[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[September 12, 1996]
[Pages 1556-1560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Rancho Cucamonga, California
September 12, 1996

    The President. Wow! Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you 
for coming. Thank you for standing out here on this hot, fine day. Thank 
you for your enthusiasm. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Dr. 
Jerry Young, for making me feel so welcome at Chaffey College and for 
the work you do here. Thank you, Congressman George Brown. Ladies and 
gentlemen, there is not a Member of the entire Congress who knows more 
about the role of technology in your future, in California's future, in 
America's future than George Brown, and I hope you will send him back to 
the United States Congress so that he can continue to serve you.
    Thank you, Kerri Matthews, thank you for your wonderful speech. 
Thank you for bringing your wonderful children and thank you for the 
power of your example. You, in your efforts to be a good parent, a good 
learner, and a successful worker in the future, you're what this country 
is all about, and I'm proud to be on the platform with you.
    I would like to thank the folks who were here before, Lieutenant 
Governor Gray Davis, State Comptroller Kathleen Connell, Assemblyman Joe 
Baca, Mayor Bill Alexander, Art Torres, the San Bernardino County 
supervisors who were here, the other officials who were here, and I 
would like to thank the Olympians who were here, Mike Powell and Evelyn 
Ashford. Thank you. Where are they? They're over here somewhere. Thank 
you. Hi, Evelyn. Hi, Mike. Thank you.
    I'd like to thank Karen Kraft who sang the national anthem, the 
Rancho Cucamonga High School Marching Cougar Band. Thank you very much. 
Thank you. The Loveland Church Choir, thank you for singing. I'll tell 
you, I have had a good time already, and I thank you for that. Thank you 
for these great signs out here.
    You know, so many times in the last 4 years when I have come to 
California, I have come to help the people of California with a problem 
they had, whether it was an earthquake, a fire, a flood, a base closing, 
trying to protect our borders in the south--always a problem. I come 
today to tell you we've also been working hard to create opportunities 
for the people of California, and we're on the right track to the 21st 
century.
    In this election season, you have to ask first of all where are we 
now compared to where we were 4 years ago, when we had high 
unemployment, stagnant wages, rising crime, a dividing society, and 
rising cynicism. Look at where we are today. The lowest unemployment in 
7\1/2\ years, 10\1/2\ million new jobs, nearly 4\1/2\ million new 
homeowners, the deficit's gone down for 4 years in a row by 60 percent, 
the first time that's happened since before the Civil War, in the 
1840's. We're in better shape than we were 4 years ago.
    Fifteen million of the hardest pressed working Americans got a tax 
cut so they could raise their children and work and not be tempted to 
fall back into welfare. The welfare rolls are down by 1.8 million and 
child support collections are up by $3 billion, 40 percent.
    For 4 years, the crime rate has gone down, 12 million Americans got 
to take a little time off from work when a baby was born or a parent was 
sick without losing their jobs because of the family and medical leave 
law. On October 1st, the new minimum wage law will become effective and 
10 million Americans will get a raise.
    That law will also make every small business in America eligible for 
a tax cut when they buy health insurance. They'll make it easier for 
small businesses to invest in their businesses, to hire more people, and 
they will be eligible for more tax relief. And we made it easier for 
people

[[Page 1557]]

