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National Association of Home Builders Convention, 1/19/90
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1
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Miami, Florida)
For Immediate Release
January 19, 1990
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS CONVENTION
Omni Coliseum
Atlanta, Georgia
11:45 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Shirley, Florida's gift
to the home builders and trusted advisor to this President. I'm
delighted to be with you. I'm delighted to see a fellow Houstonian,
your next president, your incoming president -- Marty, good luck to
you in the travails ahead. I wish you the very best. And to other
VPs here -- Mark Tipton and Jay Buchert and Kent Colton and Bob
Bannister -- delighted to be with all of you. And, Patsy, what a job
you've done on this convention. Thank you for including me in it.
It's great to see you. It hasn't been so long, has it,
since that last meeting that Shirley referred to, in November. And,
of course, we have with us several other distinguished guests.
Congressman Newt Gingrich is here, and Chalmers Wiley -- so active in
the housing business. Steve Bartlett is over here, a fellow Texan.
Kit Bond, Senator Bond, great leaders in the Senate -- Senator Wyche
Fowler flew down with me on Air Force One. So you have a very
distinguished somebody. congressional delegation here, and I expect I'm missing
Also with me on the plane -- and doesn't have that much
to do with housing, but he's here and I'm very proud of him, is
Secretary Manual Lujan, the Secretary of the Interior, who came with
me -- over here someplace. Whoops, where is -- there he is on the
end -- and other members of what I think is an outstanding Cabinet.
And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't single out an old friend of
mine -- one fatal flaw, he's a Democrat -- (laughter) -- but one old
friend of mine, and that is Atlanta's old and yet new Mayor, my
friend -- and I mean that -- Maynard Jackson, and his family are here
with us today, too. (Applause.) So, Maynard, we wish you all the
best, all the best in the job ahead.
And what a treat it is to be back in Atlanta. In fact,
I believe that it was in this very hall about a year and a half ago
that the party opposite from mine held their 1988 convention. And,
of course, I have fond memories of that convention -- it gave me a
very good excuse to go fishing in Wyoming with Jim Baker.
(Laughter.) And the question was appropriately raised, "Where was
George?" Albeit a year and a half later, I'm proud to say, "Here I
am," proud to be with the Home Builders. (Applause.)
Isn't it great to live in a country with no limits? Who
would have thought that I would put my silver foot in the same place
where Ann Richards talked? (Laughter and applause.)
In any event, it is great to be back among the Home
Builders of America. I really hope you all appreciate one thing:
it's not every day that this Association gets to hear from one who
actually lives in public housing. (Laughter.) And let me say
parenthetically, I'm very sorry that my favorite Silver Fox is not
with me. She's doing literacy work in Florida. But I might add I am
very (Applause.) proud of Barbara Bush, and I wish she were with me here today.
MORE
- 2 -
You see, before we moved to the White House, Barbara and
I were a home builder's and, yes, a realtors's dream. We lived in 28
places in 45 years. And yet, in a real sense, wherever we lived --
whether it was in Houston, Washington, New York or China -- our
family had one true home that we took with us wherever we went.
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
our son, George, was just a baby -- a tiny ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition down
the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving us with a
small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip window unit
-- you remember those cooler units they used to use out there --
cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still couldn't drown out the
noise of the all-night parties next door.
But that first house that Barbara and I lived in couldn't
compare to those new "smart houses" that you in the NAHB are
building. We were fortunate that the wiring even worked, while today
you're putting telephone, televison and power together on one master
cable, linked to a computer. It is remarkable what free enterprise
and American ingenuity can do. (Applause.)
Yet, despite it all, Lord Byron was right -- a home is a
place in the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us,
that little tiny shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry,
how many families break apart because they can't afford to buy or
rent a home even half as decent as that first place that we lived in.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate
the financial life of America's young people. (Applause.) When it
comes to housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots." And I salute your Association who understands that principle
and is doing something about it.
The fact is that for the last decade and a half, the cost
of new homes -- the cost of the American dream, if you will -- has
been escalating. Young couples just starting out, low and
moderate-income Americans, unmarried people trying to invest in the
future -- and many are finding themselves priced out of the home
market, especially new homes.
To create decent housing that people can afford, the
government and the private sector must cut some red tape. So I've
asked my able, distinguished Secretary of HUD Jack Kemp -- and what a
job he is doing for housing in this country -- (applause) -- to
convene a blue ribbon commission to identify these barriers to
affordable housing construction and to make recommendations on how to
eliminate them.
And while I'm at it, let me just get something off my
chest. As you know, as I travel around this country I've encouraged
the planting of trees and even planted a few myself -- half of which
lived. (Laughter.) But in these same travels I see so many new
suburbs that are utterly denuded of trees. Ironic, since the new
owner's first instinct will be to plant as many trees as possible.
Ironic also because trees clean out air. And so I respectfully
suggest as a former businessman that leaving the original trees might
be a shrewd sales strategy. It's good for business and it is very
good for the environment. (Applause.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy and one
sales strategy that's better than all the others combined -- and, of
course, I'm talking about a healthy, growing economy with low,
long-term interest rates. (Applause.) This first month of the 1990s
marks the 86th month of economic growth in America. And as Shirley
says, it was housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime
recovery in modern history. You built nearly 10 million
single-family homes in the '80s and nearly five million multifamily
units. And by working together, the housing industry will keep this
country going strong in the '90s. (Applause.)
Now, you understand that the engine of homeownership in
MORE
- 3 -
America is the private enterprise system. And by helping those
entrepreneurs and risk-takers, more Americans will have access to the
dream of homeownership and decent housing.
But to keep America moving, keep it moving, we will need
the cooperation of Congress. And I can think of one simple action
that Congress can take to give this economic expansion a boost. It
has already been debated; it has already won the support of the
majority of the members in the House, the majority of the members in
the Senate. And what we need now is a simple up or down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains. (Applause.)
Some call such a cut a favor for the rich, and they
should know better. They should know what you know -- that a capital
gains tax cut favors economic growth, jobs, and opportunity for
working America. It favors every American who makes a living day
after day, brick by brick, hammer on nail; and it helps those get
jobs those who do not have jobs now. A capital gains tax cut will
help every American who holds a job or owns a home.
And so I call on the Democrat leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break and to let the House and Senate work
their will by having an up or down vote on the capital gains tax cut,
and do it soon after the Congress comes back. (Applause.)
Also vital to the home buyer and the home builder alike
are low and stable rates of interest. A one percent interest
increase, one percent increase in the rate of interest knocks
millions of families out of the market. In the last few years,
millions of families could afford a new home because mortgage
interest rates have dropped, from 18 percent in the early '80s to
less than 10 percent today. But I want to see them come down even
more. I am not satisfied at 10 percent. (Applause.)
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates, but to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies as
sound as those of the average American household. None of us is
allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it, nor should Congress
start planning where to spend a possible peace dividend. To the
extent that the world events allows us to cut defense spending, then
we should recognize that cutting the federal budget deficit would be
a true dividend for America's taxpayers and our children's future.
(Applause.) We must get that deficit down. (Applause.)
And too often we forget, Congress forgets that every
house is the handy work of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a
plumber, a carpenter, painter, dozens of other working men and women.
And if Congress levies new burdens on our economy it's these very
people who will be put out of work. But, of course, even if we do
cut the capital gains tax and even if we do keep interest rates low
and get them lower, and even if we do protect the economy, this is
cold comfort for those Americans who languish in the projects or the
thousands of others who know no shelter at all.
These Americans need help. They need hope. And so
that's just what I call our program that Jack and I are working on
together -- HOPE. It stands for homeownership and opportunity for
people everywhere. Our program addresses the full range of housing
concerns, from shelter to the homeless, to affordable housing for low
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings to
get into that first house. (Applause.)
And then -- God bless them there are those who must
live in the poverty and fear of public housing. They're
disproportionately minority Americans. And they suffer abuse from
drug-dealing predators within, and the last thing they need is abuse
from without. One of the first and, I think, very best things that
Jack Kemp did when he came into office was to change HUD procedures
- 4 -
so the drug dealers can be kicked out of public hou: in]. We owe that
to those people living in these public dwellings. Applause.)
