[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 27 (Monday, July 8, 1996)]
[Pages 1174-1180]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Representative Dick Durbin in Chicago
July 2, 1996
The President. Thank you very much.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Thank you. Well, if we get them, they'll be a lot
better if Dick Durbin is in the Senate, I'll tell you that.
First of all, I'm delighted to be here with Senator Simon and
Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, my good friend Bill Singer, and all of you
who have contributed to this terrific fundraiser. I want to say how very
much I admire Dick and Loretta Durbin--they live their family values,
they don't just give political speeches about them at election time--and
how happy I am to be here at this--[applause].
When Dick was talking about being a Lithuanian, I was just thinking
that the Chicago person in my household would like to be here tonight.
But when we were in France for the G-7 meeting, and I left Hillary, and
she went on to Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia,
and two or three other places. And she called me yesterday, and she told
me about her day in Romania. And she told me--she said, ``You realize
all the places I'm going, all the people I'm going to see?'' And she
reeled them all off. And I said, ``Look, I can make one trip to Chicago
and see people from all those places.''
So Dick reminded me of my wisecrack, and I thought I'd give it to
you. [Laughter] It's really true about Chicago; it's one of the things
that makes it so wonderful. The mayor and Bill Daley took me down to the
Taste of Chicago today, and I walked, and I ate like a horse. [Laughter]
But I was an equal opportunity eater. I gave--every ethnic group got a
fair and equal shot at me. And I'll have to run an extra 5 miles in the
morning, but it was wonderful.
Let me say on a more serious note how much I appreciate the support
I felt from all the American people when I went to Europe to try to get
our allies to support the United States in our fight against terrorism
in the aftermath of what happened in Saudi Arabia to our Air Force
personnel. But I also
[[Page 1175]]
want to compliment the Federal officials and those who worked with them
for the arrests that were made in the terrorist incidents that were
headed off in Arizona, which you doubtless read about in the press this
morning.
And this is not the first time we've been successful in doing that.
It's something we work hard at. And I say it to make this point: At the
end of the cold war, when the world was not divided into communist and
non-communist blocs, and when we can worry less--we haven't done away
with the worry, but we can worry less--about the imminence of a nuclear
war, we see this welling up of ancient hatreds based on race and ethnic
group and religion. And we see the fact that we're more open to each
other in terms of our ability to travel and our ability to send money
and ideas and technology around the world in a split second, it makes us
more vulnerable to the organized forces of destruction, and especially
to terrorists.
But what I want you to know is that if we work together and we're
smart, we can't guarantee 100 percent security, but we can prevent a lot
of these instances. In the Middle East, in Israel, for all the terrible
terrorist incidents we see, I want you to know they stop a lot more
incidents than ever occur. And we can do the same. We can do the same,
but we've got to keep in mind the terrible sacrifice of innocent
victims, and including those whose lives I honored in Florida on Sunday.
And we've got to continue to work together. And I felt the support of
the American people in that.
The other thing I want to say is that I know you all support our
common endeavors to try to do what we can to end this terrible rash of
church burnings of black churches and other houses of worship around
this country. That's been an especially painful thing for me because I
feel so strongly about the first amendment, freedom of religion. I think
it's one of the most distinctive things about the United States, that we
have the freedom to believe whatever we want or even not to believe. And
it's one of the reasons I think that we are, by all accounts, the most
religious country in the world. And it gives character and depth to our
Nation.
And what's happening is--I don't think there's any big conspiracy,
but I do believe it's evidence of this kind of dark impulse that you see
welling up all over the world. There are a lot of people who are
disappointed in their own lives and have problems, and we've now seen
that some of these people that have been arrested, some that have
admitted doing this, they've talked about their own lives, and it's
obvious that they had a lot of problems. They were people, if they
hadn't burned churches, would have evoked our sympathies because of the
difficulties they were having in their lives.
