[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 6 (Monday, February 14, 1994)]
[Pages 223-226]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Texas Presidential Dinner and Gala in Houston

February 6, 1994

    Thank you very much. My longtime friend Garry Mauro, and Chairman 
and Mrs. Wilhelm, Mayor and Mrs. Lanier, Secretary and Mrs. Bentsen. I 
want to say that I have a lot to be grateful to Texas for, big victory 
in the primaries here, an enormous amount of support, a lot of friends. 
But I think I probably owe you most for Lloyd Bentsen and Henry 
Cisneros.
    I want to say also how much I appreciate two other Texans in my 
administration, one of whom is here and one is not, the Secretary of the 
Navy, John Dalton, from San Antonio, and my good friend, the Assistant 
Secretary of the Interior, Bob Armstrong, who has done a wonderful job 
for you and for us in America.
    When we had that terrible earthquake recently in California, Henry 
Cisneros was there before the aftershocks stopped. And people told me 
over and over again, ``The last time this happened to us we had to go to 
Washington to find the Cabinet. Now you've got a Secretary who came to 
us, who's committed to us.'' That's the kind of job he's doing up there.
    It's been a long time since an American Treasury Secretary has 
enjoyed anything approaching the prestige that Lloyd Bentsen has earned 
all over the world, in Asia, in Europe, in Latin America, and of course, 
here in the United States and in the Congress. I cannot say enough about 
him in front of you, his constituents, for all the advice he's given, 
all the leadership he's shown, and all the trouble he's kept me out of. 
[Laughter] I want to thank him so much.
    I also want to say a special word of acknowledgement to your State 
Democratic Chairman, Bob Slagle, and to Governor Ann Richards, who I 
just left, and to all these Members of Congress who are here and those 
who aren't here.
    I want to say, too, that there are several points I want to make 
tonight without giving

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much of a speech. I just want to talk to you as one American to another.
    When I became President, people had pretty much given up on the 
Government doing anything right. The economy was going in the wrong 
direction, and the country was coming apart when we needed to be coming 
together. And a lot of people, frankly, including probably a majority of 
people in this State, had all these preconceptions--Lloyd Bentsen 
referred to them in his introduction--about what Democrats were for. And 
you know, I looked for 12 years--I listened to Republicans talk about 
reducing the deficit, and it just went up; we quadrupled the debt.
    Well, we didn't just talk about it, we did something about it. Last 
week it was estimated that the deficit would be 40 percent lower next 
year than it was going to be when I took office, 40 percent lower. And 
because of that, interest rates are down, inflation is down, home sales 
are up, car sales are up, and we got more new jobs in one year than we 
had in the previous 4 years. Now, that's not Republican rhetoric, that's 
Democratic record, performance, and work.
    I heard them talk about family values and about how people should 
not be on welfare, they ought to work, but I never saw much happen. And 
one year, after 7 years of trying, we passed the Family and Medical 
Leave Act so that people could take a little time off when their 
children were born or their parents were sick without losing their jobs. 
We took the first big step toward welfare reform by giving income tax 
relief to 15 million families that hover right around the poverty line, 
even though the people work full-time, so that there would never be any 
more incentive to leave work and go on welfare, so that all the 
incentives would be the other way around and we would reward work and 
family. So it wasn't just the other party's rhetoric, it was our 
reality. And we've just begun.
    And I heard them for years talk about being tough on crime, and 
after 7 years of flailing around, we finally passed the Brady bill. And 
now we've got a tough crime bill before the Congress which says no to 
the things we ought to say no to and begins to say yes to the things we 
ought to say yes to. That is, it does provide for tougher penalties, 
especially for repeat violent offenders. But it also puts another 
100,000 police officers on the street because we learned from Mayor 
Lanier that if you have more police in the right place, you'll lower the 
crime rate. And it provides drug treatment and education and alternative 
imprisonment for young people to give them a chance to put their lives 
back together. You can't just say no to people; you also have to say yes 
to the people that are going to be on your streets, in your 
neighborhoods, and a part of your future. It's time to stop turning away 
from them and start giving them a way to be a part of our common future. 
That is what it also does.
    I heard all this talk for years about how the other party was for 
business and for trade and for small business, but it was our 
administration that passed an economic plan that gave, as they'll find 
this April 15th, 90 percent of the small businesses in this country a 
chance to get a tax cut if they invest more in their businesses, 90 
percent; they gave incentives for people to invest in new business. This 
year we had the biggest increase in entrepreneurial investments in new 
business in American history, number one. That is the record of this 
administration, not rhetoric.
    And yes, we have taken on health care. You know why? Because we're 
the only country in the advanced world that doesn't provide a basic 
package of health care to all of its citizens. And as a result, some of 
the people of the families I saw--you know, I went to a party tonight of 
children with cancer and their families. And I looked out there, and I 
said, I know I'm looking at people who now can never change their job 
because they had a sick child. I know I'm looking at people who run up 
against those lifetime limits on insurance, so now that their kids 
really need the health care, they've blown it out, and they can't get 
any more. I know I'm looking at people who may lose their coverage or 
lose their jobs and never get health insurance again.
    Now, I don't believe we can't do that and help our economy, not hurt 
it. Why? Because today in America, businesses that are small are paying 
insurance premiums 35 percent above the national average. I think we can 
do better than that.

