    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 10, 1996]
    [Pages 1807-1812]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Louisville, Kentucky
    October 10, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Hello, Louisville!
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Folks, thank you for
    this magnificent crowd. Thank you for your great spirit. Thank you for
    this Louisville Slugger. You know, I've got one more debate, and from
    what I've heard, I may need this. You know, I was listening to all these
    folks talk--and you elect people that know how to talk--and they speak
    in a language I can understand, with no accent. [Laughter] And I am
    delighted to be here.
        I want to thank Governor Paul Patton for his strong leadership and
    his support and for being so forthright and strong and standing up for
    what we're trying to do together. I want to thank my good friend Wendell
    Ford for his

    [[Page 1808]]

    advice, his counsel, his support. If we had a hundred people in Congress
    like Wendell Ford we'd have about half as many problems as we do today.
    He is a great leader.
        I want to thank your Congressman, Mike Ward. And I want you to know
    it is rare--it is rare for a first-term Member of Congress to have the
    kind of influence and make the kind of impact that Mike Ward has made.
    He works hard for you. He is outspoken, and I told him if I had to hear
    about Naval ordnance one more time I thought I would scream. He never
    gives up. I finally said, ``Mike, just tell me what you want to do. We
    will do it. Let's just talk about something else. Take care of the
    people of Louisville, and let's go on into the future.''
        And I want you to know that I am grateful that Wendell Ford and your
    former Congressman, Rom Mazzoli, voted in 1993 for an economic plan that
    got this country moving again, and I'm grateful that Mike Ward stood up
    and said no when the other party got control of the Congress and shut
    the Government down to try to force the United States of America and the
    President to take a budget that was wrong for America and wrong for our
    future. Thank you.
        I want to thank Steve Beshear for being willing to run for the
    United States Senate and for making an outstanding candidate. You heard
    his speech tonight. He ought to inspire your confidence, and he
    justifies your support. He's a fine man. He'll be a fine United States
    Senator, voting for the interests of Kentucky, and I hope you will
    support him.
        I want to thank all of those that are up on this platform tonight:
    Lieutenant Governor Steve Henry and Speaker Jody Richards; State
    Representative Jesse Chisolm; my 1996 cochair, Betsey Hudson; State
    Democratic Party chairman Bob Babbage. And there's one person who is not
    here tonight, but I want to mention him because he's a great friend of
    mine, your Jefferson County judge and county executive, David Armstrong.
    We were born in the same little town in Arkansas a long time ago. He's a
    great friend, and he's away because of a family crisis, and I hope you
    all will support him. He's got a sick brother. Say a prayer for him
    tonight and support David Armstrong. He's a fine man, and I'm glad to be
    here.
        And finally, I want to thank the mayor. What a mayor you have. I
    thought I had energy till I met Jerry Abramson. I thought I was
    aggressive till I met Jerry Abramson. I thought I was exuberant till I
    met Jerry Abramson. And all those things he said to you that we did
    together for the people of this city, they're all true, but they
    couldn't have happened without the leadership of Jerry Abramson. I thank
    him very much.
        I'd like to thank the Kentucky Ramblers and the Rascals of Ragtime
    for providing our entertainment before I got here. I'm glad to be able
    to visit the Louisville Slugger factory. I'm sorry I couldn't be here in
    July when the museum opened. This is an amazing place with an amazing
    history that started the day Pete Browning broke his bat playing for
    Louisville's Eclipse team. Today, there are millions of bats made here,
    still made by hand. And I want you to know, since I was a little boy,
    I've had a lot of them but none I'll treasure any more than the one I
    got tonight. Thank you very, very much.
        Folks, 4 years ago I came to Louisville to talk to you about
    fighting for the ordinary Americans who make our country go, about
    turning the direction of our country around, about paving a good way for
    Americans to the 21st century. In the last two debates, the one that I
    had with my opponent on Sunday night and in the great performance the
    Vice President put in last night--I was so very proud of him, and I know
    you were--we saw two very different visions for America, two good people
    on the other side who love our country but just see things differently
    than we do. I believe that we've got an obligation to work together to
    help each other make the most of our own lives. I believe that the First
    Lady was right when she said it takes a village to raise our children
    and to build a country that's strong. And what you have to decide is
    whether you think we have to do this together or whether we're better
    off going into the 21st century on our own.
        Now, let's look at where we were. Four years ago when I came here we
    had high unemployment, stagnant wages, and rising frustration. I was
    determined to change the direction of America. I wanted to go into the
    21st century with the American dream alive and well for every person in
    this audience, without regard to your station in life, who's willing to
    work for it. I wanted our country to beat the odds in this modern world.
    I wanted to prove that we could come together amidst all of our reli-

