[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[September 15, 1996]
[Pages 1575-1580]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Rally for Senator Tom Harkin in Indianola, Iowa
September 15, 1996

    The President. Thank you very much. It's good to be back. How many 
of you were here 4 years ago? [Applause] How many of you weren't here 4 
years ago? [Applause] Four years from now, we're going to have to rent 
the next farm to have this. Let's keep going.
    Let me say to all of you how very happy I am to be here. I'm sorry I 
wasn't here from the beginning. I'm sorry I missed Tom Arnold and my 
buddy Jerry Jeff Walker. Maybe they'll play a little on the way out 
while I'm shaking hands. But I'm glad they came here and thank them both 
for being here.
    I want to thank those who are here to support us: Attorney General 
Tom Miller, Agriculture Secretary Dale Cochran. Mike Peterson gave a 
heck of a speech up here a few minutes ago. He'll be a good candidate 
someday. I want to thank Mayor Kelley of Indianola, Mayor Davis of Des 
Moines.
    I want to thank Tom and Ruth and Jenny and Amy for serving the State 
of Iowa. I want you to know that Ruth Harkin has played a major role in 
the efforts that our administration have made to sell more American 
products around the world and get more American invest-


[[Page 1576]]

ment and have fair as well as free trade. And I thank her. You should 
all be very proud of her for the work she did as head of the Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation.
    I thank Senator Harkin for what he said but, more importantly, for 
what he has done and been to the people of Iowa, to the people of the 
United States, and to the President. He has been nothing short of 
magnificent in his service to our country and to this State in the last 
4 years since I've been in Washington.
    I can't tell you all the times that I have turned to Tom Harkin in 
the last 4 years when things were on the line for America, when we had 
to pass an economic plan to get the deficit down, to get the interest 
rates down, to get the economy going again. And Iowa is a strong two-
party State; we're going to try to change that a little this time. And 
our friends in the other party were saying, ``Oh, the President's 
economic plan is just awful. It will increase the deficit; it will 
bankrupt the economy; it will hurt people.'' Every single one of them to 
the person lined up and said no. It's unfortunate for them because 4 
years later we got 10\1/2\ million new jobs, lower interest rates, 
record numbers of small businesses, American exports at an all-time 
high, businesses owned by women and minorities at an all-time high. They 
all said no, but Tom Harkin said yes. We got a 7\1/2\-year low in our 
unemployment rate. Thank you, Tom Harkin, for making the difference and 
for fighting for us.
    Then there was the family and medical leave law. They all said--
their nominee is still saying, ``It was a terrible mistake, that law, 
bad for business.'' Glad he led the fight against it. We just had a 
bipartisan survey about the family and medical leave law, and the 12 
million American families that got to take a little time off from work 
when a baby was born or a parent was sick without losing their jobs, 
they said it didn't hurt. And I say one of the biggest challenges you 
have today, every one of you, is to create a country in which families 
can succeed at home and at work. It's good for the economy to help 
people be good parents, good children, good family members. Thank 
goodness we had Tom Harkin to fight the good fight.
    We said the crime rate was too high in America and we needed to do 
something to bring it down; we ought to put 100,000 police on the 
street. They didn't like that idea very much. And I might add, in the 
last 2 years, for reasons that totally escape me, they've tried to stop 
us from continuing to finish the job. But for the first time in who 
knows how long, the crime rate has gone down in America for 4 years. And 
if you leave Tom Harkin on the job and give us a little help, we'll take 
it down for 4 more years, so the American people can feel safe on their 
street.
    I thank you for what you said, Tom, about the flood. When I was a 
Governor in a State that had a lot of natural disasters, I learned that 
the Federal response was too often disorganized and inadequate, driven 
by appointees who got the job because of their politics instead of their 
knowledge about the issue. So I put a person in charge of our emergency 
management who had done it for me at home and before that had been a 
county judge dealing with disasters and didn't care anything about the 
politics of it; he just wanted the American people in their time of need 
to be well-served, taken care of, and thought somebody in Washington 
ought to understand what it takes to get the job done. That's why we 
were able to serve Iowa and the rest of the Middle West well in that 
500-year flood.
    And I thank you for what you said, but when I ran for President I 
wanted to make good things happen. And when I look at the farm prices, 
when I look at farm assets, when I look at the direction of the economy 
here, I'd say we're a lot better off than we were 4 years ago, and we 
ought to keep going in the same direction.
    Let me say to you, to echo what Senator Harkin said, this is a huge 
election. This is the last election of the 20th century, to elect the 
first President of the 21st century.
    Audience member. And you're going to win!
    The President. I am if you keep that same attitude for the next 51 
days. But I want all of you to think about this.
    Audience member. We love you, man!
    The President. You have to understand what is at stake. That's why 
this Senate race is so important. That's why these five fine people 
behind me who are running as our candidates for the House are so 
important. If you look at the challenges facing our country, in spite of 
everything, we clearly had the ability to balance the budget in the last 
2 years. And they said, ``We're going to shut the Government down if you 
don't do it our way. We're going to give you a tax cut, Mr. President, 
and people in your income

