    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [November 2, 1994]
    [Pages 1948-1952]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Senior Citizens in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
    November 2, 1994

        Thank you very much. Congressman Kennedy--has a nice ring to it,
    don't you think? [Laughter] We'll take pictures later, okay? And I'll go
    over here, and we'll shake hands and take pictures, have a big time.
        Let me say how delighted I am to be here. I was told in my briefing
    this morning that I am the first President of the United States to visit
    Pawtucket since Andrew Jackson. And that's not all that inappropriate. I
    probably care more about average Americans than any President since
    Andrew Jackson.
        I want you to know, Mr. Mayor, how delighted I am to be here in your
    wonderful city. I am delighted to be here in the Portuguese Social Club.
    And for the members of the national press traveling with us, we have
    over a million Portuguese-Americans, and most of them live in Rhode
    Island, in Massachusetts, and in California. And I'm glad to be here in
    this community and in this club today.
        I'm glad to be here with Patrick Kennedy. You know, he's got a shade
    of Irish luck. [Laughter] Wouldn't you love to be running for Congress
    against a person named Vigilante? [Laughter] I mean, especially in this
    election year with these issues. I'm glad to be here with Myrth York and
    with your senatorial candidate, Linda Kushner--I hope you will support
    them all--and my good friend Jack Reed, who has been a terrific
    Congressman for the State of Rhode Island.

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        I'm glad to be here with Senator Claiborne Pell, who just took a
    trip with me to the Middle East, a historic trip for the United States
    and for the world. And I know you must be so proud of his leadership not
    only in foreign affairs but also in education and in so many other areas
    here at home. And I thank you, sir.
        Again, Mr. Mayor, let me say how glad I am to be here. I thank you
    for the key to the city. I already see a lot of hearts that are
    unlocked--[laughter]--and I intend to use it. I've got a little tape on
    my foot here--[laughter]--you all don't have to worry about me, I'll
    stick; I don't need the tape. [Laughter]
        Twenty-one months ago, with the help of the State of Rhode Island,
    the people of the United States sent me to Washington to try to change
    the direction of this country, to get the economy going again, to
    empower our people to compete in a tough global economy, to get the
    Government to work for ordinary citizens again, to try to help make the
    world more peaceful and more prosperous for Americans to live and
    flourish in. Well, 21 months later, jobs are up; the deficit is down; we
    have more educational opportunities; we've taken a serious assault
    against crime; the tax system is fairer; we've increased trade and
    reduced the nuclear threat. For the first time since the dawn of the
    nuclear age, no Russian missiles are pointing at your children or your
    grandchildren. America has become recognized as the world's defender of
    peace and freedom and democracy. In short, we've still got a lot of
    problems, folks, but this country is in better shape than it was 21
    months ago. And the issue is whether we're going to keep going forward.
        Just remember the challenges we face: 30 years, 30 years of
    deepening social problems with more and more children being born into
    difficult family circumstances and more and more violence and gangs and
    drugs building up; 20 years in which most of our wage earners have
    worked harder every year without getting wages that even kept them up
    with inflation; 12 years of a very different economic policy, trickle-
    down economics, that really believed you could give tax cuts to the
    wealthy, increase spending, explode the deficit, and somehow stagger
    your way to prosperity. In the last 4 years before I became President,
    this State alone lost about 30,000 jobs.
        Well, we're trying to change all that. We've tried to reward the
    values of work and family and strengthen our communities. Instead of
    making easy promises to the American people, I've tried to have
    disciplined commitments and challenge the American people.
        We passed the family and medical leave law after 7 years, which
    guarantees 164,000 working families in Rhode Island if they have to take
    a little time off for a baby to be born or to take care of a sick
    parent, they won't lose their jobs now.
        Thanks in no small measure to Senator Pell and to Congressman Reed,
    we made 20 million students and former students eligible for lower cost
    college loans and better repayments, including 117,000 right here in
    Rhode Island.
        You heard Mr. Kennedy say that we provided a fairer tax system. We
    did ask 1.2 percent, the wealthiest of our people, to pay higher income
    taxes. We put all their money into paying down the deficit, along with
    $255 billion in spending cuts. But we gave 15 million working families,
    including 38,000 right here in Rhode Island, a tax cut because they work
    40 hours a week, they have children in the home, and we don't believe
    people who are working full-time and raising kids should live in poverty
    in this country because of the tax system.
        We did pass the Brady bill and the crime bill. And I'm proud to say
    I wore here a watch I got on the day I signed the crime bill from the
    Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association. I wore it not only because a
    Rhode Island chief gave it to me but to highlight the fact that even
    though our Republican opponents in the Congress tried to kill the crime
    bill after having supported it, and alleged that it was full of wasted
    money, even though they sponsored a lot of the programs in it, every
    major law enforcement organization in the United States supported the
    crime bill, and we gave it to the American people to make our streets
    safer.
        Now, when we did these things, our opponents in the Republican
    Party--and every one of them voted against the deficit reduction
    package; every one of them voted against middle class college loans--
    they said the world would come to an end; they said the economy would go
    to pieces; they said we were doing a terrible thing trying to pay our
    bills. [Laughter] They said it was just awful.
        Well, guess what? In the last 4 years before I showed up, your
    economy lost 32,800 jobs. In our first 20 months, Rhode Island gained
    over 10,000 jobs. This deficit is $100 billion

