[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 30 (Monday, August 1, 1994)]
[Pages 1561-1565]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Fourth Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

July 27, 1994

    The President. Thank you very much. It is wonderful to see this sea 
of Americans here at the White House today. Senator Harkin and I were 
back there talking, and he was beaming because he had so much to do with 
the ADA. And I was listening to the First Lady and to Tipper and to the 
Vice President give their fine speeches, and they were all so good, I 
was wishing I could just sit there and not have to say anything--
[laughter]--enjoy the day and welcome you here.
    I thank especially the Members of Congress who are here: Congressman 
Hoyer, Congressman Fish, Congressman Major Owens, and Congressman 
Goodling. Thank you for being here, sirs. Two who are not here because 
they're on the Hill working, I want to mention, Senator Kennedy and 
Congressman Jack Brooks who worked so hard on this. I thank former 
Congressman Tony Coelho who's done a magnificent job as Chair of the 
President's Committee on Employment of People with Disability. I thank 
all the people who are here on this stage. And I want to say something 
today about the spirit of bipartisanship. I will say more later, but I 
would remind you that it would be wrong for the day to go by without 
pointing out that this bill was signed into law by my Republican 
predecessor, President Bush, and I thank him for doing that.
    I'd also like to introduce three young people from Gallaudet 
University who are here who are part of one of our administration's most 
important initiatives and an illustration of why we have to keep working 
to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. They are Jennifer 
Nasukiewicz, Amy Hopkins, and Madelaine Frederickson. I would ask them 
to stand. [Applause] They are completing their training to be 
participants in the first class of our national service program, 
AmeriCorps. Beginning this September, they will be part of 20,000 young 
Americans who will be working to help to reclaim our sense of national 
community. They'll be working to help reclaim the natural beauty of the 
Chesapeake Bay. And together, they'll be working to revolutionize our 
sense of what we can do together. And in return, they'll get a little 
bit of help to continue their education.
    You know, as the Vice President said, when we went across this 
country and sought the opportunity to serve here, our slogan was, 
``Putting People First.'' What that meant to me was pretty simple as we 
hurtle toward the next century. As we come to the end of the cold war, 
we owe it to our people to do some basic things: first of all, to try to 
create a world of greater peace and prosperity; that's what we've been 
about here the last 2 days with the King of Jordan and the Prime 
Minister of Israel; second, to restore the American economy; third, to 
rebuild our American community with stronger commu- 

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nity, stronger families; fourth, to empower all Americans to live to the 
fullest of their God-given abilities and to expect them to assume the 
responsibility to do so.
    We are at a moment in history when our values, what we believe is 
morally right, and our interests, what is clearly good for us in a 
tangible material way, are one. We do not have a person to waste, and 
that is why we are here today to rededicate ourselves to an America 
where every man, woman, and child can reach the fullest of their God-
given potential.
    Like every civil rights law in our history, the Americans with 
Disabilities Act is just that. It's about potential; it is not a 
handout. It stands for what's best in our heritage, empowering Americans 
to build better lives for themselves. And that tradition, I pledge as 
your President, to see that this Act is fully implemented and 
aggressively enforced in our schools, our workplaces, in government, and 
in public places for the benefit of all persons with disabilities, the 
blind and visually impaired, the deaf and hard of hearing, persons with 
mental retardation, persons with mental illness, persons who are 
mobility-impaired, all people who have problems that can be overcome. 
That's what this Act is about.
    We must move from exclusion to inclusion, from dependence to 
independence, from paternalism to empowerment. Your future and the 
future of those whom you represent is at the heart of my vision for 
America. In every aspect, consider this: If our goals here at home are 
to restore our economy, to rebuild our American communities, and to 
empower individuals, how can we achieve them unless you are part of all 
of them? Look at the progress which has been made and look at where we 
have to go.
    In the last 18 months, we have passed a bill cutting the deficit by 
record amounts, reducing the Federal Government to its smallest point 
since John Kennedy was President, having 3 years of deficit reduction 
for the first time since Harry Truman was President, and it's produced 
3.8 million jobs and a 1.5 percent drop in the unemployment rate. But 
we've got a long way to go.
    We've got a long way to go because millions of Americans with 
disabilities could be working and contributing if this society opened it 
to them. We are working up here to strengthen our American community. 
Congressman Brooks today is back in the Congress working on the crime 
bill, which will put more police officers on our streets and ban assault 
weapons and toughen sentences, but also give our children something to 
say yes to. There are billions of dollars there to invest in programs to 
get kids out of trouble before they are too far gone. It will rebuild 
our American community. But how can we be a community if millions of you 
are isolated from our common life and our common purposes? We can never 
be an American community.
    The Secretary of Education is working to implement the most 
important empowerment agenda of all. Along with the Department of Health 
and Human Services and others, we are trying to implement a lifetime 
education system starting with Head Start for all children who need it 
and going through lifetime learning for people when they change jobs in 
the workplace. But how can this work unless you are part of the 
empowerment agenda of America, we will never be fully empowered.
    So, I say to you, if our job is to put people first, to rebuild the 
economy, to strengthen our communities, to empower our people, we cannot 
do that job unless you walk every step or ride every step or get there 
however you can. We need you, and without you we cannot do it.
    In this global economy, as the Secretary of Labor never tires of 
telling me, the only thing we have that nobody can take away from us is 
the mind and the heart and spirit of our people. That's good news. It 
means the mind of our people and the spirit of our people can be used 
sometimes without lifting large weights or doing great physical labor. 
It means we can open the possibility of employment to more people. But 
it also means if we really want to win for all Americans, we must 
believe and act on the premise that we do not have a person to waste.
    When I was first elected Governor--it seems like 100 years ago now--
but back in the late seventies before the Americans with Disabilities 
Act came along, of the 50 or so people that worked in my office, three 
were

