Remarks in Bloomingburg, Ohio

Welcome, welcome to the Bill Clinton retirement party, right here.

[applause]

And I want to thank all the people who are working on my behalf. And Nancy Paterson reminded me to thank all the — Come on up here, Nancy. You thank everybody. You've been working all of the...

PATTERSON: Thank you. Thank you.

DOLE: Yes, say a word there.

PATTERSON: We're so excited to have you as our candidate. Because we know you will take us all the way to where we want to be; and that is, safe with the farms, so that they will not be lost.

[applause]

DOLE: Thank you.

[applause]

Thank you, Nancy.

Well, in my state of Kansas we have a little bumper sticker that says, if you don't eat, don't worry about the farmer.

[laughter]

You know a lot of people think you just buy that off the shelf. It just shows up somehow.

And I know where I am. And I'm very happy to be on the Midland farm. I want to thank all, what, the four of you, right, on this 700-acres? And I think you've done a great job. I've read about the history of the farm. And I'm very honored to be here.

You know, my dad ran a grain elevator and a cream and egg station. I grew up with farmers and made a lot of friends. Many of my relatives are farmers back in Kansas. My dad wore his overalls to work every day for 42 years. Was proud of it.

This is the real America, right here today.

[applause]

This is where the real people are.

[applause]

And I'm sorry Elizabeth...

[applause]

I'm sorry Elizabeth, my wife, cannot be here. But she was in Cincinnati, I guess, yesterday. Now, she's down in Florida, headed for Atlanta, Georgia. I talked to her on the phone a while back.

But I wanted to say that she's done a great job. She'll make a great first lady.

[applause]

She is so talented. Eleanor Roosevelt's trying to reach her. That's how talented she is.

[laughter]

[applause]

And I want to thank Jack Kemp for his great contribution, for the debate last night. We have one more next Wednesday in San Diego.

And I'm — And we're going to show up and we're going to ask President Clinton a few questions this time around.

[applause]

Because this is serious business. It's not really about Bob Dole or Bill Clinton. It's about our country. It's about our family. It's about our farm. It's about our business, about our community.

And we'd better have the best person we can have as president of the United States in that office in 1997.

[applause]

CHANT: DOLE, DOLE, DOLE

DOLE: Thank you.

And, as I've said everywhere I've gone, Dole-Kemp. Those are two four letter words you can teach your kids. Dole-Kemp, Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp.

And it works.

CHANT: Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. [repeated]

DOLE: Now the president always talks about these — about these bridges to the future, but as we've said, you know, these are all toll bridges. You've got to pay all your life.

[laughter]

Al Gore talked last night about these targeted tax cuts. Now he told you in 1992 you were going to get a tax cut. How many times is he going to tell you that before you say, "Well, maybe he doesn't really mean it"?

The trouble with Bill Clinton's targeted tax cuts — nobody ever gets hit with one.

[laughter]

You never get a tax cut. You never get a — ask Dave Hobson. You got your tax cut yet, Dave?

HOBSON : Not yet.

DOLE: Not yet, all right.

[laughter]

And it's not going to happen because, even if he were re-elected, his tax cuts expire the year 2000, but the tax increases go on forever and ever and ever.

That's liberal talk. That's Democratic talk. That's President Clinton. He wants you to believe that he's going to give you everything you ever wanted and it's not going to cost anybody anything.

It can't be that way here in Bloomingburg. It can't be that way anywhere in America.

We're going to tell you the truth. And the truth is we've got to make some tough decisions. Do you care about your kids? The answer is yes.

CROWD: Yes.

DOLE: Do you care about your grandchildren? The answer is yes.

CROWD: Yes.

DOLE: Are you worried about drugs? The answer is yes.

CROWD: Yes.

DOLE: And as Mike DeWine said — where has Bill Clinton been? He's been AWOL. He's been absent for 44 months. And drug use has doubled — 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17-year-olds.

You know, they made fun of Nancy Reagan when she had this program, "Just Say No."

But drug use was cut in half under President Reagan and President Bush, and now it's doubled.

