    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [July 16, 1999]
    [Pages 1226-1230]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Amos Hiatt Middle School in Des Moines, Iowa
    July 16, 1999

        The President. You know, when Tom Harkin said that anybody with any
    sense would take their coat off--[laughter]--I didn't know whether that
    meant I didn't have any sense or he just gets hot
    under the collar quicker than I do. [Laughter] Actually, I think the
    answer is a lighter suit.
        I am delighted to be here, and I thank you all for your wonderful
    welcome. And I don't mind that it's a warm one. I always love coming to
    Iowa, coming back here to this wonderful city. I want to thank Ruth Ann
    Gaines for her dedication and her remarkable
    remarks this morning. I want to say that as long as young people like
    Catherine Swoboda are exhibit A for Iowa
    education, this country is going to do just fine. I thought she was
    terrific.
        I thank Secretary Riley for coming with
    me. Many of you in Iowa may not know it, but Dick Riley and I began our
    careers as Governors together 20 years ago this year, and we've been
    working at education for a long, long time. I think that history will
    record that he is the finest Secretary of Education this country has
    ever had. And I'm very grateful to him, and I thank him.
        I would like to thank Superintendent Witherspoon and your principal, Gary Eyerly, for welcoming us to this school. And I want to thank all
    the public officials who are here. I know in addition to the
    Governor we have Lieutenant Governor
    Pederson, Attorney General Miller, Secretary of State Culver,
    and State Treasurer Fitzgerald.
    They're all over there. I thank them for joining me today. And Senate
    Minority Leader Michael Gronstal, thank you
    all for being here.
        I'd like to say a special word of appreciation to my good friend
    Congressman Leonard Boswell, who is also
    a stout supporter of education. And I think it is appropriate that he's
    here because he's here with his wife, Dody, and I'd like to her to stand, because yesterday she
    retired as a teacher after 31 years. Thank you very much; bless you.
        And I want to acknowledge that Ruth Harkin
    is here with Tom today, and to tell you that for most of my
    administration she was a very valuable member of the Clinton-Gore team
    and played a major role in our economic programs. And I want to thank
    her.
        And finally, let me say that, as you can see, every time he talks,
    there is no one in the United States Senate who is more passionate about
    what he believes than Tom Harkin. And he believes
    in the education of our children. It's easy to understand why, from his
    own experience. Most of you probably know that his father was a coal
    miner who didn't finish the eighth grade; his mother was an immigrant
    with

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    little formal education. Thanks to an ROTC scholarship, he put himself
    through college. Now he sits next to a Rockefeller in the United States Senate. [Laughter] It's America, and
    Tom Harkin is the best of America.
        You know, I must say, Jay Rockefeller always hates it when we do that to him. [Laughter] He is
    also a very good man. And you heard Tom Harkin say that because of his
    efforts, Iowa will receive another $10 million this year to help
    renovate schools. But I want to do that for all our schools that need
    it.
        I want to thank some people who are involved in this issue who are
    not here today: Congressman Charles Rangel, the House sponsor of our school bill; the many members of
    the AFT, the NEA, the Council of Great City Schools; the building and
    construction trades who have fanned out to Philadelphia, New York, New
    Orleans, Buffalo, Houston, Chicago, and Miami today to roll up their
    sleeves and help communities begin to repair their neediest schools.
        You know, it is ironic that we're here talking about this school
    issue, because we are in America in the last year of the 20th century,
    in this millennium, enjoying the longest peacetime economic expansion in
    our history, nearly 19 million new jobs in the last 6\1/2\ years, the
    lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, the lowest crime rate in 26 years,
    the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, the lowest minority unemployment
    ever recorded, the highest homeownership in history.
        Here in Iowa, unemployment is a whopping 2.6 percent. Homeownership
    is almost at 75 percent. Wages are rising nationwide for the first time
    in 20 years for all classes of workers, and even faster here. I feel
    good about that. I feel good about the fact that compared to 6\1/2\
    years ago the air and water are cleaner, the food is safer, and 90
    percent of our children are immunized against serious childhood diseases
    for the first time in the entire history of our country.
