HEADLINE: VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE DELIVERS REMARKS AT CAMPAIGN RALLY
LOCATION: TAMPA, FLORIDA
NOVEMBER 1, 2000
SPEAKER: ALBERT GORE JR., VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
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(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GORE: What I am hearing from you and your numbers and with your enthusiasm is very simple and very clear: On Tuesday, we're going to win Florida.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm so glad to be able to tell you that we have just been joined on stage by one of the greatest fighters for the average citizen that this state or any state has ever known. A former governor, a great champion for all, Senator Bob Graham.
(APPLAUSE)
And I want to call your attention to someone who has already spoken, but who is a wonderful friend to me. We have known each other for many years, the next United States senator from Florida, Bill Nelson.
(APPLAUSE)
And one of the greatest members of the House of Representatives ever to partner with me in the New Democratic movement, somebody who's got common sense and a passion for doing the right thing for working families, Congressman Jim Davis.
We appreciate you, Jim.
(APPLAUSE)
Jim and Bob just came in.
And I want to also acknowledge one of the most beloved individuals in this state. She's been out working hard for Tipper and me and she's a great friend, the former first lady of Florida, Rhea Childs (ph). Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
GORE: And what can I say about the man who has the rhythm and the rhyme and the harmony and the pulse of the state of Florida, Jimmy Buffet, the one and only?
(APPLAUSE)
And I want to thank Jean McGarvey (ph) for her very nice introduction.
And I want to thank a woman who served as one of my debate advisers from this area, Joyce Martin (ph).
I appreciate you being here, Joyce.
She's given me good advice.
(APPLAUSE)
All right, now let me tell you. Won't Tipper make a great first lady?
(APPLAUSE)
Well, in six dayshas anybody got one of those "Tipper rocks" signs out there?
In six days, you're going to have a very important choice to make. You can set America on a new path to continue the prosperity and to extend it to everyone.
When I look to the future of this state and of our country, I am filled with hope. We have record surpluses, 22 million new jobs, and the lowest unemployment in 30 years. We've never had a better chance to move forward together and secure the future. We're going to do it.
(APPLAUSE)
My message, in spite of all the great economic news, is very simple: You ain't seen nothing yet. We're doing better still.
(APPLAUSE)
GORE: But you know as well as I do that the future is not something that just happens, it's something that we have to make and shape for ourself, together. And six days from today, you will get to chose how will we maintain our prosperity and how will we use it, and for what will we use it?
I believe that all Americans created this prosperity, and, therefore, all Americans ought to share in it. That's why I believe that we have to balance the budget every year and pay down our national debt every year and eliminate the national debt, so these children here won't be weighed down by a mountain from the past, and instead can reach up for their own dreams...
(APPLAUSE)
... and open their own doors for opportunity.
(APPLAUSE)
That's why, with Bob and Jim and with Bill, I've been fighting for a smaller, smarter government to shrink government spending to thethe smallest share of national income in 50 years to do more better with less. And I believe that we ought to have tax cuts for the middle-class families...
(APPLAUSE)
... who most need the tax cuts.
(APPLAUSE)
Those are the kind that don't threaten our prosperity, but do help families afford child care and health care.
And hear me well, when you elect me president, I'm going to make most college tuition tax deductible -- $10,000 a year for every middle-class family.
(APPLAUSE)
Are you with me?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
(APPLAUSE)
And I'm fighting for a real patients' bill of rights, because I think it's high time we take the medical decisions away from the HMOs and give them back to the doctors and the nurses and the health care professionals.
(APPLAUSE)
GORE: And I think it's high time that we recognize the difficulty seniors are having in choosing between skipping their meals or skipping their pills. I'll give you a real prescription drug benefit for all seniors under the Medicare program.
(APPLAUSE)
And I think it's time to recognize that it's wrong for women, who work just as hard as men and sometimes come back to a second or third shift at home, to earn on average 76 cents on every dollar a man earns. We need an equal day's pay for an equal day's work.
(APPLAUSE)
Are you with me?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
(APPLAUSE)
GORE: But I want toI want to bear down here today on one issue in particular. And Tampa is one of the places where you can see the importance of this issue more than practically anywhere else. It's one of the most fateful questions that we'll answer in this election, and that is how we save and safeguard our environment.
Let me say it clearly. The environment has been my cause all of my public life. I believe that protecting it is one of the great obligations of our generation. And I believe that pollution must never be allowed to be the price of our prosperity.
I believe we need to have clean air and clean water and protect the environment.
(APPLAUSE)
If we do things right, our children and grandchildren will grow up with clean water and air, and parks and open spaces where families can walk and bike and play.
GORE: If we do things right, we can create an even cleaner environment and build an even stronger economy at the same time.
Now I know the other side will keep on attacking me for my strong stands on this issue. Well, I have a message for the other side when it comes to protecting the environment: On the environment, I have never given up, I have never backed down and I never will.
(APPLAUSE)
There was a time in our past in America when a strong and unyielding commitment to the environment was seen as somehow being a barrier to prosperity, a fringe concern that had more to do with obscure and endangered species than with our own lives and livelihoods.
But now, there's a new consensus in America, shaped by new thinking. The environment is part of the fabric of our daily lives. And that is why I will not allow it to be traded away for short-term profit and what we get in return is long-term pollution at a time when businesses need a high quality of life to attract the best employees.
Right here in Tampa, you see employers being able to get the best and the brightest because of the attractive environment.
Smarter growth and more livable communities have therefore become an economic asset for communities.
At a time when more kids miss school in America because of severe asthma than because of any other reason, clean air is essential to a quality education.
(END OF AUDIO FEED)
END
NOTES:
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