Remarks at a Reception for Representative Dennis Moore

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 9, 2000

October 2, 2000

Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to thank all of you for being here today. I want to thank Dennis and Stephane for presenting themselves to the people of Kansas and for giving the people of Kansas a chance to send a Democrat to Congress who represents what the Republicans say they're for. [Laughter] And I really appreciate that.

I'd also like to say, I thank the Members of Congress who are here, but I am particularly grateful to Jim Slattery and Peter Hoagland, who are here, because without them, I wouldn't be here, because they helped me turn this country around in 1993 and 1994, and I thank them for that.

Now, after Secretary Glickman sort of threw down the gauntlet--[laughter]--I completely forgot what I was supposed to talk about because I wasted 2 minutes back there thinking about whether there was anything I could still do to him. [Laughter] Now, I'm at a loss. There's a lesson in that somewhere. [Laughter]

Actually, I was thinking that I kind of resented that Al Gore has gotten all this credit--[laughter]--for naming Joe Lieberman to the ticket. I mean, I know it's a big deal to have the first Jewish Vice Presidential nominee. But I mean, come on, now, look at American history. That is nothing compared to the first Jewish Agriculture Secretary. [Laughter] I mean, just with a decision, I destroyed one of the great stereotypes in American life. [Laughter] Nobody thinks "Jewish farmer" is an oxymoron anymore. [Laughter]

Not only that, if those Republicans would have listened to Dan and me back in 1995, we wouldn't have had to have all these bailouts the last 3 years with the farmers because of their failure to farm act that I warned about back then, which is just one of the reasons Dennis ought to be reelected, because he'll have a chance next year to rewrite the farm law. And I hope it will be done in a way that really supports the farmers of this country--all the farmers of this country, without regard to where they live, what they produce, or how big they are. And it's very important that we have people who have Democratic values and the understanding of agriculture that anyone from Kansas has to have in order to serve in the United States Congress.

Let me just say a word or two very briefly. I realize that I'm preaching to the saved here--I'll explain that later, Dan, [Laughter] Glickman and I get a lot more leeway since we're not on the ballot. [Laughter] It's amazing what you can say. [Laughter] I say, this one story. Jon Corzine, who is our nominee for Senator in New Jersey, and who spent like $38 million of his own money winning the nomination, got up and--Rush Holt and I--he may still be here--I did a deal for Rush Bolt the other day in New Jersey, in Princeton.

So Jon comes to the event, and we were elated to see him. He's a great friend of mine, has been for many years. So here's Corzine, a candidate now, gets up and tells the following story, as a candidate. He said, "You know, I spent almost $40 million getting nominated, so I was convinced that everyone in New Jersey knew who I was--everyone." So he said, "I was campaigning the other day in a nursing home, and I went up to this lady, and I said, 'Ma'am, do you know my name?' And she said, 'You know, sonny, I don't, but if you go up to the nurse's station, they'll tell you.'" [Laughter]

I told him, I said, "Jon, that's not a bad joke, but you need to let me tell that." [Laughter] "Until you get past the election, I don't believe I'd tell that one again." [Laughter]

So anyway, here we are. Let me be serious just for a moment. This is a different country than in it was in 1992. The country is in better shape. We have done it by a combination of new ideas and old-fashioned values. I was down in Texas the other day with my first Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen. And I said to him something which is true. People, now that I'm about to leave office, they come to me all the time and say, "What great new idea did you bring to the economic policy process in Washington?" People ask me questions like that all the time, you know--"what great new sweeping reform?" And I always have a one-word answer: Arithmetic. We restored arithmetic. That's what the Democrats brought back. And those of us in the heartland, we still think 2 and 2 ought to add up to 4.

So I'm profoundly indebted to people like Steny Hoyer, who helped me turn this budget deficit around. And last week, we had a couple of announcements--let me just mention the announcements we had last week. Last week the annual report came out which showed that the Government budget--which was supposed to be $455 billion in the bole this year; when I took office, that was the estimate-will have a $230 billion surplus, the biggest in history. It showed that poverty figures were the lowest in 20 years, the biggest drop in child poverty in 34 years, the biggest recorded drop in Hispanic and African-American poverty in history.

And furthermore, it showed that, for the first time in a dozen years, there were actually more people with health insurance this year than there were last year, thanks largely to the Children's Health Insurance Program that the Democrats insisted be part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.