[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 3, 1994]
[Pages 1971-1976]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Des Moines, Iowa
November 3, 1994

    Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank you for giving me a drier 
welcome than I had the last time I came to Iowa.
    I want to thank the Dowling High School Band, thank you very much. I 
thank my good friend Senator Tom Harkin for that wonderful speech and 
for being a constant source of leadership and courage and support in the 
United States Senate. I don't know what I would have done without Tom 
Harkin in the last 2 years. And since I'm in Iowa, I also want to say 
that Ruth Harkin is the best Director of the Overseas Private Investment 
Corporation and has made more American jobs in that position than 
anybody who ever held it before she took it.
    I am delighted to be here with all the fine leaders of the 
Democratic Party and with your candidates for Congress: Glen Winekauf, 
Sheila McGuire, Elaine Baxter, my old friend Dave Nagle--the second time 
is the charm for Elaine and Dave; I know it will be--with Neal Smith, 
whom I admire more than I can say, and I want to say a little more about 
him later and about this race he is in; and with Bonnie Campbell, who 
ought to be the next Governor of the State of Iowa.
    Ladies and gentlemen, this election all over America represents a 
choice, a choice between hope and fear, between the mainstream and the 
mean stream, between whether we're going to be together or we're going 
to be divided, between whether we're going forward or we're going to go 
back. I think I know the answer to that. You want to keep going forward!
    Twenty-one months ago, with the help of the good people of Iowa, I 
moved to Washington to assume the Presidency. Now, since that time, I 
have kept my commitment to try to put the American people first, to make 
the Government work for ordinary people, to bring the economy back, to 
empower Americans so that everybody could assume the responsibility of 
living up to the fullest of their capacities, to give you a world that 
is more peaceful and more prosperous for Americans to work in. And while 
I know we've still got problems, we've still got folks who are worried 
about their jobs and worried they won't get a raise, people who still 
are worried about losing their health care--yes, there are still 
problems.
    But I ask you to consider this: We went to Washington to deal with 
30 years of accumulated social problems, with 20 years of stagnant wages 
and losing benefits for working people, with 12 years of the 
consequences of trickle-down economics, with 4 years of the slowest job 
growth since the Great Depression. And folks, after 21 months we've 
still got a good ways to go, but this country is in better shape than it 
was 21 months ago.
    We've taken a stand to try to help ordinary working people. You 
heard Bonnie mention the family and medical leave law; let me tell you 
what that means in Iowa. It means that 446,000 more Iowa working people 
can take a little time off if there's a baby born or a sick parent, 
without losing their jobs. That makes a difference here in Iowa. It 
means that in Iowa, 358,000 people will be eligible for lower costs on 
their college loans because of our reform of the college loan program. 
It means in Iowa that 118,640 working families got income tax reductions 
because they're working full-time, they have children in their homes, 
and we don't believe that anybody who does that should be in poverty. 
The tax system should lift them out of poverty, not put them in. For all 
their attacks on us, 13 times as many people in Iowa got

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an income tax cut as an income tax rate increase. That is the record of 
our administration with our supporters in Congress moving this country 
forward. I think we should keep doing it.
    It means after years of bickering delay, we passed the Brady bill 
and the crime bill. And I can tell you that Iowa--Iowa--is the first 
State in the United States where the United States Attorney has brought 
an action under our ``three strikes and you're out'' law. If you commit 
three serious offenses, threatening or taking the lives of others, you 
should not be eligible for parole. And the first action under a law I 
signed 2 months ago has been taken in Iowa.
    The other guys, they always told you how bad the Federal Government 
was. But when they were in charge, the Government got bigger. They 
always told you that they hated the deficit, but they quadrupled the 
national debt. Since we've been in office, we have reduced the Federal 
deficit, we have shrunk the Federal Government, and we have taken all 
the savings from the reduction in Federal bureaucracy and given it to 
local communities in Iowa and all across the United States to fight 
crime, to make our streets safer, to give our kids a better future. I 
think it's been a good bargain.
