    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [November 1, 1994]
    [Pages 1931-1932]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Interview With Thera Martin Connelly of WDAS Radio, Philadelphia,
    Pennsylvania
    November 1, 1994

        Ms. Connelly. Hello, Mr. President.
        The President. Hello.

    Midterm Elections

        Ms. Connelly. It is our delight and honor to have this opportunity
    to interview you, sir. And we were particularly pleased to see you in
    Philadelphia yesterday campaigning for the Democrats. As we look at this
    election year, general election day, November the 8th, certainly there's
    a lot of shopping for votes across the Nation and here in Pennsylvania.
    What would you say to our listening audience to encourage them to
    participate on election day?
        The President. I'd say first of all, you have a lot at stake in this
    election. The issue is whether we're going to continue to go forward to
    build the economy and to make the Government work for ordinary citizens
    or whether we're going to go back to the approach that the Republicans
    gave us in the 1980's where they cut taxes for the wealthy, increased
    defense spending, and promised to balance the budget, giving us the
    possibility of either big cuts in Social Security and Medicare or a big
    increase in the deficit and the loss of jobs.
        I saw an article in one of the newspapers about a gentleman from
    Philadelphia who said he didn't know if he would vote because he voted
    for me in 1992; he had a part-time job; he wanted a full-time job, and
    he hadn't found a full-time job yet. I sympathize with that gentleman.
    But what I want to say to him and to all your listeners is that in the 4
    years before I took office, Pennsylvania lost 8,300 jobs, no job gain, a
    loss. In the 21 months since I've been here, Pennsylvania's gained
    86,000 jobs and we're working on building more. And we're working on
    bringing new investments to the inner cities, which have been too long
    ignored.
        I know there are a lot of people who still feel uncertain about
    their own economic situation, who are worried about crime and violence
    and the breakdown of their communities. But we are facing these issues.
    We are dealing with the problems with the crime bill, with the family
    leave law, with immunizing kids and expanding Head Start and providing
    college loans at more affordable rates and building the job base of the
    country. And we don't need to turn back.
        So I would urge the people who are listening to me to get out there
    and vote, because we need to keep going in this direction. After all,
    the other approach was tried for 12 years without very good results.
    We've just had 21 months, and the country's in better shape than it was
    when I took office. We need to keep going. That's my message.
        Ms. Connelly. Suddenly we have seen defections, if you will, where
    Republicans have come over and endorsed Democrats for upcoming general
    elections. In New York, it was the mayor of New York, Giuliani, coming
    out in support of Cuomo. And here in Pennsylvania, former U.S. Senator
    John Heinz's wife, Teresa Heinz, says that she could not see a Santorum
    in the

    [[Page 1932]]

    U.S. Senate. Do you see more Americans perhaps who are Republicans, on
    the books, jumping over to the Democratic side on election day?
        The President. Well, I hope so. You know, I think a lot of
    Republican leaders out in the country who are not part of the
    congressional leadership, they always wanted to work in a bipartisan
    fashion. And they wanted to debate Democrats in a civilized way that
    would build up our country, not tear it down. And I think Teresa Heinz--
    well, I read her speech. She'd been very upset by some of the things
    that Mr. Santorum has said that have been irresponsible, divisive,
    negative, and inaccurate. And it took a lot of courage for her to say
    what she did. Mayor Giuliani in New York, just by the same token, was
    trying to be supportive of his people, and being a citizen first and a
    Republican second, when he endorsed Governor Cuomo.
        The same thing happened with the mayor of Los Angeles endorsing the
    Democratic Senator; Mrs. Reagan, our former First Lady, attacking Oliver
    North in Virginia. There are a lot of good Republicans who are upset by
    this extremism and negativism and sort of power grab mentality that has
    taken over the congressional Republican Party. They do not like it, and
    they want to stand against it.
        And the people of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are going to have a
    chance to stand against it by reelecting Senator Wofford and voting in
    these other elections on Tuesday. And I certainly hope they'll do so.
        Ms. Connelly. We're talking with President Clinton, and we've only
    got another minute or two with him. I understand that your schedule is
    very busy, sir. In closing, I wanted to get some thoughts from you, if
    you would, some food for thought that you could send out to our
    listening audience, why they should go Democrat as opposed to
    Republican, because there's been a lot of legislation blocked by
    Republicans.
        The President. You should vote for the Democrats instead of the
    Republicans because of what we have done, because of what they stopped
    us from doing, and because of what they propose to do.
        What have we done? We've made the Government work for ordinary
    citizens. We passed the family leave law so people can take some time
    off when their babies are sick without losing their jobs. We're going to
    immunize all children in the country under 2 by 1996. We expanded Head
    Start. We expanded college loans. You should vote for the Democrats
    because we've got the economy coming back. There's a lower deficit, a
    smaller Federal Government, and more job growth. You should vote for the
    Democrats because the world is more peaceful and prosperous, and that's
    good for Americans. We've got more trade. We've got a more peaceful
    world from Haiti to Northern Ireland to the Middle East. You should vote
    for the Democrats because we've taken the time to develop some special
    incentives to get investment into our inner cities to create jobs there,
    empowerment zones and community development banks and other things.
        You should vote for the Democrats because of what we tried to do
    with political reform, campaign finance reform, and lobby reform. What
    we tried to do to clean up toxic waste dumps was stopped by Republican
    delaying tactics. And if you reward them, they'll just do it again.
        You should vote for the Democrats because this Republican contract
    is a way to take us back to the trickle-down Reaganomics of the
    eighties: give the rich a tax cut, spend more on defense, promise to
    balance the budget. You're either going to have them cutting Social
    Security and Medicare or exploding the deficit and sending jobs
    overseas. There's no other alternative.
        And we offer a path to the future. They want to take us back. So I
    hope the people in Philadelphia will vote for the future on Tuesday.
        Ms. Connelly. Mr. President, I can never thank you enough for this
    opportunity and this honor to chat with you for a few moments. And I'm
    sure our listeners here at WDAS AM and FM appreciate it as well.
        God bless you, sir.
        The President. Thank you. Goodbye.

    Note: The interview was recorded at 4:52 p.m. for broadcast and release
    at 6 p.m. The President spoke by telephone from the Westin Hotel in
    Detroit, MI.