[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[October 16, 1996]
[Pages 1837-1857]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Presidential Debate in San Diego
October 16, 1996

    Jim Lehrer. Good evening from the Shiley Theatre at the University 
of San Diego, San Diego, California. I'm Jim Lehrer of the ``NewsHour'' 
on PBS. Welcome to this second 1996 Presidential debate between Senator 
Bob Dole, the Republican nominee, and President Bill Clinton, the 
Democratic nominee. It is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential 
Debates.
    We will follow a townhall-type format tonight. The questions over 
the next 90 minutes will come from 113 citizens of the greater San Diego 
area. They were chosen in the past week by the Gallup organization to 
represent a rough cross-section of voters as to political views, age, 
gender, and other factors. Each said he or she is undecided about this 
Presidential race.
    They were told to come tonight with questions. Nobody from the 
Debate Commission or the two campaigns has any idea what those questions 
are; neither do I. We will all be hearing them for the first time at the 
same time. I met with this group 3 hours ago, and we spoke only about 
how it was going to work tonight. They are sitting in five sections. I 
will call on individuals at random, moving from one section to another 
with each new question, alternating the questions between the two 
candidates. My job is to keep things fair and the subjects as clear and 
as varied as possible.
    The rules, drawn by the campaigns, are basically the same as they 
were for the Hartford and St. Petersburg debates: 90-second answers, 60-
second rebuttals, 30-second responses for each question. The candidates 
are not allowed to question each other directly. There will be 2-minute 
opening and closing statements. The order for this evening was set by 
coin toss.
    We begin now with Senator Dole and his opening statement.
    Senator Dole.

Opening Statements

    Senator Bob Dole. Thank you very much, Jim.
    Let me first give you a sports update: the Braves, one; Cardinals, 
nothing--early on.
    I want to thank you and I want to thank everybody here tonight, and 
I want a special thanks to my wife, Elizabeth, and my daughter, Robin, 
for their love and support, and thank the people who are listening and 
watching all over America.
    In 20 days, you will help decide who will lead this country into the 
next century. It's an awesome responsibility. And you must ask yourself, 
do you know enough about the candidates? You should know as much as 
possible about each of us. Sometimes the views have been distorted--and 
millions and millions of dollars in negative advertising spent 
distorting my views--but I hope tonight you'll get a better feel of who 
Bob Dole is and what he's all about.
    And I think first you should--I should understand that the question 
on your mind is, do I understand your problem? But I understand it if--
it occurred to me and I might just say that I'm from a large family. 
I've got lots of relatives, and they're good, average, middle class, 
hard-working Americans. They live all across the country. They're not 
all Republicans--maybe all but one. [Laughter]
    But in any event, I understand the problems, whether it's two 
parents working because one has to pay the taxes and one has to provide 
for the family; whether it's a single parent who just barely pays the 
pressing bills; or whether you're worried about an education for your 
children--are they going to the best schools; or whether you're worried 
about safe playgrounds, drug-free schools, crime-free schools.
    This is what this election is all about. And hopefully tonight when 
we conclude this debate, you will have a better understanding and the 
viewing and listening audience will have a better understanding. Thank 
you. [Applause]
    Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President, 2 minutes, opening statement.

[[Page 1838]]

    The President. I was going to applaud, too. [Laughter]
    Well, thank you, Jim, and thanks to the people of San Diego for 
giving us this opportunity to have another discussion about the decision 
we all face in front of people who will make the decision. Again I will 
say, I'll do my best to make this a discussion of ideas and issues, not 
insults. What really matters is what happens to your future and what 
happens to our country as we stand on the brink of a new century, a time 
of extraordinary possibility.
    I have a simple philosophy that I've tried to follow for the last 4 
years: Do what creates opportunity for all, what reinforces 
responsibility from all of us, and what will help us build a community 
where everybody's got a role to play and a place at the table.
    Compared to 4 years ago, we're clearly better off. We've got 10\1/2\ 
million more jobs; the deficit's been reduced by 60 percent; incomes are 
rising for the first time in a decade; the crime rates, the welfare 
rolls are falling; we're putting 100,000 more police on the street; 
60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers have been denied handguns.
    But that progress is only the beginning. What we really should focus 
on tonight is what we still have to do to help the American people make 
the most of this future that's out there. I think what really matters is 
what we can do to help build strong families. Strong families need a 
strong economy. To me, that means we have to go on and balance this 
budget while we protect Medicare and Medicaid and education and the 
environment.
    We should give a tax cut targeted to childrearing and education, to 
buying a first home and paying for health care. We ought to help protect 
our kids from drugs and guns and gangs and tobacco. We ought to help 
move a million people from welfare to work. And we ought to create the 
finest education system in the world, where every 18-year-old can go on 
to college and all of our younger children have great educational 
opportunities. If we do those things, we can build that bridge to the 
21st century. That's what I hope to get to talk about tonight.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, let's go now to the first question from this 
section, and it's for Senator Dole.
    Yes, ma'am? Yes?
    Q. Hello, Senator Dole.
    Senator Dole. Hi.

Leadership To Promote Unity

    Q. My name is Shannon MacAfee. I'm a beginning educator in this 
country, and I really think it's important what children have to say. 
They're still very idealistic, and everything they say comes from the 
heart. I have a quote for you from ``If I Were President,'' compiled by 
Peggy Gavin. A sixth grader says, ``If I were President, I would think 
about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and what they did to make 
our country great. We should unite the white and black people and people 
of all cultures. Democrats and Republicans should unite also. We should 
all come together and think of the best ways to solve the economic 
problems of our country. I believe that when we are able to come 
together and stop fighting amongst ourselves, we will get along a lot 
better.''
    These are the ideals and morals that we are trying to teach our 
children in these days, yet we don't seem to be practicing them in our 
Government, in anything. If you are President, how will you begin to 
practice what we are preaching to our children, the future of our 
Nation?
    Senator Dole. Well, I would say, first of all, I think it's a very 
good question, and I appreciate the quote from the young man.
    There's no doubt about it that many American people have lost their 
faith in government. They see scandals almost on a daily basis. They see 
ethical problems in the White House today. They see 900 FBI files of 
private persons being gathered up by somebody in the White House; nobody 
knows who hired this man. So there's a great deal of cynicism out there.
    But I've always tried, in whatever I've done, to bring people 
together. I said in my acceptance speech in San Diego about 2 months ago 
that the exits are clearly marked. If you think the Republican Party is 
someplace for you to come if you're narrow-minded or bigoted or don't 
like certain people in America, the exits are clearly marked for you to 
walk out of, as I stand here without compromise because this is the 
party of Lincoln.
    I think we have a real obligation, obviously, public officials. I'm 
no longer a public official; I left public life on June 11th of this 
year. But it is very important. Young people are looking to us. They're 
looking to us for leadership.

[[Page 1839]]

They're watching what we do, what we say, what we promise, and what we 
finally deliver. And I would think--it seems to me that there are 
opportunities here. When I'm President of the United States, I will keep 
my word. My word is my bond.
    Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President?
    The President. One of the reasons that I ran for President, Sandy, 
is because not just children, a lot of grownups felt that way. If you 
remember, 4 years ago we had not only rising unemployment but a lot of 
rising cynicism. I'd never worked in Washington as an elected official. 
It seemed to me that most of the arguments were partisan: Republican, 
Democrat; left, right; liberal, conservative. That's why I said tonight 
I'm for opportunity, responsibility, and community. And we've gotten 
some real progress in the last 4 years. I've also done everything I 
could at every moment of division in this country--after Oklahoma City, 
when these churches were burned--to bring people together and remind 
people that we are stronger because of our diversity. We have to respect 
one another.
    You mentioned Washington and Lincoln; they were Presidents at 
historic times. This is an historic time. It's important that we go 
beyond those old partisan arguments and focus on people and their 
future. When we do that, instead of shutting the Government down over a 
partisan fight on the budget, we're a better country, and that's why 
we're making progress now.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator?
    Senator Dole. Well, bringing people together again is obviously a 
responsibility we all have. I know you do it. Everybody here does it. 
You do a lot of things nobody knows about. I have a little foundation 
for the disabled called the Dole Foundation. We've raised about $10 
million. We don't talk about it. We try to help people with 
disabilities. We bring them back into the mainstream of public life.
    So it seems to me that there's also a public trust. When you're the 
President of the United States, you have a public trust, and you have to 
keep that public trust, as George Washington did and as Abraham Lincoln 
did. And I think now that trust is being violated. And it seems to me we 
ought to face up to it, and the President ought to say tonight that he's 
not going to pardon anybody that he was involved in business with who 
might implicate him later on.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, the next question from this section right 
here. Right there in the middle, sir. Yes, sir?

