George H.W. Bush said "I will. And besides that, I want to say a word about ethanol. I am the one who worked out the ethanol waiver to spur the use of ethanol. Ethanol use has gone up, way up, since I've become President of the United States, and I'm going to keep it going up. But Governor Clinton's adviser, one of them, says that ethanol might blow a hole in the ozone. Well, heck with that. It's not going to blow any hole in the ozone. It is safe, and we're going to use it more. And then another adviser gets up--because I did the right thing for the corn growers in fixing that waiver--another one gets up and says, well, we'll review that after Clinton is elected. Two things wrong with that: He ought not to review it because I made the right decision, and two, he ain't going to be elected President. He comes to South Dakota and talks ethanol, and then he goes out and starts talking about reviewing the waiver. We cannot have that flip-flop on every single issue. Now, on international trade, we are working hard to open markets for our agricultural goods all over the world. And I am proud of our export enhancement program. I am proud that we are fighting against these European subsidies. And this fall, out here in South Dakota at a wonderful farm nearby--farmer is standing right over my right shoulder--we announced a new EEP, a new export program. We're staying with that. We're going to sell billions of tons of U.S. wheat to 28 countries, and we are going to protect South Dakota jobs and sell our products all over the world. We've promoted another $1 billion in ag exports under the so-called GATT triggers, technical but very important to farmers in this State. And we're going to keep on fighting for new markets. This North American free trade agreement is going to be good for American jobs and good for American agriculture. And Governor Clinton is on all sides of that question. Let me tell you, there was something disturbing, and this is a very serious one, this morning, this Sunday, this very day in the Daily Telegraph in London, the Sunday Telegraph of London. The Clinton campaign worked out a secret agreement, it is alleged in the paper--I have to be fair, it is alleged--they worked out a secret agreement with Jacques Delors of the EC, the President of the European Community, on the Uruguay round of GATT trade. And what the agreement was is that they would delay making an agreement on the GATT round until after the election because apparently this man sides with Governor Clinton's ideology. Well, let me tell you something: If this report is true, and if the Clinton campaign is going over to Europe interfering with an agreement that would benefit all American agriculture, it is a sorry, pathetic thing to be doing a few days before an election. It is in the national interest to work out a GATT agreement, and it's a sorry thing if somebody would put their own personal political interest--afraid we might get something done for the American people--right now to stand in the way of it. I don't think that's good foreign policy, and I don't think that's very good politics, either, because it's going to blow up right in their face. Other priorities, South Dakota is doing great. Your business is moving, and you've got a low unemployment. But the rest of the country has been hurting. We don't need more tax and spend. What we need to do is stimulate small business. Small business creates jobs for two-thirds of the American people. And we need relief: relief from regulation, relief from taxation, and yes, we need relief from litigation. We're suing each other too much and caring for each other too little. These crazy lawsuits by these trial lawyers that are the biggest supporters of Governor Clinton: Doctors don't even dare deliver babies, or they have to have additional tests, running the cost of health care up. Some Little League coaches don't dare coach, afraid of some nutty lawsuit. Along the highway, somebody can be hurt, and the person won't come along and pick them up, afraid that a trial lawyer will get to the victim and say, hey, this guy didn't handle you right when you were in your hour of distress. We cannot continue to sue each other. We're trying to do something about it in the United States Congress. Send us Char Haar and let us help get the job done, and John Timmer as well. We've got a much better program for education. We literally want to revolutionize K through 12, and our America 2000 program will do that. A part of it is this: I believe in school choice, and I want to help parents choose their schools, public, private, or religious. Health care: Let's not let the Government get further involved. Let's provide insurance to the poorest of the poor through vouchers. Let's provide that overworked middle class a little bit of a tax relief to get the insurance. Let's pool insurance. Let's correct malpractice. And let's move forward so that those who don't have health care have it. But do not lower the quality by setting some board that the United States Government will run. We've got enough trouble with the post office. Don't give us trouble with health care. A couple of more subjects here--I'm just getting warmed up, you'll be pleased to know--now, crime. I've just come from a marvelous meeting in Detroit with the police chiefs from all across the country; indeed, an international meeting. And there I spelled out the things I was for on crime. But we have a big difference. Arkansas prisoners spend 20 percent of their sentences in jail. The Feds, Federal ones--that comes under me--85 percent. I have this peculiar feeling that we ought to have a little more sympathy for the victims of crime and a little less for the criminals. I hope you heard the difference when we had the debate on getting this budget deficit down, because I don't believe you need to spend and tax more. I think we need to control the growth of those mandatory spending programs. And then give me these things: Give me that line-item veto, and let the President try it if the Congress can't do it. Give me a taxpayer check-off, or put it this way, give you a taxpayer check-off so you can check 10 percent of your tax to go to lowering the deficit, and the Congress has to find the spending to go with it. And if they don't, we sequester across the board. It is time to put the power back in the hands of the people as far as this deficit goes. And there's two other things that would help: a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution--we almost got it--and that will discipline the Congress and the executive branch. And I like term limits because that gives power back to the people. But the last one and the key one, in my view, in this election and what it's going to be determined about is character and trust. You simply cannot be on all sides of all questions. You cannot come to a State that doesn't have right to work and say, ``I'm against it,'' and then in a State that does, say, ``I'm for it.'' You cannot one day be on the North American free trade agreement and saying, ``Well, I'm for it,'' and then go to the big labor unions, ``Well, I'm for it, but I'm going to change it.'' You cannot keep making these waffles. We must not turn the White House into the waffle house. And that is what's happening. It's not any one thing. It is not any one thing. It is this pattern. It is this pattern of deception, trying to be all things to all people. You can't do that as President. Let me remind you of what it was like at Desert Storm. I had to go out and say, here's what we are going to do. I couldn't say maybe; I couldn't say, on the one hand we'll do this, and on the other hand we'll do that. I made a very difficult decision. And thanks to the sons and daughters of South Dakota and other States, the mission was accomplished. Saddam's army was destroyed, and we kicked him out of Kuwait. But where was Governor Clinton? He was on both sides of the question. Just when I was trying to mobilize national support in the United States Congress and in the press, just as I was trying to mobilize it, he made this statement about the time of the vote: I favor the position--that is paraphrased--I favor the position of the minority--let sanctions work; don't do any--favor the position of the minority, but I guess I would have voted for the majority. I'm sorry, as Commander in Chief you cannot have a waffle for a position. You've got to make the tough calls. If they ever put this guy on Mount Rushmore, they'll have to have two faces for him, one on one side of the issue, the other on the other. You cannot do that. Audience members: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!" @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordOctober 25, 1992

