[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[October 8, 1997]
[Pages 1319-1321]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Reception in Florham Park, 
New Jersey
October 8, 1997

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Jim, and thank you, ladies and 
gentlemen, for being here for him and for our party and for what we're 
fighting for.
    I want to thank my longtime friend Alan Solomont for being here and 
for being the finance chair of our Democratic Party--[applause]--yes, 
you can clap for him, that's nice--why don't you do that? He has a 
thankless job. [Laughter] When he calls people, you know--even when he 
calls me, I think he's going to call and hit me up for a contribution 
any day. [Laughter]
    But most of all I'd like to thank the Kushners, Charles and Seryl, 
and thank you, Rae Kushner, and thank you, Mrs. Felsen. And I thank the 
children who gave me the shofar, Joshua and Nicole; Dara and Miryam, 
thank you.

[[Page 1320]]

    And I'm glad we've got a long-distance connection to Israel. In a 
way, I always have a long-distance connection to Israel. [Laughter]
    President Weizman was just here; we had a great visit. And of course 
Mr. Arafat and Prime Minister Netanyahu had a visit of their own, and 
we're hopeful that the peace process is back on track and so is the--
that the security process is back on track, and I know all of you hope 
that, as well. But we're working hard on it.
    Let me just briefly say that I came to New Jersey today for Jim 
McGreevey for what I think is a very good reason--it is entirely 
positive, there's nothing negative about it--and that is that in the 
next several years, for the foreseeable future in the 21st century, who 
happens to be Governor of any State and what decisions they make will 
have a bigger impact on how people live than in the previous 20 years, 
as an inevitable outgrowth of the way the world is changing, the way we 
change how we govern ourselves, how we make decisions, and how we go 
forward. And I think it's very important.
    Let me say that a lot of you have helped me a lot over the last 
several years, and for that I am very grateful. I think we are much 
closer than we were 5 years ago to realizing the vision that I started 
out with when I announced for Governor--for President, when I was a 
Governor. I'm going to talk about that in a moment. That is, I think 
we're closer to the time when every American has a chance to live out 
the American dream if he or she will work for it. I think we're closer 
to the time when our country has articulated a vision that will maintain 
our world leadership for peace and freedom and prosperity and security. 
And I think we're closer to a time, although we still have a lot 
challenges, in which we can reach across all the racial, the ethnic, the 
cultural, the religious lines that divide us, and stand in stark 
contrast to what is going on in so much of the world today and to the 
terrible story that Charles told us that had such a wonderful ending--of 
his family--by being a country that really can embrace all this 
diversity, celebrate it, respect it, honor it, and say, ``We're still 
bound together as one America.'' And I feel very good about that.
    There is still a lot to do. There is a lot going on in Washington. 
I'm still trying, for the 5th year in a row, to pass campaign finance 
reform. And the opponents thought they had killed it yesterday, but 
we've got a little life left in us up there. If you can influence 
anybody, I hope you will, although I want to say that Senator Torricelli 
and Senator Lautenberg are part of the unanimous vote in our caucus for 
the McCain-Feingold bill and for campaign finance reform, which I very 
much appreciate.
    We're dealing with the trade issue and the question of the extension 
of the President's authority to conduct trade negotiations with other 
countries and then have the Congress vote up or down on the bill, which 
is essential for me to make those agreements and to continue to expand 
trade. Otherwise--no one wants to negotiate with 535 people; they want 
to negotiate with one person.
    And there's a lot of debate, and it's a healthy thing, because what 
we really want in the global economy is more involvement in the world 
economy in a way that benefits America but also having our communities 
make the appropriate response for people who have or will suffer as a 
result of dislocations in that economy. We owe that to them. That's what 
we're trying to achieve.
    We had a fascinating conference this week on climate change. I'm 
convinced the climate is warming at an alarming rate and that we have to 
do the responsible thing, to lower our emissions of greenhouse gases 
into the atmosphere. But it's a difficult problem for a democracy to 
address because it's not on anybody's back right now. It's something 
that's out there ahead of us. But if we do a little bit now we can avoid 
disastrous consequences and much more burdensome actions later.
    Hillary and I are going to have the first White House Conference on 
Child Care at the end of the month. And that's a huge problem. We have 
more people in the work force than ever before, a higher percentage of 
people in the work force than ever before. But the most important job 
any of us has is our job to raise our children well. I know you believe 
that. I had more people--we just all took our picture--I had a higher 
percentage of people in the line that I just stood in ask me about my 
family and my daughter than any photograph line I have ever stood in in 
my whole life. And that's a great tribute to you and your values. And I 
thank you for that.
    But this child care issue is really about whether all these people 
who have to work, who also have children, can succeed at work and at 
home. And we shouldn't have our country making a

[[Page 1321]]

choice there. We don't want to crater the economy, but our most 
important job is to raise our children well.
    So we're full of all these challenges, and it's exciting. But we 
have to--when I took office, we had this huge deficit and basically a 
yesterday's Government. And I made a commitment, as I've said many 
times, to the policies that favor the future over the past, change over 
the status quo, unity over division, and things that benefit everybody 
instead of just a few people. And that required changes, so we downsized 
the Government; we shared more responsibility with State and local 
government and the private sector. And State governments, anyway, have 
primary responsibility for things like auto insurance rates and, 
constitutionally, education.
    So I can go out here and talk until I'm blue in the face about the 
importance of embracing national education standards. The United States 
is the only great country in the world that has no national standards of 
academic achievement that guarantee international capacity--in terms of 
operating in the economy--that everybody has to follow. We're not 
talking about Federal Government standards. We're not talking about 
imposing anything on anybody. It's totally voluntary. But that means 
that every Governor will decide whether to participate in the standards 
movement.
    So the decisions made by the Governor of New Jersey in the next 20 
years almost certainly will range over a wider scope and have a deeper 
impact on the lives of the people of New Jersey than in the previous 20 
years. And if my vision is going to be fulfilled, we have to have a 
partnership that really works to grow the economy, to fight crime, to 
preserve the environment, to deal with social problems, and most 
importantly, to make sure that every child in this country has a chance 
to live out his or her dreams with a decent education.
    That's why I showed up here today, because this young man actually 
has an idea of what he will do if he gets elected. He's not running for 
Governor because he wants to live in that magnificent old house--New 
Jersey I think has the oldest and perhaps the most beautiful old 
Governor's mansion in the country--he actually has an idea of what he 
wants to do, and I think it's the right idea. And I hope you'll help him 
achieve it.
    Thank you. Bless you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 4 p.m. in the chief 
executive's office at the Kushner Companies. In his remarks, he referred 
to State Senator Jim McGreevey, Democratic gubernatorial candidate; 
Charles Kushner, chief executive officer, Kushner Companies; Mr. 
Kushner's wife, Seryl, and children Joshua and Nicole, and his mother, 
Rae; Annette Felsen, Seryl Kushner's grandmother; Dara Freiriech, 
student council representative, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy; Miryam 
Lichtman, student council president, Kushner Yeshiva High School; 
President Ezer Weizman and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel; 
and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority.