Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930505.zip/5-5F.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-03 | 18KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Wed May  5 21:49:05 1993
Date: Wed, 5 May 1993 16:33-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail],
Subject: Presidents's Remarks at Democratic Dinner

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                May 4, 1993


                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
          TO THE 30TH ANNUAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL DINNER

                        The Washington Hilton

8:50 P.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  For a minute there, I thought I was at a
meeting of the Republican Senate Caucus.  (Laughter.)  I'm so glad to
see all of you.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate that warm
greeting, how very much I appreciate being here with Speaker Foley
and Senator Mitchell and Majority Leader Gephardt and Senator Graham,
Senator Boxer, Congressman Fazio, Congressman Torricelli, and all of
you out in the audience tonight who did so much to make our victory
possible last November and who have done so much to try to help us
make a difference to America.

         I also want to say a special word of thanks to the Vice
President.  We have developed a remarkable partnership.  And, you
know, sometimes when I hear him introduce me, I really think he
believes it -- he almost convinced me, I believe it.  (Laughter.)  I
can tell you this, that when the record of this administration is
written, one thing will go down in the history books -- there will
never have been a Vice President in the history of the republic who
played such a constructive role in helping to advance the public
interest.  (Applause.)

         I come here tonight on two missions:  First and
obviously, I want to support this fundraising effort.  I want more
Democrats to win in '94.  I need every one of you -- I want all of
you to be reelected.  And I know that in major part -- (applause) --
yes, that's worth clapping for.  (Applause.)  I'm in a little
position than a lot of presidents; I got elected because I wanted to
do something.  If you don't want to do anything, you don't really
need the Congress.  If you want to do something you have to have a
partnership, an unprecedented one, to get things done and move things
forward.  (Applause.)

         But this is about more than winning elections.  It's
about what the elections themselves are for.  Today I had a wonderful
experience -- I invited the man who brought me into the Congress the
first time when I was a college student, Senator J. William
Fulbright, who will be 88 tomorrow.  I invited him to come have lunch
with me at the White House today.  (Applause.)  And he told me he had
not been there since President Nixon was in office.  It was
wonderful.  We had lunch there and then we went up to the Oval Office
and sat around.  And we started talking about some of the great
people who served our party and our country, and we got to talking
about Senator Mike Mansfield, who, as you probably know, is 90 and
walks five miles every day; one of our most distinguished ambassadors
to Japan ever.

         And he told me he had dinner with Senator Mansfield
about a month ago.  And Mike looked at him and he said, "Now, Bill,
how old are you?"  He said, "I'm 87."  And he said, "Oh, to be 87
again."  (Laughter.)

         I say that to try to give some perspective beyond the
moment to the work we are about.  I ran for this job not just for the
privilege of living in the White House and even for the wonderful
privilege of being with all of you on a regular basis, but because I
thought together we could make a difference in the history of this
country.  If we live to be 87, 88, or 90, and we look back on our
lives, we will doubtless measure the quality of those lives by
whether we did something with the jobs we hold.  Or whether, if we
are in the private sector, we did something to help affect and shape
the public interest.

         No one ever said this was going to be easy, but I think
it is clear that, fundamentally, we have changed the direction of the
government.  A few days ago there was a remarkable article in The
Wall Street Journal by the political columnist who said that, beyond
all the smoke and fight, look at what's happened in the last 100
days.  The question used to be, will the Democrats ever really lower
the government deficit?  Now the question is, how much and how fast?
The question used to be, would we ever do anything about health care?
And now the question is, what and how quickly?  (Applause.)

         The question used to be whether the government really
had a role working with the private sector to help revitalize the
economy in a tough global economy, and now the issue is, what is the
nature of the partnership between government and business to create
jobs and help Americans compete again?  (Applause.)

         The question used to be, the columnist went on, whether
government was intrinsically bad or whether it could be made to work
for people.  And this crowd believes you can make government work;
believes it can be different; believes it can lead us into the
future; believes we can work together.  (Applause.)  Now, I don't
know about you, but I think that's a pretty good start.  (Applause.)

         And it is very easy, my fellow Americans, to say you
want to put government on the side of the middle class and you want
to reward the values of work and family; that you want to offer
opportunity and demand responsibility and reestablish the bonds of
American community.  But I'll tell you something:  It's a lot easier
to say it than it is to do it.

