Gary Hart for President 1984 Campaign Brochure

Gary Hart for President 1984 Campaign Brochure

‘A New Generation of Leadership’

“America must decide whether to move forward or stand still”

The world, as we know it, is cracking under the impact of change. To unite Americans and lead the world, we must understand the enormous changes transforming our lives.

"Our economic challenges are new. Older industries decline in the face of technological change and international competition. High technology creates new opportunities, but in different places and for new skills.

"Our security challenges are also new. The superpowers face each other with nuclear arsenals mounted on missiles which can circle the globe in minutes and are capable of destroying all life on earth. Nuclear holocaust could be just one human error, terrorist act or mechanical failure away.

"But as if to deny this rapid change, too many of our leaders force today's problems into the framework of yesterdays world. They debate whether to revive old industries or invest in new ones, when we should be using today's technology to rebuild the old and develop the new.

"They argue about which complex new weapons system to buy, when the real question should be "will any of them work in real combat?" Any leader who thinks today's world is the same as yesterdays will miss the future.

"Our nation is being tested in the 1980's. This test should affirm the best of our national character: our commitment to equal rights and equal opportunity, to a higher standard of living and quality of life, to justice and the promise of a better tomorrow for all Americans.

We cannot pass this test with the tools of the past. The more we care about keeping our historic commitments and meeting our traditional goals, the more we must innovate, the more we must create."

Gary Hart gives us a chance to be for something instead of against; To use change to build a better future; To choose a bold new leader for tomorrow

"Nothing is more important to our economic future than investing in our people."

Senator Gary Hart is the only candidate for President to vote against every element of Ronald Reagan's supply-side "trickle down" economic program and to offer his own comprehensive alternative. He believes we must not only reduce the budget deficit and bring down interest rates, we must do much more. His detailed plan calls for several new strategies.

He would help our basic manufacturing industries meet growing foreign competition by tying government assistance to investment in plant modernization and worker retraining.

Emerging growth industries would be stimulated by removing unnecessary regulations and creating new sources of investment capital, such as the expanded use of pension funds.

"Individual Training Accounts" would be created to fund job retraining for the unemployed. Tax-deductible contributions by workers and corporations would help fund these accounts.

Gary Hart would put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, water systems and other public works through a 15-year "Infrastructure Investment Program."

Gary Hart believes that to be competitive in the world economy, America must launch an aggressive export program to open more markets to American products; increase government investment in research and development to 3% of GNP; and change our tax laws to reward productive investment and savings instead of "Tax sheltering."

"Every issue we face, every goal we set, every dream we have pales before the most urgent task of our time: preventing nuclear war."

That's why Gary Hart led the Senate fight to stop the MX.

That's why he wants to stop the arms race where it starts, by freezing the production of plutonium worldwide.

And that's why he has been a leader in the effort to prevent the production of new chemical weapons.

Sen. Gary Hart served as a congressional advisor to the SALT II negotiations and all arms control talks. He supports negotiations with the Soviet Union toward a mutual and verifiable freeze on all nuclear weapons.

In addition, Gary Hart is fighting for a comprehensive proposal to prevent the use of existing nuclear weapons whether by accident or design, human error, or Third World terrorists.

"If this Administration thinks education is expensive, wait until it finds out how much ignorance costs."

The United States must recommit itself to excellence in education for every American. Education is a fundamental premise of democracy and the key to America's future. Yet, public education has been systematically weakened by Reaganomic budget-cutting. Instead of preparing our children for the world of the future, we are letting them fall further behind.

Gary Hart is a leader in the fight to modernize our schools and fund them adequately. In 1982 he introduced the American Defense Education Act, which provides new incentives to local school districts to expand mathematics, science, foreign languages and computer studies. The bill helps colleges and universities train and retrain teachers in these subjects.

Gary Hart fought vigorously to preserve the school lunch program and Title I programs for disadvantaged children. "I proposed cutting the tax deduction for business entertainment from 100% to 70%, and using that money to fund the school lunch program. But the Administration opposed it, and so did every single one of the 46 Republican Senators voting that day," says Hart.

Hart would increase both the student loan program and enforcement of its pay-back provisions to make sure that no deserving student is denied the chance for a college education.

"Our toughest international battles will pit mind against mind, not might against might."

