[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 43 (Monday, October 30, 2000)]
[Pages 2555-2559]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Brunch for Hillary Clinton in Johnson City, New York

October 22, 2000

    The President. Thank you very much. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, 
but I'm sure glad you waited. I'm delighted to see you. Thank you.
    Thank you, Margaret. Thank you, Barbara. I want to thank all the 
people who are here. Do you want to sit down? I want to thank the people 
of Broome County for voting for me in 1996, the first time a Democrat 
has carried this county in over 30 years. Thank you very much.
    I also want to tell you how very much I admire your Representative 
in Congress, Maurice Hinchey. What a great friend he's been to me and to 
you and to the people of the State of New York. He's done a wonderful 
job for you.
    More than anything else, I want to say thank you. The people of this 
State have been wonderful for 8 years to me and to Al Gore. Last year--I 
mean, in 1996 we carried 52 of New York's 62 counties, and I was so 
gratified by the support that you gave us, so thank you; thank you very, 
very much.
    I came here today in my capacity as Presidential spouse--
[laughter]--to ask for your help for Hillary in this race for the United 
States Senate and to ask you, in the closing days of this election 
season, to go out across this community, out across this country, out 
across this State and talk to all of your friends and neighbors about 
the race for Senate, about the race for President, about what is at 
stake in this election.
    I try to say this now at every event I can, but I'm so gratified to 
see you here. But most of you have tons of friends and relatives and co-
workers who will vote on election day but

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have never come to an event like this. Isn't that right?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. And therefore, all they may know about the election 
is either what they see on television or what someone says to them or 
what kind of discussions they enter into. So while this is a rally and 
we'd all like to spend all our time just shouting, on this Sunday, I 
think it's fair to say that--in my tradition we often say, I realize 
that I am here preaching to the saved. [Laughter]
    And so what I would like to ask you to do is to think about, just 
for a moment, the points I'd like to make, and then make a little pledge 
to yourself that every day between now and election you will share these 
thoughts with your friends, your neighbors, your family members, your 
co-workers who have never come to an event like this, because you can 
make the difference.
    First of all, I want to say a few things about my wife. In the 30 
years, almost, that we have known each other, I have seen her passion, 
her energy, and her activism devoted to the causes of children and 
family, health care and education, economic opportunity for people who 
have been left out or left behind. In the 8 years we have been in the 
White House, she has been a leading force for all those causes: for the 
family and medical leave law, the very first bill I signed--now, 22 
million Americans have taken some time off without losing their jobs 
when a baby is born or a family member is sick, a profoundly important 
thing--for expanding our support of child care for working families, so 
that people can succeed at home and at work; for expanding our efforts 
to have more preschool and after-school opportunities and mentoring 
programs for our children; for doing more for early childhood 
development.
    From the time we served before I became President, Hillary has 
always been passionately interested in what could be done to bring job 
opportunities to people who want to work and don't have them, what can 
be done to put businesses in areas where businesses have left.
    And one of the things that I'm proudest of, to celebrate the 
millennium, she created a project, America's Millennium Project, to 
``Honor the Past and Imagine the Future.'' It is now the largest single 
historic preservation effort in the history of America, and a lot of the 
places that were preserved are here in New York State, from George 
Washington's revolutionary headquarters to Harriet Tubman's home, places 
that will increase tourism as well as community pride.
    Of all the people I've ever known in public life, I've never known 
anyone who had quite the combination of brains and heart and ability to 
get things done and consistent caring that she does. She will be a 
magnificent United States Senator for the people of New York.
    Now, what I want to ask you--it's also important to recognize, 
however, that this Senate race inevitably is playing out against the 
background of the national election and the great questions all 
Americans must decide, for they, too, will affect the people of New 
York. And I believe there are three great questions in this election, 
and I just want to tell you what they are. They affect the Senate race, 
but they also clearly affect the race for President and Vice President 
and for all the races for Congress and all the races for Senate 
throughout the United States.
    First of all, let me say just looking at the debates, let me tell 
you a couple of the things that aren't at issue, that aren't questions 
in this election. Number one, this election is not about change versus 
the status quo. If someone said, ``Vote for me. I'll do everything 
President Clinton did,'' I would not vote for that person. Why? Because 
America is changing. The world is changing. You will live in a time of 
very rapid change for at least another 10, maybe 20 years. The issue is 
not whether we're going to change. It is how we're going to change.
    Are we going to build on the progress of the last 8 years or go back 
to a failed policy we already tried in the past? That is the issue in 
this election. The issue is not whether the Democrats should be rejected 
because of the partisanship in Washington. Let me just say this--I've 
heard a lot of that talk. It wasn't we who decided that no Republicans 
would vote to bring down the deficit they created. [Laughter]
    And when we could work with them, we did. We had a bipartisan 
welfare reform bill. We had a bipartisan Balanced Budget Act

