-
https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/files/original/22b4e888c2ea74342d4a4121bb36fb99.pdf
12b7a8a60d09d8d043f4f35900007a0e
PDF Text
Text
FOIA Number: 2006-0462-F
FOIA
MAR~~[R
, This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
. Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting
Series/Staff Member:
, Terry Edmonds
Subseries:
10981
OA/ID Number:
FolderiD: ·
Folder Title:
June 1996 Commencement Speeches [2] · ·
Stack: ·
s
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
0
0
0
0
�THE
WHITE
HOUSE
�:M•''i'
Wednegday., October 23, 1991
Georgetown University: Governor Bill Clinton of Arkasas
Transcript ID: 761954
(626 lines)
REMARKS OF ARKANSAS GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON.
'DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, DC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1991
GOV. CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you very much.· (Applause.)
Thank you·.
(Continued applause.) Thank you. ·Thank you very much.
'Thank you.
(Continued applause.) Thank you. ·Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Ricky (sp). Ladies '·and gentlemen, I hope
you have not heard the best speech of the morning already.
(Laughter.)
I met Ricky Taylor (sp)·not at Georgetown but at the
Louisiana Democratic Convention where I spoke. He came up and
introduced himself to me, told me/he was a·stud~nt at Georgetown.Today i wish he were home in Louisiana on the ballot against David
Duke.
(Applause; ·cheers. )
I want to thank Jeff Rothschild (sp) and the'Lecture_Fund for
having me here; Father O'Donovan (sp) and Georgetown for runnirig the
risk of. ,embarrassment in letting 'me come back to this_ beloved hall
where I spent so many happy hours as a stude11t; ·all the young people
who came out to visit me today; the students from Arkansas, my
friend Ryan Johnson (sp) from Louisiana, whose father .was a national
championship debater here at Georgetown when. I was here so many
years ago.I want to 'thank my former classmates and friends who are here.
My roommate Tom Caflin (sp) is biting his fingernails now and he is
so afraid I will embarrass the Class of '68 before this is over.
-(Laughter.) We had an 'English professor who wrote on 6ne of his
essays· that he·sounded likea.capricious bilge pump. He later went
on .to become a great writer. All of us were humbled at Georgetown.
So if I 'm humble today, l t won't be . anything. new.
·
,' _
~'d like to thank my good friend Father. McSorely (ph) for
coming. We met each other here, and once had a very memorable day
in Oslo, Norway together over -20 years ago.
I appreciate his. ·
lifetime-of commitment to the cause of world peace.
And I would like to thank all' the people who helped me along
life's way here at Georgetown, ·some who are no longer living, some
who are no' longer, here, a few who remain here to t~ach and help
people of your generation move along li~e's way.
' I am profoundly indebted to what this University gave me.
I
have carried with me to the present day indelible memorie·s ,of all
the things that happened 011 this campus and in this town and in our
country during the four eventful years in the mid-'60s when I was
here~
I thought those years were eve-ntful years,/ but the years that
you're here, those of you. who are students, are truly
revolutionary.. When I was·- here, our country simply sought to .
contain Communism not roll it back. Most respected academics held
that orice a country went Communist the loss of freedom was permanent
and irreversible.
But in the last three years, we've_ seen fhe Berlin Wall come
�),
down, Germany reunified, all of Eastern Europe abandon Commun~sm, a
coup in the Soviet Union fail ~nd the Soviet Union itself
~"t\ .r ·~
~
~ ' £ , ' ' '7:·
"" ·disintegrate liberating the ~al tics and the other republics.··. Now · ~- '.,.~ · _;;.., ""'~ ·~. "'"·i:' '"
the Soviet Foreign Minister is trying to help our Secretary of State
make peace in the Middle East. And in the space of a year, Lech
waiesa and·Vaclav Havel hav~ both_come to this city to thank'Ameri~a
for supporting, their quests for freedom~ For good measure, Nels_onMandela walked out of a jail in South Africa that he entered._even
before I entered Georgetown, and now he·says he wants his country to
have a Bill of Righ~s just like_the one we have here •.
·,~
-
America 'should be celebrating today. All arqund ~he world the
American dream·is ascendant. Everybody wants political democracy
and market economics· and national independence. Everything your
.grandparents and parents fought for and .stood for, from World War II
on, is being-rewarded and .embraced.
·
Yet today in America we're not .celebrating. ; Why·? , Because all
of us fear down deep inside that even as the American dream reigns
supreme abroad i1;'s dying here at home. We're losing jobs and
wasting opportunities. The very fiber of our nation is breaking
down • Fami-lies are coming apart. Kids are dropping out of school.
Drugs and crime dominate our streets. And our leaders- heire in
Washington ~ren't doing much about it.
'
The political system we have now rotates between being the butt
of jokes and _the object of ·absolu.te scorn. Frustration produces
calls for term limits from voters who don't even think they have the
power to vote.incumbents out. And resentment produces votes for
David Duke, not just from racists, but from voters so.desperate for·
changethey will support the most :anti-establishment message, even
if it's delivered by an·ex-Klansman who admits he was inspired by
Adolf Hitler.
·
we'~e got to rebuild our political life before the demagogues
and the racists and those who pander to'the worst in. us bring this
· · country down.
People once looked at the President and the Congress
to bring us together, to solve p~oblems, to make progress. Now, in
the face of massive challenges, our government stands-discredited,
our people are dis~l.lusioned. There's- a hole in our politics where
our sense of common purpose used to be.
The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public'
ol;>ligati.on, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame
over work and family. -The 1980s ushe~ed in a gilded age of greed
and selfishness, of irres~onsibility and excess, and of neglect.
S&L crooks stole billions of dollars in other peoples' money.
Pentagon consultants. and HUD contractc;>rs stole from the taxpayers.
Many big corporate executives raised'. their own salaries even when
their companies were losing money and their workers were being put
into the unemployment lines. Middle class. f~ilies worked longer
hours
'
·
for less money, and spent more on he'alth care, and housing, an
educatlonr and taxes.
\
Poverty rose. M_any inner city streets were taken over by .crime
and drugs, welfare and. dispair. Family responsibility became an·
oxymoron for many deadbeat fathers who were more l~kely to make
their car payments _than to pay their child s?pport.
And government, which, should have been setting an example, was
even worse.
Congress. raised its pay .and guarded its perks while .
most Americans were working_harder for less money . . Two Republican
presidents, elected on a promise of fiscal r·esponsibility, advanced.
·I
/
�-~----~--:----~~--~~-------,,--~---~----,-------~-~~~-
budget· proposals that' more:than tripled our national debt. Congress
wnt along witl:lo that, too.
Ti!xe_Sf£'!1~r@1l\@we&ec•t p~. :tlle.: wealthiest
people whose incomes were rising, and raised on 11\iddle ci'ass
families as their incomes fell.
And through it all, millions of
decent, ordinary people who worked hard,r played by the rules, and
took responsibility for their own actions; were falli~g more and
more behin~, living·a life of struggle without reward or security.
·F.or twelve years,· these forgotten middle class Americans have
economic in~erests ignored, and-their values literally
ground into the ground.
Nothing illustrates this more clearly than ·
the fact that iri the 1980's charitable giving among middle class
·
people went up even as their incomes. went down, while charitable.
giving 'among the' wealthiest Americans went down as their incomes
went up~ Responsibil~ty went unrewarded and so did hard work.
watched~they
.
It's no wonder
America today think
gang, and_do drugs,
work. We. have seen
from Wall Street to
so many kids growing up on the street.s ·in
it really,makes more sense to them to join' a
and'sell drugs, than to' stay if} school and go to
a decade in which the fast buck was glorified
Main Street to Mean Street.
To turri America around, we've got to have a new appr~ach,
founded on'our'most sacred principles as a nation, with a vision for
the future.· We-need a new covenant, a solemn agreement between the
people and their government to provide opportunity for everybody,
ins~ire responsibility throughout our society, and restore a sense
of community to'our great nation~- a new covenant to take
government back from th~ powerful interests. and the b~reaucracy, and
give it back to the ordinary people of our country.
·
More than 200'yearsago, our founding fathers outlined our
first social compact, between government and the people, not just
betwe~n·Lords and Kings.
More-than a hundred years ago, Abraham
Lincoln gave his life to maintain the union that compact created.
More than 60 years ago, .Franklin Roosevelt. r·enewed that promise with
a New Deal that offered opportunity in return'for hard work •
. .,
Today we need to forge a new covenant that will repair the·
damaged bond between the people and their goverrinment, restore our
basic values, .embed the idea that a country has the responsibility
to help people get ahead, but that citizens have not only 'the right,
but,the responsibility to rise as far and fast as their talents and
determination can take them. And most important of all, that we're
all in this together. We have to make good on the words of Thomas
Jefferson who once said, ·"A debt of service is· due from every man to
his country proportional to-the bounties which nature and fo~tune
have measured to him.·"
'
Make no mistake. ·This new covenant .means change..
c;::hange in
my party, change in our leadership, change in our country, change in
th_e lives of every American.
Far· away from Washington, in your· home·
towns and mine, .. most people have lost faith in the ability of.
·government to have a positive 'impact on their lives., Out there you
can hear the quiet,· troubled voices of forgotte_n middle-:-class
Americans lamenting the fact that government no longer looks ·out for
their interest or honors their values -- values like individual
'responsibility,. hard work, family, and community. They believe the.
government takes ·more from them than it gives back, and. 'rooks the
other·way when special interests only take from'our country and give
nothing back. And they're right.
·
So this .new covenant can't be between the politicians and. the
established interests and the political elites.
It can't be j_uat
�another backroom deal in power, where the people who have. power and
the people who keep them there;m:a:ke~ci <EciEaiDn lbha~~:lqoks like
something,it's not. This new covenant cari only be·ra~i"fied in-the
election of 199.2, and that's .. why I'm running for .President.
(Applause.)
Some people think.it's old fashioned to talk like this.
Some people even think I am naive to suggest .that we can restore.the
American dream through a_covenant between people and their
government.
But I believe, with all my heart -- after li years of
work as a governor, working every day to. create· opport)lnity, and
jobs, and improve.education, and deal with all the problems that we
all know so, much about --- I believe that the only way we can hold
this country tog'ether and move· boldly into the future is to do it
together with a new covenant.
(Applause.)
Over 25 years 'ago, my classmates and I all took a-class in
Western civilization, taught by a·legendary professor named Carol
(sp) Quigley. He taught, at the end of the course, that the
defining idea of Western civilization in general and our country in
particular is what he called future preference -- the idea that the
future can be bet-ter than the present, · and the each of us has a
personal, moral responsibility to make it so.
I hope they still
teach that lesson here at Georgetown; even though Professor Quigley
has been dead for some ·years. And I hope you believe it because I
think it's the only way to save America.
·
In the weeks to come, I will come back to Georgetown and
outline. my plans to rebuild our. economy, regain .our competitive
leadership in.' the world, restore the fortunes of the middle class,
and reclaim the future for the next generation. · I ' l l give a speech
on how we shpuld promote our national security and foreign policy
interests after the Cold War, and I'll tell you in ciear terms what
I believe the President and th~ Congress owe you' and all the rest
of the American citizens in this hew covenant for.change.
.
But I. can :tell you,' based on my long experience in public life,
there will never be a government program for every problem. · Much of
what holds us' together and moves us ahead is the daily assumption of
personal responsibility by millions .and millions of Americans from
ail .walks of life.
I can promise to do a hundred different things
for·you as President, but none of them will make any difference
unlesf! we all do more as citizens. And today, that's what I want to
talk about -- the responsibilities we owe to ourselves, to each
other, and to our country.
It has been thirty years since a
Democrat ran for President and asked something of all the American
people.
I intend to challenge you all to do more and to do b~tter.
We simply have to go beyond the competing ideas of the old political
establishment, beyond every man for himself on one hand, and
something for nothing on the other.
·
·
We need a new covenant that will chall~nge all of our citiens
to be responsible -- that will say; first, to the corporate leaders·
at thetop of the ladder -- we will promote 'economic growth and the
free market, but we're not going' to hel~ you dimish the middle class
and weaken our economy.
(Appl'ause.) We will support your efforts
to increase your profits -- they are good -- and jobs, through
quality products and services, but we're going to hold you
'responsible for being good corporate citizens, too.
(Applause.)
At the other end of the scale we'll say to people on
welfa~e,
'\
(.
�:'
'
'
we're going to give you training and education, and health care for·
yourself and your cnildr~n;;-lbu~if¥y® d~fnw0r:1t, 'you must go to work
because we can no longer afford l:o~have-y·ou 'st•ay·on welfare forever.
(Applause.) We will say to hardworking middle class Americans and
those who aspire to .the middle class, we're going to guarantee you
and your children access to a college education -- every one of you
-- but if you take the help, you have to give something back to your
country.
(Applause.)
·
·
In short, the new-covenant must·challenge all of us, especially
thqse .of _us in public ser.vice, for_ we have
solemn responsibility
•.to honor the values_ and promote the inter,ests of the peopl~ who
elected us. And if we dori't do it, 'we don't belqng 'in government·
any more.
(Applause.)
a
This new covenant should begin in Washington.
I.want to
literally revolutionize the federal governm.ent and fundament~lly .
. change-it~ relationship to our people.
People no longer want a top
dpwn_bureaucracy telling them what to do~ That's o~e reason·they
. tore down the Berlin ·wall and threw out the communist, regimes in
' Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
'
Now our riew. covenant will 'challenge our own government to
change its way of doing business, too. The .American people need a·
government they can afford and a government that works. The
Republicans have been Jn charge of this-government for 12 years •.
They brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.
But Democrats who want
to change the government, who want the government-to ·do more-- and
'·I'm one.f them-- we have the heavy responsibility to show that
we're going to spend the taxpayers' money wisely and.with '
.
'
discipline, that we can ,spend more money on the future, and control
·what we spend on. the present and the· past.
·
'
'
.
.
}
'
.
. And-I want to make government more efficient and effective by
following the lead of.our best c~mpanies,, elimfnating unnecessary
layers of bureaucracy, reducing administrative costs, and.most
important, giving ~he American citizens more choices in the services
they get, just.as we have worked hard to do in Arkan~as. We
balanced our budget eve.ry y~ar, improved services, and treated our
citizens like our ·customers•and our bosses, giving them more choices
' in public schools, child care centers, and services to the elderly.
And we c'an do that in America.
(Applause.)
·
And a new· Demo_cFatic covenant must .also challenge ·congress .to
act responsibly. Democrats must lead the w,ay ,because they wa,nt to
use government to help people. Arid tperefore they must restore the
credibility of ,Congress. . Congress· should live by the laws it
,
applies. to other work places.- It's time to stop .them applying-(inaudible due to. applause) • . Congressional pay should not go up
while the pay of working Americans is. _going down~
(Applause.) And
we should clamp down on campaign spending arid open the .airwaves in
Cong.r;essional elections to enco'l:lrage real political debate instead
of paid political assassinations.
(Applause.) And finally_, 'there·
must' be no mor,e bounced checks, n() more unpaid bills, no more fixed
'tickets because service iri Congress is itself privilege eno'l:lgh.
·We c.an't 'go on like this. We've got to honor, reward, and
reflect the work ethic, not the power-grab and politics.
Responsibility is for everybody, and it's got to begin here in the
nation~s capital. ·
The new covenant mus_t also challenge the private sector. The
most-irresponsible people in the 1980s were business leaders who'
abused their position at the top of the totem pole. This is my
·,
'
�message to our business community. As President, I'll do everything
I can. to make it easier_ fo~,-Y!Jmr -a:om~at¥ tl!l~_-eo~pete in the world,
with a better trained work" force, ·cooperci~i-at'l between labor' and
management, fair and_strong trade policies, and incentives to invest
her~ in America and our _own economic growth. · But I want
(applause)· -~
·
'· ,
But if I do that, I expect the jet-setters and the feather-begders
of corporate America to kriow that if you sell your companies and·
your_workers and your cpuntry down the river you wili be called on
the carpet. That·' s what the president's bully pulpit is ·for.
(Cheers, applause.).
All of you who are going into business,' it is a noble endeavor.
It is the thing which makes this country run. The private sector
creates jobs; not the public sector. But you have to know that the
people with responsibility in the private 1sector should }:hink i t is
not enough simply to obey the letter of the law and make as much
money as you can.
_ It's _simply J;"Ong for executives to.do what ·so many did in the
'80s. The' biggest· companies raised their executive pay by four
times the percentage ~heir ~orkers' pay went up, and three times the
percentage their profits went 'up.
It's wrong to drive a company
into the ground and then have the chief executive bail out with a
golden parachute_to_a cushy life.
The average. CEO at a major American corporation, ·according to a _
_ recent Senate hearing, is paid about 100 times as much as the
average worker.
Compare that to two ·countries doing much better
than we are in the world econOJl\Y• -In .Germany it's -23 to 1; in- '
Japan~ which just completed 58 months of untrammeled ecOnomic
growth, it's 17 to 1. And our government today rewards that excess
with a_ tax break for executive pay no matter~ how high it is. That's
wrong.
If comp·anies want _to overpay their executives and underinvest ·,
in their future that's their business; but they shouldn't get any
special treatment from Uncle Sani.
(Applause.)'. If a company wants
to transfer .jobs abroad and cut the security of their working people
they may have a legal- right to do it, but they shouldn't get special
tre-atment from the Treasury as they do today. That's· not right.
(Applause~)
In the 1980s ·we d'idn't do enough to help our companie~ to
compete and win in the global economy. We didn't.
But we did_do
way too much to transfer wealth away from_hard working middle class
Americans to rich people who got it without good reason and without
contributing toproduction.and wealth in this country. There should
be no, more deductibility for ~rresponsibility.
(Applause.).
to
- This new covenant _rriust also make' some challenges
the
,
hard working middle class. Their challenges center around work and
education.
I know Americans worry about the qUality of education in
this country and want the best for their children. Under my
·
·administration; we'll-set high national standards for what our'
children need to know based cin the inter'national competition. And
we'll 'develop a national examination_ system to measure whether they
are learning it o:r not.
It's not enough just to put money in
schools. We ,haye-.to challenge our schools to_ produce and insist on
results.
I just came from Thomas J.afferson Junior High School here fn
'Washington. And the principal of that school, Vera White (sp), I
I
�•·
think is here with me today. Vera, are you here.somewhere?
(Pauseo) Anyway, she's on the way. '(Laughter.) She said she was
coming" and~s'fii!!·wartl:"etl ?tti.; approve my speech~
I've been to that school three times.in the last five years.
That school is almost .all black. It's in a building that ·was built'
when Grant was president. They' have the plaster. mod~ls of the
·
Jefferson Memorial.ln the s9hool auditorium. But every time I've
been in that school you could eat lunch off any .floor in,theschooL
There is a spirit of learning that pervades the atmoshpere. Almost
everyone-in the school comes from an ordinary family in Washington.
It·' s · almost 100 percent minority. But in several years, that -school
has won· the_ national math competition, going all the way to the
finals. for junior high school performance·~n math. ,They've been
·adopted by a company now t:hat. ,has given them excellence in science.
And every time I go there I :m 'just :overwhelmed by the spirit
that exists from a teachers'· and principal's point of view because'
they know that they're going to produce results and they don~t make
excuses for the problems their kids bring to the classroom, they ·
open those kids to a brighter world.' We need more of that. And you
have a right to it.
(Applause.)·
_But we also have to recognize that teachers can't do it all.
We mustchallenge parents and children to believe that all children
can ·learn. And here may be the biggest ch-allenge of all, because
too many American parents and children really believe that how much
children'learn in school depends on the IQ _God· gave them and their
family income.
The kids we're competing for the future with,
they're raised to believe that how well they do depends upon how
hard they work and how much their parents encourage them to succeed
in school. That '.s the attitude that every Affierican student and
parent. has to have if we, re goiqg to do well.
.
And we have .to challenge our students to stay in school.
Students who drop out or fail to learn as much·as they can, they
aren't just letting themselves down, they're letting all the rest of
us down, .. because from the point they drop out on, the chances are
that they'll be subtracting from society instead of adding.to it.
·We've got to enhance their, responsibility~ In. my state, we say if
someone drops out of school for no good r~ason they lose the
·
privilege of a driver's license. 'All over America, we have to
reexamine this problem and say: You have a responsibility to stay
. in school,, you have a responsibility to learn; we have a·
responsibility to give you·a good education.
This new covenant should have ~hallencjes for every young
·person. As Ricky (sp) mentio'ned in his introduction, I wa~t to .
e!'ltablish in this country a voluntary system of national service.
In a Clinton administration, we will put forth a domestic GI bill
that will say to any middle class or low-income person, we want y'ou
to go to college; we' 11 provide the money for you to_go to college •. _
It will 7 be the best money the taxpayers eyer· spent.
But you've got·.
to pay-it back either as a small percentage-of your income over
time, 'or with two or three years of national service where we need
it.-- her~ at home -- as teachers, as policemen, as nurses, ~s
·family s'ervice workers.
(Cheers, applause.) Thank you.
riut education doesn'i stop in school. Adults have·a
responsibility to keep learning, too, learning for a lifetime. And
all of us are go.i,ng to have ,to work smarter in the next century if'
America is going to compete and win.
So all managers.and all
worker~ will have to be-challenged every year to reorganize the
workplace for higher performance~ a workplace in-which workers have
.....
