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�Draft 8/24/96
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
TRAIN TRIP KICKOFF
HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA
AUGUST 25,1996
Acknowledgments: HRC; Sen. Rockefeller; Gov. Caperton; Demo. Gov. nominee
Charlotte Eritt; so many friends and supporters ~ Reps. Wise & Rahall; CG Chair George
Carenbauer, Sec. of State Ken Hechler, UMW President Cecil Roberts, Treasury Department
Chief of Staff Sylvia Mathews, and a special word to Emma Williams ~ Bill Morton's mother
(he lost his life w/ Ron Brown).
And thank you, Marilyn Milne. Your story and your spirit are exactly what is renewing
this country. And giving people like you the tools to make the most of your God-given potential
~ to prepare our people for the 21st Century ~ that is the central goal of my administration.
[Desert Shield nurse; started business w/ help from business incubator from Enterprise
Community funds. Business transcribes doctors' notes. Has 3 employees; says she did it all for
her 9 yr old son. ]
I am delighted to start our journey to Chicago here in West Virginia. Harry Truman was
here. And John F. Kennedy was right, during the legendary 1960 primary, when he said: "The
sun doesn't always shine in West Virginia, but the people do."
Today, we stand on the edge of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but, especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of our
magnificent past.
They're going to have a great time in Chicago over the next few days. But as much
as I'd like to be there, I wanted to take this train trip more, because I want all Americans to
see what's happening all across our country . . . America is on the right track to the 21st
century!
In every city and town of our great land Americans are rising up and coming together to
meet the challenges of our times ~ and conquer them. We are doing it in a way that honors our
legacy by protecting our values, but looks to the future by embracing new ideas. It is not a
Democratic approach or a Republican approach - it is a truly American approach.
Over the next few days, we're going to take a journey together into the heartland. We
will see Americans in all walks of life, mastering our challenges with new solutions based on old
values. That is what so many of you are doing here in West Virginia... Dorothy Slack, 82, who
has given 1300 hours to the Ronald McDonald House . . . Richard Lowe, who threw the javelin
in the Special Olympics . . . Ocie Lockhart, chosen as only 1 of 16 athletes from the US to go to
1
�the 1997 Special Olympics in Canada . . . all the people of Marshall University, who bring health
care and preventive care to the isolated towns and villages of this region.
There are heros like this in every community in America. My Administration set out to
give our people the tools to meet our challenges. We're putting community police officers on the
beat and citizens are working with them to take responsibility for safer streets. We're creating
opportunity through new jobs made possible by increased exports. We're working as partners
with teachers, parents, and principals across America to set the highest standards in our schools.
When America is united, nothing can stop us . . . and we are coming together around our
common values: Opportunity for all Americans to build a great future, and responsibility from all
Americans to make the most of it. That's the basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we
come together as a community. These are the values that guide millions of Americans across our
country every day. They are the values that must guide America into the future.
Four years ago, it seemed to some like our problems couldn't be solved ~ but one by one,
we're solving them. When I took office, our economy wasn't creating enough opportunity.
Unemployment was nearly eight percent; the deficit was out of control; new jobs were scarce.
We put a comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back on track:
cutting the deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports, and investing in our people.
Look at the results: America is selling more cars than Japan for the first time in a decade.
4.4 million more Americans own their own home. Exports have surged to record levels. We have
cut the federal government by almost 240,000 people. The combined rate of inflation,
unemployment, and mortgages is the lowest in 30 years. We have cut the deficit by 60 percent ~
it's now the smallest since the year Ronald Reagan took office. America has created more than
10 million new jobs. In West Virginia, unemployment has dropped almost 4 percent since I took
office [from 11.2 to 7.3]. We cut taxes for 15 million working families, including more than
100,000 families right here in West Virginia. And real hourly wages are starting to rise for the
first time in a decade.
In the last five days, I signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care, end welfare as
we know it, and reward work. The Kassebaum-Kennedy health reform bill means families will
never again be denied health insurance because a family member is sick. The welfare reform bill
will finally make welfare what it was meant to be - a second chance, not a way of life. And the
minimum wage increase we fought so hard for will give 10 million hard-working Americans a
raise ~ including one out of every five hourly workers in West Virginia. [83,000]
Now we must press forward to give every American opportunity. We want the American
economy to roar into the 21st century with every American on board. We must finish the job and
balance the budget, and we must do it in a way that honors our commitments to our parents and
our children, by protecting Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment.
�And we have to make sure every American has the capacity to take advantage of our new
economy. Education is the key to opportunity in the 21st century. We must connect every
classroom in America to the Information Superhighway by the year 2000. We must work
together at every level on a massive effort to rebuild our public schools for the 21st century.
And we must cut taxes to make sure every American has the opportunity to go to college.
I want the 13 th and 14th years of education to be as universal as the first 12. I have proposed a
$1,500 a year tax cut for Americans to pay for the first two years of college; it will make tuition
at a typical community college free.
We have to take responsibility for the world our children grow up in. That means fighting
crime on the streets. We are putting 100,000 new police officers on the street — to walk the beat,
learn the neighborhood, and work with its citizens. We banned 19 deadly assault weapons -- and
not one hunter or sportsman lost his gun because we did. But 60,000 felons, fugitives and
stalkers who tried to buy a handgun were stopped because of the Brady Bill.
We also understand what the police have been saying for years: the best way to fight
crime is to prevent it in the first place. So we fought for drug-education and gang-prevention
programs in our schools. Our crime-fighting plan is making a difference all across America. In
city after city and town after town, the police are hitting the streets and crime is coming down.
Now we must do more. I want to make it easier for parents to bring order to their
children's lives and teach them right from wrong. So I have traveled the country, encouraging
and supporting communities that want to impose community curfews, enforce truancy laws,
adopt school uniforms. Young people belong in school, not on the street.
And we must come together as a great American community ~ and that starts with
helping our families. I was proud to sign the Family and Medical Leave law ~ in the past four
years, 12 million Americans have been able to take time off from work to care for a new baby or
a sick parent. We must do more, expanding the Family Leave law so that parents can take time
off to take a child to the doctor. Every parent should be able to succeed at home and at work.
We gave parents the V-chip, because you have the right and the responsibility to control
what your child sees on TV. We have worked to protect America's children from tobacco. We
said to the tobacco companies: You have a right to market your products to adults - but you
must draw the line on our children.
We have protected our environment. We want Americans to be confident the air they
breathe is pure, the water they drink is clean, and the land their children play on is safe from
toxic hazards. I am proud we defended 25 years of bipartisan environmental progress against an
onslaught from the far right. Now we must do more: we must clean up toxic waste and pass the
world that God gave us to future generations.
�We have kept America the world's strongest force for peace andfreedomand prosperity.
Today, no Russian nuclear missiles are pointed at our cities. Today, from the Middle East to
Northern Ireland to Bosnia, the entire world looks to us as a beacon of peace andfreedom.Now
we must do more ~ to take on the new security threats of terrorism and the old threats of nuclear
proliferation. I call on Congress to take even stronger steps to battle terrorism, and to do it now.
Opportunity for our people by making college more affordable. Responsibility for our
streets by putting community police officers on the beat and taking guns off the street. Families
growing stronger because it's easier to be a good parent and a good worker. And everywhere,
communities coming together, working together, and thriving together. It's happening all across
America, and we should all be proud. New solutions for new challenges ~ guided by values as
old as America. We've got more to do, and we are going to do it. I look to the future and I am
filled with confidence. I want this train trip to show all Americans what you see every day in
Huntington ~ America is on the right track to the 21st century!
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
�THE WHITE H O U S E
W A S H I N G T O N
August 17, 1996
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
T E PRESIDENT H S SEEN
H
A
FROM:
TODD STERN^tf^
SUBJECT:
QU^'I
^
Rasco/Tyson Health Care Policy Memo
Laura and Carol have prepared a lengthy memo that reviews your health care achievements,
discusses pending proposals you have already put forth, and suggests three options for new
initiatives.
Fifteen achievements to date. Five from Kennedy-Kassebaum: (1) portability reforqi$ so
workers won't be locked into jobs for fear of losing insurance due to pre-existing conditions;
(2) elimination of discriminatory tax treatment nf sfp.lf-p.n^plnyp/l; (3) strengtheningJrauiaQd
abuse prevention; (4) tagjncentives for private long-term care policies; (5) reduced
paperwork. Other accomplishments: (6) extended solvency of Medicare Trust Fund by 3
years; (7) protected Medicaid against GOP attack while increasinp state flexibility; (8)
contributed to' substanfial reduction of health care inflation (1995 rate was lowest in 23 years
and first half of 1996 is running below 2%); (9) 16^-inr.rease. in hiomedical research at NIH
including breast cancer (up 76%) and AIDS (up 25%); (10) major increases in funding for
UJD
«
AIDS treatment and prevention; (11) childhood immunization effort contributed to record
h j W v ^ - l o ^ 7,5%! immunization rate for 2-year olds in 1995: (121 expedited FDA review of new drugs;
(13) protected kids from tobacco products; (14) increased funding for VA health by nearly $2
billion; (15) cut regulatory burden of HHS for providers and consumers.
r
r
' Nine pending proposals. Extending Medicare Trust Fund to 2006 -- provided for in your
FY 1997 budget. Modernizing Medicare - your budget would increase choice of plans; add
preventive benefits (e.g., for mammography); take first step toward long-term care benefit by
establishing "respite benefit" for families of beneficiaries with Alzheimer's; include
competitive bidding initiatives. Increase State flexibility re Medicaid -- your budget would
eliminate waiver process for managed care and for home/community based alternatives to
institutionalization and make it easier for states to spend money to expand coverage.
^ Workers' Transition benefit - proposal would build on Kennedy-Kassebaum by helping v
those who lose their jobs afford health insurance. Cost: $2 billion/year. Increase smalT\fJ
business access to voluntary health purchasing cooperatives (HPCs) - opening up the
FEHBP to outside purchasers would be a bad idea as it would be a magnet for poor risk
employers, increasing FEHBP costs. Your budget proposal is much better. It would require
health plans that participate in the FEHBP in a given region to offer coverage (in a separate
risk pool) to private or state HPCs. f Provide mental health parity - GOP blocked this in
Kennedy-Kassebaum negotiations, bVissue may come to Senate floor again in Fall.
�v^vj 48 hour rule for new mothers — on Mothers' Day you endoi^^rule requiring health care
^""^ plans to allow new mothers to remain in hospital for 48 hours. Open VA to Medicareeligible vets - allowing VA to get reimbursement from Medicare. Eradicate global polio —
by contributing to WHO's initiative to end polio by 2000.
Three options for new initiatives.'
^^Increased oversight of managed care — In view of rising concern that cost containment may
be coming at expense of quality, (i) support "gag" rule law preventing health plans from
restricting what doctors can tell their patients about alternative treatments. OMB and HHS
support; (ii) establish public/private advisory board to evaluate managed care shortcomings
and recommend appropriate role for federal government. VP, OMB, HHS, DOL support, as
do Sweeney and McEntee; (iii) host Presidential forum on problem of managed care's role in
declining research and training funds, challenging managed care industry and research
community to work together on solutions.