And concerning abuse from without, let He say just one
thing -- Atlanta is a great and cheerful city. It has proudly risen
from the ashes of a distant past. And so for those W.10 plan to revel
in a rally of hate here tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans,
like all Americans, turn their backs on bigots. (Applause.)
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing,
our public housing tenants must first be empowered, empowered to
choose where they want to live, empowered by housing vouchers. Low
income families don't need us to build new public housing horrors,
these edifices. They need decent low income housing. And that's why
I call on the Congress to extend the low income housing tax credit.
(Applause.)
Earlier I discussed my capital gains cut proposal, but
even this cut would not be enough for America's impoverished inner
cities, often as desolate and as shattered as a war zone. No, for
these communities we've got to go one step further and eliminate the
capital gains tax all together within these enterprise zones, because
this surely will attract more investment and jobs and encourage more
development in these areas. (Applause.)
There is something perverse about discriminatory lending
practices that have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the
most help. And so my administration will ensure that FHA is true to
its first mission -- to make housing affordable for low and moderate
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city; it's not right or fair. And we're going to replace the red
line with a green line of opportunity and jobs for the future.
(Applause.)
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans live in
dignity and control their destiny. And dignity is exactly what
resident management projects allow. Tenant management and tenant
ownership is not just an experiment. It's the future. But even more
is needed. We're all going to have to work in a partnership to solve
the problems of the helpless and the homeless. My administration is
going to do its part by expanding homeless assistance. Late last
year I signed a bill that boosts funding under the McKinney Act to
reduce homelessness. Our HOPE proposals will tie shelter with basic
services for those in need. And Secretary Kemp, I know, will tell
you later of the other steps we're taking.
You're doing your part. You certainly are -- building
and renovating shelters for the homeless, for battered women, for
these troubled children and retarded adults. And you're working with
the Job Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training
them for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance. And,
again, I congratulate you on this commitment. What better "point of
light" -- one American helping another have a better life.
(Applause.)
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I referred to that I call the Thousand
Points of Light. I couldn't come to Atlanta without taking note of
one such point of light -- a part-time carpenter and his wife, who
have provided shelter for so many in this very city. And, of course,
I'm talking about the former President, Jimmy, and Roselynn Carter.
They deserve our thanks, as do all the people behind Habitat For
Humanity. (Applause.)
And he was President, and he deserves the applause you've
given him. And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella, once a
homeless mother, now she has her master's degree and serves the
homeless as a social worker in a shelter in Washington, D.C. And
when the family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they
need her, they need Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost with
her children in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out of the
south window of the White House at dusk and see the distant figures
- 5 -
of ragged men bedding down for the night, I pray to God that this
country find more people like Ella McCall. (ipplause.)
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless -- all
of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't about
money. It's about caring. And if it takes love to make a house a
home, then perhaps the same could be said of a country. For the
poorest among us, America must not just be a place to live in, but a
home for all.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United
States of America. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
END
12:08 P.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Miami, Florida)
For Immediate Release
January 19, 1990
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS CONVENTION
Omni Coliseum
Atlanta, Georgia
11:45 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Shirley, Florida's gift
to the home builders and trusted advisor to this President. I'm
delighted to be with you. I'm delighted to see a fellow Houstonian,
your next president, your incoming president -- Marty, good luck to
you in the travails ahead. I wish you the very best. And to other
VPs here -- Mark Tipton and Jay Buchert and Kent Colton and Bob
Bannister -- delighted to be with all of you. And, Patsy, what a job
you've done on this convention. Thank you for including me in it.
It's great to see you. It hasn't been so long, has it,
since that last meeting that Shirley referred to, in November. And,
of course, we have with us several other distinguished guests.
Congressman Newt Gingrich is here, and Chalmers Wiley -- so active in
the housing business. Steve Bartlett is over here, a fellow Texan.
Kit Bond, Senator Bond, great leaders in the Senate -- Senator Wyche
Fowler flew down with me on Air Force One. So you have a very
distinguished congressional delegation here, and I expect I'm missing
somebody.
Also with me on the plane -- and doesn't have that much
to do with housing, but he's here and I'm very proud of him, is
Secretary Manual Lujan, the Secretary of the Interior, who came with
me -- over here someplace. Whoops, where is -- there he is on the
end -- and other members of what I think is an outstanding Cabinet.
And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't single out an old friend of
mine -- one fatal flaw, he's a Democrat -- (laughter) -- but one old
friend of mine, and that is Atlanta's old and yet new Mayor, my
friend -- and I mean that -- Maynard Jackson, and his family are here
with us today, too. (Applause.) So, Maynard, we wish you all the
best, all the best in the job ahead.
And what a treat it is to be back in Atlanta. In fact,
I believe that it was in this very hall about a year and a half ago
that the party opposite from mine held their 1988 convention. And,
of course, I have fond memories of that convention -- it gave me a
very good excuse to go fishing in Wyoming with Jim Baker.
(Laughter.) And the question was appropriately raised, "Where was
George?" Albeit a year and a half later, I'm proud to say, "Here I
am," proud to be with the Home Builders. (Applause.)
Isn't it great to live in a country with no limits? Who
would have thought that I would put my silver foot in the same place
where Ann Richards talked? (Laughter and applause.)
In any event, it is great to be back among the Home
Builders of America. I really hope you all appreciate one thing:
it's not every day that this Association gets to hear from one who
actually lives in public housing. (Laughter.) And let me say
parenthetically, I'm very sorry that my favorite Silver Fox is not
with me. She's doing literacy work in Florida. But I might add I am
very proud of Barbara Bush, and I wish she were with me here today.
(Applause.)
MORE
- 2 -
You see, before we moved to the White House, Barbara and
I were a home builder's and, yes, a realtors's dream. We lived in 28
places in 45 years. And yet, in a real sense, wherever we lived --
whether it was in Houston, Washington, New York or China -- our
family had one true home that we took with us wherever we went.
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
our son, George, was just a baby -- a tiny ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition down
the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving us with a
small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip window unit
-- you remember those cooler units they used to use out there --
cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still couldn't drown out the
noise of the all-night parties next door.
But that first house that Barbara and I lived in couldn't
compare to those new "smart houses" that you in the NAHB are
building. We were fortunate that the wiring even worked, while today
you're putting telephone, televison and power together on one master
cable, linked to a computer. It is remarkable what free enterprise
and American ingenuity can do. (Applause.)
Yet, despite it all, Lord Byron was right -- a home is a
place in the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us,
that little tiny shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry,
how many families break apart because they can't afford to buy or
rent a home even half as decent as that first place that we lived in.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate
the financial life of America's young people. (Applause.) When it
comes to housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots." And I salute your Association who understands that principle
and is doing something about it.
The fact is that for the last decade and a half, the cost
of new homes -- the cost of the American dream, if you will -- has
been escalating. Young couples just starting out, low and
moderate-income Americans, unmarried people trying to invest in the
future -- and many are finding themselves priced out of the home
market, especially new homes.
To create decent housing that people can afford, the
government and the private sector must cut some red tape. So I've
asked my able, distinguished Secretary of HUD Jack Kemp -- and what a
job he is doing for housing in this country -- (applause) -- to
convene a blue ribbon commission to identify these barriers to
affordable housing construction and to make recommendations on how to
eliminate them.
And while I'm at it, let me just get something off my
chest. As you know, as I travel around this country I've encouraged
the planting of trees and even planted a few myself -- half of which
lived. (Laughter.) But in these same travels I see so many new
suburbs that are utterly denuded of trees. Ironic, since the new
owner's first instinct will be to plant as many trees as possible.
