Bill Clinton: “Do you need a doctor over there? Are you okay? Over here? Where's my medical team? We've got to have somebody. Now, you…”

“Do you need a doctor over there? Are you okay? Over here? Where's my medical team? We've got to have somebody. Now, you think about that. It doesn't matter--I don't care if you have got a billion dollars, if you live in America, in the end, the quality of your life will be undermined unless we save the environment for everybody. We all have an interest in clean air and safe water and safe food and in preserving our national treasures. I can tell you this, compared to 4 years ago, there are tens of millions of people in America breathing cleaner air. We've cleaned up more toxic waste sites in 3 years than the previous administrations did in 12. We have revamped the meat and poultry inspection standards of this country for the first time in literally decades. We are moving in the right direction. We saved our national parks from an ill-advised congressional attempt to sell off some of them and underfund them. And that was a good thing. We saved Yellowstone, our Nation's first and great national treasure as a park, from the ravages of mining. And we are determined to do the same thing and save the Everglades in Florida. That's important to all of us. We have kicked dozens and dozens of dangerous chemicals out of the marketplace and quickly replaced them with safer substitutes. We have increased community's right to know about what is in their community and what kinds of chemicals they are exposed to. All these things are important, and they matter. And we're better off because of them. We've also changed the way we do a lot of our environmental work. We've streamlined rules and regulations, challenged businesses and communities to come together and stop fighting. We've emphasized results, not punishments and regulations. We are proving that you don't have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy. In Michigan, we have worked very closely with the autoworkers in the Big Three to develop a clean car that will get 3 times the mileage of the average car today for the 21st century in a way that will put money in the pockets of American consumers, increase the quality of our environment, and maintain the dominance of our auto industry in the world for decades to come. If we can succeed in the clean car, it will be a major step forward for the cleanness of our environment and for the security of the work right here in Michigan. But we have more to do. You all know we have more to do. You heard Mary's story of the work that is represented by this beautiful water behind us. And you know that a lot of these battles are won block by block, day by day. Carl Levin has been working on the Great Lakes for a very long time, block by block, day by day, not just lake by lake, section by section. This is hard work. And we have more to do. I want an America, in the year 2000, where no child should have to live near a toxic waste dump, where no parent should have to worry about the safety of a child's glass of water, and no neighborhood should be put in harm's way by pollution from a nearby factory. Today I am calling for a new national commitment to help protect all communities from toxics by the year 2000. First, I am determined that finally we clean up the toxic waste sites that scar our landscape and threaten our neighborhoods. When I came into office, I vowed to strengthen and improve the Superfund's cleanups. In the last 3 years--in the last 3 years, not counting this year--we have cleaned up 197 toxic waste sites, more than in the previous 12 years. We're doing 3 times more a year than were done before. And we have done it while reducing the costs of these cleanups. The Kalamazoo River here is going to be cleaned up by polluters under your State's Superfund law. And some of the cleanup has not begun. But we have to keep working on this. We cannot slow down. We need to speed up the pace. These Superfund sites have been out there too long. And the longer they're there, the more danger there is that damage will be done. We must speed up the pace. I am here in Michigan because 10 million American children under the age of 12 live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump. And an exceptional percentage of the children who live there are children from the State of Michigan. Michigan has more at stake in this initiative than any other State, but every State's children are affected by our success. We must press ahead. Today we must commit our Nation's willpower and resources to meet a clear goal. In the next 4 years, we will clean up another 500 toxic waste sites, nearly double the pace of the Superfund cleanups. And by the year 2000, we will clean up two-thirds--the two-thirds worst toxic waste dumps in the country. We will get them out of the neighborhoods where the children live. We will do it. [An audience member required medical attention.]”