[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 41 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Pages 2376-2378]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Telephone Remarks to a Rally for Representative Julia Carson

October 7, 2000

    Let me say, first of all, I'm just sick I can't be there. But I 
think you know that for the

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last 2 days I've been up day and night, literally. I was up all night 
last night because of the continuing violence in the Middle East and the 
responsibility the United States has to do everything we can to get 
things calmed down and get back to the peace process. Nothing else would 
keep me away.
    I want to say to all my friends in Indiana, you ought to be very 
proud of Joe Andrew. He has done a great job with the DNC. And I think I 
can speak for every Democrat outside Indiana; we are proud of Bart 
Peterson and thrilled that he is the mayor of Indianapolis.
    I want to thank Governor Frank O'Bannon for working so closely with 
me, and Lieutenant Governor Kernan and your attorney general. And I want 
to tell you that I've known Evan Bayh since he replaced me as the 
youngest Governor in America, and he and Susan do you great credit in 
Washington every single day. I have no doubt that the future is 
unlimited for him.
    Most of all, I want to tell you that there is nobody in Congress I 
like any better than Julia Carson. She is one of a kind. And when she 
kind of sidles into a room and takes a stand for education or children 
or moving people from welfare and poverty into work, everybody listens 
to her. And she's acquired an unusual amount of influence in Congress in 
a very short time because she deals with people so effectively and she 
has such credibility and she's so compelling when she makes a point. 
I've just sort of learned to do what she asks me to do without her 
having to argue it now. [Laughter]
    I'd like to just make a simple argument tonight in Indiana, because 
you've got a lot of Republicans there, but the Democrats are doing 
better. Why are the Democrats doing better? Because you deliver.
    And I just want to say to you that, you know, this is the first time 
in 26 years I haven't been on a ballot at election time. So I'm telling 
you this as a person who, within a matter of 4 months, will be like most 
of you out there, just another American citizen. This country is in good 
shape. We are moving in the right direction. We are better off than we 
were 8 years ago, and we need to keep changing in the right direction. 
That is the strongest argument for why every election this year is 
important, every Senate seat, every House seat, every governorship, and 
of course, most important of all, the election for President and Vice 
President.
    Now, in Indiana, you've done well because people have seen you 
produce results. And I want you to go out there, between now and 
election day, and ask everybody you know in Indiana and in the States 
bordering Indiana, all of which are critical to our success, to remember 
what it was like 8 years ago. Look at what it's like now. That's because 
we changed the direction of the country. We've got a better economic 
policy, a better education policy, a better health care policy, a better 
environmental policy, a better foreign policy. And we need to keep 
changing in that direction.
    And people need to understand that once in a lifetime, maybe once in 
50 or 60 years, a country gets a chance to do what we've got to do now, 
with all this prosperity and progress and confidence, with no crisis at 
home and no threat to our security abroad. We've got a chance and a 
responsibility to build the future of our dreams for our kids, and we 
need to put in office people who are committed to that. Every voter 
needs to understand there are real differences between our party and 
theirs and our candidates and theirs, starting at the top and going all 
the way through.
    We've got a different economic policy. We want to keep paying down 
the debt, give people a tax cut we can afford to send their kids to 
college, to save for retirement, for child care when they're working, 
for long-term care when they've got their folks or disabled children 
living at home with them. But we've got to have enough money to invest 
in education and pay down the debt.
    They offer everybody a bigger tax cut, but that and their 
privatization of Social Security plan and their promise to spend will 
put us right back in deficits. The Democratic Party is the fiscally 
responsible party in America today. That will keep interest rates lower, 
and every American will have lower home mortgages, car payments, credit 
card payments, college loan payments. Businesses will borrow money for 
less, and they'll create more jobs and higher incomes.

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    If you want to keep this prosperity going, vote for the Democrats. 
That's the message that you've got to get out there all over America.
    But if you look at all the other areas where we're different--we're 
for a real Patients' Bill of Rights, and they're not. We're for a 
Medicare prescription drug program that every senior who needs it can 
buy into on a voluntary basis, and they only want to help half the 
people who need the medicine. Their plan won't work. It has already been 
tried in one State, and they keep on doing it. It's wrong. We are the 
party that wants to help provide the medicine that our seniors need and 
deserve, and every American needs to understand that. Every American 
needs to understand that we are the party for smaller class sizes and 
modern schools and after-school and summer school and preschool programs 
for the kids who need it and a tax deduction to pay for the cost of 
college tuition so that everybody's child can have 4 years of college. 
That's the Democratic Party, and people need to know that, and I want 
you to help them know that.
    And for all of you there, the most important thing I want you to do 
is make sure Julia Carson wins an overwhelming reelection. She's a 
wonderful woman and a great Representative in Congress.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. from the Residence at the White 
House to the rally at the Indianapolis Colts Complex in Indianapolis, 
IN. In his remarks, he referred to Joseph J. Andrew, national chair, 
Democratic National Committee; Gov. Frank O'Bannon, Lt. Gov. Joseph E. 
Kernan, and State Attorney General Karen Freeman-Wilson of Indiana; and 
Senator Bayh's wife, Susan. Representative Carson is a candidate for 
reelection in Indiana's 10th Congressional District.