''Provide children greater access to affordable insurance — Four options: (i) legislation for
targeted investments to help community health centers and school-based clinics provide
preventive and other services (wouldn't increase insurance coverage much); (ii) small tax
subsidy for working families who pay for kids' insurance if employers don't contribute to
dependent coverage (addresses affordability more than coverage); (iii) provide subsidy to
help low-income families purchase-insurance for their kids (would significantly increase
coverage, but would be costly, inefficient, duplicative of Medicaid and would create
incentives for employers to drop kids who have coverage); (iv) increase state flexibility to
/design programs to expan^ Medicaid coverage to more children. NOTE ~ Options (ii-iv)
VSlwould require new spending of $15-20 billion over 7 years.
Increase independence of people with disabilities — (i) to address problem of disabled people
who choose to remain on SSI or SSDI rolls rather thanriskloss of health insurance, allov^
isabled to purchase Medicaid or Medicare coverage on sliding scale linked to their income;
(ii) evaluate options to address problem that home- and community based carelervices are
optional" Medicaid services, while nursing home coverage is "mandatory" ~ a distinction
disabled community hates.
�i
�years ago, our belief in a place called hope drove us forward. For four years, America and all
our people have summoned a new faith in ourselves. And now, for four years, America must
move with confidence and clarity to the Year 2000 -- together.
My fellow Americans, we have worked hard and long to bring our country to this
point. If we have our convictions and we stand for them -- if we hold out our hands in
cooperation, but always stand up for what we know is right -- this country's future will be
even brighter than its brilliant past. It is our responsibility to make that happen.
To meet our challenges, to become the nation we can become, and to honor the values
that have always kept us strong, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.
And let it end tonight where it began for every one of us, and where it will begin
anew for every generation to come. Let us all say: we still believe in a place called America.
24
�By the Year 2000, we must enforce y^th Ruaaia tho START II treaty—md slashed our
nttcteararsenafa-by two thirds fronUhen^oldWaLpfiak.
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By Lho Yum 2000, we mu3t ratify the Chemical Weapono Convention—so that we cm—
begin tu banish poison gas from thia earth
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mnct pnfr| ^^ ^ tntil bin nn mirlrnr tntinr—su that nu iiULlear
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weapon i i rvplndnd rvrr again.
I want to build an America that is winning the war against terror and aggression, by
standing against reckless rogue states like Iran, Iraq and Libya and the forces of hatred here at
home.
Our anti-terrorism strategy is moving forward,oti l l u n fiunts.—
ynust rally the world community to join a coalition of zero tolerance for
terrorism^
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This month, I signed a law imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key
sectors of the Iranian or Libyan economy. They will pay the price for their actions . . . as long as
Iran trains, supports and protects terrorists... as long as Libya refuses to give up the people who
blew up Pan Am 103.
24
�OPPORTUNITY
I want America to build a bridge to the Year 2000 in which we expand opportunity
through education: where computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards,
where highly trained teachers demand peak performance from our children, where every
8-year-old can point to a book and say: "I read it myself." And above all, I want to build an
America where every person who wants to go to college, goes to college.
Our new economy demands that we lift standards to ever higher levels — to insist that
students learn the old basics we learned, and the new basics they need.
Today, 40% of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. In the Year 2000,1
want an America where every third grader can read and write. So I am proposing a bold literacy
program: To hire 50,000 reading specialists for our schools - who will recruit an education army
of 1 million volunteers to teach our children to read. Literacy is freedom — we must set our
children free.
When this convention gathered four years ago, there was no such thing as a "web page."
Today, even Socks, my cat, has one. Our mission is clear: If 8 year olds must be able to read, 12
year olds must be able to use a computer. We must connect every single classroom and library in
America to the world wide web of computers, information and knowledge, by the Year 2000.
Our education bridge to the future must include: tough tests that students must take to
1
�our own hemisphere, Cuba finally joins the family of democracies.
Nothing in our lifetimes was more heartening than when the people of the former Soviet
Union and Central Europe threw off the yoke of Communism. Wc have sliuiglliuied the fumtflr
of roform in thuai cuunTTfes. Weiravi helped Russia withdraw ita troopc from tho Baltic^By
the Year 2000, I want to owitinuc Ijuildiug a strong partnership with a democratic Russia. And
we will have brought some of Europe's new democracies into NATO so that their freedom is
never again in doubt.
We have opened up markets to our goods and services through more than 200 trade
agreements — including 21 with Japan alone — that are creating good new jobs at home. America
is once again the world's number one exporter. By the Year 2000, we must break down even
more barriers to our prosperity. America has the best workers and products in the world. Give
them a fair deal with free trade and they will compete — and win — in the new global economy.
We are lifting the dark cloud of nuclear fear that has hung over our heads for fifty years.
There are now no Russian missiles pointed at our cities or our children. Ukiuinc, Bolaruc, and—
Kazakhstan are piving up the nuclear weapons left on their land when thf? Soviet Union—.
1
dissolvedrWe have fiozcn Noitli Koma'a uuclcar program undu iuleiualioiial siiperVlijiOli. And
vy^ e v t e n H p H t h p M n n P r n l i f p r - J t i n n T r ^ t y i n d e f i n i t e l y —
other countrico.
*
23
t h a t niirlf>-ir i m n j u im: nr. Tirr c p r p p n
T
r.
�8/25/96 9 pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 29, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans:
Let me begin by saluting a man who is my strong partner and close friend, with whom I
have had the privilege of working for the past four years, and with whom I expect to work for
four more years - the Vice-President of the United States of America, Al Gore.
Tonight I thank Chicago, city of the big shoulders and a great heart. And thank you,
Chicago, for giving me the love of my life — my wife, Hillary.
Four years ago, you honored me with your nomination to the highest office in the land.
We set out to fulfill our vision - to offer opportunity to all, to demand responsibility from all,
and to build a new American community.
Four years ago, we needed that vision. Our people were losing heart and our most
important resource: our belief in our ability to move forward ~ together. Crime seemed on an
inevitable climb. Welfare seemed to be an impenetrable system of dependence. The budget
deficit seemed a permanent shackle on our economic dreams, A new global economy seemed a
1
�threat to our dreams, not the gateway to a new age of possibility for all of our hardworking
people.
These unsolved problems seemed to open wounds in our generous American soul. A
nation built on equality found racial division on the rise. A nation built on the promise of
progress found its path blocked; hardworking Americans replaced the hope of moving higher
with resentment of those stuck below. And too many politicians climbed the ladder of these
resentments to higher office. They used these problems as issues to be exploited, not challenges
to be met. When the times demanded that we join hands, they pointed fingers.
That is why, four years ago, we had to begin our journey with hope. That night, in New
York, together we made clear that we still believed in that most American of all places, a place
called Hope.
My fellow Americans, faith begins with hope. And, bit by powerful bit, in the last four
years, we have seen our hope become our confidence, and our confidence become a new faith in
ourselves as a nation, a new faith in America.
Four years ago, I was determined to offer a leadership that would tell America not "who
to blame," but "what to do." We have made progress on the straightforward vision we set forth to
fulfill: To keep the American dream alive for all our people. To remain the world's strongest
force for peace and freedom. And to come together as a nation around our fundamental values.
2
�We created economic opportunity to restore the American Dream. 10 million new jobs.
The lowest combined rates of inflation and unemployment and montages in 30 years. Wages
rising again. And last week, I signed legislation raising the minimum wage, moving people from
welfare to work, and assuring that when Americans change jobs, they can take their health
insurance with them.
With the help of the Vice-President, we cut 250,000 jobs from the federal workforce; now
our government is the smallest — and the most efficient — it has been since John F. Kennedy was
President. And, today the deficit that was strangling our progress is 60% smaller than four years
ago.
We began to put 100,000 more police on the streets; we toughened penalties; we stopped
felons and fugitives from buying handguns; we banned assault rifles. For four years now, the
crime rate has dropped. Now even the juvenile murder rate is down.
We worked with states to launch dozens of experiments to replace welfare with work.
Because of this quiet revolution, 1.6 million fewer people are on welfare than on the day I took
office.
We have kept America strong around the world. Tonight, no one, anywhere on this planet
- from Russia, to Bosnia, to the Middle East - doubts that America is the strongest force for
peace and freedom and prosperity in the world.
�And most important, we are coming together to meet our challenges and protect our
values, united, as one America. That is why I have spoken out over these months, to show how
we can work to meet the challenges in our people's lives and to protect the values that have
always made us strong — community by community, school by school, block by block.
The era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to an era of fend for yourself.
We need a government that is leaner and more efficient -- but one that is strong enough to help
people make it, to give them the tools to make the most of their God given potential.
Tonight, we embark again on a great debate about our country's direction. The issue in
this election is this: What kind of country will we build for the Year 2000? How will we go into
the 21st Century? What will America look like at the dawn of the next century? What will she
look like when our children and our grandchildren are our age?
So let me make clear that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp - and Ross Perot -- are men who
love our country and have served it with distinction. Let us honor their service, and our fellow
citizens, by making this a campaign of ideas, not insults. Let us clearly state the differences in
our records and our vision for the future, but let us not demean each other, our parties, or our
devotion to America. I say to all of you: This must be a campaign that brings us together - and
takes us into the future.
The past, even my record, even the record of our opponents, only matter as guides to the
�future. I love and revere the history of America as much as any other President who has ever
served. I am determined to take our best traditions into the future. But with all respect, we do
not need to build a bridge to the past — we need to build a bridge to the future.
A century ago, our grandparents built a bridge between eras - and the Progressive Era of
Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson millions of Americans cross into the industrial age
and the new century, ogressive Era. We have met so many of the challenges of this century and our country is moving foward, confident and strong.
But must make sure that every American can reap the rewards of this new era. We know
that there are still people who are not sharing in all the bounty of this new age of possibility.
And this country will not be all it can be if we do not find a way to help everyone move
confidently, forward, together. We must make sure that America is ready for the stiff challenges
and remarkable opportunities of our new century.
So tonight 1 will outline a new progressive agenda for reform in America -- an agenda for
action that will allow us to meet our challenges, protect our values and prepare this country for
the 21st Century. We must help every parent to raise their child. We must help every young
person and working person get the education and training they need. We must make families
feel safe again on the streets. We must finally break the cycle of poverty and dependency that
grips our cities. We must protect our environment for generations to come. We must keep
America the strongest nation on earth. We must do all these things, and in so doing we will
5
�improve every aspect of daily life as we move forward to the new century.
Then, when our time here is over, we will be able to watch the sun go down, and say,
truly, we have prepared our children for the dawn.
Family
We begin with the family. You can't have a strong country, you can't have strong
individuals, unless you have strong families. The first bill I signed into law, the Family and
Medical Leave Act, lets parents bond with children in their first weeks of life. 12 million
Americans have used it. We have given parents the V-chip, TV shows will be soon be rated for
content, and there will soon be 3 hours of quality childrens' programming on the air on every
network every week.