        I feel good about the 100,000 young people who have signed up to
    serve their communities in AmeriCorps and earn money to go to college. I
    am grateful, with the help of people like Tom Harkin and Leonard Boswell, that
    this administration has been able to preserve or set aside more land for
    the American people and our children's future--from the California
    redwoods to the Mojave Desert to the Florida Everglades--than any
    administration in history, except those of Franklin and Theodore
    Roosevelt. I am grateful for all of that.
        But what I came here to ask you is, what are we going to do with our
    prosperity, and what are we going to do with our surplus? This is a time
    of confidence and pride. But, as many people have said, the time to fix
    the roof is when the Sun is shining. And that is literally true in the
    case of school construction.
        Are we going to develop some sort of collective amnesia and pretend
    that these times have always been here, always will be here, and we can
    do whatever we want to do that feels best in the moment, or seems most
    politically popular? Or are we going to think about the children here
    and the 21st century and what America will be like 10 years from now, 20
    years from now, 30 years from now, when they will have children in these
    schools?
        That is what I want to say. You know, you folks should be glad to
    see me in Iowa. I'm the only guy that's been here in weeks that's not
    running for anything. [Laughter] What I am doing is trying to think
    about everything we can possibly do in these last days of this century.
    The Clinton-Gore administration is not running out the clock, hoping the
    good times will last. We are trying to push the ball down the field. We
    are trying to think about what it takes to build that bridge to tomorrow
    that all our children can walk across, what it would take to give
    opportunity to all of our people, to build a community of all of our
    people, to maintain our Nation's leadership for peace and freedom and
    prosperity around the world, to look at the long-term challenges.
        I'll just mention three today, to get to the school construction
    issue. But you have to understand where the school construction issue
    is; you have to see it as a part of the big debate going on in
    Washington: What are we going to do with our prosperity? How should we
    handle this surplus, the one we have today and the one we're projected
    to have tomorrow? Otherwise, you couldn't begin to figure out why in the
    world we just don't do this. I mean, you must all be sitting out there
    thinking this is a no-brainer, just from what everybody else has already
    said before I got up here.
        I believe that when you look at where we were just 6\1/2\ years ago,
    we had quadrupled the national debt in 12 years. The deficit was $280
    billion. It was projected to go to 380 this year. Now we have the
    biggest surplus we've ever recorded, and we're projected to be able

    [[Page 1228]]

    to maintain those surpluses into the future, indefinitely.
        Now, every farmer here knows that nobody can predict the future.
    That does not mean that every year we'll have exactly what is predicted.
    What it means is, if we have predictable economic performances, which is
    every so often we'll have a downturn, and then we'll have an upturn,
    then we'll have a downturn, then we'll have an upturn, on average, we
    will produce the surpluses we project to produce over the next 15 years.
    That's what it means. These projections are not based on everything will
    be hunky-dory every day of the next 15 years. So they're not
    unrealistic.
        But we have to decide--since we haven't been in it--did you ever
    think when I was here running in '92 we would be back here having a
    debate about what to do with the surplus? [Laughter] This is a high-
    class problem. But it's just as important to get the answer to a high-
    class problem right as it is to one that you wish you didn't have to
    deal with. It's not like going to the dentist. But if we don't handle it
    right, we'll be going to the dentist, and nobody will give us a shot to
    deaden the pain. We have got to deal with this issue in the proper way.
        Let me just mention three things. We have to deal with the aging of
    America. Iowa has got a high percentage of people over 65. The number of
    people over 65 will double in 30 years. The older we get the more people
    that will be drawing Social Security and Medicare and the fewer people
    will be paying into it. This is not rocket science; this is basic math.
        I believe before we pass a big tax cut we should save Social
    Security and Medicare and add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare
    for the 21st century so that--[applause]--why? That's going to save
    everybody a lot more money in the long run than a tax cut. What's going
    to happen? What's going to happen if we don't? This is not just about
    the elderly. I'm not just looking out for the baby boomers that are
    going to retire in a few years. You know what will happen.
        How many family stories do you know right now where parents with
    little children are also taking care of their parents, because it's the
    right thing to do? But we have Social Security and Medicare so that we
    can balance the responsibilities of the generations and so that families
    can take of their own needs and look to their children as they go along.
    So this is not just about the elderly. This is about the children and
    grandchildren of the baby boom generation.
        The second thing we ought to do is take care of the economy. And I
    would like to mention just two things, one of which you know very well.
