Complete Bookshop/CompleteWorkshop.iso/politics/clinspch/clinpa.txt

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Article 4390 of alt.politics.clinton:
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Subject: CLINTON TEXT: NTNL TOWN HALL MTG (PA)
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GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON
NATIONAL TOWN HALL MEETING."AMERICA SPEAKS"
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
6/12/92

Thank you. First of I want to thank all of you for coming tonight.
And for being willing to participate in this National Town Hall
Meeting. I did meetings like this on television with undecided voters
in primary states from New Hampshire right on through to
Pennsylvania. But with have never done it on a national basis before.
We are doing this tonight for what I think are some very good
reasons. As I traveled across America for eight months during the
primary season I found that most people felt in all the states the way
the people in my home state feel. They feel anger and frustration and
disappointment about the way their government has let them down.
They feel genuine worry about the future.  I feel that too. I have
been out here on the firing line; on the receiving end on most of
what has happened in Washington for the last ten or eleven years.
Trying to balance budgets and put people to work and educate
children and adults. And trying to move people from welfare to
work and make this system work.  And I know it is tough and it just
seems to me that the best way for all of us as Americans to make the
right decision in this presidential race is for anybody who wants to be
president to be as open to the American people as possible. To be
direct and accessible to their questions and have worked hard on a
lot of these problems for years so I think I've got some answers but I
know you have some questions. So lets get started.Go ahead.

Q: Governor Clinton I'm very sensitive on the job issues here and
what we are seeing here is the exportation of meaningful jobs into
Mexico and other foreign countries what would you do to keep jobs
in this country?

A: I would first of all give us a national economic plan.  That would
generate good jobs.  We are the only advanced nation that doesn't
have a national economic strategy to keep good jobs here. I would
do it by saying look: Let's look at what we did wrong. What did we
do wrong in the eighties?  In the eighties we did not have a strategy,
we just cut taxes on the wealthiest people and on corporations and
said they will invest in our economy.  But they didn't. Instead the
top one percent of the people got more wealth than the bottom
ninety percent, for the first time in seventy years. But they moved
jobs off shore.  So here is what I think we ought to do:  We ought
to take every dollar by which defense is reduced and put it into
investing in American jobs.  Into high speed rail, in fiber optics, new
water, sewer, and road systems.  Into new highway systems, and new
airplane systems.  Building an economy for the 21st century.  We
ought to change the tax system.  We ought to say to business and
wealthy people: we want you to have more tax incentives but only if
you invest in this country.  So here are more incentives for new
plant and equipment, new businesses, for housing.  But we are going
to take all those ridiculous incentives out of the tax code that are
their now. That actually encourage people with your tax money to
shut plants down and move them overseas.  We are going to have a
tough trade policy that says we want to expand trade but you got to
treat us fair.  We are going to educate and train our people as well as
any country in the world.  And we are going to control health care
costs and provide health care to all our people.  So we can be
competitive.  So those are the things that will give us a national
economic strategy.  And if we don't do it the economy won't
recover.

Q: Governor Clinton I would like to know what your position is on
pushing tax credits and vouchers at the federal level and also whether
you would ever see putting any government money into private
education programs like the Edison Project?

BC: I do not favor tuition tax credits or vouchers.  I do favor public
school choice.  My state was the second state in the country to give
parents and their children more choice of the schools that they
attend at the public school level.  We do provide for vouchersfor
people to go to private child care centers before public schools. And
we provide scholarships in my state that are available for both private
and public universities. But there is a very clear reason why I don't
favor vouchers for public schools.  That is kindergarten through
twelve grade. And that is that our nation already spends less money
on kindergarten through twelve grade education than most other
countries that we are competing with for high wage jobs. And most
states are having a very hard time paying the school bill.  I know we
are. So even though I support the right of people to go to private
school.  And I think it is good for the public schools to have some
competition.  I have spent more time working trying to improve
education than anything else. And my daughter is a seven grader in
the public schools in Little Rock. I still think that private school
competition is good. But I don't think we ought to divert public
money for private schools.

Q: Governor I would like to get your feelings on the working
replacement bill?

