[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.