    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 13, 1996]
    [Pages 1825-1829]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico
    October 13, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Hello, New Mexico! Thank you for making me
    feel so welcome. Well, you know, they asked me back in Washington why I
    was going to Albuquerque to prepare for my debate, and I said, ``Well,
    we've done an exhaustive amount of research all over America, and Mayor
    Chavez was holding this balloon event, and there were going to be 800
    balloons in the air at the same time. And it seemed to me that that
    meant that there was more hot air here already than any other place in
    the country, and a little more wouldn't do any harm.'' [Laughter] So I
    thought I should be here.
        I want to thank all of you for coming out today in this magnificent
    crowd, stretching out in all of these directions. I want to thank those
    who are here who entertained us, the Danita Native American Dancers, the
    God's Way Community Church African-American Choir, Perla Padilla, the
    Rio Grande High School Marching Band, the New Mexican Marimba Band, and
    Francisco LeFebvre who painted the murals in front of the armory. Let's
    give them all a hand. They were great, and I thank them. [Applause]
        I am honored to be here with our candidates today, with John
    Wertheim, Shirley Baca, Art Trujillo, my good friend Eric Serna. I hope
    you

    [[Page 1826]]

    will support them in this election just 23 days away. Will you do that?
    Will you help us? [Applause]
        I want to thank your mayor for his friendship and support and for
    being one of the most innovative mayors in the entire United States.
    Thank you for that. I thank Secretary of State Stephanie Gonzalez for
    all that she said up here, for knowing and caring and supporting the
    work we are doing to try to build strong families and protect our
    children and give them a better future.
        I want to thank my good friend Senator Jeff Bingaman, and I want to
    say one thing about that. Just the other day we announced--a couple of
    days ago--a major, major new contract for Los Alamos here, to build a
    new supercomputer with Cray, a new Cray supercomputer that will create a
    huge number of good paying jobs for our country, move us forward. And I
    want you to know not only that Jeff Bingaman had a lot to do with that
    contract, but more importantly, when our friends on the other side
    finally got ahold of the Congress and they proposed among other things
    to close down the Energy Department----
        Audience members. Boo-o-o!
        The President. ----and it was far enough away from election that
    they didn't come back and say, ``Oh, I didn't mean New Mexico''--it's
    interesting, isn't it; you get close to the election, it's amazing how
    people's positions improve--[laughter]--Jeff Bingaman said, ``I will
    stand with you to the very end.'' We are going to save the laboratories
    of the Department of Energy, including Sandia and Los Alamos and the
    others as well.
        I want to thank Bill Richardson for so many things, but you in New
    Mexico should be terribly proud of him that while working to represent
    his constituents and this State, he has also put in double time so that
    he could go all around the world on behalf of the United States in the
    cause of peace and freedom. There is no Member of the House of
    Representatives who has done as much to make this a safer world for our
    children as Bill Richardson. And you should be very proud of that.
        Well, folks, I made a joke a minute ago about the debate, but
    they're deadly serious. You've already seen two of these three debates,
    the first one with Senator Dole and me and then the Vice President's
    debate with Congressman Kemp. And Al Gore did a good job, didn't he? I
    was proud of him. [Applause]
        What these debates reveal are two very different visions about how
    we should move forward as a nation into the 21st century. Do we believe
    that we ought to build a bridge big enough and wide enough for all of us
    to walk across?
        Audience members. Yes!
        The President. Or are they right that all these efforts don't amount
    to anything, and we ought to just say, ``There's a river. You figure out
    how to get across it''?
        Audience members.  No-o-o!
        The President. Do we believe we're better off being told, ``Well,
    you're on your own, but we hope everything will work out for you. Good
    luck''?
        Audience members.  No-o-o!
        The President. Or was the First Lady right when she said it does
    take a village to raise our children and build our country and move
    forward?
        Audience members. Yes!
        The President. These views have dramatic practical consequences that
    affect us all. And sometimes, I think, my fellow Americans, we spend too
    much time arguing that our opponents are in the grip of some special
    interest which takes hold of their minds and makes them do something
    they don't want to do.
        The truth is that we just look at the world in different ways. And
    you can see it. Their budget would have cut Head Start; I just signed a
    budget that expanded Head Start. I believe we were right. They did
    everything they could to kill the family and medical leave law; I signed
    it because I thought it would make us stronger, and it has. We're better
    off because of it.
        When I tried to change the college loan program to make it more
    affordable and to make it easier for our young people to repay their
    loans and to limit how much they could be required to repay in a year to
    a percentage of their income so that more of our young people could
    borrow money to go to college, they fought against it tooth and nail. We
    prevailed. Now millions of young people can do it. I think we were right
    and they were wrong.
        Four years ago, this debate we had was somewhat theoretical, and you
    took me in New Mexico on faith. But now there's a record. Now you don't
    have to guess anymore. I see in the audience there are a couple of
    people who actu-

    [[Page 1827]]

    ally knew me. Besides the folks on the stage--my former colleague,
    Governor Anaya, former Governor Apodaca, Senator Harris--there are a few
    people here I knew. But most of you didn't know anything about me, and
    you couldn't be sure this would work.
        You don't have to guess anymore; we've got a record now. There are
    10\1/2\ million more jobs than there were 4 years ago. New Mexico has a
    much lower unemployment than it had 4 years ago. We've got record
    numbers of new businesses and new exports. We are moving in the right
    direction.
        We learned last week that we had the biggest drop in childhood
    poverty in 20 years last year--we're moving in the right direction--the
    biggest drop in the inequality of working people in 27 years.

    [At this point, the audio system malfunctioned.]

        The President. Is it on? It is now.
        And the census department told us that we have now the lowest rate
    of poverty among senior citizens in America since we started keeping
    statistics. We're moving in the right direction, and we ought to keep
    going.
        Now, folks, today we learned that the FBI reports that come out
    every year say that our crime rate is at a 10-year low. The crime rate's
    gone down for 4 years in a row in this administration. I am proud of
    that. There are one million fewer victims. We're moving in the right
    direction. Our children should not be afraid in their homes, in their
    schools, and on the streets.
        You deserve a lot of credit for what's happened. When you stood with
    me and Jeff Bingaman and Bill Richardson when they shut the Government
    down to try to force their budget eliminating the Department of
    Education and the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce,
    which gave us our ability to compete for business abroad, cutting back
    on Medicare and Medicaid at unacceptable levels, reducing our commitment
    to education, crippling our ability to protect our environment, you
    stood with us, and you said, ``We think they're right, and those folks
    that shut the Government down to try to force their budget on America to
    divide us and weaken us are wrong.'' And I thank you for that. You
    deserve the credit for it.
        So we began to do sensible things again right before the Congress
    was over. Ten million Americans got an increase in their minimum wage.
    Right before the Congress was over, 25 million Americans will
    potentially benefit from the bill we passed that says you can't lose
    your health insurance anymore just because you change jobs or someone in
    your family has been sick. Just before Congress was over, we finally
    passed a bill that did something you had already done in New Mexico,
    ending those drive-by deliveries. Insurance companies can't force
    mothers and their newborns out of the hospital after only a day anymore
    in this country.
        So we're moving in the right direction. And we're better off than we
    were 4 years ago, but we have to do more. And let me say to you, one of
    the things that I have tried to do is to change the way we think about
    our purposes and working together as a people, the way we think about
    our responsibilities as citizens. I don't think like all that debate
    that goes on, or did go on in Washington for 10 or 12 years: liberal
    this, conservative that; this is a Democratic issue, that's a Republican
    issue; this is on the left, that's on the right.
        You know, if I could go to dinner with any of those 42 people or 67
    people Bill says have invited me to dinner--I'd like to do that, by the
    way--[laughter]--if I could do that and I could just sit there and not
    say a word, I'll bet you $100 that we wouldn't have that kind of sterile
    rhetoric. People would be talking about their hopes and their dreams for
    their children, the challenges they face on the job, how they can
    succeed in raising their kids and succeed in the work place, what's this
    country going to be like in 20 years. So that's the way I'm trying to
    get folks to talk and think in Washington.
        And my program is simple: opportunity for all, responsibility from
    all, an American community that includes all of us without regard to our
    race, our gender, or when we showed up because, except for the Native
    Americans in the crowd, the rest of us are all immigrants. That's what I
    want to do.
        So I say to you, that means that this old argument about Government
    that's been raging in Washington for 12 years doesn't have any
    relationship to your life. Yes, the Government cannot solve all your
    problems with a big bureaucracy. That Government is gone. It was our
    administration--not our friends in the other party, our administration--
    with the support of Jeff Bingaman and Bill Richardson, and the
    opposition of our friends in the other party, that cut the size of the
    Federal Government to its lowest since John Kennedy was President and

