


			 THE WHITE HOUSE

		  Office of the Press Secretary
			 (Topeka, Kansas)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                          April 7, 1994     

	     
		     REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
		     TO THE PEOPLE OF TOPEKA
	     
	     
		  Kansas Air National Guard Ramp
			  Topeka, Kansas   


12:35 P.M. CDT
	     
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Governor Finney, for your 
friendship, your leadership and your kind remarks, and for your 
belief that every American and every Kansan ought to have health 
care that can never be taken away.
	     
	     Thank you, Congressman Slattery, for your long, 
personal friendship and your support, and for being such a strong 
voice in the Congress not only for fiscal responsibility, but for 
basic sanity in our national policies.
	     
	     Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to be back in Kansas.  
I want to thank Major General Rueger for welcoming me, and 
Colonel Dewayne Ellinger.  I want to thank the people who helped 
to put this event together today -- the carpenters local, the 
floorlayers local.  I want to thank the Topeka High School Band 
over there and the cheerleaders and all those who are cheering.  
(Applause.)  The people who are here from Pauline South 
Elementary School, thank you for coming.  (Applause.)  I want to 
thank the members of the National Guard and the police officers 
and others who made this day possible.
	     
	     I also want to acknowledge in the audience today the 
presence of the first American woman to be the Treasurer of the 
United States, Georgia Neese Gray.  How are you, ma'am?  God 
bless you for being here.  (Applause.)
	     
	     I want to thank your Lieutenant Governor, your 
Attorney General, your State Treasurer, your local Mayor and the 
Chairman of the Democratic Party for meeting me here at the 
airport.  But mostly I just want to tell you it's nice to be back 
in Kansas.  (Applause.)
	     
	     You know, since Jim was kind enough to mention the 
basketball game, you all know that for most of my public life I 
didn't live in Washington, D.C., I was the governor of one of 
your neighboring states.  I lived and worked in an atmosphere 
very much like the way you all live and work.  And I didn't 
understand what I often saw in Washington -- where ever position 
was pushed to its logical extreme, whether left or right; where 
it seemed that every debate took on more rhetoric than reality 
and shed more heat than light; where people seemed to be debating 
whether the government could do everything or the government had 
to do nothing; where people were either told they were on their 
own or not challenged to assume any responsibility for their own 
future.  
	     
	     I ran for president because that didn't make much 
sense to me; because I thought we ought to come together as a 
people, we ought to bridge the lines that are dividing us and we 
ought to move to the 21st century together, recognizing that 
government cannot solve all the problems, but that we have a 
government to discharge those responsibilities which have to be 
done by all of us together through our elected officials.  I 
believed then -- and I believe even more strongly today -- that 
instead of paralyzing extremism, what this country needs is 
moderate, aggressive progressivism of people who are dedicated to 
getting together and getting things done.  Cut down on the 
rhetoric, turn up the action, put people first and move the 
country forward.  (Applause.)
	     
	     Now, there has been a lot of rhetoric about the 
deficit and how terrible it was, but it tripled in the last three 
years.   Instead of that, we have adopted an aggressive economic 
program designed to reduce the deficit, hold down interest rates, 
increase investment and get growth back into this economy.  In 
the past 14 months, the American economy has produced 2.5 million 
private sector jobs -- twice as many as were produced in the 
previous four years.  That's the kind of action I went to 
Washington to take.  (Applause.)
	     
	     I have asked the United States Congress to pass a 
new budget that cuts spending in 300 different areas, eliminates 
100 different government programs; still invests more in 
education, in high technology jobs, in defense transitions to 
help the people who won the Cold War to win in the face of 
defense cutbacks, in health research and the things that will 
help us to win in the 21st century.  And if it is adopted, it 
will mark the first time since 1969 that the President has 
proposed and the Congress has adopted an actual decrease in 
domestic spending, exclusive of health care and Social Security; 
and it will mark the first time since Harry Truman was President 
of the United States that we reduced the government's deficit 
three years in a row.  That's action, not rhetoric.  (Applause.)
	     
	     We also have many challenges to face.  The United 
States Congress has already done some things in the area of 
education and training which will be important for the future of 
Kansas, and more are on the way.  Last year we reformed the 
college loan program so that more young people could borrow the 
money to go to college at lower interest rates and pay the money 
back on better terms, and so that tens of thousands of our young 
people could work in their communities solving problems at the 
grass roots level in the national service program and earn money 
to invest in a college education or further education and 
training.  That will move our country forward.
	     
	     Just a couple of days ago I signed out in California 
a bill called Goals 2000, which for the first time in the history 
of America will write into our laws world class education 
standards for all our schools and all our students and support 
grass roots reform -- not government mandates, but grass roots 
reform in every community in America to meet those world class 
standards.  (Applause.)
	     
