Remarks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention in Chicago, Illinois

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 24, 1996

In all these debates, a clear picture comes through. We're going through a big change, folks. You all know it. You're having to change. You're dealing with it. We're moving from an economy based on big organizations in an industrial age that do mass production to an economy based on rapid transfer of information and technology in smaller, less bureaucratic, more creative organizations. It's affecting all of us in the way we work and live. We're moving way away from that cold war world where the world was sort of divided in two, into a world where there is a global society and things are happening so fast we can hardly keep up with it. And that's requiring a lot of changes.

They believe that the Government is the problem and that what everyone needs is to be told, "you're on your own. Go out there into the tender mercies of the global economy. Have a great time in cyberspace, and we'll get out of your way." I believe no great nation, at any point in human history, has ever, ever, gotten greater without extending opportunity to more and more people and having responsibility for more people to build a strong community. This is the greatest nation in human history because we have built a middle-class of people, and average people have had a chance to make it if they have done the right things. And that's what I think we ought to be doing into the 21st century.

So I say to them, I want us to go into the 21st century meeting our challenges and protecting our values together. Should we have a smaller Government in Washington and give you folks more responsibility? Yes. Should we walk away from our obligations to our people? No. No. Should we balance the budget? Yes. It will get interest rates down and create more jobs. To balance the budget, do we have to wreck Medicare and Medicaid, undermine education and destroy the environment? No.

I don't know about you, but I think this country was right 30 years ago when we said through the Medicaid program that no poor child or pregnant mother, that no elderly person, that no person with disability should be denied quality medical care just because they can't afford it. I think we've got a stronger, better America because of that. I don't think we're weaker; I think we're stronger.

The majority in Congress today insists that we repeal this guarantee. I vetoed it once; I'll do it again if I have to. I think we're right. I think we're stronger because we honor these obligations. I don't know about you, but I think this is a better country because 30 years ago we decided that through the Medicare program we would provide adequate health care to every senior citizen in this country. And you know, we now have dramatically improved circumstances as a result of it. If you live to be 65 in America, you then are in a group of seniors that have the highest life expectancy in the entire world because of Medicare and Social Security.

Now, should we give people on Medicare more options? Should we expect people to pay their fair share? Should we do everything we can to cut inflation? Do we have to make sure that this program will survive for the next century and beyond? Of course, we do. But the plan that I vetoed, and the one they still propose, would put in place a Medicare plan that would literally create two tiers of care for our seniors and put millions and millions of our poorest and sickest seniors into second-class Medicare. I don't believe in that. I think we're stronger because we treated our senior citizens in a good and dignified way without regard to their income. I believe that.