    [[Page 1809]]

    gious and racial and other diversity to prove that we can go forward
    together.
        In the rest of the world, people are bedeviled everywhere by their
    religious differences, their tribal differences, their racial
    differences, their ethnic differences. But here in America, we say, if
    you show up tomorrow and you're a law-abiding citizen who works hard and
    believes in this country, you're our kind of American. We don't need to
    know anything else about you. Come on, let's go on together. Let's go on
    together. And for 4 years now we've worked hard to create opportunity,
    to demand responsibility, and to build a sense of community where
    everybody's got a role to play and everybody has a place at the table.
        Four years ago, Kentucky helped me win reelection. I never will
    forget when Wendell Ford called me, and he said, ``You've got to come to
    Kentucky one more time. Go to western Kentucky. You haven't been over
    there.'' In the middle of the night, seems like we were in western
    Kentucky. And the people of Kentucky voted for Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
    Now, Wendell still takes credit for it. He said if we hadn't come back
    that one last time, it would have never happened. [Laughter] And he may
    be right, but I'm glad you did. You took us on faith.
        The American people don't have to take us on faith anymore. Now
    there's a record. You know whether we were right or wrong. We have 10\1/
    2\ million new jobs in this country. Unemployment in this State has
    dropped nearly a third. We have record numbers of new small businesses.
    Every one of them has been eligible now and been made eligible for a tax
    cut if they invest more to grow their businesses. Every one of them
    now--it's been easier for them to take out pensions for themselves and
    their employees and for people to take those pensions from job to job.
    That's better than it was 4 years ago.
        It's easier now for self-employed people to take out health
    insurance because they can deduct more of it from their taxes. That's
    better than it was 4 years ago. Median income--that's the people in the
    middle; that's not the average with all of us at the top; that's the
    people in the middle--have gone up almost $1,600 after inflation since
    Rom Mazzoli and Wendell Ford voted for the economic plan that we didn't
    get a single, solitary vote from, from the other side. We're moving in
    the right direction, folks. We're on the right track to the 21st
    century.
        We've had the largest drop in child poverty in 20 years. Now all
    economic groups that are working are participating in our economic
    growth. We've had the biggest drop in inequality among working people in
    27 years. We've got the lowest rates of inflation and unemployment in
    home mortgages in 28 years. And last week we learned that the poverty
    rate among elderly Americans has dropped to its lowest level ever
    recorded. We are moving in the right direction. We are going to the 21st
    century.
        We're getting back to our basic values. The crime rate has dropped
    for 4 years in a row. There are one million fewer crime victims this
    year. We made 12 million families eligible to take a little time off
    from work when a baby is born or a parent or a spouse or a child is
    sick. The welfare rolls are down by 1.9 million. Child support
    collections are up almost 50 percent, nearly $4 billion. We're moving in
    the right direction toward the 21st century.
        And yes, while we brought the deficit down, we knew there was a
    right way and a wrong way to do it. And I am proud that we stopped the
    other party's budget from becoming law, because it would have broken up
    the Medicare system. It would have cut too much and cost innocent
    elderly people too much. It would have ended the guarantee that Medicare
    gives and has given for three decades to the elderly people in nursing
    homes, so their children can go on and live their own lives and know
    their parents are going to be all right. It would have ended the
    guarantee we give to working class families who have people with
    disabilities in them, so they don't have to go into bankruptcy to take
    care of their loved ones.
        I think we did the right thing. It would have devastated
    environmental protection, environmental cleanup, and for the first time
    ever would have cut education funding by $30 billion, ending the
    AmeriCorps national service program, weakening the college loan program
    we worked so hard to improve, cutting back on Head Start, and generally
    dividing the country and taking it in the wrong direction.
        Instead, we said no. We like more jobs, better education, a cleaner
    environment, and a brighter future. We're going to keep on the right
    track to the 21st century.
        And just in the last few days of this Congress, because of you--not
    because of me but because

