ON THE STUMP

	October 24, 2000
	A continuing series of excerpts from campaign speeches by the two major party presidential candidates.

JIM LEHRER: We begin with another pair of campaign speeches by the leading Presidential candidates. First, Vice President Gore, speaking today at a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas. VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: This is an opportunity for Arkansas to shape decision of the entire nation. And you have to ask yourselves, whether or not you want to keep prosperity going or not, whether or not you want to extend it, whether or not you are tired of the strongest economy in the 224-year history of the United States of America; whether or not you want to go back to the days eight years ago, because Governor Bush, after all, says... well, let's hear his argument. He says that we were a whole lot better off eight years ago than we are today. Now, eight years ago, to continue my narrative here, we brought about some changes. And every Republican elected official in the Congress voted against it, and they predicted catastrophe, disaster, even depression. Well, they turned out to be a little bit wrong on that, because after eight years, we have changed the biggest deficits into the biggest surpluses. Instead of repeated recessions, we've seen a tripling of the stock market. Instead of high unemployment, we now have the lowest African American unemployment ever measured, the lowest Latino unemployment ever measured, 22 million new jobs, and the strongest economy in the entire history of the United States of America. That is progress. (Cheers and applause) But here is my message to you today: I'm not satisfied. You ain't seen nothing yet. We're going to do better. But I think the most important thing we can do for our economy is to insist upon the right and responsible choices, and one of them has to do with our budgets. I believe in balanced budgets. I will balance the budget every year. I will pay down the debt every year. And by early in the next decade, under the proposals I'm making, we will completely eliminate the national debt and take that burden off the shoulders of these children as they grow up and make their own way in the world. My opponent's proposal has three elements to it that I want you to look at long and hard. Number one, the centerpiece of his economic plan is a giant $1.6 trillion dollar tax cut, mainly for the wealthy, actually 41%, by his own numbers, 41% of his tax cut plan would go to the wealthiest 1%. Now, I don't begrudge them a tax cut. But I do begrudge on behalf of the American people any effort to squander the surplus in a way that would put us right back into the giant deficits of eight years ago, right back into the repeat recessions that were hard on working people. He wants to privatize a big part of Social Security. Well, now listen here. Hear it out - because the first part of his proposal sounds pretty good when you first just hear the short description of it. He wants to take $1 trillion out of the Social Security Trust Fund and give it to young workers for savings and investment. Well, young workers need more incentives for savings and investments, but the way he proposes to do it is to give $1 trillion out of the Social Security Trust Fund and then he turns right around and gives... promises the same $1 trillion to seniors to keep from having any benefit cuts in Social Security. Now, in addition to all that, he also proposes another $500 billion in new spending, and it's fuzzy math indeed to try to add those numbers up in a way that doesn't put us back into big deficits again. But now here's the point: Those at the very top who are fueling Governor Bush's campaign are anxious for that huge tax cut for the very wealthy. It is not really even good for them, because actually, they benefit from having a strong economy continue more than they would benefit from this short-term infusion of cash. They ought to cast their lot with the rest of us, with all of the people of this country, because we're going to keep the economy strong. JIM LEHRER: Now to Governor Bush. He spoke today at a middle school in Arlington Heights, Illinois. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: The best way to show I trust the people and he trusts the government is to talk about my tax relief plan. First, it's important to understand there's a surplus, but the projected surplus will exist after budgets have grown, after over the next ten years, the baselines of the budget are increased and there's still money, which leads me to believe that the people aren't under-taxed, they're overtaxed. (Applause ) People ask me all the time, well, what's going to affect economic growth? Over-regulation, overspending at the federal level, unbridled tort lawyers and isolationism. That's what's going to cause this nation's economy to slow down. What will increase growth is trade, reasonable civil justice laws, less regulation and tax relief, and tax reform. ( Applause ) Rather than increasing the size and scope of the federal government, like my opponent would like to do, I'd like to send some of the money back to people who paid the bills. You see, there's a difference of opinion. There you are. There's a difference of opinion. There's a difference of opinion. He thinks the surplus is the government's money. I know the surplus is the people's money. And we have a difference of opinion about what's called targeted tax relief or tax relief. If we're going to have tax relief, it ought to be fair. It ought not to be one of these plans that is so prescriptive, it's hard to figure out who gets what. Let me ask you a question, just to point up the differences between our points of view. How many of you own hybrid electric-gasoline engine vehicles? (Laughter) If you look under there, you'll see that's one of the criteria necessary to receive tax relief. So when he talks about tax relief, that's pretty darn targeted. (Applause) How many of you are stay-at-home moms and have a baby under the age of one? If you're a stay-at-home mom and have a baby under the age of one, you qualify for targeted tax relief. I think you're beginning to get the drift of what the definition of targeted is. I have a different point of view. How many of you all pay federal taxes? You get tax relief. (Cheers) I don't think you want a President-- this country doesn't need a President who tries to pick the winners and losers with tax relief. I believe we need to eliminate the death tax. It's unfair to Illinois farmers and small business people. We need to do something about the marriage penalty. Our code needs to encourage marriage. We need to drop the top rate from 39.6 to 33%. Let me tell you two reasons why: Let me tell you two reasons why: One, our nation needs to stand on principle. And, in principle, the federal government should take no more than a third of anybody's federal income. And two, we've got to understand how capital works. Governments don't create wealth. The government's role is to create an environment in which entrepreneurs can flourish, in which small businesses grow to be big businesses. Our point of view is, cutting the top rate encourages economic growth, and the question the President ought to ask is, "how do we continue to expand the pie, so people who are willing to work hard can realize the great American experience." It's like this nation has put a tollbooth right smack in the middle of the road of the middle class. And that's not fair. I want to drop the bottom rate from 15% to 10%, increase the child credit from $500 to $1,000 per child. I want to make it fair and make it middle class, accessible to all who are willing to work.