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PRESIDENT CLINTON'S
NEW MARKETS TRIP'
SPEECHES
July 5-8, 1999
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Hazard, Kentucky)
For Immediate Release
July 5,1999
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE PEOPLE OF APPALACHIA
Main Street
Hazard, Kentucky
4:10P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Well, the Governor always told me if I
would only come to Appalachia I would get a very warm welcome. (Applause.) I want
to thank the good people of Hazard and Perry County for giving me that warm welcome.
I want to thank all the people of Eastern Kentucky who have made me and my party feel
so welcome today -- Paul and Judy Patton. I thank Mayor Gorman and Judge Noble. I
thank those who have come with me today -- our Agriculture Secretary -- you heard
from Secretary Glickman -- our HUD Secretary, Secretary Cuomo; SBA Administrator
Alvarez. We have two Congressmen here -- Jim Clyburn from South Carolina and Paul
Kanjorski, who came all the way from Pennsylvania, because they have places like
Appalachia there, and they wanted to come down here to be with you. (Applause.)
I want to thank Duane Ackerman and the other CEOs who are here, including
Dick Huber of Aetna; the One Central Bank Kentucky CEO, Kip Stolen; Sarah Gould
from the MS Foundation; John Sykes from Sykes Enterprises -- I'll mention him in a
moment.
I want to thank the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who keeps hope alive. (Applause.)
And the others in our group, including AI From, the leader of the Democratic Leadership
Council; and David Wilhelm, who is from nearby in Ohio and was my first Democratic
National Committee Chairman. I'd like to thank the young people here in AmeriCorps -~
(qpplause) -- and I would like to say a special word of thanks.to Cawood Ledford. Boy,
he is -- (applause) -- I was thinking that if old Cawood had been a political announcer
instead of a basketball announcer and I could have kept him with me these last 25
years, I'd have never lost an election. (Applause.)
You know, Kentucky has been ·good to me and Hillary and to the Vice President.
It has been brought to my attention that, in addition to the economy, we've been pretty
good for Kentucky. Since I've been in office, UK basketball has had the most successful
six years since Adolph Rupp wasthe coach. (Applause.) And Tim Couch hasn't done
badly, either. (Applause.)
.
You know, yesterday we celebrated the last 4th of July of this century -- the last
4th of July of this century. Think of it -- 223 Independence Days. I want you all to drink
plenty of water and I'll make this quick, but you need to know why we came here. I
�wanted to come to the heart of America and Appalachia to talk about whether we're all
going forward into the 21 st century; whether we really can build a bridge over which we
can all walk together.
I'll bet you some of you here are actually the descendants of those people
Governor Patton talked about, the Revolutionary War heroes who helped to settle this
state. But, you know, whether our parents and their parents came here on the
Mayflower or slave ships, whether they landed on Ellis Island in the 1890s or came to
Los Angeles Airport in the 1990s, around the 4th of July we're supposed to celebrate
what we have in common as Americans, to reaffirm that what unites us is more
important than what divides us. Well, if we believe that, we have a shared stake in one
another's success.
.
I came here to say to you I believe at this time of prosperity, if we can't find a way
to give every single hardworking American family the chance to participate in the
future we're trying to build for our country, we'll never get around to do it. Now is the
time to move forward. (Applause.)
Our country is the world's leading force for peace and freedom and human rights.
We have the lowest crime rate in 25 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, 90
percent of our little children are immunized against serious childhood diseases for the
first time in history. We have the longest peacetime expansion we've ever had -- almost
19 million new jobs. Wages are rising for the first time in 20 years for ordinary people.
We have a million kids lifted out of po,verty, the lowest minority unemployment rate ever
recorded.
And yet, even though this is a blessed time for America, not all Americans have
been blessed by it. And you' know that as well as I do. (Applause.)
So I came here to show America who you are. (Applause.) And when I leave
here I'm going on to the Mississippi Delta, to my home country. Then I'm going up into
the Middle West, and then over to Phoenix, Arizona, and up to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, and then ending this tour in East Los Angeles to make a
simple point -- that this is a time to bring more jobs and investment and hope to the
. areas of our country that have not fully participated in this economic recovery. We have
an obligation to do it. (Applause.)
I started out the morning in the town of Tyner, a little village, with a wonderful
woman who took me to see her 69-year-old father that just lost his wife after 51 years of
marriage. And I saw four generations of that family. And. I walked in the neighborhoods
and I listened to the people tell me they needed better housing and better
transportation.
And then I went on to Mid-South Electronics, a place that had 40 employees 10 .
years ago, and has 850 today and about to expand .some more, to make the point that
any work that can be done by anybody in America can be done here in Appalachia -
and throughout the other places in this country where they're not fulfilling their promise.
