pd07se99 The President's Radio Address...

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[[Page 1679]]

of New York. That's what the comptroller does. And in a way, we're here 
at the State Fair, and it's sort of like being the State's chief farmer. 
You give him the seeds, and you trust him to plant them. You trust him 
to bring in the crop, and you trust him not to waste any of it.
    And it's kind of like farming; you've got to be conservative, but 
you have to take a risk. If you don't take a risk, nothing ever sprouts; 
and if you're not basically conservative, it all burns up in the ground 
and is otherwise lost. And I think Carl McCall has husbanded the 
resources of the people of New York and taken advantage of this great 
economy our country has enjoyed and used that to try to find ways, as 
Mike said, to help you educate your children and do a lot of other 
things that need to be done. And I respect that very, very much, and I 
thank him for letting us crash his lunch. [Laughter]
    Now, it is true that--Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft might 
have beaten me here, but I'll guarantee you, I've been to a lot more 
fairs than both of them put together. [Laughter] I never met a fair I 
didn't like. [Laughter]
    When I was a young man starting out in Arkansas, you had to go to 
all the county fairs. That's always the biggest crowd, and you'd go out 
in all these rural areas and go to the county fairs. I remember, I 
showed up at a county fair one time--I hadn't ridden a horse in years. I 
wanted to look like I was not taking these rural people for granted, so 
I wore a pinstriped suit, wingtip shoes. [Laughter] I had this young 
man, even younger than me, helping me. And he said, ``I'm going to take 
you to the sheriff. If he's for you, we'll win the county. If he's 
against you, we'll lose, and we can go home.'' [Laughter] ``You don't 
need to shake any hands; you don't need to do anything. If he's for you, 
we win; if he's against you''--[laughter].
    So he takes me to see the sheriff on the night the rodeo opens at 
the county fair. Sheriff's jaw is full of tobacco, holding a horse. He 
said, ``Son, if you ride this horse into the ring when they open the 
rodeo, I'll be for you. If you don't, leave town right now.'' [Laughter] 
I said, ``Give me the reins.'' I got on the horse in my wingtip shoes 
and my pinstriped suit. [Laughter] They played the music. You know how 
they open the rodeo; you know, all you've got to do is kind of get 
behind the horse in front of you, and they'll lope along together. Not 
my horse! We get out in the middle; it stops dead still, rears straight 
up--[laughter]--I'm holding on for dear life. I got out of there in one 
piece. I didn't fall off. The sheriff looked at me and said, ``You 
didn't fall off; that's worth another 5 percent.'' [Laughter] So I've 
had a lot of experience.
    I also--we used to have senior day at the State Fair, and I always 
had Governor's day, so I always did it on the day we had senior day. And 
what Hillary said is true; that lady had 14 children, and they had 40-
something children, and they had nearly 100 children, those 40, already. 
So she had 150 in her family.
    I also used to hold my own listening sessions at the State Fair on 
Governor's day. I'd just go into one of the exhibition halls and set up 
a little stand, like everybody else, and people would come by.
    And I remember, in 1990 at the State Fair, I was thinking about 
running for a fifth term--this is what's great about the fair; I can't 
wait to get out there and see some of the exhibits--this old boy in 
overalls came up to me and said, ``Are you going to run again?'' 
[Laughter] I said, ``Well, if I do, will you vote for me?'' He said, 
``Yes, I guess so, always have.'' I said, ``Well, aren't you sick of me 
after all these years?'' He said, ``No, I'm not, but everybody else I 
know is.'' [Laughter] And so I said--you know, that's what fairs are 
for. So I said, ``Well, don't you''--I was kind of hurt--I said, ``Don't 
you think I've done a good job?'' And he said, ``Yes, you've done a good 
job, but you got a check every 2 weeks, didn't you?'' [Laughter] He 
said, ``That's what we hired you to do.'' Very important lesson for 
anyone contemplating running for any office. Remember that. That's what 
we hired you to do.
    I say that because I want to close with just 2 minutes of serious 
talk. I am profoundly grateful for the good fortune and the good times 
our country has enjoyed. I'm profoundly grateful that we live at a 
moment in history where we don't have, as we did during the cold war, 
one big threat to our common existence.