    [[Page 1828]]

    reduced more regulations in 3 years than they did in 12. We did that.
        But I'll tell you what, I believe that the National Government's
    responsibility is to do those things that we must do together. My
    opponent says, ``Oh, the President thinks the Government knows best.''
    But I think you know best. Now, if we fall for that one again, we ought
    to be ashamed of ourselves. Their theory is, you know, that once you get
    elected to public office you no longer belong to the people, you lose
    all your common sense, and you become the enemy, unless you're a
    Republican, in which case you don't. [Laughter]
        Their theory is that the Government is always the enemy. Read the
    Constitution: ``We the people . . .'' The Government is you. It belongs
    to you. It is a reflection of what you want. It is nothing more or less
    than yours. And I believe that our role is to create the conditions and
    then give you the tools to make the most of your own lives. I believe
    that we're supposed to help communities to fulfill their dreams and
    individuals and families to do the same. I'm glad to support more
    communities in doing what Albuquerque had done, for example, in
    establishing a curfew that's lowering juvenile crime and keeping our
    kids safer. I think that's one of my jobs.
        I want to finish the job of putting 100,000 police on the street.
    All we're doing is funding it. Those police are working for you on the
    streets in all the communities of this country, and that's one of the
    reasons we've got a 10-year low in crime.
        Those are the things that we are doing. The family and medical leave
    law has helped 12 million American families to get a little time off
    from work without losing their jobs when a baby is born or a baby, a
    spouse, or a parent is sick. And we have a stronger economy because of
    it, not a weaker economy. That's one of our jobs.
        I believe there ought to be a national program to guarantee that
    every young person, and now not-so-young people, who want and need to go
    to college--every single person who is willing to work for it ought to
    be able to go. I think that's a good thing for our country.
        I believe we were right to fight against our friends in the other
    party when they tried to cut the funds for safe and drug-free schools. I
    think we need to help our kids in the beginning and help them stay out
    of trouble so we won't have to spend as much time and money and
    heartbreak and blood when they get in trouble. The safe and drug-free
    schools program is a good program, and I think we were right.
        And let me say, because I believe we have to build a bridge to 21st
    century that will take us into a time full of greater prosperity and
    greater possibility than we've ever known, a bridge that's big enough
    for all of us to walk across, I want to say a special word of thanks to
    another community group that is here. We have hundreds of young people
    here today from the Bridge Builders to the 21st Century. Hold your hands
    up, everybody that's here. These young people have joined together to
    pledge that they will do everything they can to make their schools drug-
    free and to encourage every single citizen of the State of New Mexico to
    vote on election day. Let's give them a big hand. I'm proud of them.
    [Applause] Thank you.
        So I say to you, there are big consequences to which path we choose
    to take. My bridge-building calls for the following path: Should we
    balance the budget? You bet we should. It keeps interest rates down,
    keeps the economy growing, takes the burden of debt off these children.
    But we have to do it in a way that honors our obligations to each other
    and continues to invest in the future. So, yes, balance the budget, but
    we can do it without wrecking Medicare, Medicaid, education, the
    environment, or abolishing the laboratories of the Department of Energy
    and undermining our research budget.
        We should cut taxes, but we shouldn't embrace a big tax scheme that
    actually raises taxes on 9 million of our hardest working people, blows
    a hole in the deficit which will increase interest rates and weaken the
    economy and require bigger cuts than the budget I vetoed when they shut
    the Government down. Let's try my tax cut. It's targeted to education,
    to childrearing, to buying a home, to dealing with a medical emergency,
    and not paying taxes on your home when you sell it if there's a gain. We
    can pay for that, and we need it.
        One of the biggest differences I had with our friends on the other
    side was their obsession with weakening our ability to work together to
    protect our environment. They said we were hurting the economy by
    protecting the environment. Well, all I know is that the air is cleaner,
    the drinking water is safer, we have raised the standards for food
    safety, we've cleaned up more toxic waste dumps in 3 years than the
    previous