"'!-
.:. •• · -
/'.
�more power, but·abandqn wor~ ruies that don.'t make sense.
· .. Arid tfier~~~i:ipeci"al· challenge in this new covenant for the
young men and women who live in America's most troubled urban
neighborhoods, young men and wome_n like those I've met in ·Chicago
and Los Angeles, many other places in ou;,; country. Theyare·kids
who live in fear of being shot going to and from school, or beihg
forced to join a gang in order to avoid being beaten~ Many of these
young people believe that our country has ignored them for too
long. ~nd they're right. They,think that America unfairly blames
them for everything tha~'s wrong in their neighborhoods -- for drugs, arid crime and-poverty
and the breakup of the family and _the
breakdown of the schools. And they're right. They worry that
because by and large their faces are di~ferent colors than mine,
thetr only choice in life will be jailor welfare or a dead-end.job,
··and that being a minority ·in a big city is more or less a guarantee
of failure.
That's not right.
.
And when I'm president I'm going to do my very best to prove
that all those fears are wrong, because ~ know these young people
can overcome these obstacles ··and become anything they set· their
minds to. And more importantly foi: you, I know that America needs
their strength, their intelligence and their humanity. And because
I believe in them and what they can contribute,. they can't be let
off the responsibility' hook either. _All society can ever offer them ,
is a chance to deyelop their God-given capacities. They·have to do
the rest. Anybody who -t-ells them anything else. is lying to them,
and they already know tha~.
As president, I'll see that th~y get the same deal everyone
should have: play by the rules, stay off drugs, stay in school,
st.ay off the streets; don't have children if you're not prepared to
su'pport them because governments dort'_t raise children, people do. -And if you ge,t in trouble, we' 11- even give you one chance to avoid
prison by. setti,ng up community boot .. camps for first-time. non-violent
offenders so they- can learn discipline and get drug treatment when
necessary and continue' their education and do useful community work
-- a second chance to. be :a first rate· citizen.
(Appla~se.)
:
But if our new covenant is really pro-wor_k, it must mean. that
work shouldn't be poor. And that's why in our
.
-.administration we will do· everything we can to break the cycle of
_ working poor by making work pay through expanding the ear:ned income · ·
'tax credit for the working poor, creating opti'ons for savings
accounts even for people on welfare, and supporting the
·
establishment 'in the most oppressed areas of America of
micro-enterprise businesses.
·
.
people~who
At 'the same time, ~e must assure all Americans that they,'ll
have access to health care when they go to work. That's why so many
today maintain themselves on the welfare roles.
·
The new covenant can break the cycle of welfare. Welfare
should be a secnd chance, not_ a_ way of life., In my adffiinistration
we're going to put an end to welfare as·we have come to know.it.
I
want to era'se the stigroa 9f welfare for good by restoring a simple,
dignified principle: 'No one who can work can stay·on welfare ·
forever.
·
·
·
' We'll still help people to help th~mselves, and those who need
education and training and child care and medical coverage for their
kids --they'll get it. We'll give them all the help they need, and
-we'll. keep-them- on public'assistance for up to'two years. But after
that,
people
who are . able to .work,· they'
11 have to 'go to work either
'
.
.
.
�in the private sector or through a pornrnunity service job. No more
perma$-._nt ;'Jdr-13@n~n~e .-fill); -w~:J,;fare a~ a way of life.
(Applause.) We
can then. restore welfare for what it was always meant to be, a way
of temporarily helping people who. have fallen on hard times.
If the new covenant is pro-work it must· also be·pro-family.
That means we have to demand the.toughest possible child support
enforcement.' The.nurnber~of absent parents who- run off and leave
their children with no financial help, even though they could do' it,
is a na~ional scandal. We need an administration that will give
state agencies that collect child support full law enforcement
authority, and find new ways .of catching deadbeats and.collecting
the !Jloney.
In our state, we passed. a law this-~ear which says if you owe
more th~m $1, 000 in child support we' 11 report your name to every ,
credit agency in the state. ~e don't think people should borrow '
· money until_ they take care of their. children, and that ought to be
the law in America.
(Applause.)
·
Finally, the pres,ident,, the president has the greatest
responsibility of all.
First, to bring us together not drive us
apart.
For 12 years, this President arid his precedessor haye
divided us against each other, pitting rich against poor, playing·
for the emotions of the middle class, white ag~inst black, women
against men, creating a country in which we no longer recgnize that
we are all in·this together. They've profited by·fostering an
atmosphere of blame and denial instead of building an ethic of
responsibility.
They had a chance to bring out the best in us and,
instead, they appealed to th~ worst in us.
Nothing exemplifies this more clearly than the.battle over the
Civil Rights Act of 1991. You know from-what I have already saidtoday that I can't be for quotas.
I'm not for .a guarantee for
anybody.
I'm for responsibility at every turn. That bill is not a
quota bill. When the Civil Rights Act was in ·place from 1964 to
1987, I never had a single employer in my state say it's a quota
bill.
We. need rules of workplace fairness for the 70 percent of new ·
entrants -in our workforce who will be women and minorities' in the
- decade of the '90s_. That-, s what that bill is for. Why does the
· Pre•ident refuse to lei a ciivil right~ bill pass? Because he knows
that the people he i's dependent c:in for his electoral majority -white working class men and women, mostly men, have had-their ·
incomes decline in the 1980s and. they. may return to their natural
home, someone who offers them real economic opportunity. And so he
is_ dredging up the same old tactic that the hard right has employed
in my part of_the country, in the South, since I was
child. When
everything gets (hyped ?) arid you think you're going to lose those
people, you find the most economically insecure white people and you
scare the living daylights out of them. That is wrong.
a
This President turned away John Danforth, who shepherde-d
Clarence Thomas's.nomination through the Senate. John Danforth
begged h~m for a civil rights bill. He said no. He turned· away the
Business Roundtable, an organization of corporate executives -largely Republican -- who said: we need a civil rights bill. He
said no.·_ And today, in the press it's reported that he turned away
his own Minority-Leader in the United States Senate, Senator Bob
Dole, who wanted a civil rights bill. He said no. _This man does
not want a bill, he wants an issue to drive a stake into the heart
of America, and it's wrong and I won't let him get away with-it.
(cheersi applause.)
·
�,
: .~q,'3 'qaJ..Illil,Ot~a~e ~-new Jl::Ovenant unless the president assumes the
responsih~liey
·and'insists-that every American join in bringing this
country back together, fighting· against the politics of division and
going into tomorrow as one. After all; that's.what's special about
America. Don '.t you· want to· be. p~rt of a country that's coming ,
.
together instead of coming apart? Don't.you want to be,part of a
community wtiere people look out for each other and not just for
themselves? Wouldn't it be nice to be part of a nation again that
brings out the best in all of us ins~ead of playing to the worst for
personal advantage? Wouldn't it b~ nice again to' have a ieader who
really believed that the only limit to what we can do is what our
leaders ask of us and what we expect of ourselves?
Nearly 60 years ~gp, in a very famous speech to the.
Commonwealth Club, in'the final months of-his 1932 campaign,
President Franklin Roosevelt outli~ed a new compact that gave hope
to a nation mired. in .the Gre~t Depression. The role of government,
he_said, was to promise every American the right to make a. living.
The people's ·role-was to do· their best to make the most of.that
opportunity~
He said,·. and I. quote, , "Faith in America demands. that
we recognize the new terms of ~he old social contrac~.
In the
.strength of great hope we must all shoulder the common load."
That's what our hope is today, a new covenant to shoulder the
common load. When people assume responsibility and shoulder that .
. load they acquire a dignity they never,had before.' When people· go
·to work they rediscover a pride in themselves that they had lost.
I'll neve~~forget, once a welfare mother in my state was asked
when she moved from welfare to work, what was the best thing about
having a job? And she said., "Wheh my boy goes to school and they'
say, wha~ does,your mama do. for a living, he can give an answer."
·I
When fathers.pay _their child support, .they restore a connection·
that both they and their children need. When students work harder'
they find out that they can all learn after all and do as well as'
any students in Japan or Singapore or Germany o·r ·anywhere else.
When corporate manager~ put their workers and their long-term
profits .ahead of their ,own paychecks, their companies do well and so
do they •. When the privilege of serving is ·enough of· a perk for
people in Congress, and when the president finally assumes
responsibility for America's problems, we'll not only stop doing
wrong, we'll begin to do what.' s right t.o move America forward.
And that's what this election is really all about -- forging a
new covenant that will honor middle class values, restore the public
trust·, create a new- sense of community,· and make America work again.
·Thank you very much'.
(Applause, cheers.)
*
END
�copyright (C) 1992 by Federal Information·. systiims;:.Corpqrat:iori
------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
.
.
- Wednesday, November 20, 1991
Georgetown University: Governor Bill Clintonof Arkansas·
Transcript ID: 7'71410
flOSS line:s)
REMARKS BY GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON (D-AR)
AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
I
. GASTON HALL, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, DC
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1991
GOV. CLINTON: Thank you very much.
I would like to thank Jeff
for that very fine introduction and that interesting joke.
.
(Laughter.)
I. think he's got a great future in politics, but·he's
going to have to revise his disbelief in·· Santa Claus if' he wants to
be elected in the UnitE_!d States.· (Laughter.)
I would like to
'thank Stephanie and _also my friend Ricky Taylor who in~rodu9ed me
the .last time I was here to talk about a new covenant and social
policy. in America.
,,
•·
And before I go. any further, I would like to introduce a person
without whom I would never have graduated from Georgetown, ·a man who
gave me a job when I_ was a boy from a working class family and who
kept me ·at work after my, :father took ill 'and my family would not
have 9therwise had the m!3ans to see me through college,·one of the
greatest· Americans ever to serve iri the United St_ates Senate,
Senator J. William Fulbright, who is over here on this side of the
dais.
(Applause.)'
'
This election is about a better future for your generation:and
a better life for.all who will work for it, but I come here today
convinced that your future and the very future of our."country is·.
actually in peril.
This country's in deep trouble today.
I have
seen it as I've traveled around the country.
I've seen it in the
fear in people's eyes and the ,worry that darts every word of .their
conversation. We_ have simply got to do. better •.
This month I visited with a couple from New Hampshire-you may
have read about_in Newsweek Magazine, called David and Rita Springs.
David's a chemical engineer, ·and Rita's now studying, to be a lab
technician. They told me that just one month before David's pension
ves_ted, the people who ran his company fired him to cut their
payrolls. Them they turned around and sold the company,. and they '
_bailed out with golden parachutes to a happy life, while David and
his family _got the shaft.
Last week I was at a bowling alley in Manchester, New
Hampshire, and I met a fireman who told me that he was working two
jobs. He introduced me to his wife, ·_who worked between 48 and _SO
hours a week in a mill, and to· his handsome son, a. straight~A
student, and they told me they were pretty sure they wouldn't be
able to afford to send their son to college because. of the cost. of
college education going up and because they were too well off to get
government help.;
~
·
Then .a€-a bre~kfast in Manchester, I met a young man who had a
12-year old child who had open heart surgery. He 'was unemployed.
-
(·
I
�No one would hire him because they couldn't afford to embrace hi's
. child· an thar :me ail. th :insurance ..policies. '
.·.-::-~ .. ·•·
--- ·. ...::: ·-.
''=._,;;;:.....
......
-
~-
.; '
Now, these families I met are from New Hampshire, but they
couldbe from anywhere in America. They ar,e-the backbone of our
country. They are the.people who· do the work and pay the taxes and
send their' children off to .war. They are the people that I've seen
in my state of ~rkansas for years and years, ·living with the real
consequences of our.nati_onal_neglect. These people and millions
'like them are the real victims of the Reagan revolution, the Bush
su.ccession, and this awful recession.
.
Dur.in this administration, the economy has grown more slowly
.and generated feo/er jobs than have been created in any
administration since before World War II. People'who have jobs are
working longer hours for less money, and people who don't have them
are looking harder and finding fewer~ Middle class people are
paying more fo·r health care, housing, education, and pay more in
·taxes while their government services have been cut. And as these
hardworking, middle class families look to their President to make
good on his campaign·promises, what. ha~ his answer been?.· Tough
-·luck;.
your fault; go.buy a house or a car.
·
·
. . it's really
.
'
Just this week, George Bush said, "We don't need a plan to end
this recession; if we just wait long enough, our problems will go
.away." Well,. he~s finally 'said something I agree with.
If he ,
doesn't have a plan to turn the economy arou'nd by 1992·, we're going
to lay George Bush off, put America back to work, and our problems
will go. away.
(Applause.)
It is no laughing matter to say we need a president who will
take re.sponsibility for getting this country moving again, who wil
provide the leadership weal+ need-to pull us together and challenge
our nation .to compete and win in t/he world again. Ten years ago, ·we
had t!le high~st wages in, the world; no.w we'r,e tenth.
And I believe with all my heart that if we elect George Bush for
four more years, we'll. be fifteenth and falling.when he l.eaves
office. Germany and Japan have productivity growth rates three and
four times ours last year be·cause they educate their people better'· ·
they invest/more in their future, and they organize themselves to
compete and win in global competition, and we don't.
·
For twelve years of this. Reagim-Bush. era, the Republicans have
let S&L crooks and self-serving CEOs try to build an economy out of
paper and perks instead of people and· products.
It's the. Republican
way: every man for himself and get it while you can. They stack
the deck in favor of 'their friends at the top and ..tell everybody
else .. to wait for whatever trickle-down.
And.the way they d'id it made it 'so painfully clear' that the
Republicans have forgotten about the very people they've always
promised to help and the people who have provided theirelection
majorities time afte~ time after time: the people even Richard
.
Nixon called, "the forgotten middle-class Americans"; the people who
live by American valhes and whose hopes and heart·s and ·hands still
carry the Amer,ic.an drea,m.
But Democrats forgot about them, too. Democrats in Congress
joined with the White House in tripling the national debt and ·
raising the deficit to the point of paialysis so that now,
everywhere I go, people say, "Well, Governor, how can you do this?
'How· can you do ·t·hat? How can y~u do the other thing?" America is a
country. with its hands tied. D~mocrat_s and Republicans in congress
'
'
�.,
joined with the White House on the sidelines cheering on that S&~
bc;)oll)· v.mti·l at Men± bust and cost· us $500 billion. For too many
Afueri:c:-ans"""'· for· too"'·itmg ·it: seemed that both the Congress and the
White House have been more·interested in·looking out forthemselves
and for their friends, but not for the country and not for the
·
people who make it great.
'
·: t': . r:'j
'ti~~
. ---- . • :-t.
And now, after twelve years of Reagan and., Bush, the ~forgotten
1
middle·class is discovering that the reward for twelve years of
sacrifice and h~rd work is more sacrifice and more tough times.
They paid higher taxes on lower incomes for service cuts,, while the
richest of·us got tax c~ts, poverty·payments·increased; and the
President-and the Congress got pay raises and natiqnal.health
insurance.
I think we've got to move'to a radically different
.economic direction.
·The Republican failed experiment in supply-side economics
simply doesn't produce growth or upward mobility. And most
impor.taiit,. millions and millions and .millions of Americans are not ·
prepared to compete in this economy and to win.
But we also h~ve to
move· away from the·old Democratic theory that says we can just· tax
· and spend our way out of all the e~onomic problems we face.
·
We -know now that there's a difference between expanding
government and expci:nding,oppor~unity, and that big def.Lcits 'cannot
produce ·sustained e_conomic growth, especially when the borrowed ·
money is spent on yesterday!s mistakes instead of investingin
tomorrow's opportunities. Stale theories like this can produce
nothing but stalemate. The old econof!liC imswer.s are obsolete.
We've now seen the limits of Keynesian economics and the worst of
. supply-side economics. And we need a,. new approach..
.
·
'
.
.
,For twelve years we've,had no economic vision, no economic
leadership, no national economic strategy. What America·needs .is a
· president with·· a radical new approach to our economic policies that
will give new life to the American dream. We need a .new' covenant.
for economic change that empowers people and.rewards work and·
organizes our country to compete and win again; a 'new national
strategy to liberate and energize the abilities of millions of our
American people who are tired of paying more when the government is
doing less for them·, who are tired of working harder while their
.wages go down. ,
·
My new covenant for economic change is not liberal or
conservative; it's 'both, it's different. American pople don'.t ever
care very·much about the idle rhetoric of politicians. And when
they're flat on their backs and th~ir hopes are damaged, they care
. 1even less.
They just. think no . one· in Washington really wants to
solve their problems, or really will stand up for them..
.
.
I
'
'The goals of this. n~w covenant are for economic change and they
very straightforwarq,· and they impose certain clear ,'
responsibilities on the president. We need a president .who will put
economic opportunity in the hands of ordinaryAmeric?lns,. not rich'
and powerful special interests. We need a president who will
revolutionize government to ·invest more in the future 'and less in
the past. We need a president who will encourage the private sector.
to organize in new ways and cooperate, not fight, so that/we can all
produce economic growth.
We need
president who w£11 challenge and
leatl America to compete and win in the global economy, not to
retreat from the world.
ar~
a
That's how we can turn this country around; 'recapture our
l eadership, and build a better future for you, anfi 'for the children
1
·;_
�coming along behind you.
That's how we can show the forgotten
middle class that, we do. understand their strugg).~~ 1c ~h.~t;_' s... h~w J..i~ t,
can reduce poverty and rebuild that fragile ladder between poverty
and th~ middle class.
·
'
'
And that is_why I.am running for President ·of the United states.
(Applause.)
Our first re,sponsibility is to move as quickly as we· can to put
this recession behind· us.· . Last week I released a plan for what ·I
would do right away to try to help worki:rig people and get the
economy moving again.
I'd not only extend ~nemployment benefits, as
the Pr~sident ar,:td. the congress have_ finally done, but ·I'd push·
thro~gh a middle-class tax cut, accelerate the highway bill so that
all $25 billion is spent in the. first six months, creating 45 to
50,000 new jobs, and I would increase the ceiling on FHA-guaranteed
home loans so that middle-class people can move in and buy homes for
the first till\e.
I do think good credit card·customers should still have the
interest on their credit cards lowered because the interest they are
getting on their deposits. has been lowered. · And I believe that is
an appropriate and responsible thing, even though I don't favor
uniform anq bureaucratic legislation •. I'm proud to say that f.our of
the ten banks in America with'the lowest credit card charges are
banks in my home state, and I wish more would follow their lead.
I'd also make sur~ that .federal regulators send a clear signal
to our banks, that·we don't want. to callin loans that .are
performing, and we don't want them to be afraid of making good
business loans to help local businesses grow this economy again.
I'd· also inc~ease. the water supply.
(Laughter and ·applause. )
'But even if we did all those things tomorrow, every 'one of them, it
would~'t alter 'the fundamental challenge. of the 1990s.
Sure we need
to get.out of this recession, and soon, but we have to recognize
that we've been in~economic. decline for longer than we've been i~
this recession, and we have to have a long-term economic strategy to
make this a high-:wage, high-growth, high-opportunity country again,
not a hard-work,. low-wage country.
·
'
'
We ought to be rising, and we are sinking, and' we can do
better.
It· does not have. to be this w,ay. We can .win in the economy
. again if we recognize that growth does not come from·government
neglect or government spending.
Instead, i t comes. from government'
helping individuals to work smarter, to learn how to do more,
from entrepreneurs taking more risks and going after new markets,
from corporations designing better products and taking- a longer '
view.
So we need to. reward work, expand opportunity-, empower
people, and then we can .win again.
·
There are two reason why 'middle-class people today are working·
harder'for less pay. one is that their taxes have gone up while
their wages have gone down.
But that's only about 30 percent of
their problem. · The rest -- the other 70 percent -- came clearly
from a decline in ~erican economic growth and' the· loss of American
economic .leadership •. So if we're going t.o· turn this country around
'and restore the middle-class, we not only have to liberate ordinary·
working P!=OPl£~ f·rom unfair taxes, we have got to empower every
· American with the education and training. ·essential to get ahead.
.
, . Let me• make this clear. Education is economic development.
.
Every one of you here at· Georgetown may take that for granted,, but a
first-year college graduate today is making about 70 percent more in··
l
'
,;
�the first_year of work than a high-school graduate. You are being
. given enormous power. .But we can only build a_,high-:..wag~, ;, J; ~--• .(...
high-growth country when everybody develops'the'maximum of their
God-given abilities.
.\
In. a world in whi~h money and production are mobile, the only.
way,...middle-class people can get and keepgood jobs with growing
incomes is to be lifetime learners and innovat'ors! without
.
world-class skills, the middle class in America will surely cont·inue
to decline, ·but with world-class skills, our workers will generate
even more high-wage jobs in the .'90s, because our relative wage
.rates have fa.llen.
We will get _them back, and we will grow.·
Empowering e..;erybody f~r education begins with preschool for
every child who needs it. We ought to fully fund Head Start.
If we
can afford 500 billion [dollars_] for savings, and loans, surely we
can afford 5 billion: (dollars) · for every. child who needs it, a
preschool opportunity.
(Applause.)
'
It means that. the natio.nal government should help to develop a.
national education examination system so that we all know whether
our students are-learning what they need to know. And the report
should be giver1 every year, to every .school district, every state1
and every school, to measure whether our students are making the
grad~.
