George H.W. Bush: “Let me tell you what it is: It's to listen to the people. But here's the problem we've got. We got some things done in…”

“Let me tell you what it is: It's to listen to the people. But here's the problem we've got. We got some things done in our first term, good things, caring things: the Americans for Disabilities Act that lifts up those that are disabled and helps them fit into the mainstream, or the Clean Air Act, or more recently even, a transportation bill that puts $150 billion into the infrastructure. So we've been able to accomplish quite a few good things. As we got near the end of the first term, this gentleman is right, the leadership, not all the Members but the leadership in the Congress made a determination: We can win if the economy is bad, and we can win if the President doesn't look good by mistake and try to fix something, do something. So we've been up against what is a gridlocked Congress. Now, what's going to change? Because they can't even run a two-bit post office or a failed little tiny bank this big, you're going to have a lot of new Members of Congress. Like me, they're listening to the voters. And I will be reelected and not have any politics on the horizon, no more, no more campaigns, no more debates, thank God. [Laughter] No more whatever else it is. And we'll say, let's get the people's business done; Democrats, Republicans, sit down with me now, and let's do what I have told the people I want to do. Health care, make insurance available to all. Whatever it is, education, revolutionize it. Don't go back and patch up, put band-aids on something where our kids are getting short-changed; revolutionize it. Budget deficit, give me the balanced budget amendment, the line-item veto, a check-off for tax returns. And they will have to be listening. When I'm elected, it will be because people are listening to these ideas. And I'll say, ``Okay, sit down,'' like Lyndon said, ``Come reason together.'' With a two-by- four in one hand and a very open approach in another. And I believe we can move this country forward in the first 120 days. The politics will subside for a while. The best time for a new President is the first days of the second term, because politics is gone, the voters' words are ringing in the ears of all politically elected people, and the country is beginning to move. You know, I mentioned these growth figures. But interest rates are down. Who wants to go back to the way they were when you had a Democratic President in the White House, at 21.5 percent interest rates and 15 percent inflation and grain embargoes. This Congress, if the status quo prevails, will roll over Clinton like a stone steamroller, and we can't have that. So we're talking about the new ideas that will stimulate the growth in the economy, do more in the private sector. And I really am optimistic about moving the country forward with the new Members of Congress. Clean House! It's been done by the voters already. Taxes”