[[Page 1563]]

blind. I got to the point where I didn't notice because they were just 
great employees. It struck me as crazy for them not to be part of a work 
force they could contribute to. Today I have had the honor of appointing 
44 outstanding people with disabilities to important jobs in our 
Government, including Judy Heumann who's here with me today, the 
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education. She had to 
fight for her first job as a teacher. She's fought for disability rights 
for her entire life. Now she's fighting for the future of every child in 
America. I say that to make this point: We have not appointed a single, 
solitary person because of their disability. They have all been 
appointed because of their ability to serve the American people.
    Why is this health care issue so important to this agenda? There are 
many reasons. We're the only country in the world that's going backwards 
in health care coverage with an advanced economy. A few years ago, 88 
percent of our people were covered; now we're down to 83 percent. In the 
last 5 years alone, over 5 million Americans have lost their health 
insurance coverage. That is very troubling. We're spending too much 
money to get too little, throwing billions of dollars away on paperwork 
and bureaucracy every year so that we don't have the money we need. Look 
at this Cabinet behind me--to fight drugs, to take care of veterans' 
health care needs, to build a transportation network for the 21st 
century, to spend on education and training programs, to spend on the 
needs of the poor and to fight crime. That's just the Cabinet members 
behind me. Why? Because we are holding all spending flat while health 
care spending explodes--not for new health care, more money for the same 
health care.
    But most of all, it is a human problem. The other day in western 
Pennsylvania, I was introduced by two women: one, a mother of five 
children who had become ill and she and her husband lost their health 
insurance and all their children; the other, a 62-year-old woman who had 
been a dairy farmer all of her life; 7-day-a-week work--no slacking in 
that business--and she finally had lost her health insurance at the time 
in her life when she needed it most. And if you look out at this sea of 
people and all those whom you represent, the fact that the health 
insurance system of America discriminates against millions of people 
because of their disabilities or because they have had serious illnesses 
or because they are too old when they switch jobs or when their employer 
gets in trouble, and the fact that it is wildly discriminatory against 
small business, which is creating most of the new jobs in this country 
but paying 30 or 40 percent more for health insurance than those of us 
in Government or working for big businesses do--all these things are 
keeping us from putting every person's talents to use; and especially, 
especially, the disabled Americans who could be in the work force if 
their employers could afford to provide them health insurance.
    The people who fought for the Americans with Disabilities Act 
understood that. They originally had health care reform in the Act, and 
it had to be dropped, because they knew that this bill would be delayed 
for years if it had to deal with the difficult and complicated and 
politically explosive issue of health care reform. But I tell you, my 
fellow Americans, now is the time to act and to go forward and to finish 
the work that was done in the beginning 6 years ago.
    Audience members. Now! Now! Now!
    The President. Now is the time.
    Audience members. Now! Now! Now!
    The President. There are those who say, ``Well, we can just reform 
the insurance laws and say everybody's entitled to insurance and 
everybody's entitled to take it from job to job and subsidize the poor 
more.'' Let me tell you, if we do that, we will cut Medicare for the 
elderly. We'll do a little more for the poor in the short run; we'll do 
nothing to help people be part of the working middle class because what 
will happen is insurance premiums will go up, coverage will go down, 
small businesses on the margin will stop covering, and people who wish 
to be part of the working middle class will have fewer, not more, 
opportunities to work and live to the fullest of their capacities.
    We do not want to create a system where the only way you can have 
health care is if you are poor and go on welfare, if you go to jail, if 
you go to work for a big employer or the Government, or you are wealthy. 
We

