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June 21, 1999
MEMORANDUM FOR INTERESTED PARTIES
FROM:
JOSH GOTTHEIMER
John
PETE COHEN
SUBJECT:
SPEECHES OUTLINING POTUS AGENDA
On several occasions in the last six and a half years, President Clinton has utilized end-of-the-
summer message events to present his agenda for the coming months. Their location and press
coverage have varied. Below is a brief summary of the events and the press coverage
surrounding them.
CAL STATE MONTEREY BAY & ALAMEDA COUNTY LABOR DAY PICNIC:
September 4, 1995
Topic
The President cited positive economic developments, free trade, education spending,
expanding college opportunities, the minimum wage, immigration, and downsizing
government.
Coverage
These speeches were covered by the press within the context of Republican alternatives
being offered in the primary races and the budget showdown with. The press outlined the
major issues that the President addressed but the speech did not come across as a definitive
statement of agenda. While the Boston Globe ran the story on the front page, most major
publications placed the story inside the national news section. (See attached speech and
articles)
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: September 9, 1997
Topic
In the address, the President outlined his agenda for the fall - including education,
international trade, crime, education, environment, race relations, and campaign finance
reform.
Coverage
Press coverage of the speech was positive, but light and buried in the national news sections.
The major papers framed the speech as an outline of the President's fall agenda, and most of
them enumerated the issues included in the speech. (See attached speech and articles)
HILLCREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: September 9, 1998
Topic
The President began by discussing his education agenda, and then moved on to the economy,
diversity, Medicare, the environment, and health care.
Coverage
The coverage of the President's remarks was minimized because the Starr Report released
during the week of the speech. Education was the only agenda item mentioned. (See
attached speech and articles)
THE WHITE HOUSE
TJ
THIS IS My
\
ONLY COPY
JOSH
what
Sept. 3 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995
NOTE: The President spoke at 11:18 a.m. at the
and bishop of the United Methodist Church;
working for this congres
Waikiki Band Shell. In his remarks, he referred
Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr., former astronaut; and
many years. That's the 1
to Bishop James Matthew, World War II veteran
Lt. Col. D.C. Washington, vocalist.
more of in our country
big impression. And I that
I've got a lot to say to
remember much of it. I
Remarks at the Dedication of California State University at Monterey Bay
anything else, remember
in Monterey, California
be the greatest country is
century, just as it has be
September 4, 1995
if, but only if, we take
are before us and appro
Thank you so much. It's a gorgeous day. It's
the cheering crowd. They were chattering away
way that you approached
a wonderful reception. I thank you. I can't imag-
in Italian. The attractive, young mayor of Rome
faced when Fort Ord clc
ine anybody in America who's having a better
was to my left. I leaned over, and I said, "What
the 21st campus for the
time on Labor Day than I am right now, and
are they saying, Mayor?" He said, "Do you real-
nia.
I thank you.
ly want to know?" [Laughter] I said, "Yes." He
We are at a period
Senator Boxer and Lieutenant Governor
said, "They're saying, who's that guy up there
way we work, the way
Davis, Congressman Mineta, Secretary West,
with Leon Panetta?" [Laughter] This fall I'm
relate to each other, the
Chancellor Munitz, President Peter Smith, my
going to take him to Ireland and give him a
beyond our borders, th
longtime friend from the time he was the lieu-
dose of his own medicine. [Laughter]
our lives, the way we tl
tenant governor of Vermont and I was the Gov-
We were in there a few moments ago, and
ship of the economy to
ernor of Arkansas. We worked on education to-
I was meeting some of the folks that helped
way we think about the
gether. You've got a good person here; you're
to make this project possible. One lady went
to workers, the way we
very lucky to have him. And my good friend
through the line and shook my hand, and she
tive obligations to raise
Congressman Sam Farr who has worked like
said, "Mr. President, follow your heart, and do
to succeed in the work;
a demon for this project and talks to me about
what Leon tells you to." I want to say if she
These things are underg
it incessantly. You think I came out here be-
had told me to do what Sylvia tells me to, I'd
greater than anything We
cause of Leon, but the truth is I showed up
come nearer to doing it. [Laughter]
try since the beginning (
today because I couldn't bear to watch Sam
One of the reasons that I felt so strongly-
we moved from being
Farr cry if I hadn't come. [Laughter] And let
the first time I had a talk with Leon Panetta
and rural country into
me say to Beatrice, I'm glad your daddy is here.
and I asked him to become head of the Office
more urban country. V
If you were my daughter, I'd have been very
of Management and Budget, which, in many
war. We have moved
proud of you here today. You were great. You
ways, in a time when we're downsizing the Cov-
We are transforming ou
were terrific. Thank you. Stand up there. Give
ernment and when we have to cut so much
facturing and agricultur
him a hand. [Applause] Thank you, sir. Thank
and still try to save enough money to invest
tion-based, technology-¹
you.
in things like education, it was really important
are changing rapidly. /
I want to thank all the others who made this
to me to have someone who not only understood
what we can learn mo:
possible, the other distinguished platform guests.
the value of a dollar and how the budget worked
determine what we can
And to Milrose Basco, thank you for singing
but someone I thought had good, basic Amer-
whether we can earn.
the national anthem. You were terrific. I thank
ican values and knew what it would take to
This is a period (
the Watsonville Community Band, the Bethel
build the community of America for the 21st
change. And when you
Missionary Church Choir, the Western Stage of
century. That's why I asked Leon Panetta to
lenges, it matters not C
Hartnell College, El Teatro del Campesino, ev-
do that job. And I have to tell you, when you
sions you make but he
eryone who kept you occupied and entertained
pick somebody you don't know for a position,
has always made Ame
in the beginning. I thank the members of the
you don't know real well, it's very difficult to
chips were down and
general assembly who worked hard to make this
know whether you're making the right decision.
challenges, we overlook
possible.
You always kind of look for clues, you know.
brace what we have it
You know, I was listening to Leon talk about
And I'm now old enough and been in enough
gether, and we work fo
the time he introduced me in Rome. That's
jobs that I've hired thousands of people to do
I have been trying to
really true, he translated my remarks in Rome.
different things. And I have to tell you, one
ple since the day I
We were in the town square there-thousands
of the things that made the biggest impression
in October 91. This is
and thousands of those handsome, robust Ro-
on me, probably because of my own experience,
We've got to work to;
mans were around-Leon and I standing before
was the partnership that Leon and Sylvia had
work for tomorrow.
1288
Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995 / Sept. 4
United Methodist Church;
working for this congressional district over so
You know, 1 just had the profound honor
ell, Jr., former astronaut; and
many years. That's the kind of thing we need
of representing all of you as the President to
agton, vocalist.
more of in our country today, and it made a
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end
big impression. And I thank you.
of World War II. It was moving to me in many
I've got a lot to say today, and you may not
ways. But I would ask you to remember what
remember much of it. If you don't remember
happened to this country. If you look back in
ity at Monterey Bay
anything else, remember this: This country will
history now, you think, well, we couldn't have
be the greatest country in the world in the 21st
lost. But in the war in the Pacific, we lost all
century, just as it has been in the 20th century,
our early battles, and we had to come back.
if, but only if, we take all the challenges that
In the war in Europe, before we got in, Great
are before us and approach them in the same
Britain hardly won a battle for 2 years, and
They were chattering away
way that you approached the challenge that you
they had to come back. When we began, there
ctive, young mayor of Rome
faced when Fort Ord closed and you made this
were 17 countries in the world with bigger ar-
uned over, and I said, "What
the 21st campus for the 21st century in Califor-
mies than the United States had. And we had
vor?" He said, "Do you real-
nia.
to put it all together. It looked so inevitable
Laughter] I said, "Yes." He
We are at a period of historic change, the
in the light of history, but it wasn't. It happened
g, who's that guy up there
way we work, the way we live, the way we
because free people beat dictators. People who
[Laughter] This fall I'm
relate to each other, the way we relate to others
chose to live together beat empires. People who
to Ireland and give him a
beyond our borders, the way we think about
willfully found common ground and bridged
licine. [Laughter]
our lives, the way we think about the relation-
their differences joined hands and moved for-
e a few moments ago, and
ship of the economy to the environment, the
ward. That's how we did that. And don't you
e of the folks that helped
way we think about the relationship of managers
ever forget it. And that's what we have to do
et possible. One lady went
to workers, the way we think about our respec-
now if we want this country to be what we
d shook my hand, and she
tive obligations to raise our children well and
expect it to be in the 21st century.
; follow your heart, and do
to succeed in the workplace at the same time.
It's amazing how long it took us after the
1 to." I want to say if she
These things are undergoing a profound change,
war to learn the lessons of the war in the peace.
what Sylvia tells me to, I'd
greater than anything we have seen in our coun-
We honored our veterans. We gave them the
g it. [Laughter]
try since the beginning of the 20th century when
GI bill. They had a chance to go to college,
ns that I felt so strongly-
we moved from being primarily an agricultural
they had a chance to buy a home because we
I a talk with Leon Panetta
and rural country into being an industrial and
recognized our obligations to each other and
become head of the Office
more urban country. We are out of the cold
to the future. We built the greatest economy
the world had ever known in the aftermath of
d Budget, which, in many
war. We have moved into a global economy.
the Second World War. We rebuilt our former
a we're downsizing the Gov-
We are transforming our economy, even manu-
we have to cut so much
facturing and agriculture, into a more informa-
enemies, Germany and Japan. We rebuilt our
allies in Europe who were devastated. We ex-
e enough money to invest
tion-based, technology-based economy. Things
panded the benefits of global commerce to Latin
tion, it was really important
are changing rapidly. And what we know and
ne who not only understood
what we can learn more than ever before will
America, to Asia, and to other places. We did
and how the budget worked
determine what we can earn and, in some cases,
a good job in that because we worked together
and we worked for tomorrow. We won the cold
ight had good, basic Amer-
whether we can earn.
war because we were strong and resolute and
ew what it would take to
This is a period of very, very profound
because eventually people's hunger for freedom
y of America for the 21st
change. And when you face these kind of chal-
brought down the Iron Curtain, because we
I asked Leon Panetta to
lenges, it matters not only what particular deci-
worked together and we worked for tomorrow.
have to tell you, when you
sions you make but how you do it. And what
Now, if you look at what we have to do today
don't know for a position,
has always made America great is, when the
in this period of profound change-I will say
] well, it's very difficult to
chips were down and when we have a lot of
again, a period of change as great as we have
3 making the right decision.
challenges, we overlook our differences, we em-
faced in 100 years-we have to change the
look for clues, you know.
brace what we have in common, we work to-
whole way our National Government works. It
nough and been in enough
gether, and we work for tomorrow. That is what
has to be smaller. It has to be less bureaucratic.
thousands of people to do
I have been trying to say to the American peo-
It has to be more oriented toward results and
d I have to tell you, one
ple since the day I announced for President
releasing the energies of people and establishing
hade the biggest impression
in October '91. This is a new and different time.
these kinds of partnerships and less oriented
ause of my own experience,
We've got to work together, and we've got to
toward just telling people exactly what they have
that Leon and Sylvia had
work for tomorrow.
to do.
1289
Sept. 4 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995
We have got to balance the Federal budget.
got in common. Think about possibilities, not
cated. That's the way we
You know, I say this to all the people who
problems. Believe in the future.
try.
like Government programs that can promote
Colonel Hank Hendrickson, who was once
The old airfield will :
education, as I do. This country never had a
Fort Ord's commander and is now the vice
business planes. And whe
permanent deficit in all of our history until
president of administration for this fine institu-
their numbers, they woi
1981. We had deficits when we needed them.
tion, says, and I quote, "On the same ground
politics, they'll just be
When the economy was slow, we'd spend a little
where we once taught 18-year-old soldiers to
do their business. Not on
more money and juice it up. Then when the
fight and survive in a war environment, we are
are going to be operated
economy got good, we'd balance the budget and
now teaching 18-year-old students to compete
This is happening thre
clear our debts and go on. Or we'd borrow
and flourish in the global economy." That's what
know. And Alameda Co
money when we wanted to invest in something,
you have done together, and that's what America
later, machinists who onc
just the way you borrow money if you start
must do together.
a business or build a home or buy an auto-
I am proud of the contribution that your Na-
ing vehicles together are
tional Government could make. I think we owed
ing electric cars for the
mobile. But we didn't borrow money just to
Sacramento, Packard Be.
go out to dinner at night. We weren't borrowing
it to you, with the economic development
most 5,000 people, inc
money all the time until 1981. And after having
grants, the environmental cleanup, the help for
been a country now for 219 years now, almost
the displaced workers, the young AmeriCorps
brought back from over
volunteers who were working to help people
sonal computers at a fo
219 years, we quadrupled our debt in only 12
can do this, folks. It's n.
years.
here. I am proud of all that. But that $240
That's bad for you and me. Our budget would
million was an investment in your future, and
hard. It's hard. It requi
be balanced today if it weren't for the interest
you earned it. You contributed to our victory
it's not complicated.
in the cold war. Your Nation could not leave
All across America Of
run up in the 12 years before I became Presi-
you out in the cold. It was the right thing to
people are beginning to
dent and that we have to pay on that debt.
do. But you made it possible by all the things
war economy to the ne'
It would be balanced today. And next year, un-
less we have real luck with the interest rates,
that you did here.
century. And we are try
next year interest on the debt will exceed the
So I ask everybody who is cynical about
to help. We brought the
America's future to just look around. You want
billion a year when I to
defense budget. Now, that's not good. That's
to know what to do, you want to know how
this year. Interest rates
not a good thing. Nobody in this audience, I
we ought to do our business in Washington,
exports are up. Investr
don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican
how should we decide how to balance the budg-
technology and research
or an independent or whatever your politics are,
et, look around. We ought to behave the way
7 million new jobs, 2
you don't want that little baby that was held
you did. You couldn't run a family, a business,
owners, 1½ million ne
up to me in the audience a few moments ago
a university, a church, a civic organization, you
record in this time period
to grow up into a world where everybody pays
couldn't run anything in this country the way
California lagged bel
taxes just to pay interest on the debt. Nobody's
people try to run politics in Washington-
rose so much on the ec
got any money to invest in this kind of project
[laughter and applause]-where talking is more
So when the cold war
a generation from now. So we have to do that.
important than doing. The night's sound bite
worse than other States
We have to reassert the values that made
on the evening news, if you want to be on
with earthquakes and fir
this country great, that helped us in the war
it, you know you have to have conflict, not co-
just wanted to test yo
and afterward. We have to have policies and
operation. If you have cooperation, people will
you were. Leon's a Ca
practices that strengthen our families and our
go to sleep, and you won't get on the news.
a character-builder. [Lau
communities and that reward personal respon-
You have to exaggerate every difference and
on this every day.
sibility. And above all, we have got to equip
make it 10 times bigger than it is. And you
But California is comi
our people to meet the challenges of the 21st
have to be willing to sacrifice every good in
ment rate is down, but
century. Our parents built America and passed
the moment for the next election. No one could
people here are building
it on to my generation. And we dare not let
run anything that way.
what this is. This is a
this time pass without making sure that we have
So we have an obligation now to do what
celebrate today is a dec
given the next generation a chance to live the
you do, to do what you did here. The large
yourselves, your child
American dream.
buildings to my left and right were battery head-
children. It's a decision
I will say again, there is nothing we have
quarters for artillery units. One is the library,
century. It's a decision
to do at the national level as a people that
the other is a multimedia center. I don't know
together to prepare for
we cannot do if we follow the directions that
whether a Republican or a Democrat turned
complicated. That's wha
you have laid out here: common sense, common
them into that. I just know it's good for the
do. And that's what I'
ground, higher ground. Think about what we've
country because you're going to be better edu-
will do.
