PRESS RELEASE
October 8, 1996

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESIDENT CLINTON’S FREE AIR TIME REMARKS ON THE FOX NETWORK

QUESTION: Americans sometimes resent the fact that they seem to be working harder...sometimes holding more than one job, yet not getting ahead. What would you do to prevent this?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Our strategy is to raise incomes by growing the economy, creating more high-wage jobs, and giving people the education they need to hold those jobs. It’s working. Wages are rising for the first time in a decade. We have the lowest unemployment in 7 1/2 years. Ten and a half million new jobs. A 60 percent cut in the deficit, lowering interest rates on car loans, home mortgages, business loans. A minimum wage increase for 10 million families.

Now we have to help more people get ahead by balancing the budget without undermining Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment. We need targeted tax cuts for child-rearing, home ownership, health care, and especially for college costs -- because education is the key to higher-paying jobs.

Our opponents have a risky, $550 billion tax scheme that independent experts say would balloon the deficit, slow the economy, raise taxes on nine million families.

My plan will keep our economy growing -- building our bridge to the 21st century.

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