[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[September 26, 1997]
[Pages 1248-1252]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Houston
September 26, 1997

    Thank you very much. I told Tilman he should have just made the 
speech. [Laughter] He's about to get the hang of this. [Laughter] I'd 
like to thank Tilman and Paige for having me back. I thank Ken and John 
Eddie and all the others who made this night such a success. And I thank 
Alan Solomont for coming down here to be with us. Thank you, Governor 
Richards, for being here. And thank you, Garry Mauro and Bill White. And 
thank you, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
    I had a good day in Texas, and I've had a kind of interesting 2 
weeks. Someone asked me when I got here if I knew what State I was in, 
because I've been traveling around. We took Chelsea to college in 
California last week, and then I went back to New York for the opening 
of the United Nations. And then I went to Pittsburgh to speak to the 
AFL-CIO. And then I came to--I went home to Arkansas for a magnificent 
day yesterday. We celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Little Rock 
Central High School crisis. And then before I came here, I went out to 
San Jacinto Community College, where I got to talk a little bit about 
the education provisions of the balanced budget act, some of the issues 
we are dealing with in Congress now, and a little about the whole issue 
of affirmative action, and I understand you've got a local initiative 
here you're dealing with on that.
    And so I've had a very full and fascinating week. Tomorrow I'm going 
back home, and I'm going to the town where I graduated from high school, 
and we're trying to save our old high school. So I'm dealing with issues 
big and not so big. The older I get, the so-called little issues seem 
bigger to me. I want to save my high school, you know. I think it's 
important.
    I was here with many of you exactly one year ago tomorrow. And I 
think we ought to make this an annual thing. I don't know--[laughter]--
and maybe we could have another baby every year, too. And we could just 
celebrate a new birth. That ends my invitations coming here. [Laughter] 
I'm delighted to be back.
    Let me make a couple of very brief points. First of all, I said 
something at the community college today I'd like to reiterate. These 
community colleges work the way I think America ought to work. You think 
about it. We're living in a time of dramatic change in the way we work 
and live and relate to each other and the rest of the world. The economy 
is new and emerging with all kinds of possibilities. And these community 
colleges all across our country are open to people of all ages looking 
for a way to better themselves.
    First of all, they're open to everybody and you get treated the 
same, whether you're a man or woman, without regard to your age, without 
regard to your racial or ethnic background or your economic standing 
when you get in.
    Secondly, they're very much oriented toward change, not the status 
quo. Why? Because if they don't change, then they'll be educating people 
for jobs that don't exist anymore, and they'll go out of business.
    Thirdly, they're oriented toward results, not rhetoric, something I 
wish we could have even more of in Washington. I work on it all the 
time. Why? Because if they don't educate you well, no matter how much 
they exhort, people won't be functional and they won't be hired and 
they'll go out of business.
    And third, they're oriented toward partnerships, not political 
division. Why? Because there's no Republican or Democratic way to run a 
machine tool operation or to understand how sophisticated manufacturing 
processes work, so

[[Page 1249]]