[[Page 1577]]

group whether you want it or not. And we're going to cut Medicare. We're 
going to walk away from the guarantee Medicaid has given for 30 years to 
middle class families whose parents were in nursing homes and had 
children with disabilities. And if you don't like it--we're going to 
increase the cost of student loans. We're going to cut Head Start. We're 
going to cut the safe and drug-free schools program. We're going to 
wreck 25 years of bipartisan commitment to preserving our environment. 
We're going to raise taxes on the 9 million Americans with the lowest 
incomes with children in their house. That's our balanced budget plan. 
If you don't like it, we're going to shut the Government down.'' And I 
said, ``The Democratic Party does not love the Government, it loves the 
people. The Government should serve them. Shut her down. Shut her 
down.''
    And yes, after you and the people of this country all over the 
country got their attention with repeated public opinion polls and 
strong disapproval of what was going on, they said, ``Oh, well, maybe 
we'll allow some good things to happen.'' So we got the minimum wage 
increase, and we got the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill. And we made it easier 
for small-business people to take out retirement plans. And we did a lot 
of good things. But don't forget what is really hanging in the balance.
    Don't forget what the budget battle said. I'm telling you, folks, 
there is a new Democratic Party. We have proved that we are the party of 
responsibility when handling people's money. We did lower the deficit 4 
years in a row for the first time since before the Civil War. I'm proud 
of that. But we did it in a way that kept faith with the children of 
America and the parents of America and the disabled of America and the 
people who deserve to go forward with us together. We need more help in 
that way.
    We proved that we would bring the crime rate down. They tried to 
convince every hunter in my State that they were going to lose their 
guns if we banned assault weapons and passed the Brady bill. And by the 
votes in '94, they did a good job of their efforts. They've got a real 
problem now. We've had two hunting seasons; there hasn't been a hunter 
in America lose their rifle. It's inconvenient for their rhetoric. But 
you know what, 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers did lose the right 
to get a gun to keep brutalizing the American people. We were right, and 
they were wrong.
    They talked a lot about welfare. Finally they passed a bill I could 
sign. But while they were talking, we were working on it. You know, 
there are nearly 2 million fewer people on welfare today than there were 
when I was here 4 years ago, 2 million people moving into jobs, working, 
supporting their families.
    So I say to you, we need people who believe in work and family, who 
believe in opportunity and responsibility, who believe in community and 
the Congress. And therefore, I want you to send Tom Harkin back to the 
Senate with the largest margin he has ever received and send these folks 
to the House of Representatives to help us do the job.
    At times like this when countries have to make big decisions that 
will affect the lives of people far into the future and when things are 
changing greatly--and believe me, things are changing greatly--these 
students in the crowd, in 10 years they will be doing jobs that have not 
been invented yet. Some of them will be doing jobs that have not even 
been imagined yet. We have to make the right decisions. And there are 
some big decisions to be made.
    And I have to say with all respect, I agreed with one thing my 
opponent said in his speech in San Diego--and what I said, this really 
is an election where you have to choose whether you want a leader who 
says, ``You're on your own,'' or one that says, my wife is right, it 
does take a village to raise a child and build a community and build a 
country.
    You have to choose. You have to choose. You have to choose whether 
you believe, as Senator Harkin said, in those politicians who are always 
looking for what they call wedge issues--``Oh, this is a great wedge 
issue; we can divide the American people, get them all torn up and 
upset, and we can get in power''--or whether you believe, like me, that 
we've had enough of that ``who's to blame'' business. And it works 
better, and we've proved it works better, if you say, ``Forget about 
who's to blame. What are we going to do to make a greater country for 
all the American people and pull the American people together? ''
    We have to choose--most important of all--we have to choose whether 
you believe this election is about trying to build a bridge to the past, 
which nobody has ever done or ever will succeed in doing, or whether 
you're willing to join with me to build a bridge to the future

