    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 23, 1994]
    [Pages 1602-1606]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner in Chicago,
    Illinois
    September 23, 1994

        Thank you very much. Senator Graham, Senator Simon, Senator Moseley-
    Braun, Senator Biden, Senator Leahy, Mrs. Daley, Secretary Babbitt,
    Secretary Shalala. Joe Cari, thank you for doing such a wonderful job
    tonight. Let me say a special word of thanks to David Wilhelm for his
    heroic efforts over the last 2 years on behalf of the Democratic Party.
    David and I were flying in tonight on the helicopter, and we flew across
    the lake and we were coming in, and I said--I looked at him, and I said,
    ``Lord, I love Chicago, and I miss being here.'' And we went through all
    of our history together. And I remember so well the night at the Navy
    Pier when I named him my campaign manager and all the things that
    happened and the night of St. Patrick's Day in 1992, when the votes in
    Illinois and Michigan pretty well ensured the nomination of our campaign
    in the election. I am so glad to be back here, and I want to say a
    special word of thanks to David and to Degee, who is also here. And I
    wish them well. They're about to give us one more Democrat in a couple
    of months--[laughter]--which is the most important thing of all.
        We're looking forward to being back here for the convention as well,
    and I know you'll be a good host. And we will show Chicago to the world
    in a way that is very, very good.
        Let me say--I want to say some political things. I'd like to start
    by thanking the people who have spoken already so much for what they
    have said but more importantly for their service to our country and
    their leadership. Every one of them has rendered enormous service to
    this Nation and stood up for the ordinary citizens of this country and
    has been willing to take on the real problems of this country.
        But before I get into my remarks about the election and about what's
    at stake I think I ought to say a few words to you about our mission in
    Haiti. I'm pleased to report that we're making good progress. I had the
    opportunity to talk on the plane coming out here with General Shelton,
    General Meade, and our Ambassador there, Bill Swing, who has done a
    magnificent job under incredibly adverse circumstances.
        Soon our coalition will be at full strength, including about 14,000
    American service people, about a thousand military police who will keep
    a close watch on the Haitian police to see that we do keep order with
    professionalism and restraint. Soon they'll be joined and then replaced
    by hundreds of international police monitors from now well over two
    dozen countries, many of them coming from all over the world because
    they believe in what we are trying to do there in ending human rights
    abuses and restoring democracy.
        The Haitian military, so far, has cooperated very well with our
    Armed Forces. They're turning over their heavy weapons. We're helping to
    buy back light weapons from the militia and the civilians. The situation
    is already calmer and more peaceful than it was when we got there.
        On Monday, the first shipload of Haitian migrants from Guantanamo
    will go home to Haiti to begin to build a peaceful and a free life, and
    we expect more to follow soon. Of course, difficulties remain; they are
    always part of any military undertaking. But I want you to know you can
    be very proud of the men and women in the armed services that are down
    there executing a complex and exceedingly difficult task. They deserve
    our praise, they deserve our prayers, and they deserve our support.
        I also want to welcome the three candidates who are here tonight in
    Chicago: Congressman Sam Coppersmith from Arizona; Jack Mudd, I think
    clearly one of our most promising challengers from the wonderful State
    of Montana that was good enough to vote for the Clinton-Gore ticket in
    1992; Bob Carr, who's in a tight race in Michigan but who I am convinced
    is going to win that race and going to be the next Senator from
    Michigan. Each of them has

