[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[November 2, 2000]
[Pages 2422-2423]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



 Remarks on Departure for Los Angeles, California
 November 2, 2000

 Situation in the Middle East

     Good morning. Thank you very much. Let me begin with a word about 
developments in the Middle East. Last night the parties announced that 
they had reached an understanding on how to end the violence based on 
the agreement we reached at Sharm al-Sheikh.
     I hope the parties can move forward to put an end to this violence 
that has caused so much pain on both sides. We know it won't be easy. 
This morning we were reminded once again in Jerusalem that there are 
those who seek to destroy the peace through acts of terror. This cannot 
be permitted to prevail. It is now time for those who believe in peace 
to stand together to stop this violence and to work against the 
terrorists.

 106th Congress

     I wanted all of you to be here today because you've worked so hard 
on our priorities here at home. The Republican leadership of the 106th 
Congress has proven itself unable to finish its work before facing the 
voters. Congressional Republicans are leaving behind a legacy of 
unfinished business on health care, education, economic progress, and 
social justice. Regrettably, this is a Congress that may well be 
remembered for broken promises, lost opportunities, and misplaced 
priorities.
     In contrast, our administration, with congressional Democrats, put 
forward an achievable agenda for America and its families, a real 
Patients' Bill of Rights, expanding health coverage to millions of 
uninsured Americans, a raise in the minimum wage, tax cuts for education 
and retirement, improving our public schools, protecting our 
environment, strengthening Medicare with a voluntary prescription drug 
coverage for all seniors, and a balanced budget that pays off the debt 
by 2012.
     We had a simple strategy to accomplish these goals: heeding the 
wisdom of the American people; reaching out to win bipartisan majorities

[[Page 2423]]

in Congress; and calling for a vote. That's putting progress over 
partisanship. The results should have been a strong record of 
legislative achievement. But time and again, rather than listening to 
the voices of the American people and responding to the bipartisan calls 
within the Congress, the Republican leadership has bowed to the demands 
of special interests.
     On every single issue, we have worked in good faith to craft 
compromises that were good for the American people. And when Democrats 
and Republicans have worked together, we have actually made real 
progress. We won new investments for our inner cities, rural 
communities, and Native American communities, and 79,000 new housing 
vouchers for families climbing their way out of poverty. We increased 
our investment in a clean environment and doubled our funds for land 
conservation. We enacted the largest one-year increase ever requested 
for Veterans Affairs and the largest increase in the history of the 
National Science Foundation. And we met our historic commitment to debt 
relief for developing countries.
     Just last Sunday we reached bipartisan agreement on an education 
budget that would have been a tremendous achievement for our children. 
But under orders from their special interest, the Republican leadership 
canceled the compromise we had reached with the Republican congressional 
negotiators. So unless we keep fighting, there will be no funds for 
school construction, no more progress toward cutting class size by 
hiring 100,000 new qualified teachers, no new investment in teacher 
quality, no new funding to strengthen accountability, turn around 
failing schools, double the number of children served in after-school 
programs. That is wrong. So we must keep working to make it right.
     We built a bipartisan coalition to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid 
by expanding coverage for children with disabilities, Americans moving 
from welfare to work, and pregnant women and children who are legal 
immigrants. But the Republican leadership rejected these proposals in 
favor of a massive give-away to HMO's--tens of billions of dollars 
without taking adequate care of these vulnerable populations or 
adequately compensating the teaching in rural hospitals, home health 
agencies, and other providers who serve our people. Before this year is 
out, we must resolve this matter, finally and fairly.
     The leadership says they didn't have time to complete the budget. 
But they wasted no time in blocking fair treatment for Latino 
immigrants, in blocking commonsense gun safety legislation, in trying to 
stop new worker safety rules, in filing the spending bills--filling the 
spending bills they did pass with political election-year pork.
     One thing should be clear: The lack of progress in this Congress 
was not a failure of bipartisanship. On raising the minimum wage, a real 
Patients' Bill of Rights, hate crimes legislation, campaign finance 
reform, school construction, the new markets legislation for the areas 
still not touched by our prosperity--on every single one of these 
issues, we had bipartisan majorities, Republicans and Democrats, ready 
to pass them. But the Republican leadership and their special interest 
allies, unfortunately, still had the power to kill them.
     It is unfortunate that their leadership failed to deliver on so 
much that was within our grasp. But the fight is not over. The American 
people expect us to finish the job they sent us here to do, and when the 
Republican leadership comes back after the election, I hope we are ready 
to work together--and they are ready to work together--to meet that 
challenge. I am ready. We've done a lot of good, but there's too much 
left undone, too much that a majority of both parties support.
     So thanks for your efforts. Let's go out and let the American 
people have their say, and we'll come back and go to work after the 
election.
     Thank you very much.

  Note:  The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the 
White House.