[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[June 1, 1996]
[Pages 847-849]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address and an Exchange With Reporters
June 1, 1996

    The President. Good morning. This week the people of Israel, in a 
vigorous, very close election, voted to elect a new Prime Minister. 
Yesterday I called Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu to congratulate him on 
his victory and to discuss America's enduring friendship with Israel, 
our commitment to its strength and security and to a lasting peace in 
the Middle East. I also spoke with outgoing Prime Minister Peres. I told 
him to take comfort in history's judgment. Decades from now people will 
look back and see in Shimon Peres one of the great peacemakers of our 
time. Now the partnership between Israel and the United States will be 
the foundation from which our two countries together continue to build a 
comprehensive, lasting, and secure peace in the Middle East.
    Now I'd like to turn to the homefront and to some of our most 
important citizens, our children. Some of them have joined with me today 
along with their parents here in the Oval Office. And later today 
they'll join tens of thousands of people to show their support for 
America's young people at the Stand for Children at the Lincoln 
Memorial.
    This is an important time for America's children. They're growing up 
in a world that is changing rapidly. They need our help more than any 
generation before them. As Hillary says, children are not rugged 
individualists; they depend upon us--their parents and others in the 
community who love them--to give them love and guidance and discipline, 
to provide for them, and to defend them. That's as it should be. Their 
future and ours depends upon how well we do our job.
    If our society sends our children the wrong signals, we should work 
together to change that. That's why I have proposed strict limits on 
tobacco advertising directed toward children. That's why we're giving 
parents the V-chip and why we worked to persuade the TV networks to 
develop a rating system so parents can control the shows their children 
watch. That's why I

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support parents and communities who want to cut crime and improve 
discipline by adopting things like school uniforms and community 
curfews.
    We are also working in other ways to strengthen our families and 
childrearing. We've enacted the family and medical leave law so parents 
can now take time away from their jobs to be with a newborn or an ill 
child without losing those jobs. We're immunizing our children more than 
ever. We've increased Head Start funding. We're making sure that teen 
mothers stay in school and turn their lives around. We've preserved the 
Federal school lunch program, which this week turns 50 years old and 
every schoolday helps 25 million of our children get the nutrition they 
need.
    All of this makes a difference, but none of it matters as much as 
the most basic protection of all for our young people, their health 
care. Without medical care, a child who needs it cannot have a full 
life. That's why I deeply oppose the Republican plan to repeal the 
guarantee of quality health care for our children.
    For three decades through the Medicaid program, we have had a 
national commitment that poor children, pregnant women, people with 
disabilities, and older Americans will not be denied health care simply 
because they can't afford it. That means today that working parents know 
in the awful event their child is disabled and their insurance and 
income won't cover the care, they'll get some help to keep their 
children at home. They know if their child becomes seriously ill and 
their savings are gone, they'll get some help so that they can hold the 
family together and keep working and going on.
    Now, under the Republican congressional plan, hundreds of thousands 
of our children with disabilities could lose help for their home care. 
Children that are seriously ill could lose some of their coverage from 
what is now available. In effect, this plan says to millions of our 
children, if you can't afford care, well, it's an option whether your 
State gives it or not, and they don't have to contribute as much as they 
used to. It says to people with disabilities, if you don't have 
insurance, I'm sorry if you don't happen to be able to get care from 
your State anymore. This could amount to child neglect for a whole 
generation.
    Now, I vetoed this plan last year when the Republican Congress shut 
down the Government in an effort to force me to sign it. If they send it 
to me again, I will veto it again. In an attempt to force me to sign it, 
the Republicans are threatening to attach this proposal to welfare 
reform.
    For nearly two decades, I've worked to end welfare as we know it. I 
want us to require more work, impose strict time limits, to crack down 
on child support enforcement. In the last 3\1/2\ years, without any 
congressional action, we have worked with 38 States to change old 
Federal rules so that we can move people from welfare to work. The rolls 
are down 1.3 million people, and child support collections are up nearly 
40 percent.
    Of course, we should do more. And we can reach agreement on sweeping 
bipartisan welfare reform legislation. But I will never accept the 
repeal of guaranteed health care for poor children or people with 
disabilities or older Americans or pregnant women. I don't care what 
bill they attach that to, I will not accept it.
    These young people with me today and their families will take part 
in the stand for all our children that is unprecedented. Where our 
children are concerned, we should all stand together, and we should not 
be small. Our children are counting on us.
    Thanks for listening.

[At this point, the radio address ended, and the President took 
questions from reporters.]

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, following the Israeli election, is there a message 
you'd like to send to the Arab world?
    The President. Yes. Our policy hasn't changed. We still want an 
honorable peace in the Middle East. And we want all peace-loving people, 
especially those who have been our friends and allies in the Arab world, 
to continue to work for that. I was very encouraged by what King Hussein 
said in his most recent reported remarks. And I hope that the friends of 
peace in the Arab world and the Middle East will continue to support it, 
and we will continue to work with them.
    Q. Do you think there's undue concern in some of the Arab world? You 
know, this election, which was decided by less than 30,000 votes is out 
of--was at 3 million. It's being viewed as some kind of massive mandate 
and message. I mean, do you think there's a rush to judgment?

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    The President. I think we ought to give the new Prime Minister a 
chance to put his government together and develop a policy. We have--
we've been pushing all over the world for democracy. And democracy means 
the people who vote get to determine who governs. That's what democracy 
means. Now, he said some very encouraging things to me on the phone and 
indeed in the election--in the 2 weeks leading up to the election.
    I think it's obvious--if you look how closely divided the people of 
Israel are, I think that you could say an enormous number of the 
supporters of Prime Minister Peres wanted security as well as peace, and 
an enormous number of the supporters of Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu 
wanted peace as well as security. I think that that's what that close 
election means. It's a difficult environment, a tough neighborhood. 
There's a lot of history there. But he says he wants to continue the 
process. And I think that--I hope that the friends of peace in the Arab 
world will continue to be committed to that.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime 
Minister-elect of Israel, and King Hussein I of Jordan.