[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[November 2, 1996]
[Pages 2027-2031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Little Rock, Arkansas
November 2, 1996

    The President. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, let me 
say it's good to be home, and thank you for coming out to say hello. I 
want to thank the Parkview High School Band, the Central High School 
Band, the Little Rock Community Choir. I want to thank all of those who 
are up here on the platform with me. I don't have everybody's name up 
here; I don't know if I can remember without eyes in the back of my 
head. I never needed eyes in the back of my head until I moved to 
Washington. [Laughter]
    I'm glad to be here today. I have just come from a great rally in 
front of the Alamo in San Antonio. And we were in El Paso, New Mexico, 
Arizona, Nevada, California on the day before that. I'm on my way back 
across the country, from here to New Orleans and then on to Florida. But 
I wanted to stop here just to be with you once before this election to 
say a special word of thanks to my good friend David Pryor for his 
lifetime of service to our State, to Congressman Ray Thornton for his 
lifetime of service and to wish him well on his new service on the 
Supreme Court. Thank you, Ray.
    I thank my good friend Dale Bumpers. Folks, I don't know what I'd 
have done in the last 4 years if it hadn't been for Dale and David up 
there keeping me sane in the tough times, standing up for you and for 
what was right, and never being intimidated by some of the most 
overbearing and destructive tactics I have ever seen coming from the 
other side.
    I want to thank Sharon Priest and Lottie Shackelford and Julia Peck 
Mobley and Gus Wingfield, Charlie Daniels, Mayor Dailey, Mayor Hays, 
Judge Villines. Thank you, Charlie Cole Chaffin, for running for 
lieutenant governor, and good luck to you. You were terrific. Bynum 
Gibson, my longtime friend Jimmy Lee Fisher, who was the coordinator of 
my campaign in the First Congressional District in 1978. We've been 
together a long time. Thank you, Jimmy Lee.
    I read an article in the paper today, our morning paper here, saying 
that if the past was any precedent, it might be a mixed blessing for 
Winston Bryant and Vic Snyder and Marion Berry and Ann Henry for me to 
be coming down here today, because Arkansas people didn't really like 
for the President to tell them how to vote. Well, I couldn't tell you 
how to vote when I was Governor; I don't know how I'm going to start 
now. [Laughter] It never occurred to me to tell you how to vote. I will 
say this: Since he asked me for it, I'm going to give Vic Snyder my vote 
on Tuesday. I'll be here, and I'll be proud to vote for him. And I'll be 
proud to vote for Winston Bryant, and I wish I could vote for Marion and 
Ann.
    Let me say to all of you, you ought to vote for yourselves, your 
children, and your future on Tuesday. But you need to understand that 
while all four of these people are friends of mine and I have worked 
with them and I know them very well, what you really should be voting on 
is what you want our country and this State to look like when we start 
that new century just 4 years from now.
    We're about to have a Presidential election for the last President 
of the 20th century and the first President of the 21st century. And the 
stakes could hardly be greater. We're actually very fortunate because 
not only are the consequences large but the choice is so clear.
    I really don't like a lot of what's happened in politics in the last 
several years. I don't like the fact that, especially when you get down 
toward the end and people get desperate, they think the only thing to do 
is to try to convince you that their opponent is no good. The truth is, 
since you all started me out 22 years ago, it has been my experience 
that most people who do the public's work are honest people, they work 
hard and they do what they think is right, virtually all the time--in 
both parties.

[[Page 2028]]

