Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Reception in Boston, Massachusetts

Thank you very much. First, I want to thank Bob and Elaine, and Tess and Shane, who were with me a few moments ago, asking me questions. Where did Shane go? [Laughter] He probably thinks he's heard this speech before. [Laughter]

And I want to thank them, as Dick did, for the example they've set for all of us in their generosity and their giving. This year their taking off is only the latest example of a lifetime commitment to thinking about other people and drawing meaning from their lives by helping other people to have more meaning in theirs.

I want to thank all the Members of the House who are here; my good friend Joe Moakley. I always tell everybody, Joe is Hillary's favorite Congressman. She thinks that Joe Moakley will be waiting for her in heaven when she dies— [laughter]—thinks he'll be the gatekeeper there. [Laughter]

I want to thank Patrick Kennedy for a magnificent job as the head of our Congressional Campaign Committee. We just went to Barrington, Rhode Island, today, before we came here, for an event for Patrick. There were several hundred people there, including his father and Senator Reed. I think he's all right. They haven't been able to find anybody to run against him yet—[laughter]—so I believe he'll survive.

I want to thank Congressman Markey for his leadership in the Congress and his friendship to me over these 7 1/2 , 8 years. And Congressman Capuano, I thank him for running when Joe Kennedy left the House and for his service. And most of all, I want to thank Dick Gephardt, who never got dispirited after we lost the House in '94, understood quite clearly that we lost it because we did the right things and the American people couldn't have known by 1994 whether we were right or not. They had been told for 12 years that there was such a thing as a free lunch while we quadrupled the debt, got ourselves in a deep hole, had high interest rates and a weak economy.

And we had to change. We took a cold shower, and we paid for it in '94. We also paid for it because we passed the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. And we lost a dozen rural Democrats because the NRA convinced them we were going to end hunting and sport shooting and everything legal that ever happened. And by '96, they knew that they hadn't been told the truth, and we began our long climb back.

And in '98, thanks to Dick's strong leadership and the fact that we had a clear and unambiguous message, we picked up five more seats in the House of Representatives. And you should know, it was only the second time in the 20th century that the President's party had picked up seats in the House in mid-term but the first time since 1822 that it had happened in the sixth year of a President's term. And that is a great tribute to Dick Gephardt, to his leadership, to the trust and confidence that the men and women in our caucus in the House of Representatives have in him.

I said to myself, when he said he wanted to be like Tip O'Neill when he grew up, I wonder how many places outside Boston he's given that speech? [Laughter]

I can tell you this, I believe he will be the Speaker after these elections. And no one has ever worked harder, been more well- prepared, had better values, or deserved it more. And it has been an enormous honor for me to work with him, and I only hope when I leave town, he'll be holding the gavel, and I think he will. And I thank you for being here.

I told the people in Rhode Island today, and I will say again to you, I wish I could spend the rest of my Presidency only in places where I got over 60 percent of the vote. [Laughter] Then I would get to spend more time in Massachusetts.

Dick already mentioned Alan Solomont and the Schusters and so many others of you who have helped me over the years. I am very grateful to all of you, grateful for what you have been to Hillary and to me and to Al and Tipper Gore.

But I just want to take a couple of minutes to talk about the future. I think the single, most important issue in this election is, what do we intend to make of this moment of prosperity? What are the Sagers making of their moment of prosperity? They're going around the world and helping other people. What are we going to do as a nation to do that?

I think, then, what we have to do is to make sure, first, that we answer it to our own satisfaction and, secondly, that we make sure that the American people believe that's what the election is about, and thirdly, they've got to know what the differences are between the two candidates for President and the House candidates and the Senate candidates.

I cannot even begin to convey the depth of my conviction about the importance of this election. It is every bit as important, maybe more important, than the 1992 election. Everybody knew then we had to change. The country was in the ditch. We were in trouble economically. We were divided socially. We had no clear mission of our responsibilities around the world that was kind of comprehensive. And the politics of Washington, DC, was like watching, I don't know, "Wayne's World" or something—[laughter]—to most of us who lived out here in the world, the real world.

So we've been busy turning it around, and I'm very grateful for the shape the country's in now, that almost all social indicators are going in the right direction, that we've got the strongest economy in history, that we've been a force for peace and freedom throughout the world. I am grateful. But all the best stuff is still out there if we make the most of this moment of prosperity.

