[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[July 19, 1994]
[Pages 1288-1290]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Fundraiser for Texas Senatorial Candidate Richard Fisher
July 19, 1994

    Thank you very much, Richard, and you and Nancy and your wonderful 
children. It's a great honor for me to be here tonight even to take a 
little ribbing by Bob Strauss about how I look in my running shorts. 
[Laughter] Henry looks better in his running shorts. I saw Henry in his 
running shorts yesterday morning in Miami, and I thought he looked 
better, too. But I wouldn't have said it in public if Bob hadn't. 
[Laughter] I hope Henry's enjoyed his brief tenure as the Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development. [Laughter] Akin Gump is going to hire him 
for about a half million a year starting tomorrow, Bob Strauss' penance. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank Secretary Cisneros for the brilliant job he has 
done, literally. I mean it's unbelievable what's happened to HUD since 
he took over, how he's turned it around and made it an instrument of 
progress: everything from standing up for civil rights of people, the 
standing up for the civil right of people who live in public housing to 
be free of crime, what they're doing in Chicago and throughout the 
country is unbelievable; and now working not only to try to help 
homeless people get off the street but help them get into the mainstream 
of life which is, after all, the ultimate answer to the problem of 
homelessness.
    I want to thank Senator Graham, my longtime friend, a former 
seatmate in the Governors' Association, for his sterling leadership of 
the Senate Campaign Committee.
    And what can I say about Secretary Bentsen--that he hasn't already 
said? [Laughter] I'll tell you one thing, I like to make fun of him 
because he talks in such a frank way to his President when I need to be 
frankly spoken to, which is about every other day, you know. [Laughter] 
But in the annals of this century when the history is written, I think 
that he will be literally remembered as one of the greatest Secretaries 
of the Treasury we ever had and as someone who dealt with a very rapidly 
changing world with all kinds of new challenges and had a major 
responsibility in helping this country adjust its economy to the global 
economy. He has been absolutely spectacular. I had high aspirations for 
Lloyd Bentsen's tenure, but he exceeded them in every way, and I am very 
grateful to him for that.
    Let me tell you about Richard Fisher and one reason I'm here 
tonight, besides the fact

[[Page 1289]]

that I want him to be elected real bad--[laughter]--is that we met a few 
years ago when he and I were involved in the Democratic Leadership 
Council which might be subtitled, Don't Lose Control of the Senate This 
Year, DLC. But we both got in it because we were worried that the 
Democratic Party was becoming less relevant to the future of America and 
becoming alienated from the mainstream of America, but we knew what the 
Republicans were selling was not going to do much for America over the 
long run.
    And one of the real challenges that I think we've had, particularly 
in Texas, is to get the voters of the State of Texas to listen not only 
to the rhetoric but to compare the rhetoric politicians use to the 
reality of their actions. And I think that Richard Fisher is better 
positioned to do that than any public figure since Lloyd Bentsen in the 
State of Texas, and I think he's going to do it.
    I appreciate what he said about our administration tonight and the 
fact that he has embraced the Democratic Party but also been willing to 
challenge it to change, to take unconventional positions to move toward 
the future, to grow the economy and keep the American dream alive.
    And I'll tell you, there are some very specific reasons that I think 
he ought to be elected. First of all, I'd like to be in a position to do 
more for Texas. We passed NAFTA here, and it was deader than a doornail 
until we got the environmental agreements, the labor agreements, and it 
came back from the dead. And we did it because of farsighted business 
people and others up here working. And then San Antonio and other cities 
in Texas, Dallas, and El Paso, have benefited from things we've done as 
a result of NAFTA. But most importantly, our trade is growing faster 
with Mexico than any other country in the world. We've sold 5 times as 
many cars in Mexico already this year as we did last year, and that's 
just the beginning. It was the right thing to do. But we need a 
bipartisan group of people who will work for the best interest of the 
country.
    The second thing I want to say is we just saved the space station. 
We saved the space station, which was very important to Texas, which 
passed by one vote in the House last year. We changed 52 Democrats and 
11 Republicans in one year. And we did it by tying the space station to 
America's future, to our cooperation in space with the Russians, and to 
what we need to do together to build a future. But it is difficult to 
do--to work when people come up to me all the time and say, ``Why are 
you trying to help Texas? Listen to the way those Senators talk about 
you. Look how they vote.'' And, ``What difference will it make in the 
next election? We need the money to spend on education or training or 
something else.'' And I tell everybody I'm not trying to help Texas, I'm 
trying to help America.
    I tried to save the super collider last year. And these House 
Members will tell you that on the day, at the moment the House of 
Representatives was voting on the super collider and the opponents were 
saying it was a boondoggle for Texas, the Senators from Texas were on 
the steps of the Capitol with other citizens of the State screaming at 
the Congress to cut more spending. And so they did. Isn't that right? At 
the very moment--their timing was exquisite. And yet I gave them a 
chance to vote for the biggest deficit reduction package in history, and 
they both voted no. And they said, ``Why, this will bring the economy of 
America to an end. It'll be terrible for Texas.''
    But by the narrowest of margins, Congress voted for $255 billion in 
spending cuts; tax cuts for 15 million working American families; a tax 
increase for only 1.5 percent of us, including a lot of us in this 
room--[laughter]--that went to pay down the deficit; a tax break for 90 
percent of the small businesses in this country; lower interest rates on 
college loans for 20 million American students; and a bill that will 
give us 3 years of deficit reduction for the first time since Harry 
Truman was President; a bill that reduces the size of the Federal 
bureaucracy, that the Republicans always scream about, by 250,000, and 
by 1999, we'll have the smallest Federal Government that we've had since 
John Kennedy was President--the first time it's gone below 2 million--
100 percent from votes of Democrats.
    And what was the result: 3.8 million new jobs; a 1.7 percent in the 
unemployment rate; the largest number of new business incorporations 
last year of any year since the end of World War II; and the first 
quarter of this year, the first quarter in 16 years there was no bank 
failure. I plead guilty for fighting for that. It was good for Texas, 
and I'd like to have some help from people who believed in it.