who work for small businesses to take out retirement plans and to keep 
them when they change jobs, and so many people change jobs today that's 
very important.
    And finally, that bill gave parents who adopt children a $5,000 tax 
credit to promote adoptive families. There's a lot of children out there 
who need it, and I hope it helps.
    We passed the health care reform bill that made 25 million Americans 
eligible to get or keep health insurance by saying simply, you cannot 
lose your health insurance or be denied it now just because somebody in 
your family has been sick, or you moved from job to job. It can 
revolutionize health care security for millions of Americans.
    And you may have noticed that at the Democratic Convention, I said 
that I thought we ought to do more in health care, and two things I 
mentioned: One, I don't think it's right to throw a new mother and her 
newborn child out of the hospital before at least 48 hours go by; and I 
believe we ought to make a beginning at providing some insurance for 
people. There are millions and millions and millions of families who 
need some health care in the mental health area, and I think we ought to 
make a beginning of that, and I'm here to tell you that this week, the 
Congress in both Houses has voted to do both those things. We are moving 
in the right direction, we are on the right track to the 21st century.
    Now folks, I have tried in the last 4 years to move our country 
toward the America I want for the 21st century, a country in which every 
person, without regard to color, gender, or any other difference can 
live out their dreams and live up to their God-given capacity, a country 
where--look out at this sea of people--where all of us with all of our 
diversity will be able to come together and not be divided, a country 
that will still be the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and 
prosperity. And our formula is simple: We have to meet our challenges; 
we have to protect our values--opportunity for all, responsibility from 
all, and a community in which every single person who works hard and 
plays by the rules, no matter whatever else you want to say about them, 
has got a role to play, a place at the table--and we'll be walking 
across that bridge to the 21st century together. I want you to help me 
build that bridge. Will you do it? [Applause]
    So now, we have to ask ourselves: Are we going to build a bridge to 
the future, or a bridge to the past? Are we going to build a bridge 
where everybody can walk across because we recognize our obligations to 
help each other make the most of our own lives, or are we going to say, 
``You're on your own.''
    Frankly, folks, I think Americans ought to work the way our 
community colleges work. Look at this place. It is democratic--small 
``d''--that is, it's open to all; it's flexible; it's oriented toward 
results; the programs have to be good and relevant, otherwise people 
don't profit from them when they leave; they're changing all the time; 
and they represent partnerships between people in business and people in 
education; and no one asks you what your political party is or what your 
position on this, that, or the other issue is. You're just given a 
chance to make the most of your own life. Nobody gives you a guarantee, 
but everybody gets a chance. That's the kind of America I want to build 
for everybody all the time.
    Since I became President, I've worked as hard as I could to change 
the way politics works in Washington, to get away from the old who are 
we going to blame politics, and instead say, What are we going to do 
about it? How are we going to make America better? No more who to blame; 
let's ask what to do. No more insults; let's have a campaign and a life 
in America of ideas and change, positive change toward a better future.
    We still have a lot to do if we're going to build the right kind of 
bridge to the 21st century. We have to provide the best educational 
opportunity in the world to everybody. And let me just mention two or 
three things. Number one, I have proposed a program to mobilize 30,000 
mentors, including college students on work-study, AmeriCorps 
volunteers, other trained teachers to mobilize a million volunteers to 
go into all of our schools where there are reading problems so that 
every 8-year-old in America will be able to read on his or her own by 
the year 2000.
    I want to have a country where every classroom in America, every 
single classroom and library in America is hooked up to the information 
superhighway, with good computers, good teachers, and the Internet and 
the World Wide Web for everybody. What that means is, if we do that, for 
the first time in history, every student in every classroom in the 
poorest urban

[[Page 1558]]