American foreign policy must have three clear goals: to further our national security, promote our legitimate economic interests, and foster peace and democratic ideals.

Sen. Hart has introduced legislation freezing U.S. troop strength in Central America unless an increase is approved by a joint resolution of Congress. As a result of his own tour of this war torn area, he favors a regional solution to the conflicts there based upon negotiations and democratic processes.

He considers the protection and strengthening of human rights to he integrally related to America's national security. Thus, he strongly opposes the Reagan Administration's policy of accommodation with South Africa and other violators of human rights.

Sen. Hart opposed the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia and advanced weapons to Jordan. He would revive the Camp David process for Middle East peace.

He believes the U.S. must reduce its dangerous dependence on OPEC oil, with its inherent risk of military involvement, by increased production of traditional and renewable domestic energy and by renewed emphasis on energy conservation.

"Environmental concerns are no longer luxuries. They are matters of public health and safety."

What happened to our national commitment to protect the environment? Our forests are on the auction block. Toxic wastes threaten to poison the water we drink, the air we breathe and the land on which we live.

Gary Hart represents a renewal of our national commitment to protect our environment. He was the first Member of Congress to call for banning landfill disposal of extremely hazardous waste. He introduced legislation expanding the Superfund program to clean up toxic waste dumps by imposing taxes on hazardous waste products.

As Chair of the National Commission on Air Quality, he produced the first official recommendations for reducing acid rain in 1980. He led the forces in Congress trying to strengthen the Clean Air Act.

Gary Hart believes we must preserve our dwindling wilderness resources for the future. He sponsored the parts of the 1980 Alaska Lands Act which tripled the nation's wildlife refuge system.

"We need defense reforms to make our military the most effective, not the most expensive."

Sen. Gary Hart is nationally recognized as our foremost advocate of military reform. He believes the defense debate should be about strategy, not just weaponry, about how we spend, not just how much we spend.

He would strengthen our national security by redesigning our military for greater flexibility and efficiency. He would make the training and retention of military personnel a higher priority. He believes spending should be shifted from complex and delicate weapons that look good on paper to systems that are simple and rugged enough to perform on the battlefield. And he wants to change purchasing practices to make sure we get our money's worth.

Sen. Hart presented a comprehensive military reform budget in 1983. It deletes funds for expensive and ineffective weapons such as big, new nuclear aircraft carriers, the B-1 bomber and the MX missile. It substitutes larger numbers of more maneuverable weapons, such as smaller carriers. Overall, Sen. Hart believes military reform can slow the growth in defense outlays by over $20 billion per year while improving our national security with wiser spending.

"There can be no economic equality for women without equal pay for work of comparable worth."

Gary Hart proposes that the nation's largest employer, the federal government lead the way in designing a system to evaluate and classify its employees to eliminate discrimination in compensation between men and women.

He is the main Democratic sponsor of the Economic Equity Act, which would remove sex bias in insurance, pensions and tax law.

Gary Hart actively supports passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. In the Senate, he promotes women's interests in child care, family violence and reproductive rights.

A New Generation of Leadership

Committed to America's traditional values, Gary Hart is impatient with yesterday's politics. He was the first announced presidential candidate to renounce campaign contributions from special interest Political Action Committees.

In 1983, Gary Hart published A New Democracy, a forward-looking book detailing his plans for governing the nation.

Gary Hart is the youngest candidate for President. At 46, he is young enough to bring vitality and energy to the Presidency. Yet he has served almost ten years in the U.S. Senate.

Gary Hart was born in Ottawa, Kansas, and grew up in that small farming community, He graduated from Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma, Yale Divinity School, and from the Yale Law School.

After working as a special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, he joined a law firm in Colorado and a year later established his own practice specializing in environmental law.

Gary Hart entered politics as a volunteer in the campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. In 1972, he managed George McGovern's presidential campaign.

Gary Hart was elected to the U.S. Senate from Colorado in 1974 and re-elected in 1980, bucking the Reagan tide. He serves on the Senate Armed Services, Budget, and Environment and Public Works Committees.

Gary and Lee Hart have been married for 25 years and have two teenage children. Lee is a real estate agent in suburban Maryland, where the Harts maintain their Washington, D.C. area home.