REMARKS BY BILL CLINTON WARREN COUNTY, IOWA SEPTEMBER 27, 1992 Bill Clinton and Al Gore offer a plan to change this country, a plan to put people first. We can do better. There's a lot to be said for rural values and the things we do in rural America. We know that farmers and ranchers and small business people in little communities have done a lot to build this country, to feed America and the world. Unlike Mr. Bush, we want your sacrifices, your values and your commitments to be acknowledged by your government not just at election time but every day. The president, you know, has discovered rural America now just in the last few weeks. He didn't understand how we needed to sell pork to Russia but he was sure glad to throw a little pork around right here before the election. In my administration farm families will be able to make a profit again selling their abundance. For all of his last-minute moves, Mr. Bush can't deny what we all know: most Americans on the farm and in the factory and in businesses are working harder today for less money than they were making 10 years ago. That is a fact that he cannot deny. I entered the race for president because I wanted to see our country moving again. I think it's time for a change away from trickle-down economics, not the change Bush claims we will make. We're not the tax-and-spend crowd. It's time for a new direction, to invest in our country again, in our jobs, in our incomes, in our farms and in our futures. It's time to educate and train our people and to do that instead of just talking about it. It's time to face the deficit by cutting inessential spending, reducing defense where we can and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share because their taxes have gone down while the middle class people's taxes have gone up. It's time to say that we want the promise of America to be felt everywhere in America, in the rural areas and the inner cities too. People willing to work hard and play by the rules ought to have a chance to find their just reward. ARKANSAS, A RURAL STATE My own state, like most, was nearly devastated during the Reagan-Bush years of trickle-down. It started on the farms and it spread to small towns and then to our cities. Our farmers and bankers and small business people had to make some tough decisions. I tried to respond to the problems people were having when their incomes were dropping like a rock and there was no national response. We decided to do what we could together. We went to work to change our farm foreclosure laws, to increase farm loans, and to start a new program for first-time farmers. We are trying to restart small businesses and little factories in rural areas. We put investments into rural transportation, water and sewer systems. We invested in community development and recreational opportunities, even in our tiny towns. We are committed to bringing health care services back to people in rural areas, including through schools and public health networks. Like most rural Americans, our folks were tough and smart. They didn't ask for a handout, but they did want a hand up. And I did my best to give it to them in Arkansas. Farm income in Arkansas rebounded more than the national average and jobs are up in rural areas. Mr. Bush won't tell you this when he flies around dumping on my record. Arkansas ranked first in the country last year in job growth. We've maintained the second lowest tax burden in the country and we've started to move forward again. It wasn't a miracle. It was progress through hard work and partnerships, through a caring heart and a clear head on the part of a lot of people. Mr. Bush will not change with the times, but I will. I want to put government back on the side of ordinary people, whether they work on farms or ranches or in businesses or factories. Together we can build something to take pride in. FARM INCOME We should start with a commitment to rural America, where people have proved year in and year out that they will work for everything they get. We can do better than falling commodity prices. We can do better than declining farm incomes and better than a farm bill that has been mismanaged by people who never wanted to see it work. I believe we can make the 1990-1994 farm bill work if we have someone who cares enough to manage it properly and understands what its provisions were supposed to do. It is supposed to promote decent management and reasonable incomes and a vigorous opportunity to export, but you're not going to get it out of the Bush Administration. They didn't want this four year bill. We can cut the mountain of red tape and regulation and paper work and debt that is at the heart of the farm policies of the Bush Administration. Give me a chance and I will. EXPORTS Mr. Bush drones on and on about how he believes in free markets and exports. But look at his record on agricultural issues. He promised to expand farm exports, but when opportunities came, he delayed. Farm exports are at the same level they were 12 years ago. Our grain exports fell this year. No amount of pork barrel the President spreads around in the last 50 days of this election can remove his responsibility to challenge other's trade barriers. We have to say we'll buy more from you, but give us a fair shot, give us a fair break. We're working hard and we expect to be treated in a way that really represents fair trade as well as free trade. We had a chance to sell 30,000 metric tons of pork to Russia, but George Bush sat on the deal for eight months waiting to turn it into politics. We had a chance to sell massive amounts of grain to Russia, but he would have had to extend credits. That's why they're there. He sat on it. Finally, other countries got the sale and our farmers got the shaft. I think we can do better, and I will. Trade barriers cost our oilseed producers $2 billion a year. Now, there's nothing wrong with the law. The law gives George Bush the weapons he needs to level the playing field, but he always puts them in mothballs. Look at the export enhancement program. The President went to South Dakota to tell the wheat farmers that in all of his majesty, he's going to let them take advantage of the export enhancement program. Mr. Bush didn't use the program when it was best for the markets and best for the farmers. He held it back and let the farmers suffer and let the markets go until it was best for him, to keep his job right here before the election. I won't give you election year farm politics. I'll give you a farm policy that