Remarks to Jeppesen Sanderson Employees in Englewood, Colorado

The President. Good morning, Colorado. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Frank, thank you, Frank, for that introduction. Greetings to all: Captain Jeppesen and Paul Sanderson; Horst Bergmann; master of ceremonies, Mark, here; Natalie Meyer, our great Colorado secretary of state; and Gale Norton, Colorado's wonderful attorney general. It's great to be with all of them.

And let me salute our party leaders who are here, Bruce Benson, Ed Jones, Mary Daubman, and the rest of the Colorado Republican team. You're doing a great job. And we are going to win this State.

Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The President. That's the idea. You got it, you got the message. Now, I'm delighted to see such a great crowd, a fantastic crowd. I'm sure you were told that you'd hear from a guy who loves a good fight, loves to be behind, pull it out at the last minute. Unfortunately, John Elway couldn't be here today. [Laughter] But I'm proud to be here. It's the beginning of a new era for America. And I'm proud to be the first President to visit Colorado and say, the cold war is over, and freedom finished first.

But this election is about more than the past; it's about the future. It's about what kind of country we're going to leave for the young kids here today. Here's our challenge: In the next century, America must be not only a military superpower but also an export superpower and an economic superpower. This year you're going to hear two very different versions of how we get there. I want to have us look forward, to prepare our kids to compete, to save and invest, and to strengthen the American family. And if we can do this, when it comes to the new challenges of the nineties, America will finish first again. We have and we will do it again.

A Grand Canyon divides me and my opponent on the issues; two candidates, two very different philosophies. You see it in every issue that we care about: education, health care, economic growth, creating jobs. My Agenda for American Renewal lays out the answers, shows us the way as clear as a Jeppesen dataplan. And that is very, very clear, if you know anything about this company.

I put my trust in the American people, the same people who made this country the greatest economic power the world has ever seen. I want more competition to keep health care costs down. I want more competition, to give parents the power to choose their kids' schools, to make our schools the very best in the entire world. But for my opponent, it doesn't matter what the problem is, he always sees the same solution: He wants more Government mandates, more Government regulations, and more Government burdens on workers and businesses.

Governor Clinton wants to give Government more power. And I want to give you, the American people, more power. Governor Clinton wants to make the bureaucrat's life easy, to provide one-size-fits-all service in schools and in day care. I want you to be able to choose your schools and choose your day care so that we make your lives easier.

Now, business people here might be a little frightened of this one, but my opponent is for what they call an industrial policy, where Government planners decide how high the American economy will go, and if you try to go any further, they'll tax you down to Earth.

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. And I want to unleash the incredible power of entrepreneurial capitalism so you can climb as high as your dreams will carry you. And that's what this debate is about: the role of Government in America. It's not just the difference between big Government and smaller; it's the difference between a big Government that thinks it knows best and a smaller Government that believes you know better. That's the fundamental difference.

And when it comes to taxes and spending, the difference couldn't be more clear. I hold a firm belief that a Government is too big and it spends too much of your money. And my opponent disagrees. Governor Clinton has already called -- and get this now -- it's in his plan for $200 billion in new spending. And Newsweek magazine says the real total could be 3 times higher. Right out of the box, he wants to raise taxes by $150 billion.

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. And of course, he says he won't tax you. It's always somebody else: big corporations, foreign investors, the rich. He's even come up with a new twist. He's going to tax jobs, a new training tax and a health care system leading to a new 7-percent payroll tax, all to feed the overfed bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. I didn't think you'd be enthusiastic about that. They say I think that every day is the Fourth of July. Well, Governor, I do. I do. I believe America's best days are ahead of us. But Governor Clinton seems to believe that every day is April 15th. And his tired old tax-and-spend philosophy is wrong for this country. We all know that because it's been tried before. And it would be like going back to the used car lot, picking up the lemon that you sold 12 years ago. Only this time it would have higher prices on it from inflation, skyrocketing interest rates for credit, and a hot air bag thrown in. [Laughter] America, this is not the deal for you.

