[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 13 (Monday, April 3, 2000)]
[Pages 644-646]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Governor Frank O'Bannon

March 28, 2000

    You know, when Evan was talking about how he's trying to recover 
from having given a keynote speech--[laughter]--I bombed; he didn't. 
[Laughter] He was actually very good.
    But I am delighted to be here for Frank O'Bannon, and with Judy and 
Lieutenant Governor and Mrs. Kernan. I want to thank Evan Bayh and Susan 
for being wonderful friends to Hillary and me for many years now. And I 
want to thank Senator Birch Bayh for his service to America and for also 
being my friend for 20 years now.
    Every now and then, I remind Birch that in 1980 he came to Arkansas; 
we dedicated an ethanol plant. And you may or may not know that the 
Agriculture Department is funding research into how to more efficiently 
convert gasoline to ethanol or, you know, how to do it with less fuel. 
Now the ratio's about 7 gallons to 8. They tell me within a year or two, 
we'll be down to 1 gallon to 8. And Birch and I were just 20 years ahead 
of our time. [Laughter] But I'll always be grateful to him for many 
things in his service, and I'm delighted to be here.
    Thank you, Mike Sullivan. Thank you, Mark Weiner. Thank you, Robin 
Winston. And I want to say a special word of thanks to Joe Andrew for 
working so hard for the national Democratic Party. And I saw three of 
your House Members here earlier: Pete Visclosky I know is still there, 
and Baron Hill and Tim Roemer may or may not still be here, but they 
were here earlier.
    I am delighted to be here. You may wonder what I'm doing here; I'm 
not running for anything this year. [Laughter] Take a good look at me; 
I'm the only politician you'll see this year you don't have to give a 
contribution to. [Laughter]
    I was a Governor for 12 years, and they were some of the happiest 
years of my life. I would have never tired of doing the job. The voters 
would have gotten tired of me long before I got tired of the job. 
[Laughter]
    And you know, I have worked very hard for the last 7-plus years to 
try to turn our country around and to try to get governing right. Now, 
there are not many votes in governing, really, when you talk about it. 
But if you've got a job and you do it well, there are votes in it. 
That's why Evan Bayh was elected and overwhelmingly reelected and then 
sent to the Senate. That's why Frank O'Bannon was elected, and why I 
think he'll be reelected--because they believe in governing.
    After all this time I've been President, I can say there are a lot 
of things about this job that are much more than just policy, times when 
a President has to speak to the Nation about a crisis or in the midst of 
a collective grieving or just speak for the Nation when you have to take 
a stand. But a lot of what determines the success of our enterprise is 
whether we show up for work every day and treat our work like your work, 
like a job.
    And the difference in political work and other work is that you have 
more leeway to define the job. In other words, you have to decide what 
it is you're going to do if you're Governor or President, except you've 
got to sign the bills or veto them, as the case may be, and make the 
appointments. But otherwise, you have to decide.
    And I think I know a little bit about that. I served with over 150 
Governors. And Frank O'Bannon is a very good Governor. I know.
    I would also tell you that the tradition that he and Evan 
established in Indiana of fiscal responsibility and focusing very 
sharply on the most important things the government should do, and not 
defending everything that government ever did in the past, is one I 
tried to carry on. You know, we now have the smallest Federal Government 
since 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was President and John Kennedy was 
running for the White House. We've gotten rid of hundreds of programs, 
and I'll give $5 to anybody here who can name three of them. [Laughter] 
See? [Laughter]

[[Page 645]]