	     Soon the Congress will pass a bill we call school to 
work, for all the young people in Kansas and throughout the 
country who know they need more training after high school but 
don't want to go to four-year colleges.  We know from the census 
data that every one of our young people needs to finish high 
school and should get at least two years more of some sort of 
training if they want to get a good job with a growing income.  
We don't have a system to move people from school to work, but at 
the end of four years, if this bill passes and I get to sign it, 
we will.  
	     
	     Moving our people to the 21st century by making sure 
that they can change jobs, learn new skills, and always be able 
to compete and win -- this is the kind of thing that I wanted to 
be President to do.  It's a real thing, not a rhetorical thing, 
that will change the lives of the American people.    (Applause.)
	     
	     And, finally, in this area, I have asked the United 
States Congress to completely change the unemployment system.  
You know and I know that even in the months when we create a lot 
of jobs in America, a lot of jobs go away.  All over America 
today small businesses are creating jobs, big businesses are 
still downsizing.  We know that the average 18-year-old -- you 
look at those young people out there from this high school -- the 
average one of these young people will change work eight times in 
a lifetime.  We do not need to have an unemployment system that 
says you can live on unemployment payments for several months, 
and then your unemployment will run out and you still won't have 
a job.  
	     
	     That's what's happening today.  Most people do not 
get called back to their old job.  We need a reemployment system 
so that the first day people are unemployed they immediately 
begin to train for, look for, and have help in finding a new job 
to build a new American economy.  And we are going to do that 
this year in Washington.  (Applause.)
	     
	     We're also trying to make your government more 
responsive to you.  The House of Representatives has before it 
historic legislation limiting the influence of lobbyists in 
Washington, increasing the influence of ordinary citizens.  And I 
urge them to pass the lobby reform legislation soon when they 
come back.
	     
	     In addition to that, this Congress adopted last year 
an economic plan which, as you will find out on April 15th, 
raised the income taxes of the top 1.2 percent of the American 
people and devoted 100 percent of that money to deficit reduction 
-- every last red cent -- and lowered the income taxes of one-
sixth of the American people who are working 40 hours a week, who 
have children in the home, who are hovering just above the 
poverty line.  We don't want them to go into welfare, we want 
them to stay in the work force.  So we say, lower the taxes of 
the people who are working hard and playing by the rules, reward 
work over welfare, and make it possible for people to be 
successful workers and successful parents.  And we did that for 
one-sixth of the American tax-paying families.  And I am proud of 
that.  (Applause.)
	     
	     I do want to thank Governor Finney for what she said 
about the response of our administration during the flood.  We 
did everything we could to try to help people all over this 
country, but especially here, who were devastated by that flood.  
During the flood, when the Missouri River inundated the town of 
Elwood about 100 miles from here, FEMA responded with disaster 
relief and the Corps of Engineers already today is guarding 
Elwood against the flooding in the future by helping to rebuild 
the levy.  
	     
	     It's just one town, but there are hundreds of towns 
like that.  Every time we had a disaster we had tried to say to 
the American people, this is about people, this is not about 
ideology; it's not about political party, it's about delivering 
the goods.  What I want is to see the government work all day 
every day the way we work when we've got a disaster.  Why should 
we wait for a disaster to do the right thing?  We ought to get 
together and do the right thing all day every day to move this 
country forward.  (Applause.)
	     
	     That brings me to the last two things I want to say 
to you today.  The first business Congress will face when it 
comes back is action on the crime bill.  I think all of you know 
that over the last 20 years we've had a big increase in violent 
crime; and that even though many of our major cities are 
beginning to see small declines in the overall crime rate, we 
still have a higher rate of violent crime than any other major 
nation.  We already have, by far, the highest percentage of our 
people in prison of any major nation.  And still there seems to 
be no end in sight.  
	     
	     Some people say the answer is tougher punishment.  
Other people say the answer is to reach these young people before 
they get in trouble and try to give them a better life.  I say 
both are right, and we must do both.  We have to be tough, but we 
have to be smart.  
	     
	     I started out my career in public life as an 
attorney general, almost 20 years ago, and I thought crime was 
bad then.  But I never dreamed that I would live to see the time 
when children would actually stay home from school -- over 150,00 
every day -- because they were afraid to walk to school or afraid 
to sit in a classroom or afraid to walk in a hall.  I never 
dreamed I would see towns, even towns in my home state of 
Arkansas, where gang initiations would require people to go in 
and pull robberies with guns that could turn into murders.  I 
never dreamed I would see young people better armed than police 
officers with semiautomatic weapons shooting people at random.  I 
never dreamed I would see that.  And I tell you, we have got to 
do something about it.
	     
	     Our crime bill -- our crime bill will do the 
following things.  Number one, it will put 100,000 more police 
officers on the street, working the streets, working the 
neighborhoods, knowing the people who live there in community 
policing.  And it will lower the crime rate.  (Applause.)
	     
