1992 Republican Party Platform
(28,687 words, 85 pages)
Preamble
Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, expressed the philosophythat inspires Republicans to this day: "The legitimate object of governmentis to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, butcannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separateand individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do aswell for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
We believe that most problems of human making are within the capacityof human ingenuity to solve.
For good reason, millions of new Americans have flocked to our shores:America has always been an opportunity society. Republicans have alwaysbelieved that economic prosperity comes from individual enterprise, notgovernment programs. We have defended our core principles for 138 years.But never has this country, and the world, been so receptive to our message.
The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolizes an epochal change in the way peoplelive. More important, it liberates the way people think. We see with newclarity that centralized government bureaucracies created in this centuryare not the wave of the future. Never again will people trust planners andpaper shufflers more than they trust themselves. We all watched as the statueof Soviet hangman Feliks Dzherzhinsky was toppled in front of Moscow's KGBheadquarters by the very people his evil empire sought to enslave. Its sightlesseyes symbolized the moral blindness of totalitarians around the world. Theycould never see the indomitable spirit of people determined to be free fromgovernment control - free to build a better future with their own heads,hands and hearts.
We Republicans saw clearly the dangers of collectivism: not only themilitary threat but the deeper threat to the souls of people bound in dependence.Here at home, we warned against "big government," because we knewconcentrated decision-making, no matter how well-intentioned, was a dangerto liberty and prosperity. Republicans stood at the rampart of freedom,defending the individual against the domineering state. While we did notalways prevail, we always stood our ground, faithful to our principles andconfident of history's ultimate verdict.
Our opponents declared that the dogmas of the left were the final andvictorious faith. From kremlins and ivory towers, their planners proclaimedthe bureaucratic millennium. But in a tragic century of illusion, Five-YearPlans and Great Leaps Forward failed to summon a Brave New World. One hundredand fifty years of slogans and manifestos came crashing down in an ironiccascade of unintended consequences. All that is left are the ruins of afailed scoundrel ideology.
As May Day lapses back into just another spring festival, the Fourthof July emerges as the common holiday of free men and women. Yet, in 1992,when the self-governing individual has overcome the paternalistic state,liberals here at home simply do not get it. Indeed, their party seeks toturn the clock back. But their ideas are old and tired. Like planets stillorbiting a dying star, the believers in state power turn their faces toa distant and diminishing light.
The Democrats would revise history to rationalize a return to biggergovernment, higher taxes and moral relativism. The Democratic Party hasforgotten its origins as a party of work, thrift and self-reliance. Butthey have not forgotten their art for dissembling and distortion. The Democratsare trapped in their compact with the ideology of trickle-down government,but they are clever enough to know that the voters would shun them if theirtrue markings were revealed.
America had its rendezvous with destiny in 1980. Faced with crisis athome and abroad, Americans turned to Republican leadership in the WhiteHouse. Presidents Reagan and Bush turned our nation away from the path ofovertaxation, hyper-regulation and megagovernment. Instead, we moved ina new direction. We cut taxes, reduced red tape, put people above bureaucracy.And so we vanquished the idea of the almighty state as the supervisor ofour daily lives. In choosing hope over fear, Americans raised a beacon,reminding the world that we are a shining city on a hill, the last besthope for man on earth.
Contrary to statist Democrat propaganda, the American people know thatthe 1980s were a rising tide, a magnificent decade for freedom and entrepreneurialcreativity. We are confident that, knowing this, they will never consciouslyretreat to the bad old days of tax and spend. Our platform will clarifythe choice before our fellow citizens.
We have learned that ideas do indeed have consequences. Thus, our wordsare important not for their prose but for what they reveal about the thinkingof our president and our party.
Two years ago, President Bush described the key elements of what he called"our new paradigm," a fresh approach that aims to put new ideasto work in the service of enduring principles principles we upheld throughoutthe long twilight struggle, principles George Bush has acted decisivelyto advance. Thus we honor the Founders and their vision.
Unlike our opponents, we are inspired by a commitment to profound change.Our mission combines timeless beliefs with a positive vision of a vigorousAmerica: prosperous and tolerant, just and compassionate. We believe thatindividual freedom, hard work and personal responsibility - basic to freesociety - are also basic to effective government. We believe in the fundamentalgoodness of the American people. We believe in traditional family valuesand in the Judeo-Christian heritage that informs our culture. We believein the Constitution and its guarantee of color-blind equal opportunity.We believe in free markets. We believe in constructive change, in both trueconservatism and true reform. We believe government has a legitimate roleto play in our national life, but government must never dominate that life.
While our goals are constant, we are willing to innovate, experimentand learn. We have learned that bigger is not better, that quantity andquality are different things, that more money does not guarantee betteroutcomes.
We have learned the importance of individual choice - in education, healthcare, child care - and that bureaucracy is the enemy of initiative and selfreliance. We believe in empowerment, including home ownership for as manyas possible. We believe in decentralized authority, and a bottom line, principledcommitment to what works for people.
We believe in the American people: free men and women with faith in God,working for themselves and their families, believing in the value of everyhuman being from the very young to the very old.
We believe the Founders intended Congress to be responsive, flexibleand foresighted. After decades of Democrat misrule, the Congress is noneof these things. Dominated by reactionaries, obsessed with the failed policiesand structures of the past, the Democrat majority displays a "do nothing"doggedness: They intend to learn nothing and forget nothing. Seeking tobuild a better America, we seek to elect a better Congress.
Finally, we believe in a president who represents the national interest,not just the aggregation of well-connected special interests - a presidentwho brings unity to the American purpose.
America faces many challenges. Republicans, under the strong leadershipof President Bush, are responding with this bold platform of new ideas thatinfuses our commitment to individual freedom and market forces with an equalcommitment to a decent, just way of life for every American.
With a firm faith that the American people will always choose hope overfear, we Republicans dedicate ourselves to this forward-looking agenda forAmerica in the 1990s, transcending old, static ideas with a shared visionof hope, optimism and opportunity.
Uniting Our Family
Family: The Home of Freedom
As the family goes, so goes the nation. Strong families and strong communitiesmake a strong America. An old adage says, "America is great becauseshe is good; if America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."
Our greatness starts at home - literally. So Republicans believe governmentshould strengthen families, not replace them. Today, more than ever, thetraditional family is under assault. We believe our laws should reflectwhat makes our nation prosperous and wholesome: faith in God, hard work,service to others and limited government.
Parents bring reality to these principles when they pass them on to theirchildren. As the book of Proverbs proclaims, "Train up a child in theway he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Imagine the America we could create if all parents taught their childrenthe importance of honesty, work, responsibility and respect for others.We would have less violence in our homes and streets; less illegal druguse; fewer teen pregnancies forcing girls and boys to be adults before theyhave graduated from high school. Instead, we would have an America of families,friends and communities that care about one another.
That kind of future is not a matter of chance; it is a question of personalresponsibility. Barbara Bush captured the importance of that stewardshipwhen she said, "At the end of your life you will never regret not havingpassed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one moredeal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend ora parent."
The Republican Party has espoused these principles since its founding.Families built on solid, spiritual foundations are central to our party'sinspiration. At this time of great national and global transition, we renewour commitment to these fundamental principles, which will guide our family,our country, our world into the next century.
Family: The Home of Freedom
The rights of the family. Our national renewal starts with the family.It is where each new generation gains its moral anchor. It is the schoolof citizenship, the engine of economic progress, a permanent haven wheneverything is changing.
Change can be good, when it liberates the energy and commitment of familymembers to build better futures. We welcome change that corrects the mistakesof the past, particularly those at war against the family. For more thanthree decades, the liberal philosophy has assaulted the family on everyside.
Today, its more vocal advocates believe children should be able to suetheir parents over decisions about schooling, cosmetic surgery, employmentand other family matters. They deny parental authority and responsibility,fracturing the family into isolated individuals, each of them dependentupon - and helpless before - government. This is the ultimate agenda ofcontemporary socialism under all its masks: to liberate youth from traditionalfamily values by replacing family functions with bureaucratic social services.That is why today's liberal Democrats are hostile toward any institutiongovernment cannot control, like private child care or religious schools.
The Republican Party responds, as it has since 1980, with an unabashedcommitment to the family's economic liberty and moral rights. Republicanstrust parents and believe they, not courts and lawyers, know what is bestfor their children. That is why we will work to ensure that the Congressand the states shall enact no law abridging the rights of the family formedby blood, marriage, adoption or legal custody - rights that are anteriorand superior to those of government. Republicans oppose and resist the effortsof the Democratic Party to redefine the traditional American family.
The right to a family.
Every child deserves a family in a home filled with love and free fromabuse. Today, many children do not enjoy that right. We are determined tochange that. While government cannot legislate love and compassion, we canprovide the leadership to encourage the development of healthy, nurturingfamilies. We applaud the fine example of family values and family virtueas lived by the president and the first lady.
We will promote whole, caring families by eliminating biases that havecrept into our legal and tax codes. We will advance adoption through significanttax credits, insurance reforms and legal reforms. We encourage adoptionfor those unprepared or unwilling to bear the emotional, financial or physicaldemands of raising a child, and will work to revive maternity homes to ensurecare for both mothers and babies.
We applaud the commitment of foster-care parents who provide family environmentsfor foster-care children. We abhor the disgraceful bureaucratic mismanagementof foster care. Big-city mayors have spent billions on social service bureaucratswho have lost track of many children. Many have no health records, no realresidence, not even the simplest personal possessions. Shuttled from houseto house, they lack discipline and identity, and are ripe for lives of crime.We are determined to reform this system to help these children.
Broken homes can have a devastating emotional and economic impact uponchildren and are the breeding ground for gang members. We urge state legislaturesto explore ways to promote marital stability. Because the intergenerationalfamily is a vital element of social cohesion, we urge greater respect forthe rights and roles of grandparents.
Republicans recognize the importance of having fathers and mothers inthe home. The two-parent family still provides the best environment of stability,discipline, responsibility and character. Documentation shows that wherethe father has deserted his family, children are more likely to commit acrime, to drop out of school, to become violent, to become teen parents,to take illegal drugs, to become mired in poverty, or to have emotionalor behavioral problems. We support the courageous efforts of single-parentfamilies to have a stable home.
Caring for children.
George Bush secured the American family's most important victory of thelast four years: his child-care bill. He won landmark legislation - a vouchersystem for low-income households, allowing parents to choose what's bestfor their children, including care given by neighbors or churches. The DemocraticParty opposed that legislation and instead sought government control ofchild care and fewer choices for parents.
The president also advanced equity for families that forgo a second incometo care for their children at home through his Young Child Tax Credit. CongressionalDemocrats are already trying to repeal it.
The demands of employment and commuting often make it hard for parentsto spend time with their children. Republicans advocate maximum flexibilityin working and child-care arrangements so that families can make the mostof their schedules. We support pro-family policies: job sharing, telecommuting,compressed workweeks, parental leave negotiated between employer and employees,and flextime. We reject the Democrats' one-size-fits-all approach that putsmandates on employers and takes choices away from employees.
Most parents prefer in-home care of their children but often encountergovernment obstacles. Republicans will promote in-home care by allowingpayment annually, instead of quarterly, of income taxes by employees andwithholding taxes by employers. Our proposals for tort reform, now blockedby the Democrat Congress, will prevent excessive litigation that hampersthe growth of child-care opportunities. By taking care of our children,we are taking care of our future.
Family security.
Over the last several decades, liberal Democrats have increasingly shiftedeconomic burdens onto the American family. Indeed, the liberal Democrattax-and-spend policies have forced millions of women into the workplacejust to make ends meet. Because of their policies in Congress, fathers andmothers have a tougher time bringing home what they work so hard for.
Between 1948 and 1990, under the Democrat-controlled Congress for mostof those years, federal taxes on the average family of four rose from 2percent to 24 percent of income. When state and local levies are included,the tax burden exceeds onethird of family income. The increase in the effectivefederal tax rate since 1950 has now swallowed up an ever increasing shareof a family's earnings. Instead of working to improve their family's standardof living, they must work to feed government's gluttonous appetite.
This is a scandal. In the 1980s, two Republican presidents kept Democratsfrom making matters worse. Presidents Reagan and Bush led the way to increasethe personal exemption for dependents. We pledge to go farther to restorethe value, as a percentage of average household income, it had 50 yearsago. The value of the dependent deduction has eroded to a fraction of itsoriginal worth to families. Republicans call for a complete restoration,in real dollars, to its original value. Rather than fatten government bureaucracieswith new programs to "help" families, we want to expand the YoungChild Tax Credit to $500 per child and make it available to all familieswith children under the age of 10.
When the Democrats establish tax policy that makes marriage more expensivethan living together, they discourage traditional commitment and stablehome life. We will remove the marriage penalty in the tax code, so a marriedcouple will receive as large a standard deduction as their unmarried counterparts.Together, these changes will empower parents to care for their familiesin a way public services never can.
Achieving educational excellence. In the earliest American communities,pioneers would establish a church, then a school. Parents wanted their childrento have the best possible education, to learn what they needed to know tomake a better life. Virtually every newly arrived immigrant family thoughtof education as the American way from the back to the front of the line.Americans have come to believe that only a country that successfully educatesits sons and daughters can count on a strong, competitive economy, a vibrantculture and a solid civic life.
As a result of this popular demand for education, Americans have createdthe most extensive and widely accessible educational system in the world.The people have insisted that primary responsibility for education properlyremain with families, communities and states, although, from early times,the national government has played a role in encouraging innovation andaccess. In the 18th century, the Northwest Ordinance assured that schoolbells would ring amid frontier forests. In the 19th century, President Lincolnsigned the Morrill Act establishing 50 land grant colleges. In the 20thcentury, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act,providing millions with a chance at higher education; and President Nixonsigned legislation that today provides federal grants and loans to halfour full-time college students. In the 21st century, the promotion of educationalexcellence will be more crucial than ever before in our nation's history.
Recognizing what every parent knows, that our current educational systemis not educating our children, President Bush is leading an educationalrevolution. We applaud the president's bold vision to change radically oureducation system. Our parents want it, our communities want it, our stateswant it, and our children want it - but the Democrat leadership in the Houseand Senate continue to thwart the will of the American people for radicalchange in the way we educate our children.
The Republican strategy is based on sound principle. Parents have theright to choose the best school for their children. Schools should teachright from wrong. Schools should reinforce parental authority, not replaceit. We should increase flexibility from federal regulation. We should explorea new generation of break-the-mold New American Schools. Standards and assessmentsshould be raised, not reduced to a lowest common denominator. Communitiesshould be empowered to find what works. The pursuit of excellence in educationis a fundamental goal. Good teachers should be rewarded for teaching well.Alternative certification can bring desperately needed new people into theteaching profession. America needs public, private and parochial schools.
Education is a joint responsibility of the individual, the family andthe community. Parents are the first and most important teachers of theirchildren. They should have the right not only to participate in their child'seducation but to choose for their children among the broadest array of educationalchoices, without regard to their income. We also support the right of parentsto provide quality education through home-based schools.
The Bush administration has sent to Congress several legislative proposalsembodying these principles. The proposals, in spite of the fact that 1,500communities across the nation have developed local committees to supportthem through the America 2000 strategy, languish in the Democrat Congress.And they are opposed by special-interest unions that have a power grip onthe failed policies of the past.
Improving America by improving our schools. For America to maintain herpre-eminence into the next century, our educational system must be revolutionized.Too many schools still teach in an outdated manner. Too many governmentand union rules have burdened our schools. And too much influence by lobbyistshas blocked true reform. Even the most inspiring teachers are working withina system that stymies their creativity and fails to challenge their students.
Creating the best schools in the world. We applaud President Bush's consistentand determined leadership in setting a new direction for American education.Our overriding purpose is clear: to create the best schools in the worldfor our children by the turn of the century.
To do so, the president has established a bold strategy, America 2000,which challenges communities in every state to take charge to achieve ourambitious national education goals. The success of America 2000 will dependupon the local community, where implementation and ultimate responsibilityrest.
We have seen real progress. Perhaps most important, though, is that PresidentBush has fostered a national debate on education that has challenged everyAmerican to get involved. He has called forth American traits of ingenuityand ambition to create better lives for our children. As a result, a newgeneration of break-the-mold new American schools is taking shape. New andtougher standards and assessments are being established for what our childrenshould know. The number of strings attached to federal school aid is beingreduced.
The president has shown unprecedented leadership for the most importanteducation goal of all: helping middle- and lowincome families enjoy thesame choice of schools - public, private or religious - that families withmore resources already have. The president's proposed "GI Bill forChildren" will provide $1,000 scholarships to middle- and low-incomefamilies, enabling their children to attend the school of their choice.This innovative plan will not only drive schools to excel as they compete,but will also give every parent consumer power to obtain an excellent educationfor his or her child.
Republican leadership has nearly doubled funds for Head Start, makingit possible, for the first time, for all eligible 4-year-olds to participate,should their parents choose to enroll them. The Bush administration hasput a college education within reach of millions more students, young andold. The president has proposed allowing families to deduct the interestthey pay on student loans, and penalty-free withdrawal of IRA (individualretirement account) funds for educational expenses.
