Oct. 1 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1999

health and safety. It is vital that this authority our responsibility to protect this and future gen- be preserved. erations. I urge the Congress to join with me in oppos- ing this legislation and ensuring that we fulfill

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Reception in Palo Alto, October 1, 1999

Thank you. You know, Tom cracked that joke And we had people who believed that they about the White House. [Laughter] I’m a South- could get elected by driving deeper wedges into erner. What I thought sitting here watching him our American society instead of by bringing us is we have reversed all the roles in ‘‘Gone With together. And when I first came out here— the Wind.’’ [Laughter] We’re about to remake and Larry was one of the first people I met the whole movie, and it’s going to be better with when I came out—when I first came out this time. [Laughter] here, I knew that a big part of making America Let me say, first of all, I am delighted to work and preparing America for the 21st century be here. I thank Tom and Jeanne for opening would be to model and learn from what was their beautiful home and bringing their beautiful happening here. family together, and their larger family, for this You know, this whole technology-based econ- event. I thank my dear friend Senator Boxer omy here is about 8 or 9 percent of the Amer- for being here and for her leadership. I want ican economy now directly, but it has accounted to thank Governor and Mrs. Romer for being for 30 percent of our growth since I’ve been here; and Beth and Ron Dozoretz, and Joe An- President. That’s a stunning statistic that all of drew, for all their work; and Art Torres, the you should know, if you don’t. And if you think about how it works, it’s the way America ought chairman of the California Democratic Party; to work. You know, ideas matter. If you’ve got and I thank Steve Westly and Chris Larsen and good ideas, there are supplies of capital. Team- everybody else who had anything to do with work is terribly important. And where you come this event. from and what you did before and who your There are people here tonight who started father was and what your race is or what your with me in 1991 and 1992, and there are people gender is or what your sexual orientation is, here tonight I’ve never met before. And that’s they don’t matter; ideas matter. Can you do sort of a metaphor for what’s happening to the something that makes the world a better place, economy and the society of and that provides something that other people want the whole, what I hope is happening to our that they can hook into? That’s very important. Democratic Party. I think—let me just give you one example I want to take a few minutes to sort of put that I had no earthly idea about until Steve all these specific issues that are flying back and told me tonight. It’s a big joke in the White forth across the airwaves and over the House that when I picked Al Gore to be my into some larger context, if I might. Our econ- Vice President, I was trying to balance the ticket omy has been strong for so long now a lot because he was technologically adept and I was of people have forgotten what it was like in technologically challenged. [Laughter] 1992, when we had high unemployment, high I’ll never forget the first time I heard about interest rates; we quadrupled the debt in 12 eBay. I thought it was such a neat deal. I years of this country. We had had stagnant thought, now, that’s something I’d like to do; wages, and the society was beginning to fray that’s my kind of deal. I like to buy and sell rather badly. We had escalating crime rates, es- and swap and give things and do things. I’d calating welfare rolls, increasing racial tensions. love that. Steve told me tonight there are now We had a lot of problems. 20,000 Americans who do not work for eBay

