Remarks on concluding a whistlestop tour in Michigan City, Indiana

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents,  Sept 2, 1996  

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And let me say again how much I appreciated what Tim Roemer said and what Evan Bayh said about that budget battle I had with the Congress. Folks, I always wanted to balance the budget. I was a Governor for 12 years before I was President. I had 12 balanced budgets. I couldn't believe we quadrupled the debt of this country in just 12 years. I want you to know that tonight not only have we cut the deficit by 60 percent, your budget would have a surplus tonight if it weren't for the interest we pay on the debt run up in the 12 years before I became President. Let's don't go back and repeat that mistake again. Let's keep on going. Let's keep on going until we finish the job.

You know, every time an election rolls around they say the public doesn't really care about the deficit, it's an abstract concept. Let me tell you something, it's not abstract. It's not only whether we're going to saddle all these kids with a debt they can't pay, if you bring the deficit down the way we have, that brings interest rates down. What does that mean when interest rates come down? It means your house payment, you car payment, your credit card payment goes down, Even more important, maybe, it means business people can go borrow money, invest it in businesses, and create new jobs. That's why we have over 10 million new jobs, because we've got a healthy climate to invest and to grow and to move this country forward.

Now, folks, that's the record, that's the past. But we've got more to do. We've got to keep going until every single citizen in this country who is willing to work for it has a chance to participate in the American dream. We've got to keep going until all our streets are so safe that if you come home at night and turn on the evening news and the lead story is a crime story, you are shocked instead of numb to it. That's when we'll know we have the crime problem whipped.

We've got to keep going until every single one of our children can read well by the 3d grade; until every single one of our teenagers know that drugs are dangerous. They're not only illegal, they will kill you. We have got to turn that around. We've got to keep going until we solve the problems of America and take everybody into the 21st century - everybody.

We've got to keep going until every American believes that we cannot afford to look down on one another. That's why I took such a strong stand against these church burnings, and why I lash out every time a synagogue or an Islamic center is defaced, and why I was appalled when those African-American Special Forces personnel in North Carolina came home to find swastikas painted on their doors.

I bet you we've got some former Special Forces people in this crowd today. I'll tell you what they are: They're special forces. That means tonight at midnight if I wake them up and I tell them to go halfway around the world to put their lives on the line and defend you, they will do it and say, "Yes sir," and be glad to go. They do not deserve to have swastikas put on their doors. We've got to keep going until that is not a problem anymore. We've got to keep going.