Ensuring high standards in knowledge and skills. For America to competein a world in which 85 percent of all jobs will require high skills, webelieve that students not planning to attend college need better opportunities.America's college graduates set the world pace for knowledge and skills.But we also have a strong commitment to the "forgotten half" ofthe students in our schools, students who will graduate from high schoolill-prepared for work. We must build a well-educated, high-skills work forceto ensure a new century of prosperity for America.
The president has developed a sweeping youth apprenticeship strategyto meet this goal. His plan will ensure that students meet the high standardsdemanded of all high school students, while training them with a skill aswell. We strongly support youth apprenticeships that include a year of college,to encourage a lifetime of learning and opportunity for students.
Our educational beliefs. We are confident that the United States can,by the end of this decade, reach the six national education goals that PresidentBush and the nation's governors have established: that all children shouldarrive at school ready to learn; that high school graduation rates shouldbe at least 90 percent; that all children learn challenging subject matterand become responsible citizens; that American children should be firstin the world in math and science; that there must be a literate and skilledwork force; and that schools must be disciplined and free of drugs and violence.
We have an uncompromising commitment to improve public education - whichmeans assuring that our schools produce welleducated, responsible citizens- not the maintenance of a government monopoly over the means of educating.American families must be given choice in education. We value the importantrole played by our private, independent and parochial schools, collegesand universities. We believe that their quality is best encouraged by minimizinggovernment regulation.
We believe distance learning is a valuable tool in the fight to bringequal educational opportunity to every student regardless of wealth or geographiclocation. Distance learning provides students access to the vast educationalresources of our nation.
We encourage the use of modern technology to meet the goal of educationalexcellence. We support policies that provide access for all instructionaland educational programmers to permit them to provide the greatest choiceof programming and material to schools and teachers. We also support policiesthat will encourage the use of all advanced technologies for the deliveryof educational and instructional programming in order to give schools andteachers the greatest flexibility in providing creative and innovative instruction.We encourage local school boards to ensure review of these materials byparents and educators.
We support efforts to open the teaching profession by reforming the certificationsystem now barring many talented men and women from the classroom.
Schools should be - as they have been traditionally academic institutions.Families and communities err when by neglect or design they transfer tothe school responsibilities that belong in the home and in the community.Schools were created to help and strengthen families, not to undermine orsubstitute for them.
Accordingly, we oppose programs in public schools that provide birthcontrol or abortion services or referrals. Instead, we encourage abstinenceeducation programs with proven track records in protecting youth from disease,pregnancy and drug use.
The critical public mission in education is to set tough, clear standardsof achievement and ensure that those who educate our children are accountablefor meeting them. This is not just a matter of plans or dollars. Competencytesting and merit pay for teachers are essential elements of such accountability.
We are proud of our many dedicated, professional teachers and educatorswho have committed their lives to educating America's children. We alsobelieve that powerful unions and liberal special interest groups shouldnot be the driving force in educational reform.
Just as spiritual principles - our moral compass - help guide publicpolicy, learning must have a moral basis. America must remain neutral towardparticular religions, but we must not remain neutral toward religion itselfor the values religion supports. Mindful of our country's Judeo-Christianheritage and rich religious pluralism, we support the right of studentsto engage in voluntary prayer in schools and the right of the communityto do so at commencements or other occasions. We will strongly enforce thelaw guaranteeing equal access to school facilities. We also advocate recitationof the Pledge of Allegiance in schools as a reminder of the principles thatsustain us as one nation under God.
Our ambitious vision for America works, however, only in a society ofwell-educated citizens. The Democratic Party, beholden to the special intereststhat resist change, can never accomplish the improvements in education thatour schools and our children so desperately need. Indeed, they have no plan.
The Republican Party has started an education revolution. We have presenteda detailed plan which is even now becoming reality. The future of our nationdemands no less. The president is leading the country on an education crusade,a crusade the American people have joined.
For healthier families: Promote health, prevent disease, reform healthcare. Americans receive the finest medical care in the world. We have thebest health-care providers, the best hospitals and the best medical technology.People come here from Canada, from Europe, from every part of the globe,to seek procedures and treatments that are either unavailable or strictlyrationed in their home countries.
But we must do better. Costs are soaring. Many Americans, responsiblefor children and aging parents, worry about the quality and price of care.The 1992 election presents all of us with a clear choice.
Democrats want a costly, coercive system, imported from abroad, witha budget set by Congress and policies set by bureaucrats. That is a prescriptionfor misery. It would imperil jobs, require billions in new taxes, lowerthe quality of health care overall, drive health-care providers out of theprofession, and result in rationing.
The congressional Democrats' health-care reform proposal would excludethemselves from coverage under their own program. They refuse to live withthe scheme they are trying to force on the rest of the county.
Republicans believe government control of health care is irresponsibleand ineffective. We believe health-care choices should remain in the handsof the people, not government bureaucrats. This issue truly represents afundamental difference between the two parties.
We endorse President Bush's comprehensive health-care plan, which solvesthe two major problems of the current system access and affordability -while preserving the high-quality care Americans now enjoy. The president'splan will make health care more affordable through tax credits and deductionsthat will offset insurance costs for 95 million Americans; and make healthcare more accessible, especially for small businesses, by reducing insurancecosts and eliminating workers' worries of losing insurance if they changejobs. This plan will expand access to health care by:
Creating new tax credits and deductions to help low- and middle-incomeAmericans. These tax credits would be available in the form of vouchersfor low-income people who work.
Providing insurance security for working Americans by requiring insurersto cover pre-existing conditions.
Making health insurance premiums fully deductible for the self-employed.
Making it easier for small firms to purchase coverage for their employees.The proposal would allow small businesses to form health insurance purchasingpools that would make insurance more affordable. It also would guaranteethe availability and renewability of insurance for small firms, set premiumstandards, pre-empt state mandated-benefit laws, establish minimum coverageplans, and require states to establish risk pools to spread risks broadlyacross health insurers.
Addressing the medical malpractice problem by a cap on noneconomic damagerecoveries in malpractice claims and an alternative dispute resolution beforegoing to court.
In short, the president aims to make coverage available to all, guaranteed,renewable, with no preconditions. Under his plan, no one will have to gobroke to get well.
The Democrats' plan stands in stark philosophical contrast. Instead ofpreserving individual options, it would rely on government bureaucrats.Instead of preserving quality care, it would lead to rationing and waitinglines. And instead of enhancing the health-care security of American workers,it would require a massive increase in payroll taxes that would destroyhundreds of thousands of jobs.
The Democrats' so-called play-or-pay proposal would require employerseither to provide health insurance for their workers or pay a new tax thatwould fund in part a new government-run health program. According to a studyprepared by the Urban Institute, this mandate would require new federaltaxes - or new federal borrowing - of $36 billion in the first year alone.Nearly 52 million Americans who now have private health insurance wouldbe dumped by their employers onto the governmentrun plan. Additional coststo employers - particularly small employers - would total an estimated $30billion in the first year. The Republican staff of Congress' Joint EconomicCommittee estimates that 712,000 people would lose their jobs because ofthe play-or-pay mandate.
Republicans are also determined to resolve the crisis in medical liability,allowing physicians and certified midwives to deliver babies and practicein underserved areas. Meaningful medical tort reform would assure that doctorswould not have to practice medicine under a cloud of potential litigation.We will reduce administrative expenses and paperwork by adopting a uniformclaim and data system. We pledge our support for rehabilitation and long-termcare coverage. We will curb costs through better prenatal and other preventivecare. We encourage the application of the Good Samaritan law to protecthealth-care providers who wish to volunteer their time to provide patientcare to the community. We encourage coordinated care in public programsand private insurance. We further support regulatory reforms to speed thedevelopment of new drugs and medical technology.
The health-care safety net must be secure for those who need preventive,acute and long-term care. Special consideration should be given to abolishingor reforming programs which prohibit or discourage individuals from seekingto work their way out of poverty and dependency. We will reduce paperworkburdens and redirect those resources to actual services. We will enhanceaccess to medical care through community health centers, which provide primarycare in medically underserved areas. We will modify outdated antitrust rulesthat prohibit hospitals from merging their resources to provide improved,cost-effective health care.
We encourage the use of telecommunications technology to link hospitalsin larger communities with heath-care facilities in smaller communities.Advanced communications networks will facilitate the sharing of resources,will improve access to affordable health care through the transmission ofmedical imaging and diagnostics and will ensure that Americans living inrural areas have the same access to doctors and the latest medical proceduresas Americans living in urban areas.
Republicans focus on health, not just health care. We want not only totreat disease and disability but to reduce and prevent them. Through fundingfor NIH (the National Institutes of Health), we invest in research to curea range of diseases, from cancer to heart disease, from multiple sclerosisto lupus. We support efforts which foster early cancer detection. Even moreimportant, we rely on individuals to lower the incidence of preventableillness and injury. A large part of our health-care costs, public and private,is caused by behavior. Good judgment can save billions of dollars - andperhaps millions of lives.
AIDS.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has exploded over the past decade into a crisisof tragic proportions. In our country, AIDS already has claimed more than150,000 lives, and as many as 1 million more Americans may have been infectedwith the virus.
Epidemics have, throughout history, challenged governments, which havetoo often been powerless to combat them. Science - and human wisdom - haveadvanced, however, and we have met this crisis not only with a massive commitmentof resources but also with a personal determination on the part of the president.That commitment and leadership will continue.
AIDS should be treated like any other communicable or sexually transmitteddisease, while at the same time preserving patient confidentiality. We arecommitted to ensure that our nation's response to AIDS is shaped by compassion,not fear or ignorance and will oppose, as a matter of decency and honor,any discrimination against Americans who are its victims.
We encourage state legislatures to enact legislation which makes it acriminal act for anyone knowingly to transmit the AIDS virus.
We will seek to ensure that medical personnel, and the people who trustin their care, will be protected against infection.
This disease also challenges America scientifically. We must succeedin slowing the epidemic's spread. The administration has thus placed greatemphasis on a variety of prevention efforts to do so. We must recognize,also, that prevention is linked ultimately to personal responsibility andmoral behavior. We reject the notion that the distribution of clean needlesand condoms are the solution to stopping the spread of AIDS. Education designedto curb the spread of this disease should stress marital fidelity, abstinenceand a drug-free lifestyle. There must be a means for successfully treatingthe virus, and this has led to a threefold increase in research and stepsto speed the approval process for new drugs that could make a crucial differenceto those infected.
Above all, a cure must be found. We have committed enormous resources- $4.2 billion over the past four years for research alone, more than forany disease except cancer. In keeping with the American spirit, our fellowcitizens with HIV/AIDS deserve our compassion and our care, and they deserveour united commitment to a cure.
Healthy families. Responsible families are the key to wellness. Theyare the best guard against infant mortality and child abuse. We supportprograms to help mothers and their babies get a good start in life; andwe call for strong action, at all levels of government, to enforce parentalresponsibility with regard to alcohol, drugs and neglect.
We applaud the president's initiatives to require the involvement ofmore women in clinical trials and to create within NIH a center to combatbreast and cervical cancer. We also call for expanded research on variousdiseases, common to both men and women, but whose effects on women haveyet to be determined. We call for fetal protection in the workplace andin scientific research.
The homeless.
The Bush administration has worked vigorously to address this tragedy,believing that involuntary homelessness in America is unacceptable. Accordingly,the administration has proposed $4 billion in homeless assistance, an amountcut back by the Democrat-controlled Congress. We have also implemented aUSShelter Plus Care program designed to assist homeless persons who arementally ill, chemically dependent or stricken with AIDS. Republicans remaindetermined to help the homeless as a matter of ethical commitment as wellas sound public policy.
Older Americans.
The interests of older Americans are addressed throughout this platform,for the elderly play an honored role in all walks of American life. Fromreducing inflation to fighting crime, from quality health care to a cleanerenvironment, the Republican agenda for all has particular relevance to thosewho have worked the longest and grown the wisest.
We reaffirm our commitment to a strong Social Security system. To stoppenalizing grandparents and other seniors who care for children, we pledgeto continue the Republican crusade to end the earnings limitation for SocialSecurity recipients. More than ever, our nation needs older Americans inits schools and workplaces. There should be no barriers to their full participationin our country's future. We pledge support for greater availability of long-termcare and for research to combat Alzheimer's disease. Republicans also tookthe lead in expanding home health care in government programs, and we wantto build on that accomplishment.
Promoting cultural values. The culture of our nation has traditionallysupported those pillars on which civilized society is built: personal responsibility,morality and the family. Today, however, these pillars are under assault.Elements within the media, the entertainment industry, academia and theDemocratic Party are waging a guerrilla war against American values. Theydeny personal responsibility, disparage traditional morality, denigratereligion and promote hostility toward the family's way of life. Children,the members of our society most vulnerable to cultural influences, are barragedwith violence and promiscuity, encouraging reckless and irresponsible behavior.This undermines the authority of parents, the ones most responsible forpassing on to their offspring a sense of right and wrong. The lesson ourparty draws is important - that all of us, individuals and corporationsalike, have a responsibility to reflect the values we expect our fellowcitizens to exhibit. And if children grow to adulthood reflecting not thevalues of their parents but the amorality with which they are bombarded,those who send such messages cannot duck culpability.
One example is the advocacy of violence against law enforcement officers,promoted by a corporation more interested in profits than the possible consequencesof such a message. We believe, in the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, thatcorporations - like individuals - have responsibilities to society, andthat conscience alone should prevent such outrages.
We also stand united with those private organizations, such as the BoyScouts of America, who are defending decency in fulfillment of their ownmoral responsibilities. We reject the irresponsible position of those corporationsthat have cut off contributions to such organizations because of their courageousstand for family values. Moreover, we oppose efforts by the Democratic Partyto include sexual preference as a protected minority receiving preferentialstatus under civil rights statutes at the federal, state and local level.
We oppose any legislation or law that legally recognizes same-sex marriagesand allows such couples to adopt children or provide foster care.
We must recognize that the time has come for a national crusade againstpornography. Some would have us believe that obscenity and pornography haveno social impact. But if hardcore pornography does not cheapen the humanspirit, then neither does Shakespeare elevate it. We call on federal agenciesto halt the sale, under government auspices, of pornographic materials.We endorse Republican legislation, the Pornography Victims CompensationAct, allowing victims of pornography to seek damages from those who makeor sell it, especially since the Commission on Pornography, in 1986, founda direct link between pornography and violent crimes committed against womenand children. We also believe that the various state legislatures shouldcreate a civil cause of action against makers and distributors of pornographywhen their material incites a violent crime.
Government has a responsibility, as well, to ensure that it promotesthe common moral values that bind us together as a nation. We thereforecondemn the use of public funds to subsidize obscenity and blasphemy masqueradingas art. The fine arts, including those with public support, can certainlyenrich our society. However, no artist has an inherent right to claim taxpayersupport for his or her private vision of art if that vision mocks the moraland spiritual basis on which our society is founded. We believe a free marketin art - with neither suppression nor favoritism by government - is thebest way to foster the cultural revival our country needs.
Individual Rights, Good Homes and Safe Streets
At a time when the rest of the world has rejected socialism, there arecommunities here at home where free markets have not been permitted to flourish.Decades of liberalism have left us with two economies. The pro growth economyrewards effort, promotes thrift and supports strong families. The othereconomy stifles initiative and is anti-work and anti family. In one economy,people are free to be owners and entrepreneurs. In the other economy, peopleare at the mercy of government. We are determined to elevate the poor intothe pro-growth economy.
Republicans will lead a new national consensus around economic opportunity,greater access to property, home ownership and housing, jobs and entrepreneurship.We must bring the great promise of America to every city, every small town,and to all our people.
Our agenda for equality of opportunity runs throughout this platformand applies to all Americans. There is no such thing as segregated success.We reject the Democrats' politics of division, envy and conflict. They believethat America is split into classes and can be healed only through the redistributionof wealth. We believe in the economics of multiplication: free markets expandopportunity and wealth for all.
That is true liberation. It frees poor people not only from want butalso from government control. That is why liberal Democrats have foughtus every step of the way, refusing congressional action on enterprise zonesuntil Los Angeles burned - and then mocking the expectations of the poorby gutting that critical proposal. They can kill bills, but they cannotkill hope. We are determined to pass that legislation for the sake of allwho are awaiting their chance for the American Dream.
We will eliminate laws that keep Americans out of jobs, like the outdatedban on home work. The antiquated Davis-Bacon Act inflates taxpayer costsand keeps willing workers from getting jobs in federally assisted projects.It must go. Unlike the Democrats, we believe the private sector, not thefederal government, should set prevailing wage rates.
As explained elsewhere in this platform, low-income families must gaincontrol of their future through choice in their children's education.
Rebuilding the dream.
Our party has always championed the American dream of home ownership.Abraham Lincoln wanted all families to have access to property, becauseit would give them a tangible stake in their family's future. As familiesbuilt homes and improved the land, they built a brighter future for themselvesand a legacy for their children. Lincoln's Homestead Act of 1862 did allthis without enlarging government. It empowered families.
