[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 6, 1994]
[Pages 599-601]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Funeral Service for William H. Natcher in Bowling Green, 
Kentucky
April 6, 1994

    To the family of our friend Bill Natcher; Mr. Speaker; Governor; 
distinguished Members of Congress; all those who have preceded me on the 
program: Reverend Welch; Reverend

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Bridges, thank you for that wonderful sermon; Mr. Orendorf, thank you 
for making us laugh and for being so wise.
    Mr. Speaker, thank you for proving that Reverend Bridges was right, 
there are still noble and good people in public life in America. Thank 
you all for making my role almost completely irrelevant. There is hardly 
anything else left to say.
    I think I would like to tell you two things about Bill Natcher from 
my point of view. The country doesn't work very well in tough times, 
when difficult decisions have to be made, if the President cannot work 
with the Congress. We faced an enormously difficult position, Bill 
Natcher and I did, when I became President and he took the reins of the 
Appropriations Committee. Our country was drowning in debt, our deficit 
had been going up, our national debt had tripled in 12 years, and yet 
every person who studied the issue knew that there were some things we 
needed to invest even more money in. You heard people talk already today 
about the National Institute of Health, the need we had to make the 
changes so that our country could go into the next century and more Bill 
Natchers would have a chance to make their way in life. We had to find a 
way to bridle this debt and then invest more in education and in 
scientific research and in making the transition from a defense to a 
domestic, high-technology economy. And all that fell on the shoulders of 
the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
    I said to myself--I didn't know Mr. Natcher when I became President. 
I knew about him; nearly everybody in American politics did. Everybody's 
asking, ``Can this young guy from Arkansas who has only been a Governor, 
never been in Congress, be President?'' And I'm saying, ``Can a man who 
doesn't own a fax machine run the Appropriations Committee?'' [Laughter]
    Well, let me tell you, he came to see me one day, and we sat alone 
in the Oval Office, and he almost held my hand, which is just about what 
I needed. And he said, ``Now, Mr. President''--how many of you heard him 
say that to you, right--[laughter]--``now, we're going to get through 
this all right, and you're going to make some hard decisions, and I'm 
going to help you. And then if we're real lucky, we'll get it through 
the Congress. And you will have to be willing to be misunderstood for a 
while,'' which I thought was a delicate way of putting the position we 
were in. [Laughter]
    But he said, ``The end will bring us out all right.'' And sure 
enough, he set about doing his work. And he worked with all of the 
Members in the Congress and figured out some way or another to produce a 
budget that both brought the deficit down and spent more money on things 
that were critical to our future.
    It was a service to the Nation that those of you here in his home 
district made possible. And it was a remarkable thing, a great gift that 
he helped to give to our country. And it was very, very hard to do. And 
I agree with the Speaker: It will affect people's lives in ways that are 
even more important than the shining example he set by never missing a 
vote and by being able to be in such harmony with his constituents that 
he never had to raise money or spend it or campaign or politic in ways 
that those of us who are more mortal have to do. And I thank him for 
that.
    The other thing I thank him for, which may have an enduring benefit 
to the country, is far more personal. You heard the Speaker talk about 
how he was the chairman of the Gym Committee, and they have this dinner 
every year. And you know, I read all about how I spend too much time at 
McDonald's, and so I'm always trying to watch my weight in there. But I 
never wanted to offend Mr. Natcher. So I show up at his dinner, and he 
takes me to be seated, and he lays a big steak and a baked potato and 
peach cobbler there. And by the time he got through talking to me, I not 
only did not offend him, he had talked me into having two of everything. 
[Laughter]
    And we talked some more, and our relationship developed some more. 
And then when he got terribly ill, I went out to Bethesda to see him, 
and I had the great honor of being there and presented him with the 
President's Citizens Medal. And I pinned it on his pajamas, and I talked 
to him about his life.
    And I thought to myself: Why is it that I am so moved by this man? 
What is it that he has done, not just the votes and the no contributions 
and all that, what is it that he has done that if the rest of us could 
do it, we could really be true to the Founders of this country, true to 
the challenges of our time? We could bring more harmony and a stronger 
sense of community to our people. What is it, exactly?

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    And I think what it was is that he found a way to live in Washington 
and work in politics and still be exactly the way he would have been if 
he'd been here in Bowling Green running a hardware store. And this 
country works well when people in Washington treat each other the way 
they would have to treat each other if they were living in Bowling 
Green. And it doesn't work very well when everybody up there thinks, 
``Oh, this is a different place, and we have to treat each other 
differently, and we have to muscle each other around, and we have to 
posture rather than produce.'' And we're all so worried because we're 
bound to be misunderstood, being filtered to 250-plus million people, so 
that all of our positions on complicated issues get simplified and often 
distorted.
    But somehow, Bill Natcher just had enough internal strength and 
coherence. Maybe he was just enough old-fashioned that he literally was 
able to live every day as he would have lived if he'd been here all the 
time. That was the beauty of his legacy. And if the rest of us can 
remember that about him, even if we miss a few votes or have to go out 
and raise campaign contributions, if we can just imagine the roots that 
we had, the childhood friends that we had, who always reminded us of our 
foibles as well as our strengths, if we can remember what the church 
choir sounds like on Sunday, even on the Sundays when we don't show up, 
and every day imagine that we were living where the people who sent us 
to Washington still live, then we could do something really precious for 
Bill Natcher. We could do for the American people what he would have 
done had he lived another 84 years.
    God bless you, Mr. Natcher, and thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Baptist Church. In his 
remarks, he referred to Rev. Paul M. Welch, pastor, Eastwood Baptist 
Church; Rev. Richard W. Bridges, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bowling 
Green, KY; and Top Orendorf, who delivered the eulogy of friendship.