areas and the most remote rural areas will have access to the same 
learning in the same way at the same quality in the same time as the 
people in the wealthiest institutions in America. It will revolutionize 
opportunity in education, and we have to do it.
    I want to help our public schools to meet their challenges; to stay 
open later for the kids that need a place to go, a positive place to go; 
to have more flexibility to get greater results; to be judged by their 
standards; but to be given freedom from rules that stifle them. I've 
done a lot I'm very proud of in this area because I spent a lot of time 
in public schools as well as community colleges.
    One of the things that California has led the way in is in the 
creation of new schools in public school districts, called charter 
schools, where a group of teachers gets together and says, ``Here's who 
we're going to serve. Here's what we're going to produce. Give us a 
charter and if we don't produce it, take it away from us. Hold us 
accountable. We'll educate our children better.''
    There are about 350 of these schools in America today, 90 of them in 
California. Today, we released another $1\1/4\ million to put 12 more in 
California, and if you will give me 4 more years, we'll build 3,000 more 
in America and all across this country.
    Finally, let me say that we have to make college education available 
to every single solitary person in America. Within 4 years, if we do the 
right things, we can make a degree from a community college just as 
universal in America as a high school diploma is today. Will you help me 
build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    Here's how we're going to do it. I propose to give families a tax 
credit, a dollar-for-dollar reduction in their taxes for the cost of the 
average community college tuition for 2 years so that everybody can 
afford to go to community college. We'll make it free. All you have to 
do is show up, do a good job, make your grades, learn, and go on to 
build a better life. It'll make America stronger.
    And I want to make it easier for people to go on to 4-year schools, 
to postgraduate education, for older people to go back to college. So we 
also propose a $10,000 tax deduction for the cost of any college tuition 
after high school for people of any age. We will do this. And when we 
do, America will be stronger.
    Finally, let me say that I think families ought to be able to save, 
and save more through an IRA, an individual retirement account, and then 
withdraw from it without any tax penalty for education or buying a first 
home or taking care of their health care needs. Now, we can 
revolutionize educational opportunity. If we do those things and you 
keep doing your job here, we will be able to say in 4 years, ``We've 
opened the doors of college to every person in America and a college 
education at least at a community college is just as universal in the 
year 2000 as a high school diploma was 4 years ago.'' Will you help me 
build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    We have to keep working to keep this economy growing. California's 
suffered too much and too long, and there are still people here who want 
jobs who don't have them. That means we have to keep interest rates down 
and investment going. That means we have to balance the budget, yes, but 
we have to do it in a way that continues to invest in the technologies 
of the future and the education of our people, in the protection of the 
environment, and providing the protection that Medicare and Medicaid 
give to children, to families with disabilities, and to the elderly. We 
don't want to divide this country, and we don't have to, to balance the 
budget. Will you help me do it in the right way? [Applause] That's an 
important part of our bridge to the 21st century.
    We have to build a bridge to the 21st century that keeps the crime 
rate coming down. We've got 4 years of declining crime. The leaders of 
our friends in the other party, they fought us on the crime bill. 
They're still against putting 100,000 police on the street, although for 
the life of me I can't figure out why. They were against the Brady bill, 
they were against the assault weapons ban. They told people they would 
lose their weapons. Well, it's 4 years later. Not a single hunter, not a 
single sportsman has lost a single weapon. But 60,000 felons, fugitives, 
and stalkers did not get handguns to terrorize the American people 
because of the Brady bill, and we are safer because of it.
    We ought to go further. We ought to ban the cop-killer bullets and 
we ought to extend the Brady bill and say, ``If you have brutalized your 
spouse or your child, you ought not to be eligible to get a handgun 
either.'' Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st century? 
[Applause]

[[Page 1559]]

    We passed welfare reform, but all it does is give us a chance to 
reform welfare. It says, now people on welfare will still get health 
care for their kids and nutrition and child care, if they take a job, 
more than ever before. But the income must now be used to move people to 
work. So I have a plan to create a million jobs. I don't want to see 
children and their parents in the street. I want everybody working and 
succeeding at home and at work. Will you help me create those million 
jobs to put people to work who have never had it before? [Applause]
    I want us to build a stronger American community and a stronger and 
safer world. That means we have to build strong families. I'm proud of 
the fact that the first bill I signed was the family and medical leave 
law, and I'd like to see it expanded a little to say you can also keep 
your job and still have a little time off to take your child to the 
doctor or to that parent-teacher conference at the school. It'll make 
America stronger.
    We've had 10\1/2\ million new jobs since I signed the family leave 
law; it's been good for business because when families are happy, when 
they're succeeding at raising their children, they're more productive at 
work and they make America stronger. Let it be our goal to say, success 
at home and success at work go hand in hand. Will you help me build that 
bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    Let me say, in California you know we have to build a bridge that 
protects our environment. I'm proud that we've destroyed more toxic 
waste dumps in 3 years than were destroyed in the 12 years before I took 
office; proud that our air is cleaner, that our food is safer; very, 
very proud that we created the country's largest national park south of 
Alaska here in California in the Mojave Desert; very proud that we saved 
Yellowstone from a gold mine and that we are moving forward on a whole 
broad range of fronts.
    But we still have problems. Ten million American children--10 
million--live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump, and that's wrong. In 
4 more years, if you will give them to us, we'll close 500 of those 
dumps, the worst ones, because our children should grow up next to 
parks, not poison. Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st 
century? [Applause]
    Finally, let me say that we have to build a bridge to the 21st 
century that is safe for our children. I am so proud of the fact that 
just a couple of days ago, almost every country in the world--only three 
voting no--voted to ban the testing of nuclear weapons forever. We are 
making this a safer world.
    I'm proud of the fact that there are no nuclear missiles pointed at 
America's children for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, 
proud that your country is leading the way to peace and prosperity. But 
we have more to do. We have more to do. You saw it in Iraq. We cannot 
allow anybody anywhere to believe they are not bound by the rules of 
civilized behavior.
    So I say again, I don't want to get in a word war with Saddam 
Hussein, but we're going to do whatever it takes to keep him from 
threatening his neighbors, threatening our pilots, and we're going to 
enforce the no-fly zone.
    Let me make this last point: I believe that all of you, particularly 
those of you who are young, who have more tomorrows than yesterdays to 
look forward to--I believe you will grow up in a more peaceful world 
than any we've known in a long, long time. But we know it's not a world 
free of threats. We know we have to deal with terrorism. We know we have 
to deal with all the ethnic and racial and religious wars that still 
engulf the world. We know we have to deal with organized crime and drug 
smuggling. We know we have to deal with the proliferation of weapons of 
mass destruction.
    That's why I have worked so hard to rally the nations of the world 
to say we're going to have zero tolerance for terrorism, and why we're 
working so hard to make airline travel and airports safer in America. 
And I want you to support what we're trying to do.
    But today in the United States Senate, there's a big decision being 
made that most people have never talked about. They're debating 
something called the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is a treaty that 
will increase the safety of our soldiers and our citizens by reducing 
the dangers posed by poison gas. That seems a long way away but, 
remember, it wasn't so very long ago that a lot of innocent citizens 
were killed in Japan by a fanatic terrorist who exposed them to poison 
gas in a subway. We've got to do everything we possibly can to minimize 
the exposure of our people to this gas.
    Now, this treaty was negotiated by President Bush. Then I submitted 
it to the Senate 3 years ago for ratification. This has been a 
bipartisan

