    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [August 28, 1996]
    [Pages 1404-1408]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Concluding a Whistlestop Tour in Michigan City, Indiana
    August 28, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Thank you. Wow! Thank you.
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
    Thank you, citizens of Indiana and Michigan and Illinois. Thank you all
    for being here.
        You know, folks, last night I called your Governor, Evan Bayh, to
    tell him two things. The first thing I said is, ``I loved your speech.
    Thank you for speaking for America and for what we did.'' But the second
    thing I said was, ``You know, Evan, I was just in East Lansing,
    Michigan, and we had over 20,000 people there.'' And I knew if I said
    that we'd have 30,000 people in Michigan City today. And sure enough, we
    did.
        Mayor Brillson, thank you for your welcome to the city, and thank
    you for your leadership. The mayor told me on the way in here that she'd
    only been mayor 8 months, but she is not only the mayor, she is the
    mother of six wonderful children who are down here. And I figure anybody
    who can raise six kids can do any job in America, including President.
    And I'm glad she's here.
        You know, I was interested to hear the mayor say it's been 97 years
    since a President has been to Michigan City. All I can say is the rest
    of them didn't know what they were missing. I'm glad to be here. Thank
    you.
        I thank your Congressman, Tim Roemer, for his leadership in the
    House of Representatives to prove that the Democratic Party can lead
    America into the future, that we can be responsible with your money, we
    can be strong for your economy, we can be tough on crime, but we can
    still have a heart for those who need the heart of America that are too
    often left behind and forgotten. Thank you, Tim Roemer.
        I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Frank O'Bannon and his wife,
    Judy, for being here with me. And I want to tell you something, folks,
    each year the job of the Governor gets a little more important. If you
    watched our convention, you know there's a lot of discussion about the
    welfare reform bill that I signed. Let me tell you this. I want you to
    understand just how important this decision is for Governor in Indiana.
        In the welfare reform bill, we said, look, we've reduced the welfare
    rolls by a million and a half by working with the States to move people
    from welfare to work. We think we can go all the way. We can take
    800,000 kids and mothers off welfare tomorrow if we just got people to
    pay the child support they owe. And so we changed the law to do that. So
    we said, here is the new deal. We're going to have national protection
    for the medical care for poor people and their children. We're going to
    have national protection for the nutritional needs of poor people and
    their children. We're going to have a national program that guarantees
    child care so when people go to work, even if they're in lower wage
    jobs--from welfare to work--they won't have to worry about their kids.
    They'll be able to pay for child care. But we said, we're going to take
    the money that used to be in the check itself, the Federal and the State
    money, and give that money to the States, and then the States will have
    to design a program that will

    [[Page 1405]]

    move people from welfare to work within 2 years.
        Now, when you make this decision for Governor, there will be no
    question more important than who do you trust to really care about
    giving the people who have been trapped on welfare the same kind of life
    we want for all American families. We want people to succeed as parents
    and succeed as workers. Frank O'Bannon will do that, and I want you to
    give him the chance to do it.
        Let me say, too, with some particular pride, that I have two people
    who work for me in the White House who come from near here. My military
    aide June Ryan, a lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard, whose parents
    live near South Bend, near here--that's not very far. I think they
    played football there, somebody told me. And one of my speechwriters,
    Carolyn Curiel's parents, Angela and Alex, live in Hammond. So I feel
    like I'm near home, at least, for them. Is anybody here from Hammond,
    Indiana? Yes, that's good.
        Finally, let me say a special word of thanks to those who have
    participated to make me feel so welcome. There were 2,000 folks, I'll
    bet you, who met my train just across the river, so I'm going to count
    them in the mayor's crowd, or the Governor--they can fight over who got
    them here, but I was glad to see them. And on the way, the Michigan City
    ROTC High School Color Guard made me feel very welcome. I thank them.
        I want to thank the Michigan City High School Band, who's playing
    over here. What a wonderful job they did. Thank you. I want to thank a
    teacher who is behind me, named Stacy Reisdorf. She and her eighth-grade
    class wrote me when I was coming. And I want to thank--look at all the
    students back there who made posters and who showed up, all the students
    from Michigan City. Thank you very much. I want to thank the National
    Guard for providing water. And if you need water, take it. I don't want
    anybody passing out here. I want you to be just hot enough to be excited
    but not any more.
        And let me finally say, I know that there was an accident here
    earlier, and I want you to keep those folks in your prayers. As far as
    we know, they're okay, but we haven't gotten a final report. And let me
    also say to all of you, I don't think you can imagine what it means to
    me to see you out here, to see--when you read and you hear people say,
    ``Well, nobody believes in the political system anymore. People are
    cynical,'' and this, that and the other thing--I don't see any cynicism
    here. I see America and America's future, and I like what I see.
        And while we're talking about the future----
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. Thank you. Thank you.
        Let me say one thing about the future, before I go on. I appreciated
    what Governor Bayh said about the relationship that he and Susan have
    had with Hillary and me. It's way beyond politics and beyond the fact
    that we're in the same party, beyond the fact that we served as
    Governors together for years. They are our friends, and they're two of
    the finest people I have ever met. You have been very fortunate to be
    served by them. I don't know what the future holds for them, but I
    wouldn't be surprised at all if someday Evan Bayh were to come back here
    to Michigan City as the President of the United States. And I'd like to
    see you out here for him.
        Folks, we've had a lot of fun at our convention, but I've had just
    as much fun with America. A few days ago, Hillary and Chelsea and I went
    to Huntington, West Virginia, and then Hillary went on home to Chicago,
    and Chelsea and I started this train trip through West Virginia and
    Kentucky and Ohio and then into Michigan and, finally, here into
    Indiana.
        And I took that train trip for two reasons. First of all, with an
    enormous sense of humility, I'm on my way to Chicago to accept the
    nomination of my party for the Presidency for the second time. It is----
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. You know, unless I run for the school board or
    something some day, it will be the last race I ever make. And I wanted
    to take this trip through the heartland to look into the faces, the
    eyes, the hearts of the people that I ran for President to help, the
    people I have worked for and fought for for 4 years. And I have loved
    every mile of the track, all the people I have seen.
        But I also wanted the American people to see, including all the
    people in all the little towns that came out to see the train come, all
    the school children standing by the road, all the people who put their
    pennies on the

