Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
323152116
label
Outlook Graphics - Neenah, Wisconsin 7/27/92 [OA 5810]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
323152116
contentType
document
title
Outlook Graphics - Neenah, Wisconsin 7/27/92 [OA 5810]
citationUrl
identifierLocal
13633-001
collections
Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Speech Draft Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
323152116
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
cb5e0dc0d0495c19
ocrText
Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Draft Files
Subseries:
Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13633
Folder ID Number:
13633-001
Folder Title:
Outlook Graphics-Neenah, Wisconsin 7/27/92 [OA 5810]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
26
18
3
6
1336
July 27 / Administration of George Bush, 1992
of reform. Only then can we break the cycle
Remarks to Outlook Graphics
of dependency.
Employees in Neenah, Wisconsin
In my State of the Union Address last Jan-
July 27, 1992
uary, I made a commitment to far-reaching
reform. I acted because I believe we can no
Thank you all very, very much. Please be
longer afford the existing welfare system.
seated. Thank you and good afternoon, ev-
Our recipients can't afford to be dependent
eryone. Let me just say thank you to the Gov-
on government for their livelihood, and our
ernor for that very kind introduction. But let
taxpayers can't afford to pay the welfare bill,
me tell you this: I know these Governors,
and our economy can't afford the lost pro-
all of them, and you've got one of the very
ductivity.
best, if not the very best, in the entire United
I also acted because I trust the American
States. I really mean that, a solid friend, a
people and because I believe that those on
strong leader and innovator. You're lucky,
welfare, what they really want is a piece of
and I'm lucky, too, because he sets an exam-
the American dream: homeownership, a
ple. He brings new ideas to these Governors
good job, opportunities for their children,
meetings. He sets a high example for every-
and strong, loving families. And therefore, I
body including the President of the United
am determined to make it quicker and easier
States, and I am very, very pleased to be with
for States who choose to reform their welfare
him.
systems to get the Federal waivers that they
Of course, I'm very pleased to see my great
need to help the people help themselves.
friend, your Senator Bob Kasten; and these
Last April my administration signed a first
two Congressmen, Toby Roth and Tom Petri,
waiver for Wisconsin. And today it will sign
who are doing a first-class job. If we had
a second giving Governor Thompson the
more like them, you talk about change, we
freedom to further reform this State's wel-
could change America and change it fast for
fare program. Governor Thompson's ulti-
the better. I am glad they could join us today,
mate goal is to break the cycle of dependency
as well as Mr. Herbert Grover, the super-
that traps so many people and create incen-
intendent of public instruction for the State
tives for recipients to work and learn. He un-
of Wisconsin. He's doing a first-class job for
derstands that more important than having
education statewide. And David Erdmann,
an America that helps people in need is
thank you, sir, for your hospitality. I'm just
building an America where fewer people
delighted to be here.
need to be helped.
Now, it is a pleasure to be here. For any
Today I want to challenge other States in
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace
our country to follow Wisconsin's lead in
of America's sports trading cards, and for me,
bringing new ideas to our welfare system.
it's a little humbling. I don't dare ask how
Last week we approved New Jersey's Family
many hundreds of George Bush cards you
Development Program, whose reforms in the
have to trade to get one Michael Jordan.
State welfare program reward work and unite
[Laughter]
families. And I am confident other States will
I've come here to talk a little bit about
now do what America does best, bring local
our future, about the kind of Nation we want
genius to local needs.
for ourselves and our children. The world has
In coming months, we are going to watch
undergone remarkable changes in the past
Wisconsin to see how Wisconsin works. To-
few years. And today our kids worry about
gether, we can help change that welfare sys-
the usual things, about school friends, about
tem and, in doing so, change America. I'm
such earth-shattering questions as "Where
proud to sign this waiver. I congratulate Gov-
can I get an Olympic Dream Team card?"
ernor Thompson and the people of Wiscon-
But I can tell you one thing they don't worry
sin.
about anymore, the specter of nuclear war.
Thank you all very, very much.
Today, America is safer than ever before,
safer than we were a decade ago, safer than
Note: The President spoke at 1:19 p.m. at
we were a year ago, and safer than we were
the Outagamie County Airport.
just a few weeks ago, when I sat down with
George Bush, 1992
Administration of George Bush, 1992 / July 27
1337
Graphics
Boris Yeltsin, the President of Russia, to
Washington, DC. So I stake my claim in a
h, Wisconsin
eliminate some of the most dangerous nu-
simple philosophy: To lead a great Nation,
clear weapons on the face of the Earth, get-
you must first trust the people that you lead.
ting rid of those great big SS-18 ICBM's.
If you look at almost every important issue
ry much. Please be
That's good change. That is positive, and it's
we face, you see a clear choice, a choice be-
good afternoon, ev-
great for these young people here today.
tween those who put their faith in average
ank you to the Gov-
Now that we've changed the world, it is
Americans and those who put their faith sole-
atroduction. But let
time to change America and time to turn our
ly in the Government. Let me explain what
V these Governors,
attention to pressing challenges like how to
I mean, starting with the basics, home and
got one of the very
give a pink slip to our slow-growth economy,
family.
in the entire United
and how to make America's families more
The most difficult question that many par-
it, a solid friend, a
like the Waltons and a little bit less like the
ents face is, who will care for the kids while
ator. You're lucky,
Simpsons-[laughter]-how to take back our
we're working? A few years ago, Washington
se he sets an exam-
streets from the crack dealers and the crimi-
wanted to help, but the idea back there was
to these Governors
nals. Progress has been made, as I an-
to rock the cradle with the heavy hand of
example for every-
nounced yesterday at the White House, in
the bureaucracy. All the plans boiled down
dent of the United
the casual use of cocaine by these teenagers,
to creating some new kind of Government
pleased to be with
dramatic improvement, almost 60 percent
apparatus, like a "Pentagon" for child care.
down in the last 3 years. But we've still got
I fought for a different approach, with the
sed to see my great
a long way to go. We've got to win that battle.
support of these Members of the United
Kasten; and these
This election year, we're told, is about how
States Congress, and we won. Our landmark
oth and Tom Petri,
we can change to meet these challenges. But
legislation allows parents, not the Govern-
SS job. If we had
this election is not just about change because
ment, to decide whether your children are
about change, we
change has a flip side. It's called trust. When
cared for in a school, a relative's home, or
1 change it fast for
you get down to it, this election will be like
a church. When it comes to raising children,
could join us today,
every other. When you go into that voting
I say, don't put your faith in the Government
Grover, the super-
booth and pull the curtain behind you, trust
bureaucracy. Why not trust the parents, the
ction for the State
matters.
ones who are responsible for bringing these
a first-class job for
That's the way it should be. Many times
kids up?
