    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 11, 1996]
    [Pages 1540-1543]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Pueblo, Colorado
    September 11, 1996

        Thank you very much. Good morning. It's great to be back in Pueblo
    again. I want to say first, Dr. Martinez, thank you for welcoming us
    here to the courthouse. And all of you who live here must be so proud of
    this magnificent building. I love it. I think we should give Josh Rael
    another hand for doing such a good job on the national anthem.
    [Applause]
        I want to thank all of those who spoke before me, Mike Beatty, Al
    Gurule, Lieutenant Governor Gail Schoettler, and Tom Strickland. I hope
    you will send Tom Strickland to the United States Senate. I have a lot
    of confidence in him, and as I'll say in a moment, when these people
    present themselves for Congress and the Senate, there are real
    consequences to your lives.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to be back here today because this is
    an election season, but elections should not be divorced from our lives.
    The choices we make as citizens for those who represent us affect the
    way we live after the elections are over.
        As I was sitting here looking at Mayor Webb making his remarks, and
    my longtime friend and former colleague, Governor Romer making his
    remarks, and I couldn't help thinking how lucky Colorado is to be served
    by public officials like this who can make a positive difference in
    people's lives.
        I also have to tell that I was talking with Patricia Heine before
    she got up here to speak; she told me that she had become a police
    officer 7 years ago, after working on raising her sons. And I thought to
    myself, it's a pretty great country when a mother who loves her children
    and cares for other people's children has the willingness, the ability,
    and is given the opportunity to go back to work in public safety to make
    this community and this State and our country a better place. And we
    thank you.
        Today I want to talk, as Governor Romer said and Mayor Webb said,
    about the issue of crime, about the link between crime and drugs, and
    about what we have to do to make our streets safer if we're going to
    realize our vision for the 21st century. As your President, I have
    worked hard on a simple, straightforward vision for the next century,
    and especially for the children in this audience. We're only 4 years
    away from a brand new century and a brand new millennium. We're
    undergoing enormous changes, as all of you know, in the way we work and
    live and relate to each other and the rest of the world.
        I want us to go into that next century as the world's strongest
    force for peace and freedom and prosperity. I want us to go into that
    century with all the American people in our mosaic from all different
    ethnic groups, all different walks of life, growing together and being
    stronger together in a close-knit community that help each other to make
    the most of their own lives. And I want to make sure the American dream
    is alive and well for every single man or woman, boy or girl, who is
    willing to work for it. And that is my vision: opportunity for all,
    responsibility from all, and everybody has a place in our American
    community. I hope you'll help me to realize that.
        We've worked very hard in the last 4 years to create economic
    opportunity, and this country is better off than it was 4 years ago. We
    have the lowest unemployment rate in 7\1/2\ years; 10\1/2\

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    million new jobs. We have 4\1/2\ million new homeowners. The deficit has
    gone down for 4 years in a row for the first time since the 1840's,
    before the Civil War. Wages are rising again for average working people
    for the first time in a decade. There are 1.8 million fewer people on
    welfare today than there were the day I took the oath of office.
        Child support collections are up 40 percent; 40 million people have
    had their pensions protected; 12 million Americans have taken some time
    off in the family leave law, keeping their jobs while their babies were
    born or they had a sick parent they needed to take care of. The air is
    cleaner for 50 million Americans, and we have cleaned up more toxic
    waste dumps in 3 years than were cleaned up in the 12 years previous. We
    are moving in the right direction.
        On October 1st, 10 million hard-working Americans will get a pay
    raise when the minimum wage law goes into effect. And that's a good
    thing for America.
        Twenty-five million Americans will be helped by the Kennedy-
    Kassebaum health care reform bill which says you can't lose your health
    insurance anymore just because someone in your family gets sick or you
    have to change jobs. This country is on the right track for the 21st
    century.
        I have worked hard to make these things possible by working with all
    people of good will who were willing to move our country forward, to
    change the politics of Washington from who's to blame to what are we
    going to do about it, and what can we do together?
        I have asked the American people to join with me in building a
    bridge to the 21st century, a bridge that we can all walk across
    together, a bridge that will be strong enough to realize our dreams for
    the future, to give every child the chance to live up to his or her God-
    given potential. And I want you to help me build that bridge. Will you
    do that? [Applause]
        We have to make educational opportunity available for all. That
    means we have to create the most excellent system of education in the
    world for all of our children without regard to their racial or ethnic
    background or whether they're poor, rich, or middle class, whether they
    live in poor, rural communities or big cities or some place in between.
    I have a plan to make sure that every 8-year-old child in America will
    be able to read on his or her own by the year 2000. And we need to do
    that.
        If we keep to our commitment to make sure that every classroom and
    library and every school in the United States is hooked up to the
    information superhighway by the year 2000, every child for the first
    time in the history of this country--every child--will have access to
    the same information at the same level of quality in the same time as
    every other child, rich, poor, or middle class. That will revolutionize
    education. And we have to do that.
        And finally, let me say, in this great community which has, among
    other things, a perfectly wonderful community college where I was the
    last time I came here--I want to ask you to help me make sure that in
    the next 4 years we make 2 years of education after high school, the
    equivalent of a community college degree, just as universal in America
    as a high school diploma is today by giving people a tax credit for the
    tuition there.
        By giving people a tax credit for the tuition cost of a typical
    community college, by giving our American people a $10,000 tax deduction
    per year for any tuition cost at any institution of higher education--
    undergraduate, graduate, community college, you name it--by letting the
    American people and letting more Americans take out more savings in an
    IRA, save that money, and then withdraw it tax-free to pay for college
    education, health care, or to buy a first-time home, that will build a
    bridge to the 21st century.
        To build that bridge, we have to keep this economy growing steady
    and strong until every American has a chance to benefit from it. That
    means we have to balance the budget. But we have to do it in the right
    way. We must balance the budget to keep the interest rates coming down
    so that you can afford house payments, car payments, credit card
    payments. So that small-business people can afford to borrow money to
    build their businesses, we have made every small business in America
    eligible for a tax cut if they invest more money in their business. We
    are growing small businesses at a record rate, but we have to continue
    to balance the budget. But we can do it. And we must do it without
    wrecking Medicare, Medicaid, cutting back on our investments in
    education and protecting our environment. We have to do that.
        We have to build a bridge to the 21st century where families can
    succeed at home and at work. Most parents--whether the family is a one-
    parent or a two-parent household--most

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    parents are working today, and most parents have to work. I hardly ever
    meet a family that doesn't tell me there has been some time in their
    lives when they've really faced a dilemma in the conflict between their
    obligations at work and their obligations at home.
        That's why we worked hard to pass the family leave law. That's why
    we worked hard to increase childhood immunizations, to increase Head
    Start, to pass the V-chip law to give parents the ability to control
    inappropriate programming and its access through television to the young
    children. That's why we've worked hard to protect our young people from
    the dangers of marketing and selling tobacco which is illegal in every
    State but prevalent in every State. And that's why I believe we should
    expand the family and medical leave law to say in a very limited way,
    people also ought to be able to take their children to doctor's
    appointments and to the local parent-teacher conference without losing
    their jobs in this country. And I hope you'll help me do that.
        We have a lot of environment work to do to build our bridge to the
    21st century. There are still 10 million American children--listen to
    this--10 million American children living within 4 miles of a toxic
    waste dump. I want to clean up two-thirds of those dumps, the worst
    ones, in just the next 4 years, by far the most rapid pace in history.
    But it's important to us. Our children should be growing up next to
    parks, not poison. And I want you to help me build that bridge to the
    21st century.
        But let me tell you, we cannot--we cannot--build the right bridge to
    the 21st century unless our children and their families are safe in
    their homes, on their streets, in their schools, in their communities.
    Four years ago, I came to this wonderful community just 2 weeks before
    election day. I said I wanted to prove, and I quote--this is what I said
    then, that ``you could be tough on crime and smart at the same time.''
    Well, 4 years later, I can tell you that that approach is possible, and
    it's working.
        Just 2 years ago this Friday, in one of the proudest moments of my
    Presidency, I signed the 1994 crime bill. We began to put 100,000 police
    on our streets. We're about halfway home now. We have about 500 already
    funded in Colorado, five right here in Pueblo. We made ``three strikes
    and you're out'' the law of the land. We began helping States to build
    100,000 new prison cells. We began to expand prevention programs so our
    young people would have something to say yes to, not just no.
        And let me say, not a single sportsman or hunter in Colorado--
    notwithstanding what they were told in 1994--has lost their hunting or
    sporting weapon--not a single, solitary one, not one. But you know what?
    Sixty thousand felons, fugitives, and stalkers could not get a handgun
    because of the Brady bill. It was the right thing to do. We are safer
    because of it.
        Now, this strategy is working. For 4 years in a row, the crime rate
    has come down. But no matter how tough our penalties, no matter how many
    new prisons we build, we will never break this problem until we break
    the cycle of crime and drugs and stop the revolving door between prisons
    and drug use on the streets.