Health Care

    Q. Dr. Robert Berkeley; I'm a cardiologist from Fallbrook, 
California. Mr. President, I'd like to know if you'd please explain your 
plans for--in a substantive fashion, for addressing the problems with 
the health care system in our country.
    The President. I will. First of all, let me say what we have done: 
In the last 4 years, we've worked hard to promote more competition to 
bring down the rate of inflation in health care costs without eroding 
health care quality. The Government pays for Medicare and Medicaid, as 
you know, and that's very important.
    Secondly, we've added a million more children to the ranks of the 
insured through the Medicaid program. We have protected 25 million 
people through the passage of the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill that says you 
can't lose your health insurance if you change jobs or if someone in 
your family's been sick. We just recently ended those drive-by 
deliveries, saying people couldn't be kicked out of the hospital by 
insurance companies when they'd just had babies. So this is--that's a 
good start.
    In the next 4 years, I want to focus on the following things: Number 
one, add another million children to the insured ranks through the 
Medicaid program; number two, keep working with the States, as we are 
now, to add 2.2 million more people to the insurance system; number 
three, cover people who are between jobs for up to 6 months--that could 
protect 3 million families, 700,000 kids; and number four, make sure we 
protect the integrity of the Medicare program and the Medicaid program 
and not do anything in cutting costs which would cause hundreds of 
hospitals to close, as could have been the case if the $270 billion 
Medicare cut that I vetoed had been enacted into law.
    Senator Dole. First, let me say there you go again, Mr. President, 
talking about a Medicare cut. Now, I've heard you say this time after 
time, and I've heard you say on one TV appearance, ``The media made me 
do it.'' You were trying to defend your cut, which was not a cut 
either--a reduction in the growth of spending. And we always had at 
least 7 percent. You've said publicly that it's now 3 times the rate of 
inflation, we ought to cut the growth to twice

[[Page 1840]]

the rate of inflation. That's about where we are now. So let's stop 
talking about cutting Medicare. In my economic plan we increase it 39 
percent.
    Don't forget what he tried to do with health care: 17 new taxes, 
spend $1.5 trillion, 50 new bureaucracies. Can you believe that? You 
couldn't even have been a cardiologist because they had quotas. You 
had--you couldn't--you're a cardiologist; it wouldn't affect you. But if 
somebody wanted to be a cardiologist 10 years from now, you'd have to be 
certain that you complied with some of the rules in this extreme medical 
plan the Government was going to take over for all Americans. There are 
things we can do like the Kassebaum bill, that retains many provisions I 
authored, to cover preexisting--existing--portability. And there are 
other things we can do. We still need to cover about 20 million people 
and a lot of children.
    The President.  I don't have time in 30 seconds to respond to fix 
all that. But let me just say, the American Hospital Association said 
that the budget I vetoed could have closed 700 hospitals, not me. And on 
a per-person basis, it did cut way below the rate of inflation in 
medical costs.
    But the important thing is, what are we going to do now? We need to 
help people who are between jobs. We need to cover more kids. We need to 
provide more preventive care. My balanced budget covers mammograms for 
ladies on--women on Medicare and also gives respite care to the million-
plus families who have someone with Alzheimer's. These things are paid 
for in the balanced budget plan. It will move us forward.
    Mr. Lehrer. The next question is for Senator Dole from here. Yes, 
sir?

Armed Forces

    Q. Senator Dole, my name is Jason Milligan, active-duty military and 
a small-business owner. And my question is, what is your position on 
closing the gap between military and civilian pay scales?
    Senator Dole. Jason, I appreciate that very much, being a former 
military man myself.
    You know, we have 17,000 men and women today wearing our uniform 
that receive food stamps. It shouldn't happen in America. We have men 
and women wearing our uniform in substandard housing. It shouldn't 
happen in America. And it's time we take a look at the pay scales. You 
did get a 3 percent increase this year, but that's not enough.
    If we're going to ask young men and young women to protect us and 
defend us around the world, and we've had more deployments under this 
administration than any time in history--50 times we deployed troops 
around the world. Every time you do that, you take a risk--somebody you 
know, maybe your son, maybe your grandson, maybe somebody else. But I 
think anybody who wears a uniform is a great American. Remember Vietnam, 
remember when people almost used to walk across the street rather than 
have contact with somebody who was in Vietnam--that's all behind us now, 
and it should be behind us--and the forgotten war, the Korean war. But I 
guess, I can just answer you very plainly, Jason: Thank you for doing 
what you're doing. America owes you a debt of gratitude.
    The President. May I ask you a question? What kind of--which service 
are you in?
    Q. I'm in the United States Navy, sir.
    The President. And what kind of small business do you have?
    Q. I have an Amway business.
    The President. Good for you. Well, let me say--Senator Dole 
mentioned this. I just signed a bill that we got through Congress to 
increase the amount of pay increase we could give for military personnel 
and to make sure the pay increase this year was above the rate of 
inflation. I also had presented to the Congress, and they adopted, a 
large package of quality-of-life improvements which are very important. 
I've spent a lot of time talking to military families, as well as 
military members, all over the world and in bases all across the United 
States. And I became convinced, after talking to the families and the 
personnel in uniform, that we needed to not only have the pay raise but 
we needed to invest more in child care, housing, and other things to 
support families, especially when there are longer deployments because 
of the downsizing of the military.
    So we're going to do better, and we'll do better still. But this is 
a commitment I think that all Americans share, without regard to party.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole?
    Senator Dole. Well, Jason, I don't disagree with anything the 
President said except he waited 4 years to do these things. And my view 
is it ought to be--it'll be done on day one.

[[Page 1841]]

We'll start working on it on day one in the Dole-Kemp administration. 
This is important. Now, we only have 10 divisions now; we used to have 
18. We had 25 fighter wings; we're down to 13. We had 536 ships; we're 
down to 336 ships. I mean, we've cut defense spending too much in the 
first place. The President told you in '92 he would cut it $67 billion; 
he cut $112 billion. So we're right on the edge right now. But the last 
thing we ought to do is make those who wear the uniform sacrifice.
    Mr. Lehrer. Next question here for President Clinton. Yes, ma'am, 
here on the front row.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. President Clinton, my name is Cecily Kelly. Yesterday Yasser 
Arafat said in Palestine that he thinks the key to success in the Middle 
East is the commitment of Americans. Would you, as President, send 
American troops to Israel or the West Bank as peacekeepers?
    The President. Let me just take 2 seconds of my time, because I'm 
the Commander in Chief, to respond to one thing that was said. I propose 
to spend $1.6 trillion on defense between now and the year 2002. And 
there's less than one percent difference between my budget and the 
Republican budget on defense.
    Now, on the Middle East, as you know, I've worked very hard for 
peace in the Middle East. The agreement between the Palestinians and the 
Israelis was signed at the White House. And the agreement, the peace 
treaty with Jordan, I went to Jordan to sign that, to be there. But--and 
I think the United States could do whatever we reasonably can.
    I can say this: I do not believe Yasser Arafat wants us to send 
troops to the West Bank. We have never been asked to send troops to the 
West Bank.
    I saw the agreement that Prime Minister Rabin and Yasser Arafat 
signed on the West Bank. It had 26 separate maps they had to sign, 
literally thousands of delineations of who would do what on the West 
Bank. And I believe if the parties will get together and in a good faith 
manner make that agreement, that they'll be able to do it. We cannot 
impose a peace on the Middle East.
    My position has always been that the job of the United States was to 
minimize the risks of peace. You know, if they ask me to be part of some 
monitoring force--as we are in the Sinai and have been since 1978 to 
monitor the peace between Egypt and Israel--frankly, I would have to 
think about it; I would have to see what they wanted to do. But I don't 
believe that will be the request. I think what Mr. Arafat wants us to do 
is to make sure that everybody honors the agreements they've already 
made. That's why I brought the leaders to Washington a few days ago. I 
think they will, and I think we'll get there. Don't be too discouraged.
    Senator Dole. Well, let me, Jason, come back to you a minute because 
there is a big difference in the defense budget. We had $7 billion this 
year, and $10 billion more than the President. He puts his money in the 
out years--even if he were reelected, you know, he'd be gone before 
anything happened. And nothing's going to happen, because we don't have 
modernization now. If we don't build more B-2 bombers in California--and 
we lost about 500,000 jobs out in California because of this 
devastation, these big, big cuts. We had to make cuts; we didn't have to 
make the cuts the President promised he'd make and then he doubled. And 
so I think we need to go back and take a look. We're increasing defense 
reasonably, not too much but we are increasing defense some, because we 
want to be prepared in case somebody here gets called up, Jason.
    I would say I didn't hear what Yasser Arafat had to say, but I don't 
want to--you know, I think foreign policy is something we want to be 
very careful about. And I'm not here to argue about the President on 
some ongoing foreign policy matter. What I want the President to do, and 
I think he may have done it in his last statement, is call for an 
unconditional end to the violence and have the parties keep on talking 
as they should talk and have a resolution. The last thing we want to do 
is commit more forces anywhere.
    But let's sort of keep this out of politics, because it's pretty 
dicey right now.
    The President. When the change of government occurred in Israel, the 
people of Israel were saying, ``We don't want to abandon the peace 
process. We want more security.'' Then, a lot of mutual distrust 
developed. A lot of things happened which maybe shouldn't have happened.
    When I asked Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to 
Washington and got them together and they talked alone for 3 hours, I 
was convinced that they had to have a chance to make that peace. Again, 
I'd say if they ask

[[Page 1842]]

us to play some reasonable role, I don't know how I would respond. It 
would depend entirely on what they ask us to do. But the real secret 
there is for them to abide by the agreements they've made and find a way 
to trust each other. And they're going to have to spend some time and 
trust each other.
    Prime Minister Rabin gave his life believing that that trust could 
be materialized, and I still think it can be.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, next question from this section, and it is 
for Senator Dole. Back in the back. Yes, sir, right there. Yes, sir.

