[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 32 (Monday, August 11, 1997)]
[Pages 1216-1218]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner

August 7, 1997

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Governor. Thank you, Alan. Thank 
you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here. Mostly what I want to do is 
have a conversation tonight, but I would like to just briefly comment on 
the events of the last couple of days, in the context of what's happened 
for the last 4\1/2\ years.
    When I came to Washington after our campaign in '92, I had a very 
clear idea of what I was trying to do. It seemed to me that the country 
had to make a number of changes if we were going to go into the next 
century with the American dream alive for everyone, leading the world in 
all the ways that are so important, and giving our children the future 
they deserve. And I felt, among other things, that our party, which has 
historically been the progressive party, had to advocate changes that 
would move beyond the old divisions between growing the economy, 
preserving the environment, helping business, helping labor, being tough 
on crime, being compassionate and smart--all those--what I have always 
thought were kind of false choices. And that we ought to have a simple 
strategy that asks, will this create opportunity for people who are 
responsible enough to work for it? Will this bring us together, rather 
than drive us apart? Will this preserve our leadership for peace and 
freedom and prosperity? That's what we've tried to do.
    Before I signed the new budget law, we had reduced the deficit by 80 
percent, we had a historic drop in welfare rolls, we have the smallest 
percentage of people on welfare we've had since 1970 now. We had 
dramatic drops in crime--last year, the biggest drop in crime in 35 
years and a number of other very positive things happening.
    Now, this budget I believe will be very good for the economy because 
it will continue the downward trend of the deficit. It will bring us 
into balance. It will produce a surplus. And it will also sustain itself 
over the years ahead. There are tax cuts in the budget. We've been 
criticized in many quar

[[Page 1217]]

ters for them, but I would like to make a couple of points.
    Number one, the capital gains and the estate tax relief, which the 
Republicans wanted, have gotten a lot of publicity. But it's important 
to note that 80 percent of the tax relief went to the children's tax 
credit for middle income people, to the education tax credits to open 
the doors of college education to all who are willing to work for it, 
and to the initiatives primarily directed at urban America, to the areas 
which have not participated in our recovery--80 percent.
    Number two, perhaps even more importantly in the larger economic 
sense, in the aggregate, these tax cuts are about one-eighth the size of 
the tax cuts in 1981 that led to the permanent structural deficits. And 
it's very important that the American people understand that. We did not 
just--this Congress did not just sort of take the lid off the Treasury 
in a kind of a political orgy. This was a very disciplined, limited 
thing.
    Of course, the budget also has the biggest increase in investment 
for education in over 30 years, the biggest increase in investment for 
children's health since Medicaid was established in 1965. It is an 
historic, positive, progressive budget that will be pro-economic growth 
and good for the people of this country. So I feel good about that.
    I feel good about a lot of the things that have happened in foreign 
policy, our expansion of NATO, our working with Russia in that regard. I 
feel good about the Presidents' Summit of Service we had in 
Philadelphia. I'm very committed to this initiative on examining and 
improving race relations, which I think is absolutely critical to our 
future. All these things have been started this year.
    Perhaps most important over the long run, I'm committed to seeing 
this effort to establish national educational standards of excellence in 
our schools for the first time in history. We cannot back up on that, 
and I hope you will help me get all the people in your respective States 
on that bandwagon.
    We're coming into the fall. There are a lot of other exciting issues 
that we'll have to deal with, and I'll just mention them very quickly 
and then sit down and we'll have a conversation. But in the remaining 
months of this year, I am hoping that we can secure fast track authority 
from Congress so I can continue to expand trade for America. Our 
economic analyses are that one full fourth, 25 percent of the economic 
growth this country has had in the last 4\1/2\ years, which is now 13 
million new jobs, a fourth came directly from the efforts to open 
markets to American products and services. So I think that's important.
    I think it's important that we pass the McCain-Feingold campaign 
finance reform bill. It's finally coming to a vote in the Senate. For 
some of you, it will save you a lot of money if it passes. It will be a 
good thing. But it would be a good thing for both parties because we'll 
have to go out and find more contributors and more people to participate 
and distribute the responsibility, and that will be a very good thing.
    But, finally, let me say this whole campaign finance reform effort 
will never succeed unless we reduce the cost of campaigns, which will 
only happen if we get free air time or drastically reduced air time for 
the candidates. That is an absolutely critical thing. Unless we change 
the cost environment, no matter how you work with, manipulate, or change 
the contribution rules, there will still be the costs out there and they 
will flow somehow, because people will have to communicate with the 
voters and will have to be able to reach the voters with a message.
    The third thing I want to mention is coming up, that I hope all of 
you will take an interest in, is the climate change debate. In December, 
in Japan, the advanced nations of the world--and we hope all the 
others--will be called upon to make commitments to reduce the greenhouse 
gas emissions of our economy so that we can reduce the rate at which the 
planet is warming up. This is a big deal. If we have just a few degrees 
of warming of the planet over the next hundred years, it could lead to 
rises in the sea levels which could, for example, flood the entire 
Florida Everglades. It could change the whole economic structure of 
American agriculture. So we have to find a way to grow the economy and 
improve the environment.
    We are going to begin dealing this fall and over the next year and a 
few months with the whole question of entitlement reform, which, simply 
put, is what is the best way

[[Page 1218]]

to preserve the integrity of Social Security and Medicare in the 21st 
century when the baby boomers retire. That's really the issue. Social 
Security right now is secure through 2029. We just added 10 more years 
to the Medicare Trust Fund. The issue is, how can we preserve the 
integrity of these programs and the benefits they bring in a century 
when people are going to be living longer and when the baby boomers will 
retire and there will be just barely more than two people working for 
every person retired. We've never dealt with an issue like this without 
a crisis before, but the bottom line is, if we make modest changes now, 
we can avoid imposing drastic changes that our children will have to 
make later. I think the responsible thing to do is to deal with the 
modest changes now. So I hope we will do that.
    And finally, in October, the First Lady and I are going to have a 
big conference on child care. I am still--I think ``obsessed'' is not 
too strong a word--with the challenges so many Americans face succeeding 
in raising their children and succeeding at work. And there is still not 
a systematic network of child care out there.
    We have gotten a lot of help from the Congress in establishing child 
care networks for people who will be moving from welfare to work, and 
that's good. But there are a lot of people who have never been on 
welfare who work for modest wages, whose children simply do not have 
access to quality, affordable child care. And I think that's one of the 
next big frontiers in our efforts to bring America together.
    So I hope you will help us with that, and I hope you will follow it. 
And I hope you will be proud of the fact that you have supported us and 
you have made possible the best economy we've had in a generation and 
progress on all these social issues and progress abroad as well as at 
home. That's what the political process is supposed to do. And if we can 
keep going and do this flat out for 3 more years, I think we can watch 
our country move into a new century and a new millennium, confident that 
the best days of America are still ahead. And that is our obligation as 
citizens and as human beings.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:09 p.m. in the East Room at the Mayflower 
Hotel.