[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 4, 1994]
[Pages 1992-1996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Duluth, Minnesota
November 4, 1994

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Ann. Thank you for that wonderful 
introduction. Thank you for that good speech. If she hadn't made a case 
for her candidacy before, she certainly did in those remarks. I want to 
thank all of you at UMD for making me so welcome, the students here. I 
want to thank the band for providing our music; thank you. I want to 
thank the children in the Kids Voting Project who are going to take 
their parents to the election. When my daughter was very young, I began 
taking her with me to vote. Now kids are taking their parents to vote. 
We're going to get up to 100 percent voting if that keeps going. I thank 
you.
    I am honored to be here today. I'm glad to be here with Senator 
Wellstone. I was listening to him speak, you know, and I was thinking to 
myself, it's too bad Paul has no energy, no enthusiasm; you never know 
where he stands. If he could just loosen up a little bit, how much 
more--[laughter]--I'll tell you what, he's a great inspiration to all of 
us. He keeps everybody in a good humor and always thinking about 
positive things, and that's pretty tough in Washington. When all the 
arrows start flying and people try to be negative, Paul Wellstone will 
always get up in the morning and try to make something good happen for 
the people of Minnesota and this country.
    I am delighted to be here with all these Democrats behind me and 
especially with our Democratic gubernatorial nominee, John Marty. Thank 
you for coming, John, thank you. I appreciate many things about the 
welcome I've been given by Mayor Doty, but especially I appreciate his 
taking me to run today. We went out and ran 3 miles around the overlook 
today, so I saw all of Duluth. And I appreciate that; it's a beautiful 
city.
    I want to take a point of personal privilege to say that I'm glad to 
welcome here Ann Wynia's primary opponent, my longtime friend Tom Foley, 
to thank him for supporting Ann in this race and for helping us to win 
this race.
    And I want to thank Congressman Jim Oberstar for so many things. He 
is a wonderful leader. You know--yeah, you can clap for that. [Applause] 
He was one of the very few Members of the United States Congress who 
always supported our policy of restoring democracy and President 
Aristide to Haiti because he understood what was at stake. And it did my 
heart a lot of good to hear you cheering for him a few moments ago, to 
think what a great country America is, that here we are in the Iron 
Range in northern Minnesota where people care about what happens to 
people as far away as Haiti. And I thank you for that.

[[Page 1993]]

    Finally, let me thank you, Chancellor Ianni, and everyone here at 
this fine school--there you are. We appreciate your making this fine 
facility available for a little old-fashioned enthusiasm right before 
this election.
    You know, all of you know that I came here to ask you to vote in 
record numbers and with great enthusiasm for Ann Wynia for the United 
States Senate. I want to talk to you about why, why I feel that and why 
I think it's so important. You all know that she's had a distinguished 
career in the legislature, that unlike a lot of people in politics 
today, she is more of a doer than a talker. We've got a lot of talkers 
in Washington; we need a few more doers up there. In Washington you can 
almost tell people between those who point their fingers and try to 
blame others and those who open their arms and try to assume 
responsibility. We've got enough blamers in Washington. We need some 
more people who will take responsibility for the future of this country 
to get it going again and face our challenges again.
    You don't have to take my word for it or hers. You can look at the 
work she's done to provide health care for 35,000 children in Minnesota 
who did not have it or her work in welfare reform or for education, many 
other areas. But I want to talk to you today about what's going on in 
our country and what we have to do about it. Ann said that this is a 
choice between going forward and going back, and she's clearly right 
about that.
    You know, 21 months ago I moved to Washington, with the help of the 
votes of the State of Minnesota, to become the President. And I set 
about the work of trying to change this country, trying to rebuild 
America, trying to bring the American people together across all the 
lines that had divided us, trying to make us strong.
    What does it take to make a country strong at home and strong 
abroad? It takes strong families, good jobs, a good education system, 
safe streets. It takes a sense of security abroad and growing trade, 
democracy, freedom, and peace so that Americans can work in a world that 
is coming together, not coming apart. My friends, you know, we've got a 
lot of problems in this country, but the truth is we're in better shape 
than we were 21 months ago when our administration took office.
    There is this vast attack today on the idea of Government, and all 
the surveys show that our adversaries are making gains basically because 
they're trying to make people cynical and negative, to convince them 
that Government is the cause of all of our problems, that it is 
inherently bad, and that it doesn't matter how outrageous they are, what 
ridiculous things they say, you ought to vote for them anyway because 
they'll bring the Government down. Now, that's the essential core of 
their message. They win if the American people give up hope and believe 
the Government is bad. Well, I'm here to tell you that the Government is 
neither good nor bad. It is a tool that reflects you. You control it. 
You're the bosses. It is yours. The question is, what should it do? How 
much should it cost? How should it be done? Those are the questions.
    Now, if strong families make America strong, I happen to think that 
the Government did the right thing when we came in and reversed the 
position of the previous administration to adopt the family leave law 
which protects 845,000 Minnesota families. I think we did the right 
thing to lower the income taxes of 155,000 Minnesota families who are 
working full-time, have children in their homes, but are hovering just 
about the poverty line. No one should be driven into welfare by the tax 
system. It should lift people out of welfare to reward work and family. 
I believe when our administration asked the Congress to approve a plan 
to immunize all the children in this country under the age of 2 by 1996, 
that strengthens families. When we expanded Head Start, it strengthens 
families. That's what we ought to do, and it's a good thing to do.
    I believe that we have--and all the education groups agree with us, 
by the way--we've done more in the last 2 years to help Americans 
improve education than any Federal administration has done in the last 
30 years. Why? Not because people are educated by the Federal 
Government, not because we are dictating more but because we have 
changed the nature of the relationship of the National Government to the 
education process. And I want to mention three things, in addition to 
Head Start.
    Number one, with two major education bills, we have said to our 
public schools, there should be national standards of excellence that 
our children should achieve. We believe that all children can achieve 
them, and we are tired of having Federal rules and regulations that 
segregate poor kids in separate classes and separate tracks