In the tradition of Lincoln, President Bush has replicated the Americandream of home ownership. For first-time home buyers, he has proposed a $5,000tax credit. For lower-income families, he has worked to restore opportunitythrough HOPE, his initiative to help tenants now dependent on federal aidto buy their own homes; Mortgage Revenue Bonds, to assist more than 1.9million families to buy a first home; Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, alreadyproducing more than 420,000 decent apartments at affordable prices; andHOME, a partnership among all levels of government to help low-income familiessecure better housing.
For everyone, but especially for the poor, the best housing policy isnon inflationary economic growth and low interest rates, the heart of ouropportunity agenda.
Ending dependency.
Welfare is the enemy of opportunity and stable family life. Two decadesago, decisions about public assistance were taken away from states and communitiesand given to Washington officials. Since then, almost everything has gonewrong. Since 1965, we have spent $3.5 trillion on welfare. It brought ahorrendous expansion of dependence, especially among mothers and children.
Today's welfare system is anti-work and anti-marriage. It taxes familiesto subsidize illegitimacy. It rewards unethical behavior and penalizes initiative.It cannot be merely tinkered with by Congress; it must be re created bystates and localities. Republican governors and legislators in several stateshave already launched dramatic reforms, especially with workfare and learnfare.Welfare can no longer be a check in the mail with no responsibility.
We believe fathers and mothers must be held responsible for their children.We support stronger enforcement of child support laws. We call for strongenforcement and tough penalties against welfare fraud and insist that workmust be a mandatory part of public assistance for all who are able to work.Because divorce, desertion and illegitimacy account for almost all the increasein child poverty over the last 20 years, we put the highest priority uponenforcement of family rights and responsibilities.
Among these responsibilities is the obligation to get an education -a key to avoiding dependency. Families on welfare with school-age childrenmust be required to send them to school or provide adequate home educationin keeping with various state laws in order to continue receiving publicassistance. Young adult heads of welfare households should be required tocomplete appropriate education or training programs.
Safe homes and streets.
One of the first duties of government is to protect the public security- to maintain law and order so that citizens are free to pursue the fruitsof life and liberty. The Democrats have forsaken this solemn pledge. Insteadof protecting society from hardened criminals, they blame society and refuseto hold accountable for their actions individuals who have chosen to engagein violent and criminal conduct. This has led to the state of affairs inwhich we find ourselves today.
Violent crime is the gravest domestic threat to our way of life. It hasturned our communities into battlegrounds, playgrounds into graveyards.It threatens everyone, but especially the very young, the elderly, the weak.It destroys business and suffocates economic opportunity in struggling communities.It is a travesty that some American children have to sleep in bathtubs forprotection from stray bullets. The poverty of values that justifies drive-byshootings and random violence holds us hostage and insecure, even in ourown homes.
We must work to develop community-help projects designed to instill asense of responsibility and pride.
This is the legacy of a liberalism that elevates criminals' rights abovevictims' rights, that justifies soft-on-crime judges' approving early releaseprison programs and that leaves law enforcement officers powerless to detercrime with the threat of certain punishment.
For 12 years, two Republican presidents have fought to reverse this trend,along with Republican officials in the states. They have named tough lawand-order judges, pushed for minimum mandatory sentences, expanded federalassistance to states and localities, sought to help states redress courtorders on prison overcrowding, and devoted record resources that are turningthe tide against drugs. They have repeatedly proposed legislation, consistentlyrejected by congressional Democrats, to restore the severest penalties forthe most heinous crimes, to ensure swift and certain punishment, and toend the legal loopholes that let criminals go free.
Congressional Democrats reject Republican reform of the exclusionaryrule that prohibits use of relevant evidence obtained in good faith andallows criminals, even murderers, to go free on a technicality. They rejectour reform of habeas corpus law to prevent the appellate process from becominga lawyers' game to thwart justice through endless appeals and proceduraldelays. They refuse to enact effective procedures to reinstate the deathpenalty for the most heinous crimes. They reject tougher, mandatory sentencesfor career criminals. Instead, congressional Democrats actually voted tocreate more loopholes for vicious thugs and fewer protections for victimsof crime and have opposed mandatory restitution for victims. Their crimelegislation, which we emphatically reject, cripples law enforcement by overturningover 20 United States Supreme Court cases that have helped to reduce crimeand keep violent criminal offenders off the streets.
For too long our criminal justice system has carefully protected therights of criminals and neglected the suffering of the innocent victimsof crime and their families. We support the rights of crime victims to bepresent, heard and informed throughout the criminal justice process, andto be provided with restitution and services to aid their recovery.
We believe in giving police the resources to do their job. Law enforcementmust remain primarily a state and local responsibility. With 95 percentof all violent crimes within the jurisdiction of the states, we have ledefforts to increase the number of police protecting our citizens. We alsosupport incentives to encourage personnel leaving the armed forces to continueto defend their country - against the enemy within - by entering the lawenforcement profession.
Narcotics traffic drives street crime. President Bush has, for the firsttime, used the resources of our armed forces against the international drugtrade. By our insistence, multilateral control of precursor chemicals andmoney laundering is now an international priority. We decry efforts by congressionalDemocrats to slash international anti-narcotics funding and inhibit themost vital control efforts in Peru. We support efforts to work with Southand Central American leaders to eradicate crops used to produce illegalnarcotics.
The Republican Party is committed to a drug-free America. During thelast 12 years, we have radically reversed the Democrats' attitude of tolerancetoward narcotics, vastly increased federal operations against drugs, cleanedup the military and launched mandatory testing for employees in variousfields, including White House personnel. As a result, overall drug abuseis falling. We urge that states and communities emphasize anti-drug educationby police officers and others in schools to educate young children to thedangers of the drug culture. Dope is no longer trendy.
We oppose legalizing or decriminalizing drugs. That is a morally abhorrentidea, the last vestige of an ill-conceived philosophy that counseled thelegitimacy of permissiveness. Today, a similarly dysfunctional moralityexplains away drug dealing as an escape, and drive-by shootings as an actof political violence. There is no excuse for the wanton destruction ofhuman life. We therefore support the stiffest penalties, including the deathpenalty, for major drug traffickers.
Drug users must face punishment, including fines and imprisonment, forcontributing to the demand that makes the drug trade profitable. Among possiblesanctions should be the loss of government assistance and suspension ofdrivers' licenses. Residents of public housing should be able to protecttheir families against drugs by screening out abusers and dealers. We supportgrass-roots action to drive dealers and crack houses out of operation.
Safe streets also mean highways that are free of drunken drivers anddrivers under the influence of illegal drugs. Republicans support the toughestpossible state laws to deal with drunken drivers and users of illegal drugs,who deserve no sympathy from our courts or state legislatures. We also opposethe illicit abuse of legal drugs.
White-collar crime threatens homes and families in a different way. Itsteals secretly, forcing up prices, rigging contracts, swindling consumersand harming the overwhelming majority of business people who play fair andobey the law. We support imprisonment for those who steal from the Americanpeople. We pledge an all-out fight against it, especially within the politicalmachines that control many of our major cities. We will continue to bringto justice corrupt politicians and those who collude with them to plundersavings and loans.
New members of the American family.
Our nation of immigrants continues to welcome those seeking a betterlife. This reflects our past, when some newcomers fled intolerance; somesought prosperity; some came as slaves. All suffered and sacrificed buthoped their children would have a better life. All searched for a sharedvision - and found one in America. Today we are stronger for our diversity.
Illegal entry into the United States, on the other hand, threatens thesocial compact on which immigration is based. That is, the nation acceptsimmigrants and is enriched by their determination and values. Illegal immigration,on the other hand, undermines the integrity of border communities and alreadycrowded urban neighborhoods. We will build on the already announced strengtheningof the Border Patrol to better coordinate interdiction of illegal entrantsthrough greater cross-border cooperation. Specifically, we will increasethe size of the Border Patrol in order to meet the increasing need to stopillegal immigration and we will equip the Border Patrol with the tools,technologies and structures necessary to secure the border.
We will seek stiff penalties for those who smuggle illegal aliens intothe country, and for those who produce or sell fraudulent documents. Wealso will reduce incentives to enter the United States by promoting initiativessuch as the North American Free Trade Agreement. In creating new economicopportunity in Mexico, a NAFTA removes the incentive to cross the borderillegally in search of work.
Individual rights.
The protection of individual rights is the foundation for opportunityand security.
The Republican Party is unique in this regard. Since its inception, ithas respected every person, even when that proposition was not universallypopular. Today, as in the day of Lincoln, we insist that no American's rightsare negotiable.
That is why we declare that bigotry and prejudice have no place in Americanlife. We denounce all who practice or promote racism, anti Semitism or religiousintolerance. We believe churches and religious schools should not be taxed;we defend the right of religious leaders to speak out on public issues;and we condemn the cowardly desecration of places of worship that has shockedour country in recent years.
Asserting equal rights for all, we support the Bush administration'svigorous enforcement of statutes to prevent illegal discrimination on accountof sex, race, creed or national origin. Promoting opportunity, we rejectefforts to replace equal rights with quotas or other preferential treatment.That is why President Bush fought so long against the Democrat Congressto win a civil rights bill worthy of that name.
We renew the historic Republican commitment to the rights of women, fromthe early days of the suffragist movement to the present. Because legalrights mean little without opportunity, we assert economic growth as thekey to the continued progress of women in all fields of American life.
We believe the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to lifethat cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a humanlife amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clearthat the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children. We opposeusing public revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations thatadvocate it. We commend those who provide alternatives to abortion by meetingthe needs of mothers and offering adoption services. We reaffirm our supportfor appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and thesanctity of innocent human life.
President Bush signed into law the greatest advance ever for disabledpersons: The Americans with Disabilities Act, a milestone in removing barriersto full participation in our country's life. We will fully implement itwith sensitivity to the needs of small businesses, just as we have earlierlegal protections for the disabled in federal programs. We oppose the non-consensualwithholding of health care or treatment from any person because of handicap,age or infirmity, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.
We support full access to the polls, and the entire political process,by disabled voters. We will ensure that students with disabilities benefitfrom America 2000's new emphasis on testing for excellence and accountabilityfor results.
Promoting the rights of the disabled requires, before all else, an expandingeconomy, both to advance assistive technology and to create opportunitiesfor personal advancement. That is another reason why Republicans are committedto growth.
We reaffirm our commitment to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution:"No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, withoutdue process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use,without just compensation." We support strong enforcement of this TakingsClause to keep citizens secure in the use and development of their property.We also seek to reduce the amount of land owned or controlled by the government,especially in the Western states. We insist upon prompt payment for privatelands certified as critical for preserving essential parks and preserves.
Republicans defend the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Wecall for stiff mandatory sentences for those who use firearms in a crime.We note that those who seek to disarm citizens in their homes are the sameliberals who tried to disarm our nation during the Cold War and are todayseeking to cut our national defense below safe levels. We applaud congressionalRepublicans for overturning the District of Columbia's law blaming firearmmanufacturers for street crime.
We affirm the right of individuals to form, join or assist labor organizationsto bargain collectively, consistent with state laws. We support the rightof states to enact right-towork laws.
A Republican Congress will amend the Hobbs Act, so that union officialswill not be exempt from the law's prohibition against extortion and violence.We call for greater legal protection from violence for workers who stayon the job during strikes.
We support self-determination for Indian tribes in managing their ownaffairs and resources. Recognizing the government-togovernment trust responsibility,we aim to end dependency fostered by federal controls. Reservations andtribal lands held in trust should be free to become enterprise zones sotheir people can fully share in the nation's prosperity. We will work withtribal governments to improve education, health, economic opportunity andenvironmental conditions. We endorse efforts to preserve the culture andlanguages of Native Americans and Hawaiians and to ensure their equitableparticipation in federal programs.
Uniting Our Country
Security and Opportunity in a Changing Economy
Over the last four years, the United States has achieved our overridingobjective since the end of World War II. Communism and other forms of plannedeconomies lie in the ash heap of history, defeated not only by our militarystrength but by the force of our ideas - democracy and free enterprise.
Now a huge international market is evolving. Combined with America'slow inflation and low interest rate environment, it presents us with unprecedentedeconomic opportunity. We commit to the proposition that the American economywill remain first in the world. This is our goal. Achieving it will ensurethat our people will enjoy the jobs, benefits and economic growth to sustainthe American dream for themselves and their posterity.
Republicans believe that the greatest engine for social change and economicprogress is the entrepreneurial economy. We believe that America has brokendown the lines of class to a greater degree than any society on earth, notbecause of government but because of an economic system that allows menand women to create wealth for themselves and their communities. We believethat positive change can occur and benefit all Americans if we continueto remove governmental barriers to entrepreneurship and, thus, economicgrowth.
Our cause embraces traditional ideals and modern realities. It both reformsand innovates. We aim to shape history through faith in one another. Becausewe look forward, we emphasize saving, investment and job creation. We encourageinnovation and the entrepreneurial spirit that are, together, part of ournational character. We both conserve and develop our natural resources.Because we have learned from the past, we are determined to change whatdesperately needs changing in government.
Government does not have all the answers, but we know where to find them:in the spirit of our people. We know the weapons for this battle: economicand political liberty in the pursuit of happiness. We understand that materialgain improves life only if it lifts us all to pursue higher ends: self-respect,work and study, a decent life and future for our children, and a usefulold age.
So we rededicate ourselves to the truths the nation keeps coming backto -the simple, spiritual truths about our family, our country, our world- for upon them we will build our more perfect union.
Security and Opportunity in a Changing Economy
Our economy is people, not statistics. The American people, not government,rescued the United States from an economic collapse triggered by Democratsin the 1970s. Crippled by taxes, robbed by inflation, threatened by controls,stunned by interest rates, the people ended America's decline and restoredhope across our country and around our world.
We launched an era of growth and prosperity such as the world had neverseen: 20 million new jobs in the longest peacetime economic expansion inthe history of the Republic. We curbed the size and power of the federalestablishment. We lowered tax rates. We restored a sound dollar. We unleashedthe might of free people to produce, compete and triumph in free markets.We gave them the tools; they completed the job.
During the 1980s and into the present decade, the U.S. economy once againbecame the engine of global growth. Inflation has fallen to its lowest levelin 30 years. Interest rates dropped 15 percentage points. Productivity hassharply risen. Exports are booming. Despite a global downturn in late 1990,real economic growth resumed last year and has continued for five consecutivequarters. With low interest rates and low inflation, the American economyis poised for stronger growth through the rest of the 1990s. Keeping inflationand interest rates low and stable through a sound monetary policy is essentialfor economic growth.
These gains were made in spite of the leaders of the Democratic Party.They continue to delay and defeat the president's agenda for growth, jobsand prosperity. Spending faster than ever, they blocked Republican reformsthat would have saved billions of wasted taxpayer dollars. They refusedto give the president a line-item veto to curb their self-serving pork-barrelprojects.
The congressional Democrat leadership killed the Taxpayer ProtectionAmendment for a balanced budget in the Democratcontrolled House of Representatives.It was supported by 98 percent of the Republican members; 57 percent ofthe Democrat members voted no. Then they rigged parliamentary proceduresto forbid a vote on that amendment in the Democrat-controlled Senate. EveryRepublican senator voted twice to end the filibuster, while more than 70percent of the Democrats voted twice to keep the filibuster going. Theirnominee this year for the vice presidency supported the filibuster and spurnedthe balanced-budget amendment.
They played citizens against one another, wallowing in the politics ofhate and envy to smear the wonder of social mobility. They lied about America'sachievement in the 1980s, rewriting history to erase the true accomplishmentsof the American people.
Keeping what you earn.
The test of economic policy is whether it promotes economic growth andexpands job opportunities. Lower taxes and an expanding economy depend onlong-term, consistent restraint in the growth of federal spending.
In 1990, as the deficit was threatening to balloon and further harm theeconomy, the president pushed for cuts in government spending overall andfor caps on mandatory spending. The Democrat Congress insisted, however,on a tax hike as their price for controlling spending. In short, the Democratsheld the U.S. economy - and U.S. jobs - hostage in order to raise taxes,much as they had done to President Reagan.
Just as they did with President Reagan, the Democratcontrolled Congresspromised President Bush they would abide by binding controls on federalspending; and just as with President Reagan, they broke their word. Republicanswill not again agree to such a program.
This year, to create jobs and promote growth, President Bush submitteda program of tax cuts and incentives designed to get the economy movingagain - a program very similar to one he had sent to Congress in early 1990.
The Democrats' response was predictable - instead of cutting taxes, theypassed a $100 billion tax increase that would have smothered growth andjobs. The president, true to our Republican philosophy, vetoed this taxhike, and sustained his veto with the support of Republicans in Congress.
Now a new Democrat nominee comes forward with his plan for the economy.With a clean piece of paper, and every opportunity to end his party's romancewith taxes, he has instead proposed the largest tax increase in Americanhistory. His tax increases, his proposed mandated benefits on small firms,and his further reductions in defense would cost the jobs of 2.6 millionAmericans. With his present spending increases, his plan would greatly increasethe federal budget and the deficit.
