Remarks at a Fundraising
Luncheon for Senator John Heinz in
Thank
you very much, and thank all of you, and Senators Heinz, Specter, and
Congressman Coughlin, John Cardinal Krol, Earl Baker,
and all of you. I came to
There's
a story, you knew I'd have one of these -- [laughter] -- about a fellow who
always wanted to work with animals. And he applied to the zoo, and they had an
ad out -- they needed someone there. And then he found out to his dismay that
the job they had immediately open was dressing in a gorilla outfit, taking the
place of the gorilla who just died, until a new one
could be delivered. And then they promised that he'd have a regular job at the
zoo, once that took place.
Well,
he put on the suit, and he got in the cage. And he got a little bored sitting
around, so, particularly when the children were there, he began doing tricks
and showing off for them. And finally he got so interested in that, he got
carried away one day -- he was swinging on a rope, and he swung so far that he
landed in the lion's cage that was next door. And the lion came roaring at him.
And he started screaming for help, ``Somebody get me
out of here! Get me out of here!'' And the lion jumped on him and said, ``Shut
up, or you'll get us both fired!'' [Laughter] Now, this story is not to suggest
that John's been working in a zoo -- [laughter] -- although at times
John
was first elected to the Senate in 1976, and since 1981 he's been a part of a
team that has held the special interests at bay, brought taxing and spending
under control, and put
Together
we took on one of the toughest jobs in the world: cleaning up after the other
party had been in total control of the United States Government. They'd held a
majority in both Houses of Congress almost continuously since the 1930's. And
in the last 4 years of the 1970's, they had also captured control of the White
House and every Federal department and agency.
Our
country ended up with double-digit inflation, economic stagnation, sky-high
interest rates, and unprecedented national pessimism. These maladies, which
brought such suffering to our people, as much as liberal Democrats would like
us to believe otherwise, were not the result of a natural disaster, a plague,
or even the celestial influence of Halley's comet. The
mess we found ourselves in was a result of bad policies, of haywire liberalism.
And let us reaffirm today that, whoever is the Republican Presidential nominee
in 1988, our candidate will be a darn sight better than any one of the pack
that is vying for the other party's nomination. If you listen to what they're
saying, they want to take us back to the failed policies of the past.
Well,
with responsible policies, we revived our nation's economic vitality and, just
as John has told you, put the country back on its
feet. And as he also told you, our people have enjoyed 57 months of growth. We
are, if we can make it all the way to Thanksgiving, on our way to achieving the
longest period of peacetime growth in the country's history. Employment is at
an all-time high. And since the recovery began, our economy has created 13.6
million new jobs, and poverty, which started increasing in 1979, has begun to
decline. Prime interest rates which were beating the life out of our economy at
21 percent when we got in
Together
we pulled
Even
though the one-time Speaker of the House [Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.] denied it was
true when we said it, we would have been bankrupt in that particular program by
July of 1983. He denied that, but after the '82 election was over, then he came
to see me about seeing what we could do to rescue Social Security. Well, partly
as a result of his exemplary effort on this commission, he was named by the
national seniors magazine, 50 Plus, as one of the most
effective legislators on behalf of the elderly. And, as one of those, thank
you. [Laughter] John was also instrumental in eliminating the mandatory
retirement age of 70, and you can bet I'm happy about that. [Laughter] He also
was a driving force behind reforms that protect our citizens' private pension
coverage.
I
might add here that a side benefit of a strong, growing economy is an expanding
stock market. By creating the conditions in which our stock market has
flourished, we've been part of a process that has dramatically strengthened the
pension funds of the American worker. And the same is true for the endowments
of many of our institutions of higher learning, which have also been major beneficiaries
of the expanding stock market. There's no way the Federal Government could have
contributed so much to
In
the last 6\1/2\ years, we've proven to the American people that it is the
Republican Party that best represents their interests. Instead of trying to
curry favor from the special interests that have flocked to the Nation's
Capital, Republicans like John Heinz are out meeting and talking with the
citizenry, the taxpayers, the working men and women to whom
Our
greatest challenge is to make certain that the people hear our message, so they
can look at the facts and decide for themselves which direction
As
we can see by the high-pitched opposition to Judge Bork, our job is not going
to be easy. But let me remind you, since coming to
And
let me suggest that Americans have every reason to be confident about the
future. We have been at the helm during a pivotal moment in our history. First,
we had to take care of the problems we inherited. Then we put
Well,
we've proven the pessimists wrong. We've unleashed an entrepreneurial surge
that is changing the face of American enterprise. High technology and computers
are being put to work throughout our economy, increasing the efficiency of
business, large and small. Productivity has been on the increase and
government, business, and labor are working together as never before. We aren't
telling young people to lower their expectations; we're challenging them to set
their sights high. That's why they're flocking to our banner as never before.
They aren't looking for the easy way out or interested in promises of what
government will do for them; they're interested in opportunity and in being
free to build the kind of lives they want to build to accomplish things for
themselves.
Yes,
there's every reason to be proud of what we've achieved and to be optimistic about
the future. And if we can get our message to the people -- and I know we will
-- I have three predictions: The next President of the
I
would just like to interject here, we couldn't have accomplished, even with all
your help -- and it was your help that did it -- what was accomplished in these
last several years had we not, for 6 of those years, had that majority, slight
as it was, in the Senate. How many of us are conscious of the fact that in my
administration we've had one House for 6 years? Now, for 2 years, they'll have
both Houses, and for 8 years, they've had the House of Representatives. But
from 1931 through 1980, the Democrats controlled both Houses of the Congress
for 46 of those 50 years. And Republican Presidents, up until my term, only one
had a Republican Congress for a mere 2 years out of his 8 in office.
The Democrats' Presidents only had a Republican Congress for 2 out of those 50
years. The rest of the time they had the whole show. So, that meant that for
half a century, they've been in charge of redistricting, reapportionment. We're
going to have to fight awfully hard to break the gerrymandering that's been
going on for half a century.
I
was sitting here a little while ago and mentioning that in 1984 -- I've been
told that a half a million more people voted for Republican congressional
candidates than voted for Democratic candidates. But they elected about 40 more
Representatives in the House than we did. I was Governor when
But
just remember those three predictions here, and determine that you're going to
make them come true. I want to thank each and every one of you for what you're
doing to make them come true. And I'm going to thank you in advance for sending
this man back to the United States Senate, where he is so desperately needed.
It wouldn't make any sense at all to send a Senator back there of the other
party who would then cancel out the vote of Senator Specter. So, keep it the
way it is. Thank you all, and God bless you.
Note: The President
spoke at