    I say that because when I became President, we had to do two things 
at once. We had to get this deficit under control and balance the 
budget. But we had to keep investing in education. We had to keep 
investing in health care for children. We had to keep investing in the 
environment. We had to keep investing in science and technology. We had 
to keep, in short, preparing for the future. And that's what Governors 
have to do.
    Now, one of the ways that we did that was, for example, in the area 
of education, we gave the States more funds and set higher goals, but we 
got rid of about two-thirds of the Federal regulations. And I could give 
you lots of other examples where, in effect, we did the right thing, but 
only if the Governor does the right thing.
    When we passed the welfare reform bill, we said, ``Okay, here's the 
deal: If you're able bodied, you've got to get some training, and then 
if you get a job, you've got to take it. But we won't ask you to hurt 
your children. We'll leave your children with their guaranteed nutrition 
and health care, and we'll spend more on child care and transportation. 
We'll invest more in you. But if you can go to work, you've got to do 
it.'' Well, all that had to be designed and implemented by the 
Governors.
    When we passed the Balanced Budget Act in 1997, we had the biggest 
expansion in federally supported health care since Medicaid in 1965, 
when we passed the Children's Health Insurance Program to allow the 
children of families that were working families--so their incomes were 
too high to get Medicaid coverage, but their incomes were too low to 
afford health insurance, and their employers weren't providing it. So we 
had the money to provide them health insurance. But the program was to 
be designed by the 
Governors.
    In other words, a lot of what we have tried to do to have a more 
vigorous but a more disciplined Government has required us, here in 
Washington, to make his job even more important. And it's very important 
that everybody understands that; it really matters who sits in these 
Governors' chairs today. It matters what their values are. It matters 
what their vision is. And it also matters a lot whether they show up 
every day.
    This is not a job for someone who is fainthearted or disinterested. 
It's a job--particularly if you live in a State like Indiana or 
Arkansas, where people actually hold you accountable, and you can't get 
elected on television. [Laughter] You know? It really makes a 
difference. [Laughter]
    I remember when I ran for President in '92, Governor Bush used to--I 
mean, President Bush used to refer to me as the Governor of a small 
southern State, in sort of drippingly negative overtones, you know? 
[Laughter] And you know, I was so dumb, I thought that was a good thing. 
[Laughter] You know, I was proud of it. I thought--and I think it's very 
important. If you care about the education of our children and if you 
care about whether the poorest of our children have access to health 
care, if you care about whether we can preserve a clean environment and 
grow the economy, you have to care about who the Governor is.
    And I think most Americans may not fully appreciate the extent to 
which, over the last 7\1/2\ years, the reason this whole deal has worked 
as well as it has is that we've had good Federal policies, but we have 
done more and more of it in partnership with the private sector and with 
State and local government.
    And so I wanted to come here because I genuinely like and admire 
Governor and Mrs. O'Bannon. And I genuinely believe that they should 
break that record that goes back to the 1830's. And that's the last 
thing I want to say about all these races in 2000.
    I worked as hard as I can to turn this country around and to get us 
moving in the right direction. But all the really big benefits are still 
out there.
    We've got the longest economic expansion in history. What are we 
going to do with it? We're going to give all of our kids a world-class 
education. Are we going to make America the safest big country in the 
world? We're going to get the country out of debt for the first time 
since 1835. Are we going to bring economic opportunity to poor areas 
that haven't felt it yet? I can just go on and on and on.
    That's what will be decided in the year 2000. And I hope that the 
electorate will want to vote for people from top to bottom

[[Page 646]]

like these two men here, who are serious about the work they do and for 
whom winning an election is just a prelude to the most important thing, 
which is the job. Because you know, this is a chance in a lifetime we 
have. And I've lived long enough now to know that these things come, and 
they go. The good news is bad times don't last forever. But good times 
don't either. And so when they come along, you have to focus and move, 
act.
    So this is a big deal, this election. One of the reasons, apart from 
all my personal feelings about him, that I want Al Gore to be elected 
President so bad is he understands the future, and he knows how to get 
us there. And that's what we ought to be thinking about. Who understands 
the future? Who can get us there?
    And your presence here says you know that about your Governor. But 
when you go back to Indiana, I hope you'll give that as a reason for the 
rest of the folks sticking with him, without regard to party. If you're 
producing, if you're serious, if you care about the future, stick with 
him.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:52 p.m. in the Columbia A Room at the 
Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. In his remarks, he referred to Judy 
O'Bannon, wife of Governor O'Bannon; Lt. Gov. Joseph E. Kernan and his 
wife, Maggie; Senator Evan Bayh, his wife, Susan, and his father, former 
Senator Birch Bayh; Michael J. Sullivan, general president, Sheet Metal 
Workers International Association; Mark Weiner, treasurer, Democratic 
Governors' Association; Robin Winston, chairman, Indiana State 
Democratic Party; and Joseph J. Andrew, national chair, Democratic 
National Committee. Incumbent Governor O'Bannon is a candidate for 
reelection in Indiana. The transcript was released by the Office of the 
Press Secretary on March 29.