    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 29, 1996]
    [Pages 1969-1973]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    October 29, 1996

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Philadelphia. Can you
    hear us in the back? Beyond the fence? Thank you. Thank you for being
    here today. Thank you, Congressman Chaka Fattah, for your eloquent
    introduction. What's all that music? [Laughter] Whoever turned it off,
    give them a hand. That's great. There are a few thousand people out
    there beyond the fence. Can you hear us back there? Welcome. We're glad
    to see you.
        Thank you, Congressman Chaka Fattah, for your leadership. Thank you,
    Mayor Rendell, for your outstanding leadership of Philadelphia. It's
    amazing what you've accomplished for all of America, as you said in your
    introduction. [Laughter] Congressman Borski, Congressman Foglietta. And
    I'd like to introduce a person that I hope will be joining them in the
    United States Congress to fight for you and your future, Joe Hoeffel, a
    congressional candidate, very near here. Thank you, sir. Thank you,
    president of the Philadelphia City Council John Street. Thank you, my
    good friends Grover Washington, Patti LaBelle, Boyz 2 Men. Weren't they
    great?
        Thank you, Rodney Peete, for what you said and what you do, and we
    all wish you well in your recovery. He's in a line of work where he even
    takes more blows than I do, and he's doing very well. [Laughter] And
    thank you, Holly, for being here. Thank you, Dr. Papadakis, and thank
    you, Dr. Judith Roden. Thank you, Chairman Brady, and thank you,
    Catherine Baker Knowles. And I understand that there are students here
    from 21 different colleges and universities throughout the Delaware
    Valley, thank you, all of you, for coming here today.

    [[Page 1970]]

        Thank you, Secretary Riley, for being here with me and for being, I
    believe, the most outstanding Secretary of Education in the history of
    that department.
        Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to elect the last President of the
    20th century, the first President of the 21st century. You have a lot at
    stake in that election. I wanted to come here today where there would be
    so many young people to ask you to think about your tomorrows. I ask you
    to go home tonight and before you go to bed, to spend just a few moments
    asking yourself a simple question: What do I want my country to be like
    when we cross that bridge into the 21st century? What do I hope my
    country will be like when my children are my age?
        Here we are in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy.
    When our forefathers gathered here to lead the way into the 19th century
    over 200 years ago, they restored to the Earth a form of government
    called democracy that had been all but forgotten for 2000 years. Since
    ancient Greece, people had given up on the idea that people could be
    free, could freely govern themselves, could elect their own leaders and
    make their own decisions and march into the future as equal children of
    God. It was a revolutionary idea.
        And because they did that, they set in motion a whole chain of
    circumstances that have brought us all here today. All of us from our
    different ethnic and racial and religious backgrounds, all of us from
    our different economic circumstances, all of us from all over this great
    country and from all over the world, we stand here today freely to
    debate our opinions and discuss our visions, because they did that. What
    I want you to understand is that we are about to begin a new century and
    a new millennium where we are radically changing the way we work and
    live and relate to each other, where we must find a way to meet our
    challenges and seize our opportunities while preserving the values that
    have sustained this country and our families and our lives for over 200
    years.
        Many of you in this audience today will soon be doing jobs that have
    not been invented yet; many of you will even be doing work that has not
    been imagined yet. I want to say a special word of thanks to those who
    are here who are pushing the frontiers of knowledge, the hundreds of
    scientists and engineers, including many here in Pennsylvania, who have
    supported our goals in science and technology. And I want to thank
    especially one of your own who is here today and was a pioneer of the
    Internet and one of the cochairs of Scientists and Engineers for
    Clinton/Gore, Pennsylvania's own David Farber. Thank you for being here
    today.
        If you just think about the Internet, 4 years ago when I took the
    oath of office as President, about the only people who knew about the
    Internet were nuclear physicists. Today, my cat has his own home page
    and own website. [Laughter] I stop and shake hands with schoolchildren;
    they know not very much about me, but they have been conversing with
    Socks on the Internet. [Laughter] Before you know it there will be 100
    million people on the Internet.
        So when we think about this election, I think it's good to cheer and
    shout, make a lot of noise and get our emotions running, but I also
    think you ought to take a little time just to ask yourself, ``What do I
    want this country to be like when we cross that bridge to a new century
    and a new millennium?''
        I have always wanted America to go into this new century with the
    American dream alive and well for everyone responsible enough to work
    for it. I have always wanted to know that our country would still be the
    strongest force in the world for peace and freedom and prosperity. And I
    have always wanted to know that we could beat the tide of history
    driving so many people apart around the world, and we could say, we love
    our diversity, we relish our diversity, we're building a stronger
    American community with all the different people who come here who share
    our values and believe in our Constitution.
        Now you know, 4 years ago when the people of Pennsylvania supported
    me, you sort of took me on faith. Today you don't have to do that
    entirely. There is a record. And it is true that we have 10\1/2\ million
    more jobs; that we have the lowest deficit that our country has had,
    once you adjust for inflation, in 22 years; that our deficit is now the
    lowest of any advanced country in the world; and that in part because of
    that, we have lower interest rates, which means lower loan rates for
    businesses, lower car payment rates and student loan rates and home
    mortgage rates. That's what gives you 10\1/2\ million new jobs and
    record numbers of new businesses.
        We have seen, after years and years and years of decline and
    stagnation, the typical families'