(Applause. )
2
�I came here in the hope that with the help of the business leaders here, we cOLIId
, say to every corporate leader in America: Take a look at investing in rural and inner-city
America. It's good for business, good for America's growth, and it's the right thing to do.
If we, with the most prosperous economy in our lifetimes, cannot make a commitment to
take every person along with us into the 21 st century, we will have failed to meet a
moral obligation and we also will have failed to make the most of America's promise.
You know, these economists in Washington and New York used to tell me that if
the unemployment rate ever dropped below 6 percent in America we'd have inflation out
,of control. Well, it's been under 5 percent for two years now and inflation is still low.
(Applause,) And I'm telling you, it cango lower. We can hire more people, we can have
more jobs -- (applause) -- but we'v.e got to go to the places where there have not been
. enpugh new jobs and there has not been enough new investments and we have to
provide incentives for people to go there., (Applause.)
I asked these business and political leaders to join me because we wanted to
send a signal to America that we know that government can't solve these problems
alone. But we know that we'll never get anywhere by leaving people alone, either "
you'vt? tried it that way here in the hills and hollows of Kentucky and West Virginia and
Ohio and Virginia and Appalachia, for years; that didn't work out very well -- that what
works is when we go forward together.
I came here to say that I believe the government's part is to create the conditions
of a strong economy, to give individuals the tools they need to succeed, including
educatio(land training, and to give incentives to businesses to take a second look at the
places that' they have overlooked. And then the job of the private sector is to give you a
chance to make the most of your God-given ability. That is what we are trying to
do. (Applause.)
With the help of Vice President Gore, we've had 135 empowerment zones and
enterprise communities -- I was in one earlier today. They've helped to create tens of
thousands of jobs. But we have to do better nationwide. We've worked with people like
the Kentucky Highlands InvestmentCorporation. But we have to do better nationwide.
So that's why I'm going around here. I want to do two things -- well, really three.
Number one, I want people to know a lot of good things are going on here now.
(Applause.) Number two, I want them to understand that more good things can go on,
and number three, I want us to do more. I want us to pass a law in Congress to create
new markets in America, to say we're going to give a businessperson the same
incentives to invest in new markets in America we give them today to invest in new
markets overseas. (Applause.)
Now, meanwhile, I want to 'thank the companies represented here --:- companies
like Bell South, ready to help provide jobs and training for your people. The MS
Foundation. The Appalachian Regional Commission, with my friend, Jesse White,
3
�here, will help Appalachian entrepreneurs create new small businesses. Sykes
Enterprises is making a major ,commitment --" listen to this -- to construct two information
technology centers"in Eastern Kentucky that will bring hundreds of new jobs to Pike
and Perry Counties. Thank you, Mr. Sykes. (Applause.)
,
Across our nation, banks like ~ank One, City Group, Bank of America, First
Union, will invest hundreds of millions of dollars to finance new small businesses and
other promising enterprises. I wa'nt to thank all these companies for their support. '
But again, I say: Look here, America. We've got people working out here and
doing fine and doing marvelous things. Look here, business community. Take an'other
look. There are great opportunities here. But! also want to say to the Congress: Just
simply give me one more tool for them, give people the same incentives to invest in
Appalachia or the Native American reservations of the Mississippi Delta or the inner
cities we give them today to invest in poor countries overseas, and let the American
people show what they can do. (Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a hot day -- but when I'm gone, I hope you'll
remember more than that the President came and you were hot. I hope you will
remember that it was the beginning of a new sense of renewal for this region and for all
the people in our country to go forward together. (Applause.)
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)
END
4:21 P.M. EDT
4
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Clarksdale, Mississippi)
July 6,1999
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDEI'JT
IN ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON
INVESTMENT IN THE DELTA REGION
Waterfield Cabinet Company
Clarksdale, Mississippi
10:25 A.M. COT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Well, it's hot as a fire cracker
in here. (Laughter.) So I feel right at home. (Laughter.) I don't know whether Bob
Koerber and the people at Waterfield are insured against heat stroke by strangers
happening in along the way, but let me say that I am delighted to be here today. I've
had a good day already.
..
And I've got a large group with me, and I can't mention them all, but I'd like to
mention a few of them. First I want to thank Secretary Slat~r,who is, as all of you
know, also from Arkansas and worked with me on theDelta Commission. I want to
thank our Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman; our Secretary of Labor, Alexis
Herman, who is here with me; our SBA Administrator Aida-Alvarez. Reverend Jackson,
thank you for being here.
I'd like to thank David Brosczek from Fed Ex; Jack Hugsland from Greyhound:
We'll introduce our panelists later. I'd also like to say a special word of thanks to Lt.