Now, I want to build an America for the Year 2000 in which families are stronger, able to
succeed at work and at home in raising their children, to have the security of health care and their
own home.
We must extend the Family Medical Leave Law to give parents time off each month to
take a child to a doctor or to visit her school. And we must pass a law allowing employees to ask
their bosses for time and a half overtime in either pay, or time off. We want parents and children
to have the thing we all need more of: time with our children.
�We should pass a tax cut that gives parents the money to raise their children. We have
already cut taxes for 15 million working families. But too many families are still faced with
rising costs and limited wage gains. I propose to cut taxes another $500 for every child under 13
in every middle income family. And my tax cut ~ like every one of my tax cut proposals — is
fully paid for in my balanced budget plan. It will not increase the deficit and raise your interest
rates, or require bigger cuts in investments that are important to our future.
I want to build an America for the Year 2000 where single mothers, struggling to bring
up children, get every penny absent fathers owe them. In just four years, we have increased child
support collections by 40%. In the next four years, we must put the IRS to work collecting
overdue child support. [And we should instruct the IRS to take all tax deductions away from any
taxpayer whose child support is overdue. No one should be able to write off deductions if they
have written off their children.]
I want to build an America in the Year 2000 where every parent has the security of
knowing that their child has health insurance. The Kennedy-Kassebaum law says every
American will be able to keep their health insurance coverage when they change jobs — even if
they or a family member has a preexisting health condition. This will help [x] million Americans
with diabetes, [x] million with cancer, [x] million with AIDS.
In the next four years, we must extend paid health insurance for six months to anyone
who is unemployed. A parent may be without a job; but no child should be without a doctor.
7
�Today, it is unconscionable that too many insurance companies cut costs by casting
mothers and babies out of the hospital within hours of birth. We should guarantee that insurance
cover at least 48 hours in the hospital for new mothers and their babies. Those extra hours under
a doctor's care can mean the difference between life and death.
[Paragraph on opening federal health insurance pools to small business — when
proposal is firmed up.]
Patients have a right to know they are getting the right treatment, not just the cheapest.
We should pass a law making it illegal for HMOs to retaliate against doctors who tell their
patients about alternate, higher cost forms of treatment.
We should expand IRAs so that [X million Americans] may save money tax free to use
for medical expenses. Families should be able to protect their health without without mortgaging
their financial health.
And we have already taken perhaps the most important action in a generation to protect
public health. We are targeting the tobacco ads that target our children. This will take time, and
powerful forces will oppose us. But I pledge to America's parents: as long as I am President we
will protect our children from tobacco.
�We have already achieved a record level of homeownership — by cutting closing costs for
the average first time homebuyer by $1000, and by keeping interest rates low. Now, in the next
four years, we should pass a targeted tax cut to allow homeowners to sell their homes without
paying a capital gains tax. And we should expand IRAs so people can save tax free to buy a
home. And we will pay for this tax cut by cutting government spending. I want every American
to be able to hear those beautiful words: Welcome home.
In the next four years, we must do more to make sure that every child grows up in a home
with loving parents who are able to care for her. Unlike our opponents, I do not whisper our
position on freedom-of-choice; I proclaim it: I believe abortion should be safe, legal and rare. I
believe this decision must be left to a woman, her conscience, and her God. But our party
platform also proudly says: we respect the individual conscience of every American, including
those in our party who believe this choice should never be made.
We should do whatever we can to make abortion more rare. That is why we have worked
to establish a national campaign against teen pregnancy that promotes successful local efforts at
reducing it; and that is why we must make adoption more and more the alternative. Last week, I
signed a bill to provide a $5000 tax credit — again, fully paid for — to help families adopt
children and put an end to racial preferences in adoption, which too often entrap children in the
limbo of foster care when there are good parents who are more than willing to adopt them.
�I want every American child to know the love so many of us have known. My mother
was with here four years ago; she is not here tonight. I miss her very much. But I will never
forget what she gave me. She worked long hours as a nurse; she came home, bone tired, and
worked longer hours as a mother. From her, I learned how deeply a parent wants to succeed at
work and at home. I want an America in the Year 2000 where every child will have the same
love with a parent that I was blessed to have with my mother.
Education
Every American should have the opportunity to live out their dreams in a 21st Century
economy -- and that begins with education, by far the most important thing to our strength as a
nation and to our economy. We have invested in our children and their future - dramatically
expanding Head Start, cutting class sizes and improving teacher training, and doubling the
number of anti-drug counseling programs in our schools. SAT scores are up; math scores are up;
reading scores are up. But we must do more. We must give our children the best chance they can
have.
I want to build an America for the Year 2000 where every neighborhood is proud to point
to its rebuilt school, where computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards, where
highly trained teachers demand peak performance from our children. I want to build an America
for the Year 2000 where every 8-year-old can point to a book and say: " I read it myself." And
10
�above all, I want to build an America where every person who wants to - goes to college.
Literacy is freedom - and we must set our children free. In the Year 2000,1 want an
America where every third grader can read and write. Today, 40% of our children cannot read or
write by the 3rd grade. Some learn late; some never really learn at all.
So I am proposing a bold literacy program: To hire 50,000 reading specialists for our
schools where too many students read below grade level. They will recruit and train volunteers
to create an education army of 1 million people to teach our children to read.
We will also provide funds to keep schools open, from early in the morning until early at
night, so young people can stay off the street and develop the skills to live good lives.
We needrigorousstandards and vigorous innovation at every level. States should give
their students tough tests as they move from school to school. No more social promotions.
States should reward good teachers and remove those who don't measure up. Parents should be
helped as they set up new schools that work to replace old schools that don't - and they should
be able to send their children to the best public school their communities can create.
And if the Congress sends me legislation that cuts the heart out of education, that expands
class sizes or shrinks from drug treatment, I will veto it.
11
�In the Year 2000,1 want to see America's schools rebuilt, modernized, wired for
computers and prepared to cope with the rapidly increasing enrollments. We should increase
school construction by at least 25%; we cannot ask our children to learn in a landscape of peeling
paint and broken glass.
Computers are remaking our world. When this convention gathered four years ago, there
was no such thing as a "web page" on the Internet. Today, even Socks, my cat, has one. Our
mission is clear: We must connect every single classroom and library in America to the world
wide web of computers, information and knowledge, by the Year 2000.
In the new economy, the mission of education doesn't stop on graduation day. We need
to give working people training that will take them from skill to skill throughout a lifetime. We
should pass a GI Bill for America's workers. It scraps the tangle of job training programs, and
gives every working person who needs it a skills grant so they can get the training they need,
wherever they want to get it.
And above all, if we want all our people to prosper in the emerging economy of the new
century, then more and more Americans must go to college.
By the Year 2000, every American high school graduate who wants to go to college must
have the opportunity to do so. Our direct student loan program, enacted over strong special
interest opposition, has cut costs and improved repayment options for [x] Americans. We have
12
�expanded Pell Grant scholarships. And we have offered, through Americorps, the chance for
50,000 young people to earn their way through college by serving your community.
Now we must do more. We must make the 13th and 14th years of school -- the first two
years of college — to be as universal as the first 12 years are today.
We should give every person in America a $ 1500-a-year tuition tax credit, which they can
use for the first two years of college. These "Hope Scholarships" will make the typical
community college free. No single tax cut will do more to give Americans hope — and tangible
reason to hope — than this one.
We should give every family a $10,000 tuition tax deduction for the next two years of
school, or for adults who go back to school. We will pay for it by closing tax loopholes for large
multinational corporations. We will say to Americans: Do the work, expand your skills, and we
will help you pay for it.
I am proposing an expanded IRA of $2000 for each child, which parents may save each
year tax-free. This tax cut, too, is fully paid for by spending cuts
With all these reforms, we should change the tax code so that for middle income
Americans, the money that pays for school is never, ever taxed.
13
�Economy/budget
And we all know that a growing, thriving economy is essential if we are to give
opportunity to all our people.
Today, America's economy is growing. We sell more cars than Japan. 4.4 million new
homeowners. Hundreds of thousands of businesses owned by women. The lowest combined
rate of unemployment, inflation, mortgages in 30 years. 10 million new jobs. And hourly
earnings — the paycheck of the American worker — are starting to rise again for the first time in a
decade.
Yes, our economy is the strongest in 30 years. You know who said that? My opponent
said that — and he is right.
I want to build an America for the Year 2000 in which we are balancing the budget -with a budget that reflects our values.
For years, politicians talked about balancing the budget; we are doing it. Today, thanks
to our tough cuts, the deficit is its smallest since 1981 -- and heading down. To keep our
economy growing steady and strong, we must finish the job. Balancing the budget will lead to a
permanent cut in interest rates; it will spark business enterprise,freeup capital for jobs, and help
consumers have a better life.
14
�There are two economic plans before the American people.
My plan balances the budget, with real, certified reductions in programs and waste. It
invests in education and our people. And it gives Americans tax cuts that will help our country
grow. The tax cuts I am calling for tonight are responsible and targeted to give people the tools
they need to make the most of their own lives. We should cut taxes for the family of the child
going to college . . . for the worker who returns to college . . . for the family saving to buy a
home - or sell a home . . . for middle income families trying to raise their children.
The $110 billion in tax cuts I have proposed will not only help people in their individual
lives. My tax cuts will strengthen the economy - moving people from welfare to work, reviving
isolated inner cities, promoting investment, spurring homeownership. They will strengthen the
economy - because these tax cuts are targeted, responsible, and paid for within the balanced
budget. They won't undermine the economy — they will help it.
Our opponents have proposed a $550 billion dollar, risky, across the board tax cut. It will
explode the deficit. It will spike interest rates — by 2%. It will require huge cuts in the very
investments that will help our economy grow. Our opponents are asking us to accept higher
interest rates, slower growth, fewer jobs, a more divided America, and a compromised future.
In the 1980s, we tried this approach. Their huge deficits laid the basis for the icy
15
�recession that was gripping our economy in the first years of this decade. Now, for four years, we
have struggled, sacrificed and saved, to cut this deficit by more than half. Now we are on the
way to a balanced budget.
Are we now to make the same mistake again? To raise interest rates again? To stop
economic growth again? To court recession again? To follow the same pied pipers over the
same cliff? My answer is simple: No way.
We would have a surplus today were it not for the interest on the very debt run up in 12
years before I took office, caused by this very policy. We can now make this economy work for
all Americans if we do the right thing - are we going to take a U-turn to the policies that have
failed us again and again?
An exploding deficit would not be the only consequence of our opponent's plan. As soon
as our opponents won the Congress two years ago, they sought a massive tax cut that we could
not afford, and sought to pay for it with cuts in crucial areas. Last year's cuts were bad; this
year's cuts would be much, much worse.
I rejected their plan then, and let me be clear: As long as I am President, I will never
allow cuts that devastate education for our children, pollute our environment, gut health care
under Medicaid, or violate our duty to our parents under Medicare. I vetoed their budget last
year; I was proud to do it; and if I have to, I will do it again.