Ironic also because trees clean out air. And so I respectfully
suggest as a former businessman that leaving the original trees might
be a shrewd sales strategy. It's good for business and it is very
good for the environment. (Applause.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy and one
sales strategy that's better than all the others combined -- and, of
course, I'm talking about a healthy, growing economy with low,
long-term interest rates. (Applause.) This first month of the 1990s
marks the 86th month of economic growth in America. And as Shirley
says, it was housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime
recovery in modern history. You built nearly 10 million
single-family homes in the '80s and nearly five million multifamily
units. And by working together, the housing industry will keep this
country going strong in the '90s. (Applause.)
Now, you understand that the engine of homeownership in
MORE
- 3 -
America is the private enterprise system. And by helping those
entrepreneurs and risk-takers, more Americans will have access to the
dream of homeownership and decent housing.
But to keep America moving, keep it moving, we will need
the cooperation of Congress. And I can think of one simple action
that Congress can take to give this economic expansion a boost. It
has already been debated; it has already won the support of the
majority of the members in the House, the majority of the members in
the Senate. And what we need now is a simple up or down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains. (Applause.)
Some call such a cut a favor for the rich, and they
should know better. They should know what you know -- that a capital
gains tax cut favors economic growth, jobs, and opportunity for
working America. It favors every American who makes a living day
after day, brick by brick, hammer on nail; and it helps those get
jobs those who do not have jobs now. A capital gains tax cut will
help every American who holds a job or owns a home.
And so I call on the Democrat leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break and to let the House and Senate work
their will by having an up or down vote on the capital gains tax cut,
and do it soon after the Congress comes back. (Applause.)
Also vital to the home buyer and the home builder alike
are low and stable rates of interest. A one percent interest
increase, one percent increase in the rate of interest knocks
millions of families out of the market. In the last few years,
millions of families could afford a new home because mortgage
interest rates have dropped, from 18 percent in the early '80s to
less than 10 percent today. But I want to see them come down even
more. I am not satisfied at 10 percent. (Applause.)
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates, but to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies as
sound as those of the average American household. None of us is
allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it, nor should Congress
start planning where to spend a possible peace dividend. To the
extent that the world events allows us to cut defense spending, then
we should recognize that cutting the federal budget deficit would be
a true dividend for America's taxpayers and our children's future.
(Applause.) We must get that deficit down. (Applause.)
And too often we forget, Congress forgets that every
house is the handy work of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a
plumber, a carpenter, painter, dozens of other working men and women.
And if Congress levies new burdens on our economy it's these very
people who will be put out of work. But, of course, even if we do
cut the capital gains tax and even if we do keep interest rates low
and get them lower, and even if we do protect the economy, this is
cold comfort for those Americans who languish in the projects or the
thousands of others who know no shelter at all.
These Americans need help. They need hope. And so
that's just what I call our program that Jack and I are working on
together HOPE. It stands for homeownership and opportunity for
people everywhere. Our program addresses the full range of housing
concerns, from shelter to the homeless, to affordable housing for low
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings to
get into that first house. (Applause.)
And then --- God bless them -- there are those who must
live in the poverty and fear of public housing. They're
disproportionately minority Americans. And they suffer abuse from
drug-dealing predators within, and the last thing they need is abuse
from without. One of the first and, I think, very best things that
Jack Kemp did when he came into office was to change HUD procedures
MORE
- 4 -
so the drug dealers can be kicked out of public hou: inj. We owe that
to those people living in these public dwellings. Applause.)
And concerning abuse from without, let are say just one
thing -- Atlanta is a great and cheerful city. It has proudly risen
from the ashes of a distant past. And so for those W.10 plan to revel
in a rally of hate here tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans,
like all Americans, turn their backs on bigots. (Applause.)
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing,
our public housing tenants must first be empowered, empowered to
choose where they want to live, empowered by housing vouchers. Low
income families don't need us to build new public housing horrors,
these edifices. They need decent low income housing. And that's why
I call on the Congress to extend the low income housing tax credit.
(Applause.)
Earlier I discussed my capital gains cut proposal, but
even this cut would not be enough for America's impoverished inner
cities, often as desolate and as shattered as a war zone. No, for
these communities we've got to go one step further and eliminate the
capital gains tax all together within these enterprise zones, because
this surely will attract more investment and jobs and encourage more
development in these areas. (Applause.)
There is something perverse about discriminatory lending
practices that have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the
most help. And so my administration will ensure that FHA is true to
its first mission -- to make housing affordable for low and moderate
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city; it's not right or fair. And we're going to replace the red
line with a green line of opportunity and jobs for the future.
(Applause.)
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans live in
dignity and control their destiny. And dignity is exactly what
resident management projects allow. Tenant management and tenant
ownership is not just an experiment. It's the future. But even more
is needed. We're all going to have to work in a partnership to solve
the problems of the helpless and the homeless. My administration is
going to do its part by expanding homeless assistance. Late last
year I signed a bill that boosts funding under the McKinney Act to
reduce homelessness. Our HOPE proposals will tie shelter with basic
services for those in need. And Secretary Kemp, I know, will tell
you later of the other steps we're taking.
You're doing your part. You certainly are -- building
and renovating shelters for the homeless, for battered women, for
these troubled children and retarded adults. And you're working with
the Job Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training
them for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance. And,
again, I congratulate you on this commitment. What better "point of
light" -- one American helping another have a better life.
(Applause.)
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I referred to that I call the Thousand
Points of Light. I couldn't come to Atlanta without taking note of
one such point of light -- a part-time carpenter and his wife, who
have provided shelter for so many in this very city. And, of course,
I'm talking about the former President, Jimmy, and Roselynn Carter.
They deserve our thanks, as do all the people behind Habitat For
Humanity. (Applause.)
And he was President, and he deserves the applause you've
given him. And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella, once a
homeless mother, now she has her master's degree and serves the
homeless as a social worker in a shelter in Washington, D.C. And
when the family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they
need her, they need Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost with
her children in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out of the
south window of the White House at dusk and see the distant figures
MORE
- 5 -
of ragged men bedding down for the night, I pray to God that this
country find more people like Ella McCall. (ipplause.)
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless -- all
of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't about
money. It's about caring. And if it takes love to make a house a
home, then perhaps the same could be said of a country. For the
poorest among us, America must not just be a place to live in, but a
home for all.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United
States of America. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
END
12:08 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
1990 JAN i7 PM 8: 09
of
January 17, 1990
southays tiny
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
at
Through:
CHRISS WINSTON
CW
7PM
From:
MARK DAVIS MD
1-18
Subject:
Home Builder Association
I.
SUMMARY:
You will address the National Association of Home Builders,
an audience of about 11,000 people in the Omni Coliseum, Atlanta,
at 11 a.m., Friday, January 19. Your remarks will be on a
teleprompter.
II. DISCUSSION:
This is a good slice of middle America -- the very people
who are most inclined to support your views on capital gains,
economic growth and the "peace dividend." The second half of
this speech is dedicated to your HOPE initiative; recasting for
this audience the message you took to the realtors in Dallas.
Davis/Martin
Jan. 17, 1990
Title: Habitat
Draft: Three
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
11:00 a.m. FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman, Martin Perlman -- good to see
a fellow Houstonian -- Mark Tipton, Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and
Bob Bannister -- great to see you. Hasn't been so long, has it,
since our last meeting in November? And, of course, we have Newt
Gingrich, Chalmers Wylie and Steve Bartlett. ))
( (And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hall, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. Of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ) )
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ) )
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ((I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ) )
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
home builder's and a realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in
45 years. And yet, in a real sense, wherever we lived -- whether
it was in Houston, Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family
had one true home that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an tiny ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Of course, that first house Barbara and I lived in couldn't
compare to the new "smart houses" that you, in the NAHB, are
building. We were fortunate that the wiring even worked, while
today you are putting telephone, television and power together on
one master cable, linked to a computer. It's remarkable what
free enterprise and American ingenuity can do.
Yet despite it all, Lord Byron was right -- a home is a
place in the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us,
that little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how
many families break apart because they can't afford to buy or
rent a home even half as decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots.
