[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[February 17, 1996]
[Pages 286-290]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Keene, New Hampshire
February 17, 1996

    Thank you. Thank you for waiting in the cold. I waited on the runway 
for 2 hours this morning in Washington for the weather to clear so that 
I could come, and I was hoping you would wait for me.
    Mayor Russell, thank you for those wonderful remarks about your 
beloved city. Senator Blaisedell, thank you for your support and your 
statement and your service. And Jennifer Durling, thank you for 
reminding us all what this election is all about: you and people like 
you, your future, and your country's future. Thank you for doing such a 
good job. Let's give her another hand. [Applause]
    I am delighted to be back in Keene. I thank the high school band and 
the choir for doing so well today. I was in the band in high school; I 
can tell you they are freezing to death over there. [Laughter] It's not 
easy to play the national anthem on a warm day, and they did it on a 
cold day. Let's give them another hand; they were great. [Applause]
    You know, I know the movie ``Jumanji'' was filmed here. And I know 
one of the biggest scenes was an elephant stampede right up this street. 
And I decided I'd better get up here before it's too late and we had 
another elephant stampede. [Laughter]
    I have such wonderful memories of this community. I was last here in 
1994 at the Markem Company, but all of you know I came many times in 
1992. And the first time I had an inkling that we might actually go on 
to victory was the night I had one of my town meetings in Keene, before 
they were the thing to do. And we rented a hall, or got one, anyway, 
that was supposed to be big enough for 150 people, and everybody was 
hoping we'd make the room look almost full. And over 400 people showed 
up that night. Some of you were there, and I thank you. You gave me 
heart then to go on, and I thank you for being here now.
    I also want to say a special word of thanks to the people of Keene 
for being so good to Hillary when she was here recently at her rally. On 
my desk at the White House I've got one of those buttons that says ``I'm 
Keene on Hillary.'' And since I am, it's only appropriate for me to have 
it there.
    My fellow Americans, you all know that New Hampshire gave me the 
chance to become President of the United States. And even more 
important, in all the many visits I had here in 1992--and I just counted 
before I came up--there were 75 separate scheduled events in New 
Hampshire between January 1st and election day in 1992. You taught me a 
lot about America, about America's dreams and challenges, America's 
hopes, and America's concerns. And because you did in this town square, 
in those rooms, and the town meetings, you helped me to do my job 
better. So before I say anything else, I want to thank you from the 
bottom of my heart for the opportunity I've had these last 3 years to 
work for you. I thank you.

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    In 1992, I came here with a straightforward vision for our country. 
I wanted us to go into the 21st century with every American who was 
willing to work, having a chance to live the American dream. I wanted us 
to go into the 21st century together, not divided, and the leader of the 
world for peace and freedom.
    I believed then and I believe now there is a simple strategy. We 
have to create opportunity. We have to insist on responsibility. And we 
have to believe in our common destiny. We have to go forward together. I 
am tired of seeing this country divided for short-term political gain. 
We are strong when we are together. We are never defeated when we are 
together.
    When I came here to New Hampshire, I said I had an economic strategy 
for America. If you would vote for me, we would cut the deficit in half, 
institute an investment plan that would create 8 million new jobs, open 
the doors of trade to American goods and services. In the last 3 years, 
we have cut the deficit in half. I have another year, but we have almost 
8 million jobs already. The unemployment rate today in New Hampshire is 
less than half what it was in 1992. And for the first time in a long 
time, our exports to other countries are growing faster than their 
imports here. America is on the move.
    I said if you will elect me I will try my best to reassert the 
values that made this country great: to strengthen our families, to be 
tougher on crime, to reform welfare to value family and work, and to try 
to bring us together. And in the last 3 years, the crime rate is down, 
the welfare rolls are down, the food stamp rolls are down, the poverty 
rate is down, the teen pregnancy rate is down. America is on the move.
    And I am so grateful that our country has been able to be a force 
for peace and freedom around the world. More than anything else, I am 
grateful that now there is not a single nuclear weapon pointed at any 
American citizen. I am grateful for the role we have played for peace, 
from the Middle East to Northern Ireland to Haiti, and yes, I am 
grateful for the brave Americans who are defending peace in Bosnia 
today. And I know you're all proud of them as well.
