Posted by Clinton/Gore Email Remarks of SEN. AL GORE Friday, October 30, 1992 Manchester, New Hampshire An election is a defining moment in America. It should be a time when we recognize that we stand on common ground and share common hopes. It should be a time to consider how we want our government to act in our common interest and what we can accomplish together that we can't do on our own. It is also a time to reflect on America's place in the world. Today, we stand at the kind of crossroad that comes only once in a generation. The decisions we make in the next few years will determine much of what happens in the decades that follow --decades that belong to our children. But too many Americans no longer feel a sense of excitement about our country's future. As I've criss-crossed America, I've seen the pain and frustration of good people who have been hurt by a failed government whose leadership is out of touch with their needs and deepest values, a government whose economic policy sacrifices the needs of the many for the privileges of the few. Here in New Hampshire, better than in most places, you understand what I'm saying. The failed economic policies of George Bush and Dan Quayle long ago kicked New Hampshire in the stomach and took the wind out of your economy. Here in New Hampshire you're still struggling to recover and survive the Bush-Quayle legacy of recession, unemployment, bankruptcies, -- the worst economic performance since the Great Depression. When George Bush was elected, his first words were, "Thanks, New Hampshire." But today, the people of New Hampshire have to ask George Bush, "Thanks for what?" Record-high unemployment? Lost jobs? Failed businesses? The second highest tax cut in America's history? American children have suffered most. Today, astonishingly, almost 15 million children-- one in five -- live in poverty. Their schools are no longer wellsprings of growth -- or even safe havens. In many urban areas, their streets ring with gunfire. Just like all fathers, I worry about what the future holds for my children. As a parent, I care deeply about what kind of country and what kind of world we will leave to our children. We all care, but during the last 12 years, the American people were sold an economic lie that ripped apart the very fabric of our nation, leaving the future and their dreams in tatters. We were invited by the Reagan and Bush Administrations to live as if there was no tomorrow, to spend with no thought of who would pay, or how. Now, my children and yours are saddled with a national debt that has quadrupled during just 12 years, a national debt that hangs like a dead weight on today's economy. But it's not only our children's economic inheritance that has been squandered or today's economy that's been destroyed. The Reagan and Bush Administrations have risked our children's environmental inheritance as well. I've talked to farmers in the Midwest who fear that the chemicals they've sprayed on croplands are now contaminating the ground-water that they and their children drink. I've talked with people in Tennessee, Colorado, South Carolina, and Washington who are afraid that the waste from nuclear weapons facilities may seep into their land and water. I've talked to parents in dozens of cities who are frightened of lead poisoning and air pollution. I've stood in school rooms around the nation listening to children voice their own passionate concerns, asking what kids can do to protect the Earth and why adults aren't doing more. And, perhaps most tellingly, I've seen first hand the crushing disappointment and embarrassment of the American people who travelled to the Earth Summit in Rio or watched and read of the proceedings there-- hoping and expecting leadership from President Bush -- but receiving from him only a callous disregard and contempt for their concerns and those of other people around the world. It is time for change. It is time to bring prosperity and hope back to America, and to reclaim the future for our children. Bill Clinton and I understand that Americans care deeply about the kind of economy we build. We don't want a temporary boom with hell to pay later. We want an economic success story that promises safety and peace as well as prosperity to our children and grandchildren. The new American dream is of an economy that flourishes without poisoning the water, the air, or the land, and offers opportunity and hope for every American willing to work for it. Bill Clinton and I share this dream, and we know that it can be realized. We also know that no economy -- no economy -- can flourish if the natural resource base that supports it has been destroyed. George Bush and Dan Quayle don't understand that. George Bush and Dan Quayle have exploited the fears of American workers --fears rooted in the failed economic performance of the Bush-Quayle Administration--by distorting a concern for the environment into a choice between jobs and the environment. It's a false choice. And it's a shameless attempt to shift the blame for their own failed "trickle down" economic policies and an environmental record committed only to protecting polluters. If George Bush and Dan Quayle were right, Germany and Japan -- who enforce regulations that are as stringent or more stringent than U.S. environmental protections -- would be in dire economic straits. If George Bush and Dan Quayle