ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996            TAG: 9601240062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press 

DOLE SAYS PRESIDENT CAREENING

THE GOP LEADER called President Clinton ``the last public defender of a discredited status quo.'' Bob Dole, responding for Republicans and seizing the chance to help his political prospects, accused President Clinton on Tuesday night of ``careening dangerously off course'' in welfare, education, Medicare and taxes.

``I do believe we have reached a defining moment,'' Dole said from his office in a hard-hitting, prepared response to Clinton's State of the Union address.

Speaking as Senate majority leader but outlining his own presidential themes, Dole called Clinton ``the chief obstacle to a balanced budget'' and ``the last public defender of a discredited status quo.''

Concentrating on hot-button presidential issues, Dole described starkly different philosophies - his own vs. Clinton's, the Republicans' vs. the Democrats'.

Dole vowed that Republicans would send Clinton another balanced budget bill. Clinton vetoed the last one, and talks between Republican leaders and the president failed to produce a compromise.

Clinton offered ``only a fantasy'' to replace the GOP bill, said Dole, who promised to pepper the White House with ``bill after bill, returning power and programs to the states. We will challenge President Clinton again and again to walk the talk he talks so well.''

The GOP, Dole pledged, will rein in government, reduce the tax burden, put parents in charge of schools, untie the hands of the police and restore justice to the courts.

``It's as though our government, our institutions and our culture have been hijacked by liberals and are careening dangerously off course,'' said Dole, vowing that Republicans ``know the way back.''

He said Clinton has chosen to defend:

A welfare system that is ``a daily assault on the values of self-reliance and family.''

An education establishment ``run by liberals whose goal is to operate every school in America by remote control from Washington.''

The status quo in Medicare, ``a program in urgent need of rescue.''

A tax burden ``that has pushed countless families into their own personal recessions.''

At times, election-year debates will seem like arguments over ``a maze of conflicting numbers, assertions and high-sounding words,'' Dole said. ``But what we're really arguing about are the values that will shape our nation, our government, and the future of your child sleeping down the hall.''

In remarks before the formal GOP response, Dole said his message was that ``the best days are still ahead of us'' but that Republicans remained ``concerned about America and the direction of America.''

``We have different ways to achieve the goals, different values, different priorities,'' he said.

LENGTH: Medium:   68 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole stresses the 
          difference between Republican and Democratic policies. color. 
          Graphics: Chart by staff. 1. What do you think?
          2. KRT. Economy slowing; wages stagnant.