Tobacco

    Q. Senator Dole, Oscar Delgado.
    Senator Dole. Oscar.
    Q. Ex-smoker for 30 years. About 30 years ago I was a pack-plus-a-
day man, okay? You mentioned in a statement, you said some time ago that 
you didn't think nicotine was addictive. Would you care to--you still 
hold to that statement, or do you wish to recant or explain yourself?
    Senator Dole. Oh, that--that's very easy. My record going back to 
1965 in the Congress, the first vote we had was whether or not you 
should put a little notice on cigarettes that they may be dangerous--I 
voted--I voted for everything since that time.
    In fact, in 1992 we had a bill come before us that all the States 
had to comply or they're going to lose certain money. We sent it to the 
Clinton administration for implementation. They waited 3\1/2\ years. And 
during that period about 3,000 young kids every day started smoking. If 
you add it up, that's about 3 million--not until again 1996.
    I don't want anybody to smoke. My brother probably died partly 
because of cigarettes. I was asked a technical question: Are they 
addictive? Maybe they--they probably are addictive. I don't know; I'm 
not a doctor. You shouldn't smoke. You ought to be glad you quit, 
Oscar--30 years?
    Q. Yes.
    Senator Dole. And it seems to me that what we need to do is to talk 
about not only tobacco but drugs, because drug use in 12- and 17-year-
olds has doubled in this administration, the last 44 months. Marijuana 
use is up 141 percent; cocaine use, up 160 percent. They're your kids. 
It's all happened in this administration because they cut funding and 
they cut interdiction.
    When I'm President of the United States, we're going to use the 
National Guard and whatever resources we need to stop some of the drugs 
coming into America. If you stop the drugs, nobody is going to use the 
drugs. So don't smoke, don't drink, don't use drugs. Just don't do it.
    The President. Oscar, the question of what the Federal Government 
should do to limit the access of tobacco to young people is one of the 
biggest differences between Senator Dole and me.
    We did propose a regulation 6 months after I became President under 
the law he mentioned. It simply says all these States--it made it 
illegal for kids to smoke--now they have to try harder if they want to 
keep getting Federal funds. Then we took comments, as we always do, and 
there were tens of thousands of comments about how we ought to do it. 
That's what drug it out.
    Meanwhile, we started, also in '93, to look into whether cigarettes 
were addictive enough for the Federal Food and Drug Administration to 
ban the ability of cigarette companies to advertise, market, and 
distribute tobacco products to our kids. No President had ever taken on 
the tobacco lobby before. I did. Senator Dole opposed me. He went down 
and made a speech to people who were on his side, saying that I did the 
wrong thing. I think I did the right thing.
    On drugs, I have repeatedly said drugs are wrong and illegal and can 
kill you. We have strengthened enforcement, and everybody in San Diego 
knows we've strengthened control of the border. We've done a lot more; I 
hope we get a chance to talk about it.
    Senator Dole. Well, they also know, if they live in San Diego, Mr. 
President, if you're caught with 125 pounds of marijuana or less, you go 
back to Mexico; you're not prosecuted. You have a U.S. Attorney here 
that sends them back home. So I think that's pretty important. That's a 
lot of marijuana. That's a big supply.
    But don't--you know, don't get into this smokescreen here, Oscar. 
The President, in the election year, decided, ``Well, I ought to do 
something. I haven't done anything on drugs. I've been AWOL for 44 
months. So let's take on smoking.''
    But see, they haven't even done it. They haven't said what's going 
to happen, whether they're going to have it declared addictive; it's

[[Page 1843]]

going to apply just to--once it's a drug, does it apply only to 
teenagers or to everybody in America?
    Nobody should smoke, young or old. But particularly, young people 
should not smoke. And my record is there. It's been there. I've voted 8, 
10 times since 1965.
    Mr. Lehrer. The next question is for President Clinton, and it comes 
from right here. Yes, sir?

Social Security and Medicare

    Q. President Clinton, my name is Jack Fleck. I'm a retired Air Force 
pilot. Sir, it's officially forecast that our annual Medicare and Social 
Security deficits are measured in the trillions of dollars next century. 
Depending upon who you listen to, Social Security will be bankrupt in 
either 2025 or 2030. I feel this is grossly unfair, especially to our 
younger generations, who are losing faith in the system.
    My question is this: Assuming you agree that our entitlement 
programs are on an unsustainable course, what specific reforms do you 
propose?
    The President. First of all, they're two different things. Social 
Security and Medicare are entirely different in terms of the financial 
stabilities. Let's talk about them separately.
    Social Security is stable until, as you pointed out, at least the 
third decade of the next century. But we'd like to have a Social 
Security fund that has about 70 years of life instead of about 30 years 
of life.
    What we have to do is simply to make some adjustments that take 
account of the fact that the baby boomers, people like me, are bigger in 
number than the people that went just before us and the people that come 
just after us. And I think what we'll plainly do is what we did in 1983, 
when Senator Dole served--and this is something I think he did a good 
job on--when he served on the Social Security Commission and they made 
some modest changes in Social Security to make sure that it would be 
alive and well into the 21st century. And we will do that. It's obvious 
that there are certain things that have to be done, and there are 50 to 
60 different options. And a bipartisan commission, to take it out of 
politics, will make recommendations and build support for the people.
    Medicare is different. Medicare needs help now. I have proposed a 
budget which would put 10 years on the life of the Medicare Trust Fund; 
that's more than it's had a lot of the time for the last 20 years.
    It would save a lot of money through more managed care but giving 
more options, more preventive care, and lowering the inflation rate in 
the prices we're paying providers without having the kind of big premium 
increases and out-of-pocket costs that the budget I vetoed would 
provide. Then that will give us 10 years to do with Medicare what we're 
going to do with Social Security: have a bipartisan group look at what 
we have to do to save it when the baby boomers retire. But now we ought 
to pass this budget now and put 10 years on it right away so no one has 
to worry about it.
    Senator Dole. Well, again, you know, if you're somebody thinking 
about the future, I think it's fair to say that it'll be--we'll work it 
out. I mean, this is a political year, and the President's playing 
politics with Medicare. But after this year's over we'll resolve it just 
as we did with Social Security in 1983. It was a nonpartisan commission. 
Ronald Reagan got together with Tip O'Neill and Howard Baker--two 
Republicans and one Democrat--and they formed a commission. I was on 
that commission. We resolved--we rescued Social Security. We suggested--
I think it's been over a year ago now--we do the same with Medicare, and 
the White House called it a gimmick. Now last week, I guess it was, 
Donna Shalala said, ``Well, we'll cut Medicare a hundred billion, and 
we'll appoint a commission.''
    It will probably have to be done by a commission. Take it out of 
politics. I think if I were a senior citizen I'd be a little fed up with 
all these ads scaring seniors, scaring veterans, and scaring students 
about education. But when you don't have any ideas, when you don't have 
any agenda, and all you have is fear, that's all you can use. We have 
ideas in the Dole-Kemp campaign, and we'll rescue Medicare as we did 
Social Security.
    The President. Their idea was to have the poorest seniors in the 
country pay $270 more a year this year. Their idea was to budget--that 
the American Hospital Association said could close 700 hospitals. Their 
idea was to charge everybody more out-of-pocket costs in their budget 
that I vetoed--not in an election year, sir, I told them in early '95.
    Senator Dole said 30 years ago he was one of 12 people that voted 
against Medicare and he was proud of it. A year ago he said, ``I

[[Page 1844]]

was right then; I knew it wouldn't work.'' American seniors have the 
highest life expectancy in the world. We need to reform it, not wreck 
it.
    Mr. Lehrer. Next question from here, and it's for Senator Dole. Yes, 
ma'am, right here.
    Q. Me?
    Mr. Lehrer. Yes.

Welfare Reform

    Q. Senator Dole, my name is Suzanne Gonzalez, and I would like to 
know what you are--what would be your first step in reforming welfare.
    Senator Dole. Well, we've taken the first step. We took it three 
steps. Twice we sent welfare reform to the President, and he vetoed it. 
On the third time we sent welfare reform to the President, he signed it 
but announced he would change it next year. And the Vice President said 
they were going to do something else through the line item veto, which 
I've never understood, but that's sort of inside baseball.
    What we need to do is make certain we try to return people to work. 
And I'm standing here as someone who a long time ago--as the county 
attorney in Russell, Kansas, one of our jobs every month was to go 
through all the welfare checks and sign them. And three of those checks 
were my grandparents'. So I know what it's like to have to look welfare 
head-on.
    Obviously some people are going to need help. This is the United 
States of America. You're not going to go without food, and you're not 
going to go without medical care. This is America. But at the same time, 
if you want to get off Medicare, get back in the mainstream, we're going 
to provide jobs. We're going to say you have a 5-year limit that you can 
be on welfare. You've got 2 years to look for a job. We provided more 
money for day care in the bill that passed the Senate and was vetoed. 
Then it came back, and the President signed pretty much the same bill.
    But this is an important issue. I don't think we ought to be giving 
welfare payments to illegal immigrants. I mean, it puts a heavy burden 
on a State like--except for emergencies. It puts a heavy burden on 
States like California. It costs California taxpayers $3 billion a year.
    Mr. Lehrer. President Clinton?
    Senator Dole. I'll get out of your way here.
    The President. It's illegal right now and has been for years for 
illegal immigrants to get welfare benefits.
    Let me say that this is one of the most important issues in the 
world to me. I started working on welfare reform in 1980 because I was 
sick of seeing people trapped in a system that was increasingly 
physically isolating them and making their kids more vulnerable to get 
in trouble. So I'd been working on it when I was a Governor for a long 
time.
    When I became President, I used the authority I had in this law to 
get out from under certain Federal rules to help States move people to 
work. We've reduced the welfare rolls by 2 million already. Now I've got 
a plan with this new welfare reform law to work with the private sector 
to give employers specific tax incentives to hire people off welfare and 
to do some other things which will create more jobs in the private 
sector, at least a million, to move more people from welfare to work. 
It's very important. And I hope we get a chance to talk about this more. 
There is not a more important issue.
    I still remember a woman that I met 10 years ago who said she wanted 
to get off welfare so her kids could tell--give an answer when they say, 
``What does your mother do for a job?'' I met that woman again. She's 
got four kids. One's got a good job; one's studying to be a doctor; 
one's in technical school; one's an honor student in high school. I want 
to make more people like that woman, Lillie Harden. So I've got a plan 
to do it. And it's just beginning.
    Senator Dole. Well, another thing we can do--we talk about growth--
we've got a great economic package which I hope we'll discuss later: 
across the board tax cut; child credits, $500 per child under 18; reduce 
the capital gains rate; create more jobs and opportunities for people on 
and off welfare.
    And we have other provisions: less litigation. The trial lawyers--
big supporters of the President--the trial lawyers, of course they like 
lawsuits, so every time they have a bill that they want vetoed, the 
President vetoes it for them.
    We've got to understand in America that we've got to have growth, 
create more jobs and more opportunities in the private sector. The 
President takes credit for all of these people off welfare--the 
Governors did that. Federal Government doesn't do that. And the Govern-


[[Page 1845]]

ment doesn't create jobs, they're created in the private sector.
    Mr. Lehrer. This section, question? Yes, ma'am, on the back row. 
This is for the President.