    One is, there is still a lot of places in this country that aren't
    participating in the economic recovery. The big problem on the farm is
    we've had 4 years in a row of worldwide record harvests for the first
    time in history and an economic collapse in 1997 in Asia, so markets
    shrink, the products go, prices collapse.
        Audience member. Freedom to farm----
        The President. Exactly right. As Senator Harkin and I warned--Congressman Boswell and I, we were all three laughing about it--we said, you
    know, the people who put in that freedom to farm act acted like there
    never would be a bad year on the farm. And now last year we dealt with
    it. Today I'm going to meet with some of your farmers, and we're working
    on it. The Vice President called me after
    he had a chance to meet with some farmers here this week, and we talked
    about it.
        But the point I want to make is, you have farmers; you have people
    in Appalachia; you have people in the Mississippi Delta; you have people
    who live on the Indian reservations; you have people who live in the
    inner cities; and even though we're doing better than we've ever done,
    there's still a lot of people who aren't part of this train. And there
    are ways to give everybody a chance who's willing to work to be a part
    of it. That ought to be something we do with our prosperity. We ought to
    give everybody who's willing to work a chance to be a part of that
    prosperity. And I think it's very important.
        One thing we can do that will help the economy more than anything
    else is, if we adopt the plan I put out to save the majority of the
    surplus for Social Security and Medicare, since it's not needed now--
    while we save it we can pay the debt down so much that by 2015, in 16
    years, for the first time since 1835, this country can be out of debt.
        If you're a middle class person, why should you worry about that?
    Because if we're out of debt it means lower interest rates; higher
    investment; more jobs; higher wages; lower college

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    loan, credit card, car payment, and home mortgage rates. It means a more
    stable world economy over the long run. It means a better environment
    for farmers and manufacturers and everybody else. It is a good thing to
    do.
        Now, what I want to tell you is, we can do all that and still have a
    tax cut and still invest in education. But we cannot pretend that there
    are no consequences to proposing a tax cut that will cut education and
    prevent us from saving Social Security and Medicare and mean we can't
    pay off the debt and we can't do these other things. There are choices
    to be made, and we should be thinking about the children and the future.
    And as we have proved the last 6\1/2\ years, when you do things that are
    right for the long run, often they turn out to be right for the short
    run, as well.
        And so I say to you, this school issue is a part of this debate,
    this school construction issue. We propose a tax cut to help people save
    for retirement, take care of long-term care needs of their family, take
    care of their child care needs, and also to induce people to invest in
    more school construction with a big tax break. It is very, very
    important.
        And you've already heard about Iowa's needs. You've heard Secretary
    Riley talk about America's needs. In spite of all--what you have to
    understand is, the school enrollments, as big as they are, are fixing to
    explode. And we've got to do some things about it. We've got to do what
    Governor Vilsack wants to do everywhere in
    America. Hardly anybody has done as well as he has. We've got to hook up
    all the classrooms in the country to the Internet. And we've got to have
    teachers to go into the classrooms--2.1 million are going to retire over
    the next few years. Dody is the
    beginning of a wave in America. And we've got to find young people to go
    in there and take their places. And we've got to have good facilities
    for people to visit, to learn in.
        You know, I can still remember every schoolroom that I ever was in
    in my life. And a lot of old schools can be modernized, but when you've
    got kids--I've been to school districts, literally, literally, with one
    elementary school with 12 housetrailers out behind it. Not one or two.
    Twelve!
        So we have to deal with this. And there are serious consequences to
    not dealing with it. Now, if our school construction initiative passes
    as a part of our tax cut proposal and our education program, it will
    help communities have $25 billion over the next 2 years for school
    construction. That's enough to build or modernize 6,000 schools.
        Now, if you compare that to the Republican proposal you will see
    that their plan is 644 schools. Ours is nearly 10 to 1. So somebody can
    say, well, we have a school construction proposal--6,000 is better than
    644.
        We're having the same discussion about teachers. Last year I was
    thrilled--in the teeth of an election year, we had a bipartisan
    agreement to put 100,000 teachers in our schools, because the classes
    are getting bigger and it would allow us to lower class size in the
    early grades to an average of 18. We just had another national study
    come out the other day about how important that can be and how the
    learning gains can be permanent. And just 2 weeks ago Secretary Riley
    and I announced $1.2 billion to help States and local school districts
    hire the first 30,000 of those 100,000.
