Remarks in Jacksonville, Florida

Thank you very much. Welcome to this retirement party for Bill Clinton — right here today.

[applause]

If I had a dollar for every time Clinton leveled with the American people, I would keep one and give the other one to a Elizabeth.

[laughter]

It hasn't happened very often. And I'm very honored to be here Senator Mack has just arrived, and he'll sort of rap up this program. We're talking about a lot things today, but we're talking about America, we're talking about courage, we're talking about values, we're talking about the future.

Right back here.

This is the future.

[applause]

Right here.

I fought for America before, but this a different kind of war. This is a battle for the soul of America. This is a battle for your future. Your opportunities, your job, your community, your state and your nation and make no mistake about it, this election is critical.

If you want strong leadership, you can have strong leadership. If you don't care, you can keep what you have. But I think most Americans care.

[applause]

And I believe the current administration is out of touch with the problems in America — the average Americans. I also believe that and have always believed that the government is too big and spends too much of your money.

[applause]

Too much of your money.

And I'll bet it represented here today in many families today, one parent works full-time just to take care of the family, the other has to work full time just to pay the taxes.

Because 40 percent of what you make on average, 38.2, more than you spend for food, clothing and shelter combined is paid for taxes.

Now, both parents want to work that's, fine. But they shouldn't have to work. We're finding more and more women going back to work because they have to pay the taxes — about 20 percent. Wages are stagnant. Women's wages are down. Men's wages are almost even.

We're not in a good recovery. We have the worst economic growth in this century, as Connie Mack knows, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. He understands — what are we going to do about it?

Well...

[applause]

Now, Bill Clinton likes to brag about — we've had a couple of these little debates, they weren't really debates. He barely showed up. In any event...

[boos]

He always said, "Well, I created 11 million jobs." A job, I met a guy the other day had got three of them.

[boos]

You know, you got to have about three of them to make ends meet or both parents have to work when you might want them to work, maybe they don't want to work.

DOLE: It ought to be their choice.

Well, I have a plan. And let me give credit where credit is due. A lot of the work done on our plan was done by Senator Connie Mack, and we're happy to have him here.

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It's called a 15 percent across the board tax cut.

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And every child under 18 behind me is a $500 credit. You can do a lot with a $500 credit. And to make the economy grow, we're going to cut the capital gains rate in half, 50 percent, right down the middle.

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Now, why are we doing that? Well, it's very simple — it's your money. It's your money. It's not my money. It's not President Clinton's money. Oh, and he says, oh, the government can't afford it. Now, did the government come out and talk to you before they raised taxes in 1993? No.

[boos]

And the president will come here — I think he's in Florida today somewhere, trying to scare senior citizens. He's somewhere out there. And it's not even Halloween. Wait until Halloween.

He will tell you that the government can't afford it. He will tell you that the largest tax increase in history — his — only touched 1.1 percent of the American people. That's not true, Mr. President. Seventy percent of those taxes were paid by small business men and small business women.

He also raised taxes $28 billion on senior citizens, on their Social Security. We're going to repeal that tax, Mr. President.

[applause]

Now, he wants your family to pinch pennies. I've got a better idea. Let's have the government pinch pennies for a change.

[applause]

And with our tax plan, a family of four making $30,000 a year will get about a $1,261 tax cut. That's an 86 percent tax cut, 86 percent less.

Now, what do you do with $1261. Well, maybe child care, maybe something else, maybe even take a vacation with your family. That's not illegal either in America. But...

[applause]

... even the president hasn't had the gall to say it's a rich man's tax cut. This is a family tax cut, this is a mainstream tax cut, this is for real Americans, working Americans.

And we're going to make it work, and you can count on that, you have my word — and I keep my word, that's the difference.

[applause]

And let me share, I had a letter just last week from a lady in Eagan, Minnesota, and this is what she says:

"As a young woman who works full-time and goes to school part-time, the only way that I want your help is by giving me more of my money back. Give me more of my money back so my husband and I can make decisions based on trying to get ahead. And if we had that 15 percent of the money the government takes from us, it can mean a lot of options — an option of me working part-time and going to school full-time and many other options."