Capital Gains Tax

    Q. Mr. President, my name is Pamela Johnson, and I'm a landlord. My 
question is, does your party have any future plans to reduce the capital 
gains tax, especially for retired Americans?
    The President. First of all, we have a big plan to reduce the 
capital gains tax when people sell their homes. Part of my tax package, 
which is paid for in my balanced budget plan, would exempt up to half a 
million dollars in gains for people when they sell their home, which I 
think is the biggest capital gains benefit we could give to most 
ordinary Americans.
    We also have a capital gains now for people that invest in new small 
businesses and hold the investment for 5 years. It was part of our other 
economic plan. And these are things I think that will go a long way 
toward helping America build a stronger economy and a better tax system.
    I think the most important thing to emphasize, though, is that we 
also have to help people in other ways to build a stronger economy. And 
we can't have any tax cut that's not paid for. One of the big 
differences between Senator Dole and myself is that I told you how I'm 
going to pay for every penny of the tax cuts I recommend. We've worked 
hard to bring this deficit down, and that's helped people in the real 
estate business, because the interest rates are lower. We've got 
homeownership at a 15-year high. We've got this country going in the 
right direction.
    So we can have a tax cut, but my priority would be to help the 
families who need it with childrearing and education and buying a first-
time home and helping for health care costs. So from your business, 
helping in buying the first-time home, exempting the capital gains on 
the sale of the home would be the most important things that you asked 
about. Thank you, Pamela.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole.
    Senator Dole. Well, Pamela, what the President didn't tell you is 
that all his tax cuts expire at the year 2000, but all his increases go 
on forever. That's the liberal approach. You know, give you a little tax 
cut, give you a couple of years, then make the tax increases go on 
forever. So the net tax increase in his plan is somewhere between $60 
billion and $80 billion.
    We have in the Dole-Kemp economic plan, unless your home is worth 
over $500,000--and if it is, I appreciate it, congratulate you--but in 
any event, no tax. And it's a good idea. They saw it, and they picked it 
up and put in theirs, but it's only temporary. Ours is permanent.
    Ours is a good plan: create jobs and opportunities; capital gains 
rate, cut it in half, cut it from 28 percent to 14 percent. There are $7 
trillion in assets locked up in America. If we cut the capital gains 
rate--I'm told every day--I got a letter from a former constituent in 
Kansas saying, ``I want to sell property in California, put it in my 
business in Kansas. I can't because the capital gains rate is too 
high.''
    We need to get the economy going. That will help Social Security. 
That will create more jobs. That will help people who want to get off 
welfare. It's the American way.
    The President. Before Senator Dole left the Senate, he and Mr. 
Gingrich also were recommending that we pass these tax cuts only insofar 
as we could pay for them. And we all assume that the tax cuts will be 
permanent, but we have to prove we can pay for them.
    After he left the Senate, we abandoned that. That's why most experts 
say that this tax scheme will blow a huge hole in the deficit, raise 
interest rates, and weaken the economy. And that will take away all the 
benefits of the tax cut with a weaker economy. That's why we have to 
balance the budget. And I'll tell you how I'm going to pay for anything 
I promise you, line by line. You should expect that from both of us.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right. The next question is for Senator Dole. Yes, 
ma'am, right there.

Responding to American Youth

    Q. My name is Melissa Lydeana, and I'm a third-year student out at 
UC-San Diego. And I just want to say that it's a great honor 
representing the voices of America. My question is concerning you, Mr. 
Dole, all the controversy regarding your age. How do you feel you can 
respond to young voices of America today and tomorrow?
    Senator Dole. Well, I think age is very--you know, wisdom comes from 
age, experience, and intelligence. And if you have some of each--

[[Page 1846]]

and I have some age, some experience, some intelligence--[laughter]--
that adds up to wisdom.
    I think it also is a strength; it's an advantage. And I have a lot 
of young people work in my office, work in my campaign. This is about 
America. This is about--somebody said earlier, one of the first 
questions, we're together. It's one America, one nation.
    I'm looking at our economic plan because I'm concerned about the 
future for young people. I'm looking about drugs. The President's been 
AWOL for 4 years. I'm looking about crime. He'll claim credit now for 
crime going down, but it happened because mayors and Governors and 
others have brought crime down. Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York, 
brought crime down 25 percent just in New York City, but of course the 
President will take credit for that.
    My view is we want to find jobs and opportunities and education. 
This year the Republican Congress, as far as student loans, went from 24 
billion to 36 billion over the next 6 years--a 50 percent increase; the 
highest appropriation ever, $6 billion for Pell grants. Very, very 
important. And we also raised the amount of each Pell grant.
    In our economic plan, the $500 child credit can be used for young 
people. Rolled over and over and over--of course, not this age, but if 
you have a child 2 years old, 7 percent interest, it would be worth 
about $18,000 by the time that child was ready for college.
    The President. I can only tell you that I don't think Senator Dole 
is too old to be President. It's the age of his ideas that I question.
    You're almost not old enough to remember this, but we've tried this 
before, promising people an election-year tax cut that's not paid for--
--
    Senator Dole. We tried it last time you ran.
    The President. ----telling you you can have everything you got--and 
let me just say this: Did you hear him say the Congress just voted to 
increase student loans and scholarships? They did, after he left. The 
last budget he led cut Pell grants, cut student loans. I vetoed it when 
they shut the Government down.
    My plan would give students a dollar-for-dollar reduction for the 
cost of the typical community college tuition, a $10,000 deduction a 
year for the cost of college tuition, would let families save in an IRA 
and withdraw tax-free to pay for the cost of education. And it's all 
paid for.
    My whole administration is about your future, it's about what the 
21st century is going to be like for you. And I hope you'll look at the 
ideas in it.
    Thank you.
    Senator Dole. Well, when you don't have any ideas, I guess you say 
the other person's ideas are old. As I said earlier, they don't have any 
ideas. Their idea is to raise taxes and spend more money. That's the 
liberal philosophy. If that's what you like, you've got a perfect 
candidate.
    President Clinton came to California in 1992 and said, ``The 
centerpiece in my first 4 years is going to be a middle class tax cut.'' 
Now, to all you who got that tax cut, congratulations, because you got a 
big tax increase. You got a $265 billion tax increase. And he stands 
here and says politicians who make promises like that ought to be 
ignored. Well, he made the promise.
    I keep my word, and you'll have a tax cut. It will help you in 
whatever you're going to do in the next few years. Thank you.
    Mr. Lehrer. Next question is for President Clinton, and it's from--
yes, ma'am? Yes?

Affirmative Action

    Q. Hello. My name is Chessie Sanders, and my question is do you feel 
that America has grown enough and has educated itself enough to totally 
cut out affirmative action?
    The President. No, ma'am, I don't. I am against quotas; I'm against 
giving anybody any kind of preference for something they're not 
qualified for, but because I still believe that there is some 
discrimination and that not everybody has an opportunity to prove they 
are qualified, I favor the right kind of affirmative action.
    I've done more to eliminate programs--affirmative action programs 
that I didn't think were fair and to tighten others up than my 
predecessors have since affirmative action has been around, but I have 
also worked hard to give people a chance to prove that they are 
qualified.
    Let me just give you some examples. We've doubled the number of 
loans from the Small Business Administration, tripled the number of 
loans to women business people--no one unqualified. Everybody had to 
meet the standards. We've opened 260,000 new jobs in the military to 
women since I've been President, but the Joint Chiefs say we're stronger 
and more competent and solid than ever.

[[Page 1847]]

    Let me give you another example of what I mean. To me, affirmative 
action is making that extra effort. It's sort of like what Senator Dole 
did when he sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act that said to 
certain stores, ``Okay, you've got to make it accessible to people with 
wheelchairs.'' We weren't guaranteeing anything--anybody anything except 
the chance to prove they were qualified, the chance to prove that they 
could do it.
    And that's why I must say I agree with General Colin Powell that 
we're not there yet. We ought to keep making those extra-effort 
affirmative action programs the law and the policy of the land.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole.
    Senator Dole. Well, we may not be there yet, but we're not going to 
get there by giving preferences and quotas. I supported that route for 
some time, and again, I think it gets back to experience--a little 
experience, a little age, a little intelligence. And I noticed that 
nobody was really benefiting except a very small group at the top. The 
average person wasn't benefiting. People who had the money were 
benefiting. People who got all the jobs were benefiting.
    It seems to me that we ought to support the California civil rights 
initiative. It ought to be not based on gender or ethnicity or color or 
disability. I'm disabled. I shouldn't have a preference. I would like to 
have one in this race, come to think of it. But I don't get one. Maybe 
we can work that out. I get a 10-point spot. [Laughter]
    This is America. No discrimination. Discrimination ought to be 
punished, but there ought to be equal opportunity. We ought to reach out 
and make certain everybody has a chance to participate. Equal 
opportunity, but we cannot guarantee equal results in America. That's 
not how America became the greatest country on the face of the Earth.
    The President. I have never supported quotas. I've always been 
against them. They don't favor equal results. But I do favor making sure 
everybody has a chance to prove they're competent. The reason I have 
opposed that initiative is because I'm afraid it will end those extra-
effort programs.
    Again I say think of the American with Disabilities Act. Make an 
effort to put a ramp up there so someone in a wheelchair can get up. You 
don't guarantee that they get the job; you guarantee they have a chance 
to prove they're competent.
    And as I've said, this is not a partisan thing with me. General 
Powell, Colin Powell said the same thing. He fears that the initiative 
would take away the extra-effort programs. No preferences to unqualified 
people, no quotas, but don't give up on making an extra effort till 
you're sure everybody has a chance to prove they're qualified.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, the next question is for Senator Dole, and it 
comes from this section right here. The back row, there, in the blue 
shirt. Yes, sir.