That's been my experience. And what I want to talk to you about today is 
that there are honest differences here. You know, I worked with 
Representative Hutchinson when he was in the State legislature; I liked 
him. We had a cordial relationship. Hillary and I send our prayers out 
to Tim and his wife for the welfare of their son. I know all of us feel 
that way, without regard to party. We ought to get away from this idea 
that we have to demonize our opponents in order to clarify our 
differences.
    This is--and I appreciate what Winston said about that, you know. 
But don't worry about me. Every time I get down I remember--when they 
start picking at me I remember what Mark Twain said about a dog. Mark 
Twain said, ``Every dog ought to have a few fleas''--[laughter]--``keeps 
him from worrying so much about being a dog.'' [Laughter] Some days I 
feel I have more fleas than I wish I did, but don't worry about that.
    Here's what the issue is, and you saw it in that budget fight we had 
when they shut the Government down and I vetoed the budget. This is 
about two different ways of looking at how we are as a people and how 
we're getting to the future. They believe that we're better off being on 
our own. And if we do good things together, that's fine. But it ought to 
basically be a question of letting everybody just go out there and do 
the best they can.
    I believe that we do better when we help each other to have the 
tools to make the most of our own lives. Every politician I ever knew 
would try to give a speech every now and then trying to convince you 
that he or she was born in a log cabin that they built themselves. 
[Laughter] But the truth is there's not a one of us standing here today 
who'd be here if it weren't for the help of some other people. And I 
believe America is better when we work together to give everybody the 
tools to live up to the fullest of their God-given ability to keep our 
country a strong force for peace and freedom and prosperity and to give 
us a chance to live together in one community. That's what I believe. 
And that's the difference.
    That's why the real issue is, should we say we're on our own, or 
should we build a bridge to the future we can all walk across together? 
That is the issue. That's the issue in all these Congress races. That's 
the issue in this Senate race. That is the issue.
    I think they believed what they were doing when they passed that 
budget. I think they thought it was a good thing to give people like me 
a tax cut even though I didn't need it and cut Medicare and Medicaid. 
Let me just say, those words may not mean much to people. What they 
tried to do was to end the standards for nursing home care that David 
Pryor spent his entire life working for. They thought that was an 
inappropriate thing for us to be doing together, saying that there's 
some things that every senior citizen in every nursing home in every 
place in America ought to know that they can get if the Government is 
paying, through the taxpayers' money, to put them in a nursing home. I 
think David Pryor was right and they were wrong.
    They wanted to take away the guarantee that we had given for 30 
years to middle class families who have family members with disabilities 
so they can care for them, they can live at home, they can work, and 
they can have a decent life. They wanted to forget about that guarantee. 
They wanted to take away the guarantee of health care we've given for 
poor women and their little infant babies. And I think it was wrong. 
They wanted to cut the student loan program, cut Head Start, paralyze 
our ability to protect the environment, clean air, and clean water. 
That's what they wanted to do, and I think they were wrong.
    But you have to decide whether they're right or not. I read all this 
stuff in the press about how Arkansas is, you know, more Republican or 
more Democrat, both parties are worried, and all that kind of stuff. Let 
me tell you, when I went up there 5 years ago and one month from 
tomorrow, when I announced for President here in Little Rock--I got a 
quote here of what I said--I said I wanted to go to Washington to do a 
better job of the old-fashioned work of confronting the real problems of 
real people and pointing the way to a better future: more opportunity, 
more responsibility, a stronger community.
    Well, 4 years ago, the rest of the country took me on faith. You 
were the only people that knew exactly what you were doing. [Laughter] 
The rest of them took a chance. The rest of them took a chance.
    But when you think about which approach works, when you think about 
Ann Henry, who's been our friend forever--she and her husband, Morris, 
hosted Hillary and I--our wedding re-


[[Page 2029]]

ception in their home, and I've been wondering how many votes it was 
going to cost them in the election. [Laughter] But they did a great 
thing for us, and we'll never forget it. When I think about Marion 
Berry--I don't know how many times that Dale and David and I have been 
in Marion Berry's home for the coon supper at Gillette, but he's been 
with us all the time. He did a superb job at the Agriculture Department. 
When I think about Vic Snyder and all the votes that he cast in the 
Arkansas State Senate to give our children a better future and our State 
a stronger economy and make our environment stronger; when I think about 
Winston Bryant and the work that he did as secretary of state, as 
lieutenant governor, as attorney general--all the work we did together, 
all those years that we worked together, and I realize that they believe 
in the approach. And now you know whether it worked or not.
    It's inconvenient for our friends in the Republican Party, but we do 
have 10.7 million more jobs than we did 4 years ago. It is inconvenient 
for them that this is a faster rate of job growth than under any 
Republican administration in 70 years. It's inconvenient. We have the 
lowest deficit of any great country in the world, the lowest it's been 
in America in 15 years; our average unemployment rate is the lowest it's 
been in 20 years; our average inflation rate is the lowest it's been in 
30 years; we've had the biggest decline in income inequality among 
working people in 27 years; the lowest rates of unemployment and 
inflation together, the so-called misery index, in 27 years. This 
approach is working. That's why you ought to send him to Congress; it is 
the right thing for America. We need to keep going on this track.
    We had 4 years of declining crime rates. The crime rate in America 
is at a 10-year low. There are 2 million fewer people, nearly, off 
welfare than there were 4 years ago. Child support collections in 
America are up 50 percent, $4 billion a year. This approach is working.
    Now, it's interesting to me that right before this Congress had to 
go home and face the voters, they all of a sudden decided they like my 
agenda. So now they're home running on the fact that even though they 
opposed it, finally we did raise the minimum wage for 10 million people; 
we passed a health care reform bill that says you can't have your health 
care taken away from you just because you changed jobs or somebody in 
your family has been sick; said the insurance companies can't kick 
mothers and their newborn babies out of the hospital after a day.
    Those were good things. It is a good thing. But that's what we 
should have been doing all along. And I'm telling you, this is not--and 
let me just say this: One thing it isn't, this race, it is not about 
conservative or liberal. The crime bill we passed had 100,000 police. It 
had the death penalty for drug kingpins and people that killed police 
officers. It has ``three strikes and you're out.'' It also had, as you 
know, the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. And they made a lot of 
hay out of that in Arkansas.
    Do you remember 2 years ago? Now, you know they were going around 
Arkansas saying, ``Oh, that Clinton's gone crazy. He went to Washington; 
now he's going to take your gun away.'' Well, it's been 2 years, and now 
we know there's not a single hunter in Arkansas that's lost a weapon, 
but 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers didn't get handguns because 
of the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban--don't need to be on the 
street in Little Rock. They don't need to be here.
    Now we know. So vote for yourselves, but this approach will work. 
There's still a lot of things we have to do. Your vote--don't be deluded 
here--there are huge consequences to your vote. What would America look 
like--Dale Bumpers is right--what would America look like if their 
budget had prevailed? If their budget had prevailed it would have been a 
clear message: ``You're on your own; we're going to be more divided. 
Those of us that are well-positioned, we're going to do better. And 
those who aren't, well, they'll do worse and it's just tough.''
    Now, that's what would have happened. And when they shut the 
Government down, they thought that Dale and David and Ray and I, they 
thought we'd wilt. They thought that the Democrats would just be 
miserable not having the Government open every day. They were even 
willing to bring us to the point of default, the people in that Congress 
were, to wreck all the economic progress we'd made because they thought 
we'd wilt. And you know what I told them? ``I'd a lot rather see the 
American people hurt for 20 or 30 days than for 20 or 30 years. You have 
at it; I'm not going to buy that budget. You can forget about it.''
    Now, you have to decide. But how you vote in these races will 
determine whether we do what I want to do, which is to balance the