David Erdmann,
in the White House late at night, the phone
Now, what about our educational system?
ospitality. I'm just
rings. Usually it's some young aide calling in
To renew America we must renew our
about doublechecking the next day's sched-
schools. We all know this. Money alone is
be here. For any
ule. But occasionally it's another voice, more
not going to do it. We already spend more
at the birthplace
serious, more solemn, carrying news of a
money-this is a little scary-we already
cards, and for me,
coup in a powerful country or asking how
spend more money per student than almost
on't dare ask how
we should stand up to the "Baghdad bully"
any other country in the world, and our chil-
Bush cards you
halfway around the world. The American
dren still rank near the bottom in crucial sub-
Michael Jordan.
people need to know that the man who an-
jects like math and science. Again, a lot of
swers that phone has the experience, the sea-
ideas floating around, most of them to pump
a little bit about
soning, to do the right thing. I believe I have
more tax money into the same old system,
of Nation we want
proved I am that man.
the same old programs that have failed the
en. The world has
That is trust in the traditional sense. But
American family. I say, try something dif-
anges in the past
people who've spent their lives in govern-
ferent: Open up schools to competition, and
kids worry about
ment forget that trust is even more than that.
trust you, trust you to decide whether you
ool friends, about
I'm a Texan, raised my children there, built
want your kids to learn in a public school,
tions as "Where
my business there, voted there in every Presi-
a private school, or a religious school.
am Team card?"
dential election since my first, the 1948 elec-
School choice is the answer.
they don't worry
tion, the year, if you'll go back and remem-
When it comes to education to give our
r of nuclear war.
ber, some of you older types here, the year
kids a better chance, isn't it time to try some-
than ever before,
the press and the pundits counted out Harry
thing different? The old way has failed, has
le ago, safer than
Truman before the fight even began.
not worked. Why not trust the people?
fer than we were
I believe our country's heartbeat can be
What about Government regulation? Sure,
1 I sat down with
felt in places like Neenah, Wisconsin, not
some of it's necessary; some of it even essen-
1338
July 27 / Administration of George Bush, 1992
tial. But if you believe that there is a Govern-
join me in a new national job training effort.
ment solution to every problem, an alphabet
I introduced a program called the "Youth Ap-
agency for every issue, then you look at regu-
prenticeship Act" in Congress. The program
lation not as a necessary evil but as a nec-
is geared especially to teenagers who want
essary way to rein in people's evil tendencies.
to work, who want to learn a skill, but may
It can lead to the same crazy behavior. Let
be tempted to drop out of school, true to
me tell you a story about one crazy regulation
form.
affecting hardhats. Hardhats, that's right.
Then comes along Governor Thompson,
Here's what happened. Back in Washing-
Tommy Thompson. He's already reaching
ton, someone in an agency stumbled upon
out to these young people. The youth ap-
a potential national crisis, workers being in-
prenticeship program will encourage young
fected from putting on someone else's hard-
people to complete a sound high school edu-
hat. The alarms went off. The bureaucratic
cation while getting on-the-job training at
blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked.
great companies like Outlook. I salute Out-
There wasn't a single documented case any-
look and Governor Thompson for helping me
where in the United States of America of
create a work force that's ready for the chal-
anyone getting infected from wearing some-
lenges of the 21st century.
one else's hardhat. That didn't deter the bu-
So I believe we can give Americans the
reaucrat. So with the best of intentions, the
tools. And then it's a matter of trust, trusting
rule was written: Every hardhat must be dis-
Americans to make their own choices. When
infected before one worker passed it on to
it comes to the most pressing issue of the
another. Estimated cost to business: $13 mil-
election year, revving up our economy, for-
lion a year. Measurable benefit: slightly less
getting this idea of trust is not just a nuisance,
than zero.
it can be downright dangerous.
Now, there is a happy ending to this story,
The revolutions of the past few years her-
but only because we were there to give it
ald a new era of global economic competi-
one. We found the regulation before it hit
tion, with free markets from Siberia to
the books and said America can survive with-
Santiago. Can the United States compete
out that particular hardhat regulation. But
now that everyone is playing our game of free
can you imagine what might have happened
markets? Well, I know we can. Despite all
if these enterprising regulators had made
the criticism you've heard lately, keep in
their way into the vast, unregulated territory
mind just a few facts. Who is the largest, most
of lunch pails or thermos bottles? Think of
envied economy in the entire world? The
the threat to the Nation. [Laughter]
good ol' U.S.A.
Some believe the solution to our problems
Look at inflation, the Jesse James who robs
is more Government regulation. I take a very
the middle class of dreams. We have locked
different view. I've put a moratorium on new
that crook in a maximum security cell, so he
Federal regulations, to give businesses like
can't steal the paycheck of the working men
this one, growing enterprise business, giving
and women of this country. The last time in-
it room to breathe and grow and create jobs
terest rates were this low, "The Brady
for these young people here today. On child
Bunch" wasn't even in reruns yet. Despite
care, education, regulation, it is a matter of
all the stories about our problems, and we've
trust, trusting Americans to make their own
got plenty, but despite all the stories, you
choices.
are still the most productive workers in the
The point is not to let people fend entirely
entire world. You put these workers up
for themselves. Americans are a generous
against the English, the Germans, the Japa-
people, and Government must never shirk
nese, and you, you American taxpayers, you
its responsibilities. But programs have to give
win; you American entrepreneurs and
people a hand up and trust human ingenuity
businesspeople, you win; and the work force
to take it from there.
itself wins.
You'll find a good example of what Gov-
But while our economy is growing, it clear-
ernment can do right here at Outlook. Last
ly has got to grow faster. The question is how.
April I challenged the Nation's Governors to
The other side suggests a simple two-part so-
orge Bush, 1992
Administration of George Bush, 1992 / July 27
1339
training effort.
lution: First, raise Government spending,
has been relatively nonpartisan up until now.
3 the "Youth Ap-
and second, raise taxes.
[Laughter] Relatively.
SS. The program
Now, as you evaluate their idea, keep this
No, but you see, it all comes down to a
agers who want
in mind. Here in Wisconsin, you already
question of trust. I trust you to spend and
a skill, but may
work 126 days just to pay your taxes before
save your money more wisely than a budget
school, true to
you earn a single dime to spend on the fam-
planner in Washington.
ily. I don't know about you, but I don't want
You say this is all common sense, and I
mor Thompson,
you to have to pay 127 days.
agree. But there's a certain type of person
already reaching
Let me just describe for you what I'm up
attracted to Government for whom the word
The youth ap-
against. In January I proposed a common-
"trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them
encourage young
sense plan in the State of the Union Message,
have spent all their lives in Government and
high school edu-
commonsense plan to get this economy mov-
don't have much experience in the real
e-job training at
ing faster, right now. The plan included tax
world. Half my adult life spent in service and
ok. I salute Out-
incentives to encourage businesses to hire
the other half trying to work for a living and
on for helping me
new workers, tax breaks for young families
make a paycheck and build a business, I think
ady for the chal-
who want to buy that first home. If Congress
that's a good qualification for President of
had acted right away, half a million jobs
the United States of America. They say they
e Americans the
would have been created for your neighbors,
want to put people first. But if you look real
of trust, trusting
your family, and your friends.
close, the people that they put first are all
vn choices. When
But they didn't. Instead Congress sent
on a Government payroll.
sing issue of the
back what you might call an anti-trust pro-
I stand with the flag-waving, yes, and the
ur economy, for-
gram: new Government spending and new
God-fearing, yes, and the tax-paying, hard-
ot just a nuisance,
taxes. So I vetoed their plan and sent it right
working people of America. A leader of a free
us.
back to them. And thanks to these Congress-
people must understand that Government
ast few years her-
men, that veto was upheld. I am still waiting,
can not only help, it can hinder. He must
onomic competi-
pressing for these incentives to get passed
have the confidence to say, "I trust you. I
from Siberia to
by the Senate and the House. I am still wait-
trust the people." Ultimately you must de-
I States compete
ing almost 200 days later. This economic re-
cide who you trust, who has the experience,
gn our game of free
covery plan is being held hostage, held hos-
the ideals, and the ideas to find the appro-
can. Despite all
tage, and the ransom note reads, "Wait till
priate balance.
d lately, keep in
after the election." Today I say to the Con-
Yes, America will change, just as we have
IS the largest, most
gress and the Senate, especially: Release the
changed the entire world. The question now
ntire world? The
economy. Approve this jobs program, and
is who will change America for the better?
put America back to work right now.
It won't be people whose only enthusiasm
se James who robs
Speaking of numbers, this is a great place
is for Government, who measure progress by
S. We have locked
to speak about numbers, right here at Out-
programs created and special interests satis-
security cell, so he
look: number 16 means Joe Montana; num-
fied.
the working men
ber 9, my dear friend with whom I attended
If you want to know who's going to change
The last time in-
the All-Star Game in San Diego, number 9,
America, look around you. Look around. It's
ow, "The Brady
Ted Williams; number 15, a Packer named
going to be the guy who works an extra shift
runs yet. Despite
Starr. Here's a number for you, 38. Think
every week so his son can go to the school
oblems, and we've
hard now, 38. That's how many years the
of his choice. It's going to be the small busi-
Il the stories, you
Democrats have controlled the House of
nesswoman who takes a risk on a new prod-
ive workers in the
Representatives. Get rid of number 38, and
uct, the computer hacker working in a lonely
these workers up
we can make America number one for sure
garage, the merit scholar from south central
Germans, the Japa-
for many years to come. If you want to
L.A., the entrepreneur with a crazy idea of
can taxpayers, you
change something, the one institution that
putting players' faces on cards and turning
ntrepreneurs and
hasn't changed, if you want to change some-
us all into wonderful kids once again.
and the work force
thing, change control of the United States
There's your answer, some of it, I might
House of Representatives, and watch what
say, sitting right back here: These appren-
is growing, it clear-
we can do for America.
tices, wanting to work, wanting to learn.
he question is how.
I'm getting fired up for after our conven-
There's your answer: The American people
simple two-part so-
tion in August. [Laughter] You'll notice this
are going to change America. But only if they
1340
July 27 / Administration of George Bush, 1992
have a Government, particularly a Congress,
ness Preservation System. From these 21
with the wisdom to know its own limits, with
WSAs, the Secretary proposes to designate
a leadership who knows where the true
20 wilderness areas by consolidating two
American imagination lies. Countries around
WSAs into one wilderness area.
the world have at long last understood the
I concur with the Secretary of the Interi-
power of trusting the people. America will
or's recommendations and am pleased to rec-
change by reaffirming the lesson that we
ommend designation of the 20 areas (total-
have taught the entire world, by trusting a
ling 240,364 acres) identified in the enclosed
leader who trusts you.
draft legislation as additions to the National
It is a great pleasure to be back in the
Wilderness Preservation System.
wonderful State of Wisconsin. Thank you all.
The proposed additions represent the di-
May God bless the United States of America,
versity of wilderness values in the State of
the greatest, freest country on the face of
Wyoming. These range from the badlands of
the Earth. Thank you very, very much.
