[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 37 (Monday, September 14, 1998)]
[Pages 1760-1762]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner

September 10, 1998

    Thank you so much. I want to thank Jim and Carol and Senator and 
Mrs. Pell, and all the others who had anything to do with this event 
tonight. This has been a particularly meaningful event. It wasn't just 
Jill who wanted Senator Pell's autograph; I got him to give me what he 
said about me, and I had him autograph it. [Laughter] I'll take it home, 
make sure my family believes me when I tell them he said it. [Laughter]
    Thirty-four years ago I moved in across the street from this house, 
and I lived on the second floor of Loyola Hall as a freshman at 
Georgetown. And I looked out my window every morning into Senator Pell's 
garden--I don't want to you to think I was a peeping tom--[laughter]--I 
couldn't avoid it. I mean, if I looked out the window, I could see it.
    And I remember sometimes they would have garden parties in the 
springtime when the weather was warm, or I would see people come and 
go--famous people come and go. And it never occurred to me 34 years ago 
that someday I might be here with them as President. And I am very 
honored because, Senator, I thank you for the Pell grants. I thank you 
for your commitment to America's involvement in the world, for your 
belief in the United Nations, and a world system of peace and 
prosperity. I wish you had another 35 years in the Senate. We need you 
there today more than ever. And I thank you.
    So anyway, I'm feeling very, very nostalgic tonight. If anybody had 
told me when I was 18 I'd be in this backyard, I never would have 
believed it. I'd also like to thank all of you for your support, your 
personal support to me in this difficult time, in what I have tried to 
do to express apologies and seek forgiveness from the American people 
but, more importantly, for your continuing commitment for what it is 
we're trying to do.
    I saw a survey--I read something in the paper the other day that 
said that 91 percent of the American people were aware that the stock 
market had dropped 500 points, the day

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it dropped. Well, you know, 91 percent of the people--it's amazing that 
that many people would agree that the Sun comes up in the morning. I 
mean, that's a pretty high level. [Laughter]
    And it's very interesting to me that--I now talk to all kinds of 
people. I was at a school in Florida yesterday, and the day before, a 
school in Maryland. And I would talk about this, and I'd say, ``You all 
read about that, didn't you?'' And they would say, ``yes.'' And I said, 
``You read that the drop was generally attributed to developments beyond 
our borders that had no direct impact on the American economy.'' That 
is, no one could conclude from the momentary difficulties--or the 
difficulties, anyway, in Asia or Russia or whatever--that there was a 
direct impact on the economy today that was very severe. But we had this 
big drop.
    And it's been very interesting because these events and what people 
are learning about them and their apparent connection to the gyrations 
of the stock market have done more than anything--all the speeches I 
have given for 6 long years--to hammer home one point that I tried to 
hammer home when I ran for President in 1991 and 1992, which is there is 
no longer an artificial dividing line between domestic and foreign 
policy, between economic and security policy. That we have to see a 
world in which we are growing closer together and an America in which we 
are growing ever more interconnected. And we have to look at the world 
in ways that enable us to fulfill our responsibilities toward peace and 
prosperity and freedom and human rights if we want America to do well at 
home.
    And conversely, if we want America to be strong and be able to lead 
the world, we have to prove that we can develop the capacities of all of 
our people, that we can run a good, strong economy, and, very important 
over the long run, that in an increasingly interconnected world, that we 
have people from everywhere in America, but they all have a chance as 
long as they follow the rules. And I think that's important.
    And our administration has really been devoted to giving everyone a 
chance to making America work again, and then to preparing us for the 
future, and to assume--to make sure we're doing what we can to lead the 
world toward peace and freedom and prosperity. I am grateful for what 
we've been able to do, but I will say this: I think the most important 
thing today is that Americans not take the blessings of the moment for 
granted, either to be idle or to pretend that we can indulge ourselves 
in self-defeating conduct as a nation.
    When you get a moment like this when things seem to be going well, 
especially if there is a lot of churning dynamism elsewhere in the 
world, it is a time for an extra sense of responsibility to deal with 
the big challenges.
    What have we learned about the world economy in the last 2 years 
that we didn't know? Have we learned anything we didn't know when we 
passed GATT, when we passed NAFTA, when we committed ourselves to an 
open trading system and to elevating other countries? What have we 
learned? What do we do about it?
    Well, the first thing we've got to do is pay our way to the 
International Monetary Fund. If we want to have influence, we certainly 
have to pay our way. We need to pay our way to the United Nations. We 
need to do the things that a great country does.
    But there is more we need to do. What are we going to do to make 
sure the baby boomers can retire, have the Social Security they need, 
the medical care they need, without bankrupting their children and 
grandchildren? What are we going to do to make sure, now that we have 
Pell grants, HOPE scholarships, record numbers of work-study positions, 
the most access to higher education in history, that we have the best 
elementary and secondary education in the world? What are we going to do 
to prove to other countries, by the power of our example, that you can 
grow the economy and improve the environment at the same time? What are 
we going to do to reconcile our goals of having affordable health care 
with quality health care, through the Patients' Bill of Rights? What are 
we going to do, now that the House finally passed it, to stop the Senate 
Republican filibuster of campaign finance reform, killing it again? How 
can we raise this feeling that people have that their campaigns are 
properly run? There are a lot

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of big questions out there. Maybe most importantly of all, over the long 
run, what are we going to do to prove that we can be one America, no 
matter how diverse we get in terms of race, religion, culture? What are 
we going to do?
    Because if we are--if we want to do good things in the rest of the 
world--some of you were so kind in what you said around the table 
tonight about the role the United States has been able to play in the 
last few years in the Irish peace process. We're working very, very hard 
this night in the Middle East peace process. We're working hard to 
reconcile people to one another. If we want to do good things around the 
world, we have to be good at home. We have to be able to set an example 
of reconciliation among ourselves, instead of destructive, divisive 
conduct.
    So that's the only thing I would like for you to think about 
tonight. When you leave here, I hope, if somebody asks you why you came 
here, you will say I'm proud to be here because what we've done in the 
last 6 years made America work again. I'm proud to be here because we've 
got a vision of the world in the 21st century. And I'm proud to be here 
because we know that we dare not squander the blessings of the moment. 
Instead, we have to look at the big challenges that lie before us and 
seize them now when we have the resources and the confidence and the 
sheer emotional breathing room to do it. We don't want to let this pass 
us by. We want to seize it. And if we do, in a couple of years when we 
start that new century and that new millennium, America will give our 
children the future that we owe them.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:38 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to Jim and Carol Lewin, dinner hosts and their 
daughter Jill; and former Senator Claiborne and his wife Nualla.