[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 43 (Monday, November 1, 1999)]
[Pages 2137-2139]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Birthday Celebration for the First Lady

October 23, 1999

    Senator. [Laughter] Marisa, thank you for coming. We thought someone 
should be here today who does not have an accent. [Laughter] We have so 
many wonderful entertainers who are here for the VH1 millennial concert, 
which will be held later this afternoon. And

[[Page 2138]]

one of them just came in, my neighbor and friend from Mississippi B.B. 
King. Please come in.
    Since we're celebrating her birthday--and it's almost reached the 
point where Hillary and I don't want to celebrate anymore--[laughter]--I 
want to tell you, B.B. played at the White House the other night; we had 
a blues concert--and he's a year or two older than I am--[laughter]--and 
he's just as good as he ever was. So you never get too old to do what 
you do well and love, and I thank him.
    I will be brief and then bring on the birthday girl. I have to say 
one other thing as a point of personal pride. Senator Daschle couldn't--
because we both come from what my predecessor used to call a small 
State--could not bring himself to tell you the most relevant fact of 
that little history lesson he gave you about women in the Senate. Hattie 
Caraway was elected more than 60 years ago with the help of Huey Long, 
back when he was for Roosevelt as an ardent supporter of the New Deal. 
The first woman ever elected to the United States Senate was from my 
home State of Arkansas, and I'm very proud of that.
    I think it's high time New York, which has been on the cutting edge 
of so many other developments, join that great phalanx for the future.
    But I want to say something serious, that has nothing to do with 
Hillary or me or--almost nothing to do with our party, except that we 
happen to be the only people, in my view, doing the right thing. Back in 
'92, when we moved here after the election and we began to work, this 
country was in trouble. It was so long ago and things had been good for 
so long, a lot of people had forgotten what it was like then--how high 
the unemployment rate was, how high interest rates were, how big the 
debt was and the deficit, how much the crime rate was going up, how 
swollen the welfare rolls were, and how divided the society was.
    We have worked hard to turn this country around. And it is moving in 
the right direction. If this economy keeps going until February it will 
be the longest economic expansion in the history of the United States, 
and it will be done without a war. We have the lowest unemployment rate 
in 29 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, the lowest poverty 
rates in 20 years, the lowest crime rates in 30 years, the first back-
to-back budget surplus in 42 years, the smallest Federal Government in 
37 years. The environment is cleaner. There are more protections for 
family leave to help people balance family and work. We've got 150,000 
young Americans serving in AmeriCorps. The country is moving in the 
right direction.
    But the great question now is, what will we do with this moment of 
prosperity? And as all of you know, I'm not running for anything. 
[Laughter] My interest is in what happens to our children and 
grandchildren. We've worked real hard for 7 years to turn this country 
around. And now we are in the position that most countries get maybe--
maybe--once in the lifetime of a citizen, where things are moving in the 
right direction and you can literally chart the course for the future. 
You can paint a picture of your children's future and give them a chance 
to live it.
    And because it is the United States and because it's the end of the 
cold war and because of our fortunate position, we also can help make 
the world a more peaceful and prosperous and secure place, not only for 
our children but for children in every continent.
    That is this incredible opportunity we're getting. But nations are 
like people. Sometimes--I used to have a rule in politics--I had eight 
or nine rules, but one of my rules was, you're the most vulnerable when 
you think you're invulnerable. And if you think about your own life, we 
commonly make mistakes when we think everything is going great--because 
we break our concentration; we become self-indulgent; we think all the 
things that happened to us as individuals--that can happen to the 
country. That's why I vetoed that tax bill, because it was self-
indulgent, short-term.
    I would be here for my wife if she were not my wife, because we have 
got to have people with a lifetime of commitment to the future and to 
children, to a balanced sense of the country coming together and moving 
together. We need somebody who understands that for all this economic 
prosperity there are people and places that have been

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left behind. And if we can't bring economic opportunity to poor people 
now we will never get around to doing it. That ought to be one of our 
highest priorities.
    We need somebody who can resist the lure of the moment of the 
election and say, ``We're going to keep paying down this debt so we get 
out of debt for the first time since 1835--we can do it in 15 years if 
we stay at it.'' We need somebody that will think about the aging of 
America. You know, my generation is plagued with this--the idea that 
we'll retire and hurt our children and our grandchildren.
    What I want you to know about Hillary is, from the first minute I 
met her, she was thinking about the things that are important today. And 
one of the reasons that she looks so much younger than she is--
[laughter]--apart from the highly interesting and stimulating life--
[laughter]--and how good the American people have been to us, is that 
all of her life--all of her life--she has cared about the things that 
America needs to focus on now, that we dare not pass up the opportunity, 
literally, of a lifetime. I hope.
    Never in my life, not even once, has our country been in the 
position that we are now in to shape the future of our children and 
grandchildren and the future of the world. The only time in my life when 
the times were remotely this good was in the early 1960's, and we had to 
deal with the civil rights challenge and the war in Vietnam and the cold 
war. This has never happened in my life.
    And you need people in the Senate who are genuine visionaries and 
practical doer. She is a genuine visionary, a practical doer, and a 
wonderful human being.

Note: The President spoke at approximately noon at the Capitol Hilton. 
In his remarks, he referred to actress Marisa Tomei; and musician B.B. 
King. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.