[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[June 30, 2000]
[Pages 1365-1370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Luncheon in 
Englewood, New Jersey
June 30, 2000

    Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Jon. 
Thank you for running. I'm going to say more about it in a moment. I'd 
like to begin by thanking Hilary and 
Orin for having us in their home. What a 
beautiful, beautiful day this is, not too hot. It's been real hot in 
Washington. And I want to thank all of you for coming. Some of you, I 
think, are here because you're Jon's friends. 
Some of you are here because you're good, loyal supporters of the 
national and the New Jersey Democratic efforts. And I hope all of you 
are here because you believe in what's at stake.
    I want to say, I've never had a chance to say this in his district 
before, but I am very impressed and grateful for the work that 
Representative Rothman is doing in the 
House of Representatives, and I think he's great, and I thank you for 
doing it. And I'm glad Bob Janiszewski 
and Ray Lesniak are here. They were for 
me for President when my mother was the only person in America who 
thought I could run. [Laughter] And I lost my voice and couldn't even 
talk, and no one knew who I was. It's very hazardous to lose your voice 
when you have zero name recognition. [Laughter]
    Senator Baer, thank you for being here. 
And Assemblyman Zisa, thank you. And 
Assemblywoman Weinberg, I thought that was

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great about you representing Sharpe James. That 
was really good.
    Reverend McKinney, thank you for the 
prayer. It got me in a good frame of mind. And I thank all of you who 
worked on this event. And I'd like to say, Mr. Mayor, I'm glad to be in Englewood. It's a truly beautiful 
city, and we're delighted to be here. And you've got to forgive Senator 
Torricelli; we've got to pass that bill 
today.
    It's actually quite important, what's going on in the Senate today. 
We have a chance to reach a bipartisan agreement to assist the 
democratic movement and the antidrug movement in Colombia in a way that, 
contrary to what the critics say, does not in any way, shape, or form 
involve America in the civil war down there but gives us a chance to 
save the oldest democracy in Latin America. And most of the cocaine and 
most of the heroin that flows into the bodies of the young people in 
America comes out of Colombia. They have lost control of approximately 
one-third of the land. And you've now got some people down there that 
are willing to risk their lives, and they literally have to risk their 
lives. We've had 500 police officers murdered in the line of duty in the 
last couple of years in Colombia by the drug traffickers and their 
allies in the guerrilla movement. That's, anyway, what they're doing, 
and it's very, very important. And I'm very grateful.
    I'd like to make just a couple of points today. You know, I do have 
a passing interest in that Senate race in New York, and I've got a 
passing interest in this one in New Jersey and in Senator Robb's election in Virginia.
    I think that--people ask me all the time who is going to win. I told 
them, Jon, I thought you were going to win 
early. I told them that you were the nominee; I thought you would be 
Senator. People ask me, and I say I think Hillary's going to win. I do. When Al Gore was 18 points behind in the polls, I said I thought he 
would win. I did then, and I do now.
    But I want to talk about what's underneath that, because that's 
what's really important. Because when you leave here today, people may 
ask you why you came, and you could obviously say that, well, 
Orin harassed you and you wanted to do some 
event--I've got this written down--you were dying to do something that 
was devoid of social cachet. [Laughter] That's why--when I ran for 
President--that reminds me of what President Bush said; he referred to 
me as a Governor of a small southern State. And I was so naive, I 
thought it was a compliment. [Laughter] And I still do.
    So I'm glad you're doing this event devoid of social cachet. Maybe 
you did it because you didn't want Deborah to 
call you any more. [Laughter] But maybe you did it just because you love 
Jon and Joanne, but 
somebody is going to ask you. And as grateful as we are for your money, 
I think it's fair that--I believe that you can do just as much good if 
on every conceivable occasion between now and November you take the 
opportunity to talk to people you know about why you're here, why you 
wrote this check, why you're doing what you're doing.
    And if I might, I'd just like to offer a couple of observations to 
build on the remarks Jon made. And I hope they will be taken somewhat 
seriously since I'm not running for anything. Most days I'm okay about 
it. [Laughter] For the first time since 1974, there is an election 
coming and going I'm not a part of--except I'm becoming the surrogate-
in-chief for Hillary, for her, so she 
can campaign.
    But let me just say, to build on what Jon said--in 1992, when I was 
elected, everybody knew what we had to do. The economy was in the tank. 
All the social trends were going in the wrong direction. Washington was 
divided in a pitched battle, and the Democrats and the Republicans 
seemed to operate according to kind of a rule of combat that went 
something like this, ``I've got an idea. You've got an idea. Let's 
fight. Maybe we'll both get on the evening news.''
    And it's hard--you ask Mr. Rothman 
there what it's like. If he gets in a fight, he can make the news. Even 
the President sometimes can't get on the evening news unless you're in a 
pitched battle. I remember one of the most important days of my 
Presidency, to me personally, was the day I signed the bill creating the 
national service program AmeriCorps for young people. And I knew it was 
a big deal. And we had all these kids in this volunteer program that had 
been a model for what we did march up there with me. And Senator 
Kennedy was there, and I had the pen that 
John Kennedy used to sign the Peace Corps Act.
    And in 4 years we had 150,000 young people serve their country in 
community service in AmeriCorps. It took the Peace Corps over 20 years 
to reach the same number. And yet, the

