    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 27, 1996]
    [Pages 1689-1694]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Longview, Texas
    September 27, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Thank you.
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. Thank you very much. Folks, I would have come all the
    way to Longview just to see the Rangerettes and hear the Ranger Band.
    Thank you very much. I thank you for coming out on a little bit of an
    overcast day and keeping the rain away. I feel like the Sun shines on us
    in Longview today, don't you? [Applause]
        Thank you, Martha Whitehead, for being a great mayor, a great State
    treasurer, for keeping your campaign commitment and working yourself
    right out of a job. Somehow I think that people will think you're
    entitled to a lot more good jobs in the future. Thank you for your
    leadership. Thank you, county commissioner James Johnson, for being
    here. Thank you, Ann Richards, for your wonderful talk. I heard it in
    the back. Thank you, Texas Democratic Party chair and former Deputy
    Secretary of the Department of Energy Bill White. He did a great job for
    us in Washington, and he's doing a great job for the Democratic Party
    here in Texas. And thank you, Garry Mauro, my friend of many years, for
    standing up for us, sticking with us, and waiting around until we
    finally got to the point where we can win in the State of Texas because
    we've done a good job for the people of Texas.
        I also want to thank Max Sandlin for being here and for speaking
    earlier. And I want to ask you to send him to the United States
    Congress. We've got some great candidates in this part of Texas running
    for their first terms in Congress: Max Sandlin, Jim Turner, John
    Pouland. I hope they will all win. I hope you will help them so they can
    help you build that bridge to the 21st century that we've been talking
    about.
        Thank you, Judge Frank Maloney, for being here. And ladies and
    gentlemen, I'd like to take a little personal privilege here and ask
    your retiring Congressman, Jim Chapman, who has served you well and
    worked hard, just to come up here and say one word. This is the biggest
    crowd he'll see in Longview until he leaves office, and I want him to
    have a chance to say hello to you. Come on up here, Jim.

    [At this point, Representative Jim Chapman made brief remarks.]

        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

    [[Page 1690]]

        The President. Thank you. Thank you.
        Ladies and gentlemen, 4 years ago I had a pretty tough time here. I
    ran for President against two guys from Texas. [Laughter] It hardly
    seemed fair to me. I'm sure I spent more time in Texas than anybody else
    who had run for President recently. And you were very good to me. We had
    a good showing here. I've had an opportunity to come back to Texas many
    times in the last 4 years, and I want to thank all those who have been
    my friends and supporters through good times and bad.
        You know, we had some tough decisions to make when I became
    President. But think what this country was like 4 years ago. We had high
    unemployment, the slowest job growth since the Great Depression, growing
    inequality because working people's wages were stagnant. The crime rate
    was going up. The welfare rolls were going up. The country was becoming
    more divided, and people were becoming more skeptical, even cynical,
    about our politics. And I believed it was because we did not have a
    unifying vision to take us into the 21st century.
        And I have a simple, straightforward idea of what I want this
    country to look like in 4 years when we start a new century and a new
    millennium. In Longview, Texas, and every town like it all across
    America, I want the American dream to be alive and well for everybody
    who is willing to work for it, without regard to where they start out in
    life. I want this country to be the world's strongest force for peace
    and freedom and prosperity, because our peace and our freedom and our
    prosperity depends upon America's ability to lead and stand up for those
    things in the world. And I wanted us to be a country that's coming
    together, not being torn apart by our differences. And I believe we can
    all say we're a lot better off by that standard today than we were 4
    years ago. We're on the right track for the 21st century. We've done it
    by trying to meet our challenges and protect our values with a simple
    little strategy: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and an
    American community that treats everybody fairly and gives everybody a
    role to play.
        Now, you look at the results and you think about the tough times in
    1993 and 1994. When we were passing our economic plan, Mr. Morales'
    opponent said, ``If the President's plan passes, unemployment will go
    up, the deficit will go up, we'll have a terrible recession.'' That's
    what he said. Well, now we know. A trained economist, they say. Four
    years later we have 10\1/2\ million new jobs, 900,000 here in Texas; the
    lowest unemployment rate in America in 7\1/2\ years; the lowest
    unemployment rate here in 15 years; in every single year a record number
    of new small businesses; the highest rate of homeownership in 15 years;
    4\1/2\ million new homeowners.
        And yesterday, in the annual report of the United States Census
    Bureau on how we're doing as a country in terms of our income, we got
    the following information. Last year, median--that's the people in the
    middle, direct middle, not the average, the people in the middle--median
    household income last year increased by almost $900 after inflation, the
    biggest increase in family income in 10 years. Family income since that
    economic plan passed has gone up over $1,600.
        And even more important, more of us who are working are sharing in
    it. We had the biggest decline in the inequality of incomes and the
    biggest decline in the number of working Americans living in poverty in
    27 years, from one year to the next. We had the biggest decline in the
    number of children living in poverty in 20 years. We are on the right
    track, and we need to stay on that track to the 21st century.
        We have increased education opportunities, from more children in
    Head Start to a better, lower cost college loan program, to the
    AmeriCorps program to allow young people to work their way through
    college by serving in their communities. We're moving in the right
    direction.
        The crime rate has gone down for 4 years in a row because of those
    100,000 police Ann Richards was talking about. And when they told all
    the hunters in east Texas that the President was trying to take their
    guns away when the Brady bill passed, it sounded pretty good at the
    time, and we took a terrible licking in a lot of places in 1994. You
    would have thought I was going to knock on the doors myself and take
    people's guns away. Well, guess what? Now we know. Now we know. Two
    hunting seasons have come and gone. It turns out that I was telling the
    truth. When we took the 19 assault weapons off the street we protected
    650 kinds of hunting weapons. So 2 years later not a single hunter in
    Texas has lost their rifle. But 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers
    could not get handguns because of the Brady bill.

