GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON
NATIONAL TOWN HALL MEETING.
"AMERICA SPEAKS"
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
6/12/92

Thank you.

First of I want to thank all of you for coming tonight.  And for
being willing to participate in this National Town Hall Meeting.

I did meetings like this on television with undecided voters in
primary states from New Hampshire right on through to Pennsylvania. 
But with have never done it on a national basis before.  We are
doing this tonight for what I think are some very good reasons.

As traveled across America for eight months during the primary
season I found that most people felt in all the states the way the
people in my home state feel.

They feel anger and frustration and disappointment about the way
their government has let them down. They feel genuine worry about
the future.  I feel that too.

I have been out here on the firing line; on the receiving end on
most of what has happened in Washington for the last ten or eleven
years. Trying to balance budgets and put people to work and educate
children and adults. And trying to move people from welfare to work
and make this system work.

And I know it is tough and it just seems to me that the best way
for all of us as Americans to make the right decision in this
presidential race is for anybody who wants to be president to be as
open to the American people as possible.

To be direct and accessible to their questions and have worked hard
on a lot of these problems for years so I think I've got some
answers but I know you have some questions. So lets get started.

Go ahead.

Q: Governor Clinton I'm very sensitive on the job issues here and
what we are seeing here is the exportation of meaningful jobs into
Mexico and other foreign countries what would you do to keep jobs
in this country?

A: I would first of all give us a national economic plan.  That
would generate good jobs.  We are the only advanced nation that
doesn't have a national economic strategy to keep good jobs here.
I would do it by saying look: Let's look at what we did wrong. 
What did we do wrong in the eighties?
     In the eighties we did not have a strategy, we just cut taxes
on the wealthiest people and on corporations and said they will
invest in our economy.  But they didn't.
     Instead the top one percent of the people got more wealth then
the bottom ninety percent, for the first time in seventy years. 
But they moved jobs off shore.  So here is what I think we ought to
do: We ought to take every dollar by which defense is reduced and
put it into investing in American jobs.  Into high speed rail, in
fiber optics, new water, sewer, and road systems.  Into new highway
systems, and new airplane systems.  Building an economy for the
21st century.
     We ought to change the tax system.  We ought to say to
business and wealthy people: we want you to have more tax
incentives but only if you invest in this country.  So here are
more incentives for new plant and equipment, new businesses, for
housing.  But we are going to take all those ridiculous incentives
out of the tax code that are their now. That actually encourage
people with your tax money to shut plants down and move them over
seas.
     We are going to have a tough trade policy that says we want to
expand trade but you got to treat us fair.  We are going to educate
and train our people as well as any country in the world.  And we
are going to control health care costs and provide health care to
all our people.  So we can be competitive.
     So those are the things that will give us a national economic
strategy.  And if we don't do it the economy won't recover.

Q: Governor Clinton I would like to know what your position is on
pushing tax credits and vouchers at the federal level and also
whether you would ever see putting any government money into
private education programs like the Edison Project?

BC: I do not favor tuition tax credits or vouchers.  I do favor
public school choice.  My state was the second state in the country
to give parents and their children more choice of the schools that
they attend at the public school level.  We do provide for vouchers
for people to go to private child care centers before public
schools. And we provide scholarships in my state that are available
for both private and public universities.
     But there is a very clear reason why I don't favor vouchers
for public schools.  That is kindergarten through twelve grade. 
And that is that our nation already spends less money on
kindergarten through twelve grade education than most other
countries that we are competing with for high wage jobs. And most
states are having a very hard time paying the school bill.  I know
we are.
     So even though I support the right of people to go to private
school.  And I think it is good for the public schools to have some
competition.  I have spent more time working trying to improve
education than anything else. And my daughter is a seven grader in
the public schools in Little Rock. I still think that private
school competition is good. But I don't think we ought to divert
public money for private schools.

Q: Governor I would like to get your feelings on the working
replacement bill?

