini-sequesters,
and pay-as-you-go requirements.
*It includes "credit reform"--for the first time
requiring that subsidies and potential losses
associated with credit programs be fully accounted for,
up front, and made subject to the discretionary program
caps--thus limiting the growth of one of the federal
government's burgeoning areas of previously hidden
liability.
*It raises revenue--only 28% of total savings--by
rounding out tax reform: flattening the "bubble" at
31%; reducing taxes for workers with income under
$20,000; raising the alternative minimum tax; and
shifting the overall tax burden toward disincentives
for consumption of alcohol, tobacco, gasoline, and
luxuries.
*And it is fair.
Perhaps most importantly, all of the program's five-
year savings and reforms are now built into law--
enacted on day one. II
Darman quotes Tom Paine (disparagingly):
" We have it our power to begin the world over again.
16) "Choice in Education, II Raspberry: some illustrative
anecdotes if you're interested.
17) "New White House battleground: domestic policy, " Boston
Globe
"In his Jan. 29 speech, Bush is expected to set out a
domestic agenda that features economic revitalization, a
national energy strategy and improved health care. If the
Persian Gulf crisis has been successfully resolved by that
time, Bush may also announce a blitz of congressional
initiatives to deal with economic and social needs, the
officials said."
Barney Frank: "'It does not make sense intellectually to pay
off poor people today to forsake future generations.
18) Furse's memo: some suggest empowerment language for the SOU:
" today, we are in danger of seeing an hereditary class
emerge in America: a hereditary class not of privilege but
of poverty. In America's inner cities, we face the grim
reality of long term, persistent dependency as one
generation of poverty begets another."
"In fighting poverty, empowerment means fostering a new
system that operates not merely as a safety net, but instead
as a ladder out of poverty."
19) "Verbal Judo":
"Empathy absorbs or redirects tension. You have to be able
to step outside yourself and see things from the other
person's point of view."
" (some) PRINCIPLES OF VERBAL JUDO:
*Redirect rather than resist
*Flexibility is strength. Rigidity is weakness.
*Respond to people, don't react. "
"The Four Types of Appeal:
*Ethical: The professional presence projected which is
seen and felt by others. Necessary and powerful in
establishing credibility.
*Personal: Relating to or affecting a person. The
second most powerful appeal. People act out of selfish
interests, so show empathy.
*Practical: The use of off-beat strategies (humor, for
example) that will gain compliance from others,
providing such strategies do not compromise your safety
and integrity or break the law.
*Rational: Appeals to reason and logic are the weakest
because most people do not thin rationally or logically
in crisis situations. Only once people are calmed does
this appeal have power. "
"Paraphrasing:
*You take control of the encounter
*It creates empathy in the other person, who will
believe you are trying to understand
*It often makes the other modify his/her statements and
become more reasonable
*It generates a fair-play response. The other person
is almost forced to respond to your effort to
understand."
20) Kemp: "A Democratic Capitalist Manifesto and an Inquiry into
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Cities":
"Just imagine
since the dawn of history
all at once
in
exactly the same year
within a few months of each
other
from opposite sides of the Atlantic two inspired
men
one a professor of moral philosophy, the other the
fiery architect and poet of American Independence
gave the
world the twin pillars of free society--the moral and
inalienable rights to political and economic freedom.
Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Jefferson's Declaration of
Independence were then and remain today the greatest
charters of freedom ever written. "
"From Yale Professor Paul Kennedy to French minister Jacques
Attali, we hear of the 'decline of America.
As a good and
loyal socialist, Mr. Attali appears to have little
understanding of Smith. He views political economy as
essentially a zero-sum game, hence his emphasis on
government welfare and redistribution of existing wealth,
rather than the creation of new wealth by free people, free
markets, free trade, and free democratic societies.
Minister Attali's latest thesis merely transfers this zero-
sum theory to politics. In his view, apparently there is
only so much greatness to go around. Thus for Europe to
gain, America must lose; and for America to prosper, Asia
must suffer. If
"Does he seriously believe America would be more important
if it were the only wealthy nation in a world of mediocrity?
Surely, America is better off as a prospering nation in a
thriving international economy, just as a thriving global
economy is a benefit to America. "
"Since 1981, more than 21.5 million jobs have been created-
-more jobs than have been created in the last decade in all
of Europe, Canada, and Japan combined. More than four
million new business enterprises, relatively low inflation,
and higher standards of living for most of our people
testify to the strength of the U.S. economy. And, according
to the U.S. Treasury figures, federal income taxes paid by
the top one percent of taxpayers has surged by over 80%.' "
"And the U.S. trade deficit, often cited as a sign of
weakness, is in reality a symbol of capital flight from
abroad seeking the thriving and profitable opportunities for
new investment in the United States."
"President Gorbachev admitted that the cold war is over, but
then suggested that it doesn't matter who won it. Well,
with all due respect, it does matter--it matters a great
deal who won and why. I hasten to add that our arms and
missiles didn't win the cold war--it was the power of
western ideas, the triumph of liberal democracy and free
market economies over the stifling hand of communist and
socialist economies and dictatorships
Isn't it incredible
that in Moscow, more people are lining up at McDonalds than
at Lenin's tomb! I was fascinated recently seeing on
satellite TV, demonstrators carrying a banner in Red Square
that read 'Workers of the world, we're sorry We've seen the
future, it doesn't work. "
"I've been struck by how similar the problems of America's
inner cities are to those of Eastern Europe and even Third
World economies. Ironically, both are suffering from the
same malady. The malady is socialism."
"Because, you see, in America we really have two economies.
One economy--our mainstream economy--is democratic,
capitalist, market-oriented, entrepreneurial, and
incentivized for working families whether in labor or
management. The mainstream economy rewards work,
investment, savings, and productivity. Incentives abound
for productive human, economic and social behavior."
"But there is another economy--a second economy--that is
similar in respects to the Eastern Europe or Third World
"socialist"
economy
This economy has barriers to
productive human and social activity and a virtual absence
of economic rewards
In the U.S., government tax,
regulatory, and entitlement programs, set-up out of a desire
to help the poor, in reality have led to a counterproductive
economy."
"I believe we're at a point in history when what we know
about creating wealth and opportunity in America's inner
cities can work not only in America, but in Eastern Europe;
and not only in Europe, but in the Third World, and indeed,
in the Soviet Union itself."
"
the key to wealth and prosperity is allowing people
freedom--freedom to work, to save, freedom to own their own
property and homes, to succeed, and yes, to fail, but try
again. The ultimate cause of the wealth of nations, and
indeed, the wealth of cities, is people."
"In what George Gilder, in his book, Microcosm, called the
quantum age of the new technology, our greatest assets are
not the wealth we see around us, but in the potential which
is unseen in the economy of the human mind. "
"As President Bush said in his inaugural address: 'We know
what works--freedom works We know how to secure a more just
and prosperous life for man on earth: through free markets,
free speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will
unhampered by the state. The most important lesson of
history is that the right policies lead to the right
results."
"
taxing solely to raise revenues for the legitimate needs
of the state, not to punish wealth and success [or] promote
egalitarian ends."
21) Kemp to Heritage Foundation: "An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of Poverty in America and How to Combat It":
"Marxist-Leninists used to talk about their 'permanent
revolution,' but as it turns out the only permanent
revolution the world has ever seen is the American
Revolution."
"Helping those left behind and left out is not only a moral
imperative for our nation, I am convinced it is also a
winning--indee decisive--political strategy for bringing
impoverished communities and low-income people and
minorities into the ranks of the Party of Lincoln. Whether
it's called bleeding heart conservatism, capitalism with a
social conscience, or populist conservatism--it's the right
thing to do, the right time to do it, and we're the right
people to help lead it."
Lincoln: "When one starts poor, as most do in the race of
life, free society is such that he knows he can better his
condition: he knows that there is no fixed condition for his
whole life. A debate over how to increase the wealth and
opportunities of the poor plays to the strengths of our
Party's Lincoln wing--our most authentic roots."
"
most of all, if you really want to create poverty and
dependency, weaken and in some cases destroy the link
between effort and reward."
"The poor don't want paternalism, they want opportunity--
they don't want the servitude of welfare, they want to get
jobs and private property. They don't want dependency, they
want a new declaration of independence."
"Wealth is not what we've done, but what we have yet to do."
22) Kemp talks about HOPE at National Press Club:
"We believe in tearing down walls that come between people
and their self-respect. We believe in tearing down walls
that prevent people from exercising their potential, and
most of all, we want to tear down the wall that separates
those in poverty from those in prosperity."
"I believe that the ultimate scandal in America is the ideal
that poor people should be treated as perpetually poor and
that they should accept the conditions of poverty as a
perpetual condition."
"I believe in this respect our new war on poverty shares the
goals of the original war on poverty: a hand up, not a
handout. We have learned something over the past 25 years.
We know what works and we are beginning to know what doesn't
work.
"
23) Kemp's Remarks at the 66th Annual Congress of Cities:
"
problems are opportunities disguised as insurmountable
barriers."
" (John Gardner) says there are many contributing factors in
the rise in civilization--accidents of resources,
geographical considerations, military power. He says
whatever other ingredients, civilizations rise to greatness
when something happens to the human mind, to the spirit of
men and women who love freedom and democracy."
Gardner: " there occurs at breathtaking moments in history
an exhilarating burst of energy and motivation, of hope and
zest and imagination, and a severing of the bonds that
normally hold in check the full release of human
possibilities. A door is opened and the caged eagle
soars.
" (Gardner) says the most imaginative, the most progressive,
the greatest leaders of all time are those who never cease
to wonder how they can set free the potential, the
possibility, of that caged eagle, the talent of a free
people.
"In the eleventh or twelfth century the Talmudic
philosopher, Maimonides, said, and I quote, 'the noblest
charity is to prevent people from having to take charity.
"We measure the compassion of our society not by how many
people need the assistance, but by how few people need the
assistance."
"We are not targeting people; we are targeting opportunity."
"
cultivate a true renaissance, a rebirth of America's
cities and towns. "
"
you cannot create new employees without first creating
new
employers
Labor and capital are not enemies, they are
allies in the war on poverty and we have got to stop
dividing America
There should be no division between labor
and capital. As Abraham Lincoln said, 'labor precedes
capital, and we need both labor and capital. "
24) Gingrich's remarks at the Southern Republican Leadership
Conference (3/30/90) :
"
we have to be competitive and we have to be competitive
on positive terms and positive ideas
It is hard, frankly,
because the more the Democratic Party has ceased to be a
majority, the more it has cheated in order to stay in
power.
"
"I am going to suggest a very simple model. That there is a
bureaucratic welfare state It means that in your mind you
have two standards of time. You have the time you use when
you go into a private business, like your hardware store or
a McDonald's or a Sears and you have the time you use when
you walk into a government office. The first is in minutes,
the second is in hours. There is a level of customer
service you expect when you are paying for something in a
private business and there is a level of customer service
you expect when, as a taxpayer, you go to the government
business. And they are different models. If any private
business in America treated you the way you routinely get
treated by government, you would put them out of business."
"And we have been asking groups, 'What is the most important
basic American value?' Virtually, universally, it is three
words: honest hard work. This is a country that isn't
afraid to work. "
"When we say to voters, 'Which of these three is most
threatened? Entrepreneurial free enterprise, technological
progress and innovation or basic American values?' They are
virtually unanimous in saying the great struggle of the
Nineties is a struggle over values."
"We must apply common sense focused on success and
opportunities."
II
applying common sense is antithetical to a bureaucracy.
The purpose of a bureaucracy is to establish a set of rules
which must be implemented. That is the nature of
bureaucracy. "
JOKE: "And if you think I exaggerate, here is my simple
test. And you tell me how close you think this is to the
world we live in. If Thomas Edison had invented the electric
light in the age of the bureaucratic welfare state and
modern liberalism, it would have been described by Dan
Rather in a news story which began: 'The candlemaking
industry was threatened today. I And Ralph Nadar would issue
a report that, 'Electricity can kill And which companies
will make money off the electric light. And the government
should make sure we don't wire houses.
" (Vaclav Havel) said, 'Many people write words and many
intellectuals write words. The greatness of your Founding
Fathers was that they lived their words.
4 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
PAST STATE OF THE UNION EXCERPTS
1)
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, GEORGE WASHINGTON, New
York City, January 8, 1790.
" cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism,
firmness, and wisdom.
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means
of preserving peace."
2)
FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, GEORGE WASHINGTON,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1793.
"The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that,
contrary to the order of human events, they will forever
keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which
the history of every other nation abounds. There is a rank
due to the United States among nations which will be
withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of
weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to
repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most
powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be
known that we are at all times ready for war.
3)
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WASHINGTON, DC December 1, 1862
Roy P. Basler held that "no American living at the time save
Walt Whitman ever expressed so large a vision of the future
of American democracy, the magnitude of its geographic and
economic potentialities, and the infinitude of its social
destiny in the quest for human liberty
"
"I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a
paper addressed to the Congress of the nation by the chief
magistrate of the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you
are my seniors, nor that many of you have more experience
than I, in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that
in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, you
will perceive no want of respect yourselves, in any undue
earnestness I may seem to display."
"Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority
and national prosperity
Is it doubted that we here--
Congress and executive--can secure its adoption? Will not
the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from
us?"
"We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us
imagine better?' but, 'can we all do better?
The dogmas
of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise--
with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think
anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then
we shall save our country. "
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this
Congress and this administration, will be remembered in
spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or
insignificance, can spare one another of us. The fiery trial
through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or
dishonor, to the latest generation
We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may
succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful,
generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will
forever applaud, and God must forever bless. "
4)
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, February 2, 1953
If
the free world cannot indefinitely remain in a posture of
paralyzed tension, leaving forever to the aggressor the
choice of time and place and means to cause greatest hurt
to us at least cost to himself. "
"
a new, positive foreign policy
If
"Our foreign policy must be clear, consistent, and
confident. This means that it must be the product of
genuine, continuous cooperation between the executive and
the legislative branches of this Government. It must be
developed and directed in the spirit of true
bipartisanship
The policy we embrace must be a coherent
global policy.
"Our policy is dedicated to making the free world secure,
will envision all peaceful methods and devices--except
breaking faith with our friends. "
"The policy we pursue will recognize the truth that no
single country, even one so powerful as ours, alone defend
the liberty of all nations
No wealth of aid could
compensate for poverty of spirit. The heart of every free
nation must be honestly dedicated to the preserving of its
own independence and security."
"We must be strong in arms. We must be strong in the source
of all our armament, our productivity. We all-workers and
farmers, foremen and financiers, technicians and builders--
all must produce, produce more, and produce yet more
We
must be strong, above all in the spiritual resources upon
which all else depends. We must be devoted with all our
heart to the values we defended. We must know that each
these values and virtues applies with equal force at the
ends of the earth and in our relations with our neighbor
next door. We must known that freedom express itself with
equal eloquence in the right of workers to strike in the
nearby factory, and in the yearnings and sufferings of the
peoples of Eastern Europe.'
"As our heart summons our strength, our wisdom must direct
it."
"In this spirit must we live and labor: confident of our
strength, compassionate in our heart, clear in our mind."
5)
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION -
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER January 7, 1954
"
the building of a stronger America. A nation whose every
citizen has good reason for bold hope; where effort is
rewarded and prosperity is shared; where freedom expands and
peace is secure--that is what I mean by a stronger America".
"Toward this objective a real momentum has been developed
during this Administration's first year in office. We mean
to continue that momentum and to increase it. We mean to
build a better future for this nation".
"A government can strive, as ours is striving, to maintain an
economic system whose doors are open to enterprise and
ambition--those personal qualities on which economic growth
largely depends. But enterprise and ambition are qualities
which no government can supply. Fortunately no American
government need concern itself on this score; our people
have these qualities in good measure".
"A government can sincerely strive for peace, as ours is
striving, and ask its people to make sacrifices for the of
peace. But no government can place peace in the hearts of
foreign rulers".
6)
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION,
Dwight Eisenhower, Jan. 6, 1955
"At the outset, I believe it would be well to remind
ourselves of this great fundamental in our national life:
our common belief this every human being is divinely endowed
with dignity and worth and inalienable rights".
"It is of the utmost importance, that each of us
understanding the true nature of the struggle now taking
place in the world. It is not a struggle merely of economic
theories, or of forms of government, or of military power.
At issue is the true nature of man. Either man is the
creature whom the Psalmist described as 'a little lower than
the angels, crowned with glory and honor, holding 'dominion
over the works' of his Creator; or man is a soulless,
animated machine to be enslaved, used and consumed by the
state for its own glorification."
"It is, therefore, a struggle which goes to the roots of the
human spirit, and its shadow falls across the long sweep of
man's destiny".
"In the past year, there has been progress justifying hope,
both for continuing peace and for the ultimate rule of
freedom and justice in the world. Free nations are
collectively stronger than at any time in recent years."
"If
rulers understand that America's response to
aggressive will be swift and decisive--that never shall we
buy peace at the expense of honor or faith--they will be
powerfully deterred from launching a military venture
engulfing their own peoples and many others in disaster."
"It is the inalienable right of every person, from childhood
on, to have access to knowledge. In our form of society,
this right of the individual takes on a special meaning, for
the education of all our citizens is imperative to the
maintenance and invigoration of America's free
institutions."
6)
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION -
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, January 10, 1957
"Particularly, in the past year, this tide has changed the
pattern of attitudes and thinking among millions. The
changes already accomplished foreshadowed a world
transformed by the spirit of freedom. This is no faint and
pious hope. The forces now at work in the minds and hearts
of men will not be spent through many years. In the main,
today's expression of nationalism are, in spirit, echoes of
our- forefathers' struggle for independence This Republic
cannot be aloof to these events heralding a new epoch in the
affairs of mankind."
"Our pledged word, our enlightened self-interest, our
character as a Nation commit us to a high role in world
affairs: a role of vigorous leadership, ready strength,
sympathetic understanding."
"Freedom has been defined as the opportunity for self-
discipline."
"The cost of peace is something we must face boldly,
fearlessly. Beyond money, it involves changed in attitudes,
the renunciation of old prejudices, even the sacrifice of
some seeming self-interest."
"But these people, whose economic strength is largely
dependent on free and uninterrupted movement of oil from the
Middle East, cannot proper--indeed, their economies would be
severely impaired--should that area be controlled by an
enemy and the movement of oil be subject to its decisions."
"Thereby each of us can help establish a secure world order
in which opportunity for freedom and justice will be more
widespread, and in which the resources now dissipated on the
armaments of war can be released for the life and growth of
all humanity."
7)
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE
UNION, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, January 7, 1960
"We must be ever alert that freedom does not wither
through the careless amassing of restrictive controls or the
lack of courage to deal boldly with the giant issue of the
day."