16
�And let me say one other thing: As long as I am President, I will never allow Congress to
use the blackmail threat of a government shutdown to try and break the will of the American
people into supporting deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education or the environment.
Our opponents in the other party have always complained about government, they always
said government is too big. But we, the Democrats, reduced the government by 250,000, its
smallest size since John Kennedy was President. That means the federal employees who were left
are doing a better job . . . they are more productive than ever before . . . and they do not deserve a
government shutdown.
That is the choice before the American people. Cut taxes by $110 billion, not by $550
billion. Pay for them with reasonable spending cuts, not with borrowed money ~ and not by
eviscerating Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment. And target the tax cuts where
they will do real things to help real people to help our nation grow.
This is one area where I respectfully disagree with my opponent: We should not bet the
farm . . . and you certainly shouldn't bet the country.
[WELFARE REWRITE TO COME - BRUCE REED IS WORKING ON IT]
Crime
17
�And our people will never be free until they are free from the paralyzing fear of crime.
We must work toward a day when crime is the exception, not the rule — when we tum on the
evening news and are surprised, not numbed, when we see a crime. We have made enormous
progress in taking back our streets from crime and gangs and guns. I have stood by our police. I
am grateful for the support my candidacy has received from the National Association of Police
Officers . . . and the International Union of Police Associations. No support means more to me
than theirs.
I want to build an America for the Year 2000 where women and children will not fear
violence at home or at school, where the voices of crime victims will finally be heard in our
courtrooms, where the gangs that once ran wild in our neighborhoods have been chased-down,
locked-up, and kicked-out, where our children learn right from wrong and are given something to
say "yes" to.
We cannot go into the 21st Century vital and strong if children are still killing children . .
. if children's lives are shattered by violence at home or in the schoolyard . . . if a generation of
young people is left to raise itself alone on the streets . . . if drug use is going down among adults
but up among children.
Too many women and too many children live in mortal fear of domestic violence — and
each year, there are 150,000 acts (ck) of domestic violence involving a gun. [Sarah Brady thank
you?] We must extend the Brady Bill to say: if you have a record of violence against your own
18
�family, you cannot buy a gun. If we do this, four years from now thousands of women who
would have lost their lives to domestic violence will be alive.
Row after row of prison inmates are behind bars because of drug problems. We do
society no favors — we do them no favors — when they hit the streets and go back on drugs again.
We must break the cycle of drugs and crime. In 1994, we gave the states ample resources to
build prisons. And now I want them to use some of that money to drug test parolees. Our
message to parolees must be: if you go back on drugs, you go back to jail.
We must ban the cop-killer bullets that are designed with one purpose in mind: to kill
police. If a bullet can cut through a police officer's bulletproof vest like a hot knife through
butter, it has no place on our streets.
And by the Year 2000, our Constitution ought to protect victims of crime — not just
criminals. Victims of crime should have the right to be heard at trial, at sentencing, or at a parole
hearing. And they should be warned when their assailant leaves prison. Because it is the only
way to guarantee these rights to all our citizens, I support a Constitutional Amendment to
guarantee victims rights.
By the Year 2000,1 want criminal teenage gangs in full retreat. To win this victory, we
will use our most potent legal tool - the anti-racketeering RICO statute. RICO brought the mob
to its knees. RICO helped smash the Medellin drug cartel. It gives law enforcement the ability
19
�to track gangs and stop them before they act. Let's break the back of the gangs.
We have made so much progress in so many areas; crime among young people is down;
murder among young people is down. So it is very, very painful to me that drug use among
young people is up. Drugs nearly killed my brother when he was a young man — and I hate
them.
We must do more as a nation to tum our young people from a path that can kill them.
General Barry McCaffrey, hero of the Gulf War, now leads our citizen crusade to combat drugs
as our nation's drug czar. He is pursuing a strategy that is focused on our children. [2 sentences
on details]
Above all else, we must teach our children that drugs are risky, and illegal, and wrong. I
have asked Congress, time and time again, for more resources to fight drugs ~ but too often, this
Congress has said no. So tonight, in the face of new evidence of the dangers of drugs to our kids,
I ask again. As soon as Congress returns next week, I challenge them to pass legislation funding
all the anti-drug programs that our country needs. Let us vow to build an America where drug
use among our children is going down, down, down.
Environment
We have an obligation to pass on to future generations the earth that God gave us.
20
�Last month, I signed new laws that are taking health-threatening pesticides from our fruits
and vegetables and protecting our drinking water from poisons that can fell thousands of people.
Last month, we dramatically upgraded our meat and poultry inspections to take full advantage of
modem technology. We saved Yellowstone from the ravages of mining, the priceless Arctic
Refuge from oil drilling, and the Everglades from out-of-control development.
And when the leaders of this Congress let a small army of lobbyists for polluters into the
back rooms, to rewrite and roll back 25 years of bipartisan environmental protections, I said no.
Now we must do more.
I want to build an America for the Year 2000 where every family is safe from poisonous
chemicals in the water they drink, in the food they eat, and in our rivers and streams.
We have cleaned up more toxic waste sites in the past two years than in the previous 12
combined. In the next four years, we will clean up 2/3 of the toxic waste sites in the country.
After years and, in some cases, decades on the Superfund list, these sites will be clean.
By the Year 2000, we should give every family in every community the right to know
exactly which toxic chemicals are being transported through their streets or stored in their
neighborhood.
21
�August 21, 1996
MEMORANDUM FOR M I C H A E L WALDMAN
JORDAN TAMAGNI
FROM:
R U S S E L L HORWITZ
RE:
Community Watch Groups
I spoke with Matt Preskin, Executive Director of the National Association of Town Watch. I f
you are looking for specific examples, he identified two people in Texas and Kansas who
have started their own watch groups. Yesterday, I sent over various articles of other
successful community watch groups.
If you are interested in talking about this subject in a more general sense, we can say that the
President's initiative to put 100,000 new police on the street is spurring increased involvement
in community watch groups across the nation. According to Preskin, community watch
groups were relatively inactive four years ago. But since then, he estimates that there has
been a 15% to 20% increase in participation. He credits that increase to community officers.
Preskin was not entirely confident, however, he would be able to validate that number, but
participation is definitely up.
Please call with any questions.
I
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
August 21, 1996
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE SIGNING OF THE
HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
The South Lawn
2:50 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much
for that wonderful introduction, Merit, and thank you for the courage of your example.
I want to begin by recognizing the members of Congress who are here who worked on
this so hard. In addition to Senators Kassebaum and Kennedy, we have Senator John Breaux,
Senator Bill Cohen, Senator Byron Dorgan, Senator Carl Levin, Congressman Mike Bilirakis,
Congressman John Conyers, Congressman Harris Fawell and Congressman Dennis Hasten,
Congressman David Hobson and Congressman Bill Thomas. I thank all of them for their work
on this. (Applause.)
I thank Secretary Shalala for her hard work; the SBA Administrator, Phil Lader, who is
here. I'd also like to recognize a gentleman in the audience who did a lot of work with the First
Lady on this and who is, I'm sure, happy to be here today, our former Surgeon General, Dr.
Everett Koop. Thank you, sir, for being here. (Applause.) And Dr. Henry Foster, it's nice
to see you; thank you for being here, sir. (Applause.)
There are so many others I'd like to thank. I want to thank all those - the consumer
groups, the business groups, the labor groups, the grass-roots people, the people who were
personally affected by health care problems and problems in our system, who are here. All of
you worked so hard to make this day a reality. I want to thank all the people who worked on
the staff at the White House, people especially who worked with the First Lady from 1993 on.
All of you should take some great satisfaction in seeing this day come to pass, and I want you
to know that I will never forget the work that all of you have done and the service you have
rendered to the American people and we thank you. (Applause.)
But a lot of people who worked on health reform were just folks, people that Hillary met
traveling around the country, or people that I had the good fortune to run into who told me their
�stories and who helped to work to make this day a reality. People like Dan Lumley, who is here
with us today, a man we met on our bus tour, from Portland, Oregon. And there have been
many others who have helped, like Kristin Hopper and Tensia Alvarez, who are here with their
families today. We thank you for coming here with your families. And let me again especially
thank Merit Kimball and her wonderful parents, Jack and Rosemary, who have come here today.
They have had the courage to tell their story and to fight for their cause and on behalf of tens
of millions of other Americans. They have given us the hope that together we can make things
better for more Americans.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act shows what happens, as Senator
Kassebaum said and Senator Kennedy said, when we work together, when we cross party lines
and put the interests of the American people first. This bill is a clear boost to our values as
Americans. It offers opportunity by allowing people to take their health insurance from job to
job. It rewards responsibility by helping people to work who desperately want to work. It
brings us together in a common community to do what's right by all of our people, saying that
we ought to make it possible for more and more people to succeed at work without losing the
security of knowing that when they need health care it'll be there.
Health care reform is measured by how many lives it improves. With this bill we take
a long step toward the kind of health care reform our nation needs. It seals the cracks that
swallow as many as 25 million Americans who can't get insurance or who fear they'll lose it.
Now they're going to be protected.
Never has such a measure been more needed for our people. Our new economy presents
Americans with opportunities like never before to work their way into better paying jobs. And
yet our health care system has worked to paralyze many workers who fear losing their health
care coverage if they take those better jobs and change their employers. At the same time,
millions of Americans find themselves labeled as people with pre-existing conditions, from
cancer to AIDS, which disqualifies them and their families for coverage - including the
husband, the pregnant wife - who lose their insurance; the young woman who can't change jobs
because her new insurance doesn't cover diabetes; the small business owner who faithfully pays
group health insurance premiums for years and then finds that his coverage won't be renewed
because one of his employees has developed a heart condition.
No more. This bill changes all that. Today we declare a victory for millions of
Americans and their families. No longer will you live in fear of losing your health insurance
because of the state of your health. (Applause.) No longer need you hesitate about taking a
better job because you're afraid to lose your coverage. And no longer will small businesses be
denied access to insurance for their employees. The Health Insurance Reform Bill I sign today
will protect the health care of millions of working Americans and give them and their families
something that cannot be measured - peace of mind.
The bill also addresses other problems in getting more affordable insurance to our
workers. It makes it easier and less expensive for the self-employed to purchase their insurance.
As Senator Kassebaum said, it phases in a tax deduction of 80 percent for the self-employed and
helps to even the playing field with bigger businesses. Second, it prevents fraud and abuse. It
�toughens penalties and helps us to go after bad apple health care providers who bilk the system
of billions of dollars from Medicare, from Medicaid and from private insurance companies. I
especially want to thank Secretary Shalala for her work on these fraud and abuse provisions.
Third, it makes the health care system more simple. It will modernize, streamline and
cut the cost of insurance paperwork by devising a uniform electronic system for paying health
care claims. It will provide steps to protect the privacy of people in the system as it does so.
Fourth, it allows the establishment of a limited number of medical savings accounts to allow us
to study this approach and see how it works, to determine whether this new approach can make
a positive contribution to health care coverage and to affordability. And, fifth, it helps with
long-term care. It provides consumer protections and makes long-term care insurance more
affordable. This bill, in short, does a very great deal.