were right, then the Eastern European nations, who followed the path George Bush and Dan Quayle suggest and sacrificed their environment for their economies would be economic powerhouses instead of economic and environmental wastelands. If George Bush and Dan Quayle were right, then the one sector of our economy that has shown impressive growth over the last four years -- the environmental products and services industries -- would have been dead in the water like most of the rest of our economy, victimized by the failed Bush-Quayle trickle down policies. The fact is, even as George Bush and Dan Quayle were driving the U.S. the economy into a ditch, environmental businesses grew six times as fast as the overall US economy. In 1991, in the midst of a recession, America's 40 largest environmental firms reported payroll increases -- of nearly 9 percent. There is a reason the Japanese are calling this new market for environmental technologies and services the fastest growing and biggest new opportunity in the history of world business. Bill Clinton and I want to harness the creative force and incredible power of American science, technology, and private enterprise. We want to draw on the strengths that have made our nation the greatest fountain of technological progress the world has ever known. For most of this century, American universities and research institutions have produced the world's finest scientists and engineers. And by offering creative genius unparalleled opportunities to explore ideas and to realize dreams, America has become the adopted home of countless other researchers and technicians from every corner of the world. For the last half-century, much of that talent has been devoted to producing the weapons of war. Now it's time to invest it in the effort to increase economic prosperity while sustaining the environment. Today, I challenge America's youth to become part of this effort to protect our environmental security. Bill Clinton and I want to challenge our children to learn how to use and manage America's great natural wealth creatively. We ask them to stay in school, to stick with the science and math courses that will prepare them for a sophisticated world where knowledge of technology and the natural world is a moral responsibility, as well as a gateway to new careers and a source of personal satisfaction. I also challenge private enterprise -- whether entrepreneurs starting small or transnational corporations thinking big -- to make America the world leader in developing and marketing the high technologies of the 21st Century. With pride, American business will export clean technology and create worthwhile, high-paying jobs at home. Government can be an effective partner in this push toward greatness. Bill Clinton and I will work with industry to set goals and provide the right incentives to help the private sector profit from solving environmental problems. We'll provide targeted investment tax credits to help industries move from old, polluting technologies to the new and efficient technologies that are the key to competing in our global marketplace. And we'll bring the best and brightest in our national labs together in partnership with industry to produce the technologies of the future. We'll also harness the resources of our agencies with international expertise to help industries identify important markets for their products overseas. We'll promote the export of American products -- not American jobs. During the Cold War, our government's partnership with the private sector succeeded because the mission was clear and shared. Today, the pace of innovation in the U.S. is dragging not so much because of limits on what we can do, but rather limits on our ability to agree upon what is worth doing. George Bush and Dan Quayle say we can't afford to invest in environmental protection. Bill Clinton and I say that we can't afford not to. The innovations needed to restore and protect the environment are the same innovations needed to keep our productivity growing and our economy competitive. Our economic pulse won't quicken without a vision of the world we want to see and of the future we want to build for our children, and that will require two things: a new style of leadership and full participation in the new technological revolution that will spur economic growth in a way that preserves our environment. Even though our country gave impetus to this powerful revolution and nurtured it for decades, in the last 12 years the Bush-Quayle and Reagan-Bush Administrations have in many ways forfeited our lead. During their years, our country wasted resources that should have been used to create jobs and re-kindle the kind of innovation needed to spur growth and protect the environment. They encouraged do-nothing investment in junk bonds, leveraged buy-outs, and real-estate speculation when we should have been investing every dollar we could in smart people and smart machines. George Bush and Dan Quayle found a thousand points of blame to explain why they couldn't solve our economic and environmental problems. The truth is that just as they've turned their backs on unemployed workers who need jobs, they've simply turned their backs on the profound concerns the American people have about the health of our planet. In doing that, George Bush and Dan Quayle also blinded themselves to the powerful