1290
Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995 / Sept. 4
common. Think about possibilities, not
cated. That's the way we ought to run the coun-
Now I want to emphasize one of our greatest
ms. Believe in the future.
try.
challenges on this Labor Day when we reward
onel Hank Hendrickson, who was once
The old airfield will become an airport for
work. One of our greatest challenges is that
Ord's commander and is now the vice
business planes. And when people land and give
the global economy works so differently from
ent of administration for this fine institu-
their numbers, they won't have to talk about
the economy we've lived in that everybody's
says, and I quote, "On the same ground
politics, they'll just be permitted to land and
work is no longer being rewarded. If you had
we once taught 18-year-old soldiers to
do their business. Not only that, the golf courses
told me-I thought I understood this economy.
and survive in a war environment, we are
are going to be operated for the public.
I was a Governor for a dozen years. I worked
eaching 18-year-old students to compete
This is happening throughout California, you
on base closings and defense conversion, every-
ourish in the global economy." That's what
know. And Alameda County, where I'm going
thing like that, with committees like the one
ave done together, and that's what America
later, machinists who once welded Bradley fight-
that made this possible. I thought I really under-
do together.
ing vehicles together are now going to be build-
stood this economy. But if you had told me
m proud of the contribution that your Na-
Government could make. I think we owed
ing electric cars for the 21st century. Up in
on the day I became President that in 30
Sacramento, Packard Bell has already hired al-
months we'd have over 7 million jobs, the stock
you, with the economic development
most 5,000 people, including 500 jobs they
market would be at 4,700, corporate profits
5, the environmental cleanup, the help for
lisplaced workers, the young AmeriCorps
brought back from overseas, to assemble per-
would be at a record high, we'd have 2½ million
sonal computers at a former Army depot. We
new homeowners, we'd have the largest number
teers who were working to help people
can do this, folks. It's not complicated; it's just
of new small businesses recorded in any 2-year
I am proud of all that. But that $240
n was an investment in your future, and
hard. It's hard. It requires a lot of effort, but
period since the end of World War II, but the
earned it. You contributed to our victory
it's not complicated.
median wage would go down one percent, I
All across America on this Labor Day, our
wouldn't have believed it. And most of you
e cold war. Your Nation could not leave
wouldn't either.
but in the cold. It was the right thing to
people are beginning to convert from the cold
war economy to the new economy of the 21st
But technology is changing so fast, so many
But you made it possible by all the things
/ou did here.
century. And we are trying to do what we can
jobs are in competition in the global economy,
I ask everybody who is cynical about
to help. We brought the deficit down from $290
and money can move across national borders
rica's future to just look around. You want
billion a year when I took office to $160 billion
like that-and nothing any person in public life
this year. Interest rates are down. Trade and
can do will stop that-that the working people
now what to do, you want to know how
of this country that are bringing our economy
ought to do our business in Washington,
exports are up. Investment in education and
back have not gotten their fair share of our
should we decide how to balance the budg-
technology and research are all up. We've got
prosperity. And that is our biggest challenge on
bok around. We ought to behave the way
7 million new jobs, 2½ million new home-
this Labor Day.
did. You couldn't run a family, a business,
owners, 1½ million new small businesses, a
What is the answer? The answer, first of all,
iversity, a church, a civic organization, you
record in this time period.
is not to close our borders; it's to continue to
dn't run anything in this country the way
California lagged behind because California
expand trade because trade-related jobs pay
le try to run politics in Washington-
rose so much on the economy of the cold war.
about 20 percent more than jobs that have noth-
ghter and applause]-where talking is more
So when the cold war was over, you got hurt
ing to do with the global economy. We can't
ortant than doing. The night's sound bite
worse than other States. Then you had to deal
turn away from that. But we have to be for
the evening news, if you want to be on
with earthquakes and fires and-you know, God
fair as well as free trade. And that's why I'm
ou know you have to have conflict, not co-
just wanted to test you and see how strong
so proud of the agreement we negotiated with
ration. If you have cooperation, people will
you were. Leon's a Catholic; he tells me it's
the Japanese over automobiles and auto parts.
o sleep, and you won't get on the news.
a character-builder. [Laughter] He's advising me
We want more trade but on terms that are
have to exaggerate every difference and
on this every day.
fair to all Americans.
e it 10 times bigger than it is. And you
But California is coming back. The unemploy-
The other thing we have to do is to do more
to be willing to sacrifice every good in
ment rate is down, but much more importantly,
of what you're doing. We must, we must, see
moment for the next election. No one could
people here are building for the long run. That's
that all of our young people finish high school
anything that way.
what this is. This is a decision. This thing we
and that everybody, everybody, has access to
0 we have an obligation now to do what
celebrate today is a decision that you made for
education after high school. We've got to open
do, to do what you did here. The large
yourselves, your children, and your grand-
the doors of college education to all Americans.
dings to my left and right were battery head-
children. It's a decision you made for the 21st
Our administration has worked hard to make
rters for artillery units. One is the library,
century. It's a decision you made by working
more affordable college loans available to all
other is a multimedia center. I don't know
together to prepare for tomorrow. It's not very
the young people in this country. Millions of
ther a Republican or a Democrat turned
complicated. That's what your country needs to
people now can borrow money to go to college
n into that. I just know it's good for the
do. And that's what I'm determined that we
at lower cost on better repayment terms. We
ntry because you're going to be better edu-
will do.
have worked hard to try to increase our invest-
1291
Sept. 4 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995
ment in education from Head Start through col-
would be better off and our country would be
into a position where W
lege.
stronger. But the welfare rolls are going down
erybody here came fro
I have two proposals now before the Congress
as the job rolls go up. It's only 5 percent of
that America is a set (
in our balanced budget plan that I pray will
our budget. I want desperately to have more
convictions that make us
pass. One would give American middle class
welfare reform. I've done more in the last 2
I feel the same way
people a tax deduction for the cost of all edu-
action issue. I have live
years than was done in the previous 12 years
cation after high school without regard to the
to move people from welfare to work. And I
now. And let me tell y
age of the people who get it. The other would
will continue to do that. But if we want to
with the affirmative acti-
collapse about 70 different Government training
eral Government. I've al
raise wages of middle class people, we have
programs into a big pot of money. And when-
to have good jobs, good educations, and a com-
I thought was excessive
ever anybody is unemployed or underemployed
petitive economic policy.
it. And we're reforming
or on welfare, they could get a voucher worth
If you look at the immigration issue, there
me tell you that we are
$2,600 a year to take to the nearest community
are problems. We have too many illegal immi-
try because we have I
education institution like this one. Don't go
grants in the country. We've done what we
to give people without
through a program; go to your local institution.
could to close the borders and to send people
gender an opportunity
That's something we could do to provide a "GI
back. But you know what? This is a nation of
given capacities. We are
bill" in our time for America's working people.
immigrants. Most of us do not have ancestors
try.
Those two things would lift the incomes of the
who were born here. So I've tried to deal with
I'm against quotas.
American people.
this issue in a responsible way. Former Con-
crimination. I'm against
I also think we ought to raise the minimum
gresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, a great
fied anything they're 1
wage. Let me tell you, if we don't raise the
American, headed a commission for us and said,
am for making a cons
minimum wage this year, on January 1st of next
here's how you can relieve the problems of im-
American people togetl
year, our minimum wage in terms of what the
migration in America and still make us a nation
at our military. We h
money will buy will be at a 40-year low. I want
of immigrants.
the world. Nobody dou
a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity, not
When I was in Hawaii-let me just tell you
cessfully integrated in
a hard-work, low-wage 21st century. And I think
States of America, and
one story. When I was in Hawaii for the 50th
you do, too. And that's what we ought to do.
anniversary of World War II, the commission
anything. But there wa
Now, I believe that the reason wages are stag-
asked me if I would spend the afternoon playing
to do that. Last year,
nant for so many people is that we haven't done
golf with six veterans of World War II. And
new roles were opene
enough to educate our people. We haven't done
I did, and we just sort of lolled around. We
military services, and
enough to try to raise the incomes of our peo-
didn't even finish the round. We had the best
of them very well. Ano
ple. The Government can't do all that, however.
time in the world talking.
So I say to you, le
The people in the private sector have a respon-
Let me tell you, one of those men was a
the problems in Ame
sibility, too. The best American companies are
common sense. Let's I
Japanese-American who came to this country on
out there today sharing their profits with their
his own as a boy because he dreamed of coming
Let's do it the way yo
workers and making sure that they're well-treat-
tion. Let's do it in a
to America. When the war broke out, they put
ed. And all American companies on this Labor
him in an internment camp. He still volunteered
economy.
Day should be challenged to follow the example
to serve his country. By the grace of God, the
So, when we come }
of the best American companies. The people
war ended about 3 days before he would have
got some tough decisi
of this country are our most important resource.
been on an island fighting against two of his
plan to balance the b
In the next year or so, all of you are going
own brothers who were in uniform for Japan.
two different plans in
to have to decide what you think the answer
We have to cut Gove
When the bomb was dropped in Japan, it in-
to this wage problem is. There are people who
jured his house and his mother, and his young-
for that. But we oug
will tell you that the answer to the-the real
est brother subsequently died of radiation poi-
We ought to increase
reason middle class wages are stagnant is that
cation as we balance th
soning.
welfare people are taking all your tax money
There's not another country in the world that
We ought to cut ta
away or that we have too many immigrants or
could tell that story. Why? Because people from
taxes so much and giv
that affirmative action is destroying opportunities
all over the world wanted to be part of what
who don't need them
for the middle class.
care and Medicaid an
is America. And we should never forget that.
Well, let me tell you, in each of those areas,
We'll have times when we can have higher im-
the elderly people in
we have problems. But that's not the real reason
migration quotas and times when we should
upon them for health
for the middle class economic anxieties. We
have smaller ones because of the economy and
We ought to cut
ought to move more people from welfare to
how much it takes to absorb people. But we
and we ought to cui
work because they'd be better off and their kids
should never, ever, ever permit ourselves to get
you, we have already
1292
Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995 / Sept. 4
our country would be
into a position where we forget that almost ev-
Federal Government by 150,000 people. It will
e rolls are going down
erybody here came from somewhere else and
be reduced by 270,000 people if not another
that America is a set of ideas and values and
It's only 5 percent of
law is passed by what's already been done. We
sperately to have more
convictions that make us strong.
have reduced thousands of regulations. We
ne more in the last 2
I feel the same way about this affirmative
ought to do more of that. But we should not
the previous 12 years
action issue. I have lived with this for 20 years
cripple the ability of the American people
velfare to work. And I
now. And let me tell you, there are problems
through their Government to assure safe food,
with the affirmative action programs of the Fed-
clean air, clean water, and a decent environ-
it. But if we want to
eral Government. I've already abolished one that
ment, because we all have a stake in that.
class people, we have
educations, and a com-
I thought was excessive, and I was glad to do
I want all of you to follow this very closely.
it. And we're reforming a lot of them. But let
When I go back to Washington and the Con-
nmigration issue, there
me tell you that we are a better, stronger coun-
gress takes up its business, this will be no ordi-
too many illegal immi-
try because we have made a conscious effort
nary time. For the first time, both parties are
We've done what we
to give people without regard to their race or
committed to balancing the Federal budget. The
ers and to send people
gender an opportunity to live up to their God-
question is, how will we do it, and what will
at? This is a nation of
given capacities. We are a better, stronger coun-
the priorities be? And that will determine what
do not have ancestors
try.
kind of country we're going to be.
I've tried to deal with
I'm against quotas. I'm against reverse dis-
I believe we've got to work together and work
ble way. Former Con-
crimination. I'm against giving anybody unquali-
for tomorrow. I do not want any more of the
rdan of Texas, a great
fied anything they're not qualified for. But I
politics of partisan polarization. I believe the
mission for us and said,
am for making a conscious effort to bring the
American people are pretty much like all of
ve the problems of im-
American people together. If you doubt it, look
you sitting around here today. You are celebrat-
d still make us a nation
at our military. We have the best military in
ing an incredible achievement that you know
the world. Nobody doubts it. It's the most suc-
is a good, right, decent thing. And you are here
ii-let me just tell you
cessfully integrated institution in the United
as Americans.
in Hawaii for the 50th
States of America, and nobody unqualified gets
Now, there'll be plenty of things for us to
Var II, the commission
anything. But there was a conscious effort made
disagree on, but at this moment our national
id the afternoon playing
to do that. Last year, a quarter of a million
security in the 21st century depends upon our
of World War II. And
new roles were opened to American women in
agreeing to invest in our people and to grow
of lolled around. We
military services, and they're doing every one
our economy and to pull our country together
bund. We had the best
of them very well. And that's just one example.
as we balance this budget. So the decisions
So I say to you, let's look at this, let's fix
made in the next 60 to 90 days will determine
of those men was a
the problems in America, but let's do it with
what kind of country we're going to be into
came to this country on
common sense. Let's look for common ground.
the 21st century. And I ask every one of you,
he dreamed of coming
Let's do it the way you built this great institu-
without regard to your party or your philosophy,
var broke out, they put
tion. Let's do it in a way that will grow our
to implore your Representatives to reach for
np. He still volunteered
economy.
that common higher ground, to work together,
the grace of God, the
So, when we come back to Washington, we've
and to work for tomorrow.
before he would have
got some tough decisions to make. I've got a
Just think about it. By Christmas, if we do
ting against two of his
plan to balance the budget. The Congress has
our job right, we could have passed a balanced
in uniform for Japan.
two different plans in the House and Senate.
budget, provided for that tax deduction for edu-
ropped in Japan, it in-
We have to cut Government spending. I'm all
cation expenses, overhauled welfare, expanded
mother, and his young-
for that. But we ought not to cut education.
educational opportunities, strengthened instead
died of radiation poi-
We ought to increase our investment in edu-
of undermined health care security, and put our
cation as we balance the budget.
people on the road to raising their incomes as
ountry in the world that
We ought to cut taxes, but we shouldn't cut
they work harder.
y? Because people from
taxes so much and give such tax cuts to people
We can do that. But we've got to do what
who don't need them that we have to cut Medi-
ed to be part of what
you did here. We have got to work together,
ould never forget that.
care and Medicaid and hurt our obligations to
and we've got to work for tomorrow. Wish us
we can have higher im-
the elderly people in this country who depend
well, insist on it, and help us get it done.
imes when we should
upon them for health care.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
se of the economy and
We ought to cut the size of Government,
absorb people. But we
and we ought to cut regulation. Let me tell
NOTE: The President spoke at 12:02 p.m. at the
permit ourselves to get
you, we have already reduced the size of your
Campus Center. In his remarks, he referred to
1293
Sept. 4 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995
Lt. Gov. Gray Davis of California; Chancellor
Beatrice Conzales-Ramirez, student, California
making not just 2 years
Barry Munitz, California State University; and
State University at Monterey Bay.
years ago. That is the g'
time.