I want to echo what Senator Kennedy said - Senator Kassebaum, we are deeply in your
debt. We're going to miss you, and you must be very proud that here in the last months of your
career in the Senate you have done such a magnificent things. We thank you so much, ma'am.
(Applause.)
Senator Kennedy, as I told you before we came out here, when I woke up this morning
and thought about signing this bill today, I remembered a day a very long time ago, almost 18
years ago now, when I moderated a panel on health care reform in Memphis, Tennessee, at one
of our many conventions, in 1978. And you were there, telling the American people in 1978
that every person in America deserved the health care that your son had when he was first taken
ill.
I'm proud of you for these two decades of commitment, sir. Thank you. (Applause.)
And if you'll forgive me a personal note, I believe, Hillary, that this justifies all those
days on the road and all those nights you stayed up reading the incomprehensibly complex issues
of health care. (Applause.) Thank you.
I wish this bill had contained the provision to eliminate the differential treatment of
mental health coverage, or at least taken some positive steps in that direction. (Applause.) I
know this is something that is especially important to Tipper Gore, and I know that we all know
that we're going to have to deal with that.
And we have to do more, and this is also very important. We must find a way to
provide coverage for workers and their families who are in transition. I have proposed a plan
which we put in our balanced budget to cover 3 million workers and their families, including
700,000 children, who today have nowhere to turn for affordable health care because the worker
is changing jobs. If a person is doing the right thing, trying to be responsible, dying to go to
work, we should help those kind of people to get back on their feet without being thrown flat
on their back without health insurance.
Our mission in pursuing health care reform from the start has been to provide more
fairness and quality for the American people. That's why we worked to strengthen the Medicare
�trust fund, although we must do more and our balanced budget plan does that. That's why
we've worked to preserve and protect Medicaid; why we focused on the problems of health care
costs, which, thanks to efforts in the private sector, to our own efforts, and to the general
direction of our economy with growth with low inflation, inflation in health care slowed to 3.9
percent in 1995, the lowest in 23 years. And for the first half of this year, it is down to less
than 2 percent, and may go lower still. We must not let this be a temporary development.
(Applause.)
That's also why we've worked to raise childhood immunization rates dramatically; to
increase investment in biomedical research, including funding for breast cancer and AIDS; why
we've expedited the FDA process in approval for new drugs, so that people who need a miracle
might be able to find it; why we fought to protect our children from the harmful effects of
tobacco advertising aimed at them.
But now we need to build on what we have achieved. I was encouraged to see Senator
Kassebaum with her coach's mentality saying that the game is not over and we still have another
month this year. And, Senator, I'm suited up and ready to play. And I appreciate you saying
that. (Applause.)
This is a particularly happy day for me because, like yesterday when we signed the
minimum wage bill and the bill which gave such strong incentives to small businesses to invest
in their own businesses, and made it so much easier for people to adopt children who were
willing to take on that profoundly important responsibility -- these two days together, and this
day especially, helps ordinary Americans from the growth and progress in the American
economy. America is on the right track not only when the overall numbers look good, but when
from when every responsible American family can participate in that.
It's good that we have 10 million new jobs, record numbers of new businesses, that we
have the lowest deficit and the highest rates of homeownership in 15 years. That's very good.
But it's even better when every single American who is willing to be responsible for his or her
family and his or her work can participate in those trends. And with portable health care, the
minimum wage increase, additional incentives for small business growth, more pension security,
moving people from welfare to work, that will help all Americans to be a part of our 21st
century America.
We have more to do - in educational opportunity, in helping people with their child care
and child-rearing obligations, in helping people to buy their first home - in finishing the job of
balancing the budget so that we can keep interest rates down and inflation down. But we are
clearly moving on the right track.
I look forward to working with Congress when they come back in September and to
continuing this effort. I want to say again, this bill passed almost unanimously. This is a bill
that both Senators Kennedy and Kassebaum can be proud of because they brought all their
colleagues along with them. This is a bill that people who have been working in the House for
years and years and years on health care reform can be proud of, and so can everybody else who
showed up and voted for it. And, Congressman Hasten, I want to echo what Senator
�Kassebaum said — we appreciate your work and we know how much you did to get those last
few difficult issues resolved in a way that we could all live with.
We can do things when we work together and put the American people first. And
whenever we work on behalf of our families and our children, as we do with the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, America always wins.
So, now, in the names of the families and children who will have better lives because of
it, I am honored to sign this profoundly important piece of legislation. And I'd like to ask the
members of Congress to come up and join me, along with the families who are here. Thank you
very much, and God bless you. (Applause.)
(The bill is signed.) (Applause.)
END
3:05 P.M. EDT
�12024561121
AUG-23-1996 19--52
P.01
FO
RM
ALBATROSS DRAFT
8/23/96 » 2 PM
THE LAST TIME WE ALL CAME TOGETHER, FOUR YEARSl/
AGO, THIS WAS A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.
,
fa* ^'
1
THE SITUATION WAS DIRE: THE DEEP SHADOW OF W"
\j
RECESSION, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND DEBT HAD CHILLED
,
OUR BEST HOPES FOR THE FUTURE.
A
I iW V
THE CAPTAIN OP OUR SHIP-OF-STATE WAS
FIRST CLASS, NIBBLING CAVIAR - WHILE THE COUNTRY
WAS HEADED FOR THE ROCKS.
(
\
THINGS WERENT ANY BETTER FOR THE DEMOCRAT!
PARTY, i
, MANY AMERICANS HAD LOST FAITH IN US. M A N Y | ^ (
DEMOCRATS HAD, FRANKLY.
AND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT.
BEGINNING IN THE '70s, THE HEART OF OUR PARTY
AMERICA'S STRONG, SWEET, SOLID MIDDLE CLASS BEGAN DRIFTING AWAY FROM U9, TOWARD THE RIGHT,
I REMEMBER TALKING ABOUT IT IN MY FIRST POLITICAL
SPEECH, IN 1974.
fr
�FIUG-23-199G
19:52
TO
FROM
12024561121
P.02
- 2 -
I SAID THAT IF DEMOCRATS FAILED TO INVITE THOSE
VOTERS BACK, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WOULD, "WITH THE
HEAVY HAMMER FORGED OUT OF THE COALITION OF RICH
AND MIDDLE CLASS . . . BEAT THE POOR INTO EVEN
GREATER SUBMISSION."
IN 1980 AND '84, MILLIONS OF MIDDLE CLASS
DEMOCRATS BECAME REAGAN DEMOCRATS . . . AND THE
ELEPHANTS BEGAN TO TAKE OVER THE WASHINGTON ZOO.
THOSE DEMOCRATS WHO REMAINED IN OFFICE FOUND
THE PARTY WEIGHTED DOWN BY THE ENCRUSTATIONS OF 40
YEARS OF INCUMBENT POWER. THE RHETORIC STILL
SOARED, BUT PRACTICAL PROGRESS FOR OUR PARTY HAD
GROUND TO A HALT.
IT WAS TIME TO CHANGE COURSE - AND THE CAPTAIN
WE CHOSE WAS BILL CLINTON.
PRESIDENT CLINTON WORKED HARD TO PUT OUR
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES TO WORK FOR AMERICA. IT
WASN'T EASY. HE FOUGHT HARD ON HEALTH CARE AND
LOST THAT BATTLE.
�AUG-23-1996
19=53
TO
FROM
12024561121
P.03
- 3 AND THEN - HE LOST HIS CONGRESS . . . AND AT
LEAST ONE TALKATIVE GOVERNOR,
IN 1994, DEMOCRATS WERE SWEPT OUT OF POWER
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AND THE PRESIDENT STOOD
ALMOST A L O r ^ WE WERE A CRIPPLED PARTY, WEIGHED
DOWN BY THE TELLING ACCUSATIONS HEAPED ON US BY
OUR DETRACTORS OVER 40 YEARS:
"DEMOCRATS EQUAL TAX AND SPEND. PROBIG-GOVERNMENT AND ANTI-FAMILY. SOFT ON CRIME,
SOFT ON WELFARE, AND ANTI-MIDDLE CLASS."
WE PAID THE PRICE FOR BELIEVING THE VIRTUE OF
OUR IDEAS . . . WAS ENOUGH. OUR PRINCIPLES WERE STILL
INTACT. WE BELIEVED FIRMLY IN ALL THE BIG THINGS
THAT HAVE ALWAYS MADE US DIFFERENT:
THAT THE GREAT FAMILY WE BELONG TO COMES IN
EVERY DIFFERENT COLOR, FAITH, AND LANGUAGE NOT ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS, WHEN THEY TURN THE
CAMERAS ON - BUT ALL THE TIME, ALL ACROSS
AMERICAl
�flUG-23-1996
19:53
TO
FROM
12024561121
P.04
- 4 THAT WOMEN ARE MORE THAN HALF OUR POPULATION
- AND MORE THAN HALF OUR GLORY. AND THAT
EVERY WOMAN DESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE.
THAT THE FIRST PEOPLE IN QUfi LIFEBOATS ARE THE
ELDERLY, THE ILL - AND THE CHILDREN.
THAT THE EARTH IS OURS TO WORK WITH, BUT NOT TO
WASTE.
THAT THE ESSENTIAL TASK OF OUR DEMOCRACY IS
NOT TO SEE IF WE CAN BREAK THE WORLD RECORD FOR
BILLIONAIRES, BUT TO FREE ALL OUR PEOPLE TO
THRIVE AND ACHIEVE AND GROW AS BRIGHT AND
BRAVE AND STRONG AS THE FIRST PIONEERS.
AND THAT THE STORY OF 280 MILLION LONE COWBOYS
EACH RIDING OFF INTO THEIR INDIVIDUAL SUNSET
MIGHT MAKE AN INTERESTING WESTERN - BUT IT
DOES NOT MAKE A GREAT NATION.
BECAUSE DEMOCRATS KNOW, ABOVE ALL, THAT WE
ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER - AND WE CANNOT MAKE
IT AS INDIVIDUALS ALONE.
�AUG-23-1996
19:53
TO
FROM
12024561121
P.05
- 5 WE SAW ALL THOSE TRUTHS.
BUT WE HAD FAILED TO SEE THAT - IN OUR RAPIDLY
EVOLVING WORLD - BEING FAITHFUL TO THOSE
PRINCIPLES REQUIRED MORE THAN GUARDING THE MUSEUM
OF PAST POLICY.
IT WAS A LOW POINT IN OUR MODERN HISTORY AS A
PARTY.
BUT NOW, TODAY, A DAZZLING THING. LESS THAN
TWO YEARS LATER, PRESIDENT CLINTON IS GOING TO WIN
THIS ELECTION - AND THE ONLY QUESTION IS BY HOW
MUCH)
HOW DID HF pQ pp
PRESIDENT CLINTON KNEW THAT BEFORE WE
DEMOCRATS COULD RISE AGAIN TO DO OUR BEST WORK
FOR THE COUNTRY, HE HAD TO LIFT FROM OUR NECKS THE
ALBATROSSES OF OUR PAST.
