Remarks at Miami-Dade Community College in Miami, Florida

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 28, 1996

I want to ask every one of you who's here tonight - this afternoon, this beautiful Florida afternoon, to do something tonight when you go home. I want you to do this, not for me but for you. Just take a few minutes and see if you can say to yourself the answer to this question: What do I want my country to be like when we start that new century? What do I want my country to be like when my children are my age, when my grandchildren are my age? What is my dream for America?

For 4 years I've been working on that dream for America, mine. It's simple and straightforward. I want the American dream alive and well for every single person who is responsible enough to work for it. I think everybody should have the chance to live out their dreams and to live up to their God-given capacities. I want this country to be the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity. And I want us to go forward together, where families can succeed at home and at work, where we're living in harmony with our environment, and most important, where we're living in harmony with each other. That is my vision.

And so I have worked to create more opportunity for all, to reinforce the principles of responsibility from all, and to create an American community where every person, without regard to race, color, creed, gender, you name it, believe they have a place at the American table and in the American future. That is what I have worked for.

But now you will decide. You will decide by how you vote. You will decide by whether you vote. You have to decide. You will decide whether we balance the budget and protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment, and research; whether we have targeted tax cuts to help people educate their children and themselves, raise their kids, buy a home, deal with medical costs; or whether we adopt that big, risky tax scheme that would blow a big hole in the deficit, weaken our economy, and force even bigger cuts in education, in the environment, in Medicare and Medicaid than those I vetoed a year ago. You will decide.

You will decide by how you vote. You will decide by whether you vote. You will decide whether we can help more people to succeed at home and at work. Twelve million families have taken a little time off from work without being fired when a baby was born or a parent was sick. It's helped the American economy, and I want to keep it and do more. I want to say that parents ought to get a little time off to go to those regular conferences with their children's teachers or to take a family member to the doctor, to a regular appointment. You will decide whether we do it and whether we build that bridge.

We have started to protect our children from the dangers of guns and gangs and drugs and tobacco. Over the intense partisan opposition, we passed the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. We extended the Brady bill to say if you beat up your spouse or your child you should not be able to buy a handgun; you're a danger to society. We said to the tobacco companies, "You may sell your products to adults but it's illegal for children to smoke, so stop marketing, advertising, and delivering cigarettes to our children."