The fact is that for the last decade and a half, the cost of
new homes -- the cost of the American dream -- has been
escalating. Young couples just starting out, low and moderate-
income Americans, unmarried people trying to invest in the future
3
-- many are finding themselves priced out of the home market,
especially new homes.
that
To create decent housing people can afford, the government
and private sector must cut some redtape. So I have asked Jack
Kemp to convene a blue ribbon commission to identify these
barriers to affordable housing construction and to make
recommendations on how to eliminate them.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
you know, as I travel around this country, I have encouraged the
planting of trees -- and even planted a few myself. But in these
same travels, I see so many new suburbs utterly denuded of trees
-- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct will be to plant
as many trees as possible; ironic also because trees clean our
air. So I respectfully suggest, as a former businessman, that
leaving the original trees might be a shrewd sales strategy.
It's good for business, and it's good for the environment.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy with low, long-term interest rates. This first
month of the 1990s marks the 86th month of economic growth in
America. As Shirley says, it was housing that paved the way to
the longest peacetime recovery in modern history. You built
nearly ten million single-family homes in the '80s, and nearly
five million multi-family units. And by working together, the
housing industry will help keep this country going strong in the
'90s.
4
The engine of homeownership in America is the private
enterprise system. And by helping those entrepreneurs and
risktakers, more Americans will have access to the dream of
homeownership and decent housing.
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-or-down vote to cut the
tax on capital gains.
Some call a capital gains tax cut a favor for the rich.
They should know better. They should know what you know -- that
a capital gains tax cut favors economic growth, jobs and
opportunity for working America. It favors every American who
makes a living, day after day, brick by brick, hammer on nail.
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the Democrat leaders of
and
Congress to give the American people a break, / to let democracy
work the House and Senate. work thin will by have an up
on down vote on This capital gains tax cut
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike are low and
stable rates of interest. A one-percent increase in the interest
rate knocks millions of families out of the market. In the last
few years, millions of families could afford a new home because
mortgage interest rates have dropped from 18 percent in the early
1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want to see them
come down even more.
5
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers and our children's future. III we must get the
Deficit Down -
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
6
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And SO for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate here tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all
Americans, turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to extend the low-income housing
tax credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether within enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about discriminatory lending
practices that have kept the FHA out of the very places that need
7
the most help. So my administration will ensure that FHA is true
to its first mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and
moderate-income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around
the inner city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to
replace the redline with a greenline for opportunity and jobs for
the future.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans live in
dignity and control their destiny -- and dignity is exactly what
resident management projects allow. Tenant management and tenant
ownership is not just an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
homeless assistance. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. Our HOPE
proposal will tie shelter with basic services for those in need.
And Secretary Kemp, I know, will tell you of other steps we are
taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
8
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella was once a
homeless mother. Now she has her masters degree, and serves the
homeless as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C.
When a family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they
need Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her
children in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south
window of the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of
ragged men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this
country finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
>
SUNUNU
>
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
>
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
OK Brune Заш for Siy Rajern
89 DEC 18 A9 : 27
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
( (Time) ) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
((And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. Of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming.) )
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ))
)
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. )) 111
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do. Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy.\ This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the 190s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE N/C
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN tacked to
cw
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
((Time) ) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
good tosee a fellow Houstonian,
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
( (And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
room hall of arena
Bob
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
Simon
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. of course, I have
(pick one)
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming.) )) \\\
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards.)
)
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ))
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a homebuilder
45
Bob
and realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in asimom
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Insert
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
>
A
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
.s.d
nots."\\\
AND
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
A+C
propose to do. Industry, too, must cut its regulation
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
planting for trees"
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
GOOD FOR business, GOOD FOR enviro.
Clemin
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
Cin
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
tie to clean AiR
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
with low, longterm interest rates
growing economy. \\ This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built nearly ten million homes in the '80s. And by multipanty
single family
and measly 5 million
units
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the '90s. insert 3
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
or
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman
rwoman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
Democrat
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
are/ow
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
check
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
18
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
and our children's future
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew extend the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
discrim, natory lending
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
replace the
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
with a green/me of opportunity and john for the for ture
live in
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
and
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
?
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
homeless assistance
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
our HOPE proposa ( will
the she Her with basic
Services for these in meed.
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness.
And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
was
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master Is degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
CHRiSS -
new INSERT,
FROM MARK
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy. This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the '90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
Some call a capital gains tax cut a favor for the rich.
They should know better. They should know what you know -- that
a capital gains tax cut favors economic growth, jobs and
opportunity for working America. It favors every American who
makes a living, day after day, brick by brick, hammer on nail.
So I call on the leaders of Congress to give the American
people a break, to let democracy work in the House and Senate.
HUD
insert 2
There's another vital underpinning of affordable housing and
that's the mortgage interest and property tax deduction. I want
you to know that this Administration will defend these basic tax
incentives as a vital part of our pro-homeownership agenda for the
nineties.
insert 3
The greatest engine of homeownership in America is the private
enterprise system. And by helping those entrepreneurs and
yes
risktakers, more Americans will have access to the dream of
homeownership and decent housing.
insert 4
Our tax systems reflects the values of our nation. In my view,
these are no higher goals for our country than to create jobs,
homeownership, and opportunity for every one of our citizens.
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P12
1441 06. 21 NHI
visat
HUD
The fact is that for the last decade and a half, the cost of new homes -
- the cost of the American dream -- has been escalating. Young couples just
starting out, low and moderate income AMericans, unmarried people trying to
&
invest in the futre -- many are finding themselves priced out of the home market,
especially new homes. The average cost of a new home today is $150,000.
The problem is not that the folks who build homes can't build them at
reasonable cost. The problem 1s that government at all levels won't let them.
When governments impose inconsistent regulation, onerous construction fees,
exclusive zoning laws, unnecessary building codes, rent control restrictions,
duplicative demands for architectural designs, and often change them while
projects are going forward the cost to the builder in legal, labor, design,
and engineering expenses 1s astronomical. And the home buyer is the one who has
to pay.
The environment, safety, and health must be protected. But governments
must start working together to eliminate or refor barriers to affordable housing.
I have asked Jack Kemp toa convene a blue ribbon commission to identify these
barriers to affordable housing construction and to make recommendations on how
C
to eliminate them.
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P11
JAN 17 '90 14:11
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 17, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
ROGER B. PORTER
RBP
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: Home Builders Association -
Atlanta
The draft remarks are well written, another solid effort.
We have indicated our comments on the attached draft. In
addition to the comments on the draft, we suggest inserting the
following text at the end of the first paragraph on page two.
"Of course, that first house Barbara and
I lived in couldn't compare to the new 'smart
We were fortunate that the wires never crossed war
houses' that you in the NAHB are working on
insertA
while you are going to puth telephone, television,
and power together on one master cable, linked to
a computer. It's remarkable what free enterprise
and American ingenuity can do."
You may also want to note that Martin Perlman, the incoming
NAHB president, is a fellow Houstonian.
If you have any questions or we can help in any other way,
please let me know.
CC: James W. Cicconi
89 DEC 17 P4: 20
to psecchuriting
Room 122
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATE
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
Comments attached. from HUD
20 : rd 4103068 LI
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
((Time)) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?))
((And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrate held their 1988 Convention. of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming.)
((But frankly I never thought my silver foot would stand en
the same spot as Arm Richards (PROP),
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ((I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ))\\\
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a homebuilder's
and realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
U S DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P03
14:07 06. 21 NHI
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
insert
cut some redtape - and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do.\\ Industry, too, must out its regulation -- For
here
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America. "
consert
7
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
2
I travel around this country, I see 80 many new suburbs utterly
here
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. so I respectfully
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P04
14:08 06. 21 NHI
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined a healthy,
growing economy
with \ out, long term interest rates.