BC: I support the bill which would make it illegal to fire to
permanently replace workings that legally strike.  And I hope 
something can be worked out on that.  I think that we shouldn't
build an economy by making people work harder for lower wages and
fewer benefits.  That's what we have been doing for the last twelve
years and it hasn't worked very well.
     Let me say one of the things we have to do on the national
level what I worked hard to do on the local level.  Is to say we
don't have to chose between worker and business.  You can be pro-
business and pro-worker.  If you are determined to build a high
wage, high growth country.  You know, if we are all working
together on the same team-look at these countries Germany, let's
just take Germany.
     The average working person, people like most of you in
Germany, makes 20 percent more than the average American for a
shorter work week with health care and a four week vacation and I
might add family leave if there is a baby is born or a sick parent.
     None of the things we have.  Why?  One reason is, business,
labor, education, government, they work together. It works.  That
is what we need to do.  We cannot get any where by breaking the
back of the people who are working hard.  We ought to lift their
wages.  Two-thirds of our fellow Americans are working harder for
less money than they were making ten years ago.  Including a lot of
people in this room tonight.  And we ought to turn that around.

Q: I want to talk about gridlock in government.  We can't get a
crime bill passed.  More than 90 percent of the people support the
Brady Bill but we can't get it passed because the Republicans are
filibustering and you can't get it to the floor.  How could you
make a difference in that?

BC: Be President and be for the Brady Bill. I am. And I am the only
one of the three people running for President who will say, "I AM
FOR THE BRADY BILL."  No ifs, ands, or buts.  For those you don't
know what the Brady Bill would require any one wanted want's to buy
a hand gun to go through a waiting period so we could check for
criminal history, mental health history, for appropriate age.  That
is one of the things we need to do.
     This is a real big issue to me.  I am tired of going to
schools-I was in a town the other day were there were eleven grade
schools with metal detectors take the guns and knives off the eight
and nine year olds. 
     I know what it's like to fell be a victim of crime.  Twenty
years ago I was robbed twice within a two year period.  And I lost
every thing I owned.  I was really mad about it.  This world is a
lot more violent now then it was than.  We got more and more young
people, more and more people with guns in their hands.  There is a
lot more to be done on crime.  But we ought to start with the Brady
Bill.
     And the reason there is gridlock is-the President doesn't
believe in it.  So he uses it as an excuse not to sign the crime
bill. There are a lot other good things in that crime bill too.
More money so that cities like Pittsburgh can hire more police to
go on the street for community based policing.
     Believe me we can clean up our neighborhoods. Across the state
in Philadelphia, I walked down a street that used to be dominated
by crack houses, and gangs.  Where people walked safely now because
of a partnership between the federal law enforcement authorities,
the state and local people. And people watching their own
neighborhoods.  We need to do more of that.  But we got to pass the
Brady Bill.  That is a big deal.

Q: Governor Clinton I would like to ask what you plan on doing
about urban plight of the cities, particularly the homeless?

BC: There is a lot of things we can talk about with the urban
plight.  And maybe while we are all here other questions will be
asked to.  But let's talk about the homeless for a moment.  And
think back ten, eleven years ago when we didn't have much of a
homeless problem.  It was really unusual wasn't it see someone
sleeping on the street. Now you see it in all cities of all sizes. 
     That is because we've gone more than a decade without a
national housing policy.  Housing is not much different than
highways.  You have some sort of investment policy.  Except in
America we have both public and private dollars going into housing. 
I favor a homeless strategy that would give more funds to cities to
design their own homeless programs, and would emphasize the lowest
possible costs in solving the problem.
     Which is to take these buildings that the government owns-we
foreclosed on all these savings and loans properties.  HUD has
foreclosed on alot of buildings. Other federal agencies-we own
houses-those houses ought to be rehabilitated and made available
for homeless shelters.
     We ought to take people who are out of work and let them work
in return for public assistance.  Have them rehabilitate these
houses and then open them for the homeless.  But it is a crying
shame to have all these boarded up houses in America and people
sleeping in on streets. We need to put them together.

Q: Yes, Governor Clinton, I'd like to know what you would do about
getting some form of national health-care plan passed in this
country, with almost 47,000 working families being without any kind
of health care?

BC: Million.

Q: Million.

BC: Million, million.

Q: Million.

BC: Do you have health insurance?

Q: Yes. I do--yes.  I do currently, but I'm currently involved in
negotiations, contract negotiations, that may see those taken away.

BC: How many of you have had to pay more for your health insurance
in the last two years?


(Many audience members raise their hands)

BC: Anybody lost their health insurance in the last three years?

