THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, my fellow
Democrats, and my fellow Americans: Thank you for your
nomination. I don't know if I can find a fancy way to say this,
but I accept. (Applause.)
So many -- so many have contributed to the record we have
made for the American people, but one above all -- my partner,
my friend, and the best Vice President in our history, Al Gore.
(Applause.)
Tonight, I thank the city of Chicago, its great Mayor and its
wonderful people for this magnificent convention. (Applause.) I
love Chicago for many reasons -- for your powerful spirit, your
sports teams, your lively politics, but most of all, for the
love and light of my life, Chicago's daughter, Hillary.
(Applause.)
Four years ago, you and I set forth on a journey to bring our
vision to our country, to keep the American Dream alive for all
who were willing to work for it, to make our American community
stronger, to keep America the world's strongest force for peace
and freedom and prosperity.
Four years ago, with high unemployment, stagnant wages,
crime, welfare and the deficit on the rise, with a host of unmet
challenges and a rising tide of cynicism, I told you about a
place I was born -- and I told you that I still believed in a
place called Hope. (Applause.)
Well, for four years now, to realize our vision we have
pursued a simple but profound strategy -- opportunity for all,
responsibility from all, a strong united American community.
Four days ago, as you were making your way here, I began a
train ride to make my way to Chicago through America's
heartland. I wanted to see the faces, I wanted to hear the
voices of the people for whom I have worked and fought these
last four years. And did I ever see them.
I met an ingenious businesswoman who was once on welfare in
West Virginia; a brave police officer, shot and paralyzed, now a
civic leader in Kentucky; an autoworker in Ohio once unemployed
now proud to be working in the oldest auto plant in America to
help make America number one in auto production again for the
first time in 20 years. (Applause.) I met a grandmother fighting
for her grandson's environment in Michigan. And I stood with two
wonderful little children proudly reading from their favorite
book, "The Little Engine that Could." (Applause.)
At every stop, large and exuberant crowds greeted me and,
maybe more important, when we just rolled through little towns
there were always schoolchildren there waving their American
flags, all of them believing in America and its future. I would
not have missed that trip for all the world, for that trip
showed me that hope is back in America. We are on the right
track to the 21st century. (Applause.)
Look at the facts, just look at the facts: 4.4 million
Americans now living in a home of their own for the first time;
hundreds of thousands of women have started their own new
businesses. More minorities own businesses than ever before.
Record numbers of new small businesses and exports.
Look at what's happened. We have the lowest combined rates of
unemployment, inflation and home mortgages in 28 years.
(Applause.) Look at what happened -- 10 million new jobs, over
half of them high-wage jobs; 10 million workers getting the
raise they deserve with the minimum wage law; 25 million people
now having protection in their health insurance because the
Kennedy-Kassebaum bill says you can't lose your insurance
anymore when you change jobs, even if somebody in your family
has been sick; 40 million Americans with more pension security;
a tax cut for 15 million of our hardest working -- hardest
pressed Americans, and all small businesses; 12 million
Americans -- 12 million of them -- taking advantage of the
Family and Medical Leave law so they can be good parents and
good workers. (Applause.)
Ten million students have saved money on their college loans.
We are making our democracy work. (Applause.)
We have also passed political reform, the line-item veto, the
motor voter bill, tougher registration laws for lobbyists,
making Congress live under the laws they impose on the private
sector, stopping unfunded mandates to state and local
government. We've come a long way; we've got one more thing to
do. Will you help me get campaign finance reform in the next
four years? (Applause.)
We have increased our investments in research and technology.
We have increased investments in breast cancer research
dramatically. We are developing a supercomputer -- a
supercomputer that will do more calculating in a second than a
person with a hand-held calculator can do in 30,000 years. More
rapid development of drugs to deal with HIV and AIDS and moving
them to the market quicker have almost doubled life expectancy
in only four years. And we are looking at no limit in sight to
that. We'll keep going until normal life is returned to people
who deal with this. (Applause.)
