[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 36 (Monday, September 9, 1996)]
[Pages 1635-1641]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks at a Labor Day Festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
September 2, 1996
The President. Thank you. Thank you.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Thank you. Wow! Thanks for the welcome. Can you keep
this spirit until November? Can you spread it to other people in
Wisconsin?
Audience members. Yes!
The President. Can we keep the Nation on the right track with it?
Audience members. Yes!
The President. I think so, too. Happy Labor Day. Thank you for
letting me be a part of it. Thank you, Senator Herb Kohl, and thank you,
Senator Russ Feingold, for representing the people of Wisconsin and the
people of the United States here.
I know that Congressman Jerry Kleczka and Congressman Tom Barrett
spoke earlier. Will you keep them in the Congress? We need them there.
[Applause] And Wisconsin, you will have three, count them, three--one,
two, three open seats, three chances to send
[[Page 1636]]
three Democrats to the United States House of Representatives to help us
keep this country on the right track. Will you do that?
Audience members. Yes!
The President. I want to thank Mayor Norquist for being here. I
thank the majority leader--I like that sound--the majority leader of the
Wisconsin Senate, Chuck Chvala, and the minority leader of the House,
Wally Kunicki. Thank you both for being here and all the legislators
that are here; the city council chair, John Kalwitz; the Milwaukee
County Board chair, Karen Ordinans.
And let me just say there are a lot of other people that I would
like to recognize, but I want to say a special word of thanks to Gerry
McEntee. Gerry McEntee, he supported me in '92 when nobody thought I
could win except my mother and Gerry McEntee. My own home was divided on
whether we could win, but Gerry McEntee thought we could win. And I was
watching Gerry up here talking and I thought, Gerry McEntee has got one
speed, fast. Gerry McEntee has got one volume, loud. [Laughter] But he's
got a big heart, and if you were in a foxhole you'd want him in there
with you, fighting for the future of your family. And I'm glad he's in
there with me.
I want to thank all of those who have performed here earlier today,
the Eddie Butts Band, the Unity and Community Choir; thank those who
spoke here on behalf of the issues that you are concerned about. I want
to thank all the labor leaders who are here. I want to say a special
word of thanks to the woman who has been badgering me to come to this
event since I don't know how long, Rosemarie McDowell. Thank you,
Rosemarie, I showed up. I want to thank the members of the labor
movement in America for electing a leader like John Sweeney, a man with
energy and vigor and direction and passion, a man who has brought our
working families together and is helping us to move forward.
And I want to say here on this Labor Day when we work to honor our
working families, I'd like to thank the labor movement for something
else.
You know, most members of labor unions will not be affected by the increase
in the minimum wage law. Oh, some will, but the vast majority won't. But
organized labor stood with me and worked for 2 years to raise the minimum
wage law for the other working families in the United States who don't pay
union dues and don't have those good jobs. And I thank you, John Sweeney; I
thank you, Gerry McEntee. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That's a gift
you're giving to other working families, and I thank you. Thank you for
doing that. God bless you; thank you. On October 1, 10 million American
workers, most of them women, many of them with small children at home,
people who are working full-time and trying to get their piece of the
American dream, those 10 million folks will get a raise because of the
minimum wage law. Thank you for doing it for me. On this Labor Day, they
should be indebted to you.
Folks, when I came to Wisconsin 4 years ago and asked you to support
me, I said that I wanted our country to take a new direction. I wanted
to restore the American dream. I wanted to bring our people together and
not let us be divided. I wanted us to go into the next century the
strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity in the world. I
said that we could go beyond the kind of political debate that had
dominated Washington. Just like I said to the American people Thursday
night, I'm a lot more interested in what to do than who to blame. I'm a
``what to do'' sort of person. And I think Wisconsin is a ``what to do''
sort of State.
I told you before, I will say again, I want this to be a campaign of
ideas, not insults. I'm not interested in questioning the patriotism,
the love of country of any of these folks who want to be President or
Vice President of the United States or lead the Congress. What I want to
do is to have a debate about our records and our ideas for the future.
That's what matters, because you have to decide in this next election--
you're going to elect the last President of the 20th century and the
first President of the 21st century.
And the real issue is, how are we going to meet our challenges and
protect your values? How are we going to do that? We're going to do it
not by building a bridge to the past but by building a bridge to the
21st century, a bridge that all of us can walk across. We're going to do
it not by telling people the Government is always your enemy
[[Page 1637]]
and you're on your own; we're going to tell people we're all in this
together and we're going forward together, all of us.
Folks, the nice thing about this election year and this Labor Day,
unlike 4 years ago, is there is not as much guesswork in it this time. I
mean, 4 years ago when I came here, Al Gore and I asked you to take a
chance on us. We said, take a chance on us. And President Bush and Mr.