    [[Page 1603]]

    something important to contribute to the future of this country. And
    thanks to you, they've got a lot better chance to make that
    contribution.
        I want to talk to you tonight a little bit about what's at stake in
    this election and what I hope you will do besides give your money
    between now and November.
        Like most of you here, I'm a Democrat by heritage, instinct, and
    conviction. I was raised by my grandfather until I was 4. He had a
    fourth-grade education, and he thought when he died, he'd meet God first
    and FDR second. [Laughter] I was raised to believe that the party to
    which I belong stood up for ordinary people in extraordinary times and
    was always looking toward the future for all Americans, not just for a
    few.
        Our party and our Nation has survived for two centuries and more now
    because we've always found a way to meet the challenges of the moment
    and to fulfill our goals and to help people move forward in fulfilling
    their own God-given potential. We've always believed that our country
    could do better and that we had to do our best to call forth what is
    best within us. Always we believed that we had to be an engine of
    change, even when it was tough and even when it would cause us to be
    misunderstood. Always we believed that government had a responsibility
    not necessarily to give people anything except an opportunity to make
    the most of their own lives and that people in turn, all of our
    citizens, had a responsibility to follow the American dream and to make
    our community stronger. Those are the values that have defined us as a
    party and a people for quite a long while now. They are summed up for me
    in the three simple words I used all across this country in the '92
    campaign: opportunity, responsibility, and community.
        Two years ago, the American people knew clearly that we had to make
    a change, that we couldn't keep going in the direction we were and
    expect to move to the 21st century with a strong America, a more united
    America, an America where our children had a chance to make a future
    better than their parents enjoyed. You sent me to Washington to reverse
    a dozen years of failed policies that brought higher taxes on the middle
    class, lower taxes on the wealthy, higher unemployment, reduced
    investment in our people, and less ability to compete and win in the
    global economy.
        Often I came to Chicago in that campaign, and always I received a
    rousing reception and always I looked into the heart of America here,
    because there are all kinds of people here from all racial and ethnic
    groups, from all walks of life, people who know what it's like to live
    in a community where you can find unity in diversity and strength across
    differences. And I told you what I would try to do.
        Now, if I had told you then not only what I would try to do but if
    I'd told you on election night, for example, that within 20 months we
    would have cut our deficit by over $250 billion, eliminated over 100
    Government programs outright, raised income taxes only on the wealthiest
    1.2 percent of our people, cut taxes for 15 million working families,
    made 90 percent of our small businesses eligible for a tax cut--thereby
    bringing 3 years of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since
    Truman was President, producing 4.3 million new jobs, including 8 months
    in a row of increasing manufacturing jobs for the first time in a
    decade; that we would be voted by the annual roll of the international
    economists as the most productive country in the world for the first
    time in 9 years; that we would increase spending on Head Start, on job
    training, on apprenticeships for people who don't go to college, and
    still reduce the Federal payroll, as Senator Biden said, by 270,000 so
    that by the end of this century we will have--and by the end of this
    budget cycle--in 5 years we'll have the smallest Federal Government
    we've had since John Kennedy was President. You know, the Republicans
    always bad-mouthed the Government, but they expanded it. We say we're
    going to make it work, and we have shrunk it.
        If I had told you all that, if I'd told you that here in Illinois
    there'd be 125,000 new jobs, taxes would be cut for 600,000 families and
    raised for 79,000 of the wealthiest people of this State to bring that
    deficit down; if I had told you that in 20 months we'd have more
    expansion of trade than in any comparable time period in a whole
    generation, that we would have targeted automobiles, airplanes, ships,
    and defense conversion into new technologies for special treatment and
    had helped to revive all those industries; if I had told you that today
    we would sign a bill modeled on the South Shore Bank in Chicago to put
    $4.8 billion into inner-city neighborhoods and devastated rural areas,
    in banks to loan money to poor people

    [[Page 1604]]

