    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 12, 1997]
    [Pages 1546-1548]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic Governors' Association Reception
    November 12, 1997

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Loretta. Thank you, Katie. Thank all
    of you who had anything to do with this fundraiser. This is an exercise
    of true affection because Howard Dean would probably win next year if
    none of us gave him a penny. [Laughter] But I am delighted to be here.
        Senator Leahy and I were standing back there when Howard was giving
    his remarks, and he said he suffered through 16 years of Republican
    leadership, the deficit was going up before I came in. And I said, ``You
    know, Pat, it was really only 12 years; it just seemed like 16.''
        I'd like to say a special word of thanks, too, to Senator Pat Leahy,
    who is truly one of the finest people in the entire United States
    Congress and one of the most effective. Whether the issue is economic
    policy, agriculture policy, social policy, foreign policy, his passion
    to remove the scourge of landmines from the Earth, Pat Leahy is always
    there. And we can be proud that he represents not only the State of
    Vermont but all of America very well.
        I'd also like to say that whatever it is that Howard Dean knows, or
    whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning, if I could give
    it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder,
    we would immediately become the majority in the Congress, and we would
    have about 35 Governors. I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is
    just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to
    do at election time. And I very much appreciate what he said about what
    we've tried to do here in Washington.
        I love to do fundraisers and events for Democratic Governors or the
    Democratic Governors' Association in Washington because one of the
    things that I learned when I moved to Washington and what I feared was
    that people don't think that those of us who have been Governors exist
    out there. And we might as well be in a zoo somewhere.
        When I came to Washington, I would read editorials from the
    prominent newspapers saying that if you cared about the deficit and
    crime

    [[Page 1547]]

    and welfare, you were stealing Republican issues. And I said, now, wait
    a minute. The last time I checked, the debt of this country quadrupled
    under a Republican President, crime was going up when I took office, and
    the welfare rolls were expanding. And since I've been in office, we've
    cut the deficit by 92 percent, crime has gone down every year, and the
    welfare rolls have dropped by 3 million. I think those are American
    issues the Democratic Party has done very well on, and I don't
    understand all this.
        Out in the country, you know, Democrats care about the deficits and
    welfare reform and safe streets. And you know what? Democrats care about
    them in Washington, too. We passed a crime bill in 1994 overwhelmingly
    with Democratic support, with a little Republican support. We passed the
    economic program in 1993 only with Democrats. And we began the welfare
    reform effort through the executive branch, as Howard Dean said; then I
    vetoed two bills first because I refused to take away the guarantee of
    health care and nutrition from children and I wanted to have enough
    money for child care if we were going to require people to go to work.
    So we got it right, and the results were good for America, and I'm proud
    of that.
        But one last point I want to make, this has been a very good year
    for the United States in Washington. We had an enormous effort to pass
    the balanced budget that has things that I think every Democrat in this
    country and every American ought to be proud of. It's the biggest
    investment in health care for poor children since 1965--Howard talked
    about that--biggest investment in education since 1965; biggest
    investment in helping open the doors of college to all Americans since
    the GI bill 50 years ago; substantial reforms of Medicare including
    efforts to improve what we're doing in diabetes that the diabetes
    foundation says are the most important advances in the care of diabetes
    since insulin was developed 70 years ago. We have added 12 years to the
    Medicare Trust Fund and given our seniors more choices. This was a big
    deal.
        We also are working on expanding NATO to ensure our partnership in
    security in Europe. We've passed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a big
    issue. One of the big disputes we're having with Saddam Hussein now and
    these inspectors is that these inspectors in Iraq have found enough
    potential chemical, biological, and incipient nuclear technology, more
    than was destroyed in the Gulf war. We want to wipe the prospect of
    chemical warfare off the face of the Earth. We don't want a bunch of
    terrorists with laboratories in briefcases going from airport to airport
    wreaking havoc in the world of the 21st century that our children will
    live in. We took a big step toward that. So this has been a good year.
        But in addition to my affection for Governor Dean and my gratitude
    to the people of Vermont for voting for Bill Clinton and Al Gore twice
    by big margins and my desire to help members of my party, I want--I
    think it's very important that you understand that even though sometimes
    I get the feeling around here many people don't remember that the
    Governors or the mayors or the county officials, for that matter, are
    really out there doing a lot of things, the Governors are especially
    important for the strategy that I'm pursuing for America to succeed.
        We got $24 billion for children's health; that's good. What's step
    two? The Governors have to design a program that works. And I promise
    you every Governor with any sense in this country, without regard to
    party, is going to wonder what Howard Dean is going to do with the
    money, because they know that Vermont has done the best job of expanding
    health care coverage for children. So it matters who the Governor is.
        You can put more money into education, but the Governors have to
    decide how it's going to be spent. We won a huge battle, which we're
    going to be really highlighting in the next couple of days when we sign
    the appropriations bills, to get the Congress, after months and months
    of contentious fighting, to embrace the notion that we ought to have
    national standards of academic excellence and national exams in reading
    and math for elementary students and eighth graders. But what happens
    afterwards? Education is the primary province of the States. The Federal
    Government can facilitate national excellence in education; the
    Governors have to ensure it.
        In the environment, we're trying to clean up 500 toxic waste dumps
    and prove we can have clean air, clean water, and safe food and grow the
    environment. We can provide funds, we can have Federal standards, but in
    the end, the specific work is largely done in the States.

    [[Page 1548]]

        And as we move into this new era where we have to have more
    flexibility, more partnerships, and more common sense, in which we want
    to reject the kind of ideological false choices we're often confronted
    with in the political debates here, the partnership that exists and the
    quality of it and the quality of the people that do the work at the
    State level, the partnership with the Federal Government will be
    critical in terms of how Americans actually get to live and what kind of
    world our children actually grow up in. That's what this is about.
        So in so many ways the governorship is more important than ever
    before. We have tried to give more responsibility to the States. We've
    also tried to give them more things to do. And it has succeeded in
    places like Vermont, which have had visionary leadership.
        I can only hope and pray that every Governor will do the job that I
    know that he will do in health care, in education, in the environment,
    in building a solid future for our children. You're going to help him to
    do it by your presence here tonight, and I'm very grateful to you.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:47 p.m. in the Colonial Room at the
    Mayflower Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Loretta Bowen,
    legislative and political director, Communications Workers of America;
    Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, chair, and Katie Whelan, executive
    director, Democratic Governors' Association.