Adobetown and the Honeycomb Buttes, to
the canyon of the Sweetwater River, to the
Note: The President spoke at 2:09 p.m. at
subalpine regions of the Ferris Mountains
Outlook Graphics Corp. In his remarks, he
and Raymond Mountain. These areas span
referred to David Erdmann, president of the
a wide variety of Wyoming landforms,
corporation.
ecosystems, and other natural systems and
features. Their inclusion in the wilderness
system will improve the geographic distribu-
tion of wilderness areas in Wyoming, and will
Letter to Congressional Leaders
complement existing areas of congressionally
Transmitting Proposed Legislation
designated wilderness. They will provide new
on Wyoming Public Lands
and outstanding opportunities for solitude
Wilderness Designation
and unconfined recreation.
July 27, 1992
The enclosed draft legislation provides
that designation as wilderness shall not con-
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
stitute a reservation of water or water rights
I am pleased to submit for congressional
for wilderness purposes. This is consistent
consideration and passage the "Wyoming
with the fact that the Congress did not estab-
Public Lands Wilderness Act".
lish a Federal reserved water right for wilder-
The Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ness purposes. The Administration has estab-
ment Act of 1976 (FLPMA), (43 U.S.C.
lished the policy that, where it is necessary
1701, et seq.), directs the Secretary of the
to obtain water rights for wilderness purposes
Interior to review the wilderness potential of
in a specific wilderness area, water rights
the public lands.
would be sought from the State by filing
The review of the areas identified in Wyo-
under State water laws. Furthermore, it is
ming began immediately after the enactment
the policy of the Administration that the des-
of FLPMA and has now been completed. Ap-
ignation of wilderness areas should not inter-
proximately 577,504 acres of public lands in
fere with the use of water rights, State water
42 areas in Wyoming met the minimum wil-
administration, or the use of a State's inter-
derness criteria and were designated as wil-
state water allocation.
derness study areas (WSAs). These WSAs
The draft legislation also provides for ac-
were studied and analyzed during the review
cess to wilderness areas by Indian people for
process and the results documented in nine
traditional cultural and religious purposes.
environmental impact statements and one in-
Access by the general public may be limited
stant study area report.
in order to protect the privacy of religious
Based on the studies and reviews of the
cultural activities taking place in specific wil-
WSAs, the Secretary of the Interior is rec-
derness areas. In addition, to the fullest ex-
ommending that all or part of 21 of the
tent practicable, the Department of the Inte-
WSAs, totaling 240,364 acres of public lands,
rior will coordinate with the Department of
be designated as part of the National Wilder-
Defense to minimize the impact of any
Document No. 340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
---
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00 pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FINDLAY
FITZWATER
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
>
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
2 JUL 24 P4: 59
July 24, 1992
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
STEVEN PROVOST Mer Mer pasp forsp
FROM:
ANDREW FERGUSON at
SUBJECT:
OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
I. SUMMARY
On Monday, July 27, at 2:00 p.m., you will deliver remarks
(17 minutes, on prompter) to approximately 700 employees of
Outlook Graphics Corporation.
II. DISCUSSION
This speech is almost identical to the Michigan draft, with
the exception of the introductory remarks on the first page, the
Youth Apprenticeship section on page 5, and remarks about the
Democratically controlled Congress on page 8. In addition, cuts
have been made to compensate for the additional material on youth
apprenticeship.
Note: Outlook Graphics is a manufacturer of sports trading
cards, including a George Bush series; hence, the joke on page 1.
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
Draft Two
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
It's a great pleasure to be here. For any sports fan, it's
a thrill to be with the producers of America's sports trading
cards. ((And for me it's a little humbling. I don't dare ask
you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you have to trade to
get even one Michael Jordan.))
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
...
about the kind of nation we want for ourselves
...
and our
children. The world has undergone remarkable changes the past
few years. Today our kids worry about the usual things
...
about
school, friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I get an Olympic "Dream Team" card. But I can tell you
one thing they don't worry about any more -- one thing they might
have worried about just a short while ago
...
the spectre of
nuclear war.
Today
...
America is safer than ever before. Safer than we
were a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we
were just a few weeks ago
...
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin
and agreed to eliminate some of the most dangerous nuclear
weapons on earth.
2
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
economy. How to make America's families more like the Waltons,
and less like the Simpsons. And how to take back our streets
from the crack dealers and the criminals.
This election year, we are told, is about how we can change
to meet these challenges. But this election is not just about
change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust. When
you get down to it, this election will be like every other. When
you go into that voting booth and pull the curtain behind you:
"trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers that phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is more even
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business there. I've learned that our country's heartbeat can be
felt in places like Neenah, Wisconsin
not Washington, D.C.
3
And so I stake my claim on a simple philosophy: to lead a great
nation you must first trust the people you lead.
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice -- a choice between those who put their faith
in average Americans --- and those who put their faith in
government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is --- "who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago,
Washington wanted to help, but their idea was to rock the cradle
with the heavy hand of bureaucracy. All the plans boiled down to
creating some new kind of government apparatus, like a Pentagon
for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents -- not the government -- to decide
whether your children are cared for in school, a relative's home,
or church.
When it comes to raising children, I say: why not trust the
people?
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools, we all know this, but money alone won't do it.
We already spend more money per student than almost any other
country; and our kids still rank near the bottom in crucial
subjects like math and science. Again: a lot of ideas floating
around, most of them to pump more tax money into the same system.
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition, and trust you to decide whether you want your kids
to learn in a public school, a private school or a religious
school.
When it comes to education, again I say: "why not trust the
people?"
What about government regulation? Sure, some of it is
necessary, even essential. But if you believe that there is a
government solution to every problem, an alphabet agency for
every issue, than you look at regulation not as a necessary evil,
but as a necessary way to rein in people's evil tendencies. The
results can be crazy, as this story proves.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
its rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone in
that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis --- workers
being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from someone else's hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $13 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less than zero.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
5
the books, and said: we think America can survive without this
particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened if these
enterprising regulators had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?//
Some believe the solution to our problems is more government
regulation. I take a different view. I've put a moratorium on
new federal regulations, to give businesses like this one room to
breathe, and grow and create jobs.
On child care, education, regulation, it's a matter of trust
trusting Americans to make their own choices.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
You'll find a good example of what government can do right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
...
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson is already reaching
out to these young people, along with concerned businessmen and
community leaders. The youth apprenticeship program will
encourage these kids to complete a sound high-school education,
while getting on-the-job training at companies like Outlook.
