[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 18 (Monday, May 10, 1993)]
[Pages 750-754]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Democratic Congressional Dinner

 May 4, 1993

    For a minute there, I thought I was at a meeting of the Republican 
Senate caucus. [Laughter] I'm so glad to see all of you. I can't tell 
you how much I appreciate that warm greeting, how very much I appreciate 
being here with Speaker Foley and Senator Mitchell and Majority Leader 
Gephardt and Senator Graham, Senator Boxer, Congress- 

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man Fazio, Congressman Torricelli, and all of you out in the audience 
tonight who did so much to make our victory possible last November and 
who have done so much to try to help us make a difference to America.
    I also want to say a special word of thanks to the Vice President. 
We have developed a remarkable partnership. And you know, sometimes when 
I hear him introduce me, I really think he believes it. He almost 
convinced me, I believe it. [Laughter] I can tell you this, that when 
the record of this administration is written, one thing will go down in 
the history books: There will never have been a Vice President in the 
history of the Republic who played such a constructive role in helping 
to advance the public interest.
    I come here tonight on two missions: First and obviously, I want to 
support this fundraising effort. I want more Democrats to win in '94. I 
need every one of you. I want all of you to be reelected. And I know 
that in major part--[applause]---yes, that's worth clapping for. I'm in 
a little better position than a lot of Presidents; I got elected because 
I wanted to do something. If you don't want to do anything, you don't 
really need the Congress. If you want to do something, you have to have 
a partnership, an unprecedented one, to get things done and move things 
forward.
    But this is about more than winning elections. It's about what the 
elections themselves are for. Today I had a wonderful experience, I 
invited the man who brought me into the Congress the first time when I 
was a college student, Senator J. William Fulbright, who will be 88 
tomorrow, I invited him to come have lunch with me at the White House 
today. And he told me he had not been there since President Nixon was in 
office. It was wonderful. We had lunch there, and then we went up to the 
Oval Office and sat around. And we started talking about some of the 
great people who served our party and our country, and we got to talking 
about Senator Mike Mansfield, who as you probably know is 90 and walks 5 
miles every day; one of our most distinguished Ambassadors to Japan 
ever. And he told me he had dinner with Senator Mansfield about a month 
ago. And Mike looked at him and he said, ``Now, Bill, how old are you?'' 
He said, ``I'm 87.'' And he said, ``Oh, to be 87 again.'' [Laughter]
    I say this to try to give some perspective beyond the moment, to the 
work we are about. I ran for this job not just for the privilege of 
living in the White House and even for the wonderful privilege of being 
with all of you on a regular basis, but because I thought together we 
could make a difference in the history of this country. If we live to be 
87, 88, or 90, and we look back on our lives, we will doubtless measure 
the quality of those lives by whether we did something with the jobs we 
hold, or whether, if we are in the private sector, we did something to 
help affect and shape the public interest.
    No one ever said this was going to be easy, but I think it is clear 
that, fundamentally, we have changed the direction of the Government. A 
few days ago there was a remarkable article in the Wall Street Journal 
by the political columnist who said that, beyond all the smoke and 
fight, look at what's happened in the last 100 days. The question used 
to be, will the Democrats ever really lower the Government deficit? Now 
the question is, how much and how fast? The question used to be, would 
we ever do anything about health care? And now the question is, what and 
how quickly? The question used to be whether the Government really had a 
role working with the private sector to help revitalize the economy in a 
tough global economy. Now the issue is, what is the nature of the 
partnership between Government and business to create jobs and help 
Americans compete again? The question used to be, the columnist went on, 
whether Government was intrinsically bad or whether it could be made to 
work for people. And this crowd believes you can make Government work, 
believes it can be different, believes it can lead us into the future, 
believes we can work together. Now, I don't know about you, but I think 
that's a pretty good start.
    And it is very easy, my fellow Americans, to say you want to put 
Government on the side of the middle class, and you want to reward the 
values of work and family, that you want to offer opportunity and demand 
responsibility and reestablish the bonds of American community. But I'll 
tell you some- 

