[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 21, 2000]
[Pages 1897-1902]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Michigan Victory 2000 Reception in Livonia, Michigan
September 21, 2000
The President. Thank you. If Jennifer had just given me credit for the Sun coming up in the
morning, I would have been sure I was at a Republican rally. [Laughter]
I mean, look up here. I'm basically here as an affirmative action prop
so the men wouldn't be too outnumbered.
I want to thank Jennifer Granholm for
her introduction, for her service, for holding the flag of the
Democratic Party high in Michigan. And for her, there will be life after
the attorney general's office. I'll guarantee you that.
I want to thank Dianne Byrum for running
for Congress. You get a two-fer if she's elected. You'll have a great
Member of Congress, a great successor to Debbie Stabenow, and you'll help make John Conyers chairman of the Judiciary Committee. I want to thank Matt
Frumin for running for Congress and for proving
that Democrats can tie and wear bow ties. [Laughter] I've never been
able to do that. See, look at Orson Porter down
there laughing. He wears a bow tie every day, and I still can't do it,
and I'm 54. [Laughter]
I want to thank Marty Robinson
for running for the supreme court. She's out here somewhere. We thank
her. I want to thank Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for being a great Representative and a great personal
friend to me in these years that she has served.
And I don't know what to say about John Dingell. But when I was at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner
the other night--I mean about John
Conyers--I want to say something about John Dingell, but I'm going to
save that. I want to tell you something about John Conyers. I was at the
Congressional Black Caucus dinner the other night. And all these people
got up and talked about how the caucus always had their back, how good
they were--always. Even the Ambassador from South Africa talked about--when they gave an award to
Nelson Mandela--and she was passionate about
how the Black Caucus was always there, always had their back. The Vice
President got up and said the caucus always
had his back. I got up and said, ``Covered my back? When they came after
me with a torch and lit the fire, John and
the Black Caucus brought the buckets and poured water on it, and I
appreciate it.'' [Laughter]
I want to say something very serious about Debbie
Stabenow. I was here at an event for her not
so long ago--or two events. It is, next to a certain race in New York,
the Senate seat that I may feel the strongest about. [Laughter] Nobody
in America now appreciates the importance of every single Senate seat as
much as I do. They confirm judges. They can hold up bills. They can hold
up judges, including two from Michigan that should have been confirmed a
long time ago. In the Senate, except for the budget, 41 Senators, not a
majority--41--can stop anything from happening. And I can't imagine a
clearer choice, whether it's on a real Patients' Bill of Rights or a
real drug benefit for seniors through Medicare or a real commitment
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to human rights and building one America or a real commitment to an
economic policy that continues to benefit average people.
What she said is true. They've got more dollars. They should have.
They earned them. [Laughter] They earned them. You want to see them
vote, follow the money. And there's nothing wrong with that. I believe
in raising money. I think people ought to contribute. But forces that
block positive change have to be opposed or they will prevail. And very
rarely nowadays--it's hard to find somebody to take on an incumbent
Republican Senator.
Now we have a man who was brave enough to do it in Minnesota, but
he's independently wealthy. We have a wonderful woman who voted for my
economic plan in 1993, lost her seat in the House, and is now ahead in
running against the incumbent Senator from Washington State. But she's
independently wealthy. Debbie Stabenow is
just independent. [Laughter]
But it's really true--even if they do have more dollars, I can tell
you for sure, I know her well, she does have
more sense. [Laughter] I've watched this thing very closely. I know if
one person goes off the air and the other dumps several million on the
air, you can move the numbers, but they're not getting above 50 percent.
She can win, and she will win if you will fight for her. And do not be
discouraged. Do not give up. Fight. This is worth fighting for. It's
worth fighting for.
Now, I've got a little something substantive I want to say, but
first I've got to say something about my young friend, Mr.
McNamara. All the talk about Ireland and
the trains and all that, this guy was there for me when only my mama
thought I could be elected President. [Laughter] And this is his 74th
birthday. So we're going to sing ``Happy Birthday.'' Ready? One, two,
three.
[At this point, the audience sang ``Happy Birthday'' to Wayne County
Executive Edward H. McNamara]
Mr. McNamara. He is a much better
President than he is a singer. [Laughter]
The President. You may be the only 74-year-old man in America with
more than enough hot air to blow out those candles. [Laughter] Go blow
those candles out. And make a wish.
