Remarks and a question-and-answer session at Kramer Junior High School

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 7, 1994

The President. How will NAFTA affect our job market in future generations? NAFTA will create--and of course, you know I'm for it, so I have my view; there are people who are against it who would give you something else. I believe NAFTA will create a lot more jobs for Americans because Mexico has almost 100 million people and is growing very rapidly. And most of the products the Mexican people buy that are made in other countries are products made in America. In order for us to create more jobs for the American people, we have to have more customers for our products and services, obviously. You look at the unemployment rate today, you can see that we're capable of producing everything Americans want to buy and still not using up all the labor we've got. In other words, we can produce everything that Americans want to buy, and there will still be Americans unemployed. So if we want every American who wants to work to have a job, we've got to have more customers. NAFTA gives us more customers, and it will create more jobs.

It will also--I don't want to gloss it over--there will also be some things that the Mexicans sell to Americans that used to be made by Americans. So there will be some job loss. But I'm convinced there will be a lot more jobs gained than lost. And if I weren't, I wouldn't have supported it in the first place. Drugs

Q. Good morning. I would like to know, how can we keep the drugs off the street? The President. Well, I think there are two or three things we have to focus on. How can we keep the drugs off the street? Your ideas are maybe better than mine. Maybe you ought to tell me how you think we can keep the drugs off the street. I've got two or three ideas I want to mention, though.

One is, most cities do not have enough police officers to give the neighborhoods the kind of coverage they need. Thirty years ago, there were three police officers in this country for every violent crime reported. Today, there are three crimes, violent crimes, for every police officer. So most cities simply don't have the people they need to work in the neighborhoods, stay there, and help keep the places safe and drug-free--first thing. Second thing is that schools should become drug-free areas. You ought to be able to get the drugs out of the schools, and then kids should be taught from a very early age about the hazards of drugs, that they can kill you, they can take your life away.

The third thing is, we've got to bring another economy to the areas where people are doing drugs, because it's a business. People have to have other ways of making a living. We have to create an alternative future.

So I think there's law enforcement. I think there's drug education and treatment, which I know works, because my own brother has had a drug problem, so I know that works. But I think you also have to create another future. We have to tell people--keep in mind, the drugs got real bad in the places where the family and the community and the jobs were all disappearing. So I think we have to again create an alternative reality. One of the things we're trying to do in our administration is to create some conditions in which people will go in and invest money and hire people in these areas where people have been making money off drugs instead of off honest jobs. But you all might have better ideas than that. If you've got any ideas for me about what to do about drugs, stand up and give me one of your ideas. I'd like to have--go ahead. Goals for National Renewal