    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 33 (Monday, August 21, 2000)]
    [Pages 1881-1887]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California

    August 14, 2000

        Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Isn't it great to be
    here in California together? [Applause] Forty years ago the great city
    of Los Angeles launched John Kennedy and the New Frontier. Now Los
    Angeles is launching the first President of the new century, Al Gore.
        I come here tonight, above all, to say a heartfelt thank you. Thank
    you. Thank you for giving me the chance to serve. Thank you for being so
    good to Hillary and Chelsea. I am so proud of them. And didn't she give
    a good talk? [Applause] I thought it was great. I thank you for
    supporting the New Democratic agenda that has taken our country to new
    heights of prosperity, peace, and progress. As always, of course, the
    lion's share of credit goes to the American people, who do the work,
    raise the kids, and dream the dreams.
        Now, at this moment of unprecedented good fortune, our people face a
    fundamental choice: Are we going to keep this progress and prosperity
    going? Yes, we are.
        But my friends, we can't take our future for granted. We cannot take
    it for granted. So let's just remember how we got here.
        Eight years ago, when our party met in New York, it was in a far
    different time for America. Our economy was in trouble. Our society was
    divided. Our political system was paralyzed. Ten million of our fellow
    citizens were out of work. Interest rates were high. The deficit was
    $290 billion and rising. After 12 years of Republican rule, the Federal
    debt had quadrupled, imposing a crushing burden on our economy and on
    our children. Welfare rolls, crime, teen pregnancy, income inequality--
    all had been skyrocketing. And our

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    Government was part of the problem, not part of the solution.
        I saw all this in a very personal way in 1992, out there in the real
    America with many of you. I remember a child telling me her father broke
    down at the dinner table because he lost his job. I remember an older
    couple crying in front of me because they had to choose between filling
    their shopping carts and filling their prescriptions. I remember a hard-
    working immigrant in a hotel kitchen who said his son was not really
    free because it wasn't safe for him to play in the neighborhood park.
        I ran for President to change the future for those people. And I
    asked you to embrace new ideas rooted in enduring values: opportunity
    for all, responsibility from all, and a community of all Americans. You
    gave me the chance to turn those ideas and values into action after I
    made one of the very best decisions of my entire life, asking Al Gore to
    be my partner.
        Now, first we proposed a new economic strategy: Get rid of the
    deficit to reduce interest rates; invest more in our people; sell more
    American products abroad. We sent our plan to Congress. It passed by a
    single vote in both Houses. In a deadlocked Senate, Al Gore cast the
    tie-breaking vote. Not a single Republican supported it.
        Here's what their leaders said. Their leaders said our plan would
    increase the deficit, kill jobs, and give us a one-way ticket to
    recession. Time has not been kind to their predictions.
        Remember, our Republican friends said then they would absolutely not
    be held responsible for our economic policies. I hope the American
    people take them at their word. [Applause] Thank you.
        Today, after 7\1/2\ years of hard effort, we're in the midst of the
    longest economic expansion in history, more than 22 million new jobs,
    the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the lowest female unemployment in
    40 years, the lowest Hispanic and African-American unemployment rate
    ever recorded, and the highest homeownership in history.
        Now, along the way, in 1995 we turned back the largest cuts in
    history in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment. And just
    2 years later we proved that we could find a way to balance the budget
    and protect our values. Today, we have gone from the largest deficits in
    history to the largest surpluses in history. And if, but only if, we
    stay on course, we can make America debt-free for the first time since
    Andy Jackson was President in 1835.
        For the first time in decades, wages are rising at all income
    levels. We have the lowest child poverty in 20 years, the lowest poverty
    rate for single mothers ever recorded. The average family's income has
    gone up more than $5,000, and for African-American families, even more.
    The number of families who own stock, in our country, has grown by 40
    percent.
        You know, Harry Truman's old saying has never been more true, ``If
    you want to live like a Republican, you better vote for the Democrats.''
    [Applause] Thank you.
        But our progress is about far more than economics. America is also
    more hopeful, more secure, and more free. We're more hopeful because
    we're turning our schools around with higher standards, more
    accountability, more investment. We have doubled funding for Head Start
    and provided after-school and mentoring to more than a million more
    young people. We're putting 100,000 well-trained teachers in the early
    grades to lower class size. Ninety-five percent of our schools are
    already connected to the Internet. Reading, math, and SAT scores are up,
    and more students than ever are going on to college, thanks to the
    biggest expansion of college aid since the GI bill 50 years ago. Now,
    don't let anybody tell you that all children can't learn or that our
    public schools can't make the grade. Yes, they can. Yes, they can.
        We're also more hopeful because we ended welfare as we knew it. Now,
    those who can work, must work. On that, we and the Republicans agreed.
    But we Democrats also insisted on support for good parenting, so that
    poor children don't go hungry or lose their health care, unmarried teens
    stay in school, and people get the job training, child care, and
    transportation they need. It has worked. Today, there are more than 7\1/
    2\ million people who have moved from welfare to work, and the welfare
    rolls in our administration have been cut in half.

