DOLE DISAGREEMENTS ARE ABOUT VALUES, NOT NUMBERS\THE REPUBLICAN RESPONSE.

The following is an excerpted text of the Republican response by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas to President Clinton's State of the Union address:

Good evening. I'm Bob Dole, and I'm here to briefly reply to the president's message on the state of the union. But a reply need not be an argument. Instead, I want to present another view. Another way of thinking about the problems we face.

A few years back I met with a group of 100 high school seniors - one young man and a woman from every state. During the meeting one young man stood up and said "Senator, everybody has somebody who speaks for them. But who speaks for us?" he asked me. "Who speaks for the future?"

That's what I want to talk with you about tonight - the future and the values that will shape it. Those values are at the heart of our disagreements with the president. President Clinton says our differences are few, the budget numbers are close and that we should try to find common ground. We have tried and tried, again and again. But such a place appears to be elusive.

For while we share an abiding love of country, we have been unable to agree. Why? Because we have starkly different philosophies of government and profoundly different visions of America. So all the talk and fighting in Washington can seem very remote. And we political figures can seem detached and petty and far removed from the everyday struggle of American citizens and families.

But the truth is we can not ignore the future.

The president chose to defend, with his veto, a welfare system that no one can defend - for it is a daily assault on the values of self-reliance and family. He has chosen to defend an education establishment run by liberals whose goal is to operate every school in America by remote control from Washington.

He has chosen to defend the status quo in Medicare - a system on which lives depend and a program in urgent need of rescue. President Clinton has chosen to defend and increase a tax burden that has pushed countless families into their own personal recessions. And unfortunately, he has chosen to veto the first balanced budget in a generation, offering only a fantasy in its place.

Now if you have a child asleep in your home tonight, you will probably check on him or her before you go to bed. As you bend over to tuck your child in, think about this: If we continue down this path we will place a tremendous burden of debt on every child in America.

Every political movement, and every public official must locate a place in his heart where compromise ends - a core of conviction where we keep our conscience. There comes a time when even practical leaders must refuse to bend or to yield. For Republicans and countless Democrats and independents, we have arrived at that time.

For three years this administration has valued dependence on government over self-reliance.

It has put liberal judges on the bench to war with our values and it questions the participation of religious people in public life, treating them as fanatics out of step with America.

President Clinton shares a view of America held by our country's elites.

A nation of special interest groups united only by a dependence on government, competing with each other for handouts and held back by outdated values.

I come from Russell, Kansas - there's not much money there, but the people are rich in many other ways. Life isn't always easy, but the values are durable - love of God and country and family, commitment to honesty, decency and personal responsibility, and self-reliance tempered by a sense of community.

Those values made America the greatest nation on earth, and there is no doubt in my mind that we can get our country back on track if we reassert them again as a people, and if our government returns to them as a matter of national policy.

Now just like the debate over the budget this winter, our arguments this spring will seem a maze of conflicting numbers, assertions and high-sounding words. But what we're really arguing about are the values that will shape our nation, our government, and the future of that child sleeping down the hall.

I'm a very practical man, but I believe in the miracle of America and I've never gone in for dramatics, but I do believe we have reached a defining moment.

It is as though our government and our institutions and our culture have been hijacked by liberals and are careening dangerously off course. But we know the way back, but we must act now and my promise tonight is that we can, and we will.

If there is no agreement, we will send President Clinton another balanced budget with tax relief for American families, regulatory relief for small businesses, farmers and ranchers and real welfare reform.

We will send the president bill after bill, returning power and programs to the states and to the people.

We will challenge President Clinton again and again to walk the talk he talks so well. As we do, remember this: Our battles will not be about numbers. They'll be about the character of our nation.

So when you close the door to your child's room tonight, remember, it's not too late. This is a great country. Our strength has always come from the truth, and from sacrifice and honor, and from the bottomless reservoir of hope and work and courage that is the American people.

Today, we feel ourselves beset by many difficulties: by violence and resentment, by racial and partisan divisions, by economic storms, by dizzying changes of every kind.

Yet, the blood of greatness, of noble forebears, of men and women of incredible achievement still runs through us all. That birthright is what it means to bear the name "American."

In this time, in this generation, in this year, we - like they - can and will overcome. We need only to rededicate ourselves to earning the name we have inherited.

Thank you very much. God bless America and good night.

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Photo Sen. Bob Dole holds the GOP's reply. Associated Press