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    lower this year than it would have been if we'd left their budgets in
    place. We are giving the future back to our children and building an
    economy that can compete in the 21st century. It is the right thing to
    do.
        Believe me, I know that we have more to do. I know there are still
    people who don't have work, and others who have work who are afraid
    they'll lose their jobs or never get a raise or lose their health care.
    I know there are senior citizens in this country every single month who
    are not quite poor enough to be on Medicaid but have a hard time getting
    along on Medicare and Social Security, who choose every month between
    food and medicine. I know that. But the question before you, my fellow
    Americans, is if you want to make progress, are you going to go with the
    folks that have moved forward on jobs, forward on bringing down the
    deficit, forward on making the tax system fairer, forward on expanding
    Head Start to our kids--forward, forward, forward at home and abroad--or
    are you going to go with the crowd that got a program to take us back to
    what got us into trouble in the 1980's? That is the choice in this
    election.
        Our opponents said no to our economic program, no to deficit
    reduction, no to the middle class college loans. They said
    overwhelmingly--almost all of them said no to the crime bill, no to
    family leave, no to the Brady bill. They said no. I offered a health
    care bill that would have reduced the deficit over the next 10 years and
    provided for medicine, prescription medicine, supports for elderly
    people who aren't poor enough to be on Medicaid, and would have begun to
    phase in a long-term care program in addition to nursing homes so that
    people who wanted to live at home or in boarding homes could have some
    support. And they all said no.
        Once there were 24 of them who said, ``We'll be for universal
    coverage. We at least want everybody to have health insurance.'' And
    when the time came for the floor debate in the Senate, we had gone from
    24 Republicans to zero. The more we moved toward them, the more they ran
    out the back door on health care. Why? Because they believed that the
    cynicism and the skepticism and the negative feelings of the American
    people would be so great that they could be irresponsible on every
    issue. They could say no to health care. They could say no to campaign
    finance reform. They could say no to lobbying reform. They could even
    say no to cleaning up the toxic waste dumps in this country. They could
    say no to it all, and they could punish us for what they didn't do. But
    you know what? You're smarter than that. And you're going to send them a
    message on election day.
        Now, I watched your faces when Jack Reed and Patrick Kennedy talked
    to you about this Republican contract. And I can tell some of you find
    it hard to believe that anybody, even the most conservative Republican,
    would propose a plan that would cut Social Security benefits. After all,
    Social Security is a solemn contract. It's worked well for 60 years. The
    percentage of our national income going to Social Security today is
    almost exactly what it was 20 years ago. Social Security is not causing
    the Federal deficit. It's hard to believe, but it's true.
        It's true. They have one Senate candidate saying Social Security
    ought to be voluntary, which means bankrupt the system. They have
    another saying that he wishes the retirement age were above 70, above
    70. They have a House leader who once basically called for dismantling
    the system just a couple of years ago.
        Now, I want you to see--this is the contract they signed. This is
    what they promised: They promised to give everybody a tax cut but most
    of it going to the wealthiest Americans; to increase defense, increase
    Star Wars; to balance the budget in 5 years. That costs a trillion
    dollars. That's real money, even in Rhode Island--[laughter]--a trillion
    dollars. Every one of us could have a pretty good time on a trillion
    dollars.
        I wish--it's election season--I'd like to help elect this candidate
    for the Senate and this candidate for Governor and these fine candidates
    for Congress. I wish I could come here and promise to write you a
    trillion dollars' worth of hot checks. [Laughter] But I can't do it with
    a straight face; I just don't have it--I'm not shameless enough to do
    it. But they're better than we are at this; they can say anything.
    [Laughter]
        So they made a trillion dollars worth of promises. Now, here's how
    you keep those promises. The only way you can give a tax cut to the
    wealthy, increase defense, bring back Star Wars, and balance the budget
    in 5 years is to cut everything else in the Government 20 percent.
    That's $2,000 a Social Security recipient a year. Now, that's it; that
    is the only way you can do it. Then if you say, ``Oh, no, no, I never

