FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 13, 1992 DAN QUAYLE: ATTACK PUPPY UNLEASHED THE COMPLETE STORY Dan Quayle lobbed grenades all night but none hit. So Dan Quayle resorted to old Republican tactics -- he lied. He repeatedly lied about the Clinton/Gore economic plan yet said absolutely nothing about the Bush/Quayle proposal. That's easy to understand since the Bush Administration has the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover and has no plan to change their dismal track record. The economy wasn't the only thing Dan Quayle didn't want to talk about. He didn't mention his secretive Competitiveness Council, Iraq Gate or Iran Contra eventhough George Bush - just hours before the debate - finally admitted he knew about the arms-for-hostage deal with Iran after he denied it for the past six years. Quayle used the debate to set an all-time record for denials and lies. Here is the encyclopedic list. THE CLINTON/GORE PLAN: RHETORIC VS. REALITY THE CLINTON ECONOMIC PLAN RHETORIC: "Bill Clinton's economic plan and his agenda will make matters much, much worse..." REALITY: More than 550 economists, 500 CEOs, and 9 Nobel-Prize winning economists disagree with Dan Quayle. They think he's dead wrong and have endorsed the Clinton plan. [Release, 10/8/92]Clinton knows how to make things better. In 1991, his fellow governors voted him the "most effective governor in the nation." [Newsweek, 9/14/91] TAXES RHETORIC: "He will raise your taxes..." REALITY: The Clinton/Gore plan includes $60 billion in middle class tax cuts and $12 billion in tax cuts for the working poor. It will only increase taxes on the wealthiest few, those making more than $200,000 a year. [Putting People First] George Bush said "Read My Lips: No New Taxes" and then signed the second-largest tax increase in history. He raised taxes on the middle class. [Wall Street Journal, 8/12/92] SPENDING RHETORIC: "...he will increase spending..." REALITY: The conservative Cato Institute called Bush "the largest spender to sit in the White House in the past 30 years" -- noting Bush "increased the domestic budget more in 4 years than Carter and Reagan combined did in 12 years." [Cato Institute, 6/19/92] The Clinton/Gore plan slashes $144 billion in unnecessary government spending and cuts the deficit in half in four years. [Putting People First]. Bill Clinton has the record of a low spender, not a big spender. Arkansas' general spending growth since 1979 has been 13 percentage points below the national average; growth since 1983 has been 24 points below the national average. ["Fiscal Survey of the States," National Governors Association] BIG GOVERNMENT RHETORIC: "...he will make government bigger..." REALITY: For the first time there are more U.S. jobs in government than in manufacturing. [Bureau of Labor Statistics] The White House budget grew by 56 percent in real dollars and 26 percent in the number of employees since Bush took office. [U.S. Budget, 1991 and 1993] The Clinton plan will cut 100,000 jobs in government through attrition; cut administrative spending across the board by 3 percent; and cut the White House budget by 25 percent, while challenging Congress to do the same. Unlike George Bush, Clinton has the record of someone who reduces the size of government. Relatively speaking, the size of government in Arkansas has been shrinking under Gov. Clinton, not growing bigger as Mr. Bush claims." [Wall Street Journal, 10/1/92] JOBS RHETORIC: "...jobs will be lost." REALITY: Jobs have already been lost under Bush/Quayle: There were 35,000 fewer private sector jobs in September 1992 than there were when Bush took office in January, 1989. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]. The Clinton plan will create 8 million jobs over 4 years. Clinton has a strong record of creating jobs, in fact. In 1992 Arkansas led the nation in job growth. [Bureau of Labor Statistics] BALANCED BUDGET RHETORIC: "President Bush is for a balanced budget amendment. Bill Clinton is opposed to it." REALITY: George Bush has never submitted a balanced budget to Congress; Bill Clinton has balanced 12 budgets in 12 years. [Arkansas Development and Finance Authority] In fact, George Bush has requested $1.1 billion more than Congress has appropriated. And the balanced budget he supports will not take effect until 1997. [House Committee on Appropriations] LEGAL REFORM RHETORIC: Dan Quayle said, "We want to reform the legal system because it's too costly. Bill Clinton wants the status quo." REALITY: Bush and Quayle want consumers and victims to