    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 31, 1996]
    [Pages 1990-1994]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona
    October 31, 1996

        Thank you. Hello, Arizona! Good morning. Let's give the band a hand.
    [Applause] Thank you very much. Are you going to the Rose Bowl?
    [Applause] Are we going to win on Tuesday? [Applause] I want to thank
    the people who performed before I came here: the ASU Student Saxophone
    Combo, the Mariachi del Sur, the Clan/destine, the Tempe High School
    Marching Band--again, thank you--and Jeff Goodman. I thank those who
    spoke earlier, including the students, Sadohana Stone and Michelle
    Carson, the legislators who were here, the other candidates, the vice
    mayor. And I want to say to Juan Roque, you're having a great season,
    and I wish you would play offensive line for me for the next 5 days.
    Thank you. I thank Governor Rose Mofford, my friend and former
    colleague. Thank you, Congressman Ed Pastor, Mrs. Pastor. Thank you,
    Steve Owens, for running for Congress and trying to turn the Congress
    around and put it back on the side of the American people and their
    future. Thank you.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank Bill Bratton for coming all
    the way to Arizona to endorse our candidacy, to be here with Mike
    Petchel. While Bill Bratton was the police chief of New York, violent
    crime decreased almost 40 percent, the murder rate was decreased by 50
    percent. We can make our streets safer for our children and their future
    if we all work together. Thank you, Commissioner Bratton, for being
    here.
        Five days from today, the American people will choose the last
    President of the 20th century and the first President of the 21st
    century. I am very, very glad that there are so many young people here
    today because this election is about your future.
        You know, there are many different issues in this election, many
    matters on which Senator

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    Dole and I disagree, many matters on which I disagreed with Senator Dole
    and Speaker Gingrich over the last 2 years. But the big issue that
    embraces them all is what you want America to look like when we cross
    that bridge into the 21st century and what you are prepared to do to get
    us there.
        I want an America where the American dream is alive and well for any
    person responsible enough to work for it, without regard to race or
    gender or background or where they start out in life. I want everybody
    to have a chance to live up to their God-given capacities. I want an
    America that is still the world's leading force for peace and freedom
    and for prosperity. And I want an America that is rejecting the racial,
    the ethnic, the tribal, the religious division that is tearing apart so
    much of the rest of the world and says we're going forward into the 21st
    century as one community together. We need each other, and we'll do
    better when we work forward together. Will you help me build that kind
    of America? [Applause]
        Four years ago, when I came to the American people with Al Gore and
    said we wanted a different kind of political direction, we wanted to
    break out of the mold of the old debates and take America forward, we
    thought the right and left, liberal and conservative debate was sterile
    and outdated and the issue was what we had to do together to move our
    country forward, the American people took me on faith--and we came
    within one percentage point of carrying Arizona. I hope you'll help us
    do just a little better on Tuesday.
        But today, you don't have to do that. There is a record. You can
    make a judgment based on the evidence about whether this approach is
    going to make you more likely to live out your dreams in the 21st
    century, more likely to make this a more responsible and caring society
    in the 21st century, more likely to preserve the greatness that has
    always been America's hallmark.
        Compared to 4 years ago, we have 10\1/2\ million more jobs. We have
    the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgages
    in 27 years, the biggest drop in inequality among working families in 27
    years, the biggest drop in child poverty in 20 years, the highest
    homeownership rates in 15 years. The deficit has been cut in all 4 years
    of an administration for the first time in the 20th century. We are
    moving in the right direction.
        The crime rate is down for 4 years in a row and is now at a 10-year
    low in America, the welfare rolls have been reduced by 1.9 million,
    child support collections have been increased by $4 billion a year--50
    percent. We are moving in the right direction.
        Just in the last few weeks, we've seen the minimum wage go up for 10
    million people, 25 million Americans protected by a law that now says
    you cannot lose your health insurance if you move from job to job or
    someone in your family gets sick, a law that says insurance companies
    can no longer kick mothers and their newborn children out of the
    hospital after only 24 hours. We are moving the right direction.
        Income for the typical family is up about $1,600 in the last 2
    years. Our air is cleaner. Our drinking water is safer. We have
    preserved our natural heritage; we fought all the vicious attacks on the
    environment by the members of the congressional majority who even wanted
    to sell some of our national parks, and instead we've expanded more
    lands we're protecting. We are moving forward and growing the economy
    while preserving our environment. We are moving in the right direction.
        Just in the last couple of days, we've seen that our annual growth
    rate is about 3 percent, that business investment increased by almost 19
    percent, the highest rate since the Kennedy administration. Incomes are
    rising nearly 5 percent, and in the face of that news and 10\1/2\
    million jobs, yesterday my opponent said that we had the worst economy
    in 20 years. Well, 2 weeks ago he said we had the worst economy in 100
    years. We've made up 80 years in 2 weeks. That's a good record. We need
    to do more of that. Way back in February, my distinguished opponent said
    what he knows is the truth when he said we actually had the best economy
    in 30 years. We are moving in the right direction, and we need to do
    more.
        As I stand here in this wonderful State, I know that one of the
    things most people in Arizona have felt over the years, consistently, is
    that we don't need a big, bureaucratic Government in Washington telling
    us what to do and that we do need fiscal responsibility. But I ask you
    to look at the record on this.
        Our administration has lowered the size of the Federal Government by
    nearly 250,000; it is now as small as it was when John Kennedy was
    President. We have eliminated more Government regulations, more
    Government pro-

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    grams, we have privatized more Government operations in 3\1/2\ years
    than my Republican predecessors did in 12 years. Our budget would be in
    surplus today if it weren't for the debt they ran up in the 12 years
    before I took office. We are moving in the right direction.
        The issue here today is not big Government or small Government. It
    is, what do we have to do together to give each other the tools to build
    strong lives, strong families, strong communities, and a strong nation?
    There are those who honestly believe that we shouldn't do much together,
    that you're better off, your fiber will be greater if you're just told,
    ``You're on your own.'' And then there are those of us who believe that
    it does take a village to raise a child, to build families, to make our
    streets safe. There are those who believe they can say, ``There's that
    great, big future out there; there is a rushing river you have to cross;
    there's a big valley you have to get down through; there's a huge
    mountain you have to get across; I hope you make it. Good luck.'' And
    then there are those of us who say that future out there is for all of
    us, and it'll be better for all of us if we just go on and build a
    bridge big enough, wide enough, and strong enough for all of us to walk
    across together. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
    [Applause]
        On this Halloween day, we can make a lot of jokes, and I was
    thrilled to see all the people along the roadway already in their
    Halloween costumes and their masks on. But one serious thing I'd like to
    say about Halloween--Hillary and I always loved the fact that our
    daughter loved Halloween, always wanted her own costume every Halloween,
    still likes to go out trick-or-treating. But one of the things that I
    think is important on Halloween is we remember that we want Halloween to
    be ``fright night,'' but ``safe night'' for our families and our
    children. And we ought to think about today what I think is the critical
    thing for American families, which is, how can we make our families
    safe, how can we give them a clean environment, and how can we make it
    possible for parents to succeed economically while they raise their
    children responsibly?
        Everywhere I go in America, people say to me, ``I'm having problems
    doing the right thing by my kids and working.'' The average working
    family is spending more hours a week at work today than 25 years ago. So
    today I want to just take a minute to ask you what you think would build
    strong families, and would we be better off saying, ``You're on your
    own,'' or ``Here's what we can do together to give you the tools to
    build a stronger family life.''
        I supported the Family and Medical Leave Act. Now, my opponent led
    the opposition to it and tried to kill it with a filibuster in the
    Senate because he honestly believed--he honestly believed that it would
    be bad for the economy. But now we know. After 3 years, 12 million
    people have taken advantage of the family leave law to take a little
    time off from work without losing their jobs when a baby is born or a
    family member is sick. We have 10\1/2\ million new jobs, record numbers
    of new small businesses. This economy is churning along. We're moving in
    the right direction. You help the economy if you help parents take care
    of their children. They do better at work, and they feel better.
