    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [March 28, 2000]
    [Pages 545-547]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Governor Frank O'Bannon of Indiana
    March 28, 2000

        You know, when Evan was talking about how he's
    trying to recover from having given a keynote speech--[laughter]--I
    bombed; he didn't. [Laughter] He was actually very good.
        But I am delighted to be here for Frank O'Bannon, and with
    Judy and Lieutenant Governor and Mrs. Kernan. I want to thank
    Evan Bayh and Susan for
    being wonderful friends to Hillary and me for many years now. And I want
    to thank Senator Birch Bayh for his service to
    America and for also being my friend for 20 years now.
        Every now and then, I remind Birch that in
    1980 he came to Arkansas; we dedicated an ethanol plant. And you may or
    may not know that the Agriculture Department is funding research into
    how to more efficiently convert gasoline to ethanol or, you know, how to
    do it with less fuel. Now the ratio's about 7 gallons to 8. They tell me
    within a year or two, we'll be down to 1 gallon to 8. And Birch and I
    were just 20 years ahead of our time. [Laughter] But I'll always be
    grateful to him for many things in his service, and I'm delighted to be
    here.
        Thank you, Mike Sullivan. Thank you,
    Mark Weiner. Thank you, Robin Winston. And I want to say a special word of thanks to Joe
    Andrew for working so hard for the national
    Democratic Party. And I saw three of your House Members here earlier:
    Pete Visclosky I know is still there, and
    Baron Hill and Tim Roemer may or may not still be here, but they were here earlier.
        I am delighted to be here. You may wonder what I'm doing here; I'm
    not running for anything this year. [Laughter] Take a good look at me;
    I'm the only politician you'll see this year you don't have to give a
    contribution to. [Laughter]
        I was a Governor for 12 years, and they were some of the happiest
    years of my life. I would have never tired of doing the job. The voters
    would have gotten tired of me long before I got tired of the job.
    [Laughter]

    [[Page 546]]

        And you know, I have worked very hard for the last 7-plus years to
    try to turn our country around and to try to get governing right. Now,
    there are not many votes in governing, really, when you talk about it.
    But if you've got a job and you do it well, there are votes in it.
    That's why Evan Bayh was elected and
    overwhelmingly reelected and then sent to the Senate; that's why Frank
    O'Bannon was elected and why I think he'll be reelected: because they
    believe in governing.
        After all this time I've been President, I can say there are a lot
    of things about this job that are much more than just policy, times when
    a President has to speak to the Nation about a crisis or in the midst of
    a collective grieving or just speak for the Nation when you have to take
    a stand. But a lot of what determines the success of our enterprise is
    whether we show up for work every day and treat our work like your work,
    like a job.
        And the difference in political work and other work is that you have
    more leeway to define the job. In other words, you have to decide what
    it is you're going to do if you're Governor or President, except you've
    got to sign the bills or veto them, as the case may be, and make the
    appointments. But otherwise, you have to decide.
        And I think I know a little bit about that. I served with over 150
    Governors. And Frank O'Bannon is a very good Governor. I know.
        I would also tell you that the tradition that he and Evan established in Indiana of fiscal responsibility and
    focusing very sharply on the most important things the government should
    do, and not defending everything that government ever did in the past,
    is one I tried to carry on. You know, we now have the smallest Federal
    Government since 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was President and John
    Kennedy was running for the White House. We've gotten rid of hundreds of
    programs, and I'll give $5 to anybody here who can name three of them.
    [Laughter] See? [Laughter]
        I say that because when I became President, we had to do two things
    at once. We had to get this deficit under control and balance the
    budget. But we had to keep investing in education. We had to keep
    investing in health care for children. We had to keep investing in the
    environment. We had to keep investing in science and technology. We had
    to keep, in short, preparing for the future. And that's what Governors
    have to do.
        Now, one of the ways that we did that was, for example, in the area
    of education, we gave the States more funds and set higher goals, but we
    got rid of about two-thirds of the Federal regulations. And I could give
    you lots of other examples where, in effect, we did the right thing, but
    only if the Governor does the right thing.
        When we passed the welfare reform bill, we said, ``Okay, here's the
    deal: If you're able bodied, you've got to get some training, and then
    if you get a job, you've got to take it. But we won't ask you to hurt
    your children. We'll leave your children with their guaranteed nutrition
    and health care, and we'll spend more on child care and transportation.
    We'll invest more in you. But if you can go to work, you've got to do
    it.'' Well, all that had to be designed and implemented by the
    Governors.
        When we passed the Balanced Budget Act in 1997, we had the biggest
    expansion in federally supported health care since Medicaid in 1965,
    when we passed the Children's Health Insurance Program to allow the
    children of families that were working families--so their incomes were
    too high to get Medicaid coverage, but their incomes were too low to
    afford health insurance, and their employers weren't providing it. So we
    had the money to provide them health insurance. But the program was to
    be designed by the Governors.
        In other words, a lot of what we have tried to do to have a more
    vigorous but a more disciplined Government has required us, here in
    Washington, to make his job even more important. And it's very important
    that everybody understands that. It really matters who sits in these
    Governors' chairs today. It matters what their values are. It matters
    what their vision is. And it also matters a lot whether they show up
    every day.
        This is not a job for someone who is fainthearted or disinterested.
    It's a job--particularly if you live in a State like Indiana or
    Arkansas, where people actually hold you accountable, and you can't get
    elected on television. [Laughter] You know? It really makes a
    difference.
        I remember when I ran for President in '92, Governor Bush used to--I
    mean, President Bush used to refer to me as the Governor of a small
    southern State, in sort of drippingly negative overtones, you know?
    [Laughter] And you

