    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [June 11, 1997]
    [Pages 721-723]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    June 11, 1997

        Thank you very much. Let me say to all of you how very grateful I am
    for your presence and for your support. I appreciate what the Vice
    President has said, and I associate myself with his remarks. I think
    that's what they say in the Congress. [Laughter]
        I would just like to make two very brief points. First of all, the
    country is in better shape than it was 4\1/2\ years ago. It is a direct
    consequence, in my view, of the hard work of the American people
    combined with the policies and the changes which have been instituted
    here.
        I want you to know that my plan is to keep working on this until the
    last day I'm in office. And as far as I'm concerned, all these good

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    things that have happened are not constant unless they can be sustained,
    so that we still have to put the meat on the bones of the balanced
    budget agreement. In the abstract, it is a very good agreement because
    it contains an investment strategy for education, for science and
    technology, for the environment we can be proud of and it will balance
    the budget with conservative estimates. But we have to put the meat on
    the bones.
        I'm proud of the fact that we've had the biggest drop in crime in 36
    years, but juvenile violence is still way too high, and we have to put
    the meat on the bones. We have a lot more to do there.
        I'm proud of the fact that we've had the biggest drop in welfare in
    history by far, but we've still got to make sure when all those people
    run out of their welfare checks they can go to work, and we've got to
    put meat on the bones.
        I'm proud of the fact that this budget agreement restores what I
    thought were unconscionable cuts in benefits to legal immigrants, but
    we've still got to put the meat on the bones in terms of the details of
    the legislation. So there's a lot to be done here.
        In the world, I'm gratified by the agreements we've reached with
    Russia on the NATO-Russian partnership and reducing the nuclear tensions
    between us and the meeting that will occur in a few weeks in Madrid to
    expand NATO. But I'm troubled that we have not completed the Bosnian
    peace process; we've got a long way to go there. I'm troubled at the
    stagnation of the peace process in the Middle East. There's a lot of
    things that this administration has done that cannot be sustained unless
    we all keep working and moving forward.
        And the second point I would like to make to you is a more abstract
    one, but I hope you can take some pleasure in it. I really believed in
    1991 and 1992, when I went around and asked so many of you to help me
    run for President, that we had to modernize the approach of the
    Democratic Party consistent with our values, that we had to take a new
    approach but it had to be rooted in our values. There was nothing wrong
    with our values, but we had to be relevant and effective in the modern
    world.
        We had to prove that we were capable of producing a strong defense,
    a credible foreign policy, a disciplined management of the economy,
    particularly on fiscal matters. And we had to prove that you could cut
    the deficit and invest in America's future at the same time. We had to
    prove that we could be for high standards of personal responsibility in
    the criminal justice and welfare system and still believe that we should
    be an inclusive nation, where everybody should have a fair chance. We
    had to prove you could grow the economy and preserve the environment. We
    had to take a different position.
        And when I was in Europe recently and I was doing this press
    conference with the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, who
    as you know has been subject to almost savage criticism from time to
    time for having adopted ideas similar to mine--[laughter]--but the only
    people that like it seem to be the people over there; the voters thought
    it was all right--I had the feeling for the very first time that the
    people in the press who were asking us questions really believed that we
    might have changed the country and our political party and that there
    was some organized, principled direction to this.
        And I've been working on this long before I even thought I would run
    for President, for a good 10 years or more now. And I think that once we
    believed that we had--we not only have good results but we know we're on
    a course that will work and we can expect it to keep working with
    sustained effort, that is the beginning of real hope because then you
    don't have to see the gains evaporate when elections change things or
    when term limits come up or when momentary difficulties come up in the
    economy or other problems.
        So I would ask you to keep that in mind. I believe you have helped
    to contribute to a profound, almost revolutionary positive change in the
    direction of our country because you helped to revitalize the party that
    we're all proud to be a part of. And I hope you will never forget that.
        And I had the feeling for the very first time that a lot of those
    who interpret us for the rest of the country and the world were coming
    to that understanding, because I was standing there with the new Prime
    Minister of Great Britain and we were saying the same things and we had
    just left the Prime Minister of The Netherlands and he said the same
    things and because they came along after the '92 election and had also
    seemed to get quite satisfactory results in their own country. So you
    were also

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    part of changing the world. And for that, I am very, very grateful.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:37 p.m. at the Mayflower Hotel. In his
    remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Wim Kok of The Netherlands.