Now, I just want to say a couple of other things. First, on behalf
of Al Gore and Tipper and Hillary and me, I want to thank the people of
Michigan and the Democrats of Michigan. You heard in the introduction
that no Democrat had carried this State since 1968. Michigan gave me a
margin of 8 points in 1992, and 13 points in 1996. And even before, on
Saint Patrick's Day in 1992, the voters in the Democratic primary in
Michigan and Illinois ensured that I would be the nominee of my party. I
will never forget that, ever, as long as I live.
Michigan is a special place with special leaders. One of them who's
not here tonight is John Dingell. I wanted
to say that. I thank Debbie for being here,
for carrying all of our water all these years and doing all this work.
And I'm deeply indebted to a lot of people from Michigan. Senator
Riegle is here. And we worked 2 years
together, and he was terrific. Jim Blanchard was great to me. All of them--I appreciate that. But John
Dingell is sort of a vanishing breed. He's just an old-style person who
believes politics is an honorable profession and who believes that
there's no point in being in office unless you're going to get something
done or stand against something you don't believe in.
And so what I want to say to you is, you need to treat this election
like you're going to get something done. And Michigan is really America.
Yes, it's different than America; people make more cars here than
anyplace else. But it's also an agricultural State; it's a small-
business State; it's a high-tech State. It's a place with worlds of--
very remote rural communities and big thriving cities. It is America.
And what I want to say to you is, for 47 days it will be the center
of the conflict between the Democrats and the Republicans for the Senate
and the House and between Al Gore and Joe
Lieberman and Governor Bush and Secretary Cheney. And I was
told on the way up here that the Republican nominee is coming here in a
day or two and is going to stand in an automobile factory and blast Al
Gore over the internal combustion engine. The only thing I want you to
remember is, when you voted for me, when they had the White House the
last time, not very many people could afford to buy an internal
combustion engine or fill it up.
We've had a real partnership with the people of Michigan, and I've
worked, when I could, on a bipartisan basis. We've had a partnership
that's helped to lower the welfare rolls, to lower the unemployment
rates, lift the State up. We've
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also had a very important partnership with the UAW and the automobile
industry to build the next-generation vehicles.
Now, you all are following what's going on with the oil prices--and
I don't want to say much tonight, otherwise it will be a big story
tomorrow, and I'm going to have more to say about it later. But the
point I want to make is, one of the reasons we're doing better than we
were the last time this happened is that the American people have become
much more energy-efficient; our cars get better mileage; our homes are
more energy-efficient; our factories are more energy-efficient.
And we know--we know that the work being done now with high-tech
companies, with the major auto companies and the UAW--work that our
administration has supported financially and otherwise to build next-
generation vehicles that can get 70 or 80 miles a gallon or use fuel
cells or use electricity and gasoline or use alternative fuels that
don't pollute the atmosphere, that we can make here from an unlimited
supply of other things.
Let me just say, you know this whole business about ethanol and
farm-based fuel products, right now the reason we don't have more of it
is, it takes about 7 gallons of gasoline to produce about 8 gallons of
ethanol. But we are funding research, which is very close to making a
breakthrough that is the equivalent of what happened when crude oil was
broken down so that it could be refined into gasoline. And when that
happens--when that happens, you'll be able to make 8 gallons of ethanol
for about one gallon of gasoline, and the whole world will change. That
is what Al Gore has been doing the last 8
years.
And whatever they tell you in the next 47 days--I'm not running for
anything, but I've got a record in Michigan--if I were trying to cost
you jobs, I've done a poor job of it. Now, if we develop new engines,
new fuel cells, and new fuels, it will save the automobile industry in
Michigan, not destroy it. It will be more prosperous than ever before.
And every single year I have had to fight the other party in
Congress for funds for the Partnership for the Next Generation Vehicle,
for funds to promote energy conservation, for funds to develop
alternative sources of fuel to keep our automobile industry strong and
our people able to afford to drive and our country more secure--every
single year.
So what we need is not to stick our heads in the ground and deny
that there's a challenge; what we need is what we've had, a genuine
partnership that will save America's auto industry, create more jobs,
and lower our alliance on expensive and unreliable fuel. We can do that
together if we do it.
Now, let me just say something else. In the last few weeks, since
the convention, where I thought the Vice President and Senator Lieberman
made great speeches and laid our program out for the American people,
our side has been doing pretty well. And their side has had a few
problems. [Laughter] But one of the things I've learned in life is that
all those martial arts people--you ever watch those martial arts, the
judo and karate contests or the tae kwon do contests? You know what they
do before every match? They bow to their opponents. Why do they do that?
Because they know that the surest sign of defeat is to disrespect your
opponent, to underestimate your opponent, to have contempt for your
opponent.
So I have said all along, why don't we just call a moratorium on
personal abuse and attacks? Why don't we posit the fact that our
adversaries are patriots and good people; they love their families. And
why don't we thank them for abandoning, or at least appearing to
abandon, the 20 years of negative politics that they have brought to
this country's political life and talk in a more inclusive way and thank
them for that and say, ``Okay, let's have an election on the
differences.''
And I can just tell you, I have worked hard to turn this economy
around, but the best is out there. Believe me. As good as everything is,
the best stuff is still out there. If you make the right decisions, we
could bring jobs and economic opportunity to people and places that
haven't felt it yet.
I was in Flint today to highlight the possibilities of the Internet
to educate, empower, and employ people from Michigan with disabilities.
And it's stunning. I was able to talk in Flint--because we had one of
the machines there, this new laser technology that operates with the
eyes--about a friend of mine from North Carolina who has Lou Gehrig's
disease, who can no longer move any part of his body. He can't speak,
and he can't move. And when we were friends and working together in the
eighties, he was a strapping, healthy, charismatic, handsome, active,
vital guy. But he's an even greater
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person now because of the courage with which he's proceeded. But because
of new technology, he is about to publish a book he wrote on the
computer with his eyes. Now, because of new technology, he still can
work at home and earn a living doing business at the bank he used to
run--unbelievable.
So I'm telling you, the best of it is still out there. If you make
the right decisions, in the next decade you can get rid of child
poverty; you can give all working families access to affordable health
insurance; we can take Social Security and Medicare out beyond the life
of the baby boomers. We can get this country out of debt for the first
time since 1835. We can generate more jobs in transportation, including
automobiles, by developing cars that get 80 or 90 or more miles to the
gallon. And we can clean up the environment and generate hundreds of
thousands, maybe even millions more jobs. We can do all this stuff if
you make the right decisions. We've opened the doors of 2 years of
college to all Americans. We can open the doors of 4 years of college to
all Americans, if you make the right decisions.
Every time I see Debbie out here making
this campaign, and I realize she could have just stayed in Congress and
enjoyed her seat, rolled along, she knew what she was up against--what I
see are all the little children that will grow up with a better
education, have access to college, all the older people that will have
real medicine when they need it, a genuine Patients' Bill of Rights so
that the doctors, not the HMO's, will be making your health care
decisions, and an America with a stronger economy.
And when I see Al Gore and Joe
Lieberman, I am telling you, they have a
different economic policy. You cannot--you cannot--I don't care what
they tell you these projected surpluses are. Believe me, they're just
projected. And because I was conservative with your money every year--
every year--first the deficits were less than they were supposed to be,
and then the surpluses were bigger. But, why? Because I didn't play like
it was, and I didn't play games with your money.
Now, they say we've got a $1.8 trillion, or $2.2 trillion, projected
surplus. That sounds like a lot of money. What they don't tell you is,
that doesn't assume that Government spending will grow with inflation
and population, which it's done for 50 years--whack $300 billion off.
What they don't tell you is that those of you who are upper middle class
people, if we don't continue to raise the earnings limit on the
alternative minimum tax, you'll start paying taxes you've got no
business paying just because you get a pay raise. So we fix that--whack
another $150 billion off. What they don't tell you is that we don't have
in there continuing the research and development tax credit, which we've
got to do if you want to develop these new cars that get high mileage--
whack another $40 billion off. You get the idea. And then the money may
not come in. And what about the emergencies that could come up along the
way? We've had to give the farmers $6 billion, $8 billion, $10 billion
every year for the last 3 years because farm prices have been so bad.
Now, so when they tell you, ``Hey, what do we care? Our tax cut is a
trillion and a half dollars, and we'll privatize Social Security for
young people and guarantee everybody over 55 that they'll get their
benefits,'' and when you transfer that, it costs a trillion dollars
more, because if you take money out of Social Security, but you leave
everybody drawing out the same money, somebody has got to replace it,
right? They don't ever talk about that. That's another trillion--whack
$2.3 trillion, $2.5 trillion, $2.8 trillion. You're already back in
deficits.
They don't ever say that. I'm telling you, that means higher
interest rates. That means higher interest rates. Do you know what--I
got a study last week that said the difference in our candidate's
economic plan and theirs, going back into deficit, into the Social
Security Trust Fund, is one percent a year on interest rates. Do you
know what that's worth to you? Listen to this: $390 billion in home
mortgages, $30 billion in car payments, and $15 billion in college loan
payments over a decade.
