Governor Thompson Delivers Remarks At The Republican National Convention

August 13, 1996

SPEAKERS LIST: WISCONSIN GOVERNOR TOMMY THOMPSON (R)

THOMPSON: How are you? Thank you, thank you so very much.

CROWD: Tommy, Tommy.

THOMPSON: Isn't it great to be a Republican?

(APPLAUSE)

CROWD: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

THOMPSON: Thank you. Republicans stand before you tonight to herald the biggest change in social policy in the last 60 years, the dismantling of the welfare system by Bob Dole and the Republican Congress.

(APPLAUSE)

Led by Bob Dole, we will bring new hope, opportunity and optimism to the families enslaved by the welfare narcotic.

(APPLAUSE)

For generations American's poor children have grown up knowing only the despair, desolation and destructiveness of welfare. Today, they can grow up knowing hope, opportunity and success as they live the American Dream.

(APPLAUSE)

The welfare system, as Bill Clinton liked it, was America's Berlin Wall dividing the less fortunate from the rest of society and creating a permanent underclass. It relegated the poor to our inner cities, depriving them of the freedom and the opportunity that the rest of society enjoyed.

Republican governors have spent the last decade tearing down that wall. And the Republican Congress finished that job by passing Bob Dole's landmark reform, welfare reform bill.

(APPLAUSE)

Bob Dole knows that compassion is not measured by how many people you have on welfare. It is measured by how many people you help join the work force.

(APPLAUSE)

In Wisconsin, we take great pride in knowing that we helped lay the groundwork for welfare's demise and the birth of new, more compassionate welfare solutions.

(APPLAUSE)

We began reforming the program 10 years ago with one purpose in mind, helping families and children climb out of poverty. Wisconsin provides families with the tools to escape welfare, and we insist that parents -- including deadbeat dads -- get up in the morning, go to work, and provide for their families just like all of you and the rest of America.

(APPLAUSE)

THOMPSON: In all, in Wisconsin we've helped more than 40,000 families and 76,000 children escape the poverty of the welfare trap. The child poverty rate in Wisconsin has dropped by 13 percent under our welfare reforms and Wisconsin has consistently been one of the 10 most compassionate states as far as low rates in child poverty.

Families leaving welfare are now averaging $5,000 more a year by working than what they received while on welfare. And with Bob Dole's...

(APPLAUSE)

And with Bob Dole's economic plan, they will be able to receive even more.

(APPLAUSE)

Clearly, clearly, it is work that pays in America, not welfare.

(APPLAUSE)

And we in Wisconsin, we wanted to do even more to protect our children by allowing the working poor to buy into our comprehensive health care system, ensuring that each and every child in America and Wisconsin has adequate, quality medical coverage.

But you know what Bill Clinton said? He said no. And he walked away from Wisconsin's children. Twice he vetoed meaningful welfare reform bills and only when the pollsters spoke did he respond to the American people and to our poor children.

THOMPSON: America should heed her powerful message.

(APPLAUSE)

ANDERSON: Welfare is a tragedy. It has outlived its usefulness.

Our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln said, ``With malice toward none, with charity for all...''

The present welfare system is full of malice and very little charity.

(APPLAUSE)

It interferes with people reaching their dreams. It says to those on welfare, you are inferior and if government is not there to help you, you cannot make it on your own.

I have seen the destruction that welfare can do to families, to neighborhoods and communities. It runs men out of families, leaving children without fathers, implying that men are worthless and of no value to families. Welfare has become the father, the provider.

The problem is we Americans have come to believe that government owes us something, that good outcomes do not take personal effort and that life is risk free. We have lost our sense of duty, to marriage, to our children and to fairness.

We need someone to lead us who has always had this sense of duty and responsibility, Bob Dole.

(APPLAUSE)

Let's put the words duty, responsibility, and fairness back in our vocabulary. Let's elect Bob Dole as president.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

THOMPSON: Thank you very much, Eloise.

In Milwaukee, another remarkable woman knows what it is to reach for the American dream, Nicole Smith. She not only pulled herself off of welfare, she's now helping others do the same.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: It feels good. I mean, it felt good at that time, being able to have child care help -- not having to worry about who would keep -- take care of the child, going to work and receiving a paycheck and being able to do that things that I want to do with the paycheck that I've worked very hard to receive.

And I'm just seeing now -- I'm working at a job helping other people get jobs so that they can receive their first paycheck and feel as good about receiving the check as I do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

THOMPSON: Ladies and gentleman, a woman who should make all Americans proud joining us tonight in the Wisconsin delegate, Nicole Smith.

(APPLAUSE)

Ronald Reagan -- Ronald Reagan, the man to whom America owes so much. He wisely observed the government should do only those things that people cannot do for themselves.

The liberals, they talk about protecting our children and lifting them from poverty, about caring, and helping. But how can anyone look at 60 years of this system and call it caring?

(APPLAUSE)

And how can anyone look at generations crushed by welfare and call it helping?

(APPLAUSE)

In the war on poverty, the Clinton administration has dodged the draft.

(APPLAUSE)

Bill Clinton -- Bill Clinton said he would end welfare as we know it. But it took Bob Dole and the Republican Congress to do it.

(APPLAUSE)

I say to America -- I say to America, let us end the Clinton presidency as we know it.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much. Thank you.

END

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