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visibility of the Peace Corps was greater than the visibility of 
AmeriCorps because the people that night decided this was a good news 
story, what did it belong on the evening news for? So I understand this. 
But it didn't make any sense to me because I thought the country was in 
trouble.
    So we all knew what we had to do. We had to fix the economy, and we 
had to try to change the crime policy, the welfare policy, the education 
policy of the country, and we had to try to have the Government work in 
a different way. And we had to be engaged in the rest of the world in a 
different way.
    And so we brought this whole set of ideas there, Al Gore and I and 
the rest of our crowd, and lo and behold, most of them worked pretty 
well. And I'm very grateful for that. I am profoundly grateful that I 
had the chance to serve. I am so grateful that we've got over 22 million 
new jobs and the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest crime 
rates in 25 years, the lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment 
rates ever recorded, and the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 
years, the lowest poverty rate in 20 years. I'm grateful for that.
    But the issue that we face is, now what? And I guess what I would 
like to say to you is that I believe what a nation does with its 
prosperity is just as stern a test of its judgment, wisdom, and 
character as what a nation does in adversity. There's nobody here today, 
over 30 years old at least, who cannot recall at least one time in your 
life when you made a fairly significant mistake, either personally or 
professionally, not because things were going so badly but because 
things were going so well you thought there was no penalty for the 
failure to concentrate. If you live long enough, you'll make one of 
those mistakes.
    And the thing that really bothers me about this election--I listen 
to people talk about this election--I had a friend of mine from Chicago 
spend the night with me a couple of nights ago. He's 41 years old. He 
wasn't particularly political before I became President. We got to be 
very close. None of his friends are politicians; they're not active in 
the Democratic or the Republican Party. He's just tearing his hair out. 
He says, ``All these guys I run around with, they don't think there's 
very much difference between these two guys. And they sort of say, they 
seem kind of nice, maybe--it's like your fraternity had it for 8 years, 
maybe we should give it to their fraternity for a while.''
    So the first and most important thing I want to say to you is, this 
is a big election. I've been following this stuff since I was a boy. Not 
in my lifetime, not one time, have the American people ever had this 
much economic progress, this much social progress, this much national 
self-confidence with so little internal crisis or external threat. We 
don't know whether this will come along again in 50 years. We don't know 
if this will come along again in 100 years. And the pastor there will 
tell you that nothing lasts forever.
    Now, when you're in a tight, and I've been in a few in my life, that 
kind of keeps you going--thank God this can't last forever. [Laughter] 
But neither does anything good. Nothing lasts forever. And I submit to 
you that those of us who are of age will be judged and held at quite a 
high standard on the question of what we do with our prosperity, what we 
do with this magic moment? That's what this whole election ought to be 
about.
    And I believe the reason that Jon has done so well is that people 
say, here's this guy that could be off making a gazillion dollars and 
laying around 3 days a week, and he actually cares about whether poor 
kids get a decent education and whether parents have a safe place to 
make a home and all that other stuff. I mean, this is a big deal.
    What do you think we should do with this prosperity? Now, in 
elections, very often the answer depends upon what the question is. 
We've got a leg up if people really believe that's the question and if 
they understand what a very, very serious moment this is for our 
country--first one I want to make.
    The second thing I would like to tell you is that we don't have to 
run a negative campaign this year. We can just run a campaign on the 
issues. I think for 20 years we've had too many of these really hateful 
campaigns where one candidate would be trying to convince the voters 
that his or her opponent was just one notch above a car thief. You've 
seen a lot of those, and maybe participated in a few. But this year 
we've got a gift here. We can say, look, let's assume, from the 
Presidential candidates to the Senate candidates to the House 
candidates, everybody is honorable and good. And let's just look at 
where we differ on what we should do with our future. And I'm just here 
to tell

