Bill Clinton photo

Remarks at the Downtown Child Development Center in Atlanta, GA

March 19, 1993

Well, first of all, I would like to thank Cheryl and all the people at this wonderful center for giving me a few minutes' break out of my normal schedule. The Mayor and I talked about business on the way in from the airport, and then I got to help put a puzzle together and play a drum and do some things that are more fun than what I do most days. [Laughter]

Let me begin by saying that last night the House of Representatives cast an historic set of votes. Among those in the leadership was your Congressman, John Lewis, who is here with me now, a longtime friend of mine. The House voted to do something that our country, as far as I can tell from my reading of history, has never done before at the same time. They voted to make a drastic cut in the Federal deficit and at the same time to invest some new money in the children of the country, through preschool programs and nutrition programs and education programs, and in new jobs for the American people. And I wanted to come here to Atlanta today to talk about it and to try to help to keep the American people informed of what the House has done and what the Senate must now do and what we still have to do to pass this budget. I wanted to come here to this child care center because the children who are here, the children of working parents, desperately need the kinds of opportunities that are provided here and that we're trying to provide there.

Just on the way in something happened that we couldn't have organized, Cheryl, neither you nor I, if we tried to do this. A man was standing outside this center with a child in his arms saying, "If I could afford to get my child in a good center like this, then I could take a job even at minimum wages and support my child." It was very touching. He just happened to be in the crowd outside.

So I guess what I'd like to do is just to ask all of you to tell me what I, as President, can do to help to continue to support these kinds of projects, maybe get Federal Agencies in other cities to do the same thing you've done, perhaps work on enhancing the child care incentives in the Federal program. But I'd like to know what you think I can do to help to deal with this problem. Because as I go around the country, next to the cost of health care and the fear of losing health insurance, the availability and quality and affordability of child care are the things that working parents most often mention to me, after health care. So I just wanted to come here and listen for a while.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. at the center. In his remarks, he referred to Cheryl Smith, director of the center, and Maynard Jackson, Mayor of Atlanta.

William J. Clinton, Remarks at the Downtown Child Development Center in Atlanta, GA Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/219300

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