The simple truth for the American people is this: The only safeguardbetween themselves and Democrat tax increases is the use of the veto byGeorge Bush and enough Republican votes in Congress to sustain it.
The truth is that the Democrat philosophy of bigger government and rigorousredistribution of income requires them to push for ever increasing spendingand ever higher taxes.
The choice is clear - between George Bush, who vetoes tax increases,and his opponent, who proposes a $150 billion tax increase.
Our Republican position is equally clear: We will oppose any attemptto increase taxes. Furthermore, Republicans believe that the taxes insistedon by the Democrats in the 1990 budget agreement were recessionary. TheDemocrat Congress held President Bush and indeed all Americans hostage,refusing to take even modest steps to control spending, unless taxes wereincreased. The American economy suffered as a result. We believe the taxincreases of 1990 should ultimately be repealed.
Just as history shows that tax increases destroy jobs and economic growth,it also shows that the proper path to create jobs and growth is tax ratereduction.
We commend those congressional and senatorial candidates who pledge tooppose tax rate increases.
As the deficit comes under control, we aspire to further tax rate cuts,strengthening incentives to work, save, invest and innovate. We also supportPresident Bush's efforts to reduce federal spending and to cap the growthof non-Social Security entitlements.
Republicans want individuals and families to control their own economicdestiny. Only long-term expansion of our economy and jobs can make the Americandream a reality for generations to come. That is why we demand that theCongress do what President Bush called for last January: open a new eraof growth and opportunity by enacting his comprehensive plan for economicrecovery, including a reduction in the capital gains tax; an investmenttax allowance; a $5,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers; a neededmodification of the "passive loss rule"; a $500 increase in thepersonal income tax exemption; making permanent the research and developmenttax credit; and the passage of federal enterprise zone legislation.
We support restoring the deductibility of IRAs for all Americans, includingfull-time homemakers, and encourage savings for education and home ownershipthrough Family Savings Accounts. The president's Family Savings Accountswill be an impetus to the economy. Let families use their IRAs for firsttimehome purchases, for college education and for medical emergencies.
We will cut the capital gains tax rate to 15 percent - zero in enterprisezones - and index it so government cannot profit from inflation by taxingphantom capital gains, literally stealing from savings and pensions.
We reject the notion advanced by Democrats that this enhances the wealthy.To the contrary, it would encourage investment, create new jobs, make capitalavailable for business expansion and contribute to economic expansion.
Reducing the tax on investment will be the biggest possible boost forthe new technologies, businesses and jobs we need for the next century.If government taxes capital gains at such a high rate that there is no incentiveto take risks, to build businesses, to invest, to create jobs or to betteroneself, then jobs and small businesses vanish, and everyone's opportunitiesare diminished.
Cutting the rate, on the other hand, will help supply seed capital whereit is needed most - in our poorest communities. Refusing to cut it willhandcuff America in international competition and will shackle aspiringentrepreneurs in inner cities and poor rural areas. To encourage investmentin new technologies, we will make permanent the research and developmenttax credit. For the same reason, we want to expand deductibility for investmentsin new plant and equipment.
We support further tax simplification. The tax code should create jobsfor Americans, not profits for tax lawyers, lobbyists and tax shelters.Small businesses should spend more time hiring and producing, not fillingout IRS forms.
We oppose taxing religious and ethnic fraternal benefit societies becauseof their vital role in fostering charity and patriotism.
We also oppose tax withholding on savings and dividends.
We applaud the efforts by President Bush to help workers who change jobsby enhancing the portability of pensions.
Leading Democrat members of Congress have called for a national salestax, or European style value-added tax (VAT), which would take billionsof dollars out of the hands of American consumers. Such a tax has been imposedon many nations in Europe and has resulted in higher prices, fewer jobsand higher levels of government spending. Republicans oppose the idea ofputting a VAT on the backs of the American people.
Republicans believe in expanding the economy. Jobs and growth are ouranswer to the future.
The future is the family. The most dramatic change in the tax code inour lifetime is one that has never been explicitly enacted by Congress orreported as a specific new event. It is the gradual, year-by-year erosionof the personal exemption, until it was indexed by a Republican administrationin 1986.
Republicans also led the way in the 1980s by increasing the personalexemption from $1,500 to $2,000. This platform calls for another immediateincrease of $500, but in the long run we are committed to fully restoringthe inflation-adjusted value of the personal exemption. This will requirereductions in federal spending, which is why the best hope for tax fairnessfor America's families lies in a Republican Congress.
Liberation through deregulation. Government regulation is a hidden taxon American families, costing each household more than $5,000 every year.It stifles job creation and hobbles our national competitiveness. The "irontriangle" of special interests, federal bureaucrats and Democrat congressionalstaff is robbing consumers and producers alike.
We support President Bush's freeze on new regulations. We applaud hisCompetitiveness Council, under Vice President Quayle, for fighting the regulatorymania, saving the public $20 billion with its initial 90-day moratoriumon new regulations and billions more under the current 120 day freeze. Wecall for a permanent moratorium until our regulatory reforms are fully inplace. They include market-based regulation, cost benefit analysis of allnew rule-making, and a regulatory budget that will make Congress admit -and correct - the harm it does by legislation that destroys jobs and competitiveness.
We recognize that property rights are being endangered by governmentover-regulation. We reaffirm the constitutional right to private ownershipof property; this right is paramount in our free society. Every rule thatreduces the value of private property is what our Constitution calls a "taking."This underthe-table taxation is unfair, immoral and economically destructive.We support legislation to require full compensation of property owners whoare victims of regulatory takings.
Home ownership.
The best housing policy is a noninflationary, growing economy that hasproduced low mortgage rates and has made housing more affordable.
We demand Congress enact President's Bush's housing program introducedas part of his pro-growth package in January.
Provide a $5,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and allow thempenalty-free IRA withdrawals.
Set a modified "passive loss rule" for active real estate investors.
Extend tax preferences for mortgage revenue bonds and lowincome housing.
And allow deductions for losses on personal residences.
The average American's home is his or her primary asset.
That asset should be completely shielded from federal taxation, allowingthe homeowner to maintain it or access it as he or she sees fit. We callfor the complete elimination of the capital gains tax on the sale of a principalresidence.
Owning a home is not just an investment. It is a commitment to the community,a guard against crime, a statement about family life. It is a crucial componentof upward mobility. To advance these goals, Republicans are determined topreserve deductibility of mortgage interest.
Bureaucratic government imposes too many regulatory barriers to affordablehousing. These barriers must come down.
We applaud efforts in the states to lower property taxes, which strikehardest at the poor, the elderly, families with children and family farmers.We advocate repeal of rent-control laws, which help the affluent and hurtlow-income families by causing housing shortages.
We support the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) mortgage insuranceprogram, the Government National Mortgage Association, the VA (Departmentof Veterans Affairs) guarantee program and other programs that enhance housingchoices for all. We urge federal departments and agencies to work with theprivate sector to bring foreclosed housing stock back into service as soonas possible.
We reaffirm our commitment to open housing, without quotas or controls,as part of the opportunity we seek for all.
For low-income families, the Republican Party stands for a revolutionin housing by converting public housing into homes owned by low-income Americans.President Bush is eager to work closely with the states to fight and wina new conservative war on poverty. The truest measure of our success willnot be how many families we add to housing assistance rolls but, rather,how many families move into the ranks of homeownership. But every part ofthat opportunity agenda has been thwarted by landlord Democrats in Congress.We ask the electorate: End the strangulation of divided government. GiveRepublicans the chance to move housing policy off the Democratic Party plantationinto the mainstream of American life. Resident management and ownershipof public housing reflects this American mission, not only to assure politicalfreedom but to allow all our fellow citizens to build a better life forthemselves and their children.
Congressional Democrats have consistently blocked efforts to repeal theearnings test which prevents people over age 65 from keeping their jobsand remaining productive members of the work force. The Social Securityearnings test discriminates against senior citizens. These senior citizenshave to pay the highest marginal tax rate of any Americans. We support repealof the Social Security earnings test.
Controlling government spending.
For 12 years, Republicans in the White House and Congress have battleda Democrat system corrupt and contemptuous of the American taxpayer. OurRepublican presidents have vetoed one reckless bill after another. But liberalDemocrats still control a rigged machine that keeps on spending the public'smoney.
The only solution is for the voters to end divided government so thata Republican Congress can enact the balancedbudget amendment, requiringa supermajority for any future tax increases. And since the Democrat controlledCongress has consistently voted down a line-item veto amendment for thepresident to control specific wasteful pork barrel spending, a RepublicanCongress will adopt a line-item veto for the presidency, restore presidentialpower to rescind spending and to lower specific appropriations.
Deficits have grown as Democrat Congresses have converted governmentassistance programs into entitlements and allowed spending to become uncontrolled.A Republican Congress, working with a Republican president, will considernon-Social Security mandatory spending portions of the federal budget whenlooking for savings.
When legislators and bureaucrats waste tax money, they deserve to losetheir jobs. When they save money, they deserve praise. When federal programshave outlived their usefulness, they deserve a decent burial. When federaljudges dare to seize the power of the purse, by ordering the impositionof taxes, they should be removed from office by the procedures providedby the Constitution.
The latest Democrat scam is to raise taxes for "investment"- a code word for more government spending. A Republican Congress will fosterinvestment where it does the most good, by individuals within the privatesector.
Job creation and small-business opportunities.
The engines of growth in a free economy are small businesses and jobs.
Almost 99 percent of all businesses in America are considered small.Small business is the backbone of the American economy. For the past 12years it has led the way in economic growth.
Small business generates 67 percent of all new jobs. Employment in industriesdominated by small business increased more than twice as fast as in industriesdominated by large businesses. Small business plays a critical role in America'seconomic health. What happens on Main Street drives what happens on WallStreet.
To create jobs and keep small business growing, the Republican Partysupports increased access to capital for business expansion, exporting,long-term investment, opportunity capital for the disadvantaged, and capitalto bring new products and new technology to the market.
The Republican Party enthusiastically encourages the passage of federalenterprise zones. Enterprise zones have been effective programs for promotinggrowth in urban and rural America. Republicans believe that the conceptof enterprise zones is based on unyielding faith in the entrepreneurialspirit of all Americans. Enterprise zones foster individual initiative andgovernment deregulation. The states have come a long way in developing successfulenterprise zone programs. State programs could only benefit from federalefforts. Congress should follow the lead of President Bush and HUD SecretaryJack Kemp in passing the federal enterprise zone program that will empowercommunities by reducing government regulation and taxation.
The implementation of enterprise zones as an incentive for job creationand business development is also essential to further job and business opportunities.These efforts are bolstered by continued support of job training and minoritybusiness development programs, which have been created and implemented bythe president's administration within the last three years. This is of specialimport to women, who own 32 percent of the nation's businesses, most ofthem small ones.
Because the regulation of securities markets bars most small businessesfrom easy access to capital, we also support the Small Business Administration'sSection 7(a) loan guarantee program and similar efforts that essentiallycompensate for the burdens government itself imposes upon entrepreneurs.
Leading the information age.
The nation's telecommunications infrastructure will be essential to growthand competitiveness in the information age. The most far-reaching transformationof daily life since the harnessing of electricity will mean unprecedentedopportunity for rural areas, reduced commuting, health care in the homeand empowerment for the disabled.
Today, however, government policy at both the federal and state levelsis standing in the way of this telecommunications progress.
Existing judicial, legislative and regulatory market allocation schemesconstitute a counterproductive industrial policy by prohibiting the fullparticipation by all providers in all segments of the telecommunicationsmarketplace. We need to liberate this future-oriented technology and, inturn, empower the American people by giving consumers a truly competitivechoice and lower prices.
As a result, we Republicans believe that full and open competition inthe telecommunications marketplace is the most effective means for the UnitedStates to achieve our goal of having the most technologically advanced telecommunicationsinfrastructure in the world.
Jobs through science and technology.
We believe technology holds the key to America's future - and the futureis bright. America is not in decline. America is still the land of opportunity.The new horizon is science and technology. New discoveries, new challengesand new opportunities await us. Science and technology offer us change -exciting, dramatic and positive change in the well-being of every American.
Scientific research and development in genetics, biotechnology and electronicswill provide better, more affordable health care for all Americans. Distancelearning, through technology, will help bring exciting, quality, affordableeducation to all students, even in rural areas and inner cities. Technologywill help us conquer disease, protect the environment and provide a moreabundant, healthier food supply. And technology will lead to better jobsand a better quality of life for all of us - and for our children and ourchildren's children.
Scientific and technological developments in telecommunications, highperformance computers, high-speed data networks, digitization, advancedsoftware, biotechnology, highenergy physics, advanced materials, superconductors,manufacturing processes, energy, transportation, agriculture, oceanography,atmospheric studies, geological research, space and the environment aresome of the keys to increases in productivity. And increases in productivitywill create economic growth and a higher standard of living for all of us.Technology is also critical to our national defense.
We believe America must make technological development one of its highestpriorities. We therefore support efforts to promote science and technology- providing funding for basic research, supporting investment in emergingtechnologies, improving education in science and engineering, enhancingtax credits for research and development, eliminating unnecessary regulationto create competitive markets, and protecting intellectual property. Wefurther support efforts to increase the pace of technology transfer fromthe government to the private sector, where the fruits of this researchcan be used in the free market to create new processes, products and mostimportant, jobs.
We believe these policies will make us internationally competitive andwill lead to a bright and prosperous future for our nation.
President Bush has provided leadership in this area by developing budgetsallocating major new resources to scientific endeavors. The National ScienceFoundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration (NASA), and the research and development programin the departments of Energy and Commerce have all become budget prioritiesunder the president's leadership. The sad fact is, however, that the DemocratCongress has cut steadily and sharply in science areas in order to expandspending on social programs. This is shortsighted; the truth is that Americaninnovation in science and engineering will expand our economy and jobs togreater social advantage to all Americans. A Republican Congress workingwith President Bush would reflect our interest in advancing scientific inquiryand assuring the resulting economic benefits for all Americans.
Space.
We are a pioneer people. Today's telecommunications revolution beganwith the first satellites of the Eisenhower years. So too, what we now do- or fail to do - in space will determine the future for generations tocome.
That is why President Bush established the National Space Council underVice President Quayle. Together, they rescued a floundering program, revampedNASA, opened up competition and engaged the best minds of academia and researchin a twofold mission for mankind. Mission to Planet Earth will define andperhaps mitigate effects on our fragile environment. Mission from PlanetEarth will open space for science and industry. Especially in this Columbianyear, we hail the president's decision "to return to the moon, thistime to stay, and then a journey to tomorrow, a mission to Mars."
Investments in space, though aimed at the future, pay dividends rightnow - in research and medicine, in international competitiveness and domesticopportunity. This must not be diverted to political pork barrels. The journeyto the stars used to be a bipartisan adventure, but many Democrat officeholdershave jumped ship.
Republicans, by contrast, are determined to complete space station Freedomwithin this decade. Our agenda is to lower the cost of access to space,and to broaden that access to the private sector, with a family of new launchers;to build and fly sensors for the global environment; and to advance cutting-edgecapabilities like the National Aerospace Plane and single stageto-orbitrockets, so technological breakthroughs can be quickly exploited. We willpromote space-based industry and ensure that space remains a frontier forprivate enterprise, not a restricted preserve for government. We will continueinternational cooperation in space ventures and welcome Russia's cosmonautsand citizens of other nations to fly for freedom.
Banking and job creation.
Job creation and economic growth are dependent on a healthy and competitivefinancial services system that can respond to the needs of the market. TheDemocrat Congress stalled Republican legislation to prevent the savingsand loan crisis. Then, last year, the Congress refused to pass the Republicanadministration's comprehensive financial sector reform bill to strengthenour banking industry and let it compete, both domestically and internationally,consistent with the principles of safety and soundness.
We applaud the president's efforts to alleviate the continuing problemscaused by lack of funds available to creditworthy borrowers in small businessesand the housing industry. We endorse his efforts to restrain overzealousregulators, reduce regulatory compliance costs, strengthen financial institutionsthrough diversification and reduce unnecessary barriers to lending.
Trade:
A new world of growth. Four years ago, the American people faced an historicdecision: Compete or retreat. They chose, with President Bush, to competein the international arena. Rather than retreat with the Democrats to thelimits of yesteryear, they decided to attack the international marketplacewith characteristic American vigor. Just as George Bush is a proven worldleader on the military front, equally he is an economic world leader.
The results are spectacular. We have cut the trade deficit in half injust four years. The United States is again the world's top exporter. Exportsdrive our economy. Every $1 billion in exports creates 20,000 new jobs forAmericans.
Exports have created nearly 2 million new jobs at home since 1988.