This program connects education with the real world of work.
6
Government can help make that connection -- and I salute Gov.
Thompson for helping me create a workforce that's up and ready
for the challenges of the next century.
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
of trust is not just a nuisance; it can be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Despite all the criticism you've heard
lately, keep in mind a few facts. We are the largest economy in
the world. Inflation, the Willie Sutton who robs the middle
class of dreams, has been put safely behind bars. The last time
interest rates stayed this low, the Brady Bunch hadn't even
started re-runs yet. Despite all the stories about our problems,
our workers are still the most productive in the world -- more
productive than the English, the Germans, the Japanese.
But while our economy is growing, it must grow faster. The
question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a simple
two-part solution. First, jack up government spending! And
then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
7
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?//
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
spoke of government "of the people, by the people, for the
people. But they seem to keep saying
of the government, by
the government, and for the government.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense, comprehensive plan to get
this economy moving faster, now.
The first sound of a strong economy is usually the sound of
hammers pounding away at new homesites. So I proposed tax
incentives to build new homes, and a $5,000 tax break for
families who want to buy their first one. Here in Wisconsin,
that equals nine months of mortgage payments on the average
house.
I understand that private enterprise is the horse that pulls
our wagon -- no government program ever created a real job
((although government did keep Johnny Carson in business for 30
years) ) So I proposed incentives for businesses to grow and
hire. It's estimated those incentives would have spurred the
creation of at least half a million jobs
if they had been
approved when I proposed them.
8
But they weren't approved. Instead, Congress sent back
what you might call an "anti-trust" program. New government
spending, and new taxes.
So I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. But
they still haven't done anything. And it leads me to a theory.
In your business, certain numbers mean something. Number 16 is
Joe Montana, Number 34 is Nolan Ryan, Number 33 is Patrick Ewing.
But there's another number that tells you all you need to know
about what's wrong with Washington: Number 38. That's how many
years the same party has had control of Congress. I say it's
time to trade in old Number 38. Give me a Republican Congress so
America can stay Number One.
You see
it all comes down to a question of trust. I
trust you to spend and save your money more wisely than any
budget planner in Washington.
This is common sense, and I agree. But there's a certain
type of person attracted to government for whom the word "trust"
has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent their lives in
government, and don't have much experience in the real world.
They say they want to
"put people first.'
But
if
you
look closely at what they're advocating
...
the people they put
first are all on a government payroll.
A leader of a free people must understand that government
can not only help, it can hinder. He must have the confidence to
say: "I trust you. I trust the people. / /
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you, and God bless the United States
of America.
# #
Document No. 340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00pm!
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00 pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
P
SCOWCROFT
X
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
x
PROVOST
CALIO N/C
SMITH
DEMAREST N/C
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
>
FINDLAY
GRAY N/C
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknowledgements.
RESPONSE:
called at 1PM. mk
called at 2PM. mic
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
2 JUL 24 : 21
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
...
about the kind of nation we want for us
...
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things
...
about school,
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about
...
the specter of nuclear
war.
Today
...
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago ... when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
3
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents. " I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
5
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. //
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people. " I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
7
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and --
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington. -
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
-
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first. "
But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
WALTERS
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDE
24-Jul-1992 11:33am
TO:
(See Below)
FROM:
Drucillia S. Scaling
Office of Communications
SUBJECT: WISCONSIN comments due before 2:00 pm TODAY
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
...
about the kind of nation we want for us ... and our children.
nistoric?
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
positive seems
ikean under-
Today our kids worry about the usual things ... about school,
statement.
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as ... where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about
the specter of nuclear
war.
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
(cosbys?)
cosbies
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics home
and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents." I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
...
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
care? health insurance?
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy
it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
make
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
The difference then is clear: I trust you to make these fundamental decisions -
[Bill clinton and the Democrats in Congress do not trust you].
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. //
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
...
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
...
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
willie
the middle class of dreams
Horton?
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
...
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people." I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example,
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and --
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
clear
out
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
...
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
...
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
...
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
...
"put people first." But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
is this
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
really
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
true?
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank [and it wor't bettillary Clinton!]
For 2 put smoking, back-toothed, bad-hair
having, twinkie eating, tax-raising, lie-
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
telling, line lifting Southern governor either.]
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
this term
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
implies illegally
opying software merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
md breaking into
omputer networks. future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
DISTRIBUTION:
TO: David F. Demarest, Jr.
TO: Sharon M. Botwin
92 JUL 24 P2:32
changes
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDE
24-Jul-1992 11:33am
TO:
(See Below)
FROM:
Drucillia S. Scaling
Office of Communications
SUBJECT: WISCONSIN comments due before 2:00 pm TODAY
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
...
about the kind of nation we want for us
...
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things ... about school,
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as ...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about
the specter of nuclear
war.
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change,
because
This election liposide. is about
called
trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
Former small business Man, a Texan,
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics
home
and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
have begun an education revolution In to this Country
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents.' I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
They say- tell you what medical care you seceive should
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people 11. When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. / /
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing ...
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people.' I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, to help us over the bumps in the road. creake jobs $ get
people who are husting help.
I wanted to free up the energies of our éntrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and
you guessed it -- new taxes.
pass
my
to
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again.
And
I'm
now Ponvinced
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
seriously.
that ties so many businesses in knots.
pore
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
payroll
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
you
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
halping
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
small
business
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
cope
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
abrund rego
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
...
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world. They haven't run a business - risking creaked jobs your jobs hides by like
They say they want to
...
"put people first. " But if you
people
have
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
here.
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
DISTRIBUTION:
TO: David F. Demarest, Jr.
TO: Sharon M. Botwin
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Date: 7-27-82
92 JUL 27 P2: 35
TO: maria
FROM:
DRUCIE SCALING DS
Communications Administrative Officer
122 OEOB, EXt. 2930
The attached is for:
Per our conversation
Per your request
Information
Review & Comment
Direct Response
Appropriate Action
Draft Reply
Signature
File
Other
Please Return by
Comments: Please But this in the
Neenah, WI comment few
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:52PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 1
Document No. 340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
24 P4: 56
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00pm
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN 7/27/92 - 2:00pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
P
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
R
BRADY
8
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please fr 12ward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930 ARTO later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
--Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknowledgements.
