George H.W. Bush: “Thank you all. Thank you very, very much. Please be seated. Let's get right about our business. But first, I certainly…”

“Thank you all. Thank you very, very much. Please be seated. Let's get right about our business. But first, I certainly want to thank our great Governor, Terry Branstad, for being at my side for that warm welcome. And of course, I needn't tell Iowans how important Chuck Grassley's reelection is, I'll tell you. And for Jim Ross Lightfoot and for Jim Leach, two stalwart friends, if we had more like them in the Congress, you wouldn't hear everybody yelling everyplace I go ``Clean House!'' We need more like him, so send us more like him, and let's get this country moving. I'm delighted to see former Governor Ray here, and I also want to thank ``Major Dad,'' Gerald McRaney, who is-- you talk about telling it like it is--he does a great job. Terry mentioned the ag economy, and I do think that when people get down to the wire in the heartland of America they ought to look at the record. I am very proud that ethanol is up and that we made a tough call. I took on some of the extremes in the environmental movement. I've got a good record on the environment. We took on some of the extremes and said, look, ethanol is a tremendous fuel of the future. Ethanol sales are up. The waiver we gave the other day is appropriate. It is sound conservation, and it is darn good for the American economy, and we're going to keep on. Similarly, the use of the export program, the Export Enhancement, the EEP, is important. We extended it to pork, and it was the right thing to do. I think that will help. We will continue to fight for opening up our markets. We've got the best producers of agricultural goods in the world. Exports have saved us through tough times, agricultural exports leading the way. And my op- ponent, Clinton, comes along, Governor Clinton, and says, ``Well, I'm for the NAFTA agreement.'' But he goes to the auto workers and has a very different tale. And my view is, the free trade agreement is good for American jobs, and it's good for American agriculture. I believe we will keep working for a successful conclusion of the GATT round. And I was very disturbed the other day to read in the Daily Telegraph, the London paper, and again, a report in one of the papers here that some Clinton minion had gone to try to get the EC to postpone consideration of this important agreement. We cannot put politics ahead of the welfare of this Nation. He has denied it. The Governor has denied that, and I think I should give credit for that. But these reports keep persisting. And we will work to get a successful conclusion of the GATT round. One other thing before I start taking the questions--you know, if you listened to the Clinton-Gore ticket, the only way they can win is to convince America that we're in a deep recession. This morning, 8:30 Eastern this morning, the figures were announced for the third quarter of this growth, the gross domestic product. The third quarter was plus 2.7 percent. It grew twice as much, about twice as much as the quarter before. We have now six straight quarters of growth in the United States, and yet the Democrats keep telling us that everything is going to hell. And they're wrong. They are wrong. So people are hurting, yes, people are hurting. But the thing to do is to put the whole economy in perspective. You hear them talk, ``Well, Japan's doing this.'' We've got a better economy. We're growing now, with these figures, 4 times as fast as Japan, far better than Germany-- had negative growth--better than England and France and Canada. And all they can do is think, ``Well, George Bush is to blame.'' They don't understand the world. It is the United States that's going to lead the world to new prosperity. Mark it down. Why don't we start right in. This is the latest thing in American politics, the Phil Donahue approach to life. So we'll take a few questions here, and I'll try to--if you give me a short question, I'll try to shorten the answers up. But I get too enthusiastic. Expanding the Job Market”