opportunities available to us if we take charge and lead the environmental revolution. George Bush and Dan Quayle say they are fighting to protect American jobs, but the truth is, if the US were as energy efficient as Japan, we would save $200 billion every year -- money that could be used to create jobs and reinvest in America, and the American people. And why is it that German workers are paid on average nearly $7 more per hour than US workers? Precisely because they use resources more efficiently than we do and they pollute less. The real truth is that George Bush and Dan Quayle are undermining our childrens' future in order to protect their big polluting buddies and their own jobs. They are falling back on the same tired old formula for the environment that they've already applied unsuccessfully to the economy: ignore the problems, obstruct change, and -- in the end -- let the damage accumulate for future generations to confront. They have failed to revive our economy and they have failed to protect our environment. George Bush has gotten so desperate, he's been reduced to name calling. "Mr. Ozone" he calls me, or sometimes, just "Ozone" for short. Maybe he's gotten too much sun. The fact is, he dishonors the American people who care deeply about our environment and recognize the urgent need for action. But then, if I was forced to run on George Bush's environmental record, I might be tempted to stoop to name calling too. But you know the old saying about sticks and stones. The problem with George Bush is that he's got the name-calling theory of campaigning and the sticks and stones theory of governing -- with policies that hurt our environment and hold back our economy. We have, of course, heard many professions of concern and commitment to the environment from George Bush. In 1988, candidate Bush promised to take action to protect the environment and even said that he would be the "Environmental President." Dan Quayle may be the only person left in America who doesn't laugh when they hear that. The truth is that over the last four years he has worked overtime to undermine our environmental safeguards. In 1988 he promised to clean up the air our children breathe -- but instead he gave polluters the right to increase the amount of toxic chemicals they spew into the air. George Bush promised to preserve America's remaining wetlands -- but instead he simply defined them nearly out of existence. He said that he would get tough on trash. Little did we know that meant that he would block every effort by EPA and the Congress to encourage recycling. And worse yet -- until a howl of protest by both Democratic and Republican Governors forced him to change course several weeks ago -- he proposed to add hazardous wastes to the heap. He wanted to allow his big polluting buddies to throw their dangerous chemicals right in your town dump. The list of George Bush's broken promises on the environment goes on and on. In 1988, candidate Bush promised to "...pay special attention to the condition and management of our parks." Last month, we discovered what he meant. Let's open them up for strip mining, he said. And what about our ancient forests? George Bush is sacrificing them -- and US jobs -- by selling off some of our oldest and most majestic trees to Japan. And for what? About sixty cents each -- half the price of a cheeseburger. If we follow George Bush's policy, we'll lose jobs and trees, though had he shown real leadership we could have saved both. We still can. It doesn't have to be that way. Bill Clinton and I will work with Congress and industry to get our priorities straight and streamline environmental regulations, benefitting business as well as the environment. We will use market forces wherever possible to accomplish our goals, an approach that will encourage innovation and flexibility. George Bush and Dan Quayle say environmental protection means a regulatory nightmare. Bill Clinton and I say that a smart government guides economic activity toward greater efficiency, competitiveness, and environmental security. George Bush and Dan Quayle have nothing more original to propose than a ban on all new regulations -- a shameful retreat from both reality and responsible government. According to a confidential EPA report, George Bush and Dan Quayle have blocked seventy-six new regulations that EPA prepared to implement the Clean Air Act and other vital environmental laws. The EPA report says that the Administration's actions are "illegal, and ...not consistent with the goal of protecting human health and the environment." This week -- in a last minute attempt to fool us once again about the sincerity of his environmental concerns -- George Bush treated us to a show that reaches even higher levels of hypocrisy. Regulations long delayed by OMB are now being pushed hurriedly out the door. Only problem is, they're rolling right over the experts at EPA in the process and instead of reducing pollution, opening the door to increasing pollution. And now, most recently, we learn that Administration is poised to weaken the Clean Air Act yet again, but they're waiting until after the election to do it. When George Bush hasn't been able to defeat environmental laws outright, he has tried to damn them with faint enforcement, to redefine them in obscure regulatory proceedings, or even to undo them behind the closed doors of Dan Quayle's so-called "Competitiveness Council."