    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [July 4, 1993]
    [Pages 1007-1008]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Departure From Moline, Illinois
    July 4, 1993

        I want to thank you all for coming out here and for waiting on the
    Fourth of July. What a wonderful gift it was for me to come back and see
    all of you here. I couldn't believe it.
        As you know, I've been here reviewing the flood damage, meeting the
    families from both Illinois and Iowa. And I just wanted to tell you
    first of all, as someone who had grown up in a farming area and has seen
    this kind of flooding before, I know what it means. I know how hard it
    is. And we're determined to do everything we possible can to help the
    farmers in this area and the communities get through it. And when I get
    back from my trip to Asia, we'll be pursuing further legislation in the
    Congress to get some more aid to your farmers and your communities so
    that we can recover from this and go on. And I'm really appreciative of
    all the time that the people in this area gave me today to make sure
    that I understood what was going on.
        The second thing I'd like to say to you is that for all the problems
    this Nation has on the Fourth of July, and we've still got a lot of
    them--there are an awful lot of people who are worried about their jobs,
    the security of their health care, the education of their children, the
    safety of their streets--I'm about to leave to go to a meeting of the
    world's richest countries where they think we're doing pretty well
    because our unemployment rate is lower than every country in Europe, we
    had a million more jobs coming into our economy since the first of the
    year, and we're finally doing something to bring our terrible Government
    deficit down and to prepare for our future. And I want you to know that
    tomorrow when I leave and get on that plane to go to Japan, I'm going to
    be over there working for things that I think will help to provide jobs
    and incomes and opportunity and hope for the American people.
        These are very difficult and challenging times for our country. A
    lot of the problems we face are very complicated, and we could argue all
    day about what the right decisions are. But I promise you this: Every
    day when I go to work and I fight for our economic plan, which I think
    is fair and which I know will work, every decision I make I ask myself,
    is it going to help Americans to have more jobs, better incomes, more
    security, and a brighter future for their children? And if we could at
    least ask that ques-

    [[Page 1008]]

    tion--we can have all of the debates in the world--we'll keep our
    country going on the right track.
        Don't forget this is still the greatest country in the world. And
    the next 20 years can be the best we ever had, if we have the courage to
    make the changes we've got to make to deal with all these challenges
    before us. I think we do. And after spending some time sitting on a bale
    of hay with a bunch of Iowa farm families tonight, I feel a lot better
    than I did when I got up this morning on this wonderful Independence
    Day.
        Thank you all, and God bless you. And thank you for coming out.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:36 p.m. at the Quad Cities Airport. A
    tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.