pd11se95 Remarks at a Breakfast With Religious Leaders...

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ple now can borrow money to go to college at lower cost on better 
repayment terms. We have worked hard to try to increase our investment 
in education from Head Start through college.
    I have two proposals now before the Congress in our balanced budget 
plan that I pray will pass. One would give American middle class people 
a tax deduction for the cost of all education after high school without 
regard to the age of the people who get it. The other would collapse 
about 70 different Government training programs into a big pot of money. 
And whenever anybody is unemployed or underemployed or on welfare, they 
could get a voucher worth $2,600 a year to take to the nearest community 
education institution like this one. Don't go through a program; go to 
your local institution. That's something we could do to provide a GI 
bill in our time for America's working people. Those two things would 
lift the incomes of the American people.
    I also think we ought to raise the minimum wage. Let me tell you, if 
we don't raise the minimum wage this year, on January the 1st of next 
year, our minimum wage in terms of what the money will buy will be at a 
40-year low. I want a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity, not a 
hard-work, low-wage 21st century. And I think you do, too. And that's 
what we ought to do.
    Now, I believe that the reason wages are stagnant for so many people 
is that we haven't done enough to educate our people. We haven't done 
enough to try to raise the incomes of our people. The Government can't 
do all that, however. The people in the private sector have a 
responsibility, too. The best American companies are out there today 
sharing their profits with their workers and making sure that they're 
well-treated. And all American companies on this Labor Day should be 
challenged to follow the example of the best American companies. The 
people of this country are our most important resource.
    In the next year or so, all of you are going to have to decide what 
you think the answer to this wage problem is. There are people who will 
tell you that the answer to the--the real reason middle class wages are 
stagnant is that welfare people are taking all your tax money away or 
that we have too many immigrants or that affirmative action is 
destroying opportunities for the middle class.
    Well, let me tell you, in each of those areas, we have problems. But 
that's not the real reason for the middle class economic anxieties. We 
ought to move more people from welfare to work because they'd be better 
off and their kids would be better off and our country would be 
stronger. But the welfare rolls are going down as the job rolls go up. 
It's only 5 percent of our budget. I want desperately to have more 
welfare reform. I've done more in the last 2 years than was done in the 
previous 12 years to move people from welfare to work. And I will 
continue to do that. But if we want to raise wages of middle class 
people, we have to have good jobs, good educations, and a competitive 
economic policy.
    If you look at the immigration issue, there are problems. We have 
too many illegal immigrants in the country. We've done what we could to 
close the borders and to send people back. But you know what? This is a 
nation of immigrants. Most of us do not have ancestors who were born 
here. So I've tried to deal with this issue in a responsible way. Former 
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, a great American, headed a 
commission for us and said, here's how you can relieve the problems of 
immigration in America and still make us a nation of immigrants.
    When I was in Hawaii--let me just tell you one story. When I was in 
Hawaii for the 50th anniversary of World War II, the commission asked me 
if I would spend the afternoon playing golf with six veterans of World 
War II. And I did, and we just sort of lolled around. We didn't even 
finish the round. We had the best time in the world talking.
    Let me tell you, one of those men was a Japanese-American who came 
to this country on his own as a boy because he dreamed of coming to 
America. When the war broke out, they put him in an internment camp. He 
still volunteered to serve his country. By the grace of God, the war 
ended about 3 days before he would have been on an island fighting 
against two of his own brothers who were in uniform for Japan. When the 
bomb was dropped in Japan, it injured his house and

[[Page 1487]]