people have to work together. As a result, they become the kind of 
dynamic community organizations that really are taking this country into 
a new century in good shape.
    And I got to thinking about it because I love the community 
colleges, and as you know, one of the major parts of the budget that I 
was so proud of fulfilled my commitment to open the doors of college to 
every American for the first time and to make it possible for us to make 
the 13th and 14th years of education just as universal by the year 2000 
as a high school diploma is today, because we give a $1,500 tax credit 
for the first 2 years of college which will cover the average cost of 
tuition and fees of 90 percent of the community colleges in the country. 
That's very important. And we give further tax credits for the junior 
and senior year, for graduate study, for older people who come back for 
job training, an IRA that people can withdraw from tax-free if it's used 
for education, more work-study slots, the biggest increase in Pell 
grants in 20 years. This is a huge deal that is in this budget.
    And I think perhaps the most--30 years from now when people look 
back at this, I think two things will live out of this budget more than 
anything else. One is that we balanced the budget for the first time 
since President Johnson's last budget. And the second was that we opened 
the doors of college to all and gave the American people a chance to 
make 2 years of college as universal as a high school education is today 
and, therefore, that we made the country far more competitive. And I'm 
very proud of that.
    But in general, that is the sort of thing I have been trying to do 
since I went to Washington 6 years ago. I can't believe it, it's been 
almost 6 years since I announced for President. I don't know where the 
time went. But a lot of you spent a lot of it with me, and I appreciate 
that. And I said then I had a simple but I believe profound vision of 
what I wanted our country to look like. When I leave this office and we 
start a new century I want every American who is willing to work for it 
to be able to get the American dream. I want our country still to be 
leading the world for peace and freedom and prosperity. And I want us to 
be one America across all these lines that divide us.
    Now, to do that, we have to sort of be like the community colleges. 
I have said this many times over the last 6 years, but I'll say it 
again: We need to be oriented toward the future, not the past; toward 
unity, not division; toward change, not the status quo; and we need to 
lead, not follow. I believe that. And I hope you believe it. And that 
means a lot. We also need to be oriented toward people, not just 
existing power institutions.
    Let me just give you some examples. What does that mean for the 
Democratic Party? Well, we gave the country the family and medical leave 
law. Everyplace I go, some ordinary person comes up and says, ``If it 
hadn't been for that law, my life would have been diminished 
considerably, because I got to take a little time off when my baby was 
sick, when my spouse was sick, when my father was dying''--or whatever--
``and I didn't lose my job.''
    We gave the country the economic plan of 1993, completely without 
any votes from the other side. And what that meant was, by the time we 
got ready to pass this balanced budget law, the deficit had already been 
reduced by 87 percent from the level it was when I took office.
    We gave the country the crime bill over the bitter opposition of the 
Republican leadership in 1994. They said it was not going to do any 
good, putting 100,000 people on the street. What's happened? The crime 
rate has gone down in virtually every community in America. The Brady 
bill kept 250,000 people with criminal or mental health histories from 
getting handguns and ended a lot of illegal gun trafficking. And as far 
as I know, not a single Texas hunter lost her rifle. [Laughter]
    When I went up to New Hampshire in '96--it was unusual for a 
Democrat to carry New Hampshire, and they voted for me in '92. Then they 
rebelled in '94. The NRA had them all in a lather. And I went up there 
and talked to a bunch of hunters, and I said, ``Do you remember what 
they told you in '94 about us coming after your guns?'' I said, ``I want 
every one of you that lost your gun to vote against me. But if you 
didn't, they lied to you, and you need to get even.'' [Laughter] It was 
an interesting experience, and we carried again.
    Why am I saying this? It makes a difference. The parties have 
honestly different views. We ought to be free to bring our views to the 
table. In this last session where we had the balanced budget, the system 
worked as it should. Heavy majorities in both parties honestly wanted a 
balanced budget and realized that the record of

[[Page 1250]]

the eighties could not be sustained and we had to go on and balance the 
budget to keep interest rates down and the economy rolling. But we had 
drastically different ideas about how to do it. Thank goodness we were 
able to get it done, because we argued and compromised in good faith and 
on principle, in a principled way.
    What was the Democratic contribution to this balanced budget? I'll 
give you three. Number one, we made sure that we had a $500-per-child 
tax credit and that it extended even to lower income working people like 
rookie police officers and beginning teachers and others who have 
children who needed the tax benefits, even if their income tax liability 
was very low. Number two, we got $24 billion in there to provide health 
insurance to 5 million--half of the children of this country that don't 
have health insurance--$24 billion over the next 5 years. Number three, 
we got the biggest increased investment for education since 1965, and 
all these tax credits and IRA's and Pell grants for college; it's the 
biggest increase in aid for ordinary Americans seeking college education 
since the GI bill 50 years ago. That's what our party contributed to 
that budget agreement. I am proud of that, and I think that is worth 
supporting, and I feel very good about it.
    So I just say to you, this matters. And I associate myself with the 
remarks that Mr. Solomont made. I think that our friends in the 
Republican Party can stand a fair fight, and I'd like to see us have a 
fair fight, because I think we can in the end put people ahead of 
politics and have principled agreement, as long as we have both parties 
able to take their ideas to the people and to make their case to the 
American people and to put their positions forward. You are making that 
possible, and for that I'm grateful.
    Now, as you look ahead, I'd just like to mention a couple of things. 
Let's look into the future, short term and long term. What it's going to 
take to make this country work over the long term I think is continued 
success of the economic policy, dramatically improving the quality and 
reach of our educational efforts, figuring out a way to reconcile our 
obligation to preserve the environment and still grow the economy, and 
continuing to expand American trade. And this is one area where I think 
we have got to make a decision as Democrats where we're going to stand 
on the trade issue.
    And I'd like to talk just briefly about each of those and one or two 
other things. One, let me just make this case. We're having this fast-
track debate in Congress. Let me tell you, if you don't know what it is, 
fast track is simple. It sounds strange; it's basically normal trade 
authority for the President or his representative to make an agreement 
with another country about tearing down trade barriers, which then the 
Congress gets to vote on, but they have to vote it up or down.
    Why? Well, if you were making a business deal with somebody and you 
signed on the dotted line, would you sign on the dotted line--and then 
it was contingent on its approval by the board of directors--you might 
sign that deal. If they said, ``Everybody this person works for, every 
employee in the company can put an amendment on the deal'' that you just 
made if you wanted to, you probably wouldn't sign the deal. You wouldn't 
know what it was.
    All fast track is, it's just a power that's been given to Presidents 
over the last 20 years, mostly from Democratic Congresses to Republican 
Presidents, to go meet with other countries, make an agreement, and then 
be able to tell the other country, ``My word is good. I'll deliver if 
the Congress approves it or if the Congress does not disapprove it.'' 
That's all it is. But if you don't have it, the other countries don't 
think you're serious, and they're not all that interested in doing 
business.
    Why is it important to America? Number one, as a practical matter, 
our markets are more open than most other countries, so nearly anybody 
we can make a trade agreement with we'd wind up ahead because when they 
dropped their barriers and we dropped ours, they'd be dropping more than 
we would.
    In a larger sense, what is the economic issue? We have 4 percent of 
the people in the world. You can look around this house tonight and tell 
that most of us have been very fortunate. And we as a people have 22 
percent of the world's wealth, with 4 percent of the world's people. The 
developing countries, principally in Asia and Latin America but also 
increasingly in Africa, are going to grow at 3 times the rate of the 
wealthy countries, Europe, Japan, the United States, and Canada. Now, 
you tell me, if they grow 3 times as fast as we're going to grow in the 
next 10 years, and we have 4 percent of the world's people and 22 
percent of the income, I do not believe we can keep