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        We're more hopeful because of the way we cut taxes to help Americans
    meet the challenges of work and childrearing. This year alone our HOPE
    scholarship and lifelong learning tax credits will help 10 million
    families pay for college. Our earned-income tax credit will help 15
    million families work their way into the middle class. Twenty-five
    million families will get a $500 child tax credit. Our empowerment zone
    tax credits are bringing new business and new jobs to our hardest
    pressed communities, from the inner cities to Appalachia to the
    Mississippi Delta to our Native American reservations. And the typical
    American family today is paying a lower share of its income in Federal
    income taxes than at any time during the past 35 years.
        We are a more hopeful because of the Family and Medical Leave Act, a
    bill that the previous administration vetoed. They said it would cost
    jobs. It's the first bill I signed, and we now have a test. Twenty-two
    million new jobs later, over 20 million Americans have been able to take
    a little time off to care for a newborn child or sick relative. That's
    what it means--that's what it really means to be pro-family. [Applause]
    Thank you.
        We are more secure country because we cut crime with tougher
    enforcement, more than 100,000 new community police officers, a ban on
    assault weapons, and the Brady law, which has kept guns out of the hands
    of half a million felons, fugitives, and stalkers. Today, crime in
    America is at a 25-year low.
        And we're more secure because of advances in health care. We've
    extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by 26 years, added coverage
    for cancer screening and cutting-edge clinical trials. We're coming
    closer to cures for dreaded diseases. We made sure that people with
    disabilities could go to work without losing their health care and that
    people could switch jobs without losing their coverage. We dramatically
    improved diabetes care. We provided health coverage under the Children's
    Health Insurance Program to 2 million previously uninsured children. And
    for the first time in our history, more than 90 percent of our kids have
    been immunized against serious childhood diseases. You can be proud of
    that Democratic record.
        We are more secure because our environment is cleaner. We've set
    aside more land in the lower 48 States than any administration since
    Teddy Roosevelt, saving national treasures like Yellowstone, the great
    California redwoods, the Florida Everglades. Moreover, our air is
    cleaner; our water is cleaner; our food is safer; and our economy is
    stronger. You can grow the economy and protect the environment at the
    same time.
        Now, we're more free because we are closer today to the one America
    of our dreams, celebrating our diversity, affirming our common humanity,
    opposing all forms of bigotry, from church burnings to racial profiling
    to murderous hate crimes. We're fighting for employment
    nondiscrimination legislation and for equal pay for women. [Applause]
    Thank you.
        We found ways to mend, not end, affirmative action. We have given
    America the most diverse administration in history. It really looks like
    America. You know, if I could just get my administration up here, it
    would be just as good a picture as anything you saw a couple of weeks
    ago in Philadelphia--the real people loving it. And we created
    AmeriCorps, which already has given more than 150,000 of our young
    people a chance to earn some money for college by serving in our
    communities.
        We are more secure, and we're more free because of our leadership in
    the world for peace, freedom, and prosperity, helping to end a
    generation of conflict in Northern Ireland, stopping the brutal ethnic
    cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, and bringing the Middle East closer than
    ever to a comprehensive peace.
        We built stronger ties to Africa, Asia, and our Latin American and
    Caribbean neighbors. We brought Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
    into NATO. We are working with Russia to destroy nuclear weapons and
    materials. We are fighting head-on the new threats and injustices of the
    global age, terrorism, narcotrafficking, biological and chemical
    warfare, the trafficking in women and young girls, and the deadly spread
    of AIDS. And in the great tradition of President Jimmy Carter, who is
    here tonight, we are still the world's leading force for human