Our country is still the strongest force for peace and
freedom on Earth. On issues that once before tore us apart, we
have changed the old politics of Washington. For too long,
leaders in Washington asked, who's to blame. But we asked, what
are we going to do. (Applause.)
On crime -- we're putting 100,000 police on the streets. We
made three strikes and you're out the law of the land. We
stopped 60,000 felons, fugitives and stalkers from getting
handguns under the Brady Bill. (Applause.) We banned assault
rifles. We supported tougher punishment and prevention programs
to keep our children from drugs and gangs and violence.
Four years now -- for four years now the crime rate in
America has gone down. (Applause.)
On welfare, we worked with states to launch a quiet
revolution. Today there are 1.8 million fewer people on welfare
than there were the day I took the oath of office. (Applause.)
We are moving people from welfare to work.
We have increased child support collections by 40 percent.
The federal work force is the smallest it has been since John
Kennedy. And the deficit has come down for four years in a row
for the first time since before the Civil War, down 60 percent
on the way to zero. We will do it. (Applause.)
We are on the right track to the 21st century. We are on the
right track. But our work is not finished. What should we do?
First, let us consider how to proceed. Again I say the question
is no longer who's to blame, but what to do.
I believe that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp and Ross Perot love our
country, and they have worked hard to serve it. It is
legitimate, even necessary, to compare our record with theirs,
our proposals for the future with theirs. And I expect them to
make a vigorous effort to do the same.
But I will not attack. I will not attack them personally or
permit others to do it in this party if I can prevent it.
(Applause.)
My fellow Americans, this must be -- this must be a campaign
of ideas, not a campaign of insults. The American people deserve
it. (Applause.)
Now, here's the main idea: I love and revere the rich and
proud history of America. And I am determined to take our best
traditions into the future. But with all respect, we do not need
to build a bridge to the past. We need to build a bridge to the
future. And that is what I commit to you to do. (Applause.)
So tonight -- tonight let us resolve to build that bridge to
the 21st century, to meet our challenges and protect our values.
Let us build a bridge to help our parents raise their children,
to help young people and adults to get the education and
training they need, to make our streets safer, to help Americans
succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and
dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come,
and to maintain our world leadership for peace and freedom. Let
us resolve to build that bridge. (Applause.)
Tonight, my fellow Americans, I ask all of our fellow
citizens to join me and to join you in building that bridge to
the 21st century. Four years from now, just four years from now
-- think of it -- we begin a new century, full of enormous
possibilities. We have to give the American people the tools
they need to make the most of their God-given potential. We must
make the basic bargain of opportunity and responsibility
available to all Americans, not just a few. That is the promise
of the Democratic Party. That is the promise of America.
(Applause.)
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we
expand opportunity through education, where computers are as
much a part of the classroom as blackboards, where
highly-trained teachers demand peak performance from our
students, where every eight-year-old can point to a book and
say, I can read it myself. (Applause.)
By the year 2000, the single most critical thing we can do is
to give every single American who wants it the chance to go to
college. (Applause.) We must make two years of college just as
universal in four years as a high school education is today. And
we can do it. (Applause.) We can do it, and we should cut taxes
to do it.
I propose a $1,500 a year tuition tax credit for Americans, a
Hope Scholarship for the first two years of college to make the
typical community college education available to every American.
(Applause.)
I believe every working family ought also to be able to
deduct up to $10,000 in college tuition costs per year for
education after that. (Applause.) I believe the families of this
country ought to be able to save money for college in a tax-free
IRA; save it year in and year out, withdraw it for college
education without penalty. (Applause.)
We should not tax middle-income Americans for the money they
spend on college. We'll get the money back down the road many
times over. (Applause.)
I want to say here, before I go further, that these tax cuts
and every other one I mention tonight, are all fully paid for in
my balanced budget plan, line by line, dime by dime. And they
focus on education. (Applause.)
