    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [September 27, 1999]
    [Pages 1612-1616]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Dinner for Representative William J. Jefferson in New Orleans
    September 27, 1999

        The President. Thank you very much. First of all, like everyone
    else, I want to thank the Davises for having us in this magnificent home. And
    thank you for the tour through all the art and all the books and all the
    history of your life. It was fascinating. And I didn't steal any books
    or artwork. [Laughter] And I can't afford the discount price, either.
    [Laughter] But it's really wonderful, and we thank you for having us
    here.
        Q. What about the golf----
        The President. I'm getting there. [Laughter] I want to thank the
    mayor for making me so welcome in New Orleans
    and tell you that he has done a truly magnificent job. New Orleans has
    had one of the biggest drops in violent crime of any major city in
    America under his leadership. And I applaud him for that.
        I would like to thank Sheriff Harry Lee, who
    is back there, for many things, being my friend for a long time. But you
    should know that he came with a group of people from Louisiana to the
    White House and stayed 2 days this week and provided good Cajun cooking
    for the annual congressional picnic, with all the families there, and
    the annual press picnic. And while he is a strong supporter of mine, he
    did not taint the food of any of the Members of Congress

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    of the other party--[laughter]--or any of the hostile press members.
    [Laughter] He was totally generous to everybody.
        I want to thank the people who came from out of town here, Tommy
    Boggs, my good friend; and my friend
    Mack McLarty, the former Chief of
    Staff and Special Envoy to the Americas. We're all glad to be in New
    Orleans tonight, and we only wish we didn't have to go home.
        And I thank Bill for running for Governor. I didn't thank him in the
    beginning because I didn't want him to leave the Congress. You know,
    whenever you run for an office like this and you run against an
    incumbent and times are good, you wonder and worry. But I have seen,
    myself, a marked movement in the polls and enough to justify your
    investment here tonight.
        So I just want to make some substantive points that have nothing to
    do with politics. First of all--they have to do with policy more and
    people--and incidentally, a political campaign.
        First of all, my handicap on my home course is a 12. [Laughter] And
    that's what it is and that's what I play, even--[laughter]--unless I
    play a strange course from long tees, and sometimes I play to a 14. But
    otherwise, I normally play to a 12, and that's about what I shoot.
        Secondly, I do most of my music in my music room. Hillary built me a music room on the third floor of
    the White House, in a little end room. And I have saxophones there from
    all over the world, from China, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, two
    magnificent horns from Germany, two from France, three from Japan, and
    goodness knows where else. Then I've got a bunch of American horns. And
    I play a 1935 Selmer, and I have a 1915 Buescher soprano saxophone. So
    I've been into this a long time, and that's where I play, because it's
    so far away I can't hurt anybody else's ears. [Laughter] So I don't take
    it on that plane with me when I go. And I do have one at Camp David. And
    if you have any other questions, I'll try to answer them. [Laughter]
        But let me make some points very quickly, and I want you to know why
    I'm here tonight. Bill Jefferson started with me in 1991, when I was
    running for President, and nobody but my mother thought I could win;
    well, my wife did; no one else, those
    two. And we did it because we thought that the country couldn't go on
    the way it was, with this sort of gridlock in Washington where 12 years
    of the previous administrations had quadrupled the national debt, and
    they basically had reached an accommodation with Congress where every
    year we would embody President Reagan's idea that if you cut revenues
    and increased spending, you would balance the budget. It defied basic
    arithmetic; it didn't work in 1981, and it didn't work in 1991. And in
    between we quadrupled the national debt, and we got big, big increases
    in interest rates and high unemployment. The unemployment rate in
    Louisiana when I took office was about 7\1/2\ percent, I think, and it's
    4.2 percent today.
        So we said--we had been involved with this sort of New Democratic
    movement. And we thought the Democratic Party had to prove that you
    could be pro-business and pro-labor; that you could be for equality and
    education and for high standards; that you could be for growing the
    economy and improving the environment; that you could be for respecting
    individuals and people of all different races and ethnic groups and
    religious groups, and still believe that what binds us together as
    Americans is more important than what divides us.
        In other words, we felt that American politics had fallen into this
    sort of liberal/conservative, right/left, business/labor, environment/
    economy. Everything was one way or the other, and nobody was ever
    getting anything done, and the country was getting deeper in the ditch.
    And our social divisions were deepening.
        And I know that the previous President, with
    whom I had a very cordial, personal relationship, vetoed the Brady bill
    to do background checks because the NRA wasn't for it, and the
    Republicans had to be with them; and then vetoed the family and medical
    leave law because some people in the business community said, ``Well,
    that's an antibusiness measure,'' even though, clearly, one of the
    biggest challenges that we have is to balance work and family.
        So I really believed--and I had some of the same arguments with my
    friends in our party. If this whole business is about having to make
    choices between these two things, we're going to leave America the
    loser. And the evidence was pretty compelling in 1991; we had high
    unemployment, stagnant wages, terrible recession, and increasing social
    division. And so I asked Bill and a number of other people in Louisiana
    to help me run for President, when I was, in the words of my
    predecessor, just

