    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 18, 1996]
    [Pages 923-927]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the American Nurses Association
    June 18, 1996

        Thank you so much. You've made me feel welcome today. You've got my
    day off to a great start. And you have been a wonderful, wonderful
    friend and supporter of this administration in all the things we've
    tried to do to improve the health and welfare of the American people.
        I want to begin by saying a special word of thanks to your
    president, Ginna Trotter Betts, for her 4 wonderful years as president
    of the American Nurses Association. [Applause] Thank you. I'll never
    forget the first time we met and talked about this. Al Gore said, you
    know, the president of the American Nurses Association is from
    Tennessee. He's shameless about things like that. [Laughter] And then we
    met, and I thought it was especially wonderful because she did not speak
    with an accent. [Laughter]
        I want every American today to join with me in saluting your
    leadership on this 100th anniversary celebration. Our country has the
    finest health care system in the world, and nurses are the heart of that
    system.
        As Ginna said, because of my dear mother, I know the hard work and
    the sacrifice that goes into your work. I want to thank you again for
    honoring my mother in 1994 with a special award in her name and for
    everything that you do. I learned from her, and America learns from
    nurses every day, the basic values that make this a great country. We
    know that the mission of our country should be to offer opportunity to
    every American, to demand in turn that every American take
    responsibility for making the most of that opportunity. That's the basic
    bargain of this democracy.
        We know, too, that all of us have an obligation to see that we treat
    all responsible Americans with respect and with tolerance, to build a
    community out of all of our diversity. Today I ask for your prayers for
    the people who go to church in those churches that have been burned in
    the last year and a half and for your support for their right to worship
    and live.
        I also want to thank you for the support you've given us in our
    attempt to change the course of affairs here in America and to deal with
    the real issues that affect the lives of real people. I sometimes wonder
    when people like you, who work and live every day all across America in
    the heartland and get up and try to make something good happen every
    day, when you come to Washington, it must be like visiting a foreign
    country from time to time. [Laughter] I think it would do more good if
    the people who work and write here in Washington had to go out and visit
    you more often. I think it would change their attitude about what really
    matters in life.
        We've been at this business of trying to create opportunity and
    increase responsibility and

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    strengthen our national community for 3\1/2\ years now. There was a lot
    to be done 3\1/2\ years ago. We had to get our economic house in order.
    We had to reduce this terrible deficit and do it in a way that continued
    to invest in our people and their future. And when we passed that
    economic plan in 1993, there are those who said, ``Well, this is a
    terrible thing. It will plunge the economy into recession. It's the
    worst thing in the world.'' It was a bitterly partisan fight; we
    prevailed by the narrowest of margins.
        Well, 3\1/2\ years later we now can see whether they were right or
    we were right. In 3\1/2\ years our economy has produced 9.7 million new
    jobs, 3.7 million new homeowners, 3 years of record increases in the
    number of small businesses, and the lowest combined rate of inflation
    and unemployment in 28 years. I believe we were right.
        In 1994 we asked the Congress to take a serious approach to the
    crime problem, to get beyond rhetoric and partisan division and tough
    talk and to do something smart as well as tough on crime. We put 100,000
    police on the streets, passed the Brady bill, passed the assault weapon
    ban, passed the Violence Against Women Act. There was a lot of bitter
    partisan rancor about it all, but we've now had a chance to see whether
    it works.
        We are halfway through, almost, putting the police on the street.
    Almost 60,000 people with criminal records have been denied the right to
    buy handguns under the Brady bill, which is a health issue, by the way,
    and an emergency room issue. We're enforcing the Violence Against Women
    Act, the ``three strikes and you're out'' act. We see that the assault
    weapon ban has worked to ban assault weapons but not take any sporting
    weapons away from the hunters and other sportsmen who were told that
    they were going to lose their weapons. We can see it now. We have had 3
    years of declining crime in a row. We were right, and they were wrong.
    We did the right thing to pass the crime bill in 1994.
        We have had 3 years now to evaluate the work of expanding Head Start
    and making college loans more affordable and passing the national
    service program. And we know that the more people we educate in America,
    the stronger our country will be and the more people will be able to
    find good jobs and find other good jobs if they lose the ones they have.
    And we know enough now to say that we ought to do more. We ought to give
    families a tax deduction for the cost of college education. And we ought
    to make 2 years of education free after high school, through tax credits
    for every American to go to community college.
        Today I want to talk with you about two other issues, about how we
    can reward opportunities--increase opportunities and reward
    responsibility and build a stronger country by improving health care and
    by strengthening the requirements that parents be responsible in the
    support of their children. For 3\1/2\ years we have worked on these
    things as well. And even though we did not prevail in doing everything
    we've tried to do, I want you to know that I will never forget as long
    as I live the way the American nurses worked with the First Lady to try
    to give health care to all Americans. She is grateful for it, and so am
    I. [Applause] Thank you.
        I thank you for standing with us when this administration became the
    first in American history to take on the tough issue of tobacco and the
    marketing of tobacco to young people. But we know--we know--
    notwithstanding some political voices who say this is no big deal and
    some people can deal with it and some can't--we know it is illegal to
    sell cigarettes to children in every State in the country. But every day
    3,000 underage Americans start to smoke, and 1,000 of them will have
    their lives ended prematurely because of it. That is something we know.
        If we want to improve health care in America, why don't all those
    people who say that's what they want to do stand up and be counted and
    do what we need to do to restrict the advertising and marketing and
    sales of tobacco products to young people in this country? That's what
    we ought to do.
        Let's not forget what has been done. As Ginna said, we did pass the
    Family and Medical Leave Act to say if you take a little time off to
    care for a sick child or a sick parent, you won't lose your job. It's
    amazing to me there are still some of the people who voted against the
    family and medical leave law defending their vote and saying they did
    the right thing to oppose it. Well, I think it was right to pass it, and
    a lot of American families think so too. I never go into a big crowd of
    families very rarely that somebody doesn't come up to me and say, ``I
    took advantage of the family and medical leave law.''