[[Page 2030]]

budget and still protect Medicare and Medicaid and education and the 
environment, or adopt their scheme of an even bigger tax cut which would 
still raise taxes on 9 million of the hardest pressed working people in 
America and blow a hole in the deficit and require bigger cuts than the 
ones I vetoed. You have to decide.
    You have to decide whether we are going to continue to put 100,000 
police on the street. This is an amazing thing--you ask the mayors that 
are here; this is amazing. First they tried not to put 100,000 police on 
the street. Then they tried to do away with it in their budget. Then 
they tried to cut it back a third time. And I stopped them every time. 
I'd like to have somebody up there in Washington who believes in law 
enforcement and would like to make our streets safer. If we have 4 more 
years of declining crime, we might have every neighborhood, every 
street, every school, and every child in this country safe again. And 
that's what I want. And that's what they want. And I hope you'll give us 
a chance to do it.
    There's a lot more to do in health care. Our balanced budget plan 
has some things in health care reform that they'll never be able to do. 
But I turned it in, in a balanced budget plan: let families keep their 
health insurance for 6 months when they're between jobs, put another 
million children into the ranks of health-insured, free mammograms for 
women on Medicare, and a little help for respite care for the 1.7 
million families who are courageously helping to care for family members 
with Alzheimer's disease. These are important things. They won't do it, 
and we will. If you want that done, you better vote for them. That's 
what's at stake here.
    But let me say this: Of all the issues--and you know them well--the 
biggest issue before us involves these children here, and that's the 
question of education. What is their plan for education? Abolish the 
Department of Education. Do you really want that?
    Audience members. No-o-o!
    The President. Do you believe America can afford to be the only 
great country in the world to start the 21st century with no one even 
sitting at the President's Cabinet to speak for the children of America?
    Audience members. No-o-o!
    The President. That's their position. My position is hook every 
classroom in every rural school in Arkansas and every inner-city school 
up to that information superhighway and give those kids access to world-
class education, open the doors of college education to all Americans.
    You want to talk about a tax cut--the most important tax cut we 
could give is to let people deduct the cost of a typical community 
college tuition from their tax bill. That would open 2 more years of 
education to every American. Let people deduct $10,000 a year for 
college tuition at any college in America then every young person and 
every grownup who needs to go back to college could afford to go.
    That is the choice. And you just have to decide. And I'm telling 
you, when you go in there on Tuesday, when you talk to your friends and 
neighbors and you go back home--there are people here from all over this 
State, from all of our congressional districts--you tell them that it's 
exactly what is on the line here. Are we going to do this together, or 
are we going to be driven apart?
    You know, so much--when I left here I couldn't have known exactly 
what challenges would confront me as President, in terms of foreign 
policy especially. I'm grateful that the United States has been a force 
for peace. I'm grateful that we've been able to open new markets for 
American products and we're selling more American products than ever 
before. We're number one in auto production now for the first time since 
the 1970's. I'm glad we've been able to do these things.
    But it's amazing how much time I have to spend with people around 
the world doing things that we try to teach our children not to do. 
People all over the world--you look at the Middle East or Bosnia or 
Haiti or Northern Ireland or all those tribal wars in Africa and all 
this. What is this about? People hating each other because they're of 
different religions, different races, different ethnic groups, and 
different tribes. Everything you try to teach your kids not to do--you 
know, treat everybody with respect and define yourself in terms of what 
you believe, not who you can look down on. There are people all over the 
world now who are literally consumed with hatred for other people 
because they're in different groups.
    And if we get divided, that will happen more. That's why I spoke out 
so strongly against hating people who worked for the Federal Government 
after the tragedy in Oklahoma City. That's why when all these church 
burnings occurred, we got on it and we tried to stop it and we tried to 
get after it. And that's why I want you to

