Bill Clinton: “Did we stop the attempts to gut funding for education and the environment and to destroy the Medicare and Medicaid…”

“Did we stop the attempts to gut funding for education and the environment and to destroy the Medicare and Medicaid program? Yes. Now, those are true things. So we're in better shape than we were 4 years ago. But what I want to say to you is, we've got a long way to go. We have to build on what we have done. And trade is one way we're going to do it. One of the biggest arguments we had in this country--and, frankly, it included people in both parties and people that belonged to neither party--was whether or not America could benefit from a world in which borders were more open and trade was more free. There were some who said that because we were a wealthy country and so many countries that were interested in trade were poorer than we were and worked for wages we couldn't live on, that we could never win if we had open borders and worked for freer trade. There were others who said that all we had to do was open our borders, and we didn't have to worry about anything else. We took a different view. Our view was, if we didn't try to trade more, we would get all the burdens of the future and none of the benefits, because you can't keep low-cost goods out of America that American consumers want to buy. But what we needed was both fair and free trade, rules that were fair, rules that gave our people, our workers a fair chance to prove they were the most productive in the world. And then we needed to get off our duffs and go out in the world and try to sell our products. That's what Ron Brown did, and that's what his lasting legacy will be: proving that Americans could compete and win with anybody in the world. Now, we proved that we were very competitive. The mayor mentioned that I was here at the McDonnell Douglas plant not very long ago. We have a partnership now with McDonnell Douglas and Pratt & Whitney to produce 80 more C-17 airplanes. They're the best transport plane in the world, the best ever produced by anybody. That will create 18,000 more jobs. We've worked hard on this base closing problem all over California. I was just up in Monterey County where Fort Ord has become the California State University at Monterey Bay. I was in the Presidio the other day, where a military base went from being a closed base to a national preserve and an environmental treasure for the whole United States of America. These things are things that can be done. The mayor mentioned Sea Launch a minute ago. That's an international project that was just announced by Boeing which will tap into the growing market of launching commercial satellites into space. The home port will be right here, and that's hundreds of more new, good paying jobs for the people of this area. So what I want to say to all of you is in the end our attitude toward the rest of the world will be determined in part by what the political leaders say and what our policies are and the things we advocate when we're having these debates. It matters that we started meeting for the first time with the leaders of the other Asian-Pacific countries--and I do it every year now--and we're broadening our trade there and committing them, as well as ourselves, to lowering trade barriers. It matters that we've continued and intensified our trade relationship with China. It matters that we set up an export development office down here to help you export more of your products to the rest of the world. That all matters. But in the end it matters what you want to do. If you believe in it, then you will support what we're trying to do in the Alameda Corridor project. You'll make it a reality because you know it will generate more jobs by reaching out to the world than by walking away from it. You've been kind enough today to compliment two people who were very instrumental in this policy we pursued, the late Ron Brown and our former trade ambassador and newcomer Secretary, Mickey Kantor, who is from southern California. I'd also like to say that the Transportation Secretary, Federico Pena, has worked very hard to develop the financing and the plan for the Alameda Corridor project. Building that corridor will create 10,000 more good paying jobs for the people of this area and will generate an enormous amount of economic activity in the future. So I want to thank all them. But mostly, I want to thank you for looking outward. I want to thank Kevin for standing up here and saying with confidence that hardworking people in America can compete and win in the global economy. This will work. Listen to this: Between 1993 and 1995, California's exports increased--not the country's, California's exports--increased by $25 billion. That's 200,000 more jobs in California just from exports. As many as 1 in 10 of your jobs are already related to international trade. Not only that, this is changing the nature of the jobs. When I took office, about 20 percent of our new jobs were in high- wage industries. In 1995, more than 55 percent of the new jobs created in the United States paid above average wages, largely because they were in the industries and the activities of the future, and they were tied into global trade and our ability to be more productive and more competitive than anybody else in the things that we do well. You are going to benefit if you will continue to support this approach. This should be an American issue, not a Republican issue, not a Democratic issue. This should be something that we say as Americans we're committed to more trade both free and fair. And we are going to be aggressive in promoting our economic interests around the world. That will help us, but it will help others as well, because it will help other people to grow their economy and to be even better trading partners with us in the future. And we need you to take that position, not just the elected officials, you--people on the street, people doing the work, people whose children's lives are at stake. You must do these things. And if you do there is no stopping our country, and California is coming all the way back. Let me just make one other comment in closing. If all of you are like me--now, it was earlier out here, so you probably didn't have quite the pain that we went through on the East Coast-- but I lost a lot of sleep during the Olympics. [Laughter] Our family was up past midnight nearly every night, watching the very last event. And I got to thinking about that, about what we all love about the Olympics and about what was special about the American Olympic team. And I'd like to make---- Audience member. We kicked butt!”