[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 41 (Monday, October 14, 1996)]
[Pages 2005-2009]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks in Manchester, New Hampshire
October 7, 1996
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, 5 years ago today, on
October the 7th, 1991, I came to New Hampshire. I am told that I am the
only sitting President since your own Franklin Pierce to actually come
to New Hampshire every single year of my Presidency.
I can tell you that, on this gorgeous fall day, looking out at all
of you and seeing so many of you who have been my friends now through
good times and bad, there may be someone in America right now who's
happier than I am, but I have no idea who it would be. I am glad to be
here. Thank you, and God bless you all.
It's great to be back in Manchester. I want to thank the mayor and
all those who came out to the airport to greet me. I want to thank the
two football teams who changed their schedule so we could all be here,
the Central High JV and the Concord High JV. Let's give them a hand.
[Applause] Where are they? There they are back here and back there.
Thanks. I want to thank the bands, the Central High School and the
Spalding High School Marching Bands over here. Give them a hand; they
did a great job. [Applause]
I want to tell you how very proud I am to be up here with these fine
candidates. I was listening to Arnie Arnesen speak, and I thought, she
could double the energy in the House of Representatives all by herself.
We need that kind of vigor in this country.
And I heard Joe Keefe and I remembered how I employed him in the
dark days to stay on as the chairman of the Democratic Party in New
Hampshire, and he said he would, and what a difference a year and a half
makes. Thank you, Joe Keefe, for fighting for New Hampshire, for
America, and for the future of this country.
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I looked at Dick Swett and I thought of the times when we talked in
quiet places without big crowds about this country and its future. I
remembered when he was for a law to require Congress to live under the
same laws it imposes on the rest of us before it was popular, before
anybody knew anything about it. And it's the law of the land today. And
I campaigned on it in 1992 in the State of New Hampshire because of the
work that Dick Swett did. And he can do better work if you'll send him
to the United States Senate where we can move forward and stop the
negative forces and build the positive forces of America.
And I was thinking of the first time I ever met Jeanne Shaheen and
what a terrific Governor she would be for any State and especially for
New Hampshire.
Jean, I thank you. And I thank you, Dick, for what you said about
the debate last night. I enjoyed that debate, and I thank Senator Dole
for joining me, and I believe that the American people got a pretty good
feel for the differences between us, the differences in our views. And
we just proved you can still do it and be civilized and decent and
humane. And that's the way we ought to conduct our public affairs in
this country.
Four years ago when I came here, the issue was how we could get our
economy going again, how we could pierce the rising tide of cynicism in
our electorate, how we could pull this country back together again.
Today, the issue is what path will we take to the 21st century? Are we
on the right path, or should we turn back to another path?
If you look at where we are now compared to where we were 4 years
ago, just think back to then and what it was like in New Hampshire, a
time of high unemployment, bankruptcies, rising frustration and anger. I
said then and I repeat to you today: I want this country to go into the
21st century with the American dream alive for every single child in
America, with our American community coming together instead of coming
apart.
Think how many places in the world today are crippled and face
destruction because people who come from different religions or races or
ethnic groups simply cannot get along. In America, we can all get along
if we share the same values and we honor our system and we show up for
work.
And I was determined to see this country continue to lead the world
for peace and freedom. But 4 years ago you took me on faith. You don't
have to do that anymore. Now there's a record: 10\1/2\ million jobs,
record numbers of new businesses, record exports of American products,
4\1/2\ million new homeowners, 10 million homeowners who refinanced
their homes at lower interest rates, 4 years of declining crime rates,
child support up 50 percent, welfare rolls down 2 million, out-of-
wedlock births dropping for the first time in 20 years. This country is
on the right track to the 21st century.
Four years ago we doubted whether ordinary Americans would ever
benefit even from an improving economy. But now we know we can turn that
around. Since the passage of our economic plan, the average income for
families, the typical family in America, has gone up more than $1,600
after inflation. Last year we had the biggest drop in poverty in 27
years, the lowest poverty rate among senior citizens ever recorded. And
all people, all working people, were finally beginning to benefit from
our endeavors. We had the biggest drop in inequality of working people's
incomes in 27 years. We are on the right track to the 21st century.
And so I say to you, I hope that you in one month and one day, and
all the American people like you all over this country, will make a
decision to stay on that track, to plow new ground, to think new
thoughts, to come up with new ideas, to leave behind the old debates,
the old policies, and the things that got us in so much trouble because
they were long out of date.
Just think how far we have come and where we can go. We have cut the
deficit by 60 percent. It's gone down in all 4 years for the first time
since the Second World War. Truth is, it's gone down in 4 years for the
first time since before the Civil War. But we had a surplus in some of
those other years.
But now we have to finish the job. People tell me--people tell me in
Washington, ``Now, don't go anywhere and talk about balancing the budget
because it bores people now, and it requires tough decisions.'' But
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it's important. Why? Because these declining deficits have meant as the
Government borrows less money, it's easier for you to borrow money.
That's why interest rates are lower for home mortgages, credit card
rates, car payments, student loan payments, and business loans. That's
why they're lower, because we're bringing the deficit down.
So I say to you, now we have to finish the job of balancing the
budget in a way that enables us to continue to invest in education and
research and protect the environment and the health care of our seniors
and our families in need. Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st
century? [Applause]
We cut taxes for 15 million working families and made every small
business in America eligible for a substantial tax cut when they invest
more in their business. Now we have to cut taxes to help families raise
their children and educate them, to pay for buying a home, not to pay
taxes when you sell a home, to deal with a medical emergency. Will you
help me build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
We passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. We just passed a bill to
stop what I call drive-by deliveries, requiring--letting insurance
companies force mothers and their newborn babies out of the hospital
within a day. That's over now. We ended that.
