[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 14 (Monday, April 10, 2000)]
[Pages 694-697]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Luncheon 
for Hillary Clinton

April 1, 2000

[The President's remarks are joined in progress.]

    The President. ----we couldn't have done what has been done without 
you, and I'll

[[Page 695]]

never forget you. I would also like to thank Denis and the New York AFL-
CIO. They supported--[inaudible]--and me and supported--[inaudible]--and 
Hillary. I thought she made a really good talk today.
    I just want to make three points very briefly. First of all, when I 
showed up here in January of '93, thanks to the efforts of many of you 
and millions and millions of people like you all across America, and the 
economy was in a shambles, the deficit was huge, and the debt had been 
quadrupled in 12 years, and the social problems were getting worse, and 
Washington was like a political blood fight, I had basically some very 
simple ideas about the economy and how it related to the rest of our 
lives. And I just want to reiterate that because that's where the 
differences are between us and our friends in the Republican Party. 
That's where the differences between Al Gore and George Bush are, and 
the differences between Hillary and her opponent.
    Number one, I believe you could be pro-business and pro-labor. And 
as a matter of fact, I didn't think you could successfully have an 
economic policy unless you help both labor and business.
    Number two, I believe you could be pro-work and pro-family, so that 
I thought we ought to have things like annual leave and health 
insurance, and if people were going to be required to move from welfare 
to work, we ought to give them child care and food and medicine for 
their kids and transportation to get to work and training to know what 
they were doing, instead of just talking about welfare cheats and all of 
that. I thought you could be pro-work and pro-family.
    Number three, I thought you could be for economic growth and for 
environmental protection. I thought working families could be able to 
take their children to parks and that we could generally still grow the 
economy. I believed all those things. And essentially, our friends in 
the other party believe that they can only help business by sticking it 
to labor, that every family protection is bad for the economy and the 
work ethic, and that the environment's a nice thing as long as you don't 
have to take too much trouble to protect it. Now, that's what they 
believe. And so we've had this donnybrook for 7\1/2\ years.
    But I think the evidence is in, and you need to think about that in 
terms of Hillary's race, the Vice President's race, every other race 
this year. It's not as if there is a debate here based on the evidence. 
We have the longest economic expansion in history; we have these 21 
million jobs; we have the lowest unemployment and welfare rates in 30 
years; we have the lowest crime rate in 25 years, the lowest poverty 
rate in 20 years, the lowest income tax burden on average families in 4 
years, the lowest female unemployment rate in 4 years.
    This is not some sort of fluke, friends. You're on the right side of 
history. So when you fight for the Presidential campaign, and you fight 
in the Senatorial race, tell people that this is not a debate, and they 
are making a deliberate decision, if they vote for the other candidates, 
to go back to a failed economic theory, a failed social theory, a failed 
environmental policy.
    And you've got to be serious and blunt here. And I'm not running for 
anything, and you know, most days, I'm okay about it. [Laughter] What is 
at stake here is bigger than me or the Vice President or Hillary or all 
of you--it is the direction of our country. And you need to go out and 
say you're not anti-business; you've proved you could be pro-labor and 
pro-business. You've proved you could be pro-family and pro-work. You've 
proved you could clean out the environment and grow the economy. That's 
where you are. And they are making a deliberate decision to reject 
policies that have worked for America if they don't support the Vice 
President, Hillary, and our whole other crowd.
    The second thing I want to tell you is, as you can see, my wife is 
an enormously talented and passionate person. But what I want you to 
know is that, particularly for a State like New York, which has always 
had high-quality people in the United States Senate, I think she would 
be a worthy successor to Robert Kennedy and Pat Moynihan. I think it's 
important for people to understand that she's not just somebody who 
lived in the White House for 8 years and would now like to be a Senator. 
For 30 years, she has been a leading advocate for the cause of families 
and children; for 20 years now, for specific,

[[Page 696]]