Are we going to be a sn
tunity, high-wage country,
Remarks at the Alameda County Labor Day Picnic in Pleasanton,
wage country where the m
California
And that is the thing that
decision we make. I think
September 4, 1995
to do, and I want you to $
you know what we have to
The President. Thank you. Can you hear me
and more technology. We have more opportuni-
The first thing we ough
in the back? Good. Ladies and gentlemen, I
ties and more fears. And there are a lot of
thing we ought to do is
am so glad to be here to share Labor Day
good things that are going on today, but there
to do no harm; we're go
with you, to count our blessings and to embrace
are a lot of troubling things as well.
undo the protections in
our challenges. But let me just begin by thank-
And I came here to tell you that in the next
working men and women
ing you for that wonderful welcome. I feel right
90 days in Washington, DC, we're going to
trying to weaken workpla
at home, and I'm proud to be with the working
make some decisions that will say a lot about
in partnership with manag
families in this country.
what kind of people we are and where we're
workplace in America, no
I also want to say how very pleased I am
going. And I believe-I believe that if we decide
obligations to the safety,
to be here with all the distinguished labor lead-
to work together and work for the future, the
the American workers.
ers and public officials who are here behind
21st century and the global economy will be
Then, what is our affir
me from the State of California-some from
America's time. But we have to make that deci-
ber one, don't cut educati
our administration-to be here with President
more on it. And for the
sion.
Donahue. You know, this is his birthday. He
to do that to balance th
I want a high-wage, high-growth, high-oppor-
has to celebrate his birthday on Labor Day.
tunity future, not a hard-work, low-wage, inse-
is wrong. My balanced I
He gets a two-fer today, so we ought to say
cure future for the working families of the Unit-
working families of Ameri
happy birthday, Tom.
the cost of all education
ed States of America.
I'm delighted to be here with Jack Henning,
balanced budget plan wou
I've worked as hard as I know how to bring
who still gives one of the best speeches I ever
who lose their jobs the ris
the economy back. But let me ask you this:
heard; with John Sweeney and Lenore Miller
$2,600 a year for 2 years
You all know what the problem is. If I had
and Chuck Mack and George Kourpias and all
community college or oth.
told you 30 months ago, the day I became Presi-
the other labor leaders who are here. I thank
ing institution to get a t
dent, that the following things would happen—
Judy Goff and Owen Marron for having me
crease our investment in
just listen to this as a good news, bad news
here. And I want to say a special word of thanks
it.
story. In our country we have over 7 million
to the people who represent you in Congress,
The second thing we (
new jobs. We have 2½ million new home-
fair as well as free trade.
two of the finest people in the entire United
owners. We have 1½ million new small busi-
States Congress, Congressman Ron Dellums and
with the Japanese over
nesses. We have reduced the deficit from $290
was all about. I'm all fo
Senator Barbara Boxer. They are great people.
billion to $160 billion a year. We have done
You know, we are going through a sea change
got to be fair. It's got to
it while increasing our investment in education
workers. We can now C
in American life. You know it, and I know it.
and training and technology and research to
in the world and win if Wt
What I want to tell you is I believe that when
generate new jobs. We have doubled the loans
to do so.
the history of this time is written and people
of the Small Business Administration to try to
look back on how you and other ordinary Ameri-
The third thing we OU
create more small business opportunities.
minimum wage. Let me
cans lived, they will say that this period rep-
We have done all these things. In California,
evidence to support the
resented the biggest challenge and the biggest
as hard hit as you were by all the defense cuts,
of the minimum wage alv.
change to the way we live and work and raise
the jobs that were lost in the previous 4 years
jobs. But we know one th
our families of any period since 100 years ago,
have been replaced and then some. And we're
ary 1, 1996, if we do n
when we changed from being a primarily agri-
overcoming the impacts of earthquakes and fires
wage this year, it will d
cultural and rural society to being an industrial
and defense cuts. And California's coming back.
the money will buy to a '
society and a more urban one.
But you know what? In spite of all of that,
of the people making mir
All of you know the facts. We've ended the
the median wage has dropped one percent. That
Forty percent of the pe
cold war. We're moving into a global economy.
means most working people are working harder
mum wage are the sole S1
We have more and more competition and more
for the same or lower wages that they were
We have children growin
1294
Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995 / Sept. 4
rez, student, California
making not just 2 years ago but 10 and 15
to expect people to work for $4.25 an hour.
:rey Bay.
years ago. That is the great challenge of this
Let us raise the minimum wage and do it now.
time.
In California, we have a lot of other things
Are we going to be a smart-work, high-oppor-
to do. We have to maintain the defense conver-
tunity, high-wage country, or a hard-work, low-
sion programs that our administration has put
asanton,
wage country where the middle class is dividing?
in place. We should not cut the attempts to
And that is the thing that ought to inform every
build people's future. I have worked as hard
decision we make. I think I know what we have
as I could to make sure that you knew that
to do, and I want you to stand with me because
the defense contractors and the people that
you know what we have to do.
worked on the military bases, who won the cold
'e have more opportuni-
The first thing we ought to do-the very first
war for this country, would not be left out in
and there are a lot of
thing we ought to do is to say we are going
the cold when the defense budget was cut. And
ing on today, but there
to do no harm; we're going to stop trying to
we have to keep working on that.
ngs as well.
undo the protections in the American law for
Let me give you an example of the kind of
tell you that in the next
working men and women. We're going to stop
thing I'm talking about. Today, it is my honor
1, DC, we're going to
trying to weaken workplace safety. Let's work
to announce that our Department of Transpor-
at will say a lot about
in partnership with managers to make it a safer
tation is going to give to Cal-Start, a consortium
e are and where we're
workplace in America, not walk away from our
of California companies, $3.4 million to help
believe that if we decide
obligations to the safety, health, and welfare of
them start building electric cars for the future
the American workers.
of America.
vork for the future, the
global economy will be
Then, what is our affirmative agenda? Num-
Men and women who used to weld Bradley
have to make that deci-
ber one, don't cut education and training; spend
fighting vehicles together for our national de-
more on it. And for those who say we have
fense will now build family vehicles that will
to do that to balance the budget, I say, that
use smart technology, help the environment, and
high-growth, high-oppor-
is wrong. My balanced budget plan gives the
give people good jobs for a good future for
d-work, low-wage, inse-
working families of America a tax deduction for
their families. That's the kind of thing we ought
ing families of the Unit-
the cost of all education after high school. Our
to be doing more of in this country. They will
balanced budget plan would give working people
be made at what used to be the Alameda Naval
as I know how to bring
who lose their jobs the right to a voucher worth
Air Station. This is the kind of thing that I
t let me ask you this:
$2,600 a year for 2 years to take to the nearest
want our Government to do, to work with you
e problem is. If I had
community college or other education and train-
in partnership for the future.
the day I became Presi-
ing institution to get a better start in life. In-
And just today, right before I came out of
things would happen-
crease our investment in education; don't cut
here, the head of Amerigon, Lon Bell, and
good news, bad news
it.
George Kourpias, the head of the Machinist
ve have over 7 million
The second thing we ought to do is to have
Union, signed an agreement that commits both
½ million new home-
fair as well as free trade. That's what the fight
sides, management and labor, to teamwork and
million new small busi-
with the Japanese over autos and auto parts
a true partnership on the shop floor, working
d the deficit from $290
was all about. I'm all for more trade, but it's
together, working for tomorrow. America ought
a year. We have done
got to be fair. It's got to be fair to American
to follow that model. We need more of it.
investment in education
workers. We can now compete with anybody
Folks, this is happening all over California.
hology and research to
in the world and win if we're given a fair chance
Earlier today, in Monterey, I dedicated the new
have doubled the loans
to do so.
campus of Cal State on the grounds of Fort
Administration to try to
The third thing we ought to do is raise the
Ord. They had-instead of a place that is a
SSS opportunities.
minimum wage. Let me tell you, there is no
shell, an empty shell, they're now going to have
se things. In California,
evidence to support the claim that opponents
a vital university. They had 4,000 applications
by all the defense cuts,
of the minimum wage always make, that it costs
for the first 600 places open there. And within
in the previous 4 years
jobs. But we know one thing for sure: On Janu-
just a few years, they'll have thousands and
I then some. And we're
ary 1, 1996, if we do not raise the minimum
thousands of people there, creating more jobs
of earthquakes and fires
wage this year, it will drop in terms of what
than were there when Fort Ord was running
California's coming back.
the money will buy to a 40-year low. Two-thirds
at full steam. That is the future of America,
In spite of all of that,
of the people making minimum wage are adults.
working together, working for tomorrow.
opped one percent. That
Forty percent of the people making the mini-
In Sacramento, Packard Bell has already hired
ople are working harder
mum wage are the sole support of their families.
about 5,000 people, including 500 people where
wages that they were
We have children growing up on it. It is wrong
they've moved jobs from overseas back to the
1295
Sept. 4 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1995
United States to northern California to assemble
cannot afford it. That is wrong. We should not
referred to Tom Donahue,
personal computers at a former Army depot,
do that.
Jack Henning, secretary-
with more jobs there than were lost at the
Yes, we ought to reform regulation and re-
Labor Federation, AFL-(
height of the defense production. That is the
duce cumbersome bureaucracy. You know some-
president, Service Emp
future of California and the future of America.
thing-this is something you ought to tell tomor-
Union, AFL-CIO; Lenore
Let me just say one more thing on this Labor
row when you're talking to people-our adminis-
tail, Wholesale and Depa:
Day. In the last 2½ years, we had 7 million
tration has reduced the size of Government, the
AFL-CIO; Chuck Mack,
new jobs, 2½ million new homeowners, 1½ mil-
number of regulations, and the number of Gov-
Local 70, and president,
lion new businesses, record corporate profits,
ernment programs more in 2 years than the
the stock market's gone to 4,700. I think it is
previous two administrations did in 12. But I
time for American businesses to follow the lead
did not reduce worker protections and our com-
of our best employers and share more of those
mitment to clean water, clean air, and safe food.
Statement on the Ag
profits with their working people. The Govern-
That is nuts. We should not do that. It is not
good for America.
Republic of Macedo:
ment can't do that; business has to do that.
Thirty years ago, in the biggest companies
So as Congress comes back to work, as you
September 4, 1995
in this country, the average executive made
send Ron Dellums and Barbara Boxer and
about 12 times what the average shop worker
Dianne Feinstein back to their labors, let me
I welcome the decisior.
did. Today it's 120 times. It's time for the work-
tell you, folks, send a message to everybody.
Papandreou and Presider
ing people-
This country, it got where it is today because
their Foreign Ministers to
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
we pulled together and we worked together and
to complete an agreement
we worked for tomorrow.
The President. All right, let me tell you. I'm
friendly relations between
all for people becoming millionaires. We've had
I just got back from Hawaii, celebrating the
This courageous and vision
more self-made millionaires since I've been
50th anniversary of the end of World War II.
leaders is an extremely im
I met with veterans from all different races and
President than any comparable period in Amer-
support current efforts to t
ican history. And I like that. That's the American
all different backgrounds who forgot all their
ity to the Balkans. It is
idea. But the people of this country that make
differences and worked together. And that's why
of intensive diplomatic eff
it go are the average working families. And they
we won. And when they came home, the GI
the United Nations mediat
deserve their fair share of their own productivity
bill gave them all the chance to go to college
dent's Envoy, Matthew Nii
and to own their own homes and to educate
and competitiveness. And it's time to do it.
ings today in Athens and S
So when I leave you today, I'm going back
their children. And that's why America won the
ing team lead by Assista
cold war and did so well.
to Washington for the critical struggles over the
Richard Holbrooke.
This idea, this crazy idea that somehow we
budget in the next 90 days. And I will say again,
In this context, I als.
this is the period of biggest change we've had
can go into the 21st century by weakening our
strong support for the U.
middle class, by dividing our people against each
in 100 years. We are going to shape the future.
other, by convincing hard-working middle class
Are we going forward together, looking toward
people that the reason they don't have a good
tomorrow, or are we going to be divided? Are
income is because of welfare or affirmative ac-
we going to have a high-wage, high-growth,
Presidential Determ
tion or immigration-all of which need improve-
high-opportunity future for your children, or a
ment, and we've done more on that than the
Rwanda
hard-work, low-wage future for half of the work-
guys did before as well-but that's not what's
ing people in this country? Those are the ques-
September 1, 1995
holding your wage down. What's holding your
tions.
wage down is the inability to get a fair deal
Yes, we have to balance the budget, but let's
in a competitive global economy because we
Memorandum for the Adm
do it in a way that increases our investment
need more investment in education, more in-
Agency for International D
in education, technology, research, and the good
vestment in training, more investment in high-
jobs of tomorrow. Let's don't walk away from
Subject: Determination to
wage jobs. And you know that in your heart
it.
of hearts.
used to Support Administr:
Activities in Rwanda
Yes, middle class people ought to have tax
This country never got anywhere being di-
relief for education and childrearing. But let's
vided against one another. So let's go forward
Pursuant to the author
don't cut taxes so much just to find tax cuts
together for a better future.
