[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 6, 1994]
[Pages 2016-2018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



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Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Seattle, Washington
November 6, 1994

    Thank you. You know, it is great to be back in Seattle, and it is 
great to be here at this spot where we had this many people in 1992. And 
I hope we have the same results. Governor Lowry, Senator Murray, 
distinguished Members of Congress and candidates for Congress, and Mayor 
Rice, Gary Locke, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to be here, honored 
to be here on behalf of our candidates, the forces of change, and 
especially on behalf of Ron Sims for the United States Senate.
    You know, a couple of years ago when you sent me to Washington, I 
went there to promote change in this country, to lift up the hopes of 
the American people. I went there to be a builder, not a blamer; to be a 
uniter, not a divider. I didn't much like the gridlock I had seen, and I 
wanted to break it.
    We knew that the obstacles to change were great, that we had 
profound social problems that had been developing over 30 years, 
resulting in too many of our children living in an atmosphere of crime 
and violence, without the strong family and community support they 
needed. We knew we had difficult economic problems that had developed 
over 20 years, where too many people worked hard and were never sure 
they could keep their job or would ever get a raise, or were always 
afraid that they might lose their health insurance or their retirement. 
We knew that for 12 years the other party had controlled the Presidency, 
and for 20 of the last 24 years, and they had built an enormous 
apparatus for their trickle-down economics and their politics of 
division. And we knew that for 4 years we'd had the slowest job growth 
since the Great Depression.
    Well, folks, America's still got some problems. There are still 
people who need work who don't have it. There are still people who 
deserve a raise who haven't gotten it. A million Americans, working 
families--working families--lost their health insurance last year. There 
are still some problems. But I can tell you one thing, this country is 
in better shape than it was 21 months ago when we began. We're in better 
shape because jobs are up. The deficit is down. We've got a smaller 
Government doing more for ordinary citizens. And this world is more 
secure, more peaceful, and more democratic for the American people to 
live and flourish in.
    I asked you to help me become President because I wanted to see our 
country strong again. I had heard enough tough talk accompanied by weak 
action. I wanted to see real strength. What is the real strength of our 
country? Strong families, strong schools, good jobs, safe streets, 
national security meaning peace and prosperity growing around the world. 
On all those fronts, we are stronger today because we did not just talk 
tough, we did the right things to make this country move forward.
    When our economic program was before the Congress and every single 
Republican voted against it, striving as hard as they could for 
gridlock, they all said, ``If this passes, we'll have recession; if this 
passes, the deficit will go up; if this happens, big Government will 
swallow us up and crush our economy.'' Well, what are they going to say 
today? The Government is smaller; the deficit is way down; the economy 
is up. They were wrong. Vote for Ron Sims to help keep making it right.
    If people in politics were judged the way people at work are judged 
and the way students in school are judged, every single Democrat in this 
congressional delegation would be elected again resoundingly on Tuesday 
because the people of Washington are in better shape. The unemployment 
rate is down, the economy is growing because of the courage of the 
people here on this platform and their colleagues throughout the State 
of Washington. You ought to elect them and send Harriet Spanel to join 
them.
    You know, this is sort of an interesting election, my fellow 
Americans. They wanted so badly, our adversaries, to say we had failed. 
And then when we didn't fail, when the economy began to grow, when the 
policies began to work, when the airplane contracts and the sales of 
Washington apples began to be announced, they didn't know what to do. 
They wanted to say all these things that they didn't get to say. So what 
did they then do? They said, ``Well, Government is still the problem. 
And if anything good happened, it was in spite of that Bill Clinton in 
Washington and the Democrats. They didn't have anything to do with it.'' 
You know,

