[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[September 24, 1994]
[Pages 1607-1611]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate Ann Wynia in 
Minneapolis, Minnesota
September 24, 1994

    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Ann Wynia, 
for that wonderful introduction and for your fine speech and for what 
you represent for the State of Minnesota and for the prospects for our 
country. Thank you, Senator Wellstone, and thank you, Congressman Sabo 
and Congressman Vento, for helping me to keep my commitments to the 
American people to move this country forward and for your outstanding 
leadership. And thank you especially, Senator Graham, for your brilliant 
leadership of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and for being 
such a good and wise and trusted adviser to me on so many issues. I wish 
Bill Luther luck. And Bruce Vento reached over and whispered in my ear 
and said, ``Now, even though he's running for Graham's seat, he's really 
going to win, Bill.'' [Laughter] Thank you, David Wilhelm, for that 
rousing speech, for reminding us what we are against as well as what we 
are for.
    Ladies and gentlemen, I came here to ask you to help Ann Wynia get 
to the United States Senate, not because, as she said, she would agree 
with me on every issue but because she would bring common sense and 
common decency to the United States Senate, something we need more of.
    You know, half the time when you see what's going on in Washington, 
you must wonder what is really going on. A lot of us who come from the 
States and then go to Washington are amazed by the level of political 
rhetoric and how abstract and almost artificial it seems. We need more 
people in the United States Congress like Ann Wynia who actually served 
the folks at the grassroots level, who actually did things to help real 
people take responsibility for their own lives like the children's 
health care plan here in Minnesota, which provided health care to 35,000 
Minnesota children. That's a lot of families that have been helped to do 
something in their own lives.
    I have been interested in and working on the whole subject of 
welfare reform for nearly 15 years, and I know that the further you go

[[Page 1608]]

away from the welfare recipients, the more likely you are to hear hot 
air and see no results. Ann Wynia I would like to have in the Senate 
when we pass welfare reform next year because, as commissioner of human 
services, she didn't just talk about it, she actually moved people from 
welfare to work, not talking about it but doing it.
    I want to talk with you today about what this election is all about, 
especially from my point of view as your President, someone who has 
tried hard to be President of all people, without regard to their party 
or their region or their race or their economic standing.
    Two years ago, I ran for President because I wanted to lead this 
country into the 21st century with the American dream still alive for my 
daughter and for all the children here, because I thought the Republican 
leadership in the White House was taking our country in the wrong 
direction. Their economic policy was not working; it was increasing 
inequality in our country. And their social policy seemed to be to 
divide us by race, by religion, and other ways, to preach at us instead 
of to practice and to move forward.
    I thought, frankly, we needed a new direction in Washington that 
came from the grassroots, that we needed to go beyond these partisan 
fights that had dominated both parties too much. I didn't think that the 
Government could be the savior of the American people the way we 
Democrats believed during the New Deal when it was very nearly so then. 
But neither did I think that Government could just sit on the sidelines 
when all of our competitors all around the world were taking a different 
approach. And I didn't think our Government could come off of the 
sidelines only when the special interests needed help, as opposed to 
ordinary, middle class Americans.
    I thought that we ought to run this country the way most of us try 
to run our families, our lives, our businesses, our grassroots efforts; 
that there ought to be a partnership; that the Government, after all, 
was no more than us. You all pay the bill. Everybody that works up there 
is your hired hand. Every now and then you have elections and get a 
chance to not renew contracts or vote for new people if you want. The 
Government ought to be our partner and ought to do its best to provide 
economic opportunity, to challenge citizens to assume personal 
responsibility to make the most of their own lives, and to try to 
rebuild the frayed bonds of our American communities.
    For the last 12 years before I showed up, the leadership in 
Washington talked about a balanced budget amendment and quadrupled the 
national debt; talked about helping the middle class, but taxes went up 
on the middle class and down on the wealthiest Americans; talked about 
making us competitive but reduced investment in the things which make us 
competitive, including the education and training of our people; talked 
a lot about our social problems but didn't do very much about them.
    I wanted to bring more jobs to America and help people to begin to 
raise their incomes again. I wanted to bring more educational 
opportunities and health care opportunities for people who didn't have 
them and to do something to control the spiraling costs of health care. 
I wanted to rebuild our families and our communities. I wanted to see 
this country have a Government that worked for ordinary people again. 
And I desperately wanted it to occur without the kind of partisan rancor 
that I had seen for the past several years.
    Well, after 20 months, I can tell you that we're doing a good job of 
moving America forward, but we need some help at ending the partisan 
rancor, and you can't reward it in this election.
    Here is why you ought to stick with the direction in which we are 
going. Two years ago I came here; we had the end of our bus trip here--
5,000 miles. And after 5,000 miles, we were running late because there 
were people on the side of the road at every little crossroads. And a 
lot of you waited a long time for us to finally show up. There were tens 
of thousands of people here. And we were all caught up in the excitement 
of the moment and the promise of a new direction and change for America.
    But even with all that optimism, if I had told you 2 years ago that 
if you elected me President and we got to work up there, within 20 
months the following things would happen, you ask yourself, even then, 
would you have believed? If I had told you that we'd put our economic 
house in order, $255 billion worth of spending cuts, scores of programs 
eliminated outright, raising tax rates on only the top 1.2 percent of 
the income groups, cutting taxes for 10 times as many people, 15 million 
in working families to keep them above the poverty line so they didn't 
give up their jobs and sneak into

