pd05oc98 Remarks at a Unity '98 Dinner...

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when they got ready to retire and there were only two people working for 
every one person on Social Security, if we don't do something about this 
now, we would have to take lots more money from our children and 
undermine their ability to raise our grandchildren just to sustain our 
retirement.
    Now, you heard Bob Torricelli quoting de Tocqueville--we're going to 
see, because it's a clear choice in this election. They're offering 
everybody a quick-fix tax cut that won't amount to a lot of money to 
most people, but it sounds great before an election. And we're going 
into the teeth of the election and we say, we would like to tell you 
this, but we're not going to do it, we're going to tell you truth: 
America needs to set a financial example, and we need to save Social 
Security first before we use any of that surplus for spending or for tax 
cuts. That's our position. It's a big issue, and it's the right thing 
for America.
    The second big issue--I never thought I'd ever be giving a speech 
about this within 6 weeks of an election--is whether we're going to fund 
the International Monetary Fund.

[[Page 1912]]

Most Americans probably don't know what it is. But I can tell you this, 
if you like the fact that your country has almost 17 million new jobs 
and you want us to continue to lead the world and you understand that 30 
percent of our growth has come from what we sell to our friends around 
the world and a quarter of the world today is in a serious recession--in 
Asia, where so much of California's wealth has come from in the growth 
of our trading with Asian markets--then you know that America has to do 
something to lead the way.
    I'm doing my best to get all the other wealthy countries in the 
world to focus on this, to try to help Asia recover, to try to get Japan 
restored to growth, to try to help Russia, not only because it's the 
morally right thing to do for them but because it's in our interest. We 
can't grow and continue to prosper unless our friends and neighbors 
grow.
    And for 8 months, I've been asking this Congress to fund our 
contribution to the International Monetary Fund. They need the money, 
and I can't do the job without it. And we can't possibly be expected to 
lead if we're the biggest piker on the block and we won't pay our fair 
share. So that's a big issue in this election.
    The third thing I'd like to talk to you about is education. Eight 
months ago, in the State of the Union, I gave the United States Congress 
an education agenda to try to make sure that all of our children have 
access to world-class elementary and secondary education. It was based 
on the best research available of what we know works. The plan, paid for 
in the balanced budget, would put 100,000 teachers out there to lower 
average class size to 18 in the early grades. It would build or repair 
5,000 schools, because a lot of schools are overcrowded or breaking 
down. It would hook up all the classrooms in the country to the Internet 
by the year 2000. It would provide for the development of voluntary 
national standards, exams to measure whether the kids were meeting them, 
and would reward school districts that are in trouble if they end social 
promotion and adopt tutoring, after-school and summer school programs 
for the kids who need it, so we don't tell them they're failures because 
they're in a system that's failed.
    It would provide college scholarships to 35,000 young people that 
they could pay off by going out into our most troubled school districts 
and giving a few years of their lives to teach. It would provide for 
3,000 charter schools over the next few years, something that California 
is leading the way in. It is a good program. It ought to be passed, and 
I can promise you it will not be passed by this election, and it won't 
be passed in toto unless we have a Democratic Congress. And that's a 
good reason to fight for the people who are here and all the people they 
represent throughout this country.
    Finally, let me just give you one other issue because to me it is 
sort of the crystal representation of the differences in our parties 
now. For 8 months, I have been trying to pass a Patients' Bill of 
Rights. It sounds good, but let me tell you what it really means--160 
million of us Americans are in managed care plans now. I have supported 
managed care because when I became President, inflation costs in health 
care were going up at 3 times the rate of inflation, and it was going to 
absolutely bankrupt the country if we didn't do something about it.
    On the other hand, I want to manage the health care system as best 
as possible, consistent with the main goal, which is keeping people 
healthy or making them well if they get sick. That's the goal--it's not 
managing the system. You manage the system so you can use your forces to 
advance the health of Americans. But in too many cases, health care 
decisions are being made by accountants, not by doctors. And in too many 
cases--cruel individual cases--the interest of ordinary people are being 
washed away.
    So let me tell you what our bill does. It says that if, God forbid, 
you get hit by a car leaving this party tonight, and you're in a managed 
care plan, you should be taken to the nearest emergency room, not one 10 
or 15 miles away just because it's covered by your plan. It says if your 
physician tells you that he or she can't treat you and you need to see a 
specialist, you have a right to see one. It says that if you're in the 
middle of a treatment of some kind, and your employer changes health 
care providers, you can stay with your doctor until you finish your 
treatment.

