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Agenda for American Renewal--Detroit Economic Club 9/10/92 [OA 7580] [1]
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26
22
7
7
Agenda
for American
Renewal
by Bush
George Bush
President of the United States
Agenda
for American
Renewal
1
I.
In wartime, the costs of
Introduction:
Government are always high.
"We
Domestic needs are not fully
are a nation at
The Challenge
met. In times of conflict, a
peace. But being at
good nation tries to look after
America stands at the
its poor, its sick, its elderly, its
peace with others and
edge of a new era, a new cen-
less privileged members, but
being at peace with
tury. Here is my bridge to the
not as completely as it should
other shore: An Agenda for
or would like to.
ourselves are different
American Renewal - diagnos-
things. The one we have
ing the economic problems we
Today, this year, for the
face, setting forth the princi-
first time since December
achieved. The other, we
ples to guide our actions, and
1941, the United States is not
can and will."
explaining the approach I am
engaged in a war, hot or cold.
pursuing.
We are a nation at peace.
Over past weeks I have
But being at peace with others
been discussing some of the el-
and being at peace with our-
ements of my economic agen-
selves are different things.
da. In coming weeks I will be
The one we have achieved.
expanding on my ideas. This
The other, we can and will:
document shows how the
pieces fit together.
The American people rec-
ognize this historical water-
It is important to step
shed. They want and deserve a
back for a moment, to take
peacetime system of taxation,
stock of where we are as a
a peacetime freedom from un-
great nation in the broader
necessary intrusion into our
sweep of history.
lives, a peacetime commitment
to sound money, a peacetime
The American people have
dedication to unfinished work
just completed the greatest
and unsolved problems close to
mission of all, the triumph of
home.
democratic capitalism over
imperialistic communism.
At. the same time,
Mission accomplished.
Americans are aware of epic
changes in the world- and the
Throughout history, when
economy. They sense the dis-
long wars end, people have
quiet in many of the industri-
been confronted with the prob-
alized democracies that have
lems of converting to peace-
been our partners in the long
time and establishing a new
struggle. Our own economy
basis for securing peace and
has been going through some
prosperity.
profound changes. And I un-
2
derstand how difficult change
In this country, we have
I will sharpen the competi-
can be, particularly for those
always preferred an entrepre-
tive edge of our businesses by
who feel its effects most direct-
neurial capitalism that grows
encouraging entrepreneurial
ly. Americans sense we face an
from the bottom up, not the
capitalism and small business,
era of great opportunity, but
top down, a capitalism that be-
deploying advances in R&D
that there are also great risks
gins on Main Street and ex-
and technology, and reforming
if we fail to choose wisely.
tends to Wall Street, not the
our legal system S0 it no
other way around.
longer puts us at a global dis-
We must now demonstrate
advantage.
our unique ability to trans-
Nor have we been taken in
form anxiety into regenera-
by the view my opponent
My agenda promotes eco-
tion. Only in America do we
prefers, that Government
nomic security for working
have the people, the resources,
should accumulate capital -
men and women through job
the economic strength - and
by taxing it and borrowing it
training that will ease adjust-
especially the principles and
from the people, and investing
ments and provide people with
ideals - to pick up the chal-
it according to some industrial
new capabilities for work in
lenge.
policy design.
the face of competition and
change. And I will enable fam-
For America to be safe and
My agenda is for an inclu-
ilies to concentrate on building
strong we must meet the
sive America, not an exclusive
for the future by giving them
defining challenge of the '90s:
America - and certainly not a
the means to protect them-
to win the economic competi-
reclusive one. We will chal-
selves against today's cost of
tion - to win the peace.
lenge the world with an inter-
health care, and by making it
national economic and trade
easier to build tomorrow's re-
The United States must be
strategy that will promote free
tirement security. I want our
a military superpower, an ex-
trade arrangements east and
efforts to reach out to all our
port superpower, and an eco-
west, north and south, to
citizens, leaving no one be-
nomic superpower.
strengthen our global econom-
hind, because we will need the
ic reach and complement our
work, aspiration, and energy
My approach is to look
worldwide security presence.
of each and every American.
forward - to open new mar-
At the same time, we need to
kets, prepare our people to
foster the capabilities at home
Finally, since our competi-
compete, to strengthen the
that will keep us in the lead.
tive strength and entrepre-
American family, to save and
neurial spirit must flow from
invest - SO we can win.
Developed economies need
the private sector, I will
developing minds. To help pre-
streamline Government to
This future depends on
pare all our children for a con-
meet changing needs.
economic growth, but not for
stantly changing workplace, I
the few at the expense of the
want to make radical changes
We can empower America
many, not for the present at
in our education system. Each
to reach a grand goal: a $10
the expense of the future.
child should graduate with
trillion economy by the first
skills, self-discipline, and self-
years of the 21st Century.
confidence.
3
When President Reagan
race, we are now able to do
and I assumed office in 1981,
something we have all hoped
the U.S. economy was about
for since the close of World
"The first great
$3 trillion. We've almost dou-
War II - lighten the load of
change in our economy
bled that over the past 12
the defense burden.
years. So I know we can nearly
is ironically due to our
double it again through sus-
In the short run, this ad-
very success in ending
tainable real growth over the
justment has meant cutbacks
coming decade.
and lay-offs in many indus-
the Cold War.
tries that have depended on
we are now able to
With a $10 trillion econo-
defense spending. We must
my, we could provide the re-
ease this transition. But in the
do something we have
sources, private and public, to
medium and long run, reduc-
all hoped for since the
satisfy our most ambitious so-
tions in defense spending will
cial and financial require-
free up many new resources
close of World War II -
ments. We could simultane-
for our people and economy.
lighten the load of the
ously renew America and pay
down our national debt.
Second, it seems that al-
defense burden."
most every time you open the
So now let me turn to how
business pages you can find a
we can meet the challenge and
story about a major U.S. cor-
reach our goal.
poration that is restructuring
itself. Our industries are in
the process of transforming
II.
themselves from old-style hier-
The Context:
archical organizations to so-
called "flattened pyramids."
Five Changes
This new industrial organiza-
Underway in the
tion emphasizes a skills-based
Economy
workplace, "lean production,"
a "just in time" inventory, and
The U.S. economy has
short product cycles rather
been working its way through
than mass production. Our
five profound changes. They
companies are integrating
establish the context for my
R&D, manufacturing, and
agenda.
marketing into a seamless web
of innovation. This is a revolu-
The first great change in
tion as dramatic as the one
our economy is ironically due
when Henry Ford led the
to our very success in ending
country from craft-based pro-
the Cold War. Since our super-
duction to mass manufactur-
power rival of the last half
ing early in this century.
century has dropped out of the
4
We have to make these
created over 21 million jobs,
entered the 1980s with some
adaptations succeed if
more than all the new jobs in
14,000 commercial banks and
America's industries are to
the other major industrial
4,600 savings and loans. In
keep ahead of their interna-
countries and the rest of
comparison, Canada had about
tional competitors. Strong
Western Europe combined. Yet
160, and Japan had under
sales and productivity increas-
great booms produce excesses,
100. The vast majority of those
es are the prerequisites for
and this time too many compa-
small U.S. banks and S&Ls
creating more jobs, boosting
nies, too many financial insti-
operated in a heavily con-
wages, and upgrading
tutions, and too many house-
trolled environment where
benefits. In fact, it is partly be-
holds took on too much debt.
their costs of funds were limit-
cause of these changes that
ed by ceilings on your pass-
our annual growth in manu-
We have been paying
book accounts. Other regula-
facturing productivity over the
down that debt - and lower
tions restricted competition by
past 10 years was over 50%
interest rates have helped us
imposing costs and inefficien-
higher than in the Carter
do it. Millions of people have
cies on savers and borrowers.
years. It's why American firms
refinanced homes at lower
lead the world in exports.
rates, reducing mortgage pay-
In the late 70s, this out-of-
ments by as much as $1,200 to
date system was buffeted by
Nevertheless,
these
$1,500 a year. When compa-
record interest and inflation
changes also have produced
nies restructured, they paid
rates; it was challenged by
layoffs and relocations among
down debt, strengthened bal-
competition from new financial
both blue and white collar
ance sheets, and positioned
services. As in any other line
workers. Middle-aged bread-
themselves to enjoy greater
of business, the less efficient
winners are wondering
profits when stronger growth
institutions could not survive.
whether their company will be
resumes. This process will
But because our banks and
the next to make announce-
leave our economy leaner and
S&Ls held insured deposit ac-
ments, and they worry about
more powerful. Many firms al-
counts for most hardworking
their jobs, health care, and
ready are. But while that debt
Americans, the streamlining
pension rights. Some are also
was being paid down, people
process had to be managed in
troubled by the prospect that
bought fewer goods, and com-
a way that enabled the
after sacrificing to send their
panies put less money into
Government to protect your
kids to college - often the
new investments and jobs. The
savings. In effect, the
first generation to attend -
process is largely over, but it
Government picked up these
that these children's diplomas
has left consumers and compa-
costs so your savings would be
may not be golden tickets to
nies a little cautious.
safe.
security.
Fourth, we entered the
This process, too, is near-
Third, the 1980s wiped
'80s with a banking system de-
ing its end. A strong economy
away the dismal economic per-
signed 50 years earlier - an
must have a good banking and
formance of the late '70s. We
incongruous relic in an era
financial system SO entrepre-
enjoyed the longest peacetime
when billions of dollars can be
neurs can get capital, busi-
expansion in U.S. history, last-
sent around the world in a mi-
nesses and farms can get
ing seven and a half years. We
crosecond. The United States
loans, and families can buy
5
homes and cars. We will have
Two, it means that if
a more competitive and effi-
America is going to be strong
"No nation is an
cient financial system that will
and growing in the 21st
serve companies and families
Century, we must be ready,
island today. We are
better. Over the next few
able, and willing to compete
years, the Government will ac-
around the globe. We need to
part of a global
tually gain revenues from the
encourage entrepreneurial
economy. To grow is to
sales of billions of dollars of
capitalism and investment at
assets that it acquired from
home, and at the same time
trade; to expand is to
banks and S&Ls as it protect-
ensure that our labor force re-
compete. One
ed savers. But this process has
mains the best in the world.
left lenders cautious. Business
manufacturing job out
borrowing rates and mortgage
Three, we need to seize op-
of every six depends
rates are way down, but it's
portunities to develop new
still too hard for small busi-
markets, particularly in areas
directly on our exports.
nesses to gain access to capital
that have potential for
One acre out of every
and credit. We are still taxing
significant growth in the fu-
capital too much.
ture. One of the other benefits
three is sowed for sale
of the end of the Cold War is
abroad."
The final economic change
the extraordinary potential to
is perhaps the most far-reach-
expand trade and sales to hun-
ing of all: No nation is an is-
dreds of millions of potential
land today. We are part of a
customers who not long ago
global economy. To grow is to
were the captives of our
trade; to expand is to compete.
enemies.
One manufacturing job out of
every six depends directly on
our exports. One acre out of
III.
every three is sowed for sale
Start with
abroad.
Strengths
This international econom-
ic interdependence has three
In developing an agenda
implications.
for the future, we should take
a clear-eyed look at our
One, when growth slumps
strengths as well as weakness-
abroad, it drags our economy
es. Not surprisingly, the other
down with it. Both Western
side has conveniently skipped
Europe (especially Germany)
over our country's many
and Japan are going through
strengths. Frankly, they want
major readjustments - and
you to believe America is over
that has contributed to our
the hill and past its prime. But
sluggishness.
they have no more right to
6
convince you the economy is
own homes, as compared
falling. We must know our
worse than it is for political
with 59% in Japan and
strengths before we build on
advantage than I have to un-
40% in Germany.
them. Over the past 12 years,
derstate the problems. So let
we increased the U.S. economy
me just note several key facts.
The U.S. sends more of its
by about $2.8 trillion - that's
students on to higher edu-
like creating the total size of
The Misery Index - the
cation - 68% - than any
the German economy twice
sum of inflation and unem-
other country, well above
over. So I know our goal of a
ployment - is down to
the 32% rate in Germany
$10 trillion economy is attain-
10.8% today, from 19.6%
able.
and 30% in Japan. And
in 1980.
52% of these U.S. students
are women, as compared
We're also in a strong posi-
Inflation has fallen to
with 26% in Japan and
tion internationally. But we're
roughly 3%, the lowest in
38% in Germany.
going to need the national
adaptability and capability to
a quarter of a century (ex-
keep leading our competitors.
cept for 1986).
With exports of $622 bil-
And we must have the courage
lion, the U.S. is the world's
of our convictions to say "no"
Interest rates are at a 20
largest exporting nation.
to the wrong sort of changes
year low. Mortgage rates
Exports increased by 40%
for the future - false promis-
are now in the 8% range,
during my Administration.
es based on false premises -
half the rate President
changes we cannot afford at
Reagan encountered in his
We produce 25% of the
this key moment in the world
first year. Thanks to these
world's total output with
economic competition.
low rates, more people can
5% of the world's popula-
afford to own a home today
tion.
than at any time since
IV.
1973.
The productivity of
Guiding
American workers is ap-
Principles
While unemployment is
proximately 26% above
still far too high, the share
those in Germany and 30%
Before outlining the
of the working age popula-
above those in Japan.
specifics of my agenda, I want
tion with jobs during my
to set out four guiding princi-
administration has aver-
I do not mean to suggest
ples. An effective strategy
aged 62.2%, the highest in
either that everything is well
must be dynamic. As new
U.S. history.
or that we do not need to lead
problems or opportunities pre-
and manage the changes tak-
sent themselves, we will need
The United States has the
ing place in the world and at
to make adjustments. Guiding
highest home ownership
home more actively. We do.
principles will ensure we fol-
rate of all major industri-
low a consistent path and help
alized countries: 66% of
But you can't chart the
shape our policies into the
U.S. households own their
stars if you think the sky is
future.
7
First, start with the ba-
for helping people, for re-
sics: We are a nation of special
sponding to their needs. And
"We
individuals, not special inter-
we've seen that these are ap-
have to keep to
ests. Individuals gain primary
proaches that work.
the fundamentals of
strength, protection, and in-
spiration from their families
We prefer a hand up to a
sound economic
and communities, not the legal
handout. We want to empower
growth: lower tax rates,
system or Government social
people to make their own
services. People find their
choices, to break away from
limits on Government
friends and their enjoyment in
dependency. We want to give
spending, greater
voluntary association with
individuals and families eco-
one another, not in some bu-
nomic security by giving them
competition, less
reaucrat's paint-by-numbers
the capital, the capabilities,
economic regulation,
dream.
and the confidence to decide
for themselves. We want
sound money, and more
Individuals, families, com-
everyone to have a stake in so-
open trade that can free
munities. That's where we
ciety, to own property, so
start.
everyone will build something
tremendous private
with it for themselves and our
Second, we have to keep to
country. Whereas my oppo-
initiative and growth."
the fundamentals of sound
nent's approach may place a
economic growth: lower tax
premium on redistribution and
rates, limits on Government
"leveling," our programs will
spending, greater competition,
unleash initiative, reward suc-
less economic regulation,
cess, and encourage excel-
sound money, and more open
lence. Our approach is to give
trade that can free tremen-
people the power to work,
dous private initiative and
save, and be their best.
growth.
Finally, all our policies
Experience has shown that
must be brought together ef-
these are the steps we need to
fectively if we are to prosper
take to create jobs, raise
as a people and succeed as a
wages, spur entrepreneurs, ex-
nation. America must have ap-
pand capital and investment,
propriate new approaches for
and build businesses.
the changes at home - just as
we've launched new policies to
Third, in the '90s Govern-
lead and manage change
ment can build on these fun-
abroad. We must recognize the
damentals by offering opportu-
interrelationship between do-
nity and hope for individuals,
mestic and foreign policy -
families, and communities.
between economic and security
There is a conservative agenda
policy. At the same time, we
8
must execute our agenda more
This is how America will
excellent American customers.
effectively with a new
create a $10 trillion economy.
Equally important, the inte-
Congress, state and local gov-
gration of United States,
ernments, and the private sec-
Mexican, and Canadian capa-
tor. Our aim must be to press
V.
bilities will improve our global
our policies together, as a
Challenging
competitiveness by enabling
package, to make America se-
the World:
American firms to purchase
cure and strong.
inputs at lower costs: This will
A Strategic
help U.S. firms to stay in the
Therefore, my Agenda for
Global Economic
forefront of high wage, high
American Renewal mandates
and Trade Policy
value-added production.
action on six interconnected
fronts. Because we face com-
During the Cold War, we
Our geopolitical position is
plex problems, no one solution
built a global security struc-
also advantageous. The United
will suffice. The whole of these
States is both a Pacific and a
ture to contain and counter
elements will be a solution
the Soviet Union and commu-
European power; our political
greater than the sum of its
and security ties link us with
nist aggression. We forged mil-
parts:
the largest and most rapidly
itary alliances across the
Atlantic and Pacific that un-
growing economies across both
Challenging the World: A
oceans. Our-trans-Pacific trade
derpinned that structure. In'
Strategic Global Economic
already exceeds our Atlantic
the post-Cold War era, we
and Trade Policy
trade; that's one reason why
need a strategic global eco-
nomic and trade policy that
we helped launch an organiza-
tion for Asia-Pacific Economic
Preparing Our Children
will ensure our position as an
Cooperation that will further
for the 21st Century
economic and export super-
strengthen our economic ties
Economy
power as well.
with that region. Our own
neighbors - from Central
We are well positioned to
Sharpening Business'
America to Chile - want to
achieve this goal. We enjoy the
Competitive Edge: En-
largest fully integrated market
build bridges of trade with us
couraging Entrepreneurial
SO they can build better
in the world; this gives us
Capitalism
economies for their people.
leverage with other countries
that want access to our mar-
"The ball of liberty,"
Promoting Economic Se-
ket. Once the Congress enacts
Jefferson once wrote, "is now
curity for Working People
the North American Free
SO well in motion that it will
Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
roll around the globe." He was
our position will be further
Leaving No One Behind:
right.
strengthened. NAFTA will
Economic Opportunity for
open an important market, a
Every American
Freedom has rolled
Mexican economy whose
through Eastern Europe, the
growth prospects will quickly
"Rightsizing" Government
former Soviet Union, and
transform its expanding in-
Latin America - and the ball
dustries and consumers into
9
is now in our court. Free peo-
1993 because of those special
ple and free markets develop
interests who herd together
hand in hand. People value
with a protectionist purpose.
"Free people and free
American values. People want
The global trade negotiations,
markets develop hand
to buy what we have to sell.
in turn, could be very close to a
English is the language of
breakthrough if the United
in hand. People value
freedom and business.
States continues to act as a
American values. People
strong world leader. There is a
Our political and economic
proposed draft text that estab-
want to buy what we
ties are complemented by the
lishes the outlines of a
have to sell.'
appeal of American culture all
significant new GATT agree-
around the world. This is a
ment. Once we assure cuts in
new "soft power" we can em-
the subsidized agricultural
ploy. Today, our movies,
trade along the lines of that
music, and videos are among
text - to enable our farmers to
our top-selling exports.
secure their competitive advan-
tage - I believe we will be able
Finally, as the primary
to complete the Uruguay
founder and the most signi-
Round agreement.
ficant proponent of the GATT
global trading system, we con-
An improved global trad-
tinue to have a strong hand as
ing system is, however, only a
long as we use it to truly open
base for freer trade, for
markets, including our own.
stronger investment ties, for
The key to America's growth,
increased global growth. We
expansion, and innovation has
need to start to develop a
always been our openness to
strategic network of free trade
trade, investment, ideas, and
agreements [FTAs] across the
people.
Atlantic and the Pacific and in
our own hemisphere. This net-
Therefore, the next steps in
work will stand in sharp con-
my strategic trade policy are to
trast to the backward blocs of
secure Congressional agree-
economic isolation. If we are to
ment to NAFTA and to com-
be a true export superpower,
plete the global trade negotia-
we cannot be tied down to one
tions - the SO called Uruguay
region. Instead, my intent is to
Round negotiations in GATT.
use our attractive domestic
Our NAFTA agreement will
market as the basis of a mus-
open doors for American busi-
cular free trade policy that
nesses, workers, and con-
will strengthen America's
sumers. It will create good jobs.
global economic reach and
Nevertheless, I expect a tough
complement our worldwide se-
fight in the Congress in early
curity presence.
10
By focusing on opening
slovakia by the end of my sec-
I will ensure that our
markets, I also believe we can
ond term. And I would explore
ExIm Bank and the Overseas
reduce structural barriers to
the possibility of a connection
Private Investment Corpora-
competition in North America,
between NAFTA and the
tion (OPIC) work with teams
Western Europe, Japan, and
ASEAN FTA, or AFTA. It will
of our ambassadors to develop
elsewhere. Competition will
not take long for other coun-
trade and investment opportu-
encourage entrepreneurial
tries to begin to express their
nities for U.S. firms. We've al-
capitalism - at the expense of
interest in new trade and busi-
ready begun this with the six
entrenched interests -
ness ties with us. For example,
ASEAN countries - and it's
spurring even greater global
leaders in Australia and Korea
working. I will particularly
growth.
have already spoken of their
stress helping America's small
interest in forging closer eco-
businesspeople to develop
More specifically, I will
nomic ties.
trading opportunities. These
need to secure from the
companies look small - but
Congress additional trade ne-
Some see new threats, oth-
they trade big. I know. I start-
gotiating authority within the
ers see old enemies. I see new
ed my own. And I have visited
first half of 1993. To overcome
markets, new opportunities,
small factories all across the
the special interests and the
new jobs.
United States that first sur-
protectionists, I will need a
vived and then prospered by
mandate from the American
As we develop this eco-
taking on the foreign competi-
people. If America is going to
nomic and trading network for
tion. I know Americans can do
be an export and economic su-
the 21st Century, I will fight
it.
perpower, the U.S. President
hard to promote American
must take a strong stand on
trading interests. For exam-
the negotiation of trade and
ple, I am committed to a siz-
VI.
economic agreements. The
able Export Enhancement
Preparing Our
Congress will read vacillation
Program [EEP] to ensure that
Children for the
and equivocation as weakness,
our farmers can go head-to-
and the national interest will
head with the European
2lst Century
lose out to the logrolling trade-
Community's subsidized agri-
Economy
offs of Congressional business
cultural exports. We know
as usual. That's one very big
from our experience with mili-
In the 21st Century our
issue at stake in this election.
tary security that the key to
greatest national resource will
economic security must be
be our people. Materials, ma-
With new negotiating au-
based on "Peace Through
chines, and methods will come
thority, I will pursue new
Strength" - not unilateral
and go, but the American
trading and economic opportu-
disarmament. That's why I re-
worker will remain the key to
nities in Latin America under
cently announced the largest
our economic security. Since
my Enterprise for the
quantity of wheat ever avail-
the workplace of the 21st
Americas Initiative, starting
able under our EEP program
Century will be constantly
with Chile. I would also like to
- almost 30 million metric
changing, we need to prepare
work towards FTAs with
tons to 28 customers.
the American people to adapt
Poland, Hungary, and Czecho-
to and direct the process of
11
change. Therefore, our kids
tion Assistance program (WIC)
must arrive at school ready to
has grown 258% between 1980
grow, and they need schools
and 1992; my request for an
Materials, machines,
where they will learn how to
additional $240 million for
and methods will come
keep learning all their lives.
1993 brings the annual cost to
$2.8 billion.
and go, but the
Our New American
American worker will
Schools will help prepare our
I have also increased fund-
children to become the con-
ing for the Head Start pro-
remain the key to our
tributing citizens of tomorrow.
gram by 127% - for a total of
economic security. Since
Equally important, we want to
$2.8 billion in 1993. That in-
enhance children's sense of
cludes an additional $600 mil-
the workplace of the
self-worth, their confidence,
lion increase for next year -
21st Century will be
their sense of participation in
an unprecedented 27% annual
a larger community and soci-
jump - SO that a year of Head
constantly changing, we
ety. This is the conservative
Start will be available for
need to prepare the
philosophy of empowerment,
every eligible four-year old
helping people to help them-
whose parents want to partici-
American people to
selves.
pate. (Under my budget, al-
most 800,000 children will re-
adapt to and direct the
I want to do my best to
ceive a year of Head Start be-
process of change.
help all children come into the
fore entering elementary
world as truly "created equal."
school.)
Therefore, our kids must
That's why I am more than
arrive at school ready to
doubling funding for a Healthy
Child immunizations are
Start initiative that targets
also vital to safeguard our
grow, and they need
communities with high infant
kids' health. Every year since
schools where they will
mortality rates. We are also
1981-82, 95% or more of the
increasing prenatal care, nu-
children entering elementary
learn how to keep
trition services, and substance
school have been immunized
learning all their lives."
abuse treatment for pregnant
against the vaccine-pre-
women. And I want everyone
ventable diseases. Now we are
to spread the word that every
focusing greater attention on
parent must share the gift of
preschool children. My 1993
good health with their chil-
budget calls for an 18% in-
dren.
crease in child immunization
grants.
We need to focus especial-
ly on the preschool years, S0
I want the United States
that children coming to school
to offer opportunity and en-
are healthy and curious.
courage excellence; we must be
Funding for the Women,
fully capable of competing in a
Infants and Children Nutri-
global economy. Therefore, it
12
is imperative that our educa-
meet world-class standards.
school choice off the adminis-
tional system prepare and
We are moving ahead with the
trator's desk and put it back
point the way for our children.
development of these stan-
on the kitchen table. Choice is
As in the past, education
dards in math, science,
critical to the success of the
should be the ladder that the
English, history, geography,
whole, integrated overhaul of
child of modest means can
arts, and civics.
our educational system.
climb to better him or her self.
Competition, the underlying
Second, we need voluntary
principle for this radical re-
Our current school system
national achievement tests to
form, will not work unless we
is falling short of these needs
measure the progress of our
give consumers the ability to
- and the poor are hurt most.
students. That way we can
choose.
