[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 43 (Monday, November 1, 1999)]
[Pages 2166-2168]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Representative David Bonior

October 27, 1999

    Thank you very much. Thank you, David, and thank you, Vic. I'm glad 
to know you still have to pay some political dues for the price of going 
into private life. [Laughter]
    Let me say, I'm honored to be here for David Bonior. And the most 
important thing I can say to all of you is, thank you, because you know 
it's important that he be reelected or you wouldn't be here. I do think 
it is worth pointing out that he represents the kind of district that is 
pretty reflective of America; it could go either way. And he always has 
a competitive race because they spend a lot of money against him, and 
they try to say things that will turn the voters against him and 
convince them that he's something he isn't.
    Dave and Judy go home every summer; they knock on thousands of 
doors; they actually talk to people. I know that if you give money to a 
lot of candidates, one of the things you want to know is, now, if I 
really back this person, is he or she going to work hard? This guy kills 
himself to fulfill his responsibilities to his country and to his party 
in Washington and to his district back home. And he does as good a job 
in as difficult a situation as anybody in the United States.
    The other thing I want to say is that I am in a unique position 
having worked with him for nearly 7 years now, under some of the most 
difficult conceivable circumstances with very hard issues, to tell you 
that he is a great leader who is both loved and admired. Some of the 
people in the other party, they seem fond of electing people that they 
can then be terrified of, so they have to be browbeaten into doing 
whatever it is they want to do. This guy is followed because he is 
respected, admired, and loved by people who sometimes don't agree with 
him on every issue.

[[Page 2167]]

    The last point I want to make is this. We are very close now to 
returning a majority of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. 
We can't lose any seats, and we've got to win some. And we certainly 
don't want to fool with a leadership team that is working and is 
producing for our party and, more importantly, for our country.
    The most important thing in politics is to have, first of all, the 
right ideas and then, secondly, the right people. And I define the right 
people as people who understand how ideas affect real peoples' lives and 
identify with them and then have the courage to fight for them.
    One of the things that David didn't say, that I think he ought to 
take a lot of credit for back home--in a district of prudent, 
conservative Americans--is that when I came into office the deficit was 
$290 billion. We just got the final numbers on last year's budget. We 
had a $123 billion surplus. We paid $140 billion down on the debt in the 
last 2 years. If I had run for President in 1992 and I had told you, 
``Vote for me. I'll turn this $290 billion deficit into a surplus. We'll 
do it 2 years in a row, and I'll pay $140 billion on the debt,'' you 
would have said, ``You know, he's a very nice young man, but he's 
totally delusional, and we should send him home.'' [Laughter]
    Now, that reduction, on average, for the average American family, 
has been worth $2,000 savings in home mortgage payments, a $200 savings 
in car payments, and a $200 savings in college loan payments. So the 
average American family has gotten a $2400 tax cut, in effect, from 
responsible economic policies brought to you by our party. And it's not 
just the President. None of this would have happened if we hadn't had 
the votes in for the '93 economic plan and if David and Vic and others 
hadn't been up there whipping it. We did not have a single vote to 
spare, and the Vice President had to break a tie in the Senate, and it 
turned the country around.
    And for that reason alone, in a district that thinks of itself as a 
moderately conservative district, I wouldn't give away a man without 
whom it would not have happened. This country's economic recovery was 
sparked by our commitment to that and by enacting it, and David Bonior 
deserves an enormous amount of credit for it, and I'm very grateful to 
him, and I thank him.
    The second point I want to make, only because a lot of you run in 
the circles of our friends, is he was too modest in the litany he gave. 
And I say this because, again, I say, I could have done none of this 
without his help and others. But here are the real numbers. This country 
now has the longest peacetime expansion in history. If it goes on until 
February, it will be the longest economic expansion in the history of 
America, and we didn't have a war during this. It's unthinkable. The 
highest homeownership in history. And here are the numbers. 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 rate in 30 
years, the lowest teen pregnancy rate in 30 years, the first back-to-
back budget surpluses in 42 years with the smallest Federal Government 
in 37 years. Now, that is a record that you ought to be able to run on 
in any congressional district in America and be very proud of.
    And I'll close with this; this is by far the most important point. 
The real issue before the American people--and Senator Bradley and Vice 
President Gore are having a town meeting right now in New Hampshire 
while we're here--the issue is not whether we're going to change, of 
course we are. The world is changing. It's practically moving under our 
feet. The question is, how are we going to change? Are we going to, on 
the one hand, take a U-turn and go back to the policies that got us in 
so much trouble in the first place, which is essentially what all the 
people running on--for the other party's nomination advocate on economic 
and social policy? Are we going to forget what got us here in the first 
place and forget about things that will maintain our economic 
prosperity? Or are we going to build on what has happened, to take 
advantage of this moment to meet the big challenges of the new century?
    This is the first time in my lifetime that our people, as a people, 
have had a chance to essentially build the future of their dreams for 
their children. You know, the last time we had an economy that was about 
this good was in the 1960's: We had the civil rights

[[Page 2168]]

crisis; we had the Vietnam war. Now we have no excuse. But a nation is 
no different from a business or a family or an individual. You are most 
vulnerable to making a mistake in life when you think everything is 
peachy-keen, because it's easy to just relax, it's easy to get 
distracted, it's easy to do something that's in the short-term selfish 
interest that doesn't deal with the long run.
    The challenges this country faces is no different than the 
challenges that you have seen in your businesses, in your families, and 
in your lives. When things are really good, it's hard to muster the 
vision, the will, and the focus to do the right, big things. That's what 
the candidates should all be questioned about this year.
    The most important reason for his candidacy and his leadership is so 
we can save Social Security for the baby boom generation, so we can 
modernize Medicare and put a prescription drug benefit, so we can 
radically improve the education of the largest and most diverse group of 
kids in the country's history, so we can bring prosperity to the people 
and places that still haven't felt it, so we can keep on until we pay 
down the debt completely for the first time since 1835, so we can stop 
all these assaults on the environment and prove that we can clean the 
environment and grow the economy at the same time, so that we can meet 
our responsibilities in the world.
    David is an internationalist, and Gerald Ford spoke so passionately 
today about the importance of a bipartisan commitment to our global 
responsibilities, which means, do what it takes to continue to fight for 
peace and against ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, continue to 
support the Irish peace process, continue to support the Africans, who 
want to stop further tribal wars, continue to work for peace in Northern 
Ireland, continue to work for peace in the Middle East, continue to work 
against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, continue to work for the 
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, continue to work against terrorism.
    This is an important part of our future. If you don't think that all 
this stuff we're enjoying could be interrupted tomorrow by a collapse of 
the international economic system, by a rise in global terrorism, by 
America walking away from its responsibilities to peace in these 
important areas--think again. So I say to you, this is an important part 
of it.
    And the last thing I'll say is, we Democrats, we may have lost a lot 
of votes over the last 30 years because we believe in one America, 
without regard to race or gender or religion or sexual orientation. But 
if you look at the way the world is in turmoil today and if you look at 
the horrible, though isolated, instances of hate-related violence in 
America today, I think you will agree that it's pretty important that we 
hang in there together.
    Dave Bonior has a big heart, a good mind, and a steel spine. He will 
fight a buzz saw for what he believes in. And that's why the people who 
follow his lead both respect him and love him. You did a good thing in 
coming here tonight, but we've got a lot of work to do between now and 
next year at this time. If we do it, we're going to have a lot to 
celebrate.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:40 p.m. in the Concorde Room at the Hay 
Adams Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to former Representative Vic 
Fazio; and Judy Bonior, wife of Representative David Bonior.