    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 19, 1996]
    [Pages 1620-1623]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1620]]

    Remarks in Longview, Washington
    September 19, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Wow! Thank you way back there in the back.
    Can you hear? [Applause] Oh, thank you for waiting for us. Thank you for
    making us feel so welcome in this stunningly beautiful community. What a
    wonderful place you have to live.
        I want to thank right here at the outset the people who have
    provided our music, the R.A. Long and Mark Morris High School bands.
    Thank you, bands, thank you. And the Checkers, thank you. And I
    understand that the R.A. Long football team is undefeated and down here
    somewhere. Congratulations! [Applause] Thank you.
        I'd also like to say a special word of thanks to Axel Swanson, the
    student body president at R.A. Long. Now, you just think about it, he
    got up here in front of this big crowd, and unlike me, he doesn't do
    this all the time. And I thought he did a terrific job, and I was really
    proud of him. You know, when I was his age I had a chance to shake hands
    with President Kennedy. It made an impression on me I never forgot. But
    I was looking at him today, and I can tell you that today he looks a lot
    more like a future President than I did then. I liked it, and I hope he
    does very well. Congratulations, Axel.
        I want to thank Brian Baird for presenting himself for Congress.
    Ladies and gentlemen, it's hard to run for Congress these days. It's a
    hard and arduous task. And much to my dismay, many of these races have
    become so intensely negative and so difficult--often difficult to get
    idealistic young people to present themselves. He has, and I am
    confident he would do a find job representing you. I wish him well, and
    I hope you will wish him well and help him do well.
        And to Gary Locke, let me say I was so impressed with the race that
    you and your other fellow Democrats ran in that primary. You won a hard-
    fought, clean, honest, progressive, forward-looking race. You can be
    proud of the race you just ran and the race you are now running. And I
    hope you folks will help to make Gary Locke the next Governor of the
    State of Washington, to keep moving forward into the 21st century.
        You know, we've had a wonderful day today, and I know we're a little
    late, but you wouldn't believe the crowds we've seen all along the road
    and every place we've stopped. We began in Tacoma, where I believe we
    had over 25,000 people. We went to Roy and Yelm and Tenino and
    Centralia. And then of course we were just in Kelso, and we crossed the
    bridge--anybody here from Kelso? [Applause] You could have fooled me; I
    thought the whole town was along the highway back there. And I want to
    say to all of you, you cannot imagine what a source of encouragement it
    is to Hillary and Tipper and to Al and me to see you out here, loving
    your country, believing in its future, determined to play a role in its
    future.
        Four years ago when I came to Washington State and the people of
    this State were so good in voting for me and giving me your electoral
    votes, I asked you to take us on faith. I had never worked in
    Washington, DC--the other Washington--before. I'd been a Governor for 12
    years who ran for President because I didn't like what was happening to
    my country. I didn't like the high unemployment, the low job growth, the
    stagnant wages, the unaddressed social challenges. I didn't like the
    fact that we were growing more divided and that people were becoming
    ever more cynical about their political system. I didn't think we became
    the greatest country in the world and lasted for over 220 years by
    having those kind of problems and those kind of attitudes. And I wanted
    to change.
        I wanted to lead this country into the 21st century with the
    American dream alive and well for every single American willing to work
    for it; with this country coming together, bridging our divisions and
    mutual respect, not dividing; and with our country still the strongest
    force for peace and freedom and prosperity in the world. And I can tell
    you that after 4 years we're in better shape than we were 4 years ago
    and we're on the right track to the 21st century.
        I welcome this debate with our opponents over the next 6 weeks and 5
    days because it will be a clear picture of starkly different approaches.
    You could hardly find two different platforms, two different programs,
    two different

    [[Page 1621]]