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        The other day we had in the White House 50 families from 50 States
    who are participating in the Children's Miracle television network with
    all the children's hospitals in the country, these desperately ill
    children and their hard-working parents, almost all of them middle class
    people. And two families came up to me on the way out of the room and
    said, ``I do not know what I would have done if the family and medical
    leave law had not been passed. I kept my job and took care of my
    child.''
        There's also some things that we have stopped from happening that
    you deserve a lot of credit for. I sometimes think that the majority in
    this Congress has forgotten the first rule of health care: first, do no
    harm. We have fought to slow the rate of inflation in Medicaid while
    preserving its fundamental guarantees. For three decades the United
    States has guaranteed that poor children and pregnant women, people with
    disabilities, and older Americans will not be denied health care simply
    because they cannot afford it. That is the right thing to do. The
    majority in Congress is actually insisting that we repeal this
    guarantee. I have said and I believe this would amount to child neglect
    for a whole generation. That's why I vetoed that plan last year. If they
    send it to me again, I will veto it again.
        Working with you, we have fought to balance the budget in a way that
    protects Medicare and honors our duty to our parents. Let me remind you
    that we have cut the deficit by more than half. We added time to the
    Medicare Trust Fund, and we're attacked by the now congressional
    majority for doing it. But their proposal for Medicare would undermine
    our ability to hire and train nurses, would close down more hospital
    wings in cities and rural communities. Of course, we have to slow the
    rate of inflation in Medicare. My plan will secure the Medicare Trust
    Fund for a decade without imposing unduly high premiums on low-income
    seniors and without wrecking the delivery system. That is, after all,
    what we have to preserve if we want people to have good health care in
    the first place.
        And while we're doing no harm, why don't we do a little good?
    [Laughter] We are working with you to improve health care access to as
    many as 25 million Americans by fighting for the Kassebaum-Kennedy
    health care bill. No worker should have to worry about losing health
    care if he or she loses a job. And no one should be denied health care
    simply because they or someone in their family has a preexisting
    condition. I am working hard with the Congress, and I do want to say
    that I am encouraged that there are people in both parties who support
    the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill. In its purest form, it passed the Senate 100
    to 0. All we have to do now is to get together and pass the bill, pass a
    good bill. I believe we can do it. I am working with the leadership in
    both parties to do it. But I want you to leave this town only after you
    have given a clear signal to Congress: Pass this bill now. [Applause]
    Thank you.
        And while we're at it, one other thing we could do that would really
    help millions of working families is to raise the minimum wage now. And
    I hope we will do that. I am doing everything I can to increase
    opportunity for the American people, but as I said, we all know that the
    basic bargain in America is opportunity in return for responsibility.
        We also know that where our children are concerned, the most
    important of America's building blocks is not a strong Government but a
    strong family. It is parents who must love their children and take
    responsibility for them. That has been the driving principle behind my
    efforts to reform welfare as we know it. I believe the present system
    perpetuates a cycle of dependency and irresponsible behavior. But I also
    know, having spent time in welfare offices as a Governor, that nobody
    wants to reform this system more than the people who are trapped in it.
    I want a system that promotes work, strengthens families, and encourages
    independence. That's why I have proposed time limits and work
    requirements but also child care and health care to help people move
    from welfare to work.
        The majority in Congress often criticizes me for vetoing a bill they
    called welfare reform. Well, I did. I did it because it was too tough on
    kids and too light on work. I asked them to do better. And if they'll do
    better, I'll be happy to sign welfare reform legislation.
        Meanwhile, we will continue to reform welfare with or without
    congressional action. We have worked to cut redtape for 40 of the 50
    States by approving 63 welfare reform experiments. Just today we
    approved a waiver for a welfare reform effort in New Hampshire which
    combines strong work requirements with incentives to move people from
    welfare to work. I have received an intriguing proposal from Wisconsin
    which has tough time limits but actually