Governor Ronnie Musgrove and his family. They're here -- (applause) -- and we thank
him for his interest in the development of the Delta. (Applause.)
Our Congressmen, Bennie Thompson, from this district--(applause) -- thank you.
And I understand Congressman Ronnie Shows from Mississippi is also here -- Ronnie
is standing up there -- thank you. (Applause.) And we have two visitors who have
come from a long way away to be with us -- Congressman Jim Clyburn from South
Carolina, and Congressman Paul Kanjorski, all the way from Pennsylvania, down here.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
And we thank Attorney General Mike Moore for being here, and all the other
people from Mississippi who are here. (Applause.)
Let me say again to Bob Koerber and all the folks here at Waterfield, we thank
you for giving us a chance to both tour this plant and to camp out in some of your
space.
..
�And I would like to be very brief. I've learned to attenuate these remarks of mine.
Yesterday, it was 100 degrees in Hazard, Kentucky; we had 10,000 or 15,000 people
outside. And I said, I don't believe I better give this speech I was going to give .
.Hello, Governor Mavis. It's nice to see you. Welcome. Thank you very much for
being here. (Applause.) And I think my "friend, William Winter, is here. Governor
Winter, are you here somewhere? He met me at the airport. (Applause.) So, anyway, I
talked for about five minutes, and I'd like to do that.
I just want to tell you exactly why we're here. First of all, the people in the Delta
know better than anybody else that while this country has had an unbelievable run -
we've had the longest peacetime expansion in our history, nearly 19 millionjobs since
the day I took the Oath of Office. (Applause.) We have the lowest recorded rates ever
of unemployment among African Americans and Hispanics. We have the highest rate
of home ownership ever. We have a million kids lifted out of poverty.
Now, having said all that, in the Delta, the poverty rate is much higher than the
country as a whole; in this county,. it's over twice as high. The unemployment rate is
11igher than the national average, and the investment rate is lower.
Now, a lot of you -- I remember when I was out on a barge in the Mississippi
River outside Rosedale with Ray Mavis back in the mid-'80s, and we signed this
agreement with t,he then-Gov~rnor of Louisiana about all the things we wanted to do
with the Delta. And then we worked on the Delta Commission for all those years. A lot
of good things have happened here, and I want to talk a little about some of them. But I
want you to know, I am making this tour of America for one simple reason: I want
everybody in America to know that while our country has been blessed with this
,
.
economic recovery, not all Americans have been blessed by it, that it hasn't reached
everyplace. (Applause.)
.
I want our country to know that there are great oppbrtunities out here for
investment for jQbs in Am~rica. I want them to know what we have done already to
make it easier for people to make the most of those opportunities, and what we're still
trying to 'do.
. Now, let me say, ever since I became President, I have done what I could to
increase investment in undeveloped area's through the empowerment zones, which give
tax credits and put tax money into distressed areas; through the enterprise
.
,communities; through getting banks to more 'vigorously approach the Community
Reinvestment Act; and setting up community development financial institutions, or
supporting those that are already in business, like the Enterprise Corporation of the
Delta. It's a private, tax-exempt business group. It is a real success story. Just
since 1994, it's given financial or technical assistance to more than 600 companies,
including Delta Laundry and Computers here in Clarksdale.
Now, we set these operations up all over the country. Overall; the ECD here has
helped to generate more than 5,000 jobs and $200 million in annual sales. Bill Bynum,
the CEO and President of ECD is here. We thank him for being here today. (Applause.)
2
�Today corporations represented here with me are going to invest $14 million
more in the ECD, so they'll have more money to loan out to people here to create more
jobs. Today, around the country, there will be about $150 million more announced to
'
be invested in organizations like this. '
In addition to that, I'm trying to get Congress to pass a bill which will give tax
incentives, tax credits and loan guarantees to people to invest in the Delta and other
poor areas of America, just like they get today to invest in poor areas around the world.
I think that it's a good thing that we encourage people to invest in Africa, Latin America
and the Caribbean, but they ought to have the same incentives to invest in the
Mississippi Delta and Appalachia and the Native American reservations and the, inner,'
cities. (Applause.) That is what we're trying to do here. We're trying to close what
Reverend Jackson calls the "resource gap."
Now, let me say, we've got a lot of other challenges in the Delta. We have a
terrible crisis in American agriculture today. Last year we came up with billions of
dollars to try to keep our farmers going. This year we're going to have to do it
all over again. And we've got a lot of other problems. But, fundamentally, what I want
America to know is that every place in the country, and today this place, is full of good
people, capable of doing goodwork, who can be trained to do any kind of work. And we
are going to do everything we can in the government to give the financial incentives
necessary for people to invest here.
