Remarks at a Democratic National Committee dinner in Columbus, Ohio

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, April 1, 1996

We are also doing something we should do more of. This administration has taken the lead in giving America record amounts of child support collections. We can move people off welfare if parents pay what they owe to raise their own kids, and we should insist upon it.

If we want America to be what it ought to be, we also have to give our children clean air, clean water, safe food, and a decent environment for the future. For years there was a serious debate about that. There is no longer a serious debate, we now know we can grow the economy by protecting the environment, and that is what I mean to do.

And let me say to you, it is not necessary to balance the budget to shut down the cleanup of toxic waste sites. There are millions of children that live within 3 or 4 miles of toxic waste dumps. We don't need to shut down our efforts to clean them up. It is not necessary to balance the budget to weaken the laws on safe food and clean air and clean water. It is not necessary to undermine the enforcement of the environmental standards of America to balance the budget, and I will not do it. I will not tolerate it; it is wrong. It is wrong.

Now, my fellow Americans, we also have to realize that much as we'd like to, just because the cold war is over we can't walk away from the rest of the world. I know a lot of people even in this room have disagreed with some of the decisions I have made in foreign, policy. But let me tell you, we are the world's only superpower now. I try not to meddle. There are some thing, we can't do. I don't want to be the world's policeman, but we can't walk away. We have to try to be the world's peacemaker. And every time we make peace, every time we make peace for people in other parts of the world we ensure that we will be a little safer.

Let me tell you, you know, if you just take terrorism, no great nation can hide from terrorism. We saw it at the World Trade Center in New York here. We saw it in Oklahoma City. And when you see bombs blow up innocent civilians in Israel or in London, just remember this: In the world we're living in, with computer technology, with open borders, one of our biggest challenges is seeing the people who are terrorists, the people who are drug runners, the people who are organized criminals, and the people who smuggle weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological weapons, coming together and working together. I am determined that that will not happen, and I intend to keep us involved with every freedom loving country in the world that will stand up to the terrorists and the thugs that would rob innocent people of their future.

Now, it is in that context that you must see this choice. I don't want to sit on this record. I want to build on it. I want more change, not less. I want a Government that is smaller and less bureaucratic. We have given you the smallest Government, not the other party that always cursed the Federal Government. The Democrats have given you the smallest National Government in 30 years and the biggest reduction in regulations.