We are tough free traders, battling to sweep away barriers to our exports.We are waging the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs andTrade (GATT) negotiations to win worldwide reductions in tariffs, eliminationof subsidies and protection of American intellectual property rights. Weare fighting to reduce farm subsidies in the European Community and to breakup their government-industry collusion in production of civil aircraft.We firmly endorse President Bush's policy to support the Republic of Chinaon Taiwan in international trade and her accession to GATT. Major marketaccess gains have been made with Japan, with American manufacturing exportstripling since 1985. Throughout the world, we enforced greater compliancewith U.S. trade rights. And we are making every effort to bring home a UruguayRound agreement that is not only good for America, but great for tomorrow'sentrepreneurs everywhere.
The free-trade agenda for the next four years starts with the signingof a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico, completingthe establishment of a free-trade area which already includes Canada. NAFTAwill create the largest market in the world, greater than the European Community,with 360 million consumers and a total output of six trillion dollars. Itmeans a net gain of hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
We acknowledge the possible effects on regional markets, specificallyagriculture. We encourage our negotiators to be sensitive to those marketconcerns.
We will continue to fill the Pacific Rim with American exports, negotiatingtrade agreements with other Asian economies, and will complete our efforts- such as the Structural Impediments Initiative with Japan - to reduce barriersto American goods and services. And we will continue to negotiate the Enterprisefor the Americas Initiative with Latin America as a first step in creatinga hemispheric free-trade zone.
Congress should report to the American people the cost to workers, consumersand businesses of every Democrat trade restriction, trade tax or trade quotabill it considers. We will not tolerate their obstructing the greatest expansionof international trade in history. Republicans welcome this opportunity;for we know America's workers, thinkers and builders will make the mostof it.
International economic policy. Twelve years ago, we unleashed a tidalwave of freedom around the world - not just political but economic libertyas well. What works in America personal responsibility, limited government,competition - works throughout the world.
Because the world economy is interdependent, the United States has beenaffected by downturns elsewhere, particularly since 1990 with the crashof the Japanese stock market and Germany's economic difficulties. Now, asprogress resumes, the Republican plan for global growth is vital for allnations, developed or otherwise. The continuing prosperity of our neighborhoodswill depend in part upon the masterful diplomacy we have come to expectfrom President Bush.
Economic freedom is an essential link to our foreign policy. It meansexpanded trade, but it also means dynamic growth based on shared values- a coming together of nations in the commonwealth of peaceful progress.To that end, U.S. aid, whether bilateral or through international organizations,should promote market reforms, limit regulation and encourage free trade.
Chief among these market reforms should be the privatization of stateowned industries such as telecommunications, power, mining and refining.Privatization should afford American companies the opportunity to purchasesome of these assets, bring competition to these countries and substantiallyreduce our trade deficit. The United States government should take all possiblesteps to assist American companies wishing to invest in privatized industriesby adopting policies, rules and regulations that will equitably facilitatethese ventures, especially for small businesses.
We will work with developing nations to make their economies attractiveto private investment and will support innovations to guarantee repaymentof their loans, including debt for equity swaps. Our experience can helpthem develop environmentally rational strategies for growth.
Because we uphold the family as the building block of economic progress,we protect its right in international programs and will continue to withholdfunds from organizations involved in abortion.
Most important, we encourage developing nations to adopt both democracyand free markets. The two are inextricably tied and afford all people thegreatest opportunities.
Reforming Government and the Legal System
Two centuries ago, the American people created a miracle - a system ofgovernment, founded on limited authority and the rule of law, a system thatmade government the servant of the people. Today it is in shambles. Citizensfeel overwhelmed by vast bureaucracies. Congress insulates incumbents frompublic judgment. Huge problems get worse while committee chairmen play partisangames. The current legal system tends to breed delay, cost, confusion andjargon - everything but justice. Many of our once-great cities are controlledby one-party machines that promote and encourage corruption and incompetence.
The Republic has not failed; the Democratic Party bosses failed the Republic.
The Republican Party, now as at its founding, challenges a debased statusquo. In Congress, the states, our cities, our courtrooms, we fight for thebasics of self-government.
We rely on what works, judging programs by how well they do instead ofhow much they spend. The Democrats believe in more government. Republicansbelieve in leaner, more effective government.
We decentralize authority, returning decisions to states, localitiesand private institutions. The Democrat bosses want to concentrate poweron Capitol Hill. Republicans place it in town halls and the American home.
Republicans favor the free-enterprise system. We choose market forces- consumer rights - over red tape. The Democrats argue that government mustconstantly override the market. Republicans regard the worst market failureas the failure to have a market.
We replace dependency with empowerment. The Democrats see an Americafilled with wards of the state. Republicans see an America peopled by citizensand consumers eager for the chance to chart their own course.
We make electoral systems understandable and accountable to the voter.The Democrats fear proposals that would limit the tenure and hidden powerof incumbent politicians. Republicans want the ballot box to prevail overthe cloakroom.
Cleaning up the imperial Congress.
The Democrats have controlled the House of Representatives for 38 years- five years longer than Castro has held Cuba. They have held the Senatefor 32 of those 38. Their entrenched power has produced a Congress arrogant,out of touch, hopelessly entangled in a web of PACs, perks, privileges,partisanship, paralysis and pork. No wonder they hid their congressionalleaders during the Democrat convention of 1992. They didn't want Americansto remember who has been running the Congress.
The Democrats have transformed what the framers of the Constitution intendedas the people's House into a pathological institution. They have grosslyincreased their staffing, their payrolls, their allied bureaucracies inlittle-known congressional agencies. Congress has ballooned to 284 congressionalcommittees and subcommittees, almost 40,000 legislative branch employeesand staff, and $2.5 billion in taxpayer financing, amounting to approximately$5 million per lawmaker per year. Incumbents have abused free mailing privilegesfor personal political gain. Twenty two Democrats, with a total of 585 yearsin power, rule over a committee system that blocks every attempt at reform.
The Democrats have trampled the traditions of the House, rigging rules,forbidding votes on crucial amendments, denying fair apportionment of committeeseats and resources. They have stacked campaign laws to benefit themselves.The Democrat leadership of the House has been tainted with scandal and hasresisted efforts to investigate scandals once disclosed. Some in their leadershiphave resigned in well-earned disgrace.
The Democrat leadership of the Congress has turned the healthy competitionof constitutional separation of powers into mean-spirited politics of innuendoand inquisition. Committee hearings are no longer for fact-finding; theyare political sideshows. "Advise and consent" has been replacedby "slash and burn."
Republicans want to change all that. We reaffirm our support for a constitutionalamendment to limit the number of terms House members and senators may serve.We want a citizens' Congress, free of bloated pensions and perpetual perks.
Congress must stop exempting itself from laws such as the minimum wageand the civil rights statutes, as well as laws that apply to the executivebranch. The Independent Counsel Act is a case in point. It has permittedrogue prosecutors to spend tremendous amounts to hound some of the nation'sfinest public servants. If that act is reauthorized, it must be extendedto Congress as well. Safety and health regulations, civil rights and minimumwage laws are further examples of areas where Congress has set itself apartfrom the people. This practice must end.
Congress must slash its own bureaucracy. Its employees operate in a mazeof overlapping jurisdictions. A Republican Congress will cut expenses by25 percent, reduce the number of committees and subcommittees, and assignstaff in accurate proportion to party strength.
We will restore integrity to the House of Representatives, reformingits rules, allowing open debate and amendment. The committee system, bothin Congress and in Democrat-controlled state legislatures, has been abusedby chairpersons who have arbitrarily killed legislation that would havepassed.
Committees are a place for open and free discussion, not a closet forDemocrats to stash Republican legislation. Democracy itself is endangeredby these abuses, and Republicans condemn those practices. Both houses ofCongress must guarantee protection to whistleblowers to encourage employeesto report illegality, corruption, sexual harassment and discrimination.
The Democrat rulers of Congress have blocked or stalled presidentialinitiatives in many areas, including education, housing, crime control,economic recovery, job creation and budget reform. They care more aboutscoring petty partisan points for themselves and their party than aboutachieving real progress for the nation. To accomplish change, we need achange in Congress.
Reforming the congressional budget process. At the heart of the Democrats'corruption of Congress is a fraudulent budget process. They do not wantthe public to understand how they spend the public's money. At a time whenthe nation's future depends on reduction of deficits, the lords of the Capitolstill play the old shell game.
Republicans vigorously support a balanced budget, a balanced budget constitutionalamendment and a line-item veto for the president.
Republicans believe this balancing of the budget should be achieved,not by increasing taxes to match spending, but by cutting spending to currentlevels of revenue. We prefer a balanced-budget amendment that contains asupermajority requirement to raise taxes.
We also propose procedural reforms. We support legislation that wouldrequire Congress to pass a legally binding budget before it can considerspending bills. The budget's spending ceilings shall not be exceeded withouta supermajority vote of both chambers. If Congress fails to pass any appropriationbill, funding for its programs will automatically be frozen at the previousyear's level. The key to prosperity for the rest of this century and forthe next generation of Americans is a budget strategy that restores sanityto the budget process and checks the growth of government.
Congress should be forced to confront basic arithmetic through Truthin Counting. The Democrats measure all changes in funding against a "currentservices baseline," with built-in increases for inflation and otherfactors. If they want a $1 million program to grow to $2 million, they thencount an increase to $1.5 million as a half-million dollar cut. This isthe accounting system of Wonderland, where words mean exactly what the DemocratSpeaker says they mean. The double-talk must end with zero based budgeting.We also support "sunset laws" that require government agenciesto be reviewed periodically and reauthorized only if they can be rejustified.
Cleaning up politics: The gerrymander.
After more than a half-century of distortion by power-hungry Democrats,the political system is increasingly rigged.
Throughout the 1980s, voters were cheated out of dozens of seats in theHouse of Representatives and in state legislatures because districts wereoddly shaped to guarantee election of Democrats. It was swindle by law.We support state-level appointment of nonpartisan redistricting commissionsto apply clear standards for compactness of districts, competitiveness betweenthe parties and protection of community interests.
Cleaning up politics: Campaign reform.
We crusade for clean elections. We support state efforts to increasevoter participation but condemn Democrat attempts to perpetrate vote fraudthrough schemes that override the state's safeguards of orderly voter registration.And it is critical that the states retain the authority to tailor voterregistration procedures to unique local circumstances.
Most of all, we condemn the Democrats' shameless plots to make taxpayersfoot the bills for their campaigns. Their campaign finance bill would havegiven $1 billion, over six years, in subsidies to candidates. PresidentBush vetoed that bill. Campaign financing does need reform. It does notneed a hand in the public's pocketbook.
We will require congressional candidates to raise most of their fundsfrom individuals within their home constituencies. This will limit outsidespecial-interest money and result in less expensive campaigns, with lesspadding for incumbents. To the same end, we will strengthen the role ofpolitical parties to remove pressure on candidates to spend so much timesoliciting funds. We will eliminate political action committees supportedby corporations, unions or trade associations, and restrict the practiceof bundling.
To restore competition in elections by attacking the unfair advantagesof incumbency, we will stop incumbents from warding off challengers merelyby amassing huge war chests.
Congressional candidates will be forbidden from carrying campaign fundsfrom one election to the next. We will oppose arbitrary spending limits- cynical devices which hobble challengers to keep politicians in office.
We will fully implement the Supreme Court's decision in the Beck case,ensuring that workers have the right to stop the use of their union duesfor political or other non-collective bargaining purposes.
Managing government in the public interest. The focus of government mustshift from quantity to quality, from spending to service. Americans shouldexpect measurable, published standards for services provided by governmentat all levels. Performance standards and rules, commonplace in the privatesector, must be applied to government activities as well. Because federalgovernment employees should not be a privileged caste, we will remove thebar to garnishing their wages to ensure payment of their debts.
The Quality Revolution in American business has quietly but profoundlytransformed American culture over the past decade. Millions of Americanworkers have benefited from the more cooperative spirit the Quality Revolutionhas brought to tens of thousands of workplaces; and every American has benefitedfrom the lower costs, higher quality service and greater level of competitivenessit has produced. Republicans are proud to have played a leading role inthis transformation, especially through the annual Malcolm Baldrige NationalQuality Award, which recognizes companies that best represent the principlesof quality.
The Quality Revolution in the private sector, with its concepts of continuousimprovement, profound knowledge and "doing the right thing right thefirst time," stands in stark contrast to the outmoded practices, insensitivityand outright waste, abuse and corruption endemic in the bureaucratic welfarestate. The Republican Party is firmly committed to bringing the QualityRevolution into government at every level by creating a "Quality Workersfor a Quality America" coalition whose aim will be to transform thebureaucratic welfare state into a government that is customer-friendly,cost-effective and improving constantly.
Privatization is an important alternative to higher taxes and reducedservices. If private enterprise can perform better and more cheaply thangovernment, let it do so. This is especially true of properties now decayingunder government control, such as public housing, where residents shouldhave the option to manage their own projects. These citizens should havethe chance to become stockholders and managers of government enterprisesand to run them more efficiently as private enterprises. We applaud PresidentBush's initiative to allow states and localities to privatize facilitiesbuilt with federal aid.
Where it advances both efficiency and safety, we will advocate privatizationof airport operation and management.
We deplore the blatant political bias of the governmentsponsored radioand television networks. It is especially outrageous that taxpayers arenow forced to underwrite this biased broadcasting through the Corporationfor Public Broadcasting (CPB). We call for sweeping reform of CPB, includinggreater accountability through application of the Freedom of InformationAct, a one-year funding cycle and enforcement of rigorous fairness standardsfor all CPB-supported programming. We look forward to the day when publicbroadcasting is self-sufficient.
Always trusting the initiative of the American people over the ways ofgovernment, we will not initiate production of goods or delivery of servicesby the federal government if they can be procured from the private sector.
We will not initiate any federal activity that can be conducted betteron the state or local level. In doing so, we reassert the crucial importanceof the 10th Amendment. We oppose costly federal mandates that stifle innovationand force tax hikes upon states and localities. We require that Congresscalculate the cost of mandated initiatives upon communities affected andprovide adequate financial support for mandates invoked. We will continuethe process of returning power to local voters by replacing federal programswith block grants.
Reforming the legal system.
The United States, with 5 percent of the world's population, has twothirds of the world's lawyers. Litigation has become an industry, an endin itself.
The number of civil cases in federal district courts has more than tripledin the past 30 years. It now takes more than a year to resolve the averagelawsuit. Delays of three to five years are commonplace.
The current legal system forces consumers to pay higher prices for everythingfrom basic goods to medical treatment. Direct litigation and inflated insurancepremiums sock American consumers for an estimated $80 billion a year. Alltold, our legal system costs, directly and indirectly, $300 billion a year.What it costs us in the world marketplace, by hindering our competitiveness,is beyond calculation.
We therefore endorse the president's proposals for legal reform as developedby Vice President Quayle, and we salute his principled challenge to theAmerican Bar Association to clean up its own house. We support the FairnessRule, to allow the winning party to a lawsuit to recover the costs of litigationfrom the losing party. This will discourage needless suits, freeing legalresources for people with genuine cases.
We believe complainants should have a choice of ways to settle problemsthrough alternative dispute programs that will permit parties to pursueless costly and less complicated ways to resolve conflicts. We also callfor greater use of judicial sanctions to stop frivolous lawsuits. We callfor changes to the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations(RICO) law to limit its use in civil litigation by requiring proof of allelements by clear and convincing proof.
We seek to restore fairness and predictability to punitive damages byplacing appropriate limits on them, dividing trials into two phases to determineliability separately from damages and requiring clear proof of wrongdoing.This will go a long way to reduce insurance premiums for professional andproduct liability and for all malpractice, including medical, thereby loweringcosts for consumers throughout the economy, while preserving the abilityof injured persons to obtain damages. It will also foster the creation ofnew products for the American marketplace, perhaps cures for the diseaseswe most fear.
The Republican Party commends President Bush and Vice President Quaylefor their continued leadership in helping volunteers overcome their concernthat their good acts and voluntary donations of time on behalf of civicgroups, community organizations and churches will result in civil liabilityand lawsuits. We encourage the state legislatures to pass the administration'smodel bill, "The Volunteerism Act."
We will throw out "junk science" by requiring courts to verifythe legitimacy of persons called as expert witnesses. To restore integrityto courtroom testimony, we will ban the practice of paying fees to expertsonly if a successful verdict is obtained. We will maintain diversity jurisdictionfor citizens of different states to ensure access to the federal courtswhen appropriate.
Because four-fifths of the time and cost of a lawsuit involves discovery- pretrial investigation of the facts - we will require automatic disclosure,by both sides, of basic information. We will ban abuses of the discoveryprocess used to intimidate opponents and drive up their costs.
We will fight rising health-care costs - and equally important, helpdedicated doctors to keep practicing in critical areas like obstetrics -by providing incentives for states to reform their liability laws. Thiswill reduce the practice of "defensive medicine," requiring patientsto be tested for every conceivable ailment at their own enormous expenseto guard against the mere possibility of a lawsuit.
Recognizing that legal reform can solve only parts of the larger problem,we support a federal product liability law. The cost of product liabilityprotection is a great expense to the American consumer and seriously impedesour international competitiveness. For example, a consumer pays an additional17 percent to cover the liability insurance of an ordinary stepladder.