    [[Page 1614]]

    a Governor from a small southern State. And the people gave us a chance.
    They gave Al Gore and me a chance. And they basically listened to our
    argument about putting people first, and they said, ``We'll try it.''
    But it was just an argument; they didn't know.
        By 1996, we were reelected, and with a much bigger margin of victory
    in Louisiana--thank you very much--because it wasn't an argument
    anymore; it was an established fact. You didn't have to argue anymore;
    you knew whether this was working or not, and it was.
        Now we're nearly 7 years into it, 6\2/3\ years, and the facts make
    the case. We have almost 19\1/2\ million new jobs, the longest peacetime
    expansion in history, the lowest unemployment rate in 29 years, the
    lowest welfare rates in 32 years, the lowest crime rates in 26 years.
    This year we announced that this year's budget surplus was going to be
    $115 billion, and it's the first time in 42 years we've had 2 years of
    budget surpluses in a row.
        Now, those are facts. And while the economy has been growing, I
    signed the family and medical leave law, and millions of people have
    taken advantage of it. Every year we've had a record number of new small
    businesses. I signed the Brady bill, and 400,000 people with criminal
    backgrounds or mental health histories haven't gotten handguns. And not
    a single hunter or sports person has been inconvenienced, but a lot of
    lives have been saved.
        The air is cleaner; the water is cleaner; the food is safer. We've
    tripled the number of toxic waste dump cleanups. And the economy has
    grown, not been hurt, by strengthening our commitment to the
    environment. Ninety percent of our kids are immunized against serious
    childhood diseases. And the HOPE scholarship gives virtually a universal
    tax credit that opens the doors of college to anybody who will work hard
    enough to go.
        This country is moving in the right direction because of the ideas
    that we shared. And one of the reasons that I would go anywhere for him
    is that none of this would have happened, in my judgment, if we hadn't
    enacted the economic plan of 1993, which helped to cost us the Congress
    in '94 because people knew that it was controversial. We cut spending
    and raised taxes both, and everybody was mad, and nobody felt the
    benefits yet. And it passed by one vote.
        So if he hadn't been there to vote for it, or if he had said, ``You
    know, I come from Louisiana; it's a conservative State,'' and he'd taken
    a dive, none of us would be here tonight, because I wouldn't have been
    reelected; the economy wouldn't be in good shape; and we'd all be
    singing another tune. But he was there because he knew it was the right
    thing to do. And he supported our crime package and all the other
    initiatives.
        So I think his philosophy is right, and I know he's got the courage
    of his convictions. That's the first thing.
        The second thing that I would like to say is that every election is
    about where you're going, not where you've been. I love to tell this
    story, but when I was Governor I used to go out to the State Fair every
    year and have Governor's day. And I'd just sit there in some little
    booth in one of the big pavilions. Anybody that wanted to come up could
    come up and say whatever they wanted. In 1990 I had been Governor for 10
    years, and we had an election coming up. So this old boy in overalls,
    who was about 75 years old, comes up to me, and he says, ``Well,'' he
    said, ``Bill, are you going to run for Governor again?'' I said, ``I
    don't know; if I do, will you vote for me?'' He said, ``Yeah, I guess
    so. I always have.'' And I said ``Well, aren't you sick of me after all
    this time?'' He said, ``No, I'm not, but,'' he said, ``nearly everybody
    else I know is.'' [Laughter] And I got kind of hurt, and I said, ``Well,
    don't you think I've done a good job?'' He said, ``Sure, but you drew a
    paycheck every 2 weeks, didn't you? That's what we hired you to do.''
    And it was a stunning insight.
        So every election is not about yesterday; it's about tomorrow.
    Yesterday is important because it's evidence of what you'll do tomorrow.
        So what are we going to do with all this prosperity? And what's
    still out there? And what does that got to do with this Governor's race?
    Number one, I believe with all my heart we need to use this time to deal
    with the long-term challenges of this country.
        What are they? The aging of America: the baby boomers like me--I'm
    the oldest of the baby boomers; people between the ages of 35 and 53 are
    in the baby boom generation; we retire--we're much bigger than any other
    group our age except until these kids that are in school today. Thirty
    years from now there will be twice as many people over 65--twice as
    many; two people working for every one person drawing Social Security.