    records that were more opposite in their views of what our purposes are
    as a people and what our role in Washington is. You see, we really do
    believe that it takes a village; we don't think you're on your own.
    Longview looks like a pretty good village to us. We think you help each
    other to make the most of your own lives. We really do believe we must
    build a bridge to the future; we can't build a bridge to the past. We
    really do believe that at this moment in history, if we do the rights
    things, if we build the right kind of bridge, we can make it possible
    for more people than ever before in history to live out their dreams and
    live up to their God-given potential. But we have to do the right
    things.
        It is not an accident that the unemployment rate is down, that the
    deficit has been reduced by 60 percent, that we have an all-time high in
    exports from Washington State and the United States, that America's auto
    industry is number one again, that we have 10\1/2\ million jobs, that we
    have 10 million people about to get a pay increase when the minimum wage
    goes up on October 1st. That is not an accident. It is not an accident.
        Finally, finally, we passed a meaningful piece of health care reform
    that says if you have to change jobs or if someone in your family gets
    sick, you still can't be denied health insurance. It's long past time
    when we should have done that.
        It is not an accident that we made every small business in America
    eligible to get a tax cut if they invest more in their business to hire
    more people, to grow the business, to make America stronger, if they
    take out health insurance. We made it easier for them to take out
    retirement and to protect their own retirement and their employees' when
    they move from job to job. That didn't happen by accident.
        It's not an accident that 40 million American retirees and workers
    have more secure pensions than they did 4 years ago. It's not an
    accident that tens of millions of us are breathing cleaner air, that we
    have safer drinking water standards, higher standards for food safety,
    that we have saved the national parks from an ill-advised attempt to
    sell some of them off, that this environment is cleaner, that we've
    cleaned up more toxic waste sites in 3 years than were cleaned up in the
    previous 12. None of that is an accident. It happened because we changed
    the direction of this country, and we're on the right track to the 21st
    century.
        It is not an accident that the crime rate has gone down for 4 years
    in a row. It is not an accident that finally juvenile crime has started
    to go down. It is not an accident that the welfare rolls have gone down
    by 1.8 million, that child support collections have gone up by 40
    percent, and that there are one million fewer crime victims in the
    United States today. That is not an accident. It happened because we
    worked together--together--to create the conditions and to give you the
    tools to make the most of your own lives. And now we have to finish
    building that bridge to the 21st century.
        I came here today to tell you that if you will work with us for 6
    weeks and 5 days, if you'll talk to your friends, your neighbors, your
    family members, your coworkers and you'll help us build that bridge,
    then we'll give you 4 years in which we will roar into the 21st century
    with opportunity, responsibility, and a stronger American community
    alive for all the people of this country. Will you help us build the
    bridge? [Applause]
        My fellow Americans, I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in
    which we have the finest education system in the world and every
    classroom in every school in America is hooked up to the information
    superhighway, to the Internet, to the World Wide Web. And if you're not
    a computer expert, I'll tell you what it means. It means for the first
    time in history, 4 years from now, if we do our jobs, the children in
    the most remote rural school districts, the children in the poorest
    inner-city school districts, the children in the small towns and the
    rich towns and the middle class towns, all of our kids, for the first
    time ever will have access to the same learning in the same time at the
    same level of quality for the first time ever. Will you help us do that?
    [Applause]
        I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we make
    college educations available to all Americans who want to go whether
    they're young or middle aged or older. If they need to go back and get
    more education, they ought to be able to do it. And I want to do it in
    three ways.
        First, more people saving more with IRA's and then you can withdraw
    from them without any tax penalty if you're going to use it to educate
    yourselves or your children or deal with health care or buy a first-time
    home.
        Second, we want to make 2 years of education after high school as
    universal in 4 years from

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    now as a high school diploma is today. Every American, we know now,
    needs more education. And here's how we're going to do that. We're going
    to let you deduct from your tax bill dollar for dollar the cost of the
    average tuition at the typical community college in the United States--
    just take it off your taxes, go back to community college, get that
    degree, move this country forward.
        Third, we want to give you a deduction of up to $10,000 a year for
    the cost of tuition at any college anyplace in this country, whether
    it's undergraduate school, graduate school, a special program, you name
    it. If you have to go back and get more education and training to do
    better with your lives, even if you've been out of school for years, you
    ought to be able to do it. And we'll support you in doing it.
        The second thing I want to do is to keep this economy going. We can
    have tax cuts, my fellow Americans, but they have to be paid for and
    they ought to be targeted to education, to childrearing, to buying that
    first-time home, to dealing with medical emergencies. You ought not to
    have to pay a tax if you sell your home and you've got a gain on it
    because it's appreciated in value over time. But we ought to pay for
    those things.
        We have to continue our work to balance the budget. Why? Because we
    have brought the deficit down by 60 percent. That may not mean much to
    you. Every time I leave Washington, some political expert says, ``Now,
    Mr. President, don't go out there in the country and start talking about
    reducing the deficit. People only care about it when the economy is in
    the tank. When the economy is doing well, it bores them to tears.''
        Here's why you shouldn't be bored. If we bring the deficit down and
    we borrow less money just to pay the Government's bills, then interest
    rates go down. For you that means a lower home mortgage payment, a lower
    care payment, a lower credit card payment. For business it means lower
    loan rates, which means they can borrow more money, hire more people,
    grow this economy, and take us into the 21st century. We have to balance
    the budget. We have to do it.
        We can't have a tax cut so big we undermine the economic recovery of
    the country. What good would it do you to see this deficit blown up? You
    get a tax cut on one hand and turn around and have it taken away on the
    other hand with a higher mortgage payment, a higher credit card payment,
    a higher car payment, and fewer jobs in America. We've got to keep this
    economy growing until everybody that wants a good job has one. We need
    to keep going. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
    [Applause]
        I want you to help us build a bridge to the 21st century where we
    have security for people. We have to continue to bring the crime rate
    down. I am proud of the fact it's come down 4 years in a row. And I
    can't help but noting that right here in Washington State, a lot of
    congressional districts changed hands and went to the other party in
    1994 because the people in the other party came out to small towns and
    rural areas in Washington, and they said, ``The President and his party
    voted for that awful crime bill, and they're going to take your guns
    away.''