If 13 European nations can enact uniform product liability laws to givethem a competitive edge against the United States, we can do it here, too- once we break the Democrat hold on the Congress so Republicans can putthe interests of workers and consumers ahead of trial lawyers.
Some of the problems in our legal system are rooted in a declining senseof, and respect for, individual responsibility. We reaffirm that all Americansare first and finally responsible for their own behavior.
The nation's capital.
We call for closer and responsible congressional scrutiny of the city,federal oversight of its law enforcement and courts, and tighter fiscalrestraints over its expenditures. We oppose statehood as inconsistent withthe original intent of the framers of the Constitution and with the needfor a federal city belonging to all the people as our nation's capital.
A new era for the territories. We welcome greater participation in allaspects of the political process by Americans residing in Guam, the VirginIslands, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas and Puerto Rico.
Because territorial America is far-flung and divergent, we know thatany single approach to the future will not necessarily meet the needs ofall. Republicans therefore emphasize respect for the wishes of those whoreside in the territories regarding their relationship to the rest of theunion.
We affirm the right of American citizens in the United States territoriesto seek the full extension of the Constitution with the accompanying rightsand responsibilities, and we support all necessary legislation to permitthem to do so.
The Republican Party supports the right of the United States citizensof Puerto Rico to be admitted to the union as a fully sovereign state afterthey freely so determine.
We recognize that the people of Guam have voted for a closer relationshipwith the United States of America, and we reaffirm our support of theirright to mutually improve their political relationship through commonwealth.
We support American Samoa's efforts to advance toward economic self reliancethrough a multi-year plan, while ensuring the protection afforded to thepeople of American Samoa by the original treaty of cession.
We support the full extension of rights and responsibilities under theU.S. Constitution to American citizens of the Virgin Islands.
We commend President Bush for the successful development of self governmentin Micronesia and the Marshall Islands and for efforts to conclude the UnitedNations' last trusteeship in Palau consistent with the people's right ofself-determination.
Our Land, Food and Resources
We hold the resources of our country in stewardship. Our heritage fromthe past must be our legacy to generations to come. Our people have alwaysknown that, as they cherished their land and turned earth and rock intofood, fiber and power. In the process, they built the world's most formidableeconomy, sustained by its raw materials, driven by its energy resources.They brought comfort to the home, transformed the nation and fed the world.
Agriculture and energy remain building blocks of modern life. Their vitalityis crucial to the nation's growth. Indeed, to its survival. While supportingconservation, we reject the notion that there are limits to growth.
Human ingenuity is the ultimate resource, and it knows no limits. Thetrue measure of America's economic success is not whether austerity canbe shared by many, but whether prosperity can be achieved for all.
We advocate privatizing those government agencies and assets that wouldbe more productive and better maintained in private ownership. We supportefforts to decentralize government monopolies that poorly serve the publicand waste taxpayers' dollars.
Agriculture.
The Republican Party is the home of the farmer, rancher and forester.We have long championed their right to pursue growth, efficiency and competitivenessthrough market incentives, diversification and personal ingenuity. And forgood reason. Their industry provides consumers with the highestquality foodand fiber for the smallest percentage of disposable income of any nationin the history of the world.
They have been pioneer environmentalists. They have turned over to theirchildren and grandchildren land that has been nurtured to expand its productivitywhile conserving this vital resource. Even more important, they have cultivatedin their homes strong family life and moral virtues.
We endorse American Samoa's time-honored land tenure system, which fostersself-reliance and strong extended family values. When we lose farmers, welose much more than agriculture. We are committed to bringing our farm familiesthe full benefit of a growing and diversified rural economy.
Our rural families also deserve to be brought into the mainstream ofhealth care, with tax policies that provide all who are self-employed fulldeductibility of their health insurance premiums.
We stand with farmers against attempts by liberal Democrats to repealthe laws of economics by dictating price levels and restricting production.We stand with them against agriculture embargoes. We reject the notion thatelected officials and bureaucrats make better farm managers than farmersthemselves.
We remain strong in our support of livestock agriculture. We believein the humane treatment of animals, but we oppose attempts by animal rightsextremists to impose excessive restrictions on animal husbandry practices.
Our Omnibus Farm Bills of 1985 and 1990 gave farmers greater flexibilityin decisions concerning management of their farms and marketing of theircommodities. We have reduced government control and ownership of commodityinventories. Export sales and profitability have improved significantly.Agricultural debt has fallen by 30 percent. Under this president and soundRepublican policies, net farm income has reached record levels.
At the same time, we cut by two-thirds the cost of government commodityprograms. Only one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget is now spenton those programs. By reducing dependency on government, we have createda healthier agricultural sector. We will build upon our 1985 and 1990 legislationand repeal obsolete or unworkable statues while continuing to provide aviable base of support for U.S. farmers.
Agricultural prosperity is essential to the nation's global competitiveness.We will continue to expand the growth of American agriculture through exports,development of new products and new markets.
Commodity exports this year will hit $40 billion, a 50 percent increaseover the levels of five years ago. There has never been an annual deficitin our balance of agricultural trade, and the positive balance this yearwill be $18 billion.
We pledge to fight unfair competition and to bring down the walls ofprotectionism around the world that unfairly inhibit competitiveness ofU.S. farm exports. We pledge continued pressure to open world markets throughthe Uruguay Round, the North American Free Trade Agreement and bilateralnegotiations.
We affirm that there will be no GATT agreement unless it improves opportunitiesfor U.S. farmers to compete in world markets. We repeat our demands forcutbacks in export subsidies by the European Community and elsewhere, andwe will fight the use of arbitrary health and sanitation standards to sabotageU.S. exports.
New markets for agricultural products will also be created as producerstranslate technological breakthroughs into new uses, such as soy oil dieseland biodegradable plastics. We support the widest possible use of ethanolin the U.S. motor fuel market, including in oxygenated fuels programs andas ethanol blends in reformulated gasolines.
In addition, the Republican Party supports increased research and developmentto reduce ethanol production costs and expand its use in motor fuel markets.Such use will greatly help American farmers, improve the rural economy andreduce our dependence on imported oil.
Building our farm economy requires meeting our farmers' financing needs.Critical to these needs are competitive, reasonable interests rates forU.S. producers. Under George Bush, interest rates have been dramaticallyreduced, thereby contributing substantially to improving the net incomeof American farm and ranch families. We will continue working to ensurethat farmers have access to credit, with particular consideration to theneeds of young and beginning farmers.
We recognize the importance of efficient, equitable transportation systemsto the economic viability of agricultural exports; and we will work to achievegreater efficiencies within the U.S. maritime industry and to decrease thecost to agriculture of shipping services.
We support farm conservation efforts, both those pioneered in our 1985farm bill and entirely voluntary undertakings, which result in three timesas much erosion control as those mandated by law. We support the ConservationReserve, with more than 35 million acres now enrolled. It shows what farmerscan do through incentives rather than government controls.
We value our nation's real wetlands habitat and the diversity of ournative animal and plant life. We oppose, however, bureaucratic harassmentof farm, ranch and timber families under statutes regarding endangered speciesand wetlands. When actions are required to protect an endangered species,we recognize that jobs can be lost, communities displaced and economic progressfor all denied. Accordingly, prior to the implementation of a recovery planfor a species declared to be endangered, we will require the Congress toaffirm the priority of the species on the endangered list and the specificmeasures to be taken in any recovery plan. These acts should not rest withthe rubber stamp of a bureaucrat.
With regard to wetlands, following our principle that environmental protectionbe reasonable, land that is not truly wet would not be classified as a wetland.Protection of environmentally sensitive wetlands must not come at the priceof disparaging landowners' property rights. Thus, we endorse, as PresidentBush has done, legislation to discourage government activities that ignoreproperty rights. We also find intolerable the use of taxpayer funds, throughthe Legal Services Corporation, to attack the agricultural community.
Power for progress.
Energy sustains life as we know it: our standard of living, the prospectfor economic growth, the way our children will live in the century ahead.Republican energy policy, now as in the past, reflects the common-senseaspirations of the American people.
Our goals address our fundamental needs: an energy supply, availableto all, that remains reasonably priced, secure and clean, produced by strongenergy industries on which the country can rely, operating in an environmentallyresponsible manner and producing from domestically available energy resourcesto the maximum extent practicable.
Anyone older than a teenager can remember the energy upheavals of thebad old days, when political games threw the nation into a tailspin. Strandedin gasoline lines, shocked by home heating bills, shutting down factoryoperations, America's motorists, homeowners and workers rightly blamed officialWashington for wrecking something that had always worked so efficientlythat it was taken for granted.
Today, after 12 years of Republican reform, we can again have confidencein our energy policies. The average household spends 11 percent less onenergy, as adjusted for inflation, than it did in 1980, because of bothconservation and lower costs.
We broke the shackles of bureaucratic regulation by ending petroleumprice and allocation controls, deregulating natural gas wellhead prices,and repealing restrictions on the use of clean-burning natural gas by industryand utilities. We repealed the windfall profit tax on crude oil that penalizedinvestment in domestic oil production. We promoted free competition in anopen marketplace and ended the public subsidy to the synthetic fuels program.And we broke the back of OPEC, the international energy cartel.
And, equally important, we undertook a re-evaluation of estimates ofour domestic energy resource base, which the Carter administration had determinedto be inadequate. The Republican administration correctly found that wecan indeed continue to supply a significant amount of our domestically availableenergy resources, including natural gas and coal, for all energy consumptionneeds well into the next century.
When Iraq's dictator moved to seize the world's energy lifeline by controllingthe Persian Gulf, George Bush did more than liberate Kuwait. He preventedan energy crisis and economic shutdown in America. Now his national energystrategy leads toward continued growth in the century ahead. It providesthe nation with a comprehensive and balanced strategy for America's energyfuture. Specifically, it promotes adequate energy supplies and reduces consumercosts by relying on market forces, diversifying domestic energy sourcesand improving the efficiency and flexibility of energy consumption. We seekto foster greater competition and increased output, in the interest of producersand consumers alike.
The domestic oil and gas industry saves us from total dependence on unreliableforeign imports. But over the past decade, it has lost more than 300,000jobs. Drilling rigs are still. Crippled by environmental rules and taxes,independent producers have been devastated and major companies are movingoperations overseas. We will reverse that situation by allowing access,under environmental safeguards, to the coastal plain of the Arctic NationalWildlife Refuge, possibly one of the largest petroleum reserves in our country,and to selected areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS). We support incentivesto encourage domestic investment for onshore and OCS oil and gas explorationand development, including relief from the alternative minimum tax, creditsfor enhanced oil recovery and geological exploration under known geologicaloil fields and producing geological structures, and modified percentagedepletion rules to benefit marginal production. We will ensure that royaltypayments on federal lands remain consistent with changing economic conditions.
Most important, unlike Democrat no-growth fanatics, we know what is mostat stake in the energy debate: the family's standard of living, includingjob opportunities, household income and the environment in which we live.
That is why we have been supporting complete decontrol of wellhead pricesfor clean natural gas, which have already declined 10 percent in the lastfour years while consumption increased by the same amount. We support replacinggovernment controls with the power of the market to determine transactionsbetween buyers and sellers of natural gas. We encourage the use of naturalgas for both vehicles and electricity generation, and the expansion of research,development and demonstration for enduse natural gas technologies. We willfoster more public-private partnerships to advance use of natural gas.
The Republican Party has a deep and abiding commitment to America's miningindustry. We support the original intent of the Mining Law of 1872: to providethe security necessary for miners to risk capital investment on federallands, thus preserving jobs and bolstering the domestic economy.
We support clean coal technologies to allow greater use of America'smost abundant fossil fuel within standards required by the Clean Air Act.We encourage the export of U.S. coal. We support acceleration of the internationaltransfer of coalrelated technologies to boost exports for U.S. coal, inorder to capitalize on America's leadership in these technologies.
We oppose any attempt to impose a carbon tax as proposed by liberal Democrats.
We endorse major national projects, like the superconducting super collider,which offer the promise of developing more efficient ways to store, transportand use energy.
We will hasten development of the next generation of nuclear power plants- one of the cleanest, safest energy sources of all. Republicans back reformof the nuclear licensing process.
We will site and license a permanent waste depository and a monitoredretrievable storage facility. We reject the scare tactics used against nuclearpower by those who want to shut down this essential contributor to the Americanfuture.
We endorse development of renewable energy sources and research on fuelcells, conservation, hydro, solar, hydrogren and wind power as componentsof our overall plan for energy security and environmental quality.
Public lands.
The millions of acres that constitute this nation's public lands mustcontinue to provide for a number of uses. We are committed to the multipleuse of our public lands. We believe that recreation, forestry, ranching,mining, oil and gas exploration, and production on our public lands canbe conducted in a way compatible with their conservation. The United Stateshas some of the richest mineral resources in the world. Our public landsshould not be arbitrarily locked up and put off limits to responsible uses.
Approximately 50 percent of the lands in the West are owned by the federalgovernment. These lands are a deeply intermingled patchwork built of publicand private ownership. In order to provide an economic base for the peopleof the West, a publicprivate cooperative partnership on these lands formultiple use in an environmentally sound manner is imperative.
Transportation.
From its founding, the Republican Party has considered the nation's transportationsystem crucial to economic opportunity for all. That is why our 1860 platformendorsed the transcontinental railroad. It is why President Eisenhower signedthe Interstate and Defense Highway Act, bringing America closer togetherand launching a lengthy economic expansion.
Today, America's transportation system is safer, more efficient, morereliable than that of any other country. It employs one of every 10 workersand accounts for $800 billion in spending. It enables us to compete in theworld market and gives us more choices in our daily lives.
Under President Bush, that system has been strengthened by revolutionarylegislation to pave the way into the century ahead. Providing $151 billionfor highways and transit systems, it is the most extensive transportationimprovement project in our nation's history - and a tremendous jobs programas well.
Highway death rates have dropped to an all-time low, largely due to betterroad design and stronger safety programs. This progress would be wiped outby the Democrats' draconian plan for higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy(CAFE) standards. Their national nominees want to require a 45 miles-per-gallonstandard. That means unsafe vehicles, reduced consumer choice, higher carcosts and a loss of 300,000 jobs in the auto industry here at home.
To reduce the congestion that still chokes urban areas, we establisheda National Highway System of 155,000 miles, giving states and localitiesgreater voice in decisions about projects. It will improve connections betweenports and highways, airports and railways; spur development of new airportsand reduce their environmental impact; promote private investment in transportation;and foster high-tech solutions to congestion.
To keep America on the move, we assert the same principle that guidesus in all other sectors of the economy: consumers benefit through competitionwithin the private sector. That is why we will complete the job of truckingderegulation. We will also abolish the Interstate Commerce Commission, finallyfreeing shippers and consumers from horse-and-buggy regulation. We applaudthe president's executive order that will assist communities to privatizegovernment-controlled ventures, such as airports and toll roads.
Our tough trade campaign, along with regulatory reforms, will assureU.S. air carriers fair access to international routes and allow the U.S.merchant marine to sail over foreign protectionism. The president has proposedand will aggressively pursue a comprehensive revision of existing maritimepolicy.
Regulatory reform of airlines now allows more people to fly more safely,at better prices. Tough laws for drug and alcohol testing are making allmodes of transportation safer than ever. Disabled persons will have greateraccess to the entire transportation network under the Americans with DisabilitiesAct.
Wherever possible, the market should allocate investment in transportation,steering the development of passenger rail, mass transit and highways tobest suit consumers. States and localities should have discretion in usingHighway Trust Fund revenues to construct new roads, expand existing onesor invest in mass transit facilities, as they see fit. We advocate developmentof high-speed rail systems, through private investment, to serve intercitytravel. We also advocate development of short-haul aircraft with verticaltakeoff and landing capability, to bring commerce and jobs to communitieslarge and small.
We will continue aggressively to support development of intelligent highwaysystems, an efficient battery for electric cars, perfected natural gas vehicles,greater private investment in space travel and removal of regulatory impedimentsto intermodal transport.
Because Republicans advocate personal responsibility, we salute groups,organizations and individuals that take direct action to improve safe drivingand street safety.
Environment.
Cleaning up America is a labor of love for family, neighborhood and thenation. In the Republican tradition of conserving the past to enrich thefuture, we have made the United States the world's leader in environmentalprogress.
We spend more than any other country on environmental protection. Overthe last 20 years, our country has spent $1 trillion to clean its air, waterand land. We increased GNP by 70 percent while cutting lead in the air by97 percent. Our rivers run cleaner than ever in memory. We've preservedparks, wilderness and wildlife. The price of progress is now about $115billion a year, almost 2 percent of GNP; and that will grow to 3 percentby 2000.
Clearly we have led the world in investment in environmental protection.We have taught the world three vital lessons. First, environmental progressis integrally related to economic advancement. Second, economic growth generatesthe capital to pay for environmental gains. Third, private ownership andeconomic freedom are the best security against environmental degradation.The ghastly truth about state socialism is now exposed in what used to bethe Soviet Union: dead rivers and seas, poisoned land, dying people.