RESPONSE:
See comments Thanks. Paul Korfonta
FK
10pgs -
1
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 : 3:52PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 2
(Provest/Ferquson/Grossman) July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
Draft One
2 JUL 24 All : 21
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
1
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
-
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
...
about the kind of nation we want for us ... and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things ... about school,
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about ... the specter of nuclear
war.
Today ... America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago ... when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:53PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 3.
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals. -
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
deuble-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm & Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in B simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:53PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 4
3
If you look at almost avery important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is ...
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like & Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:54PM ;
OPD->
2024566218;# 5
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents. II I say: Let parents, not the government, cheese their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world - but costs are through the roof.
HVS
four
Thirty million Americans
a pogulation larger than the
Tras.
health urance Toms
state of California
are without
and millions
on (
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
sometime
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
the
Cities)
nationalized
year
spelatized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. (Trom.) Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it and incentives BO that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people./ When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up.
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can de is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:54PM ;
OPD->
2024566218;# 6
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thempson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. 11
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's 5 matter of trust - trusting Americans to make their own
(Treasury)
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
make 40
election year -- revving up our economy this idea
mistake
isn' E dust bad judgment: it could be dewnright dangerous.
the we we devolog
59
twent
and eweng
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of to the
do mestic battle
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to to review
OKT economy that
Santiago.
we ted returning
the cold was. will we
win
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
this one
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
too
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:55PM ;
OPD-
2024566218:# 7
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
...
it must grow faster.
The question 1s: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask PRINCE does anyone want
to go for 1277
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people." I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
...
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:55PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 8
7
so I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and -
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean & little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties BC many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national orisis ----
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. so with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:56PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:# 9
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less,
Luckily, this story has a happy anding, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it Hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
12 these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
CHAS
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
what doc
ww
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
the
sex
real world
me
They say they went to
"put people first. " But if you
look closely
the people they out first are all on at
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you." 10 I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
see
previous
moments
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
appropriate
In
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 7-24-92 ; 3:56PM ;
OPD->
2024566218:#10
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
-
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
-
-
If you want to know who's going to change America - look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
Document No. 340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00pm!
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
P
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
--Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknowledgements.
RESPONSE:
Steve 800d seemall
Please Very my Thank. hous Assistant PHILLIP
D. BRADY
to the President
Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
2 JUL 24 : 21
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
Twould Not:
about the kind of nation we want for us
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things
...
about school,
Johnson
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
think
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
way,
you one thing they don't worry about
the specter of nuclear
war.
many time. how kish, cown
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
Good
just a few months ago
...
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
wound
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
wish himpy coner up
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
in
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities.
Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
Note: Does this it
And each the each piece of that tapestry I have
seen and known throughout my life has
is stitched together with trust.
wake any
move
all been held together with a strong
thread called trust.
3
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
good
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
Note: The critis of education choice
like to paint the issue as poor.
4
public students against rich private
school students. Religious schools
I say try something different.
Open up schools to
is colud stronger
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
not ahead of
religious school or
kids to learn in a public school, a private school, or religious
1
school.
sentence must m the
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents." I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
let
doctor.
every American
Note:
1
better way for everyone
his or her own doctor.
T
I say
take a different way Give tax credits so people
'v'
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
key
=
chelkupe
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
sure to they I
say
trust the people to choose.
knows would. lae
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
'In that
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a strong hand-
Your
n
it one would
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
be the
&
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
same
5
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
Note:
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
After 12 in
next century //
best
in
the
world
11ice it year make reminal down sene
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
a
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
to people is
fundamental
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
the in that or way the at best in lead what will ? we
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
sood
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
have worked a single day to
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
a
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 1277 www
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people. " I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January, I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
7
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a pile of new spending and --
a
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
good
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first. " But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
3x
really our
government payroll. They want to pho bureaucrats Ket, and tax collectors fast
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
crowd of young government
9
enthusiasts, a
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
very
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
sood
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
Note:
It's
going to be the senior citizen
Very,Very Very, very
Importanthis
who tutors a child after school.
to add the list
to
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
07/24
07/23/92
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 9:30a.m. Friday
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DUTCH TWINS PLANT, WYOMING, MI/07/27
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
MCGROARTY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
BOSKIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments directly to Dan McGroarty no later
than 9:30 a.m. on Friday, 07/24, with a copy to this office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
2 JUL 23 P8: 45
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 23, 1992
MICHIGAN
Draft One: 7:00 AM
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DUTCH TWINS PLANT
WYOMING, MICHIGAN
JULY 27, 1992
12:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
Americans may not realize it when they reach for cereal on
the supermarket shelves
...
but our food industry
...
provides
more food for less
...
than any other nation.
Dutch Twins is one reason we are a world leader. So I'm
pleased to announce that John Vander Heide has recruited me for a
national crusade. Starting today
I will not only argue
passionately that broccoli's benefits are overblown
...
but that
(sugar wafers) should be one of the four essential ingredients in
a healthy diet. //
This factory is a symbol of the dramatic changes that have
occurred around the world.
John tells me that this company was the originator of
something called
"The Survival Biscuit." It was one of the
tokens of the Cold War -- a bit of nourishment to fill your
stomach as you huddled somewhere in a bomb shelter, in case the
unthinkable became tragically real.
2
While it may not be great for survival biscuit sales
the
Cold War is, thankfully, over. Survival biscuits have gone the
way of the doomsday clock, "Failsafe" movies, bomb shelters, and
"duck and cover drills." Today
America is safer than before.
Safer than we were a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago.
Safer than we were just a few months ago
when I sat down with
Boris Yeltsin and eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
And all the of topes this I have seen and been a known
part of from my earlier memories
for my whole life
3
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is more even
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities.
Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Wyoming
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won.
Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
4
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. Over the past twenty-five years, education spending has
increased xx; while achievement scores have dropped by
Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them to pump more
tax money into the same system.
