Remarks in Jackson, Michigan

Thank you very much. Welcome to this retirement party for Bill Clinton right here in Jackson.

[applause]

And I'm running for president because I believe in strong leadership. I think America's days are best ahead of us and always will lie ahead of us. And I refer to myself as the most optimistic man in America. But, let me tell you on Wednesday morning, November 6, Bill Clinton's going to be the most surprised man in America.

[applause]

And I'm pleased to be here with my former colleagues, Spence Abraham, Ronna's going to join him. One thing I need, I need a lot of help. We don't want Democrats trying to filibuster a tax cut. They don't think he ought to have it.

They think the government ought to keep it and figure out some way for President Clinton to spend it. But, he's not going to be there. He will get the tax cut too, if he leaves his change of address card when he leaves the White House in January.

[applause]

What I want to do is I want to do for America what Governor Engler has done for Michigan. It's that simple.

[applause]

And I think our campaign may be sort of an Engler modeler for Governor Whitman of New Jersey. They were behind. They were going to cut taxes. Everybody says it can't be done. Everybody says you can't win. Strange thing happened. They both won. The both cut taxes.

And Michigan you created 500,000 new jobs. Of course, President Clinton takes credit for everything. He takes credit for the jobs. But, you know how it happened. When you cut taxes, you create opportunities. You lower the cost of capital.

People go out and expand their businesses. They feel better about the economy and they hire more people in the business. That's the way it works in America. That's the way it works in America. That's the way it's worked in Michigan.

[applause]

So, let me say, 15 percent across... [audio gap].

[applause]

One child that's $500, two children $1,000, ten children, you're probably too busy to worry about your taxes. But, that would be $5,000. It's your money. Keep one thing in mind it is your money. It's not my money.

[applause]

And we been talking. I've been talking to Fred Upton whose a budget officer about how you pay for this. And Fred understands and I understand, here's how we pay for it.

President Clinton wants to increase spending 20 percent over the next six years. I want to increase spending 14 percent and give the six percent back to the American tax payer. You haven't a tax cut in ten years at the federal level.

[applause]

And during that six-year period, Medicare spending's going to increase 39 percent, Social Security 34 percent. So, don't be frightened by all the ads you must be seeing on television.

If you believed everything that President Clinton said: We're not for anybody. We're against everybody. We don't like anybody in the Republican Party. All we like — everybody — we also like people who pay taxes and people who work and families out there everyday trying to make a living, small businessmen, small businesswomen.

DOLE: We want to give more freedom back to you. And we want to give more of your money back to you, put it back in your paycheck, or back in your business. That's the big difference.

[applause]

So a family of four, a family of four in Michigan: $1,261 tax cut.

It's about $105 a month. This is a family plan; it's not a Wall Street plan. It's not for the rich; it's for working people. We believe that $1,261, making $30,000: more day care, down payment on something, student loan, computer for your children, or maybe take a vacation with your family for a change, which you probably can't afford to do now, because now you pay more in taxes than you pay for food, clothing, and shelter combined in America, almost 40 percent; and that is too high. It's the highest it's ever been in history, under President Clinton. He won't tell you that, but that's the truth, the highest it's ever been.

[applause]

He said the other night on television in San Diego during our debate... He said, "I've created 11 million new jobs." Yeah, I met a guy the other day who had three of them.

[applause]

You got to have two or three jobs just to pay your bills and pay the taxes.

And in many cases the wife's gone back to the work, in about 20 percent of the cases, because one parent works for the family and the other parent works full time just to pay the taxes.

Now, if both parents want to work, that's fine. But you shouldn't be forced to work in America just to pay the taxes. And we're going to change that in America.

[applause]

And that's only phase one. We're also going to cut the capital gains rate in half so you get cheaper capital and create more jobs and more opportunities.

Then we're going to have a flatter, fairer, simpler tax and end the IRS as we know it. That's going to be phase two.

[applause]

And that is very popular by the way.

[audio gap]

And we're going to end the broken down legal system. I've said many times — When I was out in Chico, California about six weeks ago, I leaned over the railing and it gave way and I dove into the crowd. And on the way to the ground my cell phone rang; and a trial lawyer says, "Bob, I think we got a case here."

[laughter]

We ought to stop some of these frivolous lawsuits. They're putting small businessmen and small businesswomen out of business.

There ought to be some limit on punitive damages. I know the trial lawyers give President Clinton millions and millions and millions of dollars a year, along with the labor bosses and the Hollywood elite. That's where we thought he was getting all this money until suddenly we discovered that foreign aid is coming to America! Foreign aid is coming to America, from Indonesia, from India, from all over the world, from the Buddhist temple in Los Angeles. But it's all going to the Democratic Party.

So finally we understand where the money comes from.

DOLE: And one thing we're going to do is have campaign finance reform — I'll say to the Perot voters who may be in this audience — we're going to have campaign finance reform when Bob Dole is president of the United States and...

[applause]

... if you're not a citizen of the United States, and you can't vote in America, you shouldn't be able to influence elections in America with your money.

If you can't vote, you can't contribute.

[applause]

And all the young people in this audience — let me say another thing — we're going to start a war on drugs in a Dole-Kemp administration.

