 President of the United States. Thank you all please be seated Well, good morning. I know you've already heard from Dick Thornberg and Bill Bennett and they're a tough act to follow so I'm taking this opportunity to announce the nomination of my fellow Californian Ferdinand Fernandez to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Fernandez is currently a federal district judge for the Central District of California And he'll make an outstanding addition to the Ninth Circuit Which is one of the circuits the Judicial Conference recently declared to be in a judicial emergency because of the number of vacancies I trust the Senate will move quickly to confirm this important nomination And speaking of recovery Why don't we a few days ago? I spoke to an Hispanic audience about the traditional values and strong family ties that Hispanics share We've done all we can to support all American families with our efforts to strengthen the economy And so I'm here before you today after 69 straight months of economic expansion And don't let the snake oil salesman blur your minds with false statistics This expansion has benefited Americans of every economic stripe and ethnic origin This expansion has swept the country from north to south east to west Kaya Okoye, do I say that right or is it Ocho? Ocho, all right in Miami to Loisada Avenue in Manhattan and Nowhere have we seen business opportunities expand so as in your own field of Hispanic media with more than 500 television affiliates More than 200 radio stations and 76 newspapers You have created the most vibrant ethnic media this nation has ever seen and Most of this growth has taken place in the last few years As opportunities are opening up everywhere and the same is true everywhere in the Americas Immigrants know better than anyone how precious freedom and democracy are and in the past seven years There's been a democratic explosion throughout the Americas Before George Bush and I came into office less than 30 percent of the population of central and South America lived in democracies Now over 90 percent of the people live in nations that are either fully democratic or well on the way there As most of you know, however, sadly two peoples are struggling to get out from under the suffocating embrace of communist domination The word Glasnost is spoken daily in the Soviet Union, but there's no translation of it for the people of Cuba We're still living under the yoke of Stalinism and of course, there's Nicaragua It happens that today September 15th is Central American Independence Day on this day in 1821 The nations of Central America declared their independence from colonial domination Now 167 years later the Nicaraguan people yearn for a new independence from communist colonialism and aggression a True democratic Nicaraguan declaration of independence would guarantee freedom of speech a human right That's been trampled upon in recent months with a constant intimidation of la prensa It would guarantee freedom of religion a human right. That's been trampled upon by the bullying of radio catalika It would guarantee freedom of assembly a human right that's been trampled upon by the suppression of independent labor unions It would fulfill the promises the Sandinistas made in the or to the Organization of American States in 1979 And it would free the Nicaraguan people from totalitarianism Of course that declaration will not willingly come Those that rule by intimidation do not surrender Dictory dictatorial power willingly Only when they're pressured to do so And that's why I continue to support the freedom fighters in Nicaragua Who represent the best hope that the Nicaraguan declaration of independence will one day be the foundation of a democratic state in? Nicaragua The freedom fighters run out of money on September 30th and Congress must see to it that the freedom fighters are not left without food and supplies I'm also waiting for Congress to send the responsible defense legislation I want legislation that will help my successor continue the policies that have brought the Soviets to the bargaining table and Led them to begin pulling out of Afghanistan as well as prompting a ceasefire in the Persian Gulf and liberating Grenada Secretary Carlucci is prepared to work with Congress to come up with legislation that merits my approval and keeps our defenses strong I Will not stand by and watch this country once again be subjected to the naive and inexperienced liberal ideas That the people have consistently rejected and are completely out of step When I went to Capitol Hill for the State of the Union I vowed that I would never again sign a catch-all spending bill the kind I received last year A 14 pound thousand page monster and I wasn't making believe when I did this after I put it down I had caught my finger it was sore for about three days And this year the House and Senate have passed 13 individual spending bills a far better way of doing business I've signed two of them just received a third and expect to receive three others very soon But the House and Senate are still haggling over the remaining seven bills Even though the new fiscal year is starting in two weeks. I Want to see those remaining seven bills finished on my desk and fit to sign and that includes defense legislation consistent with our policies of advancing freedom and peace through strength the policies that have guided us for the past seven and a half years, but I fear Congress has gotten distracted from the Task of tending to the nation's fiscal business and instead is spending its time trying to score points before returning home for the election I Challenge the congressional leadership To send me all 13 spending bills by October 1st and accomplish something that hasn't been accomplished since 1948 Getting the nation's business done on time Now I'll be happy to take your questions You know it's really tough Do you feel frustrated as you leave the White House that Cuba and Nicaragua are still on the Congress Spreading in the Germanism from this hemisphere although Many countries have gone to the side of democracy and what went wrong when the Congress No support from other Latin American countries and the second part is what is a state in this presidential election? Or central America Well, I think what is at stake is the very policy that from the first we set out I hadn't been here very long when I made a trip down through Central and South America And my trip was one because I believe with the best of intentions in the past Leaders of our country have come up with plans for Friendship and mutual aid and so forth But it was always kind of the big colossus of the north coming up with the idea And wanting