    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 25 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
    [Pages 1408-1411]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner in Austin

    June 19, 2000

         Thank you. I feel--first of all, I feel a little sorry for all of
    you. You have to look at me, and I'm looking at all this, behind you.
    [Laughter]
        I want to thank Lynn and Tom for making us feel so welcome in this
    beautiful, beautiful place. And I want to thank them and Ben and Melanie
    and everyone else who worked on this dinner tonight, for its success. I
    want to thank Roy and Mary Spence, who hosted me earlier, for the
    Democratic Senate candidates and for what they did.
        Thank you, Mayor Watson; we're glad to be here. Thank you, Governor
    Richards. Thank you, Garry Mauro. Thank you, Liz Carpenter, my old
    friend. Thank you, B. and Audrey Rapoport; and Dan Morales and John
    Sharp. Thank you, all. And I'd like to say a special word of thanks to
    Luci Johnson and, through her, to her mother and her entire family for
    what they have meant to the United States.
        And I want to thank Lyle Lovett for being a good Democrat and a good
    friend to me, and always being there when I've needed him over the
    years. He made me think that even on my bad-hair days, I could still be
    President. [Laughter] That was probably the last song he'll ever sing
    for me. [Laughter]
        I also want to tell you how much I admire and appreciate the work
    that I've had the chance to do with Tom Daschle and Bob Torricelli and
    Chuck Robb and Pat Leahy and Ron Wyden. We really do have a big
    percentage--over 10 percent of our caucus here tonight. And maybe Ann is
    right; maybe it's because Texas needs Senators, and we need money, but
    for whatever reason, they're here. And I hope you'll take advantage of
    it.
        Let me say, as is usually the case when I get up to speak,
    everything that needs to be said has already been said, but not everyone
    has said it. [Laughter] But I'd like to just make a comment or two, if I
    might.
        First of all, I've had a lot of friends here in Texas, and
    especially in Austin. And as I look back on the last 7\1/2\ years and I
    look forward to the next, approximately, 7 months I have to serve, I
    would just like to say, thank you. Thank you for your help. Thank you
    for staying with us. Thank you for giving me and Al Gore and Hillary and
    Tipper and our entire administration the chance to do what we've done
    for the last 7\1/2\ years. I've had a wonderful time doing it, and I am
    very grateful that the results turned out to be pretty good for you, as
    well as for us. It's been a joy.
        Now, I also want to say to you that I thought a lot back in 1992
    about what I would like America to be like in 2000, if I should be
    fortunate enough to be elected and to be reelected. And I believe that
    one of the reasons that we had some success is that I'd worked as a
    Governor for a dozen years, through very difficult economic times. I had
    had a chance to try to come to grips with the major economic and
    educational and other challenges of the day. And I had a pretty clear
    idea about what I wanted to do if I got elected. And it turned out that
    the ideas that I and many others who worked with me over a decade
    developed worked pretty well.
        I say that to make this point. I'm glad that we've got the longest
    economic expansion in history. I'm very glad that we have the lowest
    minority unemployment rate ever recorded. I am profoundly grateful that
    we have a 20-

    [[Page 1409]]

