[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 41 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Pages 2379-2381]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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

October 7, 2000

    Well, first of all, I want to thank Jeff for hosting this event 
tonight and for the many years of friendship I've enjoyed with him. I've 
been told that Evan and Susan Bayh are there and Frank and Judy O'Bannon 
and your other State officials. I heard you talking about Mayor 
Peterson. And Joe Andrew--I want to say again what I said this 
afternoon--he's really done Indiana proud here at the DNC. I'm really 
proud of him.

[[Page 2380]]

    If you've been following the news today, you know why I couldn't 
come. I've been up for virtually 2 days now trying to stop the violence 
in the Middle East and get the peace process back on track. It's a 
difficult situation. We're down to all the hard issues now, and it's 
just something I couldn't leave. I can't get away from the phone because 
of what's going on there and in the U.N. and in other countries. I have 
to be available here 100 percent of the time.
    I'm really, really sorry to miss this because I had looked forward 
to coming back to Indiana, and I wanted to do anything I could to help 
Julia Carson. She's one of my favorite people in American politics. 
She's a real treasure for you. She's done a great job, and she is so 
effective.
    You know, she's got a style that reminds me of all these big, white 
country judges I used to deal with in Arkansas. [Laughter] She kind of 
eases up to you and talks to you, and then, before you know it, your 
billfold is gone. [Laughter] We have learned in the White House just to 
go on and give her what she wants the first time she asks, because we 
know we're going to give in sooner or later. [Laughter]
    Seriously, she's acquired an unusual amount of influence here in a 
short time because she is so good at what she does and because everybody 
likes and respects her, and I'm at the head of that list. So I'm very 
grateful to you for helping her.
    The only other thing I'd like to say tonight is that perhaps more 
than anyone in America, after these last 8 years, I know how important 
every Senate seat, every House seat is, and I know how important this 
election is. The resurgence of the Democratic Party in Indiana is 
perhaps the best example anywhere in America of what can happen if you 
take good Democratic values and common sense and get things done and 
produce results. And that's what we've tried to do. I just hope that all 
of you will take every opportunity you can between now and the election 
to remind people of where we were 8 years ago and where we are now and 
why we ought to keep changing in the same direction and not turn around 
and go back.
    The consequences of this election are very profound, and sometimes I 
get a little concerned that people may not believe that because times 
are so good. But it's often more difficult to make a good decision in 
good times than it is in hard times. We have a clear difference here 
between the two parties, between the candidates for Congress and for the 
Senate and certainly for the White House.
    We've worked hard nationally to do what Evan Bayh and Frank O'Bannon 
have done in Indiana, to prove that you can be fiscally responsible, 
balance your budgets, and still take care of people. And that is, in 
some ways, maybe the biggest difference between the Democratic and 
Republican approaches today. If Al Gore's plan is adopted, tax cuts will 
be smaller, and some of you will get less money, but we'll pay the debt 
off, and interest rates will be lower. And over the next 10 years, the 
estimates are that, under his plan, interest rates will be a percent 
lower, and that's $390 billion in home mortgages, $30 billion in lower 
car loans, $15 billion in lower student loans, lower credit card 
payments, lower business loans, more jobs, higher incomes, and a better 
stock market. It's not very complicated.
    You simply cannot get this country back into deficit, which is what 
would happen if the Republican plans for the huge tax cut, the 
privatization of Social Security, and their spending promises go into 
effect. We'll be right back where we were, and we can't afford to do it. 
It's a big difference.
    And I just want to ask all of you to make sure that people 
understand that the choice is real and the consequences will be real, 
too. And I think the choice is clear. We have a different economic 
policy, a different health care policy, a different education policy, a 
different environmental policy, and a different foreign policy. And I 
think the results speak for themselves.
    You can cite Indiana as an example, and you can cite the record of 
our administration in the last 8 years. Nothing I have done, however, 
would have been possible without people in Congress like Senator Bayh 
and Representative Carson. I am just profoundly grateful.
    And I want to say a special word of thanks because it's still hard 
for a Democrat running for national office in Indiana. And for those

[[Page 2381]]

of you who stood up for me, you deserve some sort of Purple Heart, and I 
want to thank you for that, as well. [Laughter]
    But now you have something you didn't have so much of--you didn't 
have any of in '92 and not so much of in '96. You have evidence. Some of 
our Republican friends, I've got to hand it to them. When it comes to 
the budget or how we ought to pay for prescription drugs, evidence 
doesn't faze them. They don't care about the evidence. They just know 
what they think.
    But most people, I think, in Indiana and the States bordering 
Indiana--a lot of you have friends there, in States that could go either 
way--really care about whether what we're doing is consistent with our 
values and will actually work. That's one of the reasons that I wanted 
so badly to be there for Julia today, because she works and she gets 
things done. Again, I just can't thank you enough for helping her.
    And thank you, Jeff, for indirectly having me in your home. I hope I 
can have a raincheck. I've been trying to visit you for a lot longer 
than I've been President. So maybe some day we'll get it done.
    Thank you all very, very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:02 p.m. from the Residence at the White 
House to the reception at a private residence in Indianapolis, IN. In 
his remarks, he referred to reception host Jeffrey Smulyan; Gov. Frank 
O'Bannon of Indiana and his wife, Judy; Senator Bayh's wife, Susan; 
Mayor Bart Peterson of Indianapolis, IN; and Joseph J. Andrew, national 
chair, Democratic National Committee. Representative Carson is a 
candidate for reelection in Indiana's 10th Congressional District.