Now, one thing so many of our fellow Americans are learning
is that education no longer stops on graduation day. I have
proposed a new G.I. Bill for American Workers -- a $2,600 grant
for unemployed and underemployed Americans so that they can get
the training and the skills they need to go back to work at
better paying jobs -- good high-skilled jobs for a good future.
(Applause.)
But we must demand excellence at every level of education. We
must insist that our students learn the old basics we learned
and the new basics they have to know for the next century.
Tonight let us set a clear national goal: All children should be
able to read on their own by the 3rd grade. (Applause.) When 40
percent of our eight-year-olds cannot read as well as they
should, we have to do something. I want to send 30,000 reading
specialists and national service corps members to mobilize a
voluntary army of one million reading tutors for 3rd-graders all
across America. (Applause.) They will teach our young children
to read.
Let me say to our parents, you have to lead the way. Every
tired night you spend reading a book to your child will be worth
it many times over. I know that HIllary and I still talk about
the books we read to Chelsea when we were so tired we could
hardly stay awake. We still remember them, and more important,
so does she. But we're going to help the parents of this country
make every child able to read for himself or herself by the age
of 8, by the 3rd grade. Do you believe we can do that?
(Applause.) Will you help us do that? (Applause.)
We must give parents, all parents, the right to choose which
public school their children will attend, and to let teachers
form new charter schools, with a charter they can keep only if
they do a good job. We must keep our schools open late so that
young people have someplace to go and something to say yes to
and stay off the street. (Applause.)
We must require that our students pass tough tests to keep
moving up in school. A diploma has to mean something when they
get out. (Applause.) We should reward teachers that are doing a
good job, remove those who don't measure up. But in every case,
never forget that none of us would be here tonight if it weren't
for our teachers. I know I wouldn't. We ought to lift them up,
not tear them down. (Applause.)
We need schools that will take our children into the next
century. We need schools that are rebuilt and modernized with an
unprecedented commitment from the national government to
increase school construction; and with every single library and
classroom in America connected to the Information Superhighway
by the year 2000. (Applause.)
Now, folks, if we do these things, every 8-year-old will be
able to read; every 12-year-old will be able to log in on the
Internet; every 18-year-old will be able to go to college. And
all Americans will have the knowledge they need to cross that
bridge to the 21st century. (Applause.)
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we
create a strong and growing economy, to preserve the legacy of
opportunity for the next generation by balancing our budget in a
way that protects our values, and ensuring that every family
will be able to own and protect the value of their most
important asset, their home.
Tonight let us proclaim to the American people we will
balance the budget. And let us also proclaim, we will do it in a
way that preserves Medicare, Medicaid, education, the
environment, the integrity of our pensions, the strength of our
people. (Applause.)
Now, last year, when the Republican Congress sent me a budget
that violated those values and principles, I vetoed it. And I
would do it again tomorrow. (Applause.) I could never allow cuts
that devastate education for our children, that pollute our
environment, that end the guarantee of health care for those who
are served under Medicaid, that end our duty, or violate our
duty to our parents through Medicare. I just couldn't do that.
As long as I'm President, I'll never let it happen. (Applause.)
And it doesn't matter if they try again, as they did before,
to use the blackmail threat of a shutdown of the federal
government to force these things on the American people. We
didn't let it happen before. We won't let it happen again.
(Applause.)
Of course, there is a better answer to this dilemma. We could
have the right kind of balanced budget with a new Congress -- a
Democratic Congress. (Applause.)
I want to balance the budget with real cuts in government, in
waste. I want a plan that invests in education, as mine does, in
technology, and, yes, in research, as Christopher Reeve so
powerfully reminded us we must do. (Applause.)
And my plan gives Americans tax cuts that will help our
economy to grow. I want to expand IRAs so that young people can
save tax-free to buy a first home. Tonight I propose a new tax
cut for homeownership that says to every middle-income working
family in this country, if you sell your home you will not have
to pay a capital gains tax on it ever -- not ever. (Applause.) I
want every American to be able to hear those beautiful words,
"welcome home." (Applause.)
Let me say again, every tax cut I call for tonight is
targeted; it's responsible; and it is paid for within my
balanced budget plan. My tax cuts will not undermine our
economy. They will speed economic growth.
We should cut taxes for the family, sending a child to
college, for the worker returning to college, for the family
saving to buy a home or for long-term health care, and a
$500-per-child credit for middle-income families raising their
children who need help with child care and what the children
will do after school. That is the right way to cut taxes --
pro-family, pro-education, pro-economic growth. (Applause.)
Now, our opponents have put forward a very different plan, a
risky $550 billion tax scheme that will force them to ask for
even bigger cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education and the
environment than they passed and I vetoed last year. But even
then, they will not cover the costs of their scheme, so that,
even then, this plan will explode the deficit, which will
increase interest rates by two percent, according to their own
estimates last year. It will require huge cuts in the very
investments we need to grow and to grow together, and at the
same time slow down the economy.
You know what higher interest rates mean. To you it means a
higher mortgage payment, a higher car payment, a higher credit
card payment. To our economy it means business people will not
borrow as much money, invest as much money, create as many new
jobs, create as much wealth, raise as many wages. Do we really
want to make that same mistake all over again?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE PRESIDENT: Do we really want to stop economic growth
again?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE PRESIDENT: Do we really want to start piling up
another mountain of debt?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to bring back the recession of
1991 and '92?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to weaken our bridge to the
21st century?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE PRESIDENT: Of course, we don't.
We have an obligation, you and I, to leave our children a
legacy of opportunity, not a legacy of debt. Our budget would be
balanced today, we would have a surplus today, if we didn't have
to make the interest payments on the debt run up in the 12 years
before the Clinton-Gore administration took office. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: So let me say this is one of those areas in
which I respectfully disagree with my opponent. I don't believe
we should bet the farm, and I certainly don't believe we should
bet the country. We should stay on the right track to the 21st
century. (Applause.)
Opportunity alone is not enough. I want to build an America
in the 21st century in which all Americans take personal
responsibility for themselves, their families, their
communities, and their country. I want our nation to take
responsibility to make sure that every single child can look out
the window in the morning and see a whole community getting up
and going to work.
We want these young people to know the thrill of the first
paycheck, the challenge of starting that first business, the
pride in following in a parent's footsteps. The welfare reform
law I signed last week gives America a chance, but not a
guarantee, to have that kind of new beginning; to have a new
social bargain with the poor guaranteeing health care, child
care, and nutrition for the children, but requiring able-bodied
parents to work for the income.
Now I say to all of you, whether you supported the law or
opposed it, but especially to those who supported it, we have a
responsibility, we have a moral obligation to make sure the
people who are being required to work have the opportunity to
work. We must make sure the jobs are there. (Applause.)
There should be one million new jobs for welfare recipients
by the year 2000. States under this law can now take the money
that was spent on the welfare check and use it to help
businesses provide paychecks. I challenge every state to do it
soon.
I propose also to give businesses a tax credit for every
person hired off welfare and kept employed. I propose to offer
private job placement firms a bonus for every welfare recipient
they place in a job who stays in it. (Applause.) And more
important, I want to help communities put welfare recipients to
work right now, without delay, repairing schools, making their
neighborhoods clean and safe, making them shine again. There's
lots of work to be done out there. Our cities can find ways to
put people to work and bring dignity and strength back to these
families. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, I have spent an enormous amount of time
with our dear friend the late Ron Brown, and with Secretary
Kantor and others opening markets for America around the world.
And I'm proud of every one we opened. But let us never forget,
the greatest untapped market for American enterprise is right
here in America -- in the inner cities, in the rural areas, who
have not felt this recovery. With investment and business and
jobs, they can become our partners in the future. And it's a
great opportunity we ought not to pass up. (Applause.)
I propose more empowerment zones like the one we have right
here in Chicago to draw business into poor neighborhoods. I
propose more community development banks, like the South Shore
Bank right here in Chicago, to help people in those
neighborhoods start their own small businesses. More jobs; more
incomes; new markets for America right here at home making
welfare reform a reality. (Applause.)
Now, folks, you cheered -- and I thank you -- but the
government can only do so much. The private sector has to
provide most of these jobs. So I want to say again, tonight I
challenge every business person in America who has ever
complained about the failure of the welfare system to try to
hire somebody off welfare, and try hard. (Applause.) Thank you.
After all, the welfare system you used to complain about is
not here anymore. There is no more "who's to blame" on welfare.
Now the only question is what to do. And we all have a
responsibility, especially those who have criticized what was
passed and who have asked for a change, and who have the ability
to give poor people a chance to grow and support their families.
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that ends the
permanent under class, that lifts up the poor and ends their
isolation, their exile, and they're not forgotten anymore.
(Applause.) Thank you.
THE AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: I want to build a bridge to the 21st century
where our children are not killing other children anymore; where
children's lives are not shattered by violence at home or in the
school yard; where a generation of young people are not left to
raise themselves on the streets.
With more police and punishment and prevention, the crime
rate has dropped for four years in a row now. But we cannot
rest, because we know it's still too high. We cannot rest until
crime is a shocking exception to our daily lives, not news as
usual. Will you stay with me until we reach that good day?
(Applause.)
My fellow Americans, we all owe a great debt to Sarah and Jim
Brady -- and I'm glad they took their wrong turn and wound up in
Chicago. I was glad to see that. (Applause.) It is to them we
owe the good news that 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers
couldn't get handguns because of the Brady Bill. But not a
single hunter in Arkansas or New Hampshire or Illinois or
anyplace else missed a hunting season.
But now I say we should extend the Brady Bill, because anyone
who has committed an act of domestic violence against a spouse
or a child should not buy a gun. (Applause.)
And we must ban those cop-killer bullets. They are designed
for one reason only, to kill police officers. We ask the police
to keep us safe. We owe it to them to help keep them safe while
they do their job for us. (Applause.)
We should pass a victim's rights constitutional amendment
because victims deserved to be heard, they need to know when an
assailant is released. They need to know these things, and the
only way to guarantee them is through a constitutional
amendment.
We have made a great deal of progress. Even the crime rate
among young people is finally coming down. So it is very, very
painful to me that drug use among young people is up. Drugs
nearly killed my brother when he was a young man. And I hate
them. He fought back. He's here tonight with his wife, his
little boy is here, and I'm really proud of him. (Applause.)
But I learned something -- I learned something in going
through that long nightmare with our family. And I can tell you,
something has happened to some of our young people -- they
simply don't think these drugs are dangerous anymore, or they
think the risk is acceptable. So beginning with our parents, and
without regard to our party, we have to renew our energy to
teach this generation of young people the hard, cold truth --
drugs are deadly, drugs are wrong, drugs can cost you your life.
(Applause.)
General Barry McCaffrey, the four star General who led our
fight against drugs in Latin America, now leads our crusade
against drugs at home -- stopping more drugs at our borders,
cracking down on those who sell them and, most important of all,
pursuing a national antidrug strategy whose primary aim is to
turn our children away from drugs. I call on Congress to give
him every cent of funding we have requested for this strategy,
and to do it now. (Applause.)
There is more we will do. We should say to parolees, we will
test you for drugs; if you go back on them we will send you back
to jail. We will say to gangs, we will break you with the same
anti-racketeering law we used to mob bosses in jail; you're not
going to kill our kids anymore or turn them into murderers
before they're teenagers. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, if we're going to build that bridge to
the 21st century we have to make our children free -- free of
the vice grip of guns and gangs and drugs; free to build lives
of hope.
