    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [October 24, 1994]
    [Pages 1862-1866]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Representative Tom Sawyer in Akron, Ohio
    October 24, 1994

        Thank you. Thank you so much for being so enthusiastic. I thank
    Congressman Sawyer and Joyce and Mayor Plusquellic and Deputy Mayor
    Jackson. Thank you for helping us get through this today. Bless you.
    Joel and Susan Hyatt and our wonderful Senators here, Howard Metzenbaum
    and John Glenn. I'm glad to be here with all of you.
        The last two times I've been to Akron, I've been in two of the most
    interesting buildings I've ever been in. You know, we had the campaign
    rally in the air dock. Do you remember that? I am sure--it was really
    good for me. It was calculated both to make me ecstatic and to keep me
    humble because we were ecstatic that we had 50,000 people there and
    humbled that the building was 80 percent empty. [Laughter] It was
    amazing. And this place is magnificent and a great treasure for you. And
    I'm honored to be here.
        I've had a great day today with Tom already. We've been to Inventure
    Place. And I'm looking forward to coming back when the Inventure

    [[Page 1863]]

    Place is open, full of inventions that I can come play with.
        As all of you know, I am here in behalf of Tom Sawyer tonight and in
    behalf of Joel Hyatt and so many others who want to make this country a
    better place. I have much to be grateful for in the incredible
    contribution and support that Senator Glenn and Senator Metzenbaum have
    provided. And I want to thank them, as well.
        You know, this is an unusual election. I think that's putting it
    mildly. [Laughter] I went to Washington 21 months ago with a charge from
    you to try to change this country, to try to get America into the 21st
    century able to compete and win, to rebuild the American dream, to help
    us go through this period of remarkable change in a way that would bring
    this country and our people out on top, to forge a new partnership
    between our National Government and our citizens and our businesses, not
    with the Government pretending to be able to solve all the problems or
    with the Government sitting on the sidelines but walking hand-in-hand
    into a brighter and better future.
        And I committed to you that I'd try to do three things if you voted
    for me: I'd try to make the Government work for ordinary Americans
    again, to reward work and family, to make a serious stab in the fight
    against crime and our social problems, and to build up the strength of
    our people; I'd try to bring back the economy, to reduce the deficit and
    increase jobs and move us forward; I'd try to make the world a more
    prosperous and a more peaceful place. And I leave it to you to decide
    how well we've done. But here are the facts, thanks to the leadership of
    the people on this stage.
        We passed the family and medical leave law. It helped almost a
    million people in this State to take a little time off when they need
    it. We passed an expansion of Head Start and immunizations for all
    children under the age of 2 by 1996. We gave tax relief to a half a
    million Ohio families who have children in the home, work full-time, but
    are just above the poverty line because we don't think anybody who's
    working full time and raising their kids should fail and should be in
    poverty. We think people should succeed as workers and succeed as
    parents. That's rewarding work and family.
        We passed the Brady bill and the crime bill to make a serious
    assault on crime. And I might say, I want to thank the mayor for his
    support. I want to thank the Congressman for his support. And I want you
    to know that I signed that bill only about 3 weeks ago, and the city of
    Akron has already received assistance to hire more police officers to go
    on the street, to lower the crime rate here in Akron because of the
    crime bill.
        And perhaps most important, and thanks in no small part to Tom
    Sawyer, we have begun to give the American people the kind of
    educational help they need to develop a system of lifetime learning, so
    that when places like Akron get hit with what you faced in the 1980's
    again, we will have a system that will enable people to continuously
    learn and relearn new skills from the get-go so we will not have to pass
    through a dark night of despair.
        Congressman Sawyer deserves reelection if for no other reason than
    his contribution to this education Congress. In 1991 he was the
    principal sponsor of the National Literacy Act. Look what happened in
    this Congress. We expanded Head Start. We passed the Goals 2000
    legislation to establish national education goals but to support
    grassroots reform because we know he knows, since Joyce is a teacher--
    [applause]--yes, you can clap for her, she probably deserves more credit
    than the rest of us do. This is a very important point. For the first
    time in a long time, the Federal Government recognized that the magic of
    education occurs in the classroom, between the teacher and the parents
    and the students. That's what works. And we passed the elementary and
    secondary education bill which cuts out all kinds of Federal rules and
    regulations and lets the schools decide how best to spend Federal money
    to make sure all of our children learn. It is a very important piece of
    legislation.
        We passed legislation to help make our schools safer, to give
    schools the opportunity to get together with grassroots community
    leaders and decide what basic values of citizenship and character they
    want to teach in the school and not run away from that but run toward it
    to give all of our kids a common foundation of good citizenship. We
    passed legislation to have every State in the country set up a national
    system, State by State, of apprenticeships for young people who don't go
    to college but want to get good jobs. And finally, we made 20 million
    Americans eligible for lower interest, longer-term college loans so the
    middle class of this country need never walk away from a