[[Page 1680]]

    But we're sort of like farmers sitting on a good crop. We had a 
great crop last year, and we got a lot of money in the bank. Now what 
are we going to do with it?
    And when you're at the State Fair, you need to think like that. If 
America is a farm and we're the farm family and we've had years of great 
crops and we've got a lot of money in the bank, what are we going to do 
with it?
    Well, I think that we ought to take the chance of a lifetime to face 
our big challenges. The next 30 years, the number of people over 65 is 
going to double. I hope to be one of them. [Laughter] It'll change 
everything--everything. You'll have fewer people working, more people 
retired. The economics of retirement income from Social Security and 
Medicare and other things will dramatically change.
    I think we've got to use all these good years we've had to try to 
secure Social Security and Medicare to meet the basic needs of our 
seniors and to get the seniors' children, the baby boomers' children, 
through the retirement of the baby boom years. Because we don't want--I 
can say this; I'm the oldest of the baby boomers--we don't want our 
children to have to take money they should be investing in our 
grandchildren to take care of us, because we didn't take care of the 
challenge of the aging of America. And so we've got to think about that.
    We've got to think about the children of America. Hillary said that, 
and you clapped, and I appreciate it. But I just want to--we finally 
have a group of kids bigger than the baby boomers, over 53 million 
children in the schools of America. A higher percentage of them come 
from families whose first language is not English than ever before. Now, 
in a global society, this is a very good thing, if but only if, we give 
every one of them a world-class education and recognize that we need 
them all.
    The Governor of California is a great friend of Hillary's and mine, 
Gray Davis. And he said, ``You know''--he's about a year older than I 
am--he said, ``You know, by the time we get retired, there'll only be 
two people working for every one person drawing Social Security. And I 
don't want my two workers to be D students today.'' [Laughter] That's 
pretty good. Interesting thing.
    He says it to make the point that we all, whether we have children 
in the schools or not, whether we have one child or 10 or whatever, we 
all have a vested interest in the children of America. We have a real 
opportunity now. We know what works. We know what helps our schools to 
make sure all our kids can learn.
    The third thing I'd like to say, I'd like to allude to something 
Hillary said. You know, even though we've got the longest peacetime 
expansion in history, the largest number of jobs ever created in this 
period of time, the lowest minority unemployment rate ever reported, new 
records in small business formation every year--in spite of all that, 
the hard, cold truth is that this economic prosperity has been very 
uneven.
    And you know it in central and upstate New York. These regions know 
it. There are parts of New York City that know it. In my home area, in 
the Mississippi Delta, they know it. In Appalachia, they know it. On the 
Indian reservations, they know it.
    We've got the chance of a lifetime now, when we're all debating how 
we're going to keep this economy going without more inflation. How can 
we keep it going? I can tell you how we keep it going without more 
inflation: Bring jobs and investment to the areas that have not yet 
participated in the recovery. That gives you growth.
    And one of the things--this is the only specific thing I'll 
mention--one of the things I have asked the Congress to do is to pass a 
law which would give the same tax incentives to investors to invest in 
areas with higher unemployment in America we give them to invest in 
developing areas in the Caribbean and Latin America and Africa and Asia 
and other places in the world. And I think we ought to do it.
    I also believe another thing that will help every area is just to 
keep this thing going, because the more you keep it going, the more it 
will reach into more and more neighborhoods. And one of the reasons that 
I have been opposed to, in effect, giving away, today, the long-term 
benefits of the economic recovery, which is what I think an excessive 
tax cut would do, is: If you have a

[[Page 1681]]