And when people have frustrations, they can do one of two things:
they can take responsibility for it and try to get help, or they can
look for somebody else to blame and someone else to look down on. ``No
matter what kind of shape I'm in, there's always somebody else I can
look down on. I think I'll go burn a church.'' And that is not only un-
American, it is profoundly wrong and destructive. But we have to change
the atmosphere in this country about that.
So today before I came here, I declared this month National Month of
Unity and asked every American citizen to do something, either in their
places of worship or where they work or some other way, to reach out to
people who are different from them and express our unity as a people
around the shared values embodied in the Constitution of the United
States of America.
And apropos of what Dick said earlier, we also took a little of the
money that the Justice Department has for police officers and dedicated
it to the 12 States that have suffered the most from the church
burnings. And we said to every county, we will give you more police
officers, or you can use the money to light up these churches at night
or work people overtime or do whatever is necessary. But we want to do
more to prevent these burnings, not just to catch the people who do it.
And we have to do that.
Now, what's all this got to do with Dick Durbin's election?
Everything. Everything. When I ran for President in 1991 and '92, it was
for, most people thought, a totally bizarre and almost unfulfillable
adventure. The President at that time was at way over 70 percent in the
polls. My mother was the only
[[Page 1176]]
person that thought I was going to win. [Laughter] That's not true.
Hillary always thought I would win. [Laughter] She did.
But apart from that, the pickings were pretty slim. And I did it
without regard to whether we could win or not because I was very
troubled that our country seemed to be sort of drifting into the 21st
century. We had an exploding deficit. We had very weak job growth, the
weakest since the Depression. We had a high unemployment rate. And we
seemed to be drifting apart instead of coming together.
Just look around this room tonight, look at the diversity in this
room. And we've got to prove that the rest of the world is wrong when
they fall out over race, religion, and ethnicity. We've got to prove
that we can be better and bigger than that, not because we're
intrinsically better human beings but because we've got a system and a
history and a set of values in our Constitution that tells us how we
ought to behave and that we know from experience really works in the
world of today and will work in the world of tomorrow.
And I felt very strongly that unless we had a common shared national
commitment to keeping the American dream alive for everybody without
regard to their race or their gender or where they started out in life,
to bringing this country together instead of letting it drift apart, and
in maintaining the leadership of the United States for peace and freedom
and prosperity--unless we all said that's what we're trying to do as we
move into the 21st century, we'd just keep on drifting and lose a lot of
the greatness of America and the extraordinary opportunity that the end
of the cold war and growth of the global economy and the information age
presents us.
And so I set out on this odyssey. And I guess the first big hurdle
was cleared on St. Patrick's Day in 1992, when we carried the Democratic
primaries in Illinois and Michigan and it became obvious that unless a
wheel ran off I'd be nominated. And so I thank you all for that.
When the American people gave me the chance to serve and I got to
work with people like Paul Simon and Carol Moseley-Braun and Dick
Durbin, we had a simple strategy. I thought we ought to put the power of
the Government in Washington to work to create opportunity, not
guarantees but opportunity for every American to live out their own
dreams, that we ought to insist on responsibility in return for that
opportunity, and that we ought to consciously work to bring the American
people together and push this country forward.
Now, I just talked to you about a couple of examples of bringing the
American people together around our basic values. But that's what Dick
Durbin's done. And the difference in the way we view the world and the
way our opponents in the political arena view the world is daylight and
dark. It's not just a little difference; it's a big difference.
When Dick Durbin fought against the Republican cuts in the
environmental community right-to-know laws, to me that said everything.
I mean, it seems to me that if you want to build a sense of community
and you want to build a future for our children, you have to believe
that you have to find a way to grow the economy and preserve the
environment, and you have to believe that you can trust citizens to know
what's in the chemicals that are in their own backyards and
neighborhoods. But they wanted to weaken those laws, and Dick Durbin
said no.
He mentioned the tobacco issue. I now know why no other President
has ever fooled with this--[laughter]--it's what we used to call a
character-builder back home when I was growing up. [Laughter] But you
know, the truth is that it's illegal in every State in America for
children to smoke. But every day 3,000 of them start, and 1,000 of those
3,000 will die earlier than they otherwise would because of it. We worry
about health care costs, the cost of Medicare, the cost of Medicaid,
where there have to be draconian cuts in these programs to save them.
The truth is, if we could solve that one problem, we'd save more in
health care costs than all these things we're talking about in
Washington, which would be destructive to the fundamental integrity of
Medicare and Medicaid. It's an important issue.
But nobody really wants to deal with it, so they try to act like,
well, this is a matter of personal liberty and the Government shouldn't
be fooling with this, and all that.
[[Page 1177]]
But it just depends on what your philosophy is. And Dick Durbin and Al
Gore, who lost his only sister to lung cancer, and I believe that the
law ought to be enforced, and we ought to take strong steps to stop the
advertising, marketing, sales, and distribution of cigarettes to minors.
And I think it's a very important issue.
But the folks on the other side, they really don't believe that. I
mean, it's not like they're--you know, they really don't believe that. I
know that Senator Dole said the other day he wasn't sure cigarettes were
addictive--[laughter]--this morning said that he admired Dr. Koop, who
was President Reagan's Surgeon General and as far as I know is a
Republican but has always been very forthright about the dangers of
tobacco to children. But he said that Dr. Koop might have had his views
colored by excessive exposure to the liberal media that might have
brainwashed him.
Well, I think Dr. Koop's problem is that he has had excessive
exposure of 50 years of medical practice and reading medical journals
and having evidence and facts, and he is not clouded by the political
pressure that can be put on by the interest groups on the other side. So
he stood up to the heat about this.
Well, anyway, that's why I'm for Dick Durbin. I'm glad--that's a
good reason to be for him. He was out there; he was out there carrying
on this battle all along, and he did a good job, and he'll do a better
job if you ratify the positions we have taken in this coming election.
And I just want to make three arguments to you very quickly that I
hope--I realize that, as we used to say down home, I might be preaching
to the saved tonight. [Laughter] But I want you to go out and preach
this for the next 4 months, because I need your help. Every one of you,
if you can afford to be at this fundraiser tonight, you have the
capacity to influence somebody else by talking, by talking and speaking.
You can do it.
And if somebody says, ``Well, why should I be for the President, or
why should I be for Dick Durbin?'' I want you to give them three
arguments. Number one, these guys had a plan--a plan for the economy, a
plan for crime, a plan for education, a plan for the environment, and a
plan for family and community. And the results were good, and the other
guys opposed them.
Look at the economic plan. When I introduced my economic strategy, I
said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to reduce the deficit
and get interest rates down. We're going to expand trade dramatically.
Thank you, Bill Daley, for your help in that. But we're going to do it
on fair as well as free trade terms. We're going to invest more in the
education of our people, from pre-school all the way up to adults
needing retraining. And we're going to keep investing in the environment
and in technology and research, so that we can grow the economy. That
was our strategy.
Here's what they said. Speaker Gingrich: ``This will lead to a
recession next year.'' Mr. Armey: ``Clearly''--talking about our
economic plan--``clearly this is a job killer.'' Mr. Dole: ``Don't kid
anybody; nobody is going to cut spending around here.'' [Laughter] Mr.
Gramm: ``We're buying a one-way to a recession.'' The House Budget
Committee Chairman, Mr. Kasich: ``This plan will not work. If it was to
work, then I'd become a Democrat.'' [Laughter] Well, Mr. Chairman, we're
saving a seat for you at the United Center. [Laughter] They were wrong.
Three and a half years later we said if you adopt this economic
plan, we'll cut the deficit in half and have 8 million new jobs. It
turned out we were wrong, too. The deficit got cut by more than half,
and there are 9.7 million new jobs after 3\1/2\ years. They were wrong.
