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Date:         Mon, 9 Nov 1992 12:37:55 -0400
From:         MIKE <8612775@SSCVAX.CIS.MCMASTER.CA>
Subject:      GOP speeches
Comments: To: politics@ohstvma.bitnet

Well Julie you wanted them so you got em all 56 pages enjoy
Couldn't find any from the Democratic convention guess they were just too darn d
   epressing.

--mike...


This file contains the text of the major speeches delivered at the Republican Na
   tional Convention in Houston August 17-20, 1992.

   Here is the text of a speech delivered to the Republican
National Convention Monday by former President Ronald Reagan:

   Thank you, Paul for that kind introduction. And Mr. Chairman, delegates,
friends, fellow Americans, thank you so very much for that welcome.
   You've given Nancy and me so many wonderful memories, so much of your warmth
and affection, we cannot thank you enough for the honor of your friendship.
   Over the years, I've addressed this convention as a private citizen, as a
governor, as a presidential candidate, as a president and now, once again
tonight, as private citizen Ronald Reagan.
   Tonight is a very special night for me. Of course, at my age, every night's a
very special night.
   After all, I was born in 1911. Indeed, according to the experts, I have
exceeded my life expectancy by quite a few years. Now this a source of great
annoyance to some, especially those in the Democratic party.
   But, here's the remarkable thing about being born in 1911. In my life's
journey over these past eight decades, I have seen the human race through a
period of unparalleled tumult and triumph. I have seen the birth of communism
and the death of communism. I have witnessed the bloody futility of two World
Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. I have seen Germany united, divided
and united again. I have seen television grow from a parlor novelty to become
the most powerful vehicle of communication in history. As a boy I saw streets
filled with model-Ts; as a man I have met men who walked on the moon.
   I have not only seen, but lived the marvels of what historians have called
the "American Century." Yet, tonight is not a time to look backward. For while I
take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future. So
this evening, for just a few minutes, I hope you will let me talk about a
country that is forever young.
   There was a time when empires were defined by land mass, subjugated peoples,
and military might. But the United States is unique because we are an empire of
ideals. For two hundred years we have been set apart by our faith in the ideals
of democracy, of free men and free markets, and of the extraordinary
possibilities that lie within seemingly ordinary men and women. We believe that
no power of government is as formidable a force for good as the creativity and
entrepreneurial drive of the American people.
   Those are the ideals that invented revolutionary technologies and a culture
envied by people everywhere. This powerful sense of energy has made America
synonymous for opportunity the world over. And after generations of struggle,
America is the moral force that defeated communism and all those who would put
the human soul itself into bondage.
   Within a few short years, we Americans have experienced the most sweeping
changes of this century: the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the global
economy. No transition is without its problems, but as uncomfortable as it may
feel at the moment, the changes of the 1990's will leave America more dynamic
and less in danger than at any time in my life.
   A fellow named James Allen once wrote in his diary, "many thinking people
believe America has seen its best days." He wrote that July 26, 1775. There are
still those who believe America is weakening; that our glory was the brief flash
of time called the 20th Century; that ours was a burst of greatness too bright
and brilliant to sustain; that America's purpose is past.
   My friends, I utterly reject those views. That's not the America we know. We
were meant to be masters of destiny, not victims of fate. Who among us would
trade America's future for that of any other country in the world? And who could
possibly have so little faith in our America that they would trade our tomorrows
for our yesterdays?
   I'll give you a hint. They put on quite a production in New York a few weeks
ago. You might even call it slick. A stone's throw from Broadway it was, and how
appropriate. Over and over they told us they are not the party they were. They
kept telling us with straight faces that they're for family values, they're for
a strong America, they're for less intrusive government.
   And they call me an actor.
   To hear them talk, you'd never know that the nightmare of nuclear
annihilation has been lifted from our sleep. You'd never know that our standard
of living remains the highest in the world. You'd never know that our air is
cleaner than it was 20 years ago. You'd never know that we remain the one nation
the rest of the world looks to for leadership.
   It wasn't always this way. We mustn't forget -- even if they would like to --
the very different America that existed just 12 years ago; an America with 21
percent interest rates and back-to-back years of double-digit inflation; an
America where mortgage payments doubled, paychecks plunged, and motorists sat in
gas lines; an America whose leaders told us it was our own fault; that ours was
a future of scarcity and sacrifice; and that what we really needed was another
good dose of government control and higher taxes.
   It wasn't so long ago that the world was a far more dangerous place as well.
It was a world where aggressive Soviet communism was on the rise and American
strength was in decline. It was a world where our children came of age under the
threat of nuclear holocaust. It was a world where our leaders told us that
standing up to aggressors was dangerous -- that American might and determination
were somehow obstacles to peace.
   But we stood tall and proclaimed that communism was destined for the ash heap
of history. We never heard so much ridicule from our liberal friends. The only
thing that got them more upset was two simple words: "Evil Empire."
   But we knew then what the liberal Democrat leaders just couldn't figure out:
the sky would not fall if America restored her strength and resolve. The sky
would not fall if an American president spoke the truth. The only thing that
would fall was the Berlin Wall.
   I heard those speakers at that other convention saying "we won the Cold War"
-- and I couldn't help wondering, just who exactly do they mean by "we"? And to
top it off, they even tried to portray themselves as sharing the same
fundamental values of our party! What they truly don't understand is the
principle so eloquently stated by Abraham Lincoln: "You cannot strengthen the
weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down
the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help
men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
   If we ever hear the Democrats quoting that passage by Lincoln and acting like
they mean it, then, my friends, we will know that the opposition has really
changed.