Only 19 out of 66 public high
compare the performance of
schools in Chicago graduate
different schools in helping
Wealthy families already
more than half their students,
our children achieve the na-
have this choice for their chil-
and many of these graduates
tional standards.
dren. Many of the people that
can barely read or write.
you saw at the Democratic
Third, we need to give
National Convention have this
Our educational establish-
schools the flexibility to be-
choice for their children. Why
ment is caught in a sort of
come educational entrepre-
shouldn't you have this choice
time warp, a system created
neurs - to figure out the best
for your children?
for another age when the
ways to motivate our children,
needs were not the same, chil-
use technology, include par-
Chicago's public school
dren grew up differently, and
ents, and involve new types of
teachers - 46% of them -
adults rarely changed jobs.
teachers. We will create
send their kids to private
"Education Enterprise Zones."
schools. But my opponent and
Money alone is not the an-
There is no particular reason
his special interest supporters
swer - the United States al-
why schools have to end at
don't think you should have
ready spends more per pupil
3 p.m. SO that students can sit
the same choice unless you are
than any other country but
in front of the TV for five
privileged enough to afford it.
Switzerland. And funding for
hours a day. We need to free
the Education Department has
school administrators and
One of the greatest educa-
increased 41% over my term.
teachers from rules, regula-
tional innovations in this
tions, and reports that have
country was the passage of the
The answer is a radical
become a poor substitute for
GI Bill after World War II. No
overhaul of our educational
student achievement; we can
one told my generation that a
system. If we want to change
do away with red tape once we
vet couldn't go to Notre Dame
our country, we've got to
institute a new testing system
or Brigham Young or Baylor or
change our schools. That's
that evaluates schools not on
Howard or Yeshiva.
what my America 2000 pro-
the basis of how many forms
gram is all about.
they complete, but of how
So I want a "GI Bill for
many minds they prepare.
Children" to help give lower
Our kids can't beat world
and middle income families
class competition if they can't
Finally, we must take
the means to select any school:
13
public, private, or religious. I
tablishment and special inter-
also want scholarships avail-
ests that want to resist this
able to be spent on after-
revolution. A new system of
"Wealthy families
school, Saturday and summer
education in this country is
already have this choice
academic programs.
probably the most important
ingredient over time in mak-
for their children. Many
For those who argue that
ing America the winning eco-
of the people that you
my approach will weaken the
nomic and export superpower
public school system, I would
in the post-Cold War era.
saw at the Democratic
remind them that the first GI
National Convention
Bill was a tremendous boon for
This must not only be my
public universities. Or listen
agenda, but yours, too. I will
have this choice for their
to Starr Parker, a small busi-
fight to give parents in
children. Why shouldn't
ness owner actively promoting
America the right to choose
choice in the Black communi-
the school their children will
you have this choice for
ty, who put it this way: "The
attend, but you need to help,
your children?"
rich have choice now. When I
too. After you check out of
was on welfare, there was no
work, check into your child's
way I could put my child in
homework. Talk to your child's
school. It's time we stop con-
teacher. Join your local PTA.
demning the poor to a monop-
My approach - America 2000
oly education system."
- relies on parental, business,
and community involvement
We've already made
in creating new schools that
significant progress in starting
break the mold.
this radical reform agenda.
Some 44 states, and over 1700
I put the family at the cen-
communities, have already
ter of our society. Government
adopted my new national edu-
must try to help families -
cation strategy - America
not replace them. When it
2000. Indeed, this progress of-
comes to choices for our chil-
fers a good example of my
dren, parents really do know
commitment to pursue my
best. We should increase the
agenda whether or not
range of choices available to
Congress dawdles. If Congress
parents, and Government as-
balks, I will work with gover-
sistance should be targeted to
nors, state legislators, commu-
those families most in need.
nity officials, and the private
sector.
The other side may talk
about similar problems, but
I hope the new Congress
they are approaching them
will not remain an apple pol-
with a fundamentally different
isher for the educational es-
ideology. You can see the con-
14
trast not only in education,
business in Texas. I also call it
the competitive edge of
but in health care, or in the
common sense.
American business:
debate that took-place over my
child care proposal, which we
You allow people to keep
strengthen small business;
fought for and managed to
most of what they produce,
enact into law. The opposition
and they will produce more
prefers uniformity to variety
than they can use, the rest
support civilian R&D
and choice. Because they place
being capital. You invite peo-
linked to a research exten-
a higher value on "leveling" so-
ple to risk failure by allowing
sion network; and
ciety, they will tend to rely on
them to keep the rewards of
Government bureaucracies to
success, and they will keep
reform our costly legal
offer "standard service." My
trying until they succeed.
system.
approach to education, child
A.
care, health care, and other
When capital is taxed
topics is to rely on a diverse
Strengthen
lightly, it becomes abundant.
Small Business
private sector to supply the
When it is taxed heavily, as it
service and to empower fami-
is now, it becomes scarce,
Small business is the
lies to make their own choices.
available only to those at the
backbone of a growing econo-
I don't want to pull everyone
top, who need it least of all.
my. Small businesses create
down to make them equal. I
That's not what I want. Even
two thirds of our new jobs;
want to give everyone the tools
Jesse Jackson put it this way:
they account for 39% of our
to climb as high as they can
"Subtract capital from capital-
GNP.
dream.
ism and all that's left is the
'ism'." If capital were abun-
I am seeking to aid small
dant, labor would become
businesses by reducing costly
VII.
scarcer. And the unemploy-
tax and regulatory burdens,
Sharpening
ment lines would shrink.
increasing access to credit,
That's what I want.
Business'
and removing barriers to com-
petition.
Competitive
So I want to cut the capital
Edge:
gains tax and index it for
I have taken steps de-
Encouraging
inflation. I want to create en-
signed specifically to ease the
Entrepreneurial
terprise zones in inner city
tax burden on small business-
and rural areas. I want to
Capitalism
es. For example, the IRS has
make the R&D tax credit per-
proposed regulations to allow
manent. I want to provide an
small businesses to deposit
Our ultimate success as an
additional first-year deprecia-
payroll taxes on a monthly
economic superpower is depen-
tion allowance for purchases of
basis. And it has released a
dent on encouraging the entre-
property.
ruling allowing over 16 million
preneurial spirit of our private
sole proprietors to deduct tax
businesses. I call it entrepre-
Those are fundamentals.
preparation fees as a business
neurial capitalism, and I saw
In addition, there are three
expense rather than as a limit-
it work when I started a small
other ways we need to sharpen
ed itemized deduction.
15
I want to build on these
billion in general business
actions. For example, we are
loan guarantees through SBA
"I
working on a Single Wage
in 1992 - an increase of more
am seeking to aid
Reporting System that would
than 50% above 1991.
small businesses by
permit businesses to report
state and federal wage infor-
SBA's New England
reducing costly tax and
mation through a single enti-
Lending and Recovery Project
regulatory burdens,
ty, thereby consolidating tax
is a pilot effort that extends
reporting requirements and
credit to viable small firms
increasing access to
reducing the burden.
when access is limited because
credit, and removing
banks are having difficulty. If
In coming weeks I will talk
it works well and is needed,
barriers to
more about ways we can en-
I'll expand the project to other
competition."
courage small businesspeople
regions. We also have worked
and the jobs they create.
with bank regulators to base
real estate values on income
On the regulatory front, I
earning potential rather than
have extended for one year the
liquidation value. We have
freeze on paperwork and un-
taken steps to restructure the
necessary federal regulation
small business investment
that I imposed last winter; the
program, the only venture cap-
federal regulatory weight hits
ital program in the Govern-
small businesses particularly
ment. And we are developing
hard. I have also instructed
ways to offer special financing
federal agencies to look for
to exporting entrepreneurs.
ways to modify existing regu-
lations that impose a special
Through its procurement
economic burden on small
assistance program, SBA
business. For example, to in-
helped small businesses se-
crease access to capital for
cure federal contracts worth
small businesses, the SEC has
over $35 billion in FY 90 -
announced proposals to reduce
almost 20% of all prime con-
and in some cases eliminate
tracts let during that year.
the public disclosure require-
ment for small companies is-
To ensure that small busi-
suing stock.
nesses can help their commu-
nities overcome disasters, we
Since small businesses are
will be pressing forward with
particularly vulnerable when
approximately $1.7 billion in
credit is tight, we have to help
low-interest loans to small
them as our financial system
businesses in Florida,
is restructuring. That's why
Louisiana, California, and
we have authorized over $6
elsewhere.
16
Finally, we need to help
Americans invented VCR tech-
a High Performance
small business by removing
nology and the FAX machine,
Computing and Communi-
burdens to competition. My
we did not capitalize on their
cations Initiative that will
health care reforms would re-
explosive popularity. Third, we
enable the development of
duce costs for small businesses
need to rely increasingly on
a thousand-fold increase in
without costly Government
flexible, agile manufacturing,
computing capability by
mandates or higher taxes.
rather than old-style mass pro-
1996 and a one hundred-
Enactment of my legislation to
duction. We should have the
fold increase in communi-
establish uniform federal law
capability to make a variety of
cations speed.
on product liability would re-
products quickly and economi-
lieve a major competitive
cally - a process character-
an initiative to improve
handicap that is keeping new
ized by short product cycles,
the manufacturing and
products from the market,
but also high quality output.
performance of materials
boosting insurance costs sky
- improvements that will
high, and killing jobs.
Taken together, these de-
enable advances in a wide
velopments emphasize decen-
range of other technolo-
B.
tralization - an approach ex-
Support Civilian R&D
gies.
actly opposite to my oppo-
nent's "national industrial
To be the world's economic
policies" led by Government
an expanded program in
leader tomorrow, we clearly
bureaucrats. We need to get
biotechnology research
have to invest in R&D and
technology development, pro-
with applications in
new technologies today. Given
duction, and marketing closer
health, agriculture, and
the pace of change, we have to
to the consumer, not further
environmental.protection.
both come up with new inven-
away. Moreover, my oppo-
tions and organize ourselves to
nent's call for a cut in support
the establishment of the
deploy new technology without
for university-based research
U.S. Advanced Battery
delay.
will hurt the development of
consortium, a jointly-fund-
cutting edge technology.
ed four-year effort to de-
The changes in industrial
velop an advanced battery
organization that I described
My agenda will increase
for an emissions-free
earlier have three major impli-
funding for basic research and
electric car.
cations for technology develop-
complement that work with a
ment. First, the more rapid
focus on applied research and
product development cycle
a significant increase in
development. Despite cuts by
our aeronautics research
places a premium on bringing
Congress, we have managed to
an idea quickly from the lab to
budget, underscoring the
increase funding for basic re-
the marketplace. Second, we
importance we place on
search by 26% since 1989 - to
need to put new technologies
the U.S. aeronautics in-
a record level. We are support-
to work in all applications in
dustry in an increasingly
ing applied R&D through a
order to reap the full competi-
competitive global market
series of new, high pay-off
tive and economic benefits
place.
investments in critical
from our R&D. While
technologies:
17
the establishment of seven
C.
regional manufacturing
Reform Our
"America has
technology centers for the
Legal System
distribution of modern
suffered a civil litigation
manufacturing tools, such
Our competitive edge will
as computer-aided design,
be dulled if businesses are con-
explosion. Over the past
numerically-controlled ma-
tinually handicapped by a
30 years, federal
chines, and robotics.
legal system that serves
lawyers but frightens people.
lawsuits have almost
These efforts to develop
Therefore, another component
tripled. Instead of being
and apply new technologies
of my agenda is a reform of the
need to be complemented by
American civil justice system.
fast, fair, and affordable,
the identification and removal
our civil justice system is
of barriers to the private sec-
America has suffered a
tor's ability to bring new prod-
civil litigation explosion. Over
slow, expensive, and
ucts and services to the mar-
the past 30 years, federal law-
putting us at a global
ket. That's why my regulatory
suits have almost tripled.
reform efforts - including a
Instead of being fast, fair, and
disadvantage."
process that subjects regula-
affordable, our civil justice
tions to a competitiveness
system is slow, expensive, and
analysis while still protecting
putting us at a global disad-
health and safety, and a pro-
vantage.
posal to "sunset" regulations
- are critical to supporting
Long delays in dispute res-
our enhanced technology
olution waste valuable judicial
development.
resources, force early settle-
ment by those who cannot af-
Just take one example: my
ford to wait, discourage those
opponent has proposed a
who have meritorious suits,
major new Federal Govern-
and encourage frivolous suits
ment investment in the field of
by those who hope to leverage
national telecommunications
unjust settlements. High puni-
networks at the exact time
tive damage awards are
that our private sector is seek-
passed on to consumers
ing to develop such a network
through higher prices, job
on its own, but has been
cuts, higher insurance, and
stopped from doing SO by fed-
fewer new products.
eral regulations.
According to a soon-to-be
released study by the National
Association of Manufacturers,
Americans spend up to $200
billion a year just on direct
18
costs to lawyers. That does not
nation's civil justice system
our competition. To be able to
even count lawyers on payrolls
through: alternatives to feder-
contribute and concentrate,
or the money spent on court
al civil trials such as alterna-
working men and women will
settlements.
tive dispute resolution; incen-
want to know that they can
tives for pre-litigation settle-
enjoy economic opportunity
Our legal system is killing
ment, including pre-complaint
and security. We can only
our international competitive-
notification; and a "loser pays"
achieve true security by devel-
ness. Other nations do not face
rule requiring the loser to pay
oping people's capability, not
high domestic litigation costs.
the winner's legal fees in suits
dependency. And we can best
Foreign companies only need
involving federal diversity
supply security through the
6% of the product liability in-
jurisdiction.
private sector, not Govern-
surance our firms must carry
ment bureaucracies.
because we do not have uni-
We also need to continue
form state standards for prod-
our work with the states to en-
It will be Government's
uct liability and punitive
courage fundamental change
role to expedite workers' ad-
damages.
at the state and local level.
justments in a fast-changing
marketplace, provide people
The litigation explosion af-
Lawyers, especially trial
the means to work and take
fects everyone. High liability
lawyers, are a powerful vested
care of their families, and arm
costs have closed playgrounds
interest in our society. They
people to face the future by
and pools, forcing kids on to
are well represented in
empowering them to make
the street with nothing to do.
Congress and high on the lists
their own choices. In particu-
Some companies are afraid to
of political contributors. My
lar, we can enable families to
offer products at home that
opponent knows them very
focus on building a future by
are available overseas because
well. But this is a problem too
alleviating their fears about
they fear the liability.
important to leave to the
one of the single biggest costs
lawyers and their friends in
and problems that can knock
My product liability re-
high places. We must sue each
them back: health care. And
form legislation confronts the
other less and care for each
we can help foster retirement
trial lawyers head on. I want
other more.
security through encouraging
to stop wide variation among
portable pension savings.
states' product liability rules;
stop important products from
VIII.
A.
being kept off the market; stop
Promoting
Job Training
excessive litigation costs with
Economic
more money going to lawyers
Given the rapidity of
than to injured consumers; cut
Security for
change in the international
excessive insurance rates; and
Working People
and domestic marketplace, we
end excessive consumer costs.
have to prepare people for the
The American businesses
prospect of changing jobs and
My "Access to Justice Act
of the 21st Century will need
learning new skills many
of 1992" is intended to restore
workers who will bring them
times throughout the course of
fairness and efficiency to the
to life and keep them ahead of
a productive life. Therefore,
19
we need a range of job training
of adding new skills and train-
and placement services - for
ing; and (3) a tripling of the re-
"Work
young people, factory workers,
sources currently devoted to
means more
white collar employees, and
training and worker adjust-
than income to
particularly during this peri-
ment, an allocation of $10 bil-
od, defense industry workers.
lion over five years.
Americans. It is also
fundamental to
That's why one important
This proposal builds on my
portion of my recently-an-
January plan to streamline
people's self-esteem,
nounced workforce adjustment
the federal job training system
their self-confidence,
initiative is designed to shift
through "one-stop shopping" in
the Government away from
every community. Experience
and the respect of
the old narrowly defined, ex-
has demonstrated that the
others. These are
pensive, and less effective
most effective training and
trade adjustment assistance
placement services are those
attitudes, values, that /
that paid people off without
closely developed with local
want to encourage. /
giving them real help to get
employers through private in-
back the work.
dustry councils. That way the
want all Americans to
training is designed to develop
be builders - for their
Work means more than in-
skills that employers know
come to Americans. It is also
they will need.
families, their
fundamental to people's self-
esteem, their self-confidence,
My expanded job training
communities, their
and the respect of others.
efforts will also be specially
country."
These are attitudes, values,
designed to help those who
that I want to encourage. I
may need to change jobs or
want all Americans to be
careers as a result of NAFTA
builders - for their families,
or other trade agreements
their communities, their coun-
and the downsizing of our de-
try. To encourage the work
fense-related industries. But
ethic, we need to make every
we will ensure that we offer
effort to match people with the
training and placement to all
jobs created by our entrepre-
workers.
neurial capitalism.
These dislocated workers
The three key features of
would be eligible to receive
my job training proposal are:
three types of assistance: (1)
(1) universal coverage, so all
transition-assistance that in-
dislocated workers will have
cludes skills assessment, coun-
access to basic transition as-
seling, job-search assistance,
sistance and training support;
and job referral; (2) training
(2) skill grant vouchers of up
assistance in the form of skill
to $3000 to help meet the costs
grants; and (3) transition
20
income support where nèces-
tured, paid, work-experience
B.
sary for workers completing
program. I want student ap-
Affordable
retraining.
prentices to receive both a
Health Care for
high school diploma and a
All Americans
I've also proposed a
widely recognized certificate of
specially-targeted Youth Skills
skill competency. Students
The economic security of
Initiative.
will also have the opportunity
men and women requires a
to continue training at the
major reform of the U.S.
A new Youth Training
post-secondary level.
health care system. The pre-
Corps will provide economical-
sent system provides high
ly and socially disadvantaged
I started my Apprentice-
quality, high-tech medicine,
young people with intensive
ship Program as a demonstra-
but at an unacceptable price:
vocational training through 55
tion program in 6 states; in my.
spending has increased at a
residential YTC centers na-
second term, I will expand it to
rate two to three times the
tionwide; these centers will be
all 50.
rest of the economy; thirty-
located primarily in rural
four million Americans have
areas and will seek to utilize
Finally, I will more than
no health insurance; and mil-
converted defense facilities,
double the size of the present
lions more are afraid to
putting them to good use. The
JROTC program, a very suc-
change jobs for fear of losing
YTC will draw from the mili-
cessful and popular partner-
their health insurance.
tary's high level of leadership
ship between the military and
and training expertise by giv-
schools. JROTC emphasizes
My program will build on
ing a hiring preference to indi-
self-discipline, values, citizen-
the strengths of the system -
viduals leaving our armed
ship, personal responsibility,
consumer choice, innovation,
forces. The discipline that tri-
and staying in school - it's a
and state of the art medicine
umphed in Desert Storm can
first class alternative to drugs
- while controlling costs and
win at home, too.
and gangs. My goal is to estab-
expanding access.
lish 2,900 JROTC units by
I will also complement the
1994. Initially, we will expand
I want to guarantee access
YTC with a "Treat and Train"
this program in inner-city high
to health insurance for all poor
program to strengthen exist-
schools, but I want to make
families through tax credits
ing youth drug training pro-
JROTC available to every high
(or vouchers for those who
grams.
school across the country that
don't pay taxes) sufficient to
requests it. This program is
pay for a basic health insur-
To help meet the needs of
another way in which we can
ance plan ($3,750 for a family).
young people not planning to
relate the successful experi-
Other low and middle income
go on to college, I will expand
ence of America's veterans to
families would get tax relief to
the National Youth Appren-
the next generation.
partially offset the cost of their
ticeship Program that I began
health insurance. In total,
in January. This program of-
some 95 million Americans
fers high school juniors and se-
will benefit.
niors a combination of class-
room instruction and a struc-
21
My program also includes:
Taken together, my pro-
gram would cut health care
provisions that encourage
"I
costs by $394 billion over five
believe we can
small businesses to develop
years through preventive care,
provide access to
less costly health care in-
malpractice reform, reducing
surance networks for their
defensive medicine, encourag-
affordable health care
employees by combining re-
ing enrollment in cost-effective
for all Americans, while
sources to achieve broader
health plans, arming con-
risk sharing, economies of
sumers with information
preserving choice for
scale, and purchasing
about cost and quality, and
patients and their
power;
eliminating administrative
waste and unnecessary paper-
families in selecting
"job lock" protection for em-
work.
doctors, hospitals,
ployees and their families
SO that they will not lose
I believe we can provide
health care programs,
coverage if and when a per-
access to affordable health
son changes jobs;
and employment."
care for all Americans, while
preserving choice for patients
guaranteed insurability SO
and their families in selecting
that people with "preexist-
doctors, hospitals, health care
ing" illnesses cannot be de-
programs, and employment.
nied a job or health cover-
My approach, in contrast with
age on the job;
my opposition, relies on the
private sector to deliver health
care services. But I would
100% tax deductibility of
make the market work for us
health care premiums paid
by the self-employed, as
by enhancing competition,
compared to the present
which will cut costs. My mal-
25% deductibility;
practice reforms would cut
i
costs further by removing the
fear of lawsuits that leads to
malpractice reforms that
wasteful procedures.
will reduce the number of
unnecessary procedures
I firmly believe that a
performed on patients and
move to national health insur-
thereby reduce the cost of
ance, as some of my opponents
medical care; and
want, would be a major, irre-
trievable mistake. That course
reforms to encourage wide-
would turn over the health
spread use of electronic
care sector - a full 13% of our
billing to save an estimated
economy - to the Govern-
$11 billion a year in paper
ment. The result would be
costs.
more bureaucracy, rationed
22
care, inefficiency, and, in the
sign a law this summer that
better life for themselves and
end, even higher costs.
incorporated my portability
their children. It's this spirit,
proposal. The new law en-
the commitment to the
My opponent's "play or
hances retirement security by
American Dream, that has
pay" approach winds up in the
permitting workers to transfer
made our country and our so-
same place as nationalized,
accrued pension benefits di-
ciety the most dynamic in the
bureaucratic health insurance
rectly to an IRA or to their
world.
- but through a different
new employer's pension plan.
route. And it is likely to kill a
If we are going to use that
lot of jobs along the way, espe-
Despite this improvement,
energy to drive us forward into
cially in small businesses.
I believe we must continue to
the 21st Century, we will need
Increasing the costs of labor -
look for ways to make it easier
to tap the aspirations of each
the "play" in his approach -
for workers who change jobs to
and every one of our citizens.
will lead businesses to hire
take pensions with them. We
No one should be left behind
fewer workers. Offering the al-
need to eliminate incentives to
for want of opportunity.
ternative of Government-
"cash out" benefits and in-
Many of the programs that
sponsored health care paid for
crease incentives to save for
I have discussed above -
with new taxes on payrolls -
the future.
health care for all Americans,
the "pay" - will dump the
child care, job training, pen-
problem in the lap of a
Job training, afford-
able health care, retirement
sion portability, a new compet-
Government bureaucracy with
itive school system based on
the costs paid for by business-
security - when combined
community involvement and
es and workers.
with a new system of educa-
choice for all American fami-
tion and entrepreneurial, com-
C.
lies - support my plan to em-
petitive business, we can offer
Pension Portability
power all Americans to make
working men and women real
their own choices and better
economic security in the 21st
I have also been concerned
their lives. But I believe we
Century.
about the ability of workers to
need to do more for certain cit-
izens who have fallen too far
preserve their retirement pen-
behind.
sions as they change jobs. This
IX.
is a growing need because of
Leaving No
My philosophy for en-
the increased likelihood that
most workers will have more
One Behind:
abling all Americans to share
than one employer over the
Economic
the American Dream is sim-
ple: it's based on property and
course of their working years.
Opportunity for
work. Our urban and welfare
Every American
programs must be designed to
I proposed an initiative
enable people to break the
last year to increase pension
For over 200 years, the
cycle of poverty, get back on
portability, expand pension
most exceptional aspect of
their feet, get back to work,
coverage, and simplify the law
American society has been the
and take responsibility for
governing pension plans. And
belief, the hope, that this is a
their own choices and their
I am pleased that I was able to
land where people can make a
own lives.
23
I disagree with the failed
Our "Weed and Seed" effort
logic of "welfare rights" and its
can help reclaim and revitalize
emphasis on entitlement. I
impoverished and embattled
philosophy for
disagree with "income mainte-
communities by eliminating
enabling all Americans
nance" strategies - strategies
the fear of drugs and violence,
that merely maintain poverty
targeting coordinated human
to share the American
and contain potential.
services programs, and im-
Dream is simple: it's
proving the housing stock and
Our goal should not be
infrastructure.
based on property and
more dependence - but rather
work. Our urban and
a new Declaration of
We also need to extend op-
Independence - to help peo-
portunity by enabling lower
welfare programs must
ple develop the human and
income families to build assets
financial capital to share the
be designed to enable
- for example, by allowing aid
American Dream. We have
recipients to accumulate high-
people to break the
taken the first step with our
er savings without losing their
implementation of the welfare-
eligibility.
cycle of poverty, get
to-work logic of the Family
back on their feet, get
Support Act of 1988. We have
And we need to expand
been encouraging flexible and
homeowner opportunities for
back to work, and take
innovative implementation
lower and middle income fami-
responsibility for their
through waivers that enable
lies. For example, HOPE
states to develop new pro-
grants enable more inner-city
own choices and their
grams to enhance parental
people to own their own
own lives.
and family responsibility and
homes. Our $5,000 tax credit
to insist on education and job
for first-time home buyers
training for those on welfare.
would help; SO would permit-
Welfare policies won't work
ting voucher recipients to
unless people do.
apply their rental subsidies to-
ward the purchase of a home.
In our inner cities, we
need to restore hope by clear-
We can enhance the
ing away the handicap of
choice, quality, and avail-
crime, building a core of prop-
ability of housing through af-
erty owners, creating business
fordable rent subsidies in the
incentives, restoring infra-
form of housing vouchers, and
structure, and focusing our
through our "Perestroika in
programs on work and
Public Housing" program that
discipline.
widens opportunities for pub-
lic housing tenants to change
Enterprise zones can cre-
the management of troubled
ate solid economic foundations
projects.
in distressed communities.
24
This property and work-
X.
what our nation produced.
based approach need not be
"Rightsizing"
That compares with 17.6% in
more expensive than the tradi-
1965, 19.9% in 1970, 22.0% in
tional welfare bureaucracy.