    under circumstances that will make the banks money and put free
    enterprise into devastated economic areas; that we would pass more
    education reform in any year since 1965; that we would make 20 million
    Americans eligible to refinance their college loans at lower interest
    rates and longer repayment terms; now, if I had told you all that and
    said, Oh, and by the way, after 7 years of delay we would pass the
    family leave law, after 7 years of delay we would pass the Brady bill,
    after 7 years of delay we would pass the motor voter bill, after 6 years
    of delay we would pass a crime bill that puts 100,000 more police on the
    street, 100,000 more jail cells for serious criminals, prevention
    programs for kids to have something to say yes to, that takes assault
    weapons off the streets, even though we had a brutal battle on that with
    the NRA and the Republican leadership; if I had told you that our
    national service program would start this year with more people in the
    first year serving America at the grassroots level than the Peace Corps
    had at its peak year and that year after next we'd have 100,000 more
    young people earning some money for their college education by solving
    the problems of America here at home, you would have thought that I had
    slipped a gasket. [Laughter] Wouldn't you? You would not have believed
    that.
        The fact is, that is the record of this administration in the first
    20 months, and more. And we've got more to do. But there is a larger
    purpose behind all these details that sometimes can get lost, and we
    have to stand back from it.
        When I ran for President I said that my goal would be putting the
    American people first. And Al Gore and I wrote a little book called
    ``Putting People First'' that we put our heart into with the best ideas
    we could come up with from all over the country. We decided we could
    make Government work for ordinary people and that we could restore the
    American dream. And if I had told you 20 months ago that we would do all
    this, you would say, ``I do not believe it, but you ought to go try.''
    But that was done with the help of the people standing behind me in the
    Cabinet and, importantly, in the Congress. It happened because we were
    willing to say yes to America, we were willing to say that Government
    should not be on the sidelines, that Government should not be the
    prisoner of special interests, that Government could not ever be the
    savior of this country but that we could be a good partner and we could
    empower the American people to seize control of their destiny and make
    something of their lives.
        And that is exactly what we have done. And we have done it all along
    the way with the Republican leadership and most of their allies in the
    Congress voting no on every tough vote and painting an increasingly
    distorted picture of what happened.
        Our economic plan, they say, was the biggest tax increase in
    history. It raised income taxes on 1.2 percent of the people, cut income
    taxes on 15 percent of the working people so they wouldn't fall into
    poverty and wouldn't go on welfare. It brought the deficit down after
    they quadrupled our national debt in 12 years. But they all voted no.
        They think if they can keep the noise up and keep saying no and
    confusing the American people and playing on their frustrations and
    their anger and the fact that there are an awful lot of people out there
    that have justifiable worries still, they may have a job, but they're
    not ever going to get a raise, it seems like. They may have a job, but
    they're scared they're going to lose their health care. They may have a
    job, but they're worried about crime in their neighborhoods and the
    pressures on families. They believe if they can just keep people in a
    state of high anxiety they can actually fool the people into voting for
    the very people who did the things that they're against. That is what
    they believe.
        But, you know, Abraham Lincoln, who was their first and their
    greatest President, said--it must be disheartening for them; it's been
    all downhill since then. [Laughter] He said--what did he say? ``You
    cannot fool all the people all the time. You cannot fool--you can fool
    all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time,
    but you cannot fool all the people all the time.''
        This election is going to give us a chance to get that record out
    there. When the American people know it, when we say it over and over
    and over again, and when they see it, they will wonder what the no-
    sayers have been doing and why they have been filling their ears, their
    minds, and their hearts with a vision of America that is inadequate to
    the present and woefully short of what we have to do for the future.
        They don't want the American people to know that we've been helping
    business and creating

    [[Page 1605]]

