[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[October 31, 1994]
[Pages 1915-1918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
October 31, 1994

    The President. Thank you, Senator Wofford. Thank you, ladies and 
gentlemen. Let me say, first of all, before we get into the speech, I 
want to thank the East Allegheny High School Band and the Pine-Richland 
High School Band. Let's give them a hand for playing for us tonight. 
[Applause]
    I am proud to be here with Harris Wofford, with Congressman Coyne, 
with Governor Singel, with your State treasurer Cathy Baker-Knoll, with 
Tom Flaherty and Pete Forrester, Linda Rhodes, and the congressional 
nominees. I hope you will elect them. You have a chance to replace these 
two Members of Congress that are leaving with Mike Doyle and Bill 
Leavens, and I hope you will vote for them.
    Audience members. Yes, we will! Yes, we will!
    The President. Yes, you will.
    Audience members. Yes, we will! Yes, we will!
    The President. I also want to say a word about a few other people 
who are here tonight: the chairman of the Democratic Party, David 
Wilhelm, who has worked so hard for all of us. And I want to say a 
special thanks to some of our friends from the labor movement, without 
whom so many of our candidates--[inaudible]. I thank especially Jerry 
McEntee, the president of AFSCME, who is here; George Becker, the 
president of the Steel Workers, who is here; and Bill George--
[inaudible]--AFL-CIO.
    You know, this election has a lot of interesting choices. I heard, 
for example, recently that Senator Wofford's opponent criticized people 
who go to the Senate to fight for locks and dams.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Anybody who criticizes that has never had to create a 
job or move a product to market. I think western Pennsylvania is lucky 
to have somebody who fights for improvements in the Mon River locks in 
Turtle Creek, Elizabeth, and Charleroi myself, and you ought to keep 
Harris Wofford if for no other reason.
    I read the endorsement of Senator Wofford in the Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette. And he said, contrary to the paid ads of his opponent, I want 
to quote: ``Senator Wofford is not an advocate of mindless big 
Government. He understands Government can't possibly solve all the 
problems in a nation, that personal responsibility and accountability 
must be engendered and demanded. He remains committed to a mission built 
on service and opportunity, hope and humanity, vision and realism. 
Harris Wofford is a direct descendant of the enlightened public 
officials who gave us Social Security and Medicare, those life-saving 
programs. His opponent is not.'' I couldn't say it better myself.

[[Page 1916]]