Government
1975, and 22.3% in 1980. So
For example, over the past 12
not only has Government
years, federal spending for low
My blueprint envisages an
grown as the economy has
income assistance doubled
important Government role to
grown, but Government is tak-
even after inflation - from
make a secure and strong
ing a bigger share. The
$9.1 billion in 1980 to $18.3
America. But it is also impor-
American people are not taxed
billion this year (both in 1992
tant that Government not
too little. The American
dollars). This year, HUD is
siphon off more private re-
Government spends too much.
providing housing assistance
sources than are absolutely
to 4.6 million low-income fami-
necessary to perform the func-
In my acceptance speech I
lies, up from 3.1 million in
tions that will help us win the
noted some of the efforts I will
1980. I have tried to rechannel
economic, competition. Because
make to hold down spending. I
some of this funding to vouch-
an overweight Government -
have proposed capping the
ers because they are more
serving itself seconds rather
growth of mandatory spend-
cost effective than con-
than serving the people first -
ing, other than social security.
structing new public housing
will weigh us down in the race
That would still permit spend-
units. Furthermore, families
of a new era.
ing at present levels plus an
wouldn't have to wait five
adjustment for inflation and
years for the units to be built,
Much of my agenda can be
population growth. Yet this
and the vouchers give families
accomplished simply by redi-
cap would save $294 billion
more choice.
recting current funding away
over five years.
from bureaucracies and to-
For too long, Congress has
wards people. My agenda em-
To start to implement this
stubbornly refused to discard
powers people with the means
cap, I have proposed over $72
failed programs that perpetu-
to work, own property, build
billion in specific spending
ate welfare dependency. No
capital, raise families, and be
cuts for "mandatory" programs
doubt, many of these programs
effective contributors within
(FY93-97). If you add these
were well intentioned. But
our private market economy.
proposed cuts to others I have
now we know better. Give us a
Some of my ideas - legal and
previously called for but which
chance to try a different ap-
health care reforms, for
Congress has not yet enacted,
proach that will empower peo-
example - should even help
my specific cuts would total
ple to help themselves, to
us save money.
about $132 billion over five
build some capital for their
years. I have also proposed
families, to make choices that
Contrary to the assertions
the outright elimination of
develop self-respect and disci-
of some politicians and special
246 specific discretionary
pline. That's the real way to
interest groups, spending as a
programs.
offer economic opportunity for
percentage of the nation's
every American, to leave no
GDP has been going up, not
By way of comparison, my
one behind.
down. In 1991, the Federal
opponent has specifically pro-
Government spent 23.5% of
posed less than $5 billion in
25
cuts in mandatory programs.
I also believe taxpayers
And he has singled out only
should have the right to direct
"Government should
one program for elimination -
10% of their tax payments to
the honeybee subsidy pro-
reduce debt and spending
be subject to the
gram, which his running mate
through a "check-off" on their
voted four times to retain.
tax forms. If all taxpayers took
discipline of a balanced
the full 10%, the cut would be
budget amendment.
Furthermore, I proposed
about $50 billion. That's only
freezing all other spending,
3% of the Federal budget of
State governments
and I will enforce this freeze
about $1.5 trillion. Since feder-
operate that way.
by vetoing any bill Congress
al spending has been growing
sends me that spends more
at a rate of about 8% per year,
Businesses operate that
than I asked for in my budget.
even this proposed cut would
way. Families operate
still enable spending to grow;
I've asked Congress for the
it would just grow more
that way. And given the
line item veto, a disciplinary
slowly.
breakdown of
tool used effectively by the
governors of 43 states. This
Some editorialists dismiss
Congressional discipline,
veto authority is important not
my checkoff proposal, but the
we need an
only to help cut, but to in-
American people seem to like
crease a President's leverage
it, and I think I know why. My
amendment to ensure
with a Congress that seeks to
proposal traces its roots to an
that the Federal
tax more and spend more.
American tradition. At the
turn of this century, many
Government operates
Government should be
people were concerned that
subject to the discipline of a
the Government establish-
that way, too.'
balanced budget amendment.
ment was slipping away from
State governments operate
the people it was supposed to
that way. Businesses operate
serve. This movement led to
that way. Families operate
such venerable "gimmicks" as
that way. And given the
referenda, the right of recall,
breakdown of Congressional
and the direct election of U.S.
discipline, we need an amend-
Senators. The idea of term
ment to ensure that the
limits for Senators and
Federal Government operates
Congressmen, which I fully
that way, too. If we had had
support, is another reform of
such an amendment years ago,
this type. At the time each was
we wouldn't be paying almost
proposed, the conventional
$200 billion dollars a year now
thinkers chuckled at the
on interest for the debt left us
changes. The same is true
by earlier Congresses.
today. Given the complete
breakdown in spending disci-
pline in Congress, it's time
26
that we insist on compensat-
ers. Finally, I believe we can
my agenda.
ing reforms that give the peo-
restructure and reduce the
ple a bigger say in the direc-
size of the Executive Branch
I also am committed to re-
tion of Federal Government
through a consolidation of
ducing the tax burden on the
spending. I say it's time to give
agencies and bureaus that will
American people. I have said
the people the power to cut the
enable us to do our job better.
that I will propose to further
deficit.
Why should the Federal
reduce taxes across-the-board,
Government be the only large
provided we pay for those cuts
The size and structure of
organization in America that
with specific spending reduc-
the Government also needs to
continually adds size and of-
tions that I consider appropri-
be slimmed down and
fices, and never gets rid of
ate, SO that we do not increase
changed. The organization of
anything? Therefore, I will
the deficit.
the Federal Government
submit a streamlined reorga-
reflects ways of doing business
nization plan for the Executive
To illustrate the kinds of
that are now 30 to 50 years
Branch to the new Congress -
tax cuts we could achieve if we
old. Companies all across
and I hope they take the hint,
discipline spending: just con-
America have been restructur-
too.
sider what we could do if
ing, cutting costs, becoming
Congress acted on the $132
more efficient - preparing to
Let me give you an exam-
billion in specific spending re-
be more competitive in a fast-
ple. In many respects, the
ductions that I have already
changing marketplace. I be-
Arms Control and Disarma-
proposed. These savings alone
lieve the Federal Government
ment Agency, or ACDA, is a
could finance an across-the-
can and should do the same
creature of the Cold War. It
board rate cut of 1 percent, a
thing. I believe a streamlining
needs to adapt to the times. Its
reduction of the small busi-
of the Federal Government
highly trained scientists and
ness tax rate from 15% to 10%,
should include three elements:
engineers are a valuable re-
an increase in small business
source. Some of them can sup-
expensing of investment in
First, I will cut the operat-
port our efforts to stem and re-
equipment, and a reduction of
ing budget of the Executive
verse the proliferation of
the capital gains tax.
Office of the President by 33%
weapons of mass destruction.
if Congress agrees to subject
But others may be well suited
In sum, my direction is
its operations to a cut of the
to work at weapons destruc-
clear - I want to spend less
same size. With fewer
tion and defense conversion -
and tax less. My opponent
Congressional staffers badger-
transforming the genius of
wants to spend more and tax
ing the Executive Branch, I
modern day swords into 21st
more.
know we can cut costs by that
Century plowshares.
amount. Second, I believe all
I believe the Federal
federal employees earning
Multiply this idea by a
Government can reallocate its
above $75,000 a year should
hundred, or even a thousand,
almost $1.5 trillion in spend-
be subject to a 5% pay cut;
others. We can get rid of some
ing more effectively if we im-
other Americans have tight-
tasks, conduct others more
plement my agenda. The re-
ened their belts, and SO should
efficiently, and add new ones
ductions in defense spending
the better-paid federal work-
where appropriate to support
that we have already begun
27
will provide some of these
members - all 150 or more -
funds, and I don't want them
before they are besieged by the
"Between the
wasted in a torrent of new
special interests and perma-
spending programs designed
nent staffs.
election and the
by a horde of special interests.
I also believe we need to
convening of a new
I honestly believe that this
take another step to ensure
Congress, / will lay out
is the only way to get the size
that the new Congress does
and spending of Government
not become like the old one.
an implementation plan
under control. I know that se-
The root of the present prob-
for my agenda. / intend
rious-minded people believe
lem is political contributions
we need to increase revenues
from organized special inter-
to be ready to present
to close the deficit. But it won't
ests through political action
the new Congress a
work. I have seen too many
committees, or PACS. In the
times that efforts to close the
run up to the 1980 elections,
first-year plan to carry
deficit by increasing taxes
PACs raised and contributed
have only turned out to give
$55 million to political candi-
out the legislative
Congress a license to spend
dates. In the same time period
proposals described in
more money. There's a reason
before the '90 elections, PACs
for this. Spending is power for
spent about $160 million. The
this agenda."
Congressmen. That's how they
other party doesn't want to do
show influence, and placate
anything about it, because
their friends, the interest
they are the biggest recipients.
groups. If you give Congress-
I want to put them to the test.
men more tax money, they will
I want a new Congress to stay
spend it.
clean. So an important part of
my new legislative agenda will
be a simple bill to abolish
XI.
PACs subsidized by corpora-
A Strategy for
tions, unions, and trade
Implementation
associations.
This year is an important
I am committed to making
turning point for the United
my program work with Con-
States. We are entering a new
gress. Between the election
era, and for the first time in
and the convéning of a new
many years, it appears that
Congress, I will lay out an im-
Congress will have 150 new
plementation plan for my
faces for the President to work
agenda. I intend to be ready to
with. That's why I'm asking
present the new Congress a
for a mandate for my program.
first-year plan to carry out the
That's why I have promised
legislative proposals described
that I will meet with all new
in this agenda:
28
A radical overhaul of
structure, ensure functions
implement my educational re-
American education to em-
fit new needs, and cut
forms while Congress has
phasize excellence, stan-
salaries at higher levels
stalled. We can get a great
dards, competition, entre-
deal done at the state and
preneurial schools, and a
local levels.
Reform of our legal system
"G.I. Bill for Kids" that
will give parents a choice
I will work with governors,
of schools
A package to clear away
state legislatures, local gov-
crime, build business, and
ernments, and the private sec-
My job training programs
put people to work in our
tor to pursue my agenda.
inner cities
While I want a Congress that
can help me do the job, I'm
My health care reforms
An expansion of Civilian
committed to getting the job
R&D linked to new appli-
done one way or the other.
A package to cut spending,
cations
including a cap on the
growth of mandatory
Ban on PAC contributions
spending, a taxpayers'
"checkoff" to reduce the
debt, a line-item veto, and
Limits on Congressional
a balanced budget amend-
terms
ment
Now I know I may not be
Tax cuts paid for through
able to get everything I want
in the exact way I want it. But
spending reductions and
your support for a mandate to
growth, including reduc-
get it done would give me mo-
tions to spur entrepre-
mentum. I intend to fight for
neurial capitalism and
small business
this agenda, fight as hard as I
can to get as much as I can,
and then come back again to
NAFTA
get more.
New trade negotiating au-
If Congress hesitates on
thority SO we can conclude
some fronts, I intend to keep
new Free Trade Agree-
moving forward. You have
ments across the Atlantic,
seen that we can implement
the Pacific, and in our own
back-to-work welfare reform
hemisphere
by granting waivers that en-
able the states to do the job
more effectively. Similarly, 44
A Government reorganiza-
states and more than 1700
tion plan to streamline the
communities have started to
29
This is my Agenda for
believe people should sue each
American Renewal. With the
other less and care for each
"With
end of the long Cold War, we
other more. I want Govern-
the end of the
can target peace, prosperity,
ment to spend less and tax
long Cold War, we can
and promise at home. The
less. I will fight without hesi-
American people want that.
tation for a free and fair flow
target peace, prosperity,
The American people deserve
of trade, capital, and ideas
and promise at home.
that.
around the world. I believe
America should compete, not
The American people
At the same time, Ameri-
retreat.
want that. The
cans recognize that the great
events of recent years have
I know times have been
American people
shaken the world, and it will
difficult for too many
deserve that."
never be the same. If we are to
Americans. I have sought to
succeed as a nation and as a
explain the causes of these
people, if we are to hold true to
problems and what I will do
all that has made America
about them. Of course you will
"the last, best hope of earth,"
have change. The question is
then our renewal at home
what kind of change. You face
must at the same time enable
a serious choice. And I ask,
us to make the 21st Century
when you step into that voting
another American Century.
booth, please consider careful-
ly which candidate's agenda
My Agenda draws together
for change fits best with your
our people and our Govern-
beliefs, America's experience,
ment to take on this challenge.
and our hopes for lasting
We will create a $10 trillion
peace and prosperity.
economy. We will renew
America. We will win the
peace.
My approach to this chal-
lenge is fundamentally differ-
ent from my opponent's. I
want to stimulate entrepre-
neurial capitalism. I want to
help people by enabling them
to make their own decisions
about health, education, job
training, and child care from a
variety, of competing alterna-
tives. I want to supply services
through the private sector. I
BUSH
QUAYLE
92
1030 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Paid for by Bush-Quayle '92 General Committee, Inc.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Detroit, Michigan)
For Immediate Release
September 10, 2669
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE DETROIT ECONOMIC CLUB
Cobo Hall
Detroit, Michigan
1:00 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very, very much. Good
morning to everyone. And, Governor Engler, I'm proud to be with you,
sir, and thank you for that kind introduction. Greetings to Chick
Fisher, your Chairman, and Jerry Warren, both of whom have been most
hospitable to me. I've been here several times before this most
distinguished American forum and I'm delighted to be back.
This morning I am here for a very serious speech,
serious business. And I'm releasing today an agenda for the American
renewal. And I've come here today to introduce it to you and to the
nation.
My agenda diagnoses the economic problems our nation
faces, lays out the principles that should guide us in the years
ahead, and explains the integrated approach that I am pursuing to
meet the challenge.
Over the past weeks I have been discussing certain
elements of my economic agenda, and in the weeks ahead I will be
expanding on those and other ideas. The document that I'm releasing
today shows how the pieces all fit together.
But let's begin this morning by stepping back, taking
stock of where we are as a great nation in the broader sweep of
history.
The American people have just completed the greatest
mission in the lifetime of our country -- the triumph of democratic
capitalism over imperial communism.
Today, this year, for the first time since December of
1941, the United states is not engaged in a war, hot or cold.
Throughout history, at the close of prolonged and costly wars,
victors have confronted the problem of securing a new basis for peace
and prosperity. The American people recognize that we stand at such
a watershed.
We sense the epic changes at work in the world and in
the economy, the uneasiness that stirs the democracies who served as
our partners in the long struggle.
We feel the uneasiness in our own homes, our own
communities; and we see the difficulties of our neighbors and friends
who have felt change most directly.
And we know that while we face an era of great
opportunity, we face great risks as well -- if we fail to make the
right choices, if we fail to engage this new world wisely.
But America has always possessed unique powers, and
foremost among them is the power of regeneration -- to transform
MORE
uncertainty into opportunity. only in America do we have the people,
the talents, the principles and ideals to fully embrace the world
that opens before us.
For America to be safe and strong, we must meet the
defining challenge of the 1990s: to win the economic
competition -- to win the peace. We must be a military superpower,
an economic superpower, and an export superpower.
My agenda for renewal asks that we look forward -- to
open new markets, prepare our people to work, strengthen our
families, save and invest so that we can win. Our renewal depends on
economic growth -- but growth not for the few at the expense of the
many, not for the present at the expense of the future.
In our country we've always prized an entrepreneurial
capitalism that grows from the bottom up, not the top down; a
prosperity that begins on Main street and extends to Wall Street --
not the other way around.
That's the lesson I learned as a young man, packed up a
Studebaker and moved to Texas after another war, at the start of
another era. I saw jobs, prosperity -- an entire future -- built
with the hands of ordinary men and women with extraordinary dreams.
our nation has never been seduced by the mirage that my
opponent offers -- of a government that accumulates capital by taxing
it and borrowing it from the people -- and then redistributing it
according to some industrial policy. We know that the clumsy hand of
government is no match for the uplifting hand of the marketplace.
My international economic and trade strategy will
guarantee our position as an export superpower, extending our global
economic reach in tandem with our security presence -- to stretch
beyond our borders so that we can create more jobs within our
borders.
At the same time, we need to foster at home the
capabilities that will keep us in the lead: radical changes in our
education system to prepare our children for a constantly changing
workplace; incentives for the entrepreneurs and new technologies to
sharpen our competitive edge; job training, health care reform, to
promote the economic security of our working men and women; and new
approaches for reaching out to those who have been left behind,
since in the century ahead we will need the talent and the energy of
every single American.
And finally, because our greatest strengths flow not
from government but from the personal initiative of free men and
women, my agenda aims to check the growth of government, and, in some
important ways, to reverse it. Together, the components of this new
agenda should renew America according to her most cherished
principles.
And this renewed America will be empowered toward a
grand goal: to nearly double the size of our economy, to S10
trillion, by the early years of the next century.
To place this agenda in a larger context, let me turn
briefly to five profound changes now at work in our economy. when
Americans gather around the kitchen table at night and talk about how
they'll meet a mortgage, or pay the doctor's bill, they're feeling
these changes in their daily lives. And before the changes have run
their course, they will have forever altered the way Americans buy
and sell, work and create.
The first great change in our economy is ironically
caused by our very success in ending the Cold War. In the short
run, deductions in defense spending have meant painful lay-offs in
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many industries, and we are taking steps to ease this transition.
But in the medium and long run, deductions in defense spending will
free up priceless skills and technologies for peacetime growth.
second, most of our industries are transforming
themselves from old-style hierarchies into flatter organizations,
with fewer layers between customer and executive. The new
organizations emphasize a skill-based workforce, "lean production,"
and shorter production cycles. From castings to computers, this is a
revolution as dramatic as the one made earlier this century, when
Henry Ford led the country from craft-based production to mass
manufacturing.
While these changes are essential to maintaining our
competitive edge, they've come with a cost; everyone in this room
knows that -- lay-offs, cutbacks among both white- and blue-collar
workers. These hard-working people need reassurance -- not only
about their economic security, but about preserving the sense of
self-worth that only work can provide. The third change: While the
1980s brought us the greatest peacetime expansion in our history, the
boom also led too many of us to take on too much debt.
We have been paying that down, that debt -- and lower interest rates
have helped us do it. The process is largely over, but consumers and
companies remain cautious.
The fourth change involves our financial system. We
entered the '80s with a 50-year-old banking system, designed for the
days when tellers wore green eye-shades, not for an era when billions
-- billions of investment dollars can cross borders at the speed of
light.
In the late '70s, record interest rates and inflation
rates rocked this anachronistic system. The less efficient
institutions could not survive, obligating the federal government to
protect the savings of millions of Americans.
Now, this process of paying debt down is nearing its
end. Our financial system will become more flexible and efficient.
But for now, lenders are cautious and, despite low interest rates,
small business still can find it hard to get the credit.
But the most far-reaching of these five changes is the
emergence of a global economy. No nation is an island today. one
out of every six manufacturing jobs is directly tied to exports. The
crops sown from one out of every three acres of farmland are sold
abroad.
Consider some implications of the global economy: when
growth slows abroad, as it has recently, our own growth slows as
well. And America will only grow in the next century if we can
compete globally -- in every part of the world. so we must seize
every opportunity to open new markets, particularly those with the
greatest potential for expansion.
Now, in drafting an agenda for America's future, we had
to assess our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Conveniently, the
other side has discovered many weaknesses and very few strengths.
And, of course, they might find temporary political gain in
portraying an America as past her prime, over the hill. But they
have no more right to argue, for partisan purposes, that our economy
is weaker than it is, than I have to understate our problems.
Our strengths are real. Now, here are some facts. The
Misery Index -- the sum of inflation and unemployment -- is 10.8
percent, down from 19.6 Percent in 1980. Inflation stands at about
three percent. Interest rates are at a 20-year low.
The purchasing power of Americans gives us the highest standard of
living in the world. We enjoy the highest home ownership rate of all
major industrialized countries. And we send 68 percent of our
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children on to higher education -- more than any other country -- and
well above Germany's 32 percent and Japan's 30 percent. And with 5
percent of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the
world's total output -- and 37 percent of its high-tech products.
Now, I don't mean to suggest that all is well -- that we
don't need to lead and manage the changes that are transforming our
economy. But you can't chart the stars if you think the sky is
falling down. Over the past 12 years we have almost doubled the size
of our economy. It's as if we'd created two extra economies the size
of Germany's from scratch.
And how will we meet our goals? Before you hear the
specifics of this agenda, let me tell you a little bit about what I
believe -- because change, if it is to be a force for good, must be
guided by principles. And the principles that must guide change are
the principles that never change.
I believe we are a nation of special individuals, not
special interests. Individuals draw their enduring strength from
their families, from their neighbors and communities, not from the
government. So I believe we must never ask government to do what
families and neighbors and individuals can better do for
themselves -- and for one another.
I believe -- because I've seen it -- economic growth
comes from the small businesswoman who takes a risk on a new product,
from the computer hacker working in a garage, in a cluttered way;
from the merit scholar in South L.A., South Central L.A. with a
future as big as his dreams.
And I believe government owes it to them, and to you, to
keep tax rates low and make them even lower; to keep money sound; to
limit government spending and regulations; and to open the way for
greater competition, and freer trade.
But I do not believe, as some might, that government's
obligation ends there. As a conservative I believe that government
can help people -- offer them hope and opportunity -- by giving them
the means and the confidence to make the decisions that matter in
life.
My background has also prepared me for the task of
bringing our foreign policies and our domestic policies together; to
turn our strength as a world power to our advantage as an economic
power; to match the security we feel militarily with the economic
security that we must build at home. From now on, if America is to
lead the world, we need a leader who knows the territory.
MY agenda for American renewal calls for action on six
interconnected fronts. There's no single cause of our present
situation. There can be no single cure. The whole of our agenda
will be -- must be -- greater than the sum of its parts.
First, challenging the world. During the Cold War, we
built a global security structure with military alliances across the
Atlantic and the Pacific. And in the same way, the post-Cold War era
requires a strategic economic and trade policy -- global in scope,
and built on our foundation as an economic and export superpower.
we are uniquely positioned to achieve this goal. As the
largest fully integrated market in the world, we wield leverage with
other countries that want access to our market. AS both a Pacific
and a European power, we are tied to the largest and most rapidly
growing economies across both oceans. And as the strongest nation in
our hemisphere, we are looked to for leadership by free economies
emerging from Chile all the way up to Mexico.
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The same holds true for the newly born economies of
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where our values, our
products, even our language, carry a unique appeal. In Moscow today,
the lines at McDonald's are longer than the lines at Lenin's Tomb.
The key to America's growth, expansion, and innovation
has always been our openness to trade, investment, ideas, and people.
AS this openness is at last being reciprocated around the world, we
find ourselves again at a special advantage.
The next steps in my strategic trade policy are to
secure congressional approval of the North American Free Trade
Agreement and to complete the global trade negotiations, the GATT
round, creating high-wage American jobs and expanding the pool of
customers hungry for the fruits of American labor.
Let me emphasize: these agreements are steps, not ends
in themselves. And 50 I want to announce today that it is my goal to
develop a strategic network of free trade agreements -- with Latin
America; with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia; and with countries
across the Pacific. And then, as these external barriers fall, I
believe we can help reduce internal barriers to competition as
well -- in North America, Western Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.
Greater competition will encourage entrepreneurial capitalism at the
expense of government power and entrenched interests, spurring
unprecedented economic growth.
Traveling around the country I've seen it happen already
-- particularly in some small businesses, as they strengthen
themselves for international competition. A couple of weeks ago, in
st. Louis, I visited Public Safety Equipment -- they're a company --
they make the light-bars that you've seen on police cars. The
president of Public safety told me that a few years ago, they
recognized they could no longer just sell their products in 50
states, leave it at that. And so they took on the world. And now 35
percent of what they make is sold in 48 countries, creating good jobs
right here in the United States of America.
Public Safety, and the hundreds of thousands of
companies like it, offer a glimpse into the future I see for all
American business. But a business is only as efficient. as resilient
as innovative, as the people who keep its books and build its
products and devise its strategy. Materials, machines, methods --
they'll come and go, but the American worker will remain the key to
our economic security.
That brings me, then, to the second part of our agenda:
preparing our children.
The workplace of the 21st century will be constantly
changing. I've heard that from many businesspeople sitting right
here at the tables in this hall. We must prepare the American people
for a lifetime of learning, to keep a step ahead of that process of
change. Now, developed nations need developing minds. The burden
will fall on our educational system. As in the past, education
should be the ladder that children can climb to better themselves.
our current school system is not up to the task.
Designed for the 19th century, it will collapse under the weight of
the 21st. And our educational establishment is caught in the same
time warp, where standing still means falling behind.
Money alone is not the answer -- the United states
already spends more per pupil than any other country but Switzerland.
The answer is a radical overhaul of the system itself. If we want to
change our country, we've got to change our schools.
The catalyst for change -- the one reform that drives
all others -- is school choice, giving children scholarships so that
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all parents have the freedom to choose which schools will best serve
their children. Competition is the principle that must underlie
education reform, to break the establishment's monopoly on the
system. And competition will not work unless parents are allowed to
choose their children's schools -- whether it's the public school
across town or the parochial school across the street. (Applause.)
Consider just one statistic: in Chicago, 46 percent of
public school teachers send their children to private schools.
Clearly they know something about monopoly education that my opponent
doesn't. Our different approaches to education reform reveal the
grand canyon that divides me and my opponent. You see the same
contrast in child care, or health care, and a host of other issues.
My opponent prefers uniformity to variety and choice, relying on
these government bureaucracies to offer "one-size-fits-all service."
I don't want to pull everyone down to make everyone equal. I want to
give everyone the tools to climb as high as they can dream.
Even as we fix our schools, the question remains: Will
there be good jobs for the kids? And that's the third part of my
agenda: sharpening businesses' competitive edge. I learned my
economics the way most of you did -- a lot of late nights sweating
over a balance sheet, or P & L statement, trying to meet a payroll.
And I saw that if people are allowed to keep more of what they
produce, they will produce more. It's common sense.
When capital is taxed lightly, there's more of it. And
when it is taxed heavily, it becomes scarce -- available only to
those who are already wealthy, who need it least of all. That's not
the kind of economy that I want.
And if capital were more abundant, labor would be more
in demand, wages would rise, unemployment lines would shrink. That
is the kind of economy that I want. And that's why I want enterprise
zones in our inner cities and in our rural areas. That's why I want
to make this research and development, this R & D tax credit
permanent. And that's why I want to cut the capital gains tax and
index it for inflation. (Applause.)
Those are the fundamentals. I also see three other ways
to sharpen the competitive edge of American business:
-- first, strengthening small business, by cutting
taxes, making sure that credit is available, and by
lifting the deadweight of government regulation;
-- second, supporting civilian R & D, by bringing the
development, production and marketing of technology
closer to the consumer;
-- and third, reforming our legal system. Every year
American business and consumers spend up to $200 billion just in
direct costs to lawyers -- far more than our competitors in Japan and
Europe. And my product liability reform and access to justice act
will restore rationality to the system and stop undermining the
American worker. (Applause.)
