Remarks at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 4, 1996

I welcome anyone to these rallies, and I welcome you to theirs. I hope you will never go to theirs and stop them from speaking. I believe in free speech at every university in America.

Now, where was I? We just signed a contract with IBM in which the United States and IBM will produce a supercomputer that will do more calculations in a second than you can do at home tonight on your hand-held calculator in 30,000 years. Recently, scientists were able to have movement in laboratory animals whose spines have been completely severed because of nerve transplants to the spine from other parts of the body.

The human genome project has now mapped out 40 percent of the genetic structure of the body, including discovering in the last 4 years two genes which cause breast cancer. We have more than doubled the life expectancy of people with HIV and AIDS in only 4 years which opens the prospects that it will become a chronic disease. Now all these things are happening -

Audience members. Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp!

The President. - and therefore what we ought to be focusing on today is how we can build a future together that will be worthy of all of our people.

I tell you what I'll do. I'll bet you they won't be doing that a week from today. Everybody who believes in the first amendment cheer.

Audience members. Yea!

The President. Thank you. Now, let's go on.

You know, we heard a lot of talk from the other side about fiscal responsibility. And you heard Senator Glenn say that the deficit has gone down in all 4 years of this administration for the first time, he said, since President Truman. Actually, President Truman had to raise the deficit one year because of the war in Korea. This is the first time in the 20th century in all 4 years of a President's administration the deficit has gone down. And that's a good thing for America. It means lower interest rates, lower credit card rates, car payment rates, home mortgage payments. It's moving us in the right direction.

We're moving from a welfare system based on dependence to one based on independence. The welfare rolls are nearly 2 million smaller than they were 4 years ago - inconvenient for those who would shout down speakers, but it is - 2 million. Now, this welfare reform bill gives us a chance to move people forever from welfare to work. But we still have to create jobs. If you're going to tell people you've got to go to work if you're able-bodied, there has to be work there for them to go to. So we have a plan for that.

We're making our families, our neighborhoods safer. We're putting 100,000 police on the street, taking drugs and guns and gangs off the street. The Brady bill has kept 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers from getting handguns, but no Ohio hunter has lost his weapon, not a single one.

We have helped to strengthen families by passing the family and medical leave law. I tell all of you students here who have not started your families yet, one of the biggest challenges facing parents - I hear it everywhere I go - is how to balance the demands of work and the demands of parenting. Everywhere I go people talk about it. The family and medical leave law has allowed 12 million families to take some time off from work without losing their jobs. Senator Dole led the fight against the family leave law. That's why they're screaming now, and they're wrong, and they won't be screaming.