    [[Page 1810]]

    of you--because you sent a clear signal that you wanted our country to
    go forward, we passed a lot of our initiatives. We passed the minimum
    wage bill. We passed a bill that says to 25 million Americans, you can't
    lose your health insurance anymore just because you changed jobs or
    somebody in your family's been sick. We said to mothers and their
    newborn babies, you cannot be kicked out of the hospital anymore after a
    day, no more drive-by deliveries. We're going to help people with mental
    health problems to get more insurance. At long last, we said to Vietnam
    veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and whose children have spina
    bifida, finally, finally, we said, we're going to give you and your
    families and your children some help for medical help and for disability
    payments. It's about time. We're moving in the right direction.
        That's why every major law enforcement organization has endorsed
    Bill Clinton and Al Gore. That's never happened for anyone on our side
    before. That's why just the day after our debate in Hartford, 2,500
    business leaders, including a very large number of them who never voted
    for a Democrat for President, endorsed our campaign, because they know
    that it's good for America for us to move forward together. And I want
    you to help me finish building that bridge to the 21st century.
        And so that's the decision now before the American people: Are we
    going to back where we were, or are we going to keep going forward? Are
    we going to go forward together, or are we going to say, ``You're on
    your own''? I think I know what you want to say. We cut the deficit by
    60 percent; let's keep interest rates down and grow the economy by
    balancing the budget while we protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, and
    the environment.
        Let's have a tax cut for working families and middle class families,
    targeted to childrearing, to education, to health care, to buying that
    first home and paying no taxes on your home when you sell it, but let's
    pay for it in a balanced budget plan. Let's don't have that risky tax
    scheme that the other side offers: $550 billion, no idea how they're
    going to pay for it. I'll tell you what it means: It means bigger cuts
    in Medicare and Medicaid, education and the environment than I vetoed.
    Their plan would raise taxes on 9 million of the hardest pressed working
    families, and it would blow a hole in the deficit a mile wide.
        Folks, when I became President, we had quadrupled the debt of the
    country in 4 years, the deficit was $290 billion, people could not
    borrow money to buy a home. We now have the highest rate of
    homeownership in 15 years. I just came from Dayton, Ohio, and a 40-year-
    old man came up to me and said, ``Mr. President, I just bought my first
    home because we got interest rates down and a healthy economy.'' Let's
    don't go back, folks, let's go forward. Say no to their plan and yes to
    ours.
        We passed that Family and Medical Leave Act. We passed the V-chip to
    give families the ability to control what their children see on
    television. We got 3 hours of educational television coming back on
    primetime for families so their kids will have something good to see.
    The entertainment industry's agreed to rate their TV programs. We're
    moving forward in the right direction.
        Now we ought to expand family leave and say people should get a
    little time off to take their children to a parent-teacher conference or
    their parents to the doctor. People that earn overtime, if they need it,
    ought to be able to take the overtime in time with their kids or in
    cash, at their discretion. Will you help me build that kind of bridge to
    the 21st century? [Applause]
        We made a good start on health care reform. Our balanced budget plan
    says, now we ought to help people who are between jobs. When you lose
    your job, you ought to be able to hold on to your health insurance and
    take care of your kids. Our plan would help people keep their health
    insurance for 6 more months when they're between jobs. It's all paid
    for. It would help families with parents with Alzheimer's to care for
    them. It would help do other things to prevent illness, and it would
    continue our ground-breaking work in medical research.
        In the last 4 years, we've found two genes that cause breast cancer.
    Now we may be able to find out not only how to treat it but how to
    prevent it. Just in the last few weeks, for the first time in history--
    for the first time in history in the last few weeks, we saw laboratory
    animals with their spines completely severed regain movement in their
    lower limbs because of nerve transplants to their spine. Who knows what
    we can do if we keep on working for health care reform. Will you help us
    build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]

    [[Page 1811]]