         Everybody knows the broad outlines of the last dozen
years -- that most working-class people have worked longer hours for
lower pay to pay higher taxes; that there has been a dramatic
increase in inequality; that there have been almost no private sector
jobs created for the last three years; that even when we have
increases in productivity, they don't yet manifest themselves in
higher employment.  Everybody knows that we had this gaping deficit
that was caused by big tax cuts, big spending increases, first in
defense -- and then when defense went down, exploding health care
costs and costs to maintain interest on the debt.

         The question is, will we do anything about it?  Will we
really move to deal with the enormous debt, to invest in our future
and create jobs, to make the government work again for ordinary
people?  Well, in the first 100 days, we've shown both the up and the
down sides of that.  We've shown what happens when the President and
the Congress work together, and we've also seen a little bit of the
hazards of gridlock.

         I'm proud and grateful for those of you who stood with
me in our efforts to change, because I think the people prefer action
over inaction, innovation over inertia, and decision over delay.  I
believe more than anything else, two-thirds of the American people
want us to do what I saw on a sign when I was on my way with Senator
Moynihan up to Hyde Park to Franklin Roosevelt's home a few weeks
ago.  There was a guy standing out in the road -- it was eight
degrees and several hundred people standing alongside the road -- one
guy had a sign that said, "Just do something."  (Laughter and
applause.  I believe the people want us to do something.  I believe
they're tired of "do nothing" government.  (Applause.)

         Thanks to the leadership of this Congress, just 17 days
into this administration, after eight years of gridlock and vetoes,
we made the Family and Medical Leave law the law of the land.  That's
something to be proud of.  (Applause.)  Because of innovations in the
Executive Branch with people who never have their opinions asked
before, just 44 days into this administration, when we extended
unemployment benefits we did it for the first time with a program
that provided new opportunities for job training for the unemployed.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of paying people to be out of
work.  I want to invest in putting them back to work.  And that's
what we're trying to do.  (Applause.)

         In record time and for the first time in 17 years,
within the legally-mandated time, the Democratic leadership in the
Congress passed a blueprint of our budget, which I want to remind you
and all the American people tonight, reduces the deficit by over $500
billion over the next five years, with over 200 specific budget cuts.
Over 200 specific budget cuts.  (Applause.)  And tax increases -- the
overwhelming of which fall on people like us in this room.
(Laughter.)  Because we're Democrats and we want to relieve the
middle class and the working people of the burdens of the last 12
years.  (Applause.)

         And you know, when I hear all this talk from the people
who hear our adversaries talking about taxes -- they say, no taxes
without the spending cuts.  I say, I agree, but that's what we're
going to do.  The Democrats are not about to raise taxes unless we
cut spending.  That's what we're about.  But the difference between
us and the other side is we asked them for their spending cuts and
we're still waiting.  We're the ones that are cutting unnecessary
government spending -- (applause) -- and we're going to bring this
deficit down.  And it's time to tell the American people the truth.
(Applause.)

         The Vice President already mentioned it, but you look at
what's happened to interest rates just since the election, and we
made clear that we were going to bring this deficit down.  I don't
know that they can get a lot lower than they are.  The economists
estimate that if we can keep interest rates at their present level
for a year, that will put over $110 billion back into this economy.
As people refinance their homes and their businesses and are able to
get credit who couldn't get it before -- just think of that.

         Now, the other guys talked about it for 12 years.  And
they took our national debt from $1 trillion to $4 trillion.  We've
had 100 days and we've done something about it.  And if we can keep
these interest rates down and be serious about this budget it's going
to put $100 billion back into the pockets of ordinary Americans to
invest in this economy and grow it.  (Applause.)

         We also are working hard to deal with the health care
crisis, without which we will never bring our budget into balance, we
will never make our American industries fully competitive, and we
will never restore real security to America's families.  How can we,
any of us, tolerate going on one more year, two more years, three
more years with a health care system that costs a third more than any
other system in the world, leaves 37 million of our people without
insurance, and strikes terror into the hearts of millions of people
who have health insurance but are so scared they're going to lose it
because of problems with their business or because someone in their
family will be sick and they'll never again be able to change jobs
without losing their health insurance.

         I believe we can do better.  This is a problem others
have solved.  We are up to the task and the time has come to do it --
to liberate this country's economy and restore security to America's
families.  (Applause.)