This is a fact: We w1ll never lead the world in the
21st century until we learn to sue each other less and care for each
other more. (Applause.)
The fourth part of my agenda: promoting economic
security -- for working men and women.
Again, common sense shows the way: true security will
come only by developing individual capability, not dependency. And
government. that independence, in turn, comes through the private sector, not the
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Government's role will be to ease individuals'
adjustment to a. fast-changing marketplace. The average worker today
will change jobs, it's estimated, 10 times over the course of his or
her working life.
so we need a wider and more flexible range of job
training and placement services -- for both the young and old, the
blue and white-collar worker, and now especially for our workers from
the defense industries.
Pensions must be portable -- and health care must be
affordable. Our health care system today, I think everyone here
would agree. provides the best care, but at an unacceptable price.
More than thirty million Americans have no health insurance. Health
care costs are the fastest-rising part of our budget for government,
businesses, and yes. families.
My reforms get to the base of these problems while
preserving and building on our system's strengths -- our state-of-
the-art care, openness to innovation, and consumer choice. Taken
together, my reforms cut health care costs by S394 billion over five
years.
My opponent's plan could eventually place a full 13
percent of our economy under the control of the federal
government -- meaning more bureaucracy, rationed care, inefficient
service and, in the end, higher costs.
We must enhance competition and market forces, not
restrict them; we must preserve individual choice, not hand decision-
making over to centralized bureaucracies; we must reduce the burden
on employers and employees, not bury them in a tide of new taxes and
government regulations. (Applause.)
The programs I've outlined and that are detailed in this
agenda are based on the principles that will empower all Americans to
make their own choices and better their lives. But I believe we need
to do more for some of our citizens who have been left behind. And
that is the fifth component of this agenda: leaving no one behind.
The American Dream is nothing more than the belief that
all Americans can make a better life for their children. The dream
has made us the most dynamic society in the world; it's yet another
strength we can draw upon for the challenge ahead. And so we must
give every American a shot at making good on the dream.
And I reject the shopworn logic that sees poverty as a
simple lack of income -- a kind of economic shortfall that can be
replaced with a government check. A conservative philosophy of
empowerment must have at its foundation the creation of character,
through the ownership of property, through the dignity of work. That
means sweeping away the nightmare of crime from our cities, building
a core of property owners, creating business incentives, and making
individual discipline and self-reliance the goal of all of our
programs
I call the final component of my agenda -- "rightsizing
government."
You'll recognize that I take the term from the business
world -- which has a lot to teach those of us in government. At a.
time when companies across the country have been restructuring,
increasing efficiency -- all to prepare for the economic competition
of tomorrow -- the federal government faces an obligation to do the
same. (Applause.)
Today the federal government spends nearly twenty-four
cents of every dollar -- twenty-four cents of every dollar of the
nation's income. And that's the fact: government is too big and
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spends too much. The size and structure of government are relics of
a different age -- artifacts more suited to the dilemmas of 50 years
ago than the problems of today. Every institution in our society has
learned that by pushing power down through organizations, by using
technology to speed the flow of information, you don't just save
money, you improve productivity. It's time for the government to do
the same.
I will streamline government -- consolidating agencies,
tightening budgets, and cutting the salaries of highly paid federal
employees. And I'll start by cutting the White House budget 33
percent if the Congress cuts its own budget by the same amount.
(Applause.) You might say: Why the linkage? well, with fewer
congressional staff badgering us for endless reports and endless
visits to Capitol Hill, I know we can cut costs by that amount.
(Applause.) And I'll cut the salaries of all federal employees
earning more than $75, by 5 percent. Taxpayers have tightened
their belts. The better-paid federal workers should do the same.
The agenda I publish today contains specific proposals
to cut the fat: a cap on the growth in mandatory spending --
without touching social security -- and a freeze on domestic
spending; a balanced budget amendment, a line-item veto -- (applause)
-- and a new mechanism -- disciplinary mechanism -- a check-off box
on tax returns to give the taxpayer the power to cut the deficit. I
will fight to reduce spending and spur growth so we can get this
budget in balance.
And unlike my opponent, I do not believe the American
people are undertaxed. Quite the opposite: I am committed to cutting
taxes across the board. And let me offer an example -- this is just
an example -- as an illustration of what we could do: My cap on the
growth of mandatory spending allows for population growth and
inflation. It specifically exempts Social Security. But that cap
alone, with those caveats, would save about $300 billion over five
years. If we used just s130 billion in specific spending cuts that J.
have already proposed -- specific spending cuts of $130 billion that
I have already proposed -- we could cut income tax rates by one
percentage point across the board; reduce the small business tax rate
from 15 percent to 10 percent, and reduce the tax on capital gains.
That's the direction that I want to go: tax less, spend
less, cut the deficit, and redirect our current spending to serve the
interests of all Americans. I honestly believe that this is the way
-- the only way -- to control the size of the federal government.
The facts are painful, but plain: For congressmen, spending is
power. And they will exercise that power until they have spent every
last dime they can squeeze from the working men and women of America.
And it's as simple as this: raising taxes won't cut the deficit.
Here, then, is my agenda for American renewal. It comes
at a time unique in our history, a turning point, a moment when one
era is passing away and another is being born.
In the agenda published today, you'll find 13 proposals
that I intend to achieve in the first year of my second term. H
present them as a single program, a unified strategy to make. change
work for America.
over the last three years I've shown how America can
change the world; and we've made a respectable start managing the
change at home. Our primary task now is to target America.
I intend to fight for this agenda, to fight as hard as I
can. with a new Congress that can have as many as 150 new members, I
am optimistic. If congress balks, will move forward anyway -- just
as I have done with education, regulatory and welfare reform. I'll
work with our great governors, like John Engler, with the state and
local governments, with the private sector -- with anyone who shares
the urge to renew our country.
The American people know that the events of recent years
have shaken the world. with the close of the Cold War we can achieve
peace, prosperity and promise at home. The American people want
that. The American people deserve that.
And I want America to seize this moment. I want to
stimulate entrepreneurial capitalism, not punish it; I want to
empower people to make their own choices, not yoke them to new
bureaucracies. I want a government that spends less, regulates less,
and taxes less. And I will fight without hesitation for a free flow
of trade and capital and ideas around the world -- because Americans
never retreat -- we always compete. (Applause.)
My agenda draws together our people and our government
to meet this challenge. We will create a $10-trillion economy. And
we will renew America. And we will win the peace. (Applause.)
I know that times have been very, very difficult for
many Americans. The world that we knew as children -- no matter your
age -- will never be the same. America will change -- that's our
destiny; how it will change will soon be decided.
I ask, as you consider the choice that you face, to
consider carefully whose agenda for change best fits America's
principles, our national experience, and our hopes for lasting peace
and prosperity.
Thank you for your attention. And may God bless our
great country. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
1:40 P.M. EDT
(Will need a brief introduction that explains & highlights the paper)
DRAFT #2
I. Context: Four Changes Underway
Our economy is undergoing the greatest change since the
We are going through a period of profound change in
Industrial Revolution. Like allnevolutions, this one has its
our economy, and I know change can be difficult,
casualti immocent victims caught in cross -hains of change.
particularly for those who feel its effects most
We will take came of our own. But out of the nubble of
directly. the old economy, a new one will rise. Stronger, smarter
and ready to take on the world.
Our economy has been working through four
adjustments. They establish the context for my agenda.
First, during the 1980s, we enjoyed the longest
peacetime expansion in U.S. history, lasting seven and
JDFoster
CEA
a half years. Through these years of strong growth, we
5084
OVER 21
created 10 million jobs, more than all the new jobs in
the other major industrial countries and the rest of
western Europe combined. Yet the boom that wiped also
a
p6
the dismal economic performance of the late 70's led
latest
PAYMENTS
CRIGAGE
more
chaft[CEA]
many more companies, too more many financial institutions, too many
more
all ready eager and
?
governments and too many households to take on too much
debt.
willing, to take on more debt.
You and they have been paying down that debt over CEA suggests
the last three years -- and lower interest rates have bracketed
eliminating
language--
helped you do it. Millions of people have refinanced
or else
just make
CEA:
homes at lower rates, reducing mortgage payments by as
it "the last
Avg. for all home sales
$1,200 TO $ 1,500 THESE FIGURES REPLECT THE POPULATION year
in us, annual
much as $1,500 to $2,000 a year. (Check) (Companies have
mortgage reduction
from 1990 1992 July
BRADY : 2,000 - 2,500
POLEMICAL
TRUE, BUT For
WE THINK TITIS is LOW
EXPENSIVE HOUSES
BOSKIN'S COMPROMISE: "BY
AS MUCH AS. 4
2
restructured paid down debt, and strengthened their
JDFoster
CEA
balance sheets, positioning themselves to enjoy
5084
substantial profits when stronger growth resumes. This
process will leave our economy leaner and more powerful;
indeed many firms already are. But while that debt was
being paid down, people bought fewer goods and companies
put less money into new investments and jobs. The
process is largely over, but it has left consumers and
companies cautious.
"
Second, we entered the '80s with a banking system
designed 50 years earlier; it was woefully out of place
in an era when billions of dollars could be sent around
German Embassy
Uli Nitzchke 298-4230
the world in a matter of moments. To provide a basis of
"
comparison, consider that the United States 4,600 entered the
CanadianEmbussy
14,000
Guy St. Jacques
1980s with some 9,000 commercial banks and 3,500 11 CHARTER savings BANKS AND
KINANCIALPOLIC 301 ) 530 - 1548 SECTOR, DEPT OF
148 TRUSTAND LOANS
FINANCE, OTIOUA
and loans. Check. In comparison, Canada had
/
(end of 81)
5,355 COMMERCIAL BANKS
Germany had 20 STL'S (D/STINCTION Japan 15 BLURRED had
86
80
The vast
13 citionly
.
RUSS DEMMING
7
trant
JAPAN DESK, STATE
majority of those small banks and S&Ls operated in a
bales
647-3152
Breg. eral
heavily controlled environment where their costs of funds
3 longton credit
were limited by ceilings on your passbook accounts.
Other regulations restricted competition by imposing
costs and inefficiencies on savers and borrowers.
In the late '70s, this out-of-date system was
11
buffeted by record interest and inflation rates; it was
challenged by competition from new financial services.
As in any other line of business, the less efficient
3
institutions could not survive. But because our banks
JD Foster
and S&Ls held insured deposit accounts for most
CEA
5084
hardworking Americans, the streamlining process had to
be managed in a way that enabled the Government to
protect savers.
This process, too, is nearing its end. It will
leave us with a more competitive and efficient financial
system that will serve companies and families better.
Over the next few years, the United States Government
will actually gain revenues from the sales of billions
of dollars of assets that it acquired as it protected
savers. But this process has left lenders cautious.
Business borrowing rates and mortgage rates are way down,
but it's still too hard for small businesses to gain
access to credit.
The third great change in our economy is ironically
due to our very success in ending the Cold War. Since
our superpower rival of the last half century has
disappeared, we are now able to do something we have all
hoped for since the close of World War II -- reduce
significantly our defense budget.
In the medium and long run, reductions in defense
spending will free up many new resources for our people
and our economy. In the short run, this adjustment has
meant cutbacks and lay-offs in many industries that have
depended on defense spending.
4
The final economic change is perhaps the most
profound of all: No nation is an island today we are
part of a global economy. To grow is to trade; to expand
MANUFACTURE INC JOES
Dave walters
USTR, 3583
is to compete. One 1 out of every six^in our economy
depends directly on our exports; so does one acre out of USDA keithcollins
ERS
every three planted by American farmers. Check.
720-5955
This international economic influence has three
slumps
it drags
implications. One, when growth is slow abroad, as it is
down with it
today, our economy is slowed, too. Two, it means that
if America is going to be strong and growing in the 21st
Century, we must be ready prepared and able to compete around the
globe. Three, we need to seize opportunities to develop
new markets, particularly in areas that have potential
for significant growth in the future.
II. Start with Strengths
In developing a plan for the future, it is important
take a clean eyed look at our weakness wellas
that we assess fairly our strengths. as well as the
conveniently
problems. Not surprisingly, the other side has skipped
over the United States' numerous strengths. Frankly,
over the will to past her
they want you to believe America is in a state of prime.
decline. But they have no more right to convince you the
economy is worse than it is for political advantage than
I have to sugarcoat the problems. So we need to make at
5
least a brief survey of some of the foundation stones on
which we will build.
Let's start with some of the key economic
indicators:
Inflation has fallen to roughly 3%, the lowest
JD Foster
CEA
*5084
in a quarter of a century (except for 1986).
In fact, during my administration, inflation
averaged less than half the inflation during
the Carter years.
Interest rates are at a 20 year low. In
particular, mortgage rates are now in the 8%
range, half the rate President Reagan TREASURY
SAY5'76
encountered in his first year. Thanks to these
low rates, more people can afford to own a home
TREASURY
today than in any time since 1973.
2(00DAY) 1227 fant (4th
WEUSED
Housing affordability
123. / (DEC, 76 )
91)
INDEXOF NAR
BLS
While unemployment is still far too high, the
192
61.5
'91 '90 62.7
61.6
=MAYBE
share of the working age population with jobs 2
189 63.0
THEY
HADDIFPERENT
during my administration has averaged 62.3%,
WDEX
the highest in U.S. history. Indeed, the
OR MAYBE
average unemployment rate during my term has
THEY WERE USING
remained below the average of the Carter years
A MONTH
and puts us well ahead of G-7 partners like
last #
WHILE WHO LE
on Italy
WE WERE
Canada, Britain, France, and Italy -- where
is 7.0%
USING
unemployment rates are 10% or higher.
1.10
SANNUALS
latest
draft.
[CE4]
FFORD ABILITY
6
JD Foster
CEA
The Misery Index -- the sum of 10.8% inflation and
5084
unemployment -- is down to 10.4% today from
19.6% in 1980.
The rise in United States GDP during our ALONE long
X
expansion was $1.1 trillion. This increase is
greater than the total size of the German
economy.
These macroeconomic statistics translate into real
improvements for individuals, too:
Average family income reached $42,652 in 1990,
$15,000 more than before the expansion began.
A recent study by the Urban Institute
(June' 92,
Policy Bites
concluded: "When one follows individuals rather
"Is U.S. Income
Ineguality
than statistical groups defined by income, one
ReallyGnowing
Isabel
finds that, on average, the rich got a little
Sawhillt
Mark
richer and the poor got much richer." "This
Conclen
pattern, however, may be surprising to the
general public which has been led to believe
that the poor were literally getting poorer
over the last decade or two, and that the
7
THIS
incomes of the rich were skyrocketing. That
X
is simply not true."
PETER TAYLOR, CHIEF ECONOMIST, O
of the people making up the lowest fifth of the
MINORITY STAFF, BUDGET COMMITTEE
x224-0566 CHE USED TO WORK AT income distribution in the late 1970s, more
(EA). HE SAYS THAT A TREASURY
STUDY SHOWS THAT 86% OF THE
than half moved out of the lowest fifth and up
LOWEST 5TH PERCENTILE MOVED up.
THE URBAN INSTITUTE STUDY SHOWS
the income ladder over the next ten years.
THAT 47% MOVED UP. SPLITTING
THE DIFFERENCE, IT'S PROBABLY During the X expansion, the X middle class shrank JDFoster CEA
FAIR SAY THAT WELL
X
5084
OVER 1/2 TO OF THAT PERCENTILE because more of them moved above the $50,000
MOVED OUT & UP.
threshold and into the high income groups --
they weren't moving down.
Real X per capita income rose 15.7% during the
'80s. {Consider a substitute statistic}
All major demographic groups shared in X the
economic growth. Between 1982 and 1991,
employment of Blacks was up 29% and Hispanics
52%, The employment-to-population ratio for
Black Americans during my tenure has averaged
a X record 55.7%, up significantly from 52.8%
during the Carter years.
The United States has the highest home
ownership rate of all major industrialized
countries: More than 64% of households own
66% of households own homes
59%
NATIONAL yes
8
consus Juliane Esan E
Uli Nietchke German their own homes, as compared with 61% in Japan
Statistical yearbook Empassy
40%
German Desk, Bonn and 39% in Germany.
"STUDENTS"? THESE ARE 20-24 YR. OLDS, SOME EVEN
OLDER.
68%
1990
1988 UNESCO
R
CENSUS
AGES 18-24
The U.S. sends 60% of its children on to higher X STATISTICAL YEARBOOK
X
[62%]
PER EMERSON
(ENROUMENT)
ECCION, COMMISSIONER,
education, second X only to Canada, and well NATIONAL CENTER FOR
A
above the 32% rate, in Germany X and 30% in X Japan. x EDUCATION SNANSTICS.
52[51.7]
[51.7]
X
% OF GRADUATING
ORGANIZATION OF ECONOMIC And 51% of these U.S. students are women, as
CLASS THAT
COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
X
26
38
IS FEMALE.
1987 TABLE
compared with 38% in Japan and 26% in Germany.
Since X 1980: x life x expectancy has increased from
X
x
O
to 75.4 Hanns Kuttner, X to 75.3 years; the infant mortality x rate
A to 12.6 per per Nat'l Ctr.for Health 73.7 X x 12.6 9.1 x live
has dropped from 12 to 10.1 for 1,000
A to Statistics 9.1 per Hanns Ku B ther,OPD
births; x deaths from X heart diseases have dropped
(1990#) also per
Nat'l ctr.for H.S.
(155.9)
A to 156 per Hanns Kutiner, OPD from 23% 202 X X to X 166 156 per X hundred thousand people,
(1989#5, mostrecent)
an X 18% decline; deaths from strokes and related X
A to 28.0 per Hanns Kuttner, DPD
diseases X have dropped X from X 40.8 to 29.7 per
28.0
(1989 #S, most recent)
X
31%
hundred thousand people, a 27% decline.
While special interest groups release streams of
stories about the supposedly unmet demands of their
favorite groups, the facts demonstrate that the
Government is already committed to sensible investment
in the future of our people:
Gup
make
sur
93
9
x
Our 1993 Budget request for Childrens' Programs
list from Hanns Kuttner, OPD
reflects an increase of 66% since 1989; we
aT approved by
ALL
Hanns Kuttner
C
recommended funding of $100 billion for
health cave
WIC
programs assisting children in support
Food stamps
foster care
Head Start
child care
& other govt.
programs
okay per Digest of (DoEd) Ed. Stats. o
From 1980 to 1991, Federal support for
.350
Federal
T. 336
Education increased 59%, to $54.6 billion. The
all changes in this
total volume of guaranteed student loans grew
funding for
qt per BobGrady
(OMB)
D
from $4.6 $1.4 billion in 1980 to $11.5 billion in
$4.2
(#s from Digest
200%
of Edu cational (DoEd) Statistics
1991 -- an increase of almost 150%.
During the 1980s, expenditures per student in
public elementary and secondary X schools 85% rose
-7# A per Digest of Education
Statistics (DoEd)
from $2,502 to $4,639 $5,266, an increase of 110%.
P.156
E
Remarks
The United States is spending more per pupil
G1 Announcy Bill For
T.159
Children
than any other country except Switzerland.
BRUNO MANNO
ASST. SEC FOR
POLICY, DEPT.
OF EDUC, 1992
Federal investments in biomedical research X have EDUCATION
CONDITION OF
A to 10.6 per
almost tripled since 1980, reaching a level of
Barry Clendenin
OMB (x4926)
F
10.6
X
$9.4 billion in 1993.
X
Since 1989, we have increased AIDS research
funding by X 39%, X to over X $1.2 billion dollars;
X
38%
X
G
AIDS prevention funding by 29% to $621
D to 38% per Hanns
Kutther MOPD (x6563)
million;, and X AIDS treatment funding by 240%
X
X
to $2.5 billion.
10
Total public investment in infrastructure in
Okay per (366-1103)
Michael Jackson, CoSDOT
the 1980s grew 2.2% annually, roughly equal to
and Cathy Collms (366-4594)
the growth of the 1960s and greater than the
Kate Moore DOT budget
(366-9191) examiners
growth of the 1970s.
is THIS REAL OR
okay per Kate
Moore (DOT budget
Since 1989, Federal spending for infrastructure
exammer) and
morethan (6.37%)
5/92 CBOreport.
has increased at a nominal average of 16%
annuálly. And I signed into law a Surface
Transportation Act that will support
DOT
approximately OVER one million jobs per year while
FHWA
strengthening our road, rail, and air transport
systems. CHECK
-related activities
X
OMB
Spending on Federal law enforcement has grown
Ron Jones
from $4.3 8 billion in 1981 to an estimated $15.8
X
4
3914
X
billion in 1993. This has paralleled a
Paul McNulty
22.7% INCREASE (DOJ/UCR
Policy/CommDOJ
dramatic 22% decrease in the national crime
(H) 703-425-3460
DOJ strongly suggests we do NOT
(w) 514-2000
use these numbers because
rate over the same period:
Justice Dept.
INCREASED 17.4% PER 100,000
QThe National Crime Victimization
Gene Scalia
-- Rape decreased 33%
is a random "door "todor"
Reports from which they come
INCREASED 5.4% "
514-2291
-- Robbery was down 24%
survey. The FBY Uniform Crime report
INCREASED BY 49.5%"
has the numbers used by
-- Assaults fell by 14%
law enforcement efficials +the
BOB MCHOLL
INCREASED 28% "
DOJ.Thy consist of crimes
FBI, UNCR
324-3444
-- Theft was down 25%
3 The FBI UCR is mere recent than
reported tothe police
the National Crime Victimization
User Services Unit, chief
(81-91]
Reports. The good news is
Vickle Major
NIDA
-50150
According to the National Institute on Drugthat dramatically we have
decreased
Pat Ross
Abuse, the number of Americans using illicit
the growth
(301) 443 - 6637
CuRRent use of any illicit drug
nate of
crime. In
among Americans 12 and OVER the 60's
4
the crime rate was 150%. In The '80's
7015 the average yearly increase in
the average yearly increase loured to 30%
11
3
45%
NIDA
drugs dropped 10.8 million, or roughly 30%,
Pat Ross
between 1985 and 1991. Our National Drug
(301) 443-6637
Control Strategy helped cut overall drug use
ONDCP
MR. Schicter
by 13% and adolescent use by 27%.
467-9800
high priority
(budget wording
The Federal budget for environmental programs
Ren
Cosswell
more than doubled since we took office. And
x4586
we have proposed a 22% increase -- an added
$3.4 billion -- for 1993.
The U.S. currently spends more on pollution
Ron Cogswell
and protecting the environment
x4586
control than any other country in the world,
devoting at OVER least $115 billion annually, worth
N
2% of our GDP. That's why during the past two
EDIT: instead of
wit Fact 6/1/92
pl4
decades:
the passive
Sheet
"is down
on UNCED
Note: annual
--
Lead pollution is down 96%
"have cut "
Report Summit
lead emmissions
["emmission
might
are down 96% below
Carbon monoxide poisoning is down 41%
seem more
those of ONE decade ago
BUT STAT ALSO PPLIES FOR 70- 90 6Gorden Binder Chief EPA
active.
Godard Speech --
Water pollution {suspended solids}
6/1/92
staff)
is down 80%
["emmissions"]
-- Sulphur dioxide pollution
US Actions
for Environment a Better
{contributes to acid rain} is down
25%
"Targets Set BY
With the new Clean Air Act, which I promised
"
yes, if you
(one of his 3 First Prioritiesin in 1988 that we would achieve, we will cut acid
George Bush
mean
sulpher
dioxide
rain emissions in half, reduce smog in our
emmissions
US Actions
12
Better Environt
cities, and cut air toxic emissions by 75%.
ii.
He didn't
By pressing for and achieving the Americans
promise
with Disabilities Act, another promise from
specific
legislation,
1988, we will bring 43 million disabled "merinstreary"
only the
Shines
Sanchez
OPL
Americans into the economic mainstream.
of our
disabled
Together, our macroeconomic performance, our people,
and our Government has put the United States on a path
to be the export superpower that it must be to succeed
in the 21st Century:
confusing because
1st # is a LEVEL
not an INCREASE
622.1
X
pll
Dave Walters
With exports of $ 000 billion, the U.S. is
latest
EXPORTS
VSTR
draft
3583
world's largest exporting nation. One quar CUSTR]
July 92 Survey
of current
of that increase in exports has been
2nd Business, quanter accomplished during my Administration.
TEXPORTS HAVE
INCREASED DURING
TREAS URY SAYS
CONSTANT DOLLARS?
ADMIN. 40%
EXPORTS OF GOODS + SERVICES
35%
<'91 RATHER
IN NOMINAL DOLLARS FROM 188 2nd YM42
THAN 192 10.6%
THE
X
INCREASE
ANNUAL RATE)
Today U.S. exports amount to % of our IN
EXPORTS
MISLEADING BECAUSE IT
REPRESENTS
WAS 10.5 IN 80 +
country's output, up from 8.5% at the beginning OVER A
IN 1982.
QUARTER OF
10.6 IN '81
THE REAL TURNAROUND
of the 1980s.
TOTAL CURRENT
IN EXPORTS BEGAN IN '86
EXPORTS,
TROUGH AT 7.5%. YOU
COULD USE THAT FIGURE
All major categories of exports gained during
6R TAKE "AT THE
START OF MY ADMIN. my term. Exports of industrial supplies
IT WAS 9.1%
increased by 20%, 22 capital goods by 58%,
45
National
Incomet
36
78
TABLE 1.1, JULY '92 SURVEY OR
automotive by 37%, consumer goods by 99%, and
Product
CURRNT BUSINESS SHOWS
Accounts
CURRNT DOLLAR EXPORT
agriculture by 9.1%
July 92
OF GOODS of services
sarvy of
AT 622.1 BILLION
of cunnt
DOLLARS IN 2nd 1/4 '92
Business
CANNUAL RATE) COMPARON
TO 88 EXPORT OF Go s OF 444.2
% 40.0
13
U.S. export growth under my leadership has been
In Real Terms
roughly twice the rate of the other G-7 ma latest pu
89'90917
chaft
industrial countries.
IMF world Economic
[USTR]
MANUFACTURING
Outlook March 192
Dave
We produce 25% of the world's total output with
walters
USTR
5% of the world's population.