    [[Page 1615]]

        Now, with the surpluses, now is the time to deal with the challenge
    of Social Security and Medicare, to add a prescription drug coverage to
    the Medicare program--we'd never start Medicare without prescription
    drugs today--to lengthen the life of the Social Security Trust Fund
    until 2050, anyway, to get through the lifetimes of the baby boom
    generation. That's what we've got to do. It's the first thing we ought
    to do.
        The second thing we need to do is to recognize that not everybody
    has been a part of this economic recovery. And we need to keep working
    to get more investment to people and places that haven't had it yet, and
    to keep this expansion going.
        So I want to do two things. Number one, I want to give the same tax
    incentives to investors to invest in America we give them to invest in
    the Caribbean or Latin America or Africa or any other place in the
    world. I like those incentives to invest overseas in poor countries, but
    we ought to give the same incentives to people to invest in poor
    neighborhoods, poor communities, the Mississippi Delta, the Indian
    reservations, the inner cities in the United States of America. That's
    very important. If we can't bring investment and jobs to these places
    now, we will never get around to doing it. This country has never had
    greater prosperity.
        And the other thing that we have to do, in my judgment, is not to
    squander this surplus. We need to save enough of this surplus to
    lengthen the life of Social Security and Medicare and to pay down the
    debt. Do you realize that this country could be out of debt in 15 years
    for the first time since 1835, when Andrew Jackson was President? Just
    think about--here in New Orleans, you think about how long ago that is.
    A guy that got to be President because he won the Battle of New Orleans
    in 1814, a guy that got to be President because of a battle he won in
    1814 was the last person to have this country out of debt.
        But in a global economy, it's a good deal. Why should liberals be
    for a debt-free America? Because money moves around the world in a
    hurry. That's what happened to Asia. You remember a couple years ago
    when they all went belly up at once. And if a government is not
    borrowing money, that means you get to borrow money for lower cost, your
    interest rates are lower. Lower business rates means more jobs and
    higher incomes. Lower personal rates means lower house loans, lower car
    loans, lower college loans, lower credit card payments, a longer, more
    protracted, more prosperous future for America. That's important. And
    all that could be done entirely by the Federal Government.
        But the third big challenge cannot be. The third big challenge is
    doing right by the children of this country, and, specifically, giving
    them all a world-class education. Do you believe all kids can learn? I
    do. Do you believe we need to challenge them to do better? I do. Do you
    believe we need to identify failing schools and require them to turn
    around and do better, or shut them down and let the kids go to other
    schools? I do.
        I'm not for vouchers because we don't put enough money in the
    schools in the first place. So if you give vouchers, you take a
    relatively large amount of money away from the school budget for a
    relatively small number of people. That's why I'm not for it. But on the
    other hand, I think to just justify the status quo is wrong.
        So I've offered the Congress a plan which would say you can have
    your Federal money for education, but if you want it, you've got to have
    a plan to hold schools accountable for the performance of their
    students, to turn around failing schools or shut them down, but we're
    not going to blame the kids for the failures of the system. We're going
    to give you some money to turn these schools around, and we're going to
    triple the money we give for after-school programs, which will help you
    keep the crime rate coming down. Won't it?
        Now, this is where we come to the Governor's race. No matter what I
    do, under the American system and the constitution of every State, the
    primary responsibility for education is vested in the State. And most of
    the money for education is paid by taxpayers to the State or to the
    local government. Today, in a global economy, with modern technology,
    more education is critical. And yet, it is more difficult than ever in
    America because our student bodies are more and more diverse. I mean,
    today I saw people from at least four different ethnic groups in that
    little group of school children you had gathered up for me today--just
    looking at the faces of those kids.
        Believe it or not, in the Alexandria School District, across the
    river from the White House, in Virginia, there are kids from 180
    different racial and ethnic groups whose parents speak