Senator Dole's Tax Cut Proposal

    Q. My name's Tim David. I'm a mechanical engineer. Senator Dole, how 
do you reduce taxes and balance the budget?
    Senator Dole. Oh, I'm glad you asked.
    The President. So am I. I am too.
    Senator Dole. What's your first name? Tim?
    I first want to say the President didn't quite give you all the 
stuff on quotas, because the Justice Department entered what we call the 
Piscataway case up in New Jersey. It's pretty clear that was a quota 
case. And just because one teacher was white and one teacher was black 
and they had the same qualification, you know, they decided who would 
stay there. It shouldn't be that way.
    Now, the President can say, well, he wants to mend it, not end it. 
There are 168 Federal programs that allow quotas. He ended one.
    Now this economic package, Tim, I'm glad you asked because you look 
like the type that might be able to benefit from the 15 percent, across-
the-board tax cut and $500-per-child tax credit or, you know, estate tax 
relief, which you're not interested in right now, but capital gains rate 
reduction--if you're taking care of an elderly parent, you get a $1,000 
deduction. We think that's very important because a lot of people take 
care of their parents.
    How do we pay for it? We're going to have a constitutional amendment 
to balance the budget, which the President opposed and defeated. He 
twisted arms, got six Democrats to vote with him. We lost by one vote. 
We're going to balance the budget by the year 2002.
    The President wants to spend 20 percent more over the next 6 years; 
I want to spend 14 percent more and give that 6 percent back to the 
people. Remember, it's your money. It's

[[Page 1848]]

not his money, and it's not my money. It's your money, and you shouldn't 
have to apologize for wanting to keep all you can of it, but he ought to 
apologize for wanting to take more and more. He wants to give you sort 
of a Government tax cut which really doesn't mean anything.
    The President. You know, one of the responsibilities of growing 
older, it seems to me, is being able to tell people something they may 
not want to hear just because it's truth. When they had a $250 billion 
tax scheme--that is half the size of this one, this one is 550--they 
passed a budget that had $270 billion in Medicare cuts, the first 
education cuts in history, cut environmental enforcement by 25 percent, 
took away the guarantee of quality standards in nursing homes, took away 
the guarantee of health care to folks with disabilities.
    Don't take my word for this. The Economist magazine polled lots of 
economists. Seven Nobel Prize winners have said, if this tax scheme 
passes, it will require huge cuts--40 percent--in the environment, in 
law enforcement, in education. It will require bigger cuts in Medicare 
than I vetoed last time. My targeted tax cut gives tax cuts for 
education, childrearing, buying a first-time home, paying for health 
care costs, and it's paid for. And I've told you how I'll pay for it. He 
won't tell you because he can't.
    Senator Dole. Your targeted tax cut, Mr. President, never hits 
anybody. That's the problem with it. Nobody ever gets it.
    But I must say I'm a little offended by this word ``scheme.'' You 
talked about--last time you talked about a risky scheme, and then Vice 
President Gore repeated it about 10 times in St. Petersburg. If I have 
anything in politics, it's my word. My colleagues, Democrats and 
Republicans, will tell you that Bob Dole kept his word. I'm going to 
keep my word to you. I'm going to keep my word to the American people.
    We're going to cut taxes and balance the budget. We're not going to 
touch Medicare. It's going to grow 39 percent, and Social Security is 
going to grow 34 percent.
    Now, the President doesn't have any ideas so he's out trashing ours. 
This isn't going to blow a hole in the deficit. He promised you a tax 
cut in 1992, and if you got one, you ought to vote for him.
    Mr. Lehrer. Sir.
    The next question is for the President.
    Yes, sir, right there--white shirt.

Family and Medical Leave Act

    Q. My name is Dwayne Burns. I'm a martial arts instructor and a 
father. Mr. President, could you outline any plans you have to expand 
the family leave act?
    The President. Thank you.
    Well, first let me say that I signed the family leave act. It was my 
very first bill, and I'm very proud of it because it symbolizes what I 
think we ought to be doing.
    I don't take credit for all the good things that have happened in 
America, but I take credit for what I've tried to do to work with others 
to make good things happen.
    The most important good things that happen in America happen in 
families. Just about every family I know, the main concern is how am I 
going to succeed at work and still do right by my children? Family and 
medical leave has let 12 million families take a little time off for the 
birth of a child or a family illness without losing their job. I'd like 
to see it expanded in two ways: I'd like to say you can also take a 
little time off without losing your job to go to a regular parent-
teacher conference or to go to a regular doctor's appointment with a 
family member; I'd also like to see the overtime laws change so that we 
could have some more flextime so that at the discretion of the worker--
the worker--if you earn overtime you could decide whether you want that 
time to be taken in cash or in time with your family if you've got a 
family problem.
    I never go anywhere, it seems like, where I don't meet somebody 
who's benefited from the family leave law. In Longview, Texas, the other 
day, I met a woman who was almost in tears because she had been able to 
keep her job while spending time with her husband who had cancer. One of 
the people who's here with me today met a woman in the airport saying 
that her son just was able to be present at the birth of his child 
because of the family leave law.
    So yes, I think it should be expanded. We have to help people 
succeed at home and at work.
    Senator Dole. Well, 88 percent of the people the President claims, 
or 11 million, are already covered. And only 5 percent--keep in mind, 
only 5 percent of the employers were even affected by the family leave 
act.

[[Page 1849]]

    We had a better idea. We didn't win, but we had a better idea. Now 
we have a majority; we need to get a President. That was a tax credit to 
the employer. Instead of the Federal Government reaching out, we had a 
tax credit to pick up some of the cost, because if you have to hire a 
replacement worker, that's a cost. This is the way it ought to work. 
Give more power back to the States and back to the people, back to the 
taxpayers, not always the long arm of the Federal Government.
    But keep in mind this bill covers 5 percent of the employers; 95 
percent of the employers and all those employees they employ are not 
covered in this act. And according to Investors Daily, which I read just 
a couple of days ago, 88 percent of the people he claims credit for were 
already covered in collective bargaining agreements or other agreements.
    We had family leave in our office. I'm certain--I see my friend 
Senator Mitchell. He had family leave. I work every day with people. I 
spent a lot of time in hospitals. I know what it's like to be in a 
hospital. Sure, we want family leave, but there's a better way to do it.
    The President. I only have 30 seconds. I can't fix the statistics. 
It covers the majority of the work force. Employers of under 50 are 
exempted. The bill originally covered employers of 25 and more, but 
because of opposition, we went up to 50. Senator Dole led the opposition 
to it. He filibustered it. He said it was a mistake. He said it would 
hurt the economy. We've had record numbers of new small businesses and 
10\1/2\ million jobs. It didn't hurt the economy. He still believes it's 
a mistake. I believe it was right. You can decide which of us you think 
are right. It's up to you.
    Mr. Lehrer. Next question for Senator Dole.
    This side. Yes, ma'am.

Domestic Manufacturing

    Q. Hi. My name is Bridget Gianotti, and I'm a wife and mother of two 
sons from Carlsbad. And my question for you, Senator Dole, is as the 
wife of a San Diego business owner, I see one of our biggest problems is 
the U.S. does not manufacture enough of our own products. How would you 
help this problem out?
    Senator Dole. Well, right, we've lost 357,000 manufacturing jobs. 
And the Bureau of Labor Statistics said today that they made a mistake, 
it's probably going to be a much, much higher figure. So we're talking 
about all these new jobs, we'd better wait and see what the results are.
    We're going to do that with a more aggressive trade policy. We're 
going to do that with an economic package. We're going to do that with 
regulatory reform. You know, regulations cost the average family--right 
here, Democrat or Republican--about $7,000 a year--7,000. It's like a 
tax. Put a lot of people out of business.
    I met a lady in Colorado Springs about 7 weeks ago, now. She had a 
small business with 63 employees. She finally gave it up. Why? Because 
of paperwork and regulation. Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction 
Act. The President exempts the IRS, which creates three-fourths of the 
paperwork.
    We're going to have regulatory--we're going to have litigation 
reform. You know, I fell off a platform out in California, in Chico, a 
while back. Before I hit the ground, my cell phone rang, and this trial 
lawyer says, ``I think we've got a case here.'' [Laughter] You know, 
we've got to stop some of these frivolous lawsuits. They're putting 
people out of business, men and women. Get the economy going, cut the 
capital gains rate, create more jobs and opportunities for everybody in 
America--that's what we will do, and my word is good. I keep my 
promises. I don't break my promises after the election, and I don't make 
new promises on an election year.
    We're going to get it done; we're going to grow some of these jobs 
in America because we need to get it. They're going the wrong way.
    The President. Let's look at the facts. We lost a lot of 
manufacturing jobs in the 12 years before I became President. We've 
gained manufacturing jobs since I've been President. We've negotiated 
over 200 separate trade agreements.
    Let's just take California. In California, we made $37 billion worth 
of telecommunications equipment eligible for exports for the first time. 
We're selling everything from telephones to CD's to rice in Japan. We're 
selling American automobiles in Japan now. I visited a Chrysler 
dealership in Japan. We're number one in automobile manufacturing, 
production, and sales around the world again for the first time since 
the 1970's. Why? Because we've had tough, aggressive trade policies, and 
because we got interest rates down, and we had a good, stable economic 
policy, because we've reduced the deficit 4 years in a row for the first 
time in the 20th

[[Page 1850]]

century that a President's done that in all 4 years.
    And that's why I don't want to see us blow a big hole in the deficit 
with a tax program we can't pay for so your interest rates will go up 
and you'll have to pay back in higher interest rates what you allegedly 
will get in a tax cut.
    So I say keep working on expanding the markets. More than half of 
these 10\1/2\ million new jobs were in higher wage areas, and we'll have 
more manufacturing and more sales at home and around the world.
    Senator Dole. Well, you may think the biggest employer in America is 
General Motors, but I've got news for you. It's manpower services, 
hiring people temporarily who've lost their jobs and they go to work for 
30 days or 60 days. That's a good economy? I don't think so. They're 
setting new records this year.
    We have the worst economy in a century. We have the slowest growth, 
about 2.5 percent. The President inherited a growth of over 5 percent. 
We don't have the S&L crisis anymore. Republicans have cut $53 billion 
in spending. That's why the budget can look good. It didn't look too 
good the first 2 years when we had a Democratic President and a 
Democratic Congress.
    Mr. Lehrer. The next question is for President Clinton. Yes, sir?