    jobs, that we've been helping working people to get the education and
    training they need, that we've been helping families to get their kids
    in Head Start, that we've been giving kids a chance to go to college
    without regard to their income and that we're actually doing something
    for middle class kids for a change on college aid. They don't want them
    to know any of that.
        And they sure don't want the American people to know what they've
    been doing. When we gave the middle class a fair shake in that economic
    plan by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share, every
    Republican in the Congress said no. When we reformed student loans to
    benefit millions and millions and millions of middle class students,
    every Republican in the Congress said no. When we gave 15 million
    working families a tax cut and made--and I want to say this again--90
    percent of the small businesses in the entire United States of America
    eligible for a tax reduction, every Republican in the Congress said no.
    When we banned assault weapons, when we fought for health care reform,
    when we fought for campaign reform, when we fought for the Brady bill,
    most of the Republicans and their leaders said no. They said yes to the
    narrow interests, no to the national interests. They don't want you to
    see that big picture because if they did, you wouldn't like what you
    saw.
        Sure, people are suspicious of all political claims. They've been
    disappointed, manipulated, and had reality distorted for years now. And
    their lives are full of negative messages and genuine concern. But I'm
    telling you, Abraham Lincoln was right. You cannot fool all the people
    all the time. And your contributions tonight are a sword of truth that
    these Senate candidates can use to cut through the fog and tell the
    truth of the record we are making to change America and to put the
    people of this country first again. And I thank you for it.
        I just want you to think about this. When you go home tonight, I
    want you to think about this. This country has been around a long time
    now, longer than any other big democracy in human history. And it's here
    because when we went through tough times and had big challenges, we
    relied on the people who said yes, yes to the challenge, yes to the
    change, yes to making the most of the difficult situations. That's why
    we're still here.
        And you know, all around the world, it's amazing, people see us, and
    they sometimes ask me as I travel the world why we're so agitated,
    because they would give anything to have an economy with our strength.
    They would give anything to see people from so many different races and
    religious backgrounds and ethnic groups living together, working
    together, voting together, disagreeing together. The things we take for
    granted about this great country are things other people would literally
    give their lives for.
        Let me just give you a couple of examples, just since I've been your
    President. Why did the South Africans want the United States to
    contribute $35 million and our best experts to help them conduct an
    election that was free, fair, open, honest, had slews of candidates, and
    produced Nelson Mandela, who, after 27 years in jail, is coming here for
    a state visit with the President of the United States in the next few
    days?
        Why did the people of Northern Ireland, after the English and the
    Irish and the Protestants and the Catholics had been fighting for 800
    years want the United States to help to bring peace to Northern Ireland?
    Why do the people of the Middle East, Israeli and Arab alike, after they
    have fought for decades and their very existence has been at risk, want
    to come to the United States and have us play a part of their
    peacemaking process? Why do these things happen?
        Why, even in the 11th hour at the moment of highest tension in Haiti
    a few days ago, when it was not clear whether there would be an invasion
    or not, the de facto military leaders said, ``Well, if the President is
    determined to do this, and if the United Nations is determined to
    proceed, at least we want the Americans here. We trust them.'' Why?
    Because they know we stand for freedom and democracy and fairness and
    opportunity, and we know this is the greatest country on Earth.
        So here's what I want to ask you to do--in the rhythm of American
    politics, in almost every election in the 20th century--I haven't
    checked back in the 19th century--the sitting President's party has lost
    some seats in the Congress at midterm. The only time in this century
    when the sitting President's party did not lose seats in at least one
    section of Congress was in 1934 when all the Republicans killed Social

    [[Page 1606]]

    Security, and the Democrats won seats in both Houses.
        If the American people knew the litany I gave you tonight, we would
    win seats in both Houses, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we? In spite of all of
    the pundits and all the polls, if they knew that we had 4.3 million new
    jobs, if they knew we had 3 years of deficit reduction for the first
    time since Truman, if they knew we had the smallest Federal Government
    since Kennedy, if they knew that we had passed family leave and the
    Brady bill and the crime bill, and if they knew that so much we had done
    was done against overwhelming bitterly partisan opposition, that is what
    would happen again, wouldn't it? Therefore, you must conclude they do
    not know. And if you want Abraham Lincoln to be right, then you have a
    personal responsibility to go beyond your checkbook to your voice and
    your heart.
        Do not let this election go by and let the American people
    inadvertently vote for the very things they're against. Do not turn
    back. Keep going. We are moving in the right direction; we are turning
    the corner. This is a great country, and we are looking to the future.
    Let's keep doing it.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:40 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. In his
    remarks, he referred to Maggie Daley, wife of Mayor Richard M. Daley of
    Chicago; Joseph A. Cari, dinner chairman; David Wilhelm, chairman,
    Democratic National Committee, and his wife, Degee; Lt. Gen. Henry H.
    Shelton, USA, commander, U.S. forces in Haiti; and Maj. Gen. David
    Meade, commander, 10th Mountain Division.