"A New Conservative Vision"
National Press Club
September 22, 1995
It's no secret. I am here today to announce that I am running for
President of the United States."
This is, to say the least, an unusual candidacy, and I expect there
are a few skeptics in the room.
But, I am throwing my hat into the ring today in full confidence that
this campaign for President can and will succeed.
For the last two decades I have been working in one of the most
entrepreneurial sectors of American life, magazine publishing. And as
any entrepreneur will tell you, the really big changes, the quantum
leaps, are made by those who take risks and challenge the conventional
wisdom, who do something new and unexpected.
This campaign will talk a lot about what entrepreneurship and the new
economy mean to all Americans. I'll be taking a lot of risks -- saying
what no other candidate is willing to, or dares. I'll be living what
I'm preaching.
Usually candidates come to a race like this after years in either
state or federal government. In the past, that may have been a good
thing for the country. But no longer. Not today.
I am running because I believe this nation needs someone in the White
House who can break the old patterns, someone who can unlock the
stranglehold that the political class has on American life. An
outsider who knows first hand, as I do, the promise of the new
economy, who sees how government is dragging down all Americans and is
determined to change it.
I am running because I believe the American people share the same
desire for an end of politics as usual. I believe that they share the
same vision of an unshackled future-- a future that embraces all the
wonderful opportunities in the new economy.
I think a lot of people would agree, there is an empty feeling in this
campaign so far. One reason is that none of the other candidates is
raising high the banner of economic expansion and opportunity -- like
John F. Kennedy did with his promise to "get this country moving
again," and like Ronald Reagan did when he cut taxes and regulation
and ushered in the longest peacetime expansion in American history.
But there are other reasons for the empty feeling. The fact is, the
other candidates, on both sides, are insiders. And we all know that if
the insiders had the answers, they would have implemented them by now.
That has been my life.
As so I am not an incrementalist...not a cautious suggester of
cautious changes... not a compromiser with the bully state.
I reject the grim notion of the Washington Politicians that America
must learn to make do with less -- that the American people have spent
too much and now the American people must pay, that the wagon is heavy
and crowded and now is the time to start throwing people off. And I
reject the equally grim notion that the American people must
constantly pay in taxes for the mistakes the politicians make in
Washington -- such as a deficit, which despite years of bluster and
two of the largest tax hikes in history --continues to grow.
I see a different reality, an America of vast potential -- greater
than anything that has ever been seen before -- waiting to be
released. I see an American economy that is the most innovative and
productive and technologically advanced in the world -- hamstrung by
high taxes and counter-productive regulations.
We are like the greatest marathon runner in the world, but we're
trying to compete with two 50-pound cinder blocks chained to our legs.
It's time to remove the dead weight of Washington, and let the
American economy run free.
It's true that we're already changing.
In the election 1994, the people of America voted resoundingly and
decisively against -- against higher taxes, against bigger government,
against more intrusive rules and regulations, against assaults on
family life, against socialized medicine, against the old way of doing
things. And they voted against Bill Clinton, against his ideology and
soft ambivalence, against his weak and aimless foreign policy
But in 1996 we can vote for. For a new way of doing things, a new
Washington -- for a new America full of energy and dynamism and ready
to lead the world.
I believe in my heart that the American family is the soul of this
nation, and that if the political class would stop interfering we
could build a family-friendly America.
I believe that the time-honored American values of hope, opportunity,
family, faith and community are the moral bedrock of our nation -- and
every action by Washington should be judged by one and only one
criterion -- does it help or hurt those values.
Does it create stronger communities, stronger families? Does it create
more opportunity, greater security, greater faith in the future?
The career politicians here in Washington, unaware of the fantastic
growth waiting to burst forth in our economy, spend their time
dividing up an ever shrinking pie. They take from one group in order
to dole out favors to others, undermining our trust in the basic
fairness of the American system and causing division, envy and
bitterness. In order to get their way, they libel the good American
people with accusations of racism, sexism and selfishness. And then
they wonder why politics has turned into such a nasty business.
And they do this all in the guise of compassion. It reminds me of that
old saying that the ten most frightening words in the English language
are: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you."