    But what I have to say today is you're entitled to a complete 
report, because you know in your bones this is an unusual time. How 
could we have 8 million new jobs, how could we have in New Hampshire an 
unemployment rate below 4 percent and people still feel uncertain about 
their present and their future? Because half or more of our people are 
still working harder without a raise. Because a lot of companies are 
downsizing and laying people off. Their stock prices go down, but their 
people go out. What happens to them?
    We all know that there are still profound social problems in our 
country that must be addressed. And we know this is still a dangerous 
world, as we have been visited in the last 3 years with terrorism in our 
own country, and we've seen it in Japan and in other countries as well. 
We've seen that there are enemies to peace everywhere when the great 
Israeli Prime Minister is murdered and madness returned when the 
building was blown up in England, trying to shatter the peace in 
Northern Ireland. Everywhere in the world we are safer than we were, but 
we are not free of difficulty.
    Why is this? I want you to understand that very clearly. I believe 
that we are having these changes and these perplexing times with all the 
good things happening but challenges remaining, because this is the time 
of the most profound change our country has experienced in 100 years. 
Not since we moved from being primarily a rural people to people who 
live mostly in towns and cities, when we moved from being primarily a 
people who made our living on farms to being a people who made a living 
mostly on factories and the activity that created, have we been through 
such change.
    We are now going into an economy dominated by information and 
technology, where work is ever more mind and less muscle. We are going 
into a world where global markets for goods and services and money 
forced us all to compete in ways we never had to compete before. And 
wherever there is a great uprooting, there are lots of opportunities 
that we can celebrate. Just for example, in the last 3 years, there have 
been more new jobs created by businesses owned by women alone than have 
been laid off by the Fortune 500.
    But there are those who do well and those who are not doing so well, 
who are not positioned yet to win in this new age of possibility. I 
believe with all my heart that the young people in this audience today 
will have an era of greater possibility to live out their own dreams 
than any generation of Americans has ever enjoyed if we meet the 
challenges of the present and if we do it in the right way.

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    And so I've come here today to ask for your support, not because of 
the warm personal feelings I feel, not because of the many friends I 
have in this audience, not even because of the achievements of this 
administration, but because of the challenges that lie ahead and because 
we dare not face those challenges unless we are willing to face them 
with vision and to face them together. That is why I seek your support.
    Look at the discussion in Washington over balancing the budget. I'm 
for balancing the budget. When I showed up in Washington, the debt of 
this country had been quadrupled in 12 years. We cut it in half in 3 
years, just like I told you we would in 1992. And we have to finish the 
job, but we have to do it in a way that is consistent with our values 
and consistent with our interests. That means we must do it in a way 
that honors our obligations to our parents, to our children, to our 
environment, and to our future.
    We do not need to eliminate the AmeriCorps program to balance the 
budget, and it would be wrong to do so. We do not need to cut 
environmental protection by 30 percent, and it would be wrong to do so. 
We do not need to deprive good, hardworking families who have children 
with disabilities of the support that Medicaid gives them, and it would 
be wrong to do so. And we do not need to change the Medicare program 
that has given us senior citizens with the highest life expectancy of 
any senior citizens in the entire world and break that down. It is not 
necessary to balance the budget, and we should not do so.
    Now, let me tell you what I think we will do. I believe we will keep 
that deficit coming down. I believe there's a national consensus for 
balancing the budget. And I want you to look ahead as I asked in the 
State of Union Address at the challenges of the future and to ask what 
you should do and what I should do. That is what this election is all 
about. Don't let anybody kid you about anything else. Elections for 
President are still about you. They're about you and your family and 
your dreams and your challenges and your future. And don't you ever let 
anybody take an election away from you. Make it about your future.
    Our first challenge is to strengthen our families and to help all 
children recover their childhood. That's what the Family and Medical 
Leave Act was all about. That's what providing more opportunities for 
Head Start is all about. Yes, most of it has to be done by people in 
their individual families. But the rest of us have a responsibility, 
too. I am proud of the fact that the Vice President and I insisted on 
the inclusion of the V-chip in the telecommunications law to give 
parents the right to decide whether their children watch hours and hours 
and hours of mindless, destructive violence on television for years and 
years and years.
