Dole Rips Clinton's Spending Proposals

COSTA MESA, Calif. (AllPolitics, Aug. 30) -- Republican Robert Dole told a sun-splashed rally today that the choice in November is between old-style liberalism and a GOP vision that trusts people to make their own decisions. (116 WAV sound)

Dole, who vowed to fight hard for California's 54 electoral votes, poked fun at rival Bill Clinton's Midwestern train trip and his daily, expensive policy initiatives in education, the environment and other areas.

"They were on the Status Quo Express all week," Dole told the rally. "That train that went around, every time they stopped, they dropped off a couple billion of your dollars."

"We added up the cost," Dole said. "It cost the taxpayers $12 million a mile, $12 million a mile for that train ride of President Clinton's." (248 WAV sound)

"I believe they're on the wrong track...so we're going to give them another track, the track back to Little Rock, the track back to Tennessee," the Republican presidential candidate said, to hearty applause.

Dole also offered a spirited defense of his 15 percent tax cut plan, saying Republican governors have already demonstrated it's possible to cut taxes and balance a budget at the same time. Dole said he wouldn't make a promise he could not keep.

Dole said the Clinton Administration has "a million little plans for how the government can dictate to the American people what they think is best, what the government thinks is best."

Dole said he and running mate Jack Kemp, in contrast, "have one big plan -- give American families back more of their hard-earned money, because we believe the people can run their own lives better than any government bureaucracy ever can and ever will."

Dole said his tax plan, which includes a $500 per child tax credit, is "a pro-growth, pro-family program."

The Orange County crowd reacted enthusiastically, although there were a pocket of people carrying Clinton-Gore signs, too. Dole said he hopes for a victory margin of 425,000 votes in the county, although as the region has grown, it has shed some of its reputation for rock-ribbed conservatism.

Dole criticized the president as a Johnny-come-lately for proposing a capital gains tax exemption for home-sellers in his Thursday night acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

"A little late, Mr. President," Dole said. "We've been out there talking about this for weeks and weeks and weeks."

"If everything that he's for we're already for, why shouldn't we be there instead of him?" Dole asked. "If you haven't got any ideas, get out of the way. We've got the ideas. We've got the agenda for America."

Dole also ripped Clinton for raising a white flag in the war on illegal drugs and he vowed to use the military and National Guard more effectively to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the country.

"Every single person who works in a Dole-Kemp administration, from the highest cabinet officer all the way down the line, will speak with one voice," Dole said. "Drug use is wrong and will not be tolerated in a Dole-Kemp administration." (165 WAV sound)

From California, Dole was headed to a rally in New Mexico before returning to Washington, D.C.

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Dole Rips Clinton's Spending Proposals

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