PRESS RELEASE
October 18, 1996

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESIDENT CLINTON’S FREE AIR TIME REMARKS

President Clinton’s remarks will air on the following stations: PBS, CNN, C-SPAN, NPR and NOSTALGIA TELEVISION.

The issue before the American people is who can best lead our country into the 21st century.

Four years ago, I ran for President at a time of high unemployment and rising frustration. Vice President Gore and I wanted to turn this country around, by restoring our basic bargain: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and an American community where everybody has a role to play. I wanted a government that was smaller and less bureaucratic -- to give people the tools they need to make the most of their own lives.

Four years ago, the American people took me on faith. Today, there’s a record: 10 and a half million new jobs. Rising incomes. Falling crime and welfare rolls. An America that is strong and at peace. We are better off than we were four years ago. Now let’s keep going.

We cut the deficit by 60 percent. Now let’s balance the budget while protecting Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment.

We cut taxes for 15 million working Americans. Now let’s cut taxes to help families raise and educate their children, pay for medical emergencies, buy a home and sell it without paying taxes.

We passed Family Leave. Now let’s extend it, so more people can succeed at home and at work.

We passed the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban, and we started putting 100,000 police on the streets. Now let’s finish that job and target violent teen gangs.

We passed historic welfare reform, and increased child support collection by 50 percent. Now let’s move a million more people from welfare to work.

Above all, we must make education our highest priority. We must make sure every child can read independently by the third grade, and connect every classroom to the Information Superhighway. We should make the first two years of college as universal as high school is today by making a typical community college free with a $1,500 tax cut for those two years, and a tax deduction up to $10,000 a year good at any college.

If we do these things, every 8-year-old will be able to read, every 12-year-old will be able to log onto the Internet, every 18-year-old will be able to go to college.

A balanced budget. Safer, stronger families. Welfare to work. Opportunity through education. That’s the way to build a bridge to the 21st century, and give every child a chance at the American dream.