DOLE: It's your money. It's your money. The government certainly can afford it.

How do we pay for it? Somebody's going to ask, particularly the media. They're going to get the tax cut, too. All right.

The president wants to spend 20 percent more in the next six years. We want to spend 14 percent more. We want to take the difference, only 6 percent, and give it back to the people.

[applause]

We don't want to run your lives. That's the other party. That's the liberal party. That's President Clinton.

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And that's just phase I. Phase II is a flatter, fairer, simpler tax and ending the IRS as we know it.

[applause]

Now let me say a word about how our plan and how the economic plan will protect vital programs like Social Security and Medicare, because I know the Democrats and organized labor have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars, about $91 million, running negative ads, attacking Bob Dole and every other Republican.

We do not touch Medicare. In fact, it grows 39 percent under our plan. Social Security goes 34 percent. There will be no cuts in Medicare and no senior's going to be forced off Medicare in our plan.

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What we want to do is to balance the budget and increase Medicare, and we passed such a bill and the president vetoed it.

[boos]

Those are the facts. And last week, the executive director of the American Association of Retired People, AARP, sent a letter to the chairman of the both parties.

And the letter says, Medicare is on the path to bankruptcy. That's not news to me. But it must be news to President Clinton, who's been so busy playing politics with Medicare, he doesn't have time to fix it. And we will fix it in 1997.

[applause]

So let me make it clear to any senior here, or any children or grandchildren of seniors who're worrying about their parents or worried about their grandparents. Our plan increases Medicare spending about 7 percent a year, a figure backed up by the American Association of Retired People.

In six years, we'll have lower taxes, a balanced budget and a Medicare program you can count on, a much stronger Medicare program.

[applause]

Now the scariest thing I can think of is four more years of Bill Clinton.

[boos and applause]

Don't forget now. He came down as a candidate, and he's so nice, he's very nice. A good talker. And he tells you, he looks you — he walks right over the facts, he looks you in the eye and says, boy you — I'm going to give all you folks up here in this landing a middle-class tax cut. Everybody who got it ought to vote for him.

Nobody got it. Nobody. He gave you the biggest tax increase in history.

DOLE: Now he's out saying again, well, this time I really mean it.

[laughter]

You know. Let me give you a little secret here. When we pass our tax cut plan, if he leaves his change of address form, he'll get the tax cut, too.

[applause]

And all these seniors, about eight million of them out there, ought to keep in mind one thing. He raised your taxes on Social Security, not a single Republican voted for that. The Democrats, the liberals did that. Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton and Tom Daschle and the other liberals in the Senate and the House, they did it to you. We didn't do it.

I've got a good record on Medicare and Social Security. In 1983, I helped strengthen Social Security along with Congressman Claude Pepper from Florida, who was a champion of senior citizens. And next year, I want to be known as the president who saved Medicare.

[applause]

Our economic plan also includes regulatory reform. It costs the average family in America and Florida about $7,000 a year because of excessive regulations.

We're going to protect the air and the water and the Everglades and everything else. In fact, we've already taken steps way ahead of President Clinton on that, come to think of it. We also are going to help this broken-down legal system of ours to stop all these frivolous lawsuits that put people out of business.

[applause]

I was out in California about a month-and-a-half ago, and this railing gave way and I dove in the crowd. And on the way down, my cell phone rang. And this trail lawyer says, "Bob, I think we got a case here, you know."

[laughter]

We're going to stop some of those frivolous lawsuits that put small businessmen and businesswomen out of business. Now I know they give millions of dollars to Bill Clinton, along with the labor bosses and the Hollywood elite. That's where the money comes from. Those are not the values we're trying to protect in this campaign. Those are not the values.

[applause]

And I would say one final word about Medicare. Remember what happened in Florida in 1994, when they made thousands and thousands of phone calls, the Democrats, and scared senior citizens and probably cost Jeb Bush the governorship?

And they're willing to go vote again.

[applause]

Well, let me conclude by saying this. There are a lot of young people here today.

