Bill Clinton: “And even then they wouldn't pay for it. So what would happen? Bigger deficits. We have worked so hard to move toward a…”

“And even then they wouldn't pay for it. So what would happen? Bigger deficits. We have worked so hard to move toward a balanced budget. We're going to throw it all out the window, let interest rates go up again, let your home payments, your car payments, your credit card payment go up again, let business loan costs go up again? I don't think so. Will you help me build a bridge to the future with the right kind of tax cuts and a balanced budget and a growing economy? [Applause] I want to build a bridge to the future with the crime rate coming down. I am sick and tired of going to any place in the United States of America and turning on the evening news and the first story is always a crime story. I want it to be the last story on the news. I want there to be no crime stories on the news. Folks, I'm proud of the fact that the crime rate has come down for 4 years in a row in America. I'm proud of the fact that we passed a crime bill to put 100,000 police on the street. I'm proud of the fact that when my opponent and Speaker Gingrich tried to repeal our commitment to put 100,000 police on the street, I vetoed it and we're still putting the police out there and the crime rate is still coming down. And I want you to help me keep those 100,000 police going on the street. Will you help me build a bridge to the future with safe streets and police officers? [Applause] I want to build a bridge to the future where families that work hard and do their best to raise their kids can succeed at home and at work. I'm proud of the fact that the first bill I signed has now given 12 million American families the chance for the adults to take a little time off when a baby is born or a parent is sick without losing their jobs. It was good, and I was for it. My opponent led the fight against it. We were right. I want to extend the family leave law to say you can take a little time off without losing your job to go to a parent-teacher conference or take your children to a doctor's appointment. I want to make it possible for people who earn overtime to make up their own mind about whether to take the overtime in cash or time with their families, depending on what that family needs. I want us to succeed at home and at work. That's what my commitment is. Will you help me build an America where we can do that? [Applause] I want us to build an America where we prove we can protect our God- given environment and grow our economy. We have cleaned up more toxic waste dumps in the last 3 years than the previous administration did in 12. I want to clean up two-thirds more by the year 2000, the worst, because 10 million kids live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump. These children here ought to be growing up next to parks, not poison, everywhere in the United States. Will you help me build that kind of bridge to the future? [Applause] Finally, let me just make one last point. I want us to build a bridge to the future that is strong enough and wide enough for every one of us to walk across. On Tipper Gore's birthday and my birthday and that beautiful 3-year-old girl's birthday over there, August 19th, we came to west Tennessee and we visited a white church and a black church that had been burned. And Hillary and Tipper and Al and I worked on rebuilding the African-American church. And I've done a lot to try to sensitize the American people about how terrible it is to burn churches or deface synagogues or mosques or any other religious institutions in this country and how terrible it is for us to look down on other people because they are of a different race or religion than we are. That's not America. I have spent a lot of time as your President dealing with problems that we have as Americans around the world, because other people refuse to get along with one another, because other people--whether it's in the Middle East or Northern Ireland or Bosnia or Africa or you name it-- insist on killing each other because they're of a different race, a different tribe, a different ethnic group, a different religion. In America, we say all you have to do is believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, be willing to work hard and play by the rules. You're our kind of person. We're going arm in arm with you into the future. Will you help me build that kind of America? Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st century? Will you do it for the next 68 days? Will you do it for 4 years after that? Will you talk to your friends and neighbors and ask them? [Applause] Thank you. God bless you. I'm proud to be here in Covington. Thank you.”