    When I proposed and the Congress adopted our economic program, the 
other fellows said the sky would fall. They said the world would come to 
an end if the President's economic program was passed. Well, folks, they 
were wrong. They were wrong. You look at the results. In this country in 
the last 21 months, our economy has produced 4.6 million new jobs. For 
the first time in a long time--and this is very important for Iowa--more 
than half the new jobs created in 1994 in America played above the 
national average in wages and income. We had more high-wage jobs this 
year than in the past 5 years combined. We're moving in the right 
direction. We don't need to turn back now.
    I told you if you would send me to Washington, I would be a 
President who would remember the farmers in rural America; would 
remember what it's like to live in the small towns, in the country 
crossroads, the places that Presidents don't visit and that people don't 
often take notice of. Well, in 21 months, in agriculture, I think we 
have plainly kept our commitments. We've increased loan rates. We've 
reformed the Nation's crop insurance system. We've given more crop 
disaster assistance payments; they've been based on quality, not just 
quantity. We've reduced the paperwork in the farm program. We've changed 
the farm income reporting system to more accurately reflect the real 
income of the average American farmer. We brought farmers into the 
policymaking process at the Department of Agriculture. We've 
reorganized. We've reduced spending. We've taken a $3.6 billion cut in 
the farm bureaucracy without doing what the Republicans say they want to 
do, which is to gut the farm programs. This is the friend-of-the-farmer 
administration, and you ought to support it and keep going forward.
    And I want to say something especially about Tom Harkin and 
particularly about Neal Smith. When it came to ethanol, the Republicans 
said one thing but did another. I'd come out here in the middle of the 
farm country in Iowa and Illinois and the Dakotas, particularly in 
places that cared about ethanol. And people would say, ``Well, we're 
farmers. We usually vote Republican.'' And I said, ``Well, if you'll 
vote for me, I won't just talk about ethanol. I'll go to Washington and 
try to do something about it.''
    Well, during the last administration, they cultivated all the 
farmers, but they danced around the ethanol issue like a kid around a 
maypole. [Laughter] They'd tippy-toe here, and then they'd go back to 
Washington and they'd tippy-toe there. I couldn't figure out why, until 
I got to Washington and all the establishment in Washington tried to get 
me to tippy-toe, too. And I said, ``Folks, I haven't been here long 
enough to learn this Washington tippy-toe. I told them in Iowa I was for 
ethanol, and I'm going to be for ethanol.''
    I want you to understand how tough it was. Tom Harkin, Neal Smith 
led the fight in the Congress to approve the promotion of ethanol. The 
vote was close. In the United States Senate, it came down to a tie vote, 
and Al Gore broke the tie in favor of ethanol. We did it to make 
ourselves more independent of foreign oil. We did it to promote the 
cleanness of our environment. We did it to create new jobs for farm 
families. But if it had not been for Neal Smith--I want you to think 
about this Tuesday--if it had not been for Neal Smith, we would not have 
been able to do it. And he ought to be sent back to Congress to keep 
fighting for you.
    We are trying to help farmers all over America. We resolved the 
wheat dispute with Canada. For the first time--it's a big deal where I 
come

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from--for the first time ever, we opened the Japanese market to American 
rice and the Chinese market to American apples. Twice this year, 
including yesterday, something you care about, when hog prices were at 
their lowest mark in decades, we approved additional sales to Russia and 
other states of the former Soviet Union through the Export Enhancement 
Program. We are helping the farmers of America.
