    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 9, 1999]
    [Pages 2031-2033]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum
    Reception
    November 9, 1999

        Thank you. Well, Janice, thank you, and
    thanks for giving this group such a build-up when you said there were
    300 here for Tipper and 250 for me. [Laughter]
    This is the first concrete manifestation I have had of the fact that I'm
    the only one in this crowd not running for anything anymore. [Laughter]
        Let me first of all say, I'm delighted to be here. I got a good
    report from Hillary on her visit with
    you, and thank you for the good reception you gave her. I brought--I see
    Ann Lewis is here. I brought Minyon
    Moore, my political director, with me, and the
    new head of our women's outreach office, who used to operate this
    wonderful organization, WLF, Lauren Supina, is
    here. So thank you very much for coming.
        As all of you know, since Al and Tipper and Hillary and I moved to
    the White House, we have tried very hard to involve women to an
    unprecedented degree and to show a great sensitivity to interests of
    particular concern to women. And I'm sure that you've had that repeated
    over and over again.
        But one of the things that I am proudest of is that we have really
    enabled women to share in the benefits of the work of this
    administration. You know, we have now the lowest unemployment in 30
    years, but we have the lowest women's unemployment in 46 years. That's
    amazing. And when you consider how many fewer women were looking for
    work 46 years ago, those numbers are even more meaningful.
        We've also tripled the number of SBA loans to women. We've worked
    very hard on issues--the family and medical leave, I don't have the
    newest numbers, but as of last year, 15 million people had taken
    advantage of it.
        And as we look ahead, as I have said repeatedly, if you compare
    where we are now with where we were in 1992, we've gone from a period of
    economic distress, social division, political drift, and a complete
    discrediting of Government to the strongest economy in our history,
    welfare and crime rates at a 30-year low; we learned last week teen
    pregnancy is at a 30-year low; a country beginning to come to grips with
    its social problems and come together. We have a clear direction for the
    future, and no one's out there running against the Government anymore.
    We heard for 12 years that Government was the problem, and things got
    worse, including the deficit and the debt.
        But that's the good news. The question that we have to face now is
    what's at stake ahead of us? What is still to be done?
        And I just want to make two points very briefly. One is, we have the
    first chance in my lifetime--and I'm 53 years old--the first chance in
    my lifetime to really deal with the big challenges and opportunities out
    there facing our country, without the paralysis or the threat of an
    external crisis or an internal crisis. And I

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    believe that imposes upon us a very heavy responsibility. And we ought
    to look at our country as a family would its children and its
    grandchildren. We have to deal with these big issues.
        And I think that the women of America can make sure that's what the
    subject of the election is about, and the WLF can make sure that we
    involve lots of people who've never been involved before, who care
    deeply about this.
        But if you look at--and I'll just mention two or three--if you look
    at the aging of America, that will affect more women than men, because
    you have a longer life expectancy. And as we talk about saving Social
    Security for the 21st century, one of the things we ought to be doing is
    making special provisions for women who could not pay into Social
    Security at the same amount men could and who therefore are much more
    likely to be living in poverty.
        If you look at reforming Medicare and extending the life of it and
    providing affordable prescription drug coverage, that affects women
    disproportionately to men. But it's profoundly important.
        If you look at the challenges we face with our children, the
    challenges we face in eradicating poverty and bringing prosperity to the
    people and places we haven't touched yet, of guaranteeing long-term
    economic health for our country by paying down the debt and getting out
    of debt for the first time, literally, in 165 years, these are things
    that I believe we ought to be taking to the American people.
        We've proved you can grow the economy and improve the environment.
    In this period of economic growth, we have cleaner air, cleaner water,
    safer food. We set aside more land for protection than any
    administration, except those of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, in the
    history of the country. That will continue to be a major concern.
        If you look at our responsibilities around the world, there's a big
    struggle I've been having here in Congress to adequately fund out
    foreign affairs budget. You know, one of the things that we do with that
    money, as I'm sure Hillary talked about today, is try to make sure that
    in developing countries around the world women have a chance to make a
    living by getting credit and girls have a chance to make a future by
    going to school and being free from oppressive social practices. That's
    going to be a big issue in the future. Will we continue to do that? Will
    that continue to be part of America's role in the world?
        And of course, in the next election one of the things that will
    clearly be up for grabs is somewhere between two and four seats on the
    United States Supreme Court and the question of whether we will revisit
    a whole raft of issues, the most obvious of which is the right to
    choose, but believe me, that's not the only one that is hanging in the
    balance of this election.
        So I hope that you're all pumped up about what you've done. I'm
    particularly pleased, when Janice was giving
    the report, that you had so many people here today who had not
    previously been active. One of the things that I think is important for
    the Democrats to do is to recognize that there are literally thousands,
    even tens of thousands of people out there who have been directly
    benefited by the policies of his administration and the direction of the
    country, who have never participated in politics, that don't imagine
    that they have a contribution to make, because they have never been
    asked, and they've never been asked to do anything specific and given an
    opportunity to participate.
        People now believe in the possibilities of our country and the
    possibilities of our political system again. And so if they don't
    participate but they could, it's our fault, not theirs, and we have to
    look at it that way.
        And that's the last thing I would leave you with. You know, I'm
    fighting now for strengthening the equal pay law. I'm fighting now for
    adequate efforts at child care. We passed the family and medical leave
    law; 15 million people have taken advantage of it. I'd like to add 10
    million more people to the coverage.
        But you should know, for example, that today, under present Federal
    law, of those who are eligible to receive assistance from the Federal
    Government to help to provide for quality affordable child care, we have
    funding for only 10 percent--only 10 percent. And in spite of all that,
    we have the lowest unemployment rate in 46 years, but I promise you a
    lot of those women are going to work every day worried sick about their
    kids.
        And that is not good for our country, because one of the big
    challenges we have to face that I didn't mention and I want to mention
    in closing is--I'm proud that the first bill I signed was the family and
    medical leave law, but we have come nowhere near where we need to be in
    terms of enabling people to succeed both

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    in the workplace and at home. And I think that ought to be one of the
    major issues that we take into the 2000 elections, even as I continue to
    redouble my efforts to pass the child care initiative we have before the
    Congress, to pass the strengthening of equal pay initiative we have
    before the Congress, and to do many other things.
        So I'm very grateful that I've had a chance to serve these last 7
    years. I'm grateful for what we have done and what we still can do. But
    the decision we should be making as Democrats is that we are not going
    to let our children and our grandchildren down. We're going to use the--
    literally, it's the only opportunity we've had in my lifetime to have
    this level of prosperity, in the absence of domestic or foreign crisis,
    to shape the future of our dreams.
        The only chance we have to do that is with the massive involvement
    and leadership of the women of this country. And you will be one of the
    most important engines of the victories that we have in the year 2000.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:39 p.m. in the Potomac Room at the St.
    Regis Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Janice Griffin, national
    chair, Women's Leadership Forum; and Lauren Supina, Director, White
    House Office for Women's Initiative and Outreach.