   Until then, we see all that rhetorical smoke, billowing out from the
Democrats, well ladies and gentlemen, I'd follow the example of their nominee.
Don't inhale.
   This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well, let
me tell you something. I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine. And
governor, you're no Thomas Jefferson.
   Now let's not dismiss our current troubles, but where they see only problems,
I see possibilities -- as vast and diverse as the American family itself. Even
as we meet, the rest of the world is astounded by the pundits and finger
pointers who are so down on us as a nation.
   Well I've said it before and I'll say it again -- America's best days are yet
to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are
just ahead. America remains what Emerson called her 150 years ago, "the country
of tomorrow." What a wonderful description and how true. And yet tomorrow might
never have happened had we lacked the courage in the 1980's to chart a course of
strength and honor.
   All the more reason no one should underestimate the importance of this
campaign and what the outcome will mean. The stakes are high. The presidency is
serious business. We cannot afford to take a chance. We need a man of serious
purpose, unmatched experience, knowledge and ability. A man who understands
government, who understands our country and who understands the world. A man who
has been at the table with Gorbachev and Yeltsin. A man whose performance as
commander-in-chief of the bravest and most effective fighting force in history
left the world in awe and the people of Kuwait free of foreign tyranny. A man
who has devoted more than half of his life to serving his country. A man of
decency, integrity and honor.
   And tonight I come to tell you that I -- warmly, genuinely, wholeheartedly
support the re-election of George Bush as president United States.
   We know President Bush. By his own admission, he is a quiet man, not a
showman. He is a trustworthy and levelheaded leader who is respected around the
world. His is a steady hand on the tiller through the choppy waters of the '90s,
which is exactly what we need.
   We need George Bush!
   Yes, we need Bush.
   We also need another fighter, a man who happens to be with us this evening,
someone who has repeatedly stood up for his deepest convictions. We need our
vice president, Dan Quayle.
   Now it's true: a lot of liberal democrats are saying it's time for a change;
and they're right; the only trouble is they're pointing to the wrong end of
Pennsylvania Avenue. What we should change is a Democratic congress that wastes
precious time on partisan matters of absolutely no relevance to the needs of the
average American. So to all the entrenched interests along the Potomac -- the
gavel-wielding chairmen, the bloated staffs, the taxers and takers and
congressional rule makers, we have a simple slogan for november 1992: clean
house!
   For you see, my fellow Republicans, we are the change! For 50 of the last 60
years the Democrats have controlled the Senate. And they've had the House of
Representatives for 56 of the last 60 years.
   It's time to clean house. Clean out the privileges and perks. Clean out the
arrogance and the big egos. Clean out the scandals, the corner-cutting and the
foot-dragging.
   What kind of job do you think they've done during all those years they've
been running the Congress?
   You know, I used to say to some of those Democrats who chair every committee
in the House: "You need to balance the government's checkbook the same way you
balance your own." Then I learned how they ran the House bank, and I realized
that was exactly what they had been doing!
   Now, just imagine what they would do controlled the executive branch, too!
   This is the 21st presidential election in my lifetime, the 16th in which I
will cast a ballot. Each of those elections had its shifting moods of the
moment, its headlines of one day that were forgotten the next. There have been a
few more twists and turns this year than in others, a little more shouting about
who was up or down, in or out, as we went about selecting our candidates. But
now we have arrived, as we always do, at the moment of truth -- the serious
business of selecting a president.
   Now is the time for choosing.
   As it did 12 years ago, and as we have seen many times in history, our
country now stands at a crossroads. There is widespread doubt about our public
institutions and profound concern, not merely about the economy but about the
overall direction of this great country.
   And as they did then, the American people are clamoring for change and
sweeping reform. The question we had to ask 12 years ago is the question we ask
today: What kind of change can we Republicans offer the American people?
   Some might believe that the things we have talked about tonight are
irrelevant to the choice. These new isolationists claim that the American people
don't care about how or why we prevailed in the great defining struggle of our
age -- the victory of liberty over our adversaries. They insist that our triumph
is yesterday's news, part of a past that holds no lessons for the future.
   Well nothing could be more tragic, after having come all this way on the
journey of renewal we began 12 years ago, than if America herself forgot the
lessons of individual liberty that she has taught to a grateful world.
   Emerson was right. We are the country of tomorrow. Our revolution did not end
at Yorktown. More than two centuries later, America remains on a voyage of
discovery, a land that has never become, but is always in the act of becoming.
   But just as we have led the crusade for democracy beyond our shores, we have
a great task to do together in our own home. Now, I would appeal to you to
invigorate democracy in your own neighborhoods.
   Whether we come from poverty or wealth; whether we are Afro-American or
Irish-American; Christian or Jewish, from big cities or small towns, we are all
equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is not enough -- we must be
equal in the eyes of each other. We can no longer judge each other on the basis
of what we are, but must, instead, start finding out who we are. In America, our
origins matter less than our destinations and that is what democracy is all
about.
   A decade after we summoned America to a new beginning, we are beginning
still. Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities to match. With each
sunrise we are reminded that millions of our citizens have yet to share in the
abundance of American prosperity. Many languish in neighborhoods riddled with
drugs and bereft of hope. Still others hesitate to venture out on the streets
for fear of criminal violence. Let us pledge ourselves to a new beginning for
them.
   Let us apply our ingenuity and remarkable spirit to revolutionize education
in America so that everyone among us will have the mental tools to build a
better life. And while we do so, let's remember that the most profound education
begins in the home.