[[Page 1251]]

22 percent of the income unless we sell more of what we produce to them. 
And no one has been able to describe to me how we can do that. It can't 
happen.
    Furthermore, if we want to lead the world for peace and freedom and 
we want to have more countries that are success stories on their own and 
fewer countries like Bosnia where we have to intervene to stop people 
from killing each other, then we need to be in a position to have 
political influence and form political partnerships with countries that 
are democracies and committed to free market economics. And you can't do 
that, you can't lead, if you are bringing up the rear.
    So this is a big issue in the Congress. I hope I will prevail. I do 
believe that when we trade with other countries in the right way, we 
help to lift their labor standards. I think that if we have to honor 
environmental standards, they should, too. But the bottom line is, we 
got 4 percent of the folks. If we want 22 percent of the income, we have 
to sell to the other 96 percent. It is not complicated. And I hope that 
you will all support that position.
    The second big issue we've got to face is the campaign finance 
reform issue. And there are two issues to campaign finance, not one. One 
is how much money we raise and how it's raised. The second is, how much 
money you have to spend to get elected.
    And I saw on one of the networks tonight--maybe it was CNN--a clip 
where I was asking the students at San Jacinto--I said, ``Most of you 
probably thought at some time or another that it was a terrible thing 
that politicians spent so much time raising money and the elections were 
so expensive.'' I said, ``Let me ask you something. How many people have 
you voted for because you thought they had the best television ads? How 
many people have you voted for because you saw more of their ads? How 
many people have you voted against because you saw a negative campaign 
ad against them, and you didn't see them answer it on television so you 
thought you'd better not take a chance on that, and you voted for 
somebody else?'' And they all started laughing as we rocked along, you 
know.
    The fundamental problem in campaigns is the cost of communications 
has exploded and, therefore, the demand for the funds to raise that and 
to keep communicating for political parties and for candidates has been 
severe.
    So I hope that this debate we're having on the McCain-Feingold bill 
will produce a bill that will, in effect, alleviate some of the 
pressures that have been on some of you in this room but will also keep 
you heavily involved in the process and get you to involve other people. 
I personally don't think it's a bad thing for a person who has done well 
in this country and believes in politics and wants to contribute 
something back to be able to do that. I think it's a good thing you're 
here tonight, not a bad thing, and I'm proud of you for doing it.
    But I do think we ought to have a system that the American people as 
a whole have confidence in. Now, we can pass the McCain-Feingold bill. I 
hope we do. But in addition to that, I ask you also to recognize we have 
to cut the cost of the campaign. And the only way to do that in our 
country is to give people the benefit of free or reduced television, 
radio, newspaper, other communications time in return for cutting the 
cost of their campaign.
    So when our friends in the media say that we ought to do something 
to clean up our house, I say, ``You're going to have to help us. You 
can't say, `Give me your money on the one hand, and stop raising it on 
the other.' '' We have to do both these things, and I think we can 
together.
    The second thing I want to say is, we're in a huge debate in 
Washington over education standards. Nearly everybody says we've got the 
best higher education system in the world. Most people concede we can 
improve our public education, and we have to. We are the only advanced 
country that has no national education standards and, therefore, no way 
of measuring whether all kids are meeting them.
    So I have suggested we start with a reading test for fourth graders 
and a math test for eighth graders that would be voluntary, that could 
not be used against the children but would tell you how every child, 
every class, every school, every school district is doing against 
national standards. It is very important that our children be able to 
read and do basic math if you want them all to go to college. And I 
believe this is a good beginning.
    There are areas of--a curious set of opposition to this, but I think 
that lower income kids, kids from difficult backgrounds, I think they 
need high educational standards in their schools even more than the rest 
of us do, because they have very few opportunities to make up for it

