[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[July 28, 2000]
[Pages 1504-1508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Reception in 
Boston, Massachusetts
July 28, 2000

    Thank you very much. First, I want to thank Bob and Elaine, and Tess and Shane, who were with me a 
few moments ago, asking me questions. Where did Shane go? [Laughter] He 
probably thinks he's heard this speech before. [Laughter]
    And I want to thank them, as Dick 
did, for the example they've set for all of us in their generosity and 
their giving. This year their taking off is only the latest example of a 
lifetime commitment to thinking about other people and drawing meaning 
from their lives by helping other people to have more meaning in theirs.
    I want to thank all the Members of the House who are here; my good 
friend Joe Moakley. I always tell 
everybody, Joe is Hillary's favorite 
Congressman. She thinks that Joe Moakley will be waiting for her in 
heaven when she dies--[laughter]--thinks he'll be the gatekeeper there. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank Patrick Kennedy for a 
magnificent job as the head of our Congressional Campaign Committee. We 
just went to Barrington, Rhode Island, today, before we came here, for 
an event for Patrick. There were several hundred people there, including 
his father and Senator Reed. I think he's all right. They haven't been able to find 
anybody to run against him yet--[laughter]--so I believe he'll survive.
    I want to thank Congressman Markey for 
his leadership in the Congress and his friendship to me over these 7\1/
2\, 8 years. And Congressman Capuano, I 
thank him for running when Joe Kennedy left the House and for his service. And most of all, I 
want to thank Dick Gephardt, who never 
got dispirited after we lost the House in '94, understood quite clearly 
that we lost it because we did the right things and the American people 
couldn't have known by 1994 whether we were right or not. They had been 
told for 12 years that there was such a thing as a free lunch while we 
quadrupled the debt, got ourselves in a deep hole, had high interest 
rates and a weak economy.
    And we had to change. We took a cold shower, and we paid for it in 
'94. We also paid for it because we passed the Brady bill and the 
assault weapons ban. And we lost a dozen rural Democrats because the NRA 
convinced them we were going to end hunting and sport shooting and 
everything legal that ever happened. And by '96, they knew that they 
hadn't been told the truth, and we began our long climb back.
    And in '98, thanks to Dick's strong 
leadership and the fact that we had a clear and unambiguous message, we 
picked up five more seats in the House of Representatives. And you 
should know, it was only the second time in the 20th century that the 
President's party had picked up seats in the House in mid-term but the 
first time since 1822 that it had happened in the sixth year of a 
President's term. And that is a great tribute to Dick Gephardt, to his 
leadership, to the trust and confidence that the men and women in our 
caucus in the House of Representatives have in him.
    I said to myself, when he said he 
wanted to be like Tip O'Neill when he grew up, I wonder how many places 
outside Boston he's given that speech? [Laughter]
    I can tell you this, I believe he 
will be the Speaker after these elections. And no one has ever worked 
harder, been more well- prepared, had better values, or deserved it 
more. And it has been an enormous honor for me to work with him, and I 
only hope when I leave town, he'll be holding the gavel, and I think he 
will. And I thank you for being here.
    I told the people in Rhode Island today, and I will say again to 
you, I wish I could spend the rest of my Presidency only in places where 
I got over 60 percent of the vote. [Laughter] Then I would get to spend 
more time in Massachusetts.
    Dick already mentioned Alan Solomont 
and the Schusters and so many others of you who have helped me over the 
years. I am very grateful to all of you, grateful for what you have been 
to Hillary and to me and to Al and Tipper Gore.
    But I just want to take a couple of minutes to talk about the 
future. I think the single, most important issue in this election is, 
what do we intend to make of this moment of prosperity? What are the 
Sagers making of their moment

[[Page 1505]]

of prosperity? They're going around the world and helping other people. 
What are we going to do as a nation to do that?
    I think, then, what we have to do is to make sure, first, that we 
answer it to our own satisfaction and, secondly, that we make sure that 
the American people believe that's what the election is about, and 
thirdly, they've got to know what the differences are between the 
two candidates 
for President and the House candidates and the Senate candidates.
    I cannot even begin to convey the depth of my conviction about the 
importance of this election. It is every bit as important, maybe more 
important, than the 1992 election. Everybody knew then we had to change. 
The country was in the ditch. We were in trouble economically. We were 
divided socially. We had no clear mission of our responsibilities around 
the world that was kind of comprehensive. And the politics of 
Washington, DC, was like watching, I don't know, ``Wayne's World'' or 
something--[laughter]--to most of us who lived out here in the world, 
the real world.
    So we've been busy turning it around, and I'm very grateful for the 
shape the country's in now, that almost all social indicators are going 
in the right direction, that we've got the strongest economy in history, 
that we've been a force for peace and freedom throughout the world. I am 
grateful. But all the best stuff is still out there if we make the most 
of this moment of prosperity.
    And in order to do it, it is necessary for the American people to 
choose. That's what an election is. It's basically, democracy is handed 
back over to the bosses for a day, and you choose. And in order to 
choose wisely, you have to know what the differences are. And I've got 
this little mantra I tell everybody all the time. It says, only three 
things you really need to know about this election: One is, it's 
profoundly important; two is, there are big differences; three is, only 
the Democrats want you to know what the differences are. What does that 
tell you about who you ought to vote for?
    And it's really true. After giving us 20 years or more of the 
harshest kind of mean personal attacks--right up through this Republican 
Presidential primary, I might add, where they attempted--the people who 
won attempted to perform reverse plastic surgery on Senator McCain--they did that. Now all of a sudden, they want to 
be sweetness and light. They say they want a positive campaign. But what 
they define as a negative campaign is if we tell people how they voted. 
That's their definition of a negative campaign. [Laughter] 
Hillary has already had two ads run 
against her in New York saying, you know, ``Oh, she's being so mean. 
She's telling people how I voted. How dare her do that?'' [Laughter]
    Now, we're all laughing. But you know I'm telling the truth, don't 
you? They're trying to blur the differences. We have to clarify them. 
Why? Because that's what elections are about; they are choices. And we 
may never have another chance like this to build the future of our 
dreams for our kids.
    And there are choices. I'll just tell you what some of them are. I'm 
convinced, first of all, there is this huge economic choice. They have 
already passed a trillion dollars' worth of tax cuts, and they're going 
to Philadelphia to advocate another, what, $1.4 trillion or something, 
all of the projected surplus and then some. Now, they're doing it in 
salami tactics so you don't know this. And they've got a good argument. 
``We've got this surplus. We're going to give it back to you. It's your 
money, and we're prosperous, and we'll give it back to you.''
    Our argument's more complicated. Our argument is, ``Well, we can't 
give it all back to you because, number one, we don't have it yet; the 
surplus hasn't materialized. So we want to give about 25 percent of what 
they do, but 80 percent of the people will get more money out of ours 
than theirs.'' Most of you in this room tonight wouldn't, but most of 
the American people would. And we've got to save some, because we've got 
to invest in education, in health care, in research and technology, and 
the environment. And we have responsibilities around the world that we 
have to fulfill and not just defense responsibilities--responsibilities 
to help alleviate the burdens of the poorest people around the world and 
deal with a lot of the problems around the world.
    And so we have to save some of this money, because we need to invest 
in our future because we don't have it yet. But our tax cuts are good. 
They're just smaller and better targeted toward education and child care 
and lower income working people with a lot of kids, toward long-term 
care and saving for retirement. You see, it takes me longer to make our 
side.
    But here's what I'd like to tell you about it. Did you ever get one 
of those letters from

[[Page 1506]]

Publishers Sweepstakes in the mail, Ed McMahon letters, ``You may have 
won $10 million''? Well, if you ever got one of those letters and you 
went out the very next day and spent that $10 million, you should 
support the Republicans. [Laughter] But if you didn't, you had better 
help Dick Gephardt and the Democrats and 
stick with us, and we'll keep this economy going. [Applause] Thank you.
    Now, we're all laughing. This is a profoundly serious issue. It's 
not like we hadn't had any experience. We tried it their way for 12 
years; we tried it our way for 8 years. We had the lowest minority 
unemployment rate in history, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 
years, the lowest rate of poverty among single-parent households in 45 
years, the highest homeownership in history, 22 million jobs. Look, this 
is not rocket science. We tried it their way.
    And in a very nice way, a little slice here, a little slice there, 
they're saying, ``Let's try it again. Remember when we told you the 
Government was bad; it was your money; and we're going to give it all 
back to you? Let's try it again.'' The country has been in good shape so 
long that a lot of voters have forgotten what it was like when we 
started here. This is very important.
    The second thing you need to know is that we just have a totally 
different philosophy about how society ought to work. We believe that we 
are interdependent, that we have mutual responsibilities to one another. 
That's why we're for the Brady bill, and the previous Republican 
President vetoed it. That's why we were for the family and medical leave 
bill, and the previous Republican President vetoed it.
    That's why we want to--right now--that's why we wanted to ban 
assault weapons and the congressional majority now, they were all 
against that. It's why we're for a Patients' Bill of Rights, and they're 
against it. Why we're for Medicare prescription drugs for all the people 
in the country, the seniors that need it, and they're not for that kind 
of program. It's why we believe we can grow the economy and improve the 
environment. And basically, they don't believe that. They don't approve 
of a lot of the environmental things that I've done. And their 
nominee promised that one of the things he'd 
do if he got elected President is to reverse my order creating 43 
million roadless acres in the national forests. So these are important 
issues.
    Now, if you want to reverse our environmental policy and if you want 
to go in that direction, then you should do it. But you shouldn't let a 
single soul you know anywhere in America--I know I'm in Massachusetts 
now, but you have got a lot of friends around the country--you shouldn't 
let anybody that you know cast an unknowing vote. If the American 
people--my objective in every race I ever ran--and I guess I've run all 
the ones I'm going to now--[laughter]--but my objective in every race I 
ever ran was to make sure everyone who voted against me knew exactly 
what he or she was doing, because I figured if everyone who voted 
against me knew exactly what he or she was doing, I could have no 
complaint. That's democracy. If I lost, then the people had made a wise 
and considered choice, and I just lost. And if I won, I knew I had a 
mandate to act. Their objective in this election is to obscure the 
differences so that people do not understand the implications of the 
choice.
    You never hear them talking about what they said in the primary, do 
you? You never hear any of that again. You never hear them explaining 
that, yes, we're going to give you this big tax cut, but it's going to 
take away all the projected surplus.
    But you must understand that there are choices here and consequences 
to those choices. The next President is going to have between two and 
four appointments to the United States Supreme Court. Both candidates on the Republican 
ticket believe  Roe  v.  Wade  should be repealed. If you think it 
should be repealed, you should vote for them. If you don't, you should 
think about it.
    But you shouldn't listen to all this sort of syrupy talk about how 
somehow they will--listen, I'm not saying bad things about them, 
personally. I think their convictions are there. I think this is an 
honest disagreement. I don't believe in the kind of politics they 
spawned for 20 years trying to convince people your opponents are just 
one step above car thieves. I don't believe that. I think these are 
honest differences. But do not be abused. When people get this job I 
just had for 8 years, they pretty much do what they say they're going to 
do in the campaign, and they try to do what they think is right.
    Now, just because they're not talking about it doesn't mean they've 
changed. So you have to consider these things.

