[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[November 5, 2000]
[Pages 2478-2483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks to the Community in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
November 5, 2000
The President. Thank you all very much. I want to thank--first, I
thank the choir and my friend of nearly 20 years Carrie Paige, who looks exactly like she did 20 years ago, and I
look 50 years older. [Laughter] God's been good to you. Thank you for
your song; thank you for your music, all of you, so much.
I want to thank all the folks who came here with me: our State party
chair, Vaughn McQuary. I want to thank
Attorney General Mark Pryor--I don't know if he's
here or not--there he is--the chairman of the Gore/Lieberman campaign in
Arkansas. Thank you for taking it on. I want to thank my friend
Lottie Shackelford and Sharon
Priest and Hank Wilkins and all the other local officials.
And I want to thank my good buddy Congressman Danny Davis, who is from the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas,
Phillips County, but now represents Chicago and is my great friend;
thank him for coming here. I want to thank Carroll Willis, who has worked with me at the DNC for 8 years and has
come down here and is working hard for us.
I want to thank James Lee Witt and Rodney
Slater. What a great job they have done for
you and for all America. They're two of the most popular people who have
served in the Government in the tenure I've been there.
And I want to thank Dale Bumpers, who has
stood by me through thick and thin and voted to turn this country around
with the economic plan of 1993. I cannot tell you what having Senator
Bumpers and Senator Pryor there early in my
Presidency meant, not only to me but to the United States of America.
They miss him in the Senate, but I'm glad he's home and stirring around
with you.
And it's not true I fell asleep on him
coming down here. [Laughter] He just has such a soothing, melodic voice,
you just sort of drift off, you know? [Laughter]
I wanted to come down here for a couple reasons today, first of all
to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. [Applause] Thank you.
Mike Ross--I met Mike Ross in 1982, when he
was a teenager and he was driving me
[[Page 2479]]
around, and I was trying to do something in 1982 that had never been
done before. I had been elected Governor and defeated, and I was trying
to get elected again. And that's a pretty difficult psychological thing,
because you can't go tell the voters they were wrong. [Laughter]
On the other hand, if you tell them they were absolutely right, they
wonder well, why should they make a mistake then if they were right the
first time to kick you out? So we were weaving around it. And we knew
that the election would turn on what happened in eastern Arkansas, what
happened in the 11 counties of northeast Arkansas, what would happen in
the Delta, and whether we could get two-thirds of the vote in Jefferson
County.
And I thought about it today, looking out at this sea of faces, when
election night came in and the early votes came in and our friends down
here said, ``You're going to carry this county two to one.'' I thought,
shut the door; the election is over; we're going back into the
Governor's Mansion. Thank you for that, too, all of you here.
Now I want to talk a little bit about the future. I came down here
for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman and Mike Ross. But I also
came down here for you and your children and your communities in this
State that I love so much. You've been so good to me.
Look, this is the first time in 26 years I haven't been on a ballot
somewhere. [Laughter] But it's okay. [Laughter] It's okay. And I am a
little worried about what's going to happen to me when I leave office.
They tell me I'll be lost for the first 3 or 4 months because, when I
walk in a room, nobody will play a song anymore, and I won't know where
I am. [Laughter]
But I want you to think about this. This election is just as
important as the election in 1992 that sent Al Gore and me to
Washington. And yet, sometimes I think people don't think that because
things are going so well. And I can just say, number one, anybody in
this audience who is over 30 years old knows this statement is true. If
you've lived more than 30 years, you can remember one time at least in
your life when you made a big mistake not because things were going so
tough but because they were going so well, you thought you didn't have
to concentrate. Is that right?
Audience members. Right.
The President. Okay. So I just want you to take a minute or two and
concentrate, and then I want to ask you to help concentrate the energies
of every person you know in this State, and especially in this
congressional district, on this election. It's about you and your kids
and your grandkids and the future of our State and Nation.
And you know, President Reagan used to say that there was a simple
test for whether the party in the White House ought to be continued: Are
you better off today than you were 8 years ago? Of course, they have now
revised their position. Their position on that is, that's a test only if
the Republicans are in. [Laughter] But they said it and said it and said
it.