And now it's doubled.

[applause]

And as I've said, as I set out in California not too long ago, there ought to be a new slogan, a new something, a new phrase out there, a new battle cry — "Just Don't Do It." "Just Don't Do It."

CROWD: Just don't do it.

DOLE: And I say that to every young person here.

If you started, stop. If you haven't started, don't ever do it. Don't ever do it.

If you're worried about the future of America and you're worried about your future and your life and your body and your opportunities, don't start on drugs. Just don't do it.

[applause]

Just don't do it. Just don't do it.

CHANT: Just don't do it.

DOLE: And that will be the battle cry. When Bob Dole is president of the United States, we're going to make certain — we're going to cut drug use in half in our first four years, while it's doubled in the first four years — or the last four years of President Clinton.

He's not going to have any more years.

[applause]

He's going back home.

And let me also just say — and I know you've been standing here a while, so I'm going to just a word or two more.

First, I want to ask for your support in my...

[applause]

In my state, in the state of Kansas — my grandfather was born in Ohio, by the way, I want to get that in too.

DOLE: So, in fact about a month ago I went to Montpelier, Ohio and visited the grave site of my great, great grandfather buried in Ohio, Michael Dole.

And I met a lot of relatives I had never seen before. They were third cousins, thrice removed, whatever that means. It means, we're not very close. And none of them had a lot of money either.

[laughter]

So in any event, we had a great time. We all had breakfast together.

But, I want to tell you this. This is very serious business, as I started to say before. Nobody's perfect. But, this is about trust. Who do you trust with agriculture? Who do you trust with farm programs? Who do you trust with markets?

AUDIENCE: Dole, Dole, Dole...

DOLE: We passed the Freedom to Farm Act as you might recall this year. And President Clinton didn't like it. He said he's going to start changing it next year.

It's the first time we've had in a generation to phase out farm subsidies and increase market prices. And let farmers make it as they want to make it in the market place, in the market place.

And we believe it's going to work. You're going to make the decisions. Not somebody in some government bureaucracy somewhere. The farmer will make the decision and it will work. And we will increase exports in the process.

[applause]

Let me just go on over one thing that wasn't touched upon in the tax cut. Fifteen percent across the board. Five hundred dollars per child under 18 tax credit.

And I see a lot of little tax credits running around here. See Senator Wyden has $500 up here. But in any event, one child $500. Three children $1,500. Four children $2,000. Ten children, you're probably too busy to file your taxes. But that would $5,000.

Five thousand dollars or two thousand or one thousand. You can spend better than any bureaucrat I know in Washington, D.C. It's your money.

[applause]

And the point I want to make time after time after time, it is your money. It's not my money. It's not Bill Clinton's money. It's your money and we ought to apologize for taking so much of it from you in the first place.

You shouldn't have to apologize for wanting to keep what you earn. This is the United States of America.

[applause]

And I know there are people in this audience — I know farm audiences — worked all your life.

The kids have worked. The husband and wife have worked. You finally get a little money. You get a little nest egg. You own a farm or something and somebody passes on.

DOLE: You got to sell off half the property to pay the estate tax. We're going to start giving you estate tax relief in America, so you can keep the farm.

[applause]

And so you can keep the small business if you're a businessman or a businesswoman. This is America. We ought to keep property.

We ought to create more jobs and more opportunities, and to do that we're going to cut the capital gains rate right in half from 28 percent to 14 percent.

[applause]

And we're going to have a balanced-budget amendment in the Constitution, a balanced-budget amendment — which we would have had by now, except President Clinton twisted arms and got six Democrats that who were for it to vote against it and we lost by one vote.

We're going to stop litigation reform. How do you remember not, when I, maybe you saw the picture when I was out in California and leaned on the railing which wasn't there.

[laughter]

On the way to the ground my cell phone rang, it was a trial lawyer saying I think we got a case here.

[laughter]

You know, we got to stop some of these frivolous law suits that are putting people out of business. All across America.