Liberal Democrats think people are the problem. We know people are thesolution. Respecting the people's rights and views, we applied market basedsolutions to environmental problems. President Bush's landmark Clean AirAct amendments of 1990, the toughest environmental law ever enacted, usesan innovative system of emission credits to achieve its dramatic reductions.This will save $1 billion over the Democrats' command-and-control approach.Other provisions of that law will cut acid rain emissions in half, reducetoxic pollutants by 90 percent, reduce smog and speed the use of cleanerfuels.
The president's leadership has doubled spending for real wetlands andtargeted 1 million acres for a wetlands reserve through his farm bill of1990. We have collected more civil penalties from polluters in two yearsthan in the previous 20, begun the phaseout of substances that harm theozone layer and launched a long-term campaign to expand and improve nationalparks, forests and recreation areas, adding 1.5 million acres. PresidentBush has dramatically increased spending for cleaning up past environmentaldamage caused by federal facilities.
Our reforestation drive will plant 1 billion trees a year across America.Our moratorium on offshore drilling in sensitive offshore areas has boughttime for technology to master environmental challenges. Our farm policieshave begun a new era in sound agricultural environmentalism.
Because the environment knows no boundaries, President Bush has acceleratedU.S. research on global climate change, spending $2.7 billion in the lastthree years and requesting $1.4 billion for 1993, more than the rest ofthe world put together. Under his leadership, we have assisted nations fromthe Third World to Eastern Europe in correcting the environmental damageinflicted by socialism. We proposed a worldwide forestry convention andgave almost half a billion dollars to forest conservation. We won debt-for-natureswaps and environmental trust funds in Latin America and the Caribbean.We secured prohibitions against unilateral export or dumping of hazardouswaste. We led the international ban on trade in ivory, persuaded Japan toend drift net fishing, streamlined response to oil spills and increasedenvironmental protection for Antarctica.
Adverse changes in climate must be the common concern of mankind. Atthe same time, we applaud our president for personally confronting the internationalbureaucrats at the Rio Conference. He refused to accept their anti-Americandemands for income redistribution and won instead a global climate treatythat relies on real action plans rather than arbitrary targets hostile toU.S. growth and workers.
Following his example, a Republican Senate will not ratify any treatythat moves environmental decisions beyond our democratic process or transfersbeyond our shores authority over U.S. property. The Democrats' nationalcandidates, on the other hand, insist the United States must do what ourforeign competitors refuse to do: abolish 300,000 to 1,000,000 jobs to geta modest reduction in "greenhouse gases."
Environmental progress must continue in tandem with economic growth.Crippling an industry is no solution at all. Bankrupt facilities only worsenenvironmental situations. Unemployment is a form of pollution too, poisoningfamilies and contaminating whole communities.
Some in our own country still refuse to face those facts. They try tohijack environmentalism, making it anti-growth and anti-jobs. Although theaverage family of four now pays $1,000 a year for environmental controls,liberal Democrats want to tighten the squeeze. They use junk science tofoster hysteria instead of reason, demanding rigid controls, more taxesand less resource production.
However, with billions of dollars at stake in national production andjobs, not to mention our quality of life, our decisions to spend on environmentalprotection must not be determined by the politics of the moment. We willuse scientifically respectable risk-benefit assessments to settle environmentalcontroversies.
It is time to replace knee-jerk reactions with the kind of scientificanalysis that helps businesses, individuals and communities contribute toeconomic and environmental progress through flexible application of laws.We must base our environmental policies on real risks to human health, determinedby sound, peer-reviewed science, including procedures for what is an acceptablerisk.
We will require federal agencies to promptly compensate, from their ownbudgets, for any taking of private property, including the denial of use.
We will legislatively overhaul the "superfund" program to speedthe cleanup of hazardous waste and more efficiently use superfund dollars.We will develop greenways of parks and open space in urban areas to furtherimprove the quality of life in our cities. We will work with U.S. industryand labor to identify promising markets abroad where America's environmentalknow-how can carry our success story to the rest of planet earth.
Private property rights.
We reaffirm our commitment to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution:"No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, withoutdue process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use,without just compensation." We support strong enforcement of this TakingsClause to keep citizens secure in the use and development of their property.
The right to own, use and dispose of property inheres in mankind by natureand is a fundamental political tenet of all free nations. We applaud thewisdom of the First Congress for incorporating this guarantee of individualliberty in the Bill of Rights. We remind all government officials that propertyrights are not granted by government; rather, government is directed bythe governed to protect the rights of private property owners.
The vigilant protection of private property rights safeguards for citizenseverything of value, including their right of contract to produce and sellthe fruits of their labor. The historic collapse of communism and othercommand-and-control economies is absolute evidence of the failure of economicsystems that lack a recognition of the natural rights of property owners.
We also seek to reduce the amount of land owned or controlled by thegovernment, especially in the Western states. We insist upon prompt paymentfor private lands certified as critical for preserving essential parks andpreserves.
Uniting Our World
The Triumph of Freedom
The world is now our neighborhood. Its triumphs and tragedies affectour communities, our jobs and the security of our families. That is whyRepublicans want America to shape the international future: because we putAmerica first.
Not everyone does. Just 12 years ago, the forces of freedom were in tatteredretreat. A failed foreign policy by a Democrat White House and Democrat-controlledCongress had left our allies uncertain, our friends betrayed, our foes emboldened.It was a frightening era, in some ways the worst of times. We all rememberthe flickering television images of blindfolded Americans being degradedby thugs. When voters make their choice in this year's elections, they shouldask themselves: Are we safer and stronger today, in 1992, than we were in1980, when Jimmy Carter was the Democrat president?
Republicans are proud to answer those questions. The nation's internationalposition has not just improved since the Democrats left office. It has beentransformed. Never in this century has the United States enjoyed such securityfrom foreign enemies. With President Bush leading the free world, the Sovietempire has collapsed, as Ronald Reagan predicted, into the dustbin of history.Eastern Europe is liberated. Germany is peacefully united. The former Sovietarmies are returning home. Nuclear arsenals are being cut to fractions oftheir former size.
A democratically elected Russian president sits in the Kremlin. Ukraine,Armenia and the Baltic States take their rightful place among the familyof nations. Israel and all of its Arab neighbors talk face to face for thefirst time. Nicaragua and Panama celebrate democracy.
It might very well not have turned out this way. Only the naive believethat history is an inevitable tide or a series of accidents. Our crusadeof a half-century, to champion freedom and civilization against the darknight of totalitarianism, is now victorious. An American president led thefree world to this great triumph. George Bush was that man.
Freedom's victory begins a new chapter in the epic of America, full ofboth promise and peril. This different and unpredictable world demands visionary,experienced leadership, tested and strengthened, careful and cool. At stakeis nothing less than our security, our prosperity and our children's future.Americans can trust President Bush with that awesome responsibility.
The Triumph of Freedom
No other president in the long history of our country has achieved somany of the enduring objectives of American foreign policy in so short atime as has George Bush. He made it look easy, even destined. It was neither.
Building on the legacy of Ronald Reagan, George Bush saw the chance tosweep away decadent communism. He was the first Western leader to declarehis determination to fashion "a Europe whole and free." He tookthe free world beyond containment, led the way in aiding democracy in EasternEurope and punched holes through the rusting Iron Curtain. We all rememberthe joy we felt when we saw the people of Berlin dancing on top of the crumblingwall that had symbolized four decades of communist oppression.
He championed Germany's right to become again one nation and orchestratedthe diplomacy to make it happen, on Western terms, in one astounding year.Foreseeing revolutionary change in the Soviet Union itself, he carefullypushed its rules to open the way to the democratic future. When crisis came,in August 1991, George Bush, in the words of Boris Yeltsin, "was thefirst to understand the true meaning of the victory of the Russian people"and gave his decisive backing to the cause of democracy.
The world had never before faced the disintegration of a nuclear superpower.Today, thanks in large part to President Bush's initiatives, nuclear weaponsare found in only four countries of the former Soviet Union - not 14. Becauseof his efforts, all but Russia are giving up any claim to these weapons,and Russia has agreed to destroy the most dangerous missiles ever built.The balance of terror is fading away. The ideals of liberty, both politicaland economic, are the dominant moral and intellectual force around the globe.
George Bush made it happen.
Yet now that we have won the Cold War, we must also win the peace. Wemust not repeat the mistake of the past by throwing away victory throughcomplacency. A new world beckons, unlike any we have ever known, filledwith uncertainties. Old passions have re-emerged. New democracies struggleto decide their destiny. Nations are torn asunder. Migrants and refugeesstrain the social fabric of continents. Tyrants work to build nuclear, chemicaland even biological weapons to threaten us and our neighbors. Drug traffickingand terrorism, often linked, menace Americans at home and abroad.
Great transitions in world affairs are rarely tidy. They challenge statesmanship,require steadiness and wisdom. History teaches that when the United Statesshrinks from the world, we hasten the emergence of new dangers. Republicansremember the lesson taught by our Founders: that eternal vigilance is theprice of liberty.
Meeting the challenge.
The gulf war showed the world how much is at stake when voters choosetheir president. George Bush had known war firsthand. So he tried the wayof peace - months of negotiations and economic sanctions - then did whata president must do. He led from powerful convictions based on Americanvalues. The United States, in a pre-eminent position of world leadership,forged a new strategy of collective engagement which invigorated the UnitedNations.
This was not the same United States held hostage in 1980, when the Democratscontrolled both the White House and the Congress. No helpless giant here.The president charted a path that wrecked Saddam Hussein's dreams of conquestand nuclear aggression while keeping America from the quagmire of indefinitemilitary occupation of Iraq.
President Bush, trusting the military commanders he had chosen, was commander-in-chiefof one of the finest achievements in the distinguished history of our armedforces. Americans will never forget that, of the 323 congressional Democrats,only 96 voted to support Operation Desert Storm and 227 voted to opposeit. If the Democrats had prevailed, Saddam Hussein would still be in Kuwait,armed with nuclear weapons. Everyone discovered what difference a vote forpresident can make.
Leadership through partnership.
A new era demands a new agenda. Our post-Cold War strategy both reflectsour country's ideals and guards its interests.
Building a commonwealth of freedom differs greatly from the old conceptof containment. It rests on a stable balance of power but goes beyond itto emphasize, above all, the supremacy of an idea: a common conception ofhow to make freedom work for all the nations moving with us into a radicallychanging future.
Republicans understand that objective cannot be pursued by the UnitedStates alone. We therefore have harnessed the free world's strength to Americanleadership. But such a strategy requires a president whose lead others willtrust and follow. By forging consensus whenever possible, we multiply theimpact of our nation's power and principles. But if necessary we will actalone to protect American interests. Consistent with our policy and traditions,we oppose any actions that would undermine America's sovereignty, eitherin political or economic terms. Leadership through partnership allows usto project American ideals and project American interests abroad, at lesscost to our taxpayers.
That is how we will secure the victory of democracy as the best guaranteeof a world without war. It is how we will open the world for American businessto ensure prosperity in an open international economy. And it is how wewill banish the nuclear nightmare, limit the danger from weapons of massdestruction and safely manage a critical transition in our nation's defenses.
Securing the victory of democracy.
The spread of democracy and economic liberty is the best guarantee ofpeace. It can mean speaking out or applying economic pressure to encouragepeaceful change; aiding democratic forces; or being ready, as a last resort,to take military action where vital American interests are at stake, aswhen President Bush restored the rule of law to Panama. Republican presidentshave used all these tools in a comprehensive, consistent campaign to promotedemocracy worldwide.
New tests lie ahead. On past occasions, the tide of liberty has ebbedas dictators recaptured much of what they had lost. We want freedom's waveto roll on to reach countries like China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam andothers. We want to keep drawing attention to serious human rights violationsaround the world, spurring other governments to make and fulfill the promiseof liberty to their people. We want to prevent any new ideology of authoritarianismfrom drawing any of the world's people to a grim and vengeful vision ofour future.
This is the challenge we face in the next four years. It is why PresidentBush led the way in promoting assistance to the fledgling democracies ofEastern Europe. It is why he has persuaded Congress to invest in the democraticfuture of nations reborn from communism. To the peoples of those nations,and to the Russian people in particular, we declare: If you stay on thepath to freedom, we stand ready to help.
We rejoice especially with the people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia,whose nationhood we have always upheld in law and in our hearts.
In Western Europe, we reaffirm the NATO alliance. While we reduce ourtroop commitments on the continent - a thousand soldiers are coming homeevery week - we must keep a powerful force deployed there. The United Statesmust remain a European power in the broadest sense, able to influence thepolicies and events that affect the livelihood and security of future generationsof Americans.
The violence in what used to be Yugoslavia is an affront to humanity.We condemn those responsible for the carnage there and call for an immediateinternational investigation of atrocities. We support the United Nationspeacekeeping effort and urge an immediate cease-fire by all parties. TheUnited States should continue to demand respect for international law andfundamental human rights in this agonizing conflict.
We encourage a peaceful settlement for Cyprus and respect by all partiesfor the wishes of the Cypriot people.
We urge peace and justice for Northern Ireland. We welcome the newlybegun process of constitutional dialogue that holds so much promise. Weencourage investment and reconstruction to create opportunity for all.
In the Middle East, prospects for peace have been transformed by thedetermined statesmanship of George Bush. Without the leadership of PresidentBush, Iraq would today threaten world peace, the peace and security of theMiddle East, and the very survival of Israel with a huge conventional armyand nuclear weapons. Direct peace talks, on terms Israel rightly had soughtfor more than four decades, would not be a reality. Soviet Jewish emigrationlikely would have been interrupted. The rescue of Ethiopian Jewry mightnot have happened. And the equation of Zionism to racism still would bea grotesque stain on the United Nations.
Although much has changed for the better, the Middle East remains anarea of high tensions - many unrelated to the ArabIsraeli conflict - whereregional conflicts can escalate to threaten the vital interests of the UnitedStates. As Saddam Hussein's aggression against Kuwait demonstrated, heavilyarmed radical regimes are capable of independent aggressive action. In thisenvironment, Israel's demonstrated strategic importance to the United States,as our most reliable and capable ally in this part of the world, is moreimportant than ever. This strategic relationship, with its unique moraldimension, explains the understandable support Israel receives from millionsof Americans who participate in our political process. The strong ties betweenthe United States and Israel were demonstrated during the gulf war whenIsrael chose not to retaliate against repeated missile attacks, even thoughthey caused severe damage and loss of life. We will continue to broadenand deepen the strategic relationship with our ally Israel - the only truedemocracy in the Middle East - by taking additional concrete steps to furtherinstitutionalize the partnership. This will include maintaining adequatelevels of security and economic assistance; continuing our meetings on military,political and economic cooperation and coordination; pre-positioning militaryequipment; developing joint contingency plans; and increasing joint navaland air exercises.
Consistent with our strategic relationship, the United States shouldcontinue to provide large-scale security assistance to Israel, maintainingIsrael's qualitative military advantage over any adversary or coalitionof adversaries. We also will continue to negotiate with the major arms supplyingnations to reach an agreement on limiting arms sales to the Middle Eastand preventing the proliferation of non-conventional weapons.
We applaud the president's leadership in fostering unprecedented directtalks between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The United States is preparedto use its good offices to mediate disputes at their request. We do notbelieve the United States should attempt to impose a solution on the parties.
The basis for negotiations must be U.N. Security Council Resolutions242 and 338. Peace must come from direct negotiations. It will be up tothe negotiators to determine exactly what is required to satisfy these resolutions,but we firmly believe Israel has a right to exist in secure and recognizedborders.
As President Bush stated in Madrid, our objective is not simply to endthe state of war; rather, it is to establish real peace, one with treaties,security, diplomatic relations, trade, investment, cultural exchange, eventourism. We want the Middle East to become a place where people lead normallives.
A meaningful peace must assure Israel's security while recognizing thelegitimate rights of the Palestinian people. We oppose the creation of anindependent Palestinian state. Nor will we support the creation of any politicalentity that would jeopardize Israel's security.
As Israelis and Palestinians negotiate interim selfgovernment, no partywill be required to commit itself to any specific final outcome of directnegotiations. Israel should not be forced to negotiate with any party. Inthis regard, the United States will have no dialogue with the PLO untilit satisfies in full the conditions laid out by President Bush in 1990.
We believe Jerusalem should remain an undivided city, with free and unimpededaccess to all holy places by people of all faiths. No genuine peace woulddeny Jews the right to live anywhere in the special city of Jerusalem.
Peace in the Middle East entails cooperation among all the parties inthe region. To this end, we have worked to bring all of the states of thearea together with Israel to hold multilateral negotiations on issues ofcommon concern such as regional development, water, refugees, arms controland the environment. We support these forums as a means of encouraging Arabacceptance of Israel and solving common regional problems.
We continue to back legislation mandating that if the United Nationsand its agencies were to deny Israel's right to participate, the UnitedStates would withhold financial support and withdraw from those bodies untiltheir action was rectified.