BC: I support the bill which would make it illegal to fire to
permanently replace workings that legally strike.  And I hope
something can be worked out on that.  I think that we shouldn't
build an economy by making people work harder for lower wages
and fewer benefits.  That's what we have been doing for the last
twelve years and it hasn't worked very well.  Let me say one of the
things we have to do on the national level what I worked hard to do
on the local level.  Is to say we don't have to chose between worker
and business.  You can be pro-business and pro-worker.  If you are
determined to build a high wage, high growth country.  You know,
if we are all working together on the same team-look at these
countries Germany, let's just take Germany.  The average working
person, people like most of you in Germany, makes 20 percent more
than the average American for a shorter work week with health care
and a four week vacation and Imight add family leave if there is a
baby is born or a sick parent.  None of the things we have.  Why?
One reason is, business, labor, education, government, they work
together. It works.  That is what we need to do.  We cannot get any
where by breaking the back of the people who are working hard.
We ought to lift their wages.  Two-thirds of our fellow Americans
are working harder for less money than they were making ten years
ago.  Including a lot of people in this room tonight.  And we ought
to turn that around.Q: I want to talk about gridlock in government.
We can't get a crime bill passed.  More than 90 percent of the
people support the Brady Bill but we can't get it passed because the
Republicans are filibustering and you can't get it to the floor.  How
could you make a difference in that?

BC: Be President and be for the Brady Bill. I am. And I am the only
one of the three people running for President who will say, "I AM
FOR THE BRADY BILL."  No ifs, ands, or buts.  For those you
don't know what the Brady Bill would require any one who want's
to buy a hand gun to go through a waiting period so we could check
for criminal history, mental health history, for appropriate age.  That
is one of the things we need to do.  This is a real big issue to me.  I
am tired of going to schools-I was in a town the other day were
there were eleven grade schools with metal detectors take the guns
and knives off the eight and nine year olds. I know what it's like to
feel a victim of crime.  Twenty years ago I was robbed twice within a
two year period.  And I lost every thing I owned.  I was really mad
about it.  This world is a lot more violent now then it was than.
We got more and more young people, more and more people with
guns in their hands.  There is a lot more to be done on crime.  But
we ought to start with the Brady Bill. And the reason there is
gridlock-the President doesn't believe in it.  So he uses it as an
excuse not to sign the crime bill. There are a lot other good things in
that crime bill too. More money so that cities like Pittsburgh can
hire more police to go on the street for community based policing.
Believe me we can clean up our neighborhoods. Across the state in
Philadelphia, I walked down a street that used to be dominated by
crack houses, and gangs.  Where people walked safely now because of
a partnership between the federal law enforcement authorities, the
state and local people. And people watching their own
neighborhoods.  We need to do more of that.  But we got to pass
the Brady Bill.  That is a big deal.

Q: Governor Clinton I would like to ask what you plan on doing
about urban plight of the cities, particularly the homeless?

BC: There is a lot of things we can talk about with the urban plight.
And maybe while we are all here other questions will be asked to.
But let's talk about the homeless for a moment.  And think back
ten, eleven years ago when we didn't have much of a homeless
problem.  It was really unusual wasn't it see someone sleeping on
the street? Now you see it in all cities of all sizes. That is because
we've gone more than a decade without a national housing policy.
Housing is not much different than highways.  You have some sort
of investment policy.  Except in America we have both public and
private dollars going into housing. I favor a homeless strategy that
would give more funds to cities to design their own homeless
programs, and would emphasize the lowest possible costs in solving
the problem. Which is to take these buildings that the government
owns-we foreclosed on all these savings and loans properties.  HUD
has foreclosed on alot of buildings. Other federal agencies-we own
houses-those houses ought to be rehabilitated and made available for
homeless shelters. We ought to take people who are out of work and
let them work in return for public assistance.  Have them rehabilitate
thesehouses and then open them for the homeless.  But it is a crying
shame to have all these boarded up houses in America and people
sleeping in on streets. We need to put them together.

Q: Yes, Governor Clinton, I'd like to know what you would do
about getting some form of national health-care plan passed in this
country, with almost 47,000 working families being without any
kind of health care?

BC: Million. Do you have health insurance?

Q: Yes. I do--yes.  I do currently, but I'm currently involved
innegotiations, contract negotiations, that may see those taken away.