America needs to take a new road, one toward an expansive future that
is bigger and better than our past. That's why I'm proposing today,
and will be talking about throughout my campaign, a liberation
movement to take power away from Washington and put it in the hands of
the people. A "Boston Tea Party," if you will, that puts an end to the
taxing and spending party in Washington, DC. I mean to free the mighty
American economy from political repression.
The first element is dramatic pro-growth tax cuts.
I'm not talking "revenue neutral" fiddling with the tax code, the
usual game in Washington that pretends to cut some taxes while raising
others. And I'm not talking about fiddling around the "margins,"
cutting taxes that only help the well-to-do.
I am talking about across the board tax cuts that are deep and wide
and permanent, that reach down to all Americans and get the
suffocating weight of the IRS off their backs.
Start by scrapping the tax code. Don't fiddle with it. Junk it. Throw
it out. Bury it. Replace it with a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that
lowers tax rates to 17 percent across the board and expands exemptions
for individuals and children so that a family of four would pay no
taxes on the first $36,000 of income.
Not one cent to the IRS on the first $36,000. Anything over that would
be taxed at a flat, fair 17 percent.
The flat tax would be simple. You could fill it out on a postcard. It
would be honest. It would eliminate the principal source of political
corruption in Washington. It would be fair. Millions of people would
be off the federal income tax rolls.
There would be no tax on Social Security. No tax on pensions. No tax
on personal savings. It would zero out capital gains taxes. It would
set off a boom by letting people keep more of what they earn and by
lowering barriers to risk taking.
I will underline here this distinction between my proposal and those
floated by other candidates in this political season:
I am straight forwardly calling for a tax cut to expand the economy
and make everyone better off.
The old-style Washington politicians hide behind the deficit -- they
give us shell games rather than tax cuts because their one principle
is never, ever take money from Washington. As we all know, the deficit
was the prime rationale for the last two tax hikes -- two of the
largest tax hikes in American history -- which put the country on a
down-ward spiral, destroying growth and -- guess what -- expanding the
deficit.
I am proposing real tax cuts because I believe that growth is the key
that will unlock the deficit prison.
Will I cut the budget? You bet. Commerce, Energy, Education, HUD, will
be stripped of all but their essential functions. A whole alphabet
soup of agencies will be eliminated. But cutting alone won't solve our
problems.
The fact is, I don't just want less government -- I want better
government. The way it is now, good men and good women come to
Washington and get caught in a culture of corruption. They enter a
place whose rules and realities almost force them to put their own
interests before the country's. And they wind up becoming the very
people they come here to fight.
I want to change the culture of Washington by changing the rules of
the game. And to change the rules of the game, you have to do two
things: You have to take away the politicians' power to manipulate the
tax code, to trade tax loopholes for re-election money. And you have
to limit their terms.
Do those things, and you change the dynamic completely. Do those
things and you'll change Washington forever. Do those things, and the
people will get their government back again.
And as President, the 17 percent flat tax will be only the beginning.
I will continue to cut taxes from the bottom up, expanding family
exemptions dollar for dollar for every cut in the budget. That will
make it dramatic for all America to see -- that every dollar Congress
chooses to spend on a pet project is coming right out of America's
families pockets.
So I want not only a flat tax, but a flat tax that is a tax cut. And
let me caution my party that we must beware the 'ER' candidates --
those who put the letters 'er' at the end of every word, like "I want
a tax that's flatter, fairer, simpler." The 'ER' candidates will end
up putting our country in the Emergency Room.
Another pillar of a family-friendly policy is sound money. That is,
low mortgage rates.
The house your parents or grandparents bought in the 1950's or '60s
was probably bought with a 4 1/2 percent mortgage. But in the
mid-1960s, the Washington politicians took control of our money and
started manipulating it for their own ends. They sat here in
Washington, pushed their levers and buttons, and turned the everyday
economic reality from "Ozzie and Harriet" to "Nightmare on Elm
Street."
The legacy of their power grab is the historically high interest rates
that make families today slaves to their mortgages. High taxes and
high mortgage rates have put families on a treadmill, and the
treadmill is winning. This is why two family incomes today don't seem
to do the job that one did in times past.
The answer: We must take our money out of the hands of the
politicians. We can bring back 4 and 1/2 percent mortgages, lower
interest rates, and give the economy a boost. As we did throughout our
nation's history until the late 60's, we must tie the value of the
dollar to a fixed measure, such as gold, so that a dollar today will
be worth a dollar tomorrow.