his mother, and his youngest brother subsequently died of radiation 
poisoning.
    There's not another country in the world that could tell that story. 
Why? Because people from all over the world wanted to be part of what is 
America. And we should never forget that. We'll have times when we can 
have higher immigration quotas and times when we should have smaller 
ones because of the economy and how much it takes to absorb people. But 
we should never, ever, ever permit ourselves to get into a position 
where we forget that almost everybody here came from somewhere else and 
that America is a set of ideas and values and convictions that make us 
strong.
    I feel the same way about this affirmative action issue. I have 
lived with this for 20 years now. And let me tell you, there are 
problems with the affirmative action programs of the Federal Government. 
I've already abolished one that I thought was excessive. And I was glad 
to do it. And we're reforming a lot of them. But let me tell you that we 
are a better, stronger country because we have made a conscious effort 
to give people without regard to their race or gender an opportunity to 
live up to their God-given capacities. We are a better, stronger 
country.
    I'm against quotas. I'm against reverse discrimination. I'm against 
giving anybody unqualified anything they're not qualified for. But I am 
for making a conscious effort to bring the American people together. If 
you doubt it, look at our military. We have the best military in the 
world. Nobody doubts it. It's the most successfully integrated 
institution in the United States of America, and nobody unqualified gets 
anything. But there was a conscious effort made to do that. Last year, a 
quarter of a million new roles were opened to American women in military 
services, and they're doing every one of them very well. And that's just 
one example.
    So I say to you, let's look at this, let's fix the problems in 
America, but let's do it with common sense. Let's look for common 
ground. Let's do it the way you built this great institution. Let's do 
it in a way that will grow our economy.
    So, when we come back to Washington, we've got some tough decisions 
to make. I've got a plan to balance the budget. The Congress has two 
different plans in the House and Senate. We have to cut Government 
spending. I'm all for that. But we ought not to cut education. We ought 
to increase our investment in education as we balance the budget.
    We ought to cut taxes, but we shouldn't cut taxes so much and give 
such tax cuts to people who don't need them that we have to cut Medicare 
and Medicaid and hurt our obligations to the elderly people in this 
country who depend upon them for health care.
    We ought to cut the size of Government, and we ought to cut 
regulation. Let me tell you, we have already reduced the size of your 
Federal Government by 150,000 people. It will be reduced by 270,000 
people if not another law is passed by what's already been done. We have 
reduced thousands of regulations. We ought to do more of that. But we 
should not cripple the ability of the American people through their 
Government to assure safe food, clean air, clean water, and a decent 
environment, because we all have a stake in that.
    I want all of you to follow this very closely. When I go back to 
Washington and the Congress takes up its business, this will be no 
ordinary time. For the first time, both parties are committed to 
balancing the Federal budget. The question is, how will we do it and 
what will the priorities be. And that will determine what kind of 
country we're going to be.
    I believe we've got to work together and work for tomorrow. I do not 
want any more of the politics of partisan polarization. I believe the 
American people are pretty much like all of you sitting around here 
today. You are celebrating an incredible achievement that you know is a 
good, right, decent thing. And you are here as Americans.
    Now, there'll be plenty of things for us to disagree on, but at this 
moment our national security in the 21st century depends upon our 
agreeing to invest in our people and to grow our economy and to pull our 
country together as we balance this budget. So the decisions made in the 
next 60 to 90 days will determine what kind of country we're going to be 
into the 21st century. And I ask every one of you, without regard to 
your party or your philosophy, to implore your Representa- 

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tives to reach for that common higher ground, to work together, and to 
work for tomorrow.
    Just think about it. By Christmas, if we do our job right, we could 
have passed a balanced budget, provided for that tax deduction for 
education expenses, overhauled welfare, expanded educational 
opportunities, strengthened instead of undermined health care security, 
and put our people on the road to raising their incomes as they work 
harder.
    We can do that. But we've got to do what you did here. We have got 
to work together, and we've got to work for tomorrow. Wish us well, 
insist on it, and help us get it done.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:02 p.m. at the Campus Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Lt. Gov. Gray Davis of California; Chancellor 
Barry Munitz, California State University; and Beatrice Gonzales-
Ramirez, student, California State University at Monterey Bay.


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[Page 1488-1491]
 
Monday, September 11, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 36
Pages 1469-1530
 
Week Ending Friday, September 8, 1995
 
Remarks at the Alameda County Labor Day Picnic in Pleasanton, California

September 4, 1995

    The President. Thank you. Can you hear me in the back? Good. Ladies 
and gentlemen, I am so glad to be here to share Labor Day with you, to 
count our blessings and to embrace our challenges. But let me just begin 
by thanking you for that wonderful welcome. I feel right at home, and 
I'm proud to be with the working families of this country.
    I also want to say how very pleased I am to be here with all the 
distinguished labor leaders and public officials who are here behind me 
from the State of California, some from our administration; to be here 
with President Donahue. You know, this is his birthday. He has to 
celebrate his birthday on Labor Day. He gets a two-fer today, so we 
ought to say happy birthday, Tom.
    I'm delighted to be here with Jack Henning, who still gives one of 
the best speeches I ever heard; with John Sweeney and Lenoire Miller and 
Chuck Mack and George Kourpias, and all the other labor leaders who are 
here. I thank Judy Goff and Owen Marron for having me here. And I want 
to say a special word of thanks to the people who represent you in 
Congress, two of the finest people in the entire United States Congress, 
Congressman Ron Dellums and Senator Barbara Boxer. They are great 
people.
    You know, we are going through a sea change in American life. You 
know it, and I know it. What I want to tell you is I believe that when 
the history of this time is written and people look back on how you and 
other ordinary Americans lived, they will say that this period 
represented the biggest challenge and the biggest change to the way we 
live and work and raise our families of any period since 100 years ago, 
when we changed from being a primarily agricultural and rural society to 
being an industrial society and a more urban one.
    All of you know the facts. We've ended the cold war. We're moving 
into a global economy. We have more and more competition and more and 
more technology. We have more opportunities and more fears. And there 
are a lot of good things that are going on today, but there are a lot of 
troubling things as well.
    And I came here to tell you that in the next 90 days in Washington, 
DC, we're going to make some decisions that will say a lot about what 
kind of people we are and where we're going. And I believe--I believe 
that if we decide to work together and work for the future, the 21st 
century and the global economy will be America's time. But we have to 
make that decision.
    I want a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity future, not a 
hard-work, low-wage, insecure future for the working families of the 
United States of America.
    I've worked as hard as I know how to bring the economy back. But let 
me ask you this: You all know what the problem is. If I had told you 30 
months ago, the day I became President, that the following things would 
happen--just listen to this as a good news, bad news story. In our 
country we have 7 million new jobs. We have 2\1/2\ million new 
homeowners. We have 1\1/2\ million new small businesses. We have reduced 
the deficit from $290 billion to $260 billion a year. We have done it 
while increasing our investment in