pay the huge legal fees run up by big corporations, if those corporations find a way to beat the consumer in court. They want to limit the extent to which corporations can be punished for deliberately polluting, or putting out dangerous products. [Report from the President's Council on Competitiveness; Agenda for Civil Justice Reform, 8/91] Bill Clinton supported legal reform in Arkansas, not the status quo. Medical malpractice insurance rates are the lowest in the country in Arkansas; auto insurance rates are seventh lowest. Tort lawsuits fell by 10 percent from 1987 to 1990, the last year records are available (Wall Street Journal, 9/8/92) The top contributing industry to the Bush/Quayle campaign is lawyers and lobbyists, contributing $1,369,002. [National Library on Money and Politics, 8/19/92] RATIONING HEALTH CARE RHETORIC: "Bill Clinton wants to ration health care." REALITY: Bill Clinton's health care plan will not produce rationing. The Clinton approach of global budgets and employer-based universal coverage is supported by major health professional organizations (e.g., American Academy of Family Practitioners, American College of Physicians, and the American Nurses Association) -- the very groups most opposed to rationing. A bipartisan panel of three Republican and two Democratic health experts says that the Clinton health care plan will save the average family $1179 more every year than Bush's plan; insure all Americans, while the Bush plan would leave 27 million people uninsured; save $746 billion, even after covering every American, while the Bush plan would save only $157 billion. [Washington Post, 10/2/92] PERSIAN GULF RHETORIC: Dan Quayle said, "You cannot sit there in an international crisis [like the Gulf War] and sit there and say, `Well, on one hand this is okay and on the other hand this is okay.'" REALITY: It's strange to hear Dan Quayle talking about making decisions about the Gulf War. According to "Nightline," Dan Quayle's "trip to Latin America and his vacation in Arizona suggest to some, that the Vice President was not a key player." ["Nightline," 10/2/90] Bill Clinton supported Desert Storm. In fact, he supported sending the Arkansas National Guard to support that effort -- the third largest sent by any state in the U.S. He supported giving the President the authority to go to war -- the issue voted on by the U.S. Congress. He agreed with the argument that we should allow sanctions more time to weaken Saddam before using military force. Many Republicans, such as Specter, Murkowski, Roth, and Coats did too. But he has been clear that the Congress should give the President the authority, "I personally don't think it would have been a good thing for Congress to go on record, in essence, watering down and weakening the full impact of the U.N. Resolution. (Arkansas Gazette, 1/15/91) THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT RHETORIC: "This is the Persian Gulf War, the most important event in his [Clinton's] political lifetime..." REALITY: Does Dan Quayle really believe that the Gulf War was more important than the end of the Cold War, civil rights laws in the United States or the empowerment of women in this nation? THE CARIBBEAN BASIN INITIATIVE RHETORIC: "You know full well the Caribbean Basin Initiative, you've supported that." REALITY: Senator Gore has never supported the Caribbean Basin Initiative. On December 17, 1982, then-Representative Gore voted against the program. This was a vote "to oppose passage of the bill to provide duty-free entry into the United States of certain products from most Caribbean nations and to allow tax deductions for the expenses of conventions held in the Carribean." The measure passed, 260-142. On July 14, 1983 Gore opposed the passage of the Caribbean Basin Initiative. The bill provided trade and tax preferences to the nations of the caribbean region. Despite Senator Gore's opposition, the bill passed, 289-129. On April 24, 1990 the Senate passed the Customs and Trade Act, S. 504, 92-0. This is one of the votes cited by Quayle and was not a specific vote on CBI. In fact, on the only vote on CBI at that time (a measure to decrease the tariff on rubber sole shoes), Senator Gore voted no. The vote cited by Quayle was a vote on an omnibus trade bill that included legislation to increase trade to Hungary; a ban on the export of logs from federal lands; the reauthorization of the office of the United States Trade Representative and other U.S. trade programs, including CBI programs. [Pgs 211-217 1990 CQ Almanac] NAFTA RHETORIC: "He's on