AND HE HAS DONE THAT FOR US - SPECTACULARLY.
�AUG-23-1996 19=54
FO
RM
TO
12024561121
P.06
- 6 WHO SAYS DEMOCRATS ONLY KNOW HOW TO SPEND
MONEY? BILL CLINTON « UNLIKE 12 YEARS WORTH OF
REPUBLICANS BEFORE HIM - HAS ATTACKED THE
CRUSHING PROBLEM OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT AND
BROUGHT THE DEFICIT DOWN MORE THAN 60 PERCENT!
WHO SAYS DEMOCRATS ARE IN LOVE WITH BIG
GOVERNMENT? BILL CLINTON HAS CUT THE RANKS OF
FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS BY MORE THAN 200,000 - A
SMALLER GOVERNMENT THAN ANY PRESIDENT SINCE
JACK KENNEDY - AND HE WAS A DEMOCRAT, TOO!
DEMOCRATS SOFT ON CRIME? BILL CLINTON BANNED
ASSAULT WEAPONS AND GAVE US THE CONFIDENT
STRENGTH OF 100,000 NEW POLICE.
SOFT ON WELFARE? WITH THE NEW LAW THE
PRESIDENT SIGNED LAST WEEK, NO ONE CAN DOUBT
HIS COMMITMENT TO CHANGING THAT TROUBLED
SYSTEM.
ANTI-FAMILY?
ANTI-MIDDLE CLASS?
THINK AGAIN.
BECAUSE BILL CLINTON HAS DONE MORE TO HELP THE
MIDDLE CLASS THAN ANY LEADER IN DECADES: 10
MILLION NEW JOBS FOR AMERICANS. INTEREST RATES
�flUG-23-1996
19=54
TO
FROM
12024561121
P.07
- 7 LOW AND INFLATION ALMOST NON-EXISTENT. A TAX
CODE THAT ASKS THE RICH TO CARRY THEIR FAIR
SHARE.
WHO GAVE US PORTABILITY OF HEALTH INSURANCE?
WHO GAVE US FAMILY LEAVE, OVER HOWLS OF
REPUBLICAN PROTEST? AND WHO HAS MADE CRUCIAL
NEW COMMITMENTS TO HELP US EDUCATE OUR
CHILDREN FOR THE ELECTRONIC CENTURY AHEAD?
BILL CLINTON HAS DONE ALL THAT.
IN THE PROCESS, HE HAS HELPED AMERICA. AND HE
HAS GIVEN OUR PARTY A NEW LIFE WE COULDN'T HAVE
DREAMED OF A FEW YEARS AGO.
IT WASN'T EASY. IT WASN'T ALL SMOOTH. IT STILL
ISN'T. THE CAPTAIN HAD TO CHOOSE A COURSE TO GET
ACROSS DEEP AND TROUBLED POLITICAL WATERS.
NOT ALL OF US AGREED WITH EVERY DECISION. NOT
ALL OF US AGREE WITH EACH OTHER!
�mG-23-1996
19=55
FROM
TO
12024561121
P.BS
- 8 I DON'T LIKE THE DEATH PENALTY, AND ON THAT
QUESTION I KNOW I'M AT ODDS WITH MANY OF
YOU.
SOME OF US DIFFERED WITH THE PRESIDENT ON
THE WELFARE BILL.
BUT THAT'S ALL RIGHT. FRANKLY, I THINK I MAKES US
STRONGER.
BECAUSE ALL IT MEANS IS - WE'RE DEMOCRATS!
WEH£ ALLOWED TO THINK FOR OURSELVES!
THAT'S SOMETHING I MAY HAVE TOO MUCH OF A
REPUTATION FOR.
BUT LET ME SAY THIS: I HAVE THOUGHT FOR MYSELF
- AND I AM WITH BILL CLINTON.
I AM WITH HIM BECAUSE HE HAS GIVEN US AN
EXTRAORDINARY NEW CHANCE TO DO FOR OUR COUNTRY
THE GOOD WORK THAT ONLY DEMOCRATS CAN DO.
NOW WE CAN. OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.
ESPECIALLY WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.
�flUG-23-1996
19=55
FROM
TO
12024561121
P.09
- 9 WE WILL MAKE AMERICA'S GOVERNMENT AS
RESPONSIBLE AS AMERICANS HAVE TO BE, BY
WINNING THE FIGHT TO WIPE OUT OUR DEFICIT AND
REVERSE OUR CRIPPLING DEBT.
WE WILL SLAY THE TWO-HEADED MONSTER OF
CORPORATE WELFARE AND CAMPAIGN FINANCING.
WE WILL PUSH FURTHER TO MAKE REFORMS IN
WELFARE AS CONSTRUCTIVE, HUMANE AND EFFECTIVE
AS THEY CAN BE.
WE WILL WIN NEW VICTORIES IN HEALTH CARE,
DAYCARE, JOB TRAINING, AND CORPORATE
RESPONSIBILITY, TO GIVE AMERICA'S WORKING
FAMILIES A FIGHTING CHANCE.
AND WE WILL DO FOR EDUCATION WHAT PRESIDENT
KENNEDY DID FOR SPACEI
WE WILL DO ALL THAT - AND MORE, MUCH MORE BECAUSE WE ARE AMERICANS, BECAUSE WE ARE
DEMOCRATS -- BECAUSE WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY, WE LOVE
OUR PARTY, AND WE KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!
#
#
�flUG-23-1996
19:55
FROM
12024561121
P. 10
10 I NOMINATED BILL CLINTON FOUR YEARS AGO - AND
I WOULD DO IT AGAIN. NOW, ONCE AGAIN LIKE ALL OF
YOU - I WILL WORK FOR HIM . . . AND I WILL VOTE FOR HIM
- WITH GRATITUDE, CONFIDENCE, AND HOPE!
WE ARE ALL COLORS, ALL CULTURES, ALL CASTES »
BUT WE ARE A FAMILY OF DEMOCRATS. A FAMILY STRONG
ENOUGH AND WISE ENOUGH TO PUT ASIDE OUR
DIFFERENCES - SO WE CAN PUT OUR MAGNIFICENT
COUNTRY ONCE AGAIN ON THE HIGH ROAD OF ITS BEST
POSSIBILITIES - WITH PRESIDENT CLINTON LEADING THE
WAY!
#
#
#
�08/24/96
13:49
(^T
©2025652783
/-5 H f i x ^
CORP NATL SVC
El 001
tWiS
'UO^
�08/24/96
13:49
©2025652783
CORP NATL SVC
To: President Clinton
From: Harris Wofford
Re: The Speech
August 24, 1996
I know it is quite late to weigh in with speech ideas, so I will keep it
brief. I want to urge you to set out as a goal, as you did in 1992, that every
young American who wants to do service in exchange for college aid, ought
to have that opportunity.
As is, AmeriCorps is like the Peace Corps - a smart, worthwhile
expenditure of taxpayer money. With some bold leadership in your second
term, however, it could become more like the GI Bill - something that
transforms the country.
We have a more detailed plan which I'm eager to discuss with you
after the convention. In the meantime, here is some suggested speech
language designed to establish the goal. Good luck in Chicago.
Some possible language:
"There are so many ways one can serve one's country. The highest
form of service is the Armed Forces. Those who join the military
know they will develop good skills and earn a college scholarship but they also know that, at any moment, they may put their lives at
risk to defend our country and its values.
"Bob Dole is right. He sacrificed in a way that I didn't. He gave of
himself so profoundly that regardless of what one thinks of what he
did in his long political career, his nation owes him an enormous debt
of gratitude for what he did as a young man.
"There are, of course, other ways Americans today can and do give
significant sustained service to country and community. Young men
121002
�08/24/96
13:50
©2025652783
CORP NATL SVC
and women who join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps give a full year of
their lives, at poverty living allowances to work with the poor. Others
change lives one at a time through committed volunteer work with the
young - Big Brothers, Big Sisters, YMCAs. Senior citizens in
programs like Senior Companions, Foster Grandparents and RSVPs
prove every day that farfrombeing burdens on society, thev can be a
great a resource.
"Some colleges have taken work study jobs and allowed young
people to serve their way through school by tutoring a second grader
instead of shelving books in the library. I hope many more schools
give work study students that opportunity.
"Peace Corps volunteers not only help the poor in Third World
countries to develop their economies - which is good for us - but
they act as America's greatest good-will ambassadors.
"And then there is AmeriCorps. I am so proud of the 45,000 young
people who have served in their communities, often working hand-inhand with the country's outstanding volunteer groups like Red Cross
and Habitat for Humanity. This program shows how government can
help - without getting in the wav. Instead of funding government
bureaucracies, AmeriCorps gives opportunities to energetic young
people to work directly in schools, police stations, or cleaning up
rivers.
"In one county in Kentucky, AmeriCorps members - working with
teachers, students and parents - helped raise the reading scores of
second graders by almost three grade levels. Just imagine if we could
do that in every school in this country. In exchange, these
AmeriCorps members have earned scholarships for higher education.
Think of what a good bargain that is for our country.
"One side effect of the Cold War's end is that there are fewer
opportunities for Americans to serve. There are now 200,000 fewer
slots in the all-volunteer Armed Services than there were just in 1976.
®
0 0 3
�08/24/96
13:50
©2025652783
CORP NATL SVC
"If we can agree on nothing else, let us work toward a day when
anyone who wants to serve their country in exchange for college aid
will be able to do so.
"Whether it's through the Armed Forces, AmeriCorps, religious
service, or college work study, those who want to dedicate a year or
two or three to intense service, should have that opportunity. Nothing
would more dramatically transform the civic ethic of this country and nothing would help us to so effectively solve our problems. Let's
make voluntary full-time service ariteof passage for every young
American."
IS004
�SoA^
^iBmo (T^i^^C)
revised 8/24/96 9 p.m.
I see an America in the Year 2000 that remains the world's greatest force for peace
and freedom. I see an America that is secure and strong. And I see an America that
embraces its responsibility to do what no other nation can do as well — to shape the next
century so that our children and children around the world live free and at peace.
We have helped bring freedom to South Africa, democracy to Haiti, and peace to Bosnia.
By the Year 2000,1 see America extending the reach of peace and freedom even farther ~ so that
the peace signed on the White House lawn between Israelis and Palestinians embraces more of
Israel's neighbors... so that the extraordinary desire for peace I felt on the streets of Belfast
becomes real for all the people of Northern Ireland... and so that right here in our own
hemisphere, Cuba finally joins the family of democracies.
Nothing in our lifetimes was more heartening than when the people of the former Soviet
Union and Central Europe threw off the yoke of Communism. We have strengthened the forces
of reform in those countries. We have helped Russia withdraw its troops from the Baltics. By the
Year 2000, I see a strong partnership with a democratic Russia. And we will have brought some
of Europe's new democracies into NATO so that their freedom is never again in doubt.