"Every minute spent in irrelevant interbranch
wrangling is precious time taken from the intelligent
initiation and adoption of coherent policies for our
national survival and progress
We seek a common goal-
brighter opportunity for our own citizens and a world peace
with justice for all."
"We realize that however much we repudiate the tenets of
imperialistic Communism, it represents a gigantic enterprise
grimly pursued by leaders who compel its subject to
subordinate their freedom of action and spirit and personal
desires for some hoped-for advantage in the future
The
Communists can present an array of material accomplishments
over the past fifteen years that lends a false
persuasiveness to many of their glittering promises to the
uncommitted peoples.'
"But in our scale of values we place freedom first--our
whole national existence and development have been geared to
that basic concept and are responsible for the position of
free world leadership to which we have succeeded. It is the
highest prize that any nation can possess; it is one that
Communism can never offer. And America's record of material
accomplishment in freedom is written not only in the
unparalleled prosperity of our own nation, but in the many
billions we have devoted to the reconstruction of Free World
economies wrecked by World War II and in the effective help
of many more billions we have given in saving the
independence of many others threatened by outside
domination. Assuredly we have the capacity for handling the
problems in the new era of the wold's history we are now
entering."
"But we must use that capacity intelligently and tirelessly,
regardless of personal sacrifice
The fissure that divides
our political planet is deep and wide We live, moreover, in
a sea of semantic disorder in which old labels no longer
faithfully describe
Police states are called 'people's
democracies. Armed conquest of free people is called
'liberation. "
"We must make clear our peaceful intentions, our aspirations
for a better world. So doing, we must use language to
enlighten the mind, not as the instrument of the studied
innuendo and distorter of truth
And we must live by what
we say. "
"As a nation we take pride that our own constitutional
system, and the ideals which sustain it, have been long
viewed as a fountainhead of freedom."
"So persuaded, we shall get on with the task before us.
So dedicated, and with faith in the Almighty, humanity
shall one day achieve the unity in freedom to which all men
have aspired from the dawn of time. "
8)
ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF THE CONGRESS REPORTING ON
THE STATE OF THE UNION, REAGAN, January 26, 1982.
"
a bold spirited initiative that I believe can change the
face of American government and make it again the servant of
the people."
"If we had not acted as we did, things would be far worse
for all Americans than they are today."
"Together, after 50 years of taking power away from the
hands of the people in their States and local communities,
we have started returning power and resources to them.' "
NOTE: Reagan here begins six consecutive paragraphs with
"Together."
"I can report to you tonight that in the near future the
state of the Union and the economy will be better--much
better if we summon the strength to continue on the course
that we've charted."
"First, we must understand what's happening at the moment to
the economy."
"
our two highest budget priorities a strong national
defense to keep America free and at peace and a reliable
safety net of social programs for those who have contributed
and those who are in need."
"And then there are the countless, quiet, everyday heroes of
American life--parents who sacrifice long and hard so their
children will know a better life than they've known; church
and civic volunteers who help to feed, clothe, nurse, and
teach the needy; millions who've made our nation and our
nation's destiny so very special--unsung heroes who may not
have realized their own dreams themselves but then who
reinvest those dreams in their children. Don't let anyone
tell you that America's best days are behind her, that the
American spirit has been vanquished. We've seen it triumph
too often in our lives to stop believing in it now."
9)
ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE
OF THE UNION, REAGAN. January, 25, 1983.
"From coast to coast, on the job and in classrooms and
laboratories, at new construction sites and in churches and
community groups, neighbors are helping neighbors. And
they've already begun the building, the research, the work,
and the giving that will make our country great again."
"I believe this, because I believe in them--in the strength
of their hearts and minds, in the commitment that each one
of them brings to their daily lives, be they high or humble.
The challenge for us in government is to worthy of them--to
make government a help, not a hindrance to our people in the
challenging but promising days ahead.'
"If we do that, if we care what our children and what our
children's children will say of us, if we want them one day
to be thankful for what we did here in these temples of
freedom, we will work together to make America better for
our having been here--not just in this year or this decade
but in the next century and beyond."
10) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF THE CONGRESS AN THE STATE
OF THE UNION, REAGAN. January 25, 1984.
"The problems we're overcoming are not the heritage of just
one- person, party, or even one generation. It's just the
tendency of government to grow, for practices and programs
to become the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see
on this Earth. "
"We can ensure steady economic growth.
We can develop America's next frontier.
We can strengthen our traditional values.
And we can build a meaningful peace to protect our loved
ones
II
"But our most precious resources, our greatest hope for the
future, are the minds and hearts of our people, especially
our children. We can help them build tomorrow by
strengthening our community of shared values. This must be
our third great goal. For us, faith, work, family,
neighborhood, freedom, and peace are not just words; they
they're expressions of what America means, definitions of
what makes us a good and loving people. "
"
break the bondage of dependency. "
"A lasting and meaningful peace is our fourth great goal.
It is our highest aspiration. And our record is clear:
Americans resort to force only when we must. We have never
been aggressors. We have always struggled to defend freedom
and democracy We have no territorial ambitions. We occupy
no countries. We build no walls to lock people in.
Americans build the future. "
"How can we not believe in the greatness of America? How
can we not do what is right and needed to preserve this last
best hope of man on Earth? After all our struggles to
restor America, to revive confidence in our country, hope
for our future, after all our hard-won victories earned
through the patience and courage of every citizen, we
cannot; must not, and will not turn back. We will finish
our job. How could we do less? We're Americans."
"Carl Sandburg said, 'I see America not in the setting sun
fresh from the burning, creative hand of God
I see great
days ahead for men and women of will and vision.
"
"I've never felt more strongly that America's best days and
democracy's best days lie ahead. We're a powerful force for
good. With faith and courage, we can perform great deeds
and take freedom's next step. And we will. We will carry
on the tradition of a good and worthy people who have
brought light where there was darkness, warmth where there
was cold, medicine where there was disease, food where there
was hunger, and peace where there was only bloodshed."
"Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in
our time, that in our time we did everything that could be
done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the
faith. "
11) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF THE CONGRESS ON THE STATE
OF THE UNION, REAGAN. February 6, 1985.
"We're here to speak for millions in our inner cities who
long for real jobs, safe neighborhoods, and schools that
truly teach. "
"
a second American Revolution of hope and opportunity If
"This government will meet its responsibilities to help
those in need. But policies that increase dependency, break
up families, and destroy self-respect and are not
progressive; they're reactionary. Despite our strides in
civil rights, blacks, Hispanics, and all minorities will not
have full and equal power until they have full economic
power. "
"We have repeatedly sought passage of enterprise zones to
help those in the abandoned corners of our land find jobs,
learn skills, and build better lives. This legislation is
supported by a majority of you. "
"Mr. Speaker, I know we agree that there must be no
forgotten Americans. Let us place new dreams in a million
hearts and create a new generation of entrepreneurs by
passing enterprise zones this year. And, Tip, you could
make this a birthday present."
"Our mission is to nourish and defend freedom and democracy,
and to communicate these ideals everywhere we can.
America's economic success is freedom's success; it can be
repeated a hundred times in a hundred different nations."
12) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF
THE UNION, REAGAN. February 4, 1986.
"History is no captive of some inevitable force. History is
made by men and women of vision and courage."
"
Only by lifting the weights from the shoulders of all
can people truly prosper and can peace among all nations be
secure. Teddy Roosevelt said that a nation that does great
work lives forever. "
"
not by breaking faith with bedrock principles but by
breaking free from failed policies."
"
to redefine government's role: not to control, not to
demand or command, not to contain us
"
"
not by taking from those in need. As families take care
of their own, government must provide shelter and
nourishment for those who cannot provide for themselves.
But we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name
of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work,
encourage family breakups, and drive entire communities into
a bleak and heartless dependency." "
(RE: LINE-ITEM VETO) " I'll take the heat. This authority
would not give me any monopoly power, but simply prevent
spending measures from sneaking through that could not pass
on their own merit.'
"After hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs,
the plight of the poor grows more painful. But the waste in
dollars and cents pales before the most tragic loss: the
sinful waste of human spirit and potential. We can ignore
this terrible truth no longer. As Franklin Roosevelt warned
51 years ago, standing before this Chamber, he said,
'Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human
spirit. And we must now escape the spider's web of
dependency."
"Let us speak of our deepest longing for the future: to
leave our children a land that is free and just and a world
at peace.'
"The American dream is a song of hope that rings through the
night winter air; vivid, tender music that warms our hearts
when the least among us aspire to the greatest things: to
venture a daring enterprise; to unearth new beauty in music,
literature, and art; to discover a new universe inside a
tiny silicon chip or a single human cell."
13) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF
THE UNION, REAGAN. January 27, 1987.
"Our revolution is the first to say the people are the
masters and any government is their servant. And you young
people out there, don't ever forget that. Someday you could
be in this room, but wherever you are, America is depending
on you to reach your highest and be your best--because here
in America, we the people are in charge."
"Just three words: We the people--those are the kids on
Christmas Day. looking out from a frozen sentry post on the
38th parallel in Korea or aboard an aircraft carrier in the
Mediterranean. A million miles from home, but doing their
duty."
"We the people--those are the warmhearted whose numbers we
can't begin to count, who'll begin the day with a little
prayer for hostages they will never know and MIA families
they will never meet. Why? Because that's the way we are,
this unique breed we call Americans."
"We the people--they're farmers on tough times, but who
never stop feeding a hungry world. They're the volunteers
at the hospital choking back their tears for the hundredth
time, caring for a baby struggling for life because of a
mother who used drugs. And you'll forgive me a special
memory--it's a million mothers like Nelle Reagan who never
knew a stranger or turned a hungry person away from her
kitchen door."
"After hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs,
the plight of the poor grows more painful. But the waste in
dollars and cents pales before the most tragic loss: the
sinful waste of human spirit and potential. We can ignore
this terrible truth no longer. As Franklin Roosevelt warned
51 years ago, standing before this Chamber, he said,
'Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human
spirit. And we must now escape the spider's web of
dependency."
"Let us speak of our deepest longing for the future: to
leave our children a land that is free and just and a world
at peace."
"The American dream is a song of hope that rings through the
night winter air; vivid, tender music that warms our hearts
when the least among us aspire to the greatest things: to
venture a daring enterprise; to unearth new beauty in music,
literature, and art; to discover a new universe inside a
tiny silicon chip or a single human cell."
13) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF
THE UNION, REAGAN. January 27, 1987.
"Our revolution is the first to say the people are the
masters and any government is their servant. And you young
people out there, don't ever forget that. Someday you could
be in this room, but wherever you are, America is depending
on you to reach your highest and be your best--because here
in America, we the people are in charge."
"Just three words: We the people--those are the kids on
Christmas Day looking out from a frozen sentry post on the
38th parallel in Korea or aboard an aircraft carrier in the
Mediterranean. A million miles from home, but doing their
duty."
"We the people--those are the warmhearted whose numbers we
can't begin to count, who'll begin the day with a little
prayer for hostages they will never know and MIA families
they will never meet. Why? Because that's the way we are,
this unique breed we call Americans."
"We the people--they're farmers on tough times, but who
never stop feeding a hungry world. They're the volunteers
at the hospital choking back their tears for the hundredth
time, caring for a baby struggling for life because of a
mother who used drugs. And you'll forgive me a special
memory--it's a million mothers like Nelle Reagan who never
knew a stranger or turned a hungry person away from her
kitchen door."
"We the people--they refute last week's television
commentary downgrading our optimism and our idealism. They
are the entrepreneurs, the builders, the pioneers, and a lot
of regular folks--the true heroes of our land who make up
the most uncommon nation of doers in history. You know
they're Americans because their spirit is as big as the
universe and their hearts are bigger than their spirits."
"We the people--starting the third century of a dream and
standing up to some cynic who's trying to tell us we're not
going to get any better.
14) ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF
THE UNION, REAGAN. January 25, 1988.
"
three simple words: 'We the People, the revolutionary
notion that the people grant government its rights, and not
the other way around."
"Just as those who created this Republic pledged to each
other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,
so, too, America's leaders today must pledge to each other
that we will keep foremost in our hearts and minds not what
is best for ourselves or for our party but what is best for
America. "
"We're for limited government, because we understand, as the
Founding Fathers did, that is the best way of ensuring
personal liberty and empowering the individual so that every
American of every race and region shares fully in the
flowering of American prosperity and freedom. "
"With the best of intentions, government created a poverty
trap that wreaks havoc on the very support system the poor
need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family.
Dependency has become the one enduring heirloom, passed from
one generation to the next, of too many fragmented
families."
"Let's start making our welfare system the first rung on
America's ladder of opportunity, a boost up from dependency,
not a graveyard but a birthplace of hope. "
7 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
OTHER IMPORTANT SPEECHES, NOT PRESIDENTIAL
1)
RALPH WALDO EMERSON POINTS OUT THE DUTIES OF THE AMERICAN
SCHOLAR, August 31, 1837:
"This time, like all times is a very good one, if we but
know what to do with it."
"Is it not the chief disgrace in the world, not to be a
unit--not to be reckoned with one character--not to yield
that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear, but
to be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the
thousand, or the party, the section, to which we belong
=
2)
LEARNED HAND, May 21, 1944:
"We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a
common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. "
"Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption;
the rest have come from those who did the same. For this
reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked
group, a group of those who had the courage to break from
the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a
strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those
who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty:
freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be
ourselves."
HOW ABOUT SUBSTITUTING "BUREAUCRACY/PROGRAMS" FOR
"LAWS/CONSTITUTION":
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies
there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no
constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."
3)
THE SINEWS OF PEACE, EX-PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL, March 5,
1946:
"
in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious
balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or
adventure. On the contrary, there will be an overwhelming
assurance of security. If we adhere faithfully to the
Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate and
sober strength, seeking no one's land or treasure, seeking
to lay no arbitrary control upon the thoughts of men
"
4)
I HAVE A DREAM, MARTIN LUTHER KING, August 28, 1963:
HOW AMERICA IS FAILING ITS BLACKS, APPLY TO HOW ITS FAILING
ITS POOR: "One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is
still languished in the corners of American society and
finds himself an exile in his own land. "
OUR AGENDA INVITES THE DISEMPOWERED TO CASH IN: "In a sense
we have come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When
the architects of our republic wrote magnificent words of
the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they
were signing a promissory note to which every American was
to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be
guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."
(CHECK METAPHOR, CONT. ) "It is obvious today that America
has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her
citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this
sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad
check; a check which has come back market 'insufficient
funds. 1 But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice
is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that the bank of justice
is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are
insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of
this nation. So we have come to cash this check--a check
that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the
security of justice."
CALL TO ACTION: "We have also come to this hallowed spot to
remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no
time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make
real the promises of Democracy. Now is the time to rise
from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the
sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the
doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the
time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
"
their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their
freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot
walk alone. "
EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO DREAM, DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM: "
I
still
have
a
dream.. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream."
CONSERVATIVE VISION OF A COLORBLIND SOCIETY: "I have a
dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character."
" From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring.
5)
ANNUAL MESSAGES OF THE PRESIDENTS: MAJOR THEMES IN AMERICAN
HISTORY, ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR.
"'He shall from time to time give to the Congress
Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to
their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge
neccessary and expedient
--The Constitution of the United States, Article
II, Section 3.
"
these innocuous phrases (above) conferred on the American
President what has become after vicissitudes, a basic tool
in his management of Congress and a potent instrument of
national leadership."
"The next Presidents kept up the standards of the Messages
for a while: Jefferson through literary grace and
philosophical force; Madison through intellectual cogency;
Monroe through the direct promulgation of policy (as his
celebrated Doctrine) ; John Quincy Adams through sweeping
national vision; Jackson through bold executive initiative.
But in time the Message became increasingly a perfunctory
and bureaucratic document, made up of submissions from the
executive departments lightly bound together by the passages
of piety and self-congratulation. "
"
Grant's support for the item veto (renewed by Arthur and
again by Eisenhower) "
"Most of the time, as devices in the presidential management
of Congress, they tended to employ the rhetoric of
consensus, seeking to minimize differences, to mollify
opposition and to court support. Abrasive issues were often
swathed and submerged "
"Yet, though sometimes in a muted and fitful way, major
themes of American history nevertheless emerge in these
texts: the security of the republic; the internal
development of the continent; the place of ethnic
minorities; the evolution of presidential power; and the
significance of the experiment in democratic government."
"
(Franklin) Roosevelt set forth his Four Freedoms. Three
years later, warning against the 'tragic errors of ostrich
isolationism, he called on the freedom-loving nations to
join 'in a just and durable system of peace.
"We seek, said Kennedy, 'not the worldwide victory of one
nation or system but a worldwide victory of men.
John Quincy Adams: the exercise of delegated powers is a
duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers
not granted is criminal and odious.
'The Great Society,' said Johnson in his Second Message,
'asks not only how much, but how good; not only how to
create wealth, but how to use it; not only how fast we are
going but where we are headed.
"Polk wrote:
'Any attempt to coerce the President to yield
his sanction to measures which he cannot approve would be a
violation of the spirit of the Constitution, palpable and
flagrant, and if successful would break down the
independence of the executive department and make the
President, elected by the people and clothed by the
Constitution with the power to defend their rights, the mere
instrument of a majority of Congress.
THE COLD WAR DISSOLVES ABROAD, CAN WE MELT IT HERE AT HOME?
the cold war between the President and the Congress has
remained a central (and wholesome) feature of American
political history."
PRESIDENT AND HIS PEOPLE EXCHANGE SOU MESSAGES:
"The people through their representatives, their newspapers
and their right of petition had to be free to send back
their own state-of-the-union messages to the President."
"Truman's last Message stated the issue with quiet
eloquence:
Let all of us pause now, think back, consider carefully
the meaning of our national experience. Let us draw
comfort from it and faith and confidence in our future
as Americans. The Nation's business is never finished.
The basic questions we have been dealing with, these
eight years past, present themselves anew. That is the
way of our society. Circumstances change and current
questions take on different forms, new complications,
year by year. But underneath the great issues remain
the same--prosperity, welfare, human rights, effective
democracy, and, above all, peace. "
Kennedy:
"Now, in 1965, we begin a new quest for union. We seek
the unity of man with the world he has built--with the
knowledge that can save or destroy him--with the cities
which can stimulate or stifle him--with the wealth and
machines which can enrich or menace his spirit. We
seek to establish a harmony between man and society
which will allow each of us to enlarge the meaning of
his life and all of us to elevate the quality of our
civilization."
