[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 45 (Monday, November 15, 1999)]
[Pages 2310-2312]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum 
Reception

November 9, 1999

    Thank you. Well, Janice, thank you, and thanks for giving this group 
such a build-up when you said there were 300 here for Tipper and 250 for 
me. [Laughter] This is the first concrete manifestation I have had of 
the fact that I'm the only one in this crowd not running for anything 
anymore. [Laughter]
    Let me first of all say, I'm delighted to be here. I got a good 
report from Hillary on her visit with you, and thank you for the good 
reception you gave her. I brought--I see Ann Lewis is here. I brought 
Minyon Moore, my political director, with me, and the new head of our 
women's outreach office,

[[Page 2311]]

who used to operate this wonderful organization, WLF, Lauren Supina, is 
here. So thank you very much for coming.
    As all of you know, since Al and Tipper and Hillary and I moved to 
the White House, we have tried very hard to involve women to an 
unprecedented degree and to show a great sensitivity to interests of 
particular concern to women. And I'm sure that you've had that repeated 
over and over again.
    But one of the things that I am proudest of is that we have really 
enabled women to share in the benefits of the work of this 
administration. You know, we have now the lowest unemployment in 30 
years, but we have the lowest women's unemployment in 46 years. That's 
amazing. And when you consider how many fewer women were looking for 
work 46 years ago, those numbers are even more meaningful.
    We've also tripled the number of SBA loans to women. We've worked 
very hard on issues--the family and medical leave, I don't have the 
newest numbers, but as of last year, 15 million people had taken 
advantage of it.
    And as we look ahead, as I have said repeatedly, if you compare 
where we are now with where we were in 1992, we've gone from a period of 
economic distress, social division, political drift, and a complete 
discrediting of Government to the strongest economy in our history, 
welfare and crime rates at a 30-year low; we learned last week teen 
pregnancy is at a 30-year low; a country beginning to come to grips with 
its social problems and come together. We have a clear direction for the 
future, and no one's out there running against the Government anymore. 
We heard for 12 years that Government was the problem, and things got 
worse, including the deficit and the debt.
    But that's the good news. The question that we have to face now is 
what's at stake ahead of us? What is still to be done?
    And I just want to make two points very briefly. One is, we have the 
first chance in my lifetime--and I'm 53 years old--the first chance in 
my lifetime to really deal with the big challenges and opportunities out 
there facing our country, without the paralysis or the threat of an 
external crisis or an internal crisis. And I believe that imposes upon 
us a very heavy responsibility. And we ought to look at our country as a 
family would its children and its grandchildren. We have to deal with 
these big issues.
    And I think that the women of America can make sure that's what the 
subject of the election is about, and the WLF can make sure that we 
involve lots of people who've never been involved before, who care 
deeply about this.
    But if you look at--and I'll just mention two or three--if you look 
at the aging of America, that will affect more women than men, because 
you have a longer life expectancy. And as we talk about saving Social 
Security for the 21st century, one of the things we ought to be doing is 
making special provisions for women who could not pay into Social 
Security at the same amount men could and who therefore are much more 
likely to be living in poverty.
    If you look at reforming Medicare and extending the life of it and 
providing affordable prescription drug coverage, that affects women 
disproportionately to men. But it's profoundly important.
    If you look at the challenges we face with our children, the 
challenges we face in eradicating poverty and bringing prosperity to the 
people and places we haven't touched yet, of guaranteeing long-term 
economic health for our country by paying down the debt and getting out 
of debt for the first time, literally, in 165 years, these are things 
that I believe we ought to be taking to the American people.
    We've proved you can grow the economy and improve the environment. 
In this period of economic growth, we have cleaner air, cleaner water, 
safer food. We set aside more land for protection than any 
administration, except those of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, in the 
history of the country. That will continue to be a major concern.
    If you look at our responsibilities around the world, there's a big 
struggle I've been having here in Congress to adequately fund out 
foreign affairs budget. You know, one of the things that we do with that 
money, as I'm sure Hillary talked about today, is try to make sure that 
in developing countries around the world women have a chance to make a 
living by getting credit and girls have a chance to make a future by 
going to school

[[Page 2312]]

and being free for oppressive social practices. That's going to be a big 
issue in the future. Will we continue to do that? Will that continue to 
be part of America's role in the world?
    And of course, in the next election one of the things that will 
clearly be up for grabs is somewhere between two and four seats on the 
United States Supreme Court and the question of whether we will revisit 
a whole raft of issues, the most obvious of which is the right to 
choose, but believe me, that's not the only one that is hanging in the 
balance of this election.
    So I hope that you're all pumped up about what you've done. I'm 
particularly pleased, when Janice was giving the report, that you had so 
many people here today who had not previously been active. One of the 
things that I think is important for the Democrats to do is to recognize 
that there are literally thousands, even tens of thousands of people out 
there who have been directly benefited by the policies of his 
administration and the direction of the country, who have never 
participated in politics, that don't imagine that they have a 
contribution to make, because they have never been asked, and they've 
never been asked to do anything specific and given an opportunity to 
participate.
    People now believe in the possibilities of our country and the 
possibilities of our political system again. And so if they don't 
participate but they could, it's our fault, not theirs, and we have to 
look at it that way.
    And that's the last thing I would leave you with. You know, I'm 
fighting now for strengthening the equal pay law. I'm fighting now for 
adequate efforts at child care. We passed the family and medical leave 
law; 15 million people have taken advantage of it. I'd like to add 10 
million more people to the coverage.
    But you should know, for example, that today, under present Federal 
law, of those who are eligible to receive assistance from the Federal 
Government to help to provide for quality affordable child care, we have 
funding for only 10 percent--only 10 percent. And in spite of all that, 
we have the lowest unemployment rate in 46 years, but I promise you a 
lot of those women are going to work every day worried sick about their 
kids.
    And that is not good for our country, because one of the big 
challenges we have to face that I didn't mention, and I want to mention 
in closing, is--I'm proud that the first bill I signed was the family 
and medical leave law, but we have come nowhere near where we need to be 
in terms of enabling people to succeed both in the workplace and at 
home. And I think that ought to be one of the major issues that we take 
into the 2000 elections, even as I continue to redouble my efforts to 
pass the child care initiative we have before the Congress, to pass the 
strengthening of equal pay initiative we have before the Congress, and 
to do many other things.
    So I'm very grateful that I've had a chance to serve these last 7 
years. I'm grateful for what we have done and what we still can do. But 
the decision we should be making as Democrats is that we are not going 
to let our children and our grandchildren down. We're going to use the--
literally, it's the only opportunity we've had in my lifetime to have 
this level of prosperity, in the absence of domestic or foreign crisis, 
to shape the future of our dreams.
    The only chance we have to do that is with the massive involvement 
and leadership of the women of this country. And you will be one of the 
most important engines of the victories that we have in the year 2000.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 7:39 p.m. in the Potomac Room at the St. 
Regis Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Janice Griffin, national 
chair, Women's Leadership Forum; and Lauren Supina, Director, White 
House Office for Women's Initiative and Outreach.