This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the 1908.11 insert 3 here
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains
and unleash the entrepreneurs and small
business men and women.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman and women And remember the 47
million american who own shares of stock or equity
in America's printe enterprise septem
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P05
JAN 17 '90 14:08
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
yob or owns a home. so I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
low
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike, is a Sair
and more bousing and soon.
and stable rate of interest A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.\\
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that outting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers. And keeping the economy strong and expanding
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
economic people who growth will be will put out give of work. us a "growth dividend". Last
year the dividend exceeded + $ 80 111 billion 1. A smother en new government billion
11A
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P06
JAN 17 '90 14:09
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all. The measure of our national democracy is how
willing we are to provide opportunity for the poorect among un.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
S DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P07
60:00 06. 21 NHI
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to extend renew the low-income housing tax
credit. insult4 here
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise sones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
so my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw & red line around the inner
uplace the
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline
policy with altogether. a greenline of opportunity and fobs for the fulu
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
leve in
and
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta, Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
US DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P08
14:10 06. 21 NHI
7
and our posal HOPE shelta well
he
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness, And Jack
with
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
basic services
for those
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating in need
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
to live
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
in indign
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for BO many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And SO does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
U S DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P09
01:10 06. 21 NHI
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
U S DEPT OF HUD - OFC OF THE SECRETARY 230 P10
II:DI 06, 21 NHI
HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
11:00 A.M. FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((THANK YOU, SHIRLEY WISEMAN, MARTIN PERLMAN --
GOOD TO SEE A FELLOW HOUSTONIAN -- MARK TIPTON, JAY
BUCHERT, KENT COLTON AND BOB BANNISTER -- GREAT TO SEE
YOU. HASN'T BEEN SO LONG, HAS IT, SINCE OUR LAST
MEETING IN NOVEMBER? AND, OF COURSE, WE HAVE NEWT
GINGRICH, CHALMERS WYLIE AND STEVE BARTLETT. ))
Sec. Kemp, Sen Fower+ of Cong. Gingucle
((AND IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK IN ATLANTA. IN FACT,
I BELIEVE THAT IT WAS IN THIS VERY HALL, ABOUT A YEAR
AND A HALF AGO, THAT THE DEMOCRATS HELD THEIR 1988
CONVENTION. OF COURSE, I HAVE FOND MEMORIES OF THAT
CONVENTION. IT GAVE ME AN EXCUSE TO GO FISHING IN
WYOMING. ))\\\
((BUT FRANKLY, I NEVER THOUGHT MY SILVER FOOT
WOULD STAND ON THE SAME SPOT AS ANN RICHARDS. ))\\\\
IN ANY EVENT, IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK AMONG THE HOME
BUILDERS OF AMERICA. ((I JUST HOPE YOU APPRECIATE ONE
THING -- IT'S NOT EVERY DAY THAT THIS ASSOCIATION GETS
TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY LIVES IN PUBLIC
HOUSING. ))\\\
- 2 -
BEFORE WE MOVED TO THE WHITE HOUSE, BARBARA AND I
WERE A HOME BUILDER'S AND A REALTOR'S DREAM. WE LIVED
IN 28 PLACES IN 45 YEARS. AND YET, IN A REAL SENSE,
WHEREVER WE LIVED - -- WHETHER IT WAS IN HOUSTON,
WASHINGTON, NEW YORK OR BEIJING -- OUR FAMILY HAD ONE
TRUE HOME THAT WE TOOK WITH US WHEREVER WE WENT.
I REMEMBER THE FIRST PLACE BARBARA AND I LIVED IN,
WHEN GEORGE JUNIOR WAS JUST A BABY -- A TINY RAMSHACKLE
SHOTGUN HOUSE IN THE OIL TOWN OF ODESSA, TEXAS. IT HAD
A MAKESHIFT PARTITION DOWN THE MIDDLE THAT CUT THE
HOUSE INTO TWO APARTMENTS, LEAVING US WITH A SMALL
KITCHEN AND A SHARED BATHROOM. AN OLD WATER-DRIP
WINDOW UNIT THAT CRANKED UP LIKE A WEST TEXAS DUST
STORM STILL COULDN'T DROWN OUT THE NOISE OF THE
ALL-NIGHT PARTIES NEXT DOOR.
OF COURSE, THAT FIRST HOUSE BARBARA AND I LIVED IN
COULDN'T COMPARE TO THE NEW "SMART HOUSES" THAT YOU, IN
THE NAHB, ARE BUILDING. WE WERE FORTUNATE THAT THE
WIRING EVEN WORKED, WHILE TODAY YOU ARE PUTTING
TELEPHONE, TELEVISION AND POWER TOGETHER ON ONE MASTER
CABLE, LINKED TO A COMPUTER. IT'S REMARKABLE WHAT FREE
ENTERPRISE AND AMERICAN INGENUITY CAN DO.
- 3 -
YET DESPITE IT ALL, LORD BYRON WAS RIGHT -- A HOME
IS A PLACE IN THE HEART. I CAN'T SPEAK FOR OUR
NEIGHBORS, BUT FOR US, THAT LITTLE SHACK WAS HOME. AND
I HAVE TO WONDER, AND WORRY, HOW MANY FAMILIES BREAK
APART BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY OR RENT A HOME
EVEN HALF AS DECENT AS OUR FIRST PLACE. 11
WE CANNOT ALLOW THE HIGH COSTS OF HOUSING TO
SUFFOCATE THE FINANCIAL LIFE OF AMERICA'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
WHEN IT COMES TO HOUSING, THIS MUST NOT BECOME A
SOCIETY OF "HAVES" AND "HAVE NOTS. "\\\
THE FACT IS THAT FOR THE LAST DECADE AND A HALF,
THE COST OF NEW HOMES -- THE COST OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
-- HAS BEEN ESCALATING. YOUNG COUPLES JUST STARTING
OUT, LOW AND MODERATE-INCOME AMERICANS, UNMARRIED
PEOPLE TRYING TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE -- MANY ARE
FINDING THEMSELVES PRICED OUT OF THE HOME MARKET,
ESPECIALLY NEW HOMES.
- 4 -
TO CREATE DECENT HOUSING THAT PEOPLE CAN AFFORD,
THE GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTOR MUST CUT SOME
REDTAPE. SO I HAVE ASKED JACK KEMP TO CONVENE A BLUE
RIBBON COMMISSION TO IDENTIFY THESE BARRIERS TO
AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION AND TO MAKE
RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW TO ELIMINATE THEM.
(AND WHILE I'M AT IT, CAN I GET SOMETHING OFF MY
CHEST? AS YOU KNOW, AS I TRAVEL AROUND THIS COUNTRY, I
HAVE ENCOURAGED THE PLANTING OF TREES -- AND EVEN
PLANTED A FEW MYSELF. BUT IN THESE SAME TRAVELS, I SEE
so MANY NEW SUBURBS UTTERLY DENUDED OF TREES -- IRONIC,
SINCE THE NEW OWNERS' FIRST INSTINCT WILL BE TO PLANT
AS MANY TREES AS POSSIBLE; IRONIC ALSO BECAUSE TREES
CLEAN OUR AIR. so I RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST, AS A FORMER
BUSINESSMAN, THAT LEAVING THE ORIGINAL TREES MIGHT BE A
SHREWD SALES STRATEGY. IT'S GOOD FOR BUSINESS, AND
IT'S GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.)
- 5 -
BUT THE TRUTH IS, THERE'S ONE HOUSING POLICY, AND
ONE SALES STRATEGY, THAT'S BETTER THAN ALL OTHERS
COMBINED A HEALTHY, GROWING ECONOMY WITH LOW,
LONG-TERM INTEREST RATES. THIS FIRST MONTH OF THE
1990S MARKS THE 86TH MONTH OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN
AMERICA. AS SHIRLEY SAYS, IT WAS HOUSING THAT PAVED
THE WAY TO THE LONGEST PEACETIME RECOVERY IN MODERN
HISTORY. YOU BUILT NEARLY TEN MILLION SINGLE-FAMILY
HOMES IN THE '80S, AND NEARLY FIVE MILLION MULTI-FAMILY
UNITS. AND BY WORKING TOGETHER, THE HOUSING INDUSTRY
WILL HELP KEEP THIS COUNTRY GOING STRONG IN THE '90S.\\
THE ENGINE OF HOMEOWNERSHIP IN AMERICA IS THE
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM. AND BY HELPING THOSE
ENTREPRENEURS AND RISKTAKERS, MORE AMERICANS WILL HAVE
ACCESS TO THE DREAM OF HOMEOWNERSHIP AND DECENT
HOUSING.