6)
REMARKS BY CHIEF OF STAFF GOVERNOR JOHN SUNUNU TO NATIONAL
PRESS CLUB This is a laundry list of what has been
accomplished, and what we'd like to accomplish. Read not
for style, but for policy outlines, details.
8 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
OTHER PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES (NOT BUSH)
1)
SAM ADAMS, Philadelphia, PA, 1 August 1776:
"We have no other alternative than independence. "
"You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may
justly address you, as the decemviri did the Romans, and
say: 'Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without
your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of
those laws on which your happiness depends.
2)
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, GEORGE WASHINGTON. New York city,
30 April, 1789:
"
since we ought to be no less persuaded that the
propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a
nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right
which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation
of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the
republican model of government are justly considered,
perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment
intrusted to the hands of the American people.'
3)
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, THOMAS JEFFERSON. Washington,
D.C., 4 March 1801:
"A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land,
traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their
industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power
and forget right advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the
reach of mortal eye
"
"If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this
Union or change its republican form (SUBSTITUTE: WHO WOULD
WISH TO ADD YET MORE LAYERS TO THE BEHEMOTH OF FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT) let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the
safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where
reason is left free to combat it."
EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS VS. EMPOWERING BUREAUCRATS:
"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the
government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the
government of others?"
"
economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly
burthened
"
4)
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, THOMAS JEFFERSON. Washington,
D.C., 4 March, 1805:
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction,
that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly
calculated will ever be fund inseparable from our moral
duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just
nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to
armaments and wars to bridle others." "
5)
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Gettysburg, PA, 19
November 1863:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal.
"
RE S.O.U. AND OUR BRAVE SOLDIERS IN THE GULF: "The world
will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us
that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain
=
6)
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Washington,
D.C., 4 March, 1865.
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the
battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations."
7)
THE NEW NATIONALISM, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Osawatomie,
Kansas, 31 August, 1910:
"Our country--this great republic--means nothing unless is
[sic] means the triumph of real democracy, the triumph of
popular government, and, in the long run, of an economic
system under which each man shall be guaranteed the
opportunity to show the best that there is in him. "
T.R. QUOTES LINCOLN: "II hold that while man exists it is
his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to
assist in ameliorating mankind. "
"When I say I want a square deal for the poor man, I do not
mean that I want a square deal for the man who remains poor
because he has not the energy to work for himself."
"We keep countless men from being good citizens by the
conditions of life with which we surround them."
8)
A NEW DEAL, F.D.R. Chicago, IL, 2 July 1932.
NOTE: This speech marked Roosevelt's first use of the
phrase "new deal, which he borrowed from Mark Twain's A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.:
"Let us look a little at the recent history and the simple
economics, the kind of economics that you and I and the
average man and woman talk."
"Let us use common sense and business sense."
"One word more: Out of every crisis, every tribulation,
every disaster, mankind rises with some share of greater
knowledge, of higher decency, of purer purpose."
THE VISION THING: "Republican leaders not only have failed
in material things, they have failed in national vision,
because in disaster they have held out no hope, they have
pointed out no path for the people below to climb back to
places of security and of safety in our American life."
"Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in
this crusade to restore America to its own people.'
9)
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY, F.D.R. Washington, D.C., 12 April
1933:
"Common ideals and a community of interest, together with a
spirit of cooperation, have led to the realization that the
well-being of one nation depends in large measure upon the
well-being of its neighbors."
10) DAY OF INFAMY, F.D.R. Washington, D.C., 8 December 1941:
"No matter how long it may take us to overcome this
premeditated invasion, the American people in their
righteous might will win through to absolute victory."
"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked
and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a
state of war has existed between the United States and the
Japanese Empire."
11) FIRST INAUGURAL, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. Washington, D.C., 20
January 1953:
"Since this century's beginning, a time of tempest has
seemed to come upon the continents of the earth. Masses of
Asia have wakened to strike off shackles of the past. Great
nations of Europe have waged their bloodiest wars. Thrones
have toppled and their vast empires have disappeared. New
nations have been born."
"In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves
groping to know the full sense and meaning of the times in
which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech
God's guidance. We summon all our knowledge of the past and
we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit and
will to meet the question: how far have we come in man's
long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing
the light--a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? or
are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?"
"At such a time in history, we, who are free, must proclaim
anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of our
fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man,
governed by eternal moral and natural laws."
WE ALL SHARE THE SAME DREAMS:
"
we know that the virtues
most cherished by free peoples--love of truth, pride of
work, devotion to country--all are treasures equally
precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most
exalted.'
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ELECTED; THE LINK BETWEEN EFFORT AND
REWARD: "This faith fuels our whole way of life. It
decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but
to serve. It asserts that we have the right to choice of
our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It inspires
the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the
world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality
in all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and
invites the mockery of the tyrant. "
"
a conscious renewal of faith in our country "
THE NEW INTERDEPENDENCE: "We know that we are linked to
all free peoples not merely by a noble idea but by a simple
need. No free people can for long cling to any privilege or
enjoy any safety in economic solitude
This basic law of
interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace,
applies with thousand-fold intensity in the event of war. "
"So are we persuaded by necessity and by belief that the
strength of all free peoples lies in unity, their danger in
discord."
U.S.
LEADERSHIP:
II
destiny has laid upon our country the
responsibility of the free world's leadership
we Americans
know and observe the difference between world leadership and
imperialism; between firmness and truculence; between a
thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic reaction to the
stimulus of emergencies. II
"
we face the threat
with confidence and conviction.' "
"In pleading our just cause before the bar of history and in
pressing our labor for world peace, we shall be guided by
certain fixed principles.
(1) Abhorring war as a chosen way to balk the purposes
of those who threaten us
For, as it must be the
supreme purpose of all free men, so it must be the
dedication of their leaders, to save humanity from
preying upon itself.
(2) Realizing that common sense and common decency
alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall
never try to placate an aggressor by the false and
wicked bargain of trading honor for security. For in
the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a
burden as a prisoner's chains.
(3) Knowing that only a United States that is strong
and immensely productive can help defend freedom in our
world
(4) Honoring the identity and heritage of each nation
of the world
(5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of
proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them
to achieve their own security and well-being
(6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable
basis of military strength and the free world's
peace
For the impoverishment of any single people in
the world means danger to the well-being of all other
peoples
(7) Appreciating that economic need, military security,
and political wisdom combine to suggest regional
groupings of free peoples, we hope, within the
framework of the United Nations
(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom
itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all
continents and peoples in equal regard and honor
(9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of
all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make it
not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force.
And in our quest of honorable peace, we shall neither
compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease
By these rules of conduct, we hope to be known to all
peoples.
By their observance, an earth of peace may become not a
vision but a fact. "
history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the
weak or the timid. "
"For this truth must be clear before us: whatever America
hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass
in the heart of America."
"More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the
brave."
12) THE NEW FRONTIER, ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, J.F.K. Los Angeles,
CA, 15 July 1960:
NOTE: This is the first time Kennedy used the famous phrase
"the new frontier"; this became the name for his program,
and his circle of advisors became "New Frontiersmen. " The
New Frontier, in Kennedy's conception, was not a physical
territory, but rather the outer reaches of personal
commitment, where could be found "the opportunity for all of
us to be of service to this great republic in difficult and
dangerous times":
" I think the American people expect more from us than
cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave,
the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high--to permit
the customary passions of political debate. We are not here
to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can
guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.
As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years
ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past,
we shall be in danger of losing the future."
THREE DECADES AGO, KENNEDY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL DECAY, WHY
CAN'T WE RECOGNIZE IT NOW?
"There has also been a change--a slippage--i our
intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drouth
[sic] and famine have withered the field of ideas. Blight
has descended on our regulatory agencies--and a dry rot,
beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of
America Too many Americans have lost their way, their will
and their sense of historic purpose."
OLD PARADIGMERS: "Their pledge is a pledge to the status
quo--and today there can be no status quo."
"For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not
all won--and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier--
the frontier of the 1960s--a frontier of unknown
opportunities and perils--a frontier of unfulfilled hopes
and threats."
"Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation a new
political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt's New
Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the
New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises--it
is a set of challenges."
LET US CALL UPON OUR COUNTRYMEN TO BE THE NEW FREEDOM
FIGHTERS OF THE NEW INDEPENDENCE, JUST AS KENNEDY CALLED
If
I believe the times demand invention, innovation,
imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be new
pioneers on that New Frontier."
"Are we willing to match the Russian sacrifice of the
present for the future--or must we sacrifice our future in
order to enjoy the present? That is the question of the New
Frontier. That is the choice our nation must
make
between national greatness and national decline--
between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank
atmosphere of 'normalcy'--between determined dedication an
creeping mediocrity."
"All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks
to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we
cannot fail to try. "
13) INAUGURAL ADDRESS, J.F.K. Washington, D.C. either 20 or 4
January 1961.
NOTE: This is a beautiful speech, you might want to read it
in its entirety. Also, an editor's note: "Generally
considered to be one of the handful of great inaugural
addresses, this short speech reveals the heavy influence of
Theodore Sorensen, JFK's chief speechwriter, in its biblical
phraseology and its frequent use of contrapuntal clauses--
'United there is little we cannot do divided, there is
little we can do'--a style derived from Lincoln's use of
parallelism in his speeches."
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the
survival and the success of liberty."
"To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United
Nations, our last best hope. "
DIRECT APPEAL, VERY EFFECTIVE: "Can we forge against these
enemies (tyranny, poverty, disease, and war) a grand a
global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can
assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join
in that historic effort?"
"And so, my fellow Americans--ask not what your country can
do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
14) THE QUEST FOR PEACE, J.F.K. Address to the opening session
of the U.N. General Assembly, New York city, 25 September
1961:
INTERDEPENDENCE: "For disarmament without checks is but a
shadow--and a community without law is but a shell."
"But the great question which confronted this body in 1945
is still before us: whether man's cherished hopes for
progress and peace are to be destroyed by terror and
disruption, whether the 'foul winds of war' can be tamed in
time to free the cooling winds of reason, and whether the
pledges of our Charter are to be fulfilled or defied--
pledges to secure peace, progress, human rights and world
law.
"Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been
used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or
example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are
not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because the
terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot
be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its
own response."
15) A STEP TOWARD PEACE, J.F.K. Announcing a treaty banning
atmospheric and oceanic testing of nuclear weapons,
Washington, D.C., 26 July 1963:
" the achievement of this goal is not a victory for one
side--it is a victory for mankind."
"
it is an important first step--a step towards peace--a
step towards reason--a step away from war. "
"But now, for the first time in many years, the path of
peace may be open. No one can be certain what the future
will bring But history and our own conscience will judge
us harsher if we do not now make every effort to test our
hopes by action, and this is the place to begin. According
to the ancient Chinese proverb, 'A journey of a thousand
miles must begin with a single step.' My fellow Americans,
let us take that first step. Let us, if we can, get back
from the shadows of war and seek out the way of peace. And
if that journey is one thousand miles, or even more, let
history record that we, in this land at this time, took the
first step."
16) SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON U.S. POLICY IN SOUTHEAST
ASIA, L.B.J Call for Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Washington,
D.C., 5 August 1964:
"After consultation with the leaders of both parties in the
Congress, I further announced a decision to ask the Congress
for a Resolution expressing the unity and determination of
the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting
peace in Southeast Asia."
"Our policy in Southeast Asia has been consistent and
unchanged since 1954. I summarized in on June 2 in four
simple propositions:
1. America keeps her word. Here as elsewhere, we must
and shall honor our commitments.
2. The issue is the future of Southeast Asia as a
whole. A threat to any nation in that region is a
threat to all, and a threat to us.
3. Our purpose is peace. We have no military, political
or territorial ambitions in the area.
4. This is not just a jungle war, but a struggle for
freedom on every front of human activity."
17) THE PURSUIT OF PEACE, RICHARD NIXON. Televised, and radio-
broadcast speech, written by Nixon himself, rejecting both
North Vietnam's intransigence and the peace movement's call
for a negotiated withdrawal. Washington, D.C., 3 November
1969:
"I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division
about Vietnam is that many Americans have lost confidence in
what their government has told them about our policy. The
American people cannot and should not be asked to support a
policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace
unless they know the truth about that policy."
"
there were some who urged that I end the war at once by
ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American
forces From a political standpoint this would have been a
popular and easy course to follow. After all, we became
involved in the war while my predecessor was in office. I
could blame the defeat which would be the result of my
action and come out as peacemaker. Some put it to me quite
bluntly: This was the only way to avoid allowing Johnson's
war to become Nixon's war.'
"But I had a greater obligation than to think only of the
years of my administration and of the next election. I had
to think of the effect of my decision on the next generation
and on the future of peace and freedom in America and in the
world."
"For the United States, this first defeat (i.e. withdrawal)
in our nation's history would result in a collapse of
confidence in American leadership, not only in Asia but
throughout the world."
PARALLELS WITH CURRENT SITUATION:
"--A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and
lets down its friends.
--Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam without
question would promote recklessness in the councils of those
great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world
conquest
Ultimately, this would cost more lives. It
would not bring peace; it would bring more war."
" I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal
--or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a
negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued
implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if
necessary
I have chosen this second course.
It is not the easy way.
It is the right way.
It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause
of peace--not just in Vietnam but in the Pacific and in
the world. "
"If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails
over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no
future as a free society."
"I know it may not be fashionable to speak of patriotism or
national destiny these days. But I feel it is appropriate
to do so on this occasion."
"Let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against
defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot
defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can
do that. "
18) THE NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION, RICHARD NIXON. This is a State
of the Union speech. I list it here, however, because it is
probably what the Governor was referring to as the NEW
FEDERALISM SPEECH. Washington, D.C., 22 January 1971:
"The people of this nation are eager to get on with the
quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are
prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to
open the doors that will set free again the real greatness
of this nation--the genius of the American people."
"If we act boldly--if we seize this moment and achieve these
goals--we can close the gap between promise and performance
in American government. We can bring together the resources
of this nation and the spirit of the American people.'
"
let us also establish an effective work incentive and an
effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by
which more can help themselves. This shall be our goal.
Let us generously help those who are not able to help
themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to
help themselves but refuse to do so."
"As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember
that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of
separate states, without a workable central government. At
that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they
quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the
states with a government of central powers
II
"For almost two centuries since--and dramatically in the
1930's--at those great turning points when the question has
been between the states and the federal government, that
question has been resolved in favor of a stronger central
federal government."
"During this time the nation grew and the nation prospered.
But one thing history tells us is that no great movement
goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they
adapt, or they slowly die.'
"The time has now come in America to reverse the flow of
power and resources from the states and communities to
Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from
Washington to the states and communities and, more
important, to the people all across America."
"Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with
government at all levels. They will not--and they should
not--continue to tolerate the gap between promise and
performance in government.
The fact is that we have made the federal government so
strong it grows musclebound and the states and localities so
weak they approach impotence."
DECENTRALIZED DECISION-MAKING WORKS BETTER IN AN
INCREASINGLY COMPLEX WORLD:
"If we put more power in more places, we can make government
more creative in more places. That way we multiply the
number of people with the ability to make things happen--
and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy
throughout America."
"As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex
in America, as the forces that shape our lives seem to have
grown more distant and more impersonal, a great feeling of
frustration has crept across this land."
"Let us say to them (millions of frustrated young Americans)
and let us say to all Americans, 'We hear you. We will give
you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have
more to say about the decisions that affect your future--a
chance to participate in government--because we are going to
provide more centers of power where what you do can make a
difference that you can see and feel in your own life and
the life of your whole community.
"The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best
what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust
local governments is really a contention that you cannot
trust people to govern themselves. This notion is
completely foreign to the American experience. Local
government is the government closest to the people, it is
most responsible to the individual person. It is people's
government in a far more intimate way than the government in
Washington can ever be. "
"I have faith in people. I trust the judgement of people.
Let us give the people of America a chance, a bigger voice
in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly
affect their lives."
"One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a
battlefield and spoke of a 'government of the people, by the
people, for the people. Too often since then, we have
become a nation of the government, by the government, for
the government."
"Change is hard. But without change there can be no
progress. And for each of us the question then becomes, not
'Will change cause me inconvenience? but 'Will change bring
progress for America?'
Giving up power is hard (how
ironic, Dick) But I would urge all of you, as leaders of
this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in
world history are those who gave power to people, and not
2
those who took it away. "
THE VISION THING: "Those men who met at Philadelphia left a
great heritage because they had a vision--not only of what
the nation was but of what it could become.'
"HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, " OPEN DOOR TO
IMMIGRANTS AND OPEN DOOR TO THE DISEMPOWERED:
"
America was founded as the land of the open door--as a
haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of
refuge, of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of
America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape
persecution and to find opportunity--and they left wide the
door of welcome for others to follow
"For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed
tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity.
We can open the door to full and effective participation in
the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door
to full and effective participation in the decisions that
affect their lives. We can open the door to a new
partnership among governments at all levels, between those
governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we
can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of
people here in America now and in the years to come."
THE APPEAL--"THIS CAN BE THE CONGRESS":
"This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war
in the nation's history
This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding
economy
This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that
has robbed recipients of their dignity and robbed states and
cities of their resources
But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is
opening the way to a new American revolution--a peaceful
revolution in which power was turned back to the people--in
which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and
made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as
profound, a far-reaching, as exciting as that first
revolution almost 200 years ago
19) INAUGURAL ADDRESS, RONALD REAGAN. Washington, D.C., 20
January 1981:
"Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor
by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and
keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace
with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit
upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's
future for the temporary convenience of the present.'
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to
our problem; government is the problem."
"We are a nation that has a government--not the other way
around."
"All of us need to reminded that the Federal Government did
not create the States; the States created the Federal
Government."
"Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the
dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this administration, so
help me God. We shall reflect the compassion that is so
much a part of your makeup.'
ECONOMIC GRIDLOCK: "In the days ahead I will propose
removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and
reduced our productivity."
20) REMARKS AT A CEREMONY COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE NORMANDY INVASION, D-DAY, RONALD REAGAN. Pointe du Hoc,
France, 6 June 1984:
"We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied
armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to
liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a
terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in
the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was
enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in
Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allied stood and fought
against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human
history."
SEE THE PRETTY DANGER, SMELL THE PRETTY DANGER, TASTE THE
PRETTY DANGER:
"We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore
of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this
moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men,
and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the
roar of the cannon."
"Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the
top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these
cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe.
Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of
fighting, only 90 could still bear arms."
"These are the boys of Point de Hoc. These are the men who
took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a
continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen
Spender's poem. You are men who in your 'lives fought for
life
and left the vivid air signed with your honor.
"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was
right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a
just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the
next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not
lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between
the use of force for liberation and the use of force for
conquest."