real big tax cut, you don't have money for education; you don't have 
money to extend the life of Social Security and Medicare. There will be 
an increase in interest rates, because people will think we're going to 
overstimulate the economy, and that way all of you who care about 
interest rates will lose your tax cut in higher interest rates.
    And what I want to do is to have a tax cut that is modest and 
targeted, so that we save enough of this surplus, not only to save 
Social Security and Medicare and invest in education but also to get 
this country out of debt in 15 years, for the first time since 1835. 
That's before Teddy Roosevelt and Taft came to the fair. [Laughter] 
Andrew Jackson was President in 1835. That's how long it's been.
    But again, think like a farmer. If you're a family farmer, chances 
are you've got an amount of money every year to bring the crop in or to 
replenish the herd of cattle or whatever it is you do. America is like 
that.
    And if you want this economy to continue to grow, we have to keep 
interest rates as low as possible. I can't think of anything that would 
guarantee the children in this audience a generation of security more 
than essentially taking America's Government out of debt, taking America 
out of the competition for borrowing money, leaving the money there for 
you to borrow and our children to borrow, at the lowest possible 
interest rates, for business loans, for home loans, for car loans, for 
college loans, for you name it. I think this makes a lot of sense.
    So I say to you, when you leave here today, I want you to think 
about that. I want you to think of Carl McCall as somebody who's been 
like a good farmer, who's taken good care of your resources. He hasn't 
squandered the seed. He can bring in a crop next year for you because 
he's done it. And I want you to think of the challenge and the 
opportunity, the phenomenal opportunity your country has right now.
    I won't be around for a lot of these decisions which have to be 
made. But we can make them now. And if we stick with them, we literally 
can meet the challenge of the aging of America, the challenge of the 
children of America, the challenge to spread the economic bounty of 
America to communities that haven't had it. We can get this country out 
of debt, and we can continue to lead the world for peace and freedom and 
justice. We can do that. But we have to think like the people we're 
coming here to this fair to celebrate today.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:12 p.m. in the Empire Room of the Art and 
Home Center Building at the Syracuse State Fairgrounds. In his remarks, 
he referred to State Assembly Majority Leader Michael J. Bragman; and 
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall's wife, Joyce Brown.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1681-1682]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Week Ending Friday, September 3, 1999
 
Radio Remarks on Earthquake Relief for Turkey

August 31, 1999

    The recent earthquake in Turkey is one of the worst natural 
disasters of the century. Tens of thousands of people are either 
confirmed dead or still missing.
    On behalf of all Americans, Hillary and I offer our deepest 
condolences to the loved ones of those who have lost their lives. Our 
thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy.
    Turkey is our longtime ally. The Turkish people are our friends. 
Today they urgently need assistance. Many are severely injured. Hundreds 
of thousands are camping outdoors. There is a serious risk of disease 
spreading. We must help the victims rebuild their lives.
    Working with Turkey's Government and others, American military and 
civilian personnel, including teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and 
Dade County, Florida, helped with the rescue efforts. Now we're helping 
provide shelter, water, sanitation, and medical services. I'm grateful 
to all those participating.
    Here at home, Americans are helping, too, including religious 
leaders of many faiths, who've united to call for prayer and 
humanitarian action. I encourage my fellow citizens to give generously 
to charitable organizations supporting the relief efforts. For 
information, you can call our toll-free number in the 
U.S., that's 1-800-USAID-RELIEF--1-800-USAID-
RELIEF or look on the Internet at www.whitehouse.gov.

[[Page 1682]]

Note: The President's remarks were recorded at approximately 10:45 a.m. 
on August 28 at the Edgartown Elementary School in Martha's Vineyard, 
MA, for later broadcast. The transcript was released by the Office of 
the Press Secretary on August 31. These remarks were also made available 
on the White House Press Office Radio Actuality Line.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1682]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Week Ending Friday, September 3, 1999
 
Statement on Announcement of the Bosnia-Herzegovina National Day

September 1, 1999

    Today the Joint Presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina announced that the 
national day of their country will henceforth be celebrated on November 
21, the anniversary of the
Dayton peace accords of 1995. In so doing, the leaders of every ethnic 
community in Bosnia-Herzegovina have made clear that Dayton marked not 
merely the end of a war but the beginning of a new country and a 
blueprint for its future. I am pleased that the date
November 21 will be honored as a symbol of multi-ethnic democracy and 
solidarity between the people of the United States and the people of 
Bosnia-Herzegovina.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1682]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Week Ending Friday, September 3, 1999
 
Statement on the Cease-Fire Agreement in the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo

September 1, 1999

    I welcome the signing of a cease-fire agreement by founding members 
of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) yesterday in Lusaka. Their 
signature brings into force the Lusaka accord, signed by six African 
Heads of State on July 10th and aimed at ending the war in the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a region that has seen terrible 
violence, there is now a chance for a genuine and just peace. I urge all 
parties to implement and adhere to the agreement and to act in good 
faith to enable the citizens of the Congo and neighboring states to 
pursue their lives in peace, prosperity, and democracy.
    I especially congratulate the leaders of the Southern African 
Development Community (SADC), Rwanda, and Uganda for working together to 
secure RCD signature of the Lusaka accord. This agreement is the result 

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