    year low in poverty and a 40-year low in female unemployment and a 32-
    year low in the welfare rates and a 25-year low in the crime rate. I'm
    glad the country is at peace and America has been a force for peace and
    freedom throughout the world. But the question I want to ask you is,
    what do you intend to do with it?
        Our host mentioned the great work that President Johnson and the
    Congress did 30 years ago-plus, with the civil rights legislation. I
    would like to remind you that 1961 to 1969 was, until this period, the
    longest economic expansion in American history. And with that expansion,
    we got not only the civil rights legislation under of President Johnson,
    we got Federal aid to education, and we got Medicare, among other
    things.
        So what I want to ask you again is, to me, this election for the
    Senate and the House and the Presidency will be determined largely by
    what people think it's about, because times are good and the candidates
    are presentable, to say the least, from top to bottom. So who you're for
    depends in large measure on what you think the election is about.
        And I just want to make three points tonight, briefly. Number one,
    this is a big deal. This election is every bit as important as the
    elections of '92 and '96. Why? Because I've done everything I could to
    turn this country around and move it in the right direction. And now we
    have the chance to build the future of our dreams for our children.
        But what a country does with its prosperity is sometimes just as
    stern a test of its judgment, its wisdom, and its character as what a
    country does when its back is against the wall. There is not a person
    here tonight over 30 years old who cannot recall at least one time in
    your life when you made some sort of a mistake, a personal or a business
    mistake, not because things were going so badly, but because things were
    going so well, you thought you did not have to concentrate.
        And one of the things that you learn as you get older is that
    nothing ever lasts. And for those of us that have been through a few
    tough times, we say thank God for that. But when you're going through
    these good times, it's well to be humble and not to engage in too much
    self-congratulation and not to break your concentration. So I will say
    again, I think this election will be determined by what the American
    people think it is about.
        And I believe it should be about building the future of our dreams
    for our children. I believe it should be about what we propose to do
    with our prosperity. And if you start from that premise, then you have
    to say, well, what do you think we ought to do with it?
        I think the most important thing we can do is to keep it going and
    spread its benefits to the people and places that still aren't part of
    it. I think we need to make sure that all of our families have a chance
    to make the most of it. That means we have educational and health care
    and environmental challenges we need to meet. I think it's important
    that we continue to keep our eyes on the future and not be satisfied
    with where we are. I'm glad we've got a crime rate that's at a 25-year
    low; I think we ought to make America the safest big country in the
    world. I'm glad the air and the water are cleaner. I think we ought to
    turn back the tide of global warming. I'm glad that more people than
    ever are going to college. I think we ought to open the doors to every
    child who is qualified to go to college, and money should never be a bar
    to anybody going ever again.
        Then, if you think that's the subject, then the second point I want
    to make to you is this. It's an important election; it ought to be about
    what we're going to do with our prosperity. Point number two, there are
    real and profound differences between the parties. This does not have to
    be an election where, like all too many in the past, we see one exercise
    after another in character assassination, where you think you don't
    really have a campaign unless you can convince the people that your
    opponent is just one step above being a bank robber. That is not true.
        You can start with the Presidency and go to the Senate races and the
    House races and say, ``You know, we've got perfectly presentable
    candidates here, but there are real differences.'' That's my second
    point. It's a big election; there are real differences.
        Now, here's my third point. We're the only party who wants you to
    know what the differences are. [Laughter] And I suppose I should take
    that as a great compliment. But you need to understand, and you need to
    talk

    [[Page 1410]]

    to people. That's why these Senators are here. You wouldn't be here if
    you didn't understand that. But there are profound consequences. The
    next President is going to appoint somewhere between two and four
    Justices of the Supreme Court. And both of them bring commitments to the
    Presidency about those appointments. And they are different. And the
    Congress will have to ratify or reject those decisions--the Senate,
    alone. That's just one example.
        I'll give you another example. I was the first leader of any nation
    in the world to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a dream of
    President Eisenhower and President Kennedy and President Johnson. Every
    President for the last 50 years has longed for the day when we could ban
    nuclear testing, so we could keep other countries from becoming nuclear
    powers. And it now happens at a time when our own experts tell us,
    because of those of you in the high-tech business who are involved in
    weapons, we can simulate testing, and we don't have to test anymore.
        So banning nuclear testing makes the world a lot safer place. That's
    what I believe. The Republican Senate voted against the Comprehensive
    Test Ban Treaty. They made us the only major country in the world to
    reject the Test Ban Treaty--America, alone. Everybody else said it's the
    right thing to do--except India and Pakistan haven't come along yet, and
    I went over there to try to stop a conflict that could go into a nuclear
    war, pleading with them to stop it, when our own Senate said, ``Oh,
    let's go on and test. Who cares?''
        Now, this affects the lives your children are going to lead. In the
    future, you're going to have to worry about, when I'm long gone, not
    just the United States and Russia, but whether terrorists in other
    states are going to use the tools of modern technology, which make
    everything smaller, to bring many weapons of mass destruction--nuclear,
    chemical, and biological--around. I think we missed a terrific
    opportunity not to lead the world toward a safer place. We turned around
    and walked away from 50 years of Republican and Democratic history. And
    we better reverse it. We ought to ratify the Test Ban Treaty. Your
    decisions on the White House and the Senate will determine whether we
    do. And you need to make up your--[inaudible].
        I'll give you a few other examples. We're for a comprehensive
    Patients' Bill of Rights. Some of us--I'm strongly supportive of the
    right kind of managed care, but I think that the patients ought to come
    first. They're against the Patients' Bill of Rights. We believe we ought
    to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare that all of our seniors
    can afford and have a chance to buy. They don't favor that. I could just
    go on and on and on.
        We believe we ought to tackle the problem of climate change. Some of
    their Members still think it's some sort of subversive plot to wreck the
    American economy. In the digital economy, much of which is represented
    on this porch tonight, it is now no longer necessary to put more
    greenhouse gases into the atmosphere around Austin, Texas, for people to
    grow wealthier. In fact, for the first time in history we can grow
    wealthier by improving the environment instead of polluting it. That's
    what we believe. They don't agree with us about that.
        Now, you may think that's a pretty esoteric subject. I don't. The
    children in this audience tonight will find in 20 to 30 years that will
    be one of the two or three most important issues they have to face,
    unless we turn it around right now. It's a big issue. There are
    consequences in this election.
        On the matter of public safety, I think you all know that I am not
    the favorite person of Charlton Heston or his executive director, Wayne
    LaPierre. [Laughter] But all they can do is shout generalities, because
    there hasn't been a single hunter miss a day in the deer woods because
    of me in 7\1/2\ years. [Laughter] I listened to all that when I signed
    the Brady bill, when I signed the assault weapons ban.
        And now, we believe that there should be no guns around children,
    that don't have trigger locks. We believe that large ammunition clips
    ought not to be imported into America to evade our assault weapons ban.
    We believe that a crook shouldn't be able to get a gun at a gun show
    that the crook can't get at the gun store without a background check.