    Tom and Neal and a lot of other people have been talking to me about 
the record corn harvest. You know how it is when you're farming: You're 
either flooded or you're glutted. You escaped the flood. Now you've got 
more corn than you know what to do with. It's depressed feed grain 
prices by 10 to 15 percent below the average. Today I am glad to 
announce that we will open the Farmer Owned Reserve for 1994 feed 
grains. We will provide no-cost extension of the USDA loans due next 
July. We'll enable the farmers to store that grain, rather than sell it 
when prices are too low. You clap for me, but you ought to thank Tom 
Harkin and Neal Smith, the chief architect of the Farmer Owned Reserve.
    When I flew over Iowa last year, when I sat down and I walked 
through and I saw the flooded fields and the flooded cities, it made an 
indelible impression on me that I will never forget. I'm proud of the 
work that our agencies did here last year: James Lee Witt and the 
Emergency Management Agency, Secretary Espy, Secretary Cisneros, all the 
others in our administration. Well, this year, more farmers are hurting 
from crop losses in Texas, in the Dakotas, in Kansas, in Georgia, all 
across the Southeast. Today we're authorizing further disaster payments 
for them, just under a billion dollars from the emergency funds we set 
aside. And you remember what Tom Harkin said, the only reason we can do 
this is because you had a Democratic President working with our friends 
in Congress who restored the cuts made in the disaster assistance 
program by the previous Republican administration.
    And for those who say, ``Well, that's what the Democrats do, they 
just spend money''--no, no, no. It was the Democrats: We reduced the 
deficit; we reduced defense and domestic spending this year for the 
first time in 25 years. We did that. But because of discipline, because 
of a commitment to root out waste, because we changed our buying 
practices so there wouldn't be any more $500 hammers and $50 ashtrays, 
we increased our investment in disaster assistance, in Head Start, in 
immunizing all the kids in this country under the age of 2 by 1996, in 
college loans. We increased our investment in the things that count in 
this country. Now, what we need to do, if you really want to keep going 
in this direction, is to give me partners. Send these people to 
Congress. I need help, folks.
    The other guys, what did they do? They voted no every chance they 
got. Every one of them voted against our program to revolutionize the 
college loan program, to provide for more affordable college loans. And 
it saved money. It saved the Treasury $4 billion. It saved borrowers $2 
billion. They voted against it because the organized interests were 
against it. Every one of them voted against our economic program to 
reduce the debt and give 118,000 families in this State a tax cut 
because they were just above the poverty line, because they didn't like 
it that we asked one percent of our people to pay higher tax rates 
because they could afford it to reduce the deficit, every one of them.
    And there are so many things that a President does, that a Congress 
does that have their impact in the States. You know, I had the privilege 
of serving my State as Governor for quite a long while. On the tough 
days in Washington, I think that was the best job I ever had. [Laughter] 
And I can tell you that so much that I hope to do for our economy still 
can't be felt unless you have a Governor with an economic strategy for 
high-wage jobs, to help small businesses, to bring economic opportunity 
to the rural areas and the places where it has been lost in the last 10 
years. Bonnie Campbell will do that. I want you to help her get elected.
    This crime bill we passed, it is a very important piece of 
legislation. It has more punishment. It has more prisons. It has more 
police. It also has opportunities for prevention to keep kids out of 
trouble. But the work of fighting crime is done at the State level; it 
is done at the community level. We need partners out here in the 
country. You have the tools now to lower the crime rate to make your 
children safer, to make your future safer.
    The leadership of the other party tried to kill the crime bill, but 
we stopped them and we passed it. But now you need a Governor who 
understands what it takes to lower the rate of crime, reduce violence, 
and give our kids a better future. Bonnie Campbell proved as at-


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torney general she does that, she knows that. Give her a chance to 
serve.