"You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's
country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying
for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of
government ever devised by man."
'AT THIS MOMENT' TIME DIFFERENCES--CAN WE DO THIS WITH THE
MIDDLE EAST?:
"The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the
invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They
fought--or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know
in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4
a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and
praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty
Bell."
"We in America have learned bitter lessons form two World
Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace,
than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to
respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that
isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable
response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist
intent."
"Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value
[valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand
for the ideals for which they lived and died."
21) ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON THE EXPLOSION OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE
CHALLENGER, RONALD REAGAN. Televised from the Oval Office,
28 January 1986:
"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs
to the brave. The Challenger crew was fulling us into the
future, and we'll continue to follow them."
"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them,
this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved
goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the
face of God.
13 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
QUOTES FOR S.O.U.
1)
"Voice of America: Ronald Reagan and the American Rhetorical
Tradition" (article) :
"Americans tend to respond more to what is said than to how
it is said. And it is here that Ronald Reagan's genius
lies. He conveys a message of native optimism and hope for
the future which is deeply rooted in the American character
and in American history."
R.R.:
"Let me tell you something of the American
character. You might think that with such a varied nation
there couldn't be any one character, but in many fundamental
ways there is
We're idealists
We're a compassionate
people
We're an optimistic people. Like you, we inherited
a vast land of endless skies, tall mountains, rich fields,
and open prairies. It made us see the possibilities in
everything. It made us hopeful. And we devised an economic
system that rewarded individual efforts, that gave us good
reason for hope. "
"As early as 1964, in his famous speech for Barry Goldwater,
he spoke of America's 'rendezvous with destiny'
"
" Sometimes people call me an idealist, Woodrow Wilson once
said. 'That is why I know I am an American.
"
John Stuart Mill, who said: 'a state which dwarfs
men
will find that with small men no great thin can really
be accomplished.
"
Franklin Roosevelt, who told Congress in 1935,
Continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and
moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the
national fiber. To dole our relief in this way is to
administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human
spirit.
" Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, Mr.
Reagan has stressed. 'It is the universal right of all God's
children.
" (Luigi Barzini said that) America is 'alarmingly
optimistic, compassionate, incredibly generous
It was a
spiritual wind that drove Americans irresistibly ahead from
the beginning.
2)
SACRIFICES MADE FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER: "Those who expect
to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the
fatigues of supporting it. "
-Thomas Paine
3)
"The ball of liberty, I believe most piously, is now so well
in motion that it will roll around the globe
for light and
liberty go together."
-Thomas Jefferson
4)
"Think of your forefathers and of your posterity. "
--John Quincy Adams (1802)
5)
ON EDUCATION: "Mind is the great leveler of all things."
-Daniel Webster (1825)
6)
"with malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right."
--Abraham Lincoln (1865)
7)
"Hold each other in true fellowship."
--Henry Ward Beecher (1869)
8)
"Peace upon any other basis than national independence
is
fit only for slaves. "
--William Edgar Borah (1919)
9)
"A new integrity of human life. "
--Frank Lloyd Wright (1939)
10) "Americans fight joyously in a just cause."
--Harold L. Ickes (1941)
11) "We are going to win the war and we are going to win the
peace that follows."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
12) "What we have done so far are but small building blocks in a
huge pyramid to come."
--John H. Glenn, Jr. (1962)
13) "We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at
one another."
--Richard M. Nixon (1969)
14)
"
out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the
thick darkness. If
--Moses proclaims the Ten Commandments
15) "I see the ardor for liberty catching and spreading."
--Dr. Richard Price, in London, hails the French
Revolution (November 4, 1789)
16) "Events, which are the arguments of God, are stronger than
words, which are the arguments of men."
--"Beveridge the Brilliant" takes up the White
Man's Burden (April 27, 1898)
17) "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people
into a war."
-President Wilson asks Congress to Declare war
against Germany (April 2, 1917)
18) POSSIBLE PARALLELS WITH GULF SITUATION: "When we consider
these things, then the valley of the Thames draws closer to
the farms of Kansas."
--General Eisenhower conquers London (June 12,
1945)
19) ENVIRO:
" Nature never did betray The heart that loved
her
"
-William Wordsworth
20) ENVIRO:
"
Content to breathe his native air "
--Alexander Pope: Ode on Solitude
21) ENVIRO:
"Our Union is river, lake, ocean and sky. "
--O.W. Holmes, Brother Jonathan's Lament for
Sister Caroline
22)
THE VISION THING: "A vision without a task is but a dream,
a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision with a task is
the hope of the world."
--Inscription on a church in Sussex, England, 1730
23) "Opportunity doesn't necessarily knock on the door; it may
be leaning against the wall waiting to be noticed."
--anonymous aphorism
24) "To look up and not down,
To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand. "
--E.E. Hale: Ten Times One Is Ten, 1870
25) "Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the
progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed,
more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths
disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change
of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep
pace with the times."
--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval,
July 12, 1816.
26) "The Ship of Democracy
"
--Grover Cleveland, in a letter to Wilson S.
Bissell, February 15, 1894.
27) CONCILIATORY RETRO ON GULF DEBATE: "If our democracy is to
flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to
function it must have dissent."
--Henry Steele Commager, Freedom, Loyalty,
Dissent, 1954.
28) EMPOWERMENT: "[The people] are the only sure reliance for
the preservation of our liberty."
--Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison,
December 20, 1787.
29)
EMPOWERMENT: "Every government degenerates when trusted to
the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves
therefore are its only safe depositories."
--Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Abbe Arnoud,
July 19, 1789.
30) "A democracy is peaceloving. It does not like to go to war.
It is slow to rise to provocation. When it has once been
provoked to the point where it must grasp the sword, it does
not easily forgive its adversary for having produced the
situation Democracy fights in anger--it fights for the
very reason that is was forced to go to war."
-George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-
1950, 1951.
31) "One has the right to be wrong in a democracy."
--Claude Pepper, in the Congressional Record, May
27, 1946.
32) "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of
our is that he shall be able and willing to pull his
weight."
--Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech in New York
City, November 11, 1902.
33) EMPOWERMENT: "All the ills of democracy can be cured by
more democracy."
--Alfred E. Smith, in a speech in Albany, New
York, June 27, 1933.
34) ****EMPOWERMENT: "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is
a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it
is a thing to be achieved."
--William Jennings Bryan, in a speech in
Washington, D.C., February 22, 1899.
35) HOPE: "The longest day must have its close--the gloomiest
night will wear on to a morning."
--Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852.
36) "This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin."
--John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Crisis, 1848.
37) WE MUST THINK MORE ABOUT X, NOT Y: "If more politicians in
this country were thinking about the next generation instead
of the next election, it might be better for the United
States and the world."
--Claude Pepper, quoted in the Orlando Sentinel-
Star, December 29, 1946.
38) "There are always two parties, the party of the Past and the
party of the Future; the Establishment and the Movement."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Life and Letters in New
England, " Lectures and Biographical Sketches,
1883.
39) "A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman
thinks of the next generation."
--Attributed to James Freeman Clarke.
40) "My affections were first for my own country, and then,
generally, for all mankind."
--Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Thomas Law,
January 15, 1811.
41) "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land."
--Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address,
March 4, 1861.
42) "Patriotism is just loyalty to friends, people, families."
--Robert Santos, quoted in Al Santoli, Everything
We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by
Thirty-three American Soldiers Who Fought It,
1981.
43) LITERACY: "Books are not lumps of lifeless paper but minds
alive on the shelves."
--Gilbert Highet
44) When asked his secret, Wayne Gretsky replied:
"I skate to where to puck is going to be, not where it has
been. "
45) "The game is well worth the candle that may have to be
burned far into the night. There is no feeling like the
feeling of success."
--J. Paul Getty
46) EDUCATION: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how
to remain an artist once he grows up. "
--Pablo Picasso
47) FACTOID: In 1914, the first year income tax was collected,
Americans paid an average per capita tax of 41 cents--and
only one percent of the population was obligated to pay
taxes at all.
48) EDUCATION: "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea
inside us. If
--Franz Kafka, Letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27,
1904.
49) "The war will continue to be prosecuted with vigor, as the
best means of securing peace.
--James K. Polk, Second Annual Message to
Congress, December 8, 1846.
50)
****
"
let every man stand to his post, and
let
posterity find our skeleton and armor on the spot where
duty required us to stand. "
-Millard Fillmore, Speech at Buffalo, N.Y., April
16, 1861.
51) "We accepted war for humanity. We can accept no terms of
peace which shall not be in the interest of humanity."
--William McKinley, At Cedar Rapids, IA, October
11, 1906.
52)
"[war is a] dramatic symbol of a thousand forms of duty.' "
--Woodrow Wilson, Speech at Brooklyn, NY, May 11,
1914.
53) "We cannot accept the doctrine that war must be forever a
part of man's destiny."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt, Campaign address at
Cleveland, Ohio, November 2, 1940.
54)
"
victory required a mighty manifestation of the most
ennobling of the virtues of man--faith, courage, fortitude,
sacrifice!"
-Dwight Eisenhower, Address in Ottawa, Canada,
January 10, 1946.
55) "Out of rubble heaps, willing hand can rebuild a better
city; but out of freedom lost can stem only generations of
hate and bitter struggle an brutal oppression
=
--Dwight Eisenhower, Address at Columbia
University, March 23, 1950.
51) "Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with
our government."
-Thomas Jefferson, To William Carmichael, August
22, 1790.
52) ENVIRO: "Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is
full of stars. "
Henry Van Dyke, "America For Me. "
53) ENVIRO: " spacious skies amber waves of grain purple
mountain majesties fruited plain sea to shining sea "
--Katharine Lee Bates, "America the Beautiful. "
(Lange/Grossman)
January 14, 1991
9:30 A.M.
[ONION8.DOC]
DRAFT EIGHT
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
THE STATE OF THE UNION, 1991
THE CAPITOL
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1991
malus State event speed of
I come to speak to you and our citizens in this House of the
people, certain that we stand at a defining hour.
at
chotate
This is Democracy's day. A day of reckoning, not simply for
should that is
this government, but for the state of this Union -- and the
community of nations.
We have been engaged in a great struggle in the skies, and
on the seas and sands halfway around the world, with a purpose
that is not itself remote.
We are Americans: part of something larger than ourselves.
For two centuries, we've done the hard work of freedom. And
tonight, the world is facing down a threat to something we've
sought for twenty generations. What is at stake is not one small
country, it's a big idea: a new world order.
A world worthy of our struggle, and worthy of our children,
that leaves the Cold War in the dust of history -- drawing
together diverse nations in common cause, to fulfill the
universal values of mankind: peace, security, and the rule of
law.
A community of nations, resolutely gathered to condemn
lawless aggression, as a denial of freedom, and an assault on
mankind.
Saddam Hussein's unprovoked invasion -- his ruthless,
2
systematic rape of a peaceful neighbor -- violated everything the
community of nations stands for.
But the world has resisted the trap of appeasement,
cynicism, and isolation that tempts tyrants -- and met Saddam's
invasion, united: with twelve United Nations resolutions; forces
from 28 countries on five continents; and an unprecedented degree
of international solidarity.
The end of the Cold War is a victory for all humanity. Our
purpose now is to achieve a victory, not over another nation, but
over war itself.
This is the hope of mankind. In Eastern Europe, the Soviet
Union, Latin America, Asia, Africa -- all who struggle confirm
the wisdom of our forefathers. From every corner of the world
we've felt the force of a revolution that puts the people at the
center, as the only true source of power -- which government
Gult
exists to serve.
Democracy -- the revolution that came to stay -- came to
life here. But make no mistake: our work is not done.
We are Americans. And the hopes of humanity turn to us, to
fulfill democracy's promise -- and to do the hard work of
freedom.
We are Americans. Part of something larger than ourselves.
The hard work, the courage, and the conviction we see in the
Persian Gulf today is simply the American character in action.
The indomitable American spirit that is winning this victory for
3
world peace and justice, is also the same spirit that gives us
the power and the potential to meet our toughest challenges at
home. Surely if we have the resourcefulness and the resolve, the
cooperation and the strength in diversity, the deeply-rooted
faith to confront evil for the sake of good in a land so far
away, then surely we can dare to make our America all that it can
and should be.
The future of American democracy is bright. America -- like
every American -- must lead by example. And we are judged as
much by what we do at home, as by any of our words and deeds
abroad.
A great woman reminds me of that every day: my wife
Barbara. She likes to say that "what happens in your house is
more important than what happens in the White House." She's
right.
So tonight, I come before this House, and the American
people, with an appeal for change. Tonight will be more than a
call for new government initiatives. It is a call for new
initiative in government, in our communities, and from every
American -- to get ready for the next American century.
We have within our reach the promise of a new and more
ennobling age. An age with no dark corners, no forgotten places,
no souls lost in the dreamless sleep of indifference, or the
nightmare of despair.
We dare not hope for lesser things, or dream in shades of
grey. For we are Americans -- a community of conscience. And if
4
anyone tells you America's best days are behind her, they're
looking the wrong way.
Who will be the leaders of the next American century?
Everyone who steps forward. Getting one addict off drugs.
Convincing one troubled teenager not to give up on life.
Comforting one AIDS patient. Teaching a farmer in Africa how to
feed his village.
The problems may be different, but the key to all solutions
remains the same -- leadership. And the state of the union, is
the union of each of us, one to the other: the sum of our
friendships, marriages, families, and communities.
This has been the source of our strength since the birth of
this nation. Government's potential to solve problems alone will
be limited -- but America's potential knows no limits.
To find meaning and reward by serving some purpose higher
and broader than ourselves -- it is to know the irresistible
force of a child's hand, of a friend who stands by you and stays
there -- of an idea that is simply right.
Houses don't need to stand empty and abandoned, while people
lack shelter. Businesses don't need to worry about shortages of
people, while young men and women stand idle.
So if you've got a hammer, find a nail. If you know how to
read, find someone who can't. If you're not hungry, not lonely,
not in trouble -- seek out someone who is.
Join the community of conscience. Do the hard work of
freedom. For there lies the state of our union.
5
We've always known that hand-wringing negativism never drew
water from the ground -- but hard work will. We're a nation of
rock-solid realism, and clear-eyed idealism.
We are Americans: Part of something larger than ourselves.
We are the nation that believes in the future.
Together, we have already begun to define it: by putting
dollars for child care directly in the hands of parents, instead
of bureaucrats. By unshackling the potential of Americans with
disabilities. By applying the creativity of the marketplace in
the service of the environment. By making affordable housing
available to more Americans.
All of these legislative accomplishments of the past year
represent government on a human scale: that puts power and
freedom of choice at ground level -- with the individual, and the
community. The strength of a democracy is not the bureaucracy.
It is the people.
Right now, in some regions of our country, people are in
genuine economic pain. I talk with them, see them, read their
letters -- and I hear them. [ looking for a line or two from
letters ].
But Americans never followed the false prophets of doom in
the last decade, and I don't think they'll follow them now. I'm
not about to paint some rosy scenario. But let me share with you
some reasons for why I think the worst is behind us:
6
First, we don't have to drive enormous inflation out of the
economy, the way we did the last time. Second, most industries
don't have big inventories piled up, so they won't have to make
big cuts in production. And third, exports are running solid and
strong. In fact, American businesses are exporting at a record
rate.
So let's put these hard times in perspective. Together,
since 1981, we've created 22 million jobs, cut inflation in half,
cut unemployment by half, and cut interest rates in half.
Yes, we're having some growing pains. But the most
important reason we're going to make this downturn short and
shallow is our agenda for the future -- an agenda whose
centerpiece is economic growth.
The hard work now before us is to set the foundations for
another record-breaking decade -- for competitive strength that
will carry us into the next American century. We must focus our
efforts on investing in the future, encouraging economic growth,
and empowering the individual.
A first-class future needs first-class talent. That means
an education system second to none. Our historic partnership
with the governors of the 50 states has already galvanized a
revolution in education. And I'll soon be offering proposals for
reform from the ground up -- based on a fundamental partnership
with parents, teachers, and community leaders. We can turn out
the brightest and the best America's got to offer. And we will.
7
The future calls for first-class financial security. I know
people worry about our banking system. We have and will continue
to make sure our banks are safe, sound, and able to provide
adequate credit. So I will soon submit banking reform proposals
No American should ever again fear for the security of their
savings.
American technology and the American future go hand in hand.
Let us strengthen our research and development capability --
commercialize the results of important federal research. And let
our entrepreneurs do what they do best: create jobs.
Our future can never again be held hostage to foreign energy
suppliers. We will, we must reduce our energy vulnerability once
and for all. Therefore, I will soon be presenting a
comprehensive National Energy strategy.
Our forefathers built a future on mobility. Today is no
different. We must invest in our transportation infrastructure
-- and I will soon propose a new National Highway System. To
keep America on the rise, let's keep her on the move.
Finally, at a time when exports are our strong suit, we
should continue to expand world trade -- with a successful
Uruguay Round, a Mexican Free Trade Agreement, and fulfillment of
the vision of our Enterprise for the Americas Initiative. When
trade is free and fair, the America of the future can compete
with anyone.
But these investments in the future will have to be matched
by a comprehensive program for strong economic growth.
8
Last year, amid all the sound and the fury, we curbed the
built-in growth of government spending, and put government on the
pay-as-you-go plan -- so that future debates about spending the
people's money will mean a battle of ideas, not a bidding war.
Along the way, we freed up nearly 500 billion dollars for
job-creating private investment. This investment will be matched
by our efforts to keep this economy growing strong.
[Items in growth package to come]
Putting more power in the hands of individuals, communities,
and institutions must be the third part of our foundation for the
next American century.
All Americans must have the power of an alternative. So let
us break the bondage of dependency, and build the bonds of
community in neighborhoods that most need help, and above all,
need hope.
That means new incentives to create jobs in our inner
cities, by encouraging investment through enterprise zones.
It also means tenant control and ownership of public housing.
It means giving schools a reason to run better -- by
allowing parents the power of choice in where to send their kids,
so all have access to the best.
Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege
of wealth. So tonight I ask the Congress to join me in drafting
an economic bill of rights, for all Americans. [specifics to come]
Let us protect a fundamental civil right -- freedom from the
crime and fear that stalks our cities. I will soon convene a
9
Crime Summit Conference, for action at street level. And from
77
the Congress, we need tough crime control legislation. Let's
finish the job.
The heart of our ability to compete in the next American
century will depend on how well we enlist a large, untapped
anting
the
source of talent -- among the young and underskilled, who need
training. The disadvantaged, whose lives can be turned to
advantage. The older and more experienced who want to work, but
are trapped by the social security caps on earnings.