will be there year in and year out, day in and day out. One that is best for you, not what's best for me. You know Clayton Yeuter from the Bush campaign, who used to be the Secretary of Agriculture and was head of the Republican Committee. In a memo to wheat farmers, he said, I just can't believe all those farmers aren't grateful for all that money we gave them. Farmers are smart. They understand markets and production cycles, and they know when you're opening the door for them as opposed to opening the door for you. That deal in South Dakota was the President using a program, a program he earlier recommended eliminating, to open the door for his own reelection, not for the welfare of the farmers of this country. ADDING VALUE AT HOME There is no policy in this country to add to the value of farm products, and we have to do better. We have to add to the value of our farm products and sell value-added farm products around the world, and use more here at home. George Bush has made the wrong choices on ethanol. Instead of standing for energy security and higher corn prices and more jobs, he backed big oil companies and oil imports. Once again George Bush's management of an issue divides, rather than unites. He has damaged the traditional alliance between farm groups and other environmental groups. Mr. Bush has planted the seeds of lawsuits and delays in a naked attempt to reap votes. We can find a way to deal with the environmental objections which have been raised to ethanol usage. After all, there are states which are already consuming significant amounts of ethanol in their fuel. And if you'll give me a chance to serve, I'll bring the EPA and the Agriculture Department and all the people together. We will do the research we need to hammer out the difficulties. We'll resolve it and we'll use ethanol as a part of our nation's energy security future. We'll do the same with biotechnology. Look at the things we could do with farm products: biodegradable plastics, soybean-based inks, industrial oils, lubricants, bio-fuels. We can drive up farm incomes and profits for decades, and create businesses that will stay in smaller communities. This can happen if we have a little vision and we have the kind of the research and development and technology dissemination we need. That's what a national government should to be doing. That's what our competitors are doing. Give Bill Clinton and Al Gore a chance, and we'll do it too. CONSERVING RESOURCES We can promote the environment and promote the economy if we know what we're doing. The 56 year old farmer-government partnership to protect natural resources is a model for grassroots citizen participation. Farmers know their livelyhood depends on the soil, water and air. Farmers and I reject the Bush Administration's attempts to force a false choice between environmental protection and economic growth. I recognize the fundamental importance of private property rights. I support land use which helps our economy thrive, protects our natural resources and balances the need to preserve with legitimate economic needs. Farmers should be able to farm prior converted wetlands. In my administration, farmers will be included in the national debate on environmental policy, because farmers pay the taxes and the bank notes. I will make certain that environmental policy is based on sound scientific data. In my administration, the cost of environmental protection will not be carried by America's farmers and ranchers alone. Health and education have long been my priorities. I know they are constant concerns of rural Americans. HEALTH We must join the ranks of every other advanced country to control health care costs and provide basic health care to all of our people. Until we do, we will never control of our government deficit. Nor can we restore our manufacturing sector, bring stability to our small business sector or security to our farmers. My plan reserves your right to pick your doctor, to use your hospital and preserves the private medical system. But, it controls health care costs for all Americans, not just those who get Medicare and Medicaid. My plan has a basic package of health care for everyone including people who don't have insurance. My health plan will save hundreds of billions of dollars for the public and the private sector by the end of the decade. We're now wasting tens of billion of dollars on insurance and administration and government regulation. Bringing health care costs in line with inflation will save more money for new jobs and new investment than anything you could do to the tax code. Under our plan farmers and small business people will have access to buy into big pools of health insurance so they have the same cost opportunities as people who work for big companies. Also, we can give our elderly people the chance to have a long-term care plan that doesn't require them to spend themselves into poverty and to go into a nursing home. Our plan calls for expansion of existing rural health centers and construction of new facilities to serve rural residents. I support medical school scholarships in return for service in critical shortage communities and emphasize primary care physician training. EDUCATION No president can promise you economic opportunity if you lack knowledge or skills. It is time we had an education president who is worthy of that title. I offer the American people a plan for lifetime learning. This means teaching everyone with a job to read in the next five years and giving every adult a chance to get a high school education. For every young person who doesn't go to a four-year college, we should offer them two years of further apprenticeship training so they can get good jobs, not dead-end jobs. Think of this. I propose a national trust fund from which any person can borrow the money to finance a college education. They would pay it back as a small percentage of their income at tax time, so borrower can't beat the bill. Even better, they could pay by working for a couple of years before or after they go to college at work we need done like education, health, housing, etc. We could solve the problems of America and educate a whole generation of Americans -- and I say it's time we did it. Read Harry Truman's words. "You have another chance. I'm not asking you to vote for me; I'm asking you to vote for yourselves, to exercise your God-given right to control this country." It's our country, folks; take it back. We're better than this, Bill Clinton and Al Gore can do better than this.