Political Quotes

“I challenge your figures on the wages. Manufacturing in this country is up as a percentage of our gross domestic product, manufacturing is. Some of the reason that manufacturing jobs has sloughed off is because manufacturing has become much more modern and streamlined. But the answer is not to do what Clinton wants, which is to have the Government invest. He talks about Government investment. Government does not create wealth. And therein I have a--and most of Europe, including Germany, has moved away from this concept of this kind of social fabric of government in terms of business. You've got to free up through less regulation, less lawsuits. We're killing ourselves with the cost of lawsuits. Less taxation; stimulate--I just said earlier, and I won't repeat them, these ways to stimulate business investment here. But we cannot go back to the failed European model of, you know, it used to be pure socialism. Those countries have all come out of it now. So I think we've got a little fact difference here as to how Germany is doing. They had a 4 percent negative growth, or 3 this last quarter, when we grew at 2.7. So I'm not about to think of Germany as the great example. They're good on some things, and they make good products, but I notice that Germany is putting a BMW plant in South Carolina. Now, why are they doing that if this gentleman is so right about how swimming everything is going in Germany? Because we've got the best workers, and we're the most productive nation there is. Sorry I can't debate you eyeball to eyeball. I might come out ahead; I might not. You sound like you know what you're talking about. Mr. Butler. When the time is over for things like this, Helen Thomas usually says ``Thank you, Mr. President,'' and that's where we are.”