[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 44 (Monday, November 7, 1994)]
[Pages 2205-2207]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Interview With Don Lancer of KYW Radio, Philadelphia

October 31, 1994

    Mr. Lancer. Good afternoon, Mr. Clinton.
    The President. Hello, Don.
    Mr. Lancer. Can you hear me?
    The President. I can hear you fine. Can you hear me?
    Mr. Lancer. Can you hear me, Mr. Clinton?
    The President. Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me?

Midterm Elections

    Mr. Lancer. Yes. Good afternoon. You're in the State, ostensibly, to 
help Harris Wofford win election to a full term. He replaced John Heinz 
in a special election a couple of years ago, and he went to Washington 
on the matter of national health care, which we all know did not make it 
through the Congress this year. Polls have shown overall that the 
Democrats are not going to do that well in the election, come one week 
from tomorrow on the 8th. What's the reason for that? Why is it voters 
look so poorly on your party and its candidates right now?
    The President. Well, first let me say I think the surveys all show 
that our prospects are looking up. But I think what happened was two 
things. There is a lag time between when you accomplish something in 
Washington and when people feel it in their own lives. There are still a 
lot of voters who have jobs, but they're worried about whether they'll 
lose them or they'll lose their health care or will they ever get a 
raise. It's a tough, fast-changing global economy, and a lot of people 
feel personally insecure. There are also a lot of people who are worried 
about crime and social breakdown. The other big problem is, when 
Congress is meeting and the Republicans are trying to kill everything, 
delay everything, talk everything to death, all of the focus is on 
conflict, process, failure. The American people don't know what's 
happened.
    Now when the Congress has gone home for the last 2 or 3 weeks, you 
can sense a real movement out there. People sense that they've got a 
real fundamental choice here. If you look at Pennsylvania--you heard the 
quote there--we've had 86,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania. The economy is 
growing; the deficit is down. We've done things that the Congress had 
refused to address for years and years. We passed the family leave law 
to protect working people who have to take time off. We passed a law to 
expand Head Start, one to immunize children, one to give tax cuts for 
working families on modest incomes that have children in the home so 
they'll never be in poverty. We're making the Government work for 
ordinary people again. And we've expanded trade and promoted peace and 
security around the world. Russian missiles aren't pointing at Americans 
for the first time since the beginning of the nuclear age.
    So when you look at that record and then you look at this Republican 
contract which promises to take us back to the eighties and would 
promise everybody a tax cut, especially for wealthy people, spend more 
money on defense and Star Wars, balance the budget--they'll have to cut 
Social Security and Medicare and do it steeply to pay for it. I just 
don't think the American people want that,

[[Page 2206]]

and I don't think the people of Pennsylvania do.
    Mr. Lancer. That is just my point, though. In recent polls--you keep 
talking about the recovery that's occurring, and I have no doubt that 
there is a recovery in certain parts of the country if they just bear 
that out. Here in the Northeast, however, there is no recovery; at least 
the perception is there is no recovery. There was a recent poll out by 
the Tarrence group that shows that only a third of Americans believe the 
claims of a recovery. My whole point to you, or my question to you is, 
why is it that this is the perception? It can't simply be because 
Republicans are trying to stonewall things in the Congress so there is 
gridlock?
    The President. No, I think--well, I do believe that people have not 
gotten a lot of the information; I think that is true. But I think--keep 
in mind what I said first. I think a lot of people may hear that there 
are more jobs, but they may feel that their personal situation is not 
more secure. That is, they may think, ``Well, I'm still not going to get 
a raise,'' or ``I might lose my job,'' or ``I might lose my health 
benefits.'' Another million Americans lost their health care last year. 
That's why Harris Wofford and I worked so hard to protect the health 
care benefits of working people and to try to change the law so that 
they wouldn't lose their health care.
    So there is a lot of personal insecurity out there. But the point 
I'm trying to make to the American people is that we're making them more 
secure--that's what the family leave law was all about, that's what 
these efforts to improve the health of our children are all about, 
that's what the crime bill is all about--that our economic policy is 
working. So the issue is, do you want to keep working for something that 
is plainly taking us in the right direction, or do you want to buy this 
Republican snake oil, you know, ``We're going to give everybody a tax 
cut and balance the budget and increase everybody's spending, and we'll 
tell you how we're going to pay for that after the election.''
    Mr. Lancer. Okay, let's assume we're headed in the right direction. 
What we in the Northeast would like to know is, how long is it going to 
take us to get there?
    The President. Well, your unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is above 
the national average, but it's a point lower than it was when I took 
office. You lost 8,300 jobs in the previous administration; you got 
86,800 more under our administration. They had 12 years; we've had 21 
months. You want to turn around and give the guys that put you in the 
hole in the first place 2 more years, 4 more years, 6 more years? You 
gave them 12 years. We've been given 21 months, and we've turned it 
around.
    Now, just because everybody hasn't felt it, that's not a good reason 
to stay home or vote Republican. They had 12 years, and we were in a big 
hole. We also had 20 years, through both parties, of stagnant wages and 
less secure jobs and losing benefits. And we have had 30 years of rising 
crime and family breakdown. We are at least addressing all these things 
for the first time. And it's pretty refreshing, I think, to have a 
Government that has taken on the tough problems instead of running away 
from them and that can at least show we're making some progress. And the 
worst thing in the world you can do is to say, ``Okay, we gave you these 
problems--we had 12 years of the other party's politics and economics, 
we've got 20 years of economic problems and 30 years of social 
problems--and we haven't felt anything in 21 months. So we're going to 
go back to the people that got us in the hole in the first place.'' 
That's not good thinking. If everybody will just relax and look at the 
record, they'll vote for Harris Wofford, they'll vote for Mark Singel, 
and they'll vote to keep this country moving in the right direction so 
that all of Pennsylvania can feel the results of these efforts.
    Mr. Lancer. All right, sir. But there have been changes in the way 
that those figures are tallied. Anyway----
    The President. That's right, there have been changes. If we were 
living under the same figures the Republicans had, the unemployment rate 
would have gone down over 1\1/2\ percent. That's right, you're 
absolutely right. The changes in the way the unemployment is tallied 
work against us, not for us.
    Mr. Lancer. All right. We appreciate your taking time out from a 
very busy schedule

[[Page 2207]]

today, Mr. Clinton. And thank you for joining us here on KYW News Radio 
this afternoon.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The telephone interview began at 4:35 p.m. The President spoke 
from the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA.