Remarks in Lake Charles, Louisiana

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 28, 1996

The President. Hello. Hello, Louisiana; hello, Lake Charles. Thank you. Let's give a hand to the bands over here. [Applause] Thank you for the music. Thank you. Can you hear me way in the back, back there?

Audience members. Yes!

The President. Thank you. Can you hear me over by the school buses? Somebody up here can hear real well. [Laughter]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be back in Lake Charles. I did not know until I came up on this platform that I'm the first sitting President in history to visit your community. All I can say is, if the others had seen what I see here today, they would have been here a long time ago. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I want to thank Senator Bennett Johnston for his career, for his service to Louisiana and to the country. I will miss him very much. But you know, he was having a good time up here. I think he's enjoying this retirement. Thank you, John Breaux, for being my friend and supporter and for a great leader for Louisiana. Thank you, Congressman Cleo Fields and Congressman Bill Jefferson, for being here. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco, Treasurer Ken Duncan, Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown, Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom. Thank you all. Thank you, Police Jury President Allen August.

I know that there was speaking here earlier for the congressional candidates Hunter Lundy and Chris John. As a Democrat, I like this Louisiana system, finally because we have two people in our Party running for the congressional seat here. Congratulations to the voters here in this parish.

I want to say a special word of thanks to Mayor Willie Mount for her leadership of this community and for what she said about Lake Charles and your motto, "moving forward together." I want to say a little more about that in a minute. But you made us feel very welcome here today, Mayor, and we thank you.

I want to thank my good friend Mary Landrieu for running for the Senate and thank her for embracing and sharing the ideals that we're trying to create for America in the 21st century. And I hope every one of you will help her to help you in the United States Senate in January.

Let me thank Kent Kresea, the CEO of Northrup Grumman, and Jami Lowe. And also I'd like to thank Stanley Leger, the director of the SOWELA Tech College, for giving Jami the education, the opportunity and so many others the opportunity to learn the skills they need to get good jobs for the 21st century. Let's thank all three of them. [Applause]

Let me say - I want to ask you to do one other thing. I asked Jami Lowe - every place I go I ask a citizen to introduce me. And the reason we do that is because I want the American people, the young people here in this audience, those of you who are registered voters, to understand every day that there is a connection between what we do a long way away in Washington and how you live in Lake Charles and the decisions we make together shape the future we have together. But that's the first speech Jami Lowe ever made, and she had to make it to over 20,000 people to introduce the President. Let's give her another hand. I think she did a remarkable job. [Applause]

I want to thank all of you here at Northrup Grumman who work on the J-STAR's program. I did see it in action in Bosnia. Last month, our Department of Defense decided to acquire 19 more J-STAR's for the United States Air Force, and we are trying to persuade our NATO allies to buy them for NATO. This morning, the NATO Military Committee agreed that we needed an air surveillance system; now it's my job to tell them what air surveillance system we need, the J-STAR's, and I'll do my best.

In 1992, I came here to Lake Charles and had a town meeting, and I told you if you would give me a chance to create more opportunity, create more responsibility among the American people, and bring us together more, we would be better off in 4 years. There were 100 people working at Northrup Grumman in 1992; there are 1,400 people working here today. And that story is repeated all across America as 10 1/2 million more Americans are at work, more than half of them in higher-wage jobs. America's on the right track to the 21st century. We've got a 15-year high in homeownership, a 20-year low in child poverty. We've got drops in the crime rate and 2 million fewer people on welfare. This country is moving in the right direction.

I want to talk to you a little bit today about some of the things we need to do. And let's start with Jami Lowe. Most of the people in America who get on welfare do not want to stay on it forever. They want to get off and go to work. They want to succeed at home and at work, the same thing most families want in America. We have worked hard with States to reduce the welfare rolls. And I signed a new welfare reform bill which requires every State and every community to turn the welfare check of every able-bodied person in America into a paycheck within 2 years. That's exactly what we're going to do with more people like Jami Lowe.