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thing: It's a lot easier to say it than it is to do it.
    Everybody knows the broad outlines of the last dozen years, that 
most working-class people have worked longer hours for lower pay to pay 
higher taxes; that there has been a dramatic increase in inequality; 
that there have been almost no private sector jobs created for the last 
3 years; that even when we have increases in productivity, they don't 
yet manifest themselves in higher employment. Everybody knows that we 
had this gaping deficit that was caused by big tax cuts, big spending 
increases, first in defense and then when defense went down, exploding 
health care costs and costs to maintain interest on the debt.
    The question is, will we do anything about it? Will we really move 
to deal with the enormous debt, to invest in our future and create jobs, 
to make the Government work again for ordinary people? Well, in the 
first 100 days, we've shown both the up and the down sides of that. 
We've shown what happens when the President and the Congress work 
together, and we've also seen a little bit of the hazards of gridlock.
    I'm proud and grateful for those of you who stood with me in our 
efforts to change, because I think the people prefer action over 
inaction, innovation over inertia, and decision over delay. I believe 
more than anything else, two-thirds of the American people want us to do 
what I saw on a sign when I was on my way with Senator Moynihan up to 
Hyde Park to Franklin Roosevelt's home a few weeks ago. There was a guy 
standing out in the road--it was 8 degrees and several hundred people 
standing alongside the road--one guy had a sign that said, ``Just do 
something.'' I believe the people want us to do something. I believe 
they're tired of do-nothing Government.
    Thanks to the leadership of this Congress, just 17 days into this 
administration, after 8 years of gridlock and vetoes, we made the family 
and medical leave law the law of the land. That's something to be proud 
of. Because of innovations in the executive branch with people who never 
have their opinions asked before, just 44 days into this administration, 
when we extended unemployment benefits, we did it for the first time 
with a program that provided new opportunities for job training for the 
unemployed. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of paying people to be 
out of work. I want to invest in putting them back to work. And that's 
what we're trying to do.
    In record time and for the first time in 17 years, within the 
legally mandated time, the Democratic leadership in the Congress passed 
a blueprint of our budget which, I want to remind you and all the 
American people tonight, reduces the deficit by over $500 billion over 
the next 5 years, with over 200 specific budget cuts--over 200 specific 
budget cuts--and tax increases, the overwhelming of which fall on people 
like us in this room, because we're Democrats and we want to relieve the 
middle class and the working people of the burdens of the last 12 years.
    And you know, when I hear all this talk from the people who hear our 
adversaries talking about taxes, they say, no taxes without the spending 
cuts. I say, I agree, but that's what we're going to do. The Democrats 
are not about to raise taxes unless we cut spending. That's what we're 
about. But the difference between us and the other side is we asked them 
for their spending cuts and we're still waiting. We're the ones that are 
cutting unnecessary Government spending, and we're going to bring this 
deficit down. And it's time to tell the American people the truth.
    The Vice President already mentioned it, but you look at what's 
happened to interest rates just since the election. And we made clear 
that we were going to bring this deficit down. I don't know that they 
can get a lot lower than they are. The economists estimate that if we 
can keep interest rates at their present level for a year, that will put 
over $110 billion back into this economy as people refinance their homes 
and their businesses and are able to get credit who couldn't get it 
before. Just think of that.
    Now, the other guys talked about it for 12 years, and they took our 
national debt from $1 trillion to $4 trillion. We've had 100 days, and 
we've done something about it. And if we can keep these interest rates 
down and be serious about this budget, it's going to put $100 billion 
back into the pockets of

