Excerpts of Remarks in Des Moines, Iowa

Mayor Giuliani On Ending Anonymous Earmarks

"We need to support legislation that would stop irresponsible and anonymous earmarks. … And here's how you stop it: A bill that has it earmarked should have the name of the congressman or senator who is proposing that spending so you can find out about it, you can know about it, the watchdog press can know about it. And next to that there should be an estimate of how much it costs. That should be done in advance. In fact, all congressional legislation should have that done in advance. There should be an estimate of what it costs, but particularly the earmark spending. And a president, whether it is me or anyone else, should tell you that if that spending is not properly identified, that we will veto that legislation to make sure that we don't have this kind of spending that starts off with this project here, that project there, this project here, this project somewhere else, that is totally unaccountable, and then spending just gets totally out of control. So we're going to need legislation that requires the earmarks be identified."

Mayor Giuliani On Reducing The Federal Workforce By Twenty Percent

"Forty-two percent of Federal employees will retire within the next 8 to 10 years. … Here is what I would do: I would try to not rehire for those positions about half, because that would be the perfect way to make the transition into the Information Age. These jobs were largely created in some cases before we had computers, in many cases before we had the Internet, in many cases--in many, many cases before the Information Age. Most American corporations have gone through this transition. … The federal government needs to go through that. … And the savings you can get from that, if you just follow the practice of forty-two percent retire, we only hire back half for new positions, you save 21 billion dollars. This is the way the president has to think. … If the thinking about cutting back and cutting down does not come from the top, like it did with Ronald Reagan, it doesn't happen, because there's no place else in government that thinks this way."

Mayor Giuliani Calls For A Constitutional Amendment Establishing The Line-Item Veto

"[W]e should enact a constitutional amendment that allows for a line-item veto. … I said before that a president should veto any legislation that doesn't properly identify earmarks. Let me make one amendment to that. … The Iraq spending bill that President Bush signed contained earmarks for what would be regarded as outrageous and irrelevant spending, having … nothing to do with Iraq … The President signed that bill. … The President had no choice because otherwise he'd leave the troops without the materials they would need to stay alive and to function. If the President had the line-item veto, the President could cut those out. The President could take the Iraq spending bill, for example, cut out anything that's irrelevant to Iraq, veto that, sign the rest of the bill, he'd have the money for the troops, and … he'd exercise discipline over the out-of-control spending. The President doesn't have that power under our constitution. … The only way you're going to change that is a constitutional amendment, in order to give the President the power that I believe about 41 or 42 governors have."

Mayor Giuliani On Requiring Agencies To Submit 5-20% Budget Cuts Each Year

"I had great commissioners [in New York City]. I would not have achieved anything without their work, their creativity. However, even with all the great commissioners that I had, never once in the 8 years that I was Mayor did any one of my commissioners ever knock on my door, come in and say, 'Cut my agency by 10 percent.' I doubt that too many Cabinet Secretaries do that either. 'Say, Mr. President, please cut my agency by 5 or 10 percent. I don't need that much.' So Congress doesn't do it. Congress thinks about how many more projects can we do to get ourselves reelected. We've demonstrated that, right? So if you're going to exercise discipline, if the President doesn't do it, it doesn't happen. … The process of discipline has to start with the President, and the President needs to enforce it, and I will. … We will … use a concept that I borrowed from Ronald Reagan. He used it, and I would use it with the Federal Government, and that is to ask every agency to make cuts of 5 to 20 percent [annually]. Put the burden on them to show us what needs to be cut. In New York City we saved over 2.1 billion dollars over 8 years. You can save a lot more with the Federal Government. It's a lot bigger than New York City."