[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 38 (Monday, September 25, 1995)]
[Pages 1592-1594]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Departure From Jacksonville

September 19, 1995

    Thank you very much. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for waiting 
in the hot sun. Thank you, Governor Chiles. Thank you, Lieutenant 
Governor MacKay. I thank your State's attorney for being here, and 
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, I thank you for being here. It's wonderful 
to see all of you.
    You heard Governor Chiles say that we have just been with Sheriff 
Glover in one of the neighborhoods here in Jacksonville. I

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want to say two or three things about being in this community. First of 
all, congratulations on your football team. I'm glad you got one. And I 
know the season got off to a rough start. But I've had a few seasons 
like that; it's not over. Just stay in a good humor about it.
    I also want to thank the people of Jacksonville for the dramatic 
contribution that you have made over so many years to the national 
defense of the United States, so many people here serving in our 
military, supporting it, and we're very grateful to you for that.
    And I'm sure you know that in the recent rounds of military 
reorganizations and base closings, Jacksonville is one of the 
communities in the United States that will actually gain several 
thousand jobs over the next few years because of the work you have done 
and the quality of support you have given to our military. So I thank 
you for that.
    I want to make, if I might, just a couple of remarks, then I want to 
get out in the crowd and just say hello to all of you. I ran for 
President in 1991 and 1992 because I was afraid that our country was 
going in the wrong direction; that we had forgotten the basic values 
that make us strong, our devotion to work and family and responsibility 
and community; and that we were not changing to meet the demands of the 
21st century.
    The economy is different. You all know it. We have different 
challenges in holding our country together. And I made up my mind that 
if the people gave me a chance to serve, I was going to try to get the 
economy going again so we could grow the middle class and shrink the 
under class; I would try to make the fighting of crime a major priority 
so we could reduce the crime rate in America and make our streets and 
our schools and our homes safer; I would try to change the way the 
Government works, to be a genuine partner with people in their lives. 
And that's what we've been here celebrating today.
    Florida is creating jobs at 3 times the rate it was when I became 
President. We have lowered the deficit. We have increased investment. We 
have a plan for a balanced budget. We're moving forward economically. 
The crime rate is down; the murder rate is down. All across America we 
are proving that we can lower the rate of crime in America if we work 
together and put more police officers on the street under the plan that 
was enacted in the 1994 crime bill. I'm proud of that. People used to 
tell me we will never lower the crime rate. They were wrong. We can do 
it, and we can do it all over America.
    We're now trying to reform the welfare system. I just want to say a 
word about that. I've worked with Governor Chiles on this for years. I'm 
all for reforming welfare if what we mean by reforming welfare is moving 
people from welfare to work and giving them a chance to be good parents 
and good workers. I am not for punishing poor children just because they 
were born poor. We ought to be reforming welfare in a way that liberates 
people. I'm all for having tough standards and tough requirements on 
people to go to school and go to work if they've got a chance to do it 
and to take care of their children. So when you watch this welfare 
reform debate in Washington ask yourself: Is this going to produce good 
workers and good parents? Is this going to make families stronger and 
children better? That is the test.
    So I want to say to all of you, now I'm going on down to south 
Florida and then I'm going on across the country to Colorado, and I'm 
going to be talking with Americans all across the country about the 
debate in Washington about balancing the budget. And I want to say to 
all of you, Florida has a lot of interest in that debate. Every American 
should want the budget balanced. We never had a permanent deficit until 
the 12 years before I became President, and we've taken that deficit 
from $290 billion a year down to $160 billion in just 3 years. I'm proud 
of that. We should keep doing that.
    But we also have responsibilities. You see it here in Jacksonville, 
We have responsibilities to the national defense. We have 
responsibilities to the children and the schools. We have 
responsibilities to lower the crime rate. We have responsibilities to 
the elderly who depend on Medicare and Medicaid for their health care. 
And I say to you, we can balance the budget without undermining the 
national defense, without cutting our commitment to put 100,000 police 
on the street, without cutting the number of children in Head Start and 
the number of young people who are getting college loans, and without 
burdening

[[Page 1594]]

older people. Seventy-five percent of the people in this country who get 
the benefits of Medicare and Medicaid live on less than $24,000 a year. 
We can fix Medicare without burdening them.
    That is my commitment: Fix the Medicare system. You don't have to 
stick it to the older people in this country who barely have enough 
money to live on. So let's balance the budget and do it right so we can 
grow the economy, reduce the crime rate, and bring this country 
together. That is my commitment, and I think it's yours.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. at Jacksonville International 
Airport.