What I think the question you have to go out and ask people is--and
I want you to think about it--I think this whole race for Congress and
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency comes down to three questions:
Number one, do you want to keep this prosperity going and bring it to
the people that haven't felt it yet? If you do, you have a choice. Al
Gore and Joe Lieberman and Mike Ross--what do they say?
They say, ``First, let's keep paying down the debt. We've worked too
hard to turn that deficit around. Let's get America out of debt for the
first time since 1835. And then we'll figure out what we've got to do to
do that, and then we'll take what's left, and we'll invest in education
and health care and the environment and the national security of the
country, and we'll give the American people a tax cut they can afford
for college tuition, for long-term care for our parents, for child care,
for retirement savings. Pay down the debt to keep interest rates low and
economic growth high; invest and cut taxes, but within the discipline of
thinking about our kids and our grandkids.''
Now, you've got a choice. What do the other folks say in the
Republican Party, Mike Ross's opponent and the
candidates for national office? They say, ``Hey, it's your money. We've
got a surplus. We're going to give it all back to you now.'' Right? They
say, ``Vote for us; we'll give you a tax cut that's 3 times as big, and
if you're young, we'll let you privatize your Social Security taxes so
you can put them in the stock market; and if you're not so young, we'll
just keep writing your check. And, oh, by the way, here's a little money
we want to spend.''
Now, what's the problem there?
Audience member. It doesn't add up.
[[Page 2480]]
The President. Yes, it doesn't add up. [Laughter] I want you all to
listen to this. I want you all to listen to this; this is simple. People
ask me all the time, ``What great new progress did you bring to
Washington?''
[At this point, an audience member required assistance.]
The President. Do you need to move that, gentlemen? Okay. Go ahead.
We need some help here. Can we have one more person up here? He's just
hot. Give him a hand. [Applause]
You all listen, this is one thing you could say that might change
some votes in the next 2 days, and it's simple--and a lot of people
don't know it. They admit, the other guys do, the surplus is supposed to
be $2 trillion over the next 10 years. Now, who knows? Trillion,
schmillion, that's a lot of zeros. [Laughter] Let's make it simple.
Let's say 2, okay? Then their tax cut and the interest rate associated
with it costs 1.6 trillion--1.6. Then their privatization of Social
Security, as the Vice President has pointed
out, if you give the young people 2 percent of payroll and you promise
the old folks the same money that the young people are taking out of the
bank, you've got to come up with the money somewhere. Okay? That costs
1. Then the money they want to spend, it's about a half a trillion
dollars--.5. Two trillion dollar surplus--2.
Here's the problem: 1.6 tax cut, 1 Social Security privatization, .5
spending equals 3.1. Three-point-one is bigger than 2. It doesn't add
up, and it's going to take us back to deficits. We'll never pay the debt
down; interest rates will be higher; the economy will be weaker.
Look, man, this affects everybody. This affects everybody. On a
$100,000 home mortgage, the people paying on a $100,000 home mortgage
are paying $2,000 a year less in payments because we turned deficits to
surpluses, just on a home mortgage.
I've seen an economic study which indicates the Vice
President's plan might keep interest rates
one percent lower for a decade. Do you know what that's worth? Three
hundred ninety billion dollars in lower home mortgages, $30 billion in
lower car payments, $15 billion in lower college loan payments, lower
credit card payments, lower business loans, more jobs, higher incomes,
bigger stock market, stronger economy.
So, question number one--go out across this district and across this
State and you tell them, ``If you want to build on the prosperity and
get America out of debt and take what's left for education and health
care and a tax cut, you only have one choice: Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Mike
Ross.''
Now, the second question. Our country is not just better off; it's a
better country. Crime is at a 26-year low, welfare at a 32-year low. We
have cleaner air, cleaner water, safer drinking water, 3 times as many
toxic waste dumps cleaned up in our 8 years as in there 12 years before,
more land set aside than any administration since Teddy Roosevelt, 100
years ago.
We have 90 percent of our children immunized against serious
childhood diseases for the first time in history. We added 25 years to
the life of Medicare, and the number of people without health insurance
is going down for the first time in 12 years.
In our schools--all across America in our schools, math and reading
and science scores are up; the dropout rate is down; the high school
graduation is up. Last year, for the first time in the history of
America, the African-American high school graduation rate was virtually
equal to the white graduation rate. We have, in the last 3 years alone,
a 300 percent increase in the number of African-American and Latino kids
taking advanced placement classes and going to college, and the highest
college-going rate ever, because we've given you the biggest increase in
college aid since the GI bill 50 years ago.
