[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 42 (Monday, October 23, 2000)]
[Pages 2463-2464]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Telephone Remarks to a Dinner for Congressional Candidate Mike Ross

October 13, 2000

    The President. Well, let me, first of all, thank John and Penny for 
hosting this. And I want to thank Marion Berry and Vic Snyder for being 
there for you. They can speak more eloquently than I can about how 
important it is for Arkansas that you be elected and how wonderful it 
would be if they had a genuine partner that was always working for 
Arkansas and not just at election time.
    I have to tell you, Mike, I noticed the other day that the 
Republicans put in a little money for a bridge down in southeast 
Arkansas, and I think the voters--they ought to give you credit for it. 
[Laughter] I was trying to get them to give me the money for the bridge, 
and until you got to where you could beat Jay Dickey, they never thought 
about springing for it. So I think that ought to be called the Ross 
Bridge, if we ever get it built. [Laughter]
    Let me say just one thing very seriously. This is a very different 
country than it was 8 years ago, and Arkansas is in a lot better shape 
than it was 8 years ago. The economy is better. The crime rate is down. 
The welfare rolls are lower. More children have health insurance. We're 
giving more constructive aid to our schools.
    And every single policy that was implemented--most importantly, 
going from a $290 billion deficit to a $230 billion surplus and turning 
this economy around--was implemented because I had the support of 
Democrats in the Congress. And the Republicans basically fought our 
economic policy. They fought our welfare policy. They fought our crime 
policy. They fought our education policy. They fought our environmental 
policy. They fought all of our economic policies.
    They did give us a farm bill that Marion Berry and I told them 
wouldn't work back in '95, and sure enough, we were right. It wouldn't 
work. And now, basically, the people of south Arkansas have to decide 
whether they're going to keep this country moving in a good direction or 
vote for someone who comes home every weekend but then goes back to 
Washington and votes against them. And I'll just use one example.
    These ads that the so-called Citizens for Better Medicare are 
running against Mike Ross, because he's a pharmacist who believes that 
all of our seniors ought to be able buy prescription drugs, are 
scandalous. And they're typical of what the Republicans all over America 
are trying to do. They come home every weekend and tell the folks they 
love them. Then they go back to Washington and they vote for the vested 
interest. Then they got those interest groups to give them money to run 
bogus ads to confuse the voters back home. That's basically what is 
going on here.
    And I just know that if Mike Ross gets enough financial support to 
be able to compete with this avalanche of special interest money that's 
being spent against him, the voters in south Arkansas will vote for him, 
because he'll work just as hard as Mr. Dickey at coming home on the 
weekends and keeping up with his constituents. Then he'll go back to 
Washington and actually vote for them, for a Medicare prescription drug 
program, for a Patients' Bill of Rights, for paying off the debt instead 
of having a tax cut so big we'll be in debt from now on--these are 
really, really important issues--and for helping our schools.
    You know, I really believe that Mike can win this race, and I 
believe he will win this race, as long as the people who are rewarding 
his opponent for voting with them instead of the people of south 
Arkansas can't run enough ads to turn this election into a smokescreen. 
So I am profoundly grateful to all of you for helping him. He's a fine 
man. I have known him for nearly 20 years. He was a teenager when he 
started working for me.

[[Page 2464]]

[Laughter] And when I'm gone from Washington, he'll be a Congressman, 
thanks to you. Thank you very, very much.
    Mike, let me just say one other thing. I just wanted to say, on a 
very serious note and kind of a non-political note, as you know, I badly 
wanted to be there tonight. I have been working for the last 8 days, 
trying to restore calm in the Middle East. And I've been on the phone 
all day today and have some more work to do late tonight, and I'm 
terribly sorry I could not be there. But after the loss of our sailors 
in Yemen yesterday and the continued violence in the Middle East, I just 
thought I had to stay here and work. We may get a breakthrough sometime 
in the next several hours. We're working hard, trying to turn this thing 
around. I hope you'll all say a prayer for us tonight, and I hope you'll 
forgive me for not being there. But just know that it has nothing to do 
with my profound desire to see you elected.
    State Senator Mike Ross. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, very 
much. We're going to win this thing. We're going to win it for you. 
We're going to win it for the Democratic Party.
    The President. Thank you. And thank you, Vic. Thank you, Marion, and 
thanks, John and Penny. Goodbye, folks. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:12 p.m. from the Residence at the White 
House to the dinner at a private residence in Little Rock, AR. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts John and Penny Burkhalter. Mike 
Ross is a candidate for Arkansas' Fourth Congressional District. A tape 
was not available for verification of the content of these remarks. This 
item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.