Now, I want you to listen closely to him this fall, but you're going to do that, because on issue after issue, he takes one position and then another. He's been spotted in more places than Elvis Presley on these issues. [Laughter] Let me give you some specifics. Take the issue, the question of whether to stand up to Saddam Hussein, the defining test of American leadership in the post-cold-war world. Two days after Congress followed my lead -- and I had to fight to get them to do that -- he said, and I quote, "I guess I would have voted with the majority if it was a close vote. But I agree with the arguments the minority made."

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. Maybe that's why he wants an Oval Office -- he spends all his time running around in circles. [Laughter] You cannot do that. Being President, the buck stops there. You can't be on all sides of every question. And when you're in that Oval Office, and when American lives are at stake, you can't take time out to check the latest opinion polls. I had to make the tough decision, and I'm proud of what America did in Desert Storm. And we did the right thing.

How about one of the defining issues of the next 4 years: Whether we're going to continue to open new markets, tap new consumers around the world so we can create more jobs here at home, right here in Colorado, right here at Inverness. I know Americans aren't afraid of competition, because when we compete fairly, we win. And where does Governor Clinton stand? It depends on who he's standing in front of. Sometimes he's for opening markets. But when he talks to the protectionist lobby, he whips out his saxophone and plays a different tune. They asked him about our new plan to open markets in Mexico, and here's what he said: "When I have a definitive opinion, I'll say so." You figure it out. Before he went to the labor unions, he was for the free trade agreement. And when he went there, he had serious reservations. On free trade he backpedals faster than Karl Mecklenburg. [Laughter]

And I am going to continue to fight for new markets because, don't kid yourself, the American worker can still outcompete, outthink, and outcreate anyone in the entire world. And there's something else I want to do. I want to get rid of all these crazy lawsuits. They are costing our economy up to $200 billion in a single year. And I think that's crazy. Somebody asked me the other day, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away, what works for lawyers?" [Laughter]

Now, my opponent doesn't think this is a problem. You've got Little League people that can't coach who are worried about suits. You've got doctors afraid to deliver babies. You have people out there doing good works, good Samaritan works on the highway, afraid they'll get sued if they stop to help somebody.

Now, here's what the head of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association said, and I quote: "I can never remember an occasion where he" -- and that's Governor Clinton -- "failed to do the right thing where we trial lawyers are concerned." I don't want to do the right thing for the trial lawyers. I want to do right for the American people. And we have got to sue each other less and care for each other more.

So these are some of the things that I'm fighting for. And you'd give me a big hand if you'd give me legislators in Washington who share our vision of America. Give me Bryan Day and Ray Aragon in the U.S. House of Representatives. And do me a special favor. You have a special candidate for the U.S. Senate, the father of the term-limit movement, Terry Considine. And he understands that Government exists to serve the people, not the other way. Give me Terry in the United States Senate, and watch us move this country forward.

You see, I don't think America is a vast collection of interest groups to be appeased, the trial lawyers over here, big labor over there, environmental extremists on the other side, each clamoring for favors from Washington bureaucrats. I believe we are a nation of special individuals, not special interests. And I believe our genius lies in our people, in our families, in our communities, not in the Government.

In this election I'm asking for a mandate to return power to the people, to let Government give you the means and then give you the chance to do it your way. And if you believe in this mandate, if you believe in these ideas, then I ask you to pull together. For the next 49 days, I ask you to join me and fight for free trade, fight for great schools, fight for giving power to the people.

The polls may show us behind today, but I know we are going to be ahead in November because we have the right ideas. We've done a lot. These young kids don't go to bed at night with the same fear of nuclear weapons and nuclear war that their brothers had or their sisters had. And that is good. That is good. And we have the right ideas to renew America, to make America stronger, safer, and more secure.

Thank you. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you all very much.