George H.W. Bush: “In the first place, we've had a tough time. It hasn't been only the United States of America. Look around the world.…”

“In the first place, we've had a tough time. It hasn't been only the United States of America. Look around the world. There has been a global recession, certainly a global slowdown. The United States economy has grown anemically for five straight quarters, five straight quarters. But it's so anemic that many areas don't feel it, because to average out a growth like that you have to have some areas doing much worse and some areas doing better. What it's going to take, it seems to me, to turn the economy around is to get the Government sector of the economy doing less. And that's why I am favoring holding the growth on spending. I will not touch Social Security; I've said that over and over again and have been very faithful to that. But in my view, the Government spends too much and taxes too much. Too much in the public sector, not enough in the private sector. Now, in my January State of the Union message, I suggested to what I now call the gridlocked Congress that they move on certain incentives to stimulate the economy. Investment tax allowance, for example. A credit for first-time homebuyers to stimulate the housing market. I still believe firmly that a good way to stimulate this economy is a capital gains tax reduction. We are not saving enough, and we're not increasing capital enough. And the way you do that is to cut that capital gains rate. It will increase jobs, increase investment, increase risk-taking. I know I have a big argument with those on the other side of the political aisle, but I believe it would work now just as it worked when it was cut in 1978 as a stimulation. So the philosophy is cut back on tax-and-spend as an approach, and try to get this Government under control with less regulation, more incentive to save and invest, and certainly do something about the fabric of the Nation. And that is, we're talking here about the need for us to be competitive internationally. We're going to have to do better in the field of education, and our America 2000 program makes a very good step about that. I have been concerned about the confidence factor because you've had so much gloom and doom about the economy that people are scared. Yes, things have been slow. But I am not pessimistic in the long run. I simply disagree with my opponent when he talks about this Nation being a nation in decline or ranking somewhere between Germany and Sri Lanka, to use his own words. We don't. Go talk to your friends abroad, and you'll find that we are still, in spite of our difficulty, the envy of the world. Now what we've got to do is get ready and move forward into the future with some optimism. I believe we can do it. Palestinian State and Middle East Peace”