[[Page 2557]]

of '97. We had a bipartisan telecommunications law that has created 
hundreds of thousands of good jobs and thousands and thousands of 
businesses. We got bipartisan agreement on 100,000 police, 100,000 
teachers, and many other things. When we could make a bipartisan 
agreement, we did.
    Last week we were trying to get a bipartisan agreement to put more 
money into Medicare, to help the hospitals in rural areas, to help the 
teaching hospitals, to help the in-home providers, to help the nursing 
homes to deal with some of their problems. They walked away from the 
bipartisan agreement and have come up with the Republicans' only 
solution that gives a disproportionate amount of money to the HMO's. 
That's not our decision. Now, I'll hang tough and eventually we'll come 
back, and we'll get a bipartisan agreement again. This is not about 
bipartisanship. The Democrats favor bipartisanship, and our record is 
that.
    The one last thing they say this election is about that it most 
assuredly isn't, is whether you should be for their side because they 
trust the people, and we're for big Government. You might hear some of 
that up here. [Laughter] So let me just give you a little evidence.
    It was this Democratic administration that has reduced the size of 
the Federal Government to its smallest point since 1960, when Dwight 
Eisenhower was President and John Kennedy came here looking for your 
vote. It was this administration that eliminated 16,000 pages of Federal 
regulations, that enabled the Small Business Administration to cut its 
applications for small business people from an inch thick to one page 
and give people an answer in 72 hours. It was this administration that 
got rid of two-thirds of the regulations that the Federal Government, 
under the previous Republican administration, was imposing on States and 
local school districts. If you're for smaller Government, our candidates 
are your candidates. We're for better Government and smaller Government. 
That's not the issue.
    Here are the three great questions the American people will decide 
in this election. Number one: Do you want to keep this prosperity going 
and extend it to people and places who aren't yet fully a part of it? 
That's the first question. Our candidates favor a tax cut we can afford, 
that helps more middle class families than theirs does, with 
deductibility for college tuition, for long-term care costs for the 
elderly and disabled family members, for retirement savings, for child 
care, things that will help--and for extra incentives for people to 
invest in areas that aren't yet growing in the economy.
    It is admittedly only one-third the size of their tax cut. Why is 
that? Because we know, number one, we've got to have some money to 
invest in education, in health care, in the future of the country. And 
number two, we've got to keep paying this debt down until we make 
America debt-free for the first time since Andrew Jackson was President.
    Now, why is that? Because their tax cut is 3 times bigger, and they 
want to partially privatize Social Security. That costs another trillion 
dollars. And then they've got several hundred billion dollars they want 
to spend. When you add it all up, we're back in deficits, and we can't 
pay the debt off. And what does that mean? Higher interest rates, about 
a percent a year over a decade. Do you know what that's worth to you? If 
you take the Al Gore/Joe Lieberman/Hillary plan, you get a percent lower 
interest rate.
    Do you know what that's worth to the American people? Three hundred 
and ninety billion dollars in lower home mortgages; $30 billion in lower 
car payments; $15 billion in lower college loan payments; lower credit 
card payments; lower business loan interest rates; more businesses; more 
jobs; higher raises; a stronger stock market--that's a tax cut for all 
Americans. Get this country out of debt and keep those interest rates 
down.
    Now, that's a real question. Do you want to keep the prosperity 
going and extend it to people and places left behind? We tried it our 
way for 8 years. We tried it their way for 12 years before. Our way 
works better than their way. We need to keep changing in the right 
direction to keep the prosperity going in America.
    Here is the second question: Do you want to build on the progress in 
our society of the last 8 years, or do you want to return to policies 
that we know don't work? And let me just give you a couple of examples. 
The welfare rolls have been cut in half. They're the

[[Page 2558]]