[[Page 1290]]

    Now, I'm telling you I have pleaded for bipartisan cooperation in a 
lot of ways, but they want to go out and use that old tax and spend 
rhetoric. You just check your hip pocket, folks. It is time. America has 
got to lead the world into the 21st century. We have difficult 
challenges ahead. We've got a crime bill to pass here. We've got welfare 
reform to pass here. We have to come to grips with health care.
    I just got back from a trip to Europe in which I had three large 
meetings with American service families, enthusiastic Americans serving 
our country overseas, willing to put their lives on the line for you. 
And do you know in all three meetings, those people only asked me about 
one issue, health care. They're afraid they're going to be sent home 
after serving our country abroad to a country in which they won't have 
health insurance for their children. They know we spend more on health 
care than anybody else in the world. We're the only country in the world 
that can't figure out what to do about it.
    Now, Hawaii figured out what to do about it. They adopted the 
solution Secretary Bentsen's always advocating: let employers and 
employees split the burden, buy private insurance, cover everybody. In 
Hawaii insurance costs small business 30 percent less than it does in 
the rest of the country; everybody's covered; and people are healthier. 
We've got to do something about this, folks.
    I went to the Governors' conference today and the Republican leader 
of the Senate was there, and he said he was willing to work all through 
August, which I took as a significant olive branch, and all through 
September and all through October. And I am too, all day and all night 
long. But if we don't do something about this, what's going to happen to 
the Federal Government is we'll cut defense too much, we won't be able 
to invest what we ought in our children's future and our education and 
training and building the economy tomorrow. And being in the Senate and 
House is going to be a matter of writing checks for health care because 
that's the only thing that's going up. Everything else is going down--
and not to buy new health care but just more for the same. We can't do 
it.
    There may be other ideas than mine, but I'll tell you one thing: I 
hired on to solve problems. And I showed up for Richard Fisher tonight 
not because he will agree with me on every issue, he will disagree from 
time to time. He will vote for the people of Texas, not for me. But he 
will hire on to solve problems. He does not want to come up here and 
warm the seat or have empty rhetoric or just spout empty rhetoric. 
Public service should be about ideas and ideals and vision and what's 
good for ordinary people. That's how this country lasted 218 years.
    And I believe he's got a chance to win that is better than average. 
And more importantly, I think he has that chance because he is right for 
the people of Texas, and that will be good for the United States of 
America. And I thank you for helping him.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 7:45 p.m. in the Chinese Room at the 
Mayflower Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Robert Strauss, former 
chairman, Democratic National Committee.