    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 11, 1999]
    [Pages 2288-2291]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 2288]]

    Remarks at a Unity Reception in Coral Gables
    December 11, 1999

        Thank you very much. Well, first of all, I want to thank Senator
    Torricelli for that uncommonly generous
    introduction. He thwarted one of my rules of politics. Normally, when
    you get an introduction like that, it's from someone you've appointed to
    a good office. [Laughter] And so he just did it out of the goodness of
    his heart and a laundry list of what I'll have to do for New Jersey next
    year. [Laughter] And I thank him for that.
        I want to thank Congressman Kennedy
    for his leadership. He's done a wonderful job. And his father, who is a very, very close friend of mine, is
    actually proud of him, but too proud to admit it--that he has a son as
    the only chairman in the Kennedy family.
        I want to thank Bill Nelson and his
    wonderful wife, Grace, for making this race for
    the United States Senate. And I want to thank my longtime friend Elaine
    Bloom, who was on my committee when I started
    in Florida in 1991, for making this race for Congress. And she can win
    this race if she gets the kind of support that I see around this place
    tonight.
        And most important of all, I want to thank Chris and Irene for letting me come
    back again to this humble abode--[laughter]--that makes the White House
    look like public housing. [Laughter] You know, you look out here and you
    expect Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn to come up on the African
    Queen any minute. [Laughter] I mean, it is amazing. I want to thank them
    for their generosity. I want to thank Andrew,
    Kristina, and Angela
    for being here--their wonderful children.
        Thank you, Gene Prescott, for having us
    over to your and Coral Gables' great hotel, which I love so much. And
    thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here.
        You might ask yourself, what am I doing here, besides the fact that
    I would come to see Chris and Irene at the drop of a hat? I'm not running for anything, and
    I can't. I'm here because, number one, the things that we've done in the
    last 7 years would not have been possible had it not been for the
    support of the Democrats in the House and the Senate. And I've worked
    with the Republicans whenever I could. I think the record will reflect,
    when all the evidence is in, that I have been far more forthcoming
    toward them than they have toward me, although we had a pretty good
    little mutual deal going at the end of the last budget session.
        But the truth is that when it came to the '93 budget, which started
    this economic recovery and started us on the road to getting rid of the
    terrible deficit, it was only members of my party that voted for it. We
    would never passed the Brady bill or the crime bill of '94, with its
    100,000 police and its assault weapons ban, if it hadn't been for the
    members of our party. We would have never been able to defend the
    environment and continue to make the progress we have from the
    Everglades to the redwoods in California to setting aside 40 million
    acres, roadless acres, in our national forests, if it weren't for the
    Democrats.
        We wouldn't have 2 million more children with health insurance since
    1997 if it weren't for the Democrats. And if we had a few more
    Democrats--in this last session, we did get 100,000 teachers, 50,000
    police, 60,000 housing vouchers for poor people to move from welfare to
    work. We doubled the after-school programs, and we got money for the
    first time for States to turn around or shut down schools that are
    failing. So we had a good run. But if we had a few more Democrats, we
    also would have gotten a Patients' Bill of Rights, an increase in the
    minimum wage, hate crimes legislation, and goodness knows what else,
    something that's very important to Florida: we would have gotten a
    national effort, the first national effort ever, to try to help school
    districts build or repair school facilities. This is very important.
        You know, I went to Jupiter not very long ago--some of you may
    remember that--they had 12 housetrailers out behind the grade school.
    And I was up in Tampa, and there was a woman who was in my high school
    class, and in my grade school graduating class, who is in the
    administration of the school district in Tampa. And we were great pals
    from the time we were 9 years old. And, you know, I went to Tampa High
    School, and they had four or five housetrailers out behind the high
    school. And at a time when we think education is so