Gay Rights

    Q. I'm Bob Goldfarb. I'm a travel agent. And can you please explain 
your policy on the employment nondiscrimination act that would have 
prohibited discrimination, would have prohibited people from being fired 
from their jobs simply for being gay or lesbian?
    The President. I'm for it. That's my policy. I'm for it. I believe 
that any law-abiding taxpaying citizen who shows up in the morning and 
doesn't break the law and doesn't interfere with his or her neighbors 
ought to have the ability to work in our country and shouldn't be 
subject to unfair discrimination. I'm for it.
    Now, I have a little time left, so let me just say that I get 
attacked so many times on these questions it's hard to answer all those 
things. In February--Senator Dole just said we had the worst economy in 
a century. In February he said we had the best economy in 30 years--just 
February. And I don't want to respond in kind to all these things. I 
could; I could answer a lot of these things tit for tat. But I hope we 
can talk about what we're going to do in the future. No attack ever 
created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet. No 
insult ever cleaned up a toxic waste dump or helped an elderly person. 
Now, for 4 years that's what I've worked on. If you'll give me 4 years 
more, I'll work on it some more.
    And I'll try to answer these charges, but I prefer to emphasize 
direct answers to the future, and I gave you a direct answer.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole?
    Senator Dole. Well, I'm opposed to discrimination in any form, but 
I'm--but I don't favor creating special rights for any group. That would 
be my answer to this question. And I'm--you know, there'd be special 
rights for different groups in America, but I'm totally opposed to 
discrimination, don't have any policy against hiring anyone--whether 
it's lifestyle or whatever, we don't have any policy of that kind, never 
have had in my office, nor will we have in the future.
    But as far as special rights, I'm opposed to same-sex marriages, 
which the President signed well after midnight one morning, in the dark 
of night--he opposed it.
    But I'll get back to the economic package because again, I think 
this is very important. If there is anything that's going to change 
America, it's get the economy to grow. The President inherited a good 
economy--sure. The S&L crisis ended, we were selling assets, we had a 
Republican Congress cutting spending finally, and he says we've had the 
best 4 years ever. That's not true. We've had over 1.2 million 
bankruptcies--set a new record. Credit card debt has never been higher. 
I just told you about this manufacturing job loss which is going to 
increase.
    We need a good, strong economic package. Let the private sector 
create the jobs. And they can do it.
    Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President?
    The President. If you believe that the California economy was better 
in 1992 than it is today, you should vote for Bob Dole. I have worked so 
hard out here to help turn this economy around.
    Let me just give you one tiny example. In San Diego, where we had 
some defense cutbacks, we funded a project with the University of 
California, San Diego to use airplane composite materials to build 
lighter, stronger bridges--

[[Page 1851]]

a little project, and a program that Senator Dole opposed--and that 
composite now is going to be built around the bridges on the Santa 
Monica freeway to help minimize the impact of earthquakes and create 
more jobs. That's just one tiny example. Maybe we'll talk about some 
more before it's over.
    Mr. Lehrer. The next question is for Senator Dole and it's from this 
section.
    Yes, ma'am? Yes?

Health Care

    Q. Senator Dole, I am Verda Stratigus, and I work in health care. 
And it's truly an honor to be here tonight to address both of you.
    Senator Dole. Thank you.
    Q. Being in health care--we have talked a little bit about health 
care tonight, but mainly MediCal and Medicare have been mentioned, but 
the private sector is a problem. Managed care is taking over, especially 
in California, and because of that, the quality of care is going 
downhill. There are many, many people who cannot get the tests that they 
need when they need them. And because of that, they are dying 
needlessly. There are many, many more lawsuits being presented against 
the managed care industry because of this. And I think it's a real 
problem that needs to be addressed. What would you do if you were 
President?
    Senator Dole. Well, one thing I did was to oppose the Government 
takeover of health care that President Clinton offered in 1993, which 
created 17 new taxes and 50 new bureaucracies and price controls, 
because we were afraid the very thing you mentioned would have happened. 
Everybody would have been forced into managed care. You couldn't have 
chosen your own doctor. And that would have been the end.
    And I think right now we've got to go back--I know they've appointed 
a commission to take a look at managed care. Maybe that's part of the 
answer. But it seems to me, if we start to take choices away from people 
and if we drive them into one type care, if we eliminate fee-for-service 
altogether or eliminate the fact you can go to your own doctor, you've 
got to go somewhere else, then I think we've taken a giant step backward 
in the United States of America.
    We have the best health care delivery system in the world, and we 
want to keep it that way. That's why we opposed the Government takeover 
health care plan that President Clinton tried and tried and tried to get 
through Congress.
    Didn't get it done. When it ended up we had more votes than he had, 
then they decided to pull the plug. It was a big, big mistake. Now, 
whether or not he'll do that again, I've heard some of the people say, 
``Well, that's the model we ought to use.'' And if he's reelected, maybe 
he'll come back and try it again. I hope not. I hope not in both cases. 
But it does seem to me that you've raised a very important point that 
needs to be addressed. We're going to have to watch it, going to have to 
take a look at all the managed care going on in California, or we're 
going to end up losing our best care that we have in the world.
    The President. I'm just curious. How many of you are under managed 
care plans? Raise your hand if you're in managed care.
    Senator Dole. Probably the young people here.
    The President. How many of you like it? Well----
    Senator Dole. Two.
    The President. One of the things that I tried to do was to make sure 
that everybody in the country who was under a managed care plan should 
at least have three choices of plans and would have the right to get out 
without penalty every year. Now, that's not a Government takeover, 
that's like the family and medical leave law. It just tries to set the 
rules of the game.
    I'm strongly in favor of a Federal bill to repeal the--any gag rules 
on providers. In other words, I believe that doctors should not be able 
to be kicked out of managed care plans just because they tell the 
patients what they need and what more expensive care options might be.
    If we're saving money and managing resources better, that's a good 
thing. If we're saving money and depriving people of care, that's a bad 
thing. A good place to start is to say no managed care provider can gag 
a doctor and kick the doctor out of the managed care plan for the doctor 
telling the patient, ``You need a more expensive test, you need a more 
expensive procedure. Your health requires it.''
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole?
    Senator Dole. Well, I don't have any quarrel with that. I think that 
would help. But I think what we want to avoid is falling back into this 
nationalized health care system that President Clinton wanted to give us 
in 1993. If that isn't

[[Page 1852]]

a liberal idea, I've never heard one: 17 new taxes; price controls; 50 
new bureaucracies. We'd have that trouble all over America.
    We need to deal with managed care. It not only happened in 
California, it's happening in other States that we visit too. It's a 
national problem, not just a State problem.
    Mr. Lehrer. The next question is for President Clinton, and in this 
section. Yes, ma'am. Yes.