both sides of the issue. Take the NAFTA agreement..." REALITY: The Washington Post reported that "Clinton's position on the [NAFTA] agreement has remained the same, from speeches during his March do-or-die primary fight in Michigan, where feeling against the agreement is strong, to an answer he gave to a United Automobile Workers Union official in Le Grange, IL., who raised fears [in July] of further job losses to Mexico. In all those appearances, Clinton has taken the position that a good trade agreement can strengthen the economies of both the United States and Mexico and increase Mexico's wealth so Mexicans can buy more U.S. products." (Washington Post, 8/13/92) TAXES RHETORIC: "Your proposal is to raise $150 billion in taxes." REALITY: The Wall Street Journal states that the net tax increase of the Clinton plan is $46 billion -- less than half the $106.7 billion net tax increase from George Bush's 1990 broken promise tax increase. [Wall Street Journal, 8/12/92] Dan Quayle ignores the fact that $58 billion of the savings in the Clinton/Gore plan comes from closing foreign loopholes and make foreign companies pay their fair share of taxes. [Putting People First] DEFENSE SPENDING RHETORIC: "Bill Clinton wants to cut defense another $60 billion. I'd say to the defense workers in California and elsewhere, a $60 billion defense cut is going to cut a lot of jobs out." REALITY: The Clinton plan includes 95% percent of the spending of the Bush plan -- the difference is $1.42 trillion versus $1.36 trillion over five years. The Perot plan calls for $1.38 trillion. And the Clinton plan for prudent defense cuts is similar to plans supported by people like Senators Nunn, Domenici, Simpson and Rudman. Since the Reagan administration buildup, California has lost over 150,000 defense jobs. [McKinsey & Company, Report to the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, May 1991] CAFE RHETORIC: If they think increasing the CAFE standards, the fuel economy standards, to 45 miles a gallon is a good idea -- 300,000 people out of work." REALITY: Under George Bush and Dan Quayle the American auto industry has lost 89,000 jobs and will lose 67,000 more [New York Times, 2/25/92; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings] Bill Clinton and Al Gore know that the U.S. can support a strong auto industry, increased fuel efficiency, and a clean environment. They will not force the auto industry to do the impossible and will work in partnership with the auto industry to develop the appropriate technologies to improve fuel efficiency, keep America clean and keep the auto industry strong and secure. Bill Clinton himself said on CAFE, "And I certainly don't think that you can ask anybody to do anything that's technologically impossible." [Reuters, August 21, 1992] The Clinton/Gore plan includes a comprehensive manufacturing policy with the following elements: a targeted investment tax credit; a permanent R&D tax credit; and support for consortia to develop new technologies that will help the auto industry create jobs, and meet the demands of a global economy and a clean environment. Instead of causing auto workers to lose jobs, building more fuel efficient cars will strengthen the U.S. auto industry and create jobs. RHETORIC: Jim Stockdale said: "I read where Senator Gore's mentor had disagreed with some of the scientific data that is in his book." REALITY: Jim Stockdale misconstrued the words of the late Roger Revelle. In an op-ed piece written by his daughter Carolyn Revelle Hufbauer with the assistance of her mother, two sisters and brother, Mr. Revelle's family stated that his words had been misinterpreted to imply criticism of Senator Gore when. In fact, "Nothing could be further from the truth," Ms. Hufbauer wrote: "Roger Revelle proposed a range of approaches to address global warming. Inaction was not one of them. He agreed with the adage 'look before you leap,' but he never said 'sit on your hands.'" [Washington Post, Sept. 13, 1992] TIMBER RHETORIC: "You ought to talk to the timber people in the Northwest where they say that, well, we can only save the owl, forget about the jobs." REALITY: According to a Reagan-appointed judge, the real reason for the timber crisis in the Northwest is the Bush administration's failure to comply with the law and the failure to develop a sound forest management plan. [Washington Post, 6/25/91] ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES RHETORIC: "You ought to talk to the coal miners. They're talking about putting a coal tax on. They're talking about a tax