Okay, question number two, do you want to build on this progress, or
do you want to vote for somebody that will reverse the things we've
done? You have a choice. Now look, this is something you can't see in
those expensive TV ads. Let's just look at the facts here. Number one,
if you vote for the Democrats, they will keep putting police on the
streets. South Arkansas is full of law enforcement officers that were
put there under our administration's program to keep driving the crime
rate down.
Number two, we will keep putting teachers in the classroom and
provide money to build and modernize and repair schools and for after-
school programs and summer school programs and preschool programs. And
we'll make the cost of college tuition tax deductible.
We will build on our clean air, clean water record, especially in
the area of energy. And
[[Page 2481]]
the thing that will matter most to southeast Arkansas is this: We are
funding research now, which Al Gore will
double or more, trying to determine how to make farm-based fuel more
efficiently. Most of you think of it as ethanol made from corn. But you
can actually make fuel from rice hulls, from grass, from hay, from
anything.
Here's the problem. It takes about 7 gallons of gasoline to make 8
gallons of ethanol. But we're doing research which is very promising
that, when we're through, you'll be able to make 8 gallons of ethanol
with one gallon of gasoline. That's like you all will be getting 500
miles to the gallon. It will change America forever. It will do a lot to
solve the problem of global warming, and it will do a lot to raise farm
income in Arkansas and everyplace else in the United States of America.
Now, in the area of health care--you heard Mike Ross say this--we're
for a Patients' Bill of Rights; we're for Medicare prescription drugs
for all the seniors who need it; and we want to expand coverage to
children and to their families. That's the Gore plan. Now, you've got a choice. If you vote for them,
they have committed--committed--and in the case of his opponent, often
voted already--to get rid of the 100,000 police, get rid of the 100,000
teachers, no money for school construction, no money to expand health
care coverage, a phony Patients' Bill of Rights that the HMO's will let
them have, and a limited Medicare drug program because the big drug
companies won't let them provide drugs to every senior that needs it.
You've got a choice. But if you want to keep building on the
progress, if you want America to be safer, if you want the environment
to be cleaner, if you want there to be more earnings in southeast
Arkansas from a new energy future, if you want to expand health care
coverage and, most important of all, if you want to make education
better and make sure all of our children learn and all of our schools
and everybody can afford to go to college--look, you just have one
choice: Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Mike Ross.
Here's the third thing, and this is maybe the most important thing
of all to me. If the good Lord came to me on this Sunday afternoon and
said, ``Bill, you can't finish your term; your life is over; you're
history. I'll give you one wish. What would you wish for?'' I wouldn't
even wish for prosperity. I would wish for us to be a more united
country.
Now look, I know it's hot, and I'm nearly done, but you've got to
get this down because you've got to do the talking after I leave. What's
the special thing about our economic expansion? It's not just the
longest economic expansion in history. It's not just 22 million new
jobs. This is the first time in 30 years when people at all income
levels benefited. Yes, we had more billionaires and more millionaires.
But we also had average income going up over $5,000; median income over
$40,000 for the first time; 20-year low in poverty; 30 percent drop in
child poverty; senior poverty below 10 percent for the first time in
history; the welfare rolls cut in half.
Now, that's what's happened. Why? Because under our way of doing
this, we all go forward together. That's why I wouldn't get rid of
affirmative action when the Republicans wanted to do it, because I
wanted us all to go forward together.
What does that mean? That means we Democrats, we're for things like
the minimum wage and the hate crimes bill and equal pay for women and
the defense of civil rights and human rights by our courts. That's what
we're for. Now, if you want us to go forward together, you've got to be
for Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Mike Ross.
Now, let me just say one other thing about Mike Ross. I'm really proud of him. I've seen him grow up. I've
seen him grow in the State Senate. I've seen him grow on this campaign
trail. And I haven't seen any of these ads he was talking about. But I
want you to know two things. I'll bet you anything there's some ad up
somewhere where Mike's opponent is taking credit
for all the money that Congress just came up with for two bridges across
the Mississippi River. [Laughter] Is that right?
Well, I've got the Secretary of Transportation here as my witness. And I want you all to listen to this
now. We've been working a long time for those bridges. But the Congress
is in the control of Senator Lott from
Mississippi and Tom Delay and Dick Armey from Texas, and they didn't want to give us that
stuff. But we got those bridges, and we got $20 million for the Delta
Commission, which will help this area. We got a lot of that stuff.
But I have to tell you what. You know why we got that money finally
this year? Because
[[Page 2482]]
Mike Ross ran against the incumbent
Congressman, and they're terrified he's going to
lose. When those bridges get built, you ought to name them after Mike
Ross. They ought to be the Mike Ross Memorial Bridges across the
Mississippi River. Don't take my word for it. Ask Rodney. Ask Danny Davis--he's in the
Congress. I know what I'm talking about. You put a plaque on those
bridges when they get up, and you put Mike Ross's name on it. Now, I
just want to say--I just couldn't resist it. [Laughter]
I want to say one other thing. This young man
has a lot of energy; he will work hard; he will come home; he will serve
his constituent faithfully. And that incumbent Congressman could not do
a bit better than he will do. And if the Democrats win a majority, as
most people think they will, then he'll be more effective at coming home
and doing that. But there's a huge difference here. He will vote for you when he's in Washington, too. That is
the difference.
And I'd like to say one final thing about Al Gore. You know, we've worked together for 8 years. He's done
more good in the position of Vice President than any American in the
history of this country. There's no question about that. Whether it is
in managing the reduction of the size of Government to its smallest
point since 1960 or managing our effort to hook up our classrooms to the
Internet or trying to get higher mileage vehicles out of Detroit or
dealing with a lot of our most sensitive foreign policy issues, he's
experienced. He works like a dog. He works as hard as anybody I have
ever known. And I don't care what anybody tells you; in the world we're
living in, it matters whether you're willing to work hard. And he keeps
learning, and he cares about these things.
Now, here's what I want to ask you to do. You can remember those
three things I said, can't you? If you want to build on the prosperity,
and you know that 3.1 is bigger than 2, and you want America to be out
of debt with low interest rates and high growth, you've got to be for Al
Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Mike Ross.
If you want a Patients' Bill of Rights and Medicare drugs and funds
to construct schools and hire teachers, if you want us to keep investing
in new forms of fuel, if you want to keep moving forward with more
police in little towns and rural areas in Arkansas, you only have one
choice: Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Mike Ross.
If you want a policy where we're all going forward together, which
is why we're for the minimum wage and equal pay and civil rights as one
America, you only have one choice: Al Gore,
Joe Lieberman, and Mike Ross.
Now, here's what I want to tell you: This race is tight as a tick--
[laughter]--here, in this district, in this State, and all over this
country. There's 12 or 15 States that are within 2 points, one way or
the other. And I'll tell you who is going to win. Who is going to win
is, who wants to go bad enough.
If you want Mike Ross to win badly enough,
there's enough people right here to win this race for him. If you want
Al Gore to carry Arkansas and you believe
in what we've done and you're proud of what we've done the last 8 years,
and you can't imagine why anybody would want to reverse these policies
that are working instead of build on them, there's enough people right
here in this room to carry the election.
Every one of you--every one of you has a ton of friends who have
never come to a rally like this, don't you? You've got a lot of friends
that have never heard a President speak or a Governor speak, and they're
probably wondering what you're doing here on Sunday afternoon. You could
be home watching football. Is that right?
So what I want you to promise yourself is, every free minute you've
got between now and the time the polls close, you will call people and
say, ``Let me tell you why you ought to vote, let me tell you why you
ought to vote for Al Gore, Joe
Lieberman, and Mike Ross.'' We've got to keep the prosperity going, not put it at
risk; we've got to keep the progress going, not reverse it; we've got to
keep going forward together as one country. If you will do that, Mike
Ross and Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, they're going to have a big
celebration Tuesday night, and our children will have a brighter future.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 4:30 p.m. in the Banquet Hall at the Pine
Bluff Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to vocalist Carrie
Paige; State Attorney General Mark Pryor; Lottie Shackelford, vice
chair, and Carroll Willis, director, community service division,
Democratic National Committee; Arkansas Secretary of State
[[Page 2483]]
Sharon Priest; State Representative Hank Wilkins; former Senators Dale
Bumpers and David Pryor; and Mike Ross, candidate for Arkansas' Fourth
Congressional District.