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AUGUST 15, 2000

Following is a transcript of President Clinton's remarks on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California. His speech lasted about 40 minutes and included one direct reference to Native Americans:

This year alone, our HOPE Scholarship and lifelong learning tax credits will help 10 million families pay for college, our earned income tax credit will help 15 million families work their way into the middle-class, 25 million families will get a $500 child tax credit, our empowerment zone tax credits are bringing new businesses and new jobs to our hardest pressed communities from the inner-cities to the Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to our Native American reservations.

Full text of his remarks:

Thank you. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Isn't it great to be here in California together? Forty years ago the great city of Los Angeles launched John Kennedy and the New Frontier. Now Los Angeles is launching the first president of the new century: Al Gore.

I come here tonight, above all, to say a heartfelt thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the chance to serve. Thank you for being so good to Hillary and Chelsea. I am so proud of them. And didn't she give a good talk? I thought it was great.

I thank you for supporting the new Democratic agenda, that has taken our country to new heights of prosperity, peace, and progress. As always, of course, the lion's share of the credit goes to the American people who do the work, raise the kids, and dream the dreams.

Now, at this moment of unprecedented good fortune, our people face a fundamental choice. Are we going to keep this progress and prosperity going?

Yes, we are.

But, my friends ... we can't take our future for granted.

We cannot take it for granted. So let's just remember how we got here.

Eight years ago, when our party met in New York, it was in a far different time for America. Our economy was in trouble, our society was divided, our political system was paralyzed. Ten million of our fellow citizens were out of work. Interest rates were high. The deficit was $290 billion and rising. After 12 years of Republican rule, the federal debt had quadrupled, imposing a crushing burden on our economy and on our children. Welfare rolls, crime, teen pregnancy, income inequality all had been skyrocketing. And our government was part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I saw this in a very personal way in 1992 out there in the real America with many of you. I remember a child telling me her father broke down at the dinner table because he lost his job. I remember an older couple crying in front of me because they had to choose between filling their shopping carts and filling their prescriptions. I remember a hard-working immigrant in a hotel kitchen who said his son was not really free because it wasn't safe for him to play in the neighborhood park.

I ran for president to change the future for those people.

And I asked you to embrace new ideas rooted in enduring values, opportunity for all, responsibility from all and a community of all Americans.

You gave me the chance to turn those ideas and values into action after I made one of the best decisions of my entire life, asking Al Gore to be my partner.

Now, first, we proposed a new economic strategy: Get rid of the deficit to reduce interest rates, invest more in our people, sell more American products abroad.

We sent our plan to Congress. It passed by a single vote in both Houses. In a deadlocked Senate, Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote.

Now, not a single Republican supported it. Here's what their leader said. Their leader said our plan would increase the deficit, kill jobs and give us a one-way ticket to a recession. Time has not been kind to their predictions.

Now, remember you remember, our Republican friends said then they would absolutely not be held responsible for our economic policies.

I hope the American people take them at their word.

Now, today today after seven and a half years of hard effort, we're in the midst of the longest economic expansion in history: more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the lowest female unemployment in 40 years, the lowest Hispanic and African-American unemployment rate ever recorded, and the highest home ownership in history.

Now, along the way along the way in 1995, we turned back the largest cuts in history in Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment. And just two years later, we proved that we could find a way to balance the budget and protect our values. Today, we have gone from the largest deficits in history to the largest surpluses in history.

And and if, if but only if we stay on course, we can make America debt-free for the first time since Andy Jackson was president in 1835.

Now ... for the first time in decades, wages are rising at all income levels. We have the lowest child poverty in 20 years, the lowest poverty rate for single mothers ever recorded. The average family's income has gone up more than $5,000, and for African-American families, even more.

The number of families who ... the number of families who own stock in our country has grown by 40 percent.

You know Harry Truman's old saying has never been more true: If you want to live like a Republican, you better vote for the Democrats.

Thank you.

Now ... but our progress is about far more than economics. America is also more hopeful, more secure and more free. We're more hopeful because we're turning our schools around with higher standards, more accountability, more investment.

We have doubled funding for Head Start, and provided after-school and mentoring to more than a million more young people.

We're putting 100,000 well-trained teachers in the early grades to lower class size. Ninety-five percent of our schools are already connected to the Internet. Reading, math and SAT scores are up, and more students than ever are going on to college, thanks to the biggest expansion of college aid since the GI bill 50 years ago.

Now, don't let anybody tell you that all children can't learn or that our public schools can't make the grade. Yes, they can.

Yes, they can.

Now, we're also more hopeful because we ended welfare as we knew it. Now those who can work must work. On that, we and the Republicans agree. But we Democrats also insisted on support for good parenting, so that poor children don't go hungry or lose their health care, unmarried teens stay in school, and people get the job training, child care and transportation they need.

It has worked. Today, there are more than 7.5 million people who've moved from welfare to work. And the welfare rolls in our administration have been cut in half.

Now, we're more hopeful because of the way we cut taxes to help Americans meet the challenges of work and child rearing.

This year alone, our HOPE Scholarship and lifelong learning tax credits will help 10 million families pay for college, our earned income tax credit will help 15 million families work their way into the middle-class, 25 million families will get a $500 child tax credit, our empowerment zone tax credits are bringing new businesses and new jobs to our hardest pressed communities from the inner-cities to the Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to our Native American reservations.

And the typical American family today is paying a lower share of its income in federal income taxes than in any time during the past 35 years.

We are more hopeful, because of the Family and Medical Leave Act, a bill that the previous administration vetoed. They said it would cost jobs. It's the first bill I signed. And ... we now have a test, 22 million new jobs later, over 20 million Americans have been able to take a little time off to care for a newborn child or a sick relative. That's what it means, that's what it really means to be pro-family.

We are a more secure country because we cut crime with tougher enforcement, more than 100,000 new community police officers, a ban on assault weapons and the Brady law, which has kept guns out of the hands of half a million felons, fugitives and stalkers. Today, crime in America is at a 25-year low.

And we're more secure because of advances in health care. We've extended the life of the Medicare trust fund by 26 years, added coverage for cancer screening and cutting-edge clinical trials. We're coming closer to cures for dreaded diseases. We made people we made sure that people with disabilities could go to work without losing their health care and that people could switch jobs without losing their coverage.

We dramatically improved diabetes care. We provided health coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program to 2 million previously uninsured children. And for the first time in our history, more than 90 percent of our kids have been immunized against serious childhood diseases.

You can be proud of that Democratic record.

We are more secure because our environment is cleaner. We've set aside more land in the lower 48 states than any administration since Teddy Roosevelt ... saving national treasures like Yellowstone, the great California redwoods, the Florida Everglades.

Moreover, our air is cleaner, our water is cleaner, our food is safer, and our economy is stronger. You can grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time.

Now, we're more free because we are closer today to the one America of our dreams, celebrating our diversity, affirming our common humanity, opposing all forms of bigotry, from church burnings, to racial profiling, to murderous hate crimes. We're fighting for the employment nondiscrimination legislation and for equal pay for women.

Relevant Links:
The Democratic National Convention - www.dems2000.com
The Democratic National Committee - www.dnc.org
Al Gore 2000 - www.algore2000.com

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