Bill Clinton: “Let me say, Tom Harkin talked a little about health care, and so did Hillary. I'd like to brag on them both, but you'd…”

“Let me say, Tom Harkin talked a little about health care, and so did Hillary. I'd like to brag on them both, but you'd be here till dawn if I did that. We have made a beginning on health care reform, but here is another choice. I want you to think about it. Their budget will do nothing to advance the cause of health reform. Our budget--balanced budget--adds another million children to the ranks of those with health insurance, children of lower income working people, gives free mammograms to Medicare women, free mammograms. Our budget says to people who are between jobs, if you lose your job and your income, we'll help your family keep health insurance for 6 months. Our budget says we'll help families with respite care, the nearly 2 million American families that are courageously caring for family members with Alzheimer's. And our budget says, we're going to spend another billion dollars on medical research over and above what they will, because we have uncovered two genes that cause breast cancer. We have determined a cure--a treatment for the first time for strokes. We have seen for the first time movement in the lower limbs of laboratory animals whose spines have been completely severed because of nerve transplants from the legs to the spine. We are moving to break down the barriers of knowledge, and we are going to keep going until we have reformed the health care system in a way that makes it work for all Americans. And your vote will decide. Your vote will decide. Your vote will decide. Your vote will decide, most important of all in shaping the 21st century, what we do about education. We know what their program is. Their program is fewer Head Start positions, cut student loans, and eliminate the Department of Education. That's their big deal, eliminate the Department of Education. They say it's a big bureaucracy. Two percent is bureaucracy; 98 cents is money we're pumping to your schools, your colleges, and your students. I say we don't want to eliminate the Department of Education. I want to do three things. I want to make sure, first of all, that every 8-year-old in this country can read a book independently by the third grade; 40 percent can't now. We're going to mobilize an army of a million people to go out and work with teachers and parents to do that. A hundred thousand of them will be college students who are going to get new work-study slots because of the work that Tom Harkin and this administration did in the Congress this year. I want every classroom in Iowa and every classroom in America to be hooked up not only with computers but computers that are linked through the Internet, through the World Wide Web, through the information superhighway. What it means is that people in the smallest school in Iowa, people in the most remote school district in Alaska, people in the poorest inner-city school district for the first time in history will have access along with all other wealthy, middle class, and poor districts, urban, suburban, and rural districts, all of them together for the first time in the history of America will have access to the same learning in the same way at the same time. Will you help us do that? Will you go out for Tom Harkin tomorrow to do that? Will you help us? [Applause] And finally, let me say to all these young people here, one thing we know is that education will no longer be the province of people who are 18 and under. We know now that nearly everybody needs to go much further. We know now that most people will have to learn for a lifetime. We know now that the young people in this audience today, many of them within a few years will be doing jobs that have not been invented yet, and some of you will be doing jobs that have not been imagined yet. And therefore, we must open the doors of college education to every single citizen of this country who is willing to work for it. It is time. Let me say to all of you, I am proud that we kept our commitment in 1992 to set up a national service program, AmeriCorps, that has allowed 70,000 young people to serve their communities and go to college. I am proud that we had the biggest increase in Pell grants in 20 years. And I am proud that we have increased work-study grants by 200,000 and that we reformed the student loan program so people can now borrow money at lower cost and pay it back as a percentage of their income, so no one ever need fear going broke by borrowing the money to go to college. I'm proud of that, but we must do more. We must do more. And if you give us a chance to serve tomorrow, we're going to do two things. Number one, we're going to say people ought to be able to take off their tax bill, dollar for dollar, the cost of a typical community college tuition so we can make 2 years of education after high school as universal as a high school diploma is today by the year 2000. Number two, more Iowa families ought to be able to save in an individual retirement account and withdraw from it without any penalty if they're using the money for a college education or health care or homebuying. And thirdly, everybody ought to be able to have a tax deduction of up to $10,000 a year for the cost of college tuition, undergraduate or graduate. Will you help us do that tomorrow? Will you help make that part of our bridge? [Applause] I can't hear you. Will you do it? [Applause] Now, let me say I am very grateful to you for the votes that you gave to me and to Al Gore 4 years ago. I know how hotly contested this State has been. I know that the State is more or less evenly divided and that there are a lot of people who are independents who will vote either way. But I say to you, this is not an election for party; this is an election for country and for people. Remember the stories of the people from Iowa I told you at the beginning of my remarks. Every day for 4 years, I have gotten up and gone into that Oval Office and tried to do something that would help to create more opportunity, to insist upon more responsibility, and to bring us closer together in an American community. We are better off than we were 4 years ago. We have a better plan for the future. Our best days are still ahead. And the fundamental choice that underlies all these issue differences is as crystal clear as can be. We believe that we're better off when we work together to help each other make the most of our own lives. They believe you're on your own. They believe it's okay to say, ``There's a future out there. It will be pretty exciting if you get there, and I hope you do.'' I believe every single one of us are better off if we roll up our sleeves and join hands and build that bridge to the 21st century together. We need you tomorrow. Go call someone! Go ask someone to vote! Go do your work tonight; we'll see you tomorrow! Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.”