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    college education again. And he was a leader in all that.
        On the economy, as I told the Cleveland City Club today, we brought
    the deficit down, we increased investment in new technologies and in
    education and training. We've had 4.6 million new jobs. The unemployment
    rate in Ohio has dropped 1\1/2\ percent since I have been President.
    Ninety percent of those jobs are in the private sector. And this year,
    here's the real good news, for the first time in a very long time more
    than half the new jobs coming into the American economy were above the
    national average in wages, above the national average.
        If you look at the world, this is a more prosperous and peaceful
    place. We passed NAFTA. We negotiated the GATT world trade agreement. We
    are reaching out to Asia. We are reaching out to Latin America. We took
    controls off all kinds of exports so we could sell more high-tech
    products. We are reaching out to the rest of the world. And this is
    plainly a more peaceful place because of what the United States has been
    involved in. For the first time since nuclear weapons were developed, no
    Russian missiles are pointed at the children of Ohio and the United
    States this year. We are leading the fight for democracy in Haiti, for
    freedom in the Persian Gulf, for an end to the war in Northern Ireland,
    and yes, for peace in the Middle East. The United States is making this
    world a more peaceful place.
        We've got a long way to go, folks. And we've got a lot of problems
    to solve. But this country's in better shape than it was 21 months ago,
    and you should reward the people who are helping.
        Now, here's the real rub. If all this is true, why aren't we
    happier? What is going on here? I'll tell you one thing, one thing
    Thomas--I mean, Mark Twain once said that the American people--
    [laughter]--I started to say Tom Sawyer. Maybe it was Huck Finn. Maybe
    it was old Jim. [Laughter] But Mark Twain once said, ``You know, the
    American people should never have to see two things, sausages and laws
    being made.'' And sometimes I think all we do is concentrate on the
    negative. And then there are people in this country today who only
    communicate with us through what is known as attack journalism,
    unconstrained by the facts, designed to destroy arguments, credibility,
    to make people more cynical, to get them upset. And to be fair, our
    opponents have had more time to badmouth than we have had to defend,
    because we've been working. And when they're not trying to help, they
    have a lot of free time. [Applause] That's right.
        What do they offer? I want you to think about this. When you think
    about Joel Hyatt and his opponent for the Senate--and you ask John Glenn
    and Howard Metzenbaum if I'm not telling the truth--I want you to think
    about this, what have they offered? They have offered ``No.'' Right?
    They all voted against the middle class college loans. They voted
    against the tax relief to working people. Their leaders tried to beat
    and mostly voted against the family leave law, the Brady bill. They did
    everything they could do to kill the crime bill. They said no.
        And at the end of this session of Congress--this is important,
    because they just stepped on things important to our country and to your
    legislators--they decided that they would kill every living thing they
    could. Right before they decided that, we did get through John Glenn's
    procurement bill to change the way the Government buys things. We're
    going to save hundreds of millions of dollars--no more $500 hammers, no
    more $50 ashtrays--thanks to Senator Glenn.
        But then they decided they would say no. And they brought up the
    filibuster, which means 41 Senators can kill anything the rest of
    America wants. They killed campaign finance reform. They killed lobby
    reform that a freshman Congressman from Ohio, Eric Fingerhut, had so
    much to do with. He ought to be reelected, if for no other reason than
    carrying on this courageous fight to reform the lobbying practices in
    Washington, DC.
        They killed all the environmental legislation. They even killed the
    Superfund bill. You know, the Superfund bill, folks, is designed to
    clean up toxic waste dumps. I want you to listen to this. You think
    about this every time you think about Joel Hyatt and his opponent
    between now and election day, his opponent who said he can't wait to get
    up there and get in with that crowd so he can stop things, too. Now, the
    Superfund bill was supported by the chemical companies, by the labor
    unions, and the Sierra Club. They've never been for anything together
    before. [Laughter] You could not get that crowd to agree on when the
    Sun's coming up tomorrow morning. But they were for this. As a matter of
    fact, no one in America was against the Superfund bill except more than
    40 Republican Senators. And why were they against it? Because they would
    have rather left the poison in the