lowest in 30 years. The crime rate has gone down every year. It's the 
lowest in 26 years. We have the lowest poverty rate in 20 years. We 
have--as I said earlier, Government spending as a percent of our economy 
is the lowest it has been in 34 years. We have cleaner air, cleaner 
water, safer food, 90 percent of our children immunized. We have more 
land set aside in public trust for all time than under any 
administration except that of Theodore Roosevelt, almost 100 years ago.
    What is the point of this? The point of this is, we have proved you 
can grow the economy and improve the environment. We have the number of 
people without health insurance going down for the first time in 12 
years, thanks to the Children's Health Insurance Program. We have 
supported local school districts with our strategy of higher standards, 
accountability, and more investment. Test scores are up. The dropout 
rate is down. The college-going rate is at an all-time high. There has 
been a huge increase in the number of our children taking advanced 
placement tests, and more and more failing schools are turning around.
    Now, the question you have to ask yourself is, are we going to build 
on this progress or go back and adopt policies that have been proven not 
to work? In every single one of these areas there is a disagreement.
    They have committed to relax our environmental commitment. They have 
committed to end our commitment to 100,000 teachers. They are not for 
our school construction program to help the schools build or repair 
facilities that are either outdated or grievously overcrowded. They do 
not approve of our crime policy, and they have committed to abolish our 
commitment to 100,000 police and not to go for mandatory child trigger 
locks and real background checks and other things that are profoundly 
important.
    Now, it's not like we had a test here. We've tried it our way, and 
we tried it their way. Our way works better. You have to decide if 
you're going to build on the progress of the last 8 years.
    So, question one, are we going to keep the prosperity going and 
extend it to people and places left behind? Question two, are we going 
to build on the progress of the last 8 years? Question three, are we 
going to keep trying to bring this country together, across all the 
lines that divide us to build one America, fair for every responsible 
citizen with opportunity for every responsible citizen?
    Now, what are those questions? We're for hate crimes legislation. I 
mean real hate crimes legislation that protects all people who are 
singled out because of who they are for abuse and criminal conduct. We 
are for legislation to strengthen the equal pay law, so that women who 
are doing the same kind of work get equal pay for it. We believe the 
immigrants that are in this country legally ought to be treated fairly 
and not discriminated against. If they're working, if they're paying 
taxes, they ought to be eligible to be treated in a fair way.
    We're for an increase in the minimum wage. And we don't believe--we 
do not demonize any interest groups, but we think no interest group 
should keep us from pursuing the public interest. They say they're for a 
Patients' Bill of Rights, but theirs is weaker than ours because the 
HMO's don't want it to be stronger. They say they want to help older 
people get drugs, but they're not for a Medicare drug program that gives 
all seniors who need it access to affordable medicine, because the drug 
companies aren't for it.
    They say they're against hate crimes, but they won't support hate 
crimes legislation that covers everybody, because their extreme right 
doesn't believe gays should get protection in hate crimes legislation, 
but we believe all people should be protected.
    Now, you have to decide. You have to decide what you believe. But 
make no mistake about it, there are big differences here: in our 
economic approach to keep the prosperity going; in our social 
approaches, whether it's on education or health care or the environment 
or crime; and on what we think it takes to build one America. And there 
are so many more issues I could mention. Campaign finance reform: They 
say they're for it, but they're not really for it because they don't 
want to be for it because they raise more money than we do. [Laughter] 
You've got to decide whether you care about that.
    But we've got 100 percent of the Democratic caucus and enough 
Republicans to pass it, for the Shays-Meehan bill in the House or the 
McCain-Feingold, that's called after

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Senator McCain and Senator Feingold in the Senate, and it hasn't passed 
because their leadership is not for it. I think that's a part of one 
America. Why? Because the more we can balance out the financing in the 
country, the more everybody's vote counts the same.
    So this is a big deal here. You have to decide. And your friends and 
neighbors, with their votes, will decide, the people who will never come 
to a meeting like this but will vote because it is the patriotic, good 
thing to do, or people who may not vote because they think, well, there 
is no real difference here. There are differences.
    Now, one of the reasons the people have had a hard time finding out 
differences is, the other side has been quite adroit at trying to blur 
them, and you can't blame them, because if people figure out the 
differences, our crowd will win. [Laughter] I told Maurice and his 
colleagues a couple of days ago that we Democrats should see ourselves 
as America's weather corps for 2 weeks, and if can make it clear, we'll 
win. [Laughter] They want cloudy. We want clear.
    So I'll say it one more time: I'm grateful for your support for 
Hillary. And I want you to go out and tell people that she has given a 
lifetime to this. One of the things that has kind of hurt my feelings 
is, sometimes the people that aren't for us say, ``Well, she wouldn't 
even be doing this if she weren't the First Lady.'' Let me tell you 
something, for 30 years all she has done is help other people. She never 
asked anybody ever--ever--to do anything for her until she started 
running for the United States Senate, when Members of the New York House 
delegation--as Maurice will tell you--came to her and asked her to 
consider this race.
    If she hadn't been married to me, if she hadn't spent all of her 
years joining honest, honorable causes all over this country and all 
over the world, she could have been running for office years ago on her 
own. Now she is, and I want you to help her.
    But the main thing you need to tell--you've got to go out there and 
ask the people of New York to think about this. You have a candidate for 
the Senate who cares about and knows about and has a proven record of 
achievement in the things you care most about. But secondly, these three 
big questions should inform the peoples' votes on every one of these 
races. If you want to keep the prosperity going and extend it to people 
left behind, you've got to have a budget that keeps paying this debt 
down and that invests in the things that we know work. Their numbers 
don't add up. You simply cannot have a tax cut that big and partially 
privatize Social Security and spend the money you promise to spend and 
put us back into deficits and expect anything other than what will 
happen, higher interest rates and an economic slow-down. We brought 
arithmetic back to Washington, and we ought to keep arithmetic in the 
classroom of Congress and the White House.
    When it comes to health care, education, the environment, and crime, 
we've got to keep building on the progress of the last 8 years, not walk 
away from it. And maybe most important of all, we've got to keep doing 
those things that bring us together across the lines that divide us. If 
we are one America, if we are working together, if there is opportunity 
for every responsible citizen, if no one is singled out for 
discrimination, if we act like we're one community, there is nothing 
America can't do. The best is still out there. It's up to you to 
convince your fellow citizens of that.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the 
Fountains Pavilion. In his remarks, he referred to Margaret Coffey, 
chair, Broome County Democratic Committee, and Barbara J. Fiala, Broome 
County clerk.