Political Quotes

“Thank you, Governor Treen. Good morning, everybody, and thank you, thank you for that warm welcome. May I salute David Treen, who did a great job as Governor of this State; my friend Congressman Bob Livingston. If we had more Members of Congress like him, they wouldn't be yelling at me ``Clean House!'' all the time. We've got a good one here. May I salute our Secretary of State, Fox McKeithen; and Peggy Wilson, right here with me; Ron Brinson, the president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans; and of course, our old friend, a great Louisianian serving at my side in the White House, Henson Moore. You know, it's a very special pleasure for me--I'm going to take my coat off. It's hot out here, man. It's a very special pleasure to be here. Let me tell you one of the reasons why. Thirty-five years ago I came back to this city--I came here many, many times--came back here to the Bienville Street Wharf down the way a bit to christen a new offshore oil rig. I was a small-business man with an office right here near here in downtown New Orleans and the offices also over at Cameron and Morgan City and Lafayette. I grew to know this State and to love Louisiana and the people, the food, the music, the fondness for the old, and the passion for the new. I am glad to be back here today because it brings back a lot of memories, and you make me feel right at home. Thanks for this warm welcome. I mentioned offshore drilling. I am for the offshore drilling industry. Ask the super-environmentalists, the Clinton-Gore ticket, exactly where they stand and then try to get them to keep their word. They waffle on every single issue. This morning I want to say, or this afternoon, just a few words about the economic challenge facing this great country of ours, about the powerful force of trade, a force that will shape the lives, the livelihood of these children here today. And let me just say I salute the Taylor's kids, and Pat Taylor, who helps get them educated. In this campaign, I have laid out an Agenda for American Renewal. It is a comprehensive series of steps to win the new global economic competition, to create here in America by early in the next century the world's very first $10 trillion economy. My agenda spells it out in detail what we must do to achieve that goal, the priorities I'm fighting for. I want to literally, to begin with, we have got to literally reinvent American education and give every parent the right to choose their kids' schools, public, private, or religious. Governor Clinton said it won't work, and I say I do remember that it worked pretty well for the GI bill, and it can work for all the parents today. So let's fight for that. I want to reform our legal system. Frankly, we must limit these crazy lawsuits. As a nation we must sue each other less and care for each other more. I don't care, the liberals don't like this one, but I want to see us strengthen the American family because family is still the foundation of our Nation. I want our Nation to save and invest more. And we can do this only by reducing the size of the Federal Government, because today's Government is too big, and it spends too much of your money. I want to limit the terms of Members of Congress and take Congress away from the special interests and give it back to you, the American people. These are steps that we must take to realize the global opportunity before us, to place more of our neighborhoods on the path to prosperity. But we can begin by grasping a unique opportunity to break down century- old barriers to the free flow of goods and ideas, by fighting to open new markets. Because you know as well as I do, given the right chance, the American worker can outthink, outcompete, outwork any other worker in the entire world. I was over in San Antonio yesterday to mark a turning point in the history of North America. Yesterday will be remembered in history, for along with President Carlos Salinas of Mexico and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, we watched the signing of a truly historic agreement, the North American free trade agreement or NAFTA. And over the next 15 years, NAFTA will create the largest free trade area in the world, an economic trading area with over 360 million customers and over $6 trillion in annual output. Trade between the United States and Mexico and Canada has already increased by over 70 percent in the past 5 years. This agreement strengthens our partnership, and most of all, it creates good jobs for American workers. And that has got to be the goal. Everybody in the Port of New Orleans knows what I'm talking about. This agreement allows the United States to build on our lead as the export superpower. America already sells more products abroad than any other nation in history. Over the past 3 years, despite a sluggish world economy, U.S. exports have increased more than 30 percent and more than $20 billion of these goods passed right through the Port of New Orleans. And you know what this means for the city. Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!”