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who make a living doing transactions through think it’s an either/or thing. We believe we can eBay, 20,000 Americans, including all kinds of punish criminals who ought to be punished and people who can now work at home, people who prevent more crime and reduce the crime rate. used to be on welfare, people—and he said that We believe we can require able-bodied people one of the people said this is capitalism for on welfare to work, but do it in a way that the rest of us. helps them to become better parents, not worse So with that background, let me say, when parents, through medical care and nutrition and I started in 1992, it seemed to me that the child care.’’ And on and on and on. problem with national politics was that it was You can take any issue, but basically, what frozen in time, but everything else was terrifi- I wanted to do was to make America work the cally dynamic; that it was designed to take a way the best of America was already working. bunch of people and politics in Washington, And I wanted to hook America up to the future which is a long way from Palo Alto and a long that so many of you are doing so much to make. way from everywhere else, a long way from And I wanted to clean out a lot of the sort Beltsville, Maryland, on some days—[laugh- of dead wood, accumulated dead wood of ideas ter]—where there were lots of layers between and procedures and practices that were weighing the people there and real voters, and to struc- Washington down. ture voters’ choices in such a way that they I remember—I think Bill Gates said once hoped would help the politicians, but had almost what I thought was kind of funny. He said, nothing to do with solving the problems of ‘‘You know, our world works three times faster America. So you had to be a liberal or a con- than normal business, and Washington works servative, or you had to be left or right, or three times slower.’’ [Laughter] ‘‘That puts them you had to be for this position or that one behind by a factor of nine.’’ There’s a lot of or you weren’t politically correct. truth in that. And so we set about to try to We basically had a whole string of paralysis, change the whole way Government works. and we found ourselves after 12 years of so- And after 61⁄2 years, you know the economic called supply-side economics having quadrupled statistics. We have the lowest unemployment the debt. We were economically paralyzed, and rate in 29 years; the lowest welfare rates in nobody wanted to raise taxes, and nobody want- 32 years; the lowest crime rates in 26 years; ed to cut spending. And as a consequence, we the lowest poverty rates, we learned yesterday, were slowly sort of squeezing the lifeblood out in 20 years; the lowest African-American poverty of our public life. No one could set priorities; ever recorded. The first time we’ve had 2 years nobody could make decisions; nobody would of budget surpluses in 42 years. We also have— take chances. And it seemed to me that if you but some other things you ought to know. With look at the things that worked in America, the HOPE scholarships and the other additions where we were leading the world in private to student aid and the changes in the student sector endeavors, or if you looked at classrooms program, virtually anybody in America who that worked that I had visited in the poorest is willing to work for it can get a college edu- places in America with high crime rates, and cation. We have, thanks to Senator Barbara they still—there were classrooms in the early Boxer, begun to offer large numbers of young nineties that still had no dropouts, no violence, people the opportunity to go to after-school pro- 100 percent of the kids going on to college, grams to stay off the streets and out of trouble everybody performing well. They were different and learn more. And that’s very important. from most places like it, but they were working. And during this time, we’ve raised the stand- They all rejected all those false choices. ards for clean air, for clean water, for safe food. It seemed to me that’s what America had We’ve cleaned up more toxic waste dumps, and to do. We had to say, ‘‘Look, we believe that the economy has gotten better, not worse, under we can reduce the deficit and balance the budg- what the sort of politically predictable right says et and still continue to invest in education and is an unconscionable burden on the business technology and the environment. We believe community of cleaning up the environment. that we can help business and lift up working We have, as all of you know, a more activist people at the same time. It’s not an either/ Government, but the size of the Federal estab- or thing. We believe we can grow the economy lishment, thanks largely to technological innova- while we improve the environment. We don’t tions spearheaded by the Vice President, is the

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smallest it has been since John Kennedy was deal. And if we can’t do it now, when we’re President in 1962. The Federal Government is in such good shape financially, we’ll never get the smallest it’s been since 1962. a way around to doing it. So what I would like to say is, I feel that The second thing we’ve got to deal with is in the last 61⁄2 years, we have at least prepared Medicare. We’re all going to be living longer. America for the 21st century. We’ve gotten Any person that lives to be 65 today has a life things going again in the right direction. But expectancy of 82. The younger people in this the atmosphere in Washington is still entirely audience, it is literally conceivable that those too partisan and entirely too ideological, driven of you who are 35 or younger will have children largely by the majority party in Congress. Now, who will have a life expectancy of nearly 100. I would never say that any of us are totally That is literally true. By the time we get all blameless, but that’s where most of the pressure the mysteries of the human genome decoded is. And so we have a lot of things that don’t and we know how to raise children from infancy make any sense to me going on there now. with adjusted diets for them and their genetic And let me say, what I think we should be structure and all those things, and we have all doing is to build on what is happening now the medical care and all the pharmaceuticals and ask ourselves, ‘‘Okay, what are the biggest and all the research we’re making into cancer, challenges out there, and how can we set in these kinds of things will happen. motion a framework that will allow the Amer- Now, in the meanwhile, we don’t want Medi- ican people to meet those big challenges?’’ And care to go broke. And interestingly enough, be- I’ll just give you four or five real quick that cause Medicare was developed 30 years ago, I think are important and compare that with when the world was a very different place, there what’s going on, and that will illustrate why it’s is no prescription drug coverage for Medicare important that you’re here tonight. patients. Now, out here where biotech is a big Number one, the number of people over 65 deal, that must strike you as fundamentally ab- in this country is going to double in 30 years, surd. You would never orchestrate, set up a as we baby boomers retire. I turn 65, if the program like that today without that. But three Lord lets me live that long, in the year 2011, out of four seniors in this country don’t have and I am the oldest of the baby boomers. So access to affordable prescription drugs. And the the baby boomers will all turn 65 between 2011 consequences are pretty catastrophic for some and 2029. Now, when they do, at present par- of them and enormously difficult in terms of ticipation rates in the work force, there will be burdens on the health care system. So I pro- two people working for every one person draw- posed a plan to fix that. ing Social Security. For most of us, it’s no sweat The third thing we have to recognize is, we because we’ll have other ways of supporting our have the most diverse student body in the his- retirement. But Social Security still is respon- tory of our schools in terms of race and religion sible for lifting about half of our seniors out and culture, and it is a godsend in a global of poverty, even if they have other sources of economy if, but only if, they can all get a world- income as well. So we have to make sure that class education. And so we have to do that. when we retire, the cost of the baby boomers’ But we know how to do that. I am telling you, retirement, since we’re such a big generation, I have been to schools in this country that have does not burden our children. This is not about solved every problem you can mention in Amer- older people; it’s about our children and our ican education. But we have not systematized grandchildren. I’m telling you, everybody I know it. And the trick is how to have a system that my age is worried about this. has the right rewards and sanctions—just like So I asked the Congress to save the Social the marketplace does—with enough creativity, Security taxes but, as we pay down the debt, just like your companies do, to let people solve to give the interest savings that we get from these problems at the grassroots level. That’s saving the Social Security taxes, instead of what we’re trying to do. spending them, to give the interest savings to And let me just say two other things. The the Social Security Trust Fund so we can run next big problem that particularly those of you it out to 2050 and get it beyond the life expect- who are younger will face—and I predict to ancy of most of the baby boom generation, when you that for the next 30 years, we will be ob- things will right themselves again. This is a big sessed with trying to find a way to deal with

