    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 28, 1998]
    [Pages 636-638]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner in
    New York City
    April 28, 1998

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Shelby and
    Katherine, for opening your beautiful home.
    I thank all the Senators who are here. I thank especially Senator
    Kerrey and Senator Torricelli. When Bob Torricelli goes around the country or Bob
    Kerrey goes around the country, I know they enjoy it, but it still gets
    hard. [Laughter] It still gets hard. All these Senators are here;
    they're going to go get on a plane and go home tonight so they can be
    there and vote tomorrow. And I thank them for doing this on behalf of
    others, among whom surely are the three candidates we have for the
    Senate in New York tonight. And I thank them all for running and for
    their fidelity to our party and for what they have already done for our
    country. And I thank Judith Hope for her
    leadership.
        I also would be remiss if I didn't thank the people of New York for
    being so good to me and Al Gore. Twenty-five percent of the total
    plurality I received in popular votes in the entire country in 1996 came
    from New York, and I'm very grateful. I was just leaning against the
    wall back there wondering how much better I might have done if I hadn't
    interrupted traffic for 4 years before the election. [Laughter] Truly
    the people here are the epitome of tolerance. One of you tonight
    informed me that you had to walk 10 blocks just to get here because of
    my attendance. [Laughter] For that, I apologize.
        Let me say very briefly, I try to do a number of these events to
    help our candidates for the Senate, our candidates for the House. I
    believe that the success that our country has enjoyed

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    in the last few years is something that all Americans can claim a part
    of. Certainly, the private sector deserves an enormous amount of credit;
    just ordinary working people deserve an enormous amount of credit. But
    clearly, the direction of this country, and with it the direction of our
    party, has moved into the future, has changed, has gone to a different
    level. And the results have been very, very satisfactory.
        We are going to have a surplus of some size this year, the first
    time our budget has been in balance in three decades. We have been able
    to dramatically increase our investments in education and in health care
    for our children, in the environment, in science and technology, to try
    to prepare for long-term growth.
        What I would like to say to you tonight is--I think I'd like to make
    just two points about why this coming election is so important. Because
    if you're just following events in the papers today or on the evening
    news, you see that there's--particularly from the other side--there's a
    little more partisan rhetoric creeping back into their speeches. They
    seem to be sort of lapsing into that. It's easier; you can be in a semi-
    coma and give that speech, because they know how to do it so well.
        But I think that we shouldn't forget as Democrats why we're here,
    why the country is in the best shape it's been in a generation, and what
    we're supposed to do with this time. You know, good times can be very
    deceptive because even if the times are very good, all of us know
    they're very dynamic. Things are changing very rapidly. You can take any
    set of circumstances and pick up a magazine, and one expert will say the
    glass is half-full, and the other will say the glass is half-empty; a
    third will say the glass is unbreakable, and the fourth will say it's
    about to be shattered.
        So in a dynamic time, it seems to me, we need to think about two
    things. Number one, when people have a lot of confidence because things
    are going well, but leaders know that things are changing and the ground
    is still moving, that is the time when big issues should be faced and
    long-term problems should be solved. Now, we've got the sort of basic
    mechanisms of our society working better now with the budget in balance
    and the other things that are going on.
        This country has some big, long-term problems. I'll just mention
    three or four: One, reform of Social Security to deal with the baby
    boomers; two, reform of Medicare to deal with the costs that will come
    before the baby boom generation--we've cut the long-term deficit in
    Medicare by more than half in the last 2 years, but we've still got some
    problems; three, climate change; four, the biggest public health problem
    in America is still the fact that 3,000 children a day start to smoke
    cigarettes and 1,000 of them a day are going to die sooner because of
    it; five, we still don't have an adequate network of child care in our
    country that is truly affordable for working people. Now, those are just
    five issues. I can think of a lot more. Overshadowing all of them is
    that we still haven't provided a truly world-class education for every
    child in this country.
        I mention those things to say when times are good you should bear
    down in dealing with those problems, not relax and walk away from them.
    And no political party should let itself sort of just kind of
    disintegrate into petty bickering and small-minded politics. This is a
    time to lift America up, energize us on big issues, and move us forward.
    That's the first point I want to make. That's why these elections are
    important.
        The second point I want to make is this country, for all the change
    and all the modern things and all the science and technology and
    everything else, is still always about, in my opinion, three big ideas.
    And at every time of change we have to lay off the dead hand of history
    and adopt new means to reaffirm and broaden these three big ideas.
        One is, we're about freedom and liberty. We're about deepening the
    meaning of freedom. That's why I supported the ``Employment Non-
    Discrimination Act.'' That's why I've tried to involve more different
    kinds of people than any administration ever has, in our administration.
    That's why I have tried to push this race initiative and get Americans
    to think about what it's going to be like when we are no longer a
    biracial or even a triracial society but we have the most diverse
    democracy in the world, when more and more places look like the New York
    City schools do.
        Because these are the challenges we've always faced. This is the
    challenge of our generation, the freedom challenge. How are we going to
    get the most out of everybody's life? Only if everyone is treated with
    dignity and equality.