    [[Page 1971]]

    incomes begin to go up substantially again, the biggest drop in
    childhood poverty in 20 years. We have the largest number of businesses
    owned by women and minorities in the history of America. We are moving
    in the right direction to the 21st century.
        The welfare rolls have dropped by nearly 2 million. The crime rate
    has gone down for 4 years in a row and is now at a 10-year low. Ten
    million Americans just got an increase in their minimum wage. Twenty-
    five million Americans may be helped by the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill that
    says you can't lose your health insurance anymore just because you
    change jobs or somebody in your family has been sick. We've stopped and
    made it illegal for insurance companies to kick mothers and their
    newborn babies out of the hospital after 24 hours.
        There are fewer chemical pollutants in the air. Our drinking water
    is safer. Our food standards have been raised. We've cleaned up more
    toxic waste sites in 3 years than the previous administrations did in
    12. The environment is cleaner, and we have fought off the most vigorous
    assault on environmental protection since we began to protect the
    environment in 1970. We are moving in the right direction to the 21st
    century.
        We have expanded Head Start, created the national service program,
    given our schools the tools they need to meet higher standards. We have
    lowered the cost of college loans and improved the repayment terms so
    that for 10 million American students today you can pay your college
    loan back as a percentage of your income and never fear being bankrupted
    because of the increase in the cost of college. I just signed the
    biggest increase in the Pell grant program in 20 years, and 200,000 more
    work-study positions for college students throughout America. We are
    moving in the right direction.
        But you have to decide. And I want to go through some of the
    specific issues, but I want you to keep the big issues in mind. The big
    issues are, what do you believe we have to do together as a people
    nationally? It's not the Government versus the people; our
    administration has reduced the size of Government, the number of
    regulations, the number of programs and privatized more Government
    operations than the last two administrations combined. That is not what
    it is. It's whether you believe we'd be better off going into the future
    with the philosophy of ``you're on your own,'' or whether you think it
    does take a village to raise our children and invest in our future and
    move forward into the 21st century. It's whether you believe that it's
    enough for someone to say to you, ``Whatever your station in life, there
    is the future out there and there is a lot of mountains to climb and
    valleys to cross and rivers to ford; I hope you make it,'' or whether
    you want to build a bridge that's strong enough and wide enough for
    every one of us to walk across together. That is the question before
    you.
        So will we balance the budget while we protect our investments in
    education, research, the environment, and our obligations to poor
    children, to our families in nursing homes, to people with disabilities
    through Medicare and Medicaid? Or will we adopt a risky tax scheme that
    will blow a hole in the deficit and require bigger cuts than those I
    vetoed last year when they shut the Government down? I think I know the
    answer to that. I think you want to balance the budget, keep the economy
    growing, and have targeted tax cuts for education and childrearing and
    health care and buying a first home. Will you help me build that bridge?
    [Applause]
        We have made a beginning on health care reform, but our balanced
    budget plan will go further. It will help families keep their insurance
    when they're between jobs for 6 months. It will add another million
    children to the ranks of insured. It will give free mammograms to women
    on Medicare. And for the nearly 2 million families struggling to care
    with a family member with Alzheimer's, we're going to give them some
    respite care because they're trying to keep their families together.
    That's what we ought to do. Will you help us build that bridge?
    [Applause]
        We passed the family and medical leave law, which has given 12
    million families a chance to take a little time off from work when a
    baby is born or a family member is sick. Our friends on the other side
    led the fight against family and medical leave. They said it would hurt
    the economy. We have 10\1/2\ million more jobs and the fastest small
    business growth in American history; it does not hurt the economy when
    you help people succeed at home and at work. Parenting is our most
    important work, and we're better off.
        I want to expand family and medical leave to say you can have a
    little time off without losing your job to go see your children's
    teacher

