[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 11 (Monday, March 20, 2000)]
[Pages 533-537]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Community in Cleveland

March 13, 2000

    Thank you very much. Thank you. First, I think Wanda did a pretty 
good job, don't you? Let's give her another hand. [Applause] I am 
delighted to be here in Cleveland. I want to thank all the people who 
are up here with me. Alice Katchianes, thank you for being here, and Mr. 
Venable, thank you for your welcome. If I could sing like that, I'd be 
in a different line of work. [Laughter] I thought that was great.
    I want to thank Congressman Sherrod Brown and Congressman Dennis 
Kucinich, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, my great friend Lou 
Stokes, all the other officials who are here today. State Representative 
Jack Ford; County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora; State Senate candidate 
Donna McNamee, a woman I met at the dedication of the FDR Memorial, at 
President Roosevelt's wheelchair. I'm glad to see her here.
    I want to say a special word of appreciation to Congressman Dick 
Gephardt for his leadership and his passionate commitment to this and so 
many other good causes. Without him and these other members of our 
caucus, we wouldn't have a prayer of passing this proposal today. And I 
thank him.
    And I want to say, obviously, how pleased I am to be here with Donna 
Shalala, who is, as Dick Gephardt suggested, not only the longest 
serving but, by a good long stretch, the ablest and best Secretary of 
Health and Human Services this country has ever, ever had. And I love to 
see her mother, and I'm glad she made room for me at tax time. 
[Laughter] I told her, I said, ``You know, when I get out of this job, I 
hope I need the services of a tax lawyer.'' [Laughter] Right now, it's 
all pretty straightforward. But that was, without a doubt, the shortest 
speech I ever heard a lawyer give, what she said to me. [Laughter] You 
probably doubled your business just by being here today.
    I do love coming to Cleveland, and you heard Donna say that we have 
a lot of people in this administration from Cleveland, including my 
Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Ricchetti, who is here today. But 
Clevelanders, they may go anywhere, but they never get it, Cleveland, 
out of their soul. If you go into Steve's office, there is a great 
photograph from the opening day of baseball at Jacobs Field in 1994. 
Now, I remember that because I threw out the first pitch. But Steve's 
got the picture on the wall because when I threw the pitch, everyone was 
absolutely stunned that it didn't hit the dirt--
[laughter]--and Sandy Alomar caught it. So he really got--I'm incidental 
to the picture. He's got Sandy Alomar catching a ball which he was 
convinced would go into the dirt. I thought I did pretty well for a guy 
who played in the band, myself. [Laughter]
    Let me say, this is a great time for this city and a great time for 
our Nation. As I said in the State of the Union Address, I hope this 
time will be used by our people to take on the big challenges facing 
America. One of those big challenges is what to do about the aging of 
America, which is a high-class problem. That is, we're living longer; 
we're living better. And the older I get, the more I see that as an 
opportunity, not a problem. But it does impose certain challenges on us.
    There is also a challenge to modernize our health care systems and 
to do other things

[[Page 534]]