[[Page 1578]]

we can all walk into the 21st century across proudly, together.
    I want to build a bridge to the 21st century with a strong and 
growing economy. That means balance the budget, all right, to keep these 
interest rates coming down. But it means do it in a way that continues 
to invest in education and the environment, in medical research and 
technology, and protects our obligations to those who need our help 
through Medicare and Medicaid. Will you help me build that bridge to 
America's future? [Applause]
    I want to build a bridge to the future that will help our economy to 
go through the right kind of tax cut. It is in this administration that 
we have increased by 250 percent the tax cuts available to small 
businesses who invest more in their business to grow the business, to 
hire more people, to become more productive. But it has to be the right 
kind. I want a tax cut that's targeted to people who will use it for 
education, for raising their children, for buying that first home, for 
dealing with medical emergencies, an IRA that you can withdraw from 
without any tax penalty for education or medical cost or buying a first 
home, a $500-a-child tax credit, an education credit, things that we can 
do that will grow this country.
    But I'll tell you something, folks, mine are paid for, and we've got 
to pay for them. We don't want to go back to that old time when we 
promised you a tax cut on the one hand and wrecked the economy on the 
other.
    Now, last year the leaders of the other party said something that I 
agreed with, and I want to tell you what they said last year before the 
election started. They said if we get off of this balanced budget plan, 
if we don't have a plan to keep bringing this deficit down, interest 
rates will be 2 percent higher. Now, I want every farmer in this crowd, 
every business person in this crowd, every student in this crowd, every 
family in this crowd to think what that means. Think what it would mean 
to have 2 more percent on your credit card payment, your car payment, 
your home payment, your farm loan, or your business loan. I don't think 
we want that.
    Audience members. No-o-o!
    The President. Let's have a tax cut we can afford. Let's help the 
folks that need it that are building this country. Let's create 
opportunity and strengthen families with our tax cut, but let's keep on 
the work of balancing the budget until we get the job done and we keep 
the interest rates down and we keep the economy going.
    And I want to build a bridge to the 21st century where America 
continues to sell its products around the world. I'm proud of the fact 
that our exports and, yes, our agricultural exports, are at an all-time 
high. If you'll give us 4 more years we'll add pork to those exports. 
We'll be selling them all over the world, and Iowa will be better. Will 
you help me build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    But let's face it, you and I know the most important thing we could 
do to build the right kind of bridge to the 21st century is to give 
every single child in America the opportunity to have a world-class 
education. And I just want to mention, Iowa for years and years and 
years had led the way in proving that a good education builds good 
citizens, strong families, strong communities, successful careers, and a 
greater country. Iowa has led the way. Every child in America deserves 
the education that the people of Iowa have given their children for 
decades. And I'm going to do my best to give it to them if you'll give 
us 4 more years.
    And I just want to mention two things that I think are important 
parts of building that bridge. We have the opportunity right now, 
because of technology, because of the Internet, because of the World 
Wide Web, because of all these things that all these young folks know a 
lot more about than I do, we have a chance to do something that this 
country has never done. If we will do what Al Gore and I have been 
calling for and connect every school and every library, every classroom 
to the information superhighway by the year 2000, for the first time in 
the history of America, children in the most isolated rural districts, 
children in the poorest urban districts will have access to the same 
learning at the same quality at the same time in the same way that the 
richest classes in America have. Will you help me build that bridge to 
the 21st century?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. And I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that 
says to every person in America of any age who needs to do it, we will 
make a college education available to you.
    Our plan is pretty simple. First of all, we say, do no harm. 
Continue to resist the efforts of the other party to make it harder to 
get student loans and to raise the cost of the student loans. We want to 
keep that direct loan pro-


[[Page 1579]]