         This administration has proposed an education bill that
will establish the national education goals as the law of the land,
establish tough new standards for our schools and give flexibility
for people all over the country, to try new experiments to see what
can be done to make these schools work better.  We're not just
talking about it, we're trying to do it.  We are trying to open the
doors of college education to all Americans by making it possible for
anybody to borrow money and pay it back as a small percentage of
their income, and by letting thousands and tens of thousands of young
people do national service to pay off a part of their college loan or
earn credit to go to college.  That will be the best program we could
ever pass for this country.  (Applause.)

         And when I have heard the rhetoric of family values for
years and years and years now, I see every year more pressure on
families, less evidence we're valuing families.  That's what the
Family and Medical Leave law was all about.  You think people who
have to work ought to be good parents -- give them the right to do
it.  And that's what we want to do.

         That's why our welfare reform program will move people
from dependence to independence.  That's why we want the earned
income tax credit to be increased, so we can say a simple thing to
America's families:  If you work 40 hours a week and you've got a
child in your house, you shouldn't live in poverty.  Your country is
better than that, and the tax system ought to reflect it.
(Applause.)

         Now, you know, it's a lot easier to talk about than it
is to do, because we have to do in ways that require all of us to
change.  And now the United States Congress is getting to the hard
part.  They are going to be called upon to make the decisions on the
budget to make good that commitment to reduce the deficit by over
$500 billion without throwing large numbers of Americans out of work,
because we have to continue to invest in education and technology and
the things that will make us competitive in the future.  That is the
test.

         We know how to do it.  It is hard to get from here to
there.  There will always be those who really don't have much of a
stake in change and love to complain, who will say, well, we should
do it this, that or the other way.  There will be those who sing the
siren's song that there is somehow a painless way to change.  I don't
know about you folks, but I'm 46 years old; I've been trying to lose
15 pounds for two months -- there's no painless way to do that.
(Laughter and applause.)  There is no painless way to do that.
(Applause.)

         This is a time not just for vision, but for discipline
and for maturity and for understanding -- that if we are going to
turn this country around, as I have said so many times, we are not
going to be able to ask what's in it for me, we're going to have to
say, what is in it for us?  How can we all give something so we can
all get something?  How we can give today to get tomorrow?  That is
the test before us.  (Applause.)

         So I ask all of you to support the members of Congress
with the budget cuts, with the revenue increases, with the targeted
investments that will change this country and lift up this economy
and keep going what has happened that is good already.  We have got
to have the courage to do it.

         And, finally, let me say that I think it is important
that we do our best to reconnect people to the political process, who
voted in record numbers in November, could never afford to come to a
dinner like this but desperately care about their country.  You would
not believe the volume of letters we are getting in the White House.
We've already gotten as much mail in the first three months, somebody
told me yesterday, as my predecessor did in a whole year.  And I say
that not to criticize him or to laud myself.  That has nothing to do
with it.  What has happened is we have opened -- a lot of it's
critical.  That's good.  We've opened the doors of possibility to
people.  And they think, maybe, just maybe their government is going
to listen to them again.

         That's why I feel so strongly about all these political
empowerment bills.  That's why I believe in the motor voter bill.
I'm glad we got a conference report on it -- because it will say to
kids, we want you to vote.  (Applause.)  That's why I believe in the
work the Vice President is doing to literally not just save money,
but change the whole way government operates and make it more
friendly to people who want to access it.  That's why I feel so
strongly that the House did the right thing in passing that enhanced
rescission bill.  That's why I believe we ought to pass a campaign
finance reform bill -- not because I don't want you to give, but
because I want them to be able to give, too.  And I want people to
believe that everybody has got a stake in the system.  Because if we
can reconnect those people to the system, then they will understand
that change is a long and hard road.

         In 1918, the famous German sociologist, Max Weber, said
that politics is the long and slow boring of hard bores.  We have
come to the hard part.  Mario Cuomo used to say, you campaign in
poetry and you have to govern in prose.  The time has come for the
prose.  And people need to read it straight and clean and clear from
the shoulder, with all the varnish off, as honestly as we can.

         We are being called upon now to see whether we have the
courage and the discipline and the will and the vision to change.  I
believe we do.  And I came here tonight not only because I want you
to keep your jobs, but because I hope if we can live to be 88 or 90
years old, like Bill Fulbright and Mike Mansfield, we can look back
and say, this was a time when we lifted America to new heights, we
met our challenges and we did our jobs.  (Applause.)

         Thank you and God bless you all.  (Applause.)

                                 END9:20 P.M. EDT