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Remarks by Senator Bob Dole
January 23, 1996
Republican Response to the President's State of the Union Address
Washington, DC

Good evening. I'm Bob Dole, and I'm here to briefly reply to the
President's message on the state of the union. But a reply need not be
an argument. Instead, I want to present another view. Another way of
thinking about the problems we face.

A few years back I met with a group of 100 high school seniors - one
young man and a woman from every state. During the meeting one young
man stood up and said "Senator, everybody has somebody who speaks for
them. But who speaks for us?" he asked me. "Who speaks for the
future?"

That's what I want to talk with you about tonight - the future and the
values that will shape it. Those values are at the heart of our
disagreements with the president. President Clinton says our
differences are few, the budget numbers are close and that we should
try to find common ground. We have tried and tried, again and again.
But such a place appears to be elusive.

For while we share an abiding love of country, we have been unable to
agree. Why? Because we have starkly different philosophies of
government and profoundly different visions of America. So all the
talk and fighting in Washington can seem very remote. And we political
figures can seem detached and petty and far removed from the every day
struggle of American citizens and families.

But the truth is we can not ignore the future. The point of our lives,
after all, is to raise children who are smarter and healthier and
nobler than we are; to contribute to a country that is better than
today's America; to make a world that is better and finer for all of
God's creation.

America's greatness - all that we take such justified pride in today -
America's greatness was built by men and women who sacrificed ease and
comfort and the joys of today, to build a better future for those who
came after. How many pioneers faced a hostile and threatening frontier? How
many immigrants gave their bodies to the mines? And how many soldiers lost
their lives on the distant battlefields to secure a better future for their
children and their children's children?

In every generation, Americans have made these sacrifices, and found
in their making a purpose and a direction to life. Now we have to do
that in this generation. And thanks to God and fortune and those who
went before, we don't have to conquer a dangerous frontier. We don't
have to fight another great war. What we do have to do is face the
fact that we cannot give in to all of our own desires. As we have just
heard, President Clinton and those who share his vision of America
have chosen their ground.

The president chose to defend, with his veto, a welfare system that no
one can defend - for it is a daily assault on the values of
self-reliance and family. He has chosen to defend an education
establishment run by liberals whose goal is to operate every school in
America by remote control from Washington. He has chosen to veto a
defense bill because it provided for defending America against weapons
of mass destruction.

He has chosen to defend the status quo in Medicare - a system on which
lives depend and a program in urgent need of rescue. President Clinton
has chosen to defend and increase a tax burden that has pushed
countless families into their own personal recessions. And
unfortunately, he has chosen to veto the first balanced budget in a
generation, offering only a fantasy in its place.

Now if you have a child asleep in your home tonight, you will probably
check on him or her before you go to bed. As you bend over to tuck
your child in, think about this: If we continue down this path we will
place a tremendous burden of debt on every child in America. How can
we betray them and their parents and grandparents? How can we fail to
act? We cannot, and we will not.

Every political movement, and every public official must locate a
place in his heart where compromise ends - a core of conviction where
we keep our conscience. There comes a time when even practical leaders
must refuse to bend or to yield. For Republicans and countless
Democrats and independents, we have arrived at that time.

America's troubles are real, but our choices are clear and our will is
strong. We must rein in our runaway government, return power to the
people, reduce the tax burden. Put parents back in charge of our
schools. Untie the hands of our police. Restore justice to our courts
and put our faith once again in the basic goodness, wisdom and
self-reliance of our people.

Well, the president spoke with great eloquence about a future with
unlimited possibilities. It is a vision we all share, for it is the
story of America.

But while the president's words speak of change, his deeds are a
contradiction. The president claims to embrace the future while
clinging to the policies of the past.

For three years this administration has valued dependence on
government over self-reliance. Federal power over community, federal
planning over individual enterprise. It has tried to place government
experts in charge of our economy and our health and our lives.

It has put liberal judges on the bench to war with our values and it
questions the participation of religious people in public life,
treating them as fanatics out of step with America.

President Clinton shares a view of America held by our country's
elites.

A nation of special interest groups united only by a dependence on
government, competing with each other for handouts and held back by
outdated values. For those who hold this view, there is only one
answer for our problems:

More government.
Bigger government.
More meddlesome government.

If you listened closely tonight, that's what President Clinton talked
about. President Clinton may well be the rear guard of the welfare
state. He is the chief obstacle to a balanced budget and the balanced
budget amendment. He is almost the last public defender of a
discredited status quo. We Republicans will not give up the struggle
because America will round the corner to a brighter future if we
prevail.

I come from Russell, Kansas - there's not much money there, but the
people are rich in many other ways. Life isn't always easy, but the
values are durable - love of God and country and family, commitment to
honesty, decency and personal responsibility, and self-reliance
tempered by a sense of community.

Those values made America the greatest nation on earth, and there is
no doubt in my mind that we can get our country back on track if we
reassert them again as a people, and if our government returns to them
as a matter of national policy.

Now just like the debate over the budget this wither, our arguments
this spring will seem a maze of conflicting numbers, assertions and
high-sounding words. But what we're really arguing about are the
values that will shape our nation, our government, and the future of
that child sleeping down the hall.

Now some people try to make these matters complicated, but they're
simple in my home town - and probably where you are, as well.
Americans know that handouts without responsibility destroy human
dignity.

We know that the help of a neighbor is preferable to that of a
bureaucrat. And we know that wealth is created by free individuals
with their smarts and their sweat. Government programs can only spend
it.

I'm a very practical man, but I believe in the miracle of America and
I've never gone in for dramatics, but I do believe we have reached a
defining moment. It is as if we went to sleep in one America and woke
up in another.

It is as though our government and our institutions and our culture
ave been hijacked by liberals and are careening dangerously off
course. But we know the way back, but we must act now and my promise
tonight is that we can, and we will.

If there is no agreement, we will send President Clinton another
balanced budget with tax relief for American families, regulatory
relief for small businesses, farmers and ranchers and real welfare
reform.

We will always be mindful of the poor and disadvantaged, education and
the environment. But we will begin the defunding of Big Brother by
unfunding wasteful programs and meddlesome departments. We will send
the president bill after bill, returning power and programs to the
states and to the people.

We will challenge President Clinton again and again to walk the talk
he talks so well. As we do, remember this: Our battles will not be
about numbers. They'll be about the character of our nation. Yes, our
country has problems. But we can handle them.

Whether it's deficit spending or the welfare bureaucracy or our
liberal courts or the trouble in our schools, what's wrong is that the
elites in charge don't believe in what the people believe in. That we
can fix. We know what made America great. All we need now is the
resolve to lead our country back to her place in the sun and the
courage to speak for the future.

So when you close the door to your child's room tonight, remember,
it's not too late. This is a great country. Our strength has always
come from the truth, and from sacrifice and honor, and from the
bottomless reservoir of hope and work and courage that is the American
people. Always, we have built for the future with a half-silent
consciousness that we were doing the work of the Lord.

Today, we feel ourselves beset by many difficulties: by violence and
resentment, by racial and partisan divisions, by economic storms, by
dizzying changes of every kind.

Yet, the blood of greatness, of noble forebears, of men and women of
incredible achievement still runs through us all. That birthright is
what it means to bear the name "American." In this time, in this
generation, in this year, we - like they - can and will overcome. We
need only to rededicate ourselves to earning the name we have
inherited.

Thank you very much. God bless America and good night.