Remarks at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 16, 1996

The President. Thank you. Wow! Well, on the way up here Governor Chiles told me that - can you hear? We lost our sound. Can you hear me in the back? I'll just speak up - there it is. On the way up here Governor Chiles told me that as nearly as they could determine, I am the first sitting President ever to come to Panama City. Based on what I saw along the road coming in and the reception you've given us, I'd say the others don't know what they were missing. I'm glad to be here. [Applause] Thank you.

I'd like to thank President McSpadden and all the others here at the community college for making me feel so welcome. I'd like to thank these excellent young musicians who played for us, called the Optimistics. They were great, weren't they? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Dawn, for the power of your example and for your fine introduction, but mostly because you embody what the American dream is all about and the role of education in the American dream. I know all of you here who are students must have been very proud when Dawn Roberts was up here speaking, but I was proud just to be an American, to know that we have people like this and that there are opportunities like this school has given her to make the most of her own life.

I'd like to thank all the military people who serve our country who live in this area. And I'd like to thank all the people who work for Sallie Mae here, who have worked so hard to make college education affordable.

I want to thank Governor Lawton Chiles for being my friend of many years and for what he said today. A lot of people say, "Well, why are you going up there? They never vote for Democrats." And I said, "Well, I remember when Lawton Chiles ran for Governor in 1994, and the Republicans said it was their year and that people in Florida would never reelect him. He kept coming up here and saying that he was going to remind everybody that the 'he-coon' walked just before the light of dawn. And I figured if I came up here, maybe I could find myself a 'he-coon.'" So I'm looking around trying to find one.

I thought I had personally used every down-home expression known to man until he said that. [Laughter] And I'm still learning things from Lawton Chiles after all of these years.

I want to say a special word of thanks and honor to your retiring Congressman, Pete Peterson. He has - as all of you know, he has served his country magnificently and at great sacrifice to himself and his family for a very long time, and I honor him. And I was honored to be able to nominate him to be our Nation's first Ambassador to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war. He will be terrific at it.

Now, in order for me to see his nomination through, I have to get my contract renewed. But if I do, that's a campaign commitment you can put in the bank. He will be the next Ambassador to Vietnam.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's hot in here, and I'm proud you came to see me, and most of what I have to say is preaching to the saved; I realize that. But I want to emphasize to you why we are here, not in Panama City, but why we are here at this community college, because I believe America ought to work the way the community colleges in America work. I believe they are the ultimate democratic institution, small "d": open to everybody, where everybody has a chance; results oriented; flexible, not bureaucratic; working in partnership with the private sector; guaranteeing opportunity for everybody who is responsible enough to seek it.

This is the way America ought to work. And this is what I have tried to work on for 4 years as President. I was sick and tired of seeing Washington politics dominated by hot air, negative charges, and I sought to bring an end to the politics of "who's to blame" and to substitute for that "what are we going to do to make America a better place?"

I think it's plain that America is on the right track to the 21st century. We got some more information today: Last month our economy created another 250,000 jobs; our unemployment rate - as a nation our unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 percent, the lowest in 7 1/2 years; wages are going up again for the first time in a decade. We have record numbers of new small businesses, record numbers of American exports all over the world. Our auto production is number one again in the world for the first time since the 1970's; home ownership at a 15-year high.

The minimum wage will go into effect, the increase, in October, and it will raise wages for 10 million of the hardest-working working people in this country. I think that's a good thing. Twenty-five million Americans, including some of you in this audience, I'll bet, will be helped by the passage of the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill, which says to Americans, "You cannot lose your health insurance or be denied it if you change jobs or just because someone in your family has been sick." That's what insurance is for.

For the first time since before the Civil War, in the 1840's, we have reduced the Government's enormous budget deficit in all 4 years, a total of 60 percent, for the first time in well over 100 years. We can be proud of that. We are moving in the right direction. We're on the right track.