[[Page 1913]]

    Just imagine--this actually happens in America now. Most of us--some 
of you have young children here, some of us have children that are grown 
or children who think they are grown. [Laughter] But just remember when 
your first child was born. How would you have felt 6 months into the 
pregnancy if somebody had said, ``I hope you're all right, but you've 
got to change obstetricians''? It happens.
    Have you ever had anybody in your family in chemotherapy? I have. 
And if you have, you'll identify with what I'm about to tell you. You 
know it happens and you try to find a way to put on a happy face and be 
brave and even try to find a way to make jokes about whether your loved 
one is going to lose their hair or not. And then you wonder when you're 
going to be so sick you can't eat anymore. It's tough enough. If you're 
in the middle of a chemotherapy treatment, how would you feel to be told 
that you have to change doctors?
    This is serious business. That's all our bill does. It gives you 
these basic, human protections. And it says your medical records ought 
to be kept private. Now, for 8 months there's been no action on our 
bill. But let me tell you what the majority in the other party has done. 
In the House of Representatives, they passed a bill which they called 
the Patients' Bill of Rights which did not guarantee a single, solitary 
thing I just described to you, and left 100 million Americans out of 
what little it did provide.
    In the Senate, when Senator Daschle and his friends attempted to 
bring up the Patients' Bill of Rights, the Senate Republican leader was 
so frightened of it, was so afraid to have his Members recorded voting 
against it that he actually shut down the Senate for 4 hours--unheard 
of. He called off business. They turned out the lights. They ran away 
and hid under their desk to kill it by stealth because they did not want 
to be caught voting for the insurance companies instead of for the 
people of this country.
    Forty-three managed care plans are endorsing our bill. Why? Because 
they take good care of their people, and they're being punished for it.
    Now, I want you to think about this. What do we stand for? We stand 
for saving Social Security first, for putting the education of our 
children before any other investment priority. We stand for America's 
continued leadership to keep our own growth going and to help the world 
economy. We stand for a Patients' Bill of Rights.
    What have they done this year with their year in the Congress? They 
have killed the tobacco legislation that would have helped our children. 
They killed campaign finance reform. They are killing the Patients' Bill 
of Rights. They've taken no action on the International Monetary Fund, 
no action on the education program. And insofar as they have taken 
action, they've moved backwards on saving Social Security first, and 
they're still continuing their stealth attack on the environment.
    Now, that's what this is about. It's about what kind of country 
America is going to be. So we have a choice to make. It in some ways 
grieves me to make these speeches. I had hoped by the time I'd been here 
6 years trying to bring people together that we would have a greater 
sense of bipartisanship in America; that there would be a greater sense 
of harmony here, just as I believe there is a greater sense of 
understanding across racial and ethnic and religious lines in this 
country than there was 6 years ago.
    But you know the truth. You knew the truth when you stood up and 
cheered. I wanted you to hear it tonight not in a political, rah-rah 
speech, but in calm, direct, but very blunt terms. This is a very great 
country. We are blessed to be in this moment. But we have a solemn 
responsibility to our children, to our legacy, and to the world to make 
this election about the American people, not about the squabbles in 
Washington, DC. And if you will go out and do that, I promise you we'll 
spend every red cent you have given us tonight to do that. But you have 
friends; you have neighbors; you have means of communication. You need 
to talk to people about what's really at stake here.
    And you tell them you know what the other guys are for; the 
Democrats are for keeping the economy strong, saving Social Security 
first, putting the education of our children above all other investment 
priorities, and passing that Patients' Bill of Rights. They're for an 
American coming together.

[[Page 1914]]

They're for progress, not partisanship. They're for people, not 
politics.\1\
    \1\ White House correction.
    If you do that, we're going to have a stunning victory in November--
against all the tide of history, and against all the money and all the 
midterm arguments they can make, because it's the right thing for our 
country, for our children, and for our future.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President, spoke at 9:42 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts Haim and Cheryl Saban; musician 
Michael McDonald; California gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Gray Davis 
and his wife, Sharon; Phil Angelides, candidate for State treasurer; 
Leonard Barrack, national finance chair, and Steve Grossman, national 
chair, Democratic National Committee; and Ron Burkle, chairman, Yucaipa 
Companies. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the 
tape was incomplete.


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[Page 1914-1917]
 
Monday, October 5, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 40
Pages 1895-1963
 
Week Ending Friday, October 2, 1998
 
Remarks at a Reception Honoring Gubernatorial Candidate Garry Mauro in 
San Antonio, Texas

