    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 9, 2000]
    [Pages 876-878]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 876]]

    Remarks at a Reception for Senator Daniel K. Akaka
    May 9, 2000

        The President.  Well, thank you very much. Aloha.
        Audience members.  Aloha!
        The President.  And to Danny and Millie and all of you, thank you so much for having me
    here. Senator Daschle, thank you for being
    here. And I'd like to acknowledge our great friend, a former Member of
    the House of Representatives, Norm Mineta. Thank
    you for coming, Norm, and being here with your friends and your extended
    family.
        I want to tell you that I'm here for two reasons tonight, besides
    the fact that I've never had a bad day in Hawaii. [Laughter] And I knew
    that if I came here tonight, Danny would do as much as he could to
    simulate Hawaii. You know, I would have music; I'd have a lei; people
    would say ``aloha''; everybody would be relaxed. And by the time I left,
    no matter what I was worried about, I'd be in a good mood. And sure
    enough, that's happened.
        The second reason I'm here is in behalf of one of the finest people
    in the United States Senate and one of the most popular people in the
    entire Congress. Dan Akaka is not only a good Senator, he is a good man.
    And I have yet to meet the first human being who didn't love him who
    knew him. And I want to thank him for being my friend.
        The third reason I'm here is because he asked me, and I owe him.
    [Laughter]
        You know, there was this--you heard, Senator Daschle said all those
    nice things about my service as President. There was a really funny
    article--I was reading Hillary this
    article--you know, when you think you're about to get good press, read
    it to your spouse, and they'll find a way to bring it down. [Laughter]
    So I said, ``Look here, here's this article. It says I have really high
    job approval ratings. And if it weren't for '93 and '94, they'd be the
    highest average ratings since people have been taking polls.'' And
    Hillary said, ``Well, of course. In '93 and '94 you made all the hard
    decisions that gave you the high job approval ratings in '95 and
    afterward.''
        And if you think about it--I said it in a casual way, I'm serious--
    in 1993, when I presented an economic plan to cut the deficit in half
    and to get this country moving again and get interest rates down, we
    didn't get a single vote from the other party. They all said that it was
    going to throw the country into recession. And if anybody--anybody--in
    our party in either House had changed their vote, it would have been
    defeated. We would not have enjoyed the economic recovery we have had,
    and I would not have enjoyed the political recovery I enjoyed after
    1994.
        But the most important thing is, the American people now have the
    longest economic expansion in history, over 21 million new jobs,
    unemployment rate under 4 percent for the first time since early 1970.
    And when I leave office, we will have paid off--paid off--$355 billion
    of the national debt in the last 3 years. Now, all because he was there.
    We lose one vote, and it's history; the whole last 8 years are a totally
    different story.
        It was almost the same when we had to pass the crime bill to do more
    to keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals, put more police
    officers on the street. You probably saw the report Sunday, crime down 8
    years in a row--and the leadership of the other party overwhelmingly
    negative on the Brady bill, on banning the cop-killer bullets, on the
    assault weapons ban, on putting 100,000 police on the streets, all of
    those things. He was there.
        And in education, I just want to say, you know, that's a story that
    is not as well-known: college-going up 10 percent, reading and math
    scores almost up a full grade level. But in the areas where people have
    taken seriously the legislation that I proposed 4 years ago, that every
    State had to identify every school which was not performing well, where
    the schools were not teaching the children to learn, and come up with
    strategies to turn them around, we're seeing breathtaking gains.
        I just got back from Kentucky. I'll just give you one example. I was
    in this little town in western Kentucky, where your former colleague
    Wendell Ford was born and grew up, and he was there to be with me--
    Owensboro, Kentucky--two-thirds of the children on free and reduced
    lunches. Nineteen ninety-six we passed--the Democrats did--a requirement
    that

    [[Page 877]]