(Several audience members raise their hands)

BC: Let me tell you this-this may be the biggest personal problem
most Americans face.  Most Americans still have jobs.  Most
Americans have access to some kind of education.  But almost every
American family is terrified of losing their health insurance, not
being able to pay the bill.
     How many of you are in a family where you couldn't change jobs
because somebody in your family's got what's called a pre-existing
health condition so you might not be able to get new health
insurance if you changed jobs?

(Several audience members raise their hands)

     Another problem for millions of Americans.  Now we have to
solve this problem.  You need to know-this is like something else
we're talking about.  Like you and I were talking about this other
issue.  Your country is the only advanced nation in the world that
permits this to go on.  This is not rocket science.  It's not like
we can't do this.  You are the only-we are in the only country in
the world that doesn't provide affordable health care to all
Americans.  Why?
     Because the special interests in Washington have a collusion
and they don't want it to happen.  They all say it's going to cost
too much money.  Here's my idea.  Every American ought to have a
comprehensive package of affordable health care.  You ought to be
able to get it either through your job, or if-for the self-
employed, the poor, and for small businesses who can't buy
insurance, the government ought to offer an affordable insurance
package.  And every Americans ought to be guaranteed a
comprehensive package.  Then the payment ought to be the same,
state by state, whether the government provides it or whether the
employer provides it.  And everybody ought to be involved in the
system.  There ought to be some incentives for cost controls, but
the main thing we have to do is to take on the big insurance
companies and the health-care bureaucracies, drug companies that
are raising drugs three times the rate of inflation.  These things
are unforgivable.
     You need to know that you country spends conservatively $70 to
$80 billion a year on health care totally unrelated-unrelated to
providing new health care because we don't have a system.  And let
me say, I'm very suspicious of government.  I know that there are
things government can't do, but no nation has solved this problem
without the government taking the lead in controlling costs and
guaranteeing health care.  I will do that if I'm elected president. 
We have to do that.  I will do that. It's a big deal.

Q: One of the reasons why our problems are not being resolved is
because too many of our lawmakers spend to much time promoting
themselves and they're relaxed rather than working for government. 
What would you do to discourage this and reverse the trend?

BC: I'd do the following things.  One, reform the campaign finance
system.  A lot of those people work hard, but they have to spend
too much time catering to vested interest groups because of the
cost of campaigns and because political action committees can give
more money than people can.  So don't let a PAC give a cent more
than a person can.  Two, lower the cost of the congressional
campaigns.  Three, open up the airwaves.  Say if somebody's got a
license to turn a television station or radio station say you've
got to give these people time for debates.  So you can do what
we're doing here, so TV can be an instrument of education, not a
weapon of assassination.  In other words, free up the political
process.
     Secondly, say to the Congress and the president we ought to
live under the laws we make.  We pass the minimum wage law, we
ought to live under it.  If we pass a benefit law, we ought to live
under it.  If we make something a crime for somebody else to do it
ought to be a crime for us to do it, for people in public life.
Those are important.
     And the third thing we need to do is to restrict lobbying
activities when they're inappropriate.  Stop the revolving door
from government to lobby from government to lobby, especially for
foreign lobbyists but for domestic too.  Have restrictions on the
impact that lobbyists can have on the system.  Those things, I
think, would make a big difference,  We shouldn't have a government
dominated by perks and privilege.  It ought to be dominated by
people, and people ought to be put first again.

Q:  I would like to know what are you going to do about open drug
traffic and stuff because I see it every day.  My neighborhood is
infested with it.  Seems like nobody cares.  It's like we're in a
corner where nobody can see.  It's like they say, out of sight out
of mind.  I want to know what's going to be done about that.

