Clinton Takes Credit for California’s Economic Upswing

President Clinton on Thursday claimed credit for the resurgent California economy, saying that his deficit-reduction and trade-opening efforts had contributed to a turnaround in the state’s fortunes.

Speaking against a backdrop of ships, cranes and cargo containers at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, Clinton declared: “California is coming all of the way back.”

He cited figures on the growth of trade and trade-related jobs as evidence that administration trade policies, particularly toward China and the rest of the Pacific Rim, were paying large dividends in California and across the nation.

Clinton said that in the first three years of his presidency, exports from California had grown by $25 billion, generating 200,000 new jobs.

The president was introduced by Kevin Schroeder of San Pedro, a third-generation dock hand from Local 13 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union. Schroeder said he was grateful that Clinton came to Long Beach “to talk about real stuff like jobs and putting food on the table.”

Clinton was welcomed by an enthusiastic, flag-waving crowd of longshoremen and administrators from the twin ports, a contingent of teachers and local officials and Democratic candidates for a slew of state and national offices.

James Adams, a longshoreman who retired after 44 years on the docks, said he is pleased with the direction Clinton has taken the country, but acknowledged that some feel the pace of growth is too slow.

“You’ve got to give him time,” said Adams, who described himself as a Democrat but said he would not rule out voting for GOP candidates. “Dole, he says you’ll learn about the real Dole when he gets in office. That’s what we’re afraid of.”

Beverly Douglas, a Long Beach woman wearing a Clinton-Gore button, waved a small American flag during the president’s speech. After the speech, she waded into the crowd near the president for a handshake and got one.

“He has a real handshake, a real man’s handshake,” she said, as she pushed her way out of the crowd.

Clinton’s speech was interrupted several times by hecklers protesting what they said was the president’s refusal to recognize Armenian genocide. But the president continued his 20-minute address without a problem.

Clinton flies out of LAX this morning to begin a weeklong vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyo. His visit here came on the second day of a California campaign swing timed to draw media attention away from the Republicans, who are gathering in San Diego for the Monday opening of their national nominating convention.

Clinton did not mention his anticipated opponent, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, by name in either of his public appearances Thursday, but he did take a jab at him earlier in the day in Salinas.

Speaking on the steps of Salinas City Hall before a phalanx of blue-uniformed police officers at midday, he likened Dole’s $548-billion tax-cut proposal to a gluttonous trip to a candy store and vowed that he would not propose any tax decreases that are not fully funded.

Clinton said the nation cannot afford Dole’s call for a 15% across-the-board cut in income tax rates.

While Dole’s plan does include some real budget reductions, his advisors and aides have said that economic growth, stimulated by the tax-rate cut, would make up for much of the lost tax dollars.

“You’ll hear a lot of talk between now and November about tax cuts and how much we should have and whether we can afford them--and they all sound good,” the president told several hundred Central Coast residents and several dozen television cameras beneath a bright midday sun.

“It’s like going to the candy store--you know, I’ll have some of that, some of that, some of that, some of that. But if you eat it all at once, you might get sick. So I say to you, it may not be popular, but I will not advocate any cut in taxes in this election that cannot be paid for,” Clinton said.

Clinton said he supports “targeted” tax cuts--to subsidize higher education and the adoption of children, among others.

He also tried to undermine another of his Republican rival’s central campaign themes--the rising rate of juvenile crime.

Clinton announced new Justice Department statistics that show arrests of juveniles for violent crimes decreased in 1995 for the first time in seven years.

Dole has frequently attacked the administration’s anti-crime record by saying that crimes by youths have risen sharply since Clinton took office.

There was no immediate reaction from the Dole campaign.

Earlier in the day, Clinton courted the support of organized labor with an address by satellite to a United Steelworkers convention in Pittsburgh.

He urged the delegates not only to vote for him, but also to return Congress to Democratic control. Clinton often criticizes the Republicans, who dominate both houses of Congress, but seldom explicitly advocates throwing them out.

Thursday, however, he told the highly partisan labor organization--which has endorsed his reelection--that its rights are not safe as long as the GOP controls Capitol Hill.

“You remember what they tried to do,” he said. “How they shut the government down twice. What they tried to do to Medicare and Medicaid, education and the environment. Unless we win the presidential election and change the composition of the Congress, they’ll keep trying it over and over and over again.”

Times staff writers Douglas P. Shuit and Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.