Remarks at a rally for Democratic candidates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 7, 1994

October 31, 1994

The President. Thank you, Senator Wofford. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Let me say, first of all, before we get into the speech, I want to thank the East Allegheny High School Band and the Pine-Richland High School Band. Let's give them a hand for playing for us tonight. [Applause]

I am proud to be here with Harris Wofford, with Congressman Coyne, with Governor Singel, with your State treasurer Cathy Baker-Knoll, with Tom Flaherty and Pete Forrester, Linda Rhodes, and the congressional nominees. I hope you will elect them. You have a chance to replace these two Members of Congress that are leaving with Mike Doyle and Bill Leavens, and I hope you will vote for them.

Audience members. Yes, we will! Yes, we will!

The President. Yes, you will.

Audience members. Yes, we will! Yes, we will!

The President. I also want to say a word about a few other people who are here tonight: the chairman of the Democratic Party, David Wilhelm, who has worked so hard for all of us. And I want to say a special thanks to some of our friends from the labor movement, without whom so many of our candidates--[applause]. I thank especially Jerry McEntee, the president of AFSCME, who is here; George Becker, the president of the Steel Workers, who is here, and Bill George, AFL-CIO.

You know, this election has a lot of interesting choices. I heard, for example, recently that Senator Wofford's opponent criticized people who go to the Senate to fight for locks and dams.

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. Anybody who criticizes that has never had to create a job or move a product to market. I think western Pennsylvania is lucky to have somebody who fights for improvements in the Mort River locks and Turtle Creek, Elizabeth and Charlie Roy and myself, and you ought to keep Harris Wofford if for no other reason.

I read the endorsement of Senator Wofford in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And he said, contrary to the paid ads of his opponent, I want to quote: "Senator Wofford is not an advocate of mindless big Government. He understands Government can't possibly solve all the problems in a nation, that personal responsibility and accountability must be engendered and demanded. He remains committed to a mission built on service and opportunity, hope and humanity, vision and realism. Harris Wofford is a direct descendant of the enlightened public officials who gave us Social Security and Medicare, those life-saving programs. His opponent is not." I couldn't say it better myself.

My fellow Americans, 21 months ago I went to Washington with the help of an overwhelming vote from the people of Pennsylvania, with a commitment to make Government work for ordinary Americans, to get the economy moving again, to prepare our people to compete and win in the global economy, to make the world more secure and more prosperous for Americans to live and work in. I called it putting people first. Well, you know, we still have problems. There are still people who want jobs who don't have them, people who are looking for a raise that hasn't come, people who are worried about losing their health care. There are still problems with crime in our streets and social problems in our communities. But I'll tell you something, folks, look at what we found: 4 years of the slowest job growth since the Depression, 12 years of trickle-down economics that blew up the deficit and drove our jobs overseas--

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. --20 years of stagnant wages, 30 years of social problems. And after 21 months we are clearly moving in the right direction. We are in better shape than we were before.

I read in one of the papers today, a voter saying, "Oh, I'm sort of disillusioned. I don't know if they've done anything for ordinary Americans." Well, here is what we've done for ordinary Americans. We passed the family and medical leave law. Over 2 million working Pennsylvanians with family members can now take some time off when there's a child born or a sick parent without losing their job. We passed college loans for the middle class for lower interest, longer repayment terms, so that everybody can go to college. Over 1.7 million Pennsylvanians can take advantage of that. We passed the national service program, thanks to Harris Wofford's spirited leadership. Our economic program had tax cuts for over 500,000 working families in Pennsylvania with children in the home living on modest wages because we, the Democrats, don't believe if you work full time and you've got a kid in the house you should be in poverty. We want to reward work and parenting. We voted to expand Head Start and to immunize every child in this country under the age of 2 by 1996. And on all those issues, Wofford was yes; his opponent was no. We're making Government work for ordinary citizens, thanks to people like Harris Wofford.

We made a serious assault on crime for the first time in a generation with tougher punishment, more prison space for serious offenders, more police for our streets, and prevention programs for our kids to keep them out of trouble in the first place. Every last Republican who voted against that crime bill knows that every law enforcement organization in the United States supported it. And a bunch of them voted for it the first time; then it became election year, and they flipped and voted no. They didn't care about lowering crime. They wanted a political issue. Harris Wofford voted to lower the crime rate in Pennsylvania, and you ought to reward him for it.