    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 51 (Monday, December 27, 1999)]
    [Pages 2643-2645]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Dinner

    December 17, 1999

        Thank you very much. Let me, first of all, say how profoundly
    grateful I am to be ending 7 years in the Presidency with the support of
    people like you, in the home of my great friends Terry and Dorothy, with
    allies like Patrick Kennedy and Dick Gephardt. This is a holiday season,
    and it's most important for us to express our gratitude. And I am
    grateful, and I want to say thank you.
        I also will give you a gift--a brief speech. [Laughter] All of you
    heard it before, anyway. [Laughter] That reminds me of a great moment in
    my political education. In the mideighties, Tina Turner came to Little
    Rock to give a concert; she was making her comeback. And she had just
    put out that ``Private Dancer'' album. And she had a saxophone player
    who was a weight lifter--I don't know if you remember that--the guy
    could bench press me on a cold day. [Laughter]
        So I went to this concert, and I took a bunch of friends of mine.
    And I was sitting on the front row because the guy that ran the place
    knew I liked her. So she sings all her new songs, and she does real
    well, and the crowd goes crazy. And in the end, the band starts playing
    her very first hit, ``Proud Mary.'' And she comes up to the microphone,
    and the crowd goes crazy, and she said, ``You know, I've been singing
    this song for 25 years, but it gets better every time I do it.''
    [Laughter] So maybe you'll put up with this speech one more time.
    [Laughter]
        I wanted to say very briefly why I'm here. I'm not running for
    anything; I'm here because none of the things that our administration
    has been able to do for America would have been possible if it hadn't
    been for the support of the Democrats in the Congress. Whether in the
    majority, when we passed the economic plan of '93 without a single vote
    from the Republicans, when we passed the crime bill in '94 with just a
    few votes; or when we were in the minority in the Congress, but because
    they stuck with me--if the Republicans didn't want me fixing them
    Christmas dinner, they had to make a deal with us and continue to move
    this country forward. None of it would have been possible without them.
        I'm here because of what Dick Gephardt said. I'll say it in blunter
    terms. I think I owe him. We would never have lost the House of
    Representatives if they hadn't had to vote alone on an economic plan
    that revitalized this country. We'd never have the balanced budget; we'd
    never have the surplus; we'd never have the low interest rates and the
    high investment and the economic growth if we hadn't announced, and then
    they hadn't ratified by voting for, that economic plan in 1993. And they
    did not deserve to lose the House because of the deliberate
    misrepresentations about what was in the plan and what it would do to
    America that the people on the other side made before--to be fair to the
    voters--they could know one way or the other whether it was going to
    work; they weren't feeling it.
        I'm here because they had the guts--including a lot of Congressmen
    from rural areas--to say to the NRA, ``There's nothing wrong with the
    Brady bill. We ought to do background checks before we give people

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    handguns; there's nothing wrong with a waiting period. We ought to get
    rid of these assault weapons; kids don't need them on urban streets so
    that country kids can take a .22 or a 12 gauge and go hunting. This is
    crazy.''
        But when they voted for it in '94 they had to go right into the
    teeth of an election with people telling them they'd voted to take their
    guns away, and before the voters could possibly know. You have no idea.
    I'm here because they were brave enough to take on with me the problem
    of trying to extend health insurance to all Americans, and then they had
    to put up with having our efforts mischaracterized. One member of the
    Democratic caucus told me the other day, he said, ``You know, they said
    if I voted for the President's health care plan, it would lead to a big
    increase in uninsured Americans; and I voted for his plan, and sure
    enough, we had a big increase in uninsured Americans.'' [Laughter] So I
    think they got a raw deal after doing a great job for America.
        But the third thing and by far the most important reason I'm here
    is, after January 20, 2001, I won't be President anymore, but I'll still
    be an American. And almost more than anybody else, because of the life
    I've lived, I have an informed opinion about what is necessary to make
    the most of the new century for these children here. And by far the most
    important reason to give the Democrats a majority; to give Jane Harman
    from California, who's here, her old seat back; and to restore them to
    the majority--you'd be amazed how many Senate seats we can win. This
    Senate thing is shaping up pretty well. Because we're going to make some
    decisions in the next 5 years that will have a big impact on the next 50
    years. And I want the members of my party, who have brought the country
    to where it is today from where it was 7 years ago, to be the leaders in
    making those decisions.
        Now, little Mary was sitting here a minute ago. I've told this story
    a lot, but I've never fingered her before, so I'm going to finger her
    tonight. [Laughter] Terry and Dorothy and their kids came up and spent
    some time with us in the weekend after Thanksgiving. And we were all
    playing and having a big time. And little Mary looked up at me, and she
    said, ``How old are you anyway?'' [Laughter] And I said, ``Well, I'm
    53.'' And she said, ``That's a lot.'' [Laughter] And I had to admit that
    it's a lot. [Laughter]
        And I just want to echo something Dick Gephardt said. Never in my
    lifetime--never, not once, ever--has our country had the combination of
    economic prosperity, social progress, national self-confidence with the
    absence of an internal crisis or an external threat. We have, in other
    words, the best chance we have ever had--maybe in our history, but
    certainly in my ``that's-a-lot'' 53 years--to shape the future of our
    dreams for our kids.
        Are we going to give all of them a world-class education, or not?
    Are we going to take the burden of the baby boomers' retirement off
    their shoulders by fixing Social Security and Medicare, or not? Are we
    going to help all these working people who aren't as fortunate as those
    of us who can be here tonight balance work and family so they can
    succeed at home raising their kids and succeed at work, or not? Are we
    going to prove that we can grow the economy and preserve the
    environment, or not? Are we going to prove that we can continue to
    integrate the world's economies and expand trade but put a more human
    face on it so that everybody is benefited, or not? Is America going to
    continue to lead the world for peace and freedom, or not?
        I'll just give you one example, and I hope you agree with me. I'm
    really grateful that in 1999 the United States led our NATO Alliance and
    all of our European Allies in stopping cold the ethnic cleansing in
    Kosovo and letting over 800,000 people go home. I'm grateful for that.
        The other day I heard one of the candidates, prominent candidates
    for President on the other side said, ``Well, boy, if he got elected,
    they surely wouldn't be using American military resources to fool around
    in trivial, insignificant places.'' I think standing against ethnic
    cleansing, racial cleansing, religious cleansing, standing up for human
    rights is not trivial. I also think, to my Republican friends, well,
    it's good economics in the long run. It's morally right, but it happens
    to be good economics; because if you put the fire

