    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 2, 1997]
    [Pages 1484-1486]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Rally for Gubernatorial Candidate Jim McGreevey in Edison,
    New Jersey
    November 2, 1997

        Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have heard the
    radio spot I did for your next Governor, you know that I am not in very
    strong voice. I've been a little hoarse. But the subject of my speech is
    the last line of the radio address: I may have lost my voice, but you
    can find your voice on Tuesday, election day.
        I want to thank the people of New Jersey for being so good to me and
    to Al Gore in 1992 and in 1996. I thank the Members of your
    congressional delegation who are here who work with us every day,
    Congressmen Payne and Menendez, Pallone and Pascrell; and our good
    friend Congressman Harold Ford from Tennessee. I thank Barbara Buono,
    Senator Bryant, Chairman Giblin for helping in this campaign. I want to
    say a special word of thanks to your Senator, Senator Lautenberg, who
    did so much work on the balanced budget. And I want to thank Senator
    Torricelli for the work he did--for the work he has done on the balanced
    budget and the work he has done to stand up to the negative partisan
    attacks of the leaders of the other party. You should be very proud of
    both of them for what they have done.
        I'm glad to be back here at Middlesex. Hillary and I were here 3
    years ago. Since I came here, with the help of these Members in
    Congress, we passed a balanced budget which includes the HOPE
    scholarship, which is a $1,500 tax credit for the first 2 years of
    college so that every American can go on to a place like Middlesex. And
    I want to thank the students here for their engagement in community
    service, for their involvement in AmeriCorps. And especially I want to
    thank the volunteers in the America Reads program who are making sure
    our children can read.
        Now, this is an interesting Governor's race. As I said the last time
    I was here, Senator McGreevey, I don't get a vote in New Jersey, and he
    won't get a vote in Congress--why am I here? Why have two members of the
    Republican majority in Congress come here to campaign for the Governor
    in the last few days? Because it really matters in the world we're
    trying to create for the 21st century not only what we do in Washington
    but what happens in the State capitals.
        And so I say to you, in the last 2 days you should listen to what
    they say and how they voted. You listen to see what I say and what I've
    done. But when you sort it all out, you should vote based on what's best
    for you and your children and the future of New Jersey.
        This election is terribly important to me because the people of New
    Jersey are important to me, and because you can send a signal to the
    rest of the country about the direction that we have to take into the
    new century. You know, just remember what it was like 6 years ago when
    we started: the economy was in bad shape; the country was increasingly
    divided; the middle class felt like it was on the ropes and ignored; and
    we seemed to be drifting toward the future. Washington was dominated by
    exceedingly partisan debates and a lot of hot air rhetoric.
        And I said, I think we can do better. We can create a country where
    the American dream is alive for everybody responsible enough to work for
    it. We can create a country where we're coming together across the lines
    that divide us, not being driven apart as so many other people around
    the world are being driven. We can continue to lead the world for peace
    and prosperity. But we have to change, and we have to move forward.

    [[Page 1485]]