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the challenge of climate change and to deal cut we have should not interfere with our effort with—to get the world to give up another bad to pay off the publicly held debt of this country idea. We gave up supply-side economics now; over the next 15 years to get us out of debt nobody thinks that was a good idea anymore. for the first time since 1835 when Andrew Jack- We’re all back to basic arithmetic. It’s wonder- son was President. ful. It didn’t have anything to do with the digital Now, why would the allegedly more liberal economy. We went back to arithmetic. [Laugh- party—and I say—or the actually more liberal ter] party—be for paying the country out of debt? But there is still all over, in America, in the It’s the progressive thing to do. Why? Because Congress, in the business community, and all in a global economy where interest rates are over the world in emerging societies, in China, set by global markets as well as by central banks, India, other places, there are people that hon- our ability to grow depends upon your ability estly believe you cannot have a modern econ- to get money. And our ability to give people omy without industrial age energy use patterns a good life depends upon their ability to finance which are a prescription for environmental dis- their homes, their cars, their businesses, their aster in this country and around the world. And college for their kids. we have to abandon it. And a lot of the solutions And if we can get America out of debt, then, will be found by people out here. number one, we won’t be crowding our own But we have offered a market-oriented re- people, and interest rates will be lower here, sponse to the challenge of climate change that which will mean higher growth and lower living I think is very important, and there are two costs for people; and, number two, when our more issues that I think are big deals because— friends get in trouble, as the Asian societies and keep in mind, every one of these issues did a couple of years ago and we need to help that I’m mentioning, there is a profound dif- them get back on their feet, they’ll be able ference between where we stand and where the to get money at lower costs. other party stands—two more issues. We’ve got This is a huge, big idea. For 30 years, every- to find a way to bring the benefits of free enter- body in my generation was taught in college prise to people and places that haven’t been that a country had to have a good deal of debt; touched by this recovery, and then we have it was a healthy thing. There’s not a soul here to find a way to show people in other countries over 35 years old that took any number of eco- how to do the same thing. We know a little nomic classes that wasn’t told that in economics. about this, but not a lot. And it was right, under the model that existed But if 20,000 people can make a living trading at the time. But in a global economy with global on eBay, then we ought to be able to find capital markets, if we can get this country out a way to cure the 73-percent unemployment of debt, we ought to do it so you can continue rate on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in to borrow to grow the economy and create op- South Dakota, even though they’re physically portunity for a generation. It will change the separate from other people. We ought to be whole future of America for 30 years. able to find a way to get all those poor commu- The last thing I want to say is this. We must nities in the Mississippi Delta that never recov- believe that all of America can be like this ered from the collapse of the agricultural culture crowd of people standing in this yard tonight. that followed the impact of the Great Depres- That’s why I’m for the employment non- sion, to find economic opportunities that will discrimination act. That’s why I’m for the hate reach those people. We ought to be able to crimes legislation. That’s why I started that— find a way to get into Appalachia. We ought I’ve got a Presidential office on race now. to be able to find a way to get into the inner I’ve spent so much of my time trying to make cities, not just for this or that or the other peace in the Middle East, trying to make peace individual but a critical mass of people that can in Northern Ireland, trying to stop the Bosnian create a real economy, a real market economy Muslims and the Kosovar Albanians from being in these places. slaughtered, trying to give the Africans the ca- And finally, on the economic issues, I think pacity to avoid the future Rwandas. And all over we need a long-term commitment to setting an the world, I see people in this so-called modern environment that will free you to do what you world where we’re celebrating all of your mod- want to do. That’s why I have said any tax ern ideas and your modern achievements—what