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents. "
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
5
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
In every case, it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans
to make their own choices.
And when it comes to the most
pressing issue of this election year -- revving up our economy -
- forgetting this idea is not just a nuisance; it can be
downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Michigan, whether you like it or not, you already work 128 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
gov hir
6
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 129?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. The Constitution
says we want government "of the people, by the people, for the
people.' But they keep wanting to say
government of the
people, by the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Michigan, that $5,000 would have been
equal to XX months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and --
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
...
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
7
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
hard hat regulation.
8
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first. "
But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you." I trust the people.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and we will never shirk our
responsibilities. But help must be offered with an eye to
government's power not only to help but to hinder.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
yours son't enthrinast
9
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
ErW-
he/L
w beiL d Hopertap
5811
Document No.
340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00pm!
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
>
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
P
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
P
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
--Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknowledgements.
RESPONSE:
TO:
DAN MCGROARTY
July 24, 1992
The NSC staff concurs with the draft presidential remarks subject
to the changes annotated.
R
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
Brent Scowcroft
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
CC: Phillip D. Brady
25 JL 92 113 52
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
2 JUL 24 2 All : 21
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too.
I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
about the kind of nation we want for us
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things
...
about school,
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about
...
the specter of nuclear
war.
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
3
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics --
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents." I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
5
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. //
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people. " I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
7
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and -
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
-
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
1
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first.
"
But
if
you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
not literally true. Sounds like the government came
close disintectors. to creating thousands of jobs for hardhat
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
Document No
340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
92 JUL 24/24/3011 P
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00 pm!
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00 pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
R
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
V
BRADY
PORTER
>
|
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
--Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknowledgements
RESPONSE:
p
p.6
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
21
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
about the kind of nation we want for us
...
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things
about school
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about ... the specter of nuclear
war.
somebody else
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago
...
when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Baen As I'VE
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
SAYING
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
FIR
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
Months
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
3
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won. Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents." I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
5
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. / /
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask -- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people.' I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people
government
by
the people, and on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
Repeat this somewhere else- sup 8
7
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and --
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first. "
But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
Repeat
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.
-
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#
Document No.
340289ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
7/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: TODAY, 7/24 2:00 pm!
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
SUBJECT:
NEENAH, WISCONSIN - 7/27/92 - 2:00 pm
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
PROVOST
CALIO
SMITH
DEMAREST
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
FINDLAY
GRAY
KAUFMAN
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGrearty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., TODAY, with a copy to this office.
Thank you.
-Please note, this speech is identical to the Wyoming, Michigan speech
except for the section on Youth Apprenticeship and the acknow ledgements.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Provost/Ferguson/Grossman)
July 24, 1992
WISCONSIN
2 JUL 24 : 21
Draft One
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: OUTLOOK GRAPHICS
NEENAH, WISCONSIN
JULY 27, 1992
2:00 PM
Thank you and good afternoon everyone.
(Acknowledgments)
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. For any
sports fan, it's a thrill to be at the birthplace of America's
sports trading cards. And for me it's a little humbling, too. I
don't dare ask you how many hundreds of George Bush cards you
have to trade to get even one Michael Jordan.
I've come here to talk a little bit about our future
about the kind of nation we want for us
and our children.
The world has undergone positive change the past few years.
Today our kids worry about the usual things
...
about school
friends, about such earth-shattering questions as
...
where can I
get an (Magic Johnson) "exclusive edition" card. But I can tell
you one thing they don't worry about
...
the specter of nuclear
war.
Today
America is safer than before. Safer than we were
a decade ago. Safer than we were a year ago. Safer than we were
just a few months ago ... when I sat down with Boris Yeltsin and
eliminated nuclear weapons.
Now that we have changed the world
it is high time to
change America. Time to turn our attention to pressing
challenges like how to give a pink slip to our slow-growth
2
economy. How to make our families more like the Waltons than the
Simpsons. And how to take back our streets from the crack
dealers and the criminals.
This election year
we are told
is about how we can
change to meet these challenges. But this election is not just
about change, because change has a flip side. It's called trust.
When you get down to it, this election will be like every other
in history. When you go into that voting booth and pull the
curtain behind you: "trust" matters.
And that's the way it should be. Many times, in the White
House late at night, the phone rings. Usually it's a young aide
double-checking the next day's schedule. But occasionally, it's
another voice -- more serious, solemn -- carrying news of a coup
in a powerful country, or the invasion of an ally halfway around
the world. The American people need to know that the man who
answers the phone has the experience, the seasoning, to do the
right thing.
That's trust in the traditional sense. But people who've
spent their lives in government forget that trust is even more
than that. I'm a Texan -- raised my children there, built my
business. I see America as an endless tapestry of people,
families and communities. Our heartbeat can be felt in places
like Neenah
not Washington. And so I believe in a simple
philosophy: to lead a great nation you must first trust the
people you lead.
3
If you look at almost every important issue we face
you
see a clear choice in philosophy
a choice between those who
put their faith in average Americans
and those who put their
faith in government.
Let me explain what I mean. Starting with the basics
--
home and family.
The most difficult question many parents face is
"who
will care for the kids while we're working?" A few years ago
Washington wanted to help
but the idea was to rock the
cradle with the heavy hand of the bureaucracy. All the plans
boiled down to creating some new kind of government apparatus
like a Pentagon for child care.
I fought for a different approach
and won.
Our landmark
legislation allows parents
not the government
to decide
whether your children are cared for in a school
a relative's
home
or in church.
When it comes to raising children
I say: trust the
parents.
What about our education system? To renew America we must
renew our schools
we all know this
but money alone won't
do it. The U.S. already spends more on education per student
than almost any other country; but our kids still trail most of
the industrial world in crucial areas like math and science
education. Again: a lot of ideas floating around, most of them
to pump more tax money into the same system.
4
I say try something different. Open up schools to
competition
and trust you to decide whether you want your
kids to learn in a public school, a private school or religious
school.
When it comes to education
again I say: "trust the
parents. " I say: Let parents, not the government, choose their
children's schools.
