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President Clinton took a campaign swing through New Jersey today. He spoke this afternoon at a rally in Monmouth County.

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PRESIDENT CLINTON: Four years ago when I came to New Jersey and asked for your support, I said I had a simple vision for our country on the edge of a new century. I wanted us to go into the 21st century with the American dream alive and well for everyone who is willing to work for it. I wanted us to go into the 21st century as a country that respected our diversity and relished it, that was coming together more closely as a community, not drifting apart as so many other nations of the world are. And I wanted us to continue to be the world's strongest nation for peace and freedom and prosperity. And I say to you today the strategy we adopted, opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a community in which every person has a role to play and a part is working. We not only have a stronger economy, the crime rate has gone down for four years in a row, the welfare rolls are down by nearly 2 million, child support collections are up by $3 billion, 40 percent. There are no Russian missiles pointed at the children of the United States. And today I became the first head of state to sign the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty to ban all nuclear tests forever. (applause)

Now, this did not happen by accident. These things happen because we changed the way Washington works. We got out of who's to blame, and we asked what can we do about our problems. We invited everyone to help us. We invited everyone to put aside their partisanship, their extremism, to roll up their sleeves, and tackle America's problems, seize America's opportunities. It worked. That's why we're on the right track. Now you have a great choice to make. And it has been clearly--and I must say candidly--articulated not just by me but also by my opponent. Are we going to build a bridge to the future, or a bridge to the past? Are we going to say you're on your own out there, we can't afford things like family leave, or are we going to say the First Lady's right, it does take a village to raise our children and to build up our country? (applause)

All across the spectrum, if you look at what is at stake here, I offer you a bridge to the 21st century that you have to help build--no guarantees but opportunity--and the challenge of responsibility, and the reminder that we have to do it together.

Think about our economy. If I had told you four years ago we have 10 ½ million new jobs, a seven and a half year low in unemployment, virtually no inflation, the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgages in 28 years, you'd have said that's pretty good. Bring it on. But we can do better. I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that gives all of our children the best educational opportunities in the world. We want to hook up every classroom and every library in America to the information superhighway, to the Internet, to the World Wide Web. Let me tell you what that means. It means for the first time in history the children in the most remote rural districts and in the poorest urban districts will have access to the same information and the same way at the same quality and the same time as every other child in America. It will revolutionize education, and we intend to do it if you'll help us build that bridge to the 21st century. (applause)

We want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which every American can go to college, every American of any age, and we propose to do it in the following way: No. 1, more people than ever will be able to save through an IRA and withdraw from that IRA tax free if the savings are used to pay for college, medical care, a first-time home. No. 2, we're going to say in the next four years we want a community college education to be just as universal in the United States as a high school diploma is today. Everybody needs more than a high school diploma today, and here's how we're going to pay for it. We want to say to working Americans if you go to a community college, you can deduct from your taxes dollar for dollar the cost of tuition at a typical community college in the United States. We can do that, no bureaucracy, no extra hassle, and we can pay for it in the balanced budget amendment. And finally, we want to permit every family to deduct the cost of college tuition, any kind of college, undergraduate or graduate school, up to $10,000 a year from their taxes so that we can educate our people. (applause)

Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st century? (applause)

I'm mighty proud to be here with you, proud to be representing the people of New Jersey, grateful for the support you have given me, and asking you to think among yourselves not about party, not about politics, but about what you want our country to look like when we start a new century in a new millennium, and what you want America to be like when your children are your age. That is all that matters. I believe as strongly as I can say that if you want the kind of America I believe you do, we've got to build a bridge to the future, we can revere our past, but we can't recapture it. The best days of America are still ahead. The children in this audience today, many of them will do jobs that have not been invented yet. Some of them will do work that has not been imagined yet. All we have to do is to build the right kind of bridge that's broad enough, big enough, and strong enough for all of us to walk across. I hope you will help me build it. Thank you, and God bless you all. (applause)

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