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education and training and technology and research to generate new jobs. 
We have doubled the loans of the Small Business Administration to try to 
create more small business opportunities.
    We have done all these things. In California, as hard hit as you 
were by all the defense cuts, the jobs that were lost in the previous 4 
years have been replaced and then some. And we're overcoming the impacts 
of earthquakes and fires and defense cuts. And California's coming back. 
But you know what? In spite of all of that, the median wage has dropped 
one percent. That means most working people are working harder for the 
same or lower wages that they were making not just 2 years ago, but 10 
and 15 years ago. That is the great challenge of this time.
    Are we going to be a smart-work, high-opportunity, high-wage 
country, or a hard-work, low-wage country where the middle class is 
dividing? And that is the thing that ought to inform every decision we 
make. I think I know what we have to do, and I want you to stand with me 
because you know what we have to do.
    The first thing we ought to do--the very first thing we ought to do 
is to say we are going to do no harm; we're going to stop trying to undo 
the protections in the American law for working men and women. We're 
going to stop trying to weaken workplace safety. Let's work in 
partnership with managers to make it a safer workplace in America, not 
walk away from our obligations to the safety, health, and welfare of the 
American workers.
    Then, what is our affirmative agenda? Number one, don't cut 
education and training--spend more on it. And for those who say we have 
to do that to balance the budget, I say, that is wrong. My balanced 
budget plan gives the working families of America a tax deduction for 
the cost of all education after high school. Our balanced budget plan 
would give working people who lose their jobs the right to a voucher 
worth $2,600 a year for 2 years to take to the nearest community college 
or other education and training institution to get a better start in 
life. Increase our investment in education. Don't cut it.
    The second thing we ought to do is to have fair as well as free 
trade. That's what the fight with the Japanese over autos and auto parts 
was all about. I'm all for more trade, but it's got to be more fair. 
It's got to be fair to American workers. We can now compete with anybody 
in the world and win if we're given a fair chance to do so.
    The third thing we ought to do is raise the minimum wage. Let me 
tell you, there is not evidence to support the claim that opponents of 
the minimum wage always make that it costs jobs. But we know one thing 
for sure: On January 1, 1996, if we do not raise the minimum wage this 
year, it will drop in terms of what the money will buy to a 40-year low. 
Two-thirds of the people making minimum wage are adults. Forty percent 
of the people making the minimum wage are the sole support of their 
families. We have children growing up on it. It is wrong to expect 
people to work for $4.25 an hour. Let us raise the minimum wage and do 
it now.
    In California, we have a lot of other things to do. We have to 
maintain the defense conversion programs that our administration has put 
in place. We should not cut the attempts to build people's future. I 
have worked as hard as I could to make sure that you knew that the 
defense contractors and the people that worked on the military bases, 
who won the cold war for this country, would not be left out in the cold 
when the defense budget was cut. And we have to keep working on that.
    Let me give you an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about. 
Today, it is my honor to announce that our Department of Transportation 
is going to give to Cal-Start, a consortium of California companies, 
$3.4 million to help them start building electric cars for the future of 
America.
    Men and women who used to weld Bradley fighting vehicles together 
for our national defense will now build family vehicles that will use 
smart technology, help the environment, and give people good jobs for a 
good future for their families. That's the kind of thing we ought to be 
doing more of in this country. They will be made at what used to be the 
Alameda Naval Air Station. This is the kind of thing that I want our 
Government to do, to work with you in partnership for the future.

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