[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
[May 3, 1998]
[Pages 671-673]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Representative Loretta Sanchez in Westwood, California
May 3, 1998

    The President. Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like to thank 
Loretta and Stephen and all their 
families for being here and making this a family affair. I think there 
are enough relatives in this room--[laughter]--to avoid another recount 
in a disputed election. [Laughter] And I am here in part because I do 
not want to go through that again after this next election--and I know 
you don't either--and I'm sure we will not have to, thanks to you.
    You know, when I came here in October--I came to Orange County, to 
Loretta's district--and we had this huge rally, I was so excited. And I 
got all my folks together and I said, ``I honestly believe that woman is 
going to win.'' [Laughter] ``And I think if she does win, then she'll 
win more handily the next time because I think she can do the job.'' And 
I'm here to tell you, she is doing the job. I know; I'm there. Loretta 
Sanchez has come a long way. She was a Head Start child, and now she's 
working to give all of you a headstart on the 21st century.
    I have had so many reasons to be profoundly grateful to the people 
of California. This State has been so good to me and to my wife and to 
Vice President Gore and our administration. You have enabled us to serve 
the American people for 8 years. And it's been a good 8 years, but it's 
not over yet. I hope the best is yet to come.
    I'd like to make just three points very quickly, if I could. Number 
one, we really did have a different approach. We believed that if you 
focused on giving opportunity to every responsible citizen and bringing 
this country together as one community and then trying to see that 
America leads the world in this new global economy for peace and freedom 
and prosperity, that we would all do better. And that was a very, very 
different view than had been taken before.
    And so on the economy, for example, which had to be our first order 
of business, we said yes, we have to balance the budget, but we have to 
do it in a way that brings our people together and doesn't divide them; 
that invests in education and health care and the environment and 
science and technology. And I think it's pretty hard to quarrel with the 
fact that even though everybody in the opposite party opposed us in 
1993--none more loudly than the former Congressman from Loretta's district--[laughter]--we now have a record. 
The results are there.
    We've got the lowest unemployment in 28 years, the lowest inflation 
in 30 years, the highest consumer confidence in 30 years, the highest 
homeownership in the history of our country, the lowest welfare rolls in 
27 years, and the lowest crime rates in 24 years.
    So the first thing I'd like to say is, it seems to me that if you 
know that and you have this congressional decision to make, it's a 
pretty easy decision: she was right, and they were wrong.
    The second thing I'd like to say is, even though there are just a 
few days left in this congressional session--which has been shortened 
because of the election season and unfortunately altogether too 
acrimonious to suit me--we still have a lot to do. We have to pass a 
budget that will be a budget passed for the

