« OUR CHILDREN »

Publicité de la campagne présidentielle de 1992 diffusée le 7 octobre 1992.

Our children dream of the world that we promise them as parents, a world of unlimited opportunity. What would they say if they knew that, by the year 2000, we will have left them with a national debt of $8 trillion?

What would they say to us if they knew that we are making them the first generation of Americans with a standard of living below the generation before them? We cannot do this to our children.

In this election, we have the opportunity to choose a candidate who is not a career politician but a proven business leader, with the ability to take on the tasks at hand, to balance the budget, to expand the tax base, to give our children back their American dream. The candidate is Ross Perot. The issue is children. The choice is yours.

 

« THE STORM »

Publicité de la campagne présidentielle de 1992 diffusée le 12 octobre 1992.

The national debt. It is a massive storm that is clouding America’s future, an ill wind that is destroying jobs. It is a debt so enormous that it will take one-third of the federal income tax collected this year just to pay the interest. $199 billion in interest that could be used to create jobs, but will only be lost in the storm.

When will it end? When we choose a candidate who understands that deficit spending is an irresponsible act of government, not an uncontrollable act of nature. A proven business leader who has the know-how to balance the budget, who will work with the free enterprise system rather than play politics. The candidate is Ross Perot. The issue is the national debt. The choice is yours.

 

« RESULTS, NO FREE CANDY »

Publicité de la campagne présidentielle de 1992 diffusée le 1er septembre 1991 sur la chaîne ABC.

Good evening. I am honored to be with you tonight.

I want to be your president for one reason: to solve the problems facing our nation and to pass on a better, stronger country to our children and grandchildren.

I love this country. I love the principles it was founded on. I don’t like to see those principles violated, and today they are being grossly violated.

I love the people in this country. I love the people who work hard, play by the rules, are good, law-abiding citizens who rear good children and do everything right. And I am totally committed to making the 21st century the greatest in our country’s history.

As president, I will be your servant. I will belong only to you, the people.

Our country has huge problems that must be solved now. We need action, not words. Time is our enemy. I have spent 40 years successfully solving complex problems. If we do not solve these problems soon, we will have a financial meltdown, and millions of great people in this country will suffer for decades.

I understand how to design, engineer, test and implement complicated systems. I know how to make them work in a cost-effective manner.

Going into the Great Depression of the 1930s, our government was a major asset because it was financially strong. Today, our government is over $5 trillion in debt. Most of this debt has been accumulated in the last 15 years.

How big is $5 trillion? It exceeds the total amount of currency in print. Even Forrest Gump can understand that this is too much debt.

Our government would be a major liability during a severe economic downturn. We cannot let that happen to our children and grandchildren.

You must be asking yourself, « Doesn’t the 1993 tax increase, the largest in our country’s history, balance the budget? » No. You’ll see the deficit right here. You’ll notice it starts going up in late ’97-’98, and it takes off like a rocket in the 21st century.

In addition, the president’s Office of Management and Budget shows in a report that the debt in the year 2020 is expected by our government to be increasing at the rate of $1.4 trillion a year.

But hold on, there’s more. By the year 2030, the debt is expected to be increasing at the rate of $4.1 trillion a year.

Keep in mind, it took us 200 years to accumulate $5 trillion in debt, and yet in the year 2030, our government tells us it will be adding $4.1 trillion of debt each year.

If you’re not convinced that we have major financial problems, go to page 25 of the president’s 1995 budget, and you will see the forecast that says, the next generation to be born, a baby born tonight will pay an 82 percent tax rate. That is the end of the American dream.

But I have an interesting announcement for you. I want to tell you about our country’s new, number-one growth industry. We have a giant of a new growth industry, and guess what it is? It’s the growth of government.

There it is, right there. Dwarfs everything else. What is the product? Doesn’t have a product. Where does it get its money? From you, the taxpayers.