I will. And besides that, I want to say a word about ethanol. I am the one who worked out the ethanol waiver to spur the use of ethanol. Ethanol use has gone up, way up, since I've become President of the United States, and I'm going to keep it going up. But Governor Clinton's adviser, one of them, says that ethanol might blow a hole in the ozone. Well, heck with that. It's not going to blow any hole in the ozone. It is safe, and we're going to use it more. And then another adviser gets up--because I did the right thing for the corn growers in fixing that waiver--another one gets up and says, well, we'll review that after Clinton is elected. Two things wrong with that: He ought not to review it because I made the right decision, and two, he ain't going to be elected President. He comes to South Dakota and talks ethanol, and then he goes out and starts talking about reviewing the waiver. We cannot have that flip-flop on every single issue. Now, on international trade, we are working hard to open markets for our agricultural goods all over the world. And I am proud of our export enhancement program. I am proud that we are fighting against these European subsidies. And this fall, out here in South Dakota at a wonderful farm nearby--farmer is standing right over my right shoulder--we announced a new EEP, a new export program. We're staying with that. We're going to sell billions of tons of U.S. wheat to 28 countries, and we are going to protect South Dakota jobs and sell our products all over the world. We've promoted another $1 billion in ag exports under the so-called GATT triggers, technical but very important to farmers in this State. And we're going to keep on fighting for new markets. This North American free trade agreement is going to be good for American jobs and good for American agriculture. And Governor Clinton is on all sides of that question. Let me tell you, there was something disturbing, and this is a very serious one, this morning, this Sunday, this very day in the Daily Telegraph in London, the Sunday Telegraph of London. The Clinton campaign worked out a secret agreement, it is alleged in the paper--I have to be fair, it is alleged--they worked out a secret agreement with Jacques Delors of the EC, the President of the European Community, on the Uruguay round of GATT trade. And what the agreement was is that they would delay making an agreement on the GATT round until after the election because apparently this man sides with Governor Clinton's ideology. Well, let me tell you something: If this report is true, and if the Clinton campaign is going over to Europe interfering with an agreement that would benefit all American agriculture, it is a sorry, pathetic thing to be doing a few days before an election. It is in the national interest to work out a GATT agreement, and it's a sorry thing if somebody would put their own personal political interest--afraid we might get something done for the American people--right now to stand in the way of it. I don't think that's good foreign policy, and I don't think that's very good politics, either, because it's going to blow up right in their face. Other priorities, South Dakota is doing great. Your business is moving, and you've got a low unemployment. But the rest of the country has been hurting. We don't need more tax and spend. What we need to do is stimulate small business. Small business creates jobs for two-thirds of the American people. And we need relief: relief from regulation, relief from taxation, and yes, we need relief from litigation. We're suing each other too much and caring for each other too little. These crazy lawsuits by these trial lawyers that are the biggest supporters of Governor Clinton: Doctors don't even dare deliver babies, or they have to have additional tests, running the cost of health care up. Some Little League coaches don't dare coach, afraid of some nutty lawsuit. Along the highway, somebody can be hurt, and the person won't come along and pick them up, afraid that a trial lawyer will get to the victim and say, hey, this guy didn't handle you right when you were in your hour of distress. We cannot continue to sue each other. We're trying to do something about it in the United States Congress. Send us Char Haar and let us help get the job done, and John Timmer as well. We've got a much better program for