everyone to sign on Well, I wanted to make a trip down there and find out What the people are Latin American neighbors? What they thought might work so it was kind of rewarding because every time I'd get there and sort of a kind of austerely people I met with would start by saying well What are you proposing and I said I'm not proposing anything I'm down here to find out what your ideas are and how can we become closer? Here we are in this Western Hemisphere. We all have the common heritage. We all came from other countries and mainly from Europe to create this new world this new earth and We all worship the same God and we're only divided by three Three languages that separate us not the dozens of the rest of the world and so That's what I wanted and what I still want, and I think we should continue and of course There is there's been a great disinformation campaign Abroad and in our land that has confused a great many people about the Nicaraguan situation but we must set them straight and make them realize it is plainly a battle between freedom fighters and Dictatorship so I want that to continue Yes Well, I know how George feels and I think that you would be reassured if you don't about his warm feeling that he has with regard to Hispanics and The three things that you say that that we have done with I Well, I think for one thing I'm thinking overall terms our whole economic policy has been across the board it hasn't just been to benefit one segment of our society and in the improvement in the economy of wages of getting jobs and so forth of The Hispanic Americans have benefited As well and in some instances even better than than the general the general improvement, so I think that the economic Benefits that have accrued the changes that have come about in education and I'm going to be meeting with some of the educators Recognizing those today later. I think all of those have Are different than has our for our past policy has been I Think I better I better Move around here a little I'm Jolanda Jubey, president of the New York and Hispanic Assaults I'm also working in TV 65 in New York and Chicago. I have a question for you It looks as this year being a year of elections It seems that the presidential candidates are making a special effort to appeal to the Hispanic voters We saw it today with Candidate Ducacos in Spanish and we saw it with Candidate Bush Telling us that he was familiar with the Hispanic culture because of his relatives. My question is Assuming that you were running against yourself. Sharon opinion Would you try to make a special appeal to the Hispanic voters and why? Well, I think that's only natural that we do that in a society such as our own because Our country is made up of Every background we've all come all of us from every corner of the world and This country is unique in one sense a man wrote me a letter and explained it as beautifully as anyone could He said you can go to France live in France. You can't become a Frenchman You can go to live in Spain or Germany and you can't become a Spaniard or a German or a Japanese or whatever it might be But he said anyone in the world Can come to America To live and become an American because we all are with a heritage from someplace else and so I think it's natural to know that You appeal to the interests of people in politics as to what they expect from government and what they believe Their problems particular problems may be and so none of us forgot our heritage You don't quit loving your mother because you've taken under yourself a wife So we all of us are proud of where whether we or our ancestors came from and I think it's only natural that you reach out to establish a rapport With these various groups and let them know that you are conscious that they may have in some instances problems that are not general and therefore You want to know and want to find the answers to those particular problems? The Cuban exiles have been high hopes that your administration was going to help them win freedom for their land What do you think has been the major cause that has prevented your administration to? help establish democracy in Cuba specifically Well, I think one of the things we've been working for is The source of Cuba's strength of Castro's strength and that is our dealing with the Soviet Union's The Soviet Union we in all of our dealings they know very definitely how we feel About things of the of this kind and about Cuba and about the help that they have provided to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and so We think that that has been more direct and we've taken some encouragement from the fact that They are now withdrawing their military forces from Afghanistan, but all of this comes up in our discussions With the general secretary and has from the very first, but I've just been told that There wasn't time for any this always happens. Oh, you said one more You have only two more months of presidency and there are several The situation of little Castro Cuba drug transactions drug trafficking coming through Cuba Differtations of our real Cubans the situation of dr. Alonso Bosch in jail in Miami all of these issues are going to be hanging on the air What can we expect in the next administration? Well, I have great confidence because George Bush has been as Vice president a part and a major part of everything that we've done and all the accomplishments that we've had in the economy and everything else and our Building up of our security and all and I am convinced that Basically The policies that have been in effect for these last several years will continue under him And he will in addition do additional things that as problems arise that have to be done I have a feeling that if the election should go the other way that there will be a turnaround That they don't believe at all in what we've accomplished or what we've done and we will be back to trying to solve our problems with higher taxes and that sort of thing and So I think there is a very definite choice here for the people in this election And I as I say of every confidence in in George George Bush and what he will do he spoke a line in his acceptance speech at the convention That I think should be the theme For us of this campaign And that is he said if you're going to change horses in the middle of the stream Don't get on a horse. That's going the opposite way I'm I'm sorry and I always am when I laugh have to leave hands in the air and that I can't take the questions But she is absolutely right You know, there's somebody here in the government I haven't found him yet, but somebody that tells me what I'm going to be doing every 15 minutes of the day So I'm gonna have to go