Dick Durbin mentioned the crime bill. You have--ask Senator Simon,
or Senator Moseley-Braun what it was like in the United States Senate
when we were trying to get the crime bill. Well, they said it was the
awfulest thing we ever saw. ``We don't need 100,000 police. We didn't
need the Brady bill. We didn't need the assault weapons ban. We
certainly shouldn't give the police any money or local community groups
any money to prevent crime by giving kids someplace to go after school
or jobs to do in the summertime.'' That was all wasted money, even
though the police agencies were begging for the money for children to
have something to say yes to. That's what they said.
[[Page 1178]]
One year alone, murder rate down in Chicago 11 percent, down in
Springfield 35 percent, down in every major urban area in America. The
crime rate is about to go down for the 4th year in a row. We are ahead
of schedule and under budget in putting 100,000 police on the street.
They told everybody when they won the Congress back in 1994, one of
the reasons they won it is they told all these people in rural areas
that the Democrats were trying to take their guns away. Well, now we've
had two deer seasons since they said that--[laughter]--two duck seasons.
And every single hunter in America is still shooting with the same rifle
if they wanted to. But I'll tell you something--but there are 60,000
felons, fugitives, and stalkers who could not get handguns because of
the Brady bill. They were wrong, and we were right.
Our plan said we're going to make college loans easier to get, less
bureaucracy, lower cost, better repayment terms. We're going to put more
kids in Head Start. They all voted against it. We said we're going to
have national service and give people a chance to work in their local
communities to help pay their way through college. Their leadership led
the fight against that. Some brave Republicans broke away on that, but
their leadership was against that.
We said, we're going to give tax cuts to people that really need it.
We're going to give a tax cut to the people on the bottom end of the
wage scale that have children at the house and that are working 40 hours
a week. Because if you work full-time, you've got kids in your house,
you shouldn't be taxed into poverty. The tax system ought to lift you
out of poverty. That's what we did. Every one of them opposed it, but we
did it.
For the first time in years we had a reduction in the number of poor
children. But we had to do it alone. You heard Dick talking about family
leave. Their leadership opposed it. You heard him talking about tobacco.
Let me tell you about another big family issue. We fought hard in the
telecommunications bill for the V-chip, which is not censorship. It just
says if you're a parent and you've got little kids there and you've got
100 channels on the television, you ought to have the right to decide
what they see before they're at least 11 or 12. And I think it was the
right thing to do. And they opposed that.
They talked about welfare. We just went out and worked with the
States and gave them permission to try to find ways to move people from
welfare to work that were tough on work but not tough on children,
didn't take cheap shots at kids or hurt them because they happen to be
born to immigrant parents. But you know what? Three and a half years
later, there are 1.3 million fewer people on welfare than there were the
day I became President. That's something we did.
So, argument number one: We had a plan; they opposed it. Look at the
results: We were right; they were wrong. And I want you to tell people
that.
Argument number two: Every election should be about the future. And
there's more we have to do. I want to build on the family leave law. I
think people should have a little time off if they have to go to a
parent-teacher conference or if they have to take their parents or their
children to regular medical--[applause].
I believe that we ought to raise the minimum wage and not let it
fall to a 40-year low. I believe we ought to pass that Kennedy-Kassebaum
bill that says you can't lose your health insurance if you change jobs
or somebody in your family is sick.
I believe we ought to change the tax law so that every American can
be guaranteed 2 years of education beyond high school at the nearest
community college. Every American should have it, every single one. I
believe there ought to be a million young people in work-study given the
chance that Dick Durbin and I had to work our way through college.
That's what I think we ought to do.
This is about the future--how are we going to create more
opportunity, bring the country together and go forward growing
together--ideas about the future, not how we can divide the electorate
up in some little segments here and segments there to wind up with more
than a majority by terrorizing or terrifying half the people.
And the third thing is, I want you to say to people, this is a great
election for the American people because there's almost no guesswork in
it. [Laughter] Now, you think about it. You know, I mean, normally, in
[[Page 1179]]
every election, especially in the Presidential race--I mean, you all
took a chance on me in '92. I hope you think it worked out okay. But you
did. But you did. But there's no guesswork. You know what I'm going to
do. You know that. You know based on the last 3\1/2\ years that what I
tell you I'm going to do, I'm either going to do it or get caught trying
to do it. [Laughter] And also you know what Senator Dole and the
Republicans are going to do, because they have already done it. I just
vetoed it the first time. So you know what they're going to do.