   And let us harness the competitive energy that built America, into rebuilding
our inner cities so that real jobs can be created for those who live there and
real hope can rise out of despair.
   Let us strengthen our health care system so that Americans of all ages can be
secure in their futures without the fear of financial ruin.
   And my friends, once and for all, let us get control of the federal deficit
through a Balanced Budget Amendment and line item veto.
   And let us all renew our commitment. Renew our pledge to day by day, person
by person, make our country and the world a better place to live. Then when the
nations of the world turn to us and say, "America, you are the model of freedom
and prosperity." We can turn to them and say, "you ain't seen nothing, yet!"
   For me, tonight is the latest chapter in a story that began a quarter of a
century ago, when the people of California entrusted me with the stewardship of
their dreams.
   My fellow citizens -- those of you here in this hall and those of you at home
-- I want you to know that I have always had the highest respect for you, for
your common sense and intelligence and for your decency. I have always believed
in you and in what you could accomplish for yourselves and for others.
   And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will
record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your
confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road
ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying
your way.
   My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for the young people
here -- is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for
her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive,
the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the
world a little better for your having been here.
   May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to
eek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism.
   And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for
America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.
   Before I go, I would like to ask the person who has made my life's journey so
meaningful, someone I have been so proud of through the years, to join me. Nancy
...
   My fellow Americans, on behalf of both of us, goodbye, and God bless each and
every one of you, and God bless this country we love.


   Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Monday by Patrick J. Buchanan:

   Well, we took the long way home, but we finally got here.
   And I want to congratulate President Bush, and remove any doubt about where
we stand: The primaries are over, the heart is strong again, and the Buchanan
Brigades are enlisted -- all the way to a great comeback victory in November.
   Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at Madison
Square Garden -- where 20,000 radicals and liberals came dressed up as moderates
and centrists -- in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American
political history.
   One by one, the prophets of doom appeared at the podium. The Reagan Decade,
they moaned, was a terrible time in America; and the only way to prevent even
worse times, they said, is to entrust our nation's fate and future to the party
that gave us McGovern, Mondale, Carter and Michael Dukakis.
   No way, my friends. The American people are not going to buy back into the
failed liberalism of the 1960s and '70s -- no matter how slick the package in
1992.
   The malcontents of Madison Square Garden notwithstanding, the 1980s were not
terrible years. They were great years. You know it. I know it. And the only
people who don't know it are the carping critics who sat on the sidelines of
history, jeering at one of the great statesmen of modern time.
   Out of Jimmy Carter's days of malaise, Ronald Reagan crafted the longest
peacetime recovery in U.S. history -- 3 million new businesses created, and 20
million new jobs.
   Under the Reagan Doctrine, one by one, the communist dominos began to fall.
First, Grenada was liberated, by U.S. troops. Then, the Red Army was run out of
Afghanistan, by U.S. weapons. In Nicaragua, the Marxist regime was forced to
hold free elections - by Ronald Reagan's contra army -- and the Communists were
thrown out of power.
   Have they forgotten? It was under our party that the Berlin Wall came down,
and Europe was reunited. It was under our party that the Soviet Empire
collapsed, and the captive nations broke free.
   It is said that each president will be recalled by posterity -- with but a
single sentence. George Washington was the father of our country. Abraham
Lincoln preserved the Union. And Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. And it is time
my old colleagues, the columnists and commentators, looking down on us tonight,
from their anchor booths and sky boxes, gave Ronald Reagan the credit he
deserves -- for leading America to victory in the Cold War.
   Most of all, Ronald Reagan made us proud to be Americans again. We never felt
better about our country; and we never stood taller in the eyes of the world.
   But, we are here, not only to celebrate, but to nominate. And an American
president has many, many roles.
   He is our first diplomat, the architect of American foreign policy. And which
of these two men is more qualified for that role? George Bush has been U.N.
ambassador, CIA director, envoy to China. As vice president, he co-authored the
policies that won the Cold War. As president, George Bush presided over the
liberation of Eastern Europe and the termination of the Warsaw Pact. And Mr.
Clinton? Well, Bill Clinton couldn't find 150 words to discuss foreign policy in
an acceptance speech that lasted an hour. As was said of an earlier Democratic
candidate, Bill Clinton's foreign policy experience is pretty much confined to
having had breakfast once at the International House of Pancakes.
   The presidency is also America's bully pulpit, what Mr. Truman called,
"pre-eminently a place of moral leadership." George Bush is a defender of right
to life, and life-long champion of the Judeo-Christian values and beliefs upon
which this nation was built.
   Mr. Clinton, however, has a different agenda.
   At its top is unrestricted abortion on demand. When the Irish-Catholic
governor of Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, asked to say a few words, on behalf of
the 25 million unborn children destroyed since Roe v. Wade, he was told there
was no place for him at the podium of Bill Clinton's convention, no room at the
inn.
   Yet, a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise at that
convention and exult: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most pro-lesbian
and pro-gay ticket in history." And so they do.
   Bill Clinton supports school choice -- but only for state-run schools.
Parents who send their children to Christian schools, or Catholic schools, need
not apply.
   Elect me, and you get two for the price of one, Mr. Clinton says of his
lawyer-spouse. And what does Hillary believe? Well, Hillary believes that
12-year-olds should have a right to sue their parents, and she has compared
marriage as an institution to slavery -- and life on an Indian reservation.
   Well, speak for yourself, Hillary.