·
·
Empowerment in·education means training all of our young peo'ple
for high-wage . jobs·, which means that those who want to go into the.
workforce and not to colleg~ should .not be consigned to dead-end ·
jobs. Today, the average young 'American with ahigh-school diploma
only is making 25 percent less thai?- he or she would have 15 yeaFs
ago.
That is ·a devastating indictment on our failu~e to train our
· non-college-:-bound students for the global marketplace. We need a
national apprenticeship. program that wi;u' enable high school
·'students who aren't going to. college to enter .a course of .study
designed by their schools and their local employers· that will give
them valuable skills, guarantee them··
job when .th'ey ·get out, and
· give them a chance at a growing income, not a dead-end life. And if
you elect me I will give you that kind of apprenticeship system.
(Applause.)
a
· As I said to all of you here a few weeks ago, empowering
people in ed~cation means challenging all of our students and
American with a· system of. voluntary national service.: .In my
administration we will offer a domestic GI bill that will say
middle-class as well as poor people, "'we are glad to help you
college and pay the exhorbitant cost, but you ought to .give
something back 'to your country in return. ",
·
our
every
to
go. to
As President, I will. ask the Congress to establish a tr~st out
of which any American can borrow the money to finance a college
education, as lqng as they pay.it back with a small percentage of
their income over time or with two or three years of national
·service here at home as teachers, as police officers,· as nurses.--.
·doing whatever work our country urgently needs.· The· fund would be
financed out of a portion of the peace ,dividend and by redirecting
the. present student loan program, _which is ·nowhere near as ·cost·ly
effective as it ought to be. This program. will pay for itself many
times over.
It will be the best investment the United States !ever
·.made in the last decade of the ·20th century., (Applause.)
.
But 'we have to remember ·that 'in an.·era in whi~h what you earn
depends largely on what. you can learn, education·. can never end at
the schoolhouse door.
From. now 6n, 'anyone who's w~lling to learn·
/.
�should have ~ chance to learn.
In my administration wc~ll make
a~ult iiteracy..;p_~_osr~Ai~~~~l~~c:('~.l:f~~o need it, by working
w1.th states- to make sure every state has a clear,. achievable plan to
teach everyone to read, togive them a chance to earri a GED,, and
-whenever possible to ~o it where they work.
I visited a library in Harlem last week where I saw p~ople
learning to read for the first time, 'learning to write for the first·
·'··time, escaping from the prison of their_ imagination, knowing they
could ·go to ,work, 'knowing they could help their children. But I was
very upset to find that there was a long waiting list.· of people
wanting to be in the_ program and insufficient funds and- a sy_ste.m
which did not respond.
Eight years ago in my state we only had 14,900 people iri adult
education programs. Today.there are 50,000.
In two years there
will be 70,000.
In four.·years there will be 100,000.- And we'r~
going to be able to say before the end of this decade, we taught
everybody to read, gave everybody a chance to GED, and everybody in
Amer.ica should make that commitment.
It will raise incomes and open
up new vistas of opportunity f~r ou·r peoplce.
'
And we must make sure that every American has the chance to
learn new skills specific to the workplace every year. Today our
·-businesses spend ·billions and billions of dollars on training, about
1. 5 percent of their total cost on th_e · ayerage. _But 70 percent of
that money goes to people like you, people in the top lO·percent o_f
the corporate hierarchy.
Now in our administration, I want to require employers to offer ·
every worker a fair share .
of those training dollars, or contribute-the equivalent to a
national training fund.
Why? Because all over the world there are
people we_ are competing with for the future_. They train all the~r
workers up and dowri the line •. · They know ·their frontline workers
carry the, key to their future productivity, and that's one reason
why the average Germany .factory worker works a shorter work week,
gets 20 percent higher pay, _gets. a four-week paid vacation a year,
has national health insurance and family leave when there is a baby
born or a six parent. And we can do the same if we .train our
·
WO;t"kers to compete i~ the global economy.
(Applause)
And let me say that the employers who pay the bill find that
the more that-they spend on their employees, the more money they
•will make.
It will be a good investment. for' them too.
.
.
.
We are going to have to make special efforts to empower the
poor to work their way out-of poverty. We should begin by maki'ng
work pay, by expanding the earned income tax credit for the working
poor, and then by supporting private and public partnerships for low
income entrepr~neurs, to give them the tools they need to start new ·
business through innovative institutions like the Shore Bank in
Chicago and its rural counterpart, the Southern Development Bank
Corporation in Arkansas. 'we have got to break the cycle of
dependency and poverty and put an end to this permanent dependence
on welfare as a way of life by really\investing, seriously investing
in the education and development of poor people, and then giving
them the means, 'the incentives, and yes .the requirement to .go to·
work.
And finally, empowerment means working Americans have to be
able .to keep .more of what they earn. Ronald Reagan and George Bush
pushed through programs that raised taxes on the middle class.
I
think it's time to cut them. ·And in m~ administration, I will offer
/
....
�\
middle income tax cuts that will cut rates on the middle class. The
average working t~fam.i.lyLs lli.aJGt wiiil ~go down about io percent, a
savings of, about: $3·s-o-:a,.-y~a~~alid~'I"-w6il"'t finance it_ with increasing
the deficit.
Instead, we ~ill ask those earning over $200,000 a
year to pay some more, but they will still be paying less than th~y
were in the 1970s and we offer this not to soak the rich, but simply
to restore simple fairness.
Besides empowering our citizens, I think we have got ·to lead a _in· government, so that it can become an engine of
.
opportunity again, not~an obstacle to it •. The voters who went to
the polls in this month's.elections·sent us·a pretty clear message.
If you look at the results of all the elections, there is a comma~
_thread, "We. want more for our rrioney."
revolut~on
. Now there are experts here. in ·washington who think,that's a
contradiction, but I think·, the experts are wrong and the people are
right.
People want a better eal from government. They want·to be
treated more fairly and they will get it in my administration. •
•
I
'
Too many ~ashington insiders of both pa~ties think that the
oniy way to provide more services is to spend more money on existing
programs already on the books, especially those in education and
·housing and health care. But w.e can reinvent government to deliver
new services in new ways, to have new partnerships with people in
the private sector, to eliminate unnecessary layers of management
and give people more real choices. · We can give taxpayers more·.
services' with fewer bureaucrats. We can give-them more for the same
or less money.
· ·
·
I.
Every successful major corporation in America in the last '
decade has had to radically restructure itself to compete. They
have had to decentralize, become more entrepreneural, give workers
more say over fronline decisions, and offer customers rriore choices
and bettei products and services.
That's what government has to·
do. That's what we are _trying to do in Arkansas when we balance the
budet every year, produce modest surpluses, improve services, treat
taxpayers like customers and bosses because·that's exactly who they
are.
our state was the first to' initiate a total quality management
program that we dramatically entered -- excuse me -- we have
·dramatically reduced the number of reports that the_ Department of
Education requires schools to fill out~ We cut internal
bureaucratic costs in our huge Dep~rtment of Human Services and put
millions back into direct_ services for people who desperately need
it. We speeded up services that the Revenue Department gives
people~ which is a good thing, because ~verybody h~tes to deal with_
the Revenue Department. And also, we have come to measure programs
by performance.
Today, when we start _a vocational program, we measure it by how
many people get placed,in good jobs, and if they are not getting
placed anymore, we shut_ the program down. These things can: be done,
but I 'want to be clear· about this. A. serious restructuring; of
.
government along the lines that major corporations have ilnder.taken
.is very, very different from the traditional top down reorganizationplans that have been offered in the past and to some extent in this
campaign. Those things. require a whole lot of time· and energy and
political clout and almost always result in the same government or
more.
What I am proposing· is hard and unglamourous.
It will
liter11lly require all of us to re-examine every dime of your money
··''
�,.
we spend, and every minute of federal employees' time.
It will
~equire _us to enlist the energies of front-line public seiv&nt·sr iru:
the federal government. They are often just as frustrated as the '"
rest of us with bureaucracy.
'
.B~t if iri our state,.which rank's among the
tax burden,
_
' . ·
we can find significant changes and savings, if
--in Texas and they're doing it in Flor'ida, think
the.federal government if we were serious about
pay the price o'f time. ·
r~
r
~
.
. .•
lowest in overall
they're doing this
what we could do in
it and willing to.
In our administration· we'll ,make government more effective and
moe efficient by holding ourselves to the same standard of
productivity you find in good businesses. We will cut 3 percent
across the board-in the administrative cost to the federal
bure:aucracy' every year of· the first. four years I'm President. That
will 'save biTlions of dollars a year without laying· off anybody,
without undermining services, by forcing us to be more creatiye and
follow the lead of our best ~ompanies. We can do it, and·we will.
I also think if we're going to be more responsible,- we have to
look at the most irresponsible area -of· all •. _ We need a whole new
approach to the federal budget. We're going to have to have a
· budget which invests more ·in the future and·. spends less on the
present and· the past. As· President I' 1·1 throw out last year's
budget deal.
It hrought ,us the biggest deficit in Arilerican history
andthe fastest growing 'spending since World War II. And in its·
· place I will establish a three-part federal budget,- a budget for the
past ·that_ pays off interest on the debt; a budget for the present
for current consumption program.s; and a future budget, for investment
and all the things that make us r~cher.
'
Today the national government only spends 9 percent of the
budget investing in our future, considerably less than we-were
spending just 10 years ago, less on education, on child .health, ·on
environmental technoi.ogy, on infrastructure, on research and
development~
We can double that-in the next administration. We'll
begin to finance- this future budget with savings from defens_e._
expenditures no longer needed in the post-Cold War world and by
controlling health care costs, as_ every other ~ajor country has
already do'ne.
We_can bring our deficit-down over time, but only if we control
spending on cu,rrent consumption and only if we· tie overall increases
in current co~sumption to real revenue increases, not estimates.
Revenue estimates have gotten every state and local government and
national government that has every invested in them and planned on
the basis of ~hem, in trouble because there will,always be a ·
bipartisan conspiracy to inflate the_estimate.- We ought to tie
current consumption spending to the real increases in personal~
income of the Arilerican people, so .that .the federal budget every year
- doesn't_ go up any faster than· the average Arilerican' s paycheck.
Making Congress and the President live under this regime-will give
us the most dramatic 'reform we've' _ever had.
. .
-'
Ari~ finally, if we're really serious about reinventing
_
government, we've got to reinvent the way we deliver health care in
this-country. We spend more than 30 percent ·on health care-- than
any other country in the world and we do less_with it.
For mariy
'Arilericans, the· rising cqst of health· care, the lack of coverage or
the fear of losing coverage, that'~_ the number one fear in 'their
lives.
. ·,
�Thousands of .Amer'ican businesses are losing jobs today because
of the health care costs which prohibit them from competing iQ·. the rglobal economy. Over two-thirds of our strikes today are over
health care costs; and no matter who wins those strikes, both sides
lose. We arJ the only· nation in. the world with an advanced economy
where the national government does not help ·control health care
costs.·
'
'
'4"
--
.
We could cover every American with the money we're spending '
right now.if .we just had the courage to demand insurance reform,
slash health .care bureaucracies, if we followed the lead of other
nations in controlling the-unnecessary spread of technology,
stopping drug prices from going up at three times the rate of
inflation, and forcing the people who send the bills to,sit down
· with the people who pay the bills in planning out what we're going
to spend on· health care from year to.year.'
.
..
'
. We. do not need to reduce quality; we simply need to have the
courage to restructure our ,system.
If we don't do it, we're going
to bankrupt the government and foreclose our opportunity to·
revita·lize our economy.
If we do, it will'be the biggest short-term
investment we could make in restoring our economic strength.·
And I will say again, nobody has ever.done·it in any other country
· without the .national government taking the lead, and that·• s what I
will do' in the. first year of my administration. (Applause.)
While all these changes· are vital, we have to remembe.r that
. Ame,rican businesses· and Arilerican workers are going to have to.·
change~ too.
After all, the jobs in this country are created in our
vital free marketplace. Many 'of the most urgent changes we need in
the American marketplace can't really. be legally. mandated, but we
know they're way .overdue after a decade in which the stock market
tripled while averagewages declined.
The old economic arrangements are holding America back.
It's
t'ime for a real revolution ,in the American _workplace, too, one that·
will radically raise the status of the American worker·and tear down
the Berlin Wall between workers and managemen~.
I.t' s been' years since the United States could really
out-produce _the rest of the world by simply treating workers like so
many gogs in a machine. We need a whole new organizatio~ of work.
where workers at .the frontline make more of -their own decisions, not
j'ust follow orcjers and whole levels of midd_le layers management .
simply become· obsolete. We need a new styl'e of man~gement where
frontline workers and management work together .more responsibly to
make decisions that really improve quality and increase
·
productivity. Dynamic, flexible and well-~rained workers whocooperate with savvy and sensitive managers to make changes every
day, little by little -·- they're the key to our long-term economic
growth and productivity in manufacturing and in the service sector,
and especially in education, health care and government~ where·
productivity growth has been virtually non-existent in the 1980s.
Everyone will have to change, but everyone will g~t something
in return. ·Workers will gain new prosperity and independence, but
they'll have to give up non-productive work rules ana rigid job '
classifications. and be. more open to change. Managers will r~ap more
profit's, but they will have to manage for the long run, not the
quarterly profit, and train all their workers and not treat.
- themselve's !Jetter than their workers are treated.·
"
Corporations will reach new heights of produ~tivity and
,\
'
''
�-----~c----------------------
...
profitability in this coming decade, but ori~y if our CEOs haye the
·vision to put t~e lOJ1_9::!-fi11(!!'l~!'!:~~-t~ <?_f~~?,,iJ -~~~tamers, thei_r · ..
workers and the1.r compan1.es aheaa Ofl:fie1.r sfiort:;,term.compensation
packages~ ·we have to restore the. link between pay· and performance
by encouraging companies to provide for profit-sharing for all
employees,, not just the executives, and 'for profit-sharing plans •
•we have executives who profit when their companies do and when
·
their companies don't. We should change that. We should go up or.
down together, executives and workers alike.
We should say .to America's corporate l~aders, you .shouldn't
take bonuses anymore if you don't give bonuses to everybody 'who
works, for ·you. We should say you shouldn't take golden parachut.es
when.your companies fail, unless you've got good, generous severance
packages for your workers and a way for'them to retrain for a new
job when· you:re gone with enough to retire. on._
It's-wrong for. executives to keep doing what too many did in
the 1980s. At the biggest.. companies they raised their pay by four
·times what their workers' pay went up, three -times~ what their
profits went up •. It's.wrong to drive a compari:Y" irito the g~ound and
have the boss bail out with a golden parachute to a cushy life while
· the
workers
are left looking ., for another job at a lower pay.
.
.
l
The average CEO. at' an,American corporation ~s paid SS t'imes as
·much as the average worker, over 100 times'as much as the lowest
paid worker.
The German ratio. is 23 'to 1; the Japanese ratio is 17
.to 1. A,nd our government today· rewards that exces·s, wh~ther the
company .is performing or not', with a tax break for executive·pay,
regardless of what happens to the company.
If a company wants to
overpay its executives to perform less well and underinvest in the
future, ~ell it,' s their money,' it~ S okay with mf?~
But I don't think
they should get special treatment· from Uncle Sam, and I don't ~hin~
' your parents and you should •Underwrite ft.
If a co~pany _wants to transfer ·jobs abro~d ~nd cut the security~
of working_people at home they should have the right to do it. But
we shouldn't be alqne·.amang ad:vanced industrial countries in
absolutely subsidizing those moves.
In the 1980s ~e didn't do
enough to help companies compete and ·win ,in the global economy.
I
frankly admit that.
But we did do way too much to .transfer wealth
. away from hard.:.working middle class.people.and small businesses and
people who 'iiere trying .to keep their companies going to people who
were rich but who did not contribute to .otir economy and who did too
much to weaken qur country with debt that .was no longer inv~sted in
America.
All that's got to stop.
for irresponsibility.
.We can't have any more deductibility
~
I want you to know something·.
I believe in· business. Alone,
among the people running, I guess, I spent 11 years working with
.most of my time trying to get and keep good jobs in my state.
I
believe' in the 'marketplace.
I believe the best jobs program this
country ever had is economic. growth. Most of the· new jobs in this
'country are created~by small business people and entrepreneurs who
get hardly any help from the government. Too often, espeially in
thi's environme_nt, b!'lnks won't even loan them money. They won't take
a chance on people with good ideas and good futures.· And I do think .
. we ought to do more to 'encourage them.
So while I would remove deductibility for irresponsibility, in.
my administration I would offer tax incentives to those who take
risks in starting new businesses and developing new technologies.
\
�·.
Instead of -- instead of offering a capital gains tax which will cut
for the wealthy the t~ee wko ·ll:ri.Ll·~;people who will churn out
stocks on Wall Street-'anyW'ay,"'" :t:~-thi'rik"'·w"e-'"Shou'ld··:have a new
enterprise tax cut that rewards people with the patience, the
courage, and the determination to create new jobs. Those who risk
their whole savings on new businesses that create most of the jobs.
in this'country will, under my administration, receive a SO·percent
tax exclusion for the gains they'hold for more than five years.
I ,
think if you're going.to invest in America you should be encouraged .
.to do it.
·
I agree .that we should make the resea.rch and development tax
credit permanent.
I think we ·should bike away incentives· for,
companies that shut down their plants and move jobs overseas, and I
don't favor a capital gains cut but I· do favor a targeted investment
tax credit to small and medium-sized, businesses who will create new
jobs with new plant and new e'quipmeJ1t. We have to reward the right
kind of business behavior to make our market succeed again •
. ·.
And, finally I we owe American w'orkers anci entrepreneurs in
i'ndustry a pledge that all this work won't-go down the drain. We
have.to have a national strategy to compete
win in the global ·.
economy. The American people, in my opinion, aren't protectionists.
Protectionism's just a fancy way for giving up. We ~ant to compete
and win.
Besides that, it's not even an option. One' in five
American jobs is already tied to trade. That's why this new
c'ovenant must include
new trade policy that says to Japan and the
rest of .Asia, to Germany and the rest of Europe, to all of our
·
trading partners, we favor an open trading system.
But if you.won't
play by these rules we'll play by yours.
and
a
That's why we need a s~arper and a stronger Super 301 bi·ll that·
will be a means to enforce that policy.
I supported the Fast Track
negotiations with Mexico for a free trade agreement there, and I
believe in it.
But I .. think our negotiators must insist on tough
conditions to prevent our trading partners from expoit'ing their .own
workers or from.lowering costs through pollution to gain an
'
·advantage.
I think we should seek similar agreements with other
Latin American countries capable of honoring them, because rich
countries' get richer by helping other countries grow,into being
strong trading partners.
·
I think we.need a new energy policy to lower the trade deficit,
increase productivity, and. improve the environment. We cannot
continue to imprt over 50 percent of our oil from.foreign sources.
We need to rely more on cheap,. abundant, i:mvi:ronmentally clean
.
natural gas, on research and development .. and renewable technologies,
and on achieving international standards of energy efficiency. That
would freEk up billions and billions of dollars to reinvest in the
.American economy~
If we want to help our companies keep pace·in the world
economy, w~ also need to restore America not just to the forefront
of inventing products but in bringing them to the market. All too
often, we 've won the battle of the patents and lost the war of
creating the jobs, the profits, and the wealth. American scientists
invented the microwave,· the VCR, the color TVI and the memory chip.
But today, the Koreans, the Japanese, the German_s, ·and many others
leave us behind in making thos.e. product.s.
In the. area of Defense, the .research and development arm of the·
'Defense. Dep.artment has done a superb job in }1elping to promote the
discovery of.new technologies~and then turn them into domestic
·
production because we don't' want our weapons 'produced overseas. But
�·.
( .
we should launch the civilian equivalent -- an. agency to provide
basic, research for new and critical technologies and to make' it.
-easier· to•-- move these ideas into the marketplace.. And we should
pledge right now that for eve~y last dollar we reduce the defense
research and-development budget we'll increase a civilian R&D budget
by a like amount.
(Applause.)
--
)_.. "";.J
There's a lot of talk today about how we need to reduce the
defense budget 40 or 50 or 60 percent. ·Most people haven't thought
about the implications hat has for American high technology
manufacturing. Yes, we have to reduce_the budget. Of course, we
do. Of course, we need to free .that money up·for reinvestment in'
this country.
But iet's. not do it'without a transition plan to.
convert from a defense to a domestic economy ~n a way that creates
more high-wage jobs instead of destroying our most successful
high--ylage industrial base and with it the careers of thousands of
our best scientists and engineers and factory workers.
We must do all these things. But we must do something more.
These economic challenges I've been talking about today, they may
seem dry•· I've often heard economics called the dismal science.
Maybe this will be. called .the dismal address.
(Laughter.)
But., I
can tell you something.
Behind all these figures, behind all these
programs, there are real people, 'real suffering.
I have seen the pain in the faces of unemployed workers in New
Hampshire, policemen in New York and Texas, and computer company
executives in California, middle class people everywhere.
In New
Hampshire last week, . I looked into the eyes . of ·children at a high
school and I saw the pain when I. said to them, "I know a lot of you
go .home to dinner every night with parents who have lost their jobs .
or who have had to take lower-paying jobs, and you feel the tension
in the air, and I want you to know why that happens. They think
they failed you, and it's like stripping the skin off of their back
to look into your eyes and know that you •'re· their children and they
iove you more than anything in the world, and they have somehow let·
you down. And I want ybu to know it is not their fault." ·
(Applause. )
'
·..
