[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

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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.

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    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

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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

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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

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Sharon Priest; State Representative Hank Wilkins; former Senators Dale 
Bumpers and David Pryor; and Mike Ross, candidate for Arkansas' Fourth 
Congressional District.