   Friends, this is radical feminism. The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose
on America -- abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court,
homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat --
that's change all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is
not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can
tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country.
   A president is also commander-in-chief, the man we empower to send sons and
brothers, fathers and friends, to war.
   George Bush was 17 when they bombed Pearl Harbor. He left his high school
class, walked down to the recruiting office, and signed up to become the
youngest fighter pilot in the Pacific War. And Mr. Clinton? When Bill Clinton's
turn came in Vietnam, he sat up in a dormitory in Oxford, England, and figured
out how to dodge the draft.
   Which of these two men has won the moral authority to call on Americans to
put their lives at risk? I suggest, respectfully, it is the patriot and war
hero, Navy Lt.j.g George Herbert Walker Bush.
   My friends, this campaign is about philosophy, and it is about character; and
George Bush wins on both counts -- going away; and it is time all of us came
home and stood beside him.

   As running mate, Mr. Clinton chose Albert Gore. And just how moderate is
Prince Albert? Well, according to the Taxpayers Union, Al Gore beat out Teddy
Kennedy, two straight years, for the title of biggest spender in the Senate.
   And Teddy Kennedy isn't moderate about anything.
   In New York, Mr. Gore made a startling declaration. Henceforth, he said, the
"central organizing principle" of all governments must be: the environment.
   Wrong, Albert!
   The central organizing principle of this republic is freedom. And from the
ancient forests of Oregon, to the Inland Empire of California, America's great
middle class has got to start standing up to the environmental extremists who
put insects, rats and birds -- ahead of families, workers and jobs.
   One year ago, my friends, I could not have dreamt I would be here. I was then
still just one of many panelists on what President Bush calls, "those crazy
Sunday talk shows."
   But, I disagreed with the president; and so we challenged the president in
the Republican primaries, and fought as best we could. From February to June, he
won 33 primaries. I can't recall exactly how many we won.
   But, tonight, I want to talk to the 3 million Americans who voted for me: I
will never forget you, nor the great honor you have done me. But, I do believe,
deep in my heart, that the right place for us to be now -- in this presidential
campaign -- is right beside George Bush. This party is our home, this party is
where we belong. And, don't let anyone tell you any different.
   Yes, we disagreed with President Bush, but we stand with him for
freedom-of-choice religious schools, and we stand with him against the amoral
idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as
married men and women.
   We stand with President Bush for right to life, and for voluntary prayer in
the public schools -- and against putting American women in combat. And we stand
with President Bush in favor of the right of small towns and communities to
control the raw sewage of pornography that pollutes our popular culture.
   We stand with President Bush in favor of federal judges who interpret the law
as written, and against Supreme Court justices who think they have a mandate to
rewrite our Constitution.
   My friends, this election is about much more than who gets what. It is about
who we are. It is about what we believe, it is about what we stand for as
Americans. There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of
America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day
be -- as was the Cold War itself. And in that struggle for the soul of America,
Clinton & Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side. And,
so, we have to come home -- and stand beside him.
   My friends, in those six months -- from Concord to California -- I came to
know our country better than ever before in my life, and I collected memories
that will be with me always.
   There was that day-long ride through the great state of Georgia in a bus Vice
President Bush himself had used in 1988 -- a bus they called Asphalt One. The
ride ended with a 9 p.m. speech, in front of a magnificent Southern mansion, in
a town called Fitzgerald.
   There were the workers at the James River Paper Mill, in the frozen North
Country of New Hampshire, hard, tough men, one of whom was silent, until I shook
his hand. Then, he looked up in my eyes, and said, "Save our jobs!"
   There was the legal secretary at the Manchester airport on Christmas Day, who
told me she was going to vote for me, then broke down crying, saying, "I've lost
my job, I don't have any money; they're going to take away my daughter. What am
I going to do?"
   My friends, even in tough times, these people are with us. They don't read
Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they came from the same schoolyards and
playgrounds and towns as we did. They share our beliefs and convictions, our
hopes and our dreams. They are the conservatives of the heart. They are our
people. And, we need to reconnect with them. We need to let them know we know
they're hurting. They don't expect miracles, but they need to know we care.
   There were the people of Hayfork, the tiny town high up in California's
Trinity Alps, a town that is now under a sentence of death, because a federal
judge has set aside 9 million acres for the habitat of the spotted owl --
forgetting about the habitat of the men and women who live and work in Hayfork.
And there where the brave live the family values we treasure, and who still
believe deeply in the American dream.
   Friends, in those wonderful 25 weeks, the saddest days were the days of the
bloody riot in L.A., worst in our history. But even out of that awful tragedy
can come a message of hope.
   Hours after the violence ended I visited the Army compound in south L.A.,
where an officer of the 18th Cavalry, that had come to rescue the city,
introduced me to two of his troopers. They could not have been 20 years old. He
told them to recount there story.
   They had come into Los Angeles late on the second day; and they walked up a
dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every building but one, a
convalescent home for the aged. The mob was heading in, to ransack and loot the
apartments of the terrified old men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s
at the ready, the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met
the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage.
   Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his
friend. Here were 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their lives to stop a mob
from molesting old people they did not even know. And, as they took back the
streets of Los Angeles, block by block, so we must take back our cities, and
take back our culture, and take back our country.
   God bless you, and God bless America.


    Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention on Tuesday by Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Jack Kemp:

   Thank you, Roger Staubach. It's an honor to be introduced by a fellow
quarterback, an NFL Hall of Famer, and -- hopefully -- a future governor or
senator from the great State of Texas.