[applause]

Now, Bill Clinton's not going to stop, because he gets millions and millions of dollars from trial lawyers and organized labor and the Hollywood elites.

That's where they get all their money. That's how they've been able to run $45 million dollars worth of negative ads, trying to frighten everybody who gets Medicare or Social Security or Medicaid.

I'm not going to cut your Medicare, I'm going to save Medicare just as I helped save Social Security in 1983.

[applause]

As I said in the debate, all my mother had was her Social Security and Medicare. Every time I'd go home, she'd say, now, touch my Social Security.

I said, I'm not going to touch it. I'm going to try to fix it — so you'll have it. And if we don't fix it, it's going to be broke. Medicare's going to be broke by the year 2000. And President Clinton, what does he want to do? He wants to scare you.

And I met a lady in a wheelchair in Florida about three weeks ago and [off-mike] she was — somebody was pushing her out and she was just very ill and she said, Senator, don't take away Medicare. And the lady pushing her said, that's all she's heard on television. President Clinton, day-after-day five, six, seven, eight, nine times a day, said Bob Dole's going to take away your Medicare.

That's not going to happen. I grew up living in a basement apartment. I used to have to sign welfare checks for my grandparents who were caught in the dust bowl because I was county attorney. We had to approve every welfare check. I understand that the people in America who are going to have to have help.

We're going to save the Medicare program.

We're going to save the Social Security program.

[applause]

And I'm going to tell you the truth, and I'm going to tell you the truth and that'll be a change too in the United States.

[applause]

And we're going to get it done.

[applause]

So, I would just say to everybody who's here today, we certainly want your help, I want to ask for your help and your support, not just here, but to everybody you know in Ohio and outside of Ohio.

DOLE: You can't win, as Governor Voinovich says, unless you carry the state of Ohio. And I want to carry the state of Ohio. I want to be your president, and I think I can provide the leadership.

[applause]

CHEERS

CHANT: Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. [repeated]

DOLE: So...

CHANT: Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. [repeated]

DOLE: When you go home tonight and you sit around the dinner table, and you think about, if you talk about — well, I was out there today and I got a little cold. I don't know what these people all said.

But I wish you'd remember one thing. As I started to say earlier, this is not really Bob Dole or Bill Clinton. It's what do you think when you look into your soul or search your soul, when you tuck your kids into bed tonight, and you go by to visit your grandkids tonight, and you think about their future, and you think about what's going to happen if we don't balance the budget, you think about what's going to happen if we don't give back a little of your money.

The government can spend and spend and spend. In fact, President Clinton has already thought up $400 billion worth of new initiatives — $400 million.

Now here's how we're going to do this. He wants to increase spending 20 percent for the next six years. We want to increase 14 percent and give you back the six percent.

I think it's time the government started pinching pennies instead of asking the people to pinch pennies every time we turn around.

[applause]

When President Clinton promised you a tax cut in '92 and raised taxes in '93, did the media come out and ask you how you were going to — how are you going to have if you had to pay more money in taxes?

But now, suddenly, "Oh, the government's going to be in bad shape."

We have a lot of waste. There's $15 billion in waste and fraud in Medicare a year — $15 to $20 billion. There's a lot of ways we can save them money.

We're not going to touch Medicare. We're not going to touch Social Security. We are going to give money back to families — as Mike DeWine said, about $1,261 a year. This is a Main Street tax cut, not a Wall Street tax cut.

And so when you sit around the table tonight, and you add it all up, and you take a look at Bob Dole and you take a look at Bill Clinton, and then you're going to make a decision.

And I believe if you give us a hard look, and nobody's perfect — don't misunderstand me — but give us a hard look. Go back and check with my colleagues — Democrats or Republicans — anywhere that I have worked with anybody in America, back in my county attorney days or whatever else, they'll tell you that Bob Dole is honest and he keeps his word

I want to keep my word to you. I want to keep my word to the American people.

[applause]

I want to provide leadership.

[applause]

And we're going to win this election. Thank you very much and God bless America.

[applause]

CHANT: Dole-Kemp. Dole-Kemp. [repeated]