on utilities, a tax on gasoline and home heating oil -- all sorts of taxes." REALITY: The Clinton/Gore plan does not include increases in any of these taxes. George Bush, on the other hand, recently signed a 56 percent increase in the gas tax. [Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1990] Dan Quayle is seizing on a few phrases and distorting them. Gore believes that other nations, not the U.S., should pay the lion's share of efforts to help developing countries with their environmental problems. Even Bush's own Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, William Reilly, has said that Senator Gore "has done some important things. I don't think he's an environmental extremist." [Reuters, 8/7/92] Though the Clinton plan does not include a carbon tax, it does include a permanent R&D tax credit which will help firms develop clean coal technology. ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS ABROAD RHETORIC: "Senator Gore has suggested to have the taxpayers of America spend $100 billion a year on environmental projects in foreign countries... it's in your book. On page 304.... It is there... It is in your book." REALITY: As noted by Brooks Jackson on CNN, "nowhere in the book does Gore propose $100 billion of foreign aid for environmental projects." "Gore writes that the money the United States spent on the Marshall Plan to rescue post-World War II Europe would equal $100 billion a year today, but he does not urge spending that much now." [Knight-Ridder, 10/13/92] PAYROLL TAX RHETORIC: "He says he's for the pay or play health insurance. That's a seven to nine percent payroll tax on every worker in America that participates in the program." REALITY: The Clinton plan has no payroll tax. Quayle backs up this charge by claiming it is the conclusion of studies by the Urban Institute and CBO. [Bush/Quayle Talking Points, 10/1/92] Both institutions sharply deny Quayle's claim, saying that neither has analyzed Clinton's plan. [CNN, 10/2/92] FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE RHETORIC: "Pass our Family Leave Act, because it goes to small businesses where the major problem is. Your proposal excluded small business. That's the problem." REALITY: This is a bizarre charge coming from an Administration that waited 1,355 days to introduce a family and medical leave proposal that will not mandate family and medical leave anywhere. PAY OR PLAY RHETORIC: "Bill Clinton, one day he's for pay or play, the next day he's against pay or play." REALITY: Bill Clinton has never supported a "pay-or-play" health care reform plan. The Clinton plan would require employers to cover their employees, but there is not "pay," that is, no payroll tax option in his plan. [Speech and release, 9/24/92] TERM LIMITS RHETORIC: "Here goes Bill Clinton again: he says, well, term limits, that's an interesting idea, I think I might be in favor of that. Then his Democratic friends in Congress say, no, Bill, you can't be for that." REALITY: Bill Clinton has stated that he would consider term limits, but believes that we should first implement comprehensive campaign finance reform -- including limiting PAC contributions, eliminating "soft money," placing voluntary spending caps on House and Senate races, reducing the cost of television air time, and requiring lobbyists who appear before Congressional committees to disclose the campaign contributions they've made to members of their committees. George Bush vetoed campaign finance reform legislation this year. CLINTON CHOICE RECORD RHETORIC: "And Bill Clinton, when he was governor of Arkansas, also worked with the Right to Life people and supported Right to Life positions and now he has changed." REALITY: Bill Clinton has always supported Roe v. Wade, even as a law professor at the University of Arkansas 20 years ago. Bill Clinton opposes further restrictions on abortion at the state level and supports enacting the Freedom of Choice Act to write the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law. Bill Clinton signed into law a state requirement that doctors and clinics notify the parents of minors seeking abortions or obtain a judicial consent for the abortion. He is opposed to any new federal restrictions on abortion. GORE CHOICE RECORD RHETORIC: Dan Quayle said, "At one time and most of the time in the House of Representatives, you [Al Gore] had a pro life position." REALITY: Al Gore has consistently and persistently supported a woman's right to choose. A co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act to protect the rights established