'
These people I see, they· show the same pain•and worry that I've
seen on'the faces of· the folks in my state since I started 10 years
ago going to plants when they were working for the last day,· not the
first day.
I see it in the men and women that I grew up with, my
·
own childhood friends ·who ... know they played by the rules and now see
their cherished dreams flying away. That's why I want us to offer a
radically new approach to economics, economics· as if people were
~eally important.
If we offer these hardworking families no hope for the future,
no solution to their problems, no relief for their pain, then their
fear and their insecurity will.only grow. Their resentment will
deepe~, and the politics of hate and division will inevj.tably'
spread.
If we.don't act now to bring this country together in
common cause to build a better. future, then David Duke and his kind
will be able to divide and destroy' this country. Our streets will
get meaner, our families will be devastated, our very social fabric,
our g·o.odness and tolerance, our decency' as a people will be· torn
apart.
The politics of division which the Republicans have parlayed
into the presidency will eventually turn on even them, as we: _are
seeing now. George Bush has forgotten the warning of the'greatestRepublican president we ever had. Abraham Lincoln said a house
divided cannot stand, and Lincoln gave his life for the American
I
�community •. Now the Republicans have squandered his .legacy·.
'/ .
1"'
-· ·:· ·--r-"want -to be a president who can unite this country. ' This
·morning here at Georgetown, the-Robert' Kennedy Human Rights Award
ceremony was held. ~enty-six years ago when I was president of my
class here,. Robert Ke-nnedy filled in for his brother at the last
minute, brought two of his children·from his home to speak here at
peorgetown. The next year, he gave a very different description
aboutwhat American politics was·all about.
It was on the front of
the program today in· the human rights·· ceremony, and in case you
weren't there,- I would like to read it to you. and ask you how long.
it's .been since you heard cim American president say and believe
these things.
·
'
.
Twenty~five years ago, Robert Kennedy said, "Each time a man
stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or
strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny.ripple of hope,
and crossing _each other from a million different centers of energy
and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the ,
mightiest walls -of oppression and resistance." Tha~ is the spirit I.
seek to bring to the presidency, th~ spirit of renewal in America.
I believe with all my heart the ~ery future of
country is
on the line now.
That is why these ar_e not just economic proposals.
-They are a way to save the very soul of this country. This is not
just a campaign; it is a crusade for the forgottem middle ciass, a
crusade to give economic powe~ back to ordinary people and.to enable
all of us together to recapture the American dream.
It's a crusade
-not just for economi'c renewal but for social and spiritual renewal,
as well/ a crusade to build'a new economic order, of·empowerment and
opportunity, that will preserve our social order arid. make it
possible for our beloved country once again to make the American
dream live here at. home and to be strong enough to see it triumph
broad. .
·
··
'
oui
Thank you very much,' ·and G~ci bless you all.
(Applause. )
'MODERATOR: We now have 15. minutes for .questions,. so if we can
get someone from the Colleg~ Dems up there to ask the first one, or
from he NAACP, anc;I the other one to ask the second one:, and_ then
we'll open it up. There's a microphone right there in the
middle. Christian, why don't you go ahead.
Q
Governor Clinton, I ~ould iike for you to 'commentbriefly
on what you think about the welfare syst'em in America,. and
specifically, whether or not you believe it's cost effective, and if
not, what you would do·'to reform it? '
GOV. CLINTON:
I think it's important to recognize that you
basically have two kinds of' populations on welfare, neither of whichhe original welfare system was designed to serve. Originally,
welfare was created before the 'full Social Security came in, before
there was Supplemental Secu_rity Income,- before there .was Medicare or
Medicaid. And th~,typical recipient was the widow of a ~est
Virginia_ miner, a woman who lived in a h_ill. or a hollow with a third
or fourth grade education, several children, no way to make a
-~iving, ~nd no practical way to go to work.·
-·Today there are two kinds of people on welfare, and for one .the
system works ·pretty well, and for_ the other, I've been working for.
years to make it work better. There are people who get on welfare
because they fall on hard times, and they won't be on welfare long.
Most people get off of welfare between six months and one year af:t'er
they get on it. Today in New Hampshire, most people going on
·r
.';-.'.o..:... • • •\..
�·.
welfare are middle cl.as·s· people who have· lost their in·cames and are
lit~rally ·taking that palt~y .9~C~1;o;ima!!e' s '.h/tiluse:payment so their
children won't be .thrown into the street. And a lot·· of them are
embarrassed about it because of the coimotatiori welfare has, but•
. really, they shouldn't be embarrassed, they should be proud.·
They'.re Americans, they earned it, they paid for it, and that's the
people welfare ought t~ be helping.
Then there are peopl~ who are permanently trapped in poverty •
. Most of_them are young.women and their little children, who draw
welfare checks' because their children are tao· young for the women to·
go to work, there is no child care, the women have no training.
Ev;en if they took a_ job, it would.be a,minimum wage job, and ,by the
time they got through paying, for Child Care,. they WOUld be behind.
And they would also take a job without medicai coverage~ and as long .
as.they stay,on welfare, the Medicaid will.take·care of the medical
coverage.for their children •
.
So now the welfare system at least spends some'money on
edutation and training, says you have to take .a job if your child is
one yl§!arlold or older and there .is child care,. and offers the
opportunity, for these people to get a few months of transitional
· child.care and medical coverage.
What I want to do is to see a nationaLhealth 'insurance system
which will always cover those children, whether people are on
·
welfare or off,
.
·
a good· system of child care, which will be· avail·able to all working
people. And a much more intensive effort to ·train these people· to'
liberate their own energy. 'so, people who want to end the welfare
system, folks, are not the people who cuss at election time, they're
the people on wel:fare. They're the ones who want to end .the welfare
syst.em •.
. People .wish to be liberated. They wish to be dignified with
work and capacity and the ability to set ·a good example for their
children.
.
'
'
And so if yeti cover the child care, and if you have national
health, what I favor is an intense program of training, wh'ich would
teach every~ody who doesn't have it to get a high school diploma,
give training to people, get ·them jobs in the· piv'ate sector. But
'if after 18 months to two years, there's no private sector job, I
would require them to perform community, service work to continue to'
draw the check, because I believe work gives dignity to people. ·
This· is not an anti-poor persons deal, like David Duke said, this is
a way of giving dignity and potential to every American, and it is
·quite important.
'
·
1
Q
Governor Cl inton; you spoke. of the position for
government and what government must do', a position for business, and
what business must,do. What about students who soon will join the
US economy and. the global economy? What ~s.the position .for us and
what must me do to be included in the rolls?
GOV. CLINTON:. Well, the first thing I think you have to do is
to make s~re you understand what has happened to this country and·
why.
Because you can.help others who don't have the opportunity to
come_ into, a hall· like this·,· who. don't have, the luxury ·af going to
your beautiful library n~ed for a person who was in Ge9rgetown with
me-- he was killed in Vietnam-- who will never have the.time to·
study and to think, and you can understand and share.
·The second thing you can do is make-sure that·even if you
I'
�.
.
'disagree with me, and 100 percent of'you ought to be registered, you
ought ,to vote, and you ought; tto :txry ~o 3.nfi:lu6'mce ;the outcome of this
election.·
Look, unless there's some medical miracle, I've already liv.ed'
more than half my life. :you've got a lot more at stake in this
election than I do.· And yet younger· people participate less in
elections than middle age people and older people.
It's all
backwards. You'~e the one that's got the future at stake.
.
I·f you don' .t want to grow up to, have a future· that's· more
diminished than the one I enjoyed when I was your age; then you ·need
to get involved and try'to change the.course ~f.this election. You·
need to decide what kind of·problems you think.we-have, how we got
here, whether_ you agree with me and rear back and bear down.
And finally'· do not leave. here until you've finished.
The
college dropout rate is two and a half times the. high school,. dropout
rate.
Don't be sucker-punched into quitting.
If you've 'got to go
to work to stay, do that.
If you've got to borrow money. to .stay, to
that. Do·whatever it.takes to stay.
(Applause.)
Q
(Inaudible.)
GOV. CLINTON: Well, let·me answer both questions.
First of
all, no'one has ever asked me to do it or ~dvanced the argum~nt that
.we h~d in discrimination in hiring. in .our· state government • . And if
anyone,from my state asked me to do it, I would certainly take a
look at it.
No one ever has to my knowledge.
·
I am very much opposed.to discrimination against anybody for
. any unwarr'anted reason~ And when the Pentagon issued its report
saying that there was no basis for the ban on homosexual men and
women in the military, I said that I would act to repeal the ban.
The Secretary of Defen.se said it ought to. be repealed, but he
wouldn't do it.
But they stopped ·kickiO:g people out whiJ.e theGulf
wa;r was going on, and th_en started again after.the Gulf War was
·
over.
\
I dory't think it's. right._ I think everybody ought to have the
right to work and should be required to work.
I think people should
have the right to serve their country. And if denied the right to
serve their
country, . it should' be on the basis of behavior, not
J
status.
I feel very strongly about that.
.
l
.
In terms of the conversation that I had with Senator
(Kerry/Kerrey), what I said was that I thought he ought•to.comment
about. it.
I will say to you' I believe all of us-- everybody .in
this room, everybody in this country -- who has lived any length of
time,·has said something at some point in. our lives we wish. we
hadn't said •. And I bel.ieve he gave a· heartfelt and genuine apology,
which I ho~e·~ill be accepted.
·
Furthermore, I think that we should try all to l.earn from
things. like ~his •. I believe .that the Thomas...:Hill hearings, a~
.awful. as I thought they. w~re, produced far greater .sensitivity about
sexual harassment in· the workplace.· ·I believe Magic Johnson's
· tragic announcement produced far greater sensitivity about AIDS and
.a much greater energy in this ,country' to do 'something about it. And
.that is the sort .of thing I hope will come out of this. ~nd I think
Senator {Kerry/Kerrey) gave a genuine;. heartfelt apology, and· I hope
if will be accepted.·
· ·
�"'
,_;
~
·. ·r
l{Applanse.)
+-.· -t·. "lt·~- ..
Yes?
Q
I'm interested in knowing if your proposed economic .
'revolution fB:vorei -- (inaudible) -- for environmental prot~ction.
GOV •.CLINTON: Yes.
I. think .environmental protection is good
economics, not bad economics.
I don't favor, for.~xample, the
apparent proposal of the Vice President's Competiveness Strategy
Council to weaken the Clean Air regulations. You know, I remmber·
.when I-:-- not long after I became Governor, a lot of the. Asian
cities you couldn~t bre.athe when you.walked in •. And as they.have
moved to clean up their air, it's ·been
great,boon to their economy
because it has been a high-technology generator of new jobs and.new
opportunities.
·
a
.
I think that, as I said earl,ier, I think that. our dependence· on
.foreign ·.ail is a terrible mistake environmentally and economically.
I think if ·we had· a real .serious energy poli:cy, and just achieved
the.levels of energy efficiency in_factories, offices,.and schoo1E!
'that the Germans have achie~ed, did ·wh~t we could with renewables,
and used'our massively plentiful, cheap and clean natural gas, you
wouldn't have. to have fragile off-shore drilling or drill.in the
, Arctic ·Refuge.
·
·
And fi:nally, let me say I~m opposed to the wetlanqs definition
that the administration now has.
I think it opens too 'much land to
development.
(Applause.) Go ahead.
Q
(Inaudible.)
If we don't do something about t):le
reduction. and the possible· elimination of gases toxic to the ozone
layer, the future of the h~alth of Americans and citizens thrqughout
the world will be-- (inaudible~) Of course, these health.problems
would not .be noticed for generations, if we continue on' our present
path. How would·-- (inaudible) --the administration remedy.this.
problem' and set an· example for all the nations of the world?·. And if
dent '.t· think this is· a· problem, then why is 80 degrees today in
Washington -- (inaudible) -- (laughter)
GOV. CLINTON: Well, let me answer the question first.· .When I
was about your age, it;was 75 on Christmas day in my hometown, so I
don't know that that makes a compelling case.· But I think it is·
plainly a very serious problem. · I think we should set ·a good
example.
I think the ~- we should accelerate the international
the date fo~ th17 elimination of c:Fcs if at all poss'ibletAnd I believe that a lot of the multinational work th~t we'll
be doing in the 90s will be over environmental issues of all kinds,.·
not just those which deal with the depletion of the ozone layer, but
hopefully. we will be able to find some multinational strategy that
will slow down the destruct'ion of the rain forest, where half of the
. flora-· and fauna of the world are, and where in all probability there
is a cure for the. AIDS virus. al}d a number of other things, if we can
stop the destruction rate.
And I think it.' s a very impotant issue.
Thank you.
·
·
'
\·
(Applause.)
Q
Hi.
My name i.s Todd Schaeffer (ph) and I'm a member of
the middle class.
(Laughter,
Applause.)
GOV. CLINTON:
~
""'.
.:., _;-.:-..·-.·....-~""t&.~-
>e~- -~~ "'~ ~- .~,_:;~~
So am I.
(Applause.)
'
~
•~
£' ., ,., }
~c:.·~ ~;. ~,';~ ''1::\
�.- ,fl! , ~Q•'' t , I was just wondering what you fee~ the justification is
.., ~'-ii-o'f.' 1-'la<>rincj,.a•middle class crusade when every indication is that i't's ·
'the poor· that have suffered most Iunder
Reagan
and, Bush.
,
.
GOV. CLINTON: Well; first of all, there is a very good reason
for it. And that is that if all .you do is help t.he poor, the only
way to help the poor without helping,the middle class is to.recycle
money in a shrinking economy. The reason there is so much more
poverty now than there was 10 years ~go in part ~s that there.is no
ladder out of poverty and the middle class boat is smaller.
I have
not had -- there is no hostility to the poor.
In my plans, the poor
would get better health care, .the poor would get better education,
the poor would get more opportunities.for economic development
through self-employment and othe innovative strategies that have
worked in other places in the country.
I believe that I have the·
most detailed plan for t~e economic advancement of people in poverty
of any candidate running in.this race.
·
But let's not kid _ourselv~s. ·. If you're going to help the poor
with tax money, somebody's got to make enough to pay the taxes and
there's something wrong when you live in a decade where the stock
market triples and wages go down.· And if all you do istake the
·
money from the rich and give it to the poor and you don't do
anything to expand the economic growth arid make. this country more·
competitive, you will have .short-term help for them, but. over the
long run, they'll be worse off. so my view is that the best way to
help the poor is to expand the middle class. That's who will go
into the middle class, re-establish the ladder between poverty and
the middle class and provide the basic life supports that give
~veryone a decent life --· health care, education, housing and
economic strategies that will work for people. in poverty, because
we.'ve seen them work in this country and throughout the world.
·
(Applause.)
GOV. CLINTON:
Last question.
Q .
(Off mike)·~- re-e~amining of the entire education
system -- (off mike).-- student loan system.
I'm·wondering if you
'could expand on exactly . how-- (off,mike).
.
GOV.· CLINTON: Well, we spend about ,$5 billion a year on Pell
Grants • . I would leave that alone and would even like to see that
expanded. Those are just flat-out grants for low-income students •
.We spend· about $6 billion a year with the savings and loan program
and this year, the cost of defaults and the cost of collections are
somewhere in the $3-billion range. Senator Paul silnon has done a
lot of 'research on this and he. and senator Bradley have,each·
proposed in their own way proposals that would enable. the American
people to borrow money to go to college and pay it back with a small
percentage of income. Under the Simon proposal, you would save $2.7
billion in the ·first year by having the IRS collect it and cut out
all the middle men.
Some of the big banks that make ·big money off
student loans might hot like it·, but you wo~ld weed out mass?-ve.
inefficiency and· everybody would have to pay their loan back, if
they had a job, because if they were in the· income tax records and
you just sent them a bill based on their taxable income, they would
have to pay it.
It would be must less costly, much more efficient
and the IRS can certainly do it since they have more employees than
they had 20 years ago and they're doing fe~e~ audits.
So they can
do it.
.
(Applause.)
�GOV. CLINTON:
Thank y.ou very much.·
END
i-··
�~
copyright (C) 1992 by Federal Information Systems Corporation
-
Thursd~y,
December 12, 1991
Georgetown University: Governor Bill Clinton, Arkansas - A New
covenant for American Security
Transcript ID: 780967
(1080 lines)
REMARKS BY:
GOVERNOR BILL. CLINTON (D-ARKANSAS)
TITLE:
A NEW COVENANT FOR AMERICAN. SECURITY
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY INTERCULTURAL CENTER AUDITORIUM
THURSDAY,_ DECEMBER 12, 1991
GOV. BILL CLINTON: Thank you very much, Father O'Donovan
(sp), Dean-Krough. My friend, Mr. Landegger, I must thank him for
two things, one for making in the space of a few minutes all the
points I tried to make. in these three speeches.
(Laughter.)
I am
going to offer him a tidy surg for his type (?).remarks, and my staff
wi11 be glad to know that someone can get this message across and
under .10 minutes.
(Laughter. ) · I als'o want to thank him for saying
I was the most serious candidate for President. I don't know whether to .take that seriously.
·
The other day in New Hampshire, a wag said that I w'as the
smartest.of the candidates and that amounted to saying that Moe was
the smartest of the Three Stooges.
(Laughter.)
I also -~ I also come here as a Democrat, and one of my
_ friends tqld me a story this morning which reminded me of Will
Rogers' famous remark that he did not belong to an organized party,
ne was a Democrat.
(Laughter.) This fr~end of mine told me this
morning _that the reason that the Soviet Union was dissolving so fast
into its component parts is that the President had-appointed a
· Democrat Robert Strauss who had required them to play by the rules
of the Democratic National Party.
(Laughter.)
)
.
.
Having said that, I would like now to attempt to tell you
what I beli~ve we should do to·build not a Democratic, but a
bipartisan American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.
I was
born nearly a half-century ago at the dawn of the Cold War.
It was
a time of great change, enormous opportunity and uncertain peril, a
time 'when w,e Americans wanted nothing more than simply _to come home
and resume our lives o·f peace and quiet because our country was
tired of war.
But we had to summon the world for a new kind of war,
containing' an expansionist and hostile Soviet Union which vowed to·
bury us. We had to firid ways to rebuild the economies of Europe and
Asia, encourage worldwide movement toward independence and vindicate
our.nation's principles in the world against yet another
totalitarian challenge, to liberal democracy. Thanks to the
outstanding·courage and sacrifice of the American people, we were
able to win that Cold War. Now we've entered a new era, and we need
a new vision of strength and security to meet a new·set of
·opportunities and serious new threats.
Ip a ·way, we face the same
kind of challenge we did back in 1946, to build a world of security
and freedorr., a world of democracy and fre·e markets and growth at a
. time of terrific change.
·
·
: ~
..
�\
.
Anyone running for President, Democrat or Repu~lican, is
going to have to_provide a vision fOr security in this new·era, and
that is what I am hoping to do today. Given the problems we face at.
home, we_do have-to take care of our own people arid their needs
first.
We need to remember the central lesson of the collapse of.
the Soviet Union arid of Communism itself, so we never defeated them
ori the field of battle.
Instead, the-soviet Union collapsed from
. the inside out, from- economic'andpolitical and ultimately from
spiritual failure.
But make no mistake,· here,·· as .i,.n Eastern Europe·
and the Soviet Union, foreign and domestic. policy are inseparable in
today's world.
\
'
.
If you're not strong at home, we can'·t lead the world we've
done so much to make.
But if we try to withdraw from this world, it
will hurt us economically at home, and we can't allow what my friend
and eminent journaiist, E.J. Dion (ph) has called another false
choice, a false choice'between domestic and foreign policy which
could hurt qur economy and hurt. our country.
·
our President has devoted his .time and his energy to foreign
concerns and has clearly ignored dire problems here at horne. As a
result, we're drifting in the longest economic declinesince World
War ·I I, .and in reaction to that, . elements in both Republican and
Democratic parties·· are urging America to respond to the collapse of
Communism in a crippling recession at home by retreating from the
world.
I've agreed with.President Bush on· a number .of 'foreign policy
.questions.
I've supported his efforts to kick Saddam Hussein out of
Kuwait and believe he did a: masterful job in pulling together the
victorious multinational coalition through the United Nations.
I
support his desire to pursue peace talks in the Middle East.
I
agree with him that we can't afford just to turn our back and walk
away from NATO, and I supported giving the administration fast track
authority, to negoti~te a sound·_ and fair free trade e~.greement with
Mexico.
But because this President seems to favor political
stability and personal relations with foreign leaders over a
coherent policy of. freedom, democracy, economic growth,· he often
does things that I d~sagree with.
For example, _his close personal ies with foreign leaders
-clearly helpe'd him to forge that coalition against Saddam Hussein,
but it also-let him side with China's Communist rulers after a
democratic uprising of students. , The President_ forced Iraq out of
Kuwait, but as soon as the war was over, his concern for .stability
made him willing to lead the Kurds to an.awful fate.
He.' s rightfully s'eeking Middle East .peace, but is urged to
personally broker a deal.
It has ·led him to take public positions
which may undermine the-- (inaudible) --.of the Israeli's and the
Arabs to negotiate an. enduring peace.
In the aftermath of.the Cold War, we need a President who
recognizes tl)at in this dynamic new era, our goal is not t~ resist
charige, but to shake it. The President mu_st articulate a vision _of'
where we are going.