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    said I'd touch Social Security,'' you have to cut Medicare 30 percent
    and everything else. You really think they're going to cut the
    Agriculture Department, the Veterans Department, all this stuff 30
    percent? That's what they have to do. They have to shut down the rest of
    the Government, close Yellowstone Park.
        Now, if they're not serious, if they just want to do what they did
    in the eighties--spend the money and load all the debt onto our children
    and grandchildren and wreck the economy--then what they will do is
    explode the deficit, start shipping our jobs overseas, and put this
    economy back in the ditch again, just when Rhode Island is beginning to
    come out. There are no other alternatives, not if they intend to keep
    the signed contract. The third alternative is, it was just a bunch of
    cheap political promises to con people into voting at election time.
        So I say to you, my fellow Americans, we are better than that. We
    are better than that. We are moving into the 21st century. We have just
    been voted for the first time in 9 years by the annual review of
    international economists the most productive economy in the world. For
    the first time in 10 years, we've had 9 months of manufacturing job
    growth in a row. For the first time in 15 years, American automakers
    have sold more cars around the world than Japanese automakers. We are
    coming back. Let's don't mess it up now. Let's don't go back.
        You know, it makes a difference whether you vote and for whom you
    vote on election day. It is important to reward people that are moving
    forward and to tell people that want to take you back with beguiling
    promises, ``We have heard this before.'' The senior citizens of this
    country--people who have seen a great World War, people who can
    remember, many of you, the Depression, people who have seen our country
    at its best and its worst, motivated by our hopes and our courage, in
    the grip of our fears, hopeful, fearful--you know that we ought to do
    the right thing.
        If we're moving forward on jobs, forward on bringing the deficit
    down, forward on giving us Government that's smaller but does more for
    ordinary citizens, forward in bringing peace and prosperity, increasing
    trade and reduced nuclear threats to the world, we ought not to go
    backward. Every voter in this country on Tuesday is just like somebody
    that has a remote control on a movie about America. They can push
    forward, fast forward, or reverse. Do not push reverse. You will regret
    it, and so will America.
        You know, I just want to close with this, folks. I keep seeing how
    people are beat down and discouraged and they're so pessimistic because
    they hear all these bad things all the time. Let me tell you something,
    just look at what we've seen in the last few weeks. Look at what we've
    seen in the last few weeks about how other people look at us.
        We had the President of Russia coming here to see me, a democratic
    country working with us on reducing the nuclear threat. We had the
    President of South Africa coming here to the United States to thank us
    for helping to conduct their free election. We have been asked to
    participate in helping to bring to an end the centuries-old conflict
    between the Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland. We have
    been involved in restoring to Haiti the democratically elected
    government of President Aristide. And we were the only country in the
    world, by the way, that could have done that and actually had Haitian-
    American soldiers down there speaking Creole to the natives because
    America is a country for everybody. We are a country of all peoples, all
    ethnic groups, all backgrounds.
        I went to see our young men and women in uniform in the Persian Gulf
    who so quickly turned back the tide of Saddam Hussein's recent
    aggressive move. I was there at the signing of the peace treaty between
    Jordan and Israel. Let me tell you something: Other people around the
    world, they are not cynical about America. They admire the strength, the
    values, the energy of this country, our capacity to grow. They know we
    have the strongest military in the world, but they also know we're the
    world's strongest peacemaker, the world's strongest economy, and the
    world's strongest example. That is what we owe to our children and our
    grandchildren. The best days of this country are before us, but they
    will not be before us if we divide the old against the young, if we walk
    away from our responsibilities to our children or to our parents and
    grandparents, and if we walk away from our responsibility to ourselves.
        So I say to you, we're moving forward. You be thinking on Tuesday:
    ``I am in control. I have a remote control on America's movie. I'm going
    to go into the polling place, and I'm going to push forward; maybe I'll
    even push fast forward. But I certainly won't push reverse.''
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

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    Note: The President spoke at 2:33 p.m. at the Portuguese Social Club. In
    his remarks, he referred to congressional candidate Patrick Kennedy,
    Mayor Robert E. Metivier of Pawtucket, and gubernatorial candidate Myrth
    York.