--where George Bush's and Dan Quayle's polluting friends can line up for favors and exemptions from the law. A report released Thursday concludes that the Department of Justice is letting polluters off the hook -- sometimes for political reasons -- in a department marked by chronic mismanagement and lax enforcement. It is time for change. As this extraordinary century closes, we are witnessing the stunning end of political, economic, and military structures that have defined our view of the world since 1945. Now, our epic struggle with communism no longer dominates the shaping of American foreign policy. Now, nations around the globe, boldly aspire to American-style democracy and a free market economy. Yet at the same time, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the challenge that for decades helped us clarify our priorities and our mission has vanished. Only twice before in this century -- in the immediate aftermath of two great World Wars -- has the international order shifted so profoundly. And both times, the world has looked to the United States for leadership. Now America's challenge, made even harder by our economic stall, is once again to define a new international role. How will we respond? Will we shrink from our international responsibilities? Or will we instead rise to the challenge of global leadership? Bill Clinton and I believe that we have no choice: if America fails to lead, then we risk creating a vacuum that will be filled by nations whose values, priorities, and goals are different from our own. Indeed, this possibility was in fact a reality at the Earth Summit in Rio in June. No longer was the United States the moral force calling for action in the face of a grave threat to peace and stability in the world. George Bush ceded that role to the Europeans and the Small Island nations of the South Pacific whose very existence is threatened by the intense storms and sea level rises that are predicted as a result of global warming. And -- ominously for our economic and environmental security -- no longer was the United States the guiding force on how we can meet this challenge -- and prosper. George Bush ceded that role to the Germans and Japanese and other nations who clearly recognize that a technological revolution is coming and who are gearing up to lead it while George Bush cowers on the sidelines. Certainly we must maintain the strength of our military forces. But we also must realize that sheer force will be powerless against some of the most pressing new challenges we face in the post-Cold War world. As the summit declaration by the superpowers on the U.N. Security Council put it earlier this year, the great destabilizers are increasingly social, humanitarian, and ecological abuses -- non-military threats to peace and security. America -- and every other nation -- is now increasingly vulnerable to environmental threats that recognize no borders. Acid rain, global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, the radiation cloud released at Chernobyl, depleted and despoiled water resources, refugees fleeing exhausted lands, or dying from famine all make it clear that no nation will be able to protect its environment without the cooperation of other nations. It's no longer charity that moves us to address global problems. Now it's a matter of the mutual self-interest of all nations. And again, this message was profoundly apparent to leaders from around the world at the Earth Summit in Rio in June. From North and from South; from industrialized countries and from developing countries, there was a compelling awareness that we simply cannot realize our hopes for social and economic progress without also making great strides in sustainably managing and replenishing the natural resources of the planet. George Bush was isolated at the Earth Summit. Because of his determination to protect heavily polluting industries, George Bush obstructed the efforts of almost every other nation on earth to work toward a healthier and more prosperous planet. He made sure that the climate change treaty was weakened; he undermined the negotiations on the biodiversity treaty; and he insisted that only developing countries should have to preserve their forests. George Bush has been a one-man wrecking crew, the source of setback after setback for the U.S. and the world community. He's stopped dead the clear and coordinated plan of action so many countries had worked hard to craft and destroyed important new economic opportunities for the U.S. and its workers. As George Bush was stubbornly refusing to participate in the Earth Summit because he said it would cost American jobs, the Germans and Japanese were busy demonstrating their efficient new technologies to leaders from around the world. The Japanese encouraged hundreds of their industries to display their new environmentally conscious products in Rio. And 700 did so. Barely 25 U.S. businesses participated. And, because of George Bush's tactics, the Venezuelans and other Latin American countries are now closing their doors to US researchers and institutions. This could be a devastating blow to industries like biotechnology that hold tremendous promise to stimulate economic growth. "Sustainable growth" is more than a mere slogan. It represents a new guiding principle of economic and environmental