H.Doc.105-9 STATUS ON IRAQ ...

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conference at school without losing their jobs. We've got to 
make it possible for working parents to succeed at work at home 
with their children and with their parents. [Applause.]
    I want to make a college education available to every 
person in this country who's willing to work for it. I think we 
ought to--the most important tax cut we could pass in America 
today is to give people a deduction for the cost of college 
education, their own or their kids. [Applause.] And I would 
like to see, I would very much like to see us make the two 
years of education after high school that most Americans now 
get in community college, I want that to become just as 
universal in the next couple of years as a high school 
education is today. So I propose a tax credit for the cost of 
community college for the next two years after high school. 
[Applause.] That'd be a good thing to do.
    And finally, let me just mention this last duty. We have a 
duty to respect our differences and to learn to bridge the gaps 
between us. If you look around the world today, what's fueling 
a lot of this terrorism? What caused all the slaughter in 
Burundi and Rwanda? Why did people who lived for decades in 
peace in Bosnia all of a sudden become the sort of nagging 
agony of the entire world, slaughtering each other with 
reckless abandon after having lived in peace together for 
decades, neighbor against neighbor, killing each other?
    Why can't we fix what's gone wrong in the Middle East? Why 
did Northern Ireland start violence again after 15 months of 
peace when they've got the lowest unemployment rate in 15 
years? And when Hillary and I went there, we were mobbed by 
Catholic and Irish young people alike saying, ``We love peace. 
We don't want to go back to war.'' What happened?
    Because throughout history there has been an atrocious 
tendency among human beings to give in to racial, ethnic, 
religious and tribal hatred. [Applause.] And as your generation 
helped to ensure victory for us in the Cold War, so that 
billions of people every day didn't have to get up wondering 
about whether someone was going to drop a bomb on them from the 
communist or the noncommunist world, depending on what side of 
that Cold War they lived on, and people were able to relax, too 
many have fallen back into the old patterns of racial, 
religious, ethnic and tribal hatreds.
    Why do people hate other people who are different from 
them? Either because they think they won't permit them to live 
as they want to live or, more likely, they really need somebody 
to look down on.
    Your know, I guess nobody has a perfect family, but I'll go 
to my grave being grateful for my mother telling me, ``Don't 
your ever, don't you ever feel better because of somebody 
else's misfortune. You should feel better because of what you 
are and what you do. Don't ever think you've got to put 
somebody else down because of that.'' [Applause.]
    But all over the world there are people that will get up 
tomorrow morning and start out the new week defining themselves 
in terms of who they can hate, who they can look down on, who 
they can hurt. And it is a cancer of the modern world. We fight 
it on its most flagrant basis when we stand against terrorism. 
But we have to also recommit ourselves to purging every vestige 
of it in the United States.
    The United States military has done a better job than any 
other organization in our society, I believe, in opening up 
opportunities for people based on merit: 250,000 new roles for 
women in the last three and a half years in the military. I'm 
proud of that. [Applause.]
    We not only have in General Powell an African American who 
became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, we have a record number of 
officers now reaching the ``general'' rank who are African 
American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American, 
Jewish American, coming from all kinds of backgrounds, in an 
organization that runs strictly on merit and depends upon 
performance for our very survival.
    And yet even there, the other day at Fort Bragg, one of the 
centers of our patriotism, the home of the Special Forces, 
African American soldiers had swastikas painted on their doors. 
We have to work to purge this.
    All of these church burnings--I just learned that over the 
weekend, a church in my home state was burned--African American 
churches, synagogues defaced, three Islamic centers burned. 
That is the opposite of what America is all about.
    When Hillary and I visited our Olympic team and I looked at 
them, I can't help telling you, first of all, I was just 
bursting with pride, and I told them. I said, ``You know, just 
the fact that you made this team should give you great pride 
and great joy. And you should go out among the people of the 
world here and relish the spirit of peace and freedom and 
equality that exists here.''
    And it was a magical moment. One of the young people said 
that they'd been to lunch the day before, and the athletes from 
South Korea and North Korea were sitting at tables next to each 
other and talking. And I though, shoot, I've been trying for 
three and a half years to get them to talk, and I couldn't do 
it. [Laughter and applause.] It was a magic moment. I couldn't 
do it. [Applause.]
    But what struck me about the American team was this: If the 
American team broke up and were just walking in the Olympic 
Village, you could see them and think, well, that athlete is 
from Africa; that athlete's from Latin American; that athlete's 
from the Caribbean; that athlete's from Scandinavia; that 
athlete's from the Middle East. But they could all be 
Americans, because we are bound together, not by our race, but 
by our fidelity to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the 
Declaration of Independence, and our belief that we can all 
live here in peace and harmony and mutual respect.