    [[Page 1411]]

        Now, these are not radical things, but what I want to tell you--this
    is an interesting argument, because it's not like there's no evidence
    here. The same crowd that's against this told me 7 years ago, when I
    signed the Brady bill, that all it would do is inconvenience legitimate
    gun owners and be a terrible burden, and it wouldn't help anything.
    Well, a half a million felons, fugitives, and stalkers later who didn't
    get handguns because of what the Brady bill required in the background
    check, we have a 35 percent decline in gun crime. And, I'll say again,
    not a single Texas hunter has missed a day in the deer woods. They are
    wrong about this, and there's a difference about this.
        And I don't care how low the crime rate has gone; anybody that
    thinks this country is safe enough has not spent enough time where the
    crime rate is high. We ought to keep going until this is the safest big
    country in the world. We owe it to our kids.
        We think--I'll just say one other thing. I believe that one of the
    reasons America has done so well is that our prosperity has been broadly
    shared, that we've had over 22 million new jobs, that we've got the
    lowest minority unemployment rate among Hispanics and African-Americans
    ever recorded. We favor raising the minimum wage because we need it, and
    they don't. We favor dramatically increasing what's called the earned-
    income tax credit, which is an income tax refund to poor working people
    with children, especially those with three or more kids, and they don't.
        Now, this is not negative. You should listen to them and let them
    tell you why they're against what we're for. But we should not be under
    any illusions that there are no consequences to this election. If you
    want the prosperity to continue, you should know that there are two
    different approaches. If you want us to be sure we can guarantee
    excellence in education to every young person, you should know there are
    two different approaches. If you want working people to have a chance to
    succeed at work and raising their kids, whether they work at one of your
    wonderful companies or whether they work in this hot weather serving
    your food tonight, there are two different approaches.
        And so I say, all I can ask you to do between now and the election
    is to help our people, but talk to other people. And don't let the
    American people--I don't mean just here in Austin or in Texas, but I
    mean all over the country where you have friends--people must
    understand. All I want to know is that when I walk out the door on
    January 20th, the American people took this election seriously. They
    understood that we turned this country around, that we had the chance of
    a lifetime, that there were differences, and they understood what the
    differences were. And in their own heart and mind, they voted to build
    the future of our dreams for our children. And I know if that happens,
    everything's going to be all right.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

     Note:  The President spoke at 7:12 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Tom and Lynn Meredith; former Lt.
    Gov. Ben F. Barnes of Texas and his wife, Melanie; Roy M. Spence, Jr.,
    founder and president, GSD&M ad agency, and his wife, Mary; Mayor Kirk
    P. Watson of Austin; former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas; former Texas
    Land Commissioner Garry Mauro; author Liz Carpenter, cofounder, National
    Women's Political Caucus; Bernard (B.) Rapoport, chairman emeritus and
    founder, American Income Life Insurance Co., and his wife, Audrey;
    former Texas State Attorney General Dan Morales; former State
    Comptroller John Sharp; Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President
    Lyndon B. Johnson; musician Lyle Lovett; and Charlton Heston, president,
    and Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president, National Rifle
    Association.