Remarks in Centralia, Washington

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 23, 1996

The President. Thank you.

Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The President. Thank you so much. Thank you for waiting for us. Thank you for making us feel so very welcome. What a beautiful, beautiful community this is. I love this street. I love these stores. I love all your signs. We do feel welcome to your village, and we're glad you're here with us to build that bridge to the 21st century. Thank you.

I want to say a special word of thanks to the mayor and the other local officials. Thank you to the two bands that played so well for us. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, John Simpson, for your welcome and for the power of your life's example. Now when I leave town I will not have taken any money off you in a poker game, but I hope that won't weaken your support for the Clinton-Gore ticket. We're proud of you. Thank you, sir. And thank you, Gary Locke, not only for running for Governor but for the good, positive, constructive, progressive, future-oriented campaign that you ran and that you will run.

Ladies and gentlemen, the partnership between the National Government and the States is critical and will be more critical in the next few years. We're reforming the welfare laws, for example, and giving the States the power to design programs for able-bodied people on welfare to have to work in return for support for their children. You want people who care about those kids, who want to bring those folks into the mainstream, who have both compassion as well as a strong work ethic. I think you know who should be the next Governor of the State of Washington, Gary Locke.

Let me also say a special word of thanks to the Vice President for what he said about the fight we had last year with the leaders of Congress - with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Dole and those who were committed to their Contract with America. I remember well in 1994 when they went across the country and they won the Congress back. They won as many seats in the State of Washington, including this one, as in any State in the country. And they said a few clear things. They said, "We have this Contract with America, and it will move America forward." They neglected to say they wanted to cut education, they wanted to weaken the environment, they wanted to raise taxes on the poorest working people, they wanted to permit people to raid their workers' pension funds, they wanted to abolish AmeriCorps, abolish our student loan program, abolish the safe and drug-free schools program. They wanted to turn Medicare into a two-tier system. They wanted to stop Medicaid's guarantee of health care to poor children, to pregnant women, to families with people with disabilities, to the elderly in our nursing homes. They left out all that fine print in 1994.

But when they took office we saw what they wanted. They also attacked us for two things. They said the economic program which passed in 1993 raised the taxes of ordinary Americans, their income taxes. It wasn't true. They said that the crime bill of 1994 was going to take guns away from the hunters and sportsmen of Washington. And guess what, that wasn't true.

Well, now you've had 2 years to see them and to see the results of our efforts. And what I want to say to you is the country is going to be looking at Washington State because the voters of Washington State, by the narrowest of margins in five congressional districts, bought on to Mr. Gingrich's and Mr. Dole's "Contract With America." And now you have seen the results. First of all, what they told you about our program was wrong. We have 10 1/2 million more jobs; they were wrong. The deficit has gone down, not up; they were wrong.

You've seen our crime bill. The crime rate has gone down for 4 years in a row. We're putting 100,000 police on the street. Not a single Washington hunter has lost a weapon in 2 years. They did not tell the rural people of Washington the truth. But 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers couldn't get guns because of the Brady bill. We were right, and they were wrong.

And in pursuit of their contract they shut the Government down when we pleaded with them to balance the budget in a humane way. We said, "We're for balancing the budget. After all, we brought the deficit down, and all of you voted against us. But we don't want to destroy Medicare or Medicaid or cut education or turn our backs on our commitment to the environment. We can't raise taxes on the poorest working people in America. We can't allow a raid on our pension funds. We went through that in the 1980's, and I saw too many people have their retirement taken away. Let's just balance the budget. We've got the agreed-upon savings." And they said no; they shut the Government down.

Now, folks, right here in Centralia you're going to be looked to all over America. People are going to ask, did the people of Centralia, Washington, really vote for that contract on America? Did they really vote to stop the commitment to put 100,000 police on the street? Did they really vote to end the safe and drug-free school program? Did they really vote to deprive these fine young people here of the opportunity to earn their way through college by serving their communities in the AmeriCorps program?