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    gives assurances--assurances--of a job and health care and child care to
    people on welfare. And I expect to approve that request soon.
        What you need to know, all of you, is that for three out of four
    Americans on welfare, the rules have already changed. Seventy-five
    percent of the families in this country on welfare are already under
    welfare reform experiments approved by our administration and devised at
    the State and local level. That is one big reason that today there are
    1.3 million fewer people on welfare than the day I took the oath of
    office as President of the United States.
        The food stamp rolls are also down. The poverty rate is down. Teen
    pregnancy rates have leveled off and are actually dropping some. Work
    and training among welfare recipients are up. Child support collections
    have reached a record high. But we must do more to insist on more
    parental responsibility. Our proposals are about giving people more
    opportunity and demanding more responsibility.
        And I reject the idea that when it comes to welfare it is only the
    mother who has to act responsibly. That is a false statement. For too
    long we have let the men off the hook. We must insist that they do their
    part to support the children that they help to bring into this world. I
    wonder how many times nurses in this audience have seen a frightened
    young girl give birth to a baby alone in a hospital with the father
    nowhere to be seen. How many times has the hospital and the Government
    been left to pay the cost not only for the delivery but for the
    continuing care of the child? Well, two people are required to bring a
    child into this world, and two should help to raise the child.
        Last year I signed an Executive order that cracked down on the
    requirements for Federal employees to pay their child support. Three
    years ago I signed a law requiring States to establish hospital-based
    programs to determine the father of a newborn child. Based on our first
    reports, more than 200,000 fathers have been identified through these
    voluntary hospital paternity identification programs. That's 200,000
    children whose fathers can't just up and walk away. And child support
    collections and paternity establishments have increased by 40 percent
    since 1992. I am proud of that, and you should be as well.
        But we have to do more. That's why earlier today I took executive
    action to strengthen child support enforcement and promote parental
    responsibility. First, we're putting in place a new national program to
    help States track parents who owe child support across State lines.
    Today, too many parents get out of paying child support by moving from
    job to job, from State to State. This must stop.
        Currently, 25 of our States require that when a person is hired for
    a job a check be made to see if he owes child support. Under this new
    program, we will check that information against our national database to
    catch deadbeats who have crossed State lines. I want every State in the
    country, the other 25, to give us this information so that these people
    who do not pay their child support have nowhere to hide.
        Today I also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to
    require mothers who apply for welfare to provide the name of the father
    and other identifying information when they apply for assistance and
    before they get the benefits. Of course, there must be good-cause
    exceptions, such as those required to protect mothers from the dangers
    of violence against women. And we will require the welfare office to
    contact child support authorities within 2 days, once we get this
    information, to begin legal proceedings to hold fathers responsible for
    support.
        This is important. Our system should say to mothers, if you want our
    help, help us to identify and locate the father so he can be held
    accountable as well. And it should say to fathers, we're not going to
    let you just walk away from your children and stick the taxpayers with
    the tab. The Government did not bring the child into the world, you did.
    Our people will help to take responsibility for those children, but you
    have to do your part as well. We have to make responsibility a way of
    life, not an option, when it comes to raising children in the United
    States.
        So let me say again to you, I thank you for the giving, nurturing
    work you do. We would not have a health care system without you. America
    wouldn't be what it is without you. I thank you for demonstrating
    responsibility at work and, for most of you, at home as well throughout
    your lifetime. I ask for your continued support as we try to not only
    protect but to advance the cause of health care in this country. We must
    not rest until we have made health care accessible and affordable to
    every single American citizen. But we must also say to every American
    citizen, you ought to be as responsible

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    in your life every day as the nurses of America are in their lives.
        This country works with opportunity and responsibility; we cannot
    have one without the other. And if we're going to build an America that
    will be the world's leading source of peace and freedom and prosperity
    in the 21st century, if we're going to keep the American dream alive for
    all of us, we have to have both those things. You embody it in your
    life. We're trying to embody it in the policies we advocate. And I ask
    for your continued support. You've made me very happy, personally, here
    today, but you make me very proud to be President of an America with
    people like you. Let's keep fighting to make it better.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at noon at the Washington Convention Center.