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you, there are real differences, and I'll just mention a couple.
    First of all, on economic policy. The Republican--Governor 
Bush and the Republican congressional program 
ought to have a lot of appeal in New Jersey because there are a lot of 
wealthier people here. And basically, what they say is, ``Vote for me, 
and I'll give you a $1.5 trillion tax cut, 3 times what the Democrats 
will give you--more than 3 times. And I'll partially privatize Social 
Security, and you will do well with that.'' But you should know that 
when you do that, all of us who might take our 2 percent out, somebody's 
got to fill that up to keep this program from going broke. So, that will 
cost another $1 trillion over the next decade. But it sounds good.
    Their message is, ``You couldn't mess this economy up with a stick 
of dynamite. Nobody's going to mess it up; it's on automatic. 
Information technology is surging ahead. Biomedical technology is 
surging ahead. This thing is rocking along. Nobody can mess this economy 
up. Vote for me, and I'll give you your money back.'' That's basically 
their message.
    Our message is, we don't think that this economy happened by 
accident. We think it happened by prudence and discipline and vision. 
And we'll give a more modest tax cut, keep paying down the debt to save 
Medicare and Social Security for the baby boomers, and we think we've 
got to invest in America--Mr. Corzine's theme. 
We've got to give all our kids a world-class education. We've got to 
make sure we can grow the economy and preserve the environment. We've 
got to deal with the health and other challenges that families face. 
There's a whole bunch of investment issues out there.
    Now, their argument is, ``Hey, I'm trying to give you money. Have 
you been listening to me? This is a good economy. I'll try to give you a 
bunch of money.'' That's their argument. Our argument is--well, I'll 
just ask you this. Don't answer out loud but think to yourself. What is 
your projected--do you have an opinion of what your projected income is 
for the next 10 years? Have you thought about that, what you think you 
will actually make in each of the next 10 years? That's what all these 
proposals are based on--you need to know that--our projected income.
    So what do you think your projected income is going to be for 10 
years? Now, what's your level of confidence that that's your projected 
income? How would you feel--let's assume all of you have a level of 
confidence over 50 percent--how would you feel if I asked you to come up 
here right now and sign a contract committing to spend all your 
projected income for the next 10 years? That's what the Republicans are 
asking you to do. And I don't believe I'd have many takers. That's what 
they're asking you to do.
    And let me just point out this: If by continuing to practice 
prudence, we keep interest rates one point lower, that's worth $250 
billion in lower home mortgages alone. That's a $250 billion tax cut 
just for home mortgages. That doesn't count student loans, car loans, 
business loans, and all the economic benefits attendant there. So that's 
a huge issue.
    I think Jon's right. I think we're right. I 
think--and I think we have certain responsibilities to people who 
haven't fully participated in this economic recovery. We've got the 
biggest bunch of school kids in our country's history. They are the most 
diverse group ever. They're our meal ticket to the future, if we can 
prove they can all get a world-class education. These are big issues.
    We differ on a Patients' Bill of Rights. We differ on the Medicare 
drug benefit. We differ on the nature of environmental protection that 
we should have. We differ on so many issues. We differ on whether we 
should take extraordinary efforts to ensure equal pay for women for 
equal work--big issue for our people. The average woman is still working 
17 weeks a year longer for the same income as the average man in 
America, for all of the progress we've made. So there are real 
differences.
    And the last point I want to make is this. It would be interesting 
to see if this is true in New Jersey. Most of the Republicans don't want 
you to know what the differences are, and that's a dead giveaway about 
who would win if the people knew what the differences were.
    And so, here comes Jon, riding in on his 
horse--the guy has never run for office before--actually committing the 
unpardonable sin of saying exactly what he thinks, even when it gets him 
in trouble, and trusting the people to get it right. And what my 
experience is--and I encouraged him one time. I knew he was getting a 
little weary from the cost as well as the strain of the primary 
campaign, and I said, ``Look, what makes democracy work?'' This is why 
this campaign finance reform issue is important.