Let no senseless racism or religious rivalry divide us. We
must abolish all barriers, bias, inside tracks, two-tiered
systems, glass ceilings, unfair breaks, and rungless ladders --
for all Americans, for good, forever. No one is unnecessary.
We don't have a soul to waste or a minute to lose.
Finally, let us revive the ideal of the citizen politician
who comes not to stay, but to serve. Washington, once a
wilderness of swamps and fields, is now a wilderness of special
interests. It's time for election reform.
Let's eliminate PACs -- and put the national interest over
the special interests. Plan not for the next election, but the
next generation.
We are Americans. Part of something larger than ourselves.
There are times when we must accept our responsibility to
lead the world away from the dark chaos of dictators and
10
lawlessness, toward the brighter promise of a. better day for all
God's children.
This is one such time: an hour of great struggle and
greater hope -- a defining hour for America and all free nations.
And there is no one more devoted, more committed to the hard
work of freedom, than every single soldier, sailor, airman,
marine, and Coast Guardsman now engaged in the Persian Gulf.
Each of them has stepped forward freely, to provide for this
nation's defense -- and now they struggle bravely, to earn for
America, for the world, and for future generations a just and
lasting peace.
They are truly America's finest. And our commitment to them
must be the equal of their commitment to their country.
Our purpose in the Persian Gulf remains constant: to drive
Iraq out of Kuwait, to restore Kuwait's legitimate government, to
ensure the stability and security of the Gulf region, and to
eliminate the threat of future aggression.
Most Americans know instinctively why we are in Kuwait.
They know that we cannot leave the well-being of the world to the
ruthless might-makes-right of dictators like Saddam.
They know our challenge is to secure a bright and prosperous
future for the free world and the fledgling democracies. They
know we must make sure that the lion's share of the world's oil
resources don't finance the further aggressions of a tyrant. And
they know that we cannot allow the dawn of a more stable world
order to be cut short.
11
Democracy brings the undeniable value of thoughtful dissent
-- and we have heard dissenting voices. They confirm the rights
we love, and live by -- and by reason of those rights alone, we
are united in purpose, and in principle.
The course of our struggle in the Gulf is well known to all.
It was never expected to be easy, but it goes according to plan.
Our success in this great struggle is the result of years of
preparedness. It is the cutting edge of American technology --
our research and development, our manufacturing, our quality
control, our innovation -- that now allow us to engage in
difficult and hostile conditions with minimum loss of life. Our
men and women have the best. And they deserve it.
While I won't venture to predict how long this effort will
take, I'm certain of how it will end. The world community is
about to win its first collective victory for mankind. We will
prevail, so that peace can prevail.
Tonight in the Gulf, the principles that have defined our
history and will determine our future are at stake.
For the first time in the post-war era, the international
community is united. The leadership of the United Nations, once
a hoped-for ideal, has become real. Israel has shown heroic
restraint in the face of Saddam's cynical attempts to divide and
conquer.
And now the world has an opportunity to fulfill the long-
held promise of a new world order -- where the ruthless resort to
force goes unrewarded, and individual aggression meets collective
12
resistance. Where the division that was once an invitation to
aggression is replaced by strength and unity.
If we succeed in the Gulf -- as I know we will -- the world
community will have sent a stern and enduring warning to any
dictator or despot, present or future, who contemplates outlaw
aggression.
Saddam's first and final miscalculation was thinking that
this conflict would be seen as Iraq against America. Indeed, as
26 nations from five continents are proving, it is Iraq against
the world.
Yes, the United States bears a major share, not only of
costs but of leadership in this effort. And that's how it should
be. The United States is unique. Only the United States can
bear this responsibility. Not Europe, not the Soviet Union, not
Japan. We are the one nation on this earth that can assemble the
forces of peace. Among the nations of the world only the United
States of America has both the moral standing and the means to
back it up. So we must. And so we will.
This is the burden of leadership. America must lead, as we
always have, and only we can.
This nation long ago ceased to find glory in war. It is a
brutal business. We fight in anger, for the fact that we have to
fight. And each of us will measure, among ourselves and within
our souls, the losses of this great struggle.
Any cost in lives is beyond mankind's power to measure.
13
But this we know: Our cause is just. And the cost of turning
our backs on freedom is beyond mankind's power to imagine.
Let future generations understand the burden and the
blessing of freedom. And let them say, we stood where duty
required us to stand.
When history looks back upon us, let 1991 be the year that
we affirmed America as a community of conscience -- willing and
able to do the hard work of freedom.
Let them say that together, we climbed the hill. We stood
our ground. We did what had to be done.
The winds of change are with us now. The forces of freedom
are united. Let us end this century more confident than ever,
that we have the will -- at home and abroad -- to do what must be
done.
May God bless the United States of America.
# # #
15 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
IRAQ/GULF
1)
Current Biography, 1981:
"According to Patrick Seale of the London Observer,
(September 28, 1980), 'In 1969 he added a law degree to his
other honors by the simple expedient of turning up in the
examination hall with a pistol in his belt and accompanied
by four armed bodyguards. The examiners got the point. "
"In the months that followed his accession to the
Presidency, Hussein became the subject of a carefully
orchestrated personality cult."
2)
Gulf Strategy: January Themes and Messages--see for
comprehensive list of talking points
3) MEMO ON CONGRESSIONAL FLOOR STATEMENTS, Jan. 12, 1991
a.
Floor Statement by Rep. Stephen J. Solarz, Jan.12, 1991
"I believe there are some fundamental differences between
the situation in which we found ourselves in Vietnam then
and the situation we confront in the Persian Gulf today.
In Vietnam, vital American interests were never at stake.
In the Gulf they are.
In Vietnam, the cost in blood and treasure was out of all
proportion to the expected benefits of a successful defense
of South Vietnam.
In the Gulf, the enormous benefits of a successful effort to
get Iraq out of Kuwait far exceed the price we will have to
pay- if force must be used.
We've heard a lot of talk in this debate about the need for
patience.
We were patient when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
We were patient when Italy attacked Ethiopia in 1936.
We were patient when Germany Blitzkrieged Poland in 1939.
We were patient when Germany overran France in 1940.
We were patient, Mr. Speaker, right up to December 7, 1941-
-when Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor--by which time
Germany had conquered almost all of Europe and Japan
controlled much of Asia.
The great lesson of our time is that when evil is on the
march it must be confronted.
In the Persian Gulf, almost half a year after the brutal and
unprovoked annexation of Kuwait, the time for patience has
ended and the time for firmness has arrived.
Saddam Hussein represents a clear and present danger not
only to the region but to the world.
He has gone to war twice in the last ten years
Driven by a megalomaniacal lust for power, he is determined
to dominate the entire Middle East.
And if he is not stopped now, we will only have to stop him
later, under circumstances where he will be much more
difficult and dangerous to contain
And if we prevail, as surely we will, we will have prevented
a brutal dictator from getting his hands on the economic
jugular of the world.
We will have protected and stabilized the arab governments
courageous enough to have opposed him
And, perhaps most importantly of all, by demonstrating that
aggression does not pay, and that the international
community will uphold the sanctity of existing borders, we
will have established a precedent which could lead to the
creation of a new world order, governed by the rule of law
rather than the law of the jungle, and in which nations
shall not make war against other nations anymore."
b.
Remarks by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Jan. 11, 1991
"Now this sudden reversal of the world's fortunes reminds us
of a sad and an old lesson, which runs throughout the course
of human history: We humans are an imperfect species,
capable of both great good, but also great evil. Saddam's
fascistic tyranny, his brutal aggression are but the latest
examples of the capacity of human beings to inflict pain on
one another.
It's no easy thing to look into the eyes of men and women
who are marching off to the drum beat of war. It's no easy
thing to look into the eyes of their families gathered to
see these soldiers off, all of them haunted by the ultimate
question, 'Will I see my loved one again?'
More than 2,000 years ago, Herodotus said it; 'To have peace
you must prepare for war.
ON FAILURE OF SANCTIONS:
five months of sanctions have
given Saddam five months of time to pillage and rape Kuwait,
to fortify his defenses, to endanger further the lives of
American soldiers are there.
Five months later in Baghdad, restaurants and cafes and
discos remain open. Car dealers continue to sell cars and
high-rise apartments continue to rise. Starvation seems
very far away in this land where the science of agriculture
was in fact invented at the dawn of civilization.
No sanctions we impose can compare to the suffering the
Iraqi people faced with their eight-year war with Iran,
suffering which did nothing to dislodge Saddam from power or
to change his course. How can we hope that a man who would
kill his own people with poison gas will retreat because his
people may have to stand in line for food?
Remember the words of Pericles more than 2,000 years ago,
responding to the demands of the Spartans for peace at any
price, at the price of compromise, particularly. He
said There is one principle which I hold to through
everything: if you give way, you will instantly have to meet
some greater demand,
(quoting Eisenhower) : 'Eagerness to avoid war can produce
outright or implicit agreement that injustices and wrongs of
the present shall be perpetuated into the future We must
not participate in any such false agreement. Thereby, we
would outrage our own conscience. In the eyes of those who
suffer injustice, we would become partners with their
oppressors. In the judgement of history, we would have sold
out the freedom of men for the potage of false peace. We
would assure future conflict.'
President Franklin Roosevelt said, 'There can be no
stability or peace either within nations or between nations,
except under laws and moral standards adhered to by all.
International anarchy destroys every foundation for peace.
It jeopardizes either the immediate or the future security
of every nation, large or small. It is, therefore, a matter
of vital interest and concern to the people of the United
States that the maintenance of international morality be
restored.
A victory by Saddam Hussein is a victory of anarchy over
order, of war over peace, of brutality over liberty, of
immorality over morality
Victory for Saddam will embolden all who share his thirst
for power and disregard for civil conduct. The defeat of
Saddam will restore international morality and enhance
prospects for a generation of civilized relations, peaceful
relations, among the nations of the world."
C.
Rep. Les Aspin, Jan. 12, 1991:
"If the United States is to be credible in the post-cold-
war world, if the United Nations is to be a useful vehicle
for collective security, then we cannot shrink from the use
of force. A future aggressor can ignore the next UN
deadline if we ignore this one.' "
d.
Sen. John Warner, Jan. 11, 1991:
"As CIA Director Webster stated in his letter to the
Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee dated January
10th of this year, 'Our judgment remains that even if
sanctions continue to be enforced for an additional six to
twelve months, economic hardship alone is unlikely to compel
Saddam Hussein to retreat from Kuwait or cause regime-
threatening popular discontent in Iraq. "
e.
Rep. Robert Michel, Jan. 10, 1991
"Patience and delay can be virtues when they help bring
about military or diplomatic goals. But when patience and
delay become foreign policy goals in themselves
they're no
longer virtues.
Patience at any price is not a policy; it's a cop-out
Let no one in this chamber or anyone else lecture me on the
horrors of war.
If Saddam convinces his neighbors he can survive this
crisis, he'll become something more than a former hit man
with delusions of grandeur. He'll be someone who has
triumphed over a worldwide coalition. And if you seriously
think that that wouldn't be a sinister event in the history
of the 20th century, I think you're fooling yourself."
4)
DOE TALKING POINTS FOR ADMIRAL WATKINS
"Everybody has been hurt by the crisis in the Middle East
because oil is an essential fuel for the global economy
-World uses nearly 64 million barrels every day"
"Now, let me make a few comments about our response here in
the U.S.
--We've managed to increase our production of oil by over
200,000 barrels a day
-And we've reduced our consumption about 5% from the same
period last year
-Stocks of crude oil, gasoline, diesel, heating oil--these
are all at the normal range
--Refineries are running at normal levels for this time of
year"
"Worldwide, consumption is also down-about 2.5 percent
according to preliminary estimates--while supplies are back
to pre-invasion levels"
"Global strategic stocks now stand at over one billion
barrels"
"What I'm telling you is that--
1. World oil supplies are fully adequate today
2. World demand is dropping
3. Strategic reserves are fully ready to be used as needed"
"The crude is there--the product stocks are there--and the
market will work--if people don't panic.
"Whatever happens in the Middle East--
--oil will flow--it did after August 2
--Tankers will move through the gulf--they did all during
the Iraq-Iran war
--Also, at any given moment, there is six weeks of oil on
the water and right now, most experts agree, there is a
great deal more oil on the water--in effect, in 'floating
storage'
--And strategic stocks are ready for should there be a
need"
5)
"SPEAK FROM THE GUT" MEMO FROM J.P. JOHNSON OF NGSA
(suggested language for SOU) :
"I also come to you as a person who has been in combat: that
most personal and terrifying of all human experiences. I
have known the ravages of war. As a very young man my plane
was shot down over the Pacific. I saw my friends and
comrades make the ultimate sacrifice for their country and
peace."
"I have noticed over the years that many men who have fought
in combat rarely talk about their war experiences. And I
know why. It's not that combat veterans are modest.
Instead, it's the memory of our friends and comrades who
gave their lives beside us which makes talking about combat
so emotional.
"I hold the experiences of combat in a secret place in my
heart. It's not something I want to talk about. But I will
say that every time I have a birthday, my thoughts go to the
memory of my friends who made the ultimate sacrifice when
our plane was shot down. My thoughts go back to those who
were wounded beside me. What would their lives have been
like? These thoughts and questions haunt all of us who have
been in the midst of battle."
"I do know that the cause was just. And now I understand
the burden of those who sent us into battle."
"When my plane was shot down in the Pacific so many years
ago, I believe that I was spared to be a servant of peace,
not war. Much of my public life, from my time as United
Nations' Ambassador to my eight years as Vice President, has
been focused on the arena of international diplomacy. I
believe that this prepared me to exhaust all avenues of
diplomacy since August 2, in order to bring world pressure
on Saddam Hussein and bring about his withdrawal without
resorting to military action."
"But it was not enough that Saddam terrorize his own people
and plunder his own land. He cast his eye on a small
country on his borders and invaded Kuwait. Left unchecked
the tyrant's greed has no boundaries. Left unchecked, where
will he strike next? What would he do, with the tyrant's
lust for riches, if he is allowed to develop nuclear
weapons?"
"Isn't this the time for the world community to take a
stand?"
"My heart breaks when I think of the suffering of the people
of Kuwait. Their suffering, sacrifice and death. But I am
inspired by their courage. Did you know that when our
hostages returned from Kuwait they reported that not one
Kuwaiti--under penalty of torture and death--turned in an
American to Saddam? Yet many of these noble people died to
protect our citizens who were hiding for months in their
land."
"These numerous stories of heroism which have been told in
recent weeks make clear not only what we are fighting for,
but who we are fighting with."
"Tonight I come to you, the American people, who live in a
land made free by the sacrifice of my generation and others
going back two hundred years. I ask each American to
support me in this dark hour. But I ask each of you to also
support the court of world opinion, which has said that the
noble people of Kuwait must be freed from the heel of this
evil tyrant."
6)
Carolyn's memo: PAZ quote
"
I will never see an argument for liberty in murder.
I know of nothing more servile, more cowardly, more
obtuse than a terrorist."
"Never mistake the tyrant for the liberator."
7)
NEWS SUMMARY
"The Persian Gulf crisis has dealt a serious blow to the
world economy, reducing the growth of global output in 1990
by 0.3 percent, the U.N. department of international
economic and social affairs said."
8)
GULF POLICY THEMES, Revised 12/14/90:
" Saddam is a ruthless despot who has attacked two
neighbors without warning. He is harboring terrorists and
he is systematically exterminating the sovereign nation of
Kuwait.
--Saddam's resources are imposing. He commands the world's
sixth largest army, uses chemical weapons--even against his
own people, deploys ballistic missiles, develops biological
weapons and seeks nuclear weapons. If he is not stopped
now, if his aggressive designs are not frustrated and
contained, he will threaten al of us later--at which point
we will all pay a higher price.
--Saddam seeks to dominate a politically volatile region,
with great potential for conflict. His aggression imperils
the world's oil lifelines, threatening recession and
depression here and abroad, hitting hardest those fledgling
democracies least able to cope with Saddam's aggression
--Morally, we must act so that international law, not
international outlaws governs the post-Cold War world.
--Politically, we must stand for American leadership, not
because no one else can do the job."
9)
SEC. BAKER'S STATEMENT BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS
COMMITTEE, Dec. 5, 1990:
"As we wait, Saddam will continue torturing Kuwait, killing
it as a nation.
As we wait, he will continue manipulating hostages,
attempting to break the coalition.
As we wait he will continue to fortify Kuwait, to build
chemical and biological weapons, and to acquire a nuclear
weapons capability.
As we wait, he expects other issues to deflect our
attention, weaken our resolve, and dissolve the
international coalition.
As we wait, the burden of Saddam's crime weighs heavier on
the world."
10) VICE PRESIDENT QUAYLE'S ADDRESS TO SETON HALL UNIVERSITY,
November 29, 1990:
"Our finest schools have kept firmly in mind what Dr. Samuel
Johnson, the great eighteenth century British man of
letters, termed the 'supreme end of education: expert
discernment in all things--the power to tell the good from
the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the
good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.'
" (Saddam Hussein's) goal is to dominate the Persian Gulf
region and use its vast wealth to become the greatest Arab
hero of modern times, the leader of a new Arab superpower.
To that end, he spent some fifty billion dollars on arms
imports during the 1980's alone."
"
the prospect of Saddam Hussein strutting across the world
stage at the head of a malevolent global power, armed to the
teeth with weapons of mass destruction, and controlling a
large portion of the world's energy supplies, is something
no sane person would welcome."
"With the end of the Cold War, the chances of a Soviet-
American clash in any Third World conflict, including the
Middle East, have greatly diminished. Unfortunately, so
have the traditional restraints that the superpowers used to
impose on their regional clients. As a result, unless the
U.N. Charter's rules about using force are not reaffirmed
and defended fairly quickly, we face the dangerous prospect
of a new, post-Cold War world that is actually more
anarchic, and more violence-prone, than the world which
preceded it."
"Iraq's invasion of Kuwait is the first crisis of the post-
Cold War world. One way or another, it is bound to set a
precedent--either on behalf of greater world order or on
behalf of greater chaos."
"As President Bush told American troops in Saudi Arabia
during Thanksgiving, 'Each day that passes brings Saddam one
day closer to realizing his goal of a nuclear weapons
arsenal
And we do know this for sure: He has never
possessed a weapon that he didn't use.
11) DRAFT OP-ED, PERSIAN GULF
"First, it is important to avoid attempts to force a false
choice between pragmatism and principle. America's ideals,
far from being mutually exclusive, are in fact threads of
the same cloth. "
"
(Saddam
Hussein's)
cynical disregard for international
norms and the rule of law must not themselves be rewarded
with cynicism. "
"America must lead, as we always have, and only can."
