[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.