Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Seattle, Washington November 6, 1994
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Nov. 6 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1994 Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Seattle, Washington November 6, 1994 Thank you. You know, it is great to be back more peaceful, and more democratic for the in Seattle, and it is great to be here at this American people to live and flourish in. spot where we had this many people in 1992. I asked you to help me become President And I hope we have the same results. Governor because I wanted to see our country strong Lowry, Senator Murray, distinguished Members again. I had heard enough tough talk accom- of Congress and candidates for Congress, and panied by weak action. I wanted to see real Mayor Rice, Gary Locke, ladies and gentlemen, strength. What is the real strength of our coun- I am honored to be here, honored to be here try? Strong families, strong schools, good jobs, on behalf of our candidates, the forces of safe streets, national security meaning peace and change, and especially on behalf of Ron Sims prosperity growing around the world. On all for the United States Senate. those fronts, we are stronger today because we You know, a couple of years ago when you did not just talk tough, we did the right things sent me to Washington, I went there to promote to make this country move forward. change in this country, to lift up the hopes of When our economic program was before the the American people. I went there to be a build- Congress and every single Republican voted er, not a blamer; to be a uniter, not a divider. against it, striving as hard as they could for I didn't much like the gridlock I had seen, and gridlock, they all said, ``If this passes, we'll have I wanted to break it. recession; if this passes, the deficit will go up; We knew that the obstacles to change were if this happens, big Government will swallow great, that we had profound social problems that us up and crush our economy.'' Well, what are had been developing over 30 years, resulting they going to say today? The Government is in too many of our children living in an atmos- smaller; the deficit is way down; the economy phere of crime and violence, without the strong is up. They were wrong. Vote for Ron Sims family and community support they needed. We to help keep making it right. knew we had difficult economic problems that If people in politics were judged the way peo- had developed over 20 years, where too many ple at work are judged and the way students people worked hard and were never sure they in school are judged, every single Democrat in could keep their job or would ever get a raise, this congressional delegation would be elected or were always afraid that they might lose their again resoundingly on Tuesday because the peo- health insurance or their retirement. We knew ple of Washington are in better shape. The un- that for 12 years the other party had controlled employment rate is down, the economy is grow- the Presidency, and for 20 of the last 24 years, ing because of the courage of the people here and they had built an enormous apparatus for on this platform and their colleagues throughout their trickle-down economics and their politics the State of Washington. You ought to elect of division. And we knew that for 4 years we'd them and send Harriet Spanel to join them. had the slowest job growth since the Great De- You know, this is sort of an interesting elec- pression. tion, my fellow Americans. They wanted so Well, folks, America's still got some problems. badly, our adversaries, to say we had failed. And There are still people who need work who don't then when we didn't fail, when the economy have it. There are still people who deserve a began to grow, when the policies began to work, raise who haven't gotten it. A million Americans, when the airplane contracts and the sales of working familiesÐworking familiesÐlost their Washington apples began to be announced, they health insurance last year. There are still some didn't know what to do. They wanted to say problems. But I can tell you one thing, this all these things that they didn't get to say. So country is in better shape than it was 21 months what did they then do? They said, ``Well, Gov- ago when we began. We're in better shape be- ernment is still the problem. And if anything cause jobs are up. The deficit is down. We've good happened, it was in spite of that Bill Clin- got a smaller Government doing more for ordi- ton in Washington and the Democrats. They nary citizens. And this world is more secure, didn't have anything to do with it.'' You know, 2016 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:15 Nov 07, 2000 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00614 Fmt 1240 Sfmt 1240 C:\94PAP2\PAP_TEXT txed01 PsN: txed01 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1994 / Nov. 6 folks, where I come from we say if you're walk- Now, if they're serious, here's what happens. ing down a road and you find a turtle on a To pay for a trillion dollars' worth of promises, fencepost, chances are it didn't get there by you have to cut everything else in the Govern- accident. [Laughter] ment 20 percent: $2,000 a Social Security recipi- They want you to just keep on being cynical. ent a year, 20 percent off the Medicare of the They want you to keep on being negative. They older people in this audience, 20 percent off want you to keep on supporting gridlock, even the student loans of the kids we want to go though you don't. They have tried all over this to college, 20 percent off the Head Start when country to bury us in a mountain of negativism, we're trying to fully fund Head Start. hoping that Americans will not see the Sun shin- Now, they say, ``Oh, oh, but we didn't say ing through. we'd cut Social Security.'' They didn't say they They talk tough on crime and vote against wouldn't. [Laughter] So we say, well, okay, let's the crime bill. They talk against the deficit, and take Social Security off. Then you have to cut they vote against reducing it. They talk for edu- everything else 30 percent. You can just destroy cation, and they vote against more affordable Medicare and the college loan program and the college loans. They say they're pro-family, and Head Start program. then they vote against policies designed to help Now, there's the other possibility, which is families, like immunizing children and lowering that they could be just like they were the last the taxes of low-income working people so they time they were in control: They could be kid- can raise their kids out of poverty. In short, ding, they could be kidding. [Laughter] But if they talk tough, but they do things that make America weaker. We make America stronger. they're kidding, you know what happens? We Let's vote for strength on Tuesday. explode the deficit; we start shipping jobs in- You know, they sayÐI don't know how you stead of Washington products overseas; we put figure itÐthey want you to vote for them on this economy back in the same ditch it was the promise that they will return us to the poli- in the last time they gave us trickle-down eco- cies that got us in the fix we were in when nomics. So let us say, ``No thank you. We want you voted for me in the first place. They have a strong America. We want strong families, two lines of attack. They say, ``The Democrats strong education systems, good jobs, safe streets, are the party of Government, and it's bad. So and a strong country. We're going to vote for if anything good happens, they didn't have any- Ron Sims and these agents of change here.'' thing to do with it. But put us in, and we Folks, when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer en- will implement our commitments. We will cut dorsed Ron SimsÐlisten to thisÐthey praised, taxes, increase defense, bring back Star Wars, and I quote, ``his practical idealism, his political and balance the budget.'' wisdom, his humanitarian instincts.'' That's an- And we say, wellÐyou think about this; it's other way of saying he's a real person. Believe an issue in every one of these House races and me, we could use a few more of them in the this Senate raceÐthey say, ``Give us power, and Congress. we will give you goodies.'' And we say to them, One of the reasons that your Senator is so as you might say to your child, we say, ``Well, successful is she comes across as a real person how are you going to pay for this?'' And they in the Congress. Patty Murray comes across as say, ``We'll tell you after the election.'' [Laugh- somebody who's raised a family, understands the ter] I say it's Sunday afternoon, and it's pretty, problems of ordinary Americans, and is deter- we're all dressed up; tell us right now. We want mined to work with people to get things done.