to increase the health care of the American people. And that's what 
we're here to talk about today.
    But because this is my only formal opportunity to be before--thanks 
to you--before the press and, therefore, the American people, I would 
like to just refer to another issue that relates to the health and 
safety of the American people, just briefly.
    I have been fortunate enough to have the support of the Members of 
Congress on this stage in our efforts to drive the crime rate down, to 
make our streets safer, and Cleveland and every other major city in 
America is a safer place than it was 7 years ago. We have a 25-year low 
in crime, a 30-year low in the gun death rate. And I am grateful for the 
support I have received to put more police on the street, to have more 
summer school and after-school programs for young people, and to do more 
to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, banning the cop-killer 
bullets, the assault weapons ban, the Brady bill, which has kept half a 
million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from getting handguns.
    Now, all of you know we had some tragic deaths last week. We had 
that 6-year-old girl killed in Michigan by a 6-year-old boy, who was a 
schoolmate of hers. We had terrible shootings in Memphis. And just in 
the last year we had that horrible incident at Columbine High School, 
almost a year ago, and in the year before that, lots and lots of school 
shootings.
    Now, after Columbine, I suggested that what we ought to do is to, 
number one, make sure there were child safety locks on these guns; 
number two--which would have made a big difference in the case of 
children getting the guns. Number two, make sure we ban the importation 
of large ammunition clips which make a mockery of the assault weapons 
ban because they can't be made or sold here in America, but they can be 
imported. Number three, close the loophole in the background check law, 
the Brady law, which says people can buy handguns at gun shows or urban 
flea markets and not have to do a background check. It's a serious 
problem. And fourth, I think when adults intentionally or recklessly let 
little kids get a hold of guns, they should have some sort of 
responsibility for that. And so I asked the Congress to do that.
    Eight months ago, Vice President Gore broke a tie in the Senate and 
passed a pretty strong bill, and then a bill passed in the House that 
was weaker. And I asked them to get together and pass a final bill. And 
they never even met until last week when we got them together after this 
last round of horrible shootings.
    And I ask all Americans to join me, because I think these things are 
reasonable. This won't affect anybody's right to hunt or sport shoot or 
anything, but it will save kids' lives.
    The response we got from the National Rifle Association was to run a 
bunch of television ads attacking me. And yesterday morning I went on 
television again to talk about these measures. I'm not trying to pick a 
fight with anybody. I'm trying to fight for the lives of our kids. But I 
want you to see what we're up against whenever we try to change here.
    The head of the NRA said yesterday--I want to quote, he said that my 
support of these measures was all political, and he said this: ``I have 
come to believe that Clinton needs a certain level of violence in this 
country. He's willing to accept a certain level of killing to further 
his political agenda and his Vice President, too.''
    Well, he could say that on television, I guess. I'd like to see him 
look into the eyes of little Kayla Rolland's mother and say that or the 
parents at Columbine or Springfield, Oregon, or Jonesboro, Arkansas, or 
the families of those people who were shot in Memphis.
    I say that, again, to emphasize change is hard, but sooner or later, 
if you know you've got a problem, you either deal with it or you live 
with the consequences. And the older you get, the more you understand 
that.
    We do not have--I'm grateful that our country is a safer place than 
it was 7 years ago. I don't think it's safe enough. I don't think you 
think it's safe enough. I don't think you think it's safe enough for 
seniors. I don't think you think it's safe enough for little kids. And 
if we can do more things to keep guns away from criminals and children 
that don't have anything to do with the legitimate right of people to go 
hunting or engage in sports

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shooting, we ought to do it. And we ought not to engage in this kind of 
political smear tactic.
    Now, I feel the same way about this issue. And I want to try to 
explain to you what is going on now with this issue, because most people 
in America--you heard Dick
Gephardt talk about it--most people in America think, well, why are we 
even arguing about this? Well, all health care issues are fraught with 
debate today. I know you're having a big debate here about hospital 
closures in Cleveland, and I don't know enough about the facts to get 
involved with it, but I'll tell you this. One of the problems we have 
is, there's too much uncompensated care in America.
    And we're trying to--we're trying hard, the people you see on this 
stage, we're trying hard to make sure every child that's eligible is 
enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program that was created in 
1997. We want Congress to let their parents be insured under the same 
program. We want people over 55 but under 65 who aren't old enough for 
Medicare but have lost their insurance on the job, to be able to buy 
into Medicare, and we want to give them a little tax credit to do it. If 
we do things like this, then whatever happens in Cleveland or anyplace 
else will have to be determined based on the merits of the case, but at 
least the people who need health care will be able to know that the 
people who give it to them, whether it's hospitals or doctors or nurses 
or whoever, will be able to get reimbursed for it. And that's a very 
important thing. I hope you'll support us in that.
    And then we come to the issue at hand. Now, what's this about, this 
prescription--you all know what it's about. If we were starting--suppose 
I came here today as President, and I were in my first year as 
President, and I proposed Medicare, just like President Johnson did in 
1965, in the first full year after he was elected, and I told you in 
1965 what he said, it would be fine. But in 2000, if I said, ``Okay, I'm 
going to set up this health care program for senior citizens. And you 
can see a doctor, and we'll pay for your hospital care. But even though 
we could save billions of dollars a year keeping people out of hospitals 
and out of emergency rooms by covering the medicine, we're not going to 
cover medicine.'' If we were starting today, given all the advances in 
prescription drugs in the last 35 years, you would think I was nuts, 
wouldn't you? The only reason that prescription drugs aren't covered by 
Medicare is that it was started 35 years ago, when medicine was in a 
totally different place. That's the first thing.
    The second thing I want to say is that it has really cost us a lot 
not to cover these seniors. And you see American seniors, for example, 
who live in New York or Vermont, going to take a bus trip to Canada 
because they can buy drugs made in America for 30 percent less, because 
very often the seniors, the people that are least able to pay for these 
drugs are paying the highest prices for them.
    Now, that's why our budget has this plan. And I want to tell you 
exactly what we propose and what we're all up here on this stage 
supporting today. We want to provide with Medicare a prescription drug 
benefit that is optional, that is voluntary, that is accessible for 
all--anybody who wants to buy into it can--a plan that is based on price 
competition, not price controls. That is, we don't want to control the 
price, but we want to use the fact that if we're buying a lot of 
medicine, seniors ought to be able to get it as cheap as anybody else. 
And we also want it to be part of an overall plan to continue to 
modernize Medicare and make it more competitive. Because, I can tell 
you, I'm the oldest of the baby boomers, and people in my generation, 
we're plagued by the notion that our retirement could cause such a 
burden on our children, it would undermine their ability to raise our 
grandchildren. We don't want that.
    Now, medically speaking, this is not just the right thing to do; it 
is the smart thing to do. As I said, we already pay for doctor and 
hospital benefits. But an awful lot of seniors go without prescription 
drugs--and preventive screenings, I might add--that ought to be a part 
of their health care. We've worked hard to put preventive screenings 
back into Medicare, for breast cancer, for osteoporosis, for prostate 
cancer. These are very, very important. But not having any prescription 
drug coverage is like paying a mechanic $4,000 to fix your engine 
because you

