Needs to be made and america and americans decide not just whats happening in this country we are the strongest and most powerful free society on earth. When you make that judgment, youre deciding not only the future of our nation in a very profound respect youre providing the future. Deciding the future of the world. We need to move on. Its time for america to find new leadership. Please join me in this cause to move most confidently and with a sense of assurance and command to build the blessed future of our nation. President reagan. Heres my thanks to the panelists and moderator and to the people of kansas city for their harm hospitality and greeting. I think the American People tonight have much to be grateful for. An economic recovery that has become expansion. Freedom and most of all, we are at peace. I am grateful for the chance to reaffirm my commitment to reduce Nuclear Weapons and one day to he eliminate them entirely. The question before you comes down to this. Do you want to see america return to the policies of weakness of the last four years . Or do we want to go forward marching together as a nation of strength and thats going to continue to be strong. We shouldnt be dwelling on the past or the present. And whether were going to provide the opportunity for all the americans they need. It was to go into a time capsule and would be read in 100 years when that time capsule was opened. One day my mind was full of what i was going to put in the issues that confront us in our tile and what we did about them. And one side of the highway shining and wondering if someone would be driving down the highway and see the sail thing and with that thought i realized what a job i had with that letter. I would be writing a letter to peel that know everything there is to know about us. We know nothing about them. And they would know all about our problems and they would know how we solved them and whether our solution is benefitted down through the years and whether it hurt them. We also know we lived in a world of terrible weapons, Nuclear Weapons and terrible destructive power aimed at each other. Capable of crossing the ocean in a matter of minutes and destroying civilization as we know it. And then i thought to myself what are they going to say about us . What are those peel 100 years from now going to think . They will know whether we used those weapons or not. Well, what they will say about us 100 years from now depends on how we keep with destiny. Will we do the things that we know must be done and know that one day down in history, 100 years or perhaps before someone will say thank god for those people back in the 1980s for preserving our freedom. For saving for us this blessed planet called earth with its grandeur and its beauty. You know i am grateful for all of you for giving me the opportunity to serve you for four years and i seek reelection because i want more than anything else to try to complete the new beginning that we charted four years ago. George bush who i think is one of the finest Vice President s this country has ever had, george bush and i have crossed the country and had in the last few months a wonderful experience. We have met Young America we have met your sons and daughter. Mr. President. Im obliged to cut you off there under the rules of the debate. Im sorry. All right. [ applause ] perhaps i should come out that the rules under which i did that were agreed upon. I know. Thank you mr. President. Thanks to the panel. We thank you and the league of women voters asks me to say to you dont forget to vote on november 6th. [ applause ] cspans washington journal with news and policy issues coming up every morning. Well take a look at the recently released jobs numbers and the streets. Com economics columnist. Also congressional reporter for real clear politics looks at senate toss up races heading into he election day. Cspans washington journal beginning at 7 00 eastern saturday morning join the discussion. Leading up to the 2016 election road to the white house rewind brings you coverage of president ial races. And massachusetts governor. The candidates took questions on taxes and defense spending and Nuclear Weapons stock piles and their choice of Vice President ial running mates. The republican ticket defeated democrats in the general election. Winning the popular vote 5 a346 . The debate from los angeles is about an hour and a half. Good evening. On behalf of the commission of president ial debates i am pleased to welcome you to the second president ial debate. I am bernard shaw of cnn. My colleagues are ann compton of abc news, Margaret Warner of newsweek magazine. And Andrea Mitchell of nbc news. The candidates are, Vice President george bush, the republican nominee and governor michael ducaucus the democratic nominee. [ applause ] for the next 90 minutes well be questioning the candidates following a format designed and agreed to by the representative of the two campaigns. However there are no restrictions to the questions my colleagues and i can ask this evening and the candidates have no prior knowledge of our questions. By agreement between the candidates the first question goes to governor dukakis. You have two minutes to respond. Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor a Death Penalty for the killer . No i dont and i think you know that i oppose the Death Penalty all of my life. I dont see any evidence that it is a deturrent and theres better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime. We have done so in my own state and its one of the reasons we have the biggest drop in crime in america and why we have the lowest murder rate of any state in america. But we have work to do in this nation. We have work to do to fight a real war and not a phony war against drugs. Thats something we havent had over the course of the past many years even though the Vice President has been at least allegedly in charge of that war. We have much to do to step up that war to work with our neighbors in this hemisphere and i want to call a summit soon after the 20th of january as possible. And thats one of the things that i hope i can lead personality as president of the United States. And be able to help them in the early elementary grades so we can fight this war and win this war and we can do so in a way that provides real support for state and local Law Enforcement officers that have not been getting that support and do it in a way that will bring down violence in this nation. That will help our youngsters to stay away from drugs and will stop this avalanche of drugs thats pouring into the country and will make it possible for our kids and families to grow up in safe and secure and descent neighborhoods. Mr. Vice president your one minute rebuttal. Well a lot of what this campaign about is it seems to me is to question values here i do have on this particular question a big difference with my opponent. You see i do believe that come crimes are so heinous and so brutal, so outrageous and id say particularly those that result in the death of a Police Officer, those real brutal kiems i do believe in the telth penalty and i believe we need it and im glad that the congress moved on this drug bill and finally called for that. Related to these narcotic drug kingpins so we just had an honest difference of opinion. I support it and he doesnt. Now to you Vice President bush. I quote to you this from article three. And woet if at the time fixed at the beginning of the term of the president , the president elect shall have died. The Vice President he elect shall be president. And if you are elected and died before inauguration day. Automatically, automatically dan quail would become the 41st president of the United States. What have you to say about that possibility. Id have confidence in him and i made a good selection and i have never seen such a rounding, an unfair pounding on a young senator in my entire life. And i have never seen a president ial campaign for the president ial nominee runs against my Vice President ial nominee. Never seen one before. So you know lloyd benson jumped on dan quail when he said he had roughly the same amount of experience. He had two terms in the congress. Two terms in the senate serving his second term and he founded and authored the job training partner and american men and wil loan out of work at no fault of their own and we need that kind of thing. He like my opponent is an expert in national offense. And these people over here and if i listen to him i would have never had a treaty. So i have great confidence in him. And its turning around. The American People are fair. They dont like it when theres an unfair pounding and they want to judge it on the record itself and so im proud of my choice and i dont think age is the only criteria but im proud that people that are 30 years old and 40 years old now have someone in their generation thats going to be Vice President of the United States of america. I made a good selection. The American People are are seeing it and im proud of it. Thats what i say and he can do the job. Your one minute rebuttal. This was the first president ial decision that we were called upon to make. Thats why people are so concerned because it was an opportunity for us to demonstrate what we were looking for in a running mate. More than that it was the First National security decision that we had to make cht Vice President talks about National Security three times since world war ii. The Vice President has to become the commander and chief. I picked lloyd benson because i thought he was the best qualified person for the job. Mr. Bush picked dan quail and before he did it he said watch my choice for Vice President , it will tell all. And it sure did. It sure did. Thank you. Mr. Vice president yes we read your lips. No new taxes. But despite that sail pledge from president reagan after income tax rates were cut in each of the last five years some federal taxes have gone up on Social Security, cigarettes, liquor, even Long Distance telephone calls. Thats money straight out of peoples wallets. Isnt the phrase no new taxes misleading the voters . No, because i pledged to that and yes some taxes have gone up and the main point is taxes have been cut and yet income is up to the federal government by 25 in the last three years. So what i want to do is keep this expansion going. I dont want to kill it off by a tax increase. More americans at work today than at any time in the history of this country and greater percentage of the work force. And the way you kill expansions is to raise taxes and i dont want to do that and i wont do that. Its going to take discipline of the executive branch. Its going to take discipline of the Congressional Branch and that is what i call a flexible freeze that allows growth, about 4 or the rate of inflation but does not permit Congress Just to add on spending. I hear this talk about a blank check. The American People are smart. They know who writes out the check and they know who appropriates the money. It is the congress. And by 21, congress is blamed for these deficits and the answer is to discipline both the executive branch and the Congressional Branch by holding the