- 6 -
BUT TO KEEP AMERICA MOVING, WE WILL NEED THE
COOPERATION OF CONGRESS. I CAN THINK OF ONE SIMPLE
ACTION CONGRESS CAN TAKE TO GIVE THE ECONOMIC EXPANSION
A BOOST. IT HAS ALREADY BEEN DEBATED. IT HAS ALREADY
WON THE SUPPORT OF THE MAJORITY OF MEMBERS. WHAT WE
NEED NOW IS A SIMPLE UP-OR-DOWN VOTE TO CUT THE TAX ON
CAPITAL GAINS.
SOME CALL A CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT A FAVOR FOR THE
RICH. THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER. THEY SHOULD KNOW WHAT
YOU KNOW - -- THAT A CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT FAVORS
ECONOMIC GROWTH, JOBS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR WORKING
AMERICA. IT FAVORS EVERY AMERICAN WHO MAKES A LIVING,
DAY AFTER DAY, BRICK BY BRICK, HAMMER ON NAIL.
A CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT WILL HELP EVERY AMERICAN
WHO HOLDS A JOB OR OWNS A HOME. SO I CALL ON THE
DEMOCRAT LEADERS OF CONGRESS TO GIVE THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE A BREAK, AND TO LET THE HOUSE AND SENATE WORK
THEIR WILL BY HAVING AN UP AND DOWN VOTE ON THE CAPITAL
GAINS TAX CUT.\\\
- 7 -
ALSO VITAL TO HOME BUYER AND HOME BUILDER ALIKE
ARE LOW AND STABLE RATES OF INTEREST. A ONE-PERCENT
INCREASE IN THE INTEREST RATE KNOCKS MILLIONS OF
FAMILIES OUT OF THE MARKET. IN THE LAST FEW YEARS,
MILLIONS OF FAMILIES COULD AFFORD A NEW HOME BECAUSE
MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES HAVE DROPPED FROM 18 PERCENT IN
THE EARLY 1980S TO LESS THAN 10 PERCENT TODAY.\\ AND I
WANT TO SEE THEM COME DOWN EVEN MORE.
THE 1990S MUST BE ANOTHER DECADE OF LOWER TAXES
AND LOWER INTEREST RATES. BUT TO HAVE A STABLE
ECONOMY, IT MUST ALSO BE A DECADE IN WHICH WASHINGTON,
AT LONG LAST, ADOPTS FISCAL POLICIES AS SOUND AS THOSE
OF THE AVERAGE AMERICAN HOUSEHOLD.
NONE OF US IS ALLOWED TO SPEND OUR BONUS BEFORE WE
EARN IT. NOR SHOULD CONGRESS START PLANNING WHERE TO
SPEND A POSSIBLE "PEACE DIVIDEND." TO THE EXTENT THAT
WORLD EVENTS ALLOW US TO CUT DEFENSE SPENDING, THEN WE
SHOULD RECOGNIZE THAT CUTTING THE FEDERAL BUDGET
DEFICIT WOULD BE A TRUE DIVIDEND FOR AMERICA'S
TAXPAYERS AND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE. WE MUST GET THE
DEFICIT DOWN.
- 8 -
AND TOO OFTEN, CONGRESS FORGETS THAT EVERY HOUSE
IS THE HANDIWORK OF AN ARCHITECT, A SURVEYOR, A MASON,
A PLUMBER, A CARPENTER, A PAINTER AND DOZENS OF OTHER
WORKING MEN AND WOMEN. IF CONGRESS LEVIES NEW BURDENS
ON OUR ECONOMY, IT IS THESE VERY PEOPLE WHO WILL BE PUT
OUT OF WORK.
BUT, OF COURSE, EVEN IF WE DO CUT THE CAPITAL
GAINS TAX; EVEN IF WE DO KEEP INTEREST RATES LOW; EVEN
IF WE DO PROTECT THE ECONOMY -- THIS IS COLD COMFORT
FOR THOSE AMERICANS WHO LANGUISH IN THE PROJECTS, OR
THE THOUSANDS OF OTHERS WHO KNOW NO SHELTER AT ALL.
THESE AMERICANS NEED HELP. AND THEY NEED HOPE --
so THAT'S JUST WHAT I CALL OUR PROGRAM -- HOPE, WHICH
STANDS FOR HOME OWNERSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE
EVERYWHERE.
OUR PROGRAM ADDRESSES THE FULL RANGE OF HOUSING
CONCERNS -- FROM SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS, TO
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES, TO GREATER
ACCESS TO JOBS.
- 9 -
LET'S START WITH WHAT HOPE CAN DO FOR FIRST-TIME
HOME-BUYERS. IT'S TIME CONGRESS LET AMERICANS USE
THEIR IRA SAVINGS TO GET INTO THAT FIRST HOUSE. III
THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO MUST LIVE IN THE POVERTY
AND FEAR OF PUBLIC HOUSING. THEY ARE
DISPROPORTIONATELY MINORITY AMERICANS. THEY SUFFER
ABUSE FROM DRUG-DEALING PREDATORS WITHIN -- AND THE
One of the first +
LAST THING THEY NEED IS ABUSE FROM WITHOUT. AND best things
CONCERNING THE LATTER, LET ME SAY JUST ONE THING: Jack "ump
* abuse from/w/o
did was TO
ATLANTA IS A GREAT, CHEERFUL CITY THAT HAS PROUDLY change
HUDD procedures vegulations
RISEN FROM THE ASHES OF A DISTANT PAST. AND SO FOR so that
THOSE WHO PLAN TO REVEL IN A RALLY OF HATE HERE
drug dealers
can we
TOMORROW, LET THEM KNOW THIS: ATLANTANS, LIKE ALL licked out
AMERICANS, TURN THEIR BACKS ON BIGOTS. 11
of public
housing.
TO ESCAPE VIOLENCE AND CRIME, TO LIVE IN DECENT
HOUSING -- OUR PUBLIC-HOUSING TENANTS MUST FIRST BE
EMPOWERED. EMPOWERED TO CHOOSE WHERE THEY WANT TO
LIVE. EMPOWERED BY HOUSING VOUCHERS.
- 10 -
LOW-INCOME FAMILIES DON'T NEED US TO BUILD NEW
PUBLIC-HOUSING HORRORS. THEY NEED DECENT LOW-INCOME
HOUSING. AND THAT'S WHY I CALL ON CONGRESS TO EXTEND
THE LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT. III
EARLIER, I DISCUSSED CAPITAL GAINS. BUT EVEN THIS
CUT WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH FOR AMERICA'S IMPOVERISHED
INNER-CITIES -- OFTEN AS DESOLATE AND SHATTERED AS A
WAR ZONE. NO, FOR THESE COMMUNITIES, WE'VE GOT TO GO
ONE STEP FURTHER AND ELIMINATE THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX
ALTOGETHER WITHIN ENTERPRISE ZONES. This surely will
attract more investment + Jobs.
THERE IS SOMETHING PERVERSE ABOUT DISCRIMINATORY
LENDING PRACTICES THAT HAVE KEPT THE FHA OUT OF THE
VERY PLACES THAT NEED THE MOST HELP. so MY
ADMINISTRATION WILL ENSURE THAT FHA IS TRUE TO ITS
FIRST MISSION -- TO MAKE HOUSING AFFORDABLE FOR LOW-
AND MODERATE-INCOME FAMILIES. IT'S WRONG TO DRAW A RED
LINE AROUND THE INNER CITY. IT'S NOT RIGHT OR FAIR.
AND WE'RE GOING TO REPLACE THE REDLINE WITH A GREENLINE
FOR OPPORTUNITY AND JOBS FOR THE FUTURE.