[[Page 1609]]

welfare; if I had told you that it would be a Democratic, not a 
Republican administration that would make 90 percent of the small 
businesses in this country eligible for a tax cut, that would reduce the 
Federal bureaucracy to its smallest size since John Kennedy was 
President and would reduce the deficit 3 years in a row for the first 
time since Harry Truman was President, you wouldn't have believed it 
then, but it happened.
    If I had told you then that we would expand trade for America's 
products and services, more in 20 months than had been done in any 
comparable period for the last 35 years--with NAFTA; with trade with 
Mexico up 17 percent this year; with the GATT worldwide trade agreement, 
which will produce between 300,000 and 500,000 jobs for us in the next 
few years; with new outreaches in Asia and in Latin America; with $35 
billion more in high-tech exports eligible to be sold all across the 
world; with new initiatives to rebuild shipbuilding and aerospace in 
this country and build a clean car and sell things all across the 
world--if I had told you we would do that, that we would launch a major 
defense conversion program and take the technologies of the cold war to 
create high-wage jobs in a peacetime economy, and if I had told you that 
those results would produce $4.3 million new jobs, 8 months of 
manufacturing job increases in a row for the first time in a decade, 
America rated the most productive country in the world for the first 
time in 9 years, 88,000 new jobs in Minnesota, the unemployment rate 
dropping here from 5.1 percent to 3.4 percent, tax cuts for 155,000 
working families, 26,000 small businesses, tax increases for less than 
23,000 families--if I had told you that, you might not have believed it, 
but it's so, and it happened.
    If I had told you that we would make 200,000 more children eligible 
to be in Head Start programs, immunize 2 million more kids so that all 
the children under 2 will be immunized by 1996, that we would have a 
national education strategy in a bill that set world-class educational 
standards and promoted grassroots reforms like those pioneered right 
here in Minnesota, that we would launch a national effort to have 
apprenticeships everywhere to help young people who don't go to college 
move into high-wage jobs, that we would reform the college loan program 
to make 20 million people eligible to refinance their loans with lower 
fees, longer repayment periods, lower interest rates, you might not have 
believed it, but it happened.
    If I had told you that after 7 years of deadlock we would pass the 
family and medical leave law to enable people to take a little time off, 
protecting 845,000 people right here in Minnesota; that after 7 years of 
deadlock we would have passed the Brady bill; that after 6 years of 
deadlock we would have passed a crime bill that gave you 100,000 more 
police, 100,000 more jail cells for violent offenders, ``three strikes 
and you're out,'' yes to those good prevention programs, a ban on 
juvenile ownership of handguns, and a ban on assault weapons, you might 
not have believed it, but it happened.
    If I had told you that the national service program I talked so much 
about would pass the Congress, be the law of the land, provide 
opportunities for young people all across America to rebuild their 
communities at home and earn money to go to college as well, 20,000 this 
year, 100,000 3 years from now, you might not have believed it, but it 
happened.
    If I had told you that around the world we would keep democracy and 
economic growth as our foremost goal in Russia and we would stop 
pointing our nuclear weapons at each other; that they would withdraw 
their troops from Eastern Europe and the Baltics for the first time 
since World War II; that we would make a new partnership all over Europe 
with 21 nations to have defense security as one, not being divided; that 
we would make real headway, dramatic progress on peace in the Middle 
East, a breakthrough on peace in Northern Ireland, we would be actively 
involved in conducting the first free and fair and totally multiracial 
elections in South Africa, you might not have believed it, but it all 
happened. We are moving this country forward.
    And if I had told you we would do that not with a Government that is 
bigger but one that is smaller, that began with a White House with the 
biggest work load in decades cutting its own size by 25 percent, a 
272,000 reduction in the size of the Federal work force over the next 5 
years to finance the crime bill out of savings, taking money from 
Washington and giving it to you at the community level and reorganizing 
vast sizes of the Federal Government to cut through redtape and promote 
reforms--we have given 17 States permission to embark on their own 
welfare reform programs, numerous States permission to try to find ways 
to cover all their