[[Page 1564]]

want a system that covers everybody so you can be what you want to be.
    Let me tell you that for over a year--and in my case, as a citizen 
of this country and when I was a Governor for now more than 4 years--we 
have pursued every avenue; we have examined all evidence; we have 
solicited every suggestion for how to provide this kind of opportunity 
and security for all Americans. I have seen no one yet who has come up 
with a better idea than shared responsibility between employers and 
employees for private health insurance in our private health care 
system. It already works for most families; that's the way most families 
are covered. And in the State of Hawaii, it works for all families. In 
Hawaii, for 20 years, there's been a requirement for shared 
responsibility for private insurance between employers and employees.
    And whenever I bring this up, people say, ``Well, yes Mr. President, 
but in Hawaii, everybody goes there because they want a vacation. It's 
sunny and people are healthier there. Everything is more expensive 
there, so what difference does it make if health insurance is more 
expensive? Everything costs more.''
    Look at the facts. First of all, 20 percent of the people in the 
health system in Hawaii are poor native islanders. Secondly, health 
insurance is the only thing in Hawaii that is not more expensive than 
anyplace else in America. It's 30 percent cheaper for small businesses 
than the average cost of health insurance in America because everybody 
pays and no one avoids their responsibility. And the people are 
healthier because they have primary and preventive care like the First 
Lady was talking about.
    As has been pointed out, somewhat embarrassingly to them, there are 
many American companies now in the forefront of the fight against 
universal coverage who provide coverage to all their employees when they 
open businesses in other countries, and they do just fine. And they can 
do just fine here, too.
    What is different about this moment in history? Well, I'll tell you 
what's different: For the first time ever, you have the American Medical 
Association----
    Audience member. You're here.
    The President. Thank you. Thank you. Somebody was whispering, 
``What's different at this moment in history is the President's crazy 
enough to take on this fight.'' [Laughter]
    No, what is different? This time the American Medical Association, 
the American Association of Family Practice, the pediatricians, the 
American Nurses Association, the medical schools of the United States, 
the American Association of Retired People, the AFL-CIO and an 
association literally, literally, of hundreds of thousands of small 
businesses and many of the biggest businesses in the country, as well as 
a majority of the American people, all have agreed that the best way to 
do this is to have employers and employees share the responsibility for 
buying private insurance.
    Now, how are we going to do it? Let me say that I desperately want a 
bipartisan bill. I have reached out to members of the other party; this 
bill passed with a bipartisan majority. At one point, two dozen 
Republican Senators supported Senator Chafee's bill for universal 
coverage. But every time I have reached out, they have moved further 
away. I feel like I keep reaching out. I wish we were in a car, and they 
would eventually run up against the door and have to come back to my 
way--[laughter]--because I keep reaching out.
    Let me say that 22 years ago--22 years ago--a Republican President, 
Richard Nixon, and one of the incumbent Republican Senators from Oregon, 
Robert Packwood, offered a bill to require employers and employees to 
share the responsibility for private health insurance. If it was a good 
idea 22 years ago, it is a better idea today when things have gotten 
more difficult in terms of cost and coverage, and we ought to do it.
    Now, let me say--you heard the Vice President with that quote from 
the Republican consultants say, ``Let's send them home emptyhanded.'' 
We've done that a lot, you know. We've done that a lot. It took 5 years 
to pass the ADA. When I showed up in town here, it had taken 7 years 
until we could finally pass the Brady bill last year--7 years--7 years; 
7 years until we could finally pass the family and medical leave law 
last year--very important to you; 7 years until we could

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finally get the worldwide trade agreement that will add a half a million 
jobs in America between now and the end of the decade. A lot of times, 
if you want bipartisan consensus on a tough issue, it takes forever. But 
I tell you, we dare not wait longer. For 60 years, Presidents of both 
parties have known we should cover all Americans. We now see health care 
costs going up, and the only Government spending going up is in health 
care while we are desperately trying to bring this deficit down and 
invest in our future. And we know that in only 5 years, 5 million 
Americans have lost their coverage.
    We are at an historic moment. For the first time ever, there are 
bills on the floor of both Houses of the Congress that will give 
Americans health care. We must say we don't care about politics. There 
are Democrats and Republicans and independents in this audience. There 
are people here today who voted for all three people who ran for 
President last time. I do not give a rip what your politics are, but I 
do want you to have health care so you can contribute to America's 
future.
    Audience members. Health care now! Health care now! Health care now!
    The President. That's right. Let me say this, I love these chants, 
but this is what often happens in our society: We're all here preaching 
to the saved. And I ask you--I ask you to go to the Congress with a 
simple message, and to go back home to your communities with a simple 
message. Let us discard politics. Let us put people first, and let our 
focus be simply this: What will work.
    I have no pride of authorship. Nothing would please me more than if 
somebody else's name, 100 names, 400 names, 500 names in both Houses of 
Congress would be on a health care bill, but we dare not do something 
which holds out false hopes. Let's do what works. Let's complete the 
work of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Let's say to the whole 
world, this is one country that knows we don't have a person to waste, 
and we're going into the next century with all of our people, arm-in-
arm.
    God bless you. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:08 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House.