[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 24 (Monday, June 16, 1997)]
[Pages 857-858]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner

June 11, 1997

    Thank you very much. Let me say to all of you how very grateful I am 
for your presence and for your support. I appreciate what the Vice 
President has said, and I associate myself with his remarks. I think 
that's what they say in the Congress. [Laughter]
    I would just like to make two very brief points. First of all, the 
country is in better shape than it was 4\1/2\ years ago. It is a direct 
consequence, in my view, of the hard work of the American people 
combined with the policies and the changes which have been instituted 
here.
    I want you to know that my plan is to keep working on this until the 
last day I'm in office. And as far as I'm concerned, all these good 
things that have happened are not constant unless they can be sustained, 
so that we still have to put the meat on the bones of the balanced 
budget agreement. In the abstract, it is a very good agreement because 
it contains an investment strategy for education, for science and 
technology, for the environment we can be proud of and it will balance 
the budget with conservative estimates. But we have to put the meat on 
the bones.
    I'm proud of the fact that we've had the biggest drop in crime in 36 
years, but juvenile violence is still way too high, and we have to put 
the meat on the bones. We have a lot more to do there.
    I'm proud of the fact that we've had the biggest drop in welfare in 
history by far, but we've still got to make sure when all those people 
run out of their welfare checks they can go to work, and we've got to 
put meat on the bones.
    I'm proud of the fact that this budget agreement restores what I 
thought were unconscionable cuts in benefits to legal immigrants, but 
we've still got to put the meat on the bones in terms of the details of 
the legislation. So there's a lot to be done here.
    In the world, I'm gratified by the agreements we've reached with 
Russia on the

[[Page 858]]

NATO-Russian partnership and reducing the nuclear tensions between us 
and the meeting that will occur in a few weeks in Madrid to expand NATO. 
But I'm troubled that we have not completed the Bosnian peace process; 
we've got a long way to go there. I'm troubled at the stagnation of the 
peace process in the Middle East. There's a lot of things that this 
administration has done that cannot be sustained unless we all keep 
working and moving forward.
    And the second point I would like to make to you is a more abstract 
one, but I hope you can take some pleasure in it. I really believed in 
1991 and 1992, when I went around and asked so many of you to help me 
run for President, that we had to modernize the approach of the 
Democratic Party consistent with our values, that we had to take a new 
approach but it had to be rooted in our values. There was nothing wrong 
with our values, but we had to be relevant and effective in the modern 
world. We had to prove that we were capable of producing a strong 
defense, a credible foreign policy, a disciplined management of the 
economy, particularly on fiscal matters. And we had to prove that you 
could cut the deficit and invest in America's future at the same time.
    We had to prove that we could be for high standards of personal 
responsibility in the criminal justice and welfare system and still 
believe that we should be an inclusive nation, where everybody should 
have a fair chance. We had to prove you could grow the economy and 
preserve the environment. We had to take a different position.
    And when I was in Europe recently and I was doing this press 
conference with the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, who 
as you know has been subject to almost savage criticism from time to 
time for having adopted ideas similar to mine. [Laughter] But the only 
people that like it seem to be the people over there. The voters thought 
it was all right.
    I had the feeling for the very first time that the people in the 
press who were asking us questions really believed that we might have 
changed the country and our political party and that there was some 
organized, principled direction to this. And I've been working on this 
long before I even thought I would run for President, for a good 10 
years or more now. And I think that once we believed that we had--we not 
only have good results, but we know we're on a course that will work, 
and we can expect it to keep working with sustained effort, that is the 
beginning of real hope because then you don't have to see the gains 
evaporate when elections change things or when term limits come up or 
when momentary difficulties come up in the economy or other problems.
    So I would ask you to keep that in mind. I believe you have helped 
to contribute to a profound, almost revolutionary positive change in the 
direction of our country because you helped to revitalize the party that 
we're all proud to be a part of. And I hope you will never forget that.
    And I had the feeling for the very first time that a lot of those 
who interpret us for the rest of the country and the world were coming 
to that understanding because I was standing there with the new Prime 
Minister of Great Britain and we were saying the same things and we had 
just left the Prime Minister of The Netherlands and he said the same 
things and because they came along after the '92 election and had also 
seemed to get quite satisfactory results in their own country. So you 
were also part of changing the world. And for that, I am very, very 
grateful.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:37 p.m. at the Mayflower Hotel. In his 
remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Wim Kok of The Netherlands.