    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [June 28, 1993]
    [Pages 942-943]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Democratic National Committee Presidential Gala
    June 28, 1993

        Thank you very much. Thank you so much. First, let me say a special
    word of thanks to Scott Pastrick for this wonderful dinner and all those
    who worked on it, to Roy Furman for agreeing to take on this enormous
    responsibility in the Democratic Party. I don't think the first time he
    came to my attention or, rather, I came to his--he hosted me in his
    office--if he had known then that he'd wind up on this stage tonight,
    I'm not sure he would have done it. And I thank him. Like so many
    others, he came into the leadership of this party because of the
    campaign of 1992.
        I thank my dear friend David Wilhelm for his leadership and all of
    those who work in the vineyards of the Democratic Party. I thank David
    especially for what he said tonight. Many of the beneficiaries of the
    efforts we make today are people who may not even understand entirely
    what we're doing, and they don't have an organized force in the
    Congress.
        I thank the leadership of Congress. Let me say without hesitation
    that I have literally been awestruck at the demonstration of courage
    repeatedly by the leadership and by many of the freshmen and by many in
    between in our party in the United States Congress. And you ought to
    give them a hand tonight. [Applause]
        You heard that the Vice President, of course, broke the tie the
    other night in the Senate on the economic program. What you ought to
    know is that I was furiously working the phones, and a couple of
    Senators--Senator Murray from Washington was not well, and so we thought
    we had enough votes to pass the bill, and so she stayed home in bed. And
    two of the people we thought would vote for it said, ``Well, I won't let
    it die, Mr. President, but if the Vice President can break a tie, that's
    okay with me.'' So, we were there at the end. And right before the vote
    came down to the end with the time running off, the Vice President sent
    a note to Senator Mitchell, our Democratic leader, and he said,
    ``George, I'm wavering.'' [Laughter] But conviction overcame him at the
    end, and so here we are tonight with a big crowd instead of an empty
    house.
        Let me say to all of you that a lot of speeches have already been
    made tonight, and the entertainment was marvelous: Little Texas and
    Whitney Houston and my good friend Kenny G, who let me play with him in
    the campaign. That was the biggest thrill I got in the whole election. I
    tell you, I always liked Kenny G because I was running third in the
    polls when he agreed to play with me in the campaign.
        This has been a great night for us and a great night for our party.
    But I want to remind you that we are engaged on a great struggle to
    change this country. A year and 8 months ago I entered the race for
    President when no one thought the incumbent could be defeated and few
    thought I could be nominated. And I didn't have any idea how it would
    come out. I just knew that I had a couple of simple convictions. I felt
    very strongly then that we were not doing what it takes to compete and
    win in a global economy. I felt very strongly then that we were not
    facing up to the honest problems we have at home. I felt very strongly
    that

    [[Page 943]]

    too many people in public life were telling people what they wanted to
    hear today instead of thinking about how we ought to live tomorrow.
        Those things drove me into the race, and they produced in the end,
    thanks to all of you, a remarkable change in the course of American
    life. But the details are always more difficult than the rhetoric.
    Governor Cuomo used to say frequently that we campaign in poetry, but we
    must govern in prose. And as my daughter likes to remind me of that
    great slogan the kids are all saying today, denial is not just a river
    in Egypt. So, when you move from rhetoric to reality, sometimes the
    going gets tough. I couldn't believe it, we have been ranted and raved
    against, this administration, as you know; it's all ``tax and spend.''
    But we've cut more spending than any administration in history and more
    than the ones before us. And that's a fact.
        And they say, ``Well, only the Democrats are voting for this
    program.'' But let me tell you, look at the alternatives. In the House
    of Representatives there was a Republican alternative with no taxes
    which slashed the middle class, slashed the working poor, slashed the
    elderly just above the poverty line, and more Republicans voted against
    it than Democrats voted against our program. In the Senate there was a
    Republican program, 4 months late, which took $100 billion less off the
    deficit and was tougher on the middle class and the poor. And in the
    finance committee, the other party that goes around saying, ``It's
    spending, stupid,'' you know that great slogan of theirs, guess how many
    spending cut amendments were offered by the Republicans in the Senate
    Finance Committee? Zero. Not one.
        I say that because it is up to every one of you to go home and tell
    the people of this country the truth. This is not going to be easy, but
    it is working. You heard the Vice President; you heard David Wilhelm
    talk tonight. If anybody had told you on election night in November that
    by the middle of June unemployment would be below 7 percent, we'd have
    755,000 new jobs, a 20-year low in mortgage rates, a 6-year high in
    housing sales, a 9-year high in construction employment, the family
    leave bill, the motor voter bill, the Biodiversity Treaty, a new policy
    on choice, the most diverse administration in history, an appointment
    schedule--contrary to what you may have heard--ahead of the last two
    administrations, you would have felt pretty good about that on election
    night. And you ought to feel pretty good about it tonight, because this
    country is on the move.
        But never forget this. That sounds good, and compared to the last
    two administrations it may be, but we've just been here 5 months, and
    the changes we are trying to make are not in place. We still have to do
    the economic program and health care and national service and welfare
    reform. We still have to pass a program that says to people who work 40
    hours a week and have children in their homes, you're not in poverty
    anymore. We still have a lot of work to do. And the things we're doing
    have still not affected most Americans. We still don't have a serious
    program for defense conversion, but we're working on that. We've got an
    airline industry in trouble we're trying to help resuscitate and move
    forward. We've got all kinds of jobs in this country we have still got
    to create. We have problems in this country that Government has
    overlooked for so long, we pretend they're not even there. People say to
    me, ``I am so glad that the Federal Government could help to break up
    the terrorist ring in New York,'' or that once again we stood up for our
    values last weekend. But never forget, in this the Capital City of this
    country 24 people were killed last week. We have got a lot of work to
    do, my fellow Americans.
        And I'll tell you something. It may not always be easy, and
    sometimes it may be ragged, but you've got an administration in this
    town that gets up and goes to work every day and thinks about the
    problems and the promise of the average people of this country. And we
    will continue to do it as long as you keep us here.
        Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:15 p.m. at the Washington Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to Scott Pastrick, Presidential gala
    dinner chairman; and Democratic National Committee officers Roy Furman,
    national finance chairman, and David Wilhelm, chairman.