[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 46 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
[Pages 1790-1792]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic Governors' Association Reception

November 12, 1997

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Loretta. Thank you, Katie. Thank all 
of you who had anything to do with this fundraiser. This is an exercise 
of true affection because Howard Dean would probably win next year if 
none of us gave him a penny. [Laughter] But I am delighted to be here.
    Senator Leahy and I were standing back there when Howard was giving 
his remarks, and he said he suffered through 16 years of Republican 
leadership, the deficit was going up before I came in. And I said, ``You 
know, Pat, it was really only 12 years; it just seemed like 16.''
    I'd like to say a special word of thanks, too, to Senator Pat Leahy, 
who is truly one of the finest people in the entire United States 
Congress and one of the most effective. Whether the issue is economic 
policy, agriculture policy, social policy, foreign policy, his passion 
to remove the scourge of landmines from the Earth, Pat Leahy is always 
there. And we can be proud that he represents not only the State of 
Vermont but all of America very well.
    I'd also like to say that whatever it is that Howard Dean knows, or 
whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning, if I could give 
it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder, 
we would immediately become the majority in the Congress and we would 
have about 35 Governors. I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is 
just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to 
do at election time. And I very much appreciate what he said about what 
we've tried to do here in Washington.
    I love to do fundraisers and events for Democratic Governors or the 
Democratic

[[Page 1791]]

Governors' Association in Washington because one of the things that I 
learned when I moved to Washington and what I feared was that people 
don't think that those of us who have been Governors exist out there. 
And we might as well be in a zoo somewhere.
    When I came to Washington, I would read editorials from the 
prominent newspapers saying that if you cared about the deficit and 
crime and welfare, you were stealing Republican issues. And I said, now, 
wait a minute. The last time I checked, the debt of this country

quadrupled under a Republican President, crime was going up when I took 
office, and the welfare rolls were expanding. And since I've been in 
office, we've cut the deficit by 92 percent, crime has gone down every 
year, and the welfare rolls have dropped by 3 million. I think those are 
American issues the Democratic Party has done very well on, and I don't 
understand all this.

    Out in the country, you know, Democrats care about the deficits and 
welfare reform and safe streets. And you know what? Democrats care about 
them in Washington, too. We passed a crime bill in 1994 overwhelmingly 
with Democratic support, with a little Republican support. We passed the 
economic program in 1993 only with Democrats. And we began the welfare 
reform effort through the executive branch, as Howard Dean said, then I 
vetoed two bills first because I refused to take away the guarantee of 
health care and nutrition from children and I wanted to have enough 
money for child care if we were going to require people to go to work. 
So we got it right and the results were good for America, and I'm proud 
of that.
    But one last point I want to make, this has been a very good year 
for the United States in Washington. We had an enormous effort to pass 
the balanced budget that has things that I think every Democrat in this 
country and every American ought to be proud of. It's the biggest 
investment in health care for poor children since 1965--Howard talked 
about that--biggest investment in education since 1965; biggest 
investment in helping open the doors of college to all Americans since 
the GI bill 50 years ago; substantial reforms of Medicare, including 
efforts to improve what we're doing in diabetes that the diabetes 
foundation says are the most important advances in the care of diabetes 
since insulin was developed 70 years ago. We have added 12 years to the 
Medicare Trust Fund and given our seniors more choices. This was a big 
deal.
    We also are working on expanding NATO to ensure our partnership in 
security in Europe. We've passed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a big 
issue. One of the big disputes we're having with Saddam Hussein now and 
these inspectors is that these inspectors in Iraq have found enough 
potential chemical, biological, and incipient nuclear technology, more 
than was destroyed in the Gulf war. We want to wipe the prospect of 
chemical warfare off the face of the Earth. We don't want a bunch of 
terrorists with laboratories in briefcases going from airport to airport 
wreaking havoc in the world of the 21st century that our children will 
live in. We took a big step toward that. So this has been a good year.
    But in addition to my affection for Governor Dean and my gratitude 
to the people of Vermont for voting for Bill Clinton and Al Gore twice 
by big margins and my desire to help members of my party, I want--I 
think it's very important that you understand that even though sometimes 
I get the feeling around here many people don't remember that the 
Governors or the mayors or the county officials, for that matter, are 
really out there doing a lot of things--the Governors are especially 
important for the strategy that I'm pursuing for America to succeed.
    We got $24 billion for children's health; that's good. What's step 
two? The Governors have to design a program that works. And I promise 
you every Governor with any sense in this country without regard to 
party is going to wonder what Howard Dean is going to do with the money 
because they know that Vermont has done the best job of expanding health 
care coverage for children. So it matters who the Governor is.
    You can put more money into education, but the Governors have to 
decide how it's going to be spent. We won a huge battle, which we're 
going to be really highlighting in the next couple of days when we sign 
the appropriations bills, to get the Congress, after months and months 
of contentious

[[Page 1792]]

fighting, to embrace the notion that we ought to have national standards 
of academic excellence and national exams in reading and math for 
elementary students and eighth graders. But what happens afterwards? 
Education is the primary province of the States. The Federal Government 
can facilitate national excellence in education; the Governors have to 
ensure it.
    In the environment, we're trying to clean up 500 toxic waste dumps 
and prove we can have clean air, clean water, and safe food and grow the 
environment. We can provide funds, we can have Federal standards, but in 
the end, the specific work is largely done in the States.
    And as we move into this new era where we have to have more 
flexibility, more partnerships, and more common sense, in which we want 
to reject the kind of ideological false choices we're often confronted 
with in the political debates here, the partnership that exists and the 
quality of it and the quality of the people that do the work at the 
State level--the partnership with the Federal Government will be 
critical in terms of how Americans actually get to live and what kind of 
world our children actually grow up in. That's what this is about.
    So in so many ways the governorship is more important than ever 
before. We have tried to give more responsibility to the States. We've 
also tried to give them more things to do. And it has succeeded in 
places like Vermont, which have had visionary leadership.
    I can only hope and pray that every Governor will do the job that I 
know that he will do in health care, in education, in the environment, 
in building a solid future for our children. You're going to help him to 
do it by your presence here tonight, and I'm very grateful to you.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:47 p.m. in the Colonial Room at the 
Mayflower Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Loretta Bowen, 
legislative and political director, Communications Workers of America; 
Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, chair, and Katie Whelan, executive 
director, Democratic Governors' Association.