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if they don't get it. And I am determined to see this fight through. But 
I hope you'll support me. It is not right for us not to have national 
academic standards of excellence.
    So campaign finance, academic standards, fast track. The last point 
I want to make is, I want to encourage those of you in Houston who are 
involved in trying to find a way to bring your community together and 
not divide it by race. What I said in Little Rock yesterday is true: 
This country is a lot better than it was 40 years ago. It's better in 
terms of less discrimination. It's better in terms of more economic 
opportunity. In percentage terms, African-American family income rose 
faster than white American family income did in the last 4 years. We are 
building a middle class of minorities. That's the good news.
    The bad news is that the disparities are still profound and access 
to credit and to being able to build businesses and to being able to be 
full participants in the American dream still show disparity in our 
country. And we have got to keep working to find fair ways not to give 
anything to anybody for which they are not qualified but to give 
everyone who is qualified a chance to fully participate in the American 
way of life and to give us a chance to work together across racial 
lines. I can't tell you how important I think that is.
    Let me just ask you, before I sit down, you just think about this 
and think about this when you go home. Think about how much time I, as 
your President, have had to spend these last 5 years as your President 
working on your behalf dealing with countries where people could not get 
along because of their racial, religious, or ethnic differences.
    In Bosnia, you have three groups of people who are ethnically, 
biologically indistinguishable, who are in different religious and 
ethnic groups by accident of history. Think about the Middle East. Think 
about my people, the Irish, where I'm hopeful we will have some real 
progress this year, arguing over what happened 600 years ago in battles. 
Think about Rwanda, where most of us might not be able to tell without 
being there a while a Hutu from a Tutsi, where hundreds of thousands of 
people were killed. How much time I have to spend on your behalf trying 
to keep people from literally killing each other because of their 
differences.
    And here we have our--the school district across the river from me, 
that I get up and look at every morning when I get up in the White 
House, Fairfax County school district, has kids from 182 nations, 
speaking over 100 languages in one school district. We have 5 school 
districts with people from over 100 countries in it. But 2 years from 
now we'll have 12. People still believe in this country. They're still 
looking to come here to redeem the promise of America.
    And I think that if we can figure out how to take a charitable but 
honest and open attitude toward working with people--which I must say I 
have seen more in abundance in Texas on questions of immigration and 
other things across party lines than I have in a lot of other States--if 
we can figure out how to do that, there is no stopping this country.
    We have a sound economic policy, everybody gets an education, and we 
all work together, then the 21st century will be the time of America's 
greatest days. And that vision I started with 6 years ago will be 
protected. And if we can keep working together and finding principled 
compromises in the Congress, if I can convince the Congress and the 
Senate to confirm my judges, for example--[laughter]--if we can do the 
things that we ought to do, I believe we're going to be fine. But don't 
forget that depends upon having two parties that can fight for what they 
believe in within honorable bounds. And there are differences, and I 
gave you some of them tonight. When you go home tonight, I hope you will 
think about it and be glad you came.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:50 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Tilman and Paige Fertitta; special 
hosts F. Kenneth Bailey and John Eddie Williams; Alan D. Solomont, 
national finance chair, Democratic National Committee; Ann Richards, 
former Texas Governor; and William H. White, chair, Texas Democratic 
Party.