September 27, 1998

    The President. Thank you very much.
    Audience member. Don't give up!
    The President. Well, ladies and gentlemen--you don't have to worry 
about me giving up. [Applause] Thank you. Garry Mauro promised me that 
if I came to Texas in the wake of all this controversy, I would get a 
warm welcome. And he nearly overdid it today. [Laughter]
    It's great to be back here. I want to thank Frank Herrera and his 
whole family for making us feel so welcome at their humble little 
homestead here. We ought to give him a hand. Thank you. [Applause]
    I want to thank all the people who provided our music and catered 
our food and made this such an enjoyable occasion. I want to thank the 
candidates who are here who are running for office--Jim Mattox, Charlie 
Gonzalez--Richard Raymond is not here--Joe Henderson. I want to thank 
Molly Beth Malcolm, your State chair, and all the members of the Texas 
House and Senate who are here.
    I want to say a special word of appreciation for the life and career 
of a man who has been my friend for more than 25 years, Henry B. 
Gonzalez. You can be really proud of what he has done.
    And I want to thank my friend Ann Richards for finding ways to say 
things no one else can say that make a point no one could misunderstand. 
[Laughter] She's unbelievable.
    I want to tell you why I wanted to come here today, for reasons 
other than the fact that Garry Mauro has been my friend since 1972.
    Audience member. Mango ice cream!
    The President. And the mango ice cream. [Laughter]
    First of all, many of you whom I've already met have said some 
wonderful personal things to me about my family, and I thank you for 
that. You know, it's easy to forget in Washington, but Presidents and 
their families are still people, and it meant more to me than you'll 
ever know, and I thank you for that.
    But I also want to tell you that I desperately want this election 
year, all across America and in Texas, not to be about what's going on 
in Washington, DC, but what's going on in San Antonio, in El Paso, in 
Lufkin, and towns like them all over America. You know, this is still a 
democracy; you're still in the driver's seat, but you have to get behind 
it and drive if you want to be heard.
    Now, I ran for President--I started almost 7 years ago--in just 
about a week it will be the 7th anniversary of my declaration for 
President. When I started, nobody but my wife and my mother thought I 
could win. I had a lot of good friends in Texas and got two-thirds of 
the vote in the Democratic primary here on Super Tuesday, and it 
catapulted me on.
    Now, I ran for President because I wanted to make this country work 
for ordinary citizens again; because I wanted us to be a leader for 
peace and prosperity and freedom in the rest of the world, to which 
we're closer and closer tied; and because I wanted to bring this country 
together in a spirit of harmony and unity across all the lines that 
divide us.

[[Page 1915]]

    And in the last 6 years--Garry mentioned it, but I just want to reel 
it off to you--we tested the ideas that we brought to Washington. 
They're no longer the subject of debate. If you believe elections are 
about ideas, ideals, and the impact they have on ordinary people, in 
every election in this country, and in every election in Texas, you 
ought to tell people we have the lowest unemployment rate in 28 years, 
the lowest crime rate in 25 years, the smallest percentage of people on 
welfare in 29 years. And Wednesday we'll have the first balanced budget 
and surplus in 29 years.
    But the real question is what will we do with it. I want you to 
remember what Garry said today. Our enemy is not adversity. Look at this 
crowd. Feel your own enthusiasm. Remember what many of you said to me 
today. Adversity is our friend. It forces us to dig deep, to ask 
ourselves what we believe in, what kind of people we are, what kind of 
people we want to be, where we want to go, and what we want to do with 
our lives. Adversity is our friend. Our enemies are complacency and 
cynicism. Those are our enemies, and don't misunderstand it.
    The biggest problem Garry Mauro has got in this election is if 
people think, ``Well, things are going well. Why do anything?'' A lot of 
people think, ``I had a tough time in the eighties, and things are going 
well now, and why don't we just relax and let things rock along?'' And I 
can tell you that's appealing, but it's wrong. In Washington people 
think, ``Things are going well; why don't we fight with each other and 
see who we can hurt?'' [Laughter] And it's tempting, but it's wrong. 
It's wrong because the world is changing very fast.
    I just got back from Silicon Valley, where all those computer 
companies are born, you know? Those people change for a living every day 
at blinding speed. But they understand something a lot of our fellow 
Americans don't, which is the world is changing for everyone. You pick 
up the papers; you know that we've got economic problems in Japan and 
the rest of Asia. There's a real risk that it will spread to our friends 
in Mexico and throughout Latin America who are doing a pretty good job 
managing their economies. If that happens, it will hurt Texas very, very 
badly, and our economy.
    You see terrorism throughout the world; you see people fighting with 
each other throughout the world because of their racial, their ethnic, 
religious differences. We have challenges, and we have challenges at 
home. And the real question in this election in America and in Texas is, 
what are we going to do with this moment of prosperity?
    This is Sunday, so I'll just make one Biblical reference. One of the 
most successful leaders in the Bible was Joseph. And what did he do? 
When Egypt was fat and sassy, he saved the grain. He made all those 
people go out and work and do things they'd just as soon not do. And 
they said, ``This Joseph, why doesn't he let up on us?'' But when the 
famine came, the people of Egypt were all right because a true leader 
did something in good times, understanding change.
    When people ask you about Garry Mauro, you tell them about Joseph, 
and tell them what a mistake it would be for Texas to say, ``We're just 
going to stand pat because things are good; who cares if anybody does 

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