in Roe v. Wade, Al Gore is pro-choice -- not pro-abortion. He is committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in American while preserving a woman's right to choose. "RAISING TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS" RHETORIC: "Everyone knows that you simply can't get $150 billion in new taxes by raising the marginal tax rate to a top rate of 36 percent and only tax those making $200,000 a year.... Everybody making more than $36,000 a year will have their taxes increased if Bill Clinton is President of the United States." REALITY: The Clinton/Gore plans includes a middle-class tax cut to give families $300 per child. Bill Clinton has never claimed that he can raise $150 billion from raising the tax rate on individuals. He will raise that amount through a comprehensive tax package -- that closes corporate tax loopholes to raise $58 billion, for example. The commercial which made the Quayle charge was branded "misleading" by the Washington Post (10/2/92). The Wall Street Journal says, "Clinton has proposed to cut taxes for the sort of people featured in Bush's ad." (10/2/92) URBAN AMERICA RHETORIC: "I don't know how you're going to go to urban America and say, well, the best thing that we can offer is simply to raise taxes again." REALITY: Bill Clinton has a comprehensive plan for America's cities: putting 100,000 more police officers on our streets; 75-125 enterprise zones; 100 community development banks and 1000 microenterprise programs; new investment in infrastructure; and school reform, including increased Chapter One funding for disadvantaged schools. BUSH/QUAYLE WILL NOT RAISE TAXES RHETORIC: "President Bush wants to hold the line on taxes." REALITY: Read my lips. Despite his 1988 "no new taxes" pledge, Bush signed the second largest tax hike in history. [Acceptance Speech, GOP Convention, 8/18/88; NYT, 8/7/92; CBO, 1/30/91] REALITY: Bush and Quayle have cut taxes for the rich and soaked the middle class. While middle class Americans pay $186 more in taxes today than they did in 1980 -- the richest 1% of Americans got a $12,626 tax cut from Republican administrations over the same period. [DSG, 10/18/91] BUSH QUAYLE WANTS TO REFORM HEALTH CARE SYSTEM RHETORIC: "We want to reform the health care system." REALITY: "He [Bush] sees no need for fundamental changes in the system." A bipartisan panel of three Republican and two Democratic health experts says that the Clinton health care plan will save the average family $1,179 more every year than Bush's plan; insure all Americans, while the Bush plan would leave 27 million people uninsured; save $746 billion, even after covering every American, while the Bush plan would save only $157 billion. [WP editorial, 8/9/92; Washington Post, 10/2/92] BUSH HAS INTEGRITY RHETORIC: "The president has the integrity and the character [to lead internationally.]" REALITY: President Bush has never told the truth about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. He claimed he was "out of the loop," but documents place him in meetings where President Reagan signed orders for direct arms-for-hostages trades with Iran. Bush claimed he didn't know Shultz and Weinberger opposed arms-for-hostages, but when Weinberger saw the Bush quote in the Washington Post, he called Shultz personally to say "[T]hat's terrible. He was on the other side. Its on the record. Why did he [Bush] say that." . In addition, George Bush sat through the January 7, 1986 meeting on arms for hostages in which Shultz and Weinberger expressed their strong opposition. In 1988, Bush said, "I sensed that we were sending arms. And I sensed that we were trying to get hostages out. But not arms for hostages." But today, when Katie Couric asked, "You knew about the arms for hostages?" Bush replied, "Yes, and I've said so all along." [WP, 1/7/88, 6/10/90 9/24/92; AP, 1-8-88; Charles Hill notes, 8-7-87, in court filing, August 1992; Today Show, 10-13-92] RHETORIC: "[Bush has] got the integrity to be our President for the next four years." REALITY: George Bush has not come clean with the American people about his strong support for Saddam Hussein before the Persian Gulf War. While Bush says the U.S. "did not enhance Saddam Hussein's nuclear, biological or chemical weapons capability," Bush sent billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer-subsidized loan guarantees Saddam used to build up his military machine, buying advanced American technology -- including technologies with potential nuclear applications. The Bush Administration has covered-up the scandal