The President and his administration have yet_
to meet.that test, to defi~e a new·United States national security
~olicy af~er the Cold War~
·
Retreating from the world or discounting its dangers is wrong
for our country and sets back everything we hope to accomplish as
Democrats. · The defense of freedom ana a promotion of democracy
around the world aren't merely a reflection of our deepest values •.
They are vital· to our national interest. Global democracy means
-...~
. I
�nations· at pe~ce with one. another, open to one another's ideas and
one another's commerce.
The stakes are high because the collapse of
communism-is not an isolated event.
It is part of a worldwide march
towar:d democracy whose outcome will determine. the next .century. , I~.
individual liberty, political democracy and free enterprise can take
root in Latin A!nerican and Eastern Europe and Central Europe and the
Soviet Union and Africa, Asia, we ·can look forward to a great new
·
era of reduc_ed conflict, mutual understanding and economic growth
for ourselyes and for millions and millions of peopl~ who seek to
live in freedom and prosperity. This re~olution must not fail.
And
yet, even if the American dream is inspiring people around _the
world,, our riation stands on the si_deline·s with so much changed, a
militar giant crippled. 'by economic weakness and an uncertain
vision.
I believe we face twogreat foreign policy challenges today.
First, we must define a new national security policy that builds on
freedom's victory in the Cold'War. The Communist idea has
comp,I.etely lost its. power, but the fate of people who live under it
and the fate of the world will be in doubt until stable-'democracies
rise from the debris of the Soviet empire.
And second; we must forge a new economic policy to serve
ordinary Americans by launching a new era of global economic growth.
We must tear down the wall in our thinking·between domestic and.
·
fqreign policy. We need a coherent s'trategy that enables us to lead
the world we work hard to make and that supports our urgent efforts
. to .tii1ke care of our own here at home. We cannot do one without the
other.
I.believe. we need a new co:venant for American security after
the Cold War, a set of rights and responsibilities that will
·challenge our people, our leaders .and our allies, to work together
to- bui·ld a safer, more prosperous,· more democratic world.
The strategy of American engagement, I propose, is based on
four key assumptions about the requirements of our security in this
new era. First, that the collapse of Communism does not mean the
end of danger, a n~w set of threats and an ev~ri less stable world
will force us· even as we restr,ucture our defenses to keep our guard·
up.
Second, American must regain its economic strength in order
t·o maintain our position o·f global political lea~ership. While·
military power will-continue to be vital to 'or national security,
its utility is declining relativ.e to economic power. We cannot
afford-to go 6n.~pending too much on fire power and too ~ittle on
brain pow~r.
(Applause.)
Third, we live in an information age in which the
irresistible power of .ideas rule. ' (Audio break) -- gain its
economic strength in o_rder to· maintain our position of global
political leadership. While military power'will continue to be
vital to our national security, its utility is declining relative to
economic power. We cannot afford to go on·. spending too much on fire
power and too little on brain power.
(Applause.)
Third, we iive in an info~ation age in which the
irresistible power of ideas rule.
Television, cassette tapes and
the fax machine helped those ideas of freedom to pierce· the Berlin
Wall and eventually to bring it down.
I
j
,
f
And finaily, our definition of security must include common
·threads to.all .the.peoples of the globe. On the environment and on
�otqer global issues, .our very surviva} depends on the United States
taking th.e lead. Guided by these assumptions, it seems t~ me we
must pursue three clear objectives. First, we must restructure our.
military forces for a new era.
Second, we must work with our allies
to encourage the spread and consolidation· of democracy a·round the
wor:ld, ·and third,- we· must reestablish our own economic leadership at
home and abroad.
·
.,
When Americans elect a President, t.hey elect a Commander-inChief. They want someone they can trust to act when our countryis
intere~t~ are threatened. , To protect our interests and our values,
sometimes,we.have to stand and fight.
That is why as President I
pledge to maintain mi,litary forces, strong enough to deter and, when
.necessary,
to defeat
any threat to our vital interest.
.
.
'
,·
Today's defense debate.centers too narrowly. on the size of
the military budget. The rea·l questions are: What thr~ats do we
face? What forces do we need to counter them,. and how must we
chan,ge to achieve those new objectives? We can and we. must
substant~ally reduce our military forces and ~pending, because· the
soviet threat is dec·reasing, and our allies are able to and should
shoulder more of their own defense burden. · But we still must set
the level of d'efense spending based on what we need to protect our
interes.t . around the globe.
first.~ let' s provide for a strong
defense. Then we can t.alk about 'defense savings. At the outset of
th,is discussion, I want to,make.one thing absolutely clear: the
world is still rapidly changing, as· .we know whem we pick up each new
day's newspaper.
The· wo,rld we· look out cin today is not the' same one
we will see tomorrow and certainly not ~ year from now when I hope
to be your President-elec;:t.
(Applause.)
Therefore, we must remain ready to adj\JSt all of our·defense
to meet threats., that either could be heightened or
hopefully reduced down the road. our defense needs were much·.
clearer during the. Cold:'war when. it was widely accepted that we
needed· enough forces to deter a Soviet nuclear attack, to defend
again'st ·a Soviet-led conventional defensive in Europe and to protect
other American intere'sts, especially in northeast Asia and the
·Persian Gulf.
·
·
proj~ctions
The coilapse of the soviet Union shattered that consensus
.
17aring us without a clear benchmark for determining the. size or the
m~x of our armed forces.
However, a new consensus is emerging on
the natur~ of the post-Cold War and its secure era .and its. security
needs •. It assumes that the gravest threats are most likely to occur
in the following areas. ·First, the spread of deprivation and•
,disorder in the former Soviet Union, which. could lead to armed
,conflict among the republics or the r~se of a fervidly (?)
nationalistic-and aggressive regime in Russia, still in possession
·of thousands of long-range nuclear weapons.
Se.cond, the spread of
weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological as
well as the means·for delivering them. Third, and during tensions
in various region~,· especially the Korean Peninsula and the Middle
East and the intended (?) risks of terrorist attacks on Americans
traveling or working abroad. And finally, the growing intensity of
ethnic rivalries,and sever (?)this efforts and violence within
national, borders, such as we've seen in Yugoslavia, in India and
elsewhere· that could spill beyond those borders •.
To deal with all these new threats, we need.to replace our
cold war- military structure, where the smaller more flexible mix of
'capabilities 'which iriclud~ first nuclear deterrents. · We can
dramatically reduce our· nuclear ar~enals. t:hrough negotiations in
other reciprocal actions, but as an irreduceable minimum we must
\.
'c
�retain a survivable nuclear force to deter any conceivable threat.
Second, rapid deployment. ·We. need a force capable of
projecting power quickly when ~nd where it's needed.
I don't think
we'll ever. have five and a half months to settle into an arena of
conflict again as we did. in the Gul'f War~· That means the.army must'
develop. a more mobile'mi~ of mechanized and armored forces.
The Air
Force. should emphasize practical air power .and air lift, and the
Navy and the Marine Corps must maintain sufficient carrier and
amphibious forces as well as more sealift. We also need strong
special operations forces to deal with terrorist threats.
Fourth, technology. The Gulf War proved that the superior
training of our soldiers, tactical air power, .advanced
communication,: space based surveillance and smart weaponry produced
a shorterwar. with fewer casualties for America. We must maintain
our technological age -- edge.
o
And f~nally, better intelli~ence.
In an era of unpredictable
-threats, .our intelligence have to shift their efforts from just
military bean-.counting._ to a far more sophisticated understanding of
political, esonomic and cultural conditions that can spark conflicts
around the world. " To .achieve' these .capabilities, I would
restructure our forces in the following ways.
First, now that the nuclear arms race has finally ~eversed
it's time for a prudent slow~down .and strategic
modernization. We should stop .production of the B-2 Bomber·. That
alone would .save $20 billion by 1997.
(Applause.)
co~rse,
Since President Reagan unveiled his S~ar Wars proposal in
19S3, our nation has spent $26 billion in the futile pursuit of a·
fool-proof defense against nuclear attack. Democrats in congress
have recommended a much more realistic entertainable goal:
defending against very limited or accidental losses of ballistic
missiles. This goal would allow us to proceed ~ith research and
: development on missile defense within the framewo):'k of the ABM '( sp)
Treaty, a prudent step as more and more countries acquire missile·
technology. At the same time, we must do more to stop the threat of
weapons of'mass destruction from spreading. We must clamp down on ·
countries and companies that sell those technologies, punish
violators and work.urgently with all other countries for tough,
enforceable,~internatidnal non-proliferation agreements.
(Applause. ) ·
Although President Bush's present plans fbr.defense
reductions do reduce our conventional force structure, r believe we
can go further without undermining our core capabilities. We can
meet our responsibilities in Europe, for example, with' less than the
150,000 troops now proposed by the President, e~pecially as the
Soviet Republics withdraw their forcers ·from the Red Army. We can
defense the sea lanes and project force with 10 carriers rather than
12. We should continue to keep some U_S forces. in Northeast Asia as
·.long as North Korea presents a threat to our South Korean ally.
To
upgrade our-conventional forces we need to develop greater air·and
sealift capacity, including production of.the C-17 transport
'
aircraft, but we should end or reduce programs intended to meet the
soviet threat.. Our. conventional programs like new Air· Force
_
fighters and the Army's. new armored systems should be redesigned to
meE¥t the regional threats we now face. ·
The ac.ministrati.on has called for a 21-percent cut in
.military spending through 1~95, based on the assumption now obsolete
that the Soviet .Union would remain intact.· With the dwindling
�Soviet threat, we can cut defense spending by over a third by 1997.
Based on the calculat{ons by the congressional ·sudget Office,·my
plan would bring cumulative savings of about $100 billion beyond the
current Bush plan.
If favorable political and military trends
continue and we_make progress on arms control, we may be able to
scale down defense spending still more by the end of the decade.
However, we should not commit ourselves. now to specific cuts 10.
years from now. The world is changing too quickly, and we· must
retain our ability to react to potential threats. Also, we must not
forget about the real people whose lives will beturned upside down
when the defense budget is deeply cut.
·
The gov:ernment should look out for· its defense_ workers and
the communities they live in •. · We should insist on advanced
noti-fication and help for communities when the plan a transition
from a defense to_a domestic economy. Thirty-one percent of our
engineers today work for the defense. industry. '-They and other
highly skilled workers and technicians are a vital national resource
at a time_when our technological age in a world economy must be
sharper than ever before.
'
I have called for a new advanced research agency, a civilian
versiori of DARPA, that could help to·capture commercial work for the
brilliance of the scientists and the.engineers who have accomplished
wonders on the battlefield. Likewise, those who served our country
in uniform can't just be dumped on·the job market. We've. got to
enlist them to,- help meet our needs here at home,. too. By shifting
people from active duty to the National· Guard and Reserves, offering
early retirement,options, limiting reenlistment and slowing the pace
of recruitment, we can build dowri our forces in a gradual way that ·
doesn't abandonpeople of proven commitment and competence.
.
I
.
· Our people in uniform are one of the most highly skilled·. in
the areas we need most. We need to transfer their human resources
and their energy into our work force here at home and even into our
schools, perh~ps in part by using Reserve centers. and close bases
for.community-based education and training programs.
The defense policy that I have outlined
keeps America strong and still yi~lds substantial savings. The
American people have earned this peace dividend through 40 years of
unrelenting vigilance and sacrifice at an investment of trillions of
d9llars, and they are entitled to have that dividend reinvested in
our future now. . (Applause. )
Finally, our nation must reach an ·agreement with o.ur allies
for sharing the cost and the risks of. maintaining peace. While
Desert Storm set a very useful precedent for cost sharing, our.
, forces still did most of the fighting and the dying. We need to
shift the burden to a wider coalition of nations, of which our
countrywill still be a leading part.
In the Persian Gulf, in Namibia, in Cambodia, and elsewhere in·
recent years, the United Nati9ris has begun to play the role
envisioned for it by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Now we
must take the lead in making their vision real by expanding.the
Security Council and making Ge'rmany and Japan permanent members, by
continuing to press for greater efficiency in the United States, and
. by exploring ways to institutionalize the UN's success in mobilizing
international participation in Desert Storm.
One proposal worth exploring calls for a UN rapid'deployment
force that could be used for purposes beyond traditional
peacekeeping, such as standing guard at the borders of countries
�threatened by aggression~ preventing attacks on civilians, providing
humanitarian relief, and combating terrorism and drug trafficking.
In Europe, new securi~y arrangements will evolve over the next
decade. While insisting on a fairer sharing of the common'defense
burden, we must not turn our back on NATO. Until a more effectfve
security system emerges, we have to give our allies no reason to
doubt our constancy.
As we restructure our military forces, we must reinforce the
_powerful global movement toward democracy. United ~tates foreign
policy simply cannot be divorced from the moral principles we
believe in. We can't disregard how other governments treat their
own people, whether their domestic_ institutions are democratic or
regressive, whether they encourage or check illegal conduct beyond
their borders.
_ This doesn't mean that we can deal only with democracies or
that we should seek to remake the world in our own image, but. recent
experience from Panama to +ran to Iraq shows the dangers of forging .
strategic relationships with despotic regimes.
(Applause.)
It
should matter to us'how otherpeople govern themselves.·
,_
Demo_cracies don't go to war with each other. The French and
the British have nuclear weapons. We do.n't fear annihilation at
their hands. Democracies don't sponsor terrorist acts against each
other. They're _more likely to be reliable trading partners, protect
the global environment, and abide by international l.iw.
· Over time, democracy itself is a stabilizi~g force.
It
provides nonviolent means for resolving disputes. Democracies do .a
better job of resolving -- protecting'ethnic and religious and other.
minorities. And_elections can help to resolve civil wars.
·Yet President Blish too often has hesitated when democratic
forces all across the world'needed our'support in challenging the
status quo.
I believe the President erred when he secretly rushed
envoys to resume cordial relations with China barely a month after
the massacre in Tiananmen Square.
(Applause.) I believe he erred
when he spurned Yeltsin before the Moscow coup, when he poured cold .
water on the Baltic and Ukrainian aspirations for-self-determination
and independence, and when .he initially refused to help the K~rds.
The administration continues to coddle China, despite its
continuing crackdown on democratic reform, its brutal subjugation of
Tibet, its irresponsible export of nuclear and missile technology,
its support for the homicidal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and its
abusive trade practices.- Such forbearance on our part might have
made sense du'ring the Cold War when China was the c:ounterweight to
Soviet power.
It makes no sense to play the China card now when our
opponents have thr.own in their hand. · ·(Applause.)
In the Middle East, the administ~ation deserves credit for
bringing Israel and its Arab antagonists to the negotiating table.
Yet I believe the President is wrong to use selective public
pressure tactics against Israel, because- -in the process he's raised:
Arab expectat.ions that he can deliver Israeli concessions, and he's
fed Israeli fears that its interests will be sacrificed to an
American-imposed solution. Wemust let the parties in the Middle
East make peace. ·(Applause.)
And we must also remember that, even if -- even if -- t_he
Arab-Israeli dispute were resolved tomorrow, there would still be
ample cause'S of conflict in that troubled part of the wo:rld:
-------
-------------
�ancient tribal, ethnic, and religious hatreds, fights over control .
of.oil and water, the bitterness ·af the have-nets toward the haves,
and the lack of democratic inst-itutions to hold leaders accountable.
to their people and restrain their actions abroad, and finally the
territorial ambitions of Iraq and Syria.
1
·
•
We paid a terrible price.for this administration's earlier
policies of deference to Saddam Hussein. Today, we must deal with
Hafez Assad in Syria, but we must not overlook his tyrannical rule
and his domination of Lebanon. We need a-broader policy toward the
Middle East that seeks to' limit the flow of arms into the region as
well as the materials needed to develop and de-liver weapons of mass
destruction~ one which promotes democracy and human rights and
preserves our ~trategic relationship with what i's still the only
democracy in the region --. Israel., (Applause.)
~
~
In Africa as well, we must align America with the forces of
·d~mocracy.
The_administration has claimed credit for-the historic
opening.of democracy now being negotiated in South Africa when, in
fact, it resisted the·sanctions that.helped make this hopeful·move
possible.
(Applause.) ·
·
"
Today, we should concentrate our attention on· doing what. we
can to help' erid the violence that has ravaged,the .south Afripan
town_ships, by supporting with .our aid the local ·structures that seek
to mediate these disputes and by insisting that the south African
government . sho,w the same- zeal in prosecuting the perpetrators of ·
this viqlence as it has in the past when pursuing the leadeis of the
anti-apartheid movement.
The administration in our states .and cities should only relax
the remai~ing·sanctions as it becomes clearer that the day of
democracy and guaranteed individual rights is·at hand, and when that
day ,does dawn, we mus.t be· prepared to extend our assistance to make
sure that democracy, once gained, is never lost there.
(Applau~e.)
And American foreign policy of engagement for democracy will
unite our interests and our values. Here's what I think we should
.do: First, we need to respond more forcefully to one_,of the
·
•greatest security challenges af·aur·time to help the people of the
former Soviet Union demilitarize.the society and build free
politicai· and economic institutions.
(Applause.)
Congress has passd $500 mill~on to help the Soviets destroy
nuclear weapons and for humanitarian aid •. We can do better. _ As
senator Nunn and Representative Les Aspin have argued, we .should
'shift money from marginal military programs to this key investment
in our. future security. We can. radically reduce the .threat of.·
nuclear destruction. that has doggeq ,us for decades by investing a
f-raction of ,what would otherwise hav to be spent to counter that
threat. And together with our G-7 partne~s, we can supply the
Soviet republics with the food and medical aid they need to survive
their· first winter of freedom in 74, years.
(Applause.)
we should do all that.we can to better coordinate these
efforts with our allies and to provide the best technical assistance
we can-to distribute the food and the aid. No national security
issue is-more urgent than the question of who will control the
nuclear weaporis and technology of the former Soviet empiie.' ~hose
weapons pose a threat to the security of every American, to our
allies, and to the republics themselves.
I know it may :be bad politics to be for any kind of foreign
aid program in today's economic environment, but ~e owe it to the
�people who defeated ccmrri~nism, who defeated the coup, and we owe it
to ourse.lves.
(Applause.) A small amount spent today stabilizing
the emerging democracies in'the former Soviet empire will reduce by
far,. far more the money we may have to commit to our defense.in the
future, and it wiil lead to the creation of lucrative.new markets
which· mean more' American jobs tomorrow. Having won the Cold War, we
must not now lose the peace.
(Applause.)
We should recognize Ukrainian independence as well as that of
other republics who have made .that decisiondemocratically, but we
should link United States and Western non-humanitarian aid to
.agreements by the republics to abide by all arms agreements
.negotiated by· Sovi~t authorities, ·demonstrate responsibility .with
regard to nuclear weapcms·, demilitarize their· economies, respect ·
-minority rights, and proceed with market and political reforms.
We should use our diplomatic and economic leverage to increase
material incentives to .. democratize and raise the cost to those who
don't. We have every right to condition our foreign aid and·.debtrelief policies on demonstrable progress toward democracy and marke~
reforms, and in extreme .cases, such as that of China, we should
condition favorable trade terms on political liberalization and
responsible international conduct.
(Applause.)
We need to support evolving institutional structures which are
favorable. to countries struggling ·with the transition to democracy
'and markets such as the new European Bank for Reconstruc~ion and
·Development, whose mission it is to rebuild the societies-of Central
and Eastern Europe. We are right.to encourage the European
community to open its· doors to those societies, perhaps by creating
an af~iliate status that carries some, but not all 'the privLleges of
citizeri~hip.
We encourage American private investment in the former Soviet
empire. The Soviet republics, after all, are rich in human and
natural resources.
One day·, they and Eastern Europe could be
_lucrative markets for us.
we should regard increase in funding for democratic
as a legitimate part of our national sec,urity policy. We
·support groups .. like the National Endowment 'for Democracy,
works openly'· rather than covertly, to promote democratic
and free markets abroad.
·
assistance
should
which
pluralism
I would ~ncquracje the Agency (or'International: Deveiopment and
the USIA to channel more of their resources into promoting
democracy, and just as Raqio Free Europe arid the Voice of America
have helped to bring the truth to people around the world for years,
a Radio Free Asia could carry news and hope to China and other
'countries in Asia which have .not yet. found democracy.
(Applause.)
Finally, just as President Kennedy launched th'e Pe.ace Corps 30
·years ago, we should create a democracy co,rps today that will send
thousands. talented American volunteers of all' ages .to· countries 'th,at
need thei~ legal, financial, and political expertise.
·
our second major strategic challenge is to help lead the ~orld
in the new era of global growth.
Any governor who's tried to create
j cbs ove·r the last .. decade knows that experience in international
economics is essential and that success 'in the global economy must
be at· the core of the United States national security policy in the
'90s. Without .growth abroad, our .own economy cannot thrive at home.
us export of goods and services wilr be over a hal:f trillion dollars
in' 1991, about 10 percent of our economy.
'
�Without global growth, healthy international competition turns
to all-too-deadly economic'warfare~ Without growth in economic
progress, there can be no economic justice among or within nations •.
I believe the ,negotiations on an open trading system in the ·GATT·
round are of extraordinary irriportance, and I support the negotiation
of a North.Amerj,.can Free Trade Agreement as long as it's fair to our
farmers and workers, preserves the environment, and observes decent
labor standards.
.