line on taxes so im pledged to do that and those that say it cant be done im sorry i have a fundamental disagreement with them. Your one minute response. It isnt worth the paper its printed on. If we continue with the policies plflt bush is talking about this evening, a flexible freeze. Some describe it as an economic slurpee. He says hes not going to raise taxes though he has broken that pledge repeatedly. He says he wants to give the wealthiest 1 of the people in this country a five year 40 billion tax break and were going to pay for it and he has been proposing all kinds of programs for new spending costing billions. If we continue with these policies this trillion and a half dollars worth of new debt already added on the backs of the american taxpayer is going to increase even more and if we continue with this for another four years then im worried about the next generation whether we can ever turn the situation around. We need a chief executive that wont blal the congress but will lead and bring down the deficit and make tough choices on spending. Will go out and do the job we expect of him and do it with the congress of the United States. Governor let me follow up on that by asking you said it many times that you balanced ten budgets in a row in massachusetts. Are you promising the American People here tonight that within a four year president ial term you will balance the federal budget . No im not sure that i can promise that. Theres no way of anticipating what may happen. I will say this that well set as our goal a steady gradual reduction of the deficit and requirement a strong rate of Economic Growth and a plan that the president works out with the congress and it will require us to go out and collect billions and billions of dollars of taxes owed not being paid in this country and thats grossly unfair. The average american paying his taxes and paying them on time doesnt have any alternative. And put the irs on every taxpayer. And we should be talking about average americans when theres billions out there. Over a hundred billion dollars in taxes owed that arent be paid. We Work Together and if you have a president that will work with the congress of the American People. We can bring that deficit down steadily. 25, 30 a year. Build Economic Growth and a good strong future for america. Invest in those things that we must invest in. Economic development. Good jobs. Good schools for our kids. Descent health care and Affordable Housing and clean and safe environment. We can do all of those things and at the same time build a future in which were standing on a good strong physical foundation. Senator benson said as you recall that if you give any of us 200 billion a year we can create an illusion of prosperity but sooner or later that credit card mentality isnt going to work and i want to deal to the white house a strength and responsibility that will build a good Strong Foundation above which this country can move grow and invest people for our kids and our grandkids. Mr. Vice president , the governor has to balance the budget and its state required by law. He raised taxes several tiles. I wish he would join me in appealing to the American People for the balanced Budget Amendment for the federal government. Id like to have that line item veto for the president because i think that would be extraordinarily and i wont be one other thing that hes had to do. 29 million out of his state pension fund. I wont do that. Im still a little unclear as to whether hes for or against a tax increase. I have been off for the taxpayers billion of rights all along and this idea of releasing a whole bunch of army. A conventional force army of irs agents. Hes against defense matters and now he wants abarmy of irs auditors going out there. Im against that. I oppose that. Im going to say this and im going to say it once to every person in this auditorium. What these candidates are about is of upmost seriousness to the american voters. They should be heard and you should be quite. If youre not quite im going to implore the candidates to do something about quiting their own partisans but we cant get through this program with these out bursts. Good evening. Governor you won the first debate on intellect and yet you lost it on heart. Youll get your turn. The American Public at admired your performance but didnt seem to like you much. Now Ronald Reagan has found his personal warmth to be a tremendous political asset. Do you think that a president has to be likable to be an effective leader . May i two back and just say to the Vice President that i didnt raid the pension fund in massachusetts. We didnt do that. As a matter of fact im the first governor in the history of my state to fund that Pension System and i am very proud of that and no we did not. I have been in politics for 25 years. Ive won a lot of elections and lost a few and learned from those losses. I won the democratic nomination in 51 separate contests and i think ill a reasonably likable guy. Now ill serious. Im a little more lovable these days than i used to be back in my youth when i began in my state legislature but im also a serious guy. I think the presidency of the United States is a very Serious Office and i think we have to address these issues in a very serious way so. I hope and expect that i will be liked by the people of this country as president of the United States. I hope ill be liked by them on the 8th of november. But i also think its important to be somebody that is willing to make those tough choices. We just heard two or three times from the Vice President hes not going to raise ta