    So I leave you with that thought. If we meet our 
responsibilities to each other and to our children and to our 
future, our responsibilities to the world, and if we meet our 
fundamental responsibility to go forward together in mutual 
respect, then our days are going to get better, and our best 
days are still to come.
    You can have an enormous influence wherever you live and 
whatever you do because of your service to America in uniform 
and because of the sacrifice of that service, if you will 
remind your fellow Americans of those fundamental lessons.
    Thank you and God bless you. [Rising applause.]
    Commander McMasters. Thank you, Mr. President, for being 
part of our convention.
    We are indeed honored to have with us today our nation's 
Number 1 veterans' advocate. Shortly after he assumed this high 
office, Jesse Brown served notice that he would be Secretary 
for Veterans Affairs, not Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
    Those of use who know him, who are aware of his track 
record as an advocate with the DAV, know Jesse's self-
designated title change signaled a new beginning, a new 
beginning that made the Department of Veterans Affairs 
accountable to its constituency, as captured in the new VA 
motto, ``Putting Veterans First''; a new beginning for 
improving VA health care, and a new beginning that saw a 
genuine and caring concern for our women and homeless veterans; 
a new beginning that pushed to the forefront the needs of our 
Persian Gulf veterans and former POWs, and broadened benefits 
criteria for Vietnam veterans ravaged by Agent Orange.
    It is a long road from the streets of Chicago, through the 
jungles of Vietnam to the halls of the White House and a seat 
at the Cabinet Room table. Jesse Brown has walked that road 
with one thing in mind: Serving the country he dearly loves.
    The path of innovative change that Jesse Brown chose to 
walk for all of us has been littered with opposition. Jesse 
Brown has met these challenges with vigor and determination. 
For that, we are in his debt, and we will walk proudly with him 
as we join in confronting challenges on the horizon.
    Jesse is an incredible man. In one person he combines not 
only the most knowledgeable person ever to head the VA, but the 
most compassionate as well. He is a man of great spirit, great 
courage and great strength.
    The Marines looked for a good man in Jesse Brown. America 
found a great man.
    Please extend a warm welcome to the Honorable Jesse Brown, 
the Secretary for Veterans Affairs. [Rising applause.]
    Secretary for Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown. Thank you. 
thank you very much, Commander, for that very kind and warm 
reception. I'm delighted to be here and to see my good friend, 
National Adjutant Wilson; our National Auxiliary Commander 
Hicks; our National Auxiliary Adjutant Tedrow; my good friend, 
Jack Feighner; distinguished guests; my fellow DAV members; 
ladies and gentlemen: I want you to know that again, I am 
really delighted to be here, and it is clear that I have a hard 
act to follow. [Laughter.]
    But I can tell you--you know, they cut my travel. They got 
so mad at me there in Washington, D.C., because I've been 
running around the country telling the veterans what they were 
doing to them. But they cut my travel, but they don't know that 
I'm really glad to be out of Washington, D.C. [Laughter and 
applause.]
    You know, it's like a soap opera there. Those new 
politicians came to Washington thinking they were the ``Bold 
and the Beautiful.'' [Laughter.] And they are trying to turn 
this country into ``Another World.'' [Laughter.] But in the 
eyes of America, they look more like ``The Young and the 
Restless.'' [Laughter and applause.] Because we know that if 
they have their way, ``All My Children'' could be thrown out of 
the ``General Hospital.'' [Laughter.] We just cannot allow them 
to interfere with the ``Days of Our Lives.'' [Laughter.] But 
I'm here to tell you today that I've seen ``The Guiding 
Light.'' [Laughter.] And if they do not change their ways by 
November, they just have ``One Life to Live.'' [Laughter and 
Applause.]
    Hey, please don't tell them I said that. They'll take the 
other 25 percent away from me. [Laughter.]
    It's really kind of funny, but unfortunately it is true. 
They have turned the civil tides of politics to an atmosphere 
of hostility, and that is why we in the Veterans community must 
remain focused on the men and women who have borne the battle.
    1996 is the year of the Olympics. The world is focused on 
the men and women overcoming challenges. The athletes are 
competing at the top of their form. And all of them are working 
hard, very hard, to get the gold. When the record books are 
closed, all athletes want to know that they have done their 
very best.
    These past three and a half years seem like a marathon to 
me. I have run the best race that I know how, and it has not 
been easy. I have put my heart and soul into what I believe is 
right for veterans and their families.
    When I became your Secretary for Veterans Affairs, I had a 
vision for change. The first step was to create an atmosphere 
where putting veterans first was our Number 1 priority. Putting 
veterans first became more than a slogan; it became our 
mission.
    The system is not perfect. No system is. The race is not 
over, and we are still running hard. But veterans know that VA 
is more responsive to their needs than four years ago. And it 
is also no secret that historically veterans' organizations 
felt that they were outsiders. When I accepted this job, that 
was one of the first things that I changed.