Perot, they were telling you about how terrible my State was, a small
Southern State. I heard all that stuff. They said, ``You can't take a
chance on these guys; they haven't been shaving but a month or two.''
[Laughter] You remember all the stuff they said.
Well, now you know. Four years ago, we had high unemployment,
stagnant wages, rising crime, rising welfare rolls, a country that was
becoming more divided, an electorate that was becoming more cynical.
I've just finished a train ride and a bus ride with my wife, my
daughter, my partners and friends, Al and Tipper Gore; a magnificent
Democratic Convention. And I believe in the last 9 days plus, I've
spoken to about 250,000 people and seen another couple of hundred
thousand more. I can tell you something, folks, the rising tide of
cynicism has been replaced by a rising tide of hope and belief in the
future of America. We are going forward.
And so I say to you, why is that? Why is that? Because compared to 4
years ago, we have over 10 million new jobs. We have almost 4\1/2\
million new homeowners; 10 million American families have refinanced
their homes with lower mortgage rates and saved a lot of money. We've
had record numbers of new small businesses. People from Wisconsin and
all over America are selling more of our products around the world than
at any time before, a huge increase. We are number one again in the
production and sales of automobiles for the first time since the 1970's.
You heard them talk--you heard John Sweeney talking about the Family
and Medical Leave Act. Could there be hope because 12 million families
have been able to take a little time off for the birth of a baby or a
sick parent without losing their jobs? It made the economy stronger, not
weaker, to do that. Fifteen million American families, our hardest
pressed working families, working for the most modest wages, with
children in the home, have gotten a tax cut. Every small business in
this country that invests more money in the business next year than they
did this year is eligible for a tax cut. But it's one that has enabled
us to bring the deficit down every single year in 4 years of this
administration, down 60 percent.
You know, folks, I just want to say this, and you all don't have to
keep this a secret when you walk around and talk to your friends. You
need to know that the last time an administration reduced the deficit in
all 4 years of its term was in the 1840's, before the Civil War. And you
need to know that we would have balanced the budget last year and we
would have a surplus this year if it weren't for the interest we're
still having to pay on the debt run up in the 12 years before I became
President. We don't want to do that again. Let's don't do that again. We
don't want to do that again.
There's more hope for this country because we passed legislation to
protect the pensions of 40 million Americans. I was tired of seeing
these pension funds go broke, and Secretary Reich has been working as
hard as he can to get contributions into the pension funds so your
pensions are protected. And we're trying to give small business people
in the minimum wage bill easier access to retirement plans for
themselves and their employees so they, too, will be protected,
especially when they move from job to job. Every American ought to have
the right to a good retirement plan, including those folks at Pabst.
Could it be that there is more hope in America because we're
breathing cleaner air, because we've cleaned up more toxic waste dumps
in 3 years than our predecessors did in 12? Could it be there is more
hope here because we've upgraded the purity of our meat laws and our
food laws and because finally, finally, finally just a couple of weeks
ago we passed--in honor, in part, of the terrible sacrifice paid by
people in this community--the Safe Drinking Water Act to make sure that
we go forward to protect the public health of our people?
So I say to you, things are better than they were 4 years ago. We're
on the right track.
[[Page 1638]]
We're on the right road. We're building the right bridge, the bridge to
the future, the bridge to the 21st century. Will you help us build it
for 64 more days? [Applause] Will you help us build it for 4 more years?
[Applause] Will you walk across it with all your brothers and sisters?
[Applause] Will you do it? [Applause]
My friends, last night--you've already heard it said that I went to
see the Packers this morning in Green Bay. I did that; I plead guilty. I
hope you won't hold that against me. And it was funny because one of the
Packers who had a pretty good game yesterday----
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. No, well, he had a great game. [Laughter] But one of
them happens to be from my home State, Keith Jackson. And he reminded me
when I saw him this morning that his wife was at our rally in Little
Rock just last night. So I want to talk to you a few moments about the
future because he reminded me of this rally last night.
I told the folks at home--a lot of the people who came to see me
there have been working for me for more than 20 years now. And I said I
want this campaign to be about the future. The record that we have made
is relevant because it shows you that we'll do what we say in the future
and it shows you that we're on the right track. But what really matters
is the future. And I told the folks at home a story I'd like to tell
you. In 1984--this makes the point about how elections are about the
future--in 1984 I was out on a little country crossroads speaking to a
rally way out in the hills in Arkansas, and I gave a barn-burning speech
about what a great job I had done as Governor--I thought it was just
great--and why they ought to reelect me. And this old boy came up to me
in overalls and he said, ``Bill, that's a fine speech you gave. And you
do have a good record. But,'' he
said, ``that's what we hired you for. You drew a paycheck every 2 weeks,
didn't you?'' [Laughter] He said, ``That's what we hired you for. What are
you going to do if I renew your contract, that's what I want to know.''