        And I'd like to see the family leave law expanded a little bit so
    parents can go see their children's teachers twice a year and take them
    to the doctor without losing their jobs. I believe when parents earn
    overtime, they ought to have the option to take that overtime in pay, or
    if their parents or their children or their spouses are sick, I think
    they ought to be able to take that overtime in time with their families.
    That's the choice of the people who earn it. It'll make stronger
    families. But you have to decide.
        I believe we value families when we have welfare reform that is good
    to children but tough in work requirements, that requires teen mothers
    to live at home or in a supervised setting and stay in school to draw
    benefits, and requires able-bodied people to go to work but gives them
    the child care and the jobs there to do the work and succeed at home and
    at work, just the way we want for everybody else in this society.
        And I believe we value families when we open the doors of college
    education to all Americans. My fellow Americans, in the 12 years before
    I became President--and this is no one in particular's fault, but many
    of you will know this--the only basic thing in a family's budget that
    increased at a higher inflation rate than health care was the cost of a
    college education. We have worked hard through AmeriCorps to give 70,000
    more young people a chance to work their way through college by serving
    in their communities. Some of you are here today. Thank you, and God
    bless you. We reformed

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    the student loan program to give 10 million students lower cost loans
    and the right to repay those loans as a percentage of their income so
    they would never go bankrupt trying to repay their college loans after
    they got out.
        But I want to do more. I believe we should make 2 years of education
    after high school as universal as a high school diploma is today by
    giving people a dollar-for-dollar reduction on their taxes for the
    typical cost of a community college if they go there and make their
    grades, and I think we can do it. I believe we strengthen our families
    if we give a $10,000-a-year tax deduction for the costs of any college
    tuition at any level for people of any age, and I intend to do it.
        I do not believe we will strengthen our economy or our families or
    our future by doing what my opponent has advocated: cutting the student
    loan program and abolishing the Department of Education and entering the
    21st century as the only country in the world with no one to speak for
    the education of our children at the President's Cabinet. I will not do
    that. I will improve education in America, working with you and our
    teachers for all Americans.
        I believe we strengthen families when we take steps to protect our
    young children from gangs and guns and drugs and tobacco. I worked hard
    for the crime bill that Commissioner Bratton talked about. A lot of
    people in Arizona and my home State of Arkansas and other places voted
    against people who supported the crime bill because they said we were
    trying to take their guns away. Well, now we know. It's been 2 years.
    Not a single hunter or sportsperson in Arizona or Arkansas has lost a
    weapon, but 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers did not get handguns
    because of the Brady bill. We were right, and they were wrong. They were
    wrong.
        We are in the midst of putting these 100,000 police on the street.
    We've funded about half of them. My opponent led the fight against the
    100,000 police, then passed a budget that abolished them. Then when I
    vetoed the budget, they shut the Government down, trying to force us to
    stop putting police on the street. I couldn't believe it. But I'll tell
    you one thing, we're going to keep doing it because it's making our
    communities safer.
        I believe we strengthen families by supporting the safe and drug-
    free schools program and doubling the number of people who are in it and
    getting that message out to our young children, when they're young
    enough to listen, that drugs can kill you. They're wrong. They're not
    just illegal; they're wrong and they can kill you. Turn around; don't do
    it. I believe that's making a difference, and I think our opponents were
    wrong when they tried to cut the safe and drug-free schools program in
    half and deprive 23 million children of the chance to get that message.
    And I'm going to keep on going until we turn that around, and I want you
    to help me do it.
        I believe we were right to take on the big tobacco interests and say
    you have to stop selling and marketing tobacco to children in this
    country; it is wrong. Even though we have taken that action officially,
    it's being challenged in court. My opponent is opposed to it. We may not
    get that fight won unless you make the right decision on election day. I
    think it would be folly--3,000 young children in America begin smoking
    cigarettes every day; 1,000 of them will die sooner because of it. It is
    wrong. We should stay on the course we're on, and I ask you for your
    help to protect our families and our future.
        I believe that we support stronger families when we do things which
    support grassroots community action. I have worked hard to help to
    mobilize another one million volunteers in citizen action groups to work
    with police officers to get rid of gangs and guns and drugs on the
    streets. I want to recognize a person here with me who is sitting with
    me, Delia Gonzalez, the first president of the Escalante Neighborhood
    Association here in Tempe, for the work that she and others have done. I
    want one million more people doing that work, and we will get it in the
    next 4 years if we do it.