involving the loans to Iraq through the Atlanta branch of BNL. Marvin Shoob, the judge in the BNL case concluded that, "either the CIA or the Justice Department or both have misled me." [GAO 11/90; WP, 7/22/92; LAT, 2/4/92, 2/13/92, 10/13/92]. QUAYLE'S ROLE IN THE PHILIPPINE INCIDENT RHETORIC: "I was tested under fire and in a crisis... I talked to President Aquino. I made the recommendation to the president. The president made the decision, the coup was suppressed, democracy continued in the Philippines, the situation was ended." REALITY: Dan Quayle's memory of his role is clouded. According to The Commanders, "White House Counsel Boyden Gray, who'd been called to the Situation Room to handle the legal implications of any decision to intervene, thought [Philippine President Corazon] Aquino sounded more in charge than Quayle. But to Gray, the most important performance during those early morning hours was Powell's. Not only was the Chairman back-stopping Quayle, but his had been the only voice to challenge the growing consensus that Mrs. Aquino's initial request for bombing should be approved." [The Commanders, p. 151] BUSH/QUAYLE WILL CREATE NEW JOBS RHETORIC: "We have a plan to create new jobs." REALITY: Bush and Quayle have no plan. All they have to offer is warmed-over trickle-down economics, the same policies that have led to the loss of 1.4 million manufacturing jobs and 35,000 private sector jobs since Bush took office. [BLS.] As the Washington Post reported on the President's plan, "Some Republicans complained privately that the speech was months too late to be credible and represented mainly a repackaging of old ideas." [Washington Post, 9/11/92] REALITY: Bush has no vision for America's economic future: As John Sculley, CEO of Apple Computer put it, "I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines and watching America lose its competitiveness ... President Bush has lost the ability to govern this country in terms of its economic leadership. People just don't believe him anymore." [CNN "Moneyline" 9/22/92] EXPORTING JOBS OVERSEAS RHETORIC: "We have never subsidized any country--or any company to move from the United States to Latin America... We do not have any program that encourages companies to close down here and to go and invest on foreign soil. That is absolutely outrageous." REALITY: "60 Minutes" and "Nightline" recently revealed that taxpayers have paid over $289 million for the United States Agency for International Development and other agencies to encourage U.S. firms to move to Central America, with low-interest loans, subsidized worker training, construction of offices or factories, and elimination or reduction of tariffs. Over the past two years, the U.S. government has spent about $150 million for job creation in the Caribbean, while only spending $100 million for retraining American workers. ["Nightline", 9/29/92; CBS, "60 Minutes" 9/27/92; LAT, 9/24/92] REALITY: U.S. AID gave $102 million to an El Salvadorian "trade promotion" organization, called FUSADES, which took out ads in U.S. trade journals touting incentives for relocation to Central America -- an effort specifically steered by a U.S. AID directive. [Letter to Congress from R. Ray Radlett, Asst. Admin. for Legis. Affairs, U.S. AID; U.S. AID Project Paper, 3/91; Bobbin Magazine, 8/91] BUSH'S PLAN MAKES HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE/AFFORDABLE TO ALL RHETORIC: "[Bush] wants to go out and to reform the health care system so that every American will have available to them affordable health insurance." REALITY: A bipartisan panel of three Republican and two Democratic health experts says that the Clinton health care plan will save the average family $1179 more every year than Bush's plan; insure all Americans, while the Bush plan would leave 27 million people uninsured; save $746 billion, even after covering every American, while the Bush plan would save only $157 billion. [Washington Post, 10/2/92] WINNING THE COLD WAR RHETORIC: "We won the Cold War." REALITY: Who won the Cold War is not a partisan issue. To portray it as one is an insult to all Americans--Republicans and Democrats--who sacrificed so much during the Cold War. It is an insult to the bipartisan tradition in American foreign policy of supporting freedom and democracy around the world. Harry Truman, Arthur Vandenberg, John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, and Ronald Reagan all played bipartisan roles in winning the Cold War. It is also an insult to the brave people of the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union