- 11 -
THE CENTERPIECE OF HOPE IS TO LET ALL AMERICANS
LIVE IN DIGNITY AND CONTROL THEIR DESTINY -- AND
DIGNITY IS EXACTLY WHAT RESIDENT MANAGEMENT PROJECTS
ALLOW. TENANT MANAGEMENT AND TENANT OWNERSHIP IS NOT
JUST AN EXPERIMENT -- IT'S THE FUTURE.
BUT EVEN MORE IS NEEDED. WE ARE ALL GOING TO HAVE
TO WORK IN A PARTNERSHIP TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF THE
HELPLESS AND THE HOMELESS. MY ADMINISTRATION IS GOING
TO DO ITS PART BY EXPANDING HOMELESS ASSISTANCE. LATE
LAST YEAR, I SIGNED A BILL THAT BOOSTS FUNDING UNDER
THE MCKINNEY ACT TO REDUCE HOMELESSNESS. OUR HOPE
PROPOSAL WILL TIE SHELTER WITH BASIC SERVICES FOR THOSE
IN NEED. AND SECRETARY KEMP, I KNOW, WILL TELL YOU OF
OTHER STEPS WE ARE TAKING.
YOU'RE CERTAINLY DOING YOUR PART -- BUILDING AND
RENOVATING SHELTERS FOR THE HOMELESS; FOR BATTERED
WOMEN; FOR TROUBLED CHILDREN AND RETARDED ADULTS. AND
YOU'RE WORKING WITH THE JOB CORPS, TAKING THE
UNSKILLED, THE OUT-OF-WORK, AND TRAINING THEM FOR
LIFETIME CAREERS IN CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE, AND I
CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR COMMITMENT.
- 12 -
BUT OUR PARTNERSHIP NEEDS A THIRD ELEMENT -- THAT
CONSTELLATION OF VOLUNTEERS I CALL THE THOUSAND POINTS
OF LIGHT. I COULDN'T COME TO ATLANTA, WITHOUT TAKING
NOTE OF ONE SUCH POINT OF LIGHT, A PART-TIME CARPENTER
AND HIS WIFE WHO HAVE PROVIDED SHELTER FOR so MANY IN
THIS VERY CITY -- FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY AND ROSALYNN
CARTER. THEY DESERVE OUR THANKS, AS DO ALL THE PEOPLE
BEHIND HABITAT FOR HUMANITY.
AND so DOES A WOMAN NAMED ELLA MCCALL. ELLA WAS
ONCE A HOMELESS MOTHER. NOW SHE HAS HER MASTERS
DEGREE, AND SERVES THE HOMELESS AS A SOCIAL WORKER AT A
SHELTER IN WASHINGTON, D.C. WHEN A FAMILY STRIVES TO
MOVE OUT OF A SHELTER INTO A HOME, THEY NEED ELLA.
WHEN A HOMELESS MOTHER WANDERS LOST, WITH HER CHILDREN
IN TOW, SHE NEEDS ELLA. AND WHEN I LOOK OUT THE SOUTH
WINDOW OF THE WHITE HOUSE AT DUSK, AND SEE THE DISTANT
FIGURES OF RAGGED MEN BEDDING DOWN FOR THE NIGHT -- I
PRAY TO GOD THAT THIS COUNTRY FINDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE
ELLA MCCALL.
- 13 -
YOUR WORK IN JOB TRAINING, JACK KEMP'S WORK IN
TENANT MANAGEMENT AND OWNERSHIP, ELLA MCCALL'S WORK
WITH THE HOMELESS -- ALL OF THIS ULTIMATELY SAVES THE
TAXPAYERS MONEY. BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT MONEY. IT'S
ABOUT CARING.
AND IF IT TAKES LOVE TO MAKE A HOUSE A HOME, THEN
PERHAPS THE SAME COULD BE SAID OF A COUNTRY. FOR THE
POOREST AMONG US, AMERICA MUST NOT JUST BE A PLACE TO
LIVE IN, BUT A HOME FOR ALL.
THANK YOU, GOD BLESS YOU AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.
###
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
>
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
See comments
SO Ed LI 030 68
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
( (Time) ) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
((And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ) )
((But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ))
)
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ) )
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in a
/
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place a in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do.\\ Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy.\ This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the '90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
or
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
I emocrate
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 18 percent
Al-Samri
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
Ryder
within
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
x4516
discriminatory
There is something perverse about destructive practices lending that
Ryder
X4516
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
[ too
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
strong
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name) ) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no
longer
an experiment it's the future.
to empowering the poor.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
Ryder
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
x4516
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
Homeless assistance.
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
wouldn't
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for °SO many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
was
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
>
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
( (Time)) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
( (Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
((And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ) )\\\
((But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ))\\\\
-
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ))
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
INSERT
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
AWKWARD
[Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
CONSTRUCTION
the heart I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do.\\ Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy. This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
NEARLY
SINGLE FAMILY
AND NEARUS 5
modern history. You built ten million/homes in the '80s/ And
by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the "90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
MILLION MULTIFAMILY UNITS.
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
ARE LOW
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
WE
CANNOT
and stable rate S of interest. [A one-percent increase in the
CONFIRM
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market.
But
THIS
STATISTIC. in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
OVER 15
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
AND OUR CHILDREN.
taxpayers
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape. violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
V
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
>
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
N/C N 1:50
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
( (Time) ) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
((And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. Of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ) )
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ))
)
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
1
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. )) \\\\
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do.\\ Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy.\ This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the "90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 17, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
JIM PINKERTON
SUBJECT:
Home Builders Association (Atlanta) Draft Speech
pg. 2, para. 5, line 1 "I see 30 many suburbs utterly denuded
of trees
[L]eaving the original trees might be a shrewd sales
strategy.
"
We applaud this clever use of the President's tree-
conservation theme -- if you can work trees into a defense
speech, we will really be impressed. More seriously, it would
pay to find out whether the Home Builders already have a policy
on this question of leaving the original trees, however, lest we
unknowingly walk into the middle of some existing controversy in
the industry.
5,5,3
"They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without."
The meaning of "within" and "without" is a unclear. We do
not really realize that the phrase "abuse from without, for
instance, means racism until the word "bigots" five lines later.
The idea of making a parallelism out of drugs and racism is
a good one, however. We suggest something like "They are
disproportionately minority Americans. They suffer
disproportionately from the scourge of crime and drug abuse. We
must better ensure their personal security. Their homes like
anyone else's should be secure from the elements, secure from
crime and drugs, and secure from fear and hatred, especially
racial hatred. And concerning the latter
"
###
89 DEC 17 P2 58
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 17, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
Deputy Assistant to the President for
Communications
FROM:
Associate Counsel Box Box to the President
BRENT O. HATCH
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks -- Home Builders Association
Counsel's office has reviewed the above-referenced Presidential
remarks. We have no legal objections.
Thank you for the opportunity to review this matter.
CC: James W. Cicconi
12:20 1330 68
Document No. 104717
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
01/16/90
2:00 p.m. 01/17/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC. - ATLANTA
SUBJECT:
(01/16 draft: Two)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
>
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
>>
ROGERS
CICCONI
PINKERTON
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
BOSKIN
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to Chriss
Winston by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 01/17, with a copy to my office.
Thanks.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
1990 JAN 16 PM 8: 19
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
( (Time)) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
( (Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
( (And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
/
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention. \\ of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ))
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. )) \\\\
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing. ))
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots.
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do. Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy. This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the '90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains. \\
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
#
#
Davis/Martin
Jan. 16, 1990
Title: Habitat
Draft: Two
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: HOME BUILDERS ASSOC., OMNI, ATLANTA
((Time)) FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1990
((Thank you, Shirley Wiseman -- Martin Perlman, Mark Tipton,
Jay Buchert, Kent Colton and Bob Bannister -- great to see you.
Hasn't been so long, has it, since our last meeting in
November?) )
( (And it's great to be back in Atlanta. In fact, I believe
that it was in this very hotel, about a year and a half ago, that
the Democrats held their 1988 Convention.\ of course, I have
fond memories of that convention. It gave me an excuse to go
fishing in Wyoming. ) )
( (But frankly, I never thought my silver foot would stand on
the same spot as Ann Richards. ))
In any event, it's great to be back among the Home Builders
of America. ( (I just hope you appreciate one thing -- it's not
every day that this association gets to hear from someone who
actually lives in public housing.) )
Before we moved to the White House, Barbara and I were a
realtor's dream. We lived in 28 places in 44 years. And yet, in
real sense, wherever we lived -- whether it was in Houston,
Washington, New York or Beijing -- our family had one true home
that we took with us wherever we went.