Section 614(a)(1) of the F
for people who don't need it and, in turn, turn
God bless you all, and thank you.
of 1961, as amended (FAA
around and raise the cost of Medicare, raise
that it is important to the
the cost of nursing home care on ordinary elder-
NOTE: The President spoke at 3:30 p.m. at the
the United States to fun
ly people and their middle-class children who
Alameda County Fairgrounds. In his remarks, he
of fiscal year 1995 fund
1296
Page 2
LEVEL 1 - 37 OF 40 STORIES
Copyright 1995 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
September 5, 1995, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 555 words
HEADLINE: Clinton sounds budget warning // Blasts GOP at Calif. labor rally
BYLINE: Richard Benedetto
DATELINE: MONTEREY, Calif.
BODY:
President Clinton used the traditional Labor Day kickoff of the political
season to set the stage for the coming budget battle with Congress.
"The decisions we make in the next 60 to 90 days will determine what kind of
country we're going to be into the 21st century, he declared at the dedication
of California State University at Monterey Bay.
Later Monday, at a labor union rally in Alameda County, the president said
wages are stagnant, even though 7 million jobs have been created since he took
office, while corporate profits are at record highs.
He called for an increase in the $ 4.25 minimum wage and urged companies to
share more of their profits with workers.
But while his first speech was non-partisan, he used the labor rally to
hammer Republicans for "walking away from working people" and going too far in
trying to cut education, Medicare, environmental protection and other programs
he says benefit average people.
Today, as thousands of the nation's schools reopen after summer vacation, the
president will go to school, too. He'll wind up a two-day visit to California by
teaching an eighth-grade history class at Lincoln Middle School in Selma, using
the occasion to call for more federal aid to education in the face of GOP plans
to cut it.
Clinton said Monday success in the federal budget confrontation, which
resumes this week, will depend on Republicans and Democrats coming together for
the common good as they negotiate welfare reform, education spending,
environmental regulation, taxes and an overhaul of Medicare.
"This is a new and different time. We've got to work together, and we've got
to work for tomorrow," he said. "There will be plenty of things for us to
disagree on, but at this moment our national security in the 21st century
depends upon us agreeing to invest in our people, and to grow our economy and to
pull our country together as we balance the budget.'
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USA TODAY, September 5, 1995
Polls show Americans overwhelmingly want politicians to put partisan
differences aside to solve problems.
Clinton said the unity of purpose shown by the World War II generation, the
feats of which he celebrated in Hawaii over the weekend at ceremonies marking
the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, should serve as a model.
Clinton chose to frame the budget debate in California, whose 54 electoral
votes are essential to his re-election chances. California Gov. Pete Wilson,
seeking the 1996 GOP presidential nomination, was out of state and missed the
college dedication.
Clinton spoke under sunny skies at the dedication of the college on the site
of Fort Ord, an Army base closed last year as a casualty of the Cold War's end.
This central coast community lost nearly 17,000 military and civilian jobs.
Clinton hailed the new institution, which is expected to grow from 600
students this year to 10,000 students in 2010, as a prime example of defense
conversion, which is going with varying degress of success around the country.
And as he often does when visiting California, Clinton noted that the federal
government sent money - $ 240 million - to ease the transition.
"That $ 240 million was an investment in your future, and you earned it,"
Clinton told 10,000 people at the dedication. "You contributed to our victory in
the Cold War. Your nation could not leave you out in the cold.'
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, b/w, Doug Mills, AP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 06, 1995
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Copyright 1995 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 05, 1995, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A05
LENGTH: 705 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Defends Immigration, Affirmative Action in California Speech
BYLINE: William Claiborne, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: MONTEREY, Calif., Sept. 4
BODY:
President Clinton today strongly defended affirmative action and immigrant
rights on the home turf of one of his would-be Republican rivals, California
Gov. Pete Wilson, who has taken a hard-line stance on both issues.
On a day in which the leading Republican presidential hopeful, Senate
Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (Kan.), called for making English the official
language of the nation, Clinton decried politicians who he said seek to lay
blame for middle-class economic anxieties on immigration policies and programs
aimed at ensuring minorities jobs and higher education opportunities through
race and gender preferences.
"There are people who will tell you that the real reason middle-class wages
are stagnant is that
we have too many immigrants, or that affirmative
action is destroying opportunities for the middle class," Clinton said in a
speech commemorating the opening of the new California State University at
Monterey Bay.
Later, addressing a Labor Day picnic at Pleasanton, Clinton returned to the
theme, assailing "this crazy idea" of trying to convince middle-class voters
that their wages are not rising because of affirmative action and immigration.
"This country got where it is because we worked together, we pulled together.
This country never got anywhere by being divided against one another, he
said.
Wilson was campaigning out of state today and was represented on the
speaker's platform at the new university by Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat who
praised the administration's base conversion efforts. The university is being
built on the recently closed Fort Ord Army base.
While there may be some problems in both immigration and affirmative action
policies, Clinton said, more effort is needed to bring Americans together in
correcting the problems instead of divisively attacking the programs and
Page 5
The Washington Post, September 05, 1995
proposing draconian solutions.
Most GOP candidates have attacked affirmative action, which they say often
results in reverse discrimination. Wilson has called for denying social
services to illegal immigrants and penalizing employers who hire them. Dole, in
his Indianapolis speech today, criticized bilingual education as divisive and
said all children should be taught in English, but he did not make an
anti-immigration speech.
Clinton told his warmly applauding audience of about 12,000 here that "we
should never, ever, ever permit ourselves to get into a position where we forget
that almost everybody here came from somewhere else, and that America is a set
of ideas and values and convictions that make us strong."
Similarly, Clinton said, while some affirmative action programs need reform,
"we are a better, stronger country because we have made a conscious effort to
give people, without regard to their race or gender, an opportunity to live up
to their God-given capacities."
Clinton, who has acknowledged that it will be difficult for him to win
reelection without carrying California, said he opposes race- and gender-based
quotas and any other form of reverse discrimination.
The last time Clinton weighed in on a major California issue was in 1994,
when he opposed the Proposition 187 ballot initiative aimed at cutting off most
social services for illegal immigrants. Voters approved the measure by 59 to 41
percent, although it has been blocked by court appeals.
A recent statewide poll by the Field political research group showed that
California voters support by a 2 to 1 margin a new ballot initiative to end all
race and gender preference programs in hiring and contracting. The Field poll
also showed that only 37 percent of California voters are inclined to vote for
Clinton.
Clinton said that decisions made in the next 60 to 90 days as Congress
resumes "will determine what kind of country we're going to be in the 21st
century. "
"Now there will be plenty of things for us to disagree on, but at this moment
our national security in the [next] century depends on our agreeing to invest in
our people, and to grow our economy, and to pull our country together as we
balance this budget, Clinton said.
He praised the new state university here as a model of such bipartisan
cooperation in military base conversion.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 05, 1995
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Copyright 1995 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
September 5, 1995 Tuesday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1; ZONE: N
LENGTH: 939 words
HEADLINE: CLINTON GEARS UP FOR FALL'S BUDGET WARS;
PRESIDENT CHALLENGES REPUBLICAN PRIORITIES
BYLINE: By William Neikirk, Tribune Staff Writer.
DATELINE: MONTEREY, Calif.
BODY:
Warming up for a tough re-election struggle, President Clinton challenged
Gov. Pete Wilson on his own turf Monday and served notice on Republicans that
he's politically fit to fight this fall's critical budget wars.
Clinton said the next few weeks in Congress "will be no ordinary time" as he
and Republicans debate how to balance the budget. "Decisions made in the next 60
to 90 days will determine what kind of country we're going to be into the 21st
Century, he said.
On his way back to Washington after three weeks on the road, the president
stepped up his quest for California's 54 crucial electoral votes. He stressed
his efforts to increase middle-class incomes and disagreed with Wilson on
affirmative action and immigration.
He criticized Washington as a place "where talking is more important than
doing" and where "you have to exaggerate every difference and make it 10 times
bigger than it is. And you have to be willing to sacrifice every good in the
moment for the next election."
In two separate Labor Day speeches, he also called on America's corporate
executives to share more of their profits with their workers, noting that median
income in the U.S. has declined while profits have risen.
"They (workers) deserve the fair share of their own productivity and
competitiveness, he said. "And it's time to do it."
With both audiences, the president sought to identify himself with
middle-class voters who hold the key to the 1996 election, saying that he favors
a "common ground" approach to solving problems.
"There are people who will tell you that the real reason middle-class wages
are stagnant is that welfare people are taking all your tax money away, or that
Page 7
Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1995
we have too many immigrants, or that affirmative action is destroying
opportunities for the middle class, he said.
While the U.S. has problems in each area, he said, "that's not the real
reason for middle-class economic anxieties.' He said the answer is better
education and an economic policy that emphasizes competition.
Several thousand people from this predominantly Democratic area gave Clinton
a warm reception as he dedicated the new state university campus on the site of
a former military base, Ft. Ord. It is now California State University at
Monterey Bay, with 625 students enrolled this year.
He used this unique example of military conversion to emphasize his message
that education is the key to economic survival and higher incomes, and should
not be slashed by Republican budget cutters.
"We ought to increase our investment in education as we balance the budget,'
the president said.
Later, in a speech at an Alameda County Labor Day picnic, Clinton used
blunter language: "Are we going to have a high-wage, high-growth,
high-opportunity future for your children, or a hard-work, low-wage future for
half of the working people in this country? Those are the questions."
He favored increasing the minimum wage, announced a $3.4 million grant to a
consortium to help build an electric car, and said he will oppose Republican
efforts to cut defense conversion programs and weaken labor laws.
Without mentioning Wilson by name, Clinton said he has tried to deal with
illegal immigration in a "responsible way" by trying to close U.S. borders, but
added, "But you know what? This is a nation of immigrants. Most of us do not
have ancestors who were born here."
The California governor, who last week officially entered the presidential
race, favors tougher curbs on illegal immigration, including a constitutional
amendment that would bar children of illegal immigrants from becoming citizens.
On affirmative action, which Wilson has criticized sharply, Clinton said "we
are a better, stronger country" for having it and he pointed to the military as
a prime example of how it has helped achieve diversity.
"I'm against quotas, he said. "I'm against reverse discrimination. I'm
against giving anybody unqualified anything they're not qualified for. But I am
for making a conscious effort to bring the American people together."
At the picnic, he criticized "this crazy idea that somehow we can go into the
21st Century by weakening our middle class, by dividing our people against each
other, by convincing hard-working middle-class people that the reason they don't
have a good income is because of welfare or affirmative action or immigration." II
In turning to the upcoming budget war, the president said: "I believe we've
got to work together and work for tomorrow. I do not want any more of the
politics of partisan polarization."
If things work out as he wants, Clinton said that by Christmas, Congress will
Page 8
Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1995
have passed a balanced budget, provided a tax deduction for education expenses,
overhauled welfare, expanded educational opportunies, strengthened health-care
protections "and put our people on the road to raising their incomes."
This, however, is an extremely optimistic outlook. The White House and
Congress are on a collision course on the budget. Many observers predict that
the government will shut down at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 because
neither side will agree on budget priorities.
The president will depart for Washington on Tuesday after speaking at a
middle school at Selma, Calif., and with agricultural leaders at Fresno. He left
for his vacation in Wyoming on June 15, and commemorated the end of World War II
in Hawaii.
He's also had plenty of time for golf. He played a few holes at the famous
Pebble Beach golf course in nearby Carmel Monday morning. He spent the night at
the home of oilman Truman Arnold, finance chairman of the Democratic National
Committee.
GRAPHIC: PHOTOPHOTO: President Clinton acknowledges cheers at the dedication of
the new California State University located on the site of the former Ft. Ord.
AP photo.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 5, 1995
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 9, 1997
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON "BACK TO WORK"
American University
Washington, D.C.
12:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. First, thank all of you for that wonderful
welcome. I told President Ladner that after you gave me such a buoyant welcome, I really didn't
want to speak. I thought I should quit while I was ahead. (Applause.)
1 appreciate the President's welcome and his profound words. I thank Neal Sharma for
his introduction and for his leadership here among the students. To Chairman Jacobs and
Professor Mintz, Secretary and Mrs. Dalton, City Councilman Thomas; to all the trustees and
alumni and faculty and staff and students who are here, and the friends of American University
who are here.
There are many people in our administration who graduated from A.U., or who
otherwise have affiliation with it, including your former President, Joe Duffy. And one of the
most important is here with me today -- former professor Judy Winston, who is the executive
director of my race initiative, about which I want to talk a little. But I'd like for Judy to stand
wherever she is. She's here somewhere. Thank you, Judy. There she is. (Applause.)
At the start of a new school year, this is a time when students are going back to work,
and when those of us here in Washington are going back to work after the August recess of
Congress. It is a time of genuine hope and earned optimism for America. And I can hear it in
your spirited voices here today. I think it's a good time for me to talk to you and to our country
about what we have to do in the remaining months of this year to make the most of this moment
in preparing our country for the 21st century.
It is now, hard for me to believe, almost six years since I first announced my candidacy
for President. Then, in late 1991, America seemed to be moving toward the new century with
uncertain steps. Dramatic changes in the way we live and work and relate to each other and the
rest of the world threaten the values by which we live our lives. We were in danger of becoming
a more divided nation at the very moment when we needed to be moving forward
resolutely together.
On the day I declared my candidacy I said that our mission as a people must be to keep
the American Dream alive for all who would work for it; to keep America the world's strongest
force for peace and freedom and prosperity; and to bring our own people together across all the
lines that divide us into one America. America's oldest and most enduring values -- opportunity
for all, responsibility from all, a community of all -- these things had to remain strong and
vibrant in a new and different time, which required a new course of action.
Our nation has remained young and strong now for over 220 years by always meeting
new challenges in ways that renew our oldest values. That is the wellspring of our greatness.
Our nation was not founded on religion or race or geography, but on a set of incandescent ideals,
which have been reiterated and reaffirmed and reembraced at every critical moment in our
history -- Lincoln at Gettysburg; the Progressives forging a new freedom for an Industrial Age;
Franklin Roosevelt rescuing America from the abyss in the name of our oldest ideals; Dr. King
challenging America to live out the true meaning of our creed. At every single moment of
challenge and change, we Americans have found a way to keep these old ideals not
musty words scratched on parchment, but instead, living guideposts for a new era.
