Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Phil Gramm voiced his wishes to shrink the role of the federal government when he addressed the College community on Friday afternoon in Collis Common Ground.
"I want to be the leader who takes some decision making power back from Washington," the Texas Republican told about 150 people who came to hear him speak.
Gramm expressed his dislike for the fact that "the role of government has expanded in the past 40 years."
He said in the process of creating more government "we've gotten less opportunity and I want to change that."
Gramm voiced his goal to take power away from the government and "give it back to the families."
He said if you ask Americans what it is that has made this country different, answers vary. He said the most common answer "would basically boil down to that in America we have had limited government and unlimited opportunity."
Gramm said he wanted to visit the College in order to solicit voters' thoughts on the "issues facing our nation."
"Dartmouth is one of the greatest universities in the land," he said. "I am counting on you and your achievements to add to the contributions its made to the country."
Asked what he thought about Kansas Republican Bob Dole's visit to the College, scheduled for the following day, Gramm replied, "I don't have anything negative to say about Bob Dole."
Dole was probably the "greatest legislator of our era," he added.
But Gramm said Dole was "not going to make those changes" in government that he sought to achieve.
Gramm told the audience he would make balancing the budget his "number one priority as president" and said he would not seek re-election if that goal was not reached.
"We are going to end up settling the budget in November. We will never balance the budget with Bill Clinton as president," he said.
Gramm, who taught economics for 12 years at Texas A &M University, said he taught the same economics classes on Capitol Hill but that "the students at Texas A & M were a lot smarter" than members of the House or the Senate.
Gramm criticized the structure of the welfare system and high government taxes.
"What welfare program rivals a job?" he asked.
Work, a paycheck, respect and the ability to buy groceries constitute his housing, nutrition and education goals for the country, Gramm said.
"I believe that people pay too much of their income to taxes," Gramm said. He said a family with two children gives one out of every four dollars to Washington in the form of taxes.
Gramm also addressed the rising costs of higher education in the United States.
"As far as I know ... I've probably had more to do with reforming the guaranteed student loan project than anyone in Congress," Gramm said.
"I don't have any sympathy for people who get loans and don't pay them back," he said.
Gramm said if you do not make 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test you cannot play football at Boston College, but only a 650 score is necessary to receive a student loan.
"I'd also like to let better students borrow more money," Gramm said. "We discriminate against human capital."
The issue of abortion surfaced in Gramm's talk as he stated, "I am pro-life. I can't reach a conclusion in my heart that unborn children are anything other than unborn children."
Gramm told an audience member he would not send men to fight in a battle that he would not also send his own sons to fight.
His visit was co-sponsored by the Rocky Student Council, the Conservative Union at Dartmouth and the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.