education. We literally want to revolutionize K through 12, and our America 2000 program will do that. A part of it is this: I believe in school choice, and I want to help parents choose their schools, public, private, or religious. Health care: Let's not let the Government get further involved. Let's provide insurance to the poorest of the poor through vouchers. Let's provide that overworked middle class a little bit of a tax relief to get the insurance. Let's pool insurance. Let's correct malpractice. And let's move forward so that those who don't have health care have it. But do not lower the quality by setting some board that the United States Government will run. We've got enough trouble with the post office. Don't give us trouble with health care. A couple of more subjects here--I'm just getting warmed up, you'll be pleased to know--now, crime. I've just come from a marvelous meeting in Detroit with the police chiefs from all across the country; indeed, an international meeting. And there I spelled out the things I was for on crime. But we have a big difference. Arkansas prisoners spend 20 percent of their sentences in jail. The Feds, Federal ones--that comes under me--85 percent. I have this peculiar feeling that we ought to have a little more sympathy for the victims of crime and a little less for the criminals. I hope you heard the difference when we had the debate on getting this budget deficit down, because I don't believe you need to spend and tax more. I think we need to control the growth of those mandatory spending programs. And then give me these things: Give me that line-item veto, and let the President try it if the Congress can't do it. Give me a taxpayer check-off, or put it this way, give you a taxpayer check-off so you can check 10 percent of your tax to go to lowering the deficit, and the Congress has to find the spending to go with it. And if they don't, we sequester across the board. It is time to put the power back in the hands of the people as far as this deficit goes. And there's two other things that would help: a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution--we almost got it--and that will discipline the Congress and the executive branch. And I like term limits because that gives power back to the people. But the last one and the key one, in my view, in this election and what it's going to be determined about is character and trust. You simply cannot be on all sides of all questions. You cannot come to a State that doesn't have right to work and say, ``I'm against it,'' and then in a State that does, say, ``I'm for it.'' You cannot one day be on the North American free trade agreement and saying, ``Well, I'm for it,'' and then go to the big labor unions, ``Well, I'm for it, but I'm going to change it.'' You cannot keep making these waffles. We must not turn the White House into the waffle house. And that is what's happening. It's not any one thing. It is not any one thing. It is this pattern. It is this pattern of deception, trying to be all things to all people. You can't do that as President. Let me remind you of what it was like at Desert Storm. I had to go out and say, here's what we are going to do. I couldn't say maybe; I couldn't say, on the one hand we'll do this, and on the other hand we'll do that. I made a very difficult decision. And thanks to the sons and daughters of South Dakota and other States, the mission was accomplished. Saddam's army was destroyed, and we kicked him out of Kuwait. But where was Governor Clinton? He was on both sides of the question. Just when I was trying to mobilize national support in the United States Congress and in the press, just as I was trying to mobilize it, he made this statement about the time of the vote: I favor the position--that is paraphrased--I favor the position of the minority--let sanctions work; don't do any--favor the position of the minority, but I guess I would have voted for the majority. I'm sorry, as Commander in Chief you cannot have a waffle for a position. You've got to make the tough calls. If they ever put this guy on Mount Rushmore, they'll have to have two faces for him, one on one side of the issue, the other on the other. You cannot do that. Audience members: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

Said by

George H.W. Bush

Republican · Texas

Source

govinfo.gov