For four and half year now, Americans have worked to make this a time of change for
our generation. We set a bold new economic course, reducing the deficit by over 80 percent even
before the recent balanced budget agreement, expanding exports through over 200 trade
agreements, and investing in our people and their future. We set about establishing America's
credibility in the post-Cold War world, forging new alliances and standing up for our values from
Bosnia to Haiti. And we addressed a generation's accumulation of profound social problems,
bringing work and responsibility and community action to bear on the challenges of crime and
welfare and poverty. And we began to build a new government, not intent on doing everything,
but not content to do nothing; instead, a progressive government committed to giving people the
tools they need to make the most of their own lives.
Today we see the results. Unemployment remains below 5 percent; nearly 13 million
new jobs since 1993; inflation remaining low and stable; investment growth and consumer
confidence at their highest levels in a generation; after decades when they remained flat, finally
family incomes beginning to rise again. Violent crime has dropped dramatically for years now.
We have seen the largest drop in welfare roles in history. And many of our poorest urban and
rural communities are in a springtime of renewal.
In late July, America reached a new milestone when I signed into law the first balanced
budget in a generation. This was about more than numbers on a ledger. It embodies the single
largest increase in aid to education since 1965. (Applause.) It includes the biggest increase in
aid to help people go on to college and to community colleges and to graduate schools.
(Applause.) The biggest increase since the G.I. Bill was passed 50 years ago -- and it will
literally open the doors to college education to every person who is willing to work for it.
(Applause.)
It includes the largest single investment in health care since the passage of Medicaid in
1965, largely designed to insure up to 5 million children who don't have health insurance today.
(Applause.) It restores just benefits for legal immigrants, and billions of dollars -- (applause) --
are provided to help move people even more from welfare to work.
Now, after years in which the deficit dominated our politics and dampened our economy,
America finally has lifted that burden from the next generation. After years in which the two
parties seemed often as tired and trapped as punch-drunk fighters in a ring getting smaller and
smaller, finally we found a way for Democrats and Republicans to work together for the national
interest. And in so doing, we've proved to ourselves that America can still
work.
We are steering the vast changes underway today in technology, trade and our social
makeup -- the very changes that once produced so much doubt and unease -- in ways that will
ensure that they will become powerful forces for good. In all this I want to emphasize that we
are not merely riding the crest of the latest rise in the economic cycle. Our economic plan with
the balanced budget at its center is the platform on which we are building America's future.
Americans of this generation are forging and leading an entirely new economy. A larger
proportion of Americans work in a computer industry today than worked in the auto industry at
the height of the 1950s. And in the cutting age industries of the future -- computers, biotech,
aerospace -- America leads the world. But America also leads the world again, for the first time
since the 1970s, in automobile production and sales.
In this new economy there still will be ups and downs; there will be recessions and crisis;
they'll demand action. But the economy has fundamentally changed. Once, the wealth of people
came mainly from the gold in the ground or the abundance of our farmland or the power of our
factories. Now you know as well as anyone it will come from the skills of our people and the
power of our imagination.
The news is good today. And in the face of good news the easiest thing to do is to rest,
to take a vacation, to believe our work is done and to be satisfied that our challenges are met.
But complacency is not an option and vacations have to remain short in a time still full of
challenge and change. There is, in fact, a lot more to do to renew our values, to strengthen our
nation, to deal with problems still unresolved, if we are really going to give you the 21st century
you deserve. Now we have to take the steps that are clearly before us. And the time to start is
now, this fall, with a series of concrete actions we can take to cap a year of real progress for
America.
First and foremost, we must press on to make opportunity available for all of our people.
Equal opportunity is our central value, but the very meaning of that has fundamentally changed.
For example, in the 19th century, opportunity meant access to a land grant. In the 21st century,
it will mean access to a Pell Grant to a community college, to a trade school, to a university.
(Applause.) And more education is important. We have made enormous progress. As
I said, this budget contains the biggest increase in funds to help give people access to higher
education in 50 years; not only the largest Pell Grant in our history, but in the last two budgets
300,000 more work-study position, new opportunities for savings in IRA for college education,
and tax credits which will literally make it possible for everybody in the country who doesn't
have any access to college to get two years of college, and will help people to pay for four years
and for graduate school. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and it will revolutionize
opportunity when it comes to getting a college education. (Applause.)
But I want to explain something that's very important about why we're focusing on the
next three months. The balanced budget agreement contains a five-year plan for balancing the
budget and contains the tax cuts. It has a spending plan in it. But the spending plan still has to
be implemented every single year. And that is what Congress will do in the next three months in
passing appropriations. So they have to authorize the money for the Pell Grants. They must
authorize the money for the work-study slots. They must authorize a doubling of funds for
computers in every classroom so that we can meet our goal of hooking every classroom and
library up to the Internet by the year 2000. It must authorize the America Reads initiative --
which will help us to mobilize some of those community service folks you were talking about,
work-study students all across the country, thousands of AmeriCorps students
going into our schools, working with teachers and parents to make sure every single 3rd grader in
this country can read independently. We have to do that. (Applause.)
We also must get through the appropriations process with our commitment to national
education standards intact. We know, for example, that America has the finest system of higher
education in the world, and people come from all over the world to be a part of
it. And I'm very proud of that. We also know, however, that we do not do as well as we should
in our K through 12 education for all of our children. Of course, it's harder in America than a lot
of other places -- we have more diversity. We have more racial diversity, we have more
linguistic diversity, we have more cultural diversity, we have more income diversity than we
would like. The other diversity is all to the good, I think.
But we are making progress. For the first time this year on the international math and
science scores, our nation ranked well about the national average in math and science scores --
well above the world average in math and science scores -- for 4th graders. But we still ranked
below the world average in scores for 8th graders, as our children meet adolescence and all the
difficulties that many of them face come to bear. We have to do better.
We are the only major nation in the world that does not have high, clear, uniform
academic standards of excellence in basic courses in public education. We don't have them. It is
a legacy of our state constitutional responsibility for education K through 12 and local control of
the schools. But uniform standards --mathematics are the same in Maine and Montana. And
children have to learn to read whether they live in Washington or the southern tip of Florida.
We are now on the brink of being able to have a nonpartisan board set up by Congress
for this purpose, to approve the development of examinations of 4th graders in reading and 8th
graders in math. There are some who don't think we should do it. They say it's a federal power
grab. It isn't. The tests are voluntary. No state, no school district has to participate. The
government is not developing the tests, we're simply paying for it.
But I hope that all of you who got here to this university will look at all their 52.2
million children enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade in America now, the biggest number
of children ever, from the most diverse backgrounds ever -- we are robbing them of the future
you are here to claim if we let them get out of school without the basic skills they need to
succeed in the university. And I hope you will support our efforts at national standards.
(Applause.)
Now, your student body president made a wry remark about Social Security -- (laughter)
-- and I know a lot of you don't think it's going to be there. But it is. (Applause.) It is going to
be there. (Applause.) Clearly, one of our most serious responsibilities is to make sure that
Social Security and Medicare are there for the next generation of Americans. It is wrong to let
people pay into the fund for a benefit they will never receive. That is wrong.
We will begin in the next three months to build on this budget agreement in dealing with
Medicare. This budget agreement extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by a decade. In
fact, the structural changes that we have build in may even save enough money to carry it far
beyond that. But we will also appoint -- the leaders of Congress and I -- members of a bipartisan
commission to study Medicare and make recommendations for how it can be preserved
for the next generation of Americans well into the 21st century.
We have shown that we can put our fiscal house in order while improving services for
our elderly. Now we have to secure the future of this program. And then, we'll be beyond that to
deal with Social Security as well. We can do this. If we can balance the budget, we can plainly
do this. These are problems that revolve around demographic changes in our society and we owe
it to you not to have to face this burden. I am confident that we will fulfill our
responsibilities. (Applause.)
The next thing we have to do is to continue our efforts to expand trade to the rest of the
world. The United States is now the world's number one exporter again. But we must continue
to do this. We must continue to do it not only because it is right for us, because it is right for the
world. Let me just give you a couple of interesting statistics. We have less than 5 percent of the
world's people in this country; we have about 20 percent of the world's wealth. We cannot
maintain our wealth unless we sell what we have to the other 95 percent of the people in the rest
of the world.
Second, the growing economies of the emerging countries, principally in Asia and Latin
America, but also increasingly in Africa, are going to grow much more rapidly in the next 10
years than the advanced economies of America, Canada, and Europe. If we participate in that
growth, we can move huge numbers of countries now classified as poor nations into the ranks of
middle-income nations, where millions of children will have a more decent, more humane, more
supportable future; where democracy will thrive; where we will have good partners not only in
economic relationships, but also in solving the other problems of the world when you have to
take responsibility for them.
The United States has a clear, clear obligation to continue to expand the frontiers of
trade. And tomorrow, in the East Room at the White House, I will launch a campaign to
persuade the Congress to renew the traditional authority presidents have had for over 20 years
now to break down foreign barriers to America's goods and services. This is very important to
you and your future.
We do not need to be afraid to trade with the rest of the world. We are the most
productive economy in the world. There will always be changes in this economy. There will
always be new jobs being created and some going away. But on balance, we have benefitted for
60 years by leading the way to integrate the world's economies. And that will promote peace; it
will promote freedom; it will promote stability; it will raise the level of living standardsin other
parts of the world even as it maintains America as the world's most prosperous nation. And I
hope you will support that as well. (Applause.)
As we expand opportunity, we must also continue to demand responsibility from our
citizens. Among other things, we have a common responsibility to do all we can to strengthen
our families for the 21 st century. This new economy puts extraordinary pressures on parents,
demanding more time away from their children, imposing new demands for affordable child care,
bombarding children themselves will commercial images that make it harder than ever for them
to be raised according to our most basic values.
We are working to pass a juvenile justice bill to help keep our children out of gangs, off
of drugs and away from guns. We will host the first ever White House Conference on Child
Care, to explore ways all sections of society, including our government, can better address
perhaps the greatest problem facing working parents today. And we must make this historic
opportunity real in our efforts to protect our children from the dangers of tobacco by
passing sweeping legislation that focuses first and foremost on reducing smoking among young
people. More people die from that than any other problem in our society today. (Applause.)
Next, we must meet a very large environmental challenge in the next three months. We
will work toward a worldwide climate change treaty this December in Kyoto that protects the
environment even as it promotes global growth by committing the nations that sign
on to it to specific, clear guidelines in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the
atmosphere. We know (applause.) You can clap for that -- that's all right. (Applause.)
Now, there are students here from all over the world, students from all over our country.
Many of you have witnessed -- and your families have witnessed -- in your own homes,
significant changes in climatic patterns in the last decade, and more extreme climatic develops.
It is becoming a part of the common parlance of America, all over the country, to talk about the
500-year flood we had along the Mississippi River. One member of Congress, who happened to
be a member of the other party, said to me the other day -- he said, "Mr. President, we've had
three 100-year floods in the last five years in my home state." He said, "Does that mean I get to
wait 500 years before we have another bad flood?"
Many of you who are studying this issue know that a panel of over 2,500 scientists has
concluded that the climate of the Earth is significantly warming in ways that will have not
entirely predictable, but almost certainly destructive consequences unless we
do something about it.
This is something that will affect people of all incomes, of all backgrounds, from all
parts of our country, and, indeed, the whole world. We need the young people of America,
particularly the university students who are in a position to study this issue, to make this a
gripping national issue. And we also need people who have the confidence in our ability to break
new technological and scientific barriers to stand up and say, you cannot make me believe that
we can't reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially and still grow the American economy.
We could reduce them 20 percent tomorrow with technology that is already available at
no cost if we just changed the way we do things.
Now, this will be a very controversial debate. And there will be people who say,
President Clinton has spent five years killing himself to revitalize the American economy and
now he's going to take it down overnight be committing to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions in America. That is not true. But if you let the sea level rise and we flood the
southern coast of Florida and we flood the southern coast of Louisiana, and we otherwise disrupt
what life in the United States is like over the next 50 years, then your children will pay the price
for our neglect. We can grow this economy and do right by the environment. I think you believe
that, and I need you to help me convince the American people that it can be done. (Applause.)
Finally, let me say we have a responsibility to improve the way our political system
works. The amount of money raised by both parties is more than doubling now every four years.
The primary driving thing is the cost of access to you, the voters. That is what is driving this,
the cost of access through television time, through radio time, through mail, through printed
materials. One of the things we have to do is to guarantee free or reduced air time for candidates
for offices so that they won't need so much more money. (Applause.) And we are seeking that
now.
But there is also a very important piece of legislation sponsored by Republican Senator
John McCain and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold which will come to the floor of the Senate
later this month. Every year I have been President I have supported a good campaign finance
reform bill. And every year I have seen the bills blocked by a filibuster in the United States
Senate -- every single year. Now, the people who don't want it this year say they're going
to do it all over again. They may do it, but if they do it this year we intend to see that it happens
in the full glare of public light. I ask for your support for campaign finance reform this year.
(Applause.)
The third thing we have to do is to do a lot of work in the next three months to advance
our interests and our leadership around the world. We live in a world very different from the
Cold War world, and we still have to do a lot to shape it. We have an opportunity to lock in the
gains of democracy and stability and free market, and lay the foundations for the century in
which you will live most of your lives.
So far this year, we have ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, so our soldiers and
citizens will be safer from the threat of poison gas. (Applause.) We have worked hard to build
an undivided, democratic, and peaceful Europe for the first time in history -- inviting Poland,
Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join NATO. I look forward to working with the Senate to
ratify this historic step next year, and I'm pleased today that a group of America's leading citizens
endorsed it.
We're forging new partnerships with Russia, with Ukraine, with Europe's other new
democracies, working with all of our friends in Europe to give the people of Bosnia a chance to
share in Europe's democratic future. (Applause.)
First we stopped the war and turned killing fields into playing fields again, and bomb
shelters into schools. Now we have to redouble our efforts to build a lasting peace. In the
months to come, we will continue to pursue peace in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland;
continue to fight rogue states and terrorists; continue to make sure our military and diplomacy
our the strongest in the world. But above all, in the remaining months of this year, we
are going to reach out to our hemisphere and to Asia.
Over the last decade in the Americas, coups, conflicts, and command economies have
given way to democracies and free markets. Next month I'm going to Venezuela, Brazil, and
Argentina to work to expand trade, to fight drugs, to protect the environment and to
strengthen our partnerships. The Americas can become a stronghold for our own peace and
security.
By the way, 70 percent of our increased trade in the last year has come from the
Americas, from our own neighbors in our hemisphere and we should stick with them.
(Applause.)
