[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 17 (Monday, April 27, 1998)]
[Pages 702-704]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Luncheon

April 24, 1998

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Governor, and thank you, ladies and 
gentlemen. I'm delighted to see you, and I've enjoyed our visit already 
today. I thank you for being here. Len and I were just joking over on 
the side when Roy was talking about how we would have to explain to the 
media when we characterize this as the Democratic Party's ``Ragtime' 
weekend. [Laughter] And Len said, ``Well, I always say it's our 150th 
anniversary celebration weekend.'' But actually, for those of you who 
are familiar with ``Ragtime,'' it's not a bad thing to be a kind of 
metaphor for the struggles of our party, the aspirations of our party, 
and the hope that we have for the future of America. And so I thank all 
the folks who are associated with the wonderful production for helping 
us to celebrate this weekend.
    Let me also say to you, Governor, I thank you for what you said 
about the Irish peace process and about the trips to Africa and to Latin 
America. Just before I came over here

[[Page 703]]

I had a visit and got an update from the British Prime Minister, Tony 
Blair, about where we are on that and what's going on. In a way, those 
two trips and the efforts of the United States to help to broker the 
peace, or at least to create the conditions in which peace could occur 
in Northern Ireland, are also metaphors for what I think our national 
mission should be now.
    For about 5\1/2\ years, we have been working to change the direction 
of the country so that when we enter the 21st century there really will 
be opportunity for everyone who is responsible enough to work for it, 
and so that there really will be a country that is one American 
community across all the lines that divide us, and so that we will 
continue to lead the world--which as Roy said, is a smaller and smaller 
place--toward peace and freedom and prosperity and a spirit of 
interdependence that makes us stronger because we work with our friends, 
our neighbors, and people who share our values.
    And I'm very pleased with the results that we've had in the last 
5\1/2\ years. Last night I had the great honor of hosting at the White 
House the members of the Congress in 1993 who passed our economic plan--
all members of our party--by one vote in each House, including the Vice 
President's vote in the Senate. As he said, whenever he votes, we win. 
[Laughter] And it was a remarkable thing because, as you know, some of 
those people gave up their seats in Congress because they voted for 
that, because of the horrendous attacks to which they were subject and 
all the sort of distortions of their position. But it's pretty hard to 
quarrel with the results. Before we ever passed the Balanced Budget Act, 
which I strongly supported, the deficit had been reduced by 93 percent. 
And so I just want all of you to be proud of that.
    I, just before I came over here, bid a formal goodbye to Mack 
McLarty, my old friend, my first Chief of Staff, my Envoy to the 
Americas. And I pointed out that in just the first year and a few months 
when he was our Chief of Staff, we passed the economic plan, the Family 
and Medical Leave bill, a sweeping expansion of the global trade 
network, and began this work in education to which Governor Romer 
referred.
    So I want you to feel a part of this, and I want you to feel good 
about it. But I also want you to be resolute that our party's mission is 
to get things done, not to score political points in Washington. We want 
to change the lives of people in America, not to rack up a few points on 
the rhetorical scoreboard that changes every day here anyway.
    And we have a big agenda. We're trying to pass a budget this year 
that is within the budget that preserves the balanced budget and saves 
any surplus until we decide how we're going to reform Social Security 
for the 21st century. We are trying to pass a principled tobacco 
settlement which protects what has been called, in some of these 
documents coming out, ``replacement smokers''--to me, they're children--
and to do it in a way--we don't want to bankrupt the tobacco companies, 
unlike the criticism that's been leveled in the paid ads you've seen. We 
do not want to put them out of business. We just want them out of the 
business of selling tobacco to children. And that is a critical 
distinction there, which I believe we have to hammer through until we 
succeed.
    I have a very aggressive education agenda, which has been embraced 
by the Democrats in the Congress and some Republicans, to modernize our 
schools, to have smaller classes in the early grades, to continue until 
we connect all of our classrooms to the Internet, and to raise academic 
standards and to have voluntary national tests to measure whether our 
children are meeting those standards. And we are in a pitched battle.
    Yesterday, there was a vote in the Senate on a bill that would have 
ended our initiatives for charter schools, for a lot of our other 
education reforms, and would have cut off funding for voluntary tests. 
It's interesting--do you suppose the same people would vote for a bill 
that said, let's continue to have football in America, but let's stop 
keeping score? Or, let's play this game, but let every community score 
however they want; soccer is a global sport, but we're going to have 
everybody keep score in different ways. I would submit to you that 
education is far more important than football or soccer, that there is 
an international arena within which our children will live, by which 
they will be judged, and objective standards which do matter in their 
lives.

[[Page 704]]

So I predict we're going to have a big debate about education in the 
closing months of this congressional session. I welcome it, but I need 
your support.
    We're trying to do things to help families--the Medicare buy-in for 
people over 55 who have lost their jobs and their health insurance. The 
Congress Budget Office--not me--the Congress Budget Office says we can 
allow that to be done without putting any burden on the Medicare system. 
It will not impact our efforts to reform Medicare at all.
    The HMO bill of rights, the child care initiatives that we talked 
about so much yesterday--we have all this evidence now that what happens 
in a child's first 3 years of life is so important to the child's 
development. More than half the parents of children in the first 3 years 
of life are in the work force, and people are panicked all over the 
country about not being able to afford quality child care. We have a 
proposal on the floor which can fund that sort of quality child care for 
millions more children within the balanced budget amendment. We need to 
pass it.
    We're finally going to get a vote on campaign finance reform in the 
House, thanks to that brave band, that small band of Republicans that 
joined with the House Democratic Caucus and forced a majority position 
on the Congress. I thank them for that.
    And we are also going to have a chance to pass for the 21st century 
the most impressive commitment to scientific and biomedical research in 
modern history, as a part of our gift to the 21st century.
    That's a pretty big agenda. And I just want you to know that you're 
a part of all this; your support makes this possible. But I would like 
to ask you to urge all of our fellow Democrats to urge the Congress to 
act. There are so many of these things we can do, and we'll still have 
plenty to argue about in November on the election, but we're Democrats; 
we believe the purpose of the Government is not to give us sinecures of 
power but to do things that help people advance their own lives. And 
that's what we're here trying to do, and we need to bear down and do it. 
That's why the country is in good shape today, because we have put aside 
short-term considerations to lift up the long-term interests of the 
country. No one can quarrel with the results. We just need to do more of 
it. And I'm going to do my best to make your support a catapult for 
getting those results.
    Thank you again, and God bless you all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. in the ballroom at the Sheraton 
Carlton Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Roy Romer of 
Colorado, general chair, and Leonard Barrack, national finance chair, 
Democratic National Committee.