    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 25 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
    [Pages 1334-1337]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Democratic National Committee Saxophone Club Reception

    June 22, 1994

        The President. Thank you, Hillary. Thank you, Chairman Wilhelm and
    DeGee and Vernon and Ann Jordan. And thank you especially Sean Foley and
    Jessica Wasserman, for leading the Saxophone Club. I want to thank, too,
    Sean Burton and Jonathan Mantz for helping to hold the Saxophone Club
    together--[applause]--and the Homebuilders and Occidental Petroleum,
    that helped to support this event tonight. I also want to thank the
    entertainers. I'm kind of sorry I didn't see Hootie and the Blowfish.
    [Laughter] And I know Paula Poundstone was funny, because she always is.
    And I'm hoping I get to hear a little bit of Chaka Khan and the St.
    Augustine Church Choir. Thank you all for being here.
        We just came, as you know, from another event for the Democratic
    Party, and one that was immensely successful. But it struck me in that
    moment that the people who were there were a stunning answer to those
    who say that this is a cynical and selfish country and that you are as
    well.
        We had two pieces of good news already today; one's light, and one's
    not so light. The

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    light one is that the United States won the soccer game tonight. I
    identify with our soccer team, you know, they start as underdogs in this
    deal. I like that. [Laughter] And they're doing well. And the thing that
    potentially, and I hope and pray will ultimately affect your future in a
    very positive way, is the formal notification I received this afternoon
    that the North Koreans are willing to suspend their nuclear program--
    [applause].
        Then it occurred to me that at the event where I just was there were
    lots of people there, and they weren't all Democrats. Some were
    independents. Some came up to me and said they were Republicans; they
    were proud to be there at our party's event. Virtually every one of
    them, when our economic program passed last year, paid higher taxes so
    we could bring the deficit down and give a tax break to lower income
    working people with families. Those people aren't cynical. They did
    something that they believe is good for their country, good for their
    children, and good for their future. And I am grateful to them, because
    they are a rebuke to the cynicism.
        And then I look out at all of you and I realize--first of all, I
    look out at some of you, and a couple of you are my age, which makes me
    feel good. [Laughter] Somebody said some are older. I can tell you, you
    look good out there with all these young people, but you can't turn it
    back. Even I can't do that for you. [Laughter] But you are a rebuke to
    this notion that--this whole idea of Generation X. You know, it's a
    bunch of hooey.
        What I want to say to you in brief is this: First, let me thank you
    for keeping the Saxophone Club together. It means a lot to me. It means
    more than you could possibly know that there are young people who work
    in and around this town who believe in this administration, who have
    stayed together, who were not just in it for the campaign and are not
    just sunshine soldiers but are actually here for the long haul to make
    America a better place. I thank you for that. It means so much to me.
        The second point I want to say is this: We are doing what you hired
    us to do, and that's important. When we had all those events in the
    campaign, I told you I was fighting for your future. And I still am. And
    when we took office, I said I wanted to get the economy going, to bring
    the deficit down, to invest more in our people, to make Government work
    for ordinary people, and to empower people like you to seize your
    future. And you look--unemployment is down, jobs are up, new businesses
    are up. We're moving in the right direction. We're going to have 3 years
    of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since Truman was
    President. Hardly anybody was here then. We're empowering people, 90,000
    more kids in Head Start, 20 million more college students eligible for
    low interest student loans and better repayment, national service will
    start this fall, with 20,000 people year after next--100,000 young
    Americans revolutionizing the problems of this century. So, I tell you,
    we are fulfilling the mission that you voted for, that you worked for,
    that you are a part of, and your future is at stake.
        And the third thing I want to say to you is this: I'm glad you're
    here and I'm glad you're happy and I'm glad you're enthusiastic. You've
    made me happy, and you've given me new energy. But let me tell you, what
    is at stake this year and next year and the next year is far bigger than
    Republicans and Democrats and President Clinton. It's about what the
    attitude of the American people is and what will be the dominant spirit
    of the American people as we move toward the 21st century.
        When we're having this enormously important debate on health care--
    and let me just say, I put out a plan on health care and Hillary and I
    worked hard on it, but we said we know it can't be the end all and be
    all. We're happy to change it. But for goodness sakes, work with us
    without regard to party or region. Work with us and help to cover all
    Americans and solve this terrible problem. That's what we said.
        And it seems pretty simple to me. This is the only country in the
    world with an advanced economy hadn't figured out how to cover
    everybody, but we're spending 14 percent of our income on health care.
    Today in the Washington Post, there was an article on the German health
    care system, pointing out they're spending 8.5 percent of their income
    on health care, and they've got 99 percent coverage. Now, I don't
    honestly believe