    [[Page 1972]]

    twice a year and when someone in your family needs to go to the doctor,
    to take them. And I think when people earn overtime, they ought to have
    the right to decide whether to take the overtime in cash or time with
    their family if they're needed at home. Will you help us build that kind
    of future? [Applause]
        The crime rate has gone down for 4 years in a row because we listen
    to the police in this country and to community activists, because we
    passed a crime bill that had tougher punishment but also had prevention
    programs to give our children something to say yes to, is putting
    100,000 police on the street and taking guns and drugs and gangs off the
    street. The Brady bill cost no Pennsylvania hunter a weapon, not a
    single one. But 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers didn't get
    handguns to terrorize the people here in Philadelphia as a result of it.
        And now we have to go further and finish the job of putting those
    police on the street. You know, our friends on the other side, they
    still are trying to undermine our commitment to 100,000 police. It is
    bringing the crime rate down. I want to keep going until we have 8 years
    of declining crime and everybody in this country feels safe walking on
    the street outside their house with their children playing in the park
    down the street, feels safe in their schools, safe in their homes, safe
    in their neighborhoods. From the Violence Against Women Act, to the
    domestic violence prevention program, to the 100,000 police, we are
    moving in the right direction. Will you help us build that bridge to the
    21st century? [Applause]
        There are still 10 million children in this country living within 4
    miles of a toxic waste dump. I want to close 500 more so we can look
    every child in the face and say, ``Son or daughter, you're going to grow
    up next to a park, not poison.'' In America, we know the environment can
    be enhanced as we grow the economy, and we will never turn back on that
    commitment. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
    [Applause]
        We've moved almost 2 million people from welfare to work and signed
    a new bill that says that people who are able-bodied have to turn their
    welfare check into a paycheck within 2 years. That sounds good, but
    passing a law does not change people's lives. I say if you require
    people to go to work, you had better make sure there is work for them to
    do. I have a plan to create those jobs, and I want you to help me build
    that bridge to the 21st century. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
        Most of all, my fellow Americans, your vote will decide whether we
    go forward together in our common quest to give every person in this
    country, from the smallest children to people way in their later years
    who need it, the opportunity to learn and to keep on learning for a
    lifetime and to do so at international standards of excellence.
        We have worked hard to improve education, but we must do more. We
    have to raise standards, define them, expect them, and measure them and
    hold people accountable. We ought to do more. Forty percent of the 8-
    year-olds in this country--this is important--40 percent of the 8-year-
    olds in this country can still not read independently. That's partly
    because we have so many people coming to our country from other places
    and their first language isn't English. But they need to learn to read
    so they can grow and learn and someday show up at the University of
    Pennsylvania or Drexel and do well. That's when they need to learn.
        Now, we have a plan to mobilize 30,000 AmeriCorps volunteers and
    other trained reading experts to go across the country to generate a
    million total volunteers to help teach children to read. Of the 200,000
    extra work study slots we just got allocated to college students, I want
    100,000 of those devoted to young people who say, ``Yes, if you will
    help me go through college, I will be glad to take some of my time to
    teach a young child to read.'' Will you help us do that? Will you help
    us do that? [Applause]
        We have to keep going with technology until we hook every school and
    library in the country up to the Internet, to the information
    superhighway. I want to do it for free--every classroom and every
    library. For the first time in history, if we do this, we can know, for
    the very first time since education began in America, that the students
    in the poorest inner-city schools, the students in the most remote
    mountain villages, along with the students in the wealthiest schools and
    the middle class schools, all of our kids together for the first time
    ever will have access to the same information in the same way at the
    same time. We are going to revolutionize learning in America if we do
    it. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
        And finally, we are determined to open the doors of college
    education to all Americans by passing the HOPE scholarship, and saying,
    with-

