    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 24, 1998]
    [Pages 613-615]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Luncheon
    April 24, 1998

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Governor, and
    thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I'm delighted to see you, and I've
    enjoyed our visit already today. I thank you for being here.
    Len and I were just joking over on the side
    when Roy was talking about how we would have to explain to the media
    when we characterize this as the Democratic Party's ``Ragtime'' weekend.
    [Laughter] And Len said, ``Well, I always say it's our 150th anniversary
    celebration weekend.'' But actually, for those of you who are familiar
    with ``Ragtime,'' it's not a bad thing to be a kind of metaphor for the
    struggles of our party, the aspirations of our party, and the hope that
    we have for the future of America. And so I thank all the folks who are
    associated with the wonderful production for helping us to celebrate
    this weekend.
        Let me also say to you, Governor, I thank you
    for what you said about the Irish peace process and about the trips to
    Africa and to Latin America. Just before I came over here I had a visit
    and got an update from the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, about where we are on that and what's going on. In a
    way, those two trips and the efforts of the United States to help to
    broker the peace, or at least to create the conditions in which peace
    could occur in

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    Northern Ireland, are also metaphors for what I think our national
    mission should be now.
        For about 5\1/2\ years, we have been working to change the direction
    of the country so that when we enter the 21st century there really will
    be opportunity for everyone who is responsible enough to work for it and
    so that there really will be a country that is one American community
    across all the lines that divide us and so that we will continue to lead
    the world--which, as Roy said, is a smaller and smaller place--toward
    peace and freedom and prosperity and a spirit of interdependence that
    makes us stronger because we work with our friends, our neighbors, and
    people who share our values.
        And I'm very pleased with the results that we've had in the last
    5\1/2\ years. Last night I had the great honor of hosting, at the White
    House, the Members of the Congress, in 1993, who passed our economic
    plan--all members of our party--by one vote in each House, including the
    Vice President's vote in the Senate. As he
    said, whenever he votes, we win. [Laughter] And it was a remarkable
    thing because, as you know, some of those people gave up their seats in
    Congress because they voted for that, because of the horrendous attacks
    to which they were subject and all the sort of distortions of their
    position. But it's pretty hard to quarrel with the results. Before we
    ever passed the Balanced Budget Act, which I strongly supported, the
    deficit had been reduced by 93 percent. And so I just want all of you to
    be proud of that.
        I, just before I came over here, bid a formal goodbye to Mack
    McLarty, my old friend, my first
    Chief of Staff, my Envoy to the Americas. And I pointed out that in just
    the first year and a few months when he was our Chief of Staff, we
    passed the economic plan, the family and medical leave bill, a sweeping
    expansion of the global trade network, and began this work in education
    to which Governor Romer referred.
        So I want you to feel a part of this, and I want you to feel good
    about it. But I also want you to be resolute that our party's mission is
    to get things done, not to score political points in Washington. We want
    to change the lives of people in America, not to rack up a few points on
    the rhetorical scoreboard that changes every day here anyway.
        And we have a big agenda. We're trying to pass a budget this year
    that is within the budget that preserves the balanced budget and saves
    any surplus until we decide how we're going to reform Social Security
    for the 21st century. We are trying to pass a principled tobacco
    settlement which protects what has been called, in some of these
    documents coming out, ``replacement smokers''--to me, they're children--
    and to do it in a way--we don't want to bankrupt the tobacco companies,
    unlike the criticism that's been leveled in the paid ads you've seen. We
    do not want to put them out of business. We just want them out of the
    business of selling tobacco to children. And that is a critical
    distinction there, which I believe we have to hammer through until we
    succeed.
        I have a very aggressive education agenda, which has been embraced
    by the Democrats in the Congress and some Republicans, to modernize our
    schools, to have smaller classes in the early grades, to continue until
    we connect all of our classrooms to the Internet, and to raise academic
    standards and to have voluntary national tests to measure whether our
    children are meeting those standards. And we are in a pitched battle.
        Yesterday there was a vote in the Senate on a bill that would have
    ended our initiatives for charter schools, for a lot of our other
    education reforms, and would have cut off funding for voluntary tests.
    It's interesting. Do you suppose the same people would vote for a bill
    that said, let's continue to have football in America, but let's stop
    keeping score; or, let's play this game, but let every community score
    however they want; soccer is a global sport, but we're going to have
    everybody keep score in different ways? I would submit to you that
    education is far more important than football or soccer, that there is
    an international arena within which our children will live, by which
    they will be judged, and objective standards which do matter in their
    lives. So I predict we're going to have a big debate about education in
    the closing months of this congressional session. I welcome it, but I
    need your support.
        We're trying to do things to help families: the Medicare buy-in for
    people over 55 who have lost their jobs and their health insurance. The
    Congress Budget Office--not me--the Congress Budget Office says we can
    allow that to be done without putting any burden on the Medicare system.
    It will not impact our efforts to reform Medicare at all.

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        The HMO bill of rights, the child care initiatives that we talked
    about so much yesterday--we have all this evidence now that what happens
    in a child's first 3 years of life is so important to the child's
    development. More than half the parents of children in the first 3 years
    of life are in the work force, and people are panicked all over the
    country about not being able to afford quality child care. We have a
    proposal on the floor which can fund that sort of quality child care for
    millions more children within the balanced budget amendment. We need to
    pass it.
        We're finally going to get a vote on campaign finance reform in the
    House, thanks to that brave band, that small band of Republicans that
    joined with the House Democratic Caucus and forced a majority position
    on the Congress. I thank them for that.
        And we are also going to have a chance to pass, for the 21st
    century, the most impressive commitment to scientific and biomedical
    research in modern history, as a part of our gift to the 21st century.
        That's a pretty big agenda. And I just want you to know that you're
    a part of all this; your support makes this possible. But I would like
    to ask you to urge all of our fellow Democrats to urge the Congress to
    act. There are so many of these things we can do, and we'll still have
    plenty to argue about in November on the election. But we're Democrats;
    we believe the purpose of the Government is not to give us sinecures of
    power but to do things that help people advance their own lives. And
    that's what we're here trying to do, and we need to bear down and do it.
    That's why the country is in good shape today, because we have put aside
    short-term considerations to lift up the long-term interests of the
    country. No one can quarrel with the results. We just need to do more of
    it. And I'm going to do my best to make your support a catapult for
    getting those results.
        Thank you again, and God bless you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. in the ballroom at the Sheraton
    Carlton Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Roy Romer of
    Colorado, general chair, and Leonard Barrack, national finance chair,
    Democratic National Committee.