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century with a strong
American community, beginning with strong families; an America
where all children are cherished and protected from destructive
forces, where parents can succeed at home and at work.
Everywhere I've gone in America, people come up and talk to
me about their struggle with the demands of work and their
desire to do a better job with their children. The very first
person I ever saw fight that battle was here with me four years
ago, and tonight I miss her very, very much. My irrepressible,
hard-working, always optimistic mother did the best she could
for her (my) brother and me, often against very stiff odds. I
learned from her just how much love and determination can
overcome.
But from her and from our life, I also learned that no parent
can do it alone. And no parent should have to. She had the kind
of help every parent deserves -- from our neighbors, our
friends, our teachers, our pastors, our doctors, and so many
more.
You know, when I started out in public life with a lot of my
friends from the Arkansas delegation down here -- (applause) --
there used to be a saying from time to time that every man who
runs for public office will claim that he was born in a log
cabin he built with his own hands. (Laughter.) Well, my mother
knew better. And she made sure I did, too. Long before she even
met Hillary, my mother knew it takes a village, and she was
grateful for the support she got. (Applause.)
As Tipper Gore and Hillary said on Tuesday, we have, all of
us in our administration, worked hard to support families in
raising their children and succeeding at work. But we must do
more. We should extend the Family and Medical Leave law to give
parents some time off to take their children to regular doctor's
appointments or attend those parent-teacher conferences at
school. That is a key determination of their success.
(Applause.)
We should pass a flex-time law that allows employees to take
their overtime pay in money or in time off, depending on what's
better for their family. (Applause.)
The FDA has adopted new measures to reduce advertising and
sales of cigarettes to children. (Applause.) The Vice President
spoke so movingly of it last night. But let me remind you, my
fellow Americans, that is very much an issue in this election,
because that battle is far from over, and the two candidates
have different views. I pledge to America's parents that I will
see this effort all the way through. (Applause.)
Working with the entertainment industry, we're giving parents
the V-chip. TV shows are being rated for content so parents will
be able to make a judgment about whether their small children
should see them. And three hours of quality children's
programming every week, on every network, are on the way.
(Applause.)
The Kennedy-Kassebaum law says every American can keep his or
her health insurance if they have to change jobs, even if
someone in their family has been sick. That is a very important
thing. But tonight we should spell out the next steps. The first
thing we ought to do is to extend the benefits of health care to
people who are unemployed. I propose in my balanced budget plan
paid for to help unemployed families keep their health insurance
for up to six months. (Applause.)
A parent may be without a job, but no child should be without
a doctor. And let me say again, as the First Lady did on
Tuesday, we should protect mothers and newborn babies from being
forced out of the hospital in less than 48 hours. (Applause.)
We respect the individual conscience of every American on the
painful issue of abortion, but believe as a matter of law that
this decision should be left to a woman, her conscience, her
doctor and her God. (Applause.) But abortion should not only be
-- abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be
rare. That's why I helped to establish and support a national
effort to reduce out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy. And that is why
we must promote adoption. (Applause.)
Last week the minimum wage bill I signed contained a $5,000
credit to families who adopt children; even more if the children
have disabilities. It put an end to racial discrimination in the
adoption process. It was a good thing for America. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, already there are tens of thousands of
children out there who need a good home with loving parents. I
hope more of them will find it now. (Applause.)
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century with a clean and
safe environment. We are making our food safer from pesticides.
We're protecting our drinking water and our air from poisons. We
saved Yellowstone from mining. (Applause.) We established the
largest national park south of Alaska in the Mojave Desert in
California. We are working to save the precious Florida
Everglades. (Applause.)
And when the leaders of this Congress invited the polluters
into the back room to roll back 25 years of environmental
protections that both parties had always supported, I said no.
(Applause.)