1
. Freer tr~de abroad means more jobs at-home. Every billion
dollars the United States ·exports generates 20 (thousand] or .30
thousand or more jobs •. We must find ways to help developing nations
·finally overcome their debt crisis, which has lessened their
capacity to buy our own goods and probably cost·us over 1-1/2
million American jobs. ·
We must be strong at home to lead ·and maintain global growth.
our weakness at home has caused even our economic competitors to
worry about. our stubborn refusal to est-ablish national strategy to.
regain our economic leadership and re.store opportunity for our own
working people and our middle class. That's what Mr. Landegger (ph)
talked about. How can we lead when we've gone from being the
world~ s largest creditor to the world's' largest debtor, fr.om having
the highest wages in the world to falling to tenth? Where we depend
on fo~eigners for $100 billion a year of financirig, we are not the
masters of our own-destiny.
I spoke in my last lecture about how we must rebuild our
nation's economic greatness, for the job of restoring our
competitive edge truly does begin at home.
I have offered a program
to build the most well-educated and well-trained work f9rce in the
world and put our national budget to work on programs that will make
our people richer and not more indebted.
Our economic strength must become a defining element of our
national security policy., We must organize to compete and win in
the global economy. We need a- comm1.tment from' American business and
labor to work together to make'world-class·products. We have .to be
prepared to exchange some shprt-term benefit, whether it's in the
quarterly profit statement or in archaic work rules, for long-term
success.
The private sector has to maintain the initiative, but
government has .an indispensable role, too. A recent Department of
commerce -report is a wake-up ·call-that we are falling behind our·
major competitors in Europe .and Japan in all kinds of emerging
technologies that will define the high-paying jobs of the. future,
including advanced materials, 'biotechnology, superconductors, and
computer-integrated manufacturing~·
·
·
I, have mentioned.the Civili~n Advanced Research Projects
Agency to work closely with the private sector so that its
priorities are not set by government alone. We have hundreds of
national laboratories-with exceptional talent that have put the
United States at the forefront of military technology. Now we must
reorient their mission, working with private companies and
universities to advance technology that will make all our lives
·better 'and create tomorrow's high"'-wage., high-opportunity jobs.
(Applause.)
Not P.nough of our companies engage in export. Just 15 percent
of our companies account for 85-percent of our exports." We've got
to meet our competitors• effqrts to help smaller- and ~edium-sized
\.
�\
.
companies identify and gain access to foreign markets. And, most
important, government must assure_ that international competttion is
fair by insisting that our European, Japanese, al')d other trading
partners play by the same rules. We,prefer an open trading system,
but our message must be clear:
"We want you to play by these rules,
but i-f you don't, we' 11 play by your rules._"
'
We have no more important bilateral relations than our
alliance with Japan, a relationship that's matured from one of
·dependency in the '50s to one of partnership today; a relatio-nship
based on the ties of democracy.
But as. we. cooperate, we also
compete, and as the maturity' of our relationship allows American.
presidents to say more frankly what our common interests are, I. will
insist on fair play. As ,we put our own economic ~ouse 'in order,
Japan must open the doors of .its economic house or our partnership
will be imperiled with aqverse consequences for all the world.
We must understand, finally, as never before that our national
security is largely economic. The success of our engagement in the
~orld depends not on tha headlines it brings to politicians _in this
city, but on the benefits it brings to hard-working middle-class
Americans.
·
Our foreign policies·are not really foreign at all anymore •
. When greenhous'e gas emissions from developed nations warms the
atmosphere and CFCs eat away at the ozone layer, our beaches and
farmlands and people are threatened. When drugs flood into our
country from South America and Asia, our cities suffer and our
children's futures are· put at risk. When a Libyan' terrorist can go
into an airport in Europe and check-a bomb in a suitcase that kills
hundreds of people, our freedom is diminished and our people live in
fear.
So let us no longer define-national,. security in narrow
mi-litary terms of the Cold War. We can no-longer afford to.have
·separate foreign and domestic policies. We must devise and pursue
national, policies that serve_ the needs of our people by uniting us
at home and restoring our greatness in th wor.id.
To lead abroad, a
President of the United States must first lead at home.
A half century ago, this country emerged victorious from ari .
all-consuming war into ·a new era of great challenge.
It was a time
of change, a time of ne~ thinking, a time for working together to
build .a free a~d prosperous world, a time for putting that war
behind us.
In the aftermath· of that war, Harry Truman;and his
successors forged a bipartisan consensus in America that brought
security and for the next 20 years the greatest prosperity our
nation had ever known.
·
Today; we need a president, a public, and a policy that are
not caught up in the wars of the past, not Wor~d War II, not
.
Vietnam, not the Cold War. What we need to elect i~ 1992 is not the·
last president of the 20th century, but the first president of the
21st century.
(Sustained applause, cheers.)
·
This spring, when our troops came home from the Persian Gulf,
welcome home parades were held all over America.
In my home state,
in Little Rock, we had over lOO,OOO.people at the welcome home
parade. Veterans came from all. over the state, not just those who'd.·
come· back from the Gulf but those who'.d served, men and women. alike,
in World War. II, 'Korea, and Vietnam, and they marched' for 4-1/2
·
hours.
I'li never forget how moved I was when I watched them march
down the street to our cheers.
I saw the Vietnam veterans finally
being given the honor they deserved all along.
�The divisions we have lived with in this country for the last
two years that have done so much t~ tear apart our politics and my .
own party
seem to fade away amid the common outburst of triumph and
gratitude,- and when the Vietnam Veterans' float won the priz,e for
the best in the·parade, with soldiers in long hair and tatoos and
earrings and memories of the 60s, there was not a dry eye on the
street. This spirit of unity.is the spirit we need to move into
this new era.
/
As President Lincoln once told Congress in another great time
of challenge in 1,862, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate
·to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty
and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new; so we must
think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we
shall save our country." Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.·
(Appla~se)
-- chairman, of the Georgetown University Lecture Fund. And
_before Governor Clinton takes a few questions, I'd 1;ke to recognize
the student organizations who have co-sponsored this event, the
Georgetown University Lecture Fund, the College Democrats; the
NAACP, the Georgetown-Israeli Alliance, and the Students for
Clinton.
Representatives from those organizations will ask the f.irst
questions, and if other students want to ask questions, I'd ask them
to ·please line up behind the microphones.- When you ask your
_question, please give your name and where you'rE! from. -~
MS. HO,SAK (ph): Governor Clinton, my name is Stephan·ie- Hosak,
president of the'Georgetown University College Democrats and I'm
from South Dakota, _where I hear you just spent- a cold evening in a
very nice b?rn (inaudible) Sioux Falls.
My question is in regard to, given the ' tremendous trade
deficit.that we face and that must be attacked not only to improve
our economic conditions but restore the competitive edge which you
talk' about, you mention that you will be insisting on rules of fair
play.
My concern.is that should our competitors, such as the .EC and
·Japan, not abide-by these rules that we'll be forced to close out
some of our markets, which they tend to think that they can
infiltrate to a large degree, and therefore we can see ourselves
entering a t~ade war.
What would you do in ·specific policy .to ensure against such
trade wars?
GOV. CLINTON: Wel~, first I would renew our vigilance at
GATT.
I think the administration has tried hard to resolve the
disputes. Our disputes with the Europeans are largely still over
agricultural issues, which are also difficult matters of contention
with Japan and things that I have wrestled with for years, since-my
state is-the, largest rice-producing state_ in the· country and a major
factor in soybean production as well.
I believe -- if you .look at our trade deficit. Let's back up.
and look at our trade deficit.
If you look at our trade deficit,
it's been coming down steadily because manufacturing productivity
has increased. The manufacturing sector has gotten more aggressive,
�and regrettably, because wages have dropped and because some. of our
business people are more alert to the opportunities in the global
environment, we will actually have a modest trade surplus· this year,
·for example with South Korea, a country with which we had a $10 .
· billion deficit only five years ago.
Our trade deficit has gone down each year with·Mexico for the
last five years b~cause of the market-opening initiatives taken on
his own by President Salinas. Our major deficits are with Japan,
and that's about -- this year i t ' l l probably be slightly over half
of-our deficit, and between two-thirds and three-quarters of that
Japanese deficit will 'be in automobiles.
I'll come back tothat in
a minute.
The second big problem we have is with the oil exporting
countries, which is why I said in my economic -- we are more or less
-in balance with Europe.
I haven't seen the final numbers yet but
we'll be more or less in balance, a little below, a little above.
our major problems are, in my opinion, here at. home. We are
not organized to compete to the maximum extent in a global economy,
as I said today. We are not educated and trained to be ·a high wage,
high growth, high opportunity society because we are insufficiently
.skilled and we do not have .a system for retraining of our workers.
We have refused stubbornly to control health care costs at the
national level~ which is making many of our'manufacturers
uncompetitive in the global marketplace. · So if we were to do those
things,· I think our exports would inc;:rease.
We would still have two primary problems with Japan and with
the oil exporters, and I'll say a little bit. in a minute about the
Mexican-American agreement. The problem_with the oil exports is '
that the only energy policy we have is cheap oil. You can't blame
them for making hay while the sun shines. They're just doing their
i9b and raking it. in.
·
Without
recession, we
energy policy
cheap, clean,
having any serious jolts to an economy already in
must begin a gradual but determined move toward a new
that relies more on domestic production, es'peciaily of
plentiful natural gas, that relies more
(Applause)
That relies more on R&D in the renewable resources. We have a
laboratory in Colorado established when Jiminy Carter was President,·
.whose budget has been strangled for the last 12 years that ought to
be reinvigorated. There are enormous opportunities in this country
for renewable long-term sources of energy.
·
Finally, we ought to achieve European standards of energy
efficiency in large buildings and factories.·. If we did that, we
could free up a lot of money and lower the trade deficit.
Now with Japan, Congressman Gephardt has a bill, the Super 301
bill, which I think has a lot of merit. We're going to have to go
gingerly at this with Japan, but I think it is clear that they are
mu·ch better organized and much more sophisticated at f iriding 1, 000
indirect ways as well as more direct ways to make it difficult for
us to pierce some of those markets.
I nev-er blame them for wtlat's wrong with'us.
I said in my
previous speeches, until we become better educated, better
organized, invest more in the future, get into th~ high, technology
, ·
�-
--------------:----------
-----
-
-
production game, we're not going to be competitive, but we are
making those moves.
I think we have to find much more precise ways to try to ·even
the playing field with Japan, and it is not just as ~lear as having
some blanket selection on automobiles. There are a lot of
automobiles with· Japanese names today that have more American-made
part~ .in them than some automobiles with p.merican names have.
I
It is· not just a problem of protectionism •. 'We have American
plants in this country today competitive in price and quality with
the Japanese save for health care costs.
But I think that the -- we
have to be very careful about -.setting. off a trade war. .I ·agree with
that.
But if \,our disputes are largely with· Japan and if we can firid
quick.ways to respond to the dumping problems and to market-opening
problems, I think we will be able to .make some serious ~regress.
Now, let me say one thing about the Mexican-American free
trade agreement·; which has become the symbol, interestingly .enough,
of a bad trade policy.
It.means free trade is bad.
·
If Mexico·grows richer, it'll.be better for us.
The Joint
Economic:. Committee did a study a'couple of years ago which said that
if the groWth rate of .Latin America as a 'whole had been the same .·in
the late 80s as it was in the mid-70s, our trade deficit would have
been 20 percent lower.
One of the things that _depresses our wages in the
manufacturing sector is low wages· in Mexico,. and low productivity
because we're under-·organized and under-educated in. America because
they are crushed under foreign debt, mostly to us, that_they can't
pay. They have to depress their wages.
.
so if you just signed a trade agreement that had no
environml?!ntal protections, no labor law protections, and you didn't
take account .of the special problems of the farmers, especially
people in citrus and vege_table in south Texas and south Florida·, it
might be very unfair.
·
If you sign one that is a good fair trade agreement, it ~ill·
lead to explosions of growth on both sides of the Rio Grande River,
as long as we also have the changes that I_ recommended in'our
economic policy so we're not-competing with the low wage countries,
we're competing with'the high wage countries.
(
Th-at requires also, to be perfctly fair, a. different attitude
on the part of some American managers who believe that we can only
be a manufacturing country if we drive our wages down.
That is
wrong-. The average German factory worker makes 20 percent more than
the average Amer,ican and works a shorter work week, gets a four-week
paid vacation a year, has national health iq.surance, and has family
leave when there's a kid born or _a sick parent.
It is wrong.
You can be a manufacturing country and be a. high wage country,
and I'm de~ermined to see that we are both.
(Applause)
, Q
. My name is· Vernon Garns (-ph).
I'm president of
Georgetown University NAACP. As stated in· your speech, foreign
policy should be the direct reflection· of domestic policy. You also
mentioned the horrible violence which has plagued blacktownships in
south Africa.
·
·
·
·
�However, ·the same type of violence which is inflicted on black
South Africans ·is equivalent to th~ amount of violence inflicted on
African-Americans in this country and African-American~ in Latin
America'.
The African-American townships or communities are war-torn
commuhities which are the marketplaces for illegal-drugs, the
overwhelming examples of the devastating consequences o( AIDS,
,
environmental racism, and the victims of continual police brutality~
·How would you sugge~t that we secure human rights, .civil·
'rights, and improve living conditions -in these African-American
.
communities, thereby transforming them into role models for black
communities abroad?.
GOV. CLINTON:
I think,that is one of the central questions
facing the United States today.
It requi'res us first to make two
decisions.
Orie, that all of our peopie are important to us and that
we don't have a persop to waste. Two, that if we try; we can make a
diffe·rence, because, the truth is that a lot of people have given up
on America's cities, a lot of'people have given up on its most
violent communities.
·
, ·
I had a heart-rending discussion a couple of days ago in New
York with a trial judge about violence in America and what can be
done about it. Very briefly, let me t~ll you what I think ought to
be done.
None_of this is a silver.bullet and it will take time to
overcome, .but we can organize and direct qur energies in an urgent
tas_k to revitalize our urban areas ~nd restore the lives of so many
that are being lost.
First, _let's just take .the law enforcement
issues andrmove to the human development issues._
The first thing we have. to do is try·to increase security in
our cities. Most people have forgotten in some of the racist
comments now being made by David Duke and_others that in these big
-cities most black·people work'and most'poor peopl work. Very
·
important. Most poor people in Americ·a today have jobs, d~ 40 hours
week-and are stilT living in poverty with their families, that
they live in conditions of violence .virtually unequalled anywhere in
the world except where civil ....,ars are. reigning.
a
I think the first-thing you have to do is put more police on
the-street and organize public housing developments and
neighborhoods for safety. There are so few police today and so few
o·f them are organized in grassroots community policing efforts with
close ties .to the p-eople that 'live in communities or in housing
developments that police are only used to go in ·after crimes have
been colnmitted.
They-used to be the primary instrument of preventing crimes.
Thirty years ago there were three policeman for every violent crime.
Today there are three crimes for every policeman, a worsening ratio
of nine to one,
Tl;J.at' s why my idea for national service in .a
·
national police corps, .where we could send college graduates for two
or three years back to cities where they come from to se-rve as·
police officers in neighborhood context. is very, v_ery important.
secondly, we should pass the Brady bill.
Brady bill.
We should pass the
(Applause)
I'
�Thirdly, we should deal with the drug problem in a far more
heads-up manner than we' are now with two things. Number'one,
treatment on demand witho~t delay. Treatment w.orks. Appropriate
treatment works.
It is an illness. Some peopleare dumb enough to
want-to-kill, themselves with drug_addiction. Most people are sick.
All the serious studies show that appropriate leyels of
treatment for appropriate lengths of_time yield a success rate
slightly in excess of 60 percent. You get to play major league
baseball if you hit .250. This is a very important issue, a very
imp6rtant issue.
·
·
The second thing we ought to do is find an alternative for
fist-time drug offenders • . Most people who commit drug crimes today
in our big cities are given two unacceptable alternatives. Either
they are sent to prison where they. cost.us a bunch of money and they
really learn how to be criminals, or they're put on probation with
some poor, overworked probation officer .that's 'got 200 or 300 people
and never.pays them any attention. Then they commit asecond'crime
and then they go to_ prison and do that .•
I think that every urban area should h~ve alternatives to 1
incarceration, community work centers where peopfe live, are subject
. to extreme discipline, adequate treatment. for drug and alcohol
abuse, continuing education and do community service war~ _and are
reconnected to their communities.
·(Applause)
Third, you got to have publi,c health clinics in all of our
neighborhoods.
You've got to have health _services.in the schools.
You've got to have comprehensive drug education programs and every
poor child in this country has.got to have available to them by the
time they reach adolescence-~ now you listen to this,_all of you
every poor child in a disadvantaged home in a disadvantaged ·
-neighborhood has got to have· available to him or her-by the _time
they reach adolescence a personal relationship with a successful,
caring adult th~ough organized mentoring programs.
(Applause) ,
You cannot expect these children to live l'ive(3 they cannot
imagine. The thing our President has said, of all the things he
said that i ~isagree with most,' is the way he derided his not having
what he called "the vision thing."
/
Let me tell you something.
I hope none of you walk out of
this room without the vision thing.
(Applause)
.
The final thing I have to tell you is we haye.to start
indigen_ous economic development and housing strategies in these
areas . . There are all kinds ·of housing programs that are at work
that ar.e empowering people.
I think the Congress made a mistake in·
·not passing mar~ of Jack Kemp's housing initiatives to.do more for
low income working people, to give them the right to own their bwn·
homes and secure their own neighborhoods •
'
.' I think 'that was a big mistake and I think we ought to. take
some development models that work and put them all across the
country. ;.:1: '11 just give you one. The South Shore Development Bank
in C~icago, one of the most innovative financial in.titutions
.
anywhere in the world, did a great deal to revitalize a totally
�depressed neighborhood within
a
matter of years.
We borrowed that model and set. up a rural development bank in
our state and· it's doing amazing things.
There. ought to be a
development bank in every sizable community in·every cityi.n this
country to prove that we can make free enterprise work for poor
people again.
If we started there, we.'d be making a good start.
Q
My ncime is Jeremy Bash (ph).
I represent a strong proIsrael group on campus and we helped to co-sponsor the event today.
I want to ask you, in September we lobbied for a loan guarantee
program. We lobbied congress to help private banksthat wanted to
invest in the Isi:a'eli economy 1:;o. help absorb Soviet Jews who .were
fleeing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. '
I wanted to know your opinion on the loan guarantee program
and either programs, private investing programs for US.banks and us.
firms to help stimulate the Isr.aeli economy,. which is ·in dire
str.aits.
GOV. _CLINTON:
I think the· loan guarantees should be approved.
They are part of a 20-year commitment we have to relocate Jews from
the soviet Union.
I think that they should be approved iri a way
that makes them not part of this negotiation process at all. That
is, the government should agree not to use the loan guarantees or
some substitute'for it to expand the settlements that are nowbeing
discussed in these peace negotiations, but we.should not hold up the
·loan guarantee and undermine a 20-year.humanitarian policy we have
at a time when those societies are collapsing in Central Europe, and
they will,have their share, and historically have had. their share~
'of David Dukes rising up.
·
I think. we,ought to go ahead and get those people where they
want to go.
Q
My name is Molly Peterson.
I'm a student in the School
of Foreign Service, a Student .for Clinton, and a student about to
take an international trade exam.
'
While China is a proveri violator of human rights, of trade
regulations against illegal importations into the us and at best a
fair weather fri.end·, there are many industries that depend upon the
low tariffs which most favored nation status allows, especia~~y the
wheat growers and the lumber industries of the Pacific Northwest.
on a. general basis, how do you int.end to balance the moral
demands -of. American foreign policy with the economic needs of these
~pecific groups?
\
GOV. CLINTON: Well, if it were easy, it would be done
already.
I think that as a general rule we ought.to try to
cooperate with those countries that we think we have a reasonable
chance of changing through cooperative efforts. and mutual advance.
When countries flagrantly violate accepted norms of
international conduct and undermine the interests that we hold dear
and retard the forces of democracy,that are plainly.welling up, then'
I think we have to seriously consider whether we should mai~tain
most favoreq nation status. That's why I support Senator Mitchell's.
bill'on China in the United States Senate.
Thank you very much.
END.
i
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
U.S. CAPI-TOL
JANUARY 23, 1996
"
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 104th Congress,
distinguished. guest~, my fellow Americans· all across our land:
·
.
.
Let me begin tonight by. saying to our men and,women iri uniform around
the worlq, and especially those helping peace take root in Bosnia and to their
families, I thank you.
America is· very, ve_ry proud of you.
My duty tonight is to report on the state 6f the Union -- not the state
of our government·, but of our American community; and to· set forth our
responsibilities, in the ~ords of. our Found~rs, to f~rm a more perfect union.
The state of the Union is strong.
Our economy is' the hea·l thiest .it has
been in three decades.
We have, the lowest combined rate's of unemployment and
i~fl~tion in 27 years.
We h~ve ~r~ated nearly 8 million new jobs, o~er a
million of them in basic industrie~, like constructi6n and automobiles.
America is selling ·more cars than .Japan for the first time since ·the 1970s:
·And for three years in a row, we have had a record number of new businesses
started in our country.
Our leader_ship in the world is- a'lso strong, bringing hope for new. peace.
