    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [October 27, 1999]
    [Pages 1895-1897]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Representative David E. Bonior
    October 27, 1999

        Thank you very much. Thank you, David, and thank you, Vic. I'm glad to know you still have to pay some political
    dues for the price of going into private life. [Laughter]
        Let me say, I'm honored to be here for David Bonior. And the most
    important thing I can say to all of you is, thank you, because you know
    it's important that he be reelected or you wouldn't be here. I do think
    it is worth pointing out that he represents the kind of district that is
    pretty reflective of America; it could go either way. And he always has
    a competitive race because they spend a lot of money against him, and
    they try to say things that will turn the voters against him and
    convince them that he's something he isn't.
        Dave and Judy go home every summer; they
    knock on thousands of doors; they actually talk to people. I know that
    if you give money to a lot of candidates, one of the things you want to
    know is, now, if I really back this person, is he or she going to work
    hard? This guy kills himself to fulfill his responsibilities to his
    country and to his party in Washington and to his district back home.
    And he does as good a job in as difficult a situation as anybody in the
    United States.
        The other thing I want to say is that I am in a unique position
    having worked with him for nearly 7 years now, under some of the most
    difficult conceivable circumstances with very hard issues, to tell you
    that he is a great leader who is both loved and admired. Some of the
    people in the other party, they seem fond of electing people that they
    can then be terrified of, so they have to be browbeaten into doing

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    whatever it is they want to do. This guy is followed because he is
    respected, admired, and loved by people who sometimes don't agree with
    him on every issue.
        The last point I want to make is this. We are very close now to
    returning a majority of the House of Representatives to the Democrats.
    We can't lose any seats, and we've got to win some. And we certainly
    don't want to fool with a leadership team that is working and is
    producing for our party and, more importantly, for our country.
        The most important thing in politics is to have, first of all, the
    right ideas and then, secondly, the right people. And I define the right
    people as people who understand how ideas affect real peoples' lives and
    identify with them and then have the courage to fight for them.
        One of the things that David didn't say, that I think he ought to
    take a lot of credit for back home--in a district of prudent,
    conservative Americans--is that, when I came into office, the deficit
    was $290 billion. We just got the final numbers on last year's budget.
    We had a $123 billion surplus. We paid $140 billion down on the debt in
    the last 2 years. If I had run for President in 1992 and I had told you,
    ``Vote for me. I'll turn this $290 billion deficit into a surplus. We'll
    do it 2 years in a row, and I'll pay $140 billion on the debt,'' you
    would have said, ``You know, he's a very nice young man, but he's
    totally delusional, and we should send him home.'' [Laughter]
        Now, that reduction, on average, for the average American family,
    has been worth $2,000 savings in home mortgage payments, a $200 savings
    in car payments, and a $200 savings in college loan payments. So the
    average American family has gotten a $2,400 tax cut, in effect, from
    responsible economic policies brought to you by our party. And it's not
    just the President. None of this would have happened if we hadn't had
    the votes in for the '93 economic plan and if David and Vic and others
    hadn't been up there whipping it. We did not have a single vote to
    spare, and the Vice President had to break
    a tie in the Senate, and it turned the country around.
        And for that reason alone, in a district that thinks of itself as a
    moderately conservative district, I wouldn't give away a man without
    whom it would not have happened. This country's economic recovery was
    sparked by our commitment to that and by enacting it, and David Bonior
    deserves an enormous amount of credit for it, and I'm very grateful to
    him, and I thank him.
        The second point I want to make, only because a lot of you run in
    the circles of our friends, is he was too modest in the litany he gave.
    And I say this because, again I say, I could have done none of this
    without his help and others. But here are the real numbers. This country
    now has the longest peacetime expansion in history. If it goes on until
    February, it will be the longest economic expansion in the history of
    America, and we didn't have a war during this. It's unthinkable. The
    highest homeownership in history. And here are the numbers. We have the
    lowest unemployment rate in 29 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30
    years, the lowest poverty rates in 20 years, the lowest crime rate in 30
    years, the lowest teen pregnancy rate in 30 years, the first back-to-
    back budget surpluses in 42 years with the smallest Federal Government
    in 37 years. Now, that is a record that you ought to be able to run on
    in any congressional district in America and be very proud of.
        And I'll close with this; this is by far the most important point.
    The real issue before the American people--and Senator Bradley and Vice President Gore are
    having a town meeting right now in New Hampshire while we're here--the
    issue is not whether we're going to change; of course we are. The world
    is changing. It's practically moving under our feet. The question is,
    how are we going to change? Are we going to, on the one hand, take a U-
    turn and go back to the policies that got us in so much trouble in the
    first place, which is essentially what all the people running for the
    other party's nomination advocate on economic and social policy? Are we
    going to forget what got us here in the first place and forget about
    things that will maintain our economic prosperity? Or are we going to
    build on what has happened, to take advantage of this moment to meet the
    big challenges of the new century?
        This is the first time in my lifetime that our people, as a people,
    have had a chance to essentially build the future of their dreams for
    their children. You know, the last time we had an economy that was about
    this good was in the 1960's: We had the civil rights crisis; we had the
    Vietnam war. Now we have no excuse. But a nation is no different from a
    business or a family or an individual. You are most vulnerable to making
    a mistake in life when you think

