August 18, 1992 PRESIDENT BUSH'S DOMESTIC AGENDA: PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES President Bush's

August 18, 1992

                PRESIDENT BUSH'S DOMESTIC AGENDA:
                     PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES

President Bush's domestic initiatives are built on his commitment
to:

o    Promote individuals' choices through decentralization.
o    Put market forces to work to attain domestic goals, instead of
     monopoly and government mandates.
o    Design government policies to ensure family security -- both
     economic security through growth and investment, and physical
     security through new initiatives to fight crime.
o    Combine market incentives and choices to promote traditional
     family values.

Promoting individuals' choices:

o    Child Care:  In 1990, the President fought for and won a child
     care act that preserved parents' ability to choose their
     child's care.  Democrats, on the other hand, pushed a bill
     that would have subjected so-called informal care arrangements
     -- care offered by friends, relatives, and religious
     organizations -- to federal licensing requirements.  The
     President also provided economic help in the form of tax
     credits to low- and middle-income Americans to make choice in
     child care affordable.

o    Education:  The President is fighting to give parents the
     power to choose their child's school -- public, private, or
     religious.  Parental choice creates competition among schools,
     which forces schools to invest in excellence.  In keeping with
     the principle of decentralization, choice also directs the
     pressure for school reform at the level that matters most: 
     parents and teachers working together in individual schools. 
     
     --   Again, the President provided the economic support needed
          to make choice real:  his GI Bill for Children will
          provide $1,000 scholarships directly to parents to cover
          school costs.  The President's proposal will also reward
          public schools chosen by parents, letting them keep
          scholarship money from children to invest in better
          resources and instruction.

Putting Market Forces to Work

o    Clean Air Act:  The President insisted on a Clean Air Act that
     provided innovative tradable emission credits.  Instead of
     mandating emission limits for individual factories, the Act
     sets overall emission reduction requirements and leaves it up
     to each firm to, among other things, trade pollution
     allowances.  

     --   This measure will give industry strong incentives to
          invest in better environmental protection equipment and
          to close older, costly, more polluting plants.  

     --   The Act also achieves the same goal -- an overall
          reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions -- as would happen
          using mandates, without creating unnecessary costs and
          second-guessing by Washington bureaucrats that penalize
          industrial productivity.

o    Another example of market incentives at work is the
     President's "Cash for Clunkers" program which encourages
     industry to purchase old, inefficient cars and destroy them. 
     Companies are allowed to add to their emissions allowances the
     amount of sulfur dioxide that otherwise would be released by
     that car.  

     --   This market-based approach contrasts sharply with Clinton
          and Gore's advocacy of a steep and costly increase in
          auto efficiency standards.  Their approach would impair
          the American auto industry and cost in the near term, the
          jobs of at least 150,000 auto workers.  The President's
          approach achieves the same goal -- a cleaner environment
          -- while actually increasing demand for automobiles:  as
          old "clunkers" are retired, more modern, efficient cars
          will be purchased.

Ensuring Family Security

o    Economic Security:  President Bush's initiatives will
     strengthen the family by easing the cost of raising a child,
     making real the dream of home ownership, and making it easier
     for families to invest and save for their future.  The
     President has proposed to:

     --   increase the per child personal exemption by $500 to ease
          the cost of raising a child;

     --   enact a $5,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers to
          help hundreds of American families achieve the dream of
          home ownership -- and create at least 272,000 jobs in the
          real estate and construction sectors; 
     
     --   create Flexible IRA Accounts that allow penalty-free
          withdrawals for first-time homebuyers, and to pay
          educational and medical expenses;

     --   permit the deduction of interest on student loans, to
          help parents afford their children's college education or
          recent graduates to pay off their debts without
          defaulting on loans;

o    Child Support Enforcement:  The President is ensuring that
     absent parents meet their financial responsibilities,
     expanding the Federal efforts to collect child support
     payments.  The President has increased child support
     collections through mandatory wage withholding, and
     establishing paternity in a range of cases.

     --   In 1986, child support orders recovered by the Federal
          government totalled just $3.2 billion.  Last year,
          recoveries had more than doubled to $6.9 billion.

o    Health Care:  The President's reforms address the two major
     problems facing the U.S. health care system -- the increasing
     cost of health care coverage and the inadequate access of
     working Americans to quality care.  The President's reforms
     make quality care accessible by making it affordable.