[[Page 1994]]

and tell them that by the time they're 6 or 7 or 8 years old, ``We 
already know you're not going to make it because you come from poor 
backgrounds.'' We reject that. We reject that; it's wrong. So what we 
have offered is higher standards but less Federal rules and regulations, 
fewer requirements, and more emphasis on grassroots reform, the kind of 
thing that has been pioneered in the State of Minnesota, where so many 
of the interesting reforms in public education have started in the last 
10 years. We are trying to take that all across America.
    The second thing we've done is to say that education must be a 
lifetime process. We need apprenticeship programs for young people who 
don't come to college but want to be in good jobs.
    And we have to make it possible for every single American citizen 
who is willing to do so to go to college, stay in college, and pay off 
their college loans at an affordable rate. Already 419,000 people in the 
State of Minnesota are eligible for lower cost college loans or better 
repayment terms, and we're going to keep going until all the students in 
America are eligible for the changes we have made in the college loan 
program. No one should ever stay out of college because of the cost of a 
college education. No one should, no one.
    We have given you the chance to make our streets safer by passing 
that crime bill. Why? Because 100,000 police may not mean much, but 10 
or 20 more in Duluth could mean a lot. Because we have adopted a 
balanced approach, tougher punishment, more prisons where they're 
needed, more police to prevent crime, and prevention programs to give 
our young people something to say yes to as well as something to say no 
to in this country. That is what we are doing.
    And most important of all, we know that the best social program is a 
good job. And look at what has happened. In the State of Minnesota and 
in the United States--we just got the latest unemployment figures 
today--we now know that the unemployment rate in this country is 5.8 
percent, the lowest it's been in 4 years. It's much lower in Minnesota. 
We now know that over 5 million new jobs have come into this country in 
the last 21 months and that in 1994 we have had more high-wage jobs come 
into our economy than in the previous 5 years put together. We are 
moving in the right direction. We don't need to turn back on this.
    Just in this area, look at what has happened with the Erie Mining 
Company coming out of the LTV bankruptcy. Look at what's happened--yeah, 
you can clap for that; that's good. [Applause] I heard Jim Oberstar 
mention the National Steel Company. You know the steel industry is 
booming in America today, partly because the auto industry is booming in 
America today. For the first time since 1979, American automobile 
companies will sell more autos around the world than our Japanese 
competitors. We are back, and we're doing well.
    I was in Michigan the other day meeting with the autoworkers. You 
know what the number one complaint there is now? They're working too 
much overtime, and they want more people to be hired. Now, folks, that 
is what I would call a high-class problem. [Laughter] And we need more 
like that.
    Now, this is the record: strong at home, making efforts for stronger 
families, better education, safer streets, good jobs. This is the 
record.
    Ann Wynia's opponent joined the Republican chorus in unanimously 
voting against our economic program to reduce the deficit. They said, 
all of them, that if my program passed, the economy would go down and 
the deficit would explode. Her opponent said, and I quote, ``The Clinton 
budget would have ominous implications for the American economy, 
American jobs, and the American people.'' I'll tell you what, he was 
wrong about that. And he would have ominous implications for the 
American economy if his ideas were adopted by the United States 
Congress.
    You know, you look at what's happened here. It's the economic 
equivalent of something you know a lot about, a hat trick. We've got 
unemployment going down, jobs being created, the deficit going down to 
its lowest level in a very long time, $100 billion lower than predicted, 
3 years of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since President 
Truman was in office.
    Our Republican opponents say they are against Government and vote 
for them. Don't pay any attention to what they say, because they hate 
Government anyway; it doesn't matter what you do. [Laughter] That's what 
they say. But when they were in office, the Federal Government got 
bigger. Since we have been in office, working together, we have reduced 
the size of

