Bill Clinton: “Well, I think there are--I think people see apparently contradictory facts because of the nature of the time we're…”

“Well, I think there are--I think people see apparently contradictory facts because of the nature of the time we're living in. There really are three groups of people that are--that could rightly feel some anxiety. There are the people that are downsized, and there's a lot of them in New Jersey. So you're sensitive to that. Then there are the people who live in the inner cities and the isolated rural areas who haven't had any of the new jobs at any level. There's still some places like that. And then there are those who are working at the same jobs they've been working at for several years and, in terms of purchasing power, they haven't gotten a pay raise. All three of these groups of people are basically living in a global economy which is highly competitive, where there's a lot of structural change. And the last two groups are suffering in part because they don't have as much education and training as they need. The first group, the downsized groups, are suffering in part because of the traumatic changes in the nature of corporate life in America. And so that does not mean that the new jobs haven't helped anybody and that it's not a good thing to get more new jobs and to change the job mix. But it does mean that the old pillars that people viewed as completely stable, reliable sources of economic security are changing. And we have to learn to define our security in different ways. But I believe that the American people know there have been more jobs. And I think they know there are some people who still feel at risk and that it's apparently contradictory. And you can only understand it if you understand how the work and the workplace are changing in this new world and why our obligation is both to create jobs and more good jobs and to create a new kind of social safety net, if you will, that enables people to get a good new start without messing up the dynamism of the economy. And that's what a working on. I think the American people--who gets credit or not, that will take care of itself. I just want them to know that I understand what the problem is, that I've got some ideas about how to deal with it, and that I'm going to work as hard as I can to see us make progress on dealing with it. I'll say this: There's a bill right now before Congress that they've just been sitting on in the Senate for weeks and weeks. It's out of committee, and the Senate won't pass it, the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill, which says you can't lose your health insurance benefits if you change jobs or someone in your family gets sick. That's a classic example of a clearly defined, precise thing we could do that I think will make a difference. I sent a bill to the Congress over a year ago, the ``GI bill'' for America's workers before the Congress now, asking them to collapse all these 70 different Federal job-training programs into a big pool and just send a voucher to people who lose their jobs so they can immediately take it to the local community college to get new training and start again. That again would make a difference. So I want the American people to know that I understand what the problem is, that I'm not misleading them about how difficult it is to solve but that we are moving in the right direction; things are better now than they were in 1992 for the country as a whole in terms of employment, in terms of crime, in terms of poverty, in terms of our peace and security in the world; and that we need to build on these things, not try to put a wall around our country or go into denial and say that we have no responsibility. There are some that say, ``Well, there is no responsibility. You're just out there on your own.'' I don't believe that either. Health Care Reform Legislation”