BC: How many of you have had to pay more for your health
insurance in the last two years? (Many audience members raise their
hands)

BC: Anybody lost their health insurance in the last three years?
(Several audience members raise their hands)

BC: Let me tell you this-this may be the biggest personal problem
most Americans face.  Most Americans still have jobs.  Most
Americans have access to some kind of education.  But almost every
American family is terrified of losing their health insurance, notbeing
able to pay the bill.  How many of you are in a family where you
couldn't change jobs because somebody in your family's got what's
called a pre-existing health condition so you might not be able to get
new health insurance if you changed jobs? (Several audience members
raise their hands)  Another problem for millions of Americans.  Now
we have to solve this problem.  You need to know-this is like
something else we're talking about.  Like you and I were talking
about this other issue.  Your country is the only advanced nation in
the world that permits this to go on.  This is not rocket science.  It's
not like we can't do this.  You are the only-we are in the only
country in the world that doesn't provide affordable health care to
all Americans.  Why?  Because the special interests in Washington
have a collusion and they don't want it to happen.  They all say it's
going to cost too much money.  Here's my idea.  Every American
ought to have a comprehensive package of affordable health care.
You ought to be able to get it either through your job, or if-for the
self-employed, the poor, and for small businesses who can't buy
insurance, the government ought to offer an affordable insurance
package.  And every Americans ought to be guaranteed a
comprehensive package.  Then the payment ought to be the same,
state by state, whether the government provides it or whether the
employer provides it.  And everybody ought to be involved in the
system.  There ought to be some incentives for cost controls, but the
main thing we have to do is to take on the big insurance companies
and the health-care bureaucracies, drug companies that are raising
drugs three times the rate of inflation.  These things are unforgivable.
You need to know that you country spends conservatively $70 to
$80 billion a year on health care totally unrelated-unrelated to
providing new health care because we don't have a system.  And let
me say, I'm very suspicious of government.  I know that there are
things government can't do, but no nation has solved this problem
without the government taking the lead in controlling costs and
guaranteeing health care.  I will do that if I'm elected president. We
have to do that.  I will do that. It's a big deal.

Q: One of the reasons why our problems are not being resolved is
because too many of our lawmakers spend to much time promoting
themselves and they're relaxed rather than working for government.
What would you do to discourage this and reverse the trend?

BC: I'd do the following things.  One, reform the campaign finance
system.  A lot of those people work hard, but they have to spend
too much time catering to vested interest groups because of the cost
of campaigns and because political action committees can give more
money than people can.  So don't let a PAC give a cent more than a
person can.  Two, lower the cost of the congressional campaigns.
Three, open up the airwaves.  Say if somebody's got a license to turn
a television station or radio station say you've got to give these
people time for debates.  So you can do what we're doing here, so
TV can be an instrument of education, not a weapon of
assassination.  In other words, free up the political process. Secondly,
say to the Congress and the president we ought to live under the
laws we make.  We pass the minimum wage law, we ought to live
under it.  If we pass a benefit law, we ought to live under it.  If we
make something a crime for somebody else to do it ought to be a
crime for us to do it, for people in public life.Those are important.
And the third thing we need to do is to restrict lobbying activities
when they're inappropriate.  Stop the revolving door from
government to lobby from government to lobby, especially for
foreign lobbyists but for domestic too.  Have restrictions on the
impact that lobbyists can have on the system.  Those things, Ithink,
would make a big difference,  We shouldn't have a government
dominated by perks and privilege.  It ought to be dominated by
people, and people ought to be put first again.

Q:  I would like to know what are you going to do about open drug
traffic and stuff because I see it every day.  My neighborhood is
infested with it.  Seems like nobody cares.  It's like we're in a corner
where nobody can see.  It's like they say, out of sight out of mind.
I want to know what's going to be done about that.