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    rights around the world. Thank you, President Carter.
        The American military is the best trained, best equipped, most
    effective fighting force in the world. Our men and women have shown that
    time and again in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in Haiti, and Iraq. I can tell you
    that their strength, their spirit, their courage, and their commitment
    to freedom have never been greater. Any adversary who believes those who
    say otherwise is making a grave mistake.
        Now, my fellow Americans, that's the record, or as that very famous
    Los Angeles detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, used to say, ``Just the
    facts, ma'am.'' [Laughter] I ask you, let's remember the standard our
    Republican friends used to have for whether a party should continue in
    office: My fellow Americans, are we better off today than we were 8
    years ago?
        You bet we are. You bet we are. [Applause] Thank you. Yes, we are.
    Yes, we are.
        But--yes, we are--we're not just better off; we're also a better
    country. We are today more tolerant, more decent, more humane, and more
    united. Now, that's the purpose of prosperity.
        Since 1992, America has grown not just economically but as a
    community. Yes, jobs are up but so are adoptions. Yes, the debt is down
    but so is teen pregnancy. We are becoming both more diverse and more
    united.
        My fellow Americans, tonight we can say with gratitude and humility:
    We built our bridge to the 21st century. We crossed that bridge
    together. And we're not going back. [Applause] Thank you.
        To those who say--and I'm sure you heard this somewhere in the last
    few days--to those who say the progress of these last 8 years was just
    some sort of accident, that we just kind of coasted along, let me be
    clear. America's success was not a matter of chance; it was a matter of
    choice.
        And today, America faces another choice. It's every bit as momentous
    as the one we faced 8 years ago. For what a nation does with its good
    fortune is just as stern a test of its character, values, and judgment
    as how it deals with adversity.
        My fellow Americans, this is a big election with great consequences
    for every American, because the differences, the honest differences,
    between our candidates and their visions are so profound. We can a have
    good, old-fashioned election here. We should posit that our opponents
    are good, honorable, patriotic people, and that we have honest
    differences. But the differences are there.
        Consider this, just this. We in America would already have, this
    year, a real Patients' Bill of Rights, a minimum wage increase, stronger
    equal pay laws for women, and middle class tax cuts for college tuition
    and long-term care if the Democratic Party were in the majority in
    Congress with Dick Gephardt as Speaker and Tom Daschle as majority
    leader. And come November, they will be. That has to be clear to people.
    And that's why every House and every Senate seat is important. But if
    you'll give me one moment of personal privilege, I'd like to say a word
    about Hillary.
        When I first met her 30 years ago, she already had an abiding
    passion to help children. And she's pursued it ever since. Her very
    first job out of law school was with the Children's Defense Fund. Every
    year I was Governor she took lots of time away from her law practice to
    work for better schools or better children's health or jobs for parents
    who lived in poor areas. Then when I became President, she became a
    full-time advocate for her lifetime cause, and what a job she has done.
    She championed the family leave law, children's health insurance,
    increased support for foster children and adoptions. She wrote a best-
    selling book about caring for our children, and then she took care of
    them by giving all the profits to children's charities. For 30 years--30
    years--from the first day I met her, she has always been there for all
    our kids. She's been a great First Lady. She's always been there for our
    family. And she'll always be there for the families of New York and
    America. [Applause] Thank you.
        Of course, we all know that the biggest choice that the American
    people have to make this year is in the Presidential race. Now, you all
    know how I feel. [Laughter] But it's not my decision to make. That
    belongs to the American people. I just want to tell all of you here in
    this great arena and

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    all of the folks watching and listening at home a few things that I know
    about Al Gore.
        We've worked closely together for 8 years now, in the most
    challenging moments. When we faced the most difficult issues of war and
    peace, of whether to take on some powerful interests, he was always
    there. And he always told me exactly what he thought was right.
        Everybody knows he is thoughtful and hard working. But I can tell
    you personally, he is one strong leader. In 1993 there was nobody around
    the table more willing to make the tough choices to balance the budget
    the right way and take this tough stance against balancing the budget on
    the backs of the poor and working people of America. I have seen this
    kind of positioning and this kind of strength time and again, whether it
    was in how we reform welfare or in protecting the environment or in
    closing the digital divide or bringing jobs to rural and urban America
    through the empowerment zone program. The greatest champion of ordinary
    Americans has always been Al Gore.
        I'll tell you something else about him. More than anybody else I've
    known in public life, Al Gore understands the future and how sweeping
    changes and scientific breakthroughs will affect ordinary Americans'
    lives. And I think we need somebody in the White House at the dawn of
    the 21st century who really understands the future.
        Finally, I want to say something more personal. Virtually every week
    for the last 7\1/2\ years, until he became occupied with more important
    matters, Al Gore and I had lunch. And we talked about the business
    between us and the business of America. But we'd also often talk about
    our families, what our kids were doing, how school was going, what was
    going on in their lives. I know him. He is a profoundly good man. He
    loves his children more than life. And he has a perfectly wonderful wife
    who has fought against homelessness and who has done something for me
    and all Americans in bringing the cause of mental health into the broad
    sunlight of our national public life. We owe Tipper Gore our thanks.
        Al has picked a great partner in Joe Lieberman. [Applause] There's
    the Connecticut crowd. Hillary and I have known Joe for 30 years, since
    we were in Connecticut in law school. I supported him in his first race
    for public office in 1970, when I learned he had been a freedom rider,
    going into danger to register black voters in the then-segregated South.
    It should not be a surprise to anyone that Al Gore picked the leader of
    the New Democrats to be his Vice President, because Joe Lieberman has
    supported all our efforts to reform welfare, reduce crime, protect the
    environment, protect civil rights, and a woman's right to choose and to
    keep this economy going--all of them. And he has shown time and time
    again that he will work with President Gore to keep putting people and
    progress over partisanship.
        Now, it's up, frankly, to the Presidential nominee and the Vice
    Presidential nominee to engage in this debate and to point out the
    differences. But there are two issues I care a lot about, and I want to
    make brief comments on them, and I hope I've earned the right to make
    comments on them. One is the economy--I know a little something about
    that--and the other is our efforts to build one America.
        First, on the economy, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman will keep our
    prosperity going by paying down the debt, investing in education and
    health care, moving more people from welfare to work, and providing
    family tax cuts we can afford. That stands in stark contrast to the
    position of our Republican friends.
        Here is their position. They say we have a big projected 10 year
    surplus, and they want to spend every dime of it and then some on tax
    cuts right now. That would leave nothing for education or Medicare,
    prescription drugs; nothing to extend the life of Medicare and Social
    Security for the baby boomers; nothing in case the projected surpluses
    don't come in.
        Now, think about your own family's budget for a minute or your own
    business budget. Would you sign a binding contract today to spend all
    your projected income for a decade, leaving nothing for your families'
    basic needs, nothing for emergencies, nothing for a cushion in case you
    didn't get the raise you thought you were going to get? Of course you
    wouldn't do that, and America shouldn't do it either. We should stick
    with what works.

