[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[October 10, 2000]
[Pages 2117-2121]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Reception for Representative Joseph Crowley
October 10, 2000
Thank you. Let me say, first of all, I am delighted to be here for
many reasons. First of all because I love Rosa,
because--and Rosa does that sort of born-in-a-log-cabin routine better
than anybody I know--[laughter]--what she neglected to tell you was that
her mother, the seamstress, is the best
politician I have ever met in my life to this day--[laughter]--and
because her husband, the man who shares this house, Stan, had so much to do with my becoming President in 1992
and is now, tonight in Florida working with the Vice President as he prepares for this important debate, and has
also helped my friends Tony Blair and Prime
Minister Barak and other good people around the
world, and because Rosa's been there for 8 years now with me working on
many of the things that have helped turn our country around.
I'm here because I really like Joe Crowley, because he's been real
good to Hillary, which means a lot to
me--[laughter]--and because--I'll tell you another Queens story, because
I love Queens. And in early '92, you know, we were pretty desperate to
get press in early '92. I mean, here I was from Arkansas; nobody in New
York knew who I was.
Harold Ickes says, ``We're going to meet with the Queens Democratic
Committee, and Tom Manton is for you, and I think they will endorse
you.'' I said, ``They're going to endorse me?'' I was like fifth in name
recognition in New Hampshire at the time. And he said, ``Yes. Yes, it's
going to happen. But we're going to take a subway out there,'' which I
thought was great. I like to ride the subway.
So we took a subway there, and there was this typically passive New
York press person with us with a camera, in my face, lights everywhere,
and all these people who had been sort of uprooted on the subway
watching the filming of this thing, thinking, ``Why are they taking that
guy's picture? Who is this strange person they've got this camera on?''
So then we walked down this beautiful tree-lined street, and we
walked up some stairs. I remember--whoever--the Queens Democratic
meeting was on the second floor of some building, and all of a sudden
they introduced me, and I was terrified, right. So I'm walking down the
aisle, and I passed this African-American guy, and he reaches out and
puts his arm around me and says, ``Son, don't worry about it. I was born
in Hope, Arkansas, too, and we're going to be for you.'' [Laughter] True
story. So the rest is history, as they say. So I'm deeply indebted.
I am grateful to all these Members of the House of Representatives
who are here. Whatever success I've had as President would have been
literally impossible without them, both in
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the majority and maybe especially in the minority, because virtually
every good thing that's happened in Congress in the last 6 years would
not have happened if they hadn't known for sure that my veto would be
upheld. That was the only incentive to work with us to make constructive
progress. So if it hadn't been for them, it wouldn't have happened.
Now, I just would like to say a couple of things. First of all, I do
feel an enormous amount of gratitude for what's happened in the last 8
years. This last week has been an emotional roller coaster for me
because we had that stunning election in Serbia, validating the stand
the United States took, year-in and year-out, when it was very
unpopular, sometimes in our country, for the freedom of the people of
Bosnia, the freedom of the people of Kosovo, the principle of democracy
in Serbia, the idea that Europe ought to be united and democratic and
whole. And I was so happy.
And we had about 30 minutes to celebrate before all hell broke loose
in the Middle East, where I have worked as hard as I could to find a
just and lasting peace. And Joe, we talked a lot about Ireland tonight.
Let me just say briefly on Ireland first, I'm very pleased about how far
we have come. We are not out of the woods yet. We have still got to get
this police issue right. It's got to be done right, but I hope that
people on both sides and particularly some of the people on the other
side--for most of you--who have been talking about, well, maybe they
would bag the Good Friday agreement, I hope they have been watching what
is going on in the Middle East, and I hope they understand how easy it
is to let these things get away from you.
Keep in mind, these people are represented by teams that sat at Camp
David, and they've been working together for 7 years. They know each
other's children. They know how many grandchildren they have. And still,
think about how quickly it slipped.
So I say to all of you interested in peace in Ireland, I'll keep
working on it, and you keep working on it, and just remind them that
it's a fragile thing. And sometimes you're most vulnerable in life when
you think you're least vulnerable. We cannot take our good fortune for
granted.
Now, on the Middle East, I don't want to say too much except we had
a pretty good day today. And we, our whole American team, we've been
working like crazy for the last several days trying to help do our part.
I just have to believe they're not going to let this thing spin out of
control.
But there are lots of things going on there, including things that
are not apparent, developments in other countries that are having an
impact on this. So we're working as hard as we know how to end the
violence and get the folks back to the negotiating table, and I hope you
will all say a prayer for that.
Let me just say a word about this election. No one in America
understands as clearly as I do how important this election is, not just
for President and Vice President but every Senate seat, every House
seat--nobody.
And since we're in the business of being humble here, because you
realize how quickly things can change, it's important to recognize
that--I'm absolutely convinced the only danger we have in this election
is if people will think the consequences of their vote are not
particularly significant, and our crowd may not go, and some may not
understand what the consequences are. But I'm telling you, we have never
had a better chance to literally imagine the future we want to build for
our kids and just go do it. But if we're careless with it, it could get
away from us.
