[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[October 25, 2000]
[Pages 2318-2321]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Representative Gregory W. Meeks in New York City
October 25, 2000

    Thank you very much. Thank you. Let me say, first of all, I am 
delighted to be here with Greg and Simone-Marie and their beautiful daughter. Chelsea and I were glad to come by, remembering when Chelsea 
was that age. Didn't she do a good job of sitting through her daddy's 
speech? I thought it was fabulous. [Laughter] Right in the middle of the 
speech, she was

[[Page 2319]]

looking at him. She said, ``Daddy.'' So your name recognition is high 
where it needs to be. [Laughter]
    I am honored today by the presence of the Manhattan Borough 
president, Virginia Fields, and 
Assemblywoman Vivian Cook and Senator Malcolm 
Smith and our members of the council, 
Archie Spigner, Tom White, and Juanita Watkins. Let's 
give them all a big hand. [Applause] Thank you for being here.
    I feel a great deal of gratitude today, and every day these days--
I'm very grateful to the people of New York for being so good to me and 
Hillary and Al and Tipper Gore, for your support in 1992 and 1996. I'm 
very grateful for Greg Meeks. He is an outstanding Congressman. He has 
supported our economic initiatives, our education initiatives. He's been 
a real champion for building one America, and I think he has a brilliant 
and limitless future in the House of Representatives.
    Let me say to all of you, I know whenever I do an event like this, 
in the parlance of my faith, I'm always preaching to the saved, or you 
wouldn't be here. But I think that it's important in the last 2 weeks of 
this election that we reach out to other people, to tell them how 
important it is to vote and what is at stake here.
    I have, as you know, more than a passing interest in the elections 
in New York this year--[laughter]--because Hillary is running for the Senate and because we now have a 
home here, and I want it to be the leader of the country. New York kind 
of led the way for us over the last 8 years, and I hope it will continue 
to do so.
    And I just would like to tell you that not only as President but as 
a soon-to-be citizen who has spent a lifetime looking at this country, 
studying it, hoping for the best, I think it's important that every 
American understand that there are really three great questions in this 
election. There may be a thousand questions, but there are three that 
override all others for me.
    And if I were sitting alone with any of you in a room and we were 
just having a conversation and there was no press coverage and no 
particular political impact and you asked me what the election was 
about, I would tell you exactly the same thing. I think the first 
question is, how do we keep the prosperity going and extend it to people 
and places that have been left behind? We have the longest economic 
expansion in our history, the highest homeownership in history, 22 
million jobs, the lowest African-American and Latino unemployment ever 
recorded, the lowest female unemployment in 40 years, welfare rolls cut 
in half.
    We have done a lot of important things. The Vice President has run our empowerment zone program, and thanks 
to Charlie Rangel, one of them is here in 
New York. And we've worked hard to increase lending to people who have 
been traditionally shut out of access to capital.
    And I'm grateful for all that. But there's a lot more we can do. We 
can keep the economy going, and we can extend it to people and places 
left behind. But in order to do it, we have to, first of all, build on 
the strategy that got us to this point, fiscal responsibility, investing 
in our people and our future, and selling more of our products and 
services around the world. That's how we got here, and if we want to 
keep making progress, we have to do that.
    Now, only Al Gore, Joe 
Lieberman, Hillary, and Greg Meeks, that team, will make America debt-
free, will keep paying down the debt until we're debt-free in 2012, will 
keep investing more in education and science and technology, in solving 
the energy problem, in the environment, and all the things that we need 
to be investing for our future, and have a tax cut we can afford as 
opposed to one that might be more attractive at election time.
    And this is very important, because on everything else rests our 
ability to continue to build our prosperity. I always say one of the 
things that I wish the American people knew is that if you pay down the 
debt and we keep doing it, we'll keep interest rates lower. One of the 
big reasons that the American economy turned around is, from the moment 
we announced our economic plan after the election in 1992, interest 
rates started to drop; the stock market was building; investment began 
to flow into America at record levels.
    If you pay down the debt, as opposed to spend so much on a tax cut 
and privatization of Social Security and other spending that we'll be 
back in deficit, interest rates will be about a point lower a year for a 
decade. Do you know what that's worth to ordinary people and to people 
who are in high-income groups and to people who serve this lunch today? 
Three hundred ninety billion dollars in home mortgages savings

