[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[August 6, 1994]
[Pages 1440-1442]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
August 6, 1994

    Good morning. This week we celebrated the creation of 4 million new 
jobs in America since I became President on a platform to renew the 
American dream by restoring our economy, empowering individual Americans 
to compete and win in it, making Government work for ordinary citizens, 
and rebuilding our communities. Since we started our national economic 
strategy, our private sector is creating jobs nearly 8 times faster than 
it was 4 years ago.
    It hasn't been easy to make these changes. We had to make some tough 
decisions to put our economic house in order. We had to break the bad 
habits that led to mismanagement of our economy and the explosion of our 
deficit for more than a decade. And we had to break through all of the 
partisan barriers and political

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rhetoric that too often keeps us from doing the right thing for the 
American people here in Washington, DC.
    Today I want to talk with you about two other historic decisions 
that call on us to break through partisan barriers and political 
rhetoric again. For very soon, Congress will vote on both health care 
reform and the crime bill, two issues crucial to our mission of renewing 
the American dream.
    I want to talk to you about two young Americans whose stories are 
the best arguments I've heard for why we have to fix what's wrong with 
our health care system and make our country safer again for all 
Americans.
    One of those young people is Amanda Stewart from Keyes, Oklahoma. 
This week, I gave awards to four young people who have done heroic deeds 
or performed remarkable public service. Amanda was one of them. She was 
injured in a car wreck in 1990 and paralyzed from the chest down. This 
wonderful young lady could have given up on life. Instead of becoming 
bitter or defeated, she's devoted herself to educating other young 
people not to drink and drive, not to ride with people who do, and to 
always use seat belts. She's helping others to avoid what happened to 
her.
    I met Amanda's family. Her father is a hard-working farmer in 
western Oklahoma. She has a lovely mother and a wonderful younger 
sister. She hasn't had any significant medical costs since just after 
her accident 4 years ago. The Stewarts have been paying $3,400 a year 
for a limited health insurance policy with a high deductible. But 
recently they were told that this month their insurance premiums were 
going to be raised to $9,600 a year.
    Now, Amanda's father happens to be not only a farmer but a 
Republican. He's in a different party from me, and he made it clear to 
me that he doesn't want the National Government to give him anything. 
But he's got a family to raise, and he has no idea how he's going to 
keep paying for their health insurance. He said to me that if he 
couldn't take care of his family, as hard as he was working, something 
was wrong in this country.
    People like Amanda and her family are the reason we have to 
guarantee private, not Government, health insurance for every American, 
insurance that's always there. It's time to do what's right by those 
people. We're going in the wrong direction now. There are 5 million 
Americans just like Amanda's family who had insurance 5 years ago who 
don't have it today. Almost every one of them are working people and 
their children. We can do better, and we must.
    It's also time we do what's right for young people like James Darby, 
the 9-year-old boy from New Orleans who wrote me last April. He asked me 
to do something about the crime rate. He asked me to stop the killing, 
because he was afraid that someone might kill him. And just 9 days 
later, walking home from a Mother's Day picnic, little James Darby was 
shot in the head and killed.
    Well, 9 days ago, after 6 years of delay, a bipartisan committee of 
the Senate and the House of Representatives reconciled their differences 
on the smartest, toughest crime bill in the history of this country and 
sent the bill back to be voted on for final passage in both Houses of 
Congress. It took a lot of work. It's a bipartisan effort and has been 
every step of the way. Both Democrats and Republicans have voted for 
every part of it: ``three strikes and you're out'' and tougher 
punishments for other tough criminals; 100,000 new police officers on 
our streets--that's a 20 percent increase all across America; a ban on 
deadly assault weapons; a law that makes it illegal for minors to own 
and possess handguns; new prisons to keep hardened criminals in; and 
billions for new, effective prevention programs to give our young people 
something to say yes to, not just something to say no to.
    Nine days ago when the bill was sent to both Houses for final 
passage, I thought it would pass quickly and be sent to my desk for 
signing. But it still hasn't happened. Here's the one last hurdle: You 
see, before the House of Representatives can vote on a bill, it must 
agree on the rules for debate about the bill. There are 435 Members of 
the House, and they have to have some rules to limit debate. In 
shorthand, this is called ``the rule.'' The rule is purely a procedural 
matter, but it must be voted on before the final bill can pass.
    Unfortunately, the National Rifle Association, which is opposed to 
the assault weapons ban in the bill, and some other interests are trying 
to keep the crime bill from passing by defeating the rule. They're 
putting pressure on Members of Congress to kill the crime bill in a 
trick maneuver, because they know that once the bill itself gets to a 
vote, it will surely pass.

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    You know, we had a tough fight with the NRA over the ban on assault 
weapons. And those of us who think they should be banned won by only two 
votes. But we won fair and square. No parliamentary trick should reverse 
that result and put the rest of that important crime bill in peril.
    Now, some Members of Congress honestly oppose the crime bill. 
They're against the assault weapons ban or they're against the capital 
punishment provisions of the bill or they're against spending money on 
prevention programs to give our kids a better future. Well, let them 
vote against the bill. Let them vote their conscience. But the NRA and 
the others should come out of the shadows. They ought to fight this bill 
on the merits. If they really want a shootout, we really ought to have 
it at broad daylight and high noon, not in the shadows of parliamentary 
maneuvering. No one should play any more political games with our 
Nation's safety.
    Nine days after 9-year-old James Darby wrote me saying he was 
worrying about his safety and pleading with his President to help, he 
was shot dead. Nine days ago, the House and the Senate got the crime 
bill. There are lots of other little James Darbys out there, and they've 
waited long enough.
    For Amanda Stewart and her fine family, for James Darby, for every 
American child and for all of their families and their futures, let's 
stop playing games with these two important issues. Let's get the job 
done.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 4:05 p.m. on August 5 in the Roosevelt 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on August 6.