Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Portola Valley, California

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 11, 1998

And that's what I think we ought to do in America. I do not believe this is a moment for complacency. Sometimes when countries are doing well they sort of sit back and relax and wait for something bad to happen, or act like nothing bad will ever happen, or ignore the clear challenges before them. And if you don't remember anything else I said tonight, I hope you will remember that I believe that America ought to respond to the dynamic times in which we live with gratitude for the prosperity we have, but using it as a springboard to deal with the challenges yet unmet that are right before us and the long-term challenges of the country.

And I tried to keep everyone busy in Washington on positive things that would give us a chance to work together and push forward as a nation. I'll just mention a few.

We've got a budget to pass this year. If we do it right we'll have the first surplus we've had in over 30 years - a really substantial surplus - and we'll have another one next year and the year after that. Some people want to spend it. I think it's a terrible mistake. Some people want to give it away, give it back to you in tax cuts. I think that's a mistake, too - until we know we've got a balanced budget, it's going to stay balanced over the long run, and we figure out what we're going to do to deal with Social Security when all the baby boomers get into it. We're going to have to make some substantial changes in Social Security if we're going to preserve it.

And you know, a lot of young people wish the whole thing - we could just forget about it and give them back their money. But it's important to remember that not every 5-year period in America has seen the stock market go from 3,200 to 9,000. [Laughter] As a matter of fact, I don't think there ever has been a period where that happened.

It's important to remember that Social Security is a life insurance program and a disability program, as well as a retirement income program. And it's important to remember as we sit here in Walter's palatial and gorgeous place that almost half of the senior citizens in America today would be living in poverty if it weren't for their Social Security income, even though almost all of them have some other income to go along with Social Security.

But the system will go broke the way it's going because when all us baby boomers get on it there will be two people working for every one person drawing. I mean, it's not rocket science, and we're going to have to make some changes. There may be some ways to increase the rate of return. There may be some ways to give people more individual control. There may be a lot of things that have to be done - we're raising the retirement age already under existing law. But we have to do it in a way that protects everybody. And the worst thing we could do is go off squandering this budget surplus that we worked for 5 years to try to clean our country's financial system up, get interest rates down, get investments up, get the economy going, until we've taken care of this huge long-term challenge for America. So to me that's the first thing I want to say. I hope that gets done this year. And I believe it will.