3583
(89
Beak in buz cycle
(22.6)
The most recently
avai lable data
RATE OF
CONSTANT
In 1990, manufacturing accounted for 23% of
11
DOLLAR
PRICE INFLATION
REAL OR CONSTANT ROLLAR
15 MUC H low on w
BASIS
U.S. GDP -- achigher SLIGHTLY percentage than in a decade 1980. earlier
MANUFAENRING
-AT OR CLOSE to A PAIC OF MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY
(179)
THE ARE USING NOMINAL DOLLARS
peakin
business
11
Manufacturing productivity rose during the
enge
(most
'80's with the best performance since World War
americans are concerned
about
were how producis, manycars how much II. medical equip, they clent care how the nices
are going up or down. Nominal reflects more pice fluctrations Real
reflects more volume.
The productivity of American workers is
This
GDP per person
26%
approximately
above those in Germany and is important
employed at
because
purchasing power
30
% above those in Japan.
rate of inflat.
parity exchange
rates in 1990 from
here is slower,
so it seems
LABOR (umpublished)
My purpose in making this status report islike smaller % a
definitely not to suggest either that all is well or that of 6DP)
we do not need to manage the changes taking place in the
Weire
world and at home more actively. We do.
dealy
There are, however, three important observations we
w/
can make based on this brief review of the record. One, a perception
we're in a strong position internationally, but we're that
itidectived,
that country
deindermalizing
AIRCRAFT UP 70%
It has dedined in
same areas. But daubled others
14
going to need the national adaptability and capability
to keep leading our competitors. Two, it is important
to honestly recognize what we have accomplished over the
past twelve years, so we can build on our strengths.
courage of our
Three, we must have the convictionsto say no to the wrong
FALSE PROMISES
sort of changes for the future -- changes based on false
premises and changes we cannot afford at this key moment
in the world economic competition.
III. The Challenge:
Given the changes that are taking place at home and
abroad, we face a world of great opportunity. There are
also still great risks if we fail to make the right
choices, if we fail to engage, or if we fail to do so
wisely. There is a disquiet in a number of countries
around the world. And people at home are anxious,
nervous about the future.
It is vital for our nation to demonstrate its unique
ability to transform anxiety, even anger, into
regeneration. Only the United States has the people, the
resources, the economic strength -- and especially the
principles and ideals -- to pick up the challenge.
For America to be secure and strong we must meet the
defining challenge of the '90s: to win the economic
competition -- to win the peace.
15
The United States must be a military superpower, an
economic superpower, and an export superpower.
Our approach to this future is to look forward --
to open new markets, prepare our people to compete, to
restore our social fabric -- to save and invest -- so we
can win. My opponent's vision is different. He talks
about change, but as he goes from group to group, seeking
to patch together their complaints about an America in
transition. In an effort to protect what must be subject
to change, he will burden us with a cost we cannot
afford.
IV. Guiding Principles:
Before outlining the specifics of my agenda, I will
set out four guiding principles. An effective strategy
must be dynamic. As new problems or opportunities
present themselves, we will need to make adjustments.
Guiding principles can ensure consistency of direction
and shape the nature of any supplementary actions.
First, start with the basics: I believe America is
composed of individuals, not special interests. The
individual gains primary strength and protection from his
or her family and community, not the legal system or
government social services. People find their friends
and their enjoyment in voluntary association with one
16
some
's paint by number dream.
another, not in^ ^ bureaucratic rules and government
programs reflecting some sociologist's conception of what
society is supposed to look like.
The individual, families, communities. That's where
we start.
Second, we have to keep to the fundamentals of sound
economic growth: lower tax rates, limits on Government
spending, greater competition, less economic regulation,
and more open trade that can unleash tremendous private
initiative and growth.
Third, in the '90s Government can build on these
fundamentals by offering opportunity and hope for
individuals, families, and communities. There is a
conservative agenda for helping people, for responding
to their needs. We want to empower people to make their
own choices, to break away from dependency. We want to
give individuals and families economic security by giving
them the means, the capabilities, and the confidence to
decide for themselves. We want everyone to have a stake
in society, to own property, so everyone will build
something with it for themselves and our country.
their??
Whereas our approach may place a premium on
redistribution and "leveling," our programs will unleash
initiative, reward success, and encourage excellence.
Our approach is to give people the power to work, save,
and be their best.
17
Finally, all our policies must be brought together
effectively if we are to prosper as a people and succeed
as a nation. America must have appropriate new
approaches for the changes at home -- just as we've
launched new policies to manage change abroad. We must
concentrate on the interrelationship between domestic and
foreign policy and between economic and security policy.
At the same time, we must execute our agenda more
effectively with a new Congress, state and local
governments, and the private sector. Our aim must be to
press our policies together, as a package, to make
America secure and strong.
V. A Strategic Trade Policy:
During the Cold War, we built a global security
structure to contain and counter the Soviet Union and
communist aggression.
We
forced
military alliances
across the Atlantic and Pacific that underpinned that
structure. In the post-Cold War era, we need a strategic
trade and economic policy that will ensure our position
as an economic and export superpower.
We are well positioned to achieve this goal. We
enjoy the largest fully integrated market in the world;
this gives us leverage with other countries that want
access to our market. Once the Congress enacts NAFTA,
18
our position will be further strengthened. NAFTA will
open important markets, particularly a Mexican economy
whose growth prospects will quickly transform its
expanding industries and consumers into excellent
American customers. Equally important, the integration
of United States, Mexican, and Canadian capabilities will
improve our global competitiveness by enabling American
firms to efficiently source stages of production with our
neighbors.
Our geopolitical position is also advantageous. The
Atlantic
United States is both a Pacific and a European power; our
political and security ties link us with the largest and
most rapidly growing economies across both oceans. Our
Dave watters
USTR
PAtlentic meaning
trans-Pacific trade already exceeds our Atlantic trade; 3583
Europe not
that's one reason why, in my first term, the United
including Africa
Jeyputs AND
States helped launch the Asia-Pacific Economic
imports
Cooperation group to further strengthen our economic ties
with that region. In addition, the countries in our own
hemisphere, from Central America to Chile, are looking
to strengthen their economic and trading ties with us as
they move away from autarkic economic policies and toward
free markets.
The spirit of freedom -- in Eastern Europe, the
former Soviet Union, and Latin America -- also offers us
a special opportunity. Free people and free markets
develop hand in hand. In these and other countries
THIS ASSERTION TS SLIGHTLY PROBLEMATIC
IN THAT IT APPEARS TD ENDORSE ONE
INDUSTRY'S VERSION OF EVENTS.
MPAA SAY'S ENTERTA INMENT is OUR
19
2ND LARGEST EXPORT BUSINESS THE
TOURISM INDUSTRY ASSERTS THE
SAME. THEIR ASSERTIONS ARE BASED 1 products, and
around the g
NOT ON OFFICIAL us STATS, BUT ON
INDUSTRY FIGURES NOT ANALYZED
ction.
These
the English
FORCOMPUSITION. WE CAN DO IT, IF
you LIKE, BUT BE AWARE THAT WE ARE
mented by the
political a
CHOOSING OUR FACTS TO FIT OUR
POSITION
e world. This
appeal of AI
Today, our MPAA
is a new
THEY
entertainment industry is the United States' second
ARE
THE
largest export business. CHECK
CULTURAL ELITE!
Dave Watters
-TOURISM POPS
Finally, as the primary founder and the most
USTR
3583
INTO MOST
PEOPLE'S MINDS
significant proponent of the GATT global trading system,
we continue to have special influence if we act in ways
that will truly open markets, including our own. The key
to America's growth, expansion, and innovation has always
been our openness to trade, investment, ideas, and
people.
Therefore, the next steps in my strategic trade
policy are to secure Congressional agreement to NAFTA and
to complete the global trade negotiations {the so called
Uruguay Round negotiations in GATT}. Our NAFTA agreement
will be excellent for American business, workers, and
consumers. Nevertheless, I expect a difficult fight in
the Congress in early 1993 because of those special
interests who band together with a protectionist purpose.
The global trade negotiations, in turn, could be very
close to a breakthrough if the United States continues
to act as a strong world leader. There is a proposed
draft text that establishes the outlines of a significant
20
new GATT agreement. Once we assure cuts in the
subsidized agricultural trade along the lines of that
text -- to enable our farmers to secure their competitive
advantage -- I believe we will be able to complete the
overall agreement.
An improved global trading system is, however, only
a base for further trade liberalization. We need to
start to develop a strategic network of FTAs across the
Atlantic and the Pacific and in our own hemisphere. This
network will stand in sharp contrast to the illogic of
economic blocs. If we are to be a true export
superpower, we cannot be tied down to one region.
Instead, my intent is to use our attractive domestic
market as the basis of a muscular trade policy for good ?
that will strengthen America's global economic reach as
a complemer : to our security presence.
More specifically, I will need to secure from the
Congress additional trade negotiating authority within
the first half of 1993. To overcome the special
interests and the protectionists, I will need a mandate
from the American people. If we are to be an export and
economic superpower, the President must take a strong
stand on the negotiation of trade agreements. The
Congress will presume vacillation as weakness, and the
national interest will lose out to the logrolling
21
tradeoffs of Congressional business as usual. That's one
very big issue at stake in this election.
With new negotiating authority, I would pursue new
trading opportunities in Latin America under my
Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, starting with
Chile. I would also like to work towards FTAs with
Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia by the end of my
second term. And I would explore the possibility of a
connection between NAFTA and the ASEAN FTA, or AFTA. It
will not take long for other countries to begin to
express their interest in new trade ties with us. For
example, leaders in Australia and Korea have already
spoken of their interest in forging closer economic ties.
As we are developing this economic and trading
structure for the 21st Century, I will vigorously
safeguard and promote American trading interests. For
example, I am committed to a sizable Export Enhancement
Program {EEP} to ensure that our farmers can go head-
to-head with the European Community subsidized
agricultural exports. That's why I recently announced
Bruce
Blanton
the largest quantity of wheat ever available under our AND AREAS
USDA
EEP program -- 30 million metric tons to 28 countries.
[29.1]
CUSTOMERS
I will ensure that our ExIm bank and the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), work with teams
of our ambassadors to develop trade and investment
22
X
BobCassidy
opportunities for U.S. firms. We've already begun this
USTR 3430
with the six X ASEAN countries. I will particularly stress
Jim Barg
Exec. UP
OPIC
helping America's small businesspeople to develop pan trading
703/938-6436
opportunities. If we are going to [orient ] our economy
towards exports and international economic competition,
we can't just rely on our larger businesses. I have
visited small factories all across the United States that
first survived and then prospered by orienting themselves
toward the new economic world. I know it can be done.
23
VI. Preparing Our Children
In the 21st Century our primary national resource will be
our people. Materials, machines, and methods will come and go,
but the American worker will remain the key to our economic
security. Since the workplace of the 21st Century will be
constantly changing, we need to prepare the American people to
adapt to and even lead the process of change. Therefore, our
kids must arrive at school ready to grow, and they need schools
where they will learn how to keep learning all their lives.
Our New American Schools will help preparé our children to
become the useful citizens of tomorrow. Equally important, we
want to enhance children's sense of self-worth, their confidence,
their sense of participation in a larger community and society.
This is an example of what I mean when I talk about a
conservative philosophy of empowerment, helping people to help
themselves.
Given my respect for all human life, I want to do my best to
language 4 per help all children morethan come into funding the world X x as truly "created equal."
Budget p.1-71
That's why x I am doubling spending for a Healthy Start initiative
H
that targets communities X with high infant mortality rates. We
are also X increasing prenatal X care, nutrition services and
substance abuse X treatment for pregnant women. Check. And I also
want volunteers and families to get out the word that the
behavior of parents is probably the most important contribution
to infant health.
24
language per Budget p.1-72 We need especially to focus on the preschool years, so that
A to 360% children coming to school are healthy and curious. Funding for
Administrator, Betty Jo Nelsen,
Nutrition Assistance
Food
the Women, Infants and (727mil.) Children (2.6bil) supp emental food program (WIC)
Nutrition
service
I
has grown 3478 257.6% between 1980 and 1992; my request for an
DoAg
703-
additional $240 million for 1993 brings the annual cost to $2.8
305-
2062
billion.
I have X also increased funding for the Head stet Start program by
78% 127% for a total of $2.2 2.8 billion in X 1992. For 1993, I have
x
1993
see other
side
proposed an additional $600 million increase -- an unprecedented
J
27% jump in one year -- so that a year of Head Start will be
available for every eligible four-year old whose parents want to
participate. (Under my budget, FY1993 almost 800,000 children will
receive a year of Head Start before entering elementary school.)
Child immunizations are also X vital to safeguard kids'
>ok per Hanns
Kuttner, OPD
health. Every year since 1981-82, X 95% or more of the children
X
entering elementary school x have been immunized against each of
K
the vaccine-preventable diseases. NOW we are focusing greater
attention on preschool children. My 1993 budget calls for an 18%
Language A per increase in child X immunization grants.
Federal support for X activities.
Budget P. 1-70
I want the United States to offer opportunity and encourage
excellence; we must be fully capable of competing in a global
economy. Therefore, it is imperative that our educational system
prepare and point the way for our children. As in the past,
education should be the ladder that the child of modest means can
climb to better him or herself.
Our current school system is not meeting these needs. Our
educational establishment is caught in a sort of time warp, a
The 127% increase applies only when
including the additional $600 m increase.
If we go from 1989 (1.235b) to 1992(2,2b)
it is only a 78% increase. you need the
full 2.8 to make it 127%
Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
(George Bush Library)
Document No.
Subject/Title of Document
Date
Restriction
Class.
and Type
01. Draft
Re: "Agenda for American Renewal"; redaction of telephone
n.d.
P-6, (b)(6)
number. (1 pp.)
Collection:
Record Group:
Bush Presidential Records
Office:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File, Backup
Subseries:
WHORM Cat.:
File Location:
Agenda for American Renewal Detroit Economic Club 9/10/92 [1]
Date Closed:
12/4/2004
OA/ID Number:
07580
FOIA/SYS Case #:
Re-review Case #:
2004-2265-S
P-2/P-5 Review Case #:
MR Case #:
Appeal Case #:
MR Disposition:
Appeal Disposition:
Disposition Date:
Disposition Date:
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P-1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
(b)(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P-2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
(b)(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an
P-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
(b)(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
(b)(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P-5 Release would disclose confidential advise between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
(b)(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
(b)(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of
(b)(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
(b)(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
25
system created for another age when the needs were different,
children grew up differently, and adults rarely changed jobs.
STAT
ALREADY
Remarks annomy
Money alone is not the answer -- the United States already
USED
G1 Bill for Children
ON P.Q
6.25.92
spends more per pupil than any other country but Switzerland; 41
L
Rae Nelson
funding for the Education Department has increased 42% over my
7777
9
956
32.339 term. The answer is a radical overhaul of our educational
DORT
illion
billion
system. If we want to change our country, we've got to change
our schools.
first step X is to establish world-class standards for our
X
and secondary schools. We are moving ahead with the
3
development X of these standards in math, science, English,
history, geography, arts, and civics.
OK per perelson,977 Rae
and
Second, we need to use voluntary X national achievement tests
to measure the progress of our students. That way we can compare
the performance X X of different schools in helping our children
achieve the national standards.
Third, we need to give schools the flexibility to become
educational entrepreneurs -- to figure out the best ways to
motivate our children, use technology, bring parents in, and
involve new types of teachers. We will create "Education
Enterprise Zones." There is no particular reason why THREE schools have
X
resson Elliott,
to end at 3 p.m. so that students can watch TV for five
usidential
Appointer to
hours a day. We need to free school administrators and teachers
me Natural
Center for Education from rules, regulations, and reports that have become a poor
Statistics.
R6,(6)(6)
substitute for student achievement; we can do away with tht red
THE AVERAGE #
OF tape once we institute a new testing system that evaluates
tours of TV WATCHED
3y
STUDENTS 153. schools on the basis of their performance, not their bureaucracy.
HOWEVER, HIGH STATS ARE
- 23% OF 9-YR-OLDS WATCH 6 OR MORE HOURS OF N.
"
- 17% or 17-YR-OLDS
ANOTHER STAT: CHILDREN SPEND ONLY 9% OF THER
THE IN SCHOOL SEE FILE, LEWISTON SPEECH
Finally, we must give all parents the means and freedom to
choose which schools will serve their children the best. This
component is critical to the success of the whole, integrated
overhaul of our educational system. Competition, the underlying
principle for this radical reform, will not work unless we give
consumers the ability to choose.
Wealthy families already have this choice for their
children. Many of the people that you saw at the Democratic
National Convention have this choice for their children. Why
shouldn't you have this choice for your children?
One of the greatest educational innovations in this country
was the passage of the GI Bill after World War II. No one told
my generation that a vet couldn't go to Notre Dame or Brigham
Young or Baylor or Howard or Yeshiva.
So I want a "GI Bill for Children" to help give lower and
anguage A per BQ92
issues office
middle income families the means to select any school: public,
factsheet.
0
private, or religious. I also want scholarships available to Rac be
school vacation
spent on after-school, Saturday and summer academic programs. Nelson/
We've already made significant progress in starting this JaneB
radical reform agenda. Some 44 states, and over 1400
1700
# Asfrom
LisaBarnes,
Amzooo
communities, have already endorsed adopted my new national education
tracking
P
REVERSE
401-3000
America America2000. 2000.
Check. Indeed, this progress offers a good example of
TO END
strategy
ON A
POSITIVE
NOTE
my commitment to pursue my agenda whether or not Congress
dawdles. I will work with governors, state legislators,
community officials, and the private sector if Congress balks.
I hope the new Congress will not remain subservient to the
educational establishment and special interests that want to
resist this revolution. Because a new system of education in
this country is probably the most important ingredient in making
America the winning economic and export superpower in the post-
cold war era.
This must not only be my agenda, but yours, too. I will
fight to give parents in America the right to choose the school
your children will attend, but when you return from work, turn
off the television, help your son or daughter with homework if
you can, support your child's teacher who's trying to enforce
discipline, join your local PTA, and support your children's
schools.
I put the family at the center of our society. I believe
that parents are best able to make decisions about their
children, that federal policies should support parents, that we
should increase the range of choices available to parents, and
that government assistance should be targeted to those families
most in need.
The other side may talk about similar problems, but they are
approaching them with a fundamentally different ideology. You
can see the contrast not only in education, but in health care or
in the debate that took place over my Child Care proposal, which
we enacted into law. The opposition prefers uniformity to
variety and choice. Because they place a higher value on
"leveling" society, they will tend to rely on government
bureaucracies to offer "standard service." My approach to
education, child care, health care, and other topics is to rely
20
on a diverse private sector to supply the service and to empower
families to make their own choices.
VII. Sharpening Our Competitive Edge
Our ultimate success as an economic superpower is dependent
on the performance of our private businesses. In addition to
getting the fundamentals right my agenda focuses on three areas
where we can sharpen America's competitive
edge:
-- strengthening small business;
-- supporting civilian R&D linked to a research extension
network; and
-- reforming our costly legal system.
A. strengthening Small Business
Small business is the backbone of a growing economy. small
businesses employ more than half the American workforce; they
account for 39 percent of our GNP. Small business creates two-
BQISSUES
Book
thirds of our new jobs.
I am seeking to aid small businesses by reducing costly tax
SBAthat's
and Freene regulatory burdens, increasing access to credit, and removing
reynall
barriers to competition.
But helped
Some of my tax proposals will help businesses of all sizes:
On: Asphalt
cutting the capital gains tax; creating enterprise zones in
inner-city and rural areas; making the R&D tax credit permanent;
OSHA
and increasing the first-year depreciation allowance for property
PROVIDING AN DDITIONAL
Betsey
Anderson
OPL
purchases.
Tax Auspification
29
tax proposals are designed specifically to help small
has ablished proposed
Betsey OPL Anderson businesses. The IRS is developing regulations to allow small
businesses to deposit payroll taxes on a monthly SOL basis. And it
May 12
Fact sheet
has released a ruling allowing over 16 million small proprietors
on the Administration to deduct tax preparation fees as a business expense rather than
program for
reduce mg tax
as a limited itemized deduction.
compliance
burdens for small
I want to build on these actions. For example, we are
working on a Single Wage Reporting System that would permit
Betsy
businesses to report state and federal wage information through a
Anderson
OPL
single entity, thereby consolidating tax reporting requirements
and reducing the burden.
(Possible insert of new Treasury tax proposals.)
On the regulatory front, I have extended for one year the
freeze on paperwork and unnecessary federal regulation that I
imposed last winter; the federal regulatory load hits small
businesses particularly hard. I have also instructed federal
agencies to look for ways to modify existing regulations that
impose a special economic burden on small business. For example,
11
to increase access to capital for small businesses, the SEC has
announced proposals to reduce and in some cases eliminate the
public disclosure requirement for small companies issuing stock.
Since small businesses are particularly vulnerable when
credit is tight, we have to help them AUTHORIZED as our financial system is
Enrolled Bill Statement
restructuring. That's why we have provided over $6 billion in
HRY111
general business loan guarantees through SBA in 1992 -- an.
increase of more than 50% above 1991.
30
all SBA- find ant whatitis: become a model ? PROGRAM IT'S ONLY A
PILOT
SERVICING
SBA's New England Lending and Recovery Project extends
THE
NEW
credit to viable small firms when access is limited x because x banks
ENGLAND
AREA
are having difficulty. X We also have worked x with bank regulators
to base real estate values X on income earning potential rather
BO
FACT
SHEET
than liquidation value. We have taken steps to restructure x the
small businesses X investment program, the only venture capital
program in the government. And we are developing ways to offer
X
special financing to exporting entrepreneurs. X
X
Through its X procurement assistance program, X SBA helped small
BUSH
X
RECORD
businesses X secure federal contacts worth over $35 billion in FY
90 -- almost 20% of all prime contracts let during that year.
To ensure that small businesses can help their communities
REQUESTED
1.55 BILLION
overcome disasters, we will be providing approximately million
X
dollars in low-interest loans to X small businesses in Florida,
AND
Louisans, California, and elsewhere.
INAIVIDUALS
But the
HAVE ALREADY
beggest reform. is short
Finally, we need to help small business by removing burdens PROVIDED 150
MILLION
to competition. My health care reforms would reduce costs for
DIN ADDITION
TO TITIS
term health care
small businesses without costly government mandates or higher REQUESTING HE is
taxes; enactment of my legislation to establish uniform federal/ ADDITIONAL
law on product liability would relieve a major burden on small 55 BILLION
00
businesses.
B. Supporting Civilian R&D
To be the world's economic leader tomorrow, we clearly have
to invest in R&D and new technologies today. Given the pace of
change, our task is both to come up with new inventions and to
organize ourselves more effectively to develop and deploy new
technology.
(N
Our industries are in the process of transforming themselves
from the old-style hierarchical organization to so-called
"flattened" structures. This new industrial organization
emphasizes a skills-based workplace, "lean production," and short
product cycles rather than mass production. The change is
Henry Model Ford Tin introduced 1908 comparable to the one we made when Henry Ford led the country
from craft-based production to mass manufacturing in the early
20th Century.
These changes have three major implications for technology
development. First, the more rapid product development cycle
places a premium on bringing an idea quickly from the lab to the
marketplace. We need to integrate R&D, manufacturing, and
marketing into a seamless process of innovation. Second, we need
vits invented by
Japanese in 1975;
VCR invented by to put new technologies to work in all applications in OF order SCIENCE to
PAT WHITE, OFFICE TECHNOLOGY
according to the reap the full competitive and TECHNOLOGY economic benefits from our R&D.
Japanese in 1969,
'92 Almanact a
Nexis search While Americans invented the VCR and FAX machine, we did not
Possible alternative:
"the camera, the always benefit from their fullest use. Third, we need to rely
microchip computer +the
increasingly on flexible, agile manufacturing, rather than old
fax...'
-unti 7015 style mass production. We should have the capability to make a
we dominated The
camera we face strong variety of products quickly and economically -- a process
market.
competition in characterized by short product cycles, but also high quality
the market. computer
output.
Taken together, these developments emphasize
decentralization -- an approach exactly opposite to our
opponents' "national industrial policies" led by government
bureaucrats and university think tanks. We need to get
32
technology development, production and marketing closer to the
consumer, not further away.
My agenda will support our adaptation to these changes by
increasing funding for basic research and complementing that work
Bob OMB Grady with a focus on applied research and development. Despite cuts
X 4742
by Congress, we have managed to increase X funding for basic
E
research by 25 percent since X 1989. We are supporting applied R&D
Budget
through a series of new, high pay-off X investments X in critical technologies. ^
Fr93
Pages
-- X a new High Performance Computing and Communications X
1-88 to
initiative that will assist enable the development of a thousand-fold X
by 1996-
X
WE HAVE
116
increase in computing capability and a one hundred-fold increase TARGETED NOT
THIS
in X communications speed by 1996.
DATE.
-- an initiative to improve the manufacturing and
performance of materials -- improvements that will enable
advances in a wide range of other technologies.
-- an expanded program in biotechnology research with
applications in health, agriculture, and environmental
protection.
-- the establishment of the U.S. Advanced Battery
consortium, a jointly-funded four year effort to develop an
advanced battery for an emissions-free electric car.
-- a significant increase in our aeronautics research
budget, underscoring the importance we place on the U.S.
aeronautics industry in an increasingly competitive global market
place.
33
-- the establishment of five seven regional manufacturing
Bob Grady
p.115 P. 115
technology centers for the distribution of modern manufacturing
-
Kanneth
and
tools, such as computer-aided design, numerically controlled
d
machines, an robotics.
OMB x4892
These efforts to develop and apply new technologies need to
be complemented by the identification and removal of barriers to
the private sector's ability to bring new products and services
Office of to the market. That's why my regulatory reform while efforts protecting -- to health and
Vice President
safety,
Bill Burrow subject regulations to a competitiveness analysis to lift the
X6222
dead weight of our legal system through major reform, to sunset
regulations -- are Clinton critical has proposed to supporting That government our imrest enhanced im a national technology information
classroom, and every comp any, and every home by the year 2015." Tell
network to link every limary and every laboratory, and every
development.
Just take one example: my opponent has proposed a major new says this
is also in
federal government investment in the field of national
his economic
plan.
telecommunications networks at the exact time that the private X
JAMES
sector is seeking to develop such a network on its own, but has
GATTUSO
oup
been stopped from doing so by federal regulations. (Get the
x1649
facts.) SEE BACK
C. Reforming Our Legal system
Our competitive edge will be dulled if businesses are
handicapped by a legal system that serves lawyers but frightens
people. Therefore, another component of my agenda is a reform of
the American civil justice system.