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    out when it starts to burn, before the house has burned down, you're way
    ahead.
        But these are big questions. And what I want you to do for the next
    year is not just to come to these parties where we're all preaching to
    the saved, but every one of you has a span of influence, a circle of
    friends, people that you meet in nonpolitical context. And you ought to
    tell them, first of all, that 7 years ago--people actually don't
    remember; it's been so good so long people don't remember--you've got to
    remind them that in 1992 we were facing economic distress, social
    decline, political division, and government was discredited. And now
    we've got the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years and the lowest
    welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest poverty rates in 20 years and the
    lowest crime rate in 25 years, the lowest minority unemployment rate
    ever recorded, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years, the
    lowest single-parent household poverty rate in 46 years. And the air is
    cleaner; the water is cleaner; the food is safer, and we've put aside
    more land than any administrations in the history of America, except
    those of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. We've got 150,000 young people
    who have served our country in AmeriCorps, and 90 percent of our kids
    are immunized for the first time against serious illness, and over 2
    million children now have gotten health insurance under our Children's
    Health Insurance Program. And that's just half the story--and that we
    are asking the right questions, and we're the people to answer them for
    the future. They need to remember what it was like, what we've done,
    but, more important, what we think this election is about and why we're
    all running.
        I'll tell you, I knew Dick Gephardt before I became President. He
    was my neighbor. He'd been to the Governor's Mansion to see me in 1988,
    when he was running for President. We were both less health conscious
    then--remember, we sat and ate french fries from McDonald's. [Laughter]
    Dick spoke at this Democratic event where he was competing with an in-
    State basketball rivalry on television that night and he still did a
    good job. And he didn't eat, and so we sat in my big kitchen at the
    Governor's Mansion, and we stayed up half the night talking. He is a
    profoundly good human being.
        The thing that I am so impressed about is that he continues to grow
    every year as a leader. You know, once you reach a certain age and you
    realize that physically you're not going to get any stronger and you've
    got to keep working just to keep up, it's easy to stop growing
    personally. It's easy to stop growing in your interpersonal skills, in
    your leadership skills, in what you know and what you think about. This
    guy just keeps on going and keeps on growing. He has been indefatigable.
    And I trust him with the future of this country.
        So I want you all to think about this. And I want you to be able to
    go out, every one of you, and say, ``Remember what it was like? Here is
    what they've done. Here is what they're going to do.'' Elections are
    determined by three things: the quality of the candidates; whether
    you've got enough money to be heard--it's okay if the other guys have
    more, you just have to have enough; and, third, and most important, once
    those two baseline things are satisfied is what do the voters think the
    election is about, what is the subject of the election?
        If the subject of the election is whether America is going to use
    this once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet the big challenges of the future,
    we will win because you've given us the resources to be heard and he's
    found the candidates to run. And believe me, you owe it to these little
    kids in this room and people like them all across this country.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Terence and Dorothy McAuliffe and
    their daughter Mary; and former Representative Jane Harman. This item
    was not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.