Because I want this effort to be truly bipartisan I reached my hand across the aisle to
choose an Ambassador to one of our most important allies and neighbors, Mexico, when I asked
the Republican Governor of Massachusetts, Bill Weld, if he would serve. (Applause.) I believe
still that he is the best person to be Ambassador to Mexico. (Applause.) And I believe -- and I
would believe this if there were a president of another party with a nominee with whom I did not
agree I believe when a president nominates someone for a job that person is entitled to a
hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee, and I think he ought to get it. (Applause.)
This fall, the President of China will come to Washington. China is home to a quarter of
the world's people. In less than two decades, its economy may be the largest on Earth.
America has a profound interest in seeing that China is stable, open, at peace with its neighbors.
We want it to embrace political pluralism and the international rules of civilized conduct. We
want a China that works with us to build a secure and prosperous future. China will choose its
own destiny; but if we engage China, instead of isolating ourselves from her, we can help to
influence the path it takes.
President Jiang's visit is an important opportunity, not so much for grand statements and
dramatic gestures as for constructive work on common challenges like the one we face on the
Korean Peninsula, or protecting the environment, or stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, and
for expanding the frontiers of free trade between us. It's also a chance for us to address candidly
and face to face our differences on issues like human rights and religious freedom.
Sitting down together across the table is far more likely to produce progress than
pointing fingers across the Pacific. So when President Jiang comes here, I hope the American
people will welcome him, and will say, yes, we have things that we disagree with
you about, but you represent a quarter of the world's people, a large measure of the world's
future, and your people and our people will be better off if we find a way to forge that future
together. (Applause.)
Finally, in the next three months, we will be working for new ways to preserve perhaps
the most fragile value of all, the bonds of community that binds us together as Americans. In
this century, we have absorbed wave after wave of immigrants, drawn here by our abundance and
our ideals. This century has seen unparalleled racial progress as African Americans and other
minorities join the American mainstream. Still, the very forces of progress that are propelling us
forward could also pull us apart, threatening to isolate us -- each with our own Web page, but
linked by few human bonds of community.
The age-old dilemma of racial inequality, racial prejudice, or just plain old fear and
mistrust of people who are different from us is compounded by the new task of absorbing new
immigrant groups into what is already the world's most diverse democracy. Within a decade our
largest state, California, will have no majority race. Within just a few decades this entire country
will have no majority race. (Applause.) We can study the demographic patterns and know what
America will look like in the 21st century, but we have to look inside to imagine what America
will be like in the 21st century. That answer is up to all of us.
I have asked the nation to join me in a great national conversation about race, an effort
redress imbalance, to root out hatred and prejudice, to deal with real underlying problems that
may have nothing to do with race but that manifest themselves in racial inequality and tensions,
and, above all, to bring Americans of different backgrounds together to face one another honestly
across the lines that divide us.
Your President noted that you have people from 140 different racial and ethnic groups
here on this university campus. Good for you. You can be America's laboratory. You figure it
out and let us know. (Applause.)
This diversity of ours is a Godsend. It is a huge gift in a global economy and a global
society. If we can find a way not only to respect our differences but to actually celebrate them,
and still say what binds us together is even more important, we will have solved the conundrum
that is paralyzing Bosnia -- that is still leading to people blowing themselves up to kill innocent
children in the MIddle East -- that has my people in Ireland still arguing over what happened 600
years ago -- that has led to vicious tribal warfare in Africa, leaving hundreds of thousands of
people hatcheted to death. And yet, look around this room.
This is a question of imagination, of vision, of heart. And it is also very important to be
hard-headed about it; until everybody has economic opportunity that is real and educational
opportunity that is real and streets that are safe, there will be racial disparities in America which
will manifest themselves in things that look like racial discrimination whether they are, or not.
We have to deal with the underlying real causes here, as well. (Applause.)
But don't kid yourselves -- fear of people who are different is an underlying real cause.
How did people get to be Serbs or Croats or Muslims in Bosnia? How did they belong to the
Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, or the Muslim faith in Bosnia? It's an accident of
history, of geopolitics going back hundreds and hundreds of years. The people are biologically
indistinguishable. But they were more than happy to abandon decades of peace and begin
within weeks to murder each other with abandon and shoot each other's children not very long
ago.
There is something in us all that in our most defensive periods makes us want to find
somebody else we can look down on -- I mean, no matter how bad it is for me, at least I'm not
her or him. Isn't there? And every one of us at some point in our life has been
guilty of that in some way or another.
You come here in this magnificent university environment, you cheer with your great
enthusiasm and hope for the future, you look at each other and you're different and you like it.
That's the way we've got to make daily life in America. People have to get up in the morning and
feel good about this country with all of its diversity, because we have to know what's good about
the differences between us and celebrate them, and we must know, too, what it is that binds us
together: What are the requirements of membership in the American community? What do you
have to believe in and be willing to live by and be willing to stand up for in order to be an
American? That is what we are going to do. We have to visualize our future as a truly
multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious democracy that still runs in a straight line from here all
the way back to George Washington. I'm convinced we can do it, but I'm convinced that all of
you have to lead the way.
Now, let me say that a lot of this work has to be done with Congress. And I'm very
pleased by the relationship that we had working on the balanced budget. I'll work with them to
do everything we can to implement the budget, to confirm the judges and the others who await
action. We are in uncharted territory, to some extent, but we know the times demand action of
us, and I am sure the American people, without regard to their party, want us to work together in
the public interest.
For all of you who are students here, consider this: It is now 844 days to the year 2000 --
to a new century and a new millennium and a new era of human endeavor. Will it bring new
progress, new prosperity, and new greatness for America? It is basically up to us.
Thirty-four years ago here at American University, President Kennedy delivered what
many people believe was his greatest speech. It was an era bristling with superpower tension,
but President Kennedy looked forward and saw a day when the Cold War was a thing of the past.
Because of decades of work to uphold our values by Americans of both parties, we are now
living in the world John Kennedy imagined 34 years ago at American University. (Applause.)
So I leave you with this thought: It all depends on your imagination. It all depends on
your imagination. Think how many children's lives we could save in all these trouble spots of
the world if all the people with power and the people that support themjust imagined their future
in a different way -- just took their heart and their head together and came up with a different
picture than the one they see before them every morning when they get up. It is the most
important force in the world.
President Kennedy imagined the world we are living in today, 34 years ago in the speech
here at American University. Now it is up to you and to me and to our fellow Americans to
imagine what the 21 st century will be, and then to do what is necessary to make that vision a
reality for all our people. That is what I came here to ask for your help in doing -- for your help
and for that of every other American. You've got a lot riding on it. and I'm betting that
we're going to get there.
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)
END
1:14 P.M. EDT
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USA TODAY
September 10, 1997, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 345 words
HEADLINE: Clinton lays out fall agenda Top goals: Trade, education, Weld
BYLINE: Bill Nichols
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton laid out his goals for autumn
Tuesday, an agenda dominated by trade, education and the nomination
of former Massachusetts governor William Weld as ambassador to
Mexico.
In a speech at The American University, Clinton said that despite
the passage of a balanced budget plan in July, "complacency is
not an option and vacations have to remain short. There is, in
fact, a lot more to do." Clinton's fall goals:
-- A campaign for "fast-track" trade authority, which he will
officially kick off today. (See story below.)
-- Weld's confirmation, which has been blocked by Senate Foreign
Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C. Clinton made
his strongest comments yet: "When a president nominates someone
for a job, that person's entitled to a hearing before the Foreign
Relations Committee, and I hope he gets it."
Helms agreed Tuesday to hold a committee meeting to discuss his
refusal to consider Weld's nomination, but not to consider the
nomination itself.
-- Legislation to curb the effects of smoking "that focuses
first and foremost on reducing smoking among young people."
- - National education standards and testing of fourth-graders
and eighth-graders, a policy that has attracted significant congressional
opposition.
-- A national policy for curbing the emission of gases that some
scientists believe contribute to global warming.
Clinton surprised some aides by saying "greenhouse gases" could
be reduced by "20% tomorrow with technology that is already available
at no cost. II
Page 8
USA TODAY, September 10, 1997
Clinton faces opposition from the business community on limiting
the gases. Many industry leaders fear limits will boost their
costs. Few in the White House think the final number will be close
to 20%.
-- Campaign finance reform. Clinton threatened to put the spotlight
on Republicans if they try to kill the McCain-Feingold reform
bill that Congress will debate this fall.
-- Foreign policy issues, especially next month's Washington
visit by Chinese president Jiang Zemin.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, b/w, Greg Gibson, AP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1997
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Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 10, 1997, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 20; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 1016 words
HEADLINE: Students Hear Clinton Tell Of Priorities For the Fall
BYLINE: By JAMES BENNETT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept. 9
BODY:
Declaring the economic and political drag of budget deficits to be a thing of
the past, President Clinton moved on today to a broad agenda for the rest of the
year, trying to summon support for a grab bag of causes from expanding trade to
tightening pollution controls to passing wide-reaching laws to restrict tobacco.
Speaking to his second audience of students in two days, Mr. Clinton again
called on Congress to support his plan for new national tests measured against
voluntary standards in reading and math.
Mr. Clinton also threatened today to direct "the full glare of public light"
toward any senators who try to block legislation to tighten campaign finance
laws. But even as he spoke this afternoon about the peril of money in politics
and a Senate committee sharply questioned a former top Democratic official about
fund-raising, Mr. Clinton planned to attend two dinners tonight to raise
$550,000 for the Democratic National Committee.
Addressing the students and faculty of American University here, Mr. Clinton
invoked John F. Kennedy's vision of a world free from the cold war, articulated
34 years ago at the same university.
"It is up to you and to me and to our fellow Americans to imagine what the
21st century will be, and then to do what is necessary to make that vision a
reality for all our people,' he said.
Mr. Clinton addressed topics as open-ended as whether the rush of technology
could leave citizens "each with our own Web page, but linked by few human bonds
of community." But he also raised more specific matters, urging for the first
time in weeks that his nominee for Ambassador to Mexico, William F. Weld,
receive a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mr. Clinton assured his college audience that Social Security would survive
to benefit them, and pledged in the next three months to appoint members of a
new commission to study Medicare. He also called on Congress to take this
Page 5
The New York Times, September 10, 1997
"historic opportunity" to pass "sweeping legislation that focuses first and
foremost on reducing smoking among young people.
The President was raucously received by some 4,000 students and faculty
members packed into a basketball gymnasium, and flashbulbs pulsed from the
bleachers throughout his 41-minute address. Like most of the President's other
major addresses this year, the speech today divided into the triad of
"opportunity, responsibility, community, " familiar from his 1996 campaign.
One senior aide billed the address, which Mr. Clinton worked on in the last
two weeks of his vacation, as a "back to work, back to school, America's back"
speech. And Mr. Clinton provided a remarkably upbeat assessment of the nation's
health, pointing to low inflation and unemployment as the products of an economy
SO robust that "many of our poorest urban and rural communities are in a
springtime of renewal.
He lavishly praised the recent agreement to balance the budget by 2002.
"Now, after years in which the deficit dominated our politics and dampened
our economy, America finally has lifted that burden from the next generation,
Mr. Clinton said. "After years in which the two parties seemed often as tired
and trapped as punch-drunk fighters in a ring getting smaller and smaller,
finally we found a way for Democrats and Republicans to work together for the
national interest."
After he turned to foreign policy, however, Mr. Clinton sounded slightly
defensive as he described his plans to meet here later this fall with President
Jiang Zemin of China. He called the meeting "a chance for us to address candidly
and face-to-face our differences on issues like human rights and religious
freedom. "
He said that "sitting down together across the table is far more likely to
produce progress than pointing fingers across the Pacific.'
Linking free trade with the growth of democracy, Mr. Clinton called for
expanded trade with Asia and other parts of the world. On Wednesday he plans to
announce a campaign to persuade Congress to increase his powers to negotiate
trade agreements.
For the first time since his address to the United Nations on June 26, Mr.
Clinton returned to the subject of global climate change. He is trying to build
public support for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases before a
summit on climate change in December in Japan.
Mr. Clinton warned that, if it is not checked, climate change could cause
flooding in southern Florida and Louisiana over the next 50 years, and he said
Americans could take cost-free steps to cut emissions of gases that contribute
to climatic warming.
"We could reduce them 20 percent tomorrow with technology that is already
available at no cost if we just changed the way we do things, Mr. Clinton said,
but offering no specific suggestions.
His aides said today that they could not determine the source of his 20
percent figure, but that he was referring to measures like much more widespread
Page 6
The New York Times, September 10, 1997
use of refrigerators and light bulbs that require less electricity.
While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee continued today to
investigate the price of access to politicians, including the President, Mr.
Clinton turned that subject around, saying the primary cause of the mounting
cost of campaigns was "the cost of access to you, the voters. II He called for
free or reduced advertising time for politicians.
Mr. Clinton repeated his support for campaign finance legislation sponsored
by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Russell D. Feingold,
Democrat of Wisconsin, saying, "Every year I have been President, I have
supported a good campaign finance reform bill."
Under the McCain-Feingold bill, much of the money Mr. Clinton planned to
raise at the events tonight -- the unlimited donations to parties classified as
"soft money" would be illegal. Michael D. McCurry, the White House press
secretary, wearily repeated today that the Democrats would not "unilaterally
disarm" by abandoning soft money.
"We'll continue to try to change the rules even as we try to compete
effectively under the rules," Mr. McCurry said.
GRAPHIC: Photo: President Clinton spoke of the need for campaign finance changes
and expanded trade yesterday at American University in Washington, winning
applause from Neal Sharma, the leader of the student federation there. (Stephen
Crowley/The New York Times)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1997
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Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
September 10, 1997, Wednesday, City Edition
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A8
LENGTH: 532 words
HEADLINE: Clinton unveils back-to-work agenda;
Emphasizes trade, Weld effort
BYLINE: By Ann Scales, Globe Staff
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
President Clinton yesterday unveiled his back-to-work agenda, which includes
pursuing authority to negotiate new trade agreements and the nomination of
former Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld as his ambassador to Mexico.
In a speech at American University, where 34 years ago President John F.
Kennedy delivered a speech on arms control still remembered for its eloquence
and vision, Clinton laid out an agenda for three months. Some items have drawn
opposition from the Republican-majority Congress.
Besides Weld and free trade, Clinton said he intends to push for education
standards, tougher environmental laws, a tobacco settlement that reduces teenage
smoking, and a racial and ethnic dialogue.
The president also promised to challenge Congress to overhaul campaign
finance laws, even as he was planning to attend two fund-raisers last night
expected to raise about $ 550,000 for the Democratic Party.