        But now the majority in Congress wants to back off from that. They
    have other ways to spend the money. They want to give the money out and
    not guarantee that it will go to hire new teachers. I feel that if you
    make a promise in an election year, you ought to keep it the next year,
    too. If it was a good idea last year, it's still a good idea.
        So I say to you, these are two things that we ought to do. We need
    to do this school construction program. We need to finish the work of
    hiring 100,000 teachers. We need to finish the work that Governor
    Vilsack has done so much on here of wiring all
    of our schools. We need to finish these things. It all comes down to
    this: What do you want to do with this moment of prosperity?
        And let me say one thing--you know, Washington tends to be a more
    partisan place than most places in America--maybe than anyplace in
    America. I've done what I could to try to unify this country. Most
    Americans, whether they're Republicans or Democrats or independents,
    that have kids in the schools want them to go to good schools.
        I'll bet you there are a lot of school elections in Iowa where
    Republicans and Democrats vote the same way for school bond issues or on
    educational proposals. This is not always an ideological issue. This
    should be an issue that brings America together. But issues that unify
    people in the country have a way of dividing people

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    in Washington. We had the same thing happen with the Patients' Bill of
    Rights; you probably saw that.
        We had this crazy idea, we Democrats did, that everybody in a
    managed care plan in America ought to be able to see a specialist if
    their doctor said they should see one. Or, if they lived in a big city
    and they got hurt in an accident, they ought to be able to go to the
    nearest emergency room, not be driven halfway across town. Or, if their
    employer changed managed care providers while a woman employee was in
    the middle of a pregnancy or a man or a woman was in chemotherapy, they
    ought to be able to keep their doctor until the treatment was over.
        And if somebody hurts you with a bad decision, you ought to be able
    to get redress for it. Now those are rights that I enjoy under the
    Federal Health Care Plan and the Congress enjoys and every Federal
    employee enjoys. And the Congress--the Republican majority's own budget
    office said this would add at most $2 a month to a managed care premium.
    In the Federal system, it added less than $1 a month when I put them in.
        Now, I don't know, but I believe in Iowa when you go to the doctor's
    office, they don't ask you if you're a Republican or a Democrat.
    [Laughter] And I don't believe when the children come to school here
    they ask you if you're a Republican or a Democrat. These are things that
    should unify us. And so I ask you to please, please do what you can to
    talk to all the members of this congressional delegation; ask them to
    support us on 100,000 teachers; ask them--it's still not too late to
    pass the Patients' Bill of Rights that gives the rest of you the
    protections we have in Congress and the White House and the Federal
    Government. And ask them to make a part of any tax cut plan a school
    construction initiative that will build or modernize 6,000 schools.
        You think about this young woman who introduced me today. I have
    seen people like her all across America, marvelous kids in the poorest
    corners of this country--kids in schools that are 75 years old that
    haven't been fixed, where the kids walk up the steps and they see broken
    windows every day, where there are rooms, in some cases whole floors
    they can't even go on. They deserve better.
        How in the world can we say to them, we had the most prosperous time
    in American history; we had the biggest surplus in history; we dug
    ourselves out of debt; but all we thought of was ourselves and the next
    election; we didn't have the time or money or vision to think about you
    and your future? We are a better country than that. All of us are,
    without regard to party. Everywhere else but Washington, DC, you would
    never hear anybody discarding this argument. I implore you, help us to
    get this done this year. The children of American deserve 21st century
    schools.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:25 p.m. in the gymnasium. In his remarks,
    he referred to 1998 Iowa Teacher of the Year Ruth Ann Gaines, who
    introduced the President; incoming eighth grader Catherine Swoboda; Eric
    Witherspoon, superintendent, Des Moines Independent Public Schools; Gary
    L. Eyerly, principal, Amos Hiatt Middle School; Gov. Tom Vilsack, Lt.
    Gov. Sally Pederson, State Attorney General Tom Miller, Secretary of
    State Chester J. Culver, State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald, and
    State Senator Michael Gronstal of Iowa; Representative Leonard L.
    Boswell's wife, Darlene (Dody); and Senator Tom Harkin's wife, Ruth,
    former President and Chief Executive Officer, Overseas Private
    Investment Corporation. The President also referred to the Federal
    Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-127).