    [[Page 1691]]

        So the crime rate went down. The welfare rolls are down by nearly 2
    million in America. Child support collections are up by almost 50
    percent--nearly $4 billion a year more in child support collections.
    That's helping to move people off welfare and give families dignity and
    reinforce the responsibility of everyone to support their children. We
    are moving in the right direction.
        And you know, when I ran for President--and I liked what Martha
    said. You know, she literally reinvented government. She consolidated
    her job. I heard our friends in the other party, they always said the
    Federal Government is a terrible thing. It's nothing but waste. It would
    mess up a one-car parade. And they made a living--they owned the White
    House for decades, you know, just kicking the Federal Government around.
    They hated it so much, but they couldn't bear to be outside of it. It
    kind of tickled me. But they never did anything about it. They bad-
    mouthed it. They said how bad the Government was. They said we Democrats
    were nothing but Government lovers and we would defend every program.
        Well, guess what? Now we know. Our administration reduced the size
    of the Federal Government by 250,000. It's the size it was now when John
    Kennedy was President. As a percentage of our work force it's the
    smallest it's been since Franklin Roosevelt first took the oath of
    office in 1933. That's what we did to reinvent this Government. We're
    still serving you, but it is smaller.
        We have reduced the burden of Federal regulations more. We have
    eliminated more unnecessary programs. We've given more authority back to
    State and local government. We've shared more authority with the private
    sector than they ever did when they had the White House. The only
    difference is we're doing it because we think it will help to create the
    conditions and give you the tools to make the most of your own lives. So
    we still believe we ought to balance the budget, but we don't believe we
    ought to wreck the Medicare program or the Medicaid program or undermine
    education or the environment. That's the difference.
        Folks, you know, I spent the last 12 years of my life before I moved
    to Washington a lot closer to Longview than to Washington. And I was in
    Washington at a dinner last night, and Senator Dodd, the chairman of our
    party, said that he sort of felt sorry for me when I showed up. I'd
    never been in the House. I'd never been in the Senate. I'd never served
    in anybody's administration. I'd just been a Governor. I didn't
    understand how Washington worked, and it was more about talk than
    action.

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

        The President. You need some help? Where's my doctor? I've got my
    medical team. We've got somebody here who fainted. We're coming. We'll
    bring it right there. Somebody hold your hand up, and we'll find you.
    They'll be right there. Here they are. There's nothing else we can do.
    You all just--let's go on with the show here; they're going to take good
    care of him.
        Now, listen, when we came there the thing that bothered me about
    Washington was that there was a lot of talk and very little action.
    Everybody spent all their time trying to get their 30 seconds on the
    evening news, seeing who they could blame for America's problems. And I
    said, we are going to change the way Washington works. We're going to
    stop asking, ``Who is to blame'' and start asking, ``What are we going
    to do to get this country moving again and help people?''
        So I tell you today, we are better off than we were 4 years ago. But
    we've got a lot to do. And we're going to be better off still. And I
    came here to ask the people of Longview and east Texas and this great
    State to help and join in in building that bridge to the 21st century.
        Now, you know this approach is right; we are better off than we were
    4 years ago. We don't need a U-turn. We need to bear down and go right
    on into that future. And I want to ask you to help us. I want you to
    help me balance that Federal budget. We've already taken the deficit
    down 4 years in a row for the first time since before the Civil War.
    They talked about it; we did something about it. But we've got to
    balance the budget in a way that is fair to everybody. We can protect
    education and the environment and research and technology, we can
    protect Medicare and Medicaid, and we can afford a targeted tax cut tied
    to childrearing and education.
        I am very proud of the fact that on October 1st 10 million Americans
    will get an increase in their minimum wage. You may not know there is
    also in that bill tax cuts to help small business if they invest more,
    tax cuts to help

