    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 17, 1996]
    [Pages 1859-1863]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Santa Ana, California
    October 17, 1996

        Thank you. Good morning. What a crowd! Thank you for being here.
    Thank you. Mayor Pulido, thank you for that wonderful welcome. Thank you
    for your leadership of this great city. And let me say that the mayor
    was a little too modest. I want to brag on him a little more. We have
    had a great partnership with this city. Among other things, our program
    to put 100,000 police on our street has brought 54 here, and the crime
    rate has gone down by 50 percent in Santa Ana. Thank you, Mayor, for
    your leadership and your work here. I'd like to thank Lieutenant
    Governor Gray Davis for being here. Senator Chris Dodd is here, all the
    way from Connecticut, the chairman of the Democratic Party. Thank you,
    sir, for being here. Thank you, Art Torres, our Democratic Party chair,
    for being here.
        I'd like to say a special word of thanks to the mayor of Tustin,
    Tracy Worley, for being here. She spoke earlier. Thank you, Mayor. God
    bless you, and thank you so much. I'd like to thank the other
    congressional candidates who are here, Sally Alexander, Tina Louise
    Laine, Dan Farrell. I thank Stephen Weber for speaking earlier. And I
    want to thank the Santa Ana

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    High School Marching Band, the Saddleback High School Road Runners.
    Thank you both for being here. Thank you both. Thank you.
        I'd like to thank all the young AmeriCorps volunteers who are here
    for the work you're doing to make our country a better place. Thank you,
    Lou Correa, for your speech and for what you're doing. Give him a hand,
    folks. He did a good job. [Applause] And I was watching Loretta Sanchez
    give her speech, and I thought, boy, I'm glad she's not running against
    me. [Laughter] Thank you for running for Congress. Thank you for your
    commitment to give this congressional seat back to all the people of
    this congressional district. Thank you, Loretta Sanchez.
        Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people have asked me what I thought
    about the debate last night. And what I thought was that everybody in
    California should be very proud of those 123 citizens from San Diego and
    the surrounding area. They did a fine job, and they spoke for all of
    America, and I was very proud of them. I know you were, too.
        When I came to Orange County in 1992, many people said, ``Why are
    you going there? It's the most Republican county in the country.'' And I
    said, ``Because I'm trying to change our country, and Orange County has
    got to be a big part of America's future.'' I came because I was tired
    of the politics of blame and division and name calling that had
    dominated Washington for far too long, because people being put into
    little boxes and labeled gave everyone an excuse not to work together to
    solve our problems and move this country forward. I did it because I
    believed that you could go beyond the tired rhetoric of yesterday's
    politics, that the real issue was how you could be both good for
    business and good for working people, how you could both grow the
    economy and protect the environment. I believe that you could be a
    fiscal conservative and still be progressive enough to meet the
    challenges of today and tomorrow for all these young people in the
    audience. That's what I believed then; that's what I believe now.
        And so, in 1992, I came to California and Orange County saying that
    I wanted to create a country in which there's opportunity for all,
    responsibility from all, and an American community in which everyone has
    a place.
        Do you feel that we're better off than we were 4 years ago?
    [Applause] You know 4 years ago, the people of California had to take me
    on faith, but now there is a record. There has never been a partnership
    between the National Government and the people of any State like the one
    we have forged over the last 4 years. A lot of it was born of necessity,
    of earthquakes and fires and floods, of the economic dislocation caused
    by defense cutbacks, of the terrible recession you were facing when I
    came here. But little by little, day by day, month by month, we worked
    together to meet the challenges the people of California faced. And look
    at the difference 4 years can make.
        Four years ago, we had high unemployment and rising frustration. We
    still have a lot of challenges, but compared to 4 years ago, we have
    lower unemployment, 10\1/2\ million new jobs, a 15-year high in
    homeownership, the biggest drop in childhood poverty in 20 years, the
    biggest drop in inequality among working Americans in 27 years, the
    lowest rates combined of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgage
    interest rates in 27 years. We are on the right track to the 21st
    century.
        After inflation, the typical family's income is up over $1,600.
    Nearly 2 million people have moved from welfare to work. The crime rates
    have gone down for 4 years in a row. And we have invested more money in
    education and research and in environmental protection while holding
    Government spending to slower growth than my two Republican predecessors
    did. And we brought the deficit down every year for 4 years, the first
    time in the 20th century any administration has done that.
        Our friends on the other side, they complain about Government all
    the time. They set it up as the enemy; it's Government versus the
    people. The last time I checked, the Constitution said, of the people,
    by the people, and for the people. That's what the Declaration of
    Independence says. That's why, even though we have abolished more
    regulations, ended more programs, and reduced the size of the Government
    more than our predecessors did, we have also done more to create
    opportunity, to reinforce responsibility, and to bring the American
    people into a community together instead of always dividing us. I am
    tired of that. I want us to go forward together, and I think you do,
    too.
        Let me say, I was just looking at this magnificent new courthouse
    that's coming up up here, and I want to give special credit to one
    citizen of Orange County, a Republican, Roger John-