But we must do more. Today 10 million children live within
just four miles of a toxic waste dump. We have cleaned up 197 of
those dumps in the last three years, more than in the previous
12 years combined. In the next four years, we propose to clean
up 500 more -- two-thirds of all that are left, and the most
dangerous ones. (Applause.) Our children should grow up next to
parks, not poison. (Applause.)
We should make it a crime even to attempt to pollute. We
should freeze the serious polluter's property until they clean
up the problems they create. (Applause.) We should make it
easier for families to find out about toxic chemicals in their
neighborhoods so they can do more to protect their own children.
These are the things that we must do to build that bridge to the
21st century. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, I want to build a bridge to the 21st
century that makes sure we are still the nation with the world's
strongest defense; that our foreign policy still advances the
values of our American community in the community of nations.
Our bridge to the future must include bridges to other nations,
because we remain the world's indispensable nation to advance
prosperity, peace and freedom, and to keep our own children safe
from the dangers of terror and weapons of mass destruction.
We have helped to bring democracy to Haiti and peace to
Bosnia. (Applause.) Now the peace sign on the White House lawn
between the Israelis and the Palestinians must embrace more of
Israel's neighbors. The deep desire for peace that Hillary and I
felt when we walked the streets of Belfast and Derry must become
real for all the people of Northern Ireland. (Applause.) And
Cuba must finally join the community of democracies. (Applause.)
Nothing in our lifetimes has been more heartening than when
people of the former Soviet Union and Central Europe broke the
grip of communism. We have aided their progress and I am proud
of it. And I will continue our strong partnership with a
democratic Russia. (Applause.) And we will bring some of Central
Europe's new democracies into NATO, so that they will never
question their own freedom in the future. (Applause.)
Our American exports are at record levels. In the next four
years, we have to break down even more barriers to them,
reaching out to Latin America, to Africa, to other countries in
Asia, making sure that our workers and our products -- the
world's finest -- have the benefit of free and fair trade.
(Applause.)
In the last four years, we have frozen North Korea's nuclear
weapons program. And I am proud to say that tonight there is not
a single Russian nuclear missile pointed at an American child.
(Applause.)
Now we must enforce and ratify without delay measures that
further reduce nuclear arsenals, banish poison gas, and ban
nuclear tests once and for all. (Applause.)
We have made investments, new investments, in our most
important defense asset -- our magnificent men and women in
uniform. (Applause.) By the year 2000 we also will have
increased funding to modernize our weapons systems by 40
percent. These commitments will make sure that our military
remains the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the
entire world. (Applause.)
We are developing a sensible national missile defense, but we
must not -- not now, not by the year 2000 -- squander $60
billion on an unproved, ineffective Star Wars program that could
be obsolete tomorrow. (Applause.)
We are fighting terrorism on all fronts with a three-pronged
strategy. First, we are working to rally a world coalition with
zero tolerance for terrorism. Just this month I signed a law
imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key
sectors of the Iranian and Libyan economies. As long as Iran
trains, supports and protects terrorists, as long as Libya
refuses to give up the people who blew up Pan Am 103, they will
pay a price from the United States. (Applause.)
Second, we must give law enforcement the tools they need to
take the fight to terrorists. We need new laws to crack down on
money laundering and to prosecute and punish those who commit
violent acts against American citizens abroad; to add chemical
markers or taggents to gunpowder used in bombs so we can crack
the bomb makers; to extend the same power police now have
against organized crime to save lives by tapping all the phones
that terrorists use. Terrorists are as big a threat to our
future, perhaps bigger, than organized crime. Why should we have
two different standards for a common threat to the safety of
America and our children? (Applause.)
We need, in short, the laws that Congress refused to pass.
And I ask them again, please, as an American, not a partisan
matter, pass these laws now. (Applause.)