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    everything is peachy-keen, because it's easy to just relax, it's easy to
    get distracted, it's easy to do something that's in the short-term
    selfish interest that doesn't deal with the long run.
        The challenges this country faces is no different than the
    challenges that you have seen in your businesses, in your families, and
    in your lives. When things are really good, it's hard to muster the
    vision, the will, and the focus to do the right, big things. That's what
    the candidates should all be questioned about this year.
        The most important reason for his candidacy and his leadership is so
    we can save Social Security for the baby boom generation, so we can
    modernize Medicare and put a prescription drug benefit, so we can
    radically improve the education of the largest and most diverse group of
    kids in the country's history, so we can bring prosperity to the people
    and places that still haven't felt it, so we can keep on until we pay
    down the debt completely for the first time since 1835, so we can stop
    all these assaults on the environment and prove that we can clean the
    environment and grow the economy at the same time, so that we can meet
    our responsibilities in the world.
        David is an internationalist, and Gerald Ford spoke so passionately today about the importance of a
    bipartisan commitment to our global responsibilities, which means, do
    what it takes to continue to fight for peace and against ethnic
    cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, continue to support the Irish peace
    process, continue to support the Africans, who want to stop further
    tribal wars, continue to work for peace in Northern Ireland, continue to
    work for peace in the Middle East, continue to work against the
    proliferation of nuclear weapons, continue to work for the Comprehensive
    Test Ban Treaty, continue to work against terrorism.
        This is an important part of our future. If you don't think that all
    this stuff we're enjoying could be interrupted tomorrow by a collapse of
    the international economic system, by a rise in global terrorism, by
    America walking away from its responsibilities to peace in these
    important areas, think again. So I say to you, this is an important part
    of it.
        And the last thing I'll say is, we Democrats, we may have lost a lot
    of votes over the last 30 years because we believe in one America,
    without regard to race or gender or religion or sexual orientation. But
    if you look at the way the world is in turmoil today and if you look at
    the horrible, though isolated, instances of hate-related violence in
    America today, I think you will agree that it's pretty important that we
    hang in there together.
        Dave Bonior has a big heart, a good mind, and a steel spine. He will
    fight a buzz saw for what he believes in. And that's why the people who
    follow his lead both respect him and love him. You did a good thing in
    coming here tonight, but we've got a lot of work to do between now and
    next year at this time. If we do it, we're going to have a lot to
    celebrate.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:40 p.m. in the Concorde Room at the Hay
    Adams Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to former Representative Vic
    Fazio; and Representative Bonior's wife, Judy.