Well, surely, this giant makes a profit. No, it loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

Can we agree that this is not the kind of growth industry we need? We’re $5 trillion in debt, we’re spending $1.5 trillion a year to operate our country. The people should have Utopia. We all ought to be living in a mansion on the hill, with a yacht in Palm Beach and a Rolls Royce in the garage.

Personally, if you had spent that much money, you would have it all. The only problem would be how to pay the debt.

Question: Did the American people benefit from all this debt? The answer, sadly, is no. The standard of living has dropped for four out of five Americans and there has been a 20 percent drop in real wages since 1973.

Let’s look at the financial condition of our great country using the accounting formula « assets minus liabilities equals net worth. » This is on page 18 of the 1997 budget. You’ll see that our government says that the assets of the United States government are $2.3 trillion, the liabilities of the United States government are approximately $5.3 trillion, and we have a negative net worth of about $3 trillion.

In plain talk, we are bankrupt and our government does not even include these numbers _ $17 trillion in guarantees and unfunded liabilities. A publicly owned company that left out these numbers would be subject to criminal prosecution.

Remember, assets minus liabilities equal net worth. This is the largest bankruptcy in the history of man.

 

« CONSCESSION SPEECH »

Discours du 4 novembre 1992 à Dallas, TX.

I want to thank the millions of people across this country that did it. Nobody does it better. In California, it takes two years to create a party; they did it in just 18 days, and that shocked the system. And believe me, the system needs some shocks.

I want to thank the staff that’s worked tirelessly on this for doing an incredible job. And I particularly would like to thank Pat and Kay Choate, who are right here with us tonight. Pat, who’s done a fantastic job.

We had an incredibly talented team that put all those television shows together. They haven’t slept. If they’re here tonight _ and I know they’re here _ they’re probably standing up asleep tonight making up for lost time, because they’ve been going night and day. Thank you Tom and Mike and Bill, and thank the great crew from AMS. You are terrific.

We’re going to keep the pressure on on the major issues.

I think they’ve gotten the word on campaign finance reform, don’t you? They’ve repented and been reborn. My dream is they will go to heaven because they do what they say they’ll do, right?

Then it’s done. It’s done. But that’s got to stop. We have got to get that done, and we have got to get campaign reform in terms of the time for campaign and all that done. We must set the highest ethical and moral standards for the people who serve in our government. And all of that has got to be changed from rules to laws in the next four years, and we’re going to have to stand at the gate and keep the pressure on. And we will.

Now, we will not let our children and grandchildren pay an 82 percent tax rate, which our government forecasts they will. We’ve got to have a balanced budget amendment. We’ve got to have the plan to balance the budget. And all the things that you have fought so hard and so long for and we’ve got to stand at the gate to make sure that happens if we want to pass on a better, stronger country to our children.

We will make the 21st century the best in our country’s history, but you and I have to stay on watch. We have to keep the pressure on. And as I’ve said a thousand times to both parties, when they say « What does it take to make all of you people go away? » _ and that is « Do all of this, and then we don’t have anything to talk about, » right? It’s done.

Thank you. You’ve worked night and day, you’ve done a tremendous job. Take a little break, and then we’ll climb back in the ring and keep the pressure on to see that everybody keeps those promises, right?

And now let’s hear from Pat Choate.

Pat Choate: Thank you very much, Ross, Margot and everyone. Of course we give our heartfelt and best wishes to the president and congratulate him, and we hope for the sake of all that his administration will be the most brilliant and productive in American history.

We also, I think, need to note that this is a special and historic moment. Ten months ago one man, Ross Perot, made the call to create a third and new party in America. Under his leadership, thousands of volunteers across this country, true patriots, did what was necessary in a heroic effort to get this party on 50 state ballots; 1.4 million Americans had the courage to sign a ballot to create this party, and tonight, it appears that somewhere in the neighborhood of six to eight million people had the integrity to vote their conscience and make this party an absolute reality. What we can say tonight, now that this party has passed the five percent level and met the test, is that hence forth in America our policies and our governance will be dictated by a three-party system.