Republicans believe freedom of emigration is a fundamental human rightand that Jews from any nation should be free to travel to Israel. Republicansare proud that we have maintained our historic and moral commitment to theresettlement in Israel of persecuted Jews. We congratulate President Bushand Secretary (of State James A.) Baker (III) on the agreement with Israelfor a generous package of loan guarantees that will provide new immigrantswith needed humanitarian assistance.
We also should maintain our close ties with and generous aid for Egypt,which properly reaps the benefits of its courageous peace with Israel. Wecontinue to support Egypt and other proWestern states in the region againstsubversion and aggression and call for an end to the Arab boycott of Israel.We also support establishment of a strong central government in Lebanon,democratically elected and representative of its citizens.
We salute all the countries in the Middle East who contributed to thesuccess of Desert Storm and share our goal of stability in the region.
With them, we hope to build upon that triumph a new future for the MiddleEast, founded on mutual respect and a common longing for peace. To promotethis goal, we should settle for nothing less than full, unconditional, immediateand verified Iraqi compliance with all aspects of the cease-fire laid outin U.N. resolutions.
In the Western Hemisphere, as elsewhere, we must promote democratic values.We will continue to seek cooperation in the common battle against the druglords. We will also lower barriers to trade and investment, knowing thatour exports to Latin America are helping to lead our economic recovery athome.
The president's Enterprise for the Americas initiative and the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement mean, for the United States, billions of dollarsin new trade, hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and a long-term solutionto the economic pressures behind illegal immigration.
We welcome positive changes, economic and political, in Mexico and salutethe people of Panama on their recovery of free institutions after OperationJust Cause. We commend President Bush for the decisive military action thatled to the end of the corrupt (Manuel Antonio) Noriega regime and freedomfor democratically minded Panamanians.
We will uphold free and unencumbered U.S. access to the canal. We hailthe patriots of El Salvador and Nicaragua, whose bravery and blood thwartedcommunism and Castro despite the inconstancy of congressional Democrats.Together with other members of the Organization of American States, we willwork to restore democracy to Haiti.
The Monroe Doctrine remains a cardinal principle of our foreign policy,and we continue to strive toward the day when the alien ideology of communismand Fidel Castro's regime will be purged from Cuba, and Americans can welcomeCuban people back into the family of free nations. Toward that end, we supportRadio and TV Marti and the spirit of Cuba Libre.
In Asia, we remain committed to the spread of political and economicliberty. We will work with Japan for common progress and maintain militarypresence in Japan and in Asia. We also will promote greater Japanese responsibilityfor self-defense and worldwide prosperity.
We reaffirm our commitment to the security of Taiwan and regard any attemptto alter its status by force as a threat to the entire region.
We adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the basis for continuing cooperationwith those who have stood loyally with us for half a century.
Our policy toward China is based on support for democratic reform. Weneed to maintain the relationship with China so that we can effectivelyencourage such reform. We will continue to work toward the day when theChinese people will finally complete their journey to an open society, freeof the deplorable restrictions on personal liberties that still exist.
We will maintain our close relationship with the Republic of Korea, helpingto deter aggression from the north. North Korea remains an outlaw stateand must not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons.
With the people of the Philippines, we will maintain our special tiesof history and affection.
We support the movement in Cambodia toward peace and democracy.
We demand the fullest possible accounting for America's POWs and MIAsin Southeast Asia. The grief of their families touches all of us. We willseek complete information in all forums and from all sources. Our presidenthas put the government of Vietnam on notice: Improved relations dependsupon this goal.
In Africa, despite opposition from congressional Democrats, we armedfreedom fighters and helped force the withdrawal of Cuban troops.
Now we enter the long season of building, trying to revive faith in democracyon a continent ravaged by Marxist wars, looted by local dictators and misledby socialist ideology. Political and economic liberty are the keys.
We will support responsible efforts by the international community tohelp end the anarchy in Somalia and to address the plight of the peopleof that country suffering from drought and starvation. We condemn thosewho are using armed force to impede food distribution.
In South Africa, the Republican policy of constructive engagement - opposingapartheid while fostering peaceful change - has been successful. That nation'sprospects have been transformed for the better, though many difficultieslie ahead.
We condemn all violence against the innocent and applaud those who seekreconciliation to create a new, democratic South Africa. We encourage economicreform as crucial to both security and prosperity in the new South Africa.
We recognize that foreign aid must have a reasonable relationship toour national interests. We therefore support an ongoing review of such programsso that they can be both effectual and justified. We promote financial contributionfrom other democracies of the world to share the cost of the American burdenfor peacekeeping and foreign aid.
We support efforts by private voluntary agencies to help meet the needsof countries newly liberated from communism and of the developing worldin such areas as medical, agricultural, educational and entrepreneurialassistance.
Opening the world to American business. The triumph of democracy is alsoa victory for economic freedom. All the world over, people in search ofa better life are rejecting politicians' control of their future. This willmean a broader horizon for American opportunity. The whole world has becomeour marketplace.
The election of 1992 will determine whether our country seizes this tremendousopportunity or retreats from it. Republicans trust individuals and familiesto make their own economic decisions; Democrat politicians do not. We rejecttheir program of strangled trade, industrial policy, high taxes and regulation.We reject punitive taxes on foreign businesses in this country that onlyinvite retaliatory taxes against U.S. businesses abroad. Trade war is theroad to international depression - and for keeping American workers dependenton government handouts. We do not want to replace the arms race with a subsidiesrace.
Putting Americans first means keeping the national interest ahead ofthe special interests. It means opening the world to American goods withina system of free and expanding trade. Just as Ronald Reagan declared inBerlin, "Tear down this wall," so George Bush is dismantling thewalls of protectionism in order to continue expanding our exports.
Our strong commitment to free trade also encompasses vigorous enforcementof U.S. trade laws. We expect a fair and level playing field in our tradewith other nations and will work to ensure that foreign markets are justas open to our goods as U.S. markets are to theirs. In all negotiationsconcerning trade, we will put the interests of America first.
Throughout the world, as here at home, the Republican Party stands forgrowth. America's families have nothing to fear - and everything to gain- from the new era of free enterprise and prosperity that will emerge asfree people compete, excel and progress.
Banishing the nuclear nightmare.
The world has moved from the brink of disaster to the threshold of historicopportunity. For almost half a century, we lived under the shadow of nucleardestruction. Today, that specter is fading. We will not stop here. We willbanish the threat of nuclear annihilation from the face of the earth - notby savaging our military, as some Democrats might insist but by buildingon the historic diplomatic achievements of Presidents Bush and Reagan.
This means ensuring stable command and control of the former Soviet arsenal,complete acceptance and verified implementation of all treaty obligationsby the successor states to the Soviet Union, and achieving the additional50 percent reduction in strategic forces now agreed upon. We must assistin dismantling weapons, transforming the massive Soviet war machine intoan engine of peace and civilian revival. We will cooperate with our formeradversaries both to curtail proliferation and to move beyond the ABM Treatytoward effective ballistic missile defenses.
We will not permit the Soviet nuclear nightmare to be replaced by anotherone. Outlaw nations - North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and others - lust forweapons of mass destruction. This is the nightmare of proliferation: nuclear,chemical and biological weapons that, together with ballistic missiles,can deliver death across whole continents, including our own.
We will renew and strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Wewill design security policies to counter proliferation dangers. We willreinforce multilateral accords like the Missile Technology Control Regime.And most important, we will develop and deploy global defenses against ballisticmissiles. Despite the opposition of the Democratic Party and congressionalDemocrats, we will deploy an effective strategic defense system for theAmerican people.
America's Security
Because America won the Cold War, our homes and neighborhoods are moresecure then they have been for half a century. Our children are safer. Thegreatest peace dividend is peace itself. For it, we thank God.
Victory was never inevitable. It was won in blood and treasure, overfive decades, by the American people - from the military on the front linesto the taxpayers sustaining the forces of freedom. It was also secured,and the course of mankind profoundly changed for the better, because twosuccessive Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, were dedicatedto peace through strength.
"Peace through strength" was more than a slogan. It was thecalculated Republican plan for, first, the survival, and then the triumph,of America. But freedom did not come cheaply, and the new world we celebratetoday required great sacrifice.
In 1981 we inherited from Jimmy Carter and anti-defense Democrats a crippledmilitary: demoralized, underfunded, illequipped. Republicans told the truthto the American people; they heeded our call to arms.
We restored our armed forces to their proper place in both the budgetand the pride of the nation. Our men and women in uniform today are theequals of the finest soldiers, sailors and airmen who ever wore the uniformof our country.
Like earlier generations in 1918 and 1945, they won a great victory.Now, as in the aftermath of those earlier conflicts, comes the difficulttask of reducing both the size and cost of defense without letting downAmerica's guard. In the past, terrible mistakes were made, and we paid dearlyfor them when war came to Korea. We will not allow that to happen again.
America challenged.
The greatest danger to America's security is here at home, among thosewho would leave the nation unprepared for the new realities of the postCold War world. The ruthless demagogues in rogue regimes are real and soare the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons they seek. The danger ofnuclear proliferation is real, especially with the dispersal of nuclearknow-how after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That is why the RepublicanParty, whose leaders, such as Dan Quayle, insisted upon fielding a new Patriotmissile in the 1980s, now calls for a new generation of defense againstthe Scuds of tomorrow.
Rather than admit their mistakes of the past, the same liberal Democratswho sought to disarm America against the Soviet threat now compound theirerrors with a new campaign half audacity, half mendacity - to leave thenation unprotected in a still dangerous world.
Republicans call for a controlled defense drawdown, not a free fall.That is why President Bush proposes to carefully reduce defense spendingover the next four years by an additional $34 billion, including $18 billionin outlays, with a 25 percent reduction in personnel. He has already eliminatedover 100 weapon systems. Around the world, American forces are coming homefrom the frontiers of the Cold War. More than 550 overseas bases are beingclosed or realigned. Yet U.S. forces retain the ability to meet the challengeof another Desert Storm with equal success.
U.S. defense spending already has been reduced significantly. Five yearsago, it was more than a quarter of the federal budget. By 1997 it will beless than a sixth. Spending on defense and intelligence, as a proportionof gross domestic product, will be the lowest it has been since before WorldWar II.
Yet any defense budget, however lean, is still too much for the Democrats.They want to start by cutting defense outlays over the next four years bynearly $60 billion beyond the president's cuts, throwing as many as 1 millionadditional Americans out of work.
And this may be just the beginning, as the Democrats use the defensebudget as a bottomless piggy bank to try to beat swords into pork barrels.This is folly. It would take us back to the hollow military of the Carterera. Once American defenses are allowed to decay, they cannot be rebuiltovernight. Effective arsenals, like effective leaders, require years ofpatient development. And our greatest asset of all, the people on whom oursecurity depends, deserve a constant long-term investment in their quality,morale and safety. Republicans pledge to provide it.
America secure.
Because the United States will rely on a smaller force of offensive nuclearweapons to deter aggression in the post-Cold War era, we will maintain thetriad of land, sea, and air-based strategic forces. We will continue totest the safety, reliability and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons.
With a smaller military, modernization of conventional forces is moreimportant than ever. Desert Storm showed the importance of "force multipliers"like smart munitions, stealth technology and night-fighting capabilities.
We will upgrade existing weapons and selectively procure those that holdthe promise of dramatic forward leaps in capability. Under no circumstanceswill we yield our technological superiority.
We must remain ready to defend American citizens and interests whereverthey may be threatened. Essential to that readiness is maintenance of astrong global navy and modernization of vital airlift and sealift capacity.We remain committed to combating terrorism in all its forms wherever itthreatens U.S. citizens or interests.
Republicans will preserve the nation's access to space for defense, aswell as for other purposes, and ensure that space technology does not fallinto dangerous hands.
Transformed by the collapse of communism, our Strategic Defense Initiative(SDI) is now designed to provide the United States and our allies with globaldefenses against limited ballistic missile attacks.
SDI is the greatest investment in peace we could ever make. This systemwill be our shield against technoterrorism. Russia has agreed to be ourpartner in it, sharing early warning information and jointly moving forwardto stop those who would rain death upon the innocent.
We will use missile defenses to assure threatened nations that they donot need to acquire ballistic missiles of their own. We will move beyondthe ABM Treaty to deploy effective defenses with the goal of someday eliminating,not merely reducing, the threat of nuclear holocaust.
We support efforts to reduce armaments, both conventional and otherwise,but the most effective arms control of all over the long run is democracy.Free nations do not attack one another. That is why the promotion of democracyon every continent is an essential part of the Republican defense agenda.
Managing the peace.
A new era in defense requires new approaches to management, to get moreout of every dollar in a shrinking budget.
That calls for dramatically different ways of doing business. For example,President Bush's reforms in defense management and acquisition already meanmassive savings - $70 billion through 1997 - without sacrificing combatcapability.
Our armed forces will still depend on our superb industrial base foreverything from belt buckles to submarines. We cannot lose that engineeringand manufacturing capability.
This is especially true of the high technology, demonstrated in DesertStorm, that made our enemies realize they had been left behind in the racefor the future. We therefore pledge to maintain America's technologicallead, preserve its defense industrial base, and maintain robust levels ofinvestment in research and development.
We will attack the problem of waste in the military, especially at itsroot in the pork barrel politics of Capitol Hill. A Republican Congresswill end the costly micromanagement of defense programs and reduce the numberand scope of oversight committees.
We will urge the Department of Defense to encourage a broader constituencyfor saving and to continue genuine procurement reforms based on performancerather than unreasonable regulations imposed by the Democrat Congress. Wewill continue the successful effort to eliminate redundancy and streamlineall facets of defense management.
We applaud the president's efforts to assist all individuals and communitiesadversely affected by the ongoing defense builddown, with more than 30 defenseadjustment programs already in place and more than $7 billion committedto the effort in just the next two years.
The men and women of defense. Republicans created the allvolunteer Army,and we hail its success. We pledge to keep faith with the men and womenvolunteers and with their families, for they are the backbone of the nation'sdefense. We oppose Democrat efforts to bring back the draft, whether directlyor through the subterfuge of compulsory domestic service.
The armed forces are a colorblind meritocracy, a model for the rest ofour society. Its enlistees should receive preference in federal educationand retraining programs. We applaud the advancement of women in the militaryand single out for special recognition the outstanding contribution of womenin Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
However, we oppose liberal Democrat attempts to place women in combatpositions just to make an ideological point. Unlike the Democratic Partyand its candidate, we support the continued exclusion of homosexuals fromthe military as a matter of good order and discipline.
The Department of Defense will not be an exception to our assertion offamily values. Republicans will not tolerate sexual harassment or misconducttoward any individual in the ranks. We demand both its prevention and itspunishment.
To drive home that point, we urge a halt to the sale, in military facilities,of sexually explicit materials. We call for greater consideration of theneeds of families when parents are called to duty.
We must ensure that all of the various benefits, including medical, thatwere promised to the men and women who chose to make the military and thedefense of their nation a career are fulfilled even upon retirement.
In the Republican tradition of support for America's veterans, we proposedand created a Department of Veterans Affairs so their concerns would berepresented at the Cabinet table. We affirm our support for veterans preferencein federal employment and for sufficient funding to maintain the integrityof the veterans hospital and medical-care system. We strongly endorse programsto meet the needs of unemployed veterans.
Intelligence.
Desert Storm reminded us that our intelligence community is a nationalasset of critical importance to our security.
Assuring the availability of timely and reliable information on regionalthreats and unrest, drug trafficking, terrorism, technology transfer, proliferationand a host of other issues this is one of our highest national prioritiesin the post-Cold War world.
U.S. policy-makers also must have the best possible understanding ofinternational trade, investment, industrial, financial and other developmentsthat affect our economic security.
We must and will maintain the full range of our traditional intelligencecapabilities, including covert action, to ensure our security in a dangerousand unpredictable world.
We reject the Democrat candidate's proposal to cripple U.S. intelligenceand decry the deep spending cuts to the intelligence budget sponsored byDemocrats in Congress.
Proven leadership. George Bush has been the most important architectof Western aspirations and designs for the challenging world we are nowentering. His record is clear. President Bush has shown he understands howto lead in this new era, where the pre-eminent position of the United Statesoffers new opportunities to build an international consensus on key issues.President Bush, with experienced Republican leadership, has proved he knowshow to place our nation at the center of effective coalitions where ourpower is multiplied.
The test of international leadership is on the field, not in a playbook.The Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training - not in carrying outthe presidential duty to protect and defend our nation, not in managingthe arsenal of the supreme nuclear power.
There are those who talk and those who perform. George Bush has clearlyperformed for America, making the right calls in a series of tough decisionsthat helped transform the world.
Now that we have won the Cold War, we must secure the peace that follows.History has shown that the years following conflict are often critical -where the choices made can either lay the foundation for lasting peace orsow the seeds of the future war. In this period of high hopes and greatchallenges ahead, the nation needs the tested and experienced leadershipof President Bush and the Republican Party.