[applause]

In fact, I don't see anybody but young people here today, huh?

[applause]

But I want to say to those behind me and those in front of me and the right or left or wherever. Another real problem we have in America, the fact that drug use has doubled in the last 45 months. Marijuana use is up 140 percent. Cocaine use 160 percent.

And I pledge to young people, we're going to cut that in half in our first four years. I'm not going to be AWOL like President Clinton's been AWOL in the war on drugs.

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And we're not going to invite drug dealers to White House dinners either.

[applause]

DOLE: Who knows what will be made public next. There only 13 days left.

[laughter]

I don't know we'd ever get foreign aid in America, but suddenly foreign aid's coming in from Indonesia, from India, all over the world foreign aid.

Foreign aid is coming to America. Oh, boy, we finally lined up for it. But it's all going to President Clinton. That's not fair, that discriminates, that's a preference or a quota or whatever you call those things. It shouldn't happen. It's not legal either. It shouldn't happen in America.

So, let's just settle down here, we're going to work this out. I'm going to tell you what we're going to do.

We're going to carry the state of Florida. That's number one.

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And when I'm elected I will not sell access to the White House.

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I won't charge you to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.

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That's one of the allegations floating around out there.

And I'll tell you what I mean and I'll follow through, I'll keep my word to the American people.

And I will respect, I'll respect the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

[applause]

And I will tell the people of Jacksonville and all this area, we're going to have a strong defense when Bob Dole is president of the United States.

[applause]

When I came back from World War II in a full body cast, the first place I landed was in Florida. And I know about the generosity and the kindness of people in this state.

This is serious business. It's not about me. It's not about Bill Clinton. It's about you and your kids when you tuck them in tonight. You think about America, you think about the future, and you think about leadership, you think about our service to our country.

And you say, "OK, which one of these men do I want to choose for my children and my business and my future and my country?"

[applause]

"And which one...

AUDIENCE: Dole! Dole! Dole!

DOLE: "And which one...

AUDIENCE: Dole! Dole! Dole!

DOLE: "And which one will trust me?"

And I want to conclude with this because it's very important.

You know, every time President Clinton comes into a state he talks about all these government programs. He leaves a million here and a million there. You know, Everett Dirksen, Senator Dirksen, "A billion and a billion, add up to real money." Now it's a billion and a billion, pretty soon it's a trillion.

It's your money. He's already advocated $380 some billion in new spending if he's reelected. This is your money. Somebody has to pay for it.

He talks about tax cuts. His tax cuts expire in the year 2000, but his tax increases go on forever.

What I want to do is this. I carry around this copy of the Tenth Amendment in my pocket, I got it right in here somewhere.

DOLE: Here it is, right here. It's not very long. It's only 28 words in length. It's 200 and some years old. Our founding fathers were concerned about an all-powerful central government that would take your rights away or your property away, or all the money you earn through taxes.

So they put in the Constitution this amendment which says, in effect, this: Unless the federal Constitution gives the power to the federal government or denies it to the states, it belongs to the states and to the people.

[applause]

[fog horn]

And they got it right out there in the water too.

It belongs to you. Now if you want someone in the White House who understands that and is not always looking for a government solution to a problem that hasn't even occurred yet, then you want to vote for Bob Dole.

[applause]

You probably haven't heard it back here yet, but they proposed a new tax out West. Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary said it's a win-win tax; everybody benefits. Well, that's because he's never probably paid a lot of taxes.

But, it's a tax on bird seed and hiking equipment and RVs, and everything else; a tax on everything.

Well, the president knows it's not my tax because the last time I checked Babbitt was part of this administration.

So, keep in mind one thing, if you forget everything else: Let's give America back to the people. Let's give America back to the people.

[applause]

And we will give America back to the people with my leadership and with Tillie's leadership and Cliff Stearns, who's about to come up here and Connie Mack who's going to wrap up this program.

Let me invite the other Republican candidates and office holders up here now.

Connie, come on up here. This is the Dole-Mack-whatever tax plan.

[applause]

CROWD: DOLE-KEMP, DOLE-KEMP, DOLE-KEMP.