And in order to do it, it is necessary for the American people to choose. That's what an election is. It's basically, democracy is handed back over to the bosses for a day, and you choose. And in order to choose wisely, you have to know what the differences are. And I've got this little mantra I tell everybody all the time. It says, only three things you really need to know about this election: One is, it's profoundly important; two is, there are big differences; three is, only the Democrats want you to know what the differences are. What does that tell you about who you ought to vote for?

And it's really true. After giving us 20 years or more of the harshest kind of mean personal attacks—right up through this Republican Presidential primary, I might add, where they attempted—the people who won attempted to perform reverse plastic surgery on Senator McCain—they did that. Now all of a sudden, they want to be sweetness and light. They say they want a positive campaign. But what they define as a negative campaign is if we tell people how they voted. That's their definition of a negative campaign. [Laughter] Hillary has already had two ads run against her in New York saying, you know, "Oh, she's being so mean. She's telling people how I voted. How dare her do that?" [Laughter]

Now, we're all laughing. But you know I'm telling the truth, don't you? They're trying to blur the differences. We have to clarify them. Why? Because that's what elections are about; they are choices. And we may never have another chance like this to build the future of our dreams for our kids.

And there are choices. I'll just tell you what some of them are. I'm convinced, first of all, there is this huge economic choice. They have already passed a trillion dollars' worth of tax cuts, and they're going to Philadelphia to advocate another, what, $1.4 trillion or something, all of the projected surplus and then some. Now, they're doing it in salami tactics so you don't know this. And they've got a good argument. "We've got this surplus. We're going to give it back to you. It's your money, and we're prosperous, and we'll give it back to you."

Our argument's more complicated. Our argument is, "Well, we can't give it all back to you because, number one, we don't have it yet; the surplus hasn't materialized. So we want to give about 25 percent of what they do, but 80 percent of the people will get more money out of ours than theirs." Most of you in this room tonight wouldn't, but most of the American people would. And we've got to save some, because we've got to invest in education, in health care, in research and technology, and the environment. And we have responsibilities around the world that we have to fulfill and not just defense responsibilities—responsibilities to help alleviate the burdens of the poorest people around the world and deal with a lot of the problems around the world.

And so we have to save some of this money, because we need to invest in our future because we don't have it yet. But our tax cuts are good. They're just smaller and better targeted toward education and child care and lower income working people with a lot of kids, toward longterm care and saving for retirement. You see, it takes me longer to make our side.

But here's what I'd like to tell you about it. Did you ever get one of those letters from Publishers Sweepstakes in the mail, Ed McMahon letters, "You may have won $10 million"? Well, if you ever got one of those letters and you went out the very next day and spent that $10 million, you should support the Republicans. [Laughter] But if you didn't, you had better help Dick Gephardt and the Democrats and stick with us, and we'll keep this economy going. [Applause] Thank you.

Now, we're all laughing. This is a profoundly serious issue. It's not like we hadn't had any experience. We tried it their way for 12 years; we tried it our way for 8 years. We had the lowest minority unemployment rate in history, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years, the lowest rate of poverty among singleparent households in 45 years, the highest homeownership in history, 22 million jobs. Look, this is not rocket science. We tried it their way.

And in a very nice way, a little slice here, a little slice there, they're saying, "Let's try it again. Remember when we told you the Government was bad; it was your money; and we're going to give it all back to you? Let's try it again." The country has been in good shape so long that a lot of voters have forgotten what it was like when we started here. This is very important.

The second thing you need to know is that we just have a totally different philosophy about how society ought to work. We believe that we are interdependent, that we have mutual responsibilities to one another. That's why we're for the Brady bill, and the previous Republican President vetoed it. That's why we were for the family and medical leave bill, and the previous Republican President vetoed it.

That's why we want to—right now—that's why we wanted to ban assault weapons and the congressional majority now, they were all against that. It's why we're for a Patients' Bill of Rights, and they're against it. Why we're for Medicare prescription drugs for all the people in the country, the seniors that need it, and they're not for that kind of program. It's why we believe we can grow the economy and improve the environment. And basically, they don't believe that. They don't approve of a lot of the environmental things that I've done. And their nominee promised that one of the things he'd do if he got elected President is to reverse my order creating 43 million roadless acres in the national forests. So these are important issues.