In other words, if you do what Vice President Gore wants to do, in interest savings alone, you'll get the
equivalent of a $425 billion tax cut that will go straight to the
working families of the United States of America.
So we've got a different--we have a different economic policy, a
different energy policy, a different education policy. We want high
standards, smaller classes, modern schools. We want schools to get more
aid, but we want to turn around these schools or put them under new
management, because we know we can turn schools around.
I was in a school in Harlem the other day, in New York. Two years
ago 80 percent of the
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kids--80 percent--doing reading and math below grade level; 2 years
later 74 percent doing reading and math at or above grade level--in 2
years. We can turn these things around. And they didn't do it by taking
limited public funds with the largest number of schoolchildren in
history and siphoning it off into a voucher program. They did it with
high standards and accountability.
If you want more choice for parents, pass a statewide school choice
plan, have more public charter schools. But we don't have enough money
in education now. We've got more kids than ever before. We've got all
these facilities that are inadequate. We've got all these schools we
still have to hook up to the Internet. We need more preschool and after-
school programs. And I'm telling you, the Gore plan is what we've been trying to build on. Just make the
money accountable. Say, ``Okay, we'll give you the money, but you've got
to identify the failing schools and turn them around or put them under
new management. You don't have to put up with schools that don't work.''
That's what the teachers want. That's what the good principals want. And
that's the right thing to do.
We have a different human rights policy. We're for employment
nondiscrimination. We're for a hate crimes bill. We're for one America.
We have a different health care policy. We're for a real Patients' Bill
of Rights and a real Medicare drug program.
Now, if you want these things, and you want to achieve these big
goals, you've got to make the right decision. What Debbie told you was right. Look, this is the first time in 26
years I haven't been on the ballot, and most days I'm okay about it.
[Laughter] I tell everybody; my party has a new leader; my family has a new candidate; my new official title is Cheerleader in Chief.
But I have loved this job, and I have been honored to serve. But you
have got to know something; you've got to believe me on this. We spent a
lot of time, John and Carolyn and Debbie and Don
Riegle and everybody else that served
with me in the Congress--we spent a lot of time just trying to turn the
ship of state around and get it going back in the right direction and
get America coming together instead of being driven apart. And in my
lifetime, there's never been this much prosperity and promise and
progress.
But anybody that's lived to be 30 years of age or more will tell
you, there's been at least one time in your life when you've made a
mistake, not because times were tough but because they were so good you
quit concentrating. [Laughter] Sometimes it's harder to make a good
decision when times are good than when they're bad. You get lulled
along. You think there's no real consequence. You just sort of feel one
day--one way one day and one way another day.
And you believe stuff like this tax stuff they're saying, based on
the projected surplus. I told somebody the other day, this projected
surplus tickles me. This is like those letters you get in the mail from
Publishers Clearing House. Did you ever get one? Ed McMahon wrote you a
personal letter and told you, ``You may have won $10 million.'' You may
have. Did you go spend the money the next day? If you did, you should
seriously consider voting for the Republicans. But if you didn't--if you
didn't, you'd better stick with us. I'm dead serious. The best stuff is
still out there. When Al Gore says, ``You ain't seen nothing yet,''
that's not just a campaign statement. That's just not something that
sounds good. That is the truth, but we have to make the right decision.
You need this crowd behind you. You need them, all of them.
Now, if you take this Senate race--down deep inside, people in
Michigan know that. Otherwise, with all this money that has been spent
against Debbie, the other fellow would be above 50 percent, and he's not
there yet, not by a good stretch.
So I'm telling you, she can win, and she has to win. Al Gore and Joe Lieberman
have to win. But there are 47 days, and there will be a lot of twists
and turns in this race before it's over. Respect our opponents. Say
they're good people. Say we have honest differences. Tell people, even
though times are good, the best is still out there. Clarify the
differences. Get people to focus. Don't get tired. We'll have a great
victory in November.
Thank you. God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 9:20 p.m. at the Laurel Manor. In his
remarks, he referred to Jennifer M. Granholm, Michigan State attorney
general; Dianne Byrum, candidate for Michigan's Eighth Congressional
District; Representative Debbie Stabenow, candidate for U.S. Senate in
Michigan; Matt Frumin, candidate for Michigan's
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11th Congressional District; Marietta Robinson, candidate for Michigan
State Supreme Court; former Gov. James J. Blanchard of Michigan; former
Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr.; South African Ambassador to the U.S.
Sheila Sisulu; former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; and
Republican Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates Gov. George W.
Bush of Texas and Dick Cheney.