    We have got to provide all Americans the opportunities that Jennifer 
spoke about. We live in an age where education matters more than ever 
before. Just last week there was a new study saying that the difference 
15 years ago between the earnings of high school graduates and college 
graduates was about 20 percent, and now it's 80 percent. I believe that 
we have an obligation to open the doors of college education to every 
person in America who wants to go.
    We should increase the Pell grant program, not reduce it. We should 
maintain a direct college loan program that gives young people the 
chance to borrow the money they need to go college and pay it back as a 
percentage of their income so they will never be discouraged from 
borrowing that money and going on to college. And if we are to have a 
tax cut, the best tax cut we could give America is a deduction for the 
cost of college tuition for every family.
    We have to meet a challenge today that won't wait for tomorrow to 
help every American family willing to work for it achieve a greater 
measure of economic security. If we're going to see people changing jobs 
more and more, if we want to keep the dynamism of this economy and still 
support families who work and want to raise their children, there are a 
few things we have to do.
    Number one, we ought to make it possible--if we can't have health 
insurance for everybody, at least everybody ought to have access to it. 
You shouldn't lose your insurance when you change jobs. You shouldn't 
lose your insurance because somebody in your family gets sick. There is 
a bill before the Senate today that has almost 50 Republican and 
Democratic cosponsors. It has been voted out of committee unanimously, 
but the vested interests do not want it voted on on the floor. We should 
say to the United States Senate: Pass that bill; send it to the House. 
Pass it, and send it to the President. America deserves it.

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    We should guarantee the integrity of the pension systems in America. 
We dare not go back to the time when companies were allowed to raid 
their workers' pensions for other short-term gains. And we ought to make 
it easier for small-business people, like the people who work up and 
down this street, to take out a pension for themselves and their 
employees. Less costly, more secure; we have got to do that.
    And finally, when people lose their jobs, instead of having to go 
through this array of programs to find out whether they qualify for 
training, I propose a ``GI bill'' for America's workers. Collapse all 
the programs, put the money in the bank, and give every unemployed 
worker a voucher. Let the worker decide where to get the training. Cut 
the bureaucracy, increase the training, put people back to work at 
higher wages, that's what we need to do here.
    And let me say one other thing. To me, among the greatest heroes in 
this country are the people who work 40 hours a week and do their best 
to raise their kids and only make the minimum wage. If we do not raise 
the minimum wage, this year it will drop to a 40-year low in terms of 
what it will buy. There is always a lot of talk in Washington about 
family values. It's hard to raise a family on $4.25 an hour. Let's raise 
the minimum wage.
    We have got to take our streets back from crime. I am glad the crime 
rate has gone down, but we all know it's too high. You know when we'll 
know this problem is whipped? When you turn on the television news and 
you see the report of a crime and you are surprised. We have got to make 
crime the exception, not the rule in America again. We must not repeal 
the crime bill's requirement to put 100,000 police on our streets. And 
we dare not go back on the other provisions of the crime bill.
    I know here in New Hampshire where, like my native State of 
Arkansas, there are a lot of people who love to hunt. When we passed the 
ban on assault weapons, when we passed the Brady bill, there were 
hunters who were frightened into opposing our policies, who were told 
that their guns were going to be taken away. Well, we just had a great 
duck season in Arkansas and a great deer season in New Hampshire, and 
not a single hunter lost their guns. They were not told the truth. But 
I'll tell you who did lose their guns. Over 40,000 criminals could not 
buy guns because of the Brady bill. We are not going to repeal it.
    We must meet the challenge of keeping our environment clean and safe 
and even better for the next generation. We must discard this crazy 
notion that the only way we can grow the economy is to destroy the 
environment. It is not true. We can grow the economy by preserving the 
environment. That used to be a bipartisan commitment in America, and if 
you vote for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the environmental Vice President, 
you will send a message that will make the environment a bipartisan 
commitment of America again.
    Even in this time when it is tempting to say we have no challenges 
beyond our borders, I ask you to remember that this great country of 
ours is looked to all across the world to stand up for decency and peace 
and freedom. I ask you to understand that we have certain 
responsibilities because no other nation in the world can do the things 
we are called upon to do.