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    important, I think it's a good reason for having a few more Democrats.
        I want you to understand that, number one, what we have done would
    not have been possible without them, the people they represent; and
    number two, the country has a lot more to do.
        I've given a lot of speeches today. I started out at the Florida
    Democratic Convention where, 8 years ago this week, I got the first
    victory I received in the Presidential primaries, in the Florida straw
    poll where we got over a majority of the vote, and I went from being an
    anonymous person who was running fifth in the national polls to somebody
    who actually had a chance. And then it took us 4 more years of hard
    work, but we won Florida in the Presidential election in '96, Al Gore
    and I did. And I'm very grateful for that. So my heart is full of
    gratitude tonight.
        But I want to just say a couple of things really quickly. First of
    all, people will probably ask you why you came here, and whether it was
    worth the money. And you need to have an answer other than that you
    wanted to visit Chris and Irene's house. I'm being serious now.
        We are about to have the millennial election. This country has been
    around here for more than 200 years because more than half the time we
    make the right decisions.
        And I want to tell you a story. One of my brothers-in-law is here. I
    got my big extended family together, including my two nephews, for
    Thanksgiving up at Camp David. And then after Thanksgiving, I had some
    of my friends come up because they had little kids to play with the
    nephews. And on the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, this 6-year-old
    girl came up to me, this beautiful child, and she looked at me, and she
    said, ``Now, how old are you anyway?'' [Laughter] And I looked at her,
    and I said, ``I am 53.'' And she said, ``Oh, that's a lot.'' [Laughter]
    Which lamentably is the truth.
        But what I want to say to you--and I'd like for you all to remember,
    search your own memories--in my lifetime we have never had a time like
    this, where we had this much economic prosperity, this much social
    progress, this much national self-confidence, and the absence of any
    overwhelming crisis at home or threat from abroad. It has not happened
    in my lifetime.
        So I'm very glad that I could be President in these last 7 years,
    and that I've got 14 more months to try to keep chunking away at this
    and move this country forward. I think we have built a bridge to the
    21st century. I think we have turned the country around. I'm elated by
    it, and I feel gratified by it.
        But the real issue is what are we going to do now? And I'll bet you
    anybody here who's lived any number of years can remember a time--in
    your personal life, your family life, or your work life--when things
    were going so well you lost your concentration. You thought it would
    last forever, but you got divided or distracted, and something bad
    happened; or at least you didn't maximize your opportunities.
        Well, countries are no different from that. And this country, while
    things are going very well--it is true--we have the lowest unemployment
    rate in 30 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest
    poverty rates in 20 years, the highest homeownership in history, 20
    million jobs, and, come February, the longest economic expansion in the
    history of the country. Things are going well for us. But it is
    important that we all understand that this country is going to have big
    challenges and big opportunities early in the next century. And we have
    never had a chance before, in my lifetime, to shape the future of our
    dreams for our children.
        So when people ask you why you were here tonight, I think you ought
    to say, ``Well, it's not much of an argument anymore. That crowd did a
    pretty good job. They've got a good record, but more importantly,
    they're focused on the right things.''
        The outcome of the elections of 2000 will be determined, in my
    judgment, if we work hard enough not on whether they will have more
    money than we will; they will. They will have more money than we will.
    So the question is will we have enough? But the real question is the
    outcome, in my judgment--I've been doing this a long time--will turn on
    what the election is about, which is why you have to be able to say that
    to people. When people ask you why you were here, you have to be able to
    give an answer.
        And what I think we ought to be focused on--you ought to say, ``I'm
    for the Democrats because they've done a good job, and because they will
    do the best job of dealing with the big opportunities and the big
    challenges before this country. And I do not want to see us squander the
    opportunity of a lifetime, at least the opportunity of 53 years.''

