Portsmouth Herald
Ran 2/9/96 Pg. A8
By Steve Haberman 
Herald Staff
   DES MOINES, Iowa - Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, attempting to bounce back from a
loss to political commentator Patrick Buchanan in the Louisiana Republican
caucus Tuesday, focused on his conservative values in a speech to supporters
that kicked off the final push to the Iowa causes Wednesday.
   The Louisiana loss put more pressure on Gramm to win big in Iowa on
Monday.
   ``I don't think anybody is going to win the Republican nomination unless
they win first, second or third in Iowa,'' a clearly disappointed Gramm said
on CBS's This Morning show Wednesday.
   But, when pressed, Gramm refused to say he would drop out of the race if
he didn't finish in the top three. ``I think we can still win in Iowa. I
think the nomination's wide open,'' he said.
   Gramm characterized his address as an outline ``of what I want America to
look like on the first day of the year 2001.''
   As opposed to a system of what he called ``quotas and preferences,'' Gramm
said that on his first day in office ``as my hand comes off the Bible, by
executive order I will end quotas and preferences.'' He said that by the
first day of the year 2001, the current system ``will be a bad but fading
memory.''
   The Texas senator said that rather than crime being a ``brutal way of
life'' in America as it is today, by the year 2001 ``we will have gotten so
tough on violent crime that people like my mother who have bars on their
windows will have taken them down, and those who they fear today would have
bars put up on their windows.''
   Gramm said that while the federal government borrows 50 cents of every
dollar Americans currently save, by the year 2001 that would not be necessary
because ``we will have balanced the budget, mortgage interest rates will be
at 4 percent, and we'll be creating 1.2 million jobs.''
   Claiming that small businesses and small farmers are being ``choked'' by
federal regulations, Gramm promised that as soon as he was elected, he would
declare a 12-month moratorium on those regulations.
   The Texas senator took aim at those who have criticized his statements
concerning kicking welfare recipients ``out of the wagon so they could help
pull it.''
   ``It's by pulling that you earn self-respect,'' Gramm told his Iowa
supporters. ``I want people to pull because I love them.''
   Gramm said he wants to stop subsidizing welfare, end the system that pays
welfare recipients additional benefits for having illegitimate children, and
make it easier for couples to adopt. ``Then we will be able to find a home
for every child in America and 
everyone will be pro-life,'' he said.
   He called the 1.5 million abortions performed each year in this country a
``blot on the American character,'' and pledged to remove it. He promised to
appoint Supreme Court justices ``who will interpret the Constitution, not
make it up as they go along,'' and to 
repeal Goals 2000 and eliminate the federal Department of Education.
   In a bid for the support he has not yet found in the Republican primary
race, Gramm noted that in the five days left until the caucuses, he had ``a
long way to go and a short time to get there.'' He said he took heart in the
fact that many people in Iowa were still 
searching for a candidate to vote for.
   ``The social conservatives and the economic conservatives are looking for
someone to unite them together in a strong Republican Party that can beat
Bill Clinton,'' Gramm said. ``I am that man.''