"The news is good today. And in the face of good news, the easiest thing to
do is to rest, to take a vacation, to believe our work is done and to be
satisfied that our challenges are met," said Clinton, who returned to Washington
Sunday from a three-week vacation on Martha's Vineyard. "But complacency is not
an option, and vacations have to remain short in a time still full of challenge
and change."
Before the break, Clinton and congressional leaders agreed on a plan to
balance the budget and cut taxes, following what the president said were "years
in which the two parties seemed often as tired and trapped as punch-drunk
fighters in a ring getting smaller and smaller."
But a spending plan still has to be approved every year, he said, and battle
lines are being drawn over education funding because of the opposition from
Republicans and some Democrats to his plan to develop tests for fourth-grade
Page 3
The Boston Globe, September 10, 1997
reading and eight-grade math skills.
"There are some people who don't think we should do it, " he said. "They say
it's a federal power grab. It isn't. The tests are voluntary. No state, no
school district has to participate.'
On free trade, Clinton said he will launch today "a campaign to persuade the
Congress to renew the traditional authority presidents have had for over 20
years now to break down foreign barriers to America's goods and services.'
Clinton's speech was often interrupted by applause, including his support of
Weld as Mexico ambassador. Clinton said he still believes Weld is the best
choice.
Clinton also said he expected opposition to his support for guidelines to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urged students "to make this a gripping
national issue."
In the end, he devoted the bulk of his speech to his yearlong race
initiative, invoking memories of Kennedy's speech at the same university.
Clinton said the "very forces of progress that are propelling us forward, could
also pull us apart, threatening to isolate us, each with our own web page.'
Saying Kennedy imagined a day when the Cold War was a thing of the past,
Clinton said, "We have to visualize our future as a truly multiracial,
multiethnic, multireligious democracy that still runs in a straight line from
here all the way back to George Washington."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, President Bill Clinton addressing an audience at American
University yesterday in Washington. He outlined his agenda for the rest of 1997.
/ AFP PHOTO
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1997
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Copyright 1997 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 10, 1997, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1005 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Vows Fight for Campaign Finance Law; Revisions in Social
Security Also Pledged
BYLINE: John F. Harris, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
President Clinton vowed yesterday to wage a public fight to pass a campaign
finance reform bill this fall and to revamp Social Security by the time he
leaves office -- two politically volatile issues that he avoided in his first
term.
After supporting an overhaul of fund-raising laws in the 1992 campaign,
Clinton, in five years, has never launched a high-profile effort to pressure
Congress to send him a bill. Each year, legislation died after filibusters in
the Senate, and opponents are saying they will use the same tactic when the
measure comes up later this month.
"They may do it, but if they do it this year,' Clinton told an audience of
students and faculty at American University, "we intend to see that it happens
in the full glare of public light.
On the question of entitlement spending programs for the elderly -- the
soaring costs of which threaten to break the budget in the next century --
Clinton said Medicare would be addressed by a commission to be named by him and
Congress later this fall.
He was less precise about Social Security but, using some of the most direct
language he has used to date on the subject, he promised to do something soon.
"I know a lot of you don't think it's going to be there" by the time today's
young people retire, Clinton told the students. "But it is
It is wrong to
let people pay into the fund for a benefit they will never receive.
"These are problems that revolve around demographic changes in our society
and we owe it to you not to have to face this burden, he said, adding that his
administration "would fulfill our responsibilities" to curb the cost of Social
Security.
Clinton's address, billed by aides as a "back-to-work speech" after his
three-week summer vacation, was a recitation of his fall schedule. And he said
education -- including increased funds for Pell grants to help college students
Page 10
The Washington Post, September 10, 1997
with tuition and voluntary national tests for fourth- and eighth-graders --
would be the centerpiece of the domestic agenda. Following his review of the
tobacco settlement, the president said he hopes to shepherd passage of tobacco
legislation "that focuses first and foremost on reducing smoking among young
people."
On foreign policy, Clinton promised to overcome critics most of them in
his party -- who oppose legislation giving him power to negotiate free-trade
agreements on a "fast-track" basis, and to resist those who urge that he
ostracize China. Chinese President Jiang Zemin is coming here for a summit next
month. "Sitting down together across the table is far more likely to produce
progress than pointing fingers across the Pacific,' Clinton said.
He also appealed on behalf of former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld
(R), his nominee to be ambassador to Mexico. Weld has been blocked by Sen. Jesse
Helms (R-N.C.), who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee; while Clinton has
urged confirmation, he has yet to take on Helms directly.
"I believe when a president nominates someone for a job that person is
entitled to a hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee, and I think he
ought to get it,' Clinton said.
Clinton also told his young audience they have the greatest stake in finding
a way to limit "greenhouse gases."
The Clinton administration will help draft a global treaty to deal with
climate change at a United Nations conference in Kyoto, Japan, in December. He
said he wants students to "make this a gripping national issue.'
On campaign finance, Clinton's remarks yesterday were greeted with
skepticism. He has promised to fight on behalf of a bipartisan bill sponsored by
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), which would ban the
unregulated "soft money" contributions of the sort that are at the heart of the
controversy over Democratic fund-raising.
"If President Clinton has decided to make a major effort for passage of
campaign finance reform, that would be welcome," said Fred Wertheimer, president
of Democracy 21, a group pushing for the McCain-Feingold legislation. "It's fair
to say this hasn't happened in the past."
This time, White House aides said, the president would make speeches and
lobby lawmakers.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has consistently opposed campaign finance
legislation, accused Clinton of highlighting the McCain-Feingold proposal this
fall as a diversion from his alleged abuses in raising money for the Democratic
National Committee. "The 'full glare' of the American people is already on the
problem -- the problem is violations of existing law,' he said.
White House officials said yesterday Clinton has made it clear that he wants
a revamping of Social Security to be achieved by the time he leaves office, but
that he is still mulling options for when or how to advance the issue. In the
past, he has said establishing a commission, similar to the one being set up for
Medicare, is an option.
Page 11
The Washington Post, September 10, 1997
A leader of the Concord Commission, a group pushing for entitlement reform,
said she was encouraged even by Clinton's vague pronouncements. "They are
committing to the process" of making changes, said Executive Director Martha
Phillips. "They are not up to advocating substance yet, but they're talking
process and that is good news.
Clinton, aides said, began working on yesterday's speech while vacationing on
Martha's Vineyard, and was making changes in the hours before delivery. White
House senior adviser Rahm Emanuel said it was intended to "serve as the music
and the notes that Washington will read off of this fall."
The lyrics on Clinton's sheet had a heavy share of boasting. He said his
policies deserve credit for lower crime and a rising economy.
"We are steering the vast changes underway today in technology, trade and our
social makeup, 11 Clinton said. "In all this I want to emphasize that we are not
merely riding the crest of the latest rise in the economic cycle. Our economic
plan with the balanced budget at its center is the platform on which we are
building America's future. "
GRAPHIC: Photo, dayna smith, Neal Sharma, American University student body
president, joins laughter as students and faculty members hear AU President
Benjamin Ladner tell President Clinton that six sitting presidents have served
on the school's board of trustees, effectively putting him on the spot before
his address.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1997
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Orlando, Florida)
For Immediate Release
September 9, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT HILLCREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Orlando, Florida
1:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. When President Waldrip was up here
speaking, I had two overwhelming thoughts. One is that even though I had been made a member
of the PTA, she was one incumbent president I could never defeat in an election. My second
thought was I wish I could take her to Washington for about a month -- it might change the entire
atmosphere up there. She was unbelievable.
Let me say how delighted I am to be here at Hillcrest. I want to thank Principal Scharr
for making me feel so welcome. And, Claire Hoey, thank you for what you said about the
education of our children. And thank you both for the comments you made about the First Lady
and the work we have done over the years for children and for education.
I'd like to thank Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rosello, my longtime friend, for being
here. It's quite fitting that you would be here at this school, which is committed to bilingualism
and to a multicultural future for America. I'd like to thank three members of the United States
Congress who came with me today -- Representatives Corrine Brown, Robert Wexler, and Peter
Deutsch. They're all here in the front row, and thank you for coming. Thank you, Anne
MacKay, for being here. And I'd like to thank the state representatives who are here -- Shirley
Brown, Lars Hafner, and Orange County Chair Linda Chapin, and the Superintendent of the
Schools Dennis Smith.
Let me say to all of you, I was so excited when I heard about this school because it really
does embody what I think we should be doing in education, and in a larger sense, what I think we
should be trying to do with our country. And I'd like to begin by just saying a few words about
it.
First of all, the principal has already outlined it better than I could, along with what your
teacher and your PTA president said, but this is a school that has a lot of different kids in it -- not
only different ethnic groups, they have different religions, they have different cultural heritages.
Their parents have different financial circumstances -- I would imagine breathtakingly different.
I
And yet, if you look at them all together, they're all a part of our future.
And we say in our Constitution, we say in our laws that every one of them is equal not
only in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of their fellow Americans. This school is trying to make
that promise real for all of them. And in creating a community in which they all count and all
have a chance to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities, they're doing what we in
America ought to be doing. I also think some of the strategies are very good. I think the school
uniform policy is a good one. I've tried to promote it because I think it promotes learning and
discipline and order, and gives kids a sense of solidarity, and takes a lot of heat off parents
without regard to their income, and sort of reinforces the major mission of the school. I think
that's a good thing. I think having a school-based academic strategy is important. I think the
literacy programs are profoundly important. And I'm very glad you are involved in reading
recovery. So there are so many things that I think are quite good about this school, and I thank
you for giving me and Lt. Governor MacKay the chance to come by here today.
I want to talk about what we're trying to do in Washington for education and to support
not only this school, but the truly extraordinary effort that Governor Chiles and Lieutenant
Governor MacKay have made here over the last few years to support Florida's schools. And let
me begin by backing up a step.
I'm very grateful as an American to have had the chance to serve and to be a part of what
our people have accomplished in the last six years -- to have the lowest unemployment rate in a
generation; to have in just a few more days the first balanced budget and surplus in 29 years; to
have the lowest crime rate in 25 years; and the smallest percentage of our people on welfare in 29
years; and the lowest inflation rate in 32 years; and the highest home ownership in American
history. And we did it while downsizing the national government to its smallest size in 35 years
and investing more in states and localities and schools. I'm grateful for what all of the American
people have done together.
But my focus today is on what we should do with that. What should we do with that?
Because normally if people have been through some very trying times and very challenging
times and they reach a kind of a plateau, the easiest thing to do is to sort of say, whew, now let's
just sort of sit back, relax and enjoy it. I think that would be a mistake, because the world is
changing very fast. You see that, don't you, if you pick up _and see what's happened in the stock
market you know? We had a great big day, yesterday; we had not such a good week or so
before that. And when you read and you say, well, why is all this happening? Are a bunch of
companies going broke or are a bunch of new companies making a lot of money? And you read
between the lines and see, no, no, it's a lot of things that are happening around the world. What
does that mean?
The more we become a part of the world in America, with the diversity of our population,
the more America becomes a part of the world beyond our borders in our economic and other
partnerships. And the world is changing so fast that I believe what we should do with these good
times is not to pat ourselves on the back, but to say, hey, thank goodness, we finally have the
security and the resources to face the long-term challenges of this country. And that is what we
intend to do with our good times.
That is what I have asked the American people, in this season when as citizens we think
about voting to think about, what are we going to do to deal with the long-term challenges of the
country. When these children get out of high school, all the baby boomers will start retiring. I
know that; I'm the oldest of the baby boomers. The baby boom generation are roughly
Americans between the ages of 52 and 34. And until this group of school children that came into
the last two years, we were the biggest group of Americans ever. Now, if we retire without
making some changes in the Social Security system and reforming the Medicare system so it
takes care of seniors, but does it in a way that doesn't put unconscionable burdens on younger
people -- if we don't do that, then by the time we retire, one of two things is going to happen:
either the baby boomers are not going to have a very good retirement, or we're going to have it at
the expense of lowering their standard of living -- because there will be, for a period of time, two
people working -- only two people working for every one person retired. No one wants that.
We're in good shape now. That's why I say we shouldn't spend any of this surplus that,
hopefully, we will have for several years, that we'll begin to realize on October 1st --we shouldn't
spend it all in a tax cut or a spending program until first we know we've taken care of Social
Security and Medicare, because I don't know anybody in my generation that wants to undermine
their future to take care of our retirement. That's a big issue.
We have to prove in this global economy with, as you know in Florida, with a lot of
global warming -- you had all those fires this year, you had the hottest year in history, the hottest
month you ever had in June -- you know about that. We've got to prove we can deal with
environmental challenges and grow the economy. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people that
don't believe that. There are still a lot of people who think that it is impossible to have an
economic growth in any advanced society unless you are deteriorating the environment. I don't
believe that, I don't think the evidence supports that. We've got to prove that. We have to prove
that.
We have to prove that we can give both quality and affordable health care to all our
people -- the 160 million people in managed care plans. People still want to know if they get
hurt they can go to an emergency room, if they need a specialist they can see it, and their medical
records are going to be protected. We have to prove we can have the most cost-effective health
system and still maintain quality.
So we've got these big challenges and we've got to deal with all these challenges in the
global economy you've been dealing with, reading about. But let me say to you there is no more
important challenge than giving every one of these children -- especially if they start out in life
without all the advantages that a lot of other children have a chance to get a world-class
education. There is no more important long-term challenge for America.
That is what will make us one America, whole, together, respecting each other's
differences, when everybody's got a chance to sort of live out their dreams.
You know, we've all got this on our mind -- I don't know if you all know this, but when I
got off the plane today, the young man that caught Mark McGwire's home run last night was
there waiting for me because he was flown down to Disney World today, which I thought was a
real hoot with his family. And last night, late last night, I talked to Mark McGwire and his
wonderful young son, who's in uniform and always out there. And I got to thinking about what's
Mark McGwire going to do with the rest of his life? What's he going to do with the rest of his
season?
And I'll tell you what I think he'll do. I think he'll hit more home runs and play more
baseball and do more things. But that's what you've got to think about America. How would you
feel if Mark McGwire announced, well, I've been working real hard to do this all my life and if
it's all the same to you, I think I'll skip the last 18 games. Right? Or if it's all the same to you, I
think I'll just stand up there and see how many times I could walk. You would be puzzled, at
least, wouldn't you?
Well, that's the kind of decision we have to make as Americans. What are we going to do
with our good economy? What are we going to do with our improving social fabric? I'd like to
see our country become modeled on what you're trying to do here at Hillcrest.