So if the American people believe the country, the Presidency and
the Congress, should be in the hands of the people who fought the family
leave law, who fought the V-chip, who fought the tobacco initiative, who
fought the economic plan, who fought the 100,000 police, who fought the
Brady bill, who fought the assault weapons ban, who sought to gut the
environmental protection of the country and weaken workplace protection
and make it easier for people to raid the pension plans of their
employees, they can do that. And they know. And there is no guesswork.
[Laughter]
Now, you're laughing because you never thought about it that way,
have you? But if you like that budget I vetoed in '95, you can have it.
And you can get it within 6 months, the first 6 months of 1997.
[Laughter] All you have to do is give them the White House and the
Congress, and they will give it to you.
Audience members. No-o-o!
The President. But if you don't like that, then you better make up
your mind that as citizens one of your responsibilities for the next 4
months and 1 week and a few days is to go out and tell everybody you
talk to that there are three reasons you ought to be for Dick Durbin and
Bill Clinton. We had a plan; it got good results. We got a better set of
ideas for the future. And you have got a clear choice.
And let's go back to what we started talking about at the beginning,
to close. Think about--this is a great adventurous time for America. We
have in the space of a few years dramatically changed the way we work
and the way we live and the way we relate to the rest of the world. On
balance, we're much better off for these changes, although there is a
lot of upheaval and a lot of our folks are still having a tough time.
And we are now going to, in the next 4 years, walk across a bridge
right into the next century. This election is not like 1992 when the
issue was change against status quo. Now you have two very different
views of change. But there is no status quo option. And the American
people have to decide now, am I going to get on that bridge and walk
into the next century, or am I going to get on that bridge and walk into
the next century.
They honestly believe, the other side does, that the things we do
together through our Government are a legacy of the industrial age of
America and basically, except for national defense, by and large not
worth doing; that we'd all be better off if we were on our own and
unburdened by terrible things like the environment protection law and
the family leave law and all those intrusions into our lives; that any
tax cut is better than any spending program, even if it's a college loan
program or putting tens of thousands more poor children into Head Start.
But I can tell you, they believe it. It's sincere. It's not just
contributions and all that stuff you hear to try to make people--these
are two honestly different visions of the future.
I believe that there has never been a great country that grew
greater by shrinking opportunity. I believe that the only way we can
continue to grow greater and deal with the challenges of the modern
world and turn this extraordinary diversity of America into our most
precious asset--if we decide we're going to give everybody opportunity,
insist on responsibility as part of the bargain, and then find ways to
grow together, to respect our diversity, to tolerate our honest
differences, to celebrate the rainbow of America. That's what I believe.
But you have to decide what you believe and whether it's worth
fighting for. And I recommend a simple test. Ask yourself what you want
this country to look like 20 years from now or 30 years from now, when
your children or your grandchildren are your age. Ask yourself what kind
of legacy you want to leave to them, and whether you really think we'd
be better off if we told folks, ``You're on your own. Have a good time
at
[[Page 1180]]
the tender mercies of the global economy out there in cyberspace
somewhere.'' Or wouldn't we be better by saying, if you look at the 220-
year history of this country, it is the long, sometimes painful,
sometimes agonizingly slow journey of a people to come closer and closer
and closer to their ideals of equality of opportunity and decency and
justice and fairness, and giving everybody a chance to live out their
dreams.
Now, that's what this election is about. You have to help your
fellow Americans decide which road we're going to walk into the future.
And if they understand the choice, I think we know what the answer will
be.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 6:40 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel. In his
remarks, he referred to William S. Singer, chair of the reception, and
William M. Daley, cochair, Chicago '96. A tape was not available for
verification of the content of these remarks.