Senator Dole's Radio Address

This is Bob Dole. In just eight days, President Clinton and I will meet in Hartford, Connecticut for the first of two debates. I hope you and your family will be watching on television or listening by radio that evening as the president and I discuss our many differences.

I now that you'll be listening carefully to what the president and I say during our debate, but I also hope you will be listening carefully to what the president does not say.

What the president won't talk about is the fact that when he asked for your vote in 1992, he promised America a middle class tax cut. And he won't tell you that in 1993, after he was elected he hit all Americans with a $265 billion tax increase, an increase, which according to Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York was, and I quote "the largest tax increase in the history of the U.S. and anywhere else in the world."

President Clinton also won't tell you that the very first major economic proposal of his administration was a $16 billion package of pork barrel spending. He won't remind you that he did everything in his power to defeat a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. And what he certainly will not talk about during the debate is a proposal he spent a good share of his first two years in office fighting for, a government takeover of the greatest health care system on earth.

It was takeover that would have resulted in a $1.5 trillion — $1.5 trillion — in new federal spending, that would have created 50 new brand new federal bureaucracies, that would have imposed a total of 17 new taxes on American workers, including an increased payroll tax, a tax on health insurance premiums, all of this to pay for it.

The president will try to paint a rosy picture of America's economy. He'll tell you that household income increased last year. But what he will not tell you is that incomes have gone down during most of his term. They're are only now catching up with where they were when he took office.

He will not tell you that wages for men and women have been stagnant. And that has forced more spouses into the work force just to make ends meet. And he won't tell you that bankruptcies were higher than ever before and so was consumer debt, as people struggle to pay their bills.

He also will not tell you that America is experiencing the slowest economic recovery in a century, and in large part, because of Bill Clinton's tax increase. Nor will he tell you that our trade deficit just jumped 43 percent in one month, reaching a four year high and that taxes now account for nearly 40 percept of the average families household expenses.

What else won't President Clinton talk about in our debate a week from tomorrow night? He won't talk about the fact that he cut staffing for the drug czar's office by 83 percent, or the fact that he cuts funds for stopping drugs at our border, or the fact that he appointed a surgeon general who suggested legalizing drugs, or the fact that teenage drug use has increased by 104 percent during his administration.

The president also won't tell you that ever since a commission that includes two of his own cabinet members told him that Medicare was going bankrupt in five years, he has done absolutely nothing to ensure it's solvency, nothing that is, except mislead seniors into thinking that Republicans want to cut Medicare.

The president won't tell you, even though he knows that the charge is not true, and he will share with you the undeniable fact that the Republican plan will increase Medicare spending by $1,800 per beneficiary over the next six years.

Now the president may not talk about all these subject but one subject I know I will talk about during the debate is my proposal to cut taxes by 15 percent for all taxpayers, to cut the capital gains tax rate in half, to give lower and middle income families a $500 per child tax credit, and to end the IRS as we know it.

DOLE: Under my plan, a family of four making $30,000 will save $1,261 on their federal tax bill. What does $1,260 — more dollars mean to American families?

Well, I recently visited a child care center in Ankeny, Iowa, and $1,261 could pay for four months of child care at that center. Or it could pay for one year's tuition at many community colleges, or it could pay for a month or two of your rent or mortgage, or it could pay for a personal computer for your children, or you could take your family on a well-deserved vacation.

The point of my tax reform plan is that it's your money, and you should have more of it to spend, save, invest as you see fit. President Clinton is opposed to my tax reform plan. He says America can't afford to let you keep more of what you earn. He believes that government can do a better job than that of a family of four in spending those $1,261.

That's a belief I'm ready to debate seven days a week, 24 hours a day, because I know that you can do a better job at spending your money than the government can.

Thanks for listening. And I hope you'll all tune in a week from tomorrow to hear what President Clinton and I have to say and to hear what he does not say.

Thank you very much.