    My fellow Americans, 21 months ago I went to Washington with the 
help of an overwhelming vote from the people of Pennsylvania, with a 
commitment to make Government work for ordinary Americans, to get the 
economy moving again, to prepare our people to compete and win in the 
global economy, to make the world more secure and more prosperous for 
Americans to live and work in. I called it putting people first. Well, 
you know, we still have problems. There are still people who want jobs 
who don't have them, people who are looking for a raise that hasn't 
come, people who are worried about losing their health care. There are 
still problems with crime in our streets and social problems in our 
communities. But I'll tell you something, folks, look at what we found: 
4 years of the slowest job growth since the Depression, 12 years of 
trickle-down economics that blew up the deficit and drove our jobs 
overseas----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. ----20 years of stagnant wages, 30 years of social 
problems. And after 21 months we are clearly moving in the right 
direction. We are in better shape than we were before.
    I read in one of the papers today, a voter saying, ``Oh, I'm sort of 
disillusioned. I don't know if they've done anything for ordinary 
Americans.'' Well, here is what we've done for ordinary Americans. We 
passed the family and medical leave law. Over 2 million working 
Pennsylvanians with family members can now take some time off when 
there's a child born or a sick parent without losing their job. We 
passed college loans for the middle class for lower interest, longer 
repayment terms, so that everybody can go to college. Over 1.7 million 
Pennsylvanians can take advantage of that. We passed the national 
service program, thanks to Harris Wofford's spirited leadership. Our 
economic program had tax cuts for over 500,000 working families in 
Pennsylvania with children in the home living on modest wages, because 
we, the Democrats, don't believe if you work full time and you've got a 
kid in the house you should be in poverty. We want to reward work and 
parenting. We voted to expand Head Start and to immunize every child in 
this country under the age of 2 by 1996. And on all those issues, 
Wofford was yes; his opponent was no. We're making Government work for 
ordinary citizens, thanks to people like Harris Wofford.
    We made a serious assault on crime for the first time in a 
generation with tougher punishment, more prison space for serious 
offenders, more police for our streets, and prevention programs for our 
kids to keep them out of trouble in the first place. Every last 
Republican who voted against that crime bill knows that every law 
enforcement organization in the United States supported it. And a bunch 
of them voted for it the first time; then it became election year, and 
they flipped and voted no. They didn't care about lowering crime. They 
wanted a political issue. Harris Wofford voted to lower the crime rate 
in Pennsylvania, and you ought to reward him for it.
    And we voted to put our economic house in order: $255 billion in 
spending cuts, 272,000 fewer people working for the Federal Government, 
gave all of the money to you to fight crime in your local communities. 
We voted to change the rules by which we buy things; no more $500 
hammers and $50 ashtrays for us now. And when we did this, what did our 
opponents say? They said, ``If you do this, we will bankrupt the 
economy. The economy will go down. The deficit will go up.'' Well, they 
were wrong. Look at the results: in 21 months, 4.6 million new jobs. In 
Pennsylvania in the previous 4 years, you lost 8,300 jobs; in this 21 
months, 86,800 jobs in the State of Pennsylvania.
    Do you know that if Harris Wofford were a Republican running for 
reelection--now don't boo, listen, because you need to go out between 
now and then and talk to people who are not for him yet, who are not for 
Mark Singel yet, who haven't made up their mind how they're going to 
vote in these congressional races. And I want you to think about this. 
If Harris Wofford were a Republican running for reelection, and he got 
up and said this: ``I should be reelected, my fellow Republicans, 
because I did what you've been begging for for years. I reduced the 
deficit 3 years in a row for the first time since Truman. I am giving 
you the smallest Federal Government since John Kennedy. I have given the 
toughest crime bill to the American people in a generation, and I have 
voted for policies that are growing this economy for a change''--if he 
were a Republican, they'd be building a statue to him. And they ought to 
build one anyway. [Applause] You know it. You know it.
    What is their beef? Their beef is, they want in. And so what did 
they do? They said no

[[Page 1917]]