Now, if you want to reverse our environmental policy and if you want to go in that direction, then you should do it. But you shouldn't let a single soul you know anywhere in America—I know I'm in Massachusetts now, but you have got a lot of friends around the country—you shouldn't let anybody that you know cast an unknowing vote. If the American people—my objective in every race I ever ran— and I guess I've run all the ones I'm going to now—[laughter]—but my objective in every race I ever ran was to make sure everyone who voted against me knew exactly what he or she was doing, because I figured if everyone who voted against me knew exactly what he or she was doing, I could have no complaint. That's democracy. If I lost, then the people had made a wise and considered choice, and I just lost. And if I won, I knew I had a mandate to act. Their objective in this election is to obscure the differences so that people do not understand the implications of the choice.

You never hear them talking about what they said in the primary, do you? You never hear any of that again. You never hear them explaining that, yes, we're going to give you this big tax cut, but it's going to take away all the projected surplus.

But you must understand that there are choices here and consequences to those choices. The next President is going to have between two and four appointments to the United States Supreme Court. Both candidates on the Republican ticket believe Roe v. Wade should be repealed. If you think it should be repealed, you should vote for them. If you don't, you should think about it.

But you shouldn't listen to all this sort of syrupy talk about how somehow they will—listen, I'm not saying bad things about them, personally. I think their convictions are there. I think this is an honest disagreement. I don't believe in the kind of politics they spawned for 20 years trying to convince people your opponents are just one step above car thieves. I don't believe that. I think these are honest differences. But do not be abused. When people get this job I just had for 8 years, they pretty much do what they say they're going to do in the campaign, and they try to do what they think is right.

Now, just because they're not talking about it doesn't mean they've changed. So you have to consider these things.

The Republican Senate defeated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. I was the first world leader to sign it, and they beat it. The first treaty that's been beat since the treaty taking America into the League of Nations at the end of World War I—unbelievable. Everybody in the world thought we had slipped a gasket. And a lot of the pundits said, "Well, they just didn't want to give Bill Clinton the victory." It's not my victory to protect our children from the dangers of nuclear war, number one. And number two, I'm telling you, a lot of those people don't believe in arms control. I'm not saying anything bad about them. They're good people. They honestly don't believe in it. But they won't be out there telling you about it. I bet you won't hear a speech at the Republican National Convention about how terrible the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is. But they beat it.

So what you have to decide is what you want America to be like. I know you're all here supporting these folks, but frankly, your support is not good enough. You've got to go out and talk to everybody you can reach between now and November and not just in Massachusetts but in States we might win or we might not win and congressional districts we might win or we might not win, and tell them this.

And the last thing I want to say is this, the most important thing of all. The longer I live, the more convinced I am that the most important thing in any great society is the sense of community, of interdependence that people have, the sense of mutual responsibility they have. I don't think it's possible to enjoy real freedom without responsibilities to the people in your community and without a sense of responsibility to the larger world community, increasingly.

We're for the hate crimes legislation. Their leadership isn't. We're for the employment nondiscrimination legislation. Most of them are opposed to it. We want stronger civil rights enforcement. Most of them don't.

The Federal appellate court district with the most African-Americans in the entire country is the fourth circuit, comprising North and South Carolina. There has never been an African-American on that court, ever. I have tried for 7 1/2 years to appoint one. Jesse Helms said no, and all the Republicans said, "It's fine with me." It's never happened. We are different.

We don't have to have a bad campaign. I think we should posit it that Governor Bush and Mr. Cheney and all of their candidates are fine, good, decent people who just differ with us. But we should not let them get away with having this sort of smokescreen to try to play on this era of good feelings to convince people that there are no consequences to this election. They are big. They are deep, and they are profound.

And I can tell you, we lost our majority because we did what was right for America. There are Republican Congressmen now who will go out and campaign for reelection in their districts bragging on all the highway money they got or the things they voted for, for the schools or this, that, and the other thing. They could have done none of that if Democrats alone hadn't passed the economic plan of 1993, which turned this whole thing around.

These people deserve to be in the majority. It will happen if people understand it's a big election, there are real differences, and they understand what the differences are. We owe that to the kids. We owe that to the future. We may never have another time in our lifetime when America is in this good a shape. We cannot squander it. And if we build on it, the best is still out there.

Thank you, and God bless you.