We finally gave some recognition to the needs of mental health and
health insurance policies. And finally, after a long, long time, we made
the children of Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, who
contracted spina bifida as a result, finally we made those families
eligible for health care and disability payments that we should have
done long ago. We're moving in the right direction.
Now we ought to expand family leave to say you can take a little
time off from work without losing your job to take your parents or your
children to regular doctor's appointments or to go to that conference
with a teacher at your child's school. We ought to give our families the
opportunity if they earn overtime at work to decide whether to spend
that overtime--to get that overtime in more money or more time if their
children or their sick parents need it. We ought to do that as well.
We made 25 million Americans more likely to keep their health
insurance with the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill by saying no one can take your
insurance away from you now just because you change jobs or because
someone in your family has been sick. Now we need to finish the job and
cover people when they're between jobs. That is also in my balanced
budget plan. Will you help me build that bridge for families to the 21st
century? [Applause]
We passed the toughest crime bill in history and are bringing the
crime rate down 4 years in a row. We need now to take on the tough
problem of juvenile gangs, and we need to finish the job until we get
all those 100,000 police out there like the ones I saw here in
Manchester helping you to recover your neighborhoods. Will you help me
build that bridge to the 21st century? [Applause]
We worked with States all over this country to move nearly 2 million
people from welfare to work. And then I signed a historic welfare reform
bill that says we will continue to provide to poor families health care
and nutrition, and when the parent goes to work there will be more for
child care than ever before. But now every State and community in the
country has to take what used to be the welfare check, and if the adult,
the parent, is able-bodied, that welfare check has to become a paycheck
within 2 years. Will you help me create the jobs to put people to work
and end the cycle of dependency in America and build that bridge to the
21st century? [Applause]
We've worked hard to improve our environment, to take chemicals out
of the air, to make our drinking water safe, to improve the standards of
health for our food. We've cleaned up more toxic waste dumps in 3 years
than the previous administrations did in 12. We fought their attempts
and we beat back their attempts to cut environmental protection, toxic
waste cleanups by a third, to take over some of the national parks and
let them be privatized. We've protected our national parks, but we have
to continue to enhance America's environment and to clean up the worst
toxic waste dumps in this country so our children are growing up next to
parks, not poison. Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st
century? [Applause]
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And above all, will you help me make education our number one
priority so that all of our people can create, compete, and win?
[Applause]
My fellow Americans, the young people in this audience, within just
a few years--let's hear it for them--[applause]--the young people in
this audience, many of you will be doing jobs that have not even been
created yet. Many of you, in fact, will be doing work that has not been
imagined yet.
We are pushing back the frontiers of knowledge, creating new
activities, and coming together across national boundaries all across
the world as never before. In just 4 years, medical research has more
than doubled the life expectancy of people with HIV infections--in just
4 years.
We are--within a few years, every time a young mother comes home
from the hospital, the mother and father will be able to get a genetic
map which tells you what your child's health care profile will be like
for a lifetime. People will know how to raise their children, what kind
of exercise they most need, what kind of diet they most need, what kind
of medical care they most need. We will extend life and make it more
abundant because of what we are doing in research. But we have to have
people educated to do it.
We are doing a joint project now--research with IBM to build in a
matter of a couple of years a supercomputer that will do more
calculations in one second than you can do on your hand-held calculator
in 30,000 years. We have got to invest in education and make America the
education capital of the entire world. Will you help me build that
bridge to the 21st century? [Applause] Will you help me mobilize an army
of volunteer literacy tutors, AmeriCorps volunteers, and others so that
we can make sure that by the year 2000 every single 8-year-old in
America can read independently? [Applause]
Will you help me prove that we were right and those who opposed us
were wrong that the Goals 2000 program allows local schools to set their
own grassroots reforms to achieve excellence? It's not a national
standard of uniformity on the schools of New Hampshire; it's an
empowerment tool to challenge every State to set national standards and
international standards of excellence and cut the schools loose to
achieve them. Will you help me do that? [Applause]
Will you help us hook up every classroom in America to the
information superhighway so that all of our students, no matter whether
they are poor, rich, or middle class, can have access to the same
learning, at the same level of quality, in the same time for the very
first time in the entire history of the United States of America? Will
you help me do that? [Applause]
And finally, will you help me open the doors of college education to
every single person in America of any age who needs to go? [Applause]
Will you help me pass a tax credit so that people can deduct dollar-for-
dollar the cost of tuition at the typical community college or
vocational training school so that everybody can get 2 years of
education after high school? [Applause] Will you help me pass that
deduction of up to $10,000 a year for the cost of any college tuition so
that every family can afford to go? [Applause]
My fellow Americans, it feels a lot different in New Hampshire than
it did 4 years ago. But the faces are the same; the spirit is the same.
You embody the character and hope and promise of America. I can never
thank you all for what you have done for me and for Hillary, for our
family, our campaign, and our administration. If it weren't for you, I
wouldn't be here tonight, and you know it.
New Hampshire, you gave me the chance to serve you for 4 years. You
know now that what you took on faith has been justified by the record.
The American people saw last night the stark choices before us. Our best
days are still ahead. Will you help me build a bridge to the 21st
century? [Applause]
Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 5:18 p.m. at Gill Stadium. In his remarks,
he referred to Mayor Raymond J. Wieczorek of Manchester; Deborah (Arnie)
Arnesen and Joseph F. Keefe, Democratic congressional candidates; former
Representative Dick Swett; and Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic gubernatorial
candidate.
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