    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [May 22, 1997]
    [Pages 652-653]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Clarksburg Area Community in Bridgeport, West Virginia
    May 22, 1997

        Thank you, West Virginia. Thank you for coming out today. It's
    wonderful; thank you. I want to thank Governor Underwood and my former
    colleague and good friend Governor Caperton, Mayor Furbee, Mayor Flynn,
    Secretary of State Hechler, Attorney General McGraw, Treasurer Perdue,
    Auditor Gainer, your Agriculture Secretary Douglass, and to the speaker
    of the house, the president of the senate, the majority leader of the
    senate, and all of the people who are here who made my stay in West
    Virginia so wonderful today.
        I have to tell you, I have had a terrific time. The townhall meeting
    on education we had at Robert Byrd High School was a wonderful testament
    to the dedication to education and excellence and opportunity for every
    child of the people of West Virginia. And I hope all of you get a chance
    to see the program and that you're as proud of the people from your
    State as I was today when we did it. It was an amazing event, and we
    thank you.
        I'd also like to thank Mary Frances Smith for singing the national
    anthem. I thank the ROTC unit and the band from Robert Byrd High School,
    thank you; the Lincoln High School Young Professionals; and all the
    others who came here today to make this rally a success.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I will be very brief. I want to take a little
    time to get out here and shake a few more hands. But I came here today
    with a simple message. First, I want to thank the people of West
    Virginia for twice placing their confidence in me in giving me the
    chance to serve as President of the United States.
        Second, I want to say that our country is moving in the right
    direction. And we can be proud of that, but we have more to do. If you
    compare where we are now to where we were 4 years ago, we have a record
    12 million new jobs and, nationally, the lowest unemployment rate in 24
    years, the lowest inflation rate in 30 years, and the biggest decline in
    inequality among working Americans in more than 30 years. I'm proud of
    that, and you should be too.
        The crime rate has been going down every year. The welfare rolls
    have dropped by the largest amount in 50 years in the last 4 years. We
    are moving in the right direction, and we're coming together as a
    country. But you and I know that in the world we're moving into, where
    information travels around the world in the flash of a second, where the
    borders of countries no longer can protect us from common problems like
    terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and no longer can keep us from
    opportunities unimagined just a few years ago--we know that if West
    Virginia, if every little hill and hollow in this State and every child
    growing up in this State is going to have an opportunity to make the
    most of the 21st century, a new century in a whole new millennium, it
    will depend more than anything else on whether we can give every child
    in West Virginia a world class education, on whether every 8-year-old
    can

    [[Page 653]]

    read well, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, every 18-year-
    old, without regard to their family's income, who's willing to work for
    it, can go on to college, every single one of them who wants to go. It
    will depend upon whether every adult can keep on learning for a
    lifetime.
        These are the things that are driving my administration in these 4
    years. We are about to conclude debate in the Senate today on a balanced
    budget amendment that will give our country the first balanced budget
    we've had since the 1960's. And it's high time, and I'm proud of it. But
    I want to say to you that the deficit has already been cut by more than
    75 percent, thanks to the work that Senator Byrd and Senator
    Rockefeller, Congressman Mollohan and Congressman Rahall did back in
    1993. Now, we're going to finish the job, and we're also going to
    increase our investment in education, even as we cut the deficit,
    because we want to fix the deficit today but fix the future of the young
    people of this country and this State for tomorrow.
        So let me say, today I was deeply touched--the drive from here to
    the high school--to see all the people along the way. I stopped a couple
    of times to say hello to the children coming back and it made us a
    little late and I hope you'll forgive us. But there were thousands of
    people along the way, all of you here--it makes me very happy
    personally, but more than that, as your President, it makes me happy to
    see you supporting the future of this country and the future of our
    children.
        So I ask you this. You gave me a chance to serve again; now let's
    get behind a common goal: to raise our standards to the highest in the
    world in education and to believe that every one of our children can
    learn and to commit ourselves to a future more brilliant than our
    glorious past and to know that the way we're going to do it is one child
    at a time. I'll do my part. You do yours, and we'll all be celebrating
    when 2000 rolls around.
        God bless you, and thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:05 p.m. at Benedum Airport. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gaston Caperton, former West Virginia Governor;
    Mayor Carl E. Furbee of Bridgeport; Mayor Robert T. Flynn of Clarksburg;
    West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler; State Attorney General
    Darrell McGraw, Jr.; State Treasurer John Perdue; State Auditor Glen
    Gainer III; State Agriculture Secretary Gus Douglass; Speaker of the
    House of Delegates Robert Kiss; State Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin;
    State Senate Majority Leader H. Truman Chafin; and Mary Frances Smith,
    who sang the national anthem.