gram. I pledged to you 4 years ago when I came here, if you voted for me 
I would pass a student loan program that would reduce the cost of 
student loans and let people pay it back as a percentage of their 
income, so no matter how much they had to borrow they would always be 
able to afford to go to college. We kept that commitment, and I want to 
keep it going.
    Now what I want to do is two simple things. First of all, let's make 
a commitment that in the next 4 years we'll make at least a 2-year 
community college education as universal in America as a high school 
diploma is today. And here's how to do it. We can do that simply by 
giving the American people a $1,500 tax credit so they can reduce the 
cost of tuition at the typical community college, dollar for dollar from 
their tax bill, for 2 years. If we do that, we can say--and we can 
afford that; it requires no bureaucracy, no nothing; almost every 
American is within driving distance of a good 2-year education--we can 
say, we're going to make this as universal in 4 years as a high school 
education has been for the last 20. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
    And finally, we ought to say, we believe that people should be able 
to deduct the cost of tuition up to $10,000 a year for any education 
after high school, 4 years, postgraduate, medical school, you name it, 
whatever it takes. Let's pay and let people go to college and get the 
education they need. Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st 
century? [Applause] Will you do that for your children and your 
grandchildren? [Applause] That is the kind of opportunity agenda that 
will get us into the next century able to say with a clear conscience 
and absolute certainty, the American dream is alive and well for 
everyone who's willing to work for it.
    The second thing I want to say about that is, we've got to have more 
responsibility. We've got to continue to work to drive the crime rate 
down, as I said. We passed the welfare reform bill. I want to tell you 
about it because I want all of you to support what we have to do. The 
new bill says we'll still give poor families medical care, nutrition, if 
they go to work, guaranteed child care because they need that. But the 
check is now going to go to the States and the local communities, and 
they have to use that check to create jobs for able-bodied people.
    Now, here's what it's going to take. We can use that money--I was in 
Kansas City last week, and they're using that money. They say, ``Will 
you hire somebody on welfare and create a new job? If you will, we'll 
give you the check as a wage supplement. We'll guarantee their health 
care.'' But you cannot tell people, folks with little kids, they have 
got to work unless there is work for them to do. Will you help me create 
jobs so that we can prove that welfare reform is a second chance, not a 
way of life, a way to dignity and work and integrity? [Applause] That is 
important if we're going to build a bridge to the 21st century.
    Perhaps the deepest and longest and most intense fights of the last 
2 years have been over the environment. I grew up in a farming State 
like Iowa. I governed one. I know that we can find ways to preserve the 
environment and grow the economy, whether it's a farm economy or an 
industrial economy or a small-business economy. But that's exactly what 
we've got to do.
    I signed a bill the other day, the pesticide protection act, which 
will improve the quality of our food, supported by every farm group in 
America because it also gives more reasonable regulations to farmers 
across a broader range of activities. We can do this right. We have 
worked hard.
    We've worked hard with the auto industry to produce a clean car that 
will get triple the mileage of the present car. We're making progress. 
But we also worked with them to bring back the auto industry so that 
today the United States auto industry is number one in sales around the 
world for the first time in nearly 20 years. We can do both things. Only 
they believe you have to hurt the environment to grow the economy. That 
is not true. And let me just give you one example.
    We closed more toxic waste sites in the last 3 years than they did 
in 12. But it's not enough. There are still 10 million--think of this; 
look at these kids here--there are still 10 million American children 
living within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump. So if you give us 4 more 
years, we'll close 500 more, the two-thirds worst, and our kids will be 
growing up next to parks, not poison. Will you help us build that kind 
of bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
    Well, that's it. We're in better shape than we were 4 years ago: 
10\1/2\ million more jobs, 12 million people using family leave, 15 
million families with a tax cut that need it the most,

[[Page 1580]]

every small business in the country eligible for one if they invest more 
in their business, 40 million more Americans with their pensions 
protected, 50 million more Americans breathing cleaner air, 10 million 
Americans on October 1st will get an increase in the minimum wage, and 
that's a good, good thing. This country is moving in the right 
direction.
    But there is so much more to do before we can say we have preserved 
the American dream for everybody who is willing to work for it, we have 
maintained the leadership of our country for peace and freedom and 
prosperity, and we are doing it by building the American community.
    You know, one of the biggest problems in this old world today--you 
look at Bosnia; we had these elections in Bosnia yesterday. Thank 
goodness we've had 9 months of peace. And we had these elections, and 
they did pretty well, considering what they've been through the last 4 
years. And I thank all of you who supported what I tried to do there. 
But you think about the world that we're living in. Look at Bosnia; look 
at Northern Ireland; look at the Middle East; look at what South Africa 
went through. Look at what happened in Burundi, for goodness sakes, over 
tribal differences. Why?
    All over the world there are people who make a living getting 
political power, getting military power, staying in power by inflaming 
the passions of people, by trying to get them to look down on their 
neighbors. ``You really matter because you're not them; you're not 
them.'' That's what they say in the Middle East, ``You're not them.'' 
That's what they said in Bosnia. They were slaughtering each other's 
children because they weren't Croatian or Serbian or Muslim. And they 
were biologically completely indistinguishable. It was an accident of 
history that got them into different so-called ethnic or religious 
groups.
    And you look around this crowd today. I see Asian-Americans. I see 
African-Americans. I see Nordic-Americans. I see Irish-Americans. I see 
German-Americans. I see Americans of Central European descent. I see 
Indian-Americans and Pakistani-Americans and Native Americans and you 
name it. You know why? Because we are trying to beat that curse that is 
bedeviling the rest of the world and threatens the 21st century.
    And so when you see--[applause]--that's the last thing I want to 
leave you with. I don't want to build a bridge that you only get to walk 
across because you're better than somebody else because of an accident 
of birth. I want to build a bridge that anybody can walk across if they 
say, ``I believe in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, 
the Bill of Rights. I believe in the fundamental dignity of all people. 
And if you're willing to show up for work tomorrow, play by the rules, 
and love this country the way I do, I'll hold your hand, and we'll build 
a bridge we can walk across together.'' And if you'll do that, we'll 
have a great victory in November.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:20 p.m. at National Balloon Classic Field 
at Senator Harkin's 19th annual steak and pork-chop fry. In his remarks, 
he referred to entertainers Tom Arnold and Jerry Jeff Walker; Mike 
Peterson, chair, Iowa Democratic Party; Mayor Jerry Kelley of Indianola; 
Mayor Arthur Davis of Des Moines; and the Senator's daughters Jenny and 
Amy Harkin.