provable advances in the quality of education for our children.
    There is hardly anybody who runs as a private citizen for the United 
States Senate in my lifetime--I can't think of anybody who ran as a 
private citizen for the Senate who had as much knowledge as she has or 
as much experience as she has on the things that will really count in 
the terms of the shape of America and the children who are--[inaudible].
    The third thing I want to say is, is this: The most important point 
Hillary made about me and us and our politics is that we believe that we 
should try to bring together, not drive them apart. They believe you 
have to drive people apart in order to win elections. And since they're 
wrong on the issues, they're right. In other words, people won't agree 
with them on the issues, so the only way they could win is to convince 
them that we're the first cousins of space aliens. [Laughter] Now, this 
is not a complicated deal. And so that's why Hillary's opponent can 
raise a double ton of money besides being mayor and having special 
relations with a lot of those people that--[inaudible]--New York. You've 
got this rightwing--[inaudible]--machine geared up against her again.
    You know, when he wanted to be mayor of New York, he said, ``I'm a 
moderate.'' When he wants to be Senator from New York, he wants all 
those rightwingers that helped Governor Bush in the nomination and are 
represented by the Bob Jones University flap you all heard about--he 
gets Richard Viguerie to write letters that raise the hair on the back 
of your head.
    Now, there's a reason they've got to do that: because they like 
political power and the majority of the people do not agree with them. 
They've got this figured out now; we're right, and they're wrong on 
these big issues. So the only way they can win is to convince people 
that we're space aliens. But that's not good for America. Far better for 
them to modernize their party and their ideas and then engage in a 
debate and let the people move back and forth, depending on who they 
think is right on the specific issues. That's the way America is 
supposed to work.
    But I want you to understand what's at stake in this election in New 
York and in America, because we've got a chance now, finally, to reject 
the politics of division. If you do this one more time, you've got a 
real chance to elevate the politics of America.
    And let me tell you why it's so important. I want to close with this 
point. In February we celebrated the longest economic expansion in the 
history of this country. And that's the good news. The bad news is it 
might put people to sleep and think they can afford to just go through--
[inaudible]--or indulgences or on a whim or not vote at all in this 
election, because they think things are going along real well.
    And let me tell you why what Hillary said--the most important point 
she made is about the politics of division. When we celebrated this 
economic expansion, I asked my economic advisers--I said, ``Well, when 
was the last longest expansion in American history?'' Do you know when 
it was? Nineteen sixty-one to 1969. Now, let me take you on a little 
walk down memory lane. [Laughter]
    In 1964 I was a senior in high school, a graduate. The country was 
heartbroken about President Kennedy's assassination but were heartened 
by President Johnson's leadership, strongly united behind him. We had 
low unemployment, low inflation, high growth. We had a civil rights 
crisis, but everybody thought it was going to be handled in the context 
of the courts, not in the streets. We had a few people in Vietnam, but 
nobody thought it was going to tear the country up. Everybody thought 
America would win the cold war just in the course of events, because 
freedom was clearly superior to communism. And we were happy as clams 
and totally relaxed about it.
    Now, 4 years later I graduated from college here in Washington--2 
days after Robert Kennedy was killed; 2 months after Martin Luther King 
was killed; 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson said he couldn't run for 
President because the country was so divided over Vietnam.
    A few weeks later, Richard Nixon was elected President, based on a 
campaign that he represented the Silent Majority. Now, what were the 
necessary--[inaudible]--of that? Those of us who weren't for him were 
the loud minority. That was the first of these great ``us'' versus 
``them'' campaigns, divide

[[Page 697]]

not unite. And we've been ``us-ing'' and ``them-ing'' now for 30 years.
    And when I ran for President, I said I wanted to put people first 
and have opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a community 
of all Americans. That was the united, not divisive campaign. When we 
ran for reelection, we said we wanted to build a bridge to the 21st 
century that everybody could walk across. That's the united, not a 
divisive campaign.
    And one of the reasons Hillary decided to enter this race is that 
she knew how important it was not only to be right on the specific 
issues but to keep trying to pull the country together as we grow more 
diverse, not tear it apart. And I like the way things are now, but they 
could be a whole lot better if we just focus and keep working and 
remember to be for business and labor, work and family, the environment 
and the economy, unite not divide. That's really what her race 
represents; that's what Al Gore's race represents; that's what the 
referendum on what kind of future we're going to have represents. And 
what I want to tell you is, I've been waiting since I was a boy of 17, 
for 35 years and more now, to see my country in the position we were in, 
in 1964, to build a future of our dreams for our children. And this 
election will determine whether we move to that level.
    It took me years just to try to turn this country around and get it 
going in the right direction and to stop people from trying to take 
things away from you. Now we've got a chance to do something good. 
That's what this Senate race is about. That's what this Presidential 
race is about. That's what this whole election is about.
    And you just keep in mind, people know, they know we're right on the 
issues, so they've got to beat us some other way. And you've got to 
stand up for unity and progress and the right kind of change.
    I am grateful to you for what you've done for me, but what you can 
do for Hillary, what you can do for the Vice President, and most 
important, what you can do for America and your children's future will 
matter even more.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency. In his 
remarks, he referred to Denis M. Hughes, president, New York State AFL-
CIO; Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York City; Gov. George W. Bush of 
Texas; and Richard A. Viguerie, chairman, chief executive officer, and 
president, ConservativeHQ.com. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of these remarks.