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``What makes democracy work? When the people have enough time and enough 
information--and they need both--they nearly always get it right.'' 
Otherwise, why would we still be around here after 200 years? People 
nearly always get it right.
    So this big election, there are real differences. If the voters know 
what they are, I think they will make the right decision.
    I just want to make two final points. I want to say a word for the 
Vice President; then I hope people may ask 
you about that. I just want you to know, I believe I know him better 
than anybody outside his family now, after 8 years. And there are four 
things I want all of you to know about that, four reasons I think he 
should be elected.
    Number one is, our country has had Vice Presidents who have done 
great things as President: Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry 
Truman. Lyndon Johnson gave us the civil rights legislation and the 
Federal aid to education and Medicare. But our country has never, not in 
over 200 years, never had anybody who made nearly anywhere near as much 
difference in a positive way as Vice President as Al Gore. He is by far the most positively impactful Vice President 
the country ever had. It's not even close. And I've spent a lifetime 
studying the history of my country and the institutions of National 
Government.
    From breaking the tie on the economic plan in '93, to running our 
employment zone programs to bring economic opportunity to people and 
places left behind, to ramming through a telecommunications provision to 
guarantee that the poorest schools in America could be hooked up to the 
Internet--something I learned coming to New Jersey when I saw the 
benefits in some of the schools here--to managing a lot of our relations 
with Russia and Egypt and South Africa, no Vice President ever had 
remotely as much responsibility or done as much good.
    The second thing I want to say to you is, he shares Jon's economic philosophy. 
We don't believe we should go to the American people and say, ``You guys 
figure out your projected net income. Now, let's sign it away for 10 
years right now.'' Because it's all projected; you might get it, and you 
might not. And we don't want to get back into deficits and high interest 
rates and give away all the money we need to be investing in our future.
    The third thing I want to say is this: You need somebody in office--
another argument for Jon--you need somebody in 
office in 2000 that understands the future. Let me just give you a 
couple of examples. You see where we announced the human genome 
sequencing last week? I had to study that stuff for a year just so I'd 
understand what I was saying at the press conference last week. 
[Laughter] It's the most fascinating thing I've ever studied in my life. 
And I really do believe that those of you who are young enough to still 
be having kids, I think that it won't be 10 years before American 
children will be born with a life expectancy of somewhere around 90 
years. Within 20 years, I'm confident American children will be born 
with a life expectancy of 100 years. Anybody who lives to be 65 today 
has a life expectancy of 83. It's going to change everything.
    But people will know that all this genetic information is somewhere 
in somebody's computer. Don't you think that you ought to have the right 
to say yes before somebody gets to it, and that people shouldn't be 
denied jobs or promotions or health insurance because of their genetic 
profile? And don't you think we ought to have somebody in the White 
House that really understands this stuff?
    Or, you take the Internet. When I became President, there were 50--
50 websites on the World Wide Web in 1993. There are now 10 million--50 
to 10 million. Now, Al Gore understands 
this as well as anybody in American life. All of our medical and 
economic information is going to be on somebody's computer. Don't you 
think you ought to have to say yes before somebody gets your financial 
information or your medical records, and don't you think somebody ought 
to be President who understands it?
    And the last thing I'll say--and it's the thing that I really love 
about Jon, because life's been good to him, and 
he didn't go around being sanctimonious about being successful. I can't 
stand these successful people who want you to believe they were born in 
a log cabin they built themselves. And you've all heard a lot of that.
    We need a President and we need a Congress who understand the 
future, who will keep the economic prosperity going, but who also want 
us all to go along for the ride. That's what the hate crime legislation 
is all about. That's what the employment nondiscrimination is

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about. That's what the appointments to the Supreme Court are about. 
Twenty cases decided this term by one vote--20 by one vote--20. And the 
next President gets between two and four judges. So whichever one of 
them gets elected, it's going to change the balance of the Supreme 
Court. For you to pretend otherwise is to be living in a dream world.
    And I think we ought to have a President and I think we ought to 
have a Senator from New Jersey and New York and a Senate and a House 
that think we all ought to go along for the ride. When you really strip 
it all away, that's basically why most of us are Democrats. We know 
we're lucky.
    Shoot, man, people ask me, in the toughest days of my Presidency, 
weren't there days that I regretted it? I said, regretted it? Are you 
kidding me? Another turn in the road and I could be home doing $200 
divorces and deeds and stuff. [Laughter] This is the cost of doing 
business. The Republicans have decided to impose a certain cost of doing 
business if you want to be a Democrat and be President. I wouldn't take 
the world for it. I've had a wonderful time.
    But I'll tell you what, on the good days and the bad days, I wanted 
everybody along for the ride. And that's another thing about this 
prosperity, we need to take everybody along. That's what Jon will do, and that's what Al Gore will do.
    Thank you very much.

 Note:  The President spoke at 2:47 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to Jon Corzine, candidate for U.S. Senate in New 
Jersey, and his wife, Joanne; luncheon hosts Hilary Bollon and Orin 
Kramer; Hudson County Executive Robert C. Janiszewski; State Senators 
Raymond J. Lesniak and Byron M. Baer; State Assemblyman Charles (Ken) 
Zisa; State Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg and Mayor Sharpe James of 
Newark, NJ, Corzine campaign cochairs; Rev. Calvin McKinney, president, 
General Baptist Convention of New Jersey; Mayor Paul Fader of Englewood; 
Senator Robert G. Torricelli, chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign 
Committee; luncheon cochair Deborah Lynch; and Republican Presidential 
candidate Gov. George W. Bush of Texas.