[applause]

No doubt about it. President Clinton has been AWOL. He's been AWOL before, but he's AWOL on drugs.

[laughter]

In the last 45 months, drug use has doubled among 12 to 17-year-olds.

These are your children. These are your grandchildren. I'm probably speaking to some of the children now.

If you haven't started, don't start. If you stop — if you've started, stop. Don't do it, as Nancy Reagan used to say. We have a new slogan. She said, "Just Say No." We say, "Just Don't Do It."

[cheers]

Just don't do it — and to make that stick.

CHANT: Just don't do it. [repeated]

DOLE: That's right.

CHANT: Just don't do it. [repeated]

DOLE: And if you want a future for yourself, and you want a future for America, if you're concerned about your future, your life, your body, whatever, don't start drugs, don't start cigarettes, don't start alcohol.

Start studying for a change. That'll do you a lot better.

[applause]

[cheers]

And we will use the National Guard if necessary to keep drugs out of this country — from entering the country in the first place.

President Clinton cut all these funds for interdiction, we call it, to keep drugs out of America. He cut the drug czar's office 83 percent, and then he says, "Well, we ought to be bipartisan on drugs."

He didn't say that about Medicare. He wants to play politics. He wants to scare senior citizens. And I just say to the president of the United States — I have a very bipartisan record in some areas.

I've supported President Clinton on some issues when he needed help, when I thought the country's interests were being served.

But now we're talking about change. And I want to remind you — when President Clinton came into office, first thing he tried to do is spend about $16 billion. He called it some kind of a program.

It was all pork. He wanted to pass it around the country — Republicans killed it.

They wanted to change our health care system. He wanted to spend $1.5 trillion.

He wanted 50 new bureaucracies and 17 new taxes and price controls, and we said no, and the American people said no.

Then he said he was going to cut your taxes when he came out in 1992. Turned around and gave you the biggest tax increase in the history of America — $265 billion.

[boos]

Now, don't forget the Clinton record.

[boos]

Because today, he talks like a Republican. He's not a Republican. He's a liberal Democrat working with Ted Kennedy every day. He and Ted Kennedy see eye to eye on everything.

So the future is in the Republican Party.

We are the party of change. We are the reform party in America.

DOLE: Look at what we've done in two years in Congress.

You can ask my colleagues — ask Nick up here, and anybody else.

We've ended federal mandates. We make the laws apply to Congress like they apply to everybody else. We've done — we tried to balance the budget — the president vetoed it twice.

We can within one vote of a balanced budget amendment in the Senate because the president turned around six Democrats who supported it in the past. They voted no.

All this will change. I also want an amendment to protect the flag of the United States of America. The president's against it. And I'm for it.

[applause]

I also want an amendment to balance the budget, as I said, and also an amendment to permit voluntary prayer in school.

[applause]

If you can do everything else...

[applause]

And I'm for it and he's against it.

And one other thing. You know whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, you know it's a very — we've got a little difference in our party. I'm not here to argue that difference. You can be a good Republican, be pro-life and be pro-choice.

But I would say 80-some percent of all Americans, regardless of their stand on pro-life, pro-choice or abortion generally, are opposed to the partial birth abortion.

[applause]

And I offered the amendment in the Senate to protect the life of the mother.

Now President Clinton doesn't tell you everything when he says, "Well, if you just do this, I'll would sign the bill." He vetoed the bill.

We had an amendment — the Dole-Smith Amendment — that protected the life of the mother and he vetoed it, and he vetoed it, and he vetoed it. Keep that in mind because he'll try to tell you something else.

He has a way of walking right over the facts, and looking you right in the eye and telling you something that didn't happen.

Now, I don't know how you do that. He's had a lot of practice in Arkansas — a lot of practice in Arkansas.

But we're going to change that. We're going to give you leadership you can trust — just like it says right back up here on the map.

[applause]

Leadership you can trust.

[applause]

And there's one other difference between me and Bill Clinton. The one big difference between me and Bill Clinton — he's about ready to move out of the White House and I'm about ready to move into the White House.

[applause]

So I want to ask you for your support.

Now, I assume some of the liberal media say there's a modest crowd or a sparse crowd here. I can't even see where it ends. It just goes on and on and on.

[applause]

This — this is a fantastic outpouring of support for Republicans up here and I appreciate it very much.

But I want to ask for your support. I'm going to ask you to contact your friends and your neighbors. The race has just begun. The people are starting to focus.

We've got two weeks to go. And we're going to win if everybody turns out, gets their friends and neighbors to go to the polls, we will win this election going away.

We'll carry the state of Michigan going away — just as Governor Engler did a few years ago.

[applause]

Let me also extend greetings from my wife Elizabeth. I think she'll make a great first lady.

[applause]

Yes.

[applause]

I mean she is really good.

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

[laughter]

So we're very optimistic. We're very excited. We're proud to be in Michigan, and we're going to be here the rest of the day, most of tomorrow. We'll be back again before the election.

And I want to say to everybody here, we're going to get it done. I want you to take my record. My record of service and his record of service and add it all up and say, who do I trust my children, who do I trust for the future?

Who do I trust for my business? Where do I look for leadership?

CROWD: Dole! Dole! Dole!

Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp!

DOLE: And that's what it's all about. Thank you very much and God bless America.