One more example: health care. We have the finest quality
health care in the world -- but costs are through the roof.
Thirty-seven million Americans
a population larger than the
state of California
are without coverage today, and millions
more are worried about losing the coverage they have.
We have to change the system. Some propose versions of
socialized medicine
letting the federal government play
doctor.
I say
take a different way. Give tax credits so people
without coverage can buy it
and tax incentives so that small
businesses can pool their resources and cover more of their
people. // When it comes to deciding what doctor? What hospital?
I say
trust the people to choose.
The point is not to let people fend for themselves.
Americans are a generous people; and government must never shirk
its responsibilities. But programs have to give people a hand-
up
and trust human ingenuity to take it from there.
A good example of what government can do is starting right
here at Outlook. Last April, I challenged the nation's governors
5
to join me in helping our young people enter the world of work.
I am particularly concerned about teenagers
who want to work
want to learn a skill
but may be tempted to drop out of
school. True to form, Gov. Tommy Thompson reached out to these
young people. His apprenticeship program will encourage them to
complete a sound high-school education, while getting on-the-job
training at companies like Outlook. This program connects
education with the real world of work. Government can help make
that connection -- and I salute Gov. Thompson for helping me
create a workforce that's up and ready for the challenges of the
next century. / /
So I believe we can give Americans the tools
and then
it's a matter of trust -- trusting Americans to make their own
choices. And when it comes to the most pressing issue of this
election year -- revving up our economy -- forgetting this idea
isn't just bad judgment; it could be downright dangerous.
The revolutions of the past few years herald a new era of
global economic competition, with free markets from Siberia to
Santiago.
Can the U.S. compete
now that everyone is playing our
game? I know we can. Keep in mind
we are the largest
economy in the world. Inflation
the Willie Sutton who robs
the middle class of dreams
has been put safely behind bars.
The last time interest rates were this low
the Brady Bunch
wasn't even on television. Despite all the stories about our
problems
our workers are still the most productive in the
6
world -- more productive than the English, the Germans, the
Japanese.
But while our economy is growing
it must grow faster.
The question is: how do we do it? The other side suggests a
simple two-part solution. First, jack up government spending!
And then: raise taxes!
Now as you evaluate their idea, keep this in mind. Here in
Wisconsin, whether you like it or not, you already work 126 days
just to pay your taxes -- before you earn a single dime to spend
on your family. I don't think I have to ask --- does anyone want
to go for 127?
All this talk of spending and taxes causes me to wonder
if the other side is a little hard of hearing. Abraham Lincoln
talked about government "of the people, by the people, for the
people. " I think most Americans agree with him. But there are
others who keep wanting to say
government of the people, by
the people, on the people.
They're hard to dissuade. I'll give you a great example.
In January I proposed a common-sense plan to jumpstart the
economy, help us over the bumps in the road.
I wanted to free up the energies of our entrepreneurs with
tax cuts; to give a $5,000 break to young couples trying to buy
their first home. Here in Wisconsin, that $5,000 would have been
equal to nine months of mortgage payments.
If they had passed it when I asked them to
we could have
created 500,000 jobs.
7
So I sent my plan up to Capitol Hill. And I probably don't
have to tell you what I got back: a raft of new spending and --
you guessed it -- new taxes.
I sent their plan back. I told them to try again. And I'm
still waiting. And I'm beginning to get the distinct impression
that the only way to get rid of the deadlock in Washington
is to clean a little deadwood in Congress.
Send me a new Congress that will work with me
and I'll
get this economy moving faster than Desmond Howard.
It all comes down to a question of trust. I trust you to
spend and save your money more wisely than any budget planner in
Washington.
I
Fortunately, I've been able to do some things on my own to
try and jump start the economy. Earlier this year, I announced a
moratorium on federal regulations -- to untangle the red tape
that ties so many businesses in knots.
Is it necessary? Listen to this story.
The time had come recently for a government agency to update
it's rules on hard hats. That's right: hard hats. And someone
in that agency stumbled upon a potential national crisis ---
workers being infected from hard hats. The alarms went off. The
bureaucratic blood boiled. One small fact was overlooked. There
wasn't a single documented case, anywhere in the United States,
of anyone getting infected from a hard hat.
That didn't deter the bureaucrat. So with the best of
intentions, the rule was written: every hard hat must be
8
disinfected before one worker passed it to another. Estimated
cost to business: $60 million a year. Measurable benefit:
1
slightly less.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending, but only because we
were there to give it one. We found the regulation before it hit
the books, and said: we think America can survive
without
this particular hard hat regulation.
But can you imagine what might have happened
if these
enterprising regulator guys had made their way into the vast,
unregulated territory of lunch pails and thermos bottles?
You'll say this is all common sense, and I agree. But
there's a certain type of person attracted to government for whom
the word "trust" has a strange meaning. Most of them have spent
their lives in government, and don't have much experience in the
real world.
They say they want to
"put people first. "
But if you
look closely
the people they put first are all on a
government payroll.
A trustworthy leader of a free people must have the
confidence to say: "I trust you. " I trust the people.
And you must decide who you trust -- who has the
experience, the ideals and ideas -- to find that delicate
balance.
It must be someone who understands the essential fact of
American prosperity -- no government ever created a single job
(although it did keep Johnny Carson around for 30 years.)
9
Yes, America will change, just as we have changed the world.
The question now is: Who will change America for the better?
Trust me when I tell you this: it won't be a team of economists
from Harvard, or a gaggle of social scientists from a Washington
think tank.
If you want to know who's going to change America -- look
around you. It's going to be the guy who works an extra shift
every week so his son can go to the school of his choice. It's
going to be the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new
product. The computer hacker working in a lonely garage, the
merit scholar from South Central L.A., the entrepreneur with a
future as big as his dreams.
There's your answer: The American people are going to change
America.
But only if they have a government with the wisdom to know
its own limits, with a leadership who knows where the true
American imagination lies. Countries around the world have at
long last understood the power of trusting the people. America
will change by reaffirming the lesson it has taught the world --
by trusting a leader who trusts you.
Thank you and God bless you.
#
#