John
Howard
America has experienced a civil litigation ALMOST explosion. Over
OUP
the X past 30 years, federal lawsuits have tripled. Instead of
being fast, fair, and affordable, our civil justice system is
slow, expensive, and putting us at a global disadvantage.
WHEN ATTT WAS BROKEN UP INTO BELL COMPANIES,
THREE RESTRICTIONS WERE PLACED ON IT:
/
THEY CAN'T ENGAGE INTHE MANUFACTURE OF TELEPHONE
EQUIPMENT. CONGRESS HAS NOT OVERTURNED THAT REG.
ALTHOUGH THERE is A BILL PENDING. WE'VE BEEN
PUSHING FOR THE REPEAL,
2
THEY CAN'T ENGAGE IN INFORMATION SERVICES (e.g. ON LINE
STOCK QUOTES, HOME SHOPPING) WE PUSHED FOR THAT REPEAL
AND THE COURTS FINALLY OVERTURNED THAT CAW LAST
SUMMER. CONGRESS 15 TRYING TO PUT IT BACK INTO THE STATUTE
3
BELL COMPANIES CANNOT ENGAGE IN LONG DISTANCE BUSINESS.
NEITHER CONORESS NDR THE ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN
PUSHING FOR THAT REPEAL.
SEPARATE FROM THOSE THREE RESTRICTIONS is ANOTHER
LAW, BARRING THE BELL COMPANIES FROM PROJIDING
CABLE SERVICES. WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REPEAL THIS,
THIS IS THE BIGGEST REGULATORY BARRIER TO A
PRIVATE INFORMATION NETWORK: ONLY CABLE COULD
PROVIDE THEM WITH THE BASE OF REVENUES THEY
WDU LD NEED TO BUILD THE FIBER NETWORK,
34
Long delays in dispute resolution waste valuable judicial
resources, force early settlement by those who cannot afford to
wait, discourage those who have meritorious suits, and encourage
frivolous suits by those who hope to leverage unjust settlements. [Dinect
John
Experts estimate that the drain on.our economy from civil cost
alone is
Howard litigation may total 300 billion dollars annually. High punitive at estimated 200
OVP
damage awards are passed on to consumers through higher prices,
billin
job cuts, higher insurance, and reduced product innovation.
This hurts our international competitiveness. other nations
ROUGHLY 6%
do not face high domestic litigation costs. Foreign companies
only need 2=5% of the product liability insurance our firms must
ONE
OF THE
carry because we do not have uniform state standards for product
REASONS
liability and punitive damages.
My product liability reform legislation will deal with the
following problems: wide variation among states' product
liability rules; important products being kept off the market;
excessive litigation costs with more money going to lawyers than
to injured consumers; excessive insurance rates; and excessive
consumer costs and, in some cases, less safety. 14
My "Access to the Justice Act of 199211 is intended to
restore fairness and efficiency to the nation's civil justice
system through: alternatives to federal civil trials such as
alternative dispute resolution; incentives to prelitigation
settlement, including precomplaint notification; and a "loser
pays" rule requiring the loser to pay the winner's legal fees in
suits involving federal diversity jurisdiction.
35
We also need to continue our work with the states to
encourage fundamental change at the state and local level.
Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are a powerful vested
interest in our society. They are well represented in Congress
and high on the lists of political contributors. But this is a
problem too important to leave to the lawyers and their friends
in high places.
VIII. Economic Security for Working People
In addition to preparing Americans for the 21st Century
workplace and ensuring that our businesses sharpen their
competitive edge, my plan offers economic security for working
men and women.
We can only achieve this security by developing capability,
not dependency. We can supply security through the private
sector, not government bureaucracies.
It will be government's role to expedite the adjustment,
provide people the means to work and take care of their families,
and arm people to face the future by empowering them to make
their own choices.
A. Job Training
Given the rapidity of change in the international and
domestic marketplace, we have to prepare people for the prospect
of changing jobs and learning new skills many times throughout
the course of a productive life. Therefore, we need a range of
job training and placement services -- for young people, factory
workers, white collar employees, and particularly during this
period, defense industry workers.
That's why one important portion of my recently-announced
workforce adjustment initiative is designed to shift the
government away from the old narrowly defined, expensive, and
less effective trade adjustment assistance that paid people off
without giving them real help to get back the work.
The three key of my proposal are: (1) universal coverage, so
all dislocated workers will have access to basic transition
assistance and training support; (2) skill X grant vouchers of up
Fact Sheet:
Worker
to $3000 to help meet the costs of adding new skills and
Adjustment
Initiative
training; and (3) a tripling of the resources currently devoted
to SK ill training and worker adjustment, an allocation of $9.10
billion over five years.
This proposal builds on my January plan to streamline the
federal job training system through "one-stop shopping" in every
community. Experience has demonstrated that the most effective
Tom
training and placement services are those closely developed with Seully
local employers through private industry councils. That way the
training is designed to develop skills that employers know they
will need.
My expanded job training efforts will also be specially
designed to help those who may need to change jobs or careers as
a result of NAFTA or other trade agreements and the downsizing of
our defense-related industries. But we will ensure that we offer
training and placement to all workers: those who have lost their
jobs, have been notified that their jobs are being terminated, or
have been employed in industries experiencing significant changes
and workforce adjustments and who fear job loss in the future.
These dislocated workers would be eligible to receive three
types of assistance: (1) transition-assistance that -includes
Fact Sheet:
worker
adjustment skills assessment, counseling, job-search X assistance, X and job
initiative
referral; X (2) training X assistance in the form of skill grants;
X
and (3) transition income X support where necessary for workers
is
x
X
completing retraining.
I've also proposed a specially-targeted Youth Skills
Initiative.
X
x
X
X
X
X
A new Youth Training Corps will provide economically and
Y
X
X
socially disadvantaged X young people with intensive vocational
X
X
Youth
training through 55 residential YTC centers nationwide; these
X
Skills
Initiative
centers will be located primarily in rural areas and will X seek to
is
A
Fact Sheet
utilize converted defense facilities. The YTC will draw from the
&
military's high level of leadership and training expertise, by
x
giving a hiring preference to individuals leaving our armed
forces.
X
x
X
X
x
X
X
I will also complement the YTC with a "Treat and Train"
Ditto
X
x
Y
X
X
X
program to X strengthen existing youth drug training programs.
To help meet the needs of young people not planning to go on
to college, I also will expand the National Youth Apprenticeship x
X
x
x
Ditto
Program that X I began in January. This program offers high school
X
X
x
juniors X and seniors a combination of classroom instruction and a
X
Y
y
x
structured, paid, work-experience program. I want student
apprentices to receive both a high school diploma and a widely-
recognized certificate of skill competency. Students will also
have the opportunity to continue training at the post-secondary
level.
x
x
X
X
{
X
is
&
I started my Apprenticeship Program as a demonstration
tto
X
X
X
X
program in 6 states; in my second term, I will expand it to all
X
50.
x
X
x
X
X
X
X
X
Y
x
TOM
Finally, I will more than double the size of X the present
X
Y
X
X
JROTC program, X a very X successful and popular partnership between
X
SCULLY
39
the military and schools. JROTC emphasizes self-discipline,
youth
Skills
values, citizenship, personal responsibility, and staying in
Initiative
school -- it's a first class alternative to drugs and gangs. My
Fact-Sheet
goal is to establish 2,900 JROTC units by 1994. Initially, we
will expand this program in inner-city high schools, but I want
to make JROTC available to every high school across the country
that requests it. This program is another way in which we can
relate the successful experience of America's veterans to the
next generation.
spacet tab
B.
Affordable Health Care for All Americans With the rapidly
rising costs of health care, the economic security of men and
women requires a major reform of the U.S. health care system.
The present system provides high quality, high-tech X medicine, X but
X
Hans
at an unacceptable price: spending has increased at a rate two to
Kuttner
OPD
three X times the rest of the economy; thirty-four million white Paper :34.7
X
6563
Americans have no health insurance; and millions more are afraid
to change jobs for fear of losing their health insurance.
My program will build on the strengths of the system
consumer choice, innovation, and state of the art medicine while
controlling costs and expanding access.
x
X
I want to X guarantee access to health insurance for all poor and
moderate
10w-
families through tax credits sufficient to pay for a basic health income
insurance plan ($3,750 for a family). Other low and middle
White
income families X would get tax relief to partially offset the cost Paper
of their health insurance. In X total, X some NINETY seventy FIVE million White Paper
Americans will benefit.
My program also includes:
40
X
X
-- provisions that encourage small businesses to develop
issues
less costly health care insurance networks for their
employees by combining resources to achieve broader risk
sharing, economies of scale, and purchasing power;
-- "job lock" X protection for employees and their families so BQ issues
that they will not lose coverage if and when a person
changes jobs; -- guaranteed insurability so that people with white Paper
"pre-existing" illnesses cannot be denied a job or health
coverage on the job;
-- 100% X tax X deductibility of health care X premiums paid by
X
X
the self-employed, as compared to the present 25%
deductibility;
-- malpractice X reforms that will reduce the number of
unnecessary procedures performed on patients and thereby
reduce X the cost of medical care; and
X
X
white Paper says
reforms to encourage widespread use of electronic billing
costs are 43 bill./yr
10.75
now reforms
v
could reduce those to sale an estimated $2 billion a year in paper costs.
costs by more 25% than Taken together, my X program would cut health care costs by
Hans
X
Kuttner $394 X billion X over five years through preventive care, reducing
X
x6563
defensive medicine, malpractice reform, encouraging enrollment in
Gail
X
Wilensky
cost-effective health plans, arming consumers with information
6406
about cost and quality, and eliminating administrative waste and
unnecessary paperwork.
I believe we can provide access to affordable health care
for all Americans, while perserving choice for patients and their
families in selecting doctors, hospitals, health care programs,
X
Hans
and employment.
Medical services now represent approximately 13%
Kuttner
WOULD A NATIONAL HEALTH
INSURANCE TURN 13010 OF
41
OUR GNP OR GDP OVER TO
X
THE GOVERNMENT
of our GNP (check)
So it is vital that we rely on enhanced
HANS KUHNER OPD
competition and market forces to reform our health care system -
-- not national health insurance that would turn over 10% of our
economy to Uncle Sam X or a "play or pay" approach that will burden
employers with massive new costs or taxes for every employee they
wish to hire.
(Perhaps add brief insert on pension portability or savings
plans; contrast with BC's idea of "investing" pension funds in
his spending programs.)
IX. Involving Everyone
For over 200 years, the most exceptional aspect of American
society has been the belief, the hope, that this is a land where
people can make a better life for themselves and their children.
It's this spirit, the commitment to the American Dream, that has
made our country and our society the most dynamic in the world.
If we are going to use that energy to drive us forward into the
21st Century, we will need to tap the aspirations of each and every
one of our citizens. No one should be left behind for want of
opportunity.
Many of the programs that I have discussed above -- health
care for all Americans, child care, anew competitive school system
based on choice for all American families -- support my overall
plan to empower all Americans to make their own choices and better
their lives. But I believe we need to do more for certain citizens
that have fallen too far behind.
42
My philosophy for enabling all Americans to have a piece of
the American Dream is simple: it's based on property and work. So
our urban and welfare programs must be designed to enable people
to break the cycle of poverty, get back on their feet, get back to
work, and take responsibility for their own choices and their own
lives.
My ideas are in direct conflict with the logic of "welfare
rights" that emphasizes entitlements. Nor will I support "income
maintenance" strategies that assume the problem of poverty is
simply a lack of income that can be made up by government.
Our goal should be to help people develop the "human capital" x
X
X
X
X
X
that enables them to become self-sufficient. We have made a start
X
X
fail
down X this path with X our X implementation of the welfare-to-work logic
Wilensky
x6406
of X the Family Support X Act of 1988. We have been encouraging
X
X
flexible and innovative implementation through waivers that enable
states to develop new programs to enhance parental and family
responsibility.
In our inner cities, we need to restore hope by clearing away
the handicap of crime, building a core of property owners, creating
business incentives, and focusing our programs on work and
discipline.
Enterprise zones can create solid economic foundations in
distressed communities. Our "Weed and Seed" effort can help
reclaim and revitalize impoverished and embattled communities by
eliminating the fear of drug and violence, targeting coordinated
human services programs, and improving the housing stock and
infrastructure.
43
We also need to extend opportunity by enabling lower income
families to build assets -- for example, by allowing aid recipients
to accumulate higher savings without losing their eligibility.
And we need to expand homeowner opportunities to lower and
middle income families. For example, HOPE grants enable more
HUD
inner-city people to own their own homes. Our $5,000 tax credit
Rob KellneR
708-0120 for X first-time home buyers would help; so would permitting voucher
recipients to apply their rental subsidies toward the purchase of
a home.
We can enhance the choice, quality, and availability of
HUD
housing through affordable rent subsidies in in the form of housing x
Rob Kellner vouchers, and through our "Perestroika Public Housing" program that
708-0120
widens opportunities for X public housing tenants to change the
X
management of X troubled projects.
This property and work-based approach need not be more
during the Reagan-Bush years
expensive than the traditional welfare bureaucracy. For example,
low-income housing assistance doubled even after of inflation--
federal spending for assisted housing has already increased 138%
Rob HUD Kellner from 9.1 billion in 1980 to 18.3 billionthis year, as measured in 1992 dollars. This year
to $15 billion during the 1980's. In 1990 HUD provided housing
is
708-0120
assistance to 4.4 million low-income families, up from 3.1 million
in 1980. I have pressed to switch some of this funding to vouchers
because they are more cost effective than constructing new public
5 years or more
HUD
housing units. Furthermore, families wouldn't have to wait seven
708-0120 years X for X the units X to be built, and the vouchers give families
Rob KelineR
X
X
X
more choice.
X.
Keeping Government Slim
44
My blueprint envisages an important government role to make
a secure and strong America. But it is also important that
government not siphon off more private resources than is absolutely
necessary to perform the functions that would help us win the
economic competition. Because an overweight government
-- one that serves the special interests instead of America'
interest -- will handicap our country in the race of a new era.
A number of the items on my agenda can be accomplished by
redirecting current funding away from bureaucracies and towards
people. My plan wants to empower people with the means to work,
own property, raise their families, and be effective participants
in the private market economy. Some of my ideas -- for example,
legal and health care reforms -- should help us save money.
Contrary to the assertions of some politicians and special X X
X
interest groups, spending as a percentage of the nation's GDP has
Ant
gone X up, not down. In 1991, the Federal government X spent X 23.5% X of
X
Steigle
X
what X our nation produced That compares with 17.6% in 1965, 19.9%
OMB
in X 1970, 22.0% in 1975, and 22.3% in 1980. So not only has
x
government grown as the economy has grown, but government is taking
a bigger share. The American people are not taxed too little. The
/
American government spends too much.
In my acceptance speech I noted some of the efforts I will
make to hold down spending. Some said they wanted to see more
X
whoever
numbers. Well here are some figures for you. I have proposed Ant
said
X
Strigile
That
capping growth on mandatory spending, other than social security.
should
Y
That X would still permit spending at present levels plus an
be shot.
adjustment for inflation and population growth. Yet this cap would
save X $294 billion over five years.
OVER
72
BARRY
To start to implement this cap, I have proposed almost $70
ANDERSON
OMB
billion in specific spending cuts for "mandatory" programs (FY93-
4634
97).
If you add these proposed cuts to others I have previously
called for but X which Congress has not yet enacted, my specific cuts
would total about $132 billion over five years.
I have also Ant
RGD
proposed the outright elimination of 246 specific need discretionary to check fax
ulBany
programs.
By way of comparison, my opponent has specifically proposed
JEREMY DavidTell SHANEless X than $5 billion in cuts in mandatory programs. And he has
Mack
specifically proposed to eliminate only one program -- the honeybee
AND CUT DEFENSE
LaFollet BQ2 Issue subsidy X program, which Senator X Gore voted to retain. 40CCASIONS
X
SPENDING
DOMESTE DISCRETIONARY
will fruze domestic Furthermore, I proposed to freeze all other spending, and
I
discreting will cut defense spending will enforce this freeze by vetoing any bill Congress sends me that
discretion
spends more than I asked for in my budget.
speas
I've also asked Congress for the line item X veto, a
disciplinary tool utilized effectively by the governors of 43
states. This veto authority is important not only to help cut
48
spending, but to increase my leverage with a Congress that seeks
to tax more and spend more.
I also believe that government can slim down the costs of its
administrative operations. So I X will cut the operating budget of
X
X
X
Zoellic the Executive Office of the President by 33% if Congress agrees to
subject itself to a cut of the same size. With fewer Congressional
staffers badgering the Executive Branch, I know we can cut costs
by that amount. Moreover, I propose a freeze in the operating
budgets of all federal government agencies.
46
Some people will complain. But the American people know that
any good business and many families could tighten their
belts if they had to by spending no more next year than they spent
this year. It's time for the government to tighten its belt.
I also believe government should be subject to the discipline
of a balanced budget amendment. State governments operate that
way. Businesses operate that way. Families operate that way. And
given the breakdown of congressional discipline, we need an
amendment to ensure that the Federal government operates that way
If we had had such an amendment earlier, we wouldn't be paying
almost $200 billion dollars a year X on interest for the debt left
X
X
X
BARRY
ANDERSON
BUDGET
us X by earlier Congresses. IN FUTURE TENSE: MORO THAN 200 BILLION
ADVISOR
OMB
x4630
I also believe taxpayers should have the right to check X off
10% of their tax payments to reduce debt and spending. If all
taxpayers X took the full 10%, the cut would be about $50 billion.
X
X
That's only 3% of the Federal budget of about 1.5 trillion. Since
11
federal spending has been growing at a ráte of about 8% per
year, even this proposed cut would still enable spending to grow;
it would just grow more slowly.
Some editorialists slight my checkoff proposal, but it can
trace its roots to a venerable tradition in American history.
At the turn of this century, many people were concerned that the
government establishment was slipping away from the people it is
supposed to serve. This movement led to a number of innovations
such as referenda, the right of recall, and the direct election of
senators. At the time each of these was proposed, the conventional
thinkers mocked the changes. Given the breakdown in spending
47
discipline in Congress, it's time that we insist on compensating
reforms that give people a bigger say in the direction of Federal
government spending.
I also am committed to reducing the tax burden on the American
people. I have said that I will propose to further reduce taxes
across-the-board, provided we pay for those cuts with specific
spending reductions that I consider appropriate, so that we do not
increase the deficit.
sel
pus
To give you a sense of what tax cuts we could achieve if we
enforce discipline spending, just consider the tax cuts X we could
mandatusents make if Congress acted on the $180 billion in specific spending
2
X
X
x
726
50
defense
reductions that I have already proposed. These savings alone could
finance X an across-the-board X rate cut of 1 percent, and reduction
X
of the small business tax X rate from 15% to 10%, and an increase in HOW much
RGD
small business expensing of investment in equipment and a
reduction X of the capital gains tax.
X
How much of Cha. increase
In sum, my direction is clear -- I want to spend less and tax
less. My opponent wants to spend more and tax more.
I
X
X
X
believe the federal government can reallocate its almost $1.5
Bany
Anderson
trillion in spending more efféctively if we X implement my agenda.
OMB r4634
Certainly reductions in defense spending will provide some of these
funds.
I honestly believe that this is the only way to get the size
and spending of government under control. For I have seen too many
times that efforts to close the deficit by increasing taxes have
only turned out to give Congress a license to spend more money.
NOTE: USE 179-180 TOTAL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS OF $55.2 MILLION VERSUS 89-90 TOTAL OF
$159.
PAC 3 MILLION. CONTRIBUTIONS ARE COUNTED IN ELECTION CYCLES leg. 89-90 nather than simply 90)
48
1
SINCE THE POINT IS TO SHOW AN EXPLOSION IN PAC CONTRIBUTIONS, WE WOULD BE BEING
2
UNFAIR TO DE VERY POINT WE ARE TRYING TO MAKE IF WE INSIST ON 192 CONTRIBUTIONS
OR EVEN '91-92 CONTRIBUTIONS. THE REASON 15 THAT THE LATEST CONTRIBUTIO N ACCOUNTING
FRED
XI.
A Strategy for Implementation WILL BE AS OF JULY IST 192 AND THERE
EILAND,FEC
ARE MANY MORE CONTRIBUTIONS TO COME SINCE WE ARE STILL INTHE
PRESS
MIDDLE OF PRIMARIES, + MANY PACS HOLD THEIR MONEY TILL PRIMARIES
w(202)219-4155
ARE OVER. FEC DOES NOT DO ESTIMATES OR EXTRAPOLATIONS. PERHARS
h(703)548-6223
This year is an important turning point for the United States. WORDING
COULD BE
Not just because we are entering a new era, but for the first time LAST "IN THE
in many years, it appears that Congress will have 150 new faces for CYCLE..." ELECTION
the President to work with. That's why I'm asking for a mandate AND
"A DECARE
for my program. That's why I have promised that I will meet with BEFORE"
all new members -- all 150 or more -- before they are besieged by
the special interests and permanent staffs.
I also believe we need to take another step to ensure that
the new Congress does not become like the old one. The root of
the present problem is political contributions from organized
special interests through political action committees or PACS.
Ten years ago, PACs raised and contributed $ million to
FEDERAL
political candidates. This year the number will be closer to $
million. The other party doesn't want to do anything about it,
because they are the biggest recipients. I want to put them to the
test. I want a new Congress to stay clean. So an
important part of my new legislative agenda will be a simple bill
that bars all contributions by PACS.
I am committed to make my program work with Congress. I intend
to present the new Congress a 100-days plan to act on the
legislative proposals outlined in this agenda:
O
Ban on PAC Contributions
NAFTA
New trade negotiating authority
A radical overhaul of American education to emphasize
excellence, standards, competition, entrepreneurial
schools and a G.I. Bill for Kids
Tax and credit proposals to help Small Business
An expansion of Civilian R&D linked to new applications.
Reform of our legal system
My job training programs
My health care reforms
A package to clear away crime, build business, and put
people to work in our inner cities.
A package to cut spending and the size of government.
Tax cuts paid for through spending cuts and growth.
Now I know I may not be able to get everything I want in the
exact way I want it. But your support for a mandate to get it done
would give me momentum. And then I intend to fight for this
agenda, get as much as I can, and come back again to get more.
If Congress hesitates on some fronts, I intend to keep
moving forward. You have seen that we can implement back-towork
welfare reform by granting waivers that enable the states to do the
YOU'VE
44
1700
job more effectively. similarly, 43 states and more than 1100
ALREADY
USED
LISA BARNES
X
communities have started to implement my educational reforms while
THIS
AMERICA 2000
ON P.26
TRACKIN
DEPT. OF EDUC
Congress has stalled.
401 401-3000 3000
I will work with governors, state legislatures -local
governments, and the private sector to pursue my agenda. While I
want a Congress that can help me do the job, I'm committed to get
the job done one way or the other.
(Useful to include a table of numbers)
FACT CHECK
TWO
I. Introduction: The Challenge
This is my Agenda for American Renewal. It diagnoses the
economic problems we face, sets forth the principles that should
guide our actions, and explains the integrated efforts I am
pursuing to meet the challenge.
Over past weeks I have been discussing some of the elements of my
economic agenda. In coming weeks I will be expanding on my
ideas. This document shows how the pieces fit together.
It is important to begin by standing back for a moment, taking
stock of where we are as a great nation in the broader sweep of
history.
The American people have just completed the greatest mission of
all, the triumph of democratic capitalism over a frightening,
rapacious, totalitarian nuclear superpower. Mission
accomplished.
OR "wars end peopleare"
ED
VERB TENSE
Throughout history, when long wars end*, people have been
confronted with the problems of converting to peacetime and
establishing a new basis for securing peace and prosperity.
In wartime, the costs of government are always high. Domestic
needs are not fully met. A good nation engaged in conflict tries
/
to look after its poor, its sick, its elderly, its less
privileged members, but not as completely as it should.
Today, this year, for the first time since December 1941, the
United States is not engaged in a war, hot or cold.
The American people recognize this historical watershed. They
want and deserve a peacetime system of taxation, a peacetime
freedom from unnecessary intrusion into our lives, a peacetime
commitment to sound money, a peacetime dedication to unfinished
work and unsolved problems close to home.
At the same time, Americans are aware of epic changes in the
world and the economy. They sense the disquiet in many of the
industrialized democracies that have been our partners in the
long struggle. Our own economy has been going through some
profound changes. And I know change can be difficult,
particularly for those who feel its effects more directly.
that
Americans sense we face an era of great opportunity, but that
I
there are also great risks if we fail to make the right choices;
if we fail to engage wisely.
It is vital for our nation to demonstrate its unique ability to
transform anxiety into regeneration. Only the United States has
the people, the resources, the economic strength -- and
the
especially the principles and ideals -- to pick up the challenge.
- 2 -
For America to be safe and strong we must meet the defining
challenge of the '90s: to win the economic competition -- to win
the peace.
The United States must be an economic superpower, an export
superpower, and a military superpower.
My approach to this future is to look forward -- to open new
markets, prepare our people to compete, to restore our social
fabric -- to save and invest -- so we can win.
This future depends on economic growth, but not for the few at
the expense of the many, not for the present and the expense of
the future.
In this country, we have always preferred an entrepreneurial
capitalism that grows from the bottom up, not the top down; a
capitalism that begins on Main Street and extends to Wall Street,
not the other way around.
Nor have we been taken in by the view my opponent prefers, that
Government should accumulate capital -- by taxing it and
borrowing it from the people, and investing it according to some
industrial policy design.
My agenda is for an inclusive America, not an exclusive or
reclusive America. My international economic and trade strategy
3 -
will promote free trade arrangements east and west, north and
south, to strengthen our global economic reach and complement our
worldwide security presence. At the same time, we need to foster
the capabilities at home that will keep us in the lead. To help
prepare all American children for a constantly changing
workplace, I want to make radical changes in our education
system. Each child should graduate with skills, self-discipline,
and an a strong sense of self-worth. I will sharpen the competitive
edge of our businesses through encouraging entrepreneurial
capitalism and small business, deploying advances in R&D &
technology, and reforming our legal system so it no longer puts
us at a global disadvantage. My agenda promotes economic
security for working men and women through job training that will
ease adjustments and provide people new capabilities for work in
the face of competition and change. And I will enable families
to concentrate on building for the future by giving them the
means to protect themselves against today's cost of health care
and by making it easier to build retirement security. I want our
efforts to reach out to all our citizens, leaving no one behind,
because we will need the work, aspiration, and energy of each and
every American. to? Finally, since our competitive strength and
entrepreneurial spirit must flow from the private sector, I will
streamline government to meet changing needs. It should not
siphon off more resources than is absolutely necessary.
