    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 19, 1995]
    [Pages 1382-1383]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Departure From Jacksonville
    September 19, 1995

        Thank you very much. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for waiting
    in the hot sun. Thank you, Governor Chiles. Thank you, Lieutenant
    Governor MacKay. I thank your State's attorney for being here, and
    Congresswoman Corrine Brown, I thank you for being here. It's wonderful
    to see all of you.
        You heard Governor Chiles say that we have just been with Sheriff
    Glover in one of the neighborhoods here in Jacksonville. I want to say
    two or three things about being in this community. First of all,
    congratulations on your football team. I'm glad you got one. And I know
    the season got off to a rough start. But I've had a few seasons like
    that; it's not over. Just stay in a good humor about it.
        I also want to thank the people of Jacksonville for the dramatic
    contribution that you have made over so many years to the national
    defense of the United States, so many people here serving in our
    military, supporting it, and we're very grateful to you for that.
        And I'm sure you know that in the recent rounds of military
    reorganizations and base closings, Jacksonville is one of the
    communities in the United States that will actually gain several
    thousand jobs over the next few years because of the work you have done
    and the quality of support you have given to our military. So I thank
    you for that.
        I want to make, if I might, just a couple of remarks; then I want to
    get out in the crowd and just say hello to all of you. I ran for
    President in 1991 and 1992 because I was afraid that our country was
    going in the wrong direction; that we had forgotten the basic values
    that make us strong, our devotion to work and family and responsibility
    and community; and that we were not changing to meet the demands of the
    21st century.
        The economy is different. You all know it. We have different
    challenges in holding our country together. And I made up my mind that
    if the people gave me a chance to serve, I was going to try to get the
    economy going again so we could grow the middle class and shrink the
    under class; I would try to make the fighting of crime a major priority
    so we could reduce the crime rate in America and make our streets and
    our schools and our homes safer; I would try to change the way the
    Government works, to be a genuine partner with people in their lives.
    And that's what we've been here celebrating today.
        Florida is creating jobs at 3 times the rate it was when I became
    President. We have lowered the deficit. We have increased investment. We
    have a plan for a balanced budget. We're moving forward economically.
    The crime rate is down. The murder rate is down. All across America we
    are proving that we can lower the rate of crime in America if we work
    together and put more police officers on the street under the plan that
    was enacted in the 1994 crime bill. I'm proud of that. People used to
    tell me we will never lower the crime rate. They were wrong. We can do
    it, and we can do it all over America.
        We're now trying to reform the welfare system. I just want to say a
    word about that. I've worked with Governor Chiles on this for years. I'm
    all for reforming welfare if what we mean by reforming welfare is moving
    people from welfare to work and giving them a chance to be

    [[Page 1383]]

    good parents and good workers. I am not for punishing poor children just
    because they were born poor. We ought to be reforming welfare in a way
    that liberates people. I'm all for having tough standards and tough
    requirements on people to go to school and go to work if they've got a
    chance to do it and to take care of their children. So when you watch
    this welfare reform debate in Washington ask yourself, is this going to
    produce good workers and good parents? Is this going to make families
    stronger and children better? That is the test.
        So I want to say to all of you, now I'm going on down to south
    Florida and then I'm going on across the country to Colorado, and I'm
    going to be talking with Americans all across the country about the
    debate in Washington about balancing the budget. And I want to say to
    all of you, Florida has a lot of interest in that debate. Every American
    should want the budget balanced. We never had a permanent deficit until
    the 12 years before I became President, and we've taken that deficit
    from $290 billion a year down to $160 billion in just 3 years. I'm proud
    of that. We should keep doing that.
        But we also have responsibilities. You see it here in Jacksonville.
    We have responsibilities to the national defense. We have
    responsibilities to the children and the schools. We have
    responsibilities to lower the crime rate. We have responsibilities to
    the elderly who depend on Medicare and Medicaid for their health care.
    And I say to you, we can balance the budget without undermining the
    national defense, without cutting our commitment to put 100,000 police
    on the street, without cutting the number of children in Head Start and
    the number of young people who are getting college loans, and without
    burdening older people. Seventy-five percent of the people in this
    country who get the benefits of Medicare and Medicaid live on less than
    $24,000 a year. We can fix Medicare without burdening them.
        That is my commitment: Fix the Medicare system. You don't have to
    stick it to the older people in this country who barely have enough
    money to live on. So let's balance the budget and do it right so we can
    grow the economy, reduce the crime rate, and bring this country
    together. That is my commitment, and I think it's yours.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. at Jacksonville International
    Airport.