   Fellow Republicans, fellow Americans. Tonight America stands at the doorway
of breathtaking opportunity -- on the eve of a new century and a new millennium.
   As Ronald Reagan reminded us last night, history is on the side of freedom --
and those liberal democratic ideals which gave birth to our ntion and inspired
the most revolutionary words the world has ever heard:
   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights -- and among
these are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
   Tonight these ideas -- liberal democracy, individual freedom, entrepreneurial
capitalism -- are on the march and winning throughout the world.
   Just think, one year ago, reactionary forces in Moscow tried to roll back
this democratic revolution. They failed.
   Since then, Boris Yeltsin became Russia's first democratically elected
president in over a thousand years.
   Statues of Marx and Lenin were toppled in Red Square.
   The Hammer and Sickle came down from atop the Kremlin -- providentially, on
Christmas Day.
   Today Mikhail Gorbachev is a syndicated columnist for the New York Times.
   And believe it or not, we find the mayors of St. Petersburg and Moscow to the
right of the mayors of New York and Boston.
   Several months ago, I had lunch with the former mayor of Moscow, and asked
him how he got elected.
   He said, "Mr. Kemp, I told all the people in state-owned housing they should
have the right to own their own homes. The right to sell them for profit and
leave their propety to their children.
   "And, I pledged to make downtown Moscow a free enterprise zone."
   I said, "Mr. Mayor, where did you get these radical ideas?"
   He said, "Mr. Kemp, I got them from the 1980 Republican Platform of Ronald
Reagan and George Bush."
   Ladies and gentlemen, communism didn't fall. It was pushed!
   And it was our ideas that did the pushing and our Republican presidents --
Ronald Reagan and George Bush -- that helped change the world.
   Now we must change America.
   Our goal must be nothing less than to double the size of our economy -- to
bring prosperity, jobs, ownership and opportunity to all Americans, especially
those living in our Nation's pockets of poverty.
   Think of what that growth would mean: More jobs, higher living standards,
extraordinary opportunities for all our people, and the resources to meet our
most ambitious goals -- public and private.
   But make no mistake: If we are to change America, we must change the United
States Congress. We must give President Bush and Vice President Quayle a
Republican Congress to get America moving again and finally wage a winning war
on poverty.
   Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of a great party is not to defeat its
opponents, but to provide superior leadership and a great cause.
   It's not to denounce the past, but to inspire our nation to a better future.
   This great cause is the same today as it was when our party was founded.
Listen to the words of Abraham Lincoln:
   "The progress by which the poor, honest, industrious and resolute man raises
himself, that he may work on his own account, and hire somebody else ... is the
great principle for which this government was really formed."
   Lincoln believed that in this country, capitalism must grow from the bottom
up, not the top down -- capitalism must begin on Main Street and extend to Wall
Street, not the other way around.
   This has special meaning to me. As a boy growing up in Los Angeles this was
my experience. You see, my dad was a truck driver. He earned enough to buy the
truck. Eventually he and his brother built a small business that put six
children through college.
   This is the kind of capitalism we envision for America -- the freedom not
just to drive a truck, but the chance to own that truck and one day own a
trucking company!
   This is America. This is the dream. And this is the cause our party must
champion in the '90s.
   We don't believe in an America that pursues equality by making rich people
poor, but by allowing poor people, indeed all people, to become rich. Not just
rich in creature comforts, but rich in the opportunity to achieve your God-given
potential.
   The party of Lincoln does not believe people are a drain on resources.
   People ARE our resources.
   We don't believe children are just mouths to feed. They are hearts, minds,
and souls for our future. And they deserve our protection not only after their
birth, but before they are born.
   We don't believe compassion should be measured by the size of the safety net,
but by the number of rungs on the ladder of opportunity.
   This is what distinguishes our party from the Democrats.
   The Democrats' New Covenant is not new. It's not change. It doesn't put
people first, it puts government first; it doesn't empower people, it empowers
bureaucracy. It doesn't encourage investment and growth, it spends ... and
spends ... and spends.
   Mario Cuomo gave away the Democrats' game plan just before their convention
when he told us, Bill Clinton has the courage to raise our taxes.
   The Democrats call that courage -- I call it crazy.
   In this economy, can you imagine anything more depressing and destructive
than raising income tax rates and imposing a surtax. The Democrats' plan won't
soak the rich, it'll soak the poor, soak the middle class, and drown our
economy.
   We all know what the problem is -- the economy is starved for capital. When
capital is taxed heavily -- as it is now -- it becomes scarce, available only to
the privileged few. The spirit of enterprise -- the engine of growth and new
jobs -- is being smothered.
     George Bush and our party understood this back in 1988 when we ran on a
pledge to cut the capital gains tax, index it to stop taxing gains due only to
inflation, and eliminate it in our inner cities and pockets of poverty.
   In 1989, President Bush asked Congress to carry out his mandate. The
Democratic Congress said no.
   In 1990 and 1991, as the economymoved into recession, he asked repeatedly for
action.
   Congress said no.
   This year, in the State of The Union Address, the president pleaded with
Congress again.
   Congress said no.
   Then just last week, in a party-line vote, the United States Senate said no
again.
   And even after the tragedy of the Los Angeles riots -- when we asked the
Democrats to pass the enterprise zone legislation our party has sought for 12
years, Congress adjourned.
   Ladies and gentlemen, isn't it time we said no to the Democratic Congress?
   What nerve they have, these Democrats -- as the unemployment lines lengthen
to 11 million, they stonewall our pleas for action -- and then blame our
president and our party for the economic decline.