And if people think we’ve accomplished a lot in 10 months, wait till they give us 48 more months. That portion, those millions of voters who have voted for reform I think give us the mandate, a mandate to ask our president and our Congress for three things.

First is that the Congress and the Federal Election Commission mandate that in the presidential elections in the year 2000, that those debates be conducted by a nonpartisan commission that will absolutely guarantee that any party that qualifies for federal funds be in the debates.

Second, there is an abundant evidence that there’s been massive, willful, and knowing violation of the campaign finance laws of this country. We have the right, and we demand, that the attorney general appoint a special counsel to investigate those who attempted to steal the election. Let’s put it very bluntly. Those who attempt to steal the vote attempt to steal our freedom. It cannot be tolerated.

And third, and most of all, what this campaign has been about it has brought to the forefront the absolute need and the request from us that this president and Congress, as their first order of business, create real campaign finance reform and that it be applicable in the 1998 elections.

And finally, speaking for my wife, Kay, our family, and for, I’m sure, hundreds of thousands of other families across this country who are interested deeply in this country, I think all of us want to express our fundamental, profound appreciation for a man who made all of this possible, to Ross Perot, a great legacy.

Ross Perot: Thank you. Thank you. Listen, you all are the greatest. Keep up your good work. We wish the president and the Congress all the best. And if they will do what has to be done, we will be with them every step of the way. We don’t have four years to lose. Let’s try to get it done. But it must be done right.

No shams. No shams, no whitewash. Let’s get it done right. You can make the difference. God bless you all, and thank you very much.

 

« WE CAN’T AFFORD OBAMA»

Article soutenant Mitt Romney durant la campagne présidentielle de 2012, publié le 16 octobre 2012.

Our country faces a momentous choice. The fact is the United States is on an unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home and our constitutional freedoms.

That is why I am endorsing Mitt Romney for president. We can’t afford four more years in which debt mushrooms out of control, our government grows and our military is weakened.

For the past four years, we have squandered one opportunity after the next to turn things around. The longer we delay acting, the steeper the price we will have to pay.

Let’s look at the country as it is now.

The American economy is stagnant. Economic growth is insufficient to create enough jobs for a country whose population is growing. The result is unemployment stuck over 8 percent for every single month of Barack Obama’s presidency. We have 23 million Americans who are looking for work and either can’t find a full-time job, can’t find a job at all, or who have given up looking. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.

At the same time, and not unrelated, is the extraordinary explosion of federal deficits and federal debt. In the last four years during Obama’s presidency, he’s added around $5 trillion to our national debt, more than any previous president. This was accomplished by successive federal budgets that each ran deficits exceeding $1 trillion a year. It is this massive deficit spending that threatens to undermine our future standard of living. To pay for our government’s massive debts, Washington’s profligacy, our children and grandchildren will be paying interest and principal on the nation’s debt for untold years into the future. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.

Even as we have engaged in runaway domestic spending, the country has been put on the path to massive cuts in the defense budget. President Obama’s own Secretary of Defense has called the proposed cuts “devastating” to our nation’s security. History teaches that the price of military weakness always exceeds the price of preparedness. And yet at a moment when turbulence is sweeping critical regions of the world, we are increasingly unprepared. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.

It is for these reasons that I am endorsing Mitt Romney. He has spent most of his career in the private sector. He understands how jobs are created. He understands how government can get in the way of that process. As a president, he would do what this administration has been unable to do, which is reform our federal government, pare it back, and — most critically — keep it from acting as a brake on economic growth.

Equally important, as a governor, Mitt Romney balanced the budget of his state for four straight years without raising taxes. Writing in all caps is called shouting, and that fact is something that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. I should add that Gov. Romney accomplished this feat while working with a legislature that was overwhelmingly under the control of the Democratic Party in one of the most liberal states in the country. In short, although he is a rock-solid conservative, he knows how to reach across the aisle and make common cause with those with whom he disagrees.

These are leadership qualities that are sorely needed in Washington today. President Obama promised a great deal. He has had his chance. The results are visible for all to see. It is time for a new beginning. It is time for Mitt Romney.