    [[Page 1692]]

    small businesses--self-employed people that have to buy their own health
    insurance policy. And there is also a $5,000 tax credit for any family
    that will adopt a child. That's pro-family, pro-work, and pro-business.
        What I want to see us do now is to give the American people tax
    credits for childrearing. I want to see tax cuts for education. I want
    to see tax cuts for homebuying. I want to see tax cuts for medical care.
    And I want to explain in a minute how all that works, but the main thing
    I want to say to you is we can afford the right kind of tax cut. But we
    should not have a tax cut that is a big, across-the-board tax cut that
    goes to people like me who don't need it and that will increase the
    deficit again.
        Now, every time I get on a plane and leave Washington, they say,
    ``Now, Mr. President, the economy is going well now; don't go down to
    someplace like Longview and talk about the deficit. It bores people to
    death. They don't want to hear about it, and nobody cares about it
    except when times are tough.'' Well, let me tell you what it means. You
    go home tonight and you think about this. Because we cut the deficit by
    60 percent, we're not borrowing as much money. That leaves more for you.
    That means interest rates are lower.
        Now, last year our Republican friends put out a report that I agree
    with--I agreed with them last year, and I wish they hadn't changed their
    position--last year they said, ``If we get off of this plan to balance
    the budget, interest rates will go up by 2 percent.'' Now, when you go
    home tonight, you think about what that would mean. If your car payment,
    your credit card payment, and your house payment went up by 2 percent,
    that would take your tax cut away right quick, wouldn't it? Think what
    it would mean.
        Even worse, if all the little businesses up and down this street
    here and every other business in this country had to pay 2 percent more
    for a business loan, then small business would have a harder time
    expanding and growing and hiring new people. So I say, yes, cut taxes,
    but pay for every dime of it and still balance the budget. That's my
    plan. Help people educate their kids, help people build their families,
    but do it right.
        The second thing I want to say is, we've got to build a bridge to
    the 21st century where every single person has a chance to get a world-
    class education. And I could keep you here until tomorrow at this time
    talking about the schools and education. But let me just tell you two of
    the things I want to do.
        Number one, I want to see every classroom in this country and every
    library and every school in America hooked up not only with computers
    but hooked up to the information superhighway, to the Internet, to the
    World Wide Web. And let me say what that means--let me tell you what
    that means. If you're like me and you're sort of out of the computer
    generation and it gives you a headache to think about all this, here's
    what it means in simple terms. If we can hook up every classroom in
    Longview to the World Wide Web, to the Internet, to all these other
    networks of information and we did that in New York City and we did that
    in the remotest place in North Dakota, for the first time in history the
    kids in the poorest school districts, the kids in the most remote school
    districts would have access to the same information at the same level of
    quality and the same time as the kids in the richest public and private
    schools in America. It has never happened before. We could revolutionize
    education, and we ought to do it.
        The second thing we ought to do is to make a college education
    available to every single person who needs it of any age. And here's my
    plan to do that in three little ideas. Number one, let more families
    save in an IRA, an individual retirement account, for their retirement,
    but let them withdraw from it tax-free if they're using it pay for a
    college education, a health emergency, to buy a first home. Number two,
    make a community college education as universal in America in 4 years as
    a high school diploma is today. Make 2 years of education as universal
    by giving families a tax credit, dollar for dollar, off their tax bill
    for the cost of tuition at the typical community college in America
    today. Number three, give the families of this country a $10,000
    deduction for the cost of any college tuition, any vocational tuition,
    up to $10,000 a year every year the kids are in college or their parents
    are in college. We ought to make this available to America, and we can
    pay for it and balance the budget. Will you help me build that bridge to
    the 21st century? [Applause]
        I want to build a bridge to the 21st century where the crime rate
    goes down for 4 more years. If we take it down 8 years in a row it might
    be low enough for us to stand it. And I have some specific ideas. First
    of all, we've