    [[Page 547]]

    know, I was so dumb, I thought that was a good thing. [Laughter] You
    know, I was proud of it. I thought--and I think it's very important. If
    you care about the education of our children and if you care about
    whether the poorest of our children have access to health care, if you
    care about whether we can preserve a clean environment and grow the
    economy, you have to care about who the Governor is.
        And I think most Americans may not fully appreciate the extent to
    which, over the last 7\1/2\ years, the reason this whole deal has worked
    as well as it has is that we've had good Federal policies, but we have
    done more and more of it in partnership with the private sector and with
    State and local government.
        And so I wanted to come here because I genuinely like and admire
    Governor and Mrs. O'Bannon. And I genuinely
    believe that they should break that record that goes back to the 1830's.
    And that's the last thing I want to say about all these races in 2000.
        I worked as hard as I can to turn this country around and to get us
    moving in the right direction. But all the really big benefits are still
    out there. We've got the longest economic expansion in history. What are
    we going to do with it? We're going to give all of our kids a world-
    class education. Are we going to make America the safest big country in
    the world? We're going to get the country out of debt for the first time
    since 1835. Are we going to bring economic opportunity to poor areas
    that haven't felt it yet? I can just go on and on and on.
        That's what will be decided in the year 2000. And I hope that the
    electorate will want to vote for people from top to bottom like these
    two men here, who are serious about the work they do and for whom
    winning an election is just a prelude to the most important thing, which
    is the job. Because you know, this is a chance in a lifetime we have.
    And I've lived long enough now to know that these things come, and they
    go. The good news is bad times don't last forever. But good times don't
    either. And so when they come along, you have to focus and move, act.
        So this is a big deal, this election. One of the reasons, apart from
    all my personal feelings about him, that I want Al Gore to be elected President so bad is he understands the
    future, and he knows how to get us there. And that's what we ought to be
    thinking about. Who understands the future? Who can get us there?
        And your presence here says you know that about your Governor. But
    when you go back to Indiana, I hope you'll give that as a reason for the
    rest of the folks sticking with him, without regard to party. If you're
    producing, if you're serious, if you care about the future, stick with
    him.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:52 p.m. in the Columbia A Room at the
    Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. In his remarks, he referred to Judy
    O'Bannon, wife of Governor O'Bannon; Lt. Gov. Joseph E. Kernan and his
    wife, Maggie; Senator Evan Bayh, his wife, Susan, and his father, former
    Senator Birch Bayh; Michael J. Sullivan, general president, Sheet Metal
    Workers International Association; Mark Weiner, treasurer, Democratic
    Governors' Association; Robin Winston, chairman, Indiana State
    Democratic Party; and Joseph J. Andrew, national chair, Democratic
    National Committee. Incumbent Governor O'Bannon was a candidate for
    reelection. The transcript was released by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on March 29.