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        Let me say something to you that's even more important than the
    economy to me. When Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish-
    American to join a national ticket, to be his partner, and he joined
    with our Presidential nominee, who has, along with his great mother and
    late father, a lifetime commitment to civil rights and equal opportunity
    for all, even when it was not popular down home in the South, when they
    did that, we had a ticket that embodies the Democratic commitment to one
    America. They believe in civil rights and equal opportunity for
    everybody. They believe in a woman's right to choose. And this may be
    the most important of all, they believe the folks that you're buying
    your soft drinks and popcorn from here at the Staples Center should have
    the exact same chance they do to send their kids to college and give
    them a good life and a good future.
        My fellow Americans, I am very proud of our leaders. And I want you
    to know that the opportunity I have had to serve as President at the
    dawn of a new era in human history has been an honor, a privilege, and a
    joy. I have done everything I knew how to do to empower the American
    people, to unleash their amazing optimism and imagination and hard work,
    to turn our country around from where it was in 1992, and to get us
    moving forward together.
        Now, what I want you to understand tonight is that the best is still
    out there. The best is yet to come if we make the right choices in this
    election year.
        But the choices will make all the difference. In February the
    American people achieved the longest economic expansion in our history.
    When that happened, I asked our folks at the White House when the
    previous longest economic expansion was. You know when it was? It was
    from 1961 through 1969. Now, I want the young people especially to
    listen to this. I remember this well.
        I graduated from high school in 1964. Our country was still very sad
    because of President Kennedy's death, but full of hope under the
    leadership of President Johnson. And I assumed then, like most
    Americans, that our economy was on absolutely on automatic, that nothing
    could derail it. I also believe then that our civil rights problems
    would all be solved in Congress and the courts. And in 1964, when we
    were enjoying the longest economic expansion in history, we never
    dreamed that Vietnam would so divide and wound our America.
        So we took it for granted. And then, before we knew it, there were
    riots in the streets, even here. The leaders that I adored as a young
    man, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, were killed. Lyndon Johnson,
    a President from my part of the country I admired so much for all he did
    for civil rights, for the elderly and the poor, said he would not run
    again because our Nation was so divided. And then we had an election in
    1968 that took America on a far different and more divisive course. And
    you know, within months after that election, the last longest economic
    expansion in history was, itself, history.
        Why am I telling you this tonight? Not to take you down but to keep
    you looking up. I have waited, not as President but as your fellow
    citizen, for over 30 years to see my country once again in the position
    to build the future of our dreams for our children. We are a great and
    good people. And we have an even better chance this time than we did
    then, with no great internal crisis and no great external threat. Still,
    I have lived long enough to know that opportunities must be seized or
    they will be lost.
        My friends, 54 years ago this week I was born in a summer storm to a
    young widow in a small Southern town. America gave me the chance to live
    my dreams. And I have tried as hard as I knew how to give you a better
    chance to live yours. Now, my hair is a little grayer, my wrinkles are a
    little deeper, but with the same optimism and hope I brought to the work
    I loved so 8 years ago, I want you to know my heart is filled with
    gratitude.
        My fellow Americans, the future of our country is now in your hands.
    You must think hard, feel deeply, and choose wisely. And remember,
    whenever you think about me, keep putting people first. Keep building
    those bridges. And don't stop thinking about tomorrow.

     Note:  The President spoke at 7:52 p.m. at the Staples Center. In his
    remarks, he referred to Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Senator

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    Joseph I. Lieberman. A portion of these remarks could not be verified
    because the tape was incomplete.