        Let me be clear, the best antidrug program is still parents teaching
    their children right from wrong. It's still those D.A.R.E. officers in
    the schools standing up there in front of those classes and letting
    those little children with their wide eyes look at people in uniforms
    and say, ``That's the kind of person I want to be, and that's the kind
    of behavior I want to have.''
        That's why I fought for the safe and drug-free schools program,
    which puts antidrug counselors like Officer Heine in the classroom. The
    first bill I vetoed as President, the very first one, was a bill passed
    by this Congress that would have gutted the safe and drug-free schools
    program. I don't know about you, but I think we need more people like
    her, not fewer, in front of our children in the schools of America.
        Last year Congress gave me about $700 million less than I sought to
    fight drugs, and that's wrong, and I hope we can correct it before they
    go home. I appointed a four-star general, an American military hero,
    General Barry McCaffrey, to lead our attack on drugs, and he has
    developed a strategy for us that we will follow with great discipline
    over the next 5 years, targeted at keeping drugs away from our children
    and he deserves the support that he needs.
        Illegal drugs are a significant force behind the vast majority of
    violent crimes in this country and a big part of the problem with
    juvenile crime. Drug dealers with guns, criminals on drugs, they
    contribute a lot to the misery that the rest of America has to endure.
        Listen to this: Two-thirds of the men in State prisons have
    substance abuse problems. I have

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    signed an Executive order to require drug testing of anyone brought into
    the Federal system, but I have not been able to affect that. Listen to
    this. When criminals on parole go back on drugs, the chances are
    enormously high they will commit new crimes. Sixty percent--listen--60
    percent of all the heroin and cocaine sold in the entire United States
    goes to people on bail, on probation, or on parole. Seventy-five percent
    of the prisoners with a history of heroin or cocaine use who are
    released without treatment go back to drugs within 3 months and return
    to crime. We have to stop this cycle, or we'll never get on top of the
    problem.
        In spite of this problem, States often don't do much to test
    parolees or prisoners, or provide adequate treatment. That has to be
    changed. Drugs don't belong in prisons or in the hands of parolees.
    Parole is not a license to break the law, use drugs, and slip back into
    crime; it is a chance to go straight and live a better life.
        So today I propose to offer legislation that will say to every State
    in the country, we are prepared to continue to use funds from our crime
    bill to help you build your prisons. But if you want that money, you now
    must start drug testing prisoners and parolees to break the cycle of
    crime and drugs. It's time to say to inmates, if you stay on drugs,
    you'll stay in jail; if you want our of jail, you have to get off drugs.
    It's time to say to parolees, if you go back on drugs, you'll go back to
    jail; if you want to stay on the street, stay off drugs. And I want you
    to help me send that message to America.
        We know the States are hard-pressed, and we intend to do our part.
    Today the Department of Justice announced $27 million in grants to
    States for testing and intervention with prisoners, to help them break
    this cycle. States can start using this money right now for drug testing
    and for intervention to help prisoners and parolees.
        And let me tell you something, folks, this is not an election year
    pledge. This will work. A new report shows that in Delaware, prisoners
    who got treatment in prison and during work release were 75 percent
    drug-free and 70 percent arrest-free after 18 months; but 80 percent of
    the prisoners who did not receive treatment went back on drugs, and two
    out of three were arrested again. It is simple. We know what to do, now
    let's go do it. Let's build a bridge to the 21st century that breaks the
    cycle of crime and drugs.
        I want to say to all of you, I am more optimistic than I was when I
    came here 4 years ago about our future. I am more idealistic about the
    possibilities of Americans to do good things together. But we must make
    a commitment to work together, to create opportunity for all, to get
    responsibility from all of our citizens, and to reach out to one another
    across the lines that divide us so that we can go forward together. That
    is the bridge that I seek to build to the 21st century, and I hope you
    will help to build it.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:17 a.m. at the Pueblo County Courthouse.
    In his remarks, he referred to Richard Martinez, Pueblo County
    commissioner; Josh Rael, student, Pueblo South High School; Michael
    Beatty, chairman, Colorado Democratic Party; Al Gurule, candidate for
    Colorado's Third Congressional District; Lt. Gov. Gail Schoettler and
    Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado; Colorado senatorial candidate Tom
    Strickland; Mayor Wellington Webb of Denver; and police officer Patricia
    Heine. The President also referred to his memorandum of December 18,
    1995, on Federal arrestee drug testing, published in the Public Papers
    of the Presidents: William J. Clinton, 1995, Book II (Washington: U.S.
    Government Printing Office, 1996), p. 1904.