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    son, who worked in our administration and had a lot to do with the
    progress of the last 4 years. He's not here today, but I want to thank
    him for what he did.
        Ladies and gentlemen, the FBI reported last week that our crime rate
    is at a 10-year low. In California, it's dropped to a 25-year low. We
    can change this country. You don't have to wonder anymore about whether
    what we do and you do together can make a difference to make life
    better. Four years ago, it was simply a matter of faith. Today you have
    a record.
        Now, I'm glad we've got some of our friends in the opposition over
    there, and I understand why they have to try to shout us down every now
    and then, because for them the evidence hurts. But let's talk about the
    evidence and welcome them here.
        But the question is not what have we done, but what will we do? Last
    night, I was so moved by the questions, because repeatedly what people
    wanted to know was, what are you going to do about this, that, or the
    other thing; how does what you do affect how I live; how does what you
    do, Mr. President, affect the world my children will live in.
        And I was so impressed because the people who asked questions were
    not just concerned about what's going to happen next week or next month,
    they were also worried about what the world would be like in 20 years,
    in 30 years. And I tell you what I try to think about every day--and I
    recommend this to all of you, before you vote on November 5th, you ought
    to try this: Every day I ask myself, can I say in 30 seconds or a minute
    what my vision is for America in the 21st century? Can I say in a minute
    what I want my country to look like when my daughter is my age, when our
    children are our age? What do you want to be able to say about America
    and be absolutely sure it's true when we go roaring into this new
    century?
        The young people in this audience today, many of them will be doing
    jobs that have not been invented yet. Some of them will be doing work
    that has not even been imagined yet. And what we have to do is to create
    a world that will enable all of them to live up to the fullest of their
    God-given potential, a world in which all citizens take responsibility
    not only for themselves and their own families but for bringing us
    together and moving us forward.
        As I said, I think you saw two very different visions of the future
    last night, two honestly different visions. We need not say bad things
    about our opponents to say we just have different views. We just have
    different views.
        I believe the most important things in all of our lives are the
    personal things--that your individual life, your family life is clearly
    the most important thing. I believe many things have to be done at the
    grassroots level by people in the private sector, by religious and
    community organizations and civic organizations, by local government.
    But I believe the National Government is not your enemy; it is your
    servant, your partner. I believe it does take a village to raise our
    children and build our future.
        And let me say to you, what does that mean in practical terms? It
    means I'm proud of the fact that we lowered the deficit for 4 years in a
    row, but I want to finish the job of balancing the budget, to keep
    interest rates down and the economy growing. California has not come all
    the way back. Not everybody who wants a good job has one. We've got to
    balance the budget, but we do not have to wreck Medicare or Medicaid or
    cut education or environmental protection or research and turn our back
    on our future to do it. And we should not blow a hole in it with his
    $550 billion tax scheme. We should keep going.
        I believe we have to help our families. I go all over the country
    talking to people, and whenever I go home, I also spend a fair amount of
    time talking to people I grew up with. Most of them are just solid
    middle class citizens leading the lives that we all assumed we would
    lead when we were children. And everybody I talk to, when they talk
    about their real concerns, somehow or another it always gets around to:
    Can I succeed at home and at work? Can I raise a successful family and
    have a good career? Will I be able to do well enough financially to take
    care of my family, but will I have enough time with my family so that
    the money means something to me? I hear it everywhere in different ways.
    That's why I'm proud the first bill I signed was the Family and Medical
    Leave Act, an honest difference between my opponent and me.
        So what are we going to do about it? First of all, we ought to have
    a tax cut, but it ought to be one we can afford and still balance the
    budget, one targeted to childrearing, to education, to buying a home, to
    dealing with medical costs.

