Remarks in Fall River, Massachusetts

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 7, 1996

The President. Thank you.

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

The President. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Fall River! Mr. Mayor, thank you for making me feel so welcome. Senator Kennedy pointed out I have been all over the world. This is my first trip here. If I had know what I was missing, I'd have been here sooner, I can tell you that. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Are there any Portuguese-Americans here? [Applause] Obrigado [Thank you], Fall River. I'm glad to be here. I'm delighted to be here with all of you. I thank Joan Menard for starting us off and for the good work she has done. I want to thank Jim McGovern for presenting himself as a candidate for Congress, and I hope you'll make him a Congressman. He'd be a good one. I want to thank my good friend Congressman Barney Frank who's here, who used to represent you in the legislature. Thank you, Barney. And I want to thank his sister, Ann Lewis, who is the spokesperson for my Presidential campaign. You may have seen her on television taking up for me. She's going to wind up getting her name recognition up as high as her brother's, and that's a pretty good thing. And I want to thank their proud mother, Elsie Frank, who is here somewhere today. I saw her. Thank you, dear. I am delighted to be here with all of you. But I want to say a special word of thanks, as an old musician, to Our Lady of Light Band and the Mike Moran Band. Thank you both for providing the music for us.

Thank you, Senator Ted Kennedy. And Vicki, thank you for being here. You know, I wish I had as much energy as Ted Kennedy does. I just left Providence, where I was with Congressman Patrick Kennedy, and he was the bounciest person on that stage. Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot imagine the phenomenal impact that Ted Kennedy had on this Congress. After they passed their radical budget and I vetoed it and you made clear - you and people like you all across America, in all 50 States, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, too - that you basically agreed with me and us and not them, it was just amazing what Ted Kennedy was able to do in this Congress.

The Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill will make 25 million Americans eligible to keep their health insurance when they change jobs and say they can't lose it if somebody in their family gets sick - 25 million. And this Congress, which just a year ago was out there trying to raise income taxes on the lowest income working American families, trying to lower the income of the working people with the lowest incomes in the country - thanks to the leadership of Ted Kennedy, on October 1st, which I think is Tuesday, 10 million Americans will get a pay raise when their minimum wage goes up. Thank you, Senator, thank you.

And I might add that bill will also make it easier for people in small businesses to take out retirement plans and for employees in small businesses to keep those retirement plans when they move from business to business. So it's good for workers and good for business. It also has a $5,000 tax credit for families who adopt children who need a home, and I hope more of them will get a home now. Thank you for that bill. It's a good bill for America.

I'm delighted to be here with my friend Senator John Kerry and with Teresa. And I want to tell you, folks, I know that John Kerry has a vigorous and spirited race. But every one of you here in Fall River knows what's really at stake. We're going through a period of great change in this country in how we work, how we live, how we relate to the rest of the world, what it will take for us to see that every American lives up to the fullest of his or her God-given potential.

When I put forward my economic plan in 1993, the other side said it would cause a recession and increase unemployment and increase the deficit. Well, now we know. We've got 10 1/2 million jobs, and the deficit has gone down 4 years in a row for the first time since before the Civil War. John Kerry was right. He's on the right side of history.

When we tried to get past 6 years of talking tough on crime but nothing happening - rhetoric and rhetoric and rhetoric and no action - to put 100,000 police on the street, to ban deadly assault weapons, to pass the Brady bill, the other side, they led the fight against it. But John Kerry helped us pass the toughest, smartest, best crime bill this country has seen in many a day, and the crime rate has gone down for 4 years in a row. John Kerry was on the right side of history, and Massachusetts should stay with him.

And when we were expanding Head Start and passing that school-to-work program Senator Kennedy talked about to help young people who don't go to 4-year colleges get good training and good jobs, when we improved the college loan program by cutting the cost and improving the repayment terms, when we did these things, the other guys, they tried to stop us. But John Kerry helped us pass it. He's on the right side of history. And he's on the right side of history in making college available to all Americans. We'll do it if you give us 4 more years and if you give us John Kerry back to the United States Senate.