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folks, where I come from we say if you're walking down a road and you 
find a turtle on a fencepost, chances are it didn't get there by 
accident. [Laughter]
    They want you to just keep on being cynical. They want you to keep 
on being negative. They want you to keep on supporting gridlock, even 
though you don't. They have tried all over this country to bury us in a 
mountain of negativism, hoping that Americans will not see the Sun 
shining through.
    They talk tough on crime and vote against the crime bill. They talk 
against the deficit, and they vote against reducing it. They talk for 
education, and they vote against more affordable college loans. They say 
they're pro-family, and then they vote against policies designed to help 
families, like immunizing children and lowering the taxes of low-income 
working people so they can raise their kids out of poverty. In short, 
they talk tough, but they do things that make America weaker. We make 
America stronger. Let's vote for strength on Tuesday.
    You know, they say--I don't know how you figure it--they want you to 
vote for them on the promise that they will return us to the policies 
that got us in the fix we were in when you voted for me in the first 
place. They have two lines of attack. They say, ``The Democrats are the 
party of Government, and it's bad. So if anything good happens, they 
didn't have anything to do with it. But put us in, and we will implement 
our commitments. We will cut taxes, increase defense, bring back Star 
Wars, and balance the budget.''
    And we say, well--you think about this; it's an issue in every one 
of these House races and this Senate race--they say, ``Give us power, 
and we will give you goodies.'' And we say to them, as you might say to 
your child, we say, ``Well, how are you going to pay for this?'' And 
they say, ``We'll tell you after the election.'' [Laughter] I say it's 
Sunday afternoon, and it's pretty, we're all dressed up; tell us right 
now. We want to know. Tell us right now.
    You know, how much do their promises cost? One trillion dollars. 
Look at this vast sea of people. I could take every last one of you out 
here tonight, and we could have a good time on a trillion dollars. The 
problem is, it's a trillion dollars. So I'll tell you what the facts 
are, folks, about their promises. There are only two options: Either 
they're serious, or they're kidding. [Laughter]
    Now, if they're serious, here's what happens. To pay for a trillion 
dollars' worth of promises, you have to cut everything else in the 
Government 20 percent: $2,000 a Social Security recipient a year, 20 
percent off the Medicare of the older people in this audience, 20 
percent off the student loans of the kids we want to go to college, 20 
percent off the Head Start when we're trying to fully fund Head Start.
    Now, they say, ``Oh, oh, but we didn't say we'd cut Social 
Security.'' They didn't say they wouldn't. [Laughter] So we say, well, 
okay, let's take Social Security off. Then you have to cut everything 
else 30 percent. You can just destroy Medicare and the college loan 
program and the Head Start program.
    Now, there's the other possibility, which is that they could be just 
like they were the last time they were in control: They could be 
kidding, they could be kidding. [Laughter] But if they're kidding, you 
know what happens? We explode the deficit; we start shipping jobs 
instead of Washington products overseas; we put this economy back in the 
same ditch it was in the last time they gave us trickle-down economics. 
So let us say, ``No thank you. We want a strong America. We want strong 
families, strong education systems, good jobs, safe streets, and a 
strong country. We're going to vote for Ron Sims and these agents of 
change here.''
    Folks, when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer endorsed Ron Sims--listen 
to this--they praised, and I quote, ``his practical idealism, his 
political wisdom, his humanitarian instincts.'' That's another way of 
saying he's a real person. Believe me, we could use a few more of them 
in the Congress.
    One of the reasons that your Senator is so successful is she comes 
across as a real person in the Congress. Patty Murray comes across as 
somebody who's raised a family, understands the problems of ordinary 
Americans, and is determined to work with people to get things done. We 
have too much gridlock there, too much partisan politics there. We need 
a person with a head and a heart who has lived the very message he 
preaches. We don't need any more people who talk tough and make us weak. 
We need people who are strong inside, who will make us strong and take 
us into the future. That's why we need Ron Sims. We need to say no to 
the negativism in Washington and yes to Ron Sims.

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    You know, I want to ask you to think about the atmosphere that they 
have tried to create in this election and measure it against our 
greatest national leaders of both parties. Franklin Roosevelt said, when 
one in four Americans was out of work, ``The only thing we have to fear 
is fear itself.'' This crowd says, ``Please vote your fears and give us 
power.'' Right? Teddy Roosevelt, a great Republican President, said the 
credit belongs to the person in the arena who is trying. These people 
say, ``Punish the people who try; Government's bad.'' Abraham Lincoln 
said, ``With malice toward none; with charity for all.'' He said, ``Let 
us listen to the better angels of our nature.'' Sounds like he'd be a 
Democrat if he were around today, doesn't it? [Applause]
    Folks, you've got a big chance on Tuesday to do something for 
yourselves, your children, and your future. You can say no to gridlock, 
no to cynicism, no to talking tough and acting weak. You can say yes to 
hope, yes to cooperation, yes to a builder, not a blamer. You can say 
yes to being strong. You can say, ``We in Washington State are sending a 
message to Washington, DC: America is going forward, not turning back.'' 
Ron Sims, the Democratic Congressmen, help us to keep changing this 
country and moving forward.
    God bless you all, and thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. at the Pike Place Market. in his 
remarks, he referred to Mayor Norman Rice of Seattle and Gary Locke, 
county executive, King County.