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        Secondly, we ought to keep working to protect our children from the
    dangers of crime and guns and gangs and drugs and tobacco. We need to
    finish the job. We have only funded about half of those 100,000 police.
    The opposition believes we're making a mistake putting these police on
    the street. The mayor knows better. I say let's finish the job of
    putting 100,000 police on the street. Will you help me do that?
    [Applause]
        The second thing we ought to do--we passed the Brady bill and the
    assault weapons ban and this country is safer because of it. But our
    police officers are not as safe as they ought to be, and we ought to ban
    bullets whose only purpose is to pierce the bulletproof vests that
    police officers wear, and protect them.
        We ought to continue to expand the safe and drug-free schools
    program so that in every grade school in this country there's a D.A.R.E.
    officer, there's somebody in a uniform telling our kids that drugs are
    wrong, drugs can kill you, giving them somebody to look up to. We
    shouldn't cut that program back for 23 million kids, as our adversaries
    tried to do. I say let's stay with the safe and drug-free schools
    program. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        We ought to continue until we have finally put into effect a set of
    legally binding rules that will stop tobacco companies from advertising
    and distributing tobacco to children. Three thousand kids a day start
    smoking illegally; 1,000 will die sooner because of it. It is illegal.
    It is wrong. We should not reverse course. That's another difference
    between me and our friends on the other side. Will you help us prevail
    in that fight? Will you stick up for our future? [Applause]
        We ought to expand the family and medical leave law so parents can
    take a little time off from work without losing their jobs to take their
    children to regular doctors' appointments and to go to parent-teacher
    conferences at the schools. That's important, too, and our economy will
    be stronger if our parents are happier at work because they know their
    kids are doing better. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        We passed health care reform to say you can't have your health
    insurance taken away just because you changed jobs or someone in your
    family gets sick. Twenty-five million Americans could be helped by it.
    We stopped insurance companies from forcing hospitals to kick mothers
    and newborn babies out of the hospital after just a day. They can't do
    that anymore.
        But we have more to do. Our balanced budget plan will provide
    coverage to families when they're between jobs for up to 6 months, will
    add another million children to the ranks of health-insured instead of
    uninsured, will provide mammograms for women on Medicare, and will help
    families who are caring for a member with Alzheimer's. And it's all paid
    for in the balanced budget. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        We've worked with States all over the country, without regard to
    party, including California, to move nearly 2 million people from
    welfare to work. I signed a welfare reform bill that says, we'll still
    guarantee to poor families health care and nutrition, but the money that
    the Federal Government used to send to the States for a welfare check
    now has to be turned into a paycheck within 2 years for able-bodied
    people. That's a good thing to say, but you have to have the jobs there
    if you're going to make people take them. I have a plan to say that this
    is the beginning, not the end of welfare reform. We have to create at
    least another million jobs in the private sector with tax incentives and
    other support. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        We have made the air and the water cleaner. We have made our food
    safer. We have cleaned up more toxic waste sites in 3 years than the
    previous administrations did in 12. But 10 million American children
    still live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump, and that is wrong. We
    have a plan, paid for in our balanced budget plan, to clean up the 500
    worst sites in this country so that we can say, by the 21st century, the
    children of America--rich, poor, or middle class--are going to grow up
    next to parks, not poison. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
        And finally, and most important of all, we have got to guarantee
    that every child in this country has access to the finest educational
    opportunities in the entire world. In part because we are more than ever
    a nation of immigrants, 40 percent of our children cannot read
    independently by the third grade. That means that everything they try to
    learn later on in life, they are handicapped in learning. It is wrong
    for us to permit children to leave the third grade not being able to
    read on their own.
        I have a plan to mobilize 30,000 trained reading tutors, including
    AmeriCorps volunteers, to enlist a million volunteers across America so
    that

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    we can go into the schools of America and teach our children. We did
    this in a rural county in Kentucky, and within a year the average child
    had increased their reading level by 3 years--3 years. We can do this.
        So I ask you, will you help me put a million people out there so
    that every 8-year-old can say, ``This is a book, and I can read it all
    by myself''? Will you help me? Will you help us to hook up every
    classroom and library and every school in the United States--free access
    to the Internet, to the World Wide Web, so that every child in America
    can be part of this new technology age? [Applause] And to grownups here
    who aren't as expert in computers as a lot of the kids are, let me tell
    you what that means. That means--if we can say that every 12-year-old in
    America can log on to the Internet, let me tell you what that means in
    practical terms. It means for the first time in the entire history of
    the United States, for the very first time, we can say that every child
    in America--rich, poor, or middle class--in every community in America,
    now has access to the same learning at the same level of quality at the
    same time. It will revolutionize education in America. Will you help me
    do it? [Applause]
        And finally, we must open the doors of college education to all
    Americans of any age who need further education. I want to give every
    family the ability to save for an IRA but withdraw tax-free if the
    money's used to pay for college or health care or buying a first home. I
    want to make 2 years of education after high school just as universal as
    a high school diploma is today. And we can do it in only 4 years if
    we'll simply say we're going to let you deduct from your tax bill,
    dollar for dollar, the cost of a typical community college tuition. Will
    you help me do that? [Applause] And we should make any college cost, any
    college tuition tax deductible up to $10,000 a year for any Americans of
    any age, including older people who need to go back and get school. Will
    you help us do that? [Applause]
        Now, this election is 19 days away. And they always tell you when
    you're 19 days away, just come in like this, give a whoop-dee-doo
    speech, talk 3 minutes, leave--no more issues. But I'm telling you, the
    big question is 19 days is, who's going to show up. Are you going to
    show up? Are you going to show up? [Applause]
        And example, after example, after example--some of which I was able
    to cite last night--the people of the State of California can say,
    ``There is a direct consequences between the vote I cast, the person who
    is in charge in Washington, and the decisions made here on the streets
    of Santa Ana and every other city in this State that affect my life.''
        So I ask you--I talk a lot about our responsibilities--it is your
    responsibility to go vote, your responsibility as a citizen, your
    responsibility to be there, your responsibility to build that bridge to
    the 21st century. In 19 days let's do it.
        Thank you, and God bless you. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:26 a.m. at the Old Orange County
    Courthouse. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Miguel Pulido of Santa
    Ana; Sally Alexander, Tina Louise Laine, Dan Farrell, and Loretta
    Sanchez, candidates for California's 45th, 47th, 48th, and 46th
    Congressional Districts, respectively; actor Stephen Weber; Lou Correa,
    State Assembly candidate; and Roger Johnson, former Administrator of
    General Services.