BC:  First thing I want you to believe is that something can be
done about it.  This drug business is a cancer that's eating
America alive.  And I want you to believe, in spite of everything
else I say, that I care a lot about it.  I have a brother who is a
recovering drug addict, nearly died by getting caught up in this. 
And I know there are things that can be done.  You live in a
neighborhood where people ignore it-let me tell you why.  Thirty
years ago there were three policemen for every crime reported.  You
know how many there are today?  Three crimes for every policeman. 
This is not a big mystery, I mean one of the things we need to do
is put more police back on the street so that your neighborhood has
guaranteed policeman and they're the same people everyday so they
know you and you know them and you can call them at home at night
and say there's a drug dealer on the corner come get it done.
Neighborhood policing.
     The second thing you've got to do is to have something for
these kids to do.  If you're going to keep them out of gangs and
off drugs have something for them to do.  First time they get in
trouble, instead of sending them to the penitentiary or ignoring
it, which is what usually happens now, put them in a community-
based boot camp.  Discipline, education, drug treatment, and
require them to do some community service work.  Let people get to
know a successful adult in the community.  So more police, more
community service and community-based boot camps.  
     The third thing we got to have is real close cooperation
between the national and the local law enforcement officials so you
know that everybody that the Justice Department can get off the
street as quickly as we can get them off will be done.  I'll give
you that. I'll give you an Attorney General that believes that
every neighborhood is entitled to the same protection from drugs as
the best neighborhoods in this country.  I think that's important.

Q:  Governor Clinton, the United States is still the most powerful
country in the world economically and militarily and we have a
spate of domestic problems but, as the largest country, we still
have international responsibilities.  How would go about balancing
the two, our international and our domestic responsibilities?

BC:  I'm glad you care about it.  Good for you.  Because we can't
withdraw from the world.  One in five of our jobs is tied directly
or indirectly to trade.  We can't just hunker down.  The first
point I want to make is that you can't be strong abroad if you're
not strong at home.  Remember when President Bush went to Japan on
that trade mission recently?  The whole thing ends in humiliation
for us when Japanese Prime Minister gets up and says, "I feel
sympathy for the United States".  God, that made me so mad.  But he
thinks we're weak at home.  So the first thing we've got to do is
to-it's good for our foreign strength to invest in our own people
and our own economy again.  
     The second thing we need to do is to say, "Okay, the Cold War
is over so we don't have to spend a hundred billion dollars a year
anymore defending Europe".  A lot of those countries are richer
than we are.  What we are going to do is to promote freedom and
democracy and free market economics.  So for example, I'd be for
freedom for Haiti.  I wouldn't send those people back until we put
democracy back in Haiti.  
     I'd be for democracy in China.  I wouldn't have done what Mr.
Bush did and give all those trade preferences to China while
they're locking their people up.  
     I'd be for expanded trade with Mexico and all these other
countries but only, only, if they lifted their wage rates and their
labor standards and they cleaned up their environment so we could
both go up together instead of being dragged down. 
     We have an incredible opportunity.  Because you know we used
to have to make deals with people based on whether they were for or
against Russia, whether we liked them or not.  That's not there
anymore.  We can just stand up for what we believe in.  Same thing
in the Middle East.  You know I don't agree with everything the
Israeli government does but it's still the only democracy in the
Middle East and I wouldn't do what Mr. Bush does which is just hit
on them to give over to the Arab position.  I'd say let's make
peace, you all make peace, but I want to see less militarism, no
nuclear weapons, and more democracy and freedom in the Middle East. 
That's what I would say.

Q:  My question is about social security.  Being far away from
retiring, when I'm sixty-five, will there be a fund for me?

BC:  There will if we get this economy going again.  Right now the
social security system is in fact over funded.  That is, every year
the taxes you pay are producing about seventy billion dollars a
year more than the benefits the retirees take out.  Now let me tell
you the bad news.  The bad news is that money's applied against the
deficit, which means everybody who makes fifty-one thousand dollars
a year or less is making a bigger contribution to paying down the
debt than everybody who makes more than fifty one thousand dollars
a year.  Because that's where social security cuts off.  It's just
as wrong as it can be.
     But anyway, the good news is the fund is now stable and it
will continue to be stable if we don't loot it and if we get this
economy going again.  The only thing that can really break social
security, if we continue to honor it's compact, that is people pay
in, get out, the only thing that can break it is if this economy
collapses.

Q: The first question of the night, you explained where the money
would come from to put people back to work. Where would the money
come from for a national health plan and to support our schools and
colleges?