     --   President Bush's plan would make a transferable health
          insurance credit or tax deduction (up to $3,750)
          available to moderate and low income families to cover
          health insurance costs.  When fully implemented,
          approximately 95 million citizens would receive this
          assistance.

     --   If this plan were in effect today, a family of four
          earning $30,000 would be able to deduct (or receive a
          credit) up to $3,750 in health insurance costs -- fully
          12% of taxable income.  In 1990, for example, private
          health insurance costs averaged $1,181 per capita. Thus,
          with the President's deduction starting at $1,250,
          virtually every American can be certain that their health
          insurance costs will be covered by the President's
          deduction. 

     --   The President's plan will eliminate "job-lock" and limits
          on coverage due to "preexisting conditions" -- problems
          that keep workers from changing jobs for fear of losing
          health coverage.

o    Physical Security -- Fighting Crime:  President Bush has been
     fighting a war on crime and drugs that is achieving results:

     --   Thanks to Reagan and Bush law and order prosecutors, the
          number of criminals convicted of federal crimes jumped
          63% from 1980 to 1990.  Of those convicted, more than
          twice as many were sentenced to prison in 1990 than were
          sentenced in 1980.  Tough Reagan and Bush judges
          sentenced criminals to prison for 30% more time than
          criminals sentenced in 1980.

     --   Even more impressive progress has been made in getting
          drug criminals off the streets.  Under President Bush,
          those convicted of federal drug crimes serve, on average,
          40% more time in prison than criminals sentenced before
          1989.  Drug criminals now spend on average six and a half
          years in prison.

     --   In fiscal years 1990-91, federal law enforcement agencies
          seized more than $5 billion in cash and assets from drug
          dealers, money launderers and racketeers.  Of this
          amount, more than $500 million went to building new
          prisons to hold other criminals.

     --   The President has established "Weed and Seed" projects in
          20 cities.  Federal agents will help local police reclaim
          crime-ravaged neighborhoods by "weeding" out drug
          traffickers and gang leaders and then revitalizing the
          communities by "seeding" them with new opportunity --
          investment, jobs, and drug treatment.

     --   The President has also doubled to 31 the number of cities
          with Federal anti-gang task forces and reassigned 300 FBI
          agents to work with local authorities in cracking down on
          gang crimes.

     --   President Bush launched "Operation Triggerlock" to
          prosecute career criminals for use of guns in felonies.

o    Reforming Welfare:  Welfare was originally intended as
     temporary help for those in need, allowing them a chance to
     get back on their feet.  Unfortunately, for too many it has
     become a way of life.

     --   President Bush has established new objectives for welfare
          to end the cycle of dependency.  Requiring those on
          welfare to work and behave responsibly will make
          dependent recipients productive again, and will prevent
          the current generation of children from becoming another
          generation of welfare parents.
  
     The President is accelerating welfare reform by removing
     federal barriers that limit the extent of reform.  Already the
     President has approved waivers for pro-family, pro-
     responsibility initiatives in Wisconsin, California, New
     Jersey, Maryland, and Oregon.

     The President is also promoting welfare reforms to ensure that
     once off welfare, former dependents will stay off welfare for
     good.  The President has proposed to raise the maximum asset
     limit to $10,000 for families already on AFDC, and to allow
     families on AFDC to exclude some income from eligibility
     calculations.  These policies, if approved by the Congress,
     would end anomalies in federal programs that discourage work. 
     
Increasing Choice to Strengthen Traditional Family Values

o    The President's housing reforms use choice and empowerment to
     promote family values.  His HOPE Initiative (Home Ownership
     and Opportunity for People Everywhere) is helping low-income
     Americans to achieve the dream of home ownership, giving them
     a real stake in their own communities and its future.  The net
     result is a renewed ethic of self-reliance, and a beginning to
     the end of dependency.  
     --   The President is also promoting tenant management
          programs, that have cleaned up federal housing. 
          Residents sick and tired of drug dealers and urban blight
          have been empowered to evict drug dealers, manage
          property, and cooperate in community efforts.

o    The President supports flexible workplace arrangements which
     allow parents to spend more time with their children.  Among
     other options provided by the Bush Administration to federal
     employees are job sharing, telecommuting, and flexible work
     schedules.  These initiatives also save parents money on child
     care expenses.

o    George and Barbara Bush are the proud grandparents of adopted
     children.  They energetically promote adoption, not just as an
     alternative to abortion, but as a way of ennobling the lives
     and enriching the futures of parents and children alike.