Taken together, in mutual support of one another, the components
of this agenda should empower America to seek a grand goal: to
4
double the size of our economy to $10 trillion, in no more than
years.
Think of what we could do with another $5 trillion in annual
income. With an economy that size, we could provide the
resources, private and public, to satisfy our most ambitious
social and financial requirements. We could simultaneously renew
America and pay down our national debt.
So now let me turn to how we can meet the challenge and reach our
goal.
II. The Context: Five Changes Underway in the Economy
The U.S. economy has been working its way through
five profound changes; they establish the context for my
agenda.
The first great change in our economy is ironically
due to our very success in ending the Cold War. Since
our superpower rival of the last half century has
disappeared, we are now able to do something we have all
hoped for since the close of World War II -- lighten the
load. In the short run, this adjustment has meant
cutbacks and lay-offs in many industries that have
depended on defense spending. We need to take steps to
ease this transition. But in the medium and long run,
-5-
6
reductions in defense spending will free up many new
resources for our people and economy.
Second, it seems that almost every day you can find a
story about a major U.S. corporation that is
restructuring itself. Our industries are in the process
of transforming themselves from the old-style
hierarchical organization to so-called "flattened"
structures. This new industrial organization emphasizes
a skills-based workplace, "lean production," and short
product cycles rather than mass production. In effect,
we are integrating R&D, manufacturing, and marketing into
a seamless web of innovation. It is a change comparable
to the one we made when Henry Ford led the country from
craft-based production to mass manufacturing early in
this century.
UNDER REAGAN BUSH [OR:OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS] THE ANNUAL
GROWTH IN MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY WAS OVER 50% HIGHER
We have to make these adaptations if America's industries
THAN
are to keep ahead of their international competitors. UNDER
JIMMY
Strong sales and productivity increases are the
CARTER.
prerequisites for creating more jobs, boosting wages, and
upgrading benefits. In fact, it is partly because of
these changes that American firms lead the world in
exports. and that the increase in U.S. manufacturing
productivity during the '80s was our best performance
since World War II. 43% INCR IN MANUF
PRODUCTIVITY OLABK
THE PAST 10 yorrs.
was
wagap
e
many as a share of GNP
2
LABOR free in manuf int mg don
SEWATE THING
JAG
19 Shie
producting
-
CALL JD FOSTER
-
IN THE
THE 80's US HAD 5084
THE % LOWEST CHAGE TOTAL IN MANUF PRODUIF
ANY DECADE SINCE 1950
7
Nevertheless, these changes also have produced layoffs
and relocations among both blue and white collar workers.
Middle-aged breadwinners are wondering whether their
company will be the next to make announcements, and they
worry about their jobs, health care and pension rights.
Some are also deeply troubled by the prospect that after
sacrificing to send their kids to college -- often the
for
first generation to attend -- that some of these children,
their diplomas aren't golden tickets to security.
Third, the 1980s wiped away the dismal economic
performance of the late '70s. We enjoyed the longest
peacetime expansion in U.S. history, lasting seven-and-
a-half-years. We created over 21 million jobs, more than
all the new jobs in the other major industrial countries
and the rest of Western Europe combined. Yet great booms
produce excesses, and this time too many companies, too
many financial institutions, too many governments, and
too many household took on too much debt. PLAYING INTOHANDS OF DEMS
THAT CALLED
80's DECADE
DEBT HAS ONLY
OF GREED. How
BEEN GOING
MUCH is TOO MUCH
DOWN PAST
We have been paying down that debt over the last three
CEA YEAR,
NOT PAST
years -- and lower interest rates have helped us do it.
THREE
Millions of people have refinanced homes at lower rates,
reducing mortgage payments by as much as $1,200 to $1,500
a year. When companies restructured, they paid down
debt, strengthened balance sheets, and positioned
8
themselves to enjoy greater profits when stronger growth
resumes. This process will leave our economy leaner and
more powerful; indeed many firms already are. But while
that debt was being paid downy people bought fewer goods,
and companies put less money into new investments and
jobs. The process is largely over, but it has left
consumers and companies a little cautious.
Fourth, we entered the '80s with a banking system
designed 50 years earlier -- a relic woefully out of
place in an era when billions of dollars could be sent
around the world in a microsecond. The United States
entered the 1980s with some 14,000 commercial banks and
que?
4,600 savings and loans. In comparison, Canada had
/ Germany had
, and Japan had
. The
vast majority of those small U.S. banks and S&Ls operated
in a heavily controlled environment where their costs of
funds were limited by ceilings on your passbook accounts.
Other regulations restricted competition by imposing
costs and inefficiencies on savers and borrowers.
In the late '70s, this out-of-date system was
buffeted by record interest and inflation rates; it was
challenged by competition from new financial services.
As in any other line of business, the less efficient
institutions could not survive. But because our banks
and S&Ls held insured deposit accounts for most
hardworking Americans, the streamlining process had to
9
?
be managed in a way that 7 enabled the Government to
protect your savings. The Government picked up these
costs so your savings would be safe.
This process, too, is nearing its end. A strong
economy must have a good banking and financial system so
es
entrepreneurs can get capital, business and farms can get
loans, and families can buy homes and cars. We will have
a more competitive and efficient financial system that
will serve companies and families better. Over the next
few years, the Government will actually gain revenues
from the sales of billions of dollars of assets that it
acquired from banks and S&Ls as it protected savers. But
this process has left lenders cautious. Business
borrowing rates and mortgage rates are way down, but it's
still too hard for small businesses to gain access to
capital and credit. We are still taxing capital too
much.
The final economic change is perhaps the most
profound of all: No nation is an island today. We
are part of a global economy. To grow is to trade; to
expand is to compete. One manufacturing job out of every
/V
six depends directly on our exports; so does one acre out
of every three planted by American farmers.
This international economic influence has three
implications.
10
One, when growth slumps abroad, it drags our economy down
with it. Both Western Europe {especially Germany} and
Boskin
Japan are going through major readjustment -- and that
says this
could be
has contributed to our sluggishness.
stren sthened,
call him
if
you
Two, it means that if America is going to be strong and
growing in the 21st Century, we must be ready and able
to compete around the globe. We need to encourage
entrepreneurial capitalism and investment at home, and
at the same time ensure that our labor force remains the
best in the world.
Three, we need to seize opportunities to develop new
markets, particularly in areas that have potential for
significant growth in the future. One of the other
benefits of the end of the Cold War is the extraordinary
potential to expand trade and sales to hundreds of
millions of potential customers who not long ago were our
enemies.
III. Start with Strengths
In developing an agenda for the future, we should
take a clear-eyed look at our strengths as well as
weaknesses. Not surprisingly, the other side has
11
conveniently skipped over our country's many strengths.
Frankly, they want you to believe America is over the
hill and past its prime. But they have no more right to
convince you the economy is worse than it is for
political advantage than I have to sugarcoat the
problems. So we let me just note 10 key facts. (See
Appendix A for others.)
The Misery Index -- the sum of inflation and
unemployment -- is down to 10.8% today, from
19.6% in 1980.
Inflation has fallen to roughly 3%, the lowest
in a quarter of a century (except for 1986).
Interest rates are at a 20 year low. Mortgage
rates are now in the 8% range, half the rate
President Reagan encountered in his first year.
Thanks to these low rates, more people can
afford to own a home today than at any time
since 1973.
While unemployment is still far too high, the
share of the working age population with jobs
during my administration has averaged 62.2%,
the highest in U.S. history.
12
The United States has the highest home
ownership rate of all major industrialized
countries: More than 66% of U.S. households
59
own their own homes, as compared with 61% in
40
Japan and 39% in Germany.
The U.S. sends 60% of its children on to higher
education, second only to Canada, and well
8
above the 32% rate in Germany and 30% in Japan.
soe
P
And 51% of these U.S. students are women, as
compared with 38% in Japan and 26% in Germany.
With exports of $622 billion, the U.S. is the
world's largest exporting nation. Exports
increased by 40% during my Administration.
We produce 25% of the world's total output with
5% of the world's population.
Manufacturing is now accounting for 22.6% of
U.S. GDP -- a higher percentage than a decade
ago.
13
The productivity of American workers is
approximately 26% above those in Germany and
30% above those in Japan.
I do not mean to suggest either that all is well, or
that we do not need to lead and manage the changes taking
place in the world and at home more actively. We do.
Nevertheless, it is important to recognize honestly
what we have accomplished over the past 12 years, so we
can build on our strengths. During our long expansion,
we increased U.S. GDP by $1.1 trillion -- a figure
greater than the total size of the German economy. So
I know our goal of a $10 trillion economy is attainable.
We're also in a strong position internationally. But
we're going to need the national adaptability and
capability to keep leading our competitors. And we must
have the courage of our convictions to say "no" to the
wrong sort of changes for the future -- false promises
based on false premises -- changes we cannot afford at
this key moment in the world economic competition.
IV. Guiding Principles:
Before outlining the specifics of my agenda, I will
set out four guiding principles. An effective strategy
14
must be dynamic. As new problems or opportunities
present themselves, we will need to make adjustments.
Guiding principles will ensure we follow a consistent
path and help shape our policies into the future.
First, start with the basics: I believe America is
composed of individuals, not special interests.
Individuals gain primary strength, protection and
inspiration from their families and communities, not the
legal system or Government social services. People find
their friends and their enjoyment in voluntary
association with one another, not in some bureaucrat's
paint-by-numbers dream.
The individual, families, communities. That's where
we start.
Second, we have to keep to the fundamentals of sound
economic growth: lower tax rates, limits on Government
spending, greater competition, less economic regulation,
sound money, and more open trade that can free tremendous
private initiative and growth.
Experience has shown that these are the steps we
need to take to create jobs, raise wages, spur
entrepreneurs, expand capital and investment, and build
businesses.
Third, in the '90s Government can build on these
fundamentals by offering opportunity and hope for
15
individuals, families, and communities. There is a
conservative agenda for helping people, for responding
to their needs. And we've seen that these are approaches
that work.
We prefer a hand-up to a hand out. We want to
empower people to make their own choices, to break away
from dependency. We want to give individuals and
families economic security by giving them the capital,
the capabilities, and the confidence to decide for
themselves. We want everyone to have a stake in society,
to own property, so everyone will build something with
it for themselves and our country. Whereas my opponent's
approach may place a premium on redistribution and
"leveling," our programs will unleash initiative, reward
success, and encourage excellence. Our approach is to
give people the power to work, save, and be their best.
Finally, all our policies must be brought together
effectively if we are to prosper as a people and succeed
as a nation. America must have appropriate new
approaches for the changes at home -- just as we've
launched new policies to lead and manage change abroad.
We must concentrate on the interrelationship between
domestic and foreign policy and between economic and
security policy. At the same time, we must execute our
agenda more effectively with a new Congress, state and
local governments, and the private sector. Our aim must
16
be to press our policies together, as a package, to make
America secure and strong.
Therefore, my Agenda for American Renewal
necessitates action on six interconnected fronts.
Because we face complex problems, no one solution will
suffice. The whole of these elements will be a solution
greater than the sum of its parts:
A Strategic Global Economic and Trade Policy
Preparing our Children for the 21st Century
Economy
Sharpening Business' Competitive Edge:
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism
Economic Security for Working People
Leaving No One Behind: Economic Opportunity
for Every American
Keeping Government Slim
This is how America will create a $10 trillion economy.
17
V. A Strategic Global Economic and Trade Policy:
During the Cold War, we built a global security
structure to contain and counter the Soviet Union and
communist aggression. We forged military alliances
across the Atlantic and Pacific that underpinned that
structure. In the post-Cold War era, we need a strategic
global economic and trade policy that will ensure our
position as an economic and export superpower as well.
We are well positioned to achieve this goal. We
enjoy the largest fully integrated market in the world;
this gives us leverage with other countries that want
access to our markets. Once the Congress enacts NAFTA,
our position will be further strengthened. NAFTA will
open an important market, a Mexican economy whose growth
prospects will quickly transform its expanding industries
and consumers into excellent American customers. Equally
important, the integration of United States, Mexican, and
Canadian capabilities will improve our global
competitiveness by enabling American firms to purchase
inputs at lower costs. This will help U.S. firms to stay
in the forefront of high wage, high value added
production.
Our geopolitical position is also advantageous. The
United States is both a Pacific and a European power; our
- Don lamb ND wash Times
- also WSJ edition
American Enterprise Report, May 1992
24
47% of Public school Teachers send
Child immunizations are also vital to safeguard their
kids' health. Every year since 1981-82, 95% or more of kids
to
the children entering elementary school have been
immunized against the vaccine-preventable diseases. Now Private shools
we are focusing greater attention on preschool children.
My 1993 budget calls for an 18% increase in child
immunization grants.
I want the United States to offer opportunity and
encourage excellence; we must be fully capable of
competing in a global economy. Therefore, it is
imperative that our educational system prepare and point
the way for our children. As in the past, education
should be the ladder that the child of modest means can
climb to better him or herself.
Our current school system is falling short of these
XXXXX
needs -- and the poor are hurt most. Only 19 out of 66
Report by the
public high schools in Chicago graduate more than half
Institute for Justice
Clint Bolick, VP
their students, and many of these graduates can barely
457-4240
read or write.
Our educational establishment is caught in a sort
of time warp, a system created for another age when the
needs were not the same, children grew up differently,
and adults rarely changed jobs.
Money alone is not the answer -- the United States
already spends more per pupil than any other country but
26
NOT
HOW MANY FORMS THEY COMPLETE,
evaluates schools on the basis of their performance, not
BUT OF HOW MANY MIAJOS THEY
their bureaucracy.
PREPARE.
TAKE SCHOOL CHOICE
OFF OF THE ADMINISTRATORS DESK AND PUT IT BACIC ON THE KITCHEN TABLE.
Finally, we must give all parents the means
and freedom to choose which schools will serve their
CHOICE
children the best. This component is critical to the
success of the whole, integrated overhaul of our
educational system. Competition, the underlying
principle for this radical reform, will not work unless
we give consumers the ability to choose.
Wealthy families already have this choice for their
children. Many of the people that you saw at the
Democratic National Convention have this choice for their
?
children. Why shouldn't you have this choice for your
children?
Chicago's X public school teachers -- 478 of
X
X
X
46%
X
DennisDoyie
America.
them -- send their X kids xx to private x schoóls. X But my
Enterprise
"
Institute
opponent and his special interest supporters don't think
you should have the same choice unless you are privileged
enough to afford it.
One of the greatest educational innovations in this
country was the passage of the GI Bill after World War
II. No one told my generation that a vet couldn't go to
Notre Dame or Brigham Young or Baylor or Howard or
Yeshiva.
So I want a "GI Bill for Children" to help give
lower and middle income families the means to select any
30
scarce, available only to those at the top, who need it
JESSE JACKSON PUT IT THIS
least of all. That's not what I want. Without capital,
WAY: "SUBTRACT CAPITAL FROM CAPITALISM -AND ALL THAT'S
as Jesse Jackson pointed out, capitalism is just an
LEFT is THE
was (?)
'ism ''' If capital were abundant, labor would become
scarcer. And the unemployment lines would shrink.
That's what I want.
So I want to cut the capital gains tax and index it
for inflation. I want to create enterprise zones in
inner city and rural areas. I want to make the R&D tax
credit permanent. I want to provide an additional first-
year depreciation allowance for purchases of property.
Those are fundamentals. In addition, there are
three other ways we need to sharpen the competitive edge
of American business:
strengthen small business;
support civilian R&D linked to a research
extension network; and
reform our costly legal system.
A. Strengthen Small Business
Small business is the backbone of a growing economy.
Small businesses employ more than half the American
workforce; they account for 39% of our GNP. Small
business creates two thirds of our new jobs.
31
I am seeking to aid small businesses by reducing
costly tax and regulatory burdens, increasing access to
credit, and removing barriers to competition.
I have taken steps designed specifically to ease the
tax burden on small businesses. For example, the IRS has
proposed regulations to allow small businesses to deposit
payroll taxes on a monthly basis. And it has released
a ruling allowing over 16 million sole proprietors to
deduct tax preparation fees as a business expense rather
than as a limited itemized deduction.
I want to build on these actions. For example, we
are working on a Single Wage Reporting System that would
permit businesses to report state and federal wage
information through a single entity, thereby
consolidating tax reporting requirements and reducing the
burden.
In coming weeks I will talk more about ways we can
(AWK)
encourage small businesspeople and the jobs they create.
On the regulatory front, I have extended for one
year the freeze on paperwork and unnecessary federal
regulation that I imposed last winter; the federal
regulatory weight hits small businesses particularly
hard. I have also instructed federal agencies to look
for ways to modify existing regulations that impose a
special economic burden on small business. For example,
to increase access to capital for small businesses, the
32
SEC has announced proposals to reduce and in some cases
eliminate the public disclosure requirement for small
companies issuing stock.
Since small businesses are particularly vulnerable
when credit is tight, we have to help them as our
financial system is restructuring. That's why we have
authorized over $6 billion in general business loan
guarantees through SBA in 1992 -- an increase of more
than 50% above 1991.
SBA's New England Lending and Recovery Project is
a pilot effort that extends credit to viable small firms
when access is limited because banks are having
difficulty. If it works well and is needed, I'll expand
the project to other regions. We also have worked with
bank regulators to base real estate values on income
earning potential rather than liquidation value. We have
taken steps to restructure the small business investment
program, the only venture capital program in the
government. And we are developing ways to offer special
financing to exporting entrepreneurs.
Through its procurement assistance program, SBA
helped small businesses secure federal contracts worth
over $35 billion in FY 90 -- almost 20% of all prime
contracts let during that year.
To ensure that small businesses can help their
30
communities overcome disasters, we will be providing
33
p30
approximately $
million in low-interest loans to
you
small businesses in Florida, Louisiana, California, and
elsewhere.
Finally, we need to help small business by removing
burdens to competition. My health care reforms would
reduce costs for small businesses without costly
government mandates or higher taxes. Enactment of my
legislation to establish uniform federal law on product
liability would relieve a major competitive handicap that
is keeping new products from the market, boasting
insurance costs sky high, and killing jobs.
B. Support Civilian R&D
To be the world's economic leader tomorrow, we
clearly have to invest in R&D and new technologies today.
Given the pace of change, we have to both come up with
new inventions and organize ourselves to deploy new
technology without delay.
The changes in industrial organization that I
described earlier have three major implications for
technology development. First, the more rapid product
development cycle places a premium on bringing an idea
SPACE
quickly from the lab to the marketplace. Second, we need
to put new technologies to work in all applications in
order to reap the full competitive and economic benefits
VCR-technology AND
from our R&D. While Americans invented the FAX machine,
we did not benefit from its explosive popularity. Third,
34
we need to rely increasingly on flexible, agile
manufacturing, rather than old style mass production.
We should have the capability to make a variety of
products quickly and economically -- a process
characterized by short product cycles, but also high
quality output.
Taken together, these developments emphasize
decentralization -- an approach exactly opposite to my
opponent's "national industrial policies" led by
government bureaucrats. We need to get technology
development, production, and marketing closer to the
consumer, not further away. Moreover, my opponent's call
for a cut in support for university-based research will
hurt the development of cutting edge technology.
My agenda will increase funding for basic research
and complement that work with a focus on applied research
and development. Despite cuts by Congress, we have
26
managed to increase funding for basic research by 25 TOM scucey-oMB
percent since 1989 -- to a record level. We are
supporting applied R&D through a series of new, high
pay-off investments in critical technologies:
a High Performance Computing and Communications
EWABLE
initiative that will assist the development of
a thousand-fold increase in computing
13 405 000 000 (1993 PROPOSED) [TABLE 6-10; PART ONE- 119/FY 93 BUDEET]
I
-
10 615 000 000 (1989 ACTUAL) [TABLE 6-10; 10; PART ONE- 119/ FY 93 BUDGET]
2 790 000 000
/10 /10 615 000 000 615 000
= 26%
35
capability and a one hundred-fold increase in
communications speed by 1996
an initiative to improve the manufacturing and
performance of materials -- improvements that
will enable advances in a wide range of other
technologies.
an expanded program in biotechnology research
with applications in health, agriculture, and
environmental protection.
the establishment of the U.S. Advanced Battery
consortium, a jointly-funded four-year effort
to develop an advanced battery for an
emissions-free electric car.
a significant increase in our aeronautics
research budget, underscoring the importance
we place on the U.S. aeronautics industry in
an increasingly competitive global market
place.
SEVEN
the establishment of five regional
manufacturing technology centers for the
distribution of modern manufacturing
36
tools, such as computer-aided design,
numerically controlled machines, and robotics.
These efforts to develop and apply new technologies
need to be complemented by the identification and removal
of barriers to the private sector's ability to bring new
products and services to the market. That's why my
regulatory reform efforts -- including a process that
subjects regulations to a competitiveness analysis while
still protecting health and safety and a proposal to
sunset regulations -- are critical to supporting our
enhanced technology development.
Just take one example: my opponent has proposed a
major new federal government investment in the field of
national telecommunications networks at the exact time
gel
P33
that the private sector is seeking to develop such a
P
network on its own, but has been stopped from doing so
by federal regulations. (Get the facts.)
C. Reform Our Legal System
Our competitive edge will be dulled if businesses
are continually handicapped by a legal system that serves
lawyers but frightens people.
Therefore,
another
component of my agenda is a reform of the American civil
justice system.
America has experienced a civil litigation
explosion. Over the past 30 years, federal lawsuits have ALMOST
37
tripled. Instead of being fast, fair, and affordable,
our civil justice system is slow, expensive, and putting
us at a global disadvantage.
Long delays in dispute resolution waste valuable
judicial resources, force early settlement by those who
meritorious suits, and encourage frivolous suits by those
Jeng Jazanowski
? frem Zoellick
cannot afford to wait, discourage those who have
* NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS
STUDY TITLED THE COST oF LINGATION: A NEW PERSPECTIVE
RELEASE DATE TBA MAPBE AROUND a 9/21/92
who hope to leverage unjust settlements. High punitive
QUENTIN RIEGLE AN AUTHOR THE STUDY
damage awards are passed on to consumers through higher
prices, job cuts, higher insurance, and fewer new
products.
According to a soon-to-be released study by the
[consumers and companys
National Association of Manufacturers, Americans spend
Flow -d
UP $200 billion a year just on direct costs to lawyers.
That does not even count lawyers on payrolls or the money
spent on court settlements.
Our legal system is killing our international
competitiveness. Other nations do not face high domestic 6%
litigation costs. Foreign companies only need 2-5% of
the product liability insurance our firms must carry
because we do not have uniform state standards for
product liability and punitive damages.
The litigation explosion affects everyone. High
liability costs have closed playgrounds and pools,
CHECK
forcing kids on the street with nothing to do. Companies
at
overseas
are afraid to offer products that are aváilable in Europe
BECAUSE THEY
FEAR It
CLASS
7,
38
VOLVO
yes
-- like a carseat for children built right in the car or
But
a medical treatment for AIDS -- because they POTUS trouble. fear the
liability.
Christer
3
My product liability reform legislation takes the
minivan alreads
trial lawyers head on. I want to stop wide variation
among states' product liability rules; stop important
makes geat, +vl
products from being kept off the market; stop excessive
laneguary
litigation costs with more money going to lawyers than
yulled
to injured consumers; cut excessive insurance rates; and
the totays
end excessive consumer costs.
My "Access to Justice Act of 1992" is intended to
speech
restore fairness and efficiency to the nation's civil
justice system through: alternatives to federal civil
trials such as alternative dispute resolution; incentives
for pre-litigation settlement, including precomplaint
notification; and a "loser pays" rule requiring the loser
to pay the winner's legal fees in suits involving federal
diversity jurisdiction.
We also need to continue our work with the states
to encourage fundamental change at the state and local
level.
Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are a powerful
vested interest in our society. They are well
represented in Congress and high on the lists of
political contributors. My opponent knows them very
well. But this is a problem too important to leave to
39
the lawyers and their friends in high places. We must
sue each other less and care for each other more.
VIII. Economic Security for Working People
The American business of the 21st Century will
need workers who will bring them to life and keep them
ahead of our competition. To be able to contribute and
concentrate, working men and women will want to know
that they can enjoy economic opportunity and security
We can only achieve true security by developing
people's capability, not dependency. And we can best
supply security through the private sector, not
government bureaucracies.
It will be government's role to expedite workers'
adjustments in a fast-changing marketplace, provide
people the means to work and take care of their
families, and arm people to face the future by
empowering them to make their own choices. In
particular, we can enable families to focus on building
a future by alleviating their fears about one of the
single biggest costs and problems that can knock them
back: health care. And we can help foster retirement
security through encouraging portable pension savings.
40
A. Job Training
Given the rapidity of change in the international
and domestic marketplace, we have to prepare people for
the prospect of changing jobs and learning new skills
many times throughout the course of a productive life.
Therefore, we need a range of job training and
placement services -- for young people, factory
workers, white collar employees, and particularly
during this period, defense industry workers.
That's why one important portion of my
recently-announced workforce adjustment initiative is
designed to shift the government away from the old
narrowly defined, expensive, and less effective trade
adjustment assistance that paid people off without
giving them real help to get back the work.
Work means more than income to Americans. It is
also fundamental to people's self-esteem, their self-
confidence. These are attitudes, values, that I want
to encourage. I want all Americans to be builders --
for their families, their communities, their country.
To encourage the work ethic, we need to make every
effort to match people with the jobs created by our
entrepreneurial capitalism.
The three key features of my job training proposal
are: (1) universal coverage, so all dislocated workers
will have access to basic transition assistance and
41
training support; (2) skill grant vouchers of up to
$3000 to help meet the costs of adding new skills and
training; and (3) a tripling of the resources currently
devoted to training and worker adjustment, an
allocation of $10 billion over five years.
This proposal builds on my January plan to
streamline the federal job training system through
"one-stop shopping" in every community. Experience has
demonstrated that the most effective training and
placement services are those closely developed with
local employers through private industry councils.
That way the training is designed to develop skills
that employers know they will need.