BC:   Very good question. Money for a national health plan first
because that is where most of the money is. First, you have to
control costs. You've got to have a cost control; you've got to
take on the health insurance companies, the health care
bureaucracies, you've got to give people incentives to enroll in
year long plans where they pay a certain fee and they get all their
needs taken care of and that they choose their doctors and
providers. That's where the big money is.
     Then you have to require people to pay into the fund, based on
their ability to pay. Like elderly and disabled people should be
able to buy long term care but they would be charged based on their
ability to pay, and employers would have to pay but small business
people would have a limit based on their revenues as small
businesses. So everybody could afford to buy in, it would cost some
more money, but you would save roughly, and this is amazing, just
on tax dollars alone, roughly $100 billion in the next four years
if you could just bring health care costs in line with inflation.
So if we all paid a little more in the front to cover everybody and
then put the lid down on cost and stop the insurance companies and
the others from ballooning the costs we'd save a lot of money.
     On education, I propose to pay that by asking people who made
money in the eighties that whose tax rates went down to pay their
fair share-people over $200,000, I'd ask to pay higher income
taxes, people over a million dollars, I'd ask to pay a
millionaire's surtax; they'd still be paying less than they were in
1980, but they'd be paying their fair share. In the eighties, we
raised taxes on the middle class while their incomes went down and
we ought to reverse that; we ought to at least ask the wealthy to
pay their fair share so we can invest in American education.

Q:  Governor Clinton, a short while ago you mentioned, or you
advocated, a strong support for police enforcement, I also advocate
that but I have to admit a while back my faith in police
enforcement and the legal system was somewhat shaken with the
Rodney King verdict. What would you do to insure that everyone in
society feels that they can receive fairness and justice?

BC:  Good for you. First, I respect you for saying that because it
is not about race is it? I mean everybody said it was about race,
but it shouldn't have been. I think, first the federal authorities
should look into that case and see if there is anything they can do
to try to bring justice. Secondly, people should be prosecuted if
they break the law no matter whether in a uniform or out and no
matter what the color of their skin. The law ought to be the law
and there ought not to be in bias in it. Thirdly, we ought to
really train our law enforcement officials to work with the people
in the communities so that they feel like they are friends again
and they feel a different commonality. It is obvious that those
police saw that man as an animal and not a person and it was wrong.
We need to work harder to make sure people that understand each
other as human beings. You'd be amazed at how many black americans
tell me that they walk into a department store, people who work 50
or 60 hours a week, and somebody's always looking at them to see if
they are going to steal something. We need to get beyond these
stereotypes. Remember, most people in Los Angeles, didn't loot,
didn't rob, didn't burn and they played by the rules, that's what
we ought to sensitize people to. 

Moderator: Governor, we only have about a minute left so very quick
question, very quick answer.  

Q:  Governor, you've been on the record as opposing the recently
and shamefully, I think, defeated balance budget amendment. If
president, would you submit a balanced budget and if so how would
you accomplish that?

BC:  If I were president, I would submit a balanced budget plan
over a five year period. I don't think you can go from $400 billion
to zero in a year. In this recession you'd have to raise taxes and
cut benefits, you'd make the economy worse. The reason I opposed
the balance budget amendment is that I thought it was a gimmick and
a put off so nobody would really have to make any decisions for six
years and because it did not make a distinction between investment
and consumption. That is, most of you have borrowed money for
homes, for cars, for businesses, right? If the government borrows
money to put us to work, and we'll get it back, that's ok, but
we're eating our seed card as we say in the farming country. We're
borrowing money to go to dinner at night, that's what's wrong. And
I would support an amendment that would control that and I will
present a five year balanced budget plan if I am elected.


Moderator: Thank you Governor Clinton. Although that was the last
question of the night, people in the studio audience or in the
viewing audience who would like to ask Governor Clinton a question
or who would like more information here is a toll free number you
can call: 1-800-551-5600, toll free call for questions or
information. Governor, about one minute left for a couple of
closing thoughts from you.

BC: Let me thank all of you who watched on television tonight and
all those people who have come to share their thoughts and I am
sure they were your thoughts. I want you to know how much I enjoyed
the program, how grateful I am, how much I hope we can do more of
this. If you saw the #800 number and you have a question, call it
in, and we'll get you an answer. The people here tonight are like
most Americans-they've worked hard, they've played by the rules and
they have not been rewarded. I know that if I hadn't been a product
of the american dream I'd never been able to be born in a small
town, to work my way through college, and wind up running for
president. Those are the opportunities I want for all americans.

We can bring America back if we will invest in our people again.
Thank you very much.