        We did pass the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. And in
    places like Kentucky, our opponents, they made hay while the Sun shown.
    Oh, they said, ``Oh, they're going to take all their guns away.'' You
    know something? It'll soon be deer season, won't it? I'll give $100 to
    the first hunter in Kentucky who tells me he can't go out into the deer
    woods because he lost his rifle. Not a single person has lost a hunting
    weapon, but 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers could not get
    handguns because of the Brady bill. And now people who beat up their
    spouses and children won't be able to get it either. We were right about
    that, and this is a safer country because of it.
        And yes, we are putting 100,000 police on the street. But our
    friends on the other side, they all voted against it. Then they tried to
    stop us in their budget that I vetoed, then they tried to stop us again.
        Now, just talk to the mayor or talk to the local chief of police or
    talk to anybody in law enforcement. I don't understand why anybody would
    be against that, but they are. One good argument for Steve Beshear and
    Mike Ward is that they know that what we have to do is give power back
    to people in the local communities to work with the community crime
    watch programs, like the one that Carolyn MacLuton has worked so hard
    for all of these years. God bless you, ma'am. We love you, and thank you
    for what you're doing.
        We're trying to get a million more people like her and finish
    putting 100,000 police on the street. We've only funded half of them.
    These elections are important. If you want us to finish the job so we
    can have 8 years of declining crime rates instead of 4, you've got to
    help us. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
    [Applause]
        We reduced the welfare rolls by 1.9 million. We passed the welfare
    reform bill. But it's just the beginning. Let me tell you what that
    welfare reform bill does. It says this: The National Government will
    continue to guarantee--they'll fix that in a minute, don't you all worry
    about it--the National Government will continue to guarantee health care
    and nutrition to poor families. And if someone goes to work there will
    be more money for child care than ever before. But what used to come
    from Washington in the form of a welfare check with State money will now
    go to Governor Patton. And States and communities will have 2 years to
    figure out how to turn that welfare check into a paycheck, because able-
    bodied people who can work, have to work. That's good, but we have to
    create the jobs. I've got a plan to help the communities create another
    million jobs to move those people from welfare to work. Will you help me
    create those jobs and build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
        We've made the water cleaner. We've made the air cleaner and freer
    of chemicals. We've raised the standards for food safety. We've cleaned
    up more toxic waste dumps in 3 years than the other side did in 12.
    We're cleaning up the environment, but there are still 10 million kids
    in this country who live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump. Our plan
    would clean up 500 more, so I can look at the children of America and
    say they're growing up next to parks, not poison. Will you help us build
    that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
        Finally, and most important, will you help us make education the top
    priority of America for the next 4 years? [Applause] Will you help us do
    that? For every child and every adult in America, we have a plan that
    deals with the major challenges of education. Number one, a lot of
    adults need to go back to school. Under our plan, we'll create a ``GI
    bill'' for America's workers. When someone loses their job, they'll get
    a skill grant worth up to $2,500 a year to take to the local community
    college, to take to another training program, to put people back to work
    at higher wages, not lower wages.
        Number two, we know that 8-year-olds have to be able to read in
    order to learn for the rest of their lives. But 40 percent of our 8-
    year-olds can't read on their own. We've got a plan to put 30,000
    volunteers out there, working with schools and parents, so that every 8-
    year-old can pick up a book and say, ``I can read this all by myself.''
    Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
        I have offered the first plan ever to help schools that are trying
    to help themselves get more funds to build and modernize their schools.
    We've got more kids in school today than ever before, and it's time we
    helped them.
        And finally, for the schools, today I said again I want to hook up
    every classroom and every library in this country to the information
    superhighway so that all our kids--for the first time in American
    history, all our kids can have access to the same information in the
    same time in the same quality, rich, poor, middle class, all

    [[Page 1812]]

    of them together. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
        And will you help us open the doors of college education to all
    Americans? [Applause] I want to make 2 years of education after high
    school just as universal as a high school diploma is today by letting
    you deduct dollar for dollar off your taxes, up to $1,500 a year, the
    typical cost of a community college tuition. I want to let every family
    deduct up to $10,000 a year for the cost of any college tuition. And I
    want to let people who save in an IRA withdraw from it to pay for
    college. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
    [Applause]
        Folks, this is a clear choice: hope against fear, the future against
    the failed policies of the past, a village working together against
    ``you're on your own.'' I want to build a bridge to tomorrow that every
    single child and every single adult in the State of Kentucky and in our
    beloved United States can walk across to the best days America has ever
    known. In the next 26 days, will you help us by talking to your friends
    and neighbors to build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
        Thank you. God bless you, and good night. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:50 p.m. at the Louisville Slugger Museum.
    In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Paul E. Patton and Lt. Gov. Steven
    Henry of Kentucky; State Representative Jesse Crenshaw; Mayor Jerry E.
    Abramson of Louisville; Betsey Hudson, cochair, Kentucky Clinton/Gore
    '96; and Carolyn MacLuton, past president, Community Oriented Policing
    Board, Fourth Police District.