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is the biggest problem in the world in America? is our kind of program: no bureaucracy, no We are dragged down by the most primitive problems, great things, smaller classes.’’ Now of hatreds. It’s bizarre. It’s bizarre. they’re trying to kill it because they don’t want We celebrate all these companies that are the Democratic administration to have any here, and we read about Matthew Shepard achievement that is demonstrable and tangible being strung up in Wyoming and James Byrd that changes the lives of people. It is the small- being dragged to death in Texas, and a crazy est kind of politics. And who cares what happens guy that belongs to a church—alleged church to the kids? that believes not in God but in white suprem- So if you believe we have changed America acy—goes out and starts killing people of color for the better, then you should know—a lot in the Middle West, and another crazy guy goes of you have been my friends; you were there and shoots a bunch of kids at a Jewish school for me in the beginning, and I’m not on the and then guns down a Filipino postman in Cali- ballot in the year 2000—but I want you to un- fornia. You think about it. It is unbelievable derstand something. All I feel about this is grati- that at the dawn of a new millennium, where tude. I am grateful that I had a chance to serve. technology is changing the way we work and I am grateful that I had a chance to play some live and relate to each other and the rest of role in this. But the reason we’re around here the world more than at any time in history by after over 220 years is that principles and ideas far, opening vistas of human possibilities no one are more important than individuals. could have dreamed of a few years ago, we And that’s why this Presidential race, that’s are being paralyzed by primitive hatreds. why every Senate race, that’s why every House And, therefore, I say to you the most impor- race is so important. That’s why your presence tant thing of all—more important than the eco- here is so important. So I implore you—I thank nomic policy, more important than anything you for being here. I thank you for your con- else—is that our Nation stand for the propo- tributions. It’s a long way between now and sition that we believe in the innate dignity and the year 2000, but I’m telling you, every time equality of every human being, and anybody you nodded your head tonight on every single who is law abiding and hard working has a place issue I mentioned, there is a difference between at the American family table. That is the most where we stand and where they stand. So you important thing of all. stand with us and stand with us all the way So what are we fighting about in Washington? until November 2000, and then we can make The Congress—first, they wanted to have a tax all of America more full of the things that you cut that would give away the entire non-Social celebrate here in your own backyard. Security surplus, which they said they could do Thank you, and God bless you. Thank you. without cutting anything. I vetoed that because it wasn’t true and it wasn’t responsible. Now, their own Congressional Budget Office says they’ve already spent $18 billion of the Social Security surplus this year, which proves that the tax cut couldn’t be financed. And all they’re NOTE: The President spoke at 7:20 p.m. at a pri- doing, instead of coming and trying to work vate residence. In his remarks, he referred to re- it out with me, is running television ads trying ception hosts Tom Adams and Jeanne Lavan; re- to say we’re doing it even though we don’t have ception cochairs Steve Westly, chief executive of- a majority vote in Congress. ficer, eBay, and Chris Larsen, founder and chief Meanwhile, today Barbara Boxer spent all of executive officer, E–Loan; former Gov. Roy her time fighting to keep our commitment to Romer of Colorado, former general chair, Beth give the funds to the States and the school dis- Dozoretz, national finance chair, and Joseph J. tricts for 100,000 teachers so we can get class Andrew, national chair, Democratic National size down in the early grades, with the biggest Committee; Governor Romer’s wife, Bea, and Ms. student population we ever had in 1998. When Dozoretz’s husband, Ronald; Larry Stone, asses- the Congress passed it right before the election, sor, Santa Clara County, CA; and Bill Gates, chair- all the Republicans went out and said, ‘‘This man and chief executive officer, Microsoft Corp.

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