development the world over. Increasingly, markets will be defined by technologies, goods, and services that promote environmentally sound economic growth. This trend -- so clear to all except George Bush and Dan Quayle -- represents a global imperative and an American opportunity. Our economic competitors recognize the size and importance of the global market for environmentally sound products and technologies. They are preparing for an economic race, and so must we. The global market for green goods and technologies will total an estimated $3 trillion over the next eight years, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is big business, and a big opportunity to create American jobs and spur American economic growth. In Germany, Japan, and other countries, governments are teaming up with industry to make the most of this new opportunity. More than 4 percent of the German government's R&D budget went to environmental research in 1990. The European Community's research arm received 7.6 percent of its budget; its equivalent in the U.S. received a paltry 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, Japan has a government-industry partnership to produce environmental technology for the 21st century. Its powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) recently unveiled an ambitious $13 billion environmental research program that will make Japan a major exporter of environmental technologies in the 1990's. Tokyo's pledge at the Earth Summit to provide $8 billion in international environmental aid will pave the way for Japan's green export machine. And as a senior Japanese executive recently told Business Week magazine: "If U.S. companies don't move aggressively, we will see the same conflict in environmental technology that we see today between GM and Honda." In the last industrial revolution, the economic prizes went to nations that exploited their natural resources with swashbuckling abandon. The winners of the next revolution will be those nations that recognize environmental stewardship as an economic opportunity and learn to profit from efficiency and imagination. We can lead this revolution. We can regain global economic and environmental leadership by harnessing the incredible power of American education, science, technology, and private enterprise. A Clinton Administration will build a new partnership with the American people. That partnership will be built on a genuine commitment to leave our children a better nation whose air, water, and land are unspoiled; whose natural beauty is undimmed; and whose leadership for sustainable growth is unsurpassed. We will challenge Americans and demand responsibility at every level from individuals, families, communities, corporations, and government agencies to do more to preserve the quality of our environment -- and at the same time to improve the quality of our lives. An important part of this partnership for environmental progress must be for the United States to exert international leadership on issues threatening the health of the planet. The Cold War is over, and we have entered a new era in which threats to our security may be less evident, but they are no less dangerous, then before. If we do not find the vision and leadership to defeat the unprecedented new threats of global climate change, ozone depletion, habitat destruction, desertification, and pollution of water resources, then those threats could well defeat us. If we do find that vision, there is hope for tremendous economic opportunity and progress. Peace, prosperity, and national pride are all at stake as we take up the questions at the heart of this election: Will we leave this great nation and our irreplaceable earth in better condition than we found them? And will we do right by our kids? What George Bush and Dan Quayle can't seem to remember is something that the rest of us can't forget: our environment is literally the common ground of generations past and generations to come. We care about the environment and the natural bounty of our rich land because we care about the world we live in and the future of America and our children. Cherishing our natural heritage is something that unites, not divides us as a nation. It is a thread that runs throughout our rich cultural fabric. Over the last several years, I have worked with the leaders of every major religious denomination in the United States as they have expressed their profound commitment to preserving and protecting the environment. In an unusual but invaluable coalition between people of faith and people of science, Catholic Bishops, evangelical Christians, orthodox Rabbis, heads of Protestant denominations have joined with our nation's scientists to dedicate themselves, in their words, "to undertake bold action to cherish and protect the environment." This is the main-stream, not the ex-treme. This is the voice of Americans everywhere, a voice that George Bush, in his divisive and deceptive political campaign, refuses to hear. Bill Clinton and I understand the passion of the American people who value the land and natural wealth that our parents and our children have entrusted to us and we understand the frustration of hard-working people too long out of work. We recognize what America knows: reviving our economy demands protections for our environment. We're ready to do more than just talk about it. ##################