Participation in Electoral Process

    Q. All right, I'd sort of like to--Coleen O'Connor. I teach history 
and political science at San Diego Mesa College right up the road here. 
And I'd like to tee off from the original question by another teacher 
and speak for those people that aren't here tonight. Sixty-three percent 
of the American people are not participating, that are eligible to vote, 
not even participating in the process. Several parties can't even get 
into the debate: the Green Party, the Reform Party, the Natural Law 
Party. All of these people have basically opted out of what we're still 
participating in.
    And if we in fact are going to bring the country back together and 
be all faces around the table, the new American family, what do you see 
as something the President can do to begin that process to bring them 
back in?
    The President. First of all, I think it's important to make voting 
more accessible. That's why I strongly supported the motor voter law. 
There was a big story, I think, in USA Today about the millions of 
people who've now registered because of it.
    Secondly, I think we need to look at making the elections more 
accessible. You know, several States now are letting people vote over 3 
weeks. A lot of people are busy, and it's hard for them to just get 
there and vote.
    The third thing I think we need is more forums like this, which is 
one of the reasons I have so strongly supported campaign finance reform, 
because if you want to cut the cost of campaigns, you have to open the 
airwaves, because what drives the cost of a campaign are the costs of 
advertising on television, radio, newspaper, mass mailing. And if you 
open the airwaves to more things like this--you see, it's not just you 
that are participating here. For every one of you who stood up here and 
asked a question tonight, I promise you, there's 100,000 Americans that 
said, ``I wish I could have asked that question.''
    So I think we have to change the nature of politics. The last thing 
I think we should do is something I've been trying to do since I've been 
President, is every time I do something in a public way, I try to have a 
real American citizen there who is directly affected by it so that 
people can see the connection of what happens way across the country in 
Washington with more police on the street in San Diego, clean up the 
sewage here in San Diego, doubling the border guards here in southern 
California, that there is a connection between what we do way back there 
and what we do here.
    Those are my best ideas about it.
    Senator Dole. Well, I don't know of any perfect solution. I've been 
in politics for some time, and I worry about people who don't vote. And 
I wonder if it's our fault, the candidates' fault. People say ``I don't 
care. One vote doesn't make a difference.'' I can give you hundreds of 
cases--you can probably give me 200 cases where one vote made a 
difference. I know it made a lot of difference many times in the 
Congress. Campaign finance might help, might help contributions coming 
in from Indonesia or other foreign countries, rich people in those 
countries, and then being sent back after the L.A. Times discovers it--
$250,000.
    But maybe there ought to be more debates. I'd be willing to have 
another debate this year where we'd invite all of the candidates and 
talk about the economy. If we don't get the economy to grow, if we don't 
cut taxes, and give people child credits, and cut the capital gains 
rate, and get this economy growing, we're going to limp into the next 
century. If we grow the economy, it's going to help Social Security, 
it's going to help jobs, it's going to help everything.
    The President. Let me make one other suggestion. As you're a 
teacher, you can have an impact on that.
    One of the things I think that really frustrates people is that so 
often, political campaigns seem to be more about the politicians that 
are running than the people. Now, there is a connection, and I think 
what we have to do is convince people there's a big difference. If you 
vote one way, you will have a Department of Education in the 21st 
century; if you vote the other way, you won't. If you vote one way, 
you'll have an expansion of family leave; if you vote the other way, 
you'll be lucky to save it.
    But these are important questions, and people have to decide. I 
think that the American people

[[Page 1853]]

also need to be a little more responsible and think about whether 
there's a connection in their lives and what we do in Washington.
    Mr. Lehrer. For Senator Dole, in this section. On the back row, yes, 
ma'am.

Social Security and Alternatives

    Q. I'm Iris Seiffert, and I'm unemployed.
    Senator Dole. Iris?
    Q. Iris. Senator Dole, we talked about Social Security for us baby 
boomers, but shouldn't we be saving and investing for our own retirement 
as well? Are you planning any incentives to encourage us to take care of 
ourselves rather than to rely on the Government and on Social Security 
when we retire?
    Senator Dole. Well, we have in our economic pack individual 
retirement accounts where we think it'll encourage savings. You could 
also use those accounts for health care or education or a first home. 
We're doing that precisely. And I think one thing sooner or later we're 
going to have to consider is to take a look at the Social Security 
system, because we've got a lot of people advocating that, well, we 
don't want to put our money into Social Security. Now, you've got to be 
very careful about that, because you have to protect the people who are 
already in the pipeline. But it's something you might consider. I'm not 
suggesting it will be done, but at least we ought to look at it.
    It's been looked--when I was chairman of the Finance Committee, 
which handles Social Security, we looked at all these options, and one 
thing we've got to make certain--when I used to go home, my mother would 
tell me, ``All I've got is my Social Security; don't touch it.'' And we 
didn't touch it. We preserved it.
    And I'm an optimist. Your Social Security is going to be there when 
you retire. We'll fix it. It will probably happen in the year 2012 or 
2015. In 1983, we thought we had a 75-year fix. It didn't work--much, 
much less. But at least we fixed it for some time, and 37 to 40 million 
people get their checks on time.
    So we need to preserve the system, and we need to make it stronger. 
But we also need to look at some options whether or not we--it would 
depend on what the options are. In fact, they've got a commission right 
now in Congress, a bipartisan commission, looking at all the different 
options they're going to present to the next Congress. So I think we'll 
wait and see what they present, take a look at it.
    The President. This is one where we have some agreement, I think. 
Only about half the people in this country have pension plans, and 
Social Security is not enough for a lot of people to live on, or at 
least it's not enough for them to maintain anything like their previous 
lifestyle. So we've got to figure out how we're going to have more 
people with pension plans. And pension coverage has been declining as 
more and more people work for small businesses and fewer people work for 
big businesses.
    So what is in my plan--and I think it's almost identical to what's 
in Senator Dole's plan--is we make more people than are now eligible to 
save in an IRA, and we'd let couples--married couples save more, and 
then they could withdraw from it tax-free if they needed to for medical 
emergencies or to buy a home or for an education, but they could also 
save to supplement their retirement.
    In addition to that, we just passed a sweeping small business reform 
that makes it easier for small-business people to take out 401(k) plans 
for themselves and their employees and then much easier for employees to 
carry it from job to job. My best friend from grade school is a computer 
software salesman, and he told me last time he changed employers it took 
him 9 months to figure out how to transfer his 401(k) plan. Now, none of 
that will happen anymore. And so I hope that over the next 10 years 
you'll see a big increase in the percentage of people that have pension 
plans plus a secure Social Security System.
    Senator Dole. Did you say you're unemployed? The first thing we 
ought to do is get you a job. And that's the economic package again: 
Create jobs and opportunities, reduce the capital gains rate, reduce 
regulatory reform, stop some of this senseless litigation, and let 
people work in America. And I think that's the thrust we will make.
    Obviously, Social Security is a very important program. It'll be 
preserved--Democrats or Republicans. It'll be preserved. We want to make 
certain we protect those in the pipeline, just as we did back in 1983. 
And we did it on a bipartisan basis. We took it out of politics. People 
get so tired of politics. And we ought to do the same with Medicare. 
Maybe we could make a deal here tonight.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, the question is for President Clinton. Does 
anybody have a foreign affairs question in this section? Yes, sir.

[[Page 1854]]

Trade With Japan

    Q. Good evening. I'm Michael Smith. I'm an electronics technician in 
the Navy. My question was how you plan to deal with the trade deficit 
with Japan?
    The President. Let me tell you what we have done. We have concluded 
with Japan 21, about to be 22 trade agreements now. And since we did 
that, in the areas where we concluded trade agreements, our exports to 
Japan have gone up by 85 percent in the last 4 years, and our trade 
deficit with Japan has gone down. Until about 5 months ago, the Japanese 
economy was in a deep recession. It's coming back now, so they can buy 
even more American products, and I think it'll go down more.
    But I'm very--that's one of the real success stories here of the 
work we've done. We're selling Japanese rice from California for the 
first time. I visited a Chrysler dealership in Tokyo. I visited a Jeep 
plant, the oldest auto plant in America, in Toledo, Ohio, where they're 
going to export 41,000 right-hand-drive Jeeps this year, and they've got 
700 new jobs because of it.
    There is no easy way to do this. When you're dealing with an economy 
that's traditionally been more closed and one that's traditionally been 
more open, you just have to gut it out issue by issue by issue. We 
agreed in principle on our insurance agreement, and we're working on 
three or four other areas now. But the way you have to do it is make 
sure you're competitive--we're the most competitive country in the world 
now--and then just fight to open those markets and go try to make the 
sale. And that's what our trade ambassador, our Commerce Secretary, and 
all the other people in our administration have tried to do.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator?
    Senator Dole. Well, the bottom line is we've got to stop exporting 
jobs. We need to keep jobs here. I said there are 357,000 good jobs, 
manufacturing jobs, which were lost. And I assume some of those because 
of our trading partners; we didn't have access to their markets. We 
ought to insist on access. If we don't have access to their markets the 
same way they have access to our markets, we ought to say, ``Wait, 
that's enough. Time out. When you give us access, we'll give you 
access.''
    It's very hard to get into the Japanese market, as everybody knows. 
They want to get into our market. They sell a lot of automobiles here, 
create a lot of jobs--those who sell exports. And it's very important to 
the economy. But I think we want to make certain.
    I supported the President's trade policy, but we've got to be more 
aggressive. Once you have a policy, then you've got to go out and be 
aggressive and enforce that policy. There are American jobs that are 
being lost. This is what Ross Perot complains about. And I'd say to the 
Reform Party, take a look at the Republican Party. We're the reform 
party, and we're going to make things better. And one of the things 
we're going to do is stop exporting jobs in America.
    The President. Let me say again, we've had over 200 separate trade 
agreements in the last 4 years, by far the largest number in American 
history, not just the big ones you've read about but a lot of smaller 
ones. And now what we have to do is to focus on those things we're real 
good at and make sure we're getting a fair deal.
    We just had a pretty serious dispute with China because they were 
copying our CD's and costing thousands of jobs in places like 
California. But we said, ``You know, if you want to keep doing business 
and selling your products over here, you're going to have to quit 
pirating our CD's.'' And they agreed to do a number of things and to let 
us verify that they'd done it. But I think they're going to make the 
problem much better.
    But there is not a simple, easy answer. You just have to work on 
this day-in and day-out, every month, every year, every issue to make 
sure that we have not only free trade but fair trade. I'm proud that 
we're better off on that than we were 4 years ago.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, the next question is for Senator Dole, and 
it's in this section. Yes, sir.

Religion and Values

    Q. Ron Kite, minister.
    Senator Dole. Hi, Ron.
    Q. This great Nation has been established by the Founding Fathers, 
who possessed very strong Christian beliefs and godly principles. If 
elected President of the United States, what could you do to return this 
Nation to these basic principles? And also, do you feel that the office 
of the President has the responsibility to set the role example to 
inspire our young people?