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first time when we have a balanced budget--indeed, a surplus of yet 
undetermined size--for the first time in 30 years.
    Now, there are those who say, ``Well, let's spend it.'' There are 
those who say, ``Let's have a tax cut.'' My view is, look, we've waited 
30 years for this. The economy is coming back because we've been 
responsible and kept interest rates down and gotten investment going 
again. Senator Watson and Controller 
Connell will tell you that California and 
other States are in better shape economically because the country is 
doing better.
    And yet, we know that we have a lot of long-term problems, the chief 
of which is making sure that Social Security is reformed but secure when 
the baby boomers retire. And so I say we should not fool with this 
surplus until we have resolved how we're going to save Social Security 
for the 21st century.
    Secondly, we all know that we have a lot of work left to do in 
education. We have a proposal that will raise standards, help schools to 
be rebuilt or build new schools where they're needed, enable the schools 
to be hooked up to the Internet by the year 2000, have smaller classes 
in the early grades. It's an important agenda. It deserves to be 
considered.
    We have a very important piece of legislation to pass--which I still 
believe we can pass, notwithstanding the acrimony of the last few days--
to finally write into law a comprehensive bill that will protect our 
children from the dangers of tobacco, the single biggest public health 
problem in the country. Three thousand kids a day start smoking; 1,000 
will die earlier because of it. We have a chance to stop that or to 
dramatically cut it, to cut the problem in half in the next 5 years. I 
want to do it before the Congress goes home for the election season.
    We have a bill before the Congress that will establish a bill of 
rights for health care consumers. And with more than half of our people 
in HMO's and related managed care plans, I think that's important. We 
have a proposal that will allow people who have retired or been forcibly 
retired before they are eligible to draw Medicare to buy into the 
Medicare system. I think that's important. We have significant 
legislation that will expand the availability of child care--quality, 
affordable child care--to working families. I think that's important. 
That should be considered.
    These are the kinds of things that we're committed to. We've got an 
IRS reform bill that's been up there for months. We've got a campaign 
finance reform bill that finally the Democrats and a handful of brave 
Republicans have forced the House to vote on. And I thank them for that. 
So we've got a lot to do this year.
    And then if you look out beyond this year, what will be dealt with 
after this next congressional election? What are the long-term problems 
of the country? Well, I already mentioned one. We have to reform Social 
Security for the 21st century. That's going to be done in 1999. You want 
her voting on that?
     Audience members. Yes!
    The President. We have to decide how we're going to reform Medicare 
for the 21st century. Same sort of problem. It will hit us earlier. We 
have about 10 years before we reach a real financial crunch there. There 
are so many people who would be devastated if they didn't have access to 
health care as provided under Medicare. She needs to be there voting on 
that, and you've got to understand that.
    We will be nowhere near finished with our work in education. 
Everybody knows that America has the finest system of higher education 
in the world. We have the most diverse student body in our history. 
We've got to make sure we've got the finest system of elementary and 
secondary education in the world. That's terribly important.
    We have this great economy but, you know, there's some neighborhoods 
in our inner cities that it hasn't reached yet. And I put a program 
before the Congress to deal with that. We can never be satisfied until 
every child growing up in this country has an opportunity to participate 
in this economy that we now celebrate. And we're going to be dealing 
with that over the next 2 years.
    And finally, we are going to continue the work of trying to bring 
our country together, across all the lines that divide us, to build one 
America out of citizen service and out of mutual understanding and 
respect. And we'll have a lot of issues that deal with that. And in the 
Congress, we can either have a forum for dividing the American people or 
for bringing us together. And in the end that may be the most important 
thing of all. You cannot name a single, solitary challenge this country 
has ever had in 220 years that we haven't done the right thing about 
when

[[Page 673]]

we've been together. And when we've been divided we have gotten in 
serious trouble, going back to the very beginning.
    So for all those reasons, I'm here for Loretta Sanchez. But I'm also 
here for your children, your grandchildren, and the future of this 
country in a very new and exciting time.
    And finally, in spite of all the newness, let me just say this. If 
you go back through the history of the country--and I spend a lot of 
time as President going back and reading about American history, 
including a lot of periods in American history that most Americans don't 
pay a lot of attention to, including me when I was a student. [Laughter] 
I've studied a lot, for example, about what happened to America in the 
30 years or so before the Civil War, and in the 40 years after the Civil 
War and before Theodore Roosevelt became President. And I honestly 
believe more strongly than I did the day I took office that the promise 
of this country is limitless, that our best days are before us; but that 
no matter what new things happen, in every pivotal time we have to do 
the same old things well.
    And you look at every time we faced a challenge; there are three 
things we've always had to do. We have had to deepen the meaning of 
freedom. In our age and time, it means not excluding anybody from the 
full benefits of citizenship. We have to widen the circle of 
opportunity. In our age and time, it means recognizing that there are 
lots of people who still are not part of the American dream. And we have 
to deepen the meaning of our common community. Or in the words of our 
Founders, we have to keep working to form a more perfect Union.
    That is the message that I have tried to bring to Washington. That 
is the message that our party reflects. That is the message that the 
election and service of Loretta Sanchez embodies. And as I said, I want 
you to have an unambiguous celebration this November. I will do whatever 
I can to make sure it happens, and I want you to do the same.
    Thank you, and God bless you. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 6:41 p.m. at the Westwood Marquis Hotel. In 
his remarks, he referred to Stephen S. Brixey III, husband of 
Representative Sanchez; former Representative Robert K. Dornan; State 
Senator Diane E. Watson; and State Controller Kathleen Connell.