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    a hundred different languages, in one school district.
        Now, that means we have work to do. And there is no more important
    responsibility for the Governor. If I were a citizen of Louisiana, if I
    were back home just voting in Arkansas--I hate to ever be a single-issue
    voter, but I would be almost completely a single-issue voter in a
    Governor's race, based on the person I thought was most likely to do the
    most for the schools of my State, because if these kids don't have the
    education they need, nothing else the rest of us do will matter for
    their future. It is the most important thing.
        Last point--I'm the only person here who has been a Governor, and I
    did it for 12 years, and I loved it every day. And I did not get tired
    of it. I didn't get bored with it. And when I left to go be President, I
    was having more fun being Governor before I started running for
    President than I had ever had in my whole life. It's a wonderful job.
        And if you like it, if you like people, if you like to work hard, if
    you believe in good schools and good jobs, and if it thrills you to get
    things done for your State, it's a wonderful job. But to be really good
    at it, you need to be passionate about your convictions, and you need to
    have a real vision you'll fight for. But you can't be too partisan and
    mean-spirited. You've got to be someone who can get people together,
    work with all kinds of different people, and convince people that your
    vision is the right one. And when other people have a good idea, then do
    that, too.
        That's the kind of person Bill is. That's why he was voted the
    ``Best Legislator'' in the State legislature two different times when he
    was a State legislator. And I can tell you as someone who has done this
    job for 12 years, he has the right temperament. He has plenty of sense.
    He has a magnificent wife to keep his head
    balanced and to help remind him that education is his first priority--
    [laughter]--and he has years and years and years of knowledge and skill
    in getting things done, including in the Congress, that money can't buy
    and that you can only get by living the way he has lived.
        So I think what you ought to do is go out there and say, listen, to
    everybody--he hasn't asked anybody to vote for him because of his race.
    All he has asked is that nobody votes against him because of his race.
    All he said is he wants to treat everybody the same and give every child
    the chance to live up to his or her God-given capacities.
        But I'm telling you, if you look at a man's life, his record, his
    personal skills, and what the State needs at this time, and how it fits
    with what we're doing to move America into the 21st century, I can
    hardly think of anybody who is as well qualified, remotely, as he would
    be to be the Governor not only of this State but any State. You're lucky
    to have him running, and I hope you'll keep helping him.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:50 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Arthur Q. and Mary Wineman Davis;
    Mayor Marc H. Morial of New Orleans; Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee;
    lobbyist Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr.; and Representative Jefferson's wife,
    Andrea.