Remarks at a Reception for Hillary Clinton in Indianapolis, Indiana

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 30, 2000

So we have a tax cut, all right. It's concentrated on helping people get tax relief to pay for college education, long-term care, child care, retirement savings, and to give people incentives to invest in the poor areas that aren't part of our prosperity yet. It isn't as big as theirs. We freely admit it. But the reason is we want to get rid of the debt. We think it's important. And we think low interest rates and a strong economy is the best tax cut we can give all Americans.

Now, that is a clear choice. People need to understand that. And it is a huge deal. I've worked as hard as I know how to turn this country around, pull this country together, and move this Nation forward. And that is the single most important difference. Don't let anybody tell you there is no significant difference between these two economic plans.

And I know here in Indiana, where there are a lot of conservative people, they say, "Well, but Gore wants to spend more money than Bush." He does. But if you get rid of interest on the debt, you get rid of the third biggest item in the budget, and you quit paying interest payments on the debt. You can spend more money on education and health care and the environment and scientific research and still have a tax cut because you're not--you get rid of the third biggest item in the Federal budget.

This is real important. People have got to understand this. All the work we have done in the last 8 years can be reversed if you go back to big deficits. And I think if people understood that, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman would win. Don't you? So you need to talk to people about it. It's a big deal. It's one of the biggest issues in the New York Senate race and all over the country, because we have proven that fiscal conservatism and social progress go hand in hand.

So we've cut the welfare rolls in half, partly because we have good welfare reform but partly because we have a strong economy. And we have the number of people without health insurance going down, for the first time in a dozen years, partly because we have a program that helps in sure children that the State runs and we send them the money to do it but partly because we have a strong economy. We have a lower dropout rate in high school and a higher college-going rate than ever before in history, and test scores are going up, and there's a movement of more and more kids to take advance placement courses--a huge increase in it--partly because the education reforms are going in the right direction but partly because we have a strong economy, which rewards higher levels of skill.

So I just would say to all of you, I think this is profoundly important. And if you don't explain anything else to any of your neighbors and friends before they vote, tell them this is still about arithmetic. And the numbers have got to add up. Our numbers will, and theirs won't.

The second thing I want to say is I believe, in addition to economic policy, the central thing that we have done these last 8 years that has helped move our country forward is to have an inclusive philosophy that everybody ought to be part of America's community, that everybody counts, everybody ought to have a chance, we all do better when we help each other, and we can't afford to let anyone be either left behind or abused and be the kind of country we want.