BC:  First thing I want you to believe is that something can be done
about it.  This drug business is a cancer that's eating America alive.
And I want you to believe, in spite of everything else I say, that I
care a lot about it.  I have a brother who is a recovering drug addict,
nearly died by getting caught up in this. And I know there are things
that can be done.  You live in a neighborhood where people ignore
it-let me tell you why.  Thirty years ago there were three policemen
for every crime reported.  You know how many there are today?
Three crimes for every policeman. This is not a big mystery, I mean
one of the things we need to do is put more police back on the
street so that your neighborhood has guaranteed policeman and
they're the same people everyday so they know you and you know
them and you can call them at home at night and say there's a drug
dealer on the corner come get it done.  Neighborhood policing. The
second thing you've got to do is to have something for these kids to
do.  If you're going to keep them out of gangs and off drugs have
something for them to do.  First time they get in trouble, instead of
sending them to the penitentiary or ignoring it, which is what
usually happens now, put them in a community-based boot camp.
Discipline, education, drug treatment, and require them to do some
community service work.  Let people get to know a successful adult
in the community.  So more police, more community service and
community-based boot camps. The third thing we got to have is real
close cooperation between the national and the local law
enforcement officials so you know that everybody that the Justice
Department can get off the street as quickly as we can get them off
will be done.  I'll give you that. I'll give you an Attorney General
that believes that every neighborhood is entitled to the same
protection from drugs as the best neighborhoods in this country.  I
think that's important.

Q:  Governor Clinton, the United States is still the most powerful
country in the world economically and militarily and we have a spate
of domestic problems but, as the largest country, we still have
international responsibilities.  How would go about balancing the
two, our international and our domestic responsibilities?

BC:  I'm glad you care about it.  Good for you.  Because we can't
withdraw from the world.  One in five of our jobs is tied directly or
indirectly to trade.  We can't just hunker down.  The first point I
want to make is that you can't be strong abroad if you're not strong
at home.  Remember when President Bush went to Japan on that
trade mission recently?  The whole thing ends in humiliation for us
when Japanese Prime Minister gets up and says, "I feel sympathy for
the United States".  God, that made me so mad.  But he thinks
we're weak at home.  So the first thing we've got to do isto-it's
good for our foreign strength to invest in our own people and our
own economy again.     The second thing we need to do is to say,
"Okay, the Cold War is over so we don't have to spend a hundred
billion dollars a year any more defending Europe".  A lot of those
countries are richer than we are.  What we are going to do is to
promote freedom and democracy and free market economics.  So for
example, I'd be for freedom for Haiti.  I wouldn't send those people
back until we put democracy back in Haiti.  I'd be for democracy in
China.  I wouldn't have done what Mr. Bush did and give all those
trade preferences to China while they're locking their people up.  I'd
be for expanded trade with Mexico and all these other countries but
only, only, if they lifted their wage rates and their labor standards
and they cleaned up their environment so we could both go up
together instead of being dragged down.  We have an incredible
opportunity.  Because you know we used to have to make deals with
people based on whether they were for or against Russia, whether we
liked them or not.  That's not there anymore.  We can just stand up
for what we believe in.  Same thing in the Middle East.  You know I
don't agree with everything the Israeli government does but it's still
the only democracy in the Middle East and I wouldn't do what Mr.
Bush does which is just hit on them to give over to the Arab
position.  I'd say let's make peace, you all make peace, but I want to
see less militarism, no nuclear weapons, and more democracy and
freedom in the Middle East. That's what I would say.

Q:  My question is about social security.  Being far away from
retiring, when I'm sixty-five, will there be a fund for me?

BC:  There will if we get this economy going again.  Right now the
social security system is in fact over funded.  That is, every year the
taxes you pay are producing about seventy billion dollars a year more
than the benefits the retirees take out.  Now let me tell you the bad
news.  The bad news is that money's applied against the deficit,
which means everybody who makes fifty-one thousand dollars a year
or less is making a bigger contribution to paying down the debt than
everybody who makes more than fifty one thousand dollars a year.
Because that's where social security cuts off.  It's justas wrong as it
can be.  But anyway, the good news is the fund is now stable and it
will continue to be stable if we don't loot it and if we get this
economy going again.  The only thing that can really break social
security, if we continue to honor it's compact, that is people payin,
get out, the only thing that can break it is if this economy collapses.

Q: The first question of the night, you explained where the money
would come from to put people back to work. Where would the
money come from for a national health plan and to support our
schools andcolleges?