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        What are we going to do? You live in Florida. What are we going to
    do about the aging of America? There will be twice as many people over
    65 in 30 years. We have got to run Social Security out beyond the life
    expectancy of the baby boomers. We've got to run Medicare out and
    provide a prescription drug coverage for these poor elderly people.
    Seventy-five percent of them can't afford their drugs.
        We've got to do something to give all these kids. We've got the
    largest and most diverse student population we've ever had. We've got to
    give all of them a world-class education. One of the things I'm proudest
    of Al Gore for is that 5 years ago we decided we were going to hook up
    all the poor schools as well as the rich schools to the Internet. And we
    got the so-called E-rate, which gives discounts of up to 90 percent to
    the poor schools. Five years ago, 4 percent of the classrooms and 14
    percent of the schools were hooked up. Today, over 50 percent of the
    classrooms; over 80 percent of the schools have an Internet connection.
    We're committed to this. But there's a lot to do.
        Doesn't it bother you that we've had this great economic recovery,
    and there are still people in places that have been left behind? How are
    we going to keep it going?
        Well, we ought to keep--first of all, we ought not to have a tax cut
    so big we can't pay the debt down. Under my budget we'll be out of debt
    in 15 years, for the first time since 1835. And that means lower
    interest rates on everything. The average American family today is
    saving $2,000 a year in home mortgage costs, $200 a year on car payment
    costs, and $200 a year on college loan costs because we're paying the
    debt down, not running it up.
        Number two, we ought to give big financial incentives, tax credits
    and loan guarantees, to people who will invest in poor areas in America.
    I've got a proposal before the Congress that says, look, let's give
    Americans who have the money to do it the same incentives to invest in
    poor areas in America they get to invest in poor areas in Latin America,
    in Africa, in Asia. I think it's very important. We have Indian
    reservations where the unemployment rate is over 70 percent. We have
    lots of counties where the unemployment rate is over 20 percent in rural
    America. We've got to do that.
        And finally, we have to find a way to live together better. You
    still--all these hate crimes are small examples of the big wars in
    Bosnia, in Kosovo, the continuing conflict in the Middle East. It's the
    same thing. People still, in this most modern of all age, define
    themselves in very primitive ways; they're scared to death of people who
    are different from them, different race, different religion, different
    ethnic group. Some are gay; some are straight. They get scared. And once
    you're scared of somebody, you didn't like them very much; you can't
    trust them; so it's a short step to dehumanize them, after which it's
    okay to be violent against them.
        The number one challenge this country faces is building one America
    across all lines that divide us. And in some ways, I'm prouder of the
    work we've done in that than all the economic prosperity we've had. And
    if I had just one wish for America, it would be that we would be able to
    somehow unlock that mysterious set of factors that keep people apart. I
    wish every one of you had been with me in Kosovo the other day when I
    was over there with 2,000 kids in a school, and all these little kids
    coming up to me thanking me because the American soldiers had let them
    go home. And they had been--800,000 of them--driven out of their homes,
    ethnically cleansed. It would have made you so proud to be an American.
        But just remember, when you see those things going on and then you
    see an African-American like James Byrd dragged to death in Texas, or a
    gay man like Matthew Shepard stretched out on a rack in Wyoming, or a
    crazy person kill a Korean Christian coming out of church in Indiana,
    right after he shot down an African-American basketball coach in
    Illinois, it's the same thing.
        So somebody will say, ``Well, why did you go there?'' Say, ``Well,
    that crowd did a pretty good job, and I'm better off than I was 7 years
    ago, and the whole country is.'' But the main thing is we have a
    profound responsibility to meet the big challenges of the future: the
    aging of America, the children of America, the balancing of work and
    family, growing the economy and the environment, bringing opportunity to
    poor areas, and building one America.
        That's why I came down here tonight. I'm not running for anything,
    but I haven't done all this work to see it squandered by people who lose
    their concentration. If the election is about the right subject, we will
    win. And you have helped us immeasurably tonight. But I ask now for your
    voice, your compassion, and your

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    consistent commitment all the way to November of 2000.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:13 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks he referred to reception hosts Chris and Irene Korge and their
    children Andrew, Kristina, and Angela; and Gene Prescott, president,
    Biltmore Hotel.