        Folks, you have to decide. You have to decide if our families will
    be strengthened if we do what I want to do, which is to balance the
    budget but to do it in a way that continues to invest in education, in
    the environment, in research, in technology, in protecting Medicare
    while reforming it, and saying we are not going to take away the
    guarantee of health care from our poorest children, from families with
    disabilities, from seniors in nursing homes. We're not going to repeal
    the standards of quality care. We're going to go forward. That's what I
    want to do, not adopt some risky tax scheme that will blow a hole in the
    deficit.
        I believe we should stay the course in bringing the crime rate down.
    I believe we should

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    get tougher on dangerous gangs. I believe we can do more if we finish
    the work of giving our children something to say yes to instead of just
    saying no to them. We have to give them a future that is worthy of their
    dreams, their aspirations, and their potential, and I want you to help
    me do it. Will you do it? [Applause]
        Your vote will decide whether we strengthen our families by giving
    our children world-class education, whether we mobilize a million
    volunteers, including college students all over America, to make sure
    every young person can read a book independently by the third grade. I
    want you to know, just before the Congress went home, I signed a bill
    that created 200,000 more work-study positions. I want 100,000 of them
    to go to people who say, ``I want every 8-year-old to be able to pick up
    a book and say `I can read this all by myself.' '' Will you help us do
    that? [Applause]
        Will you help us connect every classroom and library in America to
    the Internet and the World Wide Web, the information superhighway? Will
    you help us open the doors of college education to all? [Applause] I say
    again, the issue for Arizona, the issue for America is this: We stand on
    the threshold of a new century, on the threshold of a very different
    time. All of you know that we are undergoing dramatic changes in the way
    we work and live and relate to each other and the rest of the world. We
    are becoming an increasingly global society. We are working in different
    ways. When I became President, only 3 million Americans made their
    living by working at home. Today, 12 million do. In 4 years, 30 million
    will. That's just one example.
        We are pushing back the frontiers of learning as never before. When
    I became President, AIDS was still thought to be a death sentence. The
    life expectancy of people with HIV and AIDS has more than doubled in the
    last 4 years, thanks to medical research and faster movement of drugs.
    We have now, for the first time ever, medical treatment for strokes.
    We've identified two of the genes that cause breast cancer, and we may
    be able to eliminate it entirely. For the first time ever, laboratory
    animals with their spines completely severed have regained movement in
    their lower limbs through nerve transplants to the spine from other
    parts of their bodies. We are building a supercomputer in cooperation
    with IBM that will do more calculations in a second than you can do on a
    hand-held calculator in 30,000 years. We are moving into a very
    different future. And what you have to decide is whether you have the
    courage to say, ``I believe that our best days are still ahead, if we
    have opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and an American
    community in which we all have a part to play and a place at the
    table.''
        You have to decide whether we're going to go into the future by
    saying, ``You're on your own,'' or whether we're going to build a
    bridge. And you have to decide whether you're really willing to say,
    ``Whether you're Hispanic or African-American or Asian-American or
    Native American or Polish or Irish or whatever, it doesn't matter. If
    you believe in the Declaration of Independence, in the Bill of Rights,
    in the Constitution, if you're willing to show up tomorrow and work or
    study and do your job as a citizen, we don't need to know anything else
    about you. You are part of our America, and we're going forward.'' Will
    you help me in Arizona to build that bridge? Will you be there on
    Tuesday? Will you talk to your friends? [Applause]
        God bless you. Let's do it. Your best days are ahead. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:23 a.m. on the lawn at Grady Gammage
    Auditorium. In his remarks, he referred to Jeff Goodman, who sang the
    national anthem; Vice Mayor Joe Lewis of Tempe; Arizona State University
    football player Juan Roque; Rose Mofford, former Governor of Arizona;
    Representative Ed Pastor and his wife, Verma; Steve Owens, candidate for
    Arizona's Sixth Congressional District; and Michael Petchel, president,
    Phoenix Law Enforcement Officers Association.