    [[Page 1693]]

    got to finish the job of putting those 100,000 police on the street. For
    reasons that absolutely amaze me, the Congress--this Congress--is still
    trying to stop us from putting police on the street, even though it is
    lowering the crime rate and preventing crime and helping kids to stay
    out of trouble.
        Number two, we ought to do more drug testing of people who are out
    on parole. Sixty percent of the cocaine and heroin consumed in the
    United States today is consumed by people who are already in the
    criminal justice system in some way. You should not be on parole if you
    go back to drugs. That will make us a safer country.
        Number three, we ought to fully fund our safe and drug-free schools
    act. We ought to have a D.A.R.E. officer in every grade school classroom
    that needs it in America, out there helping these kids to stay off drugs
    and stay out of trouble. For reasons I do not understand, this Congress
    has tried to cut that program in half.
        I want to do more. We have got to convince our young people not to
    get in trouble in the first place. We're not going to jail our way out
    of their problems, we've got to keep them on a good path to the future.
    We've got to keep them on that bridge to the 21st century. And we need
    to do what we can to help you folks, the parents, the religious leaders,
    and the people in law enforcement who are willing to go into these
    schools and help our kids. We need to support them in every way we can.
    We've got a program to do it, and I want to finish that job. And I want
    you to help me build that bridge to the 21st century.
        I want to build a bridge to the 21st century where we have stronger
    families. And what's the biggest problem I hear from families all over
    this country? Everywhere I go they say, ``We're having trouble doing our
    job as parents and doing our jobs. We're working harder than ever
    before, but our kids need us more than ever before.'' That's why I'm
    proud that the first bill I signed was the family leave law. It's given
    12 million families--12 million of them--the chance to take a little
    time off from work if they have a baby born or a sick child or a sick
    parent, without losing their jobs. And we're a better country because of
    that. It's been good for our economy. I believe we ought to expand it
    and say you can get a little time off from work to go to a parent-
    teacher conference or a regular doctor appointment with your child, too.
        We do not weaken America's economy when we make it possible for
    people to do right by their children. We weaken America's economy when
    there are millions of workers at work all over America worried sick
    about their kids while they're trying to do their job. I want to create
    a country where everybody who wants to work can work, where everybody
    has to work who can work, but where every worker can be a good parent,
    because that's our first and most important job. That is what I'm trying
    to do, and I want you to help me build that bridge to the 21st century.
        And finally, let me say that I believe almost every American now
    understands that we can't build a bridge to the 21st century unless we
    find a way to improve our environment as we grow our economy. I'm really
    proud of the fact that we passed a safe drinking water law; we passed a
    pesticide protection act supported by all the farm groups and all the
    consumer groups, to improve the quality of our food; that we are working
    hard to clean up toxic waste dumps and we cleaned up more in 3 years
    than our predecessors did in 12. But I am concerned about the continuing
    environmental challenges we have, and I want to leave you with just one.
        As you look at all these kids in the audience today, there are still
    10 million American children--10 million American children--living
    within 4 miles of a toxic waste site. If you will give us 4 more years,
    we'll clean up the 500 worst sites so we can say America's children are
    growing up next to parks, not poison. And that's a part of our bridge to
    the 21st century.
        Now, folks, you have a clear choice in 39 days. Are we going to
    build a bridge to the past or a bridge to the future? Do we really think
    it's better to say ``you're on your own,'' or was my wonderful wife
    right, it does take a village like Longview to raise our kids and build
    our businesses and build our future? Are we going to build a bridge
    that's big enough and broad enough and strong enough for us to all walk
    across and that will be strong enough for our children and grandchildren
    to walk across?
        You know, I want to ask every one of you to go out and talk to the
    people you know who aren't here today--it doesn't matter what their
    party is--and just ask them this, say, you

    [[Page 1694]]

    know, the century only changes once every 100 years, and this country is
    changing dramatically, the way we work, the way we live, the way we
    relate to the rest of the world. It is changing. And ask people, what do
    you want America to look like when we go into that new century? What do
    you want America to look like when our children are our age? In 100
    years what do you want people to say that we did at this moment in time
    with our responsibility?
        If what we do is to create opportunity for everybody who is willing
    to work for it, if we prove that unlike all these other countries that
    are torn apart by their differences, we can be a country of different
    races, different religions, different points of view, bound together by
    our fidelity to the American system and American values, that we can
    lead the world--that's what I want the story to be. If those are the
    questions people ask before the election in November, 39 days from now,
    I believe I know what the answers will be. You go out and reach out to
    other citizens so that we can go forward and build that bridge to the
    21st century.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:55 a.m. at Tyler and Center Streets. In
    his remarks, he referred to Martha Whitehead, former mayor of Longview;
    Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas; Texas Land Commissioner Garry
    Mauro; State Supreme Court judicial candidate Frank Maloney; and Texas
    senatorial candidate Victor Morales.