    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [April 13, 2000]
    [Pages 701-702]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 701]]

    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner
    April 13, 2000

        Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank Bob
    Torricelli for his leadership of this
    committee, and I see Senator Wyden, Senator
    Murray, Senator Bingaman, Senator Leahy, Senator
    Rockefeller, Senator Robb--is that everybody who is here? We almost have a
    quorum. [Laughter ]
        I would like to say, first of all, I want to welcome all of you
    here, and I want to thank you for meeting with our Senators, and I want
    to thank them for meeting with you. Just a few days ago, our leader in
    the House, Dick Gephardt, announced a
    five- or six-part program of support for the high-tech sector of our
    economy, which I thought was very good. I'm very pleased to see that,
    the Senate committee trying to establish a systematic, ongoing
    relationship with members of the community that I think has powered a
    great deal of our growth.
        In the last 7 years since I've been President, the high-tech sector
    has accounted for about 8 percent of our employment but about 30 percent
    of our growth. And in a larger sense, the rifling of technology through
    traditional work environments has had a far bigger impact, because we
    know that the reason that we have the longest and strongest economic
    expansion in history is because of an unusual rise in productivity
    growth after decades of stagnant productivity.
        And what we've tried to do in Washington, essentially, is to create
    the conditions and give people the tools to make the most of their own
    lives, including you. So what we've tried to do that directly affects
    you is get rid of the deficit, keep interest rates down, make capital
    more available, invest in the education and training of our people, and
    continue to do basic research in science and technology, expand trade in
    American goods and services, and to try to open new markets
    continually--we've negotiated well over 270 different trade agreements
    in the last 7 years--and deal specifically with the institutional
    barriers to growth. And I might just mention one.
        I think that the way the Telecommunications Act finally came down
    was a significant contributor to the growth, to the creation of new
    companies, and to the flourishing high technology in our country. I say
    that because I believe that our party, beginning with the Vice President
    and me, and the support played a very important role in the competitive
    elements in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. So I hope we have been
    supportive, and I hope we can do more together.
        I would just like to repeat something I said today to the American
    Society of Newspaper Editors. The great question before the American
    people now is not how did we get here; the question is, where are we
    going, and how do we propose to get there? And in a larger sense, what
    is it that we intend to do with this magic moment of possibility?
        I think, notwithstanding the churning of the NASDAQ in the last few
    days, there are many people, I think, who believe that somehow the
    prosperity of the last few years will inevitably be projected into the
    next few, and perhaps for an indefinite period of time. I think it could
    happen for an indefinite period of time, but not inevitably.
        I think that--the real question I have as I see the debate we're
    having with the Republicans over the budget now--are we going to
    continue to pay down the debt; are we going to continue to invest in
    education and technology; are we going to prepare now for the aging of
    the baby boom generation and then take what's left and give it in a tax
    cut, instead of have a big tax cut first and then figure out what we're
    going to do, which means we're either going to cut back on our
    investments in the future, not deal with the aging of America, or go
    back to running deficits? In a larger sense, these questions are: What
    kind of country do we want to be?
        I feel very strongly that we should continue to change rapidly, but
    in the direction of the last 7 years. I feel very strongly it would be a
    serious error for us to go back to the way we changed in the 12 years
    before and go back to running big deficits. I think that would be a
    mistake.
        I think that if we make our minds up, we can get this country out of
    debt for the first time since 1835 and guarantee a generation of new
    investment at lower interest rates. I think if we're determined to do
    it, we can close the

    [[Page 702]]

    digital divide and not only have this technology be the source of vast
    new centers of wealth and employment but actually help us to reduce
    poverty for more people more quickly, in the United States and
    throughout the world, than ever before in all of human history.
        I think if we believe in the promise of science and technology, we
    can grow the economy and solve our environmental problems, including
    climate change. I think we can use the power of technology to make our
    country the safest big country in the world, for things like safe gun
    technology, where handguns can only be fired by their lawful owner--if
    we think about how to make the most of this moment. And so, that's what
    I'd like to talk to you about.
        You know, I'm not running for anything. [Laughter] And most days,
    I'm okay about it. [Laughter] But I am old enough, unlike some of you in
    this room, I am old enough to remember the last, the previous longest
    economic expansion in history. It encompassed virtually the entire
    decade of the 1960's.
        When I graduated from high school, we had low unemployment, low
    inflation, high growth, high productivity. We had a civil rights
    challenge that people thought then would be handled in the courts and in
    the Congress. We were sort of involved in Vietnam. Nobody thought it was
    very serious, and everybody thought we would win the cold war as a
    matter of course--1964.
        Four years later, when I finished college in '68, we had riots in
    our cities. It was 2 days after Senator Kennedy was killed, 2 months
    after Martin Luther King was killed, 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson said
    he couldn't run for reelection because the country was divided on
    Vietnam. And before you knew it, the longest expansion in American
    history was over, and we had failed to meet the large, long-term
    challenges of America.
        Actually, I think we have fewer internal and external crises now
    than we did then. But the challenge is the same, and because we have
    fewer crises, the responsibility is greater. I believe our party's had a
    solid economic policy, a solid technology policy, a solid education
    policy, a good crime policy, a good welfare reform policy. But we need
    you. We need more and more partnerships. We need to keep working to
    create the conditions and give people the tools to do more and better.
    But we've got to be guided by the right vision. And the right vision is
    not a tax cut so big that it either puts us back in a deficit or keeps
    us from meeting our long-term objectives.
        The right vision is to have a tax cut we can afford, targeted to
    purposes that are needed in the context of meeting the big, long-term
    challenges of America. That's what I stand for. I believe that's what
    our party stands for. And I hope that it's one of the reasons that
    you're here tonight.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:21 p.m. in the Ballroom at the Phoenix
    Park Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Senator Robert G. Torricelli,
    chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.