2
I remember the first place Barbara and I lived in, when
George Junior was just a baby -- an old ramshackle shotgun house
in the oil town of Odessa, Texas. It had a makeshift partition
down the middle that cut the house into two apartments, leaving
us with a small kitchen and a shared bathroom. An old water-drip
window unit that cranked up like a West Texas dust storm still
couldn't drown out the noise of the all-night parties next door.
Yet despite it all, Byron was right -- a home is place in
the heart. I can't speak for our neighbors, but for us, that
little shack was home. And I have to wonder, and worry, how many
families break apart because they can't afford to buy or rent a
home even as half decent as our first place.
We cannot allow the high costs of housing to suffocate the
financial life of America's young people. When it comes to
housing, this must not become a society of "haves" and "have
nots."\\\
To create decent housing people can afford, government must
cut some redtape -- and that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I
propose to do.\\ Industry, too, must cut its regulation -- for
example, by easing up on the demanding, often redundant,
paperwork necessary to get a mortgage in America.
(And while I'm at it, can I get something off my chest? As
I travel around this country, I see so many new suburbs utterly
denuded of trees -- ironic, since the new owners' first instinct
will be to plant as many trees as possible. So I respectfully
3
suggest, as a former businessman, that leaving the original trees
might be a shrewd sales strategy.)
But the truth is, there's one housing policy, and one sales
strategy, that's better than all others combined -- a healthy,
growing economy. This first month of the 1990s marks the 86th
month of economic growth in America. As Shirley says, it was
housing that paved the way to the longest peacetime recovery in
modern history. You built ten million homes in the '80s. And by
working together, the housing industry will help keep this
country going strong in the "90s.\\
But to keep America moving, we will need the cooperation of
Congress. I can think of one simple action Congress can take to
give the economic expansion a boost. It has already been
debated. It has already won the support of the majority of
Members. What we need now is a simple up-and-down vote to cut
the tax on capital gains.
What would such a cut mean for America? Senator Bob Dole
told me he was having lunch at a restaurant in New York. And
just as he was getting ready to leave, Bob's waiter stopped him
and said: "Senator, please pass this capital gains tax cut. I'm
getting ready to sell my house, and a tax cut would mean a world
bad exomp.
of difference to my family." So when someone tries to convince
Bostin
you that this is a tax cut for the rich, remember that waiter.
Remember the retiree who's selling a home. Remember the farmer
and the small businessman.
4
A capital gains tax cut will help every American who holds a
job or owns a home. So I call on the leaders of Congress to give
the American people a break, to let democracy work in the House
and Senate.
Also vital to home buyer and home builder alike is a fair
and stable rate of interest. A one-percent increase in the
interest rate knocks two million families out of the market. But
in the last few years, millions of families could afford a new
home because mortgage interest rates have dropped from 14 percent
in the early 1980s to less than 10 percent today. And I want
to see them come down even more.
The 1990s must be another decade of lower taxes and lower
interest rates. But to have a stable economy, it must also be a
decade in which Washington, at long last, adopts fiscal policies
as sound as those of the average American household.
None of us is allowed to spend our bonus before we earn it.
Nor should Congress start planning where to spend a possible
"peace dividend." To the extent that world events allow us to
cut defense spending, then we should recognize that cutting the
federal budget deficit would be a true dividend for America's
taxpayers.
And too often, Congress forgets that every house is the
handiwork of an architect, a surveyor, a mason, a plumber, a
carpenter, a painter and dozens of other working men and women.
If Congress levies new burdens on our economy, it is these very
people who will be put out of work.
5
But, of course, even if we do cut the capital gains tax;
even if we do keep interest rates low; even if we do protect the
economy -- this is cold comfort for those Americans who languish
in the projects, or the thousands of others who know no shelter
at all.
These Americans need help. And they need hope -- so that's
just what I call our program -- HOPE, which stands for Home
Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere.
Our program addresses the full range of housing concerns --
from shelter for the homeless, to affordable housing for low-
income families, to greater access to jobs.
Let's start with what HOPE can do for first-time home-
buyers. It's time Congress let Americans use their IRA savings
to get into that first house.
Then there are those who must live in the poverty and fear
of public housing. They are disproportionately minority
Americans. They suffer abuse from drug-dealing predators within
-- and the last thing they need is abuse from without. And
concerning the latter, let me say just one thing: Atlanta is a
great, cheerful city that has proudly risen from the ashes of a
distant past. And so for those who plan to revel in a rally of
hate tomorrow, let them know this: Atlantans, like all Americans,
turn their backs on bigots.\\
To escape violence and crime, to live in decent housing --
our public-housing tenants must first be empowered. Empowered to
choose where they want to live. Empowered by housing vouchers.
6
Low-income families don't need us to build new public-
housing horrors. They need decent low-income housing. And
that's why I call on Congress to renew the low-income housing tax
credit.
Earlier, I discussed capital gains. But even this cut would
not be enough for America's impoverished inner-cities -- often as
desolate and shattered as a war zone. No, for these communities,
we've got to go one step further and eliminate the capital gains
tax altogether with enterprise zones.
There is something perverse about destructive practices that
have kept the FHA out of the very places that need the most help.
So my administration will ensure that FHA is true to its first
mission -- to make housing affordable for low- and moderate-
income families. It's wrong to draw a red line around the inner
city. It's not right or fair. And we're going to strike this
redline policy altogether.
The centerpiece of HOPE is to let all Americans enjoy the
dignity of controlling their destiny -- and dignity is exactly
what resident management projects allow, from the Kenilworth-
Parkside project in Washington, D.C., to the ((name)) right here
in Atlanta. Tenant management and tenant ownership is no longer
an experiment -- it's the future.\\
But even more is needed. We are all going to have to work
in a partnership to solve the problems of the helpless and the
homeless. My administration is going to do its part by expanding
emergency shelters. Late last year, I signed a bill that boosts
7
funding under the McKinney Act to reduce homelessness. And Jack
will tell you of other steps we are taking.
You're certainly doing your part -- building and renovating
shelters for the homeless; for battered women; for troubled
children and retarded adults. And you're working with the Job
Corps, taking the unskilled, the out-of-work, and training them
for lifetime careers in construction and maintenance, and I
congratulate you on your commitment.
But our partnership needs a third element -- that
constellation of volunteers I call the Thousand Points of Light.
I couldn't come to Atlanta, without taking note of one such point
of light, a part-time carpenter and his wife who have provided
shelter for so many in this very city -- former President Jimmy
and Rosalynn Carter. They deserve our thanks, as do all the
people behind Habitat for Humanity.
And so does a woman named Ella McCall. Ella once a homeless
mother. Now she has her master's degree, and serves the homeless
as a social worker at a shelter in Washington, D.C. When a
family strives to move out of a shelter into a home, they need
Ella. When a homeless mother wanders lost, with her children her
in tow, she needs Ella. And when I look out the south window of
the White House at dusk, and see the distant figures of ragged
men bedding down for the night -- I pray to God that this country
finds more people like Ella McCall.
Your work in job training, Jack Kemp's work in tenant
management and ownership, Ella McCall's work with the homeless --
8
all of this ultimately saves the taxpayers money. But this isn't
about money. It's about caring.
And if it takes love to make a house a home, then perhaps
the same could be said of a country. For the poorest among us,
America must not just be a place to live in, but a home for all.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
#
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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
FACSIMILE TRANSMITTAL SHEET
NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER
14
DATE 1/18/90
TO Randy WHCA
FAX NUMBER 404/681-5484
OFFICE NUMBER
COMMENTS
FROM StepGanie Haudner
FAX NUMBER 202/456-6218
OFFICE NUMBER 202/456-2930