Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents

Thank you. I love these signs: "Our children's future starts today." "Health care for all.” “No guts, no glory: Stop gridlock.” “The Devil's in the details." That's right, too. [Laughter] "Divided we'll go down the tubes." "We want real recovery." I love these signs, and I thank you all for being here today.

Let me begin by saying how much I enjoyed flying down here with Congressman Clay and Congressman Gephardt and with Congressman Volkmer and Congresswoman Danner; they're here, too. They are part of the engine for change that you're going to see move through our Congress. I thank Bill Clay for hosting us in his district, and I want to congratulate him on the passage and this time the signing, not the veto, of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

I want to say how glad I am to be back in St. Louis with your Governor, my longtime friend and early supporter. And I know that he will be a great success, and I'm going to do what I can to be his partner in Washington. I know from clear experience that we don't have all the answers, and I'll do what I can to see that we make as many decisions as possible out here in the Governor's offices where the rubber meets the road. And I thank him for being here.

I want to recognize two of the groups that performed: the Fox High School Band and Harris-Stowe College Choir.

Let me say a word if I might about our majority leader, Dick Gephardt. There is no way that I can convey to the people of St. Louis and Missouri how important he is to the Nation. But I can tell you this: I'm not sure we could do any of the things we have to do if it were not for his leadership. If you knew all the times that he had brought together the other Members of the House of

Representatives on the Democratic side and told them they were going to have to cut spending as well as raise money, told them we were going to have to change our priorities, told them we were going to have to stick together to turn this country around, and been a force for moral leadership within the United States Congress, the heart of every person not just in his district but this whole State would swell with pride to know that you're represented by somebody like that.

If you knew all the times that I heard him stick up in private for the men and women who build the cars and build the airplanes and brew the beer and provide the backbone of America, you would know that he doesn't just say things in public and then behave differently in private. He is the same everywhere. And I am very glad that he is my full partner in this crusade to change our country.

You know, St. Louis is a special place for me. It's here where we ended the first of our wonderful bus trips across America and where we had a rally of about 40,000 people. It was the biggest crowd we'd had at that time in the campaign. And we started our second bus trip over in east St. Louis. And then we had the first Presidential debate here. So I think it's only fitting that I would come to my neighboring State in the heartland of America to start day one of America's new direction.

I was in Missouri on the other side of the State on Labor Day, and I went to Harry Truman's home town. I guess in some ways the talk I gave to Congress last night was like one of President Truman's talks. Some of it was just off the top of my head and from the bottom of my heart. It was sort of plain spoken, and I couldn't figure out how else to say what I think is the plain truth about where we are.

This is a country of enormous promise, of unlimited potential, of a great future burdened by big problems. I think everybody

knows that. And we also know, I think, that some mistakes have been made in the course we have taken. The fundamental problems we have are because of big, sweeping changes in history: America being pushed into a global economy, all of us being subject to changes at a far more rapid rate than ever before.

But we know that the responses we have taken have not worked. There are too many people who are unemployed. There are too many people who are underemployed. There are too, many people who have lost good jobs, that cannot get jobs at that income left. There are too many people with no health insurance and too many others terrified of losing it. There are too many people who don't have access to the education over a lifetime that they need to continually be retrained. There are too many places where we are not investing in the future. There are too many industries, like the aerospace industry in Missouri and throughout the country, that we know will produce a huge portion of the high-wage jobs of the future all over the world, and yet, they're dying on the vine here in America. These things don't make sense. What we have been doing has not worked. We need to take a new direction that will build a high-wage, high-growth, secure future where people can be educated, where there is affordable health care for all, and

where Americans have a fair chance to compete and win. That's what this is all about. I want to repeat to you what I said to the Congress last night. I remember in 1981 when President Reagan said, "If you stacked one thousand dollar bills on top of each other, our national debt would go 67 miles into the sky." If you did it today, it would go 267 miles into the sky. I say that not to blame him, not to blame my predecessor, not to blame anybody. Goodness knows, there's enough blame to go around, both parties and the Presidency and the Congress, but what good is it going to do us? Let us forget about blame and take responsibility for our future. Let's do it together. I don't care who gets the credit, I just want us to go forward.

There are already people who are saying that we really can't make fundamental changes. There are people who are saying, “Well, you can't bring the deficit down,” or

"Well, nobody will hang in there and make these tough budget cuts the President's proposing," or "Well, you can't really reform the health care system," even though we're paying more and getting less for ours than any country on the face of the Earth. I'm tired of all the nay-sayers. I think we can make some changes. But we need your help.

We need your help in two ways: Number one, we need you to show up like this, and we need you to tell your Members of Congress that we will support you if you make the honest, tough, hard decisions. We know we didn't get into this mess overnight. We're not going to get out of it overnight. But we cannot keep doing the same old thing. The price of doing the same thing is higher than the price of change.

The second thing you can do is to support your Members of Congress by demanding real political reform that will protect them in making courageous changes. Tell them you want a campaign finance reform bill that will limit the cost of congressional campaigns, limit the influence of special interests, and open this process to all people.

Tell them you want something done to make sure all of the lobbyists in Washington have to register and report on their activities; two-thirds of them don't. Tell them you support our bill to remove the tax deduction for lobbying activities. You are subsidizing interests that together undermine your future. Individually they've all got a good story to tell, but collectively they help to paralyze the political process. And you, at least, should not subsidize it with your tax dollars because you don't have comparable deductions.

My fellow Americans, last night I tried to lay out to the Congress and to the American people a plan that will change the direction of this country and give us a genuine economic strategy, a plan to produce more jobs, higher income, deal with the health care crisis, provide a lifetime system of education, and reduce the national debt. We have to begin with the Government, and at the top with the President.

So I have tried to set an example. I have cut the White House staff by 25 percent. That will be in my budget for the White House. I have cut the administrative costs of the executive branch in my budget 14 per

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