Remarks in Portland, Oregon

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 23, 1996

Thank you. Good morning, Portland. Mayor Katz, Congresswoman Furse, Tom Bruggere, Darlene Hooley, Mike Dugan. Thank you all for being here with us. Madame Mayor and Congresswoman Furse, thank you for making us feel so welcome in Portland again. Maybe I come back here so often because I like it. I must say, I have to hand it to the Vice President. I didn't think anyone could keep a secret in Washington. Al Gore cut a book deal with a book full of secrets. It never leaked. Now he's telling it all, and he wrote the book under his own name. Al Gore is doing for the Federal Government what he did for the macarena. He is removing all the unnecessary steps. [Laughter] Now, he's got some funny names here. He calls for performance-based organizations - that's sort of a boring title. I think we ought to scrap that title and substitute something more exciting, like "Trailblazers." Would you like that? [Applause]

I want to thank Tipper Gore and the First Lady, too, for some things they've already talked about. You know, we've worked very hard to improve the health care of the American people. That's a big part of moving into the 21st century, to immunize more children, to increase medical research, to speed the movement of drugs to market. In only 4 years we've more than doubled the life expectancy of people with HIV and AIDS in just 4 years, as an example. Finally, we got the Congress to pass the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill that says to 25 million Americans, you can't lose your health insurance or have it taken away anymore just because someone in your family gets sick or because you change jobs.

And yesterday we had three big victories. Congress did, as Hillary said, answer our call to tell the insurance companies that newborns and their mothers deserve at least 48 hours in the hospital. They can't be kicked out 8 hours after delivery anymore.

Congress responded to the work that Tipper Gore has been doing for years and years and years, in a bipartisan fashion that also included Senator Domenici from New Mexico in saying that it is time to ensure that people who need treatment for mental illness get the treatment they need also and without discrimination.

And finally, I want to say a special word of thanks to the work that the Congress did in our continuing efforts to be fair to veterans and their families who have served us in foreign theaters and may have been exposed to dangerous chemicals, when they provided health benefits to veterans whose children are born with spina bifida. Those were three great things to do for America yesterday, and I thank the Congress for doing it.

I'm happy to be back in Portland. I'll never forget what I saw here last spring when I visited during the floods: the true spirit of America, the pioneering spirit is alive and well in Oregon. But I was glad to hear the mayor remind me that you have 10 bridges here, and in Oregon you want to build a bridge to the 21st century.

In 1992, the people of Oregon supported the Vice President and me when we came here and asked you to help us to put people first and to change the direction of our country, to put America on the right track and to change the way Government works, to make sure that when we enter the 21st century, as I look out at this sea of people, that every one of you will enter a century with the American dream alive and well for every person who is willing to work for it, that we will enter a century in which America is coming together and embracing its diversity, not being torn apart by it as so many other nations are all around the world, and that we would not run away from our responsibilities to be the strongest force for peace and freedom and security in the world.

The best days of this country are still ahead of us if we build the right bridge to the 21st century. Now, in this election season you will hear a lot of rhetoric back and forth and maybe a lot of characterizations of people's motives. I've tried to stay away from that. I don't want to demean anybody. I want this to be an election season of ideas, not insults. I want to ask, what are we going to do, not who can we blame. How are we going to build this country and move it together.

But I must say, there are some facts that you can't get around. It is a fact that we have 10 1/2 million more jobs; the lowest unemployment rate in 7 1/2 years; almost 4 1/2 million new home owners; the deficit going down for all 4 years of an administration for the first time since before the Civil War, in the 1840's; a record number of exports; record small businesses. On October 1st, ten million hard-working Americans will get an increase in their minimum wage. Every small business in the country has been made eligible for a tax cut when they buy health insurance or if they invest more money in their business to hire more people and grow .and help America grow. The welfare rolls are down by 1.8 million. Child support collections are up by 40 percent - $3 billion. The drinking water is safer. The air is purer. Our food standards are much higher. As the Vice President said, just in the last week we have reached an agreement to restore the salmon on the Columbia River and an agreement to protect the old growth forest in Oregon and Washington. Just a couple of days ago I was honored to proclaim a 1.7-million-acre national monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument in southern Utah. We are moving this country in the right direction.