Through more than 200 trade agreements - including 21 with Japan alone ~ we are
opening markets abroad to create good new jobs at home. America is once again the world's
number one exporter. By the Year 2000, we will break down even more barriers to our
�prosperity. America has the best workers and products in the world. Give them a fair deal with
free trade and they will compete ~ and win ~ in the new global economy.
We are lifting the dark cloud of nuclear fear that has hung over our heads for fifty years.
There are now no Russian missiles pointed at our cities or our children. Ukraine, Belarus, and
Kazakhstan are giving up the nuclear weapons left on their land when the Soviet Union dissolved.
We have frozen North Korea's nuclear program under international supervision. And we
extended the Non Proliferation Treaty indefinitely — so that nuclear weapons do not spread to
other countries.
By the Year 2000, we will have enforced with Russia the START II treaty — and slashed
our nuclear arsenals by two thirds from their Cold War peak.
By the Year 2000, we will have ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention - so that we
can begin to banish poison gas from this earth.
By the Year 2000, we will have enforced a total ban on nuclear testing — so that no
nuclear weapon is exploded ever again.
I see an America that is winning the war against terror and aggression, by standing against
reckless rogue states like Iran, Iraq and Libya and the forces of hatred here at home.
�Our strategy has three parts.
First, we must rally the world community to join a coalition of zero tolerance for
terrorism. Already, we are sharing intelligence as never before and opening FBI offices abroad.
This month, I signed a law imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key
sectors of the Iranian or Libyan economy. As long as Iran trains, supports and protects
terrorists... as long as Libya refuses to give up the people we believe blew up Pan Am 103... they
will pay the price for their actions.
Second, we will give our law enforcement the tools they need to take the fight to terrorists
and criminals. By the Year 2000, through a new International Crime Control Act that I am
proposing, we will crack down on money laundering, expand our powers of extradition, and
lengthen our reach in prosecuting and punishing those who commit violent crimes against
Americans abroad.
When a bomb explodes in America today, we must rely on old police methods to find the
culprit. I demand that Congress pass a law adding chemical markers to the gunpowder used in
bombs, so that we can track down the bomb makers.
When a terrorist uses a pay telephone or a motel phone to plot an attack, we cannot tap
his conversation and protect our citizens by anticipating his actions. I demand that Congress help
us save lives by tapping all the phones that a terrorist uses.
�Third, we will tighten aviation security. We will install the most sophisticated bomb
detection equipment in our major airports. And we will search every plane flying to or from
America -- every flight, every cargo hold, every cabin, every time.
There are those who would doubt our military. But it remains the best trained, best
equipped fighting force in the world. Don't take my word for it. Just ask Saddam Hussein why
he pulled his forces back from Kuwait's border two years ago... ask the dictators in Haiti why
they gave way to democracy... ask the Bosnian Serbs why they turned from the battlefield to the
bargaining table. By the Year 2000, we will have increased handing for weapons modernization
by 40%. America's troops have won the wars of the past. If called upon, they will dominate the
battlefields of the future.
And for the year 2000, we are developing a sensible National Missile Defense. But we
will not - not now, and not by the Year 2000 ~ squander $60 billion on an unproved, ineffective
Star Wars program that could be obsolete tomorrow. That's the wrong way to defend America.
America is the indispensable nation. Not just for our strength, though we are strong. Not
just for our wealth, though wealthy we are. But also for what we're willing to stand for — and
stand against. We are the nation others trust. The one nation that has ever led the world by the
power of our ideas and example - and when necessary, by the example of our power.
�There are times when only America can make the difference between war and peace,
freedom and repression, life and death. We cannot save all the world's children - but we can
save many. We cannot become the world's policeman - but where our values, and our interests,
are at stake, we must act. America must lead.
�AUG-2B-
Ol-61
FROM.
ID,
PAGE
values have been lifted, too. Opportunity has been expanded for everyone who will work for it
My kids and the kids I teach can go to college, they have a chance for the future they deserve.
I'm running for the Senate. Maybe one of them will run for President Porqueno?
That's the America I teach my students about., the America of possibilities. And under
President Clinton, the possibilities are becoming real. Thank you and God bless America.
2/2
�move from level to level; rewarding good teachers and removing those who don't measure up;
keeping schools open late so young people can stay off the street. I want to see America's
schools rebuilt, wired for computers and ready to cope with exploding enrollments. I propose
federal aid to increase school construction by at least 25%. We cannot ask our children to learn
in a landscape of peeling paint and broken glass.
If you had to ask one question that would tell you a person's economic future, it would
not be about race, or gender. It would be: "Did you go to college?"
Crossing the bridge to the Year 2000 means we must make the 13th and 14th years of
school — the first two years of college — as universal as the first 12 years are today. And we
should use targeted tax cuts to do it.
I propose giving every person in America a $1500-a-year tuition tax credit ~ a "Hope
Scholarship" for the first two years of college, which will make the typical community college
free. No single tax cut will do more to give Americans hope than this one.
And we should cut taxes to help Americans get a full four year college education. We
should give every family a $10,000 tuition tax deduction - to pay for the 3rd and 4th years of
college, or to pay for adults to go back to school. We will pay for this tax cut by closing
loopholes for large multinational corporations. We will say to Americans: Do the work, expand
your skills, and we will help you pay for it.
�I am proposing an expanded IRA — so that every year, parents can save $2000 towards
college tax-free for each child. We can change the tax code so that middle income Americans are
never, ever taxed on money they spend for college.
In the new economy, it is never enough for education to stop on graduation day. That is
why I have proposed a new GI Bill for America's workers — a $2600 grant for all workers who
need them, to get training, skills, whatever they need to make the most of their own lives.
Economy/budget
Along with education, building our bridge to the Year 2000 means balancing the
budget - and doing it in a way that reflects our values. Balancing the budget will lead to a
permanent cut in interest rates; it will spark business enterprise, free up capital for jobs,
and help consumers have a better life.
We know all about our opponents' plan. As soon as they won the Congress, they sought
a massive tax cut that we could not afford, and sought to pay for it with devastating cuts.
Let me be clear: As long as I am President, I will never allow cuts that devastate
education for our children, pollute our environment, gut health care under Medicaid, or violate
our duty to our parents under Medicare.
I vetoed their budget last year; I was proud to do it; and if I have to, I will do it again.
3
�And as long as I am President, I will never allow Congress to use the blackmail threat of
a government shutdown to try and break the will of the American people into supporting deep
cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education or the environment.
Our opponents in the other party have always complained that government is too big.
But we, the Democrats, reduced the government to its smallest size since John Kennedy was
President. The federal employees who were left are more productive than ever . . . and these
public servants do not deserve a government shutdown.
If last year's plan from our opponents was bad; this year's plan will be much, much
worse.
They are proposing a $550 billion risky tax scheme. It will require cuts in Medicare and
Medicaid and education and the environment that are far, far deeper than last year's plan. Even
that won't be enough to pay for this tax scheme. It will explode the deficit. It will spike interest
rates ~ by 2%. It will require huge cuts in the very investments that will help our economy
grow. Our opponents are asking us to accept slower growth, fewer jobs, a more divided
America, and a compromised future — for the sake of a theory we know won't work.
Will we now take a U-turn to the policies that have failed us again and again? Do we
really want to make the same mistake again? To raise interest rates again? To stop economic
growth again? To court recession again? To follow the same pied pipers over the same cliff?
My answer is simple: No_way.
4
�The welfare reform law I signed last week is a chance for America to start again — to
strike a new social bargain with the poor. Those on welfare now have the responsibility to move
to work. But the rest of us have a responsibility to keep up our end of the bargain, and make sure
people have jobs to go to. We have to take our responsibility — so they can take theirs.
This new law I signed gives states the biggest job creation tool in history. From now on,
any state can take the money now spent on welfare, and use it to help businesses hire people off
welfare and train them for jobs. I challenge every state to take us up on this offer.
Tonight, I want to propose a plan that will move 1 million welfare recipients into jobs.
We should give businesses a tax credit for every person they hire off welfare, provided
that person is still working nine months later.
We should offer job placement firms a $3000 bonus for every welfare recipient they place
and keep in a job.
We should help communities to put welfare recipients to work — repairing schools,
starting child care centers, making their neighborhoods shine again.
We spend enormous time opening markets for America around the world, and we should.
But let's never forget: The greatest untapped market for America . . . is America. So let's •expand our Empowerment Zones that draw businesses into poor neighborhoods; let's have more
6
�We should make it a crime to attempt to pollute. We will establish an environmental
crimes division in the FBI, and catch polluters before they can poison our land.
No longer will environmental criminals be able to use the courts to delay justice. Under a
new law, we will be able to go to court as soon as we find pollution, and freeze the assets of the
polluter until he pays to clean up the mess he has made.
Foreign policy
For fifty years, America led the world's forces of freedom. Today, America is the
world's indispensible nation.
I want to build an America in the Year 2000 that remains the world's greatest force for
peace and freedom. We are embracing our responsibility to do what no other nation can do as
well — to shape the next century so that our children and children around the world livefreeand
at peace.
1/ \ y S
W^eJaaye^lped.bringTreedomJ^
By the Year 2000,1 want to build an America that extends the reach of peace and freedom even
farther — so that the peace signed on the White House lawn between Israelis and Palestinians
embraces more of Israel's neighbors... so that the extraordinary desire for peace I felt on the
streets of Belfast becomes real for all the people of Northern Ireland... and so that right here in
22
�bargaining table. By the Year 2000, we will have increased funding for weapons modernization
by 40%. America's troops have won the wars of the past. If called upon, they will dominate the
battlefields of the future.
And for the year 2000, we are developing a sensible National Missile Defense. But we
will not - not now, and not by the Year 2000 - squander $60 billion on an unproved, ineffective
Star Wars program that could be obsolete tomorrow. That's the wrong way to defend America.
America is the indispensable nation. Not just for our strength, though we are strong.
Not just for our wealth, though wealthy we are. But also for what we're willing to stand for and stand against. We are the nation others trust. The one nation that has ever led the world by
the power of our ideas and example - and when necessary, by the example of our power.
Tfrprp ar^ times,when only Arr^pr.a ran makf thff dif/mmv? hptw^njvmjmrl peace,
freedom and repression, life and death. We cannot saveitll the world's children/- but we can
save many. We cannot become the world's policeman — but where our values, and our interests,
are at st?Ke, we must act. Amepca must lead.
ENDING TO COME
26
�[ S i n g l e space i s same as c u r r e n t d r a f t . Double space i s new
material
Four years ago, you honored me w i t h your n o m i n a t i o n t o t h e
h i g h e s t o f f i c e i n the l a n d . You asked me t o c a r r y out a v i s i o n -t o o f f e r o p p o r t u n i t y t o a l l , t o demand r e s p o n s i b i l i t y from a l l ,
and t o b u i l d a new American community, [take out sentence on
Hope, Ark. here.]
Four years ago, our c h a l l e n g e s were steep. Crime seemed on
an i n e v i t a b l e c l i m b . Welfare seemed t o be an i m p e n e t r a b l e system
of dependence. The budget d e f i c i t seemed a permanent shackle on
our economic dreams. A new g l o b a l economy seemed a t h r e a t t o our
dreams, not t h e gateway t o a new age of p o s s i b i l i t y f o r a l l our
h a r d w o r k i n g people.
