[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 15 (Monday, April 17, 2000)]
[Pages 817-819]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner

April 13, 2000

    Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank Bob Torricelli 
for his leadership of this committee, and I see Senator Wyden, Senator 
Murray, Senator Bingaman, Senator Leahy, Senator Rockefeller, Senator 
Robb--is that everybody who is here? We almost have a quorum. [Laughter 
]
    I would like to say, first of all, I want to welcome all of you 
here, and I want to thank you for meeting with our Senators, and I want 
to thank them for meeting with you. Just a few days ago, our leader in 
the House, Dick Gephardt, announced a five- or six-part program of 
support for the high-tech sector of our economy, which I thought was 
very good. I'm very pleased to see that the Senate committee trying to 
establish a systematic ongoing relationship with members of the 
community that I think has powered a great deal of our growth.
    In the last 7 years since I've been President, the high-tech sector 
has accounted for about 8 percent of our employment but about 30 percent 
of our growth. And in a larger sense, the rifling of technology through 
traditional work environments has had a far bigger impact, because we 
know that the reason that we have the longest and strongest economic 
expansion in history is because of an unusual rise in productivity

[[Page 818]]

growth after decades of stagnant productivity.
    And what we've tried to do in Washington, essentially, is to create 
the conditions and give people the tools to make the most of their own 
lives, including you. So what we've tried to do that directly affects 
you is get rid of the deficit, keep interest rates down, make capital 
more available, invest in the education and training of our people, and 
continue to do basic research in science and technology, expand trade in 
American goods and services, and to try to open new markets continually. 
We've negotiated well over 270 different trade agreements in the last 7 
years and deal specifically with the institutional barriers to growth. 
And I might just mention one.
    I think that the way the Telecommunications Act finally came down 
was a significant contributor to the growth, to the creation of new 
companies, and to the flourishing high technology in our country. I say 
that because I believe that our party, beginning with the Vice President 
and me and the support played a very important role in the competitive 
elements in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. So I hope we have been 
supportive, and I hope we can do more together.
    I would just like to repeat something I said today to the American 
Society of Newspaper Editors. The great question before the American 
people now is not how did we get here; the question is, where are we 
going, and how do we propose to get there? And in a larger sense, what 
is it that we intend to do with this magic moment of possibility?
    I think, notwithstanding the churning of the Nasdaq in the last few 
days, there are many people, I think, who believe that, somehow, the 
prosperity of the last few years will inevitably be projected into the 
next few, and perhaps for an indefinite period of time. I think it could 
happen for an indefinite period of time but not inevitably.
    I think that the real question I have is, I see the debate we're 
having with the Republicans over the budget now, are we going to 
continue to pay down the debt; are we going to continue to invest in 
education and technology; are we going to prepare now for the aging of 
the baby boom generation, and then take what's left and give it in a tax 
cut instead of have a big tax cut first, and then figure out what we're 
going to do, which means we're either going to cut back on our 
investments in the future, not deal with the aging of America, or go 
back to running deficits?
    In a larger sense, these questions are: What kind of country do we 
want to be? I feel very strongly that we should continue to change 
rapidly, but in the direction of the last 7 years. I feel very strongly 
it would be a serious error for us to go back to the way we changed in 
the 12 years before and go back to running big deficits. I think that 
would be a mistake.
    I think that if we make our minds up, we can get this country out of 
debt for the first time since 1835 and guarantee a generation of new 
investment at lower interest rates. I think if we're determined to do 
it, we can close the digital divide and not only have this technology be 
the source of vast new centers of wealth and employment but actually 
help us to reduce poverty for more people more quickly in the United 
States and throughout the world than ever before in all of human 
history.
    I think if we believe in the promise of science and technology, we 
can grow the economy and solve our environmental problems, including 
climate change. I think we can use the power of technology to make our 
country the safest big country in the world for things like safe gun 
technology, where handguns can only be fired by their lawful owner. If 
we think about how to make the most of this moment. And so, that's what 
I'd like to talk to you about.
    You know, I'm not running for anything. [Laughter] And most days, 
I'm okay about it. [Laughter] But I am old enough, unlike some of you in 
this room, I am old enough to remember the last, the previous longest 
economic expansion in history. It encompassed virtually the entire 
decade of the 1960's.
    When I graduated from high school, we had low unemployment, low 
inflation, high growth, high productivity. We had a civil rights 
challenge that people thought then would be handled in the courts and in 
the Congress. We were sort of involved in Vietnam. Nobody thought it was 
very serious, and

[[Page 819]]

everybody thought we would win the cold war as a matter of course--1964.
    Four years later, when I finished college in '68, we had riots in 
our cities. It was 2 days after Senator Kennedy was killed, 2 months 
after Martin Luther King was killed, 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson said 
he couldn't run for reelection because the country was divided on 
Vietnam. And before you knew it, the longest expansion in American 
history was over, and we had failed to meet the large, long-term 
challenges of America.
    Actually, I think we have fewer internal and external crises now 
than we did then. But the challenge is the same, and because we have 
fewer crises, the responsibility is greater. I believe our party's had a 
solid economic policy, a solid technology policy, a solid education 
policy, a good crime policy, a good welfare reform policy. But we need 
you. We need more and more partnerships. We need to keep working to 
create the conditions and give people the tools to do more and better. 
But we've got to be guided by the right vision. And the right vision is 
not a tax cut so big that it either puts us back in a deficit or keeps 
us from meeting our long-term objectives.
    The right vision is to have a tax cut we can afford, targeted to 
purposes that are needed in the context of meeting the big, long-term 
challenges of America. That's what I stand for. I believe that's what 
our party stands for. And I hope that it's one of the reasons that 
you're here tonight.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:21 p.m. in the Ballroom at the Phoenix 
Park Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Senator Robert G. Torricelli, 
chair, and Senator Patty Murray, vice chair, Democratic Senatorial 
Campaign Committee.