12) 1990: "Famed unit called to duty again, USA Today, November 9,
"The Big Red One has once again been called to duty in a
faraway land
the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) of
Fort Riley, Kan. has been linked to U.S. wars and military
campaigns since early in the 20th century Its
motto: 'No
mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty first. "
13) TOM CLANCY: "Something Worth Going to War For," Los Angeles
Times, November 7, 1990:
"America has had the luxury throughout its history of not
having its national existence directly threatened by a
foreign enemy. Yet we have gone to war. Why?"
"The United States of America is not a piece of dirt
stretching mainly from the Atlantic to the Pacific. More
than anything else, America is a set of principles, and the
historical fact is that those principles have not only
served us well, but have also become a magnet for the rest
of the world, a large chunk of which decided to change
course ideas last " year. Those principles are not merely aesthetic
"We have settled on (those principles) not because they are
pretty; we settled on them because they are the only things
that work. If you have trouble believing that, ask a Pole."
"Integrity is the most respected of virtues for the simple
reason that integrity means acting on principle, not for
advantage. As it is with individuals, so it is with
nations. Principle is what gives life meaning."
"It has been a principle of American foreign policy for a
very long time that to tolerate aggression invites more
aggression. We punish thieves not to restore what they have
stolen, but to keep them from stealing again, and to deter
others from stealing. What is true for criminally inclined
individuals is equally true of countries, with the added
dimension that nation-state-sized criminals can steal and
kill on a vast scale."
"
war is not discouraged by running away from it any more
than criminals are discouraged by the absence of police.
Those people must be confronted sooner or later, and sooner
is better. The dictum is clear: All that is required for
the triumph of evil is for good men to stand by and do
nothing."
"To assume that Iraq will go no further makes Neville
Chamberlain seem a perceptive realist."
14) PRESIDENT BUSH: "Aggression in The Gulf: A Partnership of
Nations, Delivered to the U.N. General Assembly, October 1,
1990:
"We've seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed
wire, give way to a new era of peace and competition and
freedom. The revolution of '89 swept the world almost with
a life of its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom that
transformed the political climate from Central Europe to
Central America, and touched almost every corner of the
globe. That breeze has been sustained by a now almost
universal recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The
human spirit cannot be locked up forever."
"We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals--the power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed. This is a new and different world. Not
since 1945 have we seen the real possibility of using the
United Nations as it was designed, as a center for
international collective security."
*****"TWO months ago, in the waning weeks of one of
history's most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty of
the peaceful Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of
diesel and the roar of steel tanks. And once again, the
sound of distant thunder echoed across a cloudless sky. And
once again, the world awoke to face the guns of
August But this time, the world was ready. The United
Nations Security Council's resolute response to Iraq's
unprovoked aggression has been without precedent."
"Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throwback to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time."
"It is in our hands to leave these dark machines behind, in
the dark ages where they belong, and to press forward to cap
a historic movement towards a new world order, and a long
era of peace. "
"And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our
progress as a community of nations. The year 2000 marks a
turning point, beginning not only the turn of the decade,
not only the turn of the century, but also the turn of the
millennium."
"I see a world of open borders, open trade and, most
importantly, open minds, a world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people
"We've shown that the U.N. can rise to the challenge of
aggression, just as its founders hoped that it would."
15) "Iraq Torture Chamber is Reported in Kuwait,' Los Angeles
Times, October 5, 1990:
"
the Iraqi occupiers have set out on a course of
systematic execution, torture, disappearances and looting on
a grand scale--'the transplantation of an entire nation,
one diplomat called it. "
"Eyewitnesses said that at one Kuwait city hospital alone,
the mutilated bodies of about 230 victims have been
delivered from the complex since Iraq invaded Aug. 2."
"
summary executions and torture by Iraqi authorities in a
campaign to crush the Kuwaiti resistance movement."
" (Iraq's 1st deputy prime minister, Taha Yassin Ramadan
replied to questioning on human rights abuses by saying) :
'Kuwait is none of your affair And we will cut off the leg
of anybody who should enter Kuwait illegally. (so go cut
off your own leg, ya bozo!)
"
the Amnesty International report only scratched the
surface, according to what eyewitnesses and reliable sources
told The Times. "
"The 230 bodies that have been received at Amiri Hospital
from the Bibi Saleh Center all bore evidence of torture--
'missing fingers and noses, lacerated ears and scorched
eyeballs, as one source put it."
"The torture and executions are but a small part of Iraq's
overall submission and 'requisition' campaign in Kuwait,
which has now been stripped so bare that the entire medical
system has ground to a halt and such huge items as newspaper
printing presses, power-plant generators, brick-factory
machinery, traffic lights, telephone poles and even computer
complexes have been dismantled and transported to Iraq."
"
newly installed Iraqi authorities at Kuwait's only home
for the elderly requisitioned special jellies reserved only
for cancer patients to serve as dessert at a party for
Iraq's visiting health minister."
(one source said) : "'My office had a good view of the
highway north, and day after day the road had been packed
with trucks heading toward Iraq filled to the brim with
generators, transformers, power poles, traffic lights, bulk
salt, marble, cement, cigarettes, pig iron, steel, vehicles,
rice, and well, you name it
III
16) "The Barbarities of Hussein," U.S. News and World Report,
October 1, 1990:
"On the sixth day of their invasion, Iraqi soldiers
reportedly entered the Adan Hospital in Fahaheel looking for
hospital equipment to steal. They unplugged the oxygen to
the incubators supporting 22 premature babies and made off
with the incubators. All 22 children died."
"The next day, at the same hospital, Iraqi troops brought in
a badly injured captain and soldier for treatment. When
told both men had died, the troops accused hospital
employees of killing them and shot five on the spot. Two
days later, the Iraqis cut off water to the hospital."
"At the intensive-care unit of the Mubarak hospital, Iraqis
reportedly cut off the oxygen and IV drip supporting the 75-
year-old mother of a Kuwaiti cabinet minister. 'They just
let her die, said one witness."
"Some 80 Kuwaitis were kicked out of a dialysis facility at
another hospital."
"In a bizarre incident, witnesses said Iraqi soldiers
settled near Kuwait's national zoo, expelled the ZOO keepers
and left the animals without food and water for over three
days. They then left the animals out of their cages and
'started having fun shooting and killing them. A lion
managed to escape and ran to a nearby neighborhood where it
bit an 11-year-old girl on the shoulder. She could not get
proper treatment, developed a secondary infection and died a
few days later.'
The worst crime of all, as Justice Robert Jackson said at
Nuremberg, is to plot and wage aggression upon innocent
people.'
17) PRESIDENT BUSH: "The Persian Gulf; The Deficit Problem,"
Delivered 1990: before a Joint Session of Congress, Sept. 11,
"A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path
to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of
born." human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be
"America and the world must defend common vital interests.
And we will.
America and the world must support the rule of law. And we
will.
will." America and the world must stand up to aggression. And we
"Let me also make clear that the United States has no
quarrel with the Iraqi people. Our quarrel is with Iraq's
dictator, and with his aggression. Iraq will not be
permitted to annex Kuwait. That's not a threat, or a boast,
that's just the way it's going to be.' "
"Our world leadership and domestic strength are mutual and
reinforcing; a woven piece, as strongly bound as Old Glory." "
13 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
IN HIS OWN WORDS: EXCERPTS FROM BUSH PRESS
CONFERENCES, INTERVIEWS
1)
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PRESS AVAILABILITY, Belle Haven
Country Club, Alexandria, VA, October 31, 1990:
Q: Is this situation being used as a pretext for a
confrontation?
THE PRESIDENT: No, there's no pretext
you don't need any
pretext, you just do what's right. I am concerned abut the
lives of Americans held against their will. So are the
American people. When you see the United Nations act in
concert, the United Nations is concerned. So it's not--
there's no pretext involved
THE PRESIDENT: The Kuwaiti Embassy is being starved. The
people out there are not being resupplied. The American
Flag is flying over the Kuwaiti Embassy, and our people
inside are being starved by a brutal dictator. And do you
think I'm concerned about it? You're darn right I am. And
what I'm going to do about it? Let's just wait and see.
Because I have had it with that kind of treatment of
Americans. And I know others feel that way. I know
Margaret Thatcher feels that way about the Brits. I think
the whole world feels outraged by this. So of course I'm
concerned. As each day goes by and these Americans are
isolated, cut off from supplies, who wouldn't be concerned?
The American people are concerned
THE PRESIDENT:
I am for civil rights and I am strongly
opposed to quotas
It's not fair to black Americans, it's
not fair to Hispanic Americans, it's not fair to Asian
Americans
I will push for civil rights legislation that
removes discrimination in the workplace, but I will not
accept quotas. That message has to get through loud and
clear, because there's been a lot of demagoguery on the
other side of that now
2)
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PRESS AVAILABILITY UPON ARRIVAL,
The South Lawn, October 31, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think even the most cynical would
ever suggest that a President would play politics with the
lives of American kids halfway around the world. So, I'm
sad if you've seen reports like that. I haven't, and I
think it is the ultimate of cynicism and indecency.
THE PRESIDENT: There's no compromise. There is no
compromise with this aggression. And the allies are
together on this. The Arab countries, Soviet Union, France-
-all of us are together on this. And every time somebody
sends an emissary, that gives Saddam Hussein a little bit of
hope that there might be some way that he can stop short of
doing what he must do: get out of Kuwait unconditionally,
free those people that are being held against their will,
and have the legitimate government restored
3)
PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT, World Center Marriott,
Orlando, FL, November 1, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT: Iraq's brutality against innocent civilians
will not be permitted to stand. And Saddam Hussein's
violations of international law will not stand. His
aggression against Kuwait will not stand
I am not trying to sound the tocsin of war
the sand is running through the glass
THE PRESIDENT: Because there is no flexibility in our
position. There is no compromise. There is no
conditionality. My position--and I think it strongly
represents the coalition partners' position--is he must
comply.
THE PRESIDENT: I see many similarities by the way the Iraqi
forces behaved in Kuwait and the Death's Head regiments
behaved in Poland.
4)
PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT AND DEFENSE SECRETARY
RICHARD CHENEY, The Briefing Room, November 8, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT:
I ordered the deployment of U.S. military
forces to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to deter further
Iraqi aggression and to protect our interests in the
region
Before the invasion in August, we had succeeded in the
struggle for freedom in Eastern Europe and we'd hopefully
begun a new era that offered the promise of peace.
Following the invasion, I stated that if history had taught
us any lesson, it was that we must resist aggression or it
would destroy freedom
The world community also must prevent an individual clearly
bent on regional domination from establishing a chokehold on
the world's economic lifeline. We're seeing global economic
stability and growth already at risk as, each day, countries
around the world pay dearly for Saddam Hussein's
aggression
From the very beginning, we and our coalition partners have
shared common political goals: the immediate, complete and
unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait,
restoration of Kuwait's legitimate government, protection of
the lives of citizens held hostage by Iraq both in Kuwait
and Iraq, and restoration of security and stability in the
Persian Gulf region
But right now Kuwait is struggling for survival. And along
with many other nations, we've been called upon to help.
The consequences of our not doing so would be incalculable
because Iraq's aggression is not just a challenge to the
security of Kuwait and other Gulf nations, but to the better
world that we all have hoped to build in the wake of the
Cold War. And therefore, we and our allies cannot and will
not shirk our responsibilities. The state of Kuwait must be
restored or no nation will be safe and the promising future
we anticipate will indeed be jeopardized
Let me conclude with a word to the young American GIs
deployed in the Gulf. We are proud of each and every one of
you. I know you miss your loved ones and want to know when
you'll be coming home. We won't leave you there any longer
than necessary. I want every single soldier out of there as
soon as possible. And we're all grateful for your continued
sacrifice and your commitment
"a
isn't oil part of the American national interest?
Isn't that a main reason we're there?
THE PRESIDENT: It is a part of it, but it is not the main
reason, or I'd say, a main reason. The main reason we're
there is to set back aggression, to see that aggression is
unrewarded
THE PRESIDENT: It worries me very much. As do the lives of
those who have been forced into hiding by his brutality and
his violation of international law. of course, it concerns
me deeply. And I've spoken about that, the dismantling of
Kuwait and the systematic brutality that is exercised
against the citizens of Kuwait. And as each day goes by
it's worse
5)
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PRESS AVAILABILITY, Ambassador's
Residence, Paris, France, November 21, 1990:
THE
PRESIDENT: Americans are in there, in an embassy that
is supposed to be sacrosanct. The people are being--the
attempt by Saddam Hussein to starve them out in face of a
United Nations resolution that calls for replenishment is
getting nothing but hatred, more hatred for Saddam Hussein
around the world, because other people see our embassy in
this beleaguered state and say, well, what will happen to my
embassy tomorrow?
There's a precedent here that transcends the Gulf. And so
in terms of how people look at the problem, there's a
universal condemnation of what he is doing
THE PRESIDENT: "It's Thanksgiving, and gosh, we have a lot
to be thankful for at this time of year--this particular
year, too. And so I will be trying S best I can right from
the heart to express my thanks to the young men and women
that are serving over there. It is a time for prayer. It
is a time when we all thank God for our blessings. And I
will try through this visit, perhaps only symbolically, to
tell every single man and woman over there that we thank
them and we thank God for the blessings that we have, and
that we are going to prevail. They're not there on a
mission impossible
The very fact that they are there in these numbers offers
the best chance for a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
And I'll be telling them that and I'll be saying, thank you,
thank you from this grateful heart. And I know I speak for
all the American people on this one. I don't care where
they're coming from resolutions, or whether the President is
moving to slow, or whether he's moving to fast, I think--if
I do nothing else, I will convey to them the heartfelt
thanks of the American people at this very special time of
year for Americans.
6)
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK IN
PRESS AVAILABILITY, Itihahdia Palace, Cairo, Egypt, November
23, 1990:
PRESIDENT MUBARAK: But let no one be in doubt that the
status quo of occupation and repression is totally
unacceptable to us and in the entire world. It is a threat
to peace and security everywhere and a grave violation of
the rule of law. It undermines the very foundation of our
modern civilization. Hence, the Iraqi invasion must be
reversed and Kuwait be liberated. No tactics will divert us
from our objective. No act of defiance will weaken our
resolve or shake our determination
We stand here together at the crucial moment in the history
of our region and the whole world. That moment has great
risks, but it equally hods great promises and offers
tremendous opportunities
PRESIDENT BUSH: There should not be any linkage. Saddam
Hussein should not be able to hide behind the difficulty in
one area so he can continue his aggression and brutality and
torture in another
PRESIDENT BUSH:
But if the question is why our outrage
against Saddam Hussein today when we had tried to improve
relations [in the past]--he hadn't invaded Kuwait. He
hadn't raped, pillaged and plundered the people in Kuwait
and the city of Kuwait itself. He hadn't violated this
fundamental norm of international behavior. And indeed,
other countries have tried to improve relations with him.
And ours was one of them. I've said to you before, given
what he's done now, maybe that is something we shouldn't
have undertaken
Q: How do you envisage this new world?
THE PRESIDENT: Once we set back this aggression, and once
it is clear that the security and the stability of the Gulf
are enhanced by whatever arrangements are set into place
once that this invading dictator gets out of Kuwait, then I
think that it's clear we're going to have an opportunity
given the diversity of the coalition to work more closely
together. And part of that, I want to see a solution to the
question of the West Bank, for example. But I think if we
work cooperatively as are--with our common sites [sic] set-
-this aggressor will not succeed--it opens up all kinds of
possibilities for a new world order
We're already seeing
that world order means world
7)
INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY DAVID FROST, The Residence,
December 17, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT: Done a lot and a lot's left to do. I think
that we've made some big strides--passed the most historic
clean air bill in history. We've established national
education goals. We're waging a national battle against
narcotics. And then on the international scene, why, we're
in a complicated but extraordinarily important leadership
role, standing up to aggression. We see our own hemisphere
here totally democratic except for one visible exception,
Cuba.
THE PRESIDENT: We're in a slowdown economically in this
country, if not recession. In some areas we're clearly in
recession. And this concerns me because people are hurting.
And that means we've got to see this economy turn around.
It's not something government can do, but it will turn
around
THE PRESIDENT: What's at stake is world order. And there's
a tremendous opportunity, but that opportunity will be lost
if we don't succeed in implementing these U.N. resolutions
without concession, implementing them to a tee. And that's
my objective, and we are going to prevail
THE PRESIDENT: (In Kuwait) The goods and services are nil.
They've taken the gold and the TV sets, everything. And
taken them to Baghdad and selling them or using them by
these brutal officers and men that have literally raped this
country
we've got to care. We've got to care. And the U.S. has
an obligation to lead. II
THE PRESIDENT: And now there's a few countries that are
trying to have us accept a revisionistic view of history,
saying Saudi Arabia wasn't threatened. It was threatened.
And unless the United Nations had come together and all of
us had moved forces down there, I am convinced that he would
have tried to take over Dhahran and the oil fields in Saudi
Arabia
What are these tanks doing going south, when the
man says he's withdrawing from Kuwait? The man is not to be
trusted on his word, unfortunately.
I wouldn't telegraph a punch
Q:
is the status quo ante enough?
THE PRESIDENT: No, it is not. And we have said that, and
there will have to be some international order established
to guarantee against future adventurism by him to see that
he does what the U.N. says in terms of these--reparation in
making whole those that he has brutalized. And thirdly,
there will have to be some safeguards that this quest for a
nuclear weapon and the further development of chemical
weapons, which he has already used against his people, and
biological will stop in its tracks. I think the world will
be united in that. So the status quo ante, I've said this
before and I'll repeat it here, is unacceptable.
THE PRESIDENT: (the brutality in Kuwait) is so outrageous
that the world, when they get into Kuwait and when they
start interviewing these people, will see that it is
unprecedented in modern times
THE PRESIDENT: I think he (Saddam) rules by the sword. I
think he governs by fear and intimidation
(he is seen) as
brutal and a bully and one that has to be checked
We keep hearing, David, that people are reluctant to bring
him bad tidings. The old adage about shooting the
messenger. Maybe we need a little more of that in the Oval
Office because I get them all the time.
THE PRESIDENT: I would simply say to the American people
what I've been saying. I want a peaceful resolution to this
question. However, it cannot be done with compromise to
him. It cannot be done by looking the other way in the face
of this terror and brutality
Because of the revitalization of the peacekeeping function
of the United Nations, and because nations--disparate
nations--came together and were successful against this
outrageous 1990 brutality and rape--international rape--we
have a chance to live in a more peaceful world. So that
would be my message over these holidays
THE PRESIDENT: It is the fact that you have seen major
changes in Eastern Europe. We've seen relations with the
Soviet Union totally change
Can you imagine what it would
be like if we were back 20 years ago and this aggression had
come up an the Saudis and the Soviets had taken a different
view in this Middle East question?
