[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

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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

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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.