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over a decade; $30 billion in lower car payments; $15 billion in lower 
college loan payments; lower credit card payments; lower business loans, 
which means more businesses, more jobs, and a better stock market.
    I think it is quite interesting that in the financial capital of 
America, New York City, it's one of the strongest places in the country 
for the Gore/Lieberman ticket, because people understand here that keeping 
interest rates low is more important to prosperity and to wealth 
creation and to keeping the expansion going than having a large tax cut 
in the short run.
    And so I hope you'll tell people that. We've got to keep the 
prosperity going. And if you want to do it, you've got to keep paying 
the debt down and then use what's left for investment in education and 
the future and for an affordable tax cut. And the people who are on that 
program are Al Gore, Joe 
Lieberman, Hillary, and Greg Meeks. That's the first thing.
    The second thing I want to say is, this country is not just 
progressing economically; it's progressing in other ways as well. Just 
for example, the crime rate is at a 26-year low. We have a cleaner 
environment, cleaner air, cleaner water, safer drinking water, 3 times 
as many toxic waste dumps cleaned up in our 8 years than in the previous 
12 years under two administrations of the other party. We have, for the 
first time in a dozen years, the number of people without health 
insurance is going down, thanks to the Children's Health Insurance 
Program, and New York has been one of the best States in the country in 
enrolling kids.
    And the schools are getting better. The dropout rate is down. The 
reading and math scores are up. The college-going rate is at an all-time 
high. We have had, in the last 5 years, a 50 percent increase in 
children taking advanced placement classes, but a 300 percent increase 
in Latino kids and a 500 percent increase in African-American kids 
taking advanced placement classes in high school, so they can go on to 
college. This is a big deal.
    Now, what should we do about this? I think we have to continue to 
invest in what works. And in every one of these areas--I won't go 
through it, but in every one of these areas, if you want to build on 
this progress, you've got to be for Gore/
Lieberman, Hillary, and Greg, because there are differences between the 
two parties, and they would reverse the policies that we've had in 
education and health care, the environment and crime.
    So that's the second big question. I think it's a good thing that 
America's a safer country. I think we ought to have more police on the 
street, not fewer. I think we ought to have more teachers in the 
classroom. I think we ought to modernize our schools. I think we ought 
to have universal access to preschool, after-school, and summer school 
programs for the kids who need it. And I think now we know we can turn 
around failing schools, we ought to give out this Federal money in a way 
that every State has to identify its failing schools and turn them 
around or shut them down and reopen them under new management. That's 
what I think ought to be done.
    You could find lots of exhibits here in New York. I was in Harlem 
the other day, in a grade school that 2 years ago--listen to this--2 
years ago 80 percent of the kids were doing reading and math below grade 
level. Enter new management, new policies, high expectations, 
accountability. Two years later now, same school, same neighborhood, 
same kids, 74 percent of the kids are doing reading and math at or above 
grade level. We can do this. We can make all of our educational system 
work.
    That's the second big question. The third big question, maybe most 
important of all, is whether we're going to continue to build one 
America and be heavily involved in a positive way in the rest of the 
world. What does that mean? To me, it means passing strong hate crimes 
legislation, being against racial profiling, passing employment 
nondiscrimination legislation, passing the immigrant fairness 
legislation that is so important that we're fighting for now in the 
Congress, continuing to support AmeriCorps, our national service 
program, preserving a woman's right to choose, and having a Supreme 
Court that will protect the rights of the American people, not restrict 
the right of Congress to advance our public interests.
    Now, these are big, big issues. And if you believe that it's 
important to keep building one America--and there are differences 
between the parties from top to bottom on these issues--if you agree 
with us, your only choice is Gore/Lieberman, 
Hillary, and Greg.
    So that's my pitch to you. There are three big issues in the 
election: Do you want to keep the prosperity going and build on it, give 
it to people and places left behind? Do you want