   What nerve -- to now step forward and offer more taxation, more government
and more welfare dependency and proclaim -- get this -- "a New Democratic
Covenant."
   Let me tell you, capital and credit are virtually non-existent in our
nation's inner cities. As HUD Secretary, I've travelled this country. I've seen
the results -- and they're devastating.
   For 50 years, the Democratic Party has dictated most of the policies
governing our cities. Higher taxes. Redistribution of wealth. A welfare system
that penalizes people for working, discourages marriage, punishes the family,
and literally prohibits savings.
   It's not the values of the poor that are flawed; it's the values of the
welfare system that are bankrupt.
   These policies have robbed our cities of vibrance and shattered the link
between effort and reward. Now the Democrats want to impose the same failed
policies on the rest of merica. What nerve.
   Our party offers a better way.
   Last year, I toured the home of a wonderful black woman named Evelyn Lindsey.
After years in public housing and on welfare, thanks to our administration's
public-private partnerships, she finally became a homeowner.
   But after the tour, one skeptical reporter asked, "How can you guarantee this
house will look as good ten years from today?"
   Evelyn Lindsey looked that reporter in the eye and said: "It'll look better
because for the first time in my life I own something of value I can pass on to
my children."
   Ladies and gentlemen, she spoke not only for her family, but for all
families.
   Tonight, let us speak for her -- and for all those Americans who aspire to
ownership and entrepreneurship, to jobs and upward mobility, to safety and
security, and to the right to send their children to the school of their choice
-- either public or private.
   President Bush was speaking for her when he told public housing residents in
St. Louis that someday they too could own their own home. He was speaking for
her when he told the cheering crowd that the capital gains tax is "a tax on the
American Dream."
   He pledged "if the system's not helping build a better life, then we must
change the system."
   And we will! We must!
   I loved hearing President Reagan remind us last night that it's not enough to
be equal in the eyes of God, we have to be equal in the eyes of each other.
   Our party offers a more powerful vision -- an America committed to
prosperity, opportunity, and jobs for our people.
   We must be the party that unleashes the talents of all our people. That's why
I'm proud our president's platform puts our party on the side of lower tax rates
on working families, on capital formation, on first-time homebuyers, and on poor
Americans who want their shot at the American Dream.
   Fellow Americans, the liberals just don't get it. They don't understand -- we
can't create more employees without creating more employers. We can't have
capitalism without capital.
   And we can't expect people to defend property rights when they are denied
access to property.
   But when people have a stake in the system they will defend not only their
own property, but their neighbors' as well. This is the message of Los Angeles
and every other pocket of poverty -- we must be the party that gives veryone a
stake in the system.
   That is what the re-election of George Bush means to America.
   We have the ideas. We are on the side of history. We must bring alive the
promise of the Declaration of Independence for all people everywhere.
   Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great cause, and we've got a great team.
   And let me say -- as an old football player who played in this very stadium
-- we've got a great quarteback in George Bush.

   Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Tuesday by Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas:

   Never in history has the world experienced more dramatic changes in a shorter
period of time than during the last four years.
   The Berlin Wall has come down; the people of Eastern Europe have been
liberated; the Soviet Union, the evil empire that threatened our lives and our
freedom for 45 years, exists today only in the pages of history books.
   One-hundred and thirty-two nations united behind our leadership to stop a
tyrant in the Middle East. And America stands today in triumph with economic and
military power unrivaled in the history of the world.
   None of these changes happened by accident. They are all the result of strong
Republican leadership. Two men more than any other people on the planet have
been the catalyst for these changes, and their names are Ronald Reagan and
George Bush.
   When you count the number of nations liberated from Soviet tyranny -- when
you total up the population freed from the Marxist yoke -- when you add up all
the puppet despots whose support from Moscow has now been yanked away, ours is
the greatest victory in the history of freedom.
   Ronald Reagan sighted the Kremlin in the cross hairs but it was George Bush
who pulled the trigger.
   If Jimmy Carter had been re-elected in 1980, if Walter Mondale had won the
presidency in 1984, if Michael Dukakis had been elected in 1988, the Berlin Wall
would still be standing. And all we marvel at in the world today would be a
wishful dream. Leadership is the difference. It has changed the world and it has
brought us more than peace; George Bush's leadership has brought us victory.
   With this victory secured, President Bush instituted a long-term build-down
in defense saving $300 billion for deficit reduction and for tax cuts for
working families.
   But Governor Clinton and the Democrats in Congress don't want to build
defense down, they want to tear it down. If they succeed in implementing the
Clinton plan, one million people now in uniform and in civilian defense jobs
will be thrown into the street and defense spending as a percentage of the
budget will plummet below the level that existed on Dec. 7, 1941.
   We have not forgotten that the last Democrat in the White House so decimated
defense that on any given day, 50 percent of our combat planes couldn't fly and
our ships couldn't sail, for lack of spare parts and mechanics. So bad was pay
for the military that many enlisted personnel and their families qualified for
food stamps.
   Under Republican leadership, we modernized our weapons and we recruited some
of the finest young men and women who have ever worn the uniform of this
country. They wear that uniform all over the world tonight with a new pride and
a new confidence, and we Republicans are committed to keeping it that way.
   We must never allow the Democrats to disarm America again.
   There are still tyrants in the world and there will be new tyrants in the
future. When reason and diplomacy fail, we must have an Army, a Navy, an Air
Force, and a Marine Corps that do not fail. Even in a world where the lion and
the lamb are about to lie down together, we Republicans are committed to the
principle that the United States of America must always be the lion.