And that's what I tried to tell the American people in Chicago last
Thursday night with my fellow Democrats. I'll tell you what we're going
to do: We're going to finish building our bridge to the 21st century so
every American family has a chance to benefit from a growing economy,
from a community that's strong and with safe streets and a clean
environment, and every family has a chance to succeed at home with their
children and at work, perhaps the biggest challenge American working
families face today.
So let me talk to you a little about that. I want to build a bridge
to the 21st century with the best education system in the world. I want
a million children in Head Start. I want every 8-year-old in America to
be able to say when they look at a book, ``I can read that all by
myself.'' I want every classroom, every classroom and every library in
every school in America not only to have the computers they need, not
only to have the trained teachers they need but to be hooked up to the
worldwide information superhighway.
Now, if you're like me and you're sort of in the dark ages when it
comes to computers, let me tell you what that means; let me tell you
what that means in practical terms. You hook all these computers up, all
these classrooms to the Internet, it means that for the first time in
the history of the United States of America, the children in the poorest
urban schools, the children in the most remote rural schools will have
access to the same knowledge in the same time, at the same level of
quality, as the children in the wealthiest schools in the United States.
It has never happened before. We can make it happen now. Will you fight
for that kind of future for our country? Will you help me do that?
[Applause]
Now, I also want to make it possible for every, every single
American who wants to do it to go to college and to get a good
education. And I want to talk to you about three things. Number one, I
want to make 2 years of education after high school, what most of us
know as a community college degree at least, I want that to be just as
universal in 4 years as a high school education is today. And that's why
I called for a $1,500 tax credit to the working families of America so
that we can pay, through a tax cut, for the cost of tuition at any
typical community college in the United States. I want America's working
families to have a $10,000 tax deduction for the cost of all college
tuition, any tuition
[[Page 1639]]
your kids have after high school, for the adults or the children.
And I want to take all the various training programs we've had over
the years and put them in a block and say to you or your friends, if you
lose your job or if you're underemployed and you qualify for a Federal
training program, we will give you a skills grant worth up to $2,600 a
year. You take it where you want. You get the education you need. You
start your life again with a better job, a higher wage, and a brighter
future. That's the kind of education system I want for America. Will you
help me build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
I want to allow working families to save more, to take out an IRA
and to be able to save the money and withdraw it without penalty to pay
for an education, to pay for a first-time home, to pay for a medical
emergency. I want you to be able to sell your home and never owe any
taxes on the gain. I want this to be a pro-family, pro-growth, pro-
education tax package. You ought to have a tax credit for your children
who are 13 or under that need more child care, need afterschool care.
But let me tell you something about this tax program. It's targeted
to working families. It is paid for. It is designed to help promote
childrearing, education, and work, the most important things to build
strong families and successful workers. The most important thing is,
this is all paid for.
Now, I want to say something. You can take 1,000 polls, you can talk
to every political consultant in Washington and they'll tell you--they'd
say to me, ``President Clinton, do not go to a labor rally in Milwaukee
and talk about balancing the budget. That bores people to tears. They
only think about balancing the budget when the economy's in the tank,
and then it seems like a nice thing to do. But nobody really cares about
it. It's boring, and besides, it's hard. And people don't want to hear
about hard things.''
Let me tell you something. I hope you care about it, because how do
you think we got the economy going again? By bringing interest rates
down. Why did we bring interest rates down? Because when we reduced the
deficit, your Government wasn't in there borrowing all that money, and
you could go borrow it. And the demand was less, so the interest rates
were lower.
Now, our friends in the Republican Party just last year, they put
out a little paper that they seem to have forgotten. It said, if we're
not on a path to the balanced budget, interest rates will go up to 2
percent. Now they say, ``Don't vote to reelect President Clinton. Vote
for us; we'll give you a bigger tax cut.'' They say, ``We'll give you a
bigger tax cut.''
Let me tell you about that bigger tax cut. Two things are going to
happen. If they actually did it, two things would happen. Number one, if
you thought the budget I vetoed was bad with its Medicare, Medicaid,
education, and the environment cuts, with its $15 billion raid on worker
pension funds, with its tax increases on the lowest paid workers in
America--all of that it had in, the one I vetoed--you ain't seen nothing
yet. If they pass this tax plan, they'll come back with deeper cuts. Is
that what you want for our future?
Audience members. No-o-o!
The President. Will that bring us in?
Audience members. No-o-o!
The President. Of course not. Number two, it still won't cover the
hole they'll blow in the deficit. So we'll have worse cuts and a bigger
deficit. What does that mean? That means for you, your mortgage payment,
your car payment, your credit card payment will go up. It means the
business community--big business, small business, business in the
middle--interest rates will be higher. They won't be able to borrow that
money to invest to create more jobs, to create greater productivity, to
earn more money, and to raise wages.