Imagine what it would be like if you woke up tomorrow morning with a
17% flat tax that exempted the first $36,000 of income and a fixed
long term mortgage of 4 1/2 percent. Imagine what that would do for
family life.
We would see a renaissance the likes of which has never been seen
before. Families could step off the tax treadmill; wage earners could
relax a little, save more easily; parents would have more time to
spend with their children and with each other; they would have more
time to devote where it belongs -- to the home and hearth, where all
true value lies.
It is only by restoring wholeness to our nation's families that
wholeness will be returned to our nation.
It is only by a serious commitment to family values -- not just of
rhetoric, but of resources -- that the moral and spiritual decline
that so troubles us today will be arrested.
The family is the irreducible foundation of any civil, just and humane
society and cannot be replaced -- and the liberal, ideological
attempts to do so have disastrously ripped our social fabric.
Everyone talks about values -- this is a campaign after all -- but let
me tell you how I see the values issue.
Values mean returning to the inspiration of our forefathers that all
of us are created equal.
Values mean respecting parents enough to return control of the schools
to them. That means giving parents the means to educate their children
in the school of their choice.
Values mean having a government that keeps its promises, like on
Social Security and like working on a plan to provide for younger
workers who now know they will get nothing.
Values mean giving opportunity to all people by removing the red tape
and taxes that suffocate our cities.
Values mean welfare programs that help people rather than destroy
them.
Values mean real prison sentences for violent crimes.
Values also mean refinding our moral compass in this world as a leader
and light among nations, a bastion of freedom, as strong as we are
restrained. We need a President who has a U.S., not a U.N. foreign
policy, one who understands that the wise and judicious use of
American power is now, and has been, the best hope of the world. This
world is still a dangerous place; peace through strength must still be
our watchword.
At their most fundamental, I truly believe that values and economics
are not separate issues -- they are the same issue. A flat tax will
restore honesty to the tax code and give the people back their
government. In such an atmosphere -- so different from the one we have
now -- traditional American values will flourish. Thrift, hard work,
and charity; individual responsibility and working towards shared
goals; commitment to family and community; faith in the future. These
will describe not just the America we want but the America we actually
have.
Let us sew up our nation's tattered social fabric. Let's bind up the
wounds caused by three decades of mistaken social policy that has
undermined America's families. Let us alleviate the anxieties of
parents, and broaden the future for our children; bring harmony and
hope back to our lives, and return to the truths that have guided this
country so well for so long.
The election before us is not just any election. We stand at the
threshold of a new era of possibility. The next President's term will
end on the cusp of a new century.
A new century that demands new thinking, new perspectives, the
imagination and creativity of all the American people.
I am an optimist.
But I am well aware of the pitfalls of a national campaign. You don't
give up the security and freedom of private life to go into the
meatgrinder of presidential politics in the modern age, unless you
have a serious purpose.
I have one. I intend to offer the American People something they
haven't been offered so far: a vision and a voice, a true vision and
an honest voice.
For the other candidates talk about a flat tax -- but I mean it, and
I'll do it. They talk about term limits -- but I mean it, and I'll do
it. They don't even dream about making our currency sound and stable,
and never mind talking about it. But I'll talk about it, and I mean
it, and I'll do it. The other candidates talk about changing the
culture of Washington. But they are the culture of Washington.
I'm the one who will change Washington. Because I'm the one who means
it.
We must re-discover and revitalize the American experiment, the
essence of which is giving individuals the opportunity to discover and
develop their God-given talents. In America, extraordinary deeds are
done when seemingly ordinary people are allowed and encouraged to take
responsibility for themselves, for their families and for their
communities.
If the American experiment is renewed and re-energized, we will
astound ourselves and the world with our opportunities and our
achievements. The people of the world will ask themselves and their
governments, "If America can do it, why can't we?" By following our
example and our principles, they will.
And I'll leave you with a final thought. Fifteen years ago, in 1980,
the candidacy of a man named Ronald Reagan was considered right here,
at this great Press Club. And his prospects seemed so bad that when
you listed candidates and their support, he got an asterisk. That's
pretty much where I'm starting. But, like Reagan, that's not where I
intend to finish.
I thank you all very much. And now, if you have any questions.
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