My expanded job training efforts will also be
specially designed to help those who may need to change
jobs or careers as a result of NAFTA or other trade
agreements and the downsizing of our defense-related
industries. But we will ensure that we offer training
and placement to all workers: those who have lost their
jobs, have been notified that their jobs are being
terminated, or have been employed in industries
experiencing significant changes and workforce
adjustments and who fear job loss in the future.
These dislocated workers would be eligible to
receive three types of assistance: (1) transition-
assistance that includes skills assessment, counseling,
42
job-search assistance, and job referral; (2) training
assistance in the form of skill grants; and (3)
transition income support where necessary for workers
completing retraining.
I've also proposed a specially-targeted Youth
Skills Initiative.
A new Youth Training Corps will provide
economically and socially disadvantaged young people
with intensive vocational training through 55
residential YTC centers nationwide; these centers will
be located primarily in rural areas and will seek to
utilize converted defense facilities. The YTC will
draw from the military's high level of leadership and
training expertise by giving a hiring preference to
individuals leaving our armed forces.
I will also complement the YTC with a "Treat and
Train" program to strengthen existing youth drug
training programs.
To help meet the needs of young people not
planning to go on to college, I will expand the
National Youth Apprenticeship Program that I began in
January. This program offers high school juniors and
seniors a combination of classroom instruction and a
structured, paid, work-experience program. I want
student apprentices to receive both a high school
43
diploma and a widely recognized certificate of skill
competency. Students will also
have the opportunity to continue training at the
post-secondary level.
I started my Apprenticeship Program as a
demonstration program in 6 states; in my second term, I
will expand it to all 50.
Finally, I will more than double the size of the
present JROTC program, a very successful and popular
partnership between the military and schools. JROTC
emphasizes self-discipline, values, citizenship,
personal responsibility, and staying in school -- it's
a first class alternative to drugs and gangs. My goal
is to establish 2,900 JROTC units by 1994. Initially,
we will expand this program in inner-city high schools,
but I want to make JROTC available to every high school
across the country that requests it. This program is
another way in which we can relate the successful
experience of America's veterans to the next
generation.
B.
Affordable Health Care for All Americans
The economic security of men and women requires a
major reform of the U.S. health care system. The
present system provides high quality, high-tech
medicine, but at an unacceptable price: spending has
increased at a rate two to three times the rest of the
44
economy; thirty-four million Americans have no health
insurance; and millions more are afraid to change jobs
for fear of losing their health insurance.
My program will build on the strengths of the
system -- consumer choice, innovation, and state of the
art medicine -- while controlling costs and expanding
access.
I want to guarantee access to health insurance for
all poor families through tax credits {or vouchers for
those who don't pay taxes} sufficient to pay for a
basic health insurance plan ($3,750 for a family).
Other low and middle income families would get tax
relief to partially offset the cost of their health
insurance. In total, some 95 million Americans will
benefit.
My program also includes:
provisions that encourage small businesses to
develop less costly health care insurance
networks for their employees by combining
resources to achieve broader risk sharing,
economies of scale, and purchasing power;
"job lock" protection for employees and their
families so that they will not lose coverage
if and when a person changes jobs;
45
guaranteed insurability so that people with
"pre-existing" illnesses cannot be denied a
job or health coverage on the job;
100% tax deductibility of health care
premiums paid by the self-employed, as
compared to the present 25% deductibility;
malpractice reforms that will reduce the
number of unnecessary procedures performed on
patients and thereby reduce the cost of
medical care; and
reforms to encourage widespread use of
10.75
electronic billing to save an estimated $2
billion a year in paper costs.
Taken together, my program would cut health care
costs by $394 billion over five years through
preventive care, reducing defensive medicine,
malpractice reform, encouraging enrollment in
cost-effective health plans, arming consumers with
information about cost and quality, and eliminating
administrative waste and unnecessary paperwork.
I believe we can provide access to affordable
health care for all Americans, while preserving choice
for patients and their families in selecting doctors,
46
hospitals, health care programs, and employment. My
approach, in contrast with my opponent's, relies on the
private sector to deliver health care services. But I
would make the market work for us by enhancing
competition, which will cut costs. My malpractice
reforms would cut costs further by removing the fear of
lawsuits that leads to wasteful procedures.
I firmly believe that a move to national health
insurance, as some of my opponents want, would be a
major, irretrievable mistake. That course would turn
over the health care sector -- a full 13% of our
economy -- to the government. The result would be more
bureaucracy, rationed care, inefficiency, and, in the
end, even higher costs.
My opponent's "pay or play" approach winds up in
the same place as nationalized, bureaucratic health
insurance -- but through a different route. And it is
likely to kill a lot of jobs along the way. Increasing
the costs of labor -- the "play" in his approach --
will lead businesses to hire fewer workers. Offering
the alternative of government-sponsored health care
paid for with new taxes on payrolls -- the "pay" --
will dump the problem in the laps of government
bureaucracy with the costs paid for by businesses and
workers.
47
C. Pension Portability
I have also been concerned about the ability of
workers to preserve their retirement pensions as they
change jobs. This is a growing need because of the
increased likelihood that most workers will have more
than one employer over the course of their working
years.
I proposed an initiative last year to increase
Ann Combs, Dep. Asst,
pension portability, expand pension coverage, and
Secifor Pension
and welfare Bens. simplify the law governing pension plans. And I am
DOL
244-5126(h) pleased that I was able to sign a law this summer that
my portability proposal.
Portability wasthe incorporated the key elements of my proposal. The new
only one signed.
law X enhances retirement security by permitting workers
Expansion and
simplification are
still pending.
to transfer accrued pension benefits directly to an IRA
x
or to their new employer's pension plan.
Despite this improvement, I believe we must
continue to look for ways to make it easier for workers
who change jobs to take pensions with them. We need to
eliminate incentives to "cash out" benefits and
increase incentives to save for the future.
Job training, affordable health care, retirement
security. When combined with a new system of education
and entrepreneurial, competitive business, we can offer
working men and women real economic security in the
21st Century.
48
IX. Leaving No One Behind: Economic Opportunity for
Every American
For over 200 years, the most exceptional aspect of
American society has been the belief, the hope, that this
is a land where people can make a better life for
themselves and their children. It's this spirit, the
commitment to the American Dream, that has made our
country and our society the most dynamic in the world.
If we are going to use that energy to drive us forward
into the 21st Century, we will need to tap the
aspirations of each and every one of our citizens. No
one should be left behind for want of opportunity.
Many of the programs that I have discussed above --
health care for all Americans, child care, job training,
pension portability, a new competitive school system
based on community involvement and choice for all
American families -- support my plan to empower all
Americans to make their own choices and better their
lives. But I believe we need to do more for certain
citizens who have fallen too far behind.
My philosophy for enabling all Americans to have a
piece of the American Dream is simple: it's based on
property and work. Our urban and welfare programs must
be designed to enable people to break the cycle of
poverty, get back on their feet, get back to work, and
49
take responsibility for their own choices and their own
lives.
My ideas are in direct conflict with the logic of
"welfare rights" that emphasizes entitlements. Nor do
I favor "income maintenance" strategies that assume the
problem of poverty is simply a lack of income that can
be made up by government.
Our goal should be to help people develop the human
and financial capital that enables them to become
self-sufficient. We have made a start down this path
with our implementation of the welfare-to-work logic of
the Family Support Act of 1988. We have been encouraging
flexible and innovative implementation through waivers
that enable states to develop new programs to enhance
parental and family responsibility and to insist on
education and job training for those on welfare.
In our inner cities, we need to restore hope by
clearing away the handicap of crime, building a core of
property owners, creating business incentives, restoring
infrastructure, and focusing our programs on work and
discipline.
Enterprise zones can create solid economic
foundations in distressed communities. Our "Weed and
Seed" effort can help reclaim and revitalize impoverished
and embattled communities by eliminating the fear of
drugs and violence, targeting coordinated human services
50
programs, and improving the housing stock and
infrastructure.
We also need to extend opportunity by enabling lower
income families to build assets -- for example, by
allowing aid recipients to accumulate higher savings
without losing their eligibility.
And we need to expand homeowner opportunities to
lower and middle income families. For example, HOPE
grants enable more inner-city people to own their own
homes. Our $5,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers
would help; so would permitting voucher recipients to
apply their rental subsidies toward the purchase of a
home.
We can enhance the choice, quality, and availability
of housing through affordable rent subsidies in the form
of housing vouchers, and through our "Perestroika in
Public Housing" program that widens opportunities for
public housing tenants to change the management of
troubled projects.
This property and work-based approach need not be
more expensive than the traditional welfare bureaucracy.
For example, over the past 12 years, federal spending for
low income assistance doubled even after inflation --
from $9.1 billion in 1980 to $18.3 billion this year
(both in 1992 dollars). This year, HUD is providing
housing assistance to 4.6 million low-income families,
51
up from 3.1 million in 1980. I have pressed to switch
some of this funding to vouchers because they are more
cost effective than constructing new public housing
units. Furthermore, families wouldn't have to wait five
years for the units to be built, and the vouchers give
families more choice.
For too long, the barons of Congress have refused
to discard failed programs that perpetuate welfare
dependency. Originally, many of these programs were well
intentioned, and I respect those who tried them. But now
we know better. Give us a chance to try a different
approach that will empower people to help themselves, to
build some capital for their families, to make choices
that develop self-respect and discipline. That's the
real way to offer economic opportunity for every
American, to leave no one behind.
X. Keeping Government Slim
My blueprint envisages an important government role
to make a secure and strong America. But it is also
important that government not siphon off more private
resources than is absolutely necessary to perform the
functions that will help us win the economic competition.
Because an overweight government -- one that serves the
special interests instead of America's interest -- will
handicap our country in the race of a new era.
52
A number of the items on my agenda can be
accomplished by redirecting current funding away from
bureaucracies and towards people. My agenda empowers
people with the means to work, own property, build
capital, raise families, and be effective contributors
within our private market economy. Some of my ideas --
for example, legal and health care reforms -- should help
us save money.
Contrary to the assertions of some politicians and
special interest groups, spending as a percentage of the
nation's GDP has been going up, not down. In 1991, the
Federal government spent 23.5% of what our nation
produced. That compares with 17.6% in 1965, 19.9% in
1970, 22.0% in 1975, and 22.3% in 1980. So not only has
government grown as the economy has grown, but government
is taking a bigger share. The American people are not
taxed too little. The American government spends too
much.
In my acceptance speech I noted some of the efforts
I will make to hold down spending. I have proposed
capping growth on mandatory spending, other than social
security. That would still permit spending at present
levels plus an adjustment for inflation and population
growth. Yet this cap would save $294 billion over five
years.
53
To start to implement this cap, I have proposed
over
almost $72 billion in specific spending cuts for
"mandatory" programs (FY93-97). If you add these
proposed cuts to others I have previously called for but
which Congress has not yet enacted, my specific cuts
would total about $132 billion over five years. I have
also proposed the outright elimination of 246 specific
discretionary programs.
By way of comparison, my opponent has specifically
proposed less than $5 billion in cuts in mandatory
programs. And he has specifically proposed to eliminate
only one program -- the honeybee subsidy program, which
Senator Gore voted to retain. 4 times
Furthermore, I proposed freezing all other spending,
and I will enforce this freeze by vetoing any bill
Congress sends me that spends more than I asked for in
my budget.
I've asked Congress for the line item veto, a
disciplinary tool utilized effectively by the governors
of 43 states. This veto authority is important not only
to help cut spending, but to increase my leverage with
a Congress that seeks to tax more and spend more.
Government should be subject to the discipline of
a balanced budget amendment. State governments operate
that way. Businesses operate that way. Families operate
that way. And given the breakdown of Congressional
54
discipline, we need an amendment to ensure that the
Federal government operates that way. If we had such an
amendment earlier, we wouldn't be paying almost $200
billion dollars a year on interest for the debt left us
by earlier Congresses.
I also believe taxpayers should have the right to
direct 10% of their tax payments to reduce debt and
spending through a "check-off" on their tax forms. If
all taxpayers took the full 10%, the cut would be about
$50 billion. That's only 3% of the Federal budget of
about $1.5 trillion. Since federal spending has been
growing at a rate of about 8% per
year, even this proposed cut would still enable spending
to grow; it would just grow more slowly.
Some editorialists slight my checkoff proposal, but
the American people seem to like it, and I think I know
why. The checkoff proposal traces its roots to a
venerable tradition in American history. At the turn
of this century, many people were concerned that the
government establishment was slipping away from the
people it is supposed to serve. This movement led to a
number of innovations such as referenda, the right of
recall, and the direct election of senators. The idea
of term limits for Senators and Congressmen, which I
fully support, is another of this type of reform. At the
time each was proposed, the conventional thinkers mocked
55
the changes. The same is true today. Given the
breakdown in spending discipline in Congress, it's time
that we insist on compensating reforms that give the
people a bigger say in the direction of Federal
government spending. I say it's time to give the people
the power to cut the deficit.
The size and structure of the Government also needs
to be slimmed down and changed. Its organization of the
Federal Government reflects ways of doing business that
are now 30 to 50 years old. Companies all across America
have been restructuring, cutting costs, becoming more
efficient -- preparing to be more competitive in a fast-
changing marketplace. I believe the Federal Government
can and should do the same thing. I'll be talking more
about this later, but I believe a streamlining of the
Federal Government should include three elements:
First, I will cut the operating budget of the
Executive Office of the President by 33% if Congress
agrees to subject its operations to a cut of the same
size. With fewer Congressional staffers badgering the
Executive Branch, I know we can cut costs by that amount.
Second, I believe all federal employees earning above
$55,000 a year should be subject to a 5% pay cut; other
Americans have tightened their belts, and so should the
better-paid federal workers. Finally, I believe we can
restructure and reduce the size of the Executive Branch
56
through a consolidation of agencies and bureaus that will
enable us to do our job better. Why should the Federal
Government by the only large organization in America that
continually adds size and offices, and never gets rid of
anything? Therefore, I will submit a streamlined
reorganization plan for the Executive Branch to the new
Congress -- and I hope they take the hint, too.
Let me give you an example. In many respects, the
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, or ACDA, is a
creature of the Cold War. It needs to adapt to the
Cheek?
times. Its highly trained scientists and engineers are
a valuable resource. Some of them can support our
efforts to stem and reverse the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction. But others may be well suited to
work at defense conversion -- transforming the genius of
modern day swords into 21st Century plowshares.
Multiply this idea by a hundred, or even a thousand,
others. We can get ride of some tasks, conduct others
more efficiently, and add new ones where appropriate to
support my agenda.
I also am committed to reducing the tax burden on
the American people. I have said that I will propose to
further reduce taxes across-the-board, provided we pay
for those cuts with specific spending reductions that I
consider appropriate, so that we do not increase the
deficit.
57
To give you a an illustrative sense of the kinds of
tax cuts we could achieve if we discipline spending, just
consider what we could do if Congress acted on the $130
billion in specific spending reductions that I have
already proposed. These savings alone could finance an
across-the-board rate cut of 1 percent, a reduction of
the small business tax rate from 15% to 10%, an increase
in small business expensing of investment in equipment,
and a reduction of the capital gains tax.
In sum, my direction is clear -- I want to spend
less and tax less. My opponent wants to spend more and
tax more.
I believe the Federal Government can reallocate its
almost $1.5 trillion in spending more effectively if we
implement my agenda. The reductions in defense spending
that we have already begun will provide some of these
funds, and I don't want them wasted in a torrent of new
spending programs designed by a horde of special
interests.
I honestly believe that this is the only way to get
the size and spending of government under control. I
know that serious-minded people believe we need to
increase revenues to close the deficit. But it won't
work. I have seen too many times that efforts to close
the deficit by increasing taxes have only turned out to
give Congress a license to spend more money. There's a
58
reason for this. Spending is power for Congressmen.
That's how they show influence, placate interest groups.
That's how they get elected. If you give them more tax
money, they will spend it.
XI. A Strategy for Implementation
This year is an important turning point for the
United States. We are entering a new era, and for the
first time in many years, it appears that Congress will
have 150 new faces for the President to work with.
That's why I'm asking for a mandate for my program.
That's why I have promised that I will meet with all new
members -- all 150 or more before they are besieged
by the special interests and permanent staffs.
I also believe we need to take another step to
ensure that the new Congress does not become like the old
one. The root of the present problem is political
contributions from organized special interests through
18
political action committees, or PACS. Ten years ago,
ger
PACs raised and contributed $ million to political
candidates. This year the number will be closer to $
million. The other party doesn't want to do anything
about it, because they are the biggest recipients. I
want to put them to the test. I want a new Congress to
stay clean. So an important part of my new legislative
59
agenda will be a simple bill that bars all contributions
by PACS.
I am committed to make my program work with
Congress. Between the election and the convening of a
new Congress, I will lay out an implementation plan for
my agenda. I intend to be ready to present the new
Congress a first-year plan to carry out the legislative
proposals described in this agenda:
A tax cut package, including a cut in the
capital gains tax, to spur entrepreneurial
capitalism and small business
My health care reforms
My job training programs
A radical overhaul of American education to
emphasize excellence, standards, competition,
entrepreneurial schools and a "G.I. Bill for
Kids" that will give parents a choice of
schools.
NAFTA
A package to cut spending, including a Balanced
Budget Amendment
More general tax cuts paid for through new
spending and growth
60
A government reorganization plan to streamline
the structure, ensure functions to fit new
needs, and cut salaries at higher levels
Reform of our legal system
A package to clear away crime, build business,
and put people to work in our inner cities
An expansion of Civilian R&D linked to new
applications
New trade negotiating authority
Ban on PAC contributions
Now I know I may not be able to get everything I
want in the exact way I want it. But your support for
a mandate to get it done would give me momentum. And
then I intend to fight for this agenda, fight as hard as
I can to get as much as I can, and come back again to get
more.
If Congress hesitates on some fronts, I intend to
keep moving forward. You have seen that we can implement
back-to-work welfare reform by granting waivers that
enable the states to do the job more effectively.
Similarly, 44 states and more than 1700 communities have
started to implement my educational reforms while
Congress has stalled. We can get a great deal done at
the state and local levels.
61
I will work with governors, state legislatures,
local governments, and the private sector to pursue my
agenda. While I want a Congress that can help me do the
job, I'm committed to getting the job done one way or the
other.
This is my Agenda for American Renewal. With the
end of the long Cold War, we can direct more energy and
resources to target problems at home. The American
people want that. The American people deserve that.
At the same time, Americans recognize that the great
events of recent years have shook the world, and it will
never be the same. If we are to succeed as a nation and
as a people, if we are to hold true to all that has made
America the last, best hope on earth, then our renewal
at home must at the same time enable us make the 21st
Century another American Century.
My Agenda draws together our people and our
government to take on this challenge. We will create a
$10 trillion economy. We will renew America. We will
win the peace.
My approach to this challenge is fundamentally
different from my opponent's. I want to stimulate
entrepreneurial capitalism. I want to help people by
enabling them to make their own choices about health,
62
education, job training, and child care from a variety
of competing alternatives. I want to supply services
through the private sector. I believe people should sue
each other less and care for each other more. I want
Government to spend less and tax less. I will fight
without hesitation for a free and fair flow of trade,
capital, and ideas around the world. I believe America
should compete, not retreat.
I know times have been tough for too many Americans.
I have sought to explain the causes of these problems and
what I will do about them. of course, you will have
change. The question is what type of change. You face
a serious choice. And I ask, when you step into that
voting booth, please consider carefully which candidate's
agenda for change fits best with your beliefs, America's
experience, and lasting peace and prosperity.
63
APPENDIX A: Some Facts About the American Economy
The average unemployment rate during my term has remained
below the average of the Carter years and puts us well
ahead of G-7 partners like Canada, Britain, and
France -- where unemployment rates are 10% or higher.
Average family income reached $42,652 in 1990,
$15,000 more than before the expansion began.
it the 80's asp
A recent
study by the Urban Institute
concluded: "When one follows individuals rather
than statistical groups defined by income, one
finds that, on average, the rich got a little
richer and the poor got much richer
This
pattern, however, may be surprising to the
general public which has been led to believe
that the poor were literally getting poorer
over the last decade or two, and that the
THIS
incomes of the rich were skyrocketing. That
is simply not true. "
More than half the people making up the lowest
fifth of the income distribution in the late
get P.
1970s, moved up the income ladder and out of
that category over the next ten years.
64
Moreover, the middle class shrank because more
of them moved above the $50,000 threshold and
3
&
into the high income groups --they weren't
or seme Prev STATE
moving down.
of
Real per capita income rose 15.7% during the
'80s.
{Consider a substitute statistic}
BOSIEN 3 wage data, compensation, hourly
easings vs:
Proppis
All major demographic groups shared in the total
approxity
economic growth. Between 1982 and 1991, dimpensating
per capita
317.936P still INCREASE PER
employment of Blacks was up 29% and Hispanics
vs, family
52%. The employment-to-population ratio for (family
Black Americans during my tenure has averaged fonds to
a record 55.7%, up 52.8% during the Carter do better)
IN
Some income /compensati/
years.
198°, '89
wage statistic to
Conter
Since 1980: life expectancy has increased from engonis
73.7 to 75.3 years; the infant mortality rate was
has dropped from 12 to 10.1 for 1,000 live 10
P
births; deaths from heart diseases have dropped
See
impression
from 202 to 166 per hundred thousand people,
an 18% decline; deaths from strokes and related
diseases have dropped from 40.8 to 29.7 per
hundred thousand people, a 27% decline.
65
Our 1993 Budget request for Childrens' Programs
reflects an increase of 66% since 1989; we
sue P 9
recommended funding of $100 billion for
programs assisting children in
.
From 1980 to 1991, Federal support for
Education increased 59%, to $54.6 billion. The
total volume of guaranteed student loans grew
from $4.6 billion in 1980 to $11.5 billion in
Naty Post-secondary
Student Aid Study DoEd
1991 -- an increase of almost 150%. One XX of HALF
Bill Moran 708-8391
X
+
+
+
every
two
at
X-year
X
students
4-year
public
Bill Moran
actual % is 43%
institutions X gets a federal student loan or
XX
x
X
X
X
708-8391
He says I is okay.
If we cut "4-yr, pub. inst."
X
gránt.
% becomes 52%.
During the 1980s, expenditures per student in
public elementary and secondary schools rose
from $2,502 to $5,266, an increase of 110%.
The United States is spending more per pupil
than any other country except Switzerland.
Federal investments in biomedical research have p9
almost tripled since 1980, reaching a level of
$9.4 billion in 1993.
Since 1989, we have increased AIDS research
funding by 39%, to over $1.2 billion dollars;
66
AIDS prevention funding by 29% to $621
million;, and AIDS treatment funding by 240%
to $2.5 billion.
Total public investment in infrastructure in
the 1980s grew 2.2% annually, roughly equal to
the growth of the 1960s and greater than the
growth of the 1970s.
Since 1989, Federal spending for infrastructure
MORE THAN
has increased at a nominal average of 6%
annually. And I signed into law a Surface
Transportation Act that will support over one
million jobs per year while strengthening our
road, rail, and air transport systems.
Government investment in R&D is at a record
BUDGET FY93 FY
PART ONE- 88
level of $76 billion.
SECTIONG
ENHANCINE R&D AND EXPANDING
THE HUMAN FRONTIER
Spending on Federal law enforcement has grown
10
from $4.8 billion in 1981 to an estimated $15.8
sie
billion in 1993. This has paralleled a
dramatic 22% decrease in the national crime
rate over the same period:
-- Rape decreased 33%
-- Robbery was down 24%
67
-- Assaults fell by 14%
-- Theft was down 25%
According to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, the current use of any illicit drug by
Americans age 12 & over dropped 10.8 million,
or roughly 45% between 1985 and 1991. Our
National Drug Control Strategy helped cut
overall drug use by 13% and adolescent use by
27%.
The Federal budget for environmental programs
more than doubled since we took office. And
we have proposed a 22% increase -- an added
$3.4 billion -- for 1993.
)
The U.S. currently spends more on pollution
control than any other country in the world,
OVER
devoting at least $115 billion annually, worth
2% of our GDP. That's why during the past two
decades:
-- Lead pollution is down 96%
-- Carbon monoxide poisoning is down 41%
:
Water pollution {suspended solids}
is down 80%
68
-- Sulphur dioxide pollution
{contributes to acid rain} is down
25%
With the new Clean Air Act, which I promised
in 1988 that we would achieve, we will cut acid
rain emissions in half, reduce smog in our
cities, and cut air toxic emissions by 75%.
By pressing for and achieving the Americans
with Disabilities Act, another promise from
1988, we will bring almost 43 million disabled
Americans into the economic mainstream.
All major categories of exports gained during
my term. Exports of industrial supplies
increased by 22%, capital goods by 45%,
36
78
automotive by -26%, and consumer goods by 98%.
U.S. export growth under my leadership has been
roughly twice the rate of the other G-7 major
industrial countries.
18-50
(3 TRILL D 30 FOSTE BILLION)
isery Index -- the sum of
infla
'81 - NOW
BUEN
.8 percent today, down from
THE
19.6
2. BTRILLION YRS NEXT 12
INCREASE IN
è
NEARLY
percent.
GD P (5898 DOUBLED IT year low.
(w/no acced of
ns gives us the highest
standa
inflation (IF WE
И
we care get NEARLY DOUBLE ship rate of all major
indust
there by the IT
year 2000 AGAIN) mts
W
ren on to higher education -
-in lesther
- a ra
well above Germany's 32
percen
(Halians double
it em 4
A
yrs cu3 inflat is high's population, we produce 25
percent OF the world's total output.
I could go on, but I do not mean to suggest that all is well
-- that we do not need to lead and manage the changes
transforming our economy. Yet we must recognize what we have
But you cant chart the stars fyou think He sky is folling.
accomplished together
this remarkable American engine we have
WE HAVE
has almost doubled the Size of our economy Its an if
built
Over the past 12 years our GDP increased $1. trillion.
we created two extra economics
REAL CAMOST
It's as if we created an economy the size of Germany's from
94%
scratch. Certainly our goal of a $10 trillion economy is not
(NCR)
beyond reach
will we neet OM goals?
How do we get there? Before outlining the specifics of my
agenda, allow me to set out four principles. I believe these
principles are enduring, and deeply embedded in the American
I wldnt soy theyve always been enduring. l Eg., Like He 4thove)
Cline cut enduring here, but still lewe He rest seetern