    I have not sought to make America the world's policeman, but I have 
not permitted America to withdraw from the world. Where we can make a 
difference and where it is consistent with our values and our interests, 
we cannot be policemen, we cannot withdraw, but we can be the world's 
greatest peacemaker. And that is exactly what we are trying to do today.
    These are all challenges that begin with you but involve your 
Government in a partnership. But there is another challenge we must meet 
that begins with us and involves you in a partnership. Here in this 
square of Keene, let me say our seventh great challenge is to make our 
democracy work again, to give you a Government that costs less and works 
better, and demands and deserves your trust and your confidence and your 
participation at election time.
    Let me say that just a few months ago I was in Claremont with 
Speaker Gingrich, and we shook hands on a commitment to try to reform 
the political system when we were asked by a man who came down to be 
with me here today, named Frank McConnell. Frank, where are you? Where's 
Frank? There he is. He is the guy that asked Newt Gingrich and Bill 
Clinton to join together to clean up the political system, to pass lobby 
reform and campaign finance reform. Let's give him a hand. [Applause]
    Well, we did half of it. We passed a very good lobby reform bill, 
and believe me, the lobbyists are flooding the registration offices. 
They are getting this information for the first time

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on the people they are working for, how much money they're spending, and 
what they're trying to get done. It's a good law, and I'm proud we did 
it. And I compliment the Republicans and the Democrats for doing it. But 
we need to finish the job.
    Two distinguished United States Senators--a Republican from Arizona, 
John McCain, and a Democrat from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold--who disagree 
on a lot of things but understand that the health of our democracy must 
be put ahead of partisan politics, have sponsored a campaign finance 
reform bill. And we ought to pass it, and pass it now, because of Frank 
and because of you.
    This bill includes the things I talked to you about in 1992. It 
limits spending. It curbs the influence of PAC's and lobbyists. It ends 
the soft money system. Most important of all, it would recreate the kind 
of town meetings that New Hampshire made famous, because it would give 
the candidates free air time. No more negative ads dominating politics 
but open air time and honest discussions of the issues. We need campaign 
finance reform, and we need it now.
    But let me tell you something else we need; we need you. We need 
you. I want you to go out Tuesday night. You say, well--or Tuesday in 
the daytime--and vote. You say, ``You don't have an opponent, Mr. 
President.'' Oh, yes I do. Oh, yes I do, and so do you. Our opponent is 
cynicism. It is negativism. It is apathy. It is division. It is short-
term gain instead of the long-term interest of the country. Those are 
our opponents.
    Remember, when we're united we never lose; when we're divided we 
defeat ourselves. Cynicism is a cheap cover and a poor excuse for 
inaction by the American citizens. Don't tell me your vote doesn't make 
a difference. It does. It does. If you voted for Bill Clinton and Al 
Gore 4 years ago, you got the family and medical leave law, you got 
national service, you got a better college loan program, you got more 
kids in Head Start, you got a halving of the deficit, you got policies 
that contributed to the growth of jobs in America. You did make a 
difference, and it will make a difference.
    You dare not permit the American people, your friends and neighbors, 
who would never think of coming out here on a cold day and standing here 
like you are, fall victim to this kind of skepticism and cynicism. It 
has no place in America.
    Let me tell you, I know people say the Government would mess up a 
one-car parade and nothing good ever happens, but I just gave you a list 
of things good that happened. And let me tell you something else. In his 
new book, my friend James Carville points out something that every 
American should know. In the last 30 years, we have spent one-half of 
your tax money on just three things: defense, Social Security, and 
Medicare.
    Now, what did you get for it? We won the cold war. There are no 
missiles pointed at America's children. The elderly poverty rate has 
been cut in half, and if you live to be 65, senior citizens in America 
have the highest life expectancy of any group of seniors in the world. I 
think we got our money's worth. We can make a difference when we work 
together and when we determine to do things. If we meet the challenges 
of the future the way we met those three challenges, this country's best 
days are ahead of us.
    You can do it. Go Tuesday. Stand up for your country. Fight for your 
future, and determine that we are going to do this together.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. in the Keene central square. In 
his remarks, he referred to Mayor Pat Russell; Clesson Blaisedell, State 
senator; and Jennifer Durling, student body president, Keene High 
School; and Yitzhak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel.