Remarks in Findlay, Ohio

Thank you. I appreciate it very much. It's a lot like Kansas, a lot of great people here. Plus — my grandfather came from Montpelier, Ohio. So I have Ohio roots...

CHEERS

That helps, too.

[applause]

I'm sorry Elizabeth cannot be here today, but she's [audio gap] Atlanta or somewhere, but she — she's a great asset. She'll be a great first lady, and I am very proud of her.

[applause]

CHEERS

As I've said before, she is so talented, Eleanor Roosevelt's trying to reach her. That's the difference.

[applause]

And when I come back, I want to be like the Oilers. I want to be number one.

[applause]

That's what it is.

CHEERS

And we're going to make it.

It's great to be in Flag City, U.S.A. We ought to have a constitutional amendment to protect the flag. I am for it. Clinton's against it. One more reason to get him out of there.

[applause]

CHEERS

And we're on the road to victory in the great state of Ohio.

[applause]

We were in Cincinnati yesterday and Lebanon, Bloomingburg, Circleville. We just stopped on the way through town, picked up some pumpkin pies, and fresh donuts.

CHEERS

And their big festival's next week. We were told to advertise that.

And last night, there were thousands of people standing in the sprinkle at Lancaster — Lancaster, excuse me — at Fairfield County Fair. We had a great time.

Saw thousands and thousands of people. There's no doubt in my mind that Ohio is Dole-Kemp territory.

CHEERS

And by the way, Dole and Kemp are two four-letter words you can teach your kids or your grandkids.

[applause]

CHEERS

And I think Jack Kemp's doing an outstanding job. He's been a great member of Congress. Out in the private sector now. He played football. And I kid Jack. Said, "Jack, you were traded so much, you've got a lot of home towns."

So we've been in San Diego. We've been in Buffalo. We've been in Pittsburgh. We've got a couple of more stops to make. But he's doing an outstanding job.

When you talk about economics and economic package, Jack Kemp's been talking that way all his life. We can cut taxes and we can balance the budget at the same time.

[applause]

CHEERS

And I want to speak to the families here and I want to thank the band for the great music, too, that we heard coming in.

And I want to thank Mike Oxley for the great job he does. And I knew both his predecessors, and they were outstanding men, of course, and did a great job for this district.

Mike DeWine — he never gives up. Mike DeWine never gave up. He went out and gave it a shot and lost, came right back and won.

DOLE: And he's a winner in the United States Senate, and he's working every day.

[applause]

And I want to thank the Oak Ridge Boys. Where'd you come from last night?

ONE OF THE OAK RIDGE BOYS: We were in Massachussetts.

DOLE: Boy, that's — from Massachussetts to [audio gap] that's a big jump. Did you see — was Ted Kennedy there?

[laughter]

Probably not. All right. But on this tour we've had and other tours we've had around America, listening to America, we've seen mothers and fathers and single parents and soccer moms, as they're called today, who are struggling to raise their children in the right way. They want better schools and safer neighborhoods and more opportunities for their families. I've seen small businessmen and small business women who are out there trying to make it work.

And we've got the highest taxes in our history. [audio gap] percent of everything you earn goes for taxes, and most of it for federal taxes, plus miles and miles and miles of new regulations imposed on small business women and small businessmen the last few years.

I've seen senior citizens who have been scared to death by the Democratic ads. They're worried about Medicare and they're worried about Social Security, and they want to know who they can count on to keep it safe and preserve it and strengthen it.

CROWD: Dole, Dole, Dole.

And we have had many opportunities to fix Medicare, but Clinton wanted to play politics with it so he wants to wait till after the election. And after the election, he'll be back in Little Rock and we'll explain it to him, after the election.

[applause]

And most of all, when you travel around, you see a lot of children. Oh, there's one right here.

[laughter]

There are several little $500 tax credits up here with me now.

[laughter]

And they deserve the best possible future we can give them.

[applause]

And that's why I'm running for president. That's why I intend to win this election and carry the state of Ohio.

[applause]

Jack and I are traveling across America with one single message. We believe the federal government is too big and it spends too much of your money, your money, your money.

[applause]

And today in a lot of families, one parent works full-time for the family, the other parent works full-time just to pay the taxes, and that should not happen in the United States of America. If both parents want to work, that's fine, but it ought to be because it's their choice, not because they're forced to work to pay the taxes to the federal government.

[applause]

And I know a lot of people are skeptical, probably some in this audience — well, you can't do both. You can't cut taxes and balance the budget. And I know why you're skeptical, because Clinton came out to Ohio in 1992 and said the centerpiece of his first four years would be a middle-class tax cut. Anybody here gotten it yet?

DOLE: Obviously not. You never got it. He never even proposed it in 1993 and 1994.

But I am not Bill Clinton. I keep my word to the American people when I make my...

[applause]

Fifteen percent across the board.

A family of four in Ohio, a husband and a wife and two children, tax cut of $1,261, plus other benefits in the economic package. This is a Main Street tax cut. This is not a Wall Street tax cut.

To some, that's not a lot of money. But if you're making $30,000 a year, that's four or five month's child care, three or four months on home payments. Maybe even a couple of weeks vacation with your kids. What's wrong with that?

[applause]

And everybody said, oh, we can't do it, we can't do it. The government can't spare that money. Did anybody come out and ask you in 1993, when we had the biggest tax increase in the history of the world if you could spare the money? No!

CROWD: No!

DOLE: Nobody asked you that question. Did Bill Clinton come out here or Albert Gore come out here? No. They said they were going to tax the rich. [audio gap] percent of the taxes were paid by small businessmen and small businesswomen. Subchapter S corporations got a tax increase of 39.6 percent.

They were small businessmen, small businesswomen. They were senior citizens who had their taxes raised on their Social Security benefits.

If you drove a car, you got a $32 billion tax increase all across America. Not for highways, but to put in a little fund that the president could play with and pass out goodies all year long, as he's been doing trying to get re-elected.

He is going to [audio gap] because Americans want somebody they can trust, and somebody who'll keep their word.

[applause]

So $500-per-child under 18. Now if you have two kids, that's $1,000. You have four, that's $2,000. If you have 10, you're probably too busy to worry about taxes.

[laughter]

But that would be $5,000. Whatever it is, you can better spend it than any bureaucrat that I've ever met in Washington, D.C.

[applause]

And to create jobs and opportunities in the private sector, not the government, we're going to cut the capital gains rate in half from 28 percent to 14 percent...

[applause]

... and eliminate the capital gains for virtually every homeowner in America if you sell your home.

We are going to repeal this tax on senior citizens on their Social Security benefits. We're going to provide estate tax relief. A family who works hard, the husband, the wife, they work, they work, they work, seven days a week and somebody passes on, you have to sell off part of their property to pay the estate tax.

That should not happen in America. And we're going to start giving you relief.

[applause]

And we're going to have another debate. I think it's next — no, I know it's Wednesday. I think I'll show up again. But in any event...

[laughter]

... this guy's a great talker.

DOLE: I mean, he's a good talker, you know. Even getting up there with him is — I showed up and I won the debate, but in any event...

CHEERS

I'm a plain-spoken man. I'm sort of like Harry Truman and Ike Eisenhower and others that you're aware of around. And we speak — you know, we're not as articulate or whatever, but we like to tell the truth, and we've...

CHEERS

We feel bad if we don't tell the truth. And we feel bad if we look you in the eye and say we're going to cut your taxes and then we raise your taxes. That's not going to happen with Bob Dole.

It's not going to happen with the American [audio gap]

[applause]

We're also looking — and some people say, "Well, Republicans are worried about low-income people?" Yes, and we always have been.

But we're looking at a program particularly for the inner cities — education for kids starting in kindergarten and through high school.

In some of the inner cities, less than 35 percent of the young people who start ever finish high school — less than 35 percent.

Now if we're gong to stop drugs and crime and all the other things that tempt young people, we've got to provide an education. So we're working on what we call our [audio gap] scholarships.

Governor Voinovich has already instituted those in a demonstration project in Cleveland.

We put up so much money, the states so much money. It goes to low-income parents or low-middle-income parents. They take that money. They go to a better public school or stay where they are. They're happy, they don't get the scholarship. They want a better public school, private school or religious school, because we want that child to get an education.

You don't have to be the president's child or the vice president's children to have a choice in America.

CHEERS

We want choice and we [audio gap]...

[applause]

So let me just say we believe that most Americans, regardless of party, and I'm certain there are some here trying to make up their mind — you know, we believe the government, as I said, is too big and spends too much of your money.

But this is not rocket science — this tax cut and regulatory reform and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and stopping all these frivolous lawsuits that are filed every time somebody does something.

I don't know if you saw me out in Chico, California, about a month ago. The railing gave way and I gave way with it.

On the way to the ground, I got a call on my cell phone from a trial lawyer saying, "I think we got a case here."

[laughter]

We've got to stop some of the frivolous lawsuits, stop some of the frivolous lawsuits.

[applause]

And I know the president — I know the trial lawyers are spending big, big money in Ohio to help President Clinton. They put up millions and millions and millions of dollars.

And I don't dislike trial lawyers. I married a — Elizabeth's a lawyer. I'm a lawyer. We're the only the two lawyers in Washington who trust each other — but, we're lawyers.

[laughter]

But you take the money he gets from trial lawyers and the Hollywood elite and the labor bosses — that's where their money comes from.

Are they concerned about average families in America? The answer is no. Are they concerned about working families? The answer is no.

CROWD: No.

DOLE: And that's why 40 percent or more of the labor union members will vote for Republican candidates — because they're concerned about drugs, and they're concerned about crime, and they're concerned about taxes in America.

[applause]

DOLE: And I read in the New York Times yesterday where one young lady said, yes I smoke marijuana. But, so did Clinton and he became President of the United States. Now, is that the example to set for America's children? The answer is no.

Is it alright to go on MTV and say well, I'll try it again if I get a chance. Is that what a candidate for President of the United States should do in 1992? The answer is no.

And no wonder drug use has doubled the last 44 months in the Clinton administration. Doubled, ages 12 through 17.

A hundred percent increase in marijuana. One hundred and sixty percent increase in cocaine. We need strong, moral leadership. Just don't do it. Just don't do it.

[applause]

He even appointed a surgeon general said we ought to legalize drugs in America. Suggested we ought to legalize drugs. That will not happen in a Dole/ Kemp administration. We're going to start on day one and we're going to use the National Guard to keep drugs out of America.

[applause]

So, I want to say to everyone here — I want to ask for your support. In fact, we don't do that at home, they don't vote for us. But, I want to ask for your support and I want to make a promise and a pledge. We are going to do these things. We're not going to over promise. This is about the next generation not about the next election.

And I believe you can check with any of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans I've served with in the House or the Senate or back in my little home town of Russell, Kansas, and they will tell you that Bob Dole is a man of his word.

[applause]

And that is very, important in politics and business or whatever we [off-mike].

And I want to speak to the farmers in this audience. There's probably a lot of farmers out there. Right. Farmers are very important. And if you don't eat, don't worry about the farmer. Most people like to eat.

And we finally got a good farm bill called, The Freedom to Farm Act, and President Clinton's already saying he might want to change it next year. It gives the farmers the right to make the choices, not some federal bureaucracy.

We believe in the people. We trust the people. Clinton trusts the government.

[applause]

That's the big, big difference. So, let me thank you all for coming.

And let me, again, say that we need your help, we need your support. As Governor Voinovich would say — if he were here, he had to go to New York today for a meeting, he was with us yesterday — you can't get to the White House without winning Ohio. And I understand that.

And we're going to keep coming back and keep coming back and back and back and back, and we're going to win the State of Ohio.

[applause]

This is not about slick talk.

DOLE: This is about leadership. This is about the future, this is about the next century and about your children and your grandchildren and your business. Look at the new pages of regulations. Look at the new taxes. And then the president says, "Oh, I'm for small business." Well, I don't know about that. I have some doubts.

The final and the bottom line is this. You will make that decision on November 5, and November 5 is not very far away.

And I know the president says he's not really a liberal, but when he tries to take over health care and increase spending $1.5 trillion and enact 17 new taxes and 50 new bureaucracies in health care, I think that's pretty liberal.

And he is a liberal. When he raises taxes $265 billion. That's pretty liberal. And when he fights the Balanced Budget Amendment, in my view, that's pretty liberal.

And when he fights a constitutional amendment to protect the flag of the United States, I think that's pretty liberal. So add it up and add it up and add it up time and time again.

The bottom line is that he's going back to Arkansas and Bob Dole is going to the White House. That's the bottom line.

[applause]

So thank you very much. We live in the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We never want to forget it.

We have responsibilities. We need strong leadership overseas. We've lost our respect overseas because of lack of leadership.

And again, I say it's time for strong, determined leadership because America is going to go forward and we're going to make it happen, and it's going to happen right here in the state of Ohio. Thank you very much and God bless America.

[applause]