And perhaps most important, we are gaining ground in restoring our fundamental
values. "The crime rate, the welfare ahd food 'stamp rolls, the poverty rate
and the teen pregnancy rate are all down. And ai ~hey ~o down, prospects for
America's fut-ure· go up.
we· live in an age of possibility.
A hundred· years ago we moved from
farm to factory.
Now we move to .an age of technologyi information, and global
competition.. These changes have opened vast new opportunities for our people,
but· they have also presented them with stiff challenges. While more Americans
are living better, too many of our feliow 6iiizens are workihg harder ~ust to
keep up, and they are ri'-ghtly concerned about the security' of their famili-es.
We must answer here three fundamental questions:
First,
how do we make
the Ame.ric'an Dream of opportunity for all a· reality for all Aillericans who are
willing to work for it? Secorid, how do we preserve our old and enduring
Value~ as we mo~~ into the future?
And, third, how do we meet these
·challenges together, as ·one Ame~ica?
We know big government does not have all the answers.
We kno~ there's
·not a program for every problem.
We .have worked to give the American pe~ple
a smaller, less burearicratic government in Washington.
And we haye to give
the Ame.rican people one that lives within its means.
The era of big government is over.
But we canno,t go ba·ck to the time, .
when our citizens were left to fend for themselves. Iristead, we must go
forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we
face together. Self~reliance and team0ork are not opposing virtue~j we ~ust
have both. ·
·
I believe our new, smaller government must work in ah old-fashioned'
American way, together with all of our citizens through state and local
govern~ents, in the workplace, in religious, charitable and ~ivic
associations.
O~r goal must be to enable all our people to make the most of
their own lives -- with stronger families, more educatiorial oppoitunity, ·
economic security, safer ~treets, a cleaner environment in a safer world.
�To improve-the st~~e-of our Union, we must as~ m6re of ourselves, we
must expect ~ore of ~ach othe~; and we must face our ch~llenges together.
~ere, in this place, our re~ponsibility begins with balancing th~ budget
in a way that is fair to all Ame-ricans.
There is now broad bipartisan
agreement that permanent deficit spending must c'ome to. an end.
'
'
I compliment the Republican leadership and the membership for the energy
and determination you have brought to this task of balancing the budget .. And
I thank the Democr~ts for passing th~ largest deficit reduction plan in
history in 1993, which has already
cut the deficit'nearl~
in half in three
.
(
.
years.
Since 1993, we hav~ all begun to see ~he benefit~ of deficit reduction,
.Lower i~tereit rates have made it easier for businesses to bdrrow and to
invest .and to. create new jobs.
Lower interest rates have brought down the
cost of .home mortgages, car payments and credit card rates to. ordinary
citizens.
Now, it is time t9 finish the job and balance t6e ·b~dget.
Though differences re~ain among'us which are. significant, the combined
total of the propose,d savings that are' common to both plans is more than
enough, u·sing the nunibers from your· Congressional Budget· Office to ·balance the·
budget in seven· years and to pr-ovide a modest tax cut.
These cuts are real; They will requiie sacrifice from everyone.
But
these cuts do not undermine our fundamental obligations to' our parents, our
children, and our future, by' endangering Medicare; or Medicaid, or education,
or the _environment,
or by. raising taxes on' working
families.
'
.
'
.
I ha~e said before, and l~t me say again, many good ideas have come out
of ou~ negotiations. -I .have ·l~arn~d a 1ot about the way both ~epubljcans and
I ·have 'learned a lot about. the good
Democrats view the debate before us.
ideas that we could all embrace.
·,.
We ought to resolve our temaining differences. 'I am willing to work to
resolve them.
I ~fu ready to meet tomorrow.
But I ask you to consider fhat -we
should at least enact these savings tha,t both plans have in common and give
the American peopl·e their balanced budget, a tax cut, lower interest rates,
and a brighter future.
We should do that no~, ~nd make permanent deficits
yesterd~y's legacy.
·
·
Now it is time for·US to look also to the challenges of today and
tomorrow, beyond the burd~ns of yesterday.
The ch~llenges are signlflcant.
But America was built on challenges, not promi'ses. And when we work together
to' meet them, we never-fail. 'That _is ,the key to.a more perfect_ Union. ~.Our~
.individual dreams must be reaiized by our coiiliiton efforts.
Tcinight I want to speak to you about the ~hallenges we all face as a
_people.
Our first challenge is to cher{sh our children and strengthen America's
·families.
Family ·is the foundation of American life.- If we have ·stronger
families, we w-ill have a stronger America.
Befoie I go on~ I would lik~ to take_just a moment to thank my own
family, _and to thank the person who has tau~ht me more than anyone else. over
25 years about the importance of ,families and children -- a Wonderful wife, a
'magnificent mother and a great First Lady.
Thank you,' Hillary.
All strong families begin with taking more responsibility for ouL
children.
I have heard Mrs. Gore say that it~s h~rd to be a parent today, but
. it'' s even harder to be a child:
So ali of us, not just as patents, but a'll of
us in our other roles -- our media, our schools, our teachers; 'our
,
communities, our churches and synagogues·, our businesses; our governments .--
�all of us 'have a responsibility to h'elp our. chiidren to make it and to ma'ke
the mo~t of their li~es and their God-given capacities.
To the media, I say-you should create movies and COs and televisioD
. sho~s you'd w~nt your own children and grandchildren to enjoy,
. .
I call on Congress to pa~s the requirement for a V~chip in TV sets so
that parents can screen out programs they believe are inappropriate for their .
children.
When parents control what.their young children see, _that is not
ce~sorshi~; th~~ is enabling parents to assume more personal responsibility
for their·children's upbringing.
And'I urge them to do it . . The V-chip
requirement is part o.f the important telecommunications bill now pending in ·
this Congiess.
It has bipartisan ~upport~ and I urge you to p~ss it ~ow.
, .To make the V-chip work, I challenge the broadcast in~ustry to do what
movies have done -- to identify your programming in ways that help parents to'
protect their children._ And I invite the leaders of major media corporations
in the entertainment industry to come to the White House_nextmonth to work· 1
with us in i positive way on cpncrete ways to improve what our children see on
teievisio~.
I am ready to work ~ith you.
·
I say to those who make and market cigarettes: every year a million
children take bp s~oking, ·~ven though it is a~ainst the law.
Thiee. hundred
thousand of them ~ill h~ve their liv~s shortened as a result.
Our
administration has taken steps to stop the massive marketing campaigns that
appeal to our children. We are simply saying:, Market· your, products to
adults, _if you wish, but draw the line on children.
I say to th.ose v1ho are on welfare,. and especially. to those who have been
trapped-on welfare for a lon~ time:
For too long our welfare system has
under]Jlined the values of family-and ·work, instead of supporting them.
The
· Congres~ and I are near agreement on sweeping ~elfare reform.
We agree on
time'limit~, to~gh work requiiements, and the toughest pos~~ble child s~pport
enforcement. BJt I believe we must also provide ~hild.care so that mothers
who are required to go to work can do so without worrying abo6t what is
happeni~g to their children.
'I
··I. challenge this 'congr_ess to send me a bipartisan welfare reformbill
that will really move people from welfare to work and do the right thing by
our children.
I will s'ign it iri].mediately.
.
!
.
.
Let u~ be caridid about thi~ diffic0lt problem.
Passing a law, even the
best possible law, is only a first step.
T~e next step-is to make it work.
1
challenge people-on welfare to make the most of this opportunity for
independence. .I challenge American businesses to! give ·people on welfare the
chance to move into the.work force.
I applaud the work of religious groups
and'others who care for the poor.
More than anyone else·in our society, they
know ~he t~ue difficulty of the task before us, ahd they are in.a position to
help,
Ever~ one of-us should join them.
That i~ the only way we can mak~
real welfare r'eforrit a reality in the 'lives -of the Arnericar: people.
To stiengthen the family we must do everything we can to keep th~ teen
pregnancy rate going. down.
± am gratified, as I'm sure all Americans are,
that it has dropped for· t_wo years. in a row.
But we all know ·it is still -far
too high.
Tonight I -~m pleased to announce that a group· of prominent Americans is
responding to that challenge by fo~~ing an organization that wi11- support
grass-roots community ef.forts all across our country in' a national campaign
against teen pregnancy. And I challenge all _of us· and every American. t0 join
their efforts.
··
I call on American men and women in families to give· great.er respect. to
one another.
We must end the deadly scourge of domestic violence in ou~
�country.
And I: chalienge America Is families to work harder to stay together·.
For families,who stay together not only do better economically, their children·
.·'do better as well.
In particular,· I challepge the fathers of this country to love and care
for their children.
If your family has separated, you must pay you~ child
·support.
We're doing more th~n ever to make sure you do; and we're going to
do more, but let's all admit something about that, too:
A check.will not
subst{tute for a parent's love and guidance.
And only you -- only you can
make the_ decision to ,help raise -your children.
No matter ~ho you are, how low
or high your station in life, it ~s the mqst basic- human duty of every
American to do that, job to th·e best of his or her ability.
(\
·our second challenge i~ to provide Americans with:the educational
ppportunities we will all rieed for this new century.
In our schools, every
class'room in America must be connected to the information superhighway,- with
cof\\puters and good software, . and well-trained teachers.
We are working with
the telecommunications tndustry ;_ educators and parents· to connect 20 percent
of· California's cl'assrobms by this ·spring, and every classroom and eve'ry
libraiy i~ the entire United.States by the year 2000.
I ask Congress to
support this education technology initiative so that we can make sure this
, national partnership su'cceeds.
·
Every diplo~a ought to mean som!3thing.· I challenge every community,
every school and every'state to adopt national standards of excellence; to
measure whether ··s'chools are meeting those stan·dards; to cut bureaucratic red
tape so·that schools and teachers have more flexibility for grass-roots
reform; and to hold the~· accountable for results~
That's 0hat oui Goals 2000
initia~ive is all aboui::.
.
I challenge every stateto give all pare!l.ts the right to choose which
public school their· childr'en will' a'ttend; and to l~t teachers form new schools
with a charter they can keep only if they do a good job.
I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good
values and good citizenship.
And if it means that teena~ers will st6p killing
-~ach other over designer jackets, then 6ur public schools should be abl~ to'
require th~ir students to w~ar scho61 uniforms.
Turn
I· challenge OtF par,ents to .become their children's first teachers.
off ~he TV, ·See th~t-the homework ~s d~ne.
And visit you~ children's
classroom.
No program, no teacher, no one else can do that_ for you.
My fellow Americans, higher education is more important today than ever
before.. · We've created a .new s-tudent loan program that's made it 'easier to
borrow and repay ~ho~e loans; and-we have dramatically cut the studen~ loan
default rate.
That's something we~h6~ld aLl be proud of, because it was
unconscionably high. just a few years ago.
Through Am·eriCorps ,. our· national
service p~ogram;· this year ~5,000 young people will earn college money by
serving their local communi ties to 'improve the lives of. their ·friends and
_neighbors.
These initiatives are right for America and we should kee~ them
going.·
I
-
And we should also work hard tci open the doors of college even wider. I
ch'allenge Congress to expand wo'rk-study and help one million young Americans
work their ~ay through colleg~ by the year 2000; to provide a $10QO merit
scholarship for the top fiye percent cif graduates in every high school in the
United S-tates; to expand Pell Grant scholarships for deserving and needy
students; and to make up to $10, 000 a year of co~l~ge tui tioh tax ,deductibl!3.
It's a good idea for America.
Our third challenge is to help every American who is willing to. work.for
it, achieve economic security in this new.age.
People who work hard still
need support to get ahead- in the new economy.
They need educatio-n and
::.
�I
'
•trairiing for a lifetime.
They need more s~pp6rt for f~milies r?ising
children.
They need retirement security.
They rieed,access to h~~lth care.
More and more Americans are finding that the education. of their childhood
simply (joesn't •l.ast a: lifetime.
So I challenge Congress to consolidate 70 overlap~ing~ antiquated'
job-training.programs into a simple voucher worth $2,600 for unemployed or
underemployed workers to use as they please f'or community college tuition or
other training.
This is a G.I. 'Bill for America's workers we should all be
able to agre~ on.
More arid more Americans are w.orking hard without a raise.
Congress sets.
the minimum wage. Within ·a year, the,rriinimum wage will fall to a 40-year low
in' purchasing power. Four dollars and 25 cents an hour is no longer a living
wage, but millions of A!fiericans ·and their children are trying to live· on it'.
I challenge you to raise their minimum wage~
In 1993, Congress cut the taxes of 15 million hard-pressed working .
famili~s to make sur~ th~t nb parents who ~6rk £ull-time 0ould h~~e to raise
their children ·in poverty, and to encourage people to move from welfare_ to
.
work.
This expanded ~arned ~ncome ta~ credit is now worth ~bout_$~,800 a year
to a family of four. living on $20;000.
The budget bill I vetoed would have
reversed this achievement and raised taxes on nearly 8 million of t~ese
people.
We should not do that;
·
r·
I also agree that the people who are-helped bnder this {nitiative are
not all those in our country who are· working hard to· do a good job raisi-ng
their children and at work.
I agree that we need a tax credit for working
families with children . . That Is one of th_e. th~ngs most of us in this Chamber,
1 ho~e, can agree on. I know it is strongly supported by the Republican
·
majority.
And it should be part of any final-budget agreement.·
I want to challenge every business. that can. possibly afford 'it· to _1
provide pensions for your employees. And I_ challenge Congress to pass a
proposal recommendedby the White House Conference on Small Business that
would make i t easier for small businesses and farmers to establish their own
pension plans.. .That is something we should all agr,..ee on.
We should also p~otect existing pension plans~
Two years ago, with
bipartisan support that was almost unanimous on_ both -sides of the aisle; we
moved to protect the pensions of 8 million working people ~~d to st?bilize the
pensions of 32 million more.
Congress should nbt now let companies endahger
those workers's pensiori funds.
I know the proposal to liberalize the ability
of employe~s ~~ take mbney out of peniion funds fo~ other purpo~es would ~aise
mqney_for the trea~ury.
But I believe it is false economy.
I vetoed·that ·
proposal last- year, and I would have to. db so .again.
Finally, if our working families are going to succeed in the new
economy, t~ey must be able to buy health insurance policies that they do not
lose when they change_jobs.or when someone in their familygets sick.
Over
the past two years, over one million Americans in working families have lost
their health insuran~e.
We have to do more to make heal~h care a~ailable to
every American.
And Congress should start by-passing the bipartisan bill.
spon:Sbred by Senator Kennedy and Senator Kassebaum t'hat would require
insurance companies to stop dropping people when they switch jobs, and stop
denying cov~rage for-preexistin9 Conditions.
Let's all do that ..
And even -as we enact savings in these programs; 'we must have a. common
commitment to preserve the, basic protections of Medicare and Medicaid -- not
just to the p9or, but to people in working families, including children,
p~ople with disabilities, people with AIDS, and senior citizens in nursing
home.s.
'
·
In the pa~t th~ee years, we've saved $15 billion just by, fighting health
)
�------c-~-------------------------~----------------
care fraud and abuse.
We have all agreed to save much more.
We .have all
agreed to stabili~e· the Medicare Trust Fund.
But we must not abandon our
fundamental -obligations to the people who \leed Medicare and Medicaid. America
cannot become ~tronger if they become weaker.,
The G.I. ·Bill for workers, tax relief for education and child rearing,
pension availability and protection, access to health care, preservation of
_Medic~re and Medicaid -- these things, along with the Family and Medical Leave
Act .passed in 1993' ~- these things will help respdnsible, hard-working
American families to make the most ~f their own lives. ·
But employers and·ernployees must do 'their part, as well, as they are_
doing in so many of our finest companies -- working together, putting the
long-term prosperity ahead of the short-term gain'. As workers ·increase their
hours and their productivity, employers should .make sure they get the skills
they need and share the benefits of the good years, as well ~s the burden~ of
the bad ones.
When companies <;md workers w.ork a,s a team they do be.tter, and
so does America.
Our fourth great challenge is.to take our streets back-from crime and
At last we have begun to find a .way to reduce crime, forming
community partnerships with local police forces to catch criminals and prevent
crime.
This strategy, called community .policing, ·is clearly .working. Violent
crime is .co_rning _down all acros·s America.
In New York 'City murders ·are down 25
-percent; in St. Louis, lB percent; in Seattle, 32 percent. But we still have a·
long way to go before oui streets a~e safe and our people are free £rdrn fear.
gangs. and drugs.
The Crime Bill of 1994 is critical to the success of coffirnunity policing.
It provides funds for 100,000 new police in communities of all sizes.
We're
already a third of.the way there.
And I challenge the Congress to finish the
job.
Let us stlck with a strategy that's working and keep the·crirne rate
corning down.
Community policing also requires bonds of trust between citize_ns ·and
police. .I ask a'll Americans to respect and suppo.rt our law enforcement
officers.
And to pur poli~e, I say, our children need you ~s role models. and
heroes.· Don't. let ·them down.
The;Brady Bill has already.stopped 44,000 people with criminal records
from buying guns.
The assault weapons ban is keeping 19 kinds of assault'
weapons out of the hands of violent gangs.
I challenge th~ Congress to keep
those laws on tHe books.
Our next step in the fight against crime. is to take· on gangs the way- we
once took on the mob.
I'm ~trecting the FBI and other investig~tive ~gencies
to target gangs that involve juveniles ln violent crime, and. to seek authority
to prosecute as adults ,teenagers who maim and kill like adults.
An.d I. challenge local housing authorities and tenant associations·:
Criminal g'ang member's and drug dealers are destroying the lives of decent
tenants.
From now on, the rule for resi'dents' who commit crime and peddle
drugs should be _one strike and you:re out.
.
I challenge every state to match federal .policy to assure that serious
violent criminals serve at least 85 percen~ .of their. sentence.
More police and punishment are important, but they're.not,enough,
We
have 9ot to keep more of 6ur young people out 6f trouble, with preventio~
strategies not dictated by Wasfiington, but developed in communities.
I
challenge all of our communities, all of our adults, to give our children
futures to say yes to. And I challenge Congress not to abandon the Crime
Bill's support of these grass-roots prevention efforts.
.
I
Finally; to reduce crime and violence we have to reduce the drug
�. I
problem. (The challenge begins iri our homes, with parents talking to their
children openly and fiimly.
It embraces our churches ~nd.synagogues, our
youth groups and our schools.
I challenge Congress not to' cut our supp~rt for drug- free schools.
People like the D.A.R.E. officer~ are makirig a real impr~s~ion on grade
schoolchildren that will give them the strength to say 'no when the time comes.
Meanwhile, we continue our .efforts to .cut the flow of diugs into
America..
For the last .two ye'ars, one man in particular has been on the front
lines of that ~ffort.
Tonight I am nominating-him -- a hero of the Persian
Gulf War and the Commander in Chief of the United Stat.es Military Southern
· Command -- .General Barry McCaffrey, as Ameri'ca' s new Drug Czar.
General McCaffrey has earried three P~rple Hearts and two Silver Stars
figh~~ng for this country,
Tonight I ask that he i~ad our nation's battle
against drugs at home and abroad.
To.~ucceed, he needs a force. far largei
than he has ever commanded before.· · He needs all of us. :. Every one of
has a
•role to piay on this team.
.
·
us
Thank you, Genera'i McCaffrey,
more time.
for agnlein·g to serve your country one
Our fifth challenge:
to leave our environment safe and clean for the
next generation.
Because of a generation of bipartisan effort we do have
cleaner· water and air, lea·d levels in children's blood has ~een cut by 70 _
percent, toxic .emissions· from factories cut in half.
Lake Erie was dead, an'd
now it's a thriVing resource.
But 10 million children under 12 still live
within four miles of a toxic waste dump: A third of us breathe air that
endangers our health. And in.too many communities, the water is not safe to
drink.
We still have much-to da.
Yet Congress has voted t6 cut. envir6nm~ntal epforce~ent by 25 percent.
That means more toxic c~emic~ls in our water, more smog- in our air, more
pesticides in our ,food.
Lobbyists fo~ p6lluters have been allowed to write
their own loopholes into bills to weaken laws that protect the health and
safety of our children.
Some say that the taxpayer ~hould pick up the tab for
toxic waste and let polluters who can afford to fix ~t off the hook.
I
challenge Congres's to reex?mine, those polic{es and to reverse them.'
This issue has not be~n a partisan issue.
The mo~t,signiticant
environmental gains in the last 30 years. ·were made under a Democratic Congress
.and President Richard Nixon. We carr.work together. We have to believ~ some
basic'things.
Do you believe we carr expand the economy without hurting the
environ~ent?
I do.
Do you tielieve we can create more jobs over the long ruh
by cleanirig th~ ~nvironment up? I know we can.
That should be our
coinmitment.
We must· chal;Lenge businesses and communities to· take more· initiative in
protecting the envi-ronment, and we have to1 make it easier for them to do ··it.
To businesses this administration is saying:, If you can find a cheaper, more
efficient way than government' regulations require to meet tough pollution
standards, do i t - - as long as you do it right. ·To communities we say:· We
must strengthencommunity right-to-know laws requiring polluters to disclose
their emissions, but you have-to use the information to:work with business to
cut pollution.
People do have a right to know t~at their air and their water
are· s.afe.
i
Our sixth challenge is to maintain America's leadership in the fight for.
Because of American leadership., moie
fre~dom and peace throughout,the world~
people _than ever before live fre~ and at peace. And Americans have known 50
years of prosperity and security.