Third, we will improve airport and air travel security. I
have asked the Vice President to establish a commission and
report back to me on ways to do this. But now we will install
the most sophisticated bomb-detection equipment in all our major
airports. We will search every airplane flying to or from
America from another nation -- every flight, every cargo hold,
every cabin, every time. (Applause.)
My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I know that in
most election seasons foreign policy is not a matter of great
interest in the debates in the barbershops and the cafes of
America, on the plat floors and at the bowling alleys. But there
are times -- there are times when only America can make the
difference between war and peace, between freedom and
repression, between life and death. We cannot save all the
world's children, but we can save many of them. We cannot become
the world's policeman, but where our values and our interests
are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must act
and we must lead. That is our job, and we are better, stronger,
and safer because we are doing it. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, let me say one last time, we can only
build our bridge to the 21st century if we build it together,
and if we're willing to walk arm and arm across that bridge
together. I have spent so much of your time that you gave me
these last four years to be your President worrying about the
problems of Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Rwanda,
Burundi. What do these places have in common? People are killing
each other and butchering children because they are different
from one another. They share the same piece of land, but they
are different from one another -- they hate their race, their
tribe, their ethnic group, their religion.
We have seen the terrible, terrible price that people pay
when they insist on fighting and killing their neighbors over
their differences. In our own country we have seen America pay a
terrible price for any form of discrimination. And we have seen
us grow stronger as we have steadily let more and more of our
hatreds and our fears go; as we have given more and more of our
people the chance to live their dreams.
That is why the flame of our Statue of Liberty, like the
Olympic flame carried all across America by thousands of citizen
heroes, will always, always, burn brighter than the fires that
burn our churches, our synagogues, our mosques. Always.
(Applause.)
Look around this hall tonight, and to our fellow Americans
watching on television, you look around this hall tonight --
there is every conceivable difference here among the people who
are gathered. (Applause.) If we want to build that bridge to the
21st century we have to be willing to say loud and clear, if you
believe in the values of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
the Declaration of Independence, if you're willing to work hard
and play by the rules, you are part of our family and we're
proud to be with you. (Applause.)
You cheer now, because you know this is true. You know this
is true. When you walk out of this hall, think about it. Live by
it.
We still have too many Americans who give in to their fears
of those who are different from then. Not so long ago, swastikas
were painted on the doors of some African American members of
our Special Forces at Fort Bragg. Folks, for those of you who
don't know what they do, the Special Forces are just what the
name says -- they are special forces. If I walk off this stage
tonight and call them on the telephone and tell them to go
halfway around the world and risk their lives for you and be
there by tomorrow at noon, they will do it. They do not deserve
to have swastikas on their doors. (Applause.)
So look around here, look around here -- old or young,
healthy as a horse or a person with a disability that hasn't
kept you down, man or woman, Native American, native born,
immigrant, straight or gay -- (applause) -- whatever; the test
ought to be I believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
and the Declaration of Independence. I believe in religious
liberty. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in working
hard and playing by the rules. I'm showing up for work tomorrow.
I'm building that bridge to the 21st century. That ought to be
the test. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, 68 nights from tonight the American
people will face once again a critical moment of decision. We're
going to choose the last President of the 20th century and the
first President of the 21st century. (Applause.) But the real
choice is not that. The real choice is whether we will build a
bridge to the future or a bridge to the past; about whether we
believe our best days are still out there or our best days are
behind us; about whether we want a country of people all working
together or one where you're on your own.
Let us commit ourselves this night to rise up and build the
bridge we know we ought to build all the way to the 21st
century. (Applause.) Let us have faith -- and let us have faith
-- faith -- American faith that we are not leaving our greatness
behind. We're going to carry it right on with us into that new
century -- a century of new challenge and unlimited promise.
Let us, in short, do the work that is before us, so that when
our time here is over, we will all watch the sun go down -- as
we all must -- and say truly, we have prepared our children for
the dawn.
My fellow Americans, after these four good, hard years, I
still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America.
Thank you, God bless you, and good night. (Applause.)