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to keep the progress going in the environment, in crime, in education 
and health care, and build on it? Do you want America to continue to be 
a model for harmony, because we're living with each other in an 
increasingly diverse society? And I might say one other thing: Do you 
want us to continue to be involved in the rest of the world?
    I've been working for the last 3 weeks to try to end the violence in 
the Middle East, stop the killing, and get the peace process going. We 
have worked successfully to end ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. And I 
think it's a good thing that we went there, and I think it's a good 
thing that we're there now. Even though we only have 15 percent of the 
troops in Kosovo and Bosnia, we're important to the preservation of 
liberty there.
    I don't know how many ethnic groups there are in New York City that 
have known in the past people who tried to wipe them off the face of the 
Earth, just because of their religion or their ethnic background. And we 
have to be a force for this around the world.
    Why is the United States, for example, historically so committed to 
the preservation of Israel? Because we learned in World War II and we 
learned from the Holocaust survivors and their children and people who 
have come here the terrible price we pay. We've learned from our own 
racial history. We've learned from our own history with the Native 
American tribes what happens when people can be denigrated, dehumanized, 
killed, and walked away from and ignored, just because of who they are.
    So this is a big deal to me. I think building one America and 
standing for these values around the world is the most important thing, 
even more important than keeping our prosperity going, because Americans 
are smart and they're innovative. If they get in a tight, they'll always 
figure out how to solve their problems as long as we have the right 
value system and as long as we believe everyone counts, everyone 
deserves a chance, and we all do better when we help each other.
    So if you want that kind of America, working for that kind of world, 
your choice is Gore/Lieberman, Hillary, and 
Greg. That's my pitch, and I hope you agree.
    Let me just say one other thing. I know when the Vice President 
sometimes says, ``You ain't seen nothing yet,'' people say, ``Well, he's 
running for office. What do you expect?'' But I'm not running for 
anything. For the first time in 26 years, I'm not on the ballot. And I 
can tell you, I believe that. It takes a long time to turn a country 
around. It takes a long time, after a certain order in the world goes 
away--in this case, the order imposed by the cold war--to kind of figure 
out how to make the most of the new set of arrangements. And I've done 
everything I could to turn our country around, to move us forward, and 
to pull us together and have the right approach toward the rest of the 
world, toward Africa and Latin America, as well as Europe and Asia, to 
really reach out and be involved as a force for peace and prosperity. 
And I believe the best stuff is still out there.
    In my lifetime, our Nation has never before enjoyed at once so much 
economic prosperity, social progress, with the absence of domestic 
crisis or foreign threat. This is the chance of a lifetime to build the 
future of our dreams for our children. But in order to do it--none of us 
can imagine what the end results of all these scientific discoveries are 
going to be; none of us can see with absolute clarity what the big new 
problems of the next 10 years or 20 years will be. But we know one 
thing: If we keep the prosperity going, if we build on the social 
progress, if we keep building one America, if we keep reaching out to 
the rest of the world, America is going to do very well, indeed--the 
best chance you may ever have in your lifetime to build the future of 
our dreams for our children. And the answer is, I want you to tell 
everybody you know, Gore/
Lieberman, Hillary, and Greg.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:37 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Battery 
Park. In his remarks, he referred to Representative Meeks' wife, Simone-
Marie; State Senator Malcolm A. Smith; and New York City Councilmembers 
Archie Spigner, Thomas White, Jr., and Juanita E. Watkins. 
Representative Meeks was a candidate for reelection in New York's Sixth 
Congressional District.