    States identify schools that are failing and come up with strategies to
    turn them around or shut them down. To stop social promotion, which we
    didn't require, but we supported, we also have gone from nothing to $50
    million for after-school and summer school programs, to help so we don't
    brand children failures when the system fails them.
        Okay, so I show up in this little town in western Kentucky where the
    local grade school has just been named the 18th best grade school in the
    State, and they were a failing school 4 years ago. Now, here's what you
    need to know: Two-thirds of the kids in that school are eligible for
    free or reduced school lunches--two-thirds. Of the 20 best elementary
    schools in Kentucky, 10 of them have over half of their kids eligible
    for free or reduced school lunch.
        Race, ethnicity, income, and location are not destiny if we can give
    all of our children a world-class education. And the role we played in
    that would not have been possible if it hadn't been for the supporters I
    had in our party and the Congress, including Senator Akaka. So I'm proud
    to be here tonight for him.
        Now, last and most important, elections are always about tomorrow,
    always about the future. So if someone asks you why you came here
    tonight, besides bragging on Danny Akaka as a human being and talking
    about what a great record he built, how much you appreciate the fact
    that he helped me, I hope you will say something like this: This is the
    first time maybe ever our country has had such a great opportunity
    because of our economic strength and social progress and our role in
    creating a more peaceful world, that we've had the opportunity to build
    the future of our dreams for our children.
        The real question in this election is, what are we going to do with
    all this prosperity? What's the answer to that question? Do you believe
    that's the question? And if you believe that's the question, what's your
    answer?
        Audience member.  Al Gore!
        The President.  I'm coming to that. [Laughter]
        But this is very important. You know, I'm not running for anything,
    but I know a little something about elections. And normally, the
    candidate who wins is the product of what the voters believe the
    election is about. If you ask the right question, it will lead you to
    the right answer.
        So what's this election about? This election is about, what are we
    going to do with all these good things that have happened in the last 7
    years? I think the answer is, what we're going to do--I know what I
    think it should be. It should be, we're going to take advantage of it to
    build the future of our dreams. We're going to take our big
    opportunities. We're going to take our big challenges. We're going to
    bring economic opportunity to people in places left behind. We're going
    to give all our kids a world-class education and get rid of child
    poverty. We're going to do more to help people balance work and family.
    We're going to prove that you can meet the challenges of the environment
    and still grow the economy. We're going to deal with the aging of
    America and save Social Security and Medicare and add a prescription
    drug benefit. We're going to build one America. We're going to pass that
    hate crimes bill, and we're going to pass the ``Employment Non-
    Discrimination Act,'' and we're going to continue to fight against
    racial and ethnic and religious and other discrimination, until we pull
    this country together.
        That's what I think we ought to do. And we're going to keep the
    economy going, and we're going to keep going until we get this country
    out of debt for the first time since 1835. These are big things, you
    know, big things we've never been able to do before.
        Now, if you believe that's what this election is about, then the
    next question is, how are you going to do it? Well, you have two
    choices. You can continue to change, building on what has brought us to
    this point, or you can abandon it and go back to the political
    philosophy that governed before we started in 1993.
        And that's what Danny Akaka's race is about. That's what the race
    for President is all about. Do you want an economic strategy that gives
    us a tax cut we can afford and still gives us enough money to pay down
    the debt, save Social Security and Medicare, and invest in the education
    of our children? I do. But if you prefer, you can have a tax cut and a
    defense increase and education vouchers that takes us back to deficit
    spending, doesn't give us money to invest in education, but makes
    everybody real happy in the short run because they'll be rolling in
    dough.
        Now, we tried it their way. We tried it our way. You have evidence.
    Now you have to

    [[Page 878]]

    choose. Which way are you going to try going forward?
        The same thing is true with education. The same thing is true with
    health care. The same thing is true with the environment.
        And so I say to all of you, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're
    helping Dan Akaka. He is as fine a man as I've ever known in public
    life. And he's always good to me when we play golf together. [Laughter]
    But I'm telling you, this is a big election. I'm not running, but I can
    tell you it's just every bit as important as the one we made in '92 and
    the one we made in '96, because this will determine whether the American
    people are going to embrace what works or say, ``Okay, we tried it for 8
    years, and it was nice, but I think we'll go back and try something
    else.'' And the something else was what they tried before, but it was so
    long ago, everybody has forgotten.
        That is what this is about. This gentleman here said, ``You ought to
    tell people that the slogan of this election ought to be: `Before You Go
    Back, Think Back,' '' which is better than anything I've thought of.
    [Laughter]
        But the reason I want the Vice President to win is because I know what a role he's played in the
    last 8 years, and I know he understands the future, and he knows how to
    lead us there.
        The reason I think Dan Akaka should be reelected is, I know how much
    he loves the ordinary people that he represents and because every single
    time his country needed him he was there--every time. Not one time did
    he ever take a dive and walk away when we were trying to build this
    future.
        And so I ask all of you to think about that. I thank you for helping
    him. And I want you to go out between now and November and tell people
    why you are doing this. Tell them there may not be another time in our
    lifetime when we can do this. Tell them there are places and people that
    are still left behind, including a lot of people in Hawaii because of
    the Asian financial crisis, who didn't fully participate in this
    economic recovery. And tell them you want a change, but you'd like to
    keep moving in the direction that we've enjoyed for the last several
    years.
        One good way you can do that is by making sure that he gets as near
    to 100 percent of the vote as possible.
        Come on up here, Senator Akaka.

     Note:  The President spoke at 8:40 p.m. in the John Hay Room at the
    Hay-Adams Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Senator Akaka's wife,
    Mary Mildred (Millie); and former Senator Wendell H. Ford.