Remarks in Frankenmuth, Michigan

Thank you very much. It's great to be here today. We're on the road to victory. We're going to carry the state of Michigan. And I want to welcome you to Bill Clinton's retirement party, right here in Frankenmuth.

[applause]

I'm going to do for America what Governor Engler's done for Michigan. And we can do it. We're going to get it done.

John Engler was behind. They said he couldn't do it. He couldn't win. He couldn't cut taxes. He couldn't balance the budget.

He did all that. He's got a budget surplus. He cut 21 different taxes. He created a half million jobs. That's what this election's all about.

Not about promises. Not about some pie in the sky. It's about keeping your word. Telling the American people precisely what you intend to do, and then to get it done.

And Bob Dole working with Spencer Abraham will get it done next year starting in January.

[applause]

And of course, we'll be working on the House side, too, with Dave. And we'll work in the Senate with Ronna Romney. So we're excited about this race.

I'm sorry my wife could not be here today. She's campaigning somewhere — I'm not certain where. I think Tennessee.

But Elizabeth does a great job. She'll be an outstanding first lady. She is so talented. She is so talented.

[applause]

I said she's so talented that Eleanor Roosevelt's trying to reach her. That's how talented she is.

[laughter]

I want to tell you about our family tax cut. It's not Wall Street. It's Main Street.

It's 15 percent across the board. It's $500-per-child tax credit for every child under 18. And I see a few tax credits around here this morning.

It's cutting the capital gains rate in half so you can create more jobs and more opportunities in the private sector. It's estate tax relief where you work all your life — your family and your kids — everybody works, somebody passes on you have to sell have the property to pay the estate tax.

We don't think that should happen in America. We're going to start providing relief. That's phase one.

Phase two is making the system flatter, fairer, and simpler and ending the IRS as we know it, which I don't think will disappoint too many people.

[applause]

Now President Clinton says the government can't afford it. I'd ask you a question. In 1993 when he gave us the largest tax increase in the history of America, did he come to Michigan? Did he come to Frankenmuth and say, can you afford a tax increase?

No, he didn't show up. He gave you a big tax increase. He promised you a tax cut. Now he's out saying, well, we're going to give you a targeted tax cut if you vote for me again.

My view is this. This is an across-the-board tax cut. We think it's time for the government to start pinching pennies, instead of the American taxpayers all across America.

[applause]

DOLE: It's also time for major campaign finance reform. And I would say right up front both parties have been involved in this.

Both parties have done things that shouldn't have been done. But it seems to me that now we have an opportunity. Now we have an opportunity to say to anybody in this country, if you're passing through town — some foreign interest — you can't give money unless you're entitled to vote.

If you can't vote, you can't contribute to an American campaign. Why should a foreign influence have any influence at all in an election?

You ought to have the influence. You're going to vote. You may make a contribution. So we're suggesting that if you can't vote in America, you can't contribute in America. It makes a lot of sense to me.

We're also going to do other things to tighten up this money process that affects both parties — Republican and Democrat.

And I would say to all those Perot supporters and Ross Perot himself, we're serious about campaign finance reform.

We ought to end what we call this soft money to political parties or to candidates. We ought to tighten up on what political action committees can do. They do a lot of things.

And we ought to say to somebody in a labor organization, if you want to vote Republican — even though you're a member of the AFL-CIO, you shouldn't be forced to give money to President Clinton's campaign.

And we believe that will make a lot of sense because about 40 percent of union members vote for Republican candidates. And we're trying to increase that number.

Let me make one other point.

[applause]

President Clinton today — President Clinton, I think, is in Detroit having a private meeting talking about NATO expansion. He's been talking about NATO expansion since 1993.

He's been dragging his feet since 1993. We think it's time for the foot dragging to stop. And if I know President Clinton, two weeks before the election he'll finally say something. He'll finally do something, which he'll probably try to postpone if he's re-elected.

But the time to begin expansion for Hungary and Poland and the Czech Republic is now. As I declared in Philadelphia last June, we should set a firm deadline of 1998 for the expansion of NATO to include these countries.

And this must be viewed as the beginning of the process and not the end.

NATO is a defensive alliance, which threatens no one. The cries of extreme Russian nationalists to the contrary notwithstanding, NATO's mission is peace.

The framework of peace must include assurances to the Baltic states and the Ukraine. This is particularly important given the ongoing instability in Russia.

Well, I would predict that President Clinton, like he does everything else — these election-year conversions — will be for anything anybody every wanted in America between now and Election Day.

But we're going to remain consistent. We believe if we want the economy to grow, to create more jobs and more opportunities in the private sector, then the American taxpayer deserves a tax cut.

We haven't had a federal tax cut in 10 years. Look what happened in Michigan. Look what John Engler did. Look at the results. Look at the jobs created. Look at the growth in Michigan. Look at the opportunities in Michigan.

And that's precisely what we're going to do on a federal level. And we will have strong bipartisan support when it happens.

[applause]

And one thing we must do is cut off all the foreign influence that's coming into this country.

DOLE: As I said yesterday, foreign aid has finally reached America. We've been wondering for years when we were going to get foreign aid in America. Now we see it coming from Indonesia and maybe India and maybe other countries. The problem is it's always going — all going to the Democratic Party or the president's campaign.

It's time, as I said, for campaign reform. It's time for economic growth.

We've got a record number of bankruptcies in America this year. Credit card debt has never been higher. We've got the slowest growth in this century, and the president talks about how good the economy is.

We want the economy to grow. We want to create more jobs and more opportunities. And we will get it done.

Let me call on Spence Abraham now to conclude this meeting. Spence has done an outstanding job. In fact, he's helped me put this tax program together.

In addition to the tax program, we have regulatory reform — that costs the average family $6,000 to $7,000 a year. We have litigation reform to stop some of the senseless lawsuits, frivolous lawsuits, that put small businessmen and women out of business.

We will balance the budget by the year 2002. We will pursue and promote and get done a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which President Clinton opposes. This is all part of the economic package and we believe it is essential for growth in America as we go into the next century.

Thank you very much for being here this morning.

[cheers]

God bless America.

[applause]