Remarks in Omaha, Nebraska

There is something happening across America, I can tell you, it's out there. Will it happen? I think it will. I think we're going to win this race on November 6.

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On November 6, Bill Clinton's going to be the most surprised man in America.

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Now, we've been in seven states so far today. We've started yesterday, 96 hours, around the clock. And the last time I fought around the clock for America was in Italy in 1945. But I'm going to fight around the clock for America until noon on Tuesday Election Day because the stakes are high.

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We're going from here to South Dakota and Colorado and Nevada and California before the day's out and the nights out. And we think we're making great progress.

We see a lot of enthusiasm everywhere we go. I believe people do believe that character does count when you're the president of the United States.

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And I saw a man of great character when I walked in, former Senator Carl Curtis down here. Carl?

Right here in Mildridge. Yes, sir.

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And I want to welcome, I guess the Kempthornes have already been welcomed to Nebraska. Dirk has done a great job in the United States Senate — one of our bright stars, future stars in the Republican Party, make no mistake about it.

And we're going to have him join Chuck. You're going to be in great company. You just do what Dirk does, and you'll be a very effective senator from the state of Nebraska.

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Doug and Bill, I know you've got — you've done outstanding job — John's in his first — finished his first term. Did a great job. Going to be re-elected. We'll do a better job for Omaha and his district. And we're very proud to have him here.

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We feel a lot of momentum out there. I've smelled victory in the air. Something's happening. Something happening.

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And the one thing I will need as president of the United States, is help in the United States Senate, Chuck. And I'm going to be counting on you, counting on your vote for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to protect the flag of the United States of America for voluntary prayer in our schools.

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All these things Bill Clinton opposes and Bob Dole will support. And Chuck will support. And they will happen. We've had a enough of our Arkansas, we've had enough of Bill Clinton.

You're not a bad fellow, but you're going to go back to Arkansas and even there, he will be eligible for the tax cut if he leaves his change of address.

DOLE: If he doesn't leave his change of address I don't know where to send it. But if he leaves it, we'll send him his 15 percent across the board tax cut.

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Plus $500 for a child under 18 child credit. Plus we're going to cut the capitol gains rate in half from 28 percent to 14 percent to get things moving again.

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And one other thing. In the heartland out there, in the farm country, and small towns, it's not fair for a family that works all their life day after day after day — the husband works, the wife works, the kids work. You get a little farm. You get a little business. If somebody passes on you've got to sell half your property to pay the estate tax. We're gonna start providing estate tax relief for farmers and ranchers and small businessmen and small businesswomen.

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And that is just phase one.

Phase two, is to have a flatter, fairer, simpler tax system and end the IRS as we know it.

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And we're gonna tell young people in America never use drugs, cigarettes or alcohol. If you've started, stop. If you've never started, never start. But we're gonna cut drug use in half in the country. It's doubled under President Clinton. It's doubled under President Clinton.

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And I won't be on television laughing saying, "Well I could if I'd tried again." Yes, surely. Right.

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I'm not going to do that.

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We're going to restore our military strength and were going to respect young men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

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Were not going to have 17,000 young men and women wearing our uniform on food stamps. We're going to pay them enough so they can take care of there families. They're proud. They wear the uniform. They're out there looking after us every day and they ought to be paid enough to buy groceries and take car of their family without relying on food stamps.

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And you send me the partial-birth abortion ban and I'll sign it. I won't veto it.

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And whatever your views on abortion may be — whether your pro-life or pro-choice this is a procedure that is terrible. It's late term. It's totally unnecessary according not to me, but to Dr. Evert Koop who happens to be pro-choice. Said it's never necessary, it could harm the mother and what did President Clinton do? What he always does he said well if he'd done this or this or this I would have signed it. Well we offered amendment, in fact it was my amendment I was still on the senate then, protect the life of the mother. But he still vetoed it. You send it to Bob Dole and I will sign it to protect that child, to protect that child and also to protect that mother.

And I will never compromise ethics or violate the public trust when I am in the White House. I will never violate ethics or the public trust and I tell you think of something that may not have happened in the White House don't bet on it. Don't bet on the last four years.

DOLE: You got FBI files. They got this guy who used to be a bouncer in a bar. He's now the White House security chief. He has a beer and then he looks through these FBI files. Then he has another beer and he looks more files.

[laughter]

Nine hundred of them down there. They shouldn't be in the White House. They shouldn't even be there unless the President of the United States requests them himself. You may have FBI files. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. But it is very private, and you shouldn't have somebody rummaging around in the White House trying to find something on somebody else they might use later on.

It's not going to happen in my White House, and you wouldn't want it to happen in anybody's White House.

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I think President Ford, who was born in Omaha, and Ronald Reagan and George Bush, were models of integrity in the White House. I was with President Ford and President Bush yesterday. A thought occurred to me just looking at those two men.

What a difference. Character does make a difference. Keeping the public trust does make a difference.

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There are values that I know are expressed in the heartland, right here. I know your football team has a lot of character. They proved that again today.