But the new world order I'm talking about comes because the
two so-called superpowers are working more closely together,
democracy is on the march, totalitarianism is waning. And
the United Nations has been reinvigorated
I just think
that we have an enormous opportunity for a more peaceful
world
But it won't happen--it won't happen if we give one single
inch to placate the aggressor, the dictator, the rapist of
Kuwait. It won't happen if we compromise when you have such
a clear case of good versus evil. We have such a clear
moral case. The world sees it as a clear moral case, have
come together, taken collective action at the United
Nations, and we cannot stop one inch short of successful
resolution
THE PRESIDENT: Standing up against this aggression, no
price is too heavy to pay for it because we have the promise
now of a much more peaceful world and we have the threat if
this aggression is rewarded of a worse price to pay
tomorrow. It is that clear in my mind. It is that clear--
that if we don't check this aggression and if the United
Nations fails and all of us therefore, it would follow, fail
in our responsibilities, the price tag tomorrow will be far
greater than the price tag today
Nothing of this moral importance since World War II has
faced the rest of the world
It is a question of good and evil. It's a question of
morality versus immorality
THE PRESIDENT: But I'll say this to those, particularly in
my country, who are concerned, this will not be anther
Vietnam. If force is used, the generals' hands will not be
tied behind them. This concept of, well, you can do only so
much but not more--that, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the United STates, is unacceptable to me
I would much rather err on the side of saving life than I
would of saving a little money--not a lot of money--and
risking life. I owe it to every parent. I owe it to every
husband or wife, to every child whose dad might be there to
minimize the risk to that soldier, sailor, Marine or airman.
THE PRESIDENT: (In progress) --the torturing of a
handicapped child; the shooting of a young boy in front of
his parents. The rape of women dragged out of the home and
repeatedly taped an then brought into the hospitals as
basket cases. The tying of those that are being tortured to
ceiling fans so they turn and turn. The killing of a
Kuwaiti and leaving him hanging
from a crane sand so
others will see him. Electric shocks to the private parts
of men and women. Broken glass inserted in--jabbed into
people. I mean, it is primeval. It is almost impossible to
rationalize this behavior with the fact that this is 1990.
And I'm afraid I'd get very emotional if I described more of
it. The hitting on
the bottom of the feet so a 15-year-
old kid can't walk. The passing out of leaflets and then
for that you're tortured so you can't even talk or
move
It's a deliberate wiping them out
Pulling out the
fingernails and putting a device on the fingers to squeeze
so the pain is just so intense it can't be stood. This is
minor compared to what they're doing
THE PRESIDENT: Well what I'm going to do about it is to
propose next year certain broad--a broad approach to
economic matters that will, I think, enhance growth. But I
believe that the last thing we ought to do about it is have
a lot of spending programs aimed to--quote--'put Americans
back to work' unquote. These short-range government
spending answers have historically proved counterproductive,
and I will not embrace them. And if they send them down
from Capitol Hill
I will veto them because we don't need
that. I happen to believe, and I think most economists
believe that the recession will be mild and that the whole
country will come out of it in not too many months from now.
But I have no plans to spend a lot of new federal dollars in
order to accelerate recovery
THE PRESIDENT:
this here's the underlying point to the
international markets. The United States will be borrowing
$492 billion less in the international markets because of
the budget agreement. And it is enforceable. So I think. I
still believe it was the right thing to do. God knows I've
taken some political grief from it. But that's unimportant
if we've contributed to the soundness of the U.S. economy.
And I think we have that with the agreement
I was really, I'd say, forced to accept a tax increase
which I, like a kid taking castor oil for me--I don't like
that.
Q: Isn't there a real dialectical conflict--that between a
"kinder, gentler America" and "no more taxes," aren't the
two mutually contradictory?
THE PRESIDENT: No. It's only mutually contradictory if you
think government is the be all and end all. If we could
really get control of government spending, which is taking a
significant percentage of our GNP, the kindest and gentlest
answer would be an economy so vigorous that everybody,
instead of having to reach out for a welfare check, would
have a job in the private sector with the attendant dignity,
the dignity that would go with that
If you believe, however, as some of the political left in
this country does--and I think it's been a little bit of a
thesis of the Democratic Party--that we need to spend more
in order to enhance the lives of American people, then you
might say that there's a conflict
We're not taxing the American people too little, we continue
to spend to much on some categories. But if we can get the
growth restored and hold the line so we don't just go spend,
spend, spend on some new wonderful idea of a program, then I
think you will have additional funds that you can put into
these really worthwhile programs
Q: In terms of no more taxes, in terms of I'd like to have
more money to do more things and so on, isn't there only one
obvious solution which is a peace dividend, I mean, to
really attack defense spending?
THE PRESIDENT: A dividend is when you take earnings and
spread it around. That's what I used to think of as a
dividend. I'm not an economist, but I studied economics at
Yale University and I was in business. When I thought of a
dividend I thought, hey, you made a profit and, therefore,
you ought to pay that out to your shareholders. We are in a
big deficit. We are not in a dividend-paying mode if you
use the traditional definition of a dividend.
Q: Prudent.
THE PRESIDENT: Prudent, yes. I like that. I like it as I
deal with the economy. I like it as I deal with the Middle
East. I owe prudence to the parents
I
owe prudence to the
families of these kids over there in the Gulf
Q: So far in your presidency what--in terms of restoring or
destroying your faith in human nature, what have been the
outstanding experiences?
THE PRESIDENT:
I am convinced that the dedication and
the motivation of the troops and of their parents is really
at an all-time high in our history. I think it's--I'd call
it patriotic, but I'd call it principally-motivated. So
that one is a current lesson
I worry about the inequities in our system. A lot of people
hurting. And this is the down side. This is what troubles
me that when people can't make ends meet or they can't buy
homes and you have people out on the streets. I see an
unfulfilled agenda about this kinder and gentler nation of
ours. I am lifted up by this concept that they used to kid
about, but I feel so strongly about this points of light
concept
De Toqueville found it unique, one American's willingness to
help another. And that's alive, and it's strong and it's
inspiring
I worry about the disintegration of family. I worry about a
kid that doesn't grow up in a home and have the love of a
father and a mother. I worry about it because--maybe it's
because I've been so privileged and so blessed, but I think
a stable home--a mother that will read to the kid at night
or a dad that will take him to a ball game or do the same on
reading. I think that's a good, stabilizing thing for our
great country. I think it's a fundamental value--family,
faith. And I worry about a slight erosion around the edges
of some of this. No so much around the edges on family,
incidentally
I am gratefully that we still remain one nation under God,
and I'm not worried that our faith--all kinds of different
denominations--is being diminished, because I think that is
still a great strength
And I guess I'd end on a high--I've never been more
confident about America, about our people, or about the need
for America to fulfill a disproportionate role of leadership
in the world. For democracy, for freedom, for right against
wrong. We are unique. We are uniquely positioned to do
more than anyone else to help others achieve these
objectives.
8)
PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT WITH REGIONAL REPORTERS,
Room 450, OEOB, December 18, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT: But this is not the average disturbance, you
might say, that calls for the average deployment of force.
This is pushing it up to the edge of the envelope
THE PRESIDENT:
we have an all-volunteer army. We have
great opportunity in this army. We have the finest kids--
the best trained, the best motivated, the high
achievers This is an all-volunteer Army, they're not draft
dodging. Remember Vietnam and the allegation, which I think
had a lot of truth to it. But the kid that got
disproportionately there was the guy that couldn't get the
exemption and came out of the lower rungs of society. This
is different
The morale is good, and they're motivated,
and they're well educated, and they're dedicated, and--if
you'll excuse an old-fashioned reference--they're
patriotic
9)
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT UPON DEPARTURE TO CAMP DAVID, The
South Lawn, December 27, 1990:
THE PRESIDENT: The world community has called on him to
[get out of Kuwait]. It's enshrined now in international
law as represented by the Security Council
No compromise on anything. That's the problem. Everybody
wants you to compromise. There is not going to be a
compromise with this man. That would be the worst signal to
send to the people around the world that are together
10) REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT UPON DEPARTURE FOR CAMP DAVID, The
South Lawn, January 4, 1991:
THE PRESIDENT:
one of the reasons I don't want it to drag
on, one of the reasons, is because of the adverse effect it
is having not just on the United States economy, but on the
economies of the Third World, on the economies of the
emerging democracies in Eastern Europe, on the economies of
our friends in South America. This is universal
And on my recent trip to South America I heard it over and
over again. Vaclav Havel told me of a cost to his country
of $1.5 billion. I've heard indirectly from President Diouf
of Senegal, and those that are concerned about the hardships
that are being endured by the countries in Africa ought to
hear what he has to say about what Saddam Hussein has done
to his country by this adventure
And so, this economic effect is worldwide and yes, it does
adversely affect the economy of the United States. I think
it makes this decline, economic slowdown, the recession that
exists in some parts of this country much more serious. And
so, that would argue for a rapid conclusion to the deal
11) PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT, The Briefing Room,
January 9, 1990 (announcing failure of Baker-Aziz talks):
THE PRESIDENT: The record shows that whether the diplomacy
is initiated by the United States, the United Nations, the
Arab League or the European Community, the results are the
same, unfortunately. The conclusion is clear: Saddam
Hussein continues to reject a diplomatic solution
now, as it's been before, the choice of peace or war is
really Saddam Hussein's to make
this was a total stiff arm. This was a total rebuff
THE PRESIDENT:
we oppose linkage. The coalition opposes
linkage. And the argument with Saddam Hussein is about
Kuwait. It is about the invasion of Kuwait, the liquidation
of a member of the United Nations, a member of the Arab
League
THE PRESIDENT: The letter was not rude. The letter was
direct. And the letter did exactly what I think is
necessary at this stage
But to refuse to even pass a letter along seems to me to be
just one more manifestation of the stonewalling that has
taken place. We gave him 15 dates for the Secretary of
State to meet with him. And he's off meeting with Mr. A and
Mr. B and Mr. C and has no time for that
So the letter was proper--I've been around the diplomatic
track for a long time--the letter was proper, it was direct,
and it was what I think would have been helpful to him to
show him the resolve of the rest of the world--certainly of
the coalition
THE PRESIDENT:
this is not Iraq against the United
States. It is Iraq against the rest of the world. It is
the United Nations that passed 12 resolutions, not the
United States. It is the General Assembly of the United
Nations--a 100-plus countries standing solidly against the
dictator. And therefore, it doesn't need to be a bilateral
negotiation here. We tried that. And we were stiff-armed
by an intransigent foreign secretary
nothing I saw today--nothing--leads me to believe that
this man is going to be reasonable (but) we ought to keep
trying right down to the wire
THE PRESIDENT:
what would a mission of Jim Baker have
been? It might have been to convince this man that he is up
against an immovable force. He's up against a situation
under which there will be no compromise; and there will be
none
Q: So the entire hope for peace then rests on Saddam
backing off from his--
THE PRESIDENT: And it has since August 2nd--exactly.
Because this aggression is not going to stand. And there's
an awful lot at stake in terms of the new world order that
it doesn't stand. And there's a lot at stake in terms of
human life in Kuwait that it doesn't stand. And there's a
lot at stake in terms of how the coalition looks at this
that it doesn't stand. So it won't.
O:
what are your obligations to Israel?
THE PRESIDENT: We have friends all over the world. We have
friends in this coalition. And I'm determined that the
United States will fill our obligations there. Clearly, if
a friend in that area was attacked, wantonly attacked for no
cause whatsoever, not only the United States, but I think
many people around the world would view that as a flagrant
provocation
12) PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT, The Briefing Room,
January 12, 1991 (after Congress vote supporting U.N.
resolutions) :
THE PRESIDENT: This action by the Congress unmistakably
demonstrates the United States' commitment to the
international demand for a complete and unconditional
withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait. This clear expression of
the Congress represents the last, best chance for peace
As a democracy we've debated this issue openly and in good
faith. And as President I have held extensive consultation
with the Congress. We've now closed ranks behind a clear
signal of our determination and our resolve to implement the
United Nations resolutions Those who may have mistaken our
democratic process as a sign of weakness now see the
strength of democracy
Throughout our history we've been resolute in our support of
justice, freedom, and human dignity. The current situation
in the Persian Gulf demands no less of us and of the
international community. We did not plan for war, nor do we
seek war. But if conflict is thrust upon us we are ready
and we are determined
Unfortunately, Iraq has thus far
turned a deaf ear to the voices of peace and reason
Let there be no mistake: Peace is everyone's goal. Peace is
in everyone's prayers. But it is for Iraq to decide
THE PRESIDENT: It isn't a question of winning or losing.
It's a question of his getting out of Kuwait rapidly without
concession
Q: Sir, can you explain why sooner is better than later?
THE PRESIDENT:
that's been a major part of the debate on
the Hill. And I think it is very important that he knows
that the United States and the United Nations are credible.
I don't want to see further economic damage done to Third
World economies or to this economy. I don't want to see
further devastation done to Kuwait
Q: I wondered if you watched [the debate] and what effect it
had on you.
THE PRESIDENT: The compassion and the concern, the angst of
these members, whether they agreed with me or not, came
through loud and clear.
And so I guess I shared the emotion. I want peace. I want
to see a peaceful resolution. And I could identify with
those, whether they were on the side of the administration
or the other--with those who were really making fervent
appeals for peace. But I think it was historic. I think it
was conducted in the best--showing the best of the United
States Congress at work. And I keep feeling that it was
historic because what it did and how it endorsed the
President's action to fulfill this resolution
But I didn't sense--you know, when you win a vote on
something you work hard for, sometimes there's a sense of
exhilaration and joy I didn't sense that at all here. I
was grateful to the members that took the lead in supporting
the positions that I'm identified with. I could empathize
with those who didn't vote for us. So I guess my emotion
was somber itself
THE PRESIDENT: I simply want to avoid what is known as
linkage. And I think the American people more clearly see
now what I mean by linkage because they watched the Aziz
press conference where the whole question was shifting--
trying to shift the onus away from the aggression and
brutality against Kuwait and move it over and try to put the
blame on Israel or try to shift the onus to the Palestinian
question
THE PRESIDENT: So the coalition is together. The United
Nations is strongly together. I think the vote in the
United States Congress today shows that the United States'
position is strongly firmed up by what happened in Congress
today and by what appears to be the will of the American
people. And that's in keeping with my will and how I feel
about this.
10 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
CIVIL RIGHTS/EMPOWERMENT
I.
ANECDOTES
A.
EGO BROWN (excerpts from Clint Bolick's Unfinished Business)
"Ego Brown never fancied himself a crusader, and surely he
never pictured himself at the forefront of a burgeoning
debate over the future direction of civil rights in America.
But he is both.
On top of that, he's a darned good shoeshine artist.
Ego Brown had the courage and determination to make a
federal case about shoeshining, or more specifically, about
the enforcement of an 84-year-old law that prevented him
from shining shoes on the streets of the nation's capital.
His lawsuit against Mayor Marion Barry and the District of
Columbia government was the opening salvo in the battle to
make 'economic liberty' the civil rights issue of the
1990s. If
"As a youngster, Brown shined shoes for pocket money. But
then he noticed it was nearly impossible to find a
convenient shoeshine in the District.
Brown quit his government job and started shining shoes
at a barber shop near Howard University. Before long, he
had perfected his technique and was ready to 'spread the
shine.' Clad in his trademark tuxedo, Brown used his
flamboyant personality to lure customers to his outdoor
stand. His long-range goal was to one day operate stands on
street corners throughout the city and beyond.'
EGO EMPOWERS OTHERS WHILE EMPOWERING SELF: "Business went
so well that Brown soon opened additional stands. ****He
staffed them with enterprising homeless individuals, to who
Brown provided a second chance at life in the form of a
daily shower, a set of clothes, and training in the Ego
shoeshine method. 'I used to see these people begging for
money, and I'd dig into my pockets to help them, he told
me. 'But one day, I realized I could help them more by
giving them an opportunity, a chance to lift themselves by
their own bootstraps. 11*****
"But Ego Brown's dream soon disintegrated into a nightmare.
The police shut down his stands, citing a 1905 law that
forbade shoeshine stands on public streets. That law was
one of many passed during the Jim Crow era to prevent blacks
from attaining economic self-sufficiency through their own
businesses. Despite the law's sordid origins, and despite
the abundance of other vendors on the District's streets
selling everything from hot dogs to photo opportunities with
cardboard Ronald Reagans, the government chose to enforce
the law and thereby destroy Ego Brown's enterprise."
" no one from the civil rights establishment rose to
Brown's defense.
An NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer
dismissed the lawsuit as a relic of the 19th century. An
activist lawyer from the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission declared that shining shoes was not a dignified
job, that Ego Brown would have more dignity on welfare."
B.
MARK ANTHONY NEVELS
=
in Kansas city, the parents of Mark Anthony Nevels, a
black youngster coming of school age, were preparing to
enroll him in kindergarten. Fortunately for the Nevels
family, the Weeks Elementary School just across the street
had recently been' converted to a high-quality 'magnet'
school, and there was plenty of space.
Plenty of space, that is, except for blacks.
Under the terms of a court-imposed desegregation order,
the new magnet schools in Kansas City were required to
conform to a rigid racial quota, allowing admission to three
black students for every two whites who chose to attend. If
whites elected not to attend, blacks were refused
admission."
"In the case of Weeks Elementary School, there was room for
22 kindergarten students. But only four white children
enrolled, and thus only six black children could be
admitted. As a result, 12 seats were held empty, despite a
waiting list of 86 black youngsters including little Mark
Anthony Nevels. Mark would be bused past his neighborhood
school to an inferior school, solely on account of his skin
color."
"The magnet school's racial quota initially was vigorously
defended by the establishment's civil rights lawyer
representing the plaintiff class in the desegregation
case
Eventually, he altered his view
after months of
intense criticism from black community groups."
"This spectacle is especially remarkable considering that
the entire desegregation era commenced 35 years ago in Brown
V. Board of Education with the Supreme Court striking down a
policy that bused black students past their neighborhood
schools solely because of skin color. Have we traveled so
far only to end up in precisely the place we started?"
C.
ALFRED SANTOS
"Alfredo Santos is a born-again capitalist
[during a visit
to Mexico City] Santos discovered the pesero--small vans
carrying passengers along fixed routes for a flat fee. The
service was popular efficient, and, by all appearances,
profitable."
"Santos, then a taxicab driver, decided to import the idea
to Houston, calling the pesero by its American name--
'jitney.' Using his taxicab during off-duty hours, Santos
inaugurated a jitney route in a poor, predominantly Hispanic
neighborhood in which public bus service was inadequate and
many people couldn't afford cars. Santos offered his
service for a flat fee of one dollar, with pickup and
discharge of passengers anywhere along the five-mile route."