    Today, veterans and VA are partners. We make decisions 
together. During this administration, veterans have had a 
greater access to the VA and the White House, and it is making 
a difference.
    In 1993, we inherited a huge backlog of claims, and it was 
getting worse. But we turned that around. The waiting time is 
down and getting better. That is putting veterans first.
    The veterans we serve are getting older. Their health care 
needs are changing, and we are changing the way we deliver 
health care. We are creating more places for veterans to 
receive medical attention. We have reorganized our hospitals, 
clinics and nursing homes into 22 integrated networks. We're 
shifting our focus from in-patient to outpatient care. We have 
taken advantage of the economies of scale in may areas, such as 
pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.
    And yes, we have sent Congress a plan for national 
eligibility reform. We need to get away from those old laws 
that prevent VA from providing full, comprehensive health care 
to our veterans. Veterans need a health care system that 
provides them with everything that they need in order to stay 
healthy, and anything less is unacceptable.
    Our progress has not come easy. The past two years have 
been difficult. But we have survived. We have survived the 
challenge to end compensation to some incompetent veterans and 
two government shutdowns which delayed compensation and pension 
payments.
    At the same time, we have made important advances on issues 
that are important to us, issues such as improving health care; 
Agent Orange; post-traumatic stress disorder; Persian Gulf 
illness; improving services for women veterans; POWs; helping 
homeless veterans; and burying our veterans with dignity.
    These are examples of what we can do if we work together. 
And yet I do not believe for one moment that we can let our 
guard down, because the threat to veterans' benefits will not 
go away. There will always be those who want veterans to share 
the pain of shrinking the costs of government.
    But we must say to them loud and clear: Don't talk to 
veterans about sharing pain. We're no longer the young men and 
women we used to be. But we know pain very well: In World War 
II, 400,000 dead, 700,000 wounded; Korea, 54,000 dead, 100,000 
wounded; Vietnam, 58,000 dead, over 300,000 wounded; and those 
brave warriors who died in Saudi Arabia, victims of a cowardly 
act. That is pain. Pain mingled with the wounded cries and the 
silence of the dead. And that is why we will never, never give 
up.
    We in the veterans community show honor for our dead by 
responding to the needs of the living. Because, for the living, 
the cost of war continues after the guns fall silent. That is 
putting veterans first, and that is what the VA is all about.
    It should be about change, change that responds to the 
needs of veterans and their families. But we cannot support and 
will not support the unreasonable changes that have been 
considered there in Washington, D.C., changes like taxing 
compensation and pensions; terminating compensation for 
veterans rated 10 and 20 percent disabled; means testing 
service-connected disabliblity compensation; and redefining 
service connection.
    And what stopped those attacks on our benefits from 
becoming law? Veterans, their families and our friends in 
Congress.
    And what about the future? The President has promised to 
make sure that the nation honors its commitment to veterans. He 
promised to negotiate the budget for veterans every year, and 
he's done that. This year, President Clinton recommended a 
billion-dollar increase in discretionary spending for the VA, 
but Congress cut it by $915 million. And I say to you that we 
needed that money for our hospitals.
    And, as I have already said, Congress cut my travel money 
by 75 percent. That was an obvious attempt to keep me from 
speaking out against unfair cuts to veterans' programs. But the 
voice of veterans must be heard. This is not about Jesse Brown; 
this is about the voice of the veterans' community and their 
families. And that is the reason why I'm here. I'm here where I 
belong. I will not be shackled in Washington, D.C. And I pledge 
to you that I will continue to speak out. [Applause.]
    Now, the President has submitted his budget for 1997. It 
includes a billion-dollar increase over what Congress approved 
for 1996. It provides nearly $600 million more for health care 
and other discretionary spending; $400 million more for 
benefits; and funding for badly needed hospitals in California 
and Florida. This is a good budget, and I hope Congress is kind 
to us this year.
    But, my friends, that may not be the case. The President 
requested $439 million for medical construction. It was cut by 
$71 million. This means that we could not build the hospitals 
that we needed in Florida and California. But more importantly 
than that, this would deny reasonable access of care to over 
700,000 veterans. And also, it would not permit us to move 
forward on our plans to upgrade VA hospitals that are 40 to 100 
years old.
    And they have taken away $26 million from BVA. This will 
increase our claims backlog and greatly reduce our ability to 
improve the quality and timeliness of services to veterans and 
their families.
    As you can see, the race is not over. We need to get back 
to the three R's, and I'm not talking about ``reading, 'writing 
and 'rithmetic.'' I'm talking about recognizing, respecting and 
remembering the needs of America's veterans. [Applause.]
    Military service should not be rewarded with a bitter 

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