So you've got these huge economic differences. Rosa mentioned that.
You know, I just got back from Jay Rockefeller's house. At least one of you was there with me tonight. And
Jay Rockefeller, you know, he pays those taxes George Bush wants to cut. [Laughter] I told old Jay tonight, I said,
``You know,'' I said, ``I just came over here because I'm busy in
Washington, and I felt the need to go on vacation. And I really wanted
to see Versailles, and I couldn't, so I thought I would come to your
house instead--next best thing.'' [Laughter]
But I want you to think about it. I mean they want a tax cut that's
way bigger than the one our side wants. We want to have as much as we
think we can afford to pay for college education, long-term care if
somebody in your family is sick, child care, retirement savings. But we
want to save something to invest in education and health care, and we
want to keep paying down the debt.
Now, this is an interesting juxtaposition. The Democratic Party is
now the fiscally conservative party in America and has been for some
time. Why? I must say, the first person I ever heard
[[Page 2119]]
argue this case was former Congressman Joe Kennedy from Boston. But it's
true. If you pay down the debt and you keep interest rates lower, that
does more to help lower income working people and middle-class people
than anything else, because it grows the economy quicker; it gets labor
markets tighter; it raises wages at the low end, creates more jobs
there; and it spreads the benefits broadly.
Now, if they get their way, you cannot cut taxes as much as they say
they're going to, partially privatize Social Security, which costs
another $1 trillion--something they never talk about. Although I was
proud to see the Governor acknowledge that in the last debate--said--
``Well, where are you going to get the money?'' He said, ``Out of the
surplus.''
So if you have a $1.6 trillion to $9 trillion tax cut and a $1
trillion Social Security privatization program and then you've got all
these other spending programs they promise, you're back in deficit
again.
I believe that the Gore/
Lieberman economic plan, which the
Democrats broadly support, would keep interest rates about a percent
lower over a decade, and I believe that's about $390 billion in lower
home mortgages, $30 billion in lower car payments, $15 billion in lower
college loan payments, not to mention lower credit card payments, lower
business loan costs, and higher growth. So we've got a big choice here.
You know, there are still neighborhoods in New York, in New York
City and in upstate New York, in Buffalo, in Rochester, in other places
that have not fully participated in this economic recovery yet. One of
the good bipartisan things we're trying to do is to pass this new
markets initiative that all the New York delegations have been so
helpful on, that Speaker Hastert and I
have worked on. But in order for it to work, the overall economy has to
be working. In order for it to be attractive for us to give extra
incentives to people with money to invest in the areas that aren't
growing, the overall economy's got to be working.
This is a huge deal. It may be the biggest difference. And you've
got to make sure people know that between now and the election. David
Bonior, he's actually--he's got a race out
there in Michigan. He lives in a competitive district. There's no way in
the world he wouldn't win with the biggest percentage of the vote he has
ever had if the people of his district clearly understood the difference
in what their economic plan would do and what ours would do for their
long-term welfare.
I could go through the education issue, the health care issue. You
know, we're for the Patients' Bill of Rights, and they aren't. And if
you want to know why, look at the Medicare budget they voted out today.
We're trying to put some money back in the Medicare program. We
actually cut it too much in the Balanced Budget Act of '97. We want to
see it fairly distributed. We want to take care of the hospitals, the
urban hospitals, the rural hospitals, the teaching hospitals. We want to
take care of the nursing homes and the community providers.
Fifty-five percent in their budget goes to the HMO's, the same
people they killed the Patients' Bill of Rights for--big difference
here. The American people need to know that.
The prescription drug plan--Joe's been active in this, and Rosa
talked about it. I'm so glad about this. This business of being able to
go to Canada and buy the drugs, they tried to water that down. They have
fooled with it a little bit--considerably.
But do you ever wonder what this prescription drug deal is all
about? Do you really know why we're fighting with them? Here's the deal.
Here's the real deal on prescriptions. The drug companies aren't for a
Medicare prescription drug program that all seniors can voluntarily buy
into.
Now, that doesn't make any sense, does it? Did you ever see anybody
that's in business that didn't want more customers? Did you ever meet a
politician that didn't want more votes? Right? Did you ever meet a car
salesman that didn't want to sell more cars? Did you ever see anybody
running a media empire that didn't want their audience share to go up?
Here's why. Here's the deal. You need to know. Why are drugs cheaper
in Canada than they are in America, even though they're made in America?
Why are they cheaper in Europe, even though they're made in America?
Because it costs a lot of money to develop these drugs, then they spend
a lot of money advertising them, but America is the only country in the
world that doesn't have price controls.
So if they develop some great new drug, they've got to get us to
pay, all of us, all the money they put in, in development and
advertising. Once they do that, it doesn't cost anything to make another
pill. Once you get your
[[Page 2120]]
embedded cost back, another pill is cheap. Then they can afford to sell
them under price controls throughout Europe, Canada, and elsewhere.