BC:   Very good question. Money for a national health plan first
because that is where most of the money is. First, you have to
control costs. You've got to have a cost control; you've got to take
on the health insurance companies, the health care bureaucracies,
you've got to give people incentives to enroll in year-long plans
where they pay a certain fee and they get all their needs taken care of
and that they choose their doctors and providers. That's where the
big money is. Then you have to require people to pay into the fund,
based on their ability to pay. Like elderly and disabled people should
be able to buy long term care but they would be charged based on
their ability to pay, and employers would have to pay but small
business people would have a limit based on their revenues as small
businesses. So everybody could afford to buy in, it would cost some
more money, but you would save roughly, and this is amazing, just
on tax dollars alone, roughly $100 billion in the next four years if
you could just bring health care costs in line with inflation.  So if we
all paid a little more in the front to cover everybody andthen put the
lid down on cost and stop the insurance companies and the others
from ballooning the costs we'd save a lot of money. On education, I
propose to pay that by asking people who made money in the
eighties that whose tax rates went down to pay their fair share-people
over $200,000, I'd ask to pay higher income taxes, people over a
million dollars, I'd ask to pay a millionaire's surtax; they'd still be
paying less than they were in 1980, but they'd be paying their fair
share. In the eighties, we raised taxes on the middle class while their
incomes went down and we ought to reverse that; we ought to at
least ask the wealthy to pay their fair share so we can invest in
American education.

Q:  Governor Clinton, a short while ago you mentioned, or you
advocated, a strong support for police enforcement, I also advocate
that but I have to admit a while back my faith in police enforcement
and the legal system was somewhat shaken with the Rodney King
verdict. What would you do to insure that everyone in society feels
that they can receive fairness and justice?

BC:  Good for you. First, I respect you for saying that because it is
not about race is it? I mean everybody said it was about race, but it
shouldn't have been. I think, first the federal authorities should look
into that case and see if there is anything they can do to try to bring
justice. Secondly, people should be prosecuted if they break the law
no matter whether in a uniform or out and no matter what the color
of their skin. The law ought to be the law and there ought not to be
in bias in it. Thirdly, we ought to really train our law enforcement
officials to work with the people in the communities so that they feel
like they are friends again and they feel a different commonality. It is
obvious that those police saw that man as an animal and not a
person and it was wrong. We need to work harder to make sure
people that understand each other as human beings. You'd be
amazed at how many black americans tell me that they walk into a
department store, people who work 50 or 60 hours a week, and
somebody's always looking at them to see if they are going to steal
something. We need to get beyond these stereotypes. Remember,
most people in Los Angeles, didn't loot, didn't rob, didn't burn and
they played by the rules, that's what we ought to sensitize people to.


Moderator: Governor, we only have about a minute left so very
quick question, very quick answer.

Q:  Governor, you've been on the record as opposing the recently
and shamefully, I think, defeated balance budget amendment. If
president, would you submit a balanced budget and if so how would
you accomplish that?

BC:  If I were president, I would submit a balanced budget plan
over a five year period. I don't think you can go from $400 billion
to zero in a year. In this recession you'd have to raise taxes and cut
benefits, you'd make the economy worse. The reason I opposed the
balance budget amendment is that I thought it was a gimmick and a
put off so nobody would really have to make any decisions for six
years and because it did not make a distinction between investment
and consumption. That is, most of you have borrowed money for
homes, for cars, for businesses, right? If the government borrows
money to put us to work, and we'll get it back, that's ok, but we're
eating our seed corn as we say in the farming country. We're
borrowing money to go to dinner at night, that's what's wrong.
And I would support an amendment that would control that and I
will present a five year balanced budget plan if I am elected.

Moderator: Thank you Governor Clinton. Although that was the
last question of the night, people in the studio audience or in the
viewing audience who would like to ask Governor Clinton a question
or who would like more information here is a toll free number you
can call: 1-800-551-5600, toll free call for questions or information.
Governor, about one minute left for a couple of closing thoughts
from you.

BC: Let me thank all of you who watched on television tonight and
all those people who have come to share their thoughts and I am
sure they were your thoughts. I want you to know how much I
enjoyed the program, how grateful I am, how much I hope we can
do more of this. If you saw the 800 number and you have a
question, call it in, and we'll get you an answer. The people here
tonight are like most Americans-they've worked hard, they've played
by the rules and they have not been rewarded. I know that if I
hadn't been a producto f the american dream I'd never been able to
be born in a small town, to work my way through college, and wind
up running for president. Those are the opportunities I want for all
americans. We can bring America back if we will invest in our people
again.  Thank you very much.

End of Transcript