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    I don't believe that we can't do better. They talk about choice. Do 
you know that today only one in three, only one in three workers with 
health insurance from their employer has any real choice in their 
doctors? Under our plan, every American will have at least three 
different choices of health care plans at a minimum. There will be more 
choice, not less. And it will all be private, private health care and 
private insurance, in spite of the rhetoric of our opponents in the 
other party.
    Do I think we can do it? Is it easy? No. If it's easy, somebody 
would have done it already. Is it free of complexity? No. I know one 
thing: You cannot justify a system in this country, in the shape a lot 
of people are in, where we spend 10 cents on a dollar more on paperwork, 
insurance premiums, and bureaucracy, more than any other country in the 
world, and we still can't figure out how to cover people. And another 
100,000 Americans a month are losing their health insurance for good. I 
believe we can do better, and we are going to.
    Finally, let me say this: I heard the other side talk about free 
trade and economic growth and, especially in Texas, being good to Texas. 
I heard all that. But this administration fought for NAFTA, and we were 
100 votes down, and we came back and we passed it. This administration 
fought to get rid of export controls that are allowing Texas businesses 
to do business all around the world today. I had a man in a meeting that 
I came to before I came down here, he said, ``Your administration has 
done more in one year to promote international business opportunities 
for American business people than the previous administration did in the 
last 12 years.'' That is the rhetoric of success. That is reality. 
That's not just something we're talking about.
    Let me tell you something else. I know I didn't carry Texas in the 
last election. I know that. Some think I may not carry it again. But 
I'll tell you one thing: When the space station was going down, we 
fought for it, and we lifted it up, and we saved it. We now have a 
project that is at the core of our partnership with Russia and our hope 
for a better world.
    There is example after example after example. In our new energy 
policy, Garry Mauro's alternative fleet conversion policy to use more 
natural gas to burn in Federal cars, and all the things we have done 
that show that this administration is not just talking about Texas and 
telling people things they want to hear, we're actually doing things to 
help this State move into the 21st century.
    One of the people I neglected to introduce earlier, that I'd be 
remiss if I didn't, is the Deputy Secretary of Energy, who is from here 
in Houston, Bill White. Where is he? Bill's here somewhere. We have an 
energy policy that really is pro-natural gas, pro-American producer, 
good for America, and good for Texas.
    I say these things because we're going to have some elections in 
1994, and we're going to have all that old rhetoric again. And the 
Republicans are going to tell you exactly what they think you want to 
hear. I saw them the other day, they were complaining that I had stolen 
their themes, as if they own fiscal responsibility. What they own was 
quadrupling the deficit. What we own is a budget this year that 
eliminates 100 programs and cuts 300 more. That's our issue, not theirs. 
They act like they own the crime issue. But what they did was to fiddle 
around with crime for years while it got worse. And what we did was to 
pass the Brady bill and put a crime bill on the floor of the Congress 
that offers the promise of lowering the crime rate.
    I say that because I want you here in Texas to remember that if you 
want something done, instead of to be told what you want to hear, you 
need to help us. You need to keep these seats in Congress, go after that 
Senate seat, keep Ann Richards in the Governor's office. Give us a 
partnership to move America forward.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:40 p.m. at the Wortham Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Garry Mauro, Texas land commissioner, and David 
Wilhelm, chairman, Democratic National Committee.

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