[[Page 1610]]

citizens with health care coverage--if I had told you these things, you 
might not have believed it, but it happened. That is the record, the 
truth, and the facts.
    Now, yes, to be sure, there is still more to do. We've had $100 
million spent against us in the health care battle, and we haven't won 
that one yet. But we will if we keep fighting. We still have to pass the 
welfare reform bill next year. We still have to pass the trade 
legislation, campaign finance reform, lobby reform. We have lots to do. 
But the issue is, are we going to keep doing it, or are we going to 
become more partisan, more divisive, and more hot air and less real-
people oriented in Washington? That is what this election is all about.
    We are making progress. The economy is stronger, the deficit is 
lower, taxes are fairer, trade is greater, working families and 
communities are safer and building a new security. We are making real 
progress on hard problems against intense, organized opposition from the 
other party and from the special interests. That is the fact.
    Now, what is our challenge? Our challenge in this election is that 
many Americans are still profoundly upset with the political system, 
profoundly disillusioned, even cynical. And they are in the mood to 
throw the rascals out without distinguishing who the rascals are. But 
what are the problems?
    Number one, most Americans don't know what I just told you, do they? 
Most of you didn't know a lot of what I just told you, did you? 
[Laughter] What's the second problem? A lot of people have not felt 
these things. Why? The social problems we have, crime, the family 
breakdown problems, the violence among young people, they've been 
developing for 30 years. The economic problems we have, static wages for 
working people and troubles for farmers and people living in rural 
areas, they've been developing for 20 years. And the bad political 
policies that we've had, dividing us, the wealthy against the middle 
class, different races, different religions, all these political and 
economic and social problems we have, we had those for the last 12 
years.
    I have just been there 20 months. We are going in the right 
direction. Do not turn back. Do not turn back.
    I went there, I went to Washington with the fondest hope of reaching 
out to Republicans on all kinds of issues--health care?

[At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]

    The President. Is there a doctor here?
    Audience member. No.
    The President. Help. CPR?
    Audience member. We have a doctor over here.
    The President. We need CPR, though. Who knows CPR? No, wait, wait. 
Make plenty of room. We okay?
    Audience member. Okay.
    The President. Give him a hand; he made it up. [Applause] I 
appreciate his support for the urgency of health care reform, and we're 
glad to see him up and around. [Laughter]
    Let me ask you something. I want you to know this, too. Keep in 
mind, I came to Washington not as a creature of Washington. I came to 
Washington with the fondest hope that we would be able to work together 
across party lines where we had honest agreements, that we would have to 
give a little and work a little and we'd work things out. Once in a 
while we did that.
    We had the--the debate over NAFTA was an honest debate where most 
people just voted their conscience for and against. But it's about the 
only example I can give you. You look at the economic program. I was not 
there a week in Washington as your President before I was informed by 
one of the leaders of the other party that there would be no votes for 
our economic plan, no matter what changes we made.
    So, look what they did. When we gave the middle class a fair break 
on taxes and cut the taxes for those low-income working families and 
asked the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share, every Republican 
in the Congress said no. When we reformed the loans to benefit middle 
class college students, not just poor kids, middle class kids, every 
Republican in the Congress said no. When we gave 90 percent of the small 
businesses in this country an eligibility for a tax cut, all the 
Republicans said no. When we banned assault weapons, when we put 100,000 
police on the street, when we reduced the size of the Federal Government 
by 270,000 to pay for that crime bill, when we protected victims in that 
crime bill, when we had a great section on violence against women and 
children, most of the Republicans voted no. And all the leaders did, and 
those who didn't were told they were being traitors to the Republican 
Party.