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    ground than let Tom Sawyer come home to Akron and tell you he helped to
    clean it up. That is wrong, and we should stop it. That is wrong.
        And if you don't like what they did to kill campaign finance reform,
    lobby reform, the Superfund bill, all the other environmental
    legislation, you have a way to send the message. You can send Tom Sawyer
    back to the House, and you can send Joel Hyatt to the United States
    Senate. And you will tell the American people that Ohio wants things to
    be done, not things to be stopped.
        Now let me just say this. Today in Cleveland, I had the opportunity
    to engage a Member of the House of the other party and his
    administrative assistant, who apparently by lottery out of hundreds of
    people drew questions one and two to get to ask me--[laughter]--and it
    was fine, but they wanted to talk about their contract for America and
    to complain that I had called it a contract on America. And they said,
    ``Well, there are things in this contract that you like. You're for the
    line-item veto.'' And I am. ``You're for welfare reform.'' I am; I sent
    legislation to Congress in March to change the whole welfare system and
    move people from welfare to work. ``You're for giving more tax relief to
    the middle class. You're for shrinking the Government. Why aren't you
    for our contract?'' I want you to know why. That was a very clever
    question they asked. They took all the popular things out of their
    contract. But what their contract does is to promise a huge tax cut, a
    big defense increase, an increase in Star Wars, and a balanced budget.
    And when I said, ``Well, how are you all going to pay for this?'' They
    said, ``Well, we'll tell you that after the election.'' [Laughter]
        It's a trillion dollar promise they've made. And it sounds familiar,
    doesn't it? ``Vote for me. I'll cut your taxes, raise spending, and
    balance the budget, with no consequences.'' We tried that once. It
    didn't work out too well.
        You know what it means. It means we're going to explode the deficit
    after we got it down, coming down 3 years in a row for the first time
    since Truman was President. It means that we are going to ship our jobs
    overseas. It means we're going to have to gut a lot of programs. They
    specifically call for cutting the college loan program 3 years in a row,
    when we need more kids going to college, not fewer. This is a bad idea,
    this contract. This is a bad idea.
        So what is going on? We don't want to go back. We need to go
    forward. We don't want to reward the blame crowd. We want to reward the
    crowd that wants to take responsibility for this country. We want to
    reward people that want to empower Americans, not people that want to
    grab power by telling us what we want to hear. Shoot, I'd like to
    promise you a trillion dollars' worth of stuff. It's 2 weeks before the
    election. I mean, we could have a good time on a trillion dollars worth
    of hot checks. [Laughter] But it would be wrong. She would pay the bill.
    We would set up the risk of setting us right back where we were in the
    trickle-down eighties. It would be wrong. You need to think about this
    in terms of what you do between now and the election for Senator and
    Congressman.
        You know, if Tom Sawyer were a Republican running for reelection and
    he had voted--[laughter]--now, listen, this is serious because you--
    we're preaching to the saved here; you've got to go out and convert--
    [laughter]--so you need to listen to this. If he were a Republican
    running for reelection who had voted to reduce the Federal Government to
    its smallest size since Kennedy was President, to give us 3 years of
    deficit reduction for the first time since Truman was President, for the
    toughest crime bill in the history of the country, and for economic
    policies that literally exploded the economy and drove down unemployment
    in Akron and throughout Ohio, the Republican Party would be building a
    statue to him and saying no one should run against him. That's what they
    should be doing anyway because that's what he voted for. Now, that's the
    truth.
        So what is all this rhetoric? It's just a bunch of stuff. But if you
    talk loud enough, long enough, and people are upset enough, maybe it
    gets across. I want you to think about this. This is the last point I
    want to make, because I want you to do something besides stand here and
    cheer me. I like that, and it's a new experience for me, having been in
    Washington--[laughter]--but that's not what I want you to do. I want you
    to think about all your friends and neighbors in Ohio who don't have
    their minds made up or even think maybe they're going to vote against
    the Congressmen or not vote for Joel or anybody else you know in these
    other districts, like young Mr. Fingerhut who has done so much.

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        I want you to think about this. I got to thinking, what's my job
    like today, and is it like any job I ever held before? And I thought,
    well, you know, I've done a lot of things for a living. I mean, from the
    time I was a little kid, I've worked in a grocery store; I had a
    wholesale comic book business; I've mowed lawns, cleared land, built
    houses. I mean, I've done a lot of different things. I was a Governor.
    And I thought, well, maybe it's like being a Governor, but it's not
    really. The job that I think I should be doing now that is most like
    what I've done before was something I didn't make money for. It was when
    I was in junior and senior high school. When I was in little clubs, we
    would raise money by doing car washes. And I was the guy that liked to
    clean the windshield. That's about what I need to do today.
        You think about that. If you're driving a car and the windshield is
    real dirty, it could be sunshine outside and you'd think it was about to
    storm. It could be clear way ahead, and you would think that there are
    all kind of obstacles in the way. Or there could be a real obstacle in
    the way, and you'd run smack dab into it because you couldn't see it.
    That's where we are in America today. We need to clean the windshield
    off. We need to turn the lights on in this country. This is a very great
    country, and we are moving in the right direction. And we need to reward
    that, not punish it. And that's what you need to do. That's what you
    need to do.
        So I want you to think about that. And I want you to clean the
    windows for Tom Sawyer and clean the windows for Joel Hyatt. Most
    importantly of all, clean the windows for your fellow Ohioans and your
    fellow Americans. You cannot blame people for being torn up and upset.
    Look at how they get their information and what they hear. Go out and
    find people that you know and tell them to take a deep breath. Tell them
    a joke; buy them a cup of coffee; get them to where they think. And
    remember that even parents don't let their children make decisions when
    they are angry. You almost always make a mistake. And imagine that
    between now and November 8th, everybody you see is an opportunity for
    you to clean the windshield and turn the lights on. America deserves it,
    and so do you.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:05 p.m. at the Akron Civic Theater. In
    his remarks, he referred to Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic and Deputy Mayor
    for Intergovernmental Relations Dorothy Jackson of Akron, and
    Representative Martin R. Hoke.