[[Page 1855]]

    Senator Dole. Well, no doubt about it, our Founding Fathers had a 
great deal of wisdom. And in addition to what you mentioned, they also 
were concerned about this all-powerful central Government in Washington, 
DC, that would in effect confiscate your property. So I carry around in 
my pocket--I can't pull it out, I'd violate the rules--a copy of the 
10th amendment, which says that we ought to return power to the States 
and power to the people--people here. You ought to make more decisions.
    Honor, duty, and country: that's what America is all about. 
Certainly the President of the United States, in the highest office in 
the world, the most important office in the world, has a responsibility 
to young people, as we talked about earlier--to everyone, by example. 
And when it comes to public ethics, he has a responsibility. When you 
have 30-some in your administration who've either left or are being 
investigated or in jail or whatever, then you've got an ethical problem. 
It's public ethics--I'm not talking about private, we're talking about 
public ethics--when you have 900 files gathered up by some guy who was a 
bouncer in a bar and hired as a security officer to collect files. In 
Watergate, I know a person who went to jail for looking at one file, one 
FBI file. There are 900 sequestered in the White House--900--people like 
you. Why should they be rifling through your files?
    So the President has a great responsibility. And it's one that I 
understand and would certainly carry out.
    The President. This is the most religious great country in history, 
and yet, interestingly enough, we have the most religious freedom of any 
country in the world, including the freedom not to believe. And now we 
have all these people--just up the road in Los Angeles County we've got 
people from 150 different racial and ethnic groups, and they've got tons 
of different religions. But the fundamental tenets of virtually every 
religion are the same. And what I've tried to do is to support policies 
that would respect religion, and then help parents inculcate those 
values to their children. Let me very briefly give you some examples.
    One of my proudest moments was signing the Religious Freedom 
Restoration Act, which says the Government's got to bend over backwards 
before we interfere with religious practice. So I changed a Justice 
Department effort to get a church to pay back a man's tithe because he 
was bankrupt when he gave it.
    I've supported character education programs in our schools, drug-
free schools programs. I've supported giving parents a V-chip on their 
television so if they don't want their young kids to watch things they 
shouldn't watch, they wouldn't have to. That's the kind of thing we need 
to do, give people like you and our families the power to give those 
values to our children.
    Senator Dole. Well, I think it's--you know, before I came in 
tonight, my wife and daughter and I had a prayer because if it's God's 
will, whatever happens--if it's God's will, it will happen.
    A constitutional amendment for voluntary prayer in school in my view 
would be a great idea. I support it, and the President opposes it. I 
mean, it seems to me the President, whoever the President may be, this 
is one of his highest responsibilities. People look to the President of 
the United States more than any other person in America. And that's the 
way it's always been, and that's the way it always will be.
    Mr. Lehrer. All right, this is our last question. It goes to 
President Clinton, and it's from this section.
    Yes, ma'am?

``Special Rights''

    Q. My name is Evette Duby, and I too am a minister; I'm with the 
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
    President Clinton, perhaps you can help me with something tonight. 
I've heard Mr. Dole say several times, ``all of us together.'' And when 
he was asked if he would support equal rights in employment for gay and 
lesbian people, you said that you favored that, and he said that he did 
not believe in special rights. And I thought the question was equal 
rights for all people, and I don't understand why people are using the 
term ``special rights'' when the question is equal rights. Could you 
help me in understanding that?
    The President. I want to answer your question, but let me say one 
other thing. We don't need a constitutional amendment for kids to pray. 
And what I did was to have the Justice Department and the Education 
Department, for the first time ever, issue a set of guidelines that we 
gave to every school in America saying that children could not be 
interfered with in religious advocacy, when they were praying, when they

[[Page 1856]]

were doing whatever they could do under the Constitution just because 
they were on a public school grounds. And I think anyone who has 
experienced this would tell you that our administration has done more 
than any in 30 years to clarify the freedom of religion in the public 
square, including in the public schools.
    Now, I think I have to let Senator Dole speak for himself. It 
wouldn't be fair for me to do that. I would wind up--I mean, it's the 
last question, and I'd mischaracterize it to try to make you happy.
    Let me tell you what I feel. We have a lot of differences in our 
country, and some of us believe that other people's decisions are wrong, 
even immoral. But under our Constitution, if you show up tomorrow and 
obey the law, and you work hard, and you do what you are supposed to do, 
you're entitled to equal treatment. That's the way the system works.
    All over the world, people are being torn apart--Bosnia, the Middle 
East, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Burundi, you name it--because of all 
their differences. We still have some of that hatred inside us; you see 
it in the church burnings. And one of the things I've tried hardest to 
do is to tell the American people that we have to get beyond that, we 
have to understand that we're stronger when we unite around shared 
values instead of being divided by our differences.
    Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole?
    Senator Dole. Well, I hope I made my answer clear. I said I'm 
opposed to discrimination. You know, we've suffered discrimination in 
the disability community. There are 43 million of us. And I can recall 
cases where people would cross the street rather than meet somebody in a 
wheelchair.
    So we want to end discrimination. I think that answers itself. No 
discrimination in America. We've made that clear. And I would just say 
that it seems to me that that's the way it ought to be. We shouldn't 
discriminate--race, color, whatever, lifestyle, disability. This is 
America, and we're all proud of it. But we're not there yet. What we 
need is good, strong leadership going into the next century.
    I'm sorry we didn't have a foreign policy question, because just 
this week Secretary Christopher said, ``Well, we really didn't know much 
the first couple of years about foreign policy.'' Now, that was quite an 
admission. It underscores what I had to say in the Hartford debate, that 
there is really no foreign policy in this administration. It's sort of 
ad hoc: ``Whatever comes up, we'll deal with it.'' Unfortunately, we 
didn't have more questions on that.
    The President. Let me say again, there is no more important 
responsibility for the President than to say, ``If you believe in the 
Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, 
that's all we need to know. And you can be part of our America, and you 
can walk across that bridge to the 21st century with us.''
    And we are not well served when we attack each other in a kind of an 
ad hominem way. It doesn't create jobs. It doesn't educate children. It 
doesn't solve problems. We need to be disagreeing on ideas honestly and 
talking about the future. The future will be the greatest time in this 
country's history if we can beat this division that is bedeviling the 
whole rest of the world.

Closing Statements

    Mr. Lehrer. All right. Now we go to the closing statements. Senator 
Dole, you're first. Two minutes, sir.
    Senator Dole. Well, let me thank everybody here at the university, 
and Jim, thank you, all the people who may still be watching or viewing. 
This is what it's all about. It's not about me. It's not about President 
Clinton. It's about the process. It's about selecting a President of the 
United States.
    So we have our differences. We should have our differences. I 
mentioned other parties. They have their differences. If we all agreed, 
it'd be a pretty dull place. We should have more debates. Maybe we'll 
have another debate on the economy.
    But I would just say this: This is the highest honor that I have 
ever had in my life, to think that somebody from Russell, Kansas, 
somebody who grew up living in a basement apartment, somebody whose 
parents didn't finish high school, somebody who spent about 39 months in 
hospitals after World War II, somebody who uses a buttonhook every day 
to get dressed, somebody who understands that there are real Americans 
out there with real problems, whether soccer moms or the single parents 
or families working or seniors or people with disabilities, whoever it 
may be.
    But there are some very fundamental differences in this campaign. 
President Clinton opposes term limits. President Clinton opposes a

[[Page 1857]]

constitutional amendment to balance the budget. President Clinton 
opposes a voluntary prayer amendment. He opposes an amendment to protect 
the flag of the United States of America. People give their lives--a 
couple of servicemen here--they sacrifice, they give everything for 
America. We ought to protect the American flag with a constitutional 
amendment.
    But beyond that, we need to address the economy. And I would just 
say, with my time running out here, it's a very proud moment for me. And 
what I want the voters to do is to make a decision. And I want them to 
be proud of their vote in the years ahead, proud that they voted for the 
right candidate, proud that they voted, hopefully, for me.
    And I'll just make you one promise. My word is good. Democrats and 
Republicans have said Bob Dole's word is good. I keep my word. I promise 
you, the economy is going to get better, we're going to have a good 
economic package, and we're going into the next century a better 
America.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you, Jim. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, 
and all the people who are watching.
    One thing I'd like to say is I agree with what Senator Dole said. 
It's a remarkable thing in a country like ours that a man who grew up in 
Russell, Kansas, and one who was born to a widowed mother in Hope, 
Arkansas, could wind up running for President, could have a chance to 
serve as President. So the first thing I want to say is thank you for 
giving me the chance to be President.
    This election is about two different visions about how we should go 
into the 21st century. Would we be better off--as I believe--working 
together to give each other the tools we need to make the most of our 
God-given potential, or are we better off saying, ``You're on your 
own''? Would we be better off building that bridge to the future 
together so we can all walk across it, or saying, ``You can get across 
yourself''?
    If you don't leave this room with anything else tonight and if the 
people watching us don't leave with anything else, I hope you'll leave 
with this: This is a real important election. The world is changing 
dramatically in how we work and how we live, how we relate to each 
other--huge changes. And the decisions we make will have enormous 
practical consequences.
    So we've talked about our responsibilities tonight. I want to talk 
about your responsibility and your responsibility. Your responsibility 
is to show up on November 5th, because you're going to decide whether 
we're going to balance the budget now but protect Medicare, Medicaid, 
education, and the environment. You'll decide whether we're going to 
keep fighting crime with the Brady bill, the assault weapons, and finish 
putting those 100,000 police; whether we're going to move a million 
people from welfare to work; whether we're going to give our families 
more protection for their kids against drugs and tobacco and gangs and 
guns; whether we're going to give our children world-class education 
where every 8-year-old can read, every 12-year-old can log in on the 
Internet, every 18-year-old can go to college.
    If we do those things, we'll build that bridge to the 21st century, 
and the greatest country in history will be even greater.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Lehrer. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. President.
    This concludes--this is the last of the three 1996 Presidential and 
Vice Presidential debates.

Note: The debate began at 6 p.m. at the Shiley Theatre at the University 
of San Diego. In their remarks, the candidates referred to Chairman 
Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu of Israel.