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effort all along the way; General Colin Powell supports it; President 
Bush is working for it; his National Security Adviser is working for it; 
the Joint Chiefs of Staff are working for it, but bitter partisan debate 
has broken out in the last few days and has threatened to derail this 
treaty. I want you to be protected from the dangers of poison gas 
insofar as we can humanly do it, and I ask you to join with me in asking 
the Senate to resolve the remaining questions, put partisanship aside, 
and put America on the side of a safer world without poison gas being 
exposed to our citizens or our soldiers. Will you help me build that 
bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    Now, before I go, let me just ask you to remember what I said about 
the community colleges. Don't you want a country in which we're coming 
together, instead of being divided?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Don't you want a country in which we all roll up our 
sleeves and say, ``We're going to work together to give each other the 
chance to make the most of our lives?''
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Don't you think my wife was right when she said it 
takes a village to raise a child?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Don't you think that we're far better off building a 
bridge to the future than a bridge to the past?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. I want you to think about this. Just look around this 
crowd today. Look around this crowd. When I represented the United 
States at the opening of the Olympics and I watched all the teams come 
in, it was thrilling to me that there were people from 197 different 
nations there. And then I remembered I was looking at our own team, when 
Hillary and Chelsea and I went to visit with them, and I thought, you 
know, if the people from America, if they didn't have the American 
outfits on, you wouldn't have a clue where they were from. If you herded 
the American team up, you could say, ``Well, that one's from Africa; 
that one's from Scandinavia; that one's from the Middle East; this one's 
from Asia; this one's from India.'' They were from everywhere.
    There were 197 nations represented at the Olympics. In Los Angeles 
County there are people from 150 of those 197 places. And I want you to 
think about that, not only today, not only for the next 8 weeks, but for 
the rest of your life. This is a country founded 220 years ago by people 
who said, ``We believe all people are created equal.''
    We didn't behave that way then. We don't behave that way perfectly 
today, but that's what we believe. And we have to stand up and say to 
everybody, ``If you believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the 
Declaration of Independence, if you're willing to show up tomorrow and 
be a good citizen and work hard, you're our kind of American. We don't 
need to know anything else about you. You're part of our American 
community.'' Will you help me build a bridge that all Americans can walk 
across to the 21st century? [Applause]
    Keep your spirits up, keep your determination up, and keep your eye 
on the future. Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. at Chaffey Community College. In 
his remarks, he referred to Jerry Young, president, and Kerri Matthews, 
student body president, Chaffey Community College; Mayor William J. 
Alexander of Rancho Cucamonga; Art Torres, chairman, California 
Democratic Party; and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.