	     If there are those of you here who don't believe 
that you can do it, let me say all you have to do is look at the 
examples all over America.  In the city of Houston, Texas, which 
had one of the highest crime rates, one of the highest murder 
rates in the entire country, when the mayor got elected and put 
660 more police officers on the street, and they started working 
with the communities, the crime rate went down 22 percent in 15 
months.  The murder rate went down 25 percent.  And the mayor got 
reelected with 91 percent.  And I think the two things were 
connected.  We can do better.  We need more police officers on 
the street helping to make our young people and our families 
safer.  (Applause.)
	     
	     The bill also toughens sentences for a lot of 
crimes, and says if you commit three crimes which cause violence 
or are reasonably likely to cause serious violence, you are not 
eligible for parole.  A small percentage of criminals do a large 
percentage of the violent harm in this country.  We should 
identify them and isolate them.  And that is very important. 
	     
	     Finally, the bill provides funds to give drug 
treatment to young people, to have community recreation for young 
people, to provide young people a place to go after school or 
before school, to give communities the means to deal with all 
these kids that are coming from broken families in difficult 
neighborhoods and troubled circumstances to keep these things 
from happening in the first place.  
	     
	     And ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  
My mother told me that when I was six years old.  And it's a 
whole lot more true today than it was 40 years ago.  We are 
trying to give you an ounce of prevention, and I hope you in 
Kansas will take full advantage of it when the crime bill passes.  
(Applause.)
	     
	     Now, the last thing I want to say is when we leave 
here, Congressman Slattery's going to take me over to a forum.  
We're going to hear from a bunch of small business people and 
talk about whether we can provide health security for all 
Americans.  
	     
	     Let me just tell you what the stakes are.  We are 
the only country in the world with an advanced economy that 
doesn't provide health care security to all its citizens.  All of 
our competitors have figured out how to do it.  We are spending 
40 to 50 percent more of our income on health care than any of 
our competitors.  We are spending about $90 billion a year -- and 
that's real money everywhere, folks -- on paperwork and rules and 
regulation because of the way we organize the financing of health 
care that nobody else does.  
	     
	     On any given week in America 58 million Americans 
have no health insurance; 81 million Americans live in families 
where somebody has a preexisting condition -- a child with 
diabetes, a father who's had a heart attack, a mother who's had 
cancer.  They either can't get health insurance or they pay more 
than they can afford or they can never change the job they're in 
because their new employer will not insure them.  Three-quarters 
of the American people have lifetime limits on their insurance 
policy so that, God forbid, if they should have one child with a 
terrible illness that drags on for 10 or 15 years, they could 
lose all their insurance at the time they most need it.  That is 
the reality of the world in which we live.  No other nation 
permits this to happen -- only the United States.  
	     
	     The result of all this is, small business is paying 
35 percent more for health insurance than big business and 
government today.  Every day, more and more people lose their 
health insurance -- about 100,000 a month  lose it forever.  The 
government, as Congressman Slattery will tell you, is cutting 
defense spending, cutting domestic spending, cutting everything, 
but health care costs are still going up at two to three times 
the rate of inflation so that we can pay more for the same health 
care.  This system is not working.
	     
	     We have the best doctors, the best nurses, the best 
health care providers, the best medical research, the best 
technology in the world, and the worst system of financing health 
care.  And we have to do something about it.  (Applause.)
	     
	     Now, those who like the system the way they have it 
now say that I want to give this country some sort of government 
program of health care.  I don't.  You have one, though.  It's 
Medicare -- the government program for older people.  And most 
older people feel pretty secure with it.  But I don't propose to 
do that.  What I want to do is to extend the system we have now 
-- guaranteed private health insurance for all Americans -- and 
to extend the choices we have now, give every American family at 
least three choices every year of doctors and health care plans.
	     
	     I want to protect people from unfair insurance 
practices just as Governor Finney is trying to do here.  I don't 
think people should pay more because they are older, or pay an 
unreasonable amount because somebody in their family has been 
sick.  I don't think people should be able to be cut off of 
health insurance.
	     
	     I want to have these benefits guaranteed at work.  
Why?  Because 80 percent of the people who are uninsured are in 
working families.  And 90 percent of the health insurance in 
America today is covered at work where the employer and the 
employee share the costs.  
	     
	     Can we do it without bankrupting small business?  Of 
course, we can.  You have to give discounts to really small 
businesses that operate on limited profit margins.  Of course, we 
can.  Can we do it and be fair?  If everybody does it so no 
competitor has an advantage, yes, we can.
	     
	     Will we continue to be the only country in the world 
that shovels more of our health care dollars into paperwork and 
less into health care?  Will we continue to be the only advanced 
country that has another 100,000 Americans a month lose their 
health insurance?  Will we continue to discriminate against small 
business people and self-employed people and let them pay 35 to 
40 percent more?  Will we continue to have a situation where 
rural folks don't have access to doctors?  I don't think so.  
	     
	     I believe we can do better.  I think you think we 
can do better.  And if we cool the rhetoric and talk about the 
facts and have practical and compassionate approaches to this, we 
will solve this problem.  I'm here in Kansas to try to do it 
today.
	     
	     Thank you and God bless you all.  (Applause.)

			       END1:01 P.M. CDT