    [At this point, an audience member required medical attention.]

        The President. You need a doctor over there? Send a medic over
    there, right back there. We'll be right there. Just keep your hands held
    up. We've got the doctor back there, right back there.
        Now, remember this--in 1994, I remember them. I remember them going
    into all these little towns and saying, ``Why, the President voted to
    take your gun away, the Democrats in Congress did. That crime bill is
    terrible. It's not going to do anything to bring down crime.''
        Well, now we know. Four years later, we have 4 years of a declining
    crime rate. We're halfway home in putting 100,000 police on the street.
    We didn't take a single hunter's rifle away from him in Washington State
    or my home State of Arkansas. Everybody's still going into the woods
    with the same weapons they had. But 60,000 felons, fugitives, and
    stalkers lost their right to buy a handgun under the Brady bill. We were
    right; they were wrong. They were wrong about that.
        And we need to keep going. We should oppose their efforts to cut
    short the 100,000 police commitment. When you put more police officers
    on the street, knowing the neighbors of the people, getting to know the
    kids, encouraging young people to stay off drugs and out of gangs and
    out of trouble--when people work in partnership, they can drop the crime
    rate dramatically. I have been to community after community after

    [[Page 1623]]

    community where people gave up on it but where the streets are now safe.
    And I don't want to stop until every American feels safe in their homes,
    on their streets, in their schools, in their places of work. We can do
    this. And I want you to help me build that bridge to the 21st century.
        Let me also say that in every election people always talk about
    family values. Well, our administration has tried to value families.
    Tipper Gore has worked for 20 years to try to create conditions in which
    people could raise children without having them subject to destructive
    influences from our larger culture. The First Lady has worked for over
    20 years to try to help improve the conditions of childrearing and
    health care for our young children.
        We were the first administration in history that took on the tobacco
    industry and said it is illegal to sell cigarettes to young people--no
    more advertising, marketing, and sales to them. It is wrong.
        The first bill I signed was the family and medical leave law. It
    said simply you can't be fired if you have to take a little time off for
    the birth of a child or the illness of a child or a parent. Now, this is
    a classic example of our differences. My opponent led the fight against
    that law. He says today, we made a terrible mistake to pass it, that it
    was antibusiness. Well, if it was antibusiness, how come we got 10\1/2\
    million more jobs and record numbers of new small businesses? It wasn't
    antibusiness. People do better at work if they know they're doing right
    by their kids at home. That's what I mean by a village, a bridge we can
    all walk across.
        And I'd like to see the family and medical leave law expanded just a
    little bit to say that people shouldn't lose their jobs either--they
    ought to have a little time off to go to regular conferences with their
    children's teachers and to be able to take their kids and their parents
    to the doctor when they need to go. It will make us stronger. It will be
    a good thing for the economy.
        The last thing I want to say is the Vice President and I worked very
    hard to prove that you could grow the economy and preserve the
    environment and that in the end you can't grow the economy unless you
    preserve the environment. I told you a few minutes ago we cleaned up a
    lot of toxic waste dumps. That's the good news. The bad news is 10
    million American children still live within 4 miles of a toxic waste
    site. If you give us 4 more years, we'll get rid of the two-thirds worst
    ones, 500 of them, so we can say America's children are growing up next
    to parks like this, not next to poison. That's a big part of our bridge
    to the 21st century.
        Now, I want to ask you again, I want you to take the next 6 weeks
    and 5 days, go out to your friends and neighbors, without regard to
    their party, and say, let's have a talk about what we want America to
    look like in the 21st century. Let's have a talk about what we want
    America to look like when our children are our age. Let's have a talk
    about this election because we're electing the last President of the
    20th century and the first President of the 21st century. And let's have
    a talk about how we can build that bridge big enough, wide enough, and
    strong enough so we can all go marching across it together to the best
    days America has ever had.
        Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:40 p.m. at Sacajawea Park. A portion of
    these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.