    [[Page 1973]]

    in 4 years we want 2 years of education after high school to be as
    universal as a high school diploma is today. And we'll help you do it.
    You can deduct dollar for dollar from your tax bill the cost of a
    typical community college tuition. Until everybody can go, we'll pay the
    way. All you have to do is work hard and make your grades, be
    responsible, and we'll give you the opportunity to build a new life. We
    want to give every college student, undergraduate or graduate in any
    form of higher education, a $10,000 tax deduction a year for the cost of
    any tuition. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
        We want to let families all over America save in IRA's for college
    and withdraw the money without tax penalty for education or homebuying
    or medical costs, so that we can say we will never tax the money being
    used for higher education in America because we want everyone to go. I
    want you to help us achieve that. We can do it with your help. Will you
    do it? [Applause]
        And finally, let me just say this: Look around this great sea of
    people today. You have people here who come from every continent, from
    many different racial and ethnic and religious groups. Here we are
    together as Americans. You have people here with different political
    opinions. I'm glad some of the opposition showed up today--reminds us we
    don't have everything.
        Audience members. Boo-o-o!
        The President. Now, wait a minute. No. Listen. That's what makes
    America America. If we all agreed, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting
    as it is, because we're all different.
        But you think about the rest of the world--Congressman Fattah
    mentioned it--but you think about Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern
    Ireland, Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa; how many places in the world
    have people been torn apart because folks are driven by their hatreds
    rather than their hopes, because people define themselves in terms of
    who they aren't instead of who they are, because political leaders are
    always looking for a wedge to drive into the stake of the spirit of
    people instead of looking for ways to bring us together. We have beat
    that.
        In the reaction we had to the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma City, we
    said, ``We don't hate people just because they work for our Government.
    They're our servants.'' In the reaction we had to the terrible church
    burnings, to the desecrations of synagogues and the destruction of
    Islamic centers, we said, ``In America we believe in religious freedom
    and dignity.''
        You look around this crowd today--that's the last thing I want to
    say--we have got to say, ``If you believe in the Constitution, the
    Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights birthed by our
    Founders here so many years ago, if you are willing to show up tomorrow
    and do the right thing, being a good student, going to work and doing
    your best, we don't need to know anything else about you. You're part of
    our America, part of our future, and you're going to walk across that
    bridge with us into the 21st century.''
        Will you be there next week? Will you lead them? [Applause]
        Thank you. God bless you. We can do it. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:33 p.m. at Hill Field. In his remarks, he
    referred to Mayor Edward Rendell of Philadelphia; Joe Hoeffel, candidate
    for Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District; entertainers Grover
    Washington, Patti LaBelle, and Boyz 2 Men; Rodney Peete, NFL
    Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, and his wife, Holly Robinson Peete;
    Constantine Papadakis, president, Drexel University; Judith Roden,
    president, University of Pennsylvania; Bob Brady, chairman, Philadelphia
    Democratic Party; and Catherine Baker Knowles, Pennsylvania State
    treasurer.