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I don't know what happened last week. I was out of town.

[laughter]

But it probably wasn't good. But words — and Chuck knows these words because he has been there too: duty, honor, country. Not bad, right? Not bad. Not bad.

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Faith and integrity. These are the values that we've learned from our parents and they've learned from their parents, and we try to instill in our children. Decency. Responsibility. Discipline. Work. Work. These are traditional American values.

The government cannot solve every problem. In fact, they create sometimes more problems than they solve, trying to solve a problem. We cannot solve every problem.

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I want you to remember — I've got a pretty good feeling that I'd probably win a poll in this group.

[laughter]

But keep in mind what President Clinton did and what candidate Clinton promised. He went all over American in '92, saying you vote for me and you're going to get a big tax decrease, middle income tax cut. But instead you got the largest tax increase in the history of America, $265 billion.

Then he said I've got a little health care plan here. It won't cost much, only one and a half trillion dollars, with 17 new taxes, price controls, 50 new bureaucracies. A total government takeover of health care in America. You couldn't even choose your own doctor. That's what he tried. And they haven't forgotten. The same people are still there. Well, a few of them are locked up. Others are on the way out.

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But most of it was still there.

DOLE: Don't let President Clinton fool anybody in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, the Dakotas, Idaho, or anywhere else in this part of the country. I don't think he does fool anybody, frankly. But he's a smooth talker. I'm not a smooth talker. I'm sort of like Harry Truman. They said give them hell, Harry. Harry said just tell them the truth and they think it's hell. That's what we're going to do for the next two days.

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We're going to tell them the truth and they'll think it's hell. We want to carry every state around here, because we believe we understand this part of America. Let me give you an example on agriculture. Bill could talk about it. Doug could talk about it. John could talk about. Chuck could talk about it. Dirk could talk about. But I've got the mike, so I'm going to talk about it.

[laughter]

This administration never proposed a farm bill.

They didn't like ours, but they never had one of their own. That is not leadership. We've got a good, good farm bill called The Freedom To Farm Act, which is market-oriented, export-oriented. Hopefully one of these days there will be no more subsidies. We're on that track. It's a market-orient program.

The President says, well he wants to change it next year. He's not going to be around to change anything next year.

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But it's a good farm bill and it ought to pass. We need more aggressive export policies for farmers, and we're going to make it work. Be believe there are many many opportunities in this part of America. We also understand regulation may be necessary. But overregulation is not necessary. It costs the average family about $7,000 per year. We believe, and Dirk Kempthorne has been working on this and the Endangered Species Act, we believe there ought to be some changes.

We want to protect the air. We want to protect the water. We want to protect what we eat. But also in this part of the country we've said in the past if everything else fails, try a little common sense. Try a little common sense.

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So I would say this, and I think I can say it fairly honestly. Whether you live in Iowa or Nebraska or wherever, you'll have a friend, the farmer will have a friend in the White House when Bob Dole is there, because I think I understand it. I've been on the ag committee a long time. I come from the heartland, the wheat country. Russell, Kansas, is one of the great metropolitan areas of all time, not too far from here.

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Also understand this, the consumers who may be in the audience and around America.

We have the best food bargain in the world in the United States of America because of our farmers, the productivity of farmers and ranchers across America, and their families. We have the best — we spend less of our disposal income on food in America than any other industrialized country because of our farmers. Keep our farmers in mind. Keep our farmers in mind.

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So for all the other reasons I can think of — I want to be certain you're focusing on Chuck Hegal and John and Bill and Doug and all the others who are running for office in Nebraska.

DOLE: You do a great job. This should be a non-partisan election. Just vote for Republicans. Vote for all Republicans.

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Now the President brags about it. He said oh I've created 11 million jobs. I said, yet I met a guy the other day who had three of them. You've got to have three jobs now to pay your bills. 40 percent of your income goes for taxes.

In many cases the husband is working, the wife has to work. If they both want to work, that's fine. But you shouldn't be forced one for the family and one to pay the taxes. So we're going to have a tax cut. We're going to keep our word. We're going to look you in the eye. The difference is we're going to keep our promise. No broken promises in our administration. You can count on it.

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Finally I would say this. I've always been very proud of voting for Dwight Eisenhower. I thought that was a great vote I cast. I was proud of it then and I'm proud of it now. I want you to be proud of the vote you cast November 5, and proud of it a year from now, and ten years from now, and your kids proud of it 20 years from now. Because it's all about their future. It's all about the future. It's about a better America as we go into the next century.

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I'll promise you one thing.

I will keep my word. I will keep my word. I will have — and Senator Kempthorne can be a witness. Whether Democrats or Republicans agreed with me in the United States Senate, I can tell you that everyone in that body will tell you that Bob Dole kept his word. No surprises. No secrets. Nothing behind your back. He kept his word.

That's what we learn in this part of America. You keep your word. You keep your word.

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Now we have 96 hours to victory. It matches Nebraska. Here we go. All right. Thank you very much. Let me turn it over to John Christianson. John, you're on.