So I tell you something, folks. Let's say the Democrats are pro-
business and pro-labor. We're for balancing the budget and investing in
education, the environment, and taking care of our folks through
Medicare and Medicaid. That's our position. Will you help me build that
bridge into the 21st century?
Audience members. Yes!
The President. Will you help me keep this economy going and growing?
Audience members. Yes!
The President. Don't you want more jobs and higher income?
Audience members. Yes!
[[Page 1640]]
The President. Let me say one other thing. I want to say it right
here in Milwaukee. There's a lot of difference between talking about the
issue of welfare reform and doing something about it. There are 1.8
million fewer people on welfare today than there were the day I became
President. We didn't have to cut anybody's health care to do it; we
didn't have to throw anybody into the street to do it--1.8 million fewer
people. Why is that? Because most people on welfare who are able-bodied
are dying to get off and will take a job if they have a chance to do it,
if they can get the training to do it, if they can get the child care to
do it.
Now, here's what this welfare reform bill I signed really does, pure
and simple. And on Labor Day, we need to all listen to this, and we need
to make a commitment. This bill says there is still a national guarantee
for the health care of the children and the parent. There is still a
national guarantee for the nutritional needs of the children and the
parent. There is now national funds available for the first time for
adequate child care if a person takes a low wage job, has to leave the
kids behind, and they don't have the money for child care.
But the money that used to go in an income check every month will
now be sent to the State or the localities, depending on what the State
does, and they will have to figure out how to devise work for people who
have been on welfare who are able-bodied, who will then do work for the
income check. That is a good thing, except this: If you want to say to
people, ``You've got to go to work,'' there needs to be a job there for
them to go see every day.
So I say, I am sick and tired--as a person who has spent time in
welfare offices, who has talked to welfare people--I started working on
welfare reform in 1980 before it was a cool, hot issue because I could
see that the people who were trapped on it were the ones being hurt, and
their children. But it is time now. We have changed the system. And I
don't ever want to hear Republicans attacking Democrats again over
welfare. I don't ever want to hear politicians attacking poor people
again over welfare. I want the American people--everybody who's ever
pointed their finger about this--to figure out how are we going to take
this new flexibility, this new power, how are we going to take the
initiatives President Clinton proposed at the Democratic Convention,
putting $3 billion more into our cities to create jobs, giving more
incentives to people who will hire somebody off welfare, the other
things that we can do, and create jobs for these people. They deserve
the jobs. You cannot put people in the street; you have to put people to
work. That's what we have to make welfare reform all about, in an
honorable, decent way. Will you help us build that kind of bridge to the
21st century? Every one of you, will you help me do that? [Applause]
Their children need it. Our country needs it. Will you help do that?
[Applause]
Folks, there's a lot of other things I'd like to say today. It's
getting late and it's getting hot, but I want to tell you just one or
two. Do you know that we still have 10 million kids in this country
living within 4 miles of a toxic waste site, even though we cleaned up
more sites in 3 years than were cleaned up in the 12 years before? If
you give us 4 more years, we're going to clean up 500 more sites, the
two-thirds worst. We want our children to grow up next to parks, not
poison. Will you help us give our children that kind of future? Will you
do that? [Applause] That will create jobs, raise incomes, and clean the
environment. Will you help us do that? [Applause]
And the last thing I want to say is this. I have never been in a
crowd of working people, talking to them and listening to them for any
length of time, that I didn't find every family had at least one example
of a time when they'd felt a terrible, gnawing conflict between their
responsibilities as parents and their responsibilities at work.
You know, the American people are not lazy people. The average
family is spending a lot more hours at work today than they did 25 years
ago. Almost all parents are in the work force now. And the great
challenge for our State--our country is to figure out how people can do
a good job of raising their kids and do a good job at work. That's what
the family leave law was all about.
That's why I want to amend the family leave law and say you not only
can have time off when there's an emergency, working peo-
[[Page 1641]]
ple ought to be able to get some time off without losing their jobs to
go to those regular parent-teacher conferences at school and take their
kids or their parents to the doctor. Will you help me build that kind of
future? Will you do that? [Applause]
Now, this has been a great day, an enthusiastic day. You have made
me very happy to see the spirit in your eyes. You're the kind of people
that Al Gore and I have been fighting for and working for for 4 years,
and I wouldn't take the world for this experience. But this is the
beginning of this campaign, not the end--the beginning, not the end.
Are you going to help us build that bridge to the 21st century?
[Applause] Sixty-four more days? [Applause] Four more years? [Applause]
Every one of you, we need you. Wisconsin, we need you.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 5:30 p.m. at the Summerfest Grounds. In his
remarks, he referred to Gerald W. McEntee, president, American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Rosemarie
McDowell, chief steward, AFSCME Local 1055; and John Sweeney, president,
AFL-CIO. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
these remarks.