[[Page 1507]]

    The Republican Senate defeated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. I 
was the first world leader to sign it, and they beat it. The first 
treaty that's been beat since the treaty taking America into the League 
of Nations at the end of World War I--unbelievable. Everybody in the 
world thought we had slipped a gasket. And a lot of the pundits said, 
``Well, they just didn't want to give Bill Clinton the victory.'' It's 
not my victory to protect our children from the dangers of nuclear war, 
number one. And number two, I'm telling you, a lot of those people don't 
believe in arms control. I'm not saying anything bad about them. They're 
good people. They honestly don't believe in it. But they won't be out 
there telling you about it. I bet you won't hear a speech at the 
Republican National Convention about how terrible the Comprehensive Test 
Ban Treaty is. But they beat it.
    So what you have to decide is what you want America to be like. I 
know you're all here supporting these folks, but frankly, your support 
is not good enough. You've got to go out and talk to everybody you can 
reach between now and November and not just in Massachusetts but in 
States we might win or we might not win and congressional districts we 
might win or we might not win, and tell them this.
    And the last thing I want to say is this, the most important thing 
of all. The longer I live, the more convinced I am that the most 
important thing in any great society is the sense of community, of 
interdependence that people have, the sense of mutual responsibility 
they have. I don't think it's possible to enjoy real freedom without 
responsibilities to the people in your community and without a sense of 
responsibility to the larger world community, increasingly.
    We're for the hate crimes legislation. Their leadership isn't. We're 
for the employment nondiscrimination legislation. Most of them are 
opposed to it. We want stronger civil rights enforcement. Most of them 
don't.
    The Federal appellate court district with the most African-Americans 
in the entire country is the fourth circuit, comprising North and South 
Carolina. There has never been an African-American on that court, ever. 
I have tried for 7\1/2\ years to appoint one. Jesse Helms said no, and 
all the Republicans said, ``It's fine with me.'' It's never happened. We 
are different.
    We don't have to have a bad campaign. I think we should posit it 
that Governor Bush and Mr. Cheney and all of their candidates are fine, good, decent 
people who just differ with us. But we should not let them get away with 
having this sort of smokescreen to try to play on this era of good 
feelings to convince people that there are no consequences to this 
election. They are big. They are deep, and they are profound.
    And I can tell you, we lost our majority because we did what was 
right for America. There are Republican Congressmen now who will go out 
and campaign for reelection in their districts bragging on all the 
highway money they got or the things they voted for, for the schools or 
this, that, and the other thing. They could have done none of that if 
Democrats alone hadn't passed the economic plan of 1993, which turned 
this whole thing around.
    These people deserve to be in the majority. It will happen if people 
understand it's a big election, there are real differences, and they 
understand what the differences are. We owe that to the kids. We owe 
that to the future. We may never have another time in our lifetime when 
America is in this good a shape. We cannot squander it. And if we build 
on it, the best is still out there.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 6:20 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Robert and Elaine Sager and their 
children, Tess and Shane; Alan D. Solomont, former national finance 
chair, Democratic National Committee; Gerald Schuster, former president, 
and his wife, Elaine, director of issues, Continental Wingate Company; 
Republican Presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Vice 
Presidential candidate Dick Cheney; and Ed McMahon, Publishers Clearing 
House Sweepstakes spokesperson.

[[Page 1508]]