[[Page 1611]]

    And when they got up and said that our prevention programs were 
pork, I just want to remind you that a crime bill with the prevention 
programs in it passed the Senate about a year ago with the votes of the 
Republicans 42 to 2 for. When we got close to the election and they saw 
that their obstructionist tactics and their negative tactics were having 
a positive impact on them in the poll, the 42 to 2 for changed to 6 to 
34 against in the United States Senate. A friend of mine George 
Mitchell, the Senate Democratic leader, said, ``If you took the word 
`no' out of their vocabulary, they would be mute.'' [Laughter]
    Let me tell you something, friends, we do have problems. And we must 
face them. But the issue is this administration has got a good record. 
We have kept our commitments. We are going in the right direction. We 
must see the glass is half full, not half empty.
    Yes, we still have to change more of the way Government works. But 
after years with the Republicans badmouthing Government, we are the ones 
who have reduced the size of Government, we are the ones who've changed 
regulations of bureaucracy and slashed it and given more power back to 
State and local governments; we're the ones that gave the small business 
people the opportunity to walk into the SBA today and apply for a loan 
on a one-page form and get an answer in 3 days. Those are the kinds of 
things that we are doing.
    And I just want to say this: If we're going to have the energy to 
keep solving our problems, we have to have our heads on straight and we 
have to stay with the policies that work. And when we're making 
progress, we have to know it and we have to get with it. This election 
is an opportunity for you to reassert what is best about our country, 
people pulling together and working together and moving forward. It's an 
opportunity for you to say, by the people you vote for, people like Ann 
Wynia, to send a signal to America that look, when the Congress gets 
together again, we don't care whether you're Republican or Democrat, 
roll up your sleeves and go to work. Don't say no to the other party, 
say yes to America. It's time to say yes to America.
    This is the greatest country in human history. Every time I leave 
the borders of America and represent you in another land, I just swell 
with pride. People would give anything to have the diversity of our 
economic strength. They would give anything to find the diversity we 
have in our society. There are counties in America with people from 150 
different racial and ethnic groups living in peace, even as people from 
just 2 or 3 different groups continue to kill each other with abandon in 
other parts of the world.
    And I want you to think about that when you walk out of here. You 
think about what you can do for a person like Ann and how you want to 
feel when you see your United States Senator on television coming back 
from Washington. Do you want one more slogan, one more hot-air rhetoric, 
one more divisive statement, or do you want to look at somebody you 
think is imagining what your life is like, imagining how you feel when 
you put your kids to bed at night, imagining how you feel when you go 
out to work in the field or at your office the next day? That's really 
what this is about.
    I'm telling you, other people sometimes may have a better fix on us 
than we do on ourselves. But it is no accident that the South Africans 
wanted us to spend $35 million and help them conduct their successful 
elections. It is no accident that the Israelis and the Arabs want us to 
help them work out a lasting peace in the Middle East. It is no accident 
that after hundreds of years of fighting, the turbulence in Northern 
Ireland may be coming to a close, and they want us to be involved.
    And let me say this. Even at the most difficult moment of our 
encounter last week in Haiti, the military leaders looked at the 
delegation that I sent down there and said, ``Well, if the President is 
determined to do this, and if the United Nations is determined to go 
forward, then at least we want the Americans in here; we know we can 
trust them.''
    That is what we are to the rest of the world. So let us be that to 
ourselves by voting for people who can bring out the best in us and say 
yes to America, people like Ann Wynia.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:16 p.m. at the Minneapolis Convention 
Center.