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wouldn't spend $25 to change the oil and get the filter replaced.
    In recent months, I have been really encouraged because a number of 
Republicans have expressed an interest in joining us to do this. And we 
can't pass it unless some of them join us, because we don't have enough 
votes on our own. But so far the proposals they're making, I think, are 
not adequate, and I'll explain why.
    There are two different proposals basically coming out of the 
Republicans. Some of them propose giving a block grant to the States to 
help only the poorest seniors, those below the poverty line. That would 
leave the middle income seniors, including those that are lower middle 
income, just above the poverty line, to fend for themselves. And here in 
Ohio, 53 percent of all the seniors are middle income seniors. None of 
them would be covered by this plan.
    In 1965, when Medicare was created, some in Congress used these very 
same arguments. They said, ``We should only pay for hospital and medical 
care for the poorest seniors.'' They were wrong then, and they're wrong 
now. More than half the seniors today without any prescription drugs at 
all are middle class seniors. I want to say that again. More than half 
the seniors without any prescription drugs at all are middle class 
seniors. On average, middle class seniors without coverage buy 20 
percent less drugs than those who have coverage, not because they're 
healthier but because they can't afford it. And even though they buy 20 
percent less medication--listen to this--because they have no insurance, 
their out-of-pocket burden is 75 percent higher--without insurance, 75 
percent higher.
    So I say, let's do this right. This is voluntary. We're not making 
anybody do it. But we ought to offer it to everybody who needs it. It 
doesn't take much, if you're a 75-year-old widow, to be above the so-
called Federal poverty line. You can have a tiny little pension tacked 
on your Social Security, and you can be there. But if you've got, as 
you've just heard, $2,300 worth of drug bills a year--and a lot of 
people have much higher--it's a terrible problem.
    Now, some other Members of Congress are proposing a tax deduction to 
help subsidize the cost of private Medigap insurance. If any of you own 
Medigap, you know what's the matter with that proposal. This proposal 
would benefit the wealthiest seniors without providing any help to the 
low and middle income seniors. And the Medigap marketplace is already 
flawed. Today--listen to this--in Washington, the General Accounting 
Office is releasing a report that shows that Medigap drug coverage 
starts out expensive and then goes through the roof as seniors get 
older. On average, it costs about $164 a month for a 65-year-old to buy 
a Medigap plan with drug coverage, and premiums rise sharply from there.
    For example, in Ohio, an 80-year-old person would pay 50 percent 
more than a 65-year-old person for the same coverage under Medigap. This 
is not a good deal, folks. We don't want to put more money into this 
program. It is not a good deal. Even those who offer Medigap plans say 
the approach wouldn't work, because it would force Medigap insurers to 
charge excessively high premiums for the drugs or to refuse to 
participate at all.
    Now, there's another problem that we have in the Congress, which is 
that the congressional majority just last week voted on budget 
resolutions that together allocate nearly half a trillion dollars to tax 
cuts. And if we cut taxes that much, we won't be able to afford this. 
And we may not be able to save Social Security and Medicare and pay down 
the debt and have money left over to invest in the education of our 
children.
    I'm for a tax cut, but we've got to be able to afford it. And we, 
first of all, have got to keep this economy going. We need to pay down 
the debt. We can get out of debt for the first time since 1835, within a 
little more than 10 years, if we just keep on this road. A lot of you 
never thought you'd ever see that.
    We can lengthen Social Security out beyond the life of the baby boom 
generation. We can put 25 years on the Medicare program, which is longer 
than it's had in blows and blows, a long time. And we can add this 
prescription drug coverage. But we can't do it if the tax cut's too big, 
and we shouldn't do it in the wrong way and say you can only