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    administrations did in 12. And we've still got faster job growth than
    any administration under the previous party had since the 1920's, in 70
    years. It's a good thing to protect the environment, and I intend to
    continue to do it.
        Finally, and most important of all, we have got to build a bridge to
    the 21st century in which the education of every single American is our
    highest priority. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        Forty percent of the third graders in America still cannot read a
    book independently. I want to mobilize 30,000 volunteers, AmeriCorps
    volunteers, reading specialists, to work with parents and teachers so
    that in 4 years, when we start that new century, every 8-year-old in
    this country can pick up a book and say, ``I can read this all by
    myself.'' Will you help me do this? [Applause]
        I want to make sure we connect every single, solitary classroom and
    library in America to the information superhighway; to make sure we have
    the computers, the educational materials, the trained teachers; and most
    important, that all these classrooms are connected to the Internet, the
    World Wide Web, all these networks.
        Now, if you're not a big computer person, you may not understand
    exactly what that means. Let me tell you what that means in practical
    terms. It means for the first time in history, children in the poorest
    rural school districts in America, children in every Native American
    schoolroom, children in every inner-city school, children in every
    suburban school, children in the poorest, the most middle class, and the
    wealthiest schools, public and private, in America for the first time
    ever, they will all have access to the same information in the same time
    in the same way. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
        And finally, we can make a college education available to all
    Americans. And I propose to do it in three ways: Number one, I want you
    to be able to save in an IRA but withdraw from it without any penalties
    if you're spending your savings for a college education or medical costs
    or buying a first-time home. Number two, I propose to make 2 years of
    education after high school as universal as a high school diploma is
    today by simply saying, ``You can take off of your tax bill, dollar for
    dollar, the cost of the typical community college tuition for 2 years.''
    Will you help me do that? [Applause] And finally, I believe you ought to
    be able to deduct from your taxes--you ought to be able to deduct up to
    $10,000 a year from your taxable income for the cost of college tuition,
    any kind of college, for people of any age. Will you help me do that?
    [Applause]
        My fellow Americans, we are better off than we were 4 years ago and
    not just in economic terms, for this is not just about the economy. This
    is about what kind of America we want our children to live in. And I
    think every day--every day I think, what do I want my country to be like
    when we start that new century? What do I want my country to be like
    when my daughter is my age, when her children are my age?
        And before you vote, I hope you will take just a little time and see
    if you can ask yourself, ``Can I say in 30 seconds or a minute what I
    want America to be like when we start that new century, when my children
    are my age, when my grandchildren are my age?'' If you will ask the
    question, I bet you will get an answer not very different than mine.
        And then we will build that bridge to America's best days. There are
    23 days left. I ask every one of you here today to take some time not
    only to vote but to reach out to others, to be a good citizen, to
    influence those whom you can influence and say, ``Will you help me build
    that bridge to the 21st century?''
        Thank you. God bless you. Thank you, New Mexico.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:52 p.m. in front of the KiMo Theater. In
    his remarks, he referred to Mayor Martin Chavez of Albuquerque; John
    Wertheim and Shirley Baca, candidates for New Mexico's First and Second
    Congressional Districts, respectively; New Mexico senatorial candidate
    Art Trujillo; Eric Serna, candidate for New Mexico corporation
    commission; and Toney Anaya and Jerry Apodaca, former New Mexico
    Governors.