    [[Page 1406]]

    rails so the train would give them flat pennies--[laughter]--all the
    flags, even some of the loyal opposition that came, I wanted them all to
    see that we were not only on the right track to Chicago, we are on the
    right track to the 21st century. And that's the track we're going to
    stay on.
        You know, I told you 4 years ago if you would hire me as President I
    would do my best to prepare this country for the next century. It's only
    4 years away now. And I want us to go into that century with the
    American dream alive for every single person who is willing to work for
    it. I want us to go into that century with this country still the
    world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity.
        I want to go into that century--you look around this crowd today--
    where we can say other people in the world may be in the grips, the
    throes of division, other nations may be divided by race, by ethnicity,
    by tribe, by religion, but in America, if you believe in the
    Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence,
    and you show up for work every day as a good citizen, you're our kind of
    American. We're all in this together. We're going forward together.
        Well, now, you tell me--so I wanted to go out and see the people
    after 4 years. Four years ago, we had high unemployment, stagnant wages,
    a host of unmet social challenges. We had enormous growing cynicism, and
    we were afraid the middle class dreams that have always driven America
    were dying.
        Four years later, we have 10 million new jobs, 4\1/2\ million new
    homeowners, 10 million homeowners with lower mortgage rates, a record
    number of new small businesses, record exports, record businesses owned
    by women and minorities. America is on the move. For the first time in a
    decade, wages are on the rise again, for the first time in 10 years in
    the United States.
        The crime rate has come down for 4 years in a row as we have given
    police officers and citizens at the local level the tools they need to
    make the most of their capacity for safe streets. We're putting 100,000
    more police on the streets. We did pass the Brady bill, and 100,000
    felons, fugitives, and stalkers lost their handguns, but no hunters in
    Indiana or Arkansas did. We did the right thing.
        We're investing more in safe and drug-free schools to try to put
    more of those D.A.R.E. officers in the schools and provide more
    education, more prevention, more treatment, as well as tougher
    punishment to keep our kids away from the problems that come with rising
    drug abuse. We have taken stands for the American family; 12 million
    American working families have been able to take a little time off from
    work for a baby's birth or a sick parent without losing their job.
    That's good for America.
        We have moved aggressively to prove that you can clean up our
    environment and promote the public health and advance the economy by
    doing it. Fifty million Americans are breathing cleaner air. We cleaned
    up more toxic waste dumps in 3 years than were cleaned up in 12 years.
    We are moving to protect the American environment and grow the American
    economy. And we can do both.
        And we have done this in a way that brings the American people
    together. We have faced a lot of tough challenges around the world, and
    I've had to do some things that were, frankly, unpopular with a majority
    of you. But because we went in to Bosnia with our allies, no soldier has
    fallen in combat so far there, but the slaughter has ended and the
    people at least are being given a chance to get over the madness of
    their ethnic hatreds and go on with civilized life and be a part of a
    free Europe and a free world. And because we have worked with the
    Russians to be free, to promote their democracy, to promote their
    economy, to get their troops out of other countries, to be a
    constructive partner, for the first time since nuclear weapons were
    developed, in the last 4 years, there is not a single nuclear weapon
    pointed at an American child anywhere in this country, and I am proud of
    that.
        And let me say again how much I appreciated what Tim Roemer said and
    what Evan Bayh said about that budget battle I had with the Congress.
    Folks, I always wanted to balance the budget. I was a Governor for 12
    years before I was President. I had 12 balanced budgets. I couldn't
    believe we quadrupled the debt of this country in just 12 years. I want
    you to know that tonight not only have we cut the deficit by 60 percent,
    your budget would have a surplus tonight if it weren't for the interest
    we pay on the debt run up in the 12 years before I became President.
    Let's don't go back and repeat that mistake again. Let's keep on going.
    Let's keep on going until we finish the job.

    [[Page 1407]]

        You know, every time an election rolls around they say the public
    doesn't really care about the deficit, it's an abstract concept. Let me
    tell you something, it's not abstract. It's not only whether we're going
    to saddle all these kids with a debt they can't pay, if you bring the
    deficit down the way we have, that brings interest rates down. What does
    that mean when interest rates come down? It means your house payment,
    you car payment, your credit card payment goes down, Even more
    important, maybe, it means business people can go borrow money, invest
    it in businesses, and create new jobs. That's why we have over 10
    million new jobs, because we've got a healthy climate to invest and to
    grow and to move this country forward.
        Now, folks, that's the record; that's the past. But we've got more
    to do. We've got to keep going until every single citizen in this
    country who is willing to work for it has a chance to participate in the
    American dream. We've got to keep going until all our streets are so
    safe that if you come home at night and turn on the evening news and the
    lead story is a crime story, you are shocked instead of numb to it.
    That's when we'll know we have the crime problem whipped.
        We've got to keep going until every single one of our children can
    read well by the third grade, until every single one of our teenagers
    know that drugs are dangerous. They're not only illegal, they will kill
    you. We have got to turn that around. We've got to keep going until we
    solve the problems of America and take everybody into the 21st century--
    everybody.
        We've got to keep going until every American believes that we cannot
    afford to look down on one another. That's why I took such a strong
    stand against these church burnings and why I lash out every time a
    synagogue or an Islamic center is defaced and why I was appalled when
    those African-American Special Forces personnel in North Carolina came
    home to find swastikas painted on their doors. I bet you we've got some
    former Special Forces people in this crowd today. I'll tell you what
    they are, they're special forces. That means tonight at midnight, if I
    wake them up and I tell them to go halfway around the world to put their
    lives on the line and defend you, they will do it and say, ``Yes sir,''
    and be glad to go. They do not deserve to have swastikas put on their
    doors. We've got to keep going until that is not a problem anymore.
    We've got to keep going.
        There are 25 million Americans who were helped last week when we
    signed the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill to say you can't lose your health
    insurance if you got sick or if you change jobs. But we've got to keep
    going until unemployed families, when they lose their jobs, get a little
    help so they can actually afford to keep their health insurance.
        We've got to keep going until small-business people in this country
    can not only afford to invest in their business--because we've given
    every single one of them a tax cut if they invest more in their business
    in the last 4 years--we've got to keep going until small-business people
    can actually afford those health insurance policies that the rest of us
    enjoy, for their employees and themselves.
        We raised the minimum wage for 10 million Americans last week, but
    we've got to keep going. We've got to keep going until every American
    has access to a good education that will lift all our income. That's why
    I say we ought to have a family-friendly targeted tax cut that we can
    afford that focuses on giving the American people the ability to take
    out IRA that they can save for with a family income up to $100,000 and
    then withdraw from to pay for a college education, to pay for a first
    home, to pay for medical insurance. That's the kind of tax cut we need.
        We ought to give families a tax deduction for the cost of college
    tuition, a tax credit for a community college education for 2 years so
    everybody in America can have 2 years of education after high school. We
    can afford that. We can balance the budget. It will make us a stronger
    country.
        I want you to support that. I want you to support 4 more years, not
    just of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, I want you to support 4 more years of
    more opportunity, more responsibility, and more community. I want you to
    support the idea that when the year 2000 comes around we will go roaring
    into the 21st century as the greatest nation in the world, with our best
    days before us.
        Will you help me for the next 70 days? Will you stand with us for 4
    more years? Will you talk to your friends and neighbors and ask them to
    go forward with us? [Applause]
        Thank you. God bless you. On to Chicago. Thank you.

    [[Page 1408]]

    Note: The President spoke at 6:05 p.m. at the Old Lighthouse in
    Washington Park. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Sheila Bergerson
    Brillson of Michigan City.