   The Constitution gives the president broad, unilateral powers in defense and
foreign policy. And in watching George Bush exercise those powers, the world has
stood back in wonder. In any hut in any village on the planet, one world leader
is honored and loved above all others. Spoken in a thousand dialects his name is
still George Bush.
   When crisis erupted in the Middle East, President Bush united the world
behind his leadership. He won the support of the Soviet Union, a resolution from
the United Nations, and the endorsement of every civilized nation on earth. And
then he came to the Congress and said, let America speak with one bipartisan
voice on the Middle East, and every elected member of the Democratic leadership
in the House and the Senate said, "No."
   Ultimately we shamed enough Democrats in Congress into supporting the
president. But the president, using his constitutional powers, could have and
would have acted without the support of Congress.
   The Constitution makes the president commander-in-chief of the Army but not
commander-in-chief of the Congress. And all domestic programs proposed by the
president must be approved by Congress. The Democrats who control Congress by
overwhelming margins have used their majority to throttle the president's
program and strangle the nation's economy in a partisan gridlock the likes of
which we have not seen in this century.
   By January of 1989, the Reagan-Bush economic program had created 19 million
new jobs. But with the longest peace-time expansion in American history starting
to cool down, President Bush asked Congress for new incentives to ignite the
economy.
   The President asked Congress:
   -- for investment tax credits
   -- for a cut in the capital gains tax
   -- for enterprise zones
   -- for a $5,000 tax credit for first-time home-buyers
   -- and for an additional $500-per-child exemption.
   Had Congress said yes to these proposals, 1 1/2 million more Americans would
be working today. But the Democrats said no.
   To break the back of the deficit before it broke the back of the economy,
George Bush asked Congress:
   -- for a spending freeze
   -- for the line-item veto
   -- and for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
   Had Congress said yes, the deficit would be falling and mortgage rates would
be 6 percent today. But the Democrats said no.
   To stop skyrocketing medical costs from driving working families to ruin,
President Bush asked Congress:
   -- to reform health insurance
   -- to give the self-employed a health insurance tax deduction
   -- to cap Medicare and Medicaid costs
   -- and to end the million dollar malpractice suits that drive insurance rates
out of reach.
   Had Congress said yes, the cost of health care and health insurance would
have stabilized. But the Democrats said no.
   To fight back against the drug thugs who prey on the health, happiness and
lives of our children, 1,161 days ago today, the president sent to the Congress
the nation's toughest anti-crime/anti-drug bill. It restored the death penalty
at the federal level. Under our bill, no matter who your daddy is or how society
has done you wrong, if you sell drugs to a child you are going to jail and you
are going to serve every day of 10 years in the federal penitentiary. And when
you get out, if you do it again, you're going back for life.
   Had Congress said yes, we would have grabbed drug thugs by the throat. But
the Democrats said no.
   The Democrats still blame society, not criminals, for crime! Not content with
just gutting the president's bill, the Democrats went on to overturn 22 Supreme
Court decisions that had strengthened law enforcement. So bad was their bill
that 15 Democrat state attorneys general, not to mention 16 Republicans, urged
the President to veto the Democrats' "pro-criminal" bill.
   America's problem today is not that the president's plan to energize the
economy has failed. Our problem is that it has not been tried. It is not that
the president did not ask for change but that the Democrats who run Congress
killed those changes. Our president asked Congress for the tools to rebuild the
economy and for weapons to win back our streets. And Congress bent them and
broke them and threw them away.
   To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Give us the tools and we will finish the
job. Give us a Republican Congress to work with President Bush and we will put
America back to work and put criminals in jail where they belong.
   Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: We both want change. The debate
is not about who is for change; it's about the direction of the change. Today
America stands at the crossroads. It is a time for choosing: their way of more
taxes or our way of more jobs; their way of more government or our way of more
opportunity.
   The change Republicans want today is to stop the growth of government, to
control spending, to balance the budget and to cut taxes again. The change
Democrats want is to go back to the tax-and-spend policies they gave us in the
'70s, the last time there was a Democrat in the White House.
   Did you notice that at their convention in New York, the Democrats hid their
congressional leaders? Speaker Tom Foley and Majority Leader George Mitchell
were so far back in the crowd you had to press your nose right up to the TV
screen and use a magnifying glass to spot them. It is clear Governor Clinton
wants people to forget that Democrats run Congress so he can blame every problem
on George Bush.
   But if you needed a magnifying glass to see the Democrat leaders of Congress,
you needed a microscope to see the details of the economic plan which Governor
Clinton had previously touted before every special-interest group in America.
And the reason is obvious. The change Clinton has promised the special interests
is not the change America wants. It is a plan that only lobbyists, lawyers,
labor bosses and big-city machines could love.
   The Clinton plan calls for a new domestic spending spree totaling over $100
billion a year -- the largest increase in American history.
   Is that the change we want?
   The Clinton plan doubles payroll taxes and increases taxes on small business
and family farms. It is, in fact, the largest tax increase in the nations's
history.
   Is that the change we want?
   The Clinton plan through new taxes and mandated costs, will eat up one-half
of all business profits. Private investment would collapse and millions of
Americans would loose their jobs.
   Is that the change we want?
   The Clinton plan repeals congressional spending limits, kills the balanced
budget amendment and sends the deficit up by $100 billion.
   Is that the change we want?
   The Clinton plan. Add up the spending, add up the taxes, add up the
regulations, add up the deficit.
   Is that the change we want?