    Now listen when I tell you what the stakes are in Congress, and why 
it is so important that you return Neal Smith and elect these other 
candidates for Congress. Last Sunday on ``Meet the Press,'' the 
Republicans' top strategist in Washington, Bill Kristol, said he wanted 
to end farm subsidies, and as soon as the election is over, the 
Republican Senator from Kansas, their leader, would take the lead in 
doing just that. He said that; I didn't. Now, Mr. Kristol, you've 
probably never heard of him, but he's the fellow that tells them what to 
think up in Washington. [Laughter]
    He told them, for example, to stop cooperating with us on health 
care. I pleaded with them. I said, ``You don't like my ideas. I'll try 
yours. Let's cooperate on health care.'' Another million Americans in 
working families lost their health insurance last year. Farmers in this 
State and throughout this country pay astronomical rates for their 
health insurance. It isn't right. It isn't fair. I had a plan so that 
farmers and small business people could buy health insurance at the same 
rates that those of us in the Federal Government and people that work 
for big corporations do. And they refused to cooperate because Mr. 
Kristol told them it was bad politics. He said--he released his memo. 
Folks in Washington, one thing I'll say about them, they're not humble. 
They'll tell you right what they're up to. [Laughter]
    He released this memo, and the memo said, ``You folks cannot 
cooperate with this President on health care because if this country 
solves the health care problem, the middle class will go back to voting 
for the Democrats. So at all costs, never mind the consequences, kill 
health care.'' That's what they said in the crime debate. They 
intimidated their Members of Congress. They said, ``Whatever you do, 
don't vote for this crime bill. Our job is not to reduce crime. Our job 
is to beat the Democrats.'' You don't have to take my word for it. You 
remember what Congressman Grandy said. He said that he was ordered not 
to cooperate on health care.
    So now they've got this plan on farm subsidies, and they say, 
``We're just practicing election-year scare tactics.'' Well, you look at 
their contract, the contract that Neal Smith's opponent signed and that 
some of these other folks' opponents signed and that they'll all be 
ordered to vote for, over 300 of them. Here's what the contract says--
now, pay attention. The contract says, ``Vote for the Republicans, put 
us in charge in Washington, and here is what we will do: We'll give 
everybody a tax cut, but mostly people in upper income groups; they'll 
get 70 percent of it. We will increase defense; we will bring back Star 
Wars; and we will balance the budget.'' Well, how much does that cost? 
``A trillion dollars.'' How are you going to pay for it? ``We'll tell 
you after the election.'' [Laughter]
    I'll tell you how you're going to pay for it. We had a study done. 
The House Budget Committee did a study. A trillion dollars, there's only 
one way to pay for it. You've got to cut everything else 20 percent 
across the board, Social Security, Medicare, farm programs, veterans 
benefits, college loans--20 percent, $2,000 a Social Security recipient 
a year. And boy, they squealed like a pig under a gate when we said 
that. If you take out Social Security, you know what you have to do? Cut 
everything else 30 percent across the board.
    And if they're not serious, then what does that mean? If they're not 
serious, it means just what Tom Harkin said. We're going right back to 
where we were in the eighties. We're going to explode the deficit again. 
We're going to bury our kids in a mountain of debt. We're going to ship 
our jobs overseas, and people will be shipping out of Iowa all over 
again. No, thank you, we tried that. We want to go forward. We know 
better than that.
    Now, I read coming in here--they always try to prepare me, and I 
read Congressman Smith's opponent, when Neal pointed this out that he'd 
signed this contract and he pointed out what the consequences were, he 
just went nuts and ran a television ad saying it was a lie. Well, it's 
not a lie. It's the truth. I know he is a plastic surgeon, but there are 
some things you cannot make pretty, and this contract is one of them. 
This contract will perform reverse plastic surgery on America. And we 
don't want it, and you don't want it. And you need to send Neal Smith 
back to Congress so he can fight it.
    You don't have to take my word for it. Look what Mr. Grandy said 
about it. He said it's the crassest kind of politics. ``How may times,'' 
I quote, ``how many times does the elixir salesman show up with a hair 
tonic before people figure out this stuff doesn't work?'' Do not be 
suckered.