And I want to make the same point I made yesterday: Everybody in America has
a selfish interest now in developing the Delta. Why? Because most economists believe
that if we're going to keep our economic recovery going without inflation, the only
way we can possibly do it is to find more customers for our products and then add more
workers at home. If you come here, you get both in the same place. You get more
workers and more consumers. So it's good for the rest of America as well: (Applause.)
So, again, I say I am delighted to be here. I had a wonderful time in Memphis last
night, but I ate too much. I'm sorry it's so hot, but I hope nobody passes out. And I
want to give Secretary Slater now a chance to talk to our panelists, and then I want all
of you to think about when we leave here, what we can do to show people the
opportunity that's here now, and what you could do to help me pass on a bipartisan
basis the necessary tax incentives and loan guarantees to say to any investor,
anywhere ,in America, if you come to the Mississippi Delta, you can get at least a good a
, deal a~ you could investing anywhere else in the world, and we're right here at home
and we need you.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I just want to emphasize for everybody who is here listening,
becau'se a lot of you may be able to come t6 Bill with a good idea -- there are -- it's not
just that there is not enough money available in this area for good investments.
Someone has to decide what's a good investment. And what he has done is to
3 '
�basically go out and get money from other people who, on their own, would never have
the time or effort or maybe even the inclination to make these investments, but they
trust them to do it -- including our Community Development Fund, which, as you
heard, has given him $4.5 million.
Hillary and I, when we were in Arkansas, helped to set up the Southern
Development Bank in Arkansas, as you know, so we believe in this. In addition to that, I
want to emphasize one other thing. In the empowerment zone program that the Vice
President has run for us over the last six years, people who invest there can get
SUbstantial tax benefits for investing, and then they get tax benefits for hiring peopl~.
But they don't get them if they're outside of these zones.
One of the reasons that I'm trying so hard to pass this legislation is not everyplace
in America can be in an empowerment zone, even if we keep increasing them every
year. So what I want to do is to make every area in America that needs an investor
equally eligible to get the investors' attention by being able to get these kinds of tax
benefits, so we can get more money into these development corporations and then
have equal tax incentives for irwestors togo into high unemployment areas -- those two .
things, if we have enough people like you who are as good as it as you have been, I
think will make a huge difference. I think it will really, in the next five or six years, would
make a breathtaking difference, because people are out here looking at these markets
now. And I want to thank you ..
* * .* *
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say this very briefly. I was there when you started,
, and I was delighted when I heard you were going to be on the program. I wish we'd had
time today -- we don't --: to tell everybody the fascinating story of how you got started,
how you found the equipment to dq the brown rice in the first place. And someday you
ought to write it up, because no one who understands what was going on in America at
the time would believe it. And it's a real tribute to your initiative. And I'm glad you're still
doing well, and glad you're still growing: Thank you for being here today. Thank you.
(Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, I'm delighted that you've done so well over these
years since you began in Arkansas. I remember when you planted roots in Pine Bluff.
I
just think it's worth pointing out that the South Shore Bank of Chicago, which financed
you, was really the first great community development bank in the United States. And
they were inspired, among others, by a man named Mohamad Yunus 'from Bangladesh,
who has now made millions of loans to poor, poor village people in Bangladesh through
the bank you set up.
..
Hillary and I had some contact with him; that's what led to the establishment of
the bank in Arkadelphia and to my belief that we in the national government ought to do
more to support people like Bill. I think -- again, you've just heard now three stories,
and two of them involve people who have had to get credit. A lot -- I always say one of
4
�Clinton's laws of politics is, when somebody tells you that a problem is not a money
problem, they're almost always talking about someone else's problem, not their own.
To a great extent, this is a money problem. You have all these talented people and all
these good ideas; there is a pretty even distribution of human resources and ability in
this whole world, but there is not an even distribution of access to capital. And that's
what it is we're trying to fix. So I thank you. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: You have an announcement, right? Okay. You're being
way too modest. Now, you know, this lady is the assistant plant manager here.
According to my notes, she also is the mother offive children. (Applause.) When this
place was in bankruptcy, they took it out and they've turned it around. They're doing
good business, they're expanding their work force. And I think what we need, frankly,
are more people that have this particular expertise, particularly in t~e Delta, because .
there's more than one place like this.
Our host was telling us there's another place across the river in Arkansas that
he's been looking at now. If we had a core of people who had this skill to go with what
our local venture capitalist and banker here is doing for us, we could really do some
good.
But I think we ought t6 recognize that what these people have done here and the·
jobs that they've given folks the opportunity to hold is quite important and could be a
good model for others in the Delta. So I