who suffered behind the Iron Curtain and then threw off the yoke of communism. BUSH/QUAYLE HAVE A "GOOD" ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD RHETORIC: "Look at the president's record: clean air legislation passed the Democratic Congress because of the leadership of George Bush... We are firmly behind preserving our environment, and we have a good record with which to stand." REALITY: Although Quayle brags about the Clean Air Act and Bush has praised it as "the most ambitious pollution legislation anywhere on earth", the Sierra Club recently accused the Bush administration of "gut[ting] Clean Air rules". Bush is being sued by Rep. Waxman -- whose subcommittee initiated the Clean Air Act -- for violations of Clean Air Act statutes. And Dan Quayle's Competitiveness Council has proposed more than 100 weakening changes in Clean Air Act regulations. [AP, 6/5/92; NYT, 8/4/92; Sierra Club, 9/4/92; Bush speech, 6/1/92] CONGRESS HAS HAD BUSH PROPOSAL FOR 8 MONTHS RHETORIC: "President Bush has had his health care reform proposal on Capitol Hill for eight months." REALITY: Bush had been in office 1,112 days before he introduced his health care proposal. And now, 249 days later, he has still not sent legislation for his tax credit and voucher system -- the core of his program -- to Congress. [Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, news conference, 9/9/92] BUSH DIDN'T WAIT 3 1/2 YEARS FOR HEALTH CARE PLAN RHETORIC: "He didn't wait three and a half years [to propose his health care plan]" REALITY: Although Bush charged Secretary Sullivan to develop recommendations on health care reform by the end of 1990, it was not until February, 1992, right before the New Hampshire primary - - three years after taking office and two years after his 1990 State of the Union -- that Bush finally announced his health care plan. He has yet to propose a funding mechanism. [USA Today, 2/7/92; L.A. Times, 2/7/92] QUAYLE CONSISTENT ON CHOICE RHETORIC: [On choice] "one thing I don't think it's wise to do, and that is to change your position." REALITY: During the 1988 campaign, when was asked by a 12 year-old girl if she should have a baby after being impregnated by her father, Quayle responded: "Yes." Yet when asked during the 1992 campaign if he believed "that there is a case for abortion, especially in the case of... incest?", Quayle responded, "Yeah. That goes without saying." [Reuters, 10/25/88; David Frost Interview, 9/24/92] BUSH HAS PUSHED FOR ENTERPRISE ZONES RHETORIC: "Enterprise zones are very important and it's an idea that the President has been pushing." REALITY: Bush vetoed the Tax Fairness and Economic Growth Acceleration Act, including its enterprise zone provisions, because it raised taxes on the richest 1% of Americans. Bush dropped enterprise zones, which are designed to spur investment in poor inner-city areas from his economic recovery package to make room for a repeal of the luxury tax on yachts. [LAT, 5/13/92; Business Week, 5/25/92] BUSH SUPPORTS FAMILY LEAVE RHETORIC: "Under President Bush's health care reform package that woman won't have to make a choice about going back to work or health care for her children, because she'll have both." REALITY: Despite a campaign pledge to "assure that women don't have to worry about getting their jobs back after having a child or caring for a child during a serious illness," Bush vetoed the Family and Medical Leave Act twice. [Bush Statement, 9/11/88; Washington Post, 6/30/90; AP, 9/22/92] REALITY: Bush's new tax credit family leave proposal seeks to provide incentives for companies to voluntarily provide leave. It does not guarantee that employers will grant leave nor does it ensure that employees will be able to return to their job after the leave -- the very job security that Bush originally promised in 1988. [LAT, 9/17/92] LITHUANIA RHETORIC: "I was in Vilnius, Lithuania speaking to 10,000 people in the middle of winter. Hundreds of people came up to me and said 'God bless America.'" REALITY: For over forty years, the United States refused to recognize Soviet claims to the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. But when the moment of Baltic independence arrived, George Bush refused to grant recognition of the Baltics. He said: "I don't want to be a part of making a mistake that might contribute to anarchy in the Soviet Union." [Washington Post, August 27, 1991] The United States was 37th among the world's nations to extend diplomatic recognition to these countries. We should have been first. -30-