        And I've worked hard to do that. But what I want you to understand
    today is that everything we do in Washington depends upon whether it is
    supported, implemented, and added to in State after State after State
    for its ultimate success.
        I've worked so hard to get this country out of debt. You know, the
    deficit of this country was so bad when I took office, we had quadrupled
    the debt of the country in the 12 years before I became President, over
    the previous 200--increased 4 times. And I said we're going to reduce
    the deficit, we're going to balance the budget, but we're going to
    invest more money in the education and health care and environmental
    protection of our country so that we can have a better country.
        We took some tough votes. When Senator Lautenberg and then-
    Congressman Torricelli and the other Members of the House, they stood up
    and voted for our economic plan in 1993, they were excoriated, and the
    people who are here campaigning against Senator McGreevey said we were
    going to bring the economy down. The people who are here from Washington
    campaigning against him said our economic policy would be a disaster.
    Well, we've had 4 years of experience. They were wrong, and we were
    right. And we're right about this race, too.
        They said they were tough on crime. I said, let's show it. Let's
    punish the people that ought to be punished and spend more effort trying
    to prevent our kids from getting into trouble in the first place and
    support the police--and support the police with 100,000 more police and
    the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Their party was overwhelming
    against these measures. And now we've had 4 years to know whether they
    were right and we were wrong--and we know: Crime just keeps coming down.
    Our approach was right. We were right; they were wrong. And we're right
    about this race, too.
        On the environment, New Jersey is a State that has shown time and
    again it is passionately committed to cleaning up the environment and
    preserving it. They said, ``We don't have time to reauthorize the
    Superfund.'' They said, ``We have to relax our environmental laws
    because it's too hard on the economy.'' They said, ``It's just too much
    trouble; we're going to relax all these laws.'' I said no, no, we're
    going to have cleaner water, cleaner air, clean up more toxic waste
    sites, and grow the economy--and grow the economy.
        We've had a test now--4 years of experience we have--and we stopped
    the contract on America and its assault on the environment. And we know
    now--after 13 million jobs, the last quarter the lowest inflation in
    over 30 years, the best growth picture in a generation--we know our
    ideas are right and theirs are wrong. We know. You don't have to guess
    anymore.
        And so I say, what's that got to do with the Governorship of New
    Jersey? Plenty. Let me tell you, folks, I was a Governor for 12 years--
    and on the hard days in Washington I think it was still the best job I
    ever had. [Laughter] And let me tell you exactly what it has to do,
    based on 12 long, good years. Number one, our economic policies of
    getting this country out of debt won't work in States that get
    themselves in debt. You have to have fiscal responsibility in Washington
    and at the State capital in New Jersey. You have to do it together.
        Number two, we have to be partners. We can't restore middle class
    values, middle class lifestyles, and a future for our children by
    providing sensible tax relief and a strong economy if you have to deal
    with the problems that you have here in New Jersey with the car
    insurance rates and the property tax. We have to work together to
    rebuild the lives of ordinary American families in New Jersey.
        Number three--and these are very specific--education. We're doing
    everything we can to hook up all our classrooms and libraries to the
    Internet, to open the doors of college to all, to provide more choices
    in schools, to provide more excitement and innovation and reform, and
    most importantly, as Jim McGreevey said, to raise standards. But the
    work, the day-to-day work in education, and the money comes at the State
    and local level. Everything we are trying to do in Washington can
    quickly be undermined unless you have a passionate believer that every
    child can learn, is entitled to the world-class education that every
    child needs.
        Child health--10 million children in this country and tens of
    thousands in New Jersey live in working families without health
    insurance. We passed a bill to provide health insurance to 5 million of
    those kids as part of the balanced budget. But the plans have to be
    devised by the State. I trust Jim McGreevey to work with us to insure
    the children of New Jersey.

    [[Page 1486]]

        Welfare reform--we have reduced the welfare rolls by over 3 million,
    but we have a lot of work still to do. They said, just cut people off. I
    said, make people who can work, work; but remember, everyone's most
    important job is being a good parent. Provide the child care, provide
    the support; then require people to work. Our plan is working. But it
    has to be implemented by the States. I trust Jim McGreevey to help us
    drive the welfare rolls down more, in ways that support being strong for
    work but good to the children of this State. And it's a big issue for
    you.
        Finally, in the last few months, Hillary and I have had two
    conferences in Washington about young children, preschool children--one
    on the development of children's brains, in which we discovered that an
    enormous amount of the capacity all of us have as adults was developed
    in our first 4 years of life; in which we discovered that if a child has
    loving and supportive parents and a good child care environment, they'll
    get about 700,000 positive interactions in their first 4 years, but if a
    child lives in either a home or is in a child care center or both where
    the children are not being stimulated, they might get as few as 150,000
    supportive interactions in the most important period of a child's life.
        Then we had this child care conference in which we discovered that
    some families are spending up to 25 percent of their income on child
    care; that some of our best educated child care workers are more poorly
    paid than some of our rudimentary workers in our society; and that we
    are simply not doing enough.
        Now, I want to design a system in this country by the time I leave
    office where I can have confidence that people can succeed at home and
    at work, and no one has to sacrifice being a good parent to do their
    job. I want to see--I'm telling you, we have to balance the budget, we
    have to run a stronger economy. We cannot afford to do the whole job at
    the national level. It will have to be done in partnership, partnership
    with private companies, partnership with the States. I trust Jim
    McGreevey to care about the children of the working families of the
    State of New Jersey.
        So that's about it, folks. [Laughter] I want you to understand this
    is not about me, or about my Republican congressional friends who are in
    here campaigning for the Governor. This is not about Washington or about
    what the pundits will say. Only one thing matters: Is it good for you
    and your children and the future of this State?
        But I can tell you, based on 12 years as Governor, almost 5 years as
    President, and the things that I have seen work and my passionate
    commitment to the future of this country, you can trust Jim McGreevey to
    fight for that future as Governor.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:10 p.m. in the gymnasium at Middlesex
    County Community College. In his remarks, he referred to State
    Assemblywoman Barbara Buono; State Senator Wayne R. Bryant; Tom Giblin,
    State Democratic chair; and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.