[[Page 2031]]

think about that, too. How long were we held back in this State because 
black people and white people couldn't get along? How long?
    Audience members.  Too long!
    The President. How long will we be held back in the 21st century if 
we say, ``We're not going to work together. I want mine; you get yours. 
There's the future; I hope you make it.'' Hillary was right, it does 
take a village to raise our kids and to build our future.
    The world is changing in ways you can't imagine. Arkansas will 
change in ways you can't imagine. No one can fully perceive the 
implications. When I became President, 3 million people were making a 
living in their homes. Today, because of computers, 12 million people 
are making a living in their homes. Four years from now, 30 million 
people will be making a living in their homes.
    In the last 4 years, we've found two genes that cause breast cancer, 
and if we're lucky, we may be able to find enough genetic information 
not only to cure breast cancer but to prevent it. We're using a lot of 
these satellite, sophisticated imaging technologies now to beam into 
bodies to see if we can find out what's wrong with people before any of 
their problems get out of hand. We just found out that we could make a 
laboratory animal with its spine severed have movement in its lower 
limbs by transferring the nerves from the legs to the spine. None of 
this has ever been done before. We're building a supercomputer, the 
Government is, with IBM that will do more calculations in one second 
than you can do on a hand-held calculator in 30,000 years.
    I'm telling you, the world is changing. And for us to go back to the 
old politics that the other side is preaching, trying to convince people 
that their opponents don't share American values, that they're aliens 
from outer space, that everything the Government ever did was wrong, is 
nuts.
    We have to stand up for a bright future. The best days of this 
country are still ahead. But we'll only achieve them--we will only 
achieve those days if we define carefully what we should do together. 
But I'll say again, it's not about liberal and conservative. I want you 
to tell your friends and neighbors this when you go home: We have 
reduced the size of the Government to its smallest size since Kennedy 
was President, more than the last two Republican administrations did. We 
eliminated more Government regulations and more Government programs than 
the two Republican administrations did. We privatized more Government 
operations than the two Republican administrations did. This is not 
about liberal or conservative. We have run by far the most fiscally 
conservative Government, and we've done more to stand against crime. And 
we've stuck up for this country in having a strong foreign policy.
    I think the record will stand on its own. This is not what that's 
about. This is about whether you're going to be diverted and divided, or 
whether we're going to find common ground and build that bridge to the 
21st century together. You've got enough sense to figure out how to talk 
to your friends and neighbors about that between now and Tuesday. Don't 
let the people of Arkansas be diverted from the real issue. This country 
is better off and this State's better off than it was 4 years ago. It's 
going to be better off 4 years from now if we stay on the right track to 
build that bridge to the 21st century.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 3:50 p.m. on the tarmac at Central Aviation 
Services at Adams Field. In his remarks, he referred to Sharon Priest, 
Arkansas secretary of state; Lottie Shackelford, vice chair for women's 
advocacy, Democratic National Committee; Julia Peck Mobley, first vice 
chair, and Bynum Gibson, chair, Arkansas Democratic Party; Gus 
Wingfield, State auditor; Charlie Daniels, State land commissioner; 
Mayor Jim Dailey of Little Rock; Mayor Patrick Henry Hays of North 
Little Rock; Buddy Villines, Pulaski County judge; Jimmy Lee Fisher, 
State treasurer; Winston Bryant, Arkansas senatorial candidate; and Vic 
Snyder, Marion Berry, and Ann Henry, candidates for Arkansas' Second, 
First, and Third Congressional Districts, respectively.