to everything--no, no, no--no to middle class college loans, no to 
family leave, no to everything. They refused to compromise on health 
care. They killed lobby reform. They killed campaign finance reform. 
They even killed the Superfund bill to clean up toxic waste dumps.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. It was an amazing thing, folks. We had the chemical 
companies, the labor unions, and the Sierra Club all for the bill. It 
was almost spooky. They don't agree on when the Sun's coming up in the 
morning. But they agreed that we had to get together and clean up the 
toxic waste dumps in America. No one in America was against it except a 
few more than 40 Republican Senators. And they preferred to leave the 
poison in the ground so they would have a political issue, so Harris 
Wofford----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. ----so Harris Wofford could not come home to 
Pennsylvania and say he helped to clean it up. Now, that is the truth. 
And now they have this Contract With America.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Hey, this is a sweet deal. I wish I could do this a 
week before the election. But I'd turn red; I'd get embarrassed. I 
couldn't do it. [Laughter] But it's a sweet deal. It's a trillion 
dollars' worth of promises: ``I'm going to give everybody a tax cut and 
especially the wealthiest Americans; they'll get lots more. And we're 
going to spend more on defense; we're going to spend more on Star Wars. 
We're going to give everybody everything, and we're going to balance the 
budget.'' Does that sound familiar? ``Well, how are you going to pay for 
it?'' we asked. And they say, ``We'll tell you after the election.'' 
[Laughter]
    So we had the House Budget Committee look at how it would be paid 
for. Do you know what their promises would cost if they kept them all? 
They'd have to cut Social Security $2,000 for every American. They'd 
have to cut Medicare $1,800 for every American. And if they abandon it, 
they would explode the deficit and ship our jobs overseas just like they 
did the last time they had power. They had it their way for 12 years.
    I say to you, you think they're not serious about Social Security? 
Their leader once proposed making it voluntary. The Senate candidate in 
Virginia, Ollie North, you know him?
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He says Social Security ought to be voluntary. That 
means we ought to kill it. That means we ought to kill it. And of 
course, Senator Wofford's opponent says that he would settle for raising 
the retirement age to 70, but it would be higher if he could make it 
higher.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Folks, here's my question. I know that this country 
has problems. I know this State has problems. I know not everybody is 
free of worry. But let me ask you something--they had it 12 years. They 
have told us if we give it to them again, they will do it to us again 
just like they did for the last 12 years.
    In 21 months, we have turned this thing around. We're going in the 
right direction. Let's don't turn back now. Let's don't turn back now.
    Let me tell you, I want you to think about this, in closing, every 
one of you, I want you to think about what you're going to do for the 
next 8 days. And I want you to think about it in terms of what I have 
just been doing. You know, I just came home from this trip to the Middle 
East, and I have seen--[applause]--and I want you to think about this. A 
big part of what I said in '92 was that I would give primary attention 
to our problems at home because we couldn't be strong abroad unless we 
were strong at home, but that we could not withdraw from the world, we 
had to be involved in the world. We had to expand trade, and we had to 
make the world more secure and more free. So we've expanded trade. And 
I'm going to Detroit tomorrow. You know what the biggest problem in 
Michigan is today? Overtime. The autoworkers are working too much 
overtime. That is a high-class problem. We need more problems like that.
    For the first time since the dawn of nuclear weapons, no Russian 
missiles are pointed at your children. And we, we here in the United 
States, have been asked to help brave people all over the world as they 
struggle for freedom and democracy. Whether it is in South Africa or 
South Korea, whether it is in the Persian Gulf, in Kuwait and Saudi 
Arabia, or in the Middle East, whether it is in Haiti or in Northern 
Ireland, we are helping.
    And what I want you to know is, why do you think these people want 
us to help? Because they know this is a very great country. And they 
respect our values, our Constitution, our devotion to democracy, our 
appreciation of diversity, and our willingness to change ener-


[[Page 1918]]

getically to meet the challenges of every age. That is what they like 
about the United States. To be sure, they admire our military strength, 
but it is the character of our young men and women in uniform that they 
admire even more than our power.
    What I want to say to you folks is that we have to believe in 
ourselves the way they believe in us, not because we're perfect but 
because we can always do better and because we are now doing better 
because we are taking on the problems we ignored too long. We're taking 
on the tough fights, and we're moving in the right direction.
    And what I want each and every one of you to do is to go out of here 
and say what I said to you. Find a friend or a neighbor who is 
undecided, who is a soft no on Wofford or a soft no on Singel or who 
hasn't made up their mind how they're going to vote in these Congress 
races. Find somebody and personally promise yourself you are going to 
seek them out and you are going to say, ``Look at the record. Look at 
the alternative. Look at the future. Don't go back, go forward. Reelect 
Harris Wofford. Elect Mark Singel. Elect these two Congressmen.''
    Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. 
Thank you.
    Just remember, I love western Pennsylvania. You've been wonderful to 
me. But you need to send Harris Wofford back to the Senate, elect Mark 
Singel, and do it. You have 8 days. Talk to everybody you can. Bring it 
home.
    Thank you. God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6 p.m. in the South Hall at the David 
Lawrence Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Tom Forrester 
and Peter Flaherty, Allegheny County commissioners; Linda Rhodes, State 
Democratic Party chair; and William M. George, president, Pennsylvania 
AFL-CIO. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the 
tape was incomplete.