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get it if you're really poor, or you can only get it if you buy into 
Medigap.
    Now, let me tell you why this is such a big deal. The average 65-
year-old in America today has a life expectancy of 82 to 83 years. The 
average 65-year-old woman has a life expectancy higher than that. The 
fastest growing group of American seniors are those over 85. So to 
knowingly lock ourselves into a program that would get 50 percent more 
expensive as you got older and older and needed more and more medicine 
and had less and less money, does not make much sense. We have given 
them a good program. It is the right thing to do. And so I would like to 
ask all of you to help all of these Members of Congress on the stage and 
to tell the people in Washington, ``Look, this is not a partisan 
issue.'' You know, a lot of people say, ``We don't want to do this. This 
is an election year.'' Look, they can name this prescription drug 
program after Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and Warren Harding. It's 
fine with me. [Laughter] I don't--put some Republican's name on it. I 
don't care. Just do it, because it's the right thing to do for the 
seniors of this country.
    So I would just implore you, help us pass this. Write to your United 
States Senators. Tell them it's not a partisan issue. Tell them what 
life is like. Tell them it's not right for seniors in Ohio to pay 30 to 
50 percent more for medicine than seniors in Canada pay for the same 
medicine that's made in America in the first place. Tell them it's not 
right for you to need something you can't have, so you get sick, but 
then when you show up at the emergency room, it gets paid for.
    We can afford this. Everybody in America has worked hard for it. 
We've got this budget in good shape. We can make a commitment to our 
future. If you think this is necessary now, imagine what it's going to 
be like when the number of seniors doubles in 30 years.
    That's the last point I want to leave you with. Look how many 
seniors there are in Cleveland today. In 30 years, the number of people 
over 65 will double, and Donna Shalala and I hope to be among them. 
[Laughter] And you think about it. And then the average age in America 
will be well over 80.
    Now, if we have to take care of all these people by waiting until 
they get sick and they go to the hospital, instead of worried about 
hospitals closing, 30 years from now you'll worry about the city going 
bankrupt because everybody will be in the hospital. We've got to be 
healthier. We've got to keep people healthy. We need to keep them 
playing tennis, like Lawyer Shalala there, but we also need to be able 
to give people medication to keep them out of the hospital and to manage 
people in a way that will maximize their health. This will be a huge 
issue.
    So I implore you, this country--this is the first time we've been in 
shape to do this in 35 years. We can do this now. And we can do it now 
and take care of the future. We can help the seniors of today and take a 
great burden off of tomorrow. But we need your help to do it.
    Again, I implore you, talk to your Members of Congress, talk to your 
Senators. Tell them it's not a partisan issue; it's an American issue. 
It's a human issue, and it's a smart thing to do.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

 Note:  The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. in the Louis Stokes Wing of the 
City Public Library. In his remarks, he referred to Wanda Golias, who 
introduced the President; Andrew Venable, Jr., director, City Public 
Library; former Representative Louis Stokes; Edna Shalala, mother of 
Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala; Sandy Alomar, Jr., 
catcher, Cleveland Indians; 6-year-old Kayla Rolland, who was shot and 
mortally wounded by a 6-year-old classmate in Mount Morris Township, MI, 
and her mother, Veronica McQueen; and Wayne LaPierre, executive vice 
president, National Rifle Association.