Remarks at Arrival Ceremony for the Republican National Convention in San Diego

I want to thank you very much. This is a very exciting day. Yesterday, I took Joanne and Jack down in the basement where I grew up in Russell, Kansas. And I said it is a long way from that basement apartment, where six of us lived for a long time, to San Diego.

And we are proud to be in San Diego. We are going to win this election on November 5, 1996.

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And there is no better way to arrive in San Diego than with a former quarterback and captain of the Chargers. And Jack , we're happy to have you onboard.

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I said I would pick a vice president who rates a 10. But I did even better, I picked one that had number 15 on his jersey every day he played football. So I got a number 15.

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My friends, this is your Republican ticket.

Come on up here, Jack.

[applause]

CHEERS: Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp!

DOLE: And keep in mind, these are two four letter words you can teach your children: Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp.

CHEERS: Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp!

DOLE: And with enthusiasm I see here today, there is no doubt in my mind that we are going to be elected president and vice president of the United States, as I said earlier, on November 5, 1996.

[applause]

The American people have waited long enough. And now it's time to bring back growth and opportunity to this country, to restore the American Dream and to give our nation a new birth of freedom. And that's what this campaign is going to be about all over America.

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Everything before has been a warm-up lap, a trial heat. But here in San Diego, the real race begins.

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And as Jack alluded to, as many of our young athletes in Atlanta, we are going to go for gold and we are going to win the gold on November 5, 1996.

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I went to Chicago recently.

DOLE: I announced my program to unleash America's potential to get the American families income moving up again and remove barriers so every person can have a shot at the American Dream. And we are going to do what Bill Clinton's people say can't be done but what the Republican governors, including Governor Wilson of California, have done all over America, and that is to balance the budget while cutting taxes. And it can be done. It has been done.

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And we are going to keep repeating throughout this campaign this very simple point: With a pro-growth Republican Congress, balancing the budget while cutting taxes is just a matter of presidential will. If you have it, you can do it. And I have it, and I will do it.

And that's it.

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And stop and think about it. We have an opportunity we haven't had for a long, long time. We've had a lot of years of the status could and high taxes and high spending and high deficits and low expectations. When Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the Democrats in Congress wouldn't cut spending. Now, we have a Republican Congress, but we have a president who has vetoed balanced budget and submitted budgets with deficits as far as the eye can see.

But in 1996, we are going to turn things around. All we have to do is elect a Republican Congress and a Republican president, and we'll end the gridlock of the big spenders. Their days will be over in Washington, D.C..

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I have no doubt about it.

One man, Ronald Reagan, really did start it all. And we are thinking of him today. And God bless Ronald Reagan today.

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Now, it is up to us to finish the job and win the Reagan revolution once and for all. And we are going to get it done. Make no mistake about it.

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And that's why we are going to cut taxes, tax rates across the board for every working person in this country. Nothing very complicated about it at all. If you pay taxes under my plan, you pay less. That is not too complicated.

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You pay 15 percent less. That is not too complicated.

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There is that number 15 again — 15 percent less.

And every family that I know could use that 15 percent, and I'll bet you can, too. And we are going to make it happen.

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In a lot of two-income families, one spouse works full time to support the family while the other works full time to support the government. It shouldn't have to be that way in the United States of America.

Now, of course in our family starting in January, I'll be the spouse working for the government.

[laughter]

But that is a sacrifice that I'm willing to make.

[applause]

But if both spouses in a family work, they should do it because they want to not because they have to, to pay higher taxes. And that is why we are going to balance the budget and cut taxes. And it can be done at the same time, make no mistake about it.

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DOLE: Bill Clinton says that he and his party — and I use a quote. He said, "we are unalterably opposed to," to our tax relief program.

Now frankly, I didn't think there was such a thing as a Clinton position that couldn't be altered. So, this has to be a first. This has to be a first.

Bill Clinton and his party say that balancing the budget while cutting taxes can not be done. Well, let them speak for themselves and we will speak for American people, the working people all across this great country of ours.

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A long time ago I had to learn to take the phrase, "can't be done," and toss it right out of my vocabulary and put it out of my mind completely. And if I hadn't done that, I would not be here today.

So, it can be done. And as president, I'm going to do it. I give you my word. I promise you that will happen.

[applause]

The fact that is if Bill Clinton opposed tax cuts, he obviously didn't mean it when he said the era of big government was over. I think what's happening, the era of Bill Clinton is about over. And that is going happen sooner than you think.

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We have a chance to make history by re-making America.

As of now, the president and his party are the party of the status quo. We are the reform party, Mr. Perot and all the others looking for Reform Party, we are the reform party — the Republican Party is the reform party.

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We are the party of change. We have all the ideas and they have all the excuses.

We are going to create more jobs by cutting the taxes on capital gains in half, create jobs and opportunities all across America. We are going to help farm families and small business people with a state tax reform so you can keep some of that — if somebody dies in a family, you don't have to sell off the estate to pay your estate taxes. We are going to end that in the United States of America.

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And don't forget about the IRS. We are going to end the IRS as we know it. We are going to end IRS as we know it.

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And that's not all we are going to do.

CHEERS: Dole '96. Dole '96. Dole '96. Dole '96

DOLE: All right.

CHEERS: Dole '96. Dole '96. Dole '96. Dole '96.

DOLE: And that's not all we are going to do in Dole-Kemp administration. Starting next January, we will fight the war against drugs and get back to winning it for a change.

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And we will appoint judges and prosecutors who care more about the rights of victims than of the rights of the criminals in a Dole-Kemp administration.

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And we'll move education out of hands of bureaucrats and unions and into the hands of the parents where it belongs in the first place and where it ought to stay.

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And we will reform the legal system to help all Americans rather than just a few trial lawyers.

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And we will revive the meaning of the 10th amendment of the Constitution and start returning power to the states and power to the people. That's what the 10th amendment says, power to the states and power to the people. And in our administration, it's going to go back to the states and back to the people.

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And when it comes to foreign policy, Bill Clinton's weakness and vacillation have done for American leadership abroad what the Titanic did for sea cruises years ago. And the last time I checked constitution, it said the president should be commander-in-chief not Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali of the United Nations.

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When I am president of the United States, our men and women in uniform will never serve under the pale, blue flag of the United Nations. We will have united commanders.

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They will serve under the proud, bold red, white and blue of the United States of America.

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So, let me conclude by saying that this election is not so much about one man or one party. It's about the homes that are safe, about neighborhoods where people no longer feel they have to lock their front door, about schools that teach and prepare our children respected values and the authority of parents. It's about getting the families real wages on the way up again so that mothers and fathers can spend more time with their children, more time teaching them right from wrong, more time building stronger communities and working for a better future for everyone.

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That is what this election is about. And Jack and I are going to work side by side with the Republican Congress to restore every — to restore the American Dream to every citizen of this great country of ours.

Our vision is of a healthy, vigorous, growing economy where everybody participates and no one, no one, is left behind in the great United States of America.

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It's time to lift up America — lift up America, lift up our economy, lift up our schools, lift up our families, lift up our values and most of all lift up our expectations. And that's exactly what Jack Kemp and I are going to do as president and vice president of the United States of America.

[applause]

Thank you very much. God bless America.

On to victory. On to victory. On to victory.

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