So when--I'm saying this so you don't have to demonize the drug
companies, so you'll understand. So they've got a real problem. What is
their problem? They think if Medicare can buy drugs for millions and
millions of seniors who need them, Medicare will acquire so much market
power--they know this is not price fixing; this ain't close to price
fixing--but we'll have a big buyer. And they know Medicare will acquire
so much market power that maybe they will be able to get American
seniors drugs made in America almost as cheap as they can get them in
Canada. And they're afraid that their profit margins will go down so
much that then they won't have the money they would like to have either
for profits or research or advertising.
Now, that is a real problem for them. But can the answer to their
problem be to keep seniors who need it from getting the medicine they
need? That's my problem. The Republican plan only covers half of the
seniors who need the coverage. And this idea that you can have a private
health insurance policy that people can afford to buy that's worth a
flip is just not true. The insurance companies--I just jumped on the
health insurance companies. Let me brag on them. They have been
perfectly honest. They say there is not an insurance market out there
for prescription drugs that people can afford. That's what they said.
So I'm just telling you this because this is the kind of thing--I
get frustrated because I don't think most people really understand what
the nature of the fight is. You don't have to demonize the drug
companies. Lord knows, I'm glad they're here. They do wonderful work.
They employ tens of thousands of people. I'm proud they're American, and
I would help them solve their problem.
But the answer to their problem cannot be to keep seniors away from
the medicine they need. Now, that's what this is about. And he's out
there, trying to do the right thing. [Laughter] Oh, come on, you're time
and a half my size; don't whine. [Laughter]
Now, wait a minute. This is a big deal. You all have got friends all
over America. You've got people living in these battleground States. I'm
telling you, if people know what the differences are, Senator
Lieberman and Vice President Gore win. We win the House. We pick up at least four,
maybe six, Senate seats if they know.
We are for hate crimes legislation; they're not. They gave us a vote
in the Senate. It turned out it wasn't real. Some of their guys got well
on the vote. It's 57-42 for the hate crimes legislation. But when it
comes time to leave it in the bill, poof! It vanishes. Now, we've got to
find some bill to put it on, and their leadership doesn't want it on any
bill. People need to know that.
You know, there are lots of differences here in terms of our ideas
of one America, in terms of our ideas of health care policy, in terms of
our education policy. I'm just telling you the differences are clear.
Those are just three.
You mentioned gun safety. Did you see that ABC--did anybody see that
ABC special Peter Jennings did on the NRA?
Did you see it? Did you see all those people there, good Americans,
going to these NRA conventions? They're good citizens. And Peter
Jennings going around interviewing them, saying, ``Do you really believe
that Al Gore will take your gun away?''
``Absolutely; I do. Bill Clinton and Al Gore, they're a threat to our
second amendment rights.''
There's not one living, breathing American that missed a day in the
deer woods because of me. But 500,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers
could not get handguns because of the Brady bill. So, the program says
that when Mr. LaPierre said that I wanted those people to die in some of
those horrible shootings so then I would have some political basis to
take people's guns away, their membership went up 200,000 according to
the ABC--[inaudible].
Now, let me tell you something. The American people are smart and
solid, and they nearly always get it right if they've got enough
information and enough time. But you know, that's just not true. And
it's not true that Al Gore proposed to take
their guns away. What he said was, ``If you're going to buy a handgun,
you ought to have a license like you have to drive a car, that proves
that you don't have a criminal background, you've got enough sense to
use a gun safely.'' That's the radical idea he proposed.
Will any one of those NRA people lose their guns? Not unless they're
crooks and shouldn't have it and present a danger to society. So I'm
just imploring you. You came here tonight. Every one of you are
politically active; you all show up. Every one of you know scores of
people that will never come to a deal like this,
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not a time in their lives. But they will vote. They want to believe they
are good citizens. They are good citizens. They're patriotic. They love
their country. They'll vote. But if they don't hear from you, they might
just be getting this stuff over the airwaves.
So I would just say to you, this is a profoundly important election.
Just remember the Middle East: One day we're about to make peace; the
next day we're trying to keep people from killing each other. You cannot
predict the future. Life is a funny thing.
We may not have a time like this again in our lifetime. And as a
nation, we will not forgive ourselves if we squander this opportunity.
The public needs to clearly understand the differences, the choices, the
consequences. I am completely comfortable with whatever decision they
make if they do.
So that's the only thing I would like to ask you to do. Think of
everybody you know, anywhere in this great country, between now and the
election, and every single day, for the next however many weeks we've
got--5 weeks and some odd days--take some time to make sure that they
understand the differences, the choices, the consequences. And we'll
have some more people like Joe Crowley in the Congress and a great
celebration in the Presidential race on election eve.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. at a private residence. In his
remarks, he referred to reception hosts Representative Rosa DeLauro, her
husband Stanley Greenburg, and her mother, Luisa DeLauro, member, New
Haven, CT, Board of Aldermen; Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United
Kingdom; Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; former Deputy White House
Chief of Staff Harold Ickes; Queens County Democratic Organization Chair
Thomas J. Manton; Republican Presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush
of Texas; ABC News anchor Peter Jennings; and National Rifle Association
Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. Representative Joseph Crowley
was a candidate for Congress in New York's Seventh Congressional
District.