[[Page 1995]]

the Federal Government. We are taking it down to its smallest size since 
President Kennedy was in office, and we're giving all the money back to 
you and your local community to make the streets safer. That's what 
we're doing, and that's our proposal.
    So you have a clear choice here: someone who supports policies that 
have made us strong, and someone who said no, no--no to deficit 
reduction; no to the tax cuts for the working people on modest incomes; 
no to the other programs, the immunizations for children; no to middle 
class college loan expansion--no, no, no. He even said no to the 
national service legislation which is giving children and young people 
all across America the chance to earn some money to go to college by 
working for a year or two in their communities at the grassroots level 
to solve the problems of America. How could anybody be against that?
    Instead, they offer this contract. Now, you heard Jim Oberstar 
talking about the contract. I've been watching the faces of the people 
at our rallies when our congressional candidates talk about the 
Republican contract, and they go blank. They can hardly believe it. And 
that's really what the Republicans are hoping. They're hoping that 
you'll hear the sweet parts and when we tell you the bad parts you won't 
believe it.
    Here's what they promise. They say, ``We're going to give big tax 
cuts. We'll give you a tax cut. Most of it will go to the top 2 
percent--70 percent of it--but we'll give the rest of you a buck and a 
half or so--[laughter]--everybody gets a tax cut. And then we're going 
to increase defense, and we're going to bring back Star Wars. And then 
we're going to balance the budget.'' [Laughter] And how much does that 
cost? A trillion dollars. That's still real money in Duluth, isn't it? A 
trillion dollars. [Laughter] That's right. We could have a good time 
tonight on a trillion bucks. We could go all weekend long on a trillion 
bucks. A trillion dollars. So you say, ``How are you going to pay for 
this?'' They say, ``We'll tell you after the election.''
    Well, let me tell you something, folks. Here are the options. If 
they mean what they say, that they're going to have these tax cuts, 
raise defense as much as they say, bring back Star Wars, and balance the 
budget, there are only the following options: Number one, they can cut 
everything else in Government 20 percent across the board, including 
Social Security, which is 2,000 bucks a Social Security recipient a 
year. Number two, they can say what they're going to say, ``Oh, how dare 
him; we didn't say we'd cut Social Security.'' They didn't say they 
wouldn't, either. [Laughter]
    So, let's say they don't do that; then what do they have to do? They 
have to cut everything else 30 percent across the board, a 30 percent 
cut in Medicare for the elderly, veterans benefits, and student loans. 
And then there's the other possibility, which is that they're kidding; 
they don't mean it. [Laughter] Now, what does that mean? That's also 
pretty scary. What that means is, we're going to explode the deficit, 
ship our jobs overseas again, just like we did in the years of trickle-
down economics, and put this economy right back in the ditch.
    Now, you have the choice. When we talk about going forward, look at 
what is happening. We are moving forward on jobs. We are moving forward 
by reducing the deficit. We are moving forward in reducing the size of 
the Government. We are moving forward in Head Start, forward in 
providing immunization to our kids, forward in so many areas. We are 
working for stronger families, safer streets, better education, good 
jobs. We are moving forward. And we need to keep moving forward.
    Let me close--I want you to think about this. We're also moving 
forward overseas. No Russian missiles are pointed at the children of 
Minnesota and the United States for the first time since the dawn of the 
nuclear age. North Korea has agreed to be a nonnuclear state. Trade is 
expanding at a record rate. We are standing up for peace and freedom and 
democracy from Northern Ireland to South Africa, in the Persian Gulf and 
in the Middle East and in Haiti. We are moving in the right direction. 
We are getting stronger. And it's a better world for our kids to grow up 
in.
    What is the real enemy in this election? Cynicism, negativism, 
lashing out. And I want to just finish with this. As a parent, one of 
the first things you learn to teach your children is what your parents 
taught you: Never make a decision when you're mad. How many times did my 
mother tell me when I was a child, ``Bill, count to 10 before you say 
anything''? And how many times did I get to 2, say something, and wind 
up regretting it? [Laughter] That's what our adversaries want you to do. 
They want you to count to one, go vote mad, cynical, Government's bad, 
nothing can happen, forget about

[[Page 1996]]

the facts, forget about the record, forget about the direction of the 
country.
    You, you can change what is likely to happen if they win in cynicism 
to what is certain to happen if we win with optimism. You, you, you can 
say, ``We're in the mainstream in Minnesota, and they want to create a 
mean stream for America and we reject it. We reject it.'' You can say 
that.
    You look at this. This institution where we are is a monument to 
hope. It is a monument to hope. Everybody who comes here comes here 
because they believe that they will have a better life, not only a 
better life economically but a better life personally in terms of the 
values, the understanding, the depth, the quality of life that will come 
if you live up to the fullest of your God-given potential. When you 
strip away all the details and all the rhetoric, that is what we are 
trying to do. We are trying to create an America in which every young 
person can look forward to living up to the fullest of their potential, 
in which the best days of this country are before us.
    We need Ann Wynia in the Senate to do that. Will you send her there 
Tuesday? Will you help us? Will you do it? [Applause]
    Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. in the Romano Gymnasium at the 
University of Minnesota. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Gary Doty 
of Duluth and Lawrence A. Ianni, chancellor, University of Minnesota, 
Duluth.