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    Senator Warren Rudman, the former Republican Senator from New 
Hampshire, very prominent in deficit-reduction efforts in the Congress 
before he retired, a really old-fashioned Republican who believed in 
working with Democrats and sticking up for what he believed in, said the 
other day, ``I guess you'd have to give the Democrats the credit for 
reducing the deficit and managing the economy. All the Republicans were 
against it.'' That's what the Republicans are saying, the mainstream, 
old-fashioned Republicans who are also mortified by what is going on 
today.
    Folks, we've got to stand up against this. We are going forward in 
jobs. We are going forward in reducing the deficit. We are going forward 
in helping families with things like family leave and immunizations and 
expanded Head Start and the tax breaks for working people. We are going 
forward with welfare reform. We are going forward with the crime bill. 
We are going forward to make this world a better place. We have reduced 
the nuclear threat. For the first time since nuclear weapons were 
developed, there are no missiles pointed at the children of Iowa and the 
United States. And North Korea has committed itself to be checked and 
not to become a nuclear state.
    And we are expanding the trade opportunities through NAFTA, through 
GATT, through the trip I'm about to take to the Far East after the 
election. We are breaking down barriers to American products and 
American services. We are standing up for peace and democracy from South 
Africa to South Korea, to the Persian Gulf, to the Middle East, to Haiti 
to Northern Ireland--everywhere. This country is leading a movement 
inside and outside the world to a more prosperous and a more peaceful 
level. And we are challenging the American people to make the most of 
their own capacities and to assume responsibility for their lives.
    So you have a choice. Will you be for the progress that we are 
making, or will you go back? Will you be for the hope that we are 
promoting, or for the fear that they are pandering to? Will you be for 
what is best in us, or will you be for their easy promises and their 
cynicism? You know, these elections are going to be determined, in large 
measure, by the state of mind people are in when they go to the polls 
next Tuesday. We're out here telling people, ``This is a great country, 
we can do better. We are doing better. But we've dealt with 30 years of 
social problems, 20 years of economic problems, 12 years of trickle-down 
economics. And in 21 months, we're moving things in the right 
direction.'' [Applause] Thank you. They're saying, ``We've still got 
problems. Be mad. Vote against them. Vote for us. Look at our 
promises.''
    Those of us who are parents in the audience today, we know that one 
of the first things we have to teach our children when they get old 
enough to understand it is not to make important decisions when they're 
mad, isn't it? How many times, those of you who are like me and can 
still remember your childhood, just barely, did your mama or daddy say 
to you, ``When you're mad, count 10 before you say anything''? Their 
theory is, count one and vote no. [Laughter] That's what their theory 
is. They don't want you to think. They don't want you to feel. They want 
you to lash out. We have to say no, we're better than that.
    I just came home from this unbelievable opportunity I had to 
represent you and our country in the Middle East; to witness the signing 
of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan because of the role the 
United States played in making that peace; to see our young men and 
women in uniform in the deserts of Kuwait; to look into the faces of 
millions and millions and millions of people from six other countries 
who saw in me and in them the promise of America. And let me tell you 
something, folks, outside this country, people are not cynical about 
this country. They know America is a very great nation, leading the 
world to a better future.
    And so I ask you, I ask you to think about that. Out here today, 
we're all preaching to the saved. But tomorrow there will be other 
voters you can talk to, you can talk to for Bonnie Campbell, you can 
talk to for Neal Smith, you can talk to for these other fine people 
running for Congress. They need you, and the stakes are high, and 
America needs them. We are moving forward, we have always been a country 
moving forward. We are taking on problems that the other guys ignored 
for years and years and years. And yes, sometimes it's messy, and 
sometimes it's hard, and challenges are not as easy to hear as easy 
promises. But you know this is a challenging time. And I'm telling you, 
the best days of this country are still before us if we take up these 
challenges. Stick with these

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people. Go forward. Vote for hope. Vote for tomorrow.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 3:20 p.m. at the Des Moines International 
Airport.