   At the New York convention, Clinton was like a used-car salesman peddling his
vehicle for change -- the wax job was shiny, the hubcaps sparkled, the
upholstery was spotless, the paint was new. But when you look under the hood,
you discover he is hawking a model from the '70s -- a Carter mobile with the
axle broken and the frame bent to the left. It was a lemon for the nation in the
'70s when it sent inflation through the roof and income through the floor, and
it is still a lemon today.
   When you look at the fine print, the Clinton plan calls for increases in
domestic spending and taxes greater than those promised by Mondale and Dukakis
combined. The American people rejected Walter Mondale. The American people
rejected Michael Dukakis, and when they understand the Clinton plan they will
reject Bill Clinton too.
   After 12 years of Governor Clinton's failed leadership, his home state ranks:
   -- 50th in average family income
   -- 50th in jobs for young people
   -- 50th in environmental policy
   -- 50th in law enforcement funding
   That is what 12 years of Governor Clinton's plan for change has done for
Arkansas. That sorry record and a little slick rhetoric is the change he offers
for America.
   Is that the change we want?
   Thanks to the leadership of President Bush, freedom has swept the planet and
all over the world people are turning to free enterprise and limited government
to promote economic growth and prosperity. The Democrats must be getting pretty
lonely. In all the world, only in Cuba and North Korea and in the Democratic
Party in America do we still have organized political groups who believe that
the answer to every problem is more government.
   The answer is not more government -- it's more opportunity. And the path to
greater opportunity for all our people will be found by controlling federal
spending and letting the people who do the work, pay the taxes and pull the
wagon keep more of what they earn.
   Governor Clinton says trust the Congress to "invest" the taxpayers' money. We
say trust the family. We know the Congress and we know the American family and
we know the difference. Bill Clinton and the Democrats do not know the
difference, and that's what this election is all about.
   In one very real sense balancing the budget, the hardest thing we must do to
right our economy, is pretty simple. We just have to set the right standard in
spending the taxpayers' money. I know that standard. In 1981, on the day the
Reagan-Bush economic program passed in the House, I was walking down the steps
of the Capitol and a reporter came running up to me and said "Congressman Gramm,
in your 1,350-page budget how did you decide what programs ought to grow and
what programs ought to be cut?"
   I said, "I used the Dicky Flatt test." And not being from Mexia, Texas, the
reporter didn't know Dicky Flatt and didn't understand. So I explained it. I
said, "I looked at every program in the federal government. And then I tried to
think of a real, honest-to-God working person in my congressional district. And
I often thought of a printer from Mexia named Dicky Flatt.
   "And I thought about Dicky Flatt because he works hard for a living. He is in
business with his wife; his momma; and his brother and brother's wife. They have
a print shop. They sell stationery and school and office supplies. They work
till 7 or 8 o'clock every week night; and they're open on Saturday. And whether
you see Dicky Flatt at the PTA or the Boy Scouts or at his church, try as he may
he never quite gets that blue ink off the end of his fingers."
   And I told that reporter, "I looked at each program and I thought about Dicky
Flatt and I asked a simple question: will the benefits to be derived by spending
money on this program be worth taking the money away from Dicky Flatt to pay for
it?"
   Let me tell you something, there are not a hell-of-a-lot of programs that
will stand up to that test. The Dicky Flatt test is the Republican test and when
Congress starts using that test we are going to lick this deficit problem once
and for all.
   Bill Clinton does not know Dicky Flatt.
   In saying the answer is more opportunity and not more government, Republicans
have sometimes been accused of having too much faith in the American system and
in American families. It's not just faith we have, it's evidence. That evidence
is found in the life story of thousands in this hall and millions watching at
home on television. Part of my evidence is from my own family.
   Neither of my parents went to high school and yet my momma had a dream before
I was born that I was going to college. I fought it. They kept trying to
inoculate me with learning, but it didn't take. I failed 3rd, 7th, and 9th
grades but my momma prodded me all the way through college to a Ph.D in
economics. Mothers' dreams do not die easily in America.
   My wife's grandfather came to this country as an indentured laborer to work
in the sugar cane fields in Hawaii. His son, my wife's father, was the first
Asian-American ever to become an officer of a sugar company in the history of
Hawaii.
   And today Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm, my wife, is chairman of the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, which oversees the trading of all commodity futures from oil
and gold to pork bellies and yes, cane sugar. That's what freedom and
opportunity are all about. That story is not a testament to a great family. It
is instead a testament to a great country.
   America is not a great powerful country because the most brilliant and
talented people in the world came to live here. America is a great and powerful
country because it is here that ordinary people like you and me have had more
opportunity and more freedom than any other people who have ever lived on the
face of the Earth. And with that opportunity and with that freedom, ordinary
people like us have been able to do extraordinary things.
   In the middle of the last century, in the midst of a crisis far greater than
any we face today, a delegation of citizens deeply worried about the future
called on President Lincoln at the White House. And Abraham Lincoln told them a
story about a young boy who went hunting with his father in the mountains. As
the boy gazed at the stars that night, a meteor shower frightened him and he
shook his father awake.
   And as Lincoln told the story, the father said, "Son, don't look at the
shooting stars -- look at the fixed stars that have guided us in the past and
will guide us in the future."
   And so Lincoln told the delegation that if America steered by the fixed stars
of freedom that our founding fathers forged, the future of America would yet be
secure.
   As we look to the future tonight, let us be guided by the fixed stars of
freedom and opportunity; of family and faith; of values and character. If we
follow the principles that made America great to begin with, we need not fear
the future.
   America's third century will be our greatest century.