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    that they're that much smarter than we are. And I don't think you do.
    What is the problem? Well----
        Audience members. Republicans!
        Audience members. Dole! [Laughter]
        The President. Listen, it isn't all Republicans. I've had Republican
    doctors, Republican nurses, Republican home health operators, Republican
    business people come up to me and say, ``I support what you're doing. We
    have got to have universal health coverage.''
        What is the problem? Congressman Grandy from Iowa--wait, wait,
    Gopher--relieved of the burden of running for office now for Congress,
    finally came out and said that the Republicans had been given, quote,
    ``marching orders by their leader to not cooperate, don't offer any
    amendments, you cannot vote for anything.''
        Audience member. What about the country?
        The President. What about the country, yes. Not about what about the
    Democrats, what about the country? And let me tell you what's at stake.
    This is a big deal. When you leave here, this will still be at stake.
    They believe that they can win, based on two things, in '94 and beyond:
    first, the overwhelming cynicism of the American electorate bombarded
    every day by negativism, obsessively covered with process and conflict
    instead of substantive product. They believe that the American people
    will either not know what we have done or they won't believe it. And
    then they think they can divide us in a cultural war over moral issues,
    racial issues, and ethnic issues. They must be proved wrong.
        You look around this room and you will see a picture of America. The
    diversity of this country is our ticket to the future. It will make us
    rich; it will make us strong; it will make us powerful. It will make
    your lives more interesting than any generation of America that went
    before if we can figure out how to go into these cities and into these
    poor rural areas and lift these children up, and if we can figure out
    how to live together instead of avoiding our problems and dividing
    ourselves.
        But we must not become mired in the cynicism and the negativism that
    dominates the debate here every day. And you know better, and you can
    cut through it. And it's your life. You've got more years ahead of you
    than I do. I've already had more good things happen to me than I ever
    deserved or I ever could have dreamed of. I'm up here thinking about
    what's going to happen to my daughter and her children and your future.
    And I'm telling you, we cannot cut it if we permit an election in 1994
    to reward the people who have stopped progress and tried to create
    gridlock because there is so much cynicism that either people can't find
    out what happened good or they don't believe it if they do, and then
    they're diverted. We cannot let that happen.
        And so I ask you to leave here thinking that. Perhaps the biggest
    honor I've had as your President is to represent this country at the
    50th anniversary of the landings in Italy and D-Day. And I just want
    to--we're having a good time, this is a light night, but I want to tell
    you one very serious thing. Those people did not put their lives on the
    line so that their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren
    should live cynically in America. You couldn't look at row upon row of
    graves over there and think, ``Well, we're just sunk; we're just stuck
    in gridlock; we just can't make anything good happen.''
        I want to tell you something. Most of the folks I've known in public
    life the last 20 years in both parties were honest and decent and worked
    hard and tried to do right. This thing we're dealing with now is plumb
    out of hand, if you will forgive me using some Arkansas dialect. All
    this whole negative business and all this cynicism, it is an indulgence,
    and you cannot afford it. And it is not you that is doing it. You are
    not the cynical generation. It is the people that are older than you
    that are filling the airways full of this stuff that you don't even want
    to listen to. And you leave here determined not just to help your
    President and our party but to help your country and your future. This
    country was not built by cynics, it was built by believers. And it will
    be continued by believers.
        God bless you, and good night.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:10 p.m. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. In
    his remarks, he referred to Sean Foley and Jessica Wasserman, co-chairs
    of the Saxophone Club; Sean Burton, direc-

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    tor, and Jonathan Mantz, assistant director of the Saxophone Club; the
    rock band Hootie and the Blowfish; comedian Paula Poundstone; and singer
    Chaka Khan.