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        The second thing this country has always been about is widening the
    circle of opportunity, giving everyone not a guarantee but a chance. I
    don't think any serious person would say that everybody in this country
    has really got the same chance today. But there are more people with
    more chances than they had 5 years ago, and I'm proud of that. And I'm
    determined to see that we continue to expand those chances.
        That's why we've supported things at home and abroad like
    microcredit programs, for example, to give little people a chance to
    borrow money to get into business, to prove that they can make something
    of their lives. It may sound like a small thing, but to someone who has
    it, who didn't have it before, it's all the difference in the world. And
    the Democratic Party is about widening the circle of opportunity.
        And the third thing that I want to say, and it's very important,
    that is so easy to lose sight of when the stock market is at 9,000 or
    even when it drops 160 points, is we're also about strengthening the
    bonds of our Union and improving our relationships with people beyond
    our borders. That also has been a constant throughout our 200-year-plus
    history. And that's very important.
        If you look at what's eating the world alive today--I go to Africa,
    and I celebrate all the wonderful things that are happening and then go
    to Rwanda and talk to 6 people who survived 100 days in which 800,000
    people were slaughtered because of their tribal differences. We're all
    sitting on pins and needles, especially in New York, waiting for the
    Irish to vote in May to see whether they can vote for the next 30 years,
    instead of being imprisoned by the last 30 years or indeed by the last
    600 years. We're all hanging around now waiting on pins and needles as
    we celebrate Israel's 50th birthday, because the Secretary of
    State is going to London to meet with
    the leader of Israel and the leader of
    the PLO hoping to get the peace process going
    again.
        All over the world, in this so-called modern world where kids are
    pecking away on the Internet on every continent, we are still bedeviled
    by the most fundamental and primitive of prejudices of all kinds. We,
    the American people, should be drawing closer together. We, the
    Democratic Party, should be the instrument of that union.
        So I say to you, there are two reasons that you ought to be here.
    One is, more Democratic Senators, and reelecting the ones we have, means
    we'll do a better job on the big issues for tomorrow. We've proved it
    with the deficit. We've proved it with crime. We've proved it with
    welfare. We've proved it with the environment. We've proved it with a
    whole host of issues. But we've still got huge challenges out there to
    face.
        And two--and even more important--we will carry forward the eternal
    mission of America in modern times. And that matters more than anything
    else. In the end, that's what will really matter to your kids. Are we
    forming a more perfect Union? Is there more opportunity for everybody?
    Does freedom mean more today than it did 30 years ago? If we can do our
    job and you help us, the answer to all three of those questions will be
    a resounding yes.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:20 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Shelby and Katherine Bryan; Judith
    Hope, chair, New York State Democratic Party; Prime Minister Binyamin
    Netanyahu of Israel; and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian
    Authority.