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ordinary Americans to invest in this economy and grow it.
    We also are working hard to deal with the health care crisis without 
which we will never bring our budget into balance, we will never make 
our American industries fully competitive, and we will never restore 
real security to America's families. How can we, any of us, tolerate 
going on 1 more year, 2 more years, 3 more years with a health care 
system that costs a third more than any other system in the world, 
leaves 37 million of our people without insurance, and strikes terror 
into the hearts of millions of people who have health insurance but are 
so scared they're going to lose it because of problems with their 
business or because someone in their family will be sick and they'll 
never again be able to change jobs without losing their health 
insurance.
    I believe we can do better. This is a problem others have solved. We 
are up to the task, and the time has come to do it, to liberate this 
country's economy and restore security to America's families.
    This administration has proposed an education bill that will 
establish the national education goals as the law of the land, establish 
tough new standards for our schools, and give flexibility for people all 
over the country to try new experiments to see what can be done to make 
these schools work better. We're not just talking about it; we're trying 
to do it. We are trying to open the doors of college education to all 
Americans by making it possible for anybody to borrow money and pay it 
back as a small percentage of their income and by letting thousands and 
tens of thousands of young people do national service to pay off a part 
of their college loan or earn credit to go to college. That will be the 
best program we could ever pass for this country.
    When I have heard the rhetoric of family values for years and years 
and years now, I see every year more pressure on families, less evidence 
we're valuing families. That's what the family and medical leave law was 
all about. You think people who have to work ought to be good parents. 
Give them the right to do it. And that's what we want to do. That's why 
our welfare reform program will move people from dependence to 
independence. That's why we want the earned income tax credit to be 
increased, so we can say a simple thing to America's families: If you 
work 40 hours a week and you've got a child in your house, you shouldn't 
live in poverty. Your country is better than that, and the tax system 
ought to reflect it.
    Now, you know it's a lot easier to talk about than it is to do, 
because we have to do in ways that require all of us to change. And now 
the United States Congress is getting to the hard part. They are going 
to be called upon to make the decisions on the budget to make good that 
commitment to reduce the deficit by over $500 billion without throwing 
large numbers of Americans out of work, because we have to continue to 
invest in education and technology and the things that will make us 
competitive in the future. That is the test. We know how to do it. It is 
hard to get from here to there. There will always be those who really 
don't have much of a stake in change and love to complain; who will say, 
well, we should do it this, that, or the other way. There will be those 
who sing the siren's song that there is somehow a painless way to 
change. I don't know about you folks, but I'm 46 years old; I've been 
trying to lose 15 pounds for 2 months. There's no painless way to do 
that. [Laughter] There is no painless way to do that.
    This is a time not just for vision but for discipline and for 
maturity and for understanding, that if we are going to turn this 
country around, as I have said so many times, we are not going to be 
able to ask what's in it for me, we're going to have to say, what is in 
it for us? How can we all give something so we can all get something? 
How we can give today to get tomorrow? That is the test before us. So I 
ask all of you to support the Members of Congress with the budget cuts, 
with the revenue increases, with the targeted investments that will 
change this country and lift up this economy and keep going what has 
happened that is good already. We have got to have the courage to do it.
    And finally, let me say that I think it is important that we do our 
best to reconnect people to the political process who voted in record 
numbers in November, could never afford to come to a dinner like this, 
but desperately care about their country. You would not believe the 
volume of letters we are get- 

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ting in the White House. We've already gotten as much mail in the first 
3 months, somebody told me yesterday, as my predecessor did in a whole 
year. And I say that not to criticize him or to laud myself. That has 
nothing to do with it. A lot of it's critical; that's good. We've opened 
the doors of possibility to people, and they think, maybe, just maybe 
their Government is going to listen to them again.
    That's why I feel so strongly about all these political empowerment 
bills. That's why I believe in the motor voter bill--I'm glad we got a 
conference report on it--because it will say to kids, we want you to 
vote. That's why I believe in the work the Vice President is doing to 
literally not just save money but change the whole way Government 
operates and make it more friendly to people who want to access it. 
That's why I feel so strongly that the House did the right thing in 
passing that enhanced rescission bill. That's why I believe we ought to 
pass a campaign finance reform bill, not because I don't want you to 
give but because I want them to be able to give, too. And I want people 
to believe that everybody has got a stake in the system. Because if we 
can reconnect those people to the system, then they will understand that 
change is a long and hard road.
    In 1918, the famous German sociologist, Max Weber, said that 
politics is the long and slow boring of hard bores. We have come to the 
hard part. Mario Cuomo used to say, ``You campaign in poetry, and you 
have to govern in prose.'' The time has come for the prose. And people 
need to read it straight and clean and clear from the shoulder, with all 
the varnish off, as honestly as we can.
    We are being called upon now to see whether we have the courage and 
the discipline and the will and the vision to change. I believe we do. 
And I came here tonight not only because I want you to keep your jobs 
but because I hope if we can live to be 88 or 90 years old, like Bill 
Fulbright and Mike Mansfield, we can look back and say, this was a time 
when we lifted America to new heights, we met our challenges, and we did 
our jobs.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 8:50 p.m. at the Washington Hilton. A tape 
was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.