L e f t unsolved, these r e a l problems o f r e a l people seemed t o
open wounds i n our generous American s o u l . A n a t i o n b u i l t on
e q u a l i t y found r a c i a l d i v i s i o n on the r i s e . A n a t i o n b u i l t on the
promise o f p r o g r e s s found i t s p a t h b l o c k e d ; h a r d w o r k i n g Americans
r e p l a c e d t h e hope o f moving h i g h e r w i t h resentment o f those s t u c k
below. And t o o many p o l i t i c i a n s climbed t h e l a d d e r o f these
resentments t o h i g h e r o f f i c e . They used these problems as i s s u e s
t o be e x p l o i t e d , not c h a l l e n g e s t o be met. When t h e t i m e s
demanded t h a t we j o i n hands, t h e y p o i n t e d f i n g e r s .
,->And our people were l o s i n g h e a r t and our most i m p o r t a n t
jsource: our b e l i e f i n our a b i l i t y t o move f o r w a r d -- t o g e t h e r .
"iThat i s why,
f o u r years ago, we had t o b e g i n our j o u r n e y w i t h
hope. That n i g h t , i n New
York, you heard about my hometown, and
t o g e t h e r we t o l d America t h a t we s t i l l b e l i e v e d i n t h a t most
American o f a l l p l a c e s , t h a t p l a c e c a l l e d Hope.
I t waSvour hope t h a t drove us f o r w a r d : Hope t h a t we c o u l d
r e p l a c e o l d arguments w i t h new a c t i o n s . Hope/that we c o u l d keep
t h e American Dream a l i v ^ \ ^ o r everyone w i l i n g t o make t h e most o f
t h e i r own
/
l i v e s . Hope t h a t Ameri^a-~jvoi^l'^ remain the w o r l d ' s
s t r o n g e s t f o r c e f o r peace and freedom a n o p i r e a p e r i t y , d e s p i t e a
�pace o f g l o b a l change we had^rfot seen i n h a l f a ^ e n t u r y . And t h e
r
deepest hope o f alJ^>»--tliat we would c o n q u e r o u r f e a r s and
d i v i s i o n s t o coppr^ t o g e t h e r as one A m ^ i c a .
My f e l l o w Americans, f - ^ l t h begins w i t h hope. And, b i t by
p o w e r f u l b i t , we have/seen our hope become o u j > ^ o n f i d e n c e , and
our c o n f i d e n c e b^<fome a new f a i t h i n o i n ^ e l v e s as a n a t i o n , a new
f a i t h i n Amei'lca.
Qwe—nejtf f a i t h i s based on hard facts,-/ W^have a^aaw—fa^t^i
t h a t WP r ^ i ^ - r r ^ ^ • ^^"M mi i I y f ^ - r - n l l n r i hnrrhg^=T^~''tro f o r c e s o f
'••
,
©eofiomy: With 10 m i l l i o n new j o b s ; t h e lowest combined
rates of i n f l a t i o n
and unemployment i n 30 y e a r s ; wages r i s i n g
again.
We ""have a new f a i t h " " i n our" a b i l i t y " t o make" our ""government "a
b e t t e x s^eYvaht^of our~~"peQp-le~ - - -net- per fee 17- bu-fe—s-trrorrger and
bett-e^arblre---to-ta-ke--a«€:ountr-©^--^ai_iL^anno-t^be"- expected
t o do.
We have 250,000 fewer p o s i t i o n s i n t h e f e d e r a l w o r k f o r c e -- t h e
s m a l l e s t government s i n c e John F. Kennedy was P r e s i d e n t . We have
tamed t h e d e f i c i t
t h a t had l e f t us i n s o l v e n t as a n a t i o n ,
s t r a n g l i n g our p r o g r e s s ; i t i s 60 p e r c e n t s m a l l e r t h a n f o u r
years.
r;
\ y
We^Iimre^a-Tt€w~~fa^ttT^
^jime:
P u t t i n g 100,000 more p o l i c e on our s t r e e t s ; toughening
penalties;
�s t o p p i n g t e n s o f thousands o f f e l o n s and f u g i t i v e s from b u y i n g
handguns. And f o r f o u r y e a r s , t h e crime r a t e has dropped and,
now, even t h e j u v e n i l e murder r a t e i s down.
WeTiave a new f a i t h i n o u r a b i l i t y t o make work t h e
• i i a i e i c l Jicfariiiiiiig' p i i n u i p l e itn!tre-"Tives o f a l l " "^trf^peoplre.
£n4iiiLA
We have worked w i t h t h e s t a t e s t o launch r e a l w e l f a r e r e f o r m , and
because o f t h i s q u i e t r e v o l u t i o n , a l r e a d y , t o n i g h t , 1.3 m i l l i o n
fewer people a r e on w e l f a r e than t h e day I took o f f i c e . Now, we
must, and we w i l l ,
f i n i s h the job.
We have a\new
around t h e wor
from H a i t i , t o
t h a t America i
freedom and p r
And, most i m p o r t a n t , we a r e seeing t h e seeds o f a new f a i t h
t h a t when we work t o g e t h e r , we can s t e p up t o t h e c h a l l e n g e s we
all
to
face as one people. We are changing o u r debate from "who i s
blame" t o "what must be done."
Again and again, we are putting aside the stale, old false
choices between left and right. That is what we have done by
unclenching the political fists of division over challenges that
have stopped our progress together for far, far too long:
big^
�Cixaj,lepcfoc o£—•our--t^i.mes, 1 i
r-T-jma^—like \A/eTfare7 i T k ^ B a T a n c i n g
o\3g~brrdgGt ••whi3r^"~protecting our ^va-jrctgg. And t h a t i s what we d i d
l a s t week, making a downpayment on p r o g r e s s : R a i s i n g t h e minimum
wage . . .
moving people from w e l f a r e t o work . . . and a s s u r i n g
t h a t when Americans change j o b s , t h e y can take t h e i r h e a l t h
i n s u r a n c e w i t h them.
Across America t o n i g h t , t h e r e are Americans who are
b e g i n n i n g t o b e l i e v e as they have n o t b e l i e v e d i n years t h a t we
can meet our new c h a l l e n g e s even as we p r o t e c t our o l d v a l u e s
--
when we work t o g e t h e r -- school by s c h o o l , b l o c k by b l o c k ,
community by community. 'gftat~~t'g~ wH^~-I -h^ve^5pokgfr"grt>fc. m ^ ^ T r k a s e
months abcDht how w i t h curfews, t r u a n c y law**', school u n i f o r m
r u l e s , neighborhobd watch e f f o r t s and/fffore, we can keep our
c h i l d r e n s a f e throughoir&^feiie day a m
t h e n i g h t ; make our schools
s
f o u n t a i n s o f success not pool>-^o &s failure and s t r e n g t h e n our
v
f a m i l i e s s t r i v i n g t o u n l ^ s h t h i s , our as£ o f p o s s i b i l i t y , i n
t h e i r own
lives.
We can
again t h e !
c o ; WePlearh
T"
THat aurTTopePis
~rtrat-^i ^we
stay
together, not d i v i
ahead. And t h a t ,
w i t h these t o o l s i n our.
ges -- and I , f o r
one, b e l i e v e
f u t u r e , never t o
the past.
�Let no one t e l l us America's best days are behind us. America's
best i s y e t t o come.
And,
as we go t h e r e ,
I want t o make c l e a r : we must nev^r be
d i v i d e d g e n e r a t i o n f r o m g e n e r a t i o n . Eaefe-of our g r e a t American
genergjiliaiis_2ia&---madc i t s - x ' O i i L i i b u L i u n s uo b r i n g us co Tfrhe*^—we^,
s^nd^Qday.^JllL.jiDP-^-^o good—to p i t one group o t Americans
against
another,—fee—eeril i n L u qiieBl^dron the droamc and wor It o-f- one-
over—the oth-er. W have cOiiiti Lu ~Lhe end o f one g r e a t e r a ,
e
wheie
,
oinf—Gnomico abroad—and" our c h a l l e n g e s dL home sh^ped ~a b r o a d
x
y
•——
r y one o f us -(^ojO^nsus—ajsnnt
nnr j j i
our new d i r e c t i o n -
each and every g e n a r a t i o n -- mus.
- o u r determinajz'ion o f where
l e a d us i n o u r
m i s s i o n s a t home and arou
There i s an o l d h
comes t h e moment t o d
moments o f d e c i s i o n , from
Now, I b e l i e v e w i t h a l l my
Americans t o decide -- thd,
r y man and n a t i o n ,
Country have faced many
d i n g r i g h t t h r o u g h t o t h i s day.
r moment f o r
i c a we want f o r
our c h i l d r e n i n t h e
My v i s i o n i s as o l d
ng as t h e new c e n t u r y we
are a l r e a d y e n t e r i n g ,
i!h t h e v a l u e s t h a t have made
us g r e a t , and i t i s about t h
l l e n g e s o f a new e r a . I t i s
a v i s i o n o f an America t h a t i s s
i n t h e w o r l d on. b e h a l f o f
�our v a l u e s . An America t n e t
of a l l , i t i s a v i s i o n
i s cominq/ffogether a t home. And, most
o f aiv America based on t h e most e n d u r i n g
t r u t h o f o u r c o u n t r y : That i f / ^ v e r y f a m i l y , every community and
every r e s p o n s i b l e person kas the X o o l s t o make t h e most o f t h e i r
own l i v e s , t h e n Amer^efa w i l l always g^fe^the j o b done.
I t i s those t o o l s ---our shared investments i n o u r hopes today so
t h a t we can succeed tomorrow -- that/must be a t t h e h e a r t o f o u r
m i s s i o n -- how we make s t r s n g f ^ t f v i l i e s , e n d u r i n g e d u c a t i o n , safe
streets,
a growing e c o n o m y h e a l t h y environment, a secure
w o r l d . T h i s i s our moment t o decide between t h a t v i s i o n
future
r o o t e d i r i o u r / p a s t -- and aNitery d i f f e r e n t one.
T o n i g h t , as we embark on t h e l a s t l e g o f t h a t
future,
f o r our
d e c i s i o n about our
I want t o say t h a t Bob Dole and Ross Perot a r e good men
who have served t h e i r c o u n t r y w i t h d i s t i n c t i o n . Le us honor t h e i r
s e r v i c e , and o u r f e l l o w c i t i z e n s ,
by making t h i s a campaign o f
ideas, not i n s u l t s .
And when our time here i s over, we w i l l know we have done a
good day's work. We w i l l be able t o watch t h e sun go down, and
t r u l y say, we have prepared our c h i l d r e n f o r t h e dawn. Now
t o g e t h e r , secure i n our new f a i t h , l e t us r a i s e o u r eyes t o t h e
future,
and see t h e America we want i n t h e year 2000.
�
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
Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1999
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
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
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
[Convention Drafts] [3]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 46
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
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.
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.
Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
6/3/2015
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-046-005-2015