"Advertising his service with Spanish-language flyers,
Santos quickly developed a booming business, and other off-
duty cab drivers soon followed his lead. The jitney was
cheaper than a taxicab and much more convenient than a bus,
and passengers were delighted to have a transportation
option.'
"Everyone seemed to benefit. But that didn't deter the
city's cab inspectors, who threatened to fine Santos for
violation the Houston Anti-Jitney Law of 1924. It seems
that in the early 1920s, the streetcar industry mounted a
highly successful nationwide campaign to eradicate the
jitneys, their main source of competition. Sixty-five years
later, the streetcar industry was long-since defunct, but
the laws remained. And so Santos had to shut down his
thriving business."
"Santos tried unsuccessfully to have the law overturned
through the legislative process. When those attempts
failed, he turned to the courts, but it remains to be seen
whether the judiciary will come to the aid of this man who
exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit."
D.
DEMOND CRAWFORD
"Demond Crawford, like many youngsters throughout America,
was having trouble in school. His mother, Mary Amaya, was
concerned; she decided to have her son tested.'
"Mrs. Amaya contacted the local public school district,
which sent her a list of available tests, including the I.Q.
test. But written across the bottom page were words that
shocked Mrs. Amaya: your son may not take the I.Q. test
because he is black."
"Outraged, Mrs. Amaya contacted the NAACP for help in
challenging this pernicious racial classification. But the
NAACP officials not only refused to help Mrs. Amaya, they
told her they were responsible for the adoption of the
racial policy."
"The school district offered a solution: since Demond is
half black and half Hispanic, Mrs. Amaya could reclassify
him from black to Hispanic, and he could take the test.
Mrs. Amaya refused. She would not play games with her son's
heritage to satisfy some social engineering bureaucrat."
"In her lawsuit against the state, Mrs. Amaya takes no
position on whether I.Q. tests are good or bad, or whether
or not they discriminate against blacks; nor does she
contend that the state has an obligation to provide I.Q.
tests to anyone. She argues merely that if the state
provides I.Q. tests, it must make them available without
regard to race. A fairly modest argument, much like the
ones civil rights groups used to make with some frequency."
"The Crawford case illustrates why equality under the law is
so important to individual empowerment--and how far we have
strayed from that objective."
II. OLDIES BUT GOODIES
A.
POLLY WILLIAMS
" a state assemblywoman from a black district in Milwaukee
was school choice's most potent champion in 1990 Fed up
with inadequate funding and an entrenched school
bureaucracy, state Rep. Annette Polly Williams sponsored a
first-of-its-kind voucher plan that sent 400 poor children
to private schools with state money."
"
the 53-year-old Williams has sided with Bush in arguing
that competition is exactly the jolt needed to improve
public schools
'There's a belief among the bureaucrats in
the public school system that as long as you're poor, you're
not expected to achieve,' said Williams, a Democrat who has
represented her district for the past decade."
--Associated Press, December 14, 1990
"Williams proposed a modest school-voucher program, approved
by the Wisconsis Legislature, that gave 1,000 poor inner-
city students $2,500. vouchers they could use to attend
private schools."
B.
KIMI GRAY
"Miss Gray, dozens of other Kenil-worth-Parkside residents
and advocates of resident-managed complexes stubbornly
fought with the D.C. and federal governments for 10 years to
get the ownership of the 464-unit Northeast complex
transferred to the tenants. On Friday, they finally
succeeded.'
"At a ceremony on the apartment grounds, Jack Kemp and
D.C. Mayor Marion Barry signed the papers officially marking
the sale of the complex--for $1--to the Kenilworth-Parkside
Resident Management Corp."
"The tenants adopted as their motto 'Dreams do come true.
"The speakers also frequently noted that as recently as 1981
the sprawling complex was plagued by drug dealers,
violence, a lack of services, and decaying and vandalized
buildings
Today the dealers are gone, many of the
buildings are renovated, and the resident management
corporation plans to sponsor a variety of programs and
services, including employment training and counseling,
housekeeping training and a small co-op store.'
--Washington Times, October 1, 1990.
"Is she a Republican tool? She curses and says the people
with the luxury to think so are not forced to live in public
housing. 'If I'm being used, then I like it, she said.
'I'm using them too. We're using each other.
"Ms. Gray's place in Republican iconography has upset some
who support the concept of tenant management--an idea that
arose on the political left. They worry about it is [sic]
being used as a ploy to justify ending Government support
for new low-income housing. 'A fraud, a snare, a delusion'
is what Florence Roisman, a staff attorney with the National
Housing Law Project, calls Mr. Kemp's plans."
"Is she unique? 'There's a Kimi Gray in every. public
housing development in America, said Ms. Gray. 'Let's just
hope she's not as obese as I am.
"Where do her political loyalties reside? She has a stock
way of explaining that she is loyal to whoever will further
her cause."
"Ms. Gray's improbably path to prominence began with a
number of backward steps. She had her first child at the
age of 14, and had borne five by the time she was 19. When
her marriage fell apart, Ms. Gray and her children turned to
welfare. In 1966, at the age of 21, she secured an
apartment at Kenilworth, the low-rise complex of 37
buildings that became her life's work."
"The secret to her success, Ms. Gray said, is 'residents
being in control of their own destiny."
****"And why does Ms. Gray want to own her own home? The
question catches her in a rare moment of surprise, as though
the answer should be self-evident, and she said:
'I want help on my taxes. I want to leave something to
my children. I want to own some brick. That's the
American dream, isn't it?'"
--The New York Times, July 13, 1990
III. EXCERPTS
II calls for sweeping reform to
"
--Charles Murray
" the transformation
Ibld.
"
Perhaps inevitably at such a point, when white guilt was
at its most acute, some whites not only cried 'mea culpa'
for the sins of their race but decided to stop treating
blacks as people like everyone else and instead grant them
moral exemption."
--ibid.
"Each of these three trends in the evolution of civil
rights--toward regulation of private behavior, preferential
legislation for groups, and double standards for whites and
blacks--was latently poisonous. During the 1970s, the
poison began to set Schemes for aggressive, court-ordered
school busing infuriated white parents. Quota-based
affirmative action plans for hiring new employees alienated
blue-collar workers. White students in the nation's
universities watched their black counterparts being admitted
with lower test scores and special dispensations. By the
1980s, we had achieved the worst possible world, in which
whites were resentful, a self-righteous civil rights
rhetoric had lost its moral energy, and blacks themselves,
especially low-income blacks, were losing ground."
--Clint Bolick
Thomas Paine: "'We must return to first principles and
think, as if we were the first men that thought.
" 'Paine also boldly declared that 'We have the power to
begin the world over again. 1 The 'power' Paine referred to,
of course, was not the coercive apparatus of the state, but
rather the power of the ideas of liberty."
--ibid.
"Those who set the agenda enjoy an 'enormous advantage,'
argues Nathan Glazer, since they 'are seen as moral, and a
moral advantage in politics, being on the side of right, is
worth a good deal.
--ibid.
"Abstract invocations of a 'color-blind society' ring hollow
unless accompanied by a demonstrated commitment to make good
on the promise of civil rights for all Americans."
--ibid.
"One advantage of this empowerment strategy is that it by
definition expands opportunities, as opposed to contemporary
civil rights policies that merely redistribute rights.
--ibid.
"Once again, Tom Paine's words are instructive: 'Tyranny,
like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this
consolation with us, the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph.
--ibid.
"That those who would claim the mantle of civil rights would
find themselves anywhere other than marching shoulder to
shoulder with Ego Brown and Mark Anthony Nevels suggests
that the civil rights movement has somewhere taken a wrong
turn."
"America has fought at least three wars to defend and
preserve that precious consensus (on what civil rights
mean) The American Revolution, to establish the civil
rights of the colonists; the Civil War, to extend those
rights to all Americans; and World War II, to protect those
rights against totalitarianism.
in
unde
"Civil rights--the rights individuals retain when they leave
a state of nature and form civil societies--consist of all
the pre-existing natural rights save one: the right to judge
one's own actions."
" (Martin Luther) King firmly aligned himself with 'what is
best in the American dream" and dedicated himself to the
goal of 'bringing our nation back to the great wells of
democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in
their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence. For King, the Declaration established 'that
there are certain basic rights that are neither conferred by
nor derived from the state,' a characteristic that
distinguishes America 'from systems of government which make
the state an end within itself.
"Traditionally, the civil rights movement sought to restrict
the power of government; following the Civil War, the
abolitionists used their political power to that end. But
the civil rights leadership elite during the 1960s flexed
its newfound political muscle in different ways, delivering
tangible benefits to its perceived constituency."
"
the 200-year quest for universal rights was reduced to
the status of a special interest lobby; its dynamic
leadership transformed itself into an establishment seeking
to perpetuate its existence and to expand its power. "
"As Friedrich Hayek explains, 'From the fact that people are
very different it follows that, if we treat them equally,
the result must be inequality in their actual position, and
that the only way to place them in an equal position would
be to treat them differently. Equal outcomes thus require
'discriminatory coercion, which violates both equal
treatment and individual liberty. Concludes Hayek,
'Equality before the law and material equality are therefore
not only different but are in conflict with each other; and
we can achieve either the one or the other, but not both at
the same time.
"
"Charles Murray has ably documented that the growth of the
welfare state has led to a decline in socio-economic
advances for minorities and the poor. Rather, those who
successfully entered the economic mainstream traditionally
did so either through labor, entrepreneurship, education, or
a combination of those."
January 10, 1991
MEMORANDUM TO DAVID DEMAREST
MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
MEETING WITH DEMAREST, SUNUNU, DARMAN, PORTER
I.
Governor on Gulf:
A.
We won't know until a week from Sunday what the final
content and context of the remarks will be regarding
the Gulf crisis. Suggests:
-A 30-40 minute remarks, 50% domestic, 50% Gulf.
We can then cut where need be given how situation
develops.
B.
Need for 2 or 3 alternate sections on the Gulf
[action]. Rationale, of course, remains constant.
II. Governor on domestic agenda:
A.
EMPOWERMENT
1.
The name game: not "empowerment," can use the
word "power" (e.g. repower, power to the people)
or can use a different name entirely. Darman
later expressed comfort with Gingrich's tag: "The
New Domestic Order" (v. New World Order).
2.
Gov. suggests two or three paragraphs, prefaced by
the language of 210 years ago drawing the line
between original American ideals and the current
ideals of empowerment.
3.
What we've done, what we've yet to do. Past
Presidents have spoken of the need to reverse the
flow of power to Washington back out to the
states. We've done some of that, and here's what
we're going to do (proposals).
a. DEPARTURE: We don't propose to do this with
massive federal cutbacks (We might even increase
federal spending in certain areas if need be).
The point is that past efforts toward a new
federalism have often been seen as mere budget
cutting gimmicks we're showing we're ready to
put our money where our mouth is.
B.
REFORMS
campaign financing
term limitation
-balanced budget
III. Governor's thoughts on style, approach.
A.
There will not be much detail in here. Most of the
detail should be encompassed by the fact sheet to be
prepared.
B.
Be as upbeat as possible, especially about the economy.
(Darman: but be realistic, Americans must know he knows
their difficulty and feels for them). Jobs as test for
economy?
1.
Note that our growth agenda aims not to merely
solve our short-term problems, but to secure
greater prosperity for the future.
a.
Darman: We should recognize prior line of
growth, we should point out how the Gulf
situation interrupted that line. We shall
further research this line of reasoning.
C.
There should be two compassionate sections one on
jobs, one on Gulf. For latter section: look to the
President's past 10 or 12 press conferences, see how he
touches upon these subjects in his own words.
D.
Would like a first rough draft by MONDAY EVENING.
IV. DEMAREST'S COMMENTS, POST-MEETING
1)
To Lange: you might think of a couple of questions you have
for Darman (on policy), see if he'd be receptive
to meet for discussion.
2)
Dave on empowerment: it's not just giving power back, it's
when people take initiative, responsibility. Some
cataclysmic events in history have initiated trends that
have disempowered people--clearly we're against this, BUT:
we are not reactionary, we don't want to turn the clock back
to something old, we want to turn it ahead to something new.
Note: steer clear of "the welfare state."
3)
Call Boskin, investigate relationship between Gulf crisis
and economic downturn.
4)
On Gulf: bracket language about specific developments in
situation there as [ACTION]. Then a section about why we're
there
-stated goals
-pitch about atrocities
we're not in this alone
burden sharing
etc
a. look to document Dave gave us for overall guidance
on language in this section also see McGroarty's 4
pages on same subject.
5)
Dave wants to see draft by sometime MONDAY MORNING so as to
leave time for discussion, changes.
9 January 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK LANGE
FROM:
JENNIFER GROSSMAN
SUBJECT:
TODAY'S MEETING WITH PORTER, DEMAREST
NOTE:
Porter says that virtually all the powers that be agree
we should go thematic.
ECONOMY
1.
We should express confidence and optimism, but we need
evidence to back it up. (e.g. exports strong, low inventory
costs--need to explain in laymen's terms).
2)
GROWTH. RP: We can't have what we need as a country and
have slow growth.
a. we have to have higher growth
b. we have to become more competitive in the world
economy.
3)
ML: Let's put recession into historical perspective, showing
hey--it's not all that bad. Suggestion of using very simple
graphics to show comparison. Just a blip on the screen.
4)
Pay attention to Bush's Houston speech.
5)
RP: Democrats are still going to come at us on the
"fairness" issue. Suggests using that construct:
a. some think we must divide the pie, redistribute what
we have.
b. we think we must build more bakeries.
6)
RP: Senses that we will be well received if we come out
strong against protectionism (Japan, etc.).
7)
BUDGET. Latest polling data suggests that people think the
best thing we can do to ease the recession is to CUT
WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING.
8)
Interest rates and monetary policy--see Houston language.
9)
JOBS: no proposals currently to change policy.
10) NOTE: SOU fact sheet on the way. There might be a large
booklet on Education goals, we don't know yet if it'll be
ready by SOU.
11) ML: idea of holding up the documents of specifics in
administration's proposals- shows: here's the beef.
JAG: also takes the steam out of the cynical: it's just
rhetoric, nothing's going to change.
12) POTUS may be signing several executive orders on SOU day.
Shows action, command, decision. Also shows what he can do
without Congress.
13) DOMESTIC POLICY.
a.
RP and ML like it. JAG thinks it sticks like "I've
fallen and I can't get up" in the indiscriminate
flypaper of postmodernity.
b.
Prevention Initiatives (government out of your lives,
into your lungs).
C.
Opportunity and Empowerment: Rights, Safety,
Right/Responsibility to chart one's own destiny.
d.
CRIME CONTROL: big wedge issue for us, "We got half of
what we needed. P.S. We might have a summit conference
on crime.
14) SENSE OF STEWARDSHIP, enviro.
15) VALUES.
-freedom
-growth
-opportunity
-responsibility
-celebrate past but beware of complacency
a.
suggests "roots and wings. " ML likes. JAG is reminded
of the jabberwocky.
16) "New Partnership" with the states?
17) HUMAN INTEREST: anecdotes, letters; shows the President
understands.
18) POSTERITY: The Founding Fathers were clearly concerned with
posterity, what they were leaving for the generations to
come. It is powerful to talk about what we're trying to do
for posterity, this works with the New Independence as well
as with the New World Order.
19) **Later, Dave, aside:
--doesn't like "roots and wings" (neither does JAG)
--must reduce RP's technocratic language to laymen's
terms. Make it sing, letters, anecdotes.
copy
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January 31, 1991
NOTE FOR DAVID DEMEREST
Office of Communications
The White House
The speech was super! Ignore the bad news bears at the networks and keep going. The
content was strong and the tone was the right one.
An idea for an insertion into "on the road" versions of the speech -- at the point where trade
and competitiveness comes up -- occurred to me as I watched. There's more to this than reducing
trade barriers, as you well know. Hence, there's a natural opportunity in speeches around the
country to add a "here's what you can do" element -- aiming it squarely at the thousands of
manufacturers and intermediaries who are "infrequent exporters", i.e., they are in the game, but
only export around a quarter of a million a year each. They, perhaps more than big business, have
the potential to significantly increase exports. So for what it's worth, here are some words.
"We are going to do everything in our power to reduce foreign trade barriers and eliminate
subsidies that limit America's ability to compete effectively in world markets. But what
government does for trade is the least of it -- our effectiveness in world markets depends
primarily on the foreign sales of American businesses. America's success in exporting
depends on firms of all sizes -- selling to all sorts of markets -- and taking advantage of the
opportunities for trade we already have.
Our biggest single foreign market isn't Europe or Japan -- it's Canada -- where we
have already negotiated a free trade agreement that's full of opportunity.
Every American business that knows it has a good product should be trying
to make a sale in Canada and then using what they've learned about
exporting to move into other markets.
In to markets to the South, where special arrangements with the Caribbean already
make that area attractive, and where we are now working toward a free trade
agreement with Mexico.
To Europe -- where it has been proven, time and again, that consumers want to buy
American products and where sales by U.S. firms earned us a major positive
trade balance last year.
Those exports sales are more than just numbers -- exports mean jobs.
Every billion dollars in exports means 20,000 jobs for American workers.
And finally to Asia -- another land of opportunity for America's exporters. U.S.
firms are already succeeding in Asia -- selling airplanes and telecommunications
equipment to Japan, wheat and fertilizers to China, and electrical machinery and
computers to Singapore. There is room to multiply our exports to Asia many time
over.
Lots of American businesses are already active in the export game. Our best
estimates show that -- between manufacturers, wholesalers, and trading companies --
roughly a hundred thousand U.S. firms are involved in exporting American products. Yet
only a few have more than a toe in the water.
There are tens of thousands of firms -- roughly 75% of our exporters -- for whom
exporting is a sideline -- a secondary business. Well let me tell you -- if each of these firms
would take that business seriously -- and work themselves up to the point of making a
shipment a week, instead of a shipment a month -- the United States would have a trade
surplus -- rather than a $65 billion trade deficit.
So I'll do all I can to open more markets for American business. I'll toss that
football -- but you have to run with it. American business has to put our trade
opportunities to work."
***
Commerce (probably USFCS) and Census can verify/update figures cited above -- and
they also have the kind of stories -- perhaps on a state-by-state basis -- that make good one-liners
about how Company X has penetrated Market Y with manufactured goods, agricultural
commodities and a range of services from banking to construction. SBA's another place to check
for export success stories.
Enough. Happy New Year! Say "hi" to Sarah.
Molly And Hageboeck