And in specific terms, I want to say there are some things before the Congress today,
-
some specific education bills that I think respond to the needs of the American people. And no
matter how well you're doing, you know there are still some needs out there. I was especially
impressed by what you said you were doing with new mothers and newborn children and trying
to get kids off to a good start. Hillary and I had a conference on early childhood and the brain
not very long ago, and 1 think we have all underestimated how much good can be done in those
first couple of years of life. And that's very good. Let me tell you -- sort of set the scene here.
The Department of Education today is releasing a report that shows that while we're making
progress, students that live in high-poverty areas continue to lag behind other students in 4th
grade reading and math scores. Fewer than half of all the 4th graders in the high poverty areas
are scoring at basic levels of performance in math. Now, I will say again, you rebuke that whole
idea that there has to be a difference in people based on the income of their parents or the nature
of their neighborhood. That's what you're trying to prove does not have to be. And I believe that
as well.
So let me just briefly review the agenda that these members of Congress -- these three
here -- are supporting, that we're going to try to pass in what is just a very few weeks left in this
legislative session. I want smaller classes in the early grades all across America. You've got that
here. We have a program that would hire 100,000 teachers in the early grades. If we hired the
100,000 teachers -- it's in our balanced budget -- we could lower class size to an average of 18 in
the early grades all across America. I want Congress to help me create safer schools, to continue
to build partnerships with local law enforcement and schools. Just this morning, the Justice
Department has released over $16 million to 155 law enforcement agencies across the country to
make sure we have community-based organizations to prevent crime in the first place.
This school -- I understand you do a lot of work and loan out some computers so families
can learn about computers. I think it's important that we hook up every classroom and every
library and every school in America by the year 2000. We have a bill to do that in Congress and
we want to pass that bill.
We also have responses specifically to that education report I mentioned -- a bill in
Congress to create what we call Education Opportunity Zones, as well as expanding funding for
Title I. It would give extra help to the classrooms, the schools, that are prepared to end social
promotion, but not tag kids as failures -- that want to have after-school programs, that want to
have summer school programs, that want to have extra help for kids who need it -- that need
more resources to do the kind of intensive effort that this reading recovery program here, for
example, requires.
Everybody knows it's one of the best programs in the world. Unfortunately, too many
schools don't do it because it costs money to do it -- because you really have to give intensive
help to these children at an early age.
So I think that's important. A part of that would be paying the college expenses of 35,000
young people who agree when they get out of college to go out and teach off their college loans
by going into under-served areas and urban and rural areas in America. I think that's worth
doing.
And finally, we're trying to fully fund our America Reads program, which will make sure
that we give enough reading tutors and trained volunteers to enough schools to make sure every
8-year-old in this country -- every one -- can read a book independently by the time they're in the
3rd grade.
Now, this is very important stuff. And so far I can't tell you how it's going to come out in
Washington. But remember, I'm not increasing the deficit, this is in the balanced budget that I
presented to Congress. The money is there, so the issue is not whether the money is there; the
issue is what are our priorities and what are we going to do with the money.
Now, not withstanding what Representatives Wexler, Deutsch, and Brown want to do, the
House of Representatives voted to actually cut $2 billion off these programs. The Senate has not
done so yet. They've been a little more encouraging. I don't want this to be a partisan issue;
education should be an American issue. When I go to a school and walk up and down and
shake hands with kids, I don't look for a political label on their uniforms. This is an American
issue. But it is a big issue.
So I would just ask all of you to make it as clear as you can that you'd like for us in
Washington to put the same priority on education that the parents and the teachers and the kids
do at Hillcrest; that you would like for us to try to create an American community like the one
that you are trying to create with your children here at this school; and that there are very specific
opportunities Congress is going to have in the next three weeks where a "yes" vote or a "no" vote
is required, and you'd like to see us vote yes for our children and our future.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
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LEVEL 1 - 22 OF 23 STORIES
Copyright 1998 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
September 10, 1998 Thursday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1; ZONE: N
LENGTH: 1058 words
HEADLINE: STARR DELIVERS CRITICAL REPORT;
LOYALISTS HEAR WORDS: 'I LET THIS COUNTRY DOWN'
BYLINE: By Mike Dorning, Tribune Staff Writer. White House correspondent Roger
Simon contributed to this report from Washington.
DATELINE: CORAL GABLES, Fla.
BODY:
On the day when the report that could determine the future of his presidency
rolled through the streets of Washington, President Clinton delivered his most
sweeping public apology and appealed for America's forgiveness.
As the nation neared a climactic moment in the drama that has consumed the
White House, the president reverted to form Wednesday and took to the hustings,
campaigning for his party and his political life.
In his swing through Florida, originally intended to highlight education
initiatives, Clinton made his latest bid for public support, first in Orlando,
later in Coral Gables. Minutes before news of Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr's report broke, the president was onstage delivering the kind of
remorseful-sounding apology his aides had been advocating for some time.
"I've done my best to be your friend, but I also let you down, II Clinton told
Democratic loyalists gathered for a $300,000 luncheon fundraiser in Orlando. "I
let my family down, and I let this country down. But I'm trying to make it
right. And I'm determined never to let anything like that happen again."
Clinton said he was appearing before the group to seek "your forgiveness" and
ask that the coming weeks be "a time of reconciliation and healing."
"These have been the toughest days of my life, but they may turn out to be
the most valuable--for me and my family. And I have no one to blame but myself
for my self-inflicted wounds, he added.
It was a similarly contrite Clinton who met earlier Wednesday with House
Democratic leaders, whom he must count on to be his defenders as the House
weighs whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings. Under pressure to go
well beyond his initial admissions of error, Clinton is expected on Thursday to
offer similar apologies to Senate Democratic leaders and to members of his
Page 6
Chicago Tribune, September 10, 1998
Cabinet.
"It was a serious, solemn meeting,' said a senior White House official. "The
president led off the meeting in a highly personal way. He talked of his
family, his child. He expressed regret for his behavior. He said he had let his
colleagues down. The president never used the words lie, deceive or mislead in
his discussions with the Democrats.
"Each member then responded and expressed an opinion. None suggested that he
go on television and address the nation again, and there are no plans for that I
am aware of, the official said.
Along with members of Congress, those in attendance included Vice President
Al Gore, chief of staff Erskine Bowles, deputy chief of staff John Podesta,
director of public liaison Maria Echeveste, counselor Doug Sosnik and
legislative liaison Larry Stein.
When asked if resignation or impeachment were mentioned in the White House
meeting with Democrats or if the president has ever talked about them, the aide
said, "absolutely not. I can tell you virtually unequivocally that these are not
being discussed."
The matter of the Starr report did come up. "One of the congressmen said the
report was not facts, just allegations and that Starr would present them in the
harshest light possible,' the aide said. "He said: 'Let's see what he's got. "
The White House staff learned of the Starr report's delivery chiefly through
members of the media, according to aides, who said official word reached the
president late in the lunch at Orlando. He had no reaction.
Clinton, noted for his ability to compartmentalize facets of his life, showed
no visible signs of distress when he arrived in Florida. At the Orlando airport,
he was smiling and laughing when he met Tim Forneris, the groundskeeper who
chased down Mark McGwire's record-breaking 62nd home run.
Clinton soon was working a rope line of children at an elementary school and
laughing on a dais at a PTA president's joke.
Speaking to pupils at Hillcrest Elementary School, he turned McGwire's record
into a parable. Nominally, it was about the need for America to press forward
with social improvements. But it also could be read as a signal against
resignation.
"How would you feel if Mark McGwire announced, well, I've been working real
hard to do this all my life and (if) it's all the same to you, I think I'll skip
the last 18 games?" Clinton asked.
"Well, that's the kind of decision we have to make as Americans, II he
answered.
At the luncheon fundraiser, he faced a receptive audience even as Democratic
office-holders elsewhere sought to distance themselves. A day earlier, Maryland
Gov. Parris Glendening rebuffed Clinton by boycotting a presidential visit, but
in Florida, gubernatorial candidate Buddy MacKay was at Clinton's side all day
Page 7
Chicago Tribune, September 10, 1998
long.
Just before the program began, Clinton sat immobile for a few moments, with
his eyes closed and a look of meditative concentration on his face. MacKay then
introduced him by quoting Martin Luther King Jr. 's admonition that "in the
end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our
friends."
Clinton was subdued as he delivered his apology. Saying the past weeks had
been "the toughest days of my life" and that he had "no one to blame but
myself," Clinton tacitly admitted he had disgraced his office as he told the
story of a schoolboy he had met earlier in the day. The child told him he wanted
to grow up to be a president "like you, Clinton said.
"I want to be able to conduct my life and my presidency so that all the
parents of the country could (think it) good if their children were able to say
that again."
As he moved past his apology and onto political themes for the fall campaign,
Clinton became animated, resuming his characteristic sweeping gestures. By the
end of the speech, he had a relaxed hand resting in the pocket of his suit
jacket. Clinton ended with a plea that the congressional elections not be
decided based on his behavior but instead "be about you and your children and
your future. Shortly after he stepped down from the stage, he learned that
Starr had released the report to Congress.
In Coral Gables, he again hit the theme of forgiveness during a dinner which
raised $700,000 for the Democrats.
"I've tried to do a good job taking care of this country, even when I haven't
taken such good care of myself and my family and my obligations," he said. "I
hope that you and others I have injured will forgive me for the mistakes
"
THE STARR REPORT. THE PRESIDENT'S DAY.
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2PHOTO (color) "I let my family down, and I let this country
down. But I'm trying to make it right. And I'm determined never to let anything
like that happen again," President Clinton told Democrats in Orlando. Orlando
Sentinel photo by Joe Burbank.; PHOTO: President Clinton boards a helicopter
Wednesday at the White House as he begins his trip to Florida. During the
Florida swing, set up to highlight his education priorities, he made a new bid
for forgiveness. AP photo.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1998
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LEVEL 1 - 21 OF 23 STORIES
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 10, 1998, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 893 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Gives Apology, Receives Support at Florida Fund-Raiser
BYLINE: Terry M. Neal, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: ORLANDO, Sept. 9
BODY:
President Clinton left Washington and ventured to Florida today to help raise
$ 1 million for another embattled Democrat -- gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov.
Buddy Mackay -- and to attempt to mend his own sagging political fortunes.
As a growing number of key Democrats in Washington and around the country
continue to distance themselves from Clinton, MacKay gave him a heartening
endorsement, declaring that he had been a great president and a friend to
Florida and that he wouldn't be abandoned in his troubled times.
Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., MacKay said: "In the end, we will
remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Mr.
President, we are not going to be silent. We are going to speak out in support
of the work you are doing to improve people's lives."
Clinton, who had just apologized to the crowd for his mistakes and asked for
forgiveness, took the lectern and said "that if God lets me be an old man, I
will never forget what Buddy Mackay said.'
The fund-raiser was the second event Clinton attended in Orlando today.
Earlier, he spoke at Hillcrest Elementary School, a multiracial, inner-city
school with an innovative literacy program, to tout his administration's
education agenda. And, as he does in most speeches on the road, he spoke of the
strong economy and declining crime rate that have marked his six years in
office. He did not mention the scandal engulfing his presidency.
He urged the 200 or in the crowd to support his legislative priorities that
would put 100,000 new teachers in classrooms across the country and announced
that the Justice Department had released more than $ 16 million to 155 law
enforcement agencies around the country to work with community groups to create
safer schools.
Some in the crowd said the Lewinsky saga paled in comparison with the agenda
that Clinton had laid out for the American people.
Page 3
The Washington Post, September 10, 1998
"He is the president, and he is the leader of the Democratic Party, said
Connie Smith, 59, who runs an early education program. She said Clinton's
enemies were trying to detract from his accomplishments and "create an
atmosphere in which we cannot attend to the business of this country.
As he spoke at the two Orlando events this afternoon, the president was
interrupted at least twice by shouts of "We love you, Bill!" and loud applause.
About 350 people packed the Marriott Hotel for the fund-raiser, offering up at
least $ 500 each to dine on something called "seafood beggar's purse with
lobster sauce,' in an effort to raise $ 300,000 for the state Democratic Party.
Party officials estimated a separate $ ,000-a-couple fund-raiser at the
Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, south of Miami, tonight would raise an
additional $ 700,000 for state Democrats. There, too, Clinton offered apologies
to a sympathetic audience.
After the Orlando event, some attendees said they were satisfied with
Clinton's apology. "He asked for forgiveness, but I think his work speaks for
itself,' said Lashune Harris, 32, a housing authority official from Tampa. "I
think we need to move on, and I think people should realize what he's done for
this country."
Those who attended the three Florida events were strongly pro-Clinton. But
that was not necessarily the case for those who lingered outside the events.
Dozens of voters gathered outside the Orlando hotel and some held signs with the
most direct and harsh messages: "Impeach the Pervert"; "Shame"; and "Starr for
President" were among them. And when he arrived in Coral Cables, a crowd of
several hundred shouted and held signs, including "Save Our Daughters" and "Stop
Clinton. If
Republicans were eager to seize the opportunity to lambaste MacKay and the
Democrats for playing host to Clinton. MacKay's campaign has struggled to get
off the ground and he has consistently lagged from 15 to 20 points behind
Republican nominee Jeb Bush in polls.
State GOP Chairman Tom Slade blasted MacKay's decision to allow Clinton to
help him and his party raise money. He said MacKay should have followed the
example of Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who pulled out of an event with
Clinton, and showed that "morality means more to us than fund-raising.' Slade
added that association with the president would hurt Mackay and other Democrats
come Election Day.
Privately, some Democrats said that MacKay had little to lose considering the
polls. Clinton would probably do more good than harm for MacKay, they said,
noting that $ 1 million was serious money.
But a number of key Florida Democrats didn't attend, including Gov. Lawton
Chiles, who officials said was on a long-planned international trade trip. Sen.
Bob Graham didn't attend, citing Senate business. Even MacKay's running mate,
Rick Dantzler who attended a fund-raiser with Vice President Gore a month ago
was nowhere to be seen. A spokesman said Dantzler was in the panhandle for a
long-planned campaign swing. Three Florida House Democrats did attend the
Orlando fund-raiser, and Clinton singled out Rep. Peter Deutsch for joining him
in Miami.
Page 4
The Washington Post, September 10, 1998
State Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar said inviting Clinton was the right
thing to do: "Obviously, we are pleased that the president is aiding our
Democratic nominee. Obviously, we wish the situation had not occurred, but we
think he's done a good job for the country."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 16, 1998