We owe thanks eh'i.ecially, to our veterans of World War II. ·I would like
�to say to Se'nator. Bob Dole and to all others. ,in this Chamber who fought in'
World War II, and ~o-all others on both sides. of the aisle who have fought
bravely in al1 'our- conflicts since:. I salute your service, and so do the
American people.
·
All over the, world, even after the, Cold War, people still look t,o us· and
trust us to help them:seek the blessings of peace and freedom.
But as the
Cold War fades into memory, voices of. isolation say ··America should retreat
from its responsibilities.
i s~y th~y are wrong.
The threats we face today as Americans r'espect no nation Is borders.
Think of them:
terrorism, the spread of w,eapons of mass destruction,
organized crime, drug trafficking, ethnic and religious hatred, aggression by
'rogue states, environmental degradation:
If we fail to address the!:)e threats
today; we will suffer th~ corisequences in all our tomorrows.
Of course, we can 1 t be everywhere. _Of course, we, can 1 t do everything.
But where our interests and our values are at stake, and where we can make a
difference, Arrierica must lead. We must not be lSOlationist.
We must not be ~he world's policeman.
But we can and should be the
world's very best peacemaker~ By keeping our military strong, b~ using
diplomacy where we can and force where we mu~t~ by working with others to
share the risk and the cost of our effort's, America is making a difference for
peopie here an~ ~round the world.
For the first time sin~e the .dawn o£ the
nuclear age, there is not a single Russian missile pointed at America,'s
children..
·
· ·
North Korea has now frozen its dangerous nuclear weapons progra~.
In·
Haiti, the di~tators are gone, democracy has a new ~ay, the flow of desperate
refugees to our shores has subsided. ·Through toughe'r trade deals for America
·--over 86 of them.-~ we have o~ened markets abroad; and now exports are at an
all-time high, growing faster than imports and creating good American jobs.
We· stood with' those taking risks for peace:· In Northern Ireland, where'
Catholic and. Protestant chil~r~n now tell their parents, ,vi6lence must never
return.
In the Middle East where Arabs and Je.ws who once seemed ~estined to
fight forev~r now s~~~e .knowledge and resources, and even dreams.
I
And we stood up for peace in Bosnia.
Remember the skeletal prisoners,
the mass gra~es, the campaign to rape and torture; the endless lines of
refugees, the threat of a ~preading war.
All these threats, all these horrors
have now begun to give w~y to the promise of peace.
Now, our troops and a
.strong NA~O, togeth~r with o~r new partners' from tentril Europ~ and elsewhe~e,
are helping that peac~ to take hold.
As.all of·you know, I was just there with,a bipartisan congressional
gioupi and I was so prou~ not only pf ~hat our troop~ were doing, but of the
pride they eviden,ced iri what they were doing.
They knew what America's
mission in ~his world is, and they were proud to be carrying it out ..
Through these efforts, we have en)lanced the security of the American
people.
But make no mistake about it:important: challenges remain.
The START II. Treaty with Russia will cut our nuclear stockpiles by
another 25 percerit.
I urg~ the'Senat~ to ratify i t - - now .. W~ must end the
race to create new nuclear weapons by signinq a truly comprehensive nuclear
·test ban treaty-- ~his year.
·
'
.
'
As we remember· what ·happened in the Japanese subway, .we can outl&w
poisoh gas forever if the,Senate ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention
this year.
We• can intensify the fight against terrorists and organized .
criminals at home and abroad 'if Congress passes the anti-terrorism legi~l~tion
I proposed after t·he Oklahoma City bombing -:- now.
We can help more people
�move from hatred to hope all across the world in .out own interest if Congress
gives us the means to temain the world!~ leader for peace.
My fellow Americans, the six challengesr. I have. just di~cussed are for
all of us.
Our seventh challenge is really America IS, challenge to those of us
in this ha~lowed hall tonight:
to reinvent· our goverriment and mak~ o~r
democracy wo"rk for them~
Last year this Congress applied to· itself the laws it applies to.
everyone ·else.
. .This Congress banned gifts arid meals from lobbyists.
This
Congress forced lobbyists td disclo~e who p~ys them and what legislation they
ire trying to ~as~ or kitl.
This Congress did that, and I applau~ yo~ for it.
'
'
'
Now I challenge Corigiess to qo further.-~ to curb special .interest
· influence in politics by passing :the first truly bi~a~tisan campaign reform,
bill in- a generation.
You, P,epublicans. and· Democ'r'ats ·alike,. can show the .
American people 'that we can limit spending and open the air.waves to all
candidates:
·
I also appeal to' Congress to pass the line-item veto you promised the
American people .
. Our administration. is working hard to-give the American people a
gove:r;-nment that works better and costs less.
Thanks to the work of Vice·
President Gore, we are eliminating 16,000 pages .:of unneces.sary. rules and
•regulations, shifting more decis~on-making out of Washington. b~ck to states
_· and local corn.rilunities\.
·
''
As we move into th·e era .of balanced budgets and smaller government, we.
must work .in new ways to enable people to make. the most of their own lives.
.
We are . helping America 1 s. communi ties, not with more bureaucracy, but with more . i
opportuni'ties.
Through our successful Empowerment Zones and Coriununity_
Develo~ment Banks, we are helping people to find jobs, ·to start businesses.
And with tax incentives for companies that clean up abandoned industrial.
pioperty, we can bring jobs back to places that desp~rately, desperately need
them .
. But there are some areas-that the federal go~ernmeAt should not leave
and shb~ld. a¢dress and address strongly.
One of these are~s is the problem of
i'llegal immigration.· Afte'r years of neglect, thi·s administration has taken a
~trong stand to stiffen .th'e protection of our borders.
We are increasing
border controls. by SO percent..
\~e are, increasing insp~ctions to prevent the
hiring of illegal immigrants.
And tonight, I announce I will sign an
e~ecutive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that-hire illegal
immigrants.
·
Let me be very clear about this:
We are. still a nation. of immigrants;
we· should be, proud of it.
We should honor. every legal immigrant here, working
hard to become a new citizen.
But we are also a nation of laws.
I w'ant tci say a. special word now to. those who -work for our federal
gdvernment.
Today our federal gpvernment' is 2QO;OOO employ~es smalle~ than.it
was the d~y I took office as President.
Our federal government today is the smallest it has .been in 30 years,
and it 1 s getting smaller every day. ·Most of •our fellow Americans probably
don't know' r:hat .···And there is a good reason·:
The ·.remaining. federal wor'k .
force is composed of Americans who 'are now'working hardef and working smarter
than ever before, to make suie the quality of our services dbes not decline.
I'd like ~o give you one example.
His n~me is Richard Dean.
He is a 49
year-old· Vietnam .veteran ·who's worked fcir the Social Security Admini.stration .
for 22 years now.
Last. year he was hard at wor.k in the Federal Building in
Oklahoma City when the blast killed 1~9 peopie·and bro~~ht the rubble do~n all
�I,
r
around him.
H~ reentered that buildi~g f6ut time~.
He saved the lives of
three women. He~s here with us this even~ng, and I want to reco~nize Richard
and applaud .both his public service and ~is ext~aordinary persorial her~ism.
But Richard Dean's story doesn't end there . . This last November, he was
forced out· of his office when the government shut down.· And the second time
the government shut down he continued helping Social Security recipients·, but
1
he was working without p~y.
.\
On behalf of Richard Dean and hii family, 'arid all the other people who
are out there working every day doing a good job for· th~ American people, I
·.challenge all- of you in this Chamber:· Never, ever, shut the fedetal government.
down again.
'
On behalf of all Americans, especially those who need their Social
Security payments at the beginning of March, 'I also challenge the Congress to
preserve the .full faith and credit of the United States-- to.honor the/
obligations ,of this· great nation as we have for 220 ·years; to- rise ab_ove
partisanship and pass a straightforw~rd extension 9f the debt limit and sh6w
people Affieri_ca keeps its word.
'
t know ·that this evening I have ~sked a lot of Congress~ and even more
·from America.
But I·am·confideni:: When Americans work_ together in their
.homesi their schools, .their phurches, thei~ synagogues, theit civ{c groups,
their workplace, they can meet any challeng~. ~ ·
·I ~ay again, the era of bi~ government is over.
But we can't go back to
the era of f~nding for yourself.
We have to go forw~rd to ·t~e era of workin~
together as a. community, as a team, as·one America, with all of us reaching
across these line's that divide us -- the division, the discrimination, the
rancor_-- we have to reach across it. to· find common-ground: We have got to
work together if we want America' to work.
.
'
'
I want you to rrieet two more people 'tonight who do just that.
Luci\Us
Wright is a teacher in the Ja~k§on, Mississippi, public school system. A
Vietnam *eteran, he has created groups to help inner-city children turn away
from gangs and build futures they can believe in.
Sergeant Jennifer Rodgers
is a polic~ officer in,Oklahoma City.
Like Richard Dean, she heiped to pull
her feilow citizens out of the rubble and deal with that a0ful tragedy.
She
reminds us that in their response to that atrocity the people of Oklahoma City
lifted all ·of us with their basic sense of decency and community.
Lucius Wright and Jennifer_Rodgers are special Americans.
And I have·
the honor to announce tonight that they are the very fiist of several thousand
.Americanswho will be chosen to carry the'Olympic torch on its long jourriey_
from Los Angeles to the centennial.of .the modern Olympics· in l).tlanta this
summer ~- not because they are star athletes, but because they are. s.tar
citizens, commui1ity heroes meeting America's challenges.
They are our real
champions.
Now, each 6f us must hold- high the torch of citizenship in our own
lives.
None of· us can finish the race alone.
We can only achieve our destin~
togetht;:r -- one hand, one generation,_ one American connecting to another.
·
,-
'
There have always been things we could do together -- dreams we could
make real -- .which we could never have' done on our own. We Americans have
fo~ged o~r identit~, dur very union~ frbm every poi~t of view and every point
on the plinet, every different opin~dn.
B4t we must be bound together by a
faith more powerful than any doctrine that divides us - 7 by our belief i~·
progress, our love of liberty, and our relentless search for common gro'.lnd.
America has· always sought and always rise~ to every cha1~lenge.
WhO'
would say that, having come so far together, we will not go forward from here?
Who would say
that this age
of possibility
is not for all Americans?.
,'
.
I
I
• !
�Our country is and always has been a great and 'good nation.
best is yet to come; if.we all do our part.
But the·
Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
Tharik you.
.,.
''·
�------------·~---c------------------------.,---;----·~----
.,j
,THE WHITE HOUSE
Office. of the Press Secretary
I·.
For Immediate Release
April 26, 1996'
I
'
'
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT.
AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE RECEPTION
Franklin Hall
The FrankJ.in Institute
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
7:30P.M. EDT
\,
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Come on up, Congressman
give
, Congressman Borski a hand for going to his· daughter's soccer game. Give him a· hand.
(Applause)
.. One ~f the things yoU: ne~d to know. if your in public life is. how to make a proper
entrance. (Laug~ter.) And Bob just quali,fied. Actually, I saw hiip this. morning. We were
.both out running at Ft.. MeN air in Washington, D.C., and he .said he'd be here tonight. And
I thank him for keeping his word.
Thank you,' Co~gre'ssman Chaka.Fattah, f~r that powerful intr~duction and for 'your great
service. Thank you, Congressman Tom· Foglietta, 'for your friendship an'd your support. Thank·
you Gussie, and thank you, Mina Baker. Krioll, and tharik you, Joe Kohn.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman Fowler, for all these endless nights thatyougo back and forth
across America in search of the magical chemistry of victory, not just for our party and our .
. candidates, but for the kind of America we're fighting,for. And thank you, Mr. Mayor, for
proving that the Democratic Party can be the partY of the f\Iture and the party of all the people
-- (applause) -'- the party of compassion and competence, the party of the mind, and the 'party
. of the heart. Thank you, all. :
Ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply moved by this large outpouring. As President
Kennedy used to say,~ I am deeply touched, but not so deeply touched· as you are tonight.
. (Laughter arid appla\lse.) I thank'you'for your support, and.I thank you for your commitment
�::.-·.
\
I
to your city, your state and your country. Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have been very, very
good to me. And as all of you know, this state and this part of our state has a special place in .
iny wife's heart ·and her family history. And we're delighted always, either one of us, to have
chance to come,
a
I think you know why we're here, or you wouldn't be here. But let me just say again
very briefly, when I ran for President in 1992 and the state of Pennsylvania gave Bill Clinton
and Al Gore its elet;toral votes, when Philadelphia gave qur ticket a larger margin than President
Kennedy received here in 1960, we had a. very straightfprward vision for our country, a vision
for what- we wanted America to look. like in the 21st centUry and what we wanted America to·
be like for all tbe children that are here·.
. First, we :wanted a country where every people who is willing to work for it, without
regard to their r:ace, ,their income, or their background, could have a chance to live out their
dreams. Second, we wanted a country that was coming together, not beirig driven apart; that
was reaching' across the racial and other lines that divide us to find strength in our diversity and
our shared values. Third, I wanted to see.our countr_x continue to be the world's strongest force
for p(;!ace and freedom and prosperity and security, so-that we could build a framework for the
21st century that would free our children of the worries that two world wars and the Cold War
imposed upon generation after
. generation after generation of Americans in . the 20th century.
'
'
In short, ' I really believed that. if we did the right thing, the-global economy could open
up the greatest age of possibility our people have ever known. I still believe that. And what
1 come to you to say is th~t we have a record that we can be proud of. Together we've done
what we said we'd ·do in 1992. · But it is a record to build on, not a record to sit on. It is a ·
record to go· forward from, and not a record to take a radical tum away from. That is what is
at stake here .
.
. The American people in a way are fortunate in this election year. In 1992, there was a
big.debate about change or the status quo. That's not what is at stake in 1996. In 1996, there
are two very different visions of change that offer us two roads· into the 21st century., · And the .·
. next four years, like it or not; are going to take us right into the next century. The question is,
which road are we going to walk into the 21st century? That is the question the' American
·
·
··
people will determine.
·Will we walk the road of those who say that government is the problem in· America and
the only thing we need to do is to give the Ame'rican people freedom from theit government?
Or will we walk with those
of us who believe that we need a -smaller and less bureaucratic
'
'
governii1ent, but government has a role to play to make sure that every American has a chance
to make it, that every family has a ·chance to make it, that every neighborhood and every
community has a chance to live up to the fullest of their God-given cap~cities? - .
'.
I think those of us who want to go ,forward together will prevail in 1996 because of you,
and I know .that you know. that -- (applause.) And we don't have to guess .about what will
happen.- You know where I am and what I will do. You know where they are and what they
will do. You know that our approach produced ~ deficit that is less than half of what it. was in
�1992 when we took office, 8.5 million more jobs, a real crime bill instead of si~ years of talking
about it. It's putting 100,000 police on the- stre.et and helping communities to drive the crime
·
rate down to make our streets safer.
,
You know that it produced new and iimovative approaches· to protect the envirornilent
whiie growing the economy. You know, that it produced· a new commitment to tlie education
of all our children from expanding the Head. Start program to expanding the availability of
affordable college loans, to the national service 'program that your former Senator, Harris
WOfford, had today. You know what we will do, and you know they ·oppose all those thing's.
·
.
(Applause.)
I
You also know that I have done my bes.t to reach across party lines to work with
Republicans of goodwill; that I think this intense partisanship -- the _idea that everybody who is
not in your party is the enemy of your future and the enemy of your country -- is crazy; the idea
that you should never work with people even if you agree with them on a' specific issue because
there might be some, God forbid, benefit to somebody in the other' party .is wrong, That is not
t~at are
what made Affierica great. There are :enough differences
'
. honest without that . kind of
accepted partisanship. (Applause.)
And today I finally signed, seven months late, a budget for this year that I .would have
signed seven months ago. Why? It continues the reduction of the deficit~ it contimi<!s to cut
spending; but it protects.-education, it protects the protection o( the environment, it protects
Medicare, it protects Medicaid, it protects our investment in new technologies, in the growth
of jobs, and it protects the 100,000 police .tmd the AmeriCorps program :._ all things that the
other party tried in an intensely completely partisan way to.do away with. That was wrong.
But when we came back and rolled up our sleeves and worked together,. we did what we
should have done --: keep that deficit coming down,' continue to reduce the size of unnecessary
government, but protect our future and protect our children and protect the things that bring us
·together instead of driving u~ apart. That is _the way we ought to do things.
.·
A couple of, days ago I signed. an Antiterrorism Bill --the· same thing, passed in a ·
completely bipartisan way to give us the tools to fight the kind of terrorism that we have seen
in O~lahoma City, at the World Trade. Center, in Japan, in-the Middle East, indeed, all over the
· world, the use of murder of innocent civilians to achieve a political end. ·. We did that in a
bipartisan way by putting America first. That is what I repres~nt and that's what our party will
represent as long as lam the Preside11t of the United States, and that is what we ought to do.
(Applause.)
· ·
'
.
.
So I ask you to keep these 'things in mind. This is an interesting world we're living in.
It's full of unpredictable events. Just in the last few weeks we've seen th~ heartbreak:ir{g deaths
of my friend,, the Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, and some of our finest young public
servants, and some of our _finest business leaders going .to_ Bosnia to try to put the power of the
American economy behind saving the peace and tell those people, you have no future if,you hate
each other because of your religion or your ethnic background. And we. are determined now
to make something positive happen out of that, to use it to strengthen our ability to stand for
\
�·'
peace.
We were afraid tha~ the peace· was being shattered in the Middle East with the fighting
i·n southern Lebanon and northern Israel: But, thank God, today they reached an agreement to,
restor.e the cease-fire and to monitor violations and not to resort to that kind of killing again ..
. And yesterday the Palestinians· took oui of their constitution the provision that required them to
· be against the very existence. of the St~te of Israel. Thii(Was a good day, a good week for peace
in the· Middle East and moving forward. again. (Applause.)
·
·
Aild on the trip I took to Korea .and Japan arid Russia, let me reminct you, it may seem
like a long way away, but when I took office the number one threat to. America's security was .
. said to be the development of a nuclear 'program by North Korea and the prospect that they
·would have nuclear weapons that could be used and could be sold to other countries. Now thitt
is not even in·the headlines anymore because they're keeping ·their word to build down their
. nuclear pr~gram; And we are corrimitted to that.
·
·
In JapCJ.n, we've had 21 separate trade agreements with Japan--: 21. And in those areas,
everything from auto parts to cellular telephone to autos to .rice, in all those areas our exports
to Japan areup 85percent and· our trade deficit is going down. ·we ·are creating jobs with free
and fair trade, ~oing the right thing by the American people and maintaining our security
\-.. ,
partnership with Japan. (Applause.)
I
.
Let me tell you why I went to Russia and how it affects you'. Because of the work that
has been done with .R.ussia as a dempcracy in the last three years, for the first time since· the
dawn of the nuclear age there is riot a single, solitary nuclear missile pointed at an- AIIJ.erican
child tonight: And I am proud of that and you should be . proud of that. (Applause.) .·_
.
·But, unfortunately, not all the dangers of the nuclear age are behind us. We hav~ more
work to do to reduce· nuclear weapons. further. And the waste that is left behind -- the waste· that
. is left behind could.be used to rriake small bombs with ~any times the destructive power_ of the
bomb that blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. So we have to work with them to
make sure that all that is safe, that it cannot
be_, stolen, that terrorists
cannot get
a hold of it.
.
.
.
'
'
.
'
'
·.
-
.
'
. , So even these things that happen so far from home affect the way your children live on
. their streets and their neighborhoods and their schools and their future. That is why I say agqin,
wehave to do three things. Every person without
regard to their' race, their gender, tpeir station
in life has got to haye a chance if they're willing to ·work for it. We have got·--, we have got
to -- fight these impulses that are dividing people all over the world by· race, by religion, by
ethnic groups arid say, no, no; that's not what America is; America is leading our challenges
together by sharing our values and working tog'ether.
.
.
.
.
I
.
.
.
And we've. got to. continue to be the force for peace and freedom and security in the
world that' only America can be. And we have to do it by saying)his Is what the Democrats
stand for-- riot big government solving all the problems, but a new, smaller, less bureaucratic
government, the smallest in 30 years, but one still strong eno~gh to help citizens and (amilies
and communities make the most of their own lives .
. . . . . ·-
------~~--
�..
I
I.
\
.
.
.
.
.
.
That is tomorrow's progressivism. That's what we stand for..· And if any Republicans
or independents. want to help us, we are not going to be blindly .partisan, we're going to say
coine on aboard, grab us by the hand and walk into the future together.
'
/.
.
.
'
,
I
I
'
Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank,you .
. END
7:45 P.M. EDT
. i .
I,
.
t·
.
'
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Terry Edmonds
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995-2001
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36090" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0462-F
Description
An account of the resource
Terry Edmonds worked as a speechwriter from 1995-2001. He became the Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting in 1999. His speechwriting focused on domestic topics such as race relations, veterans issues, education, paralympics, gun control, youth, and senior citizens. He also contributed to the President’s State of the Union speeches, radio addresses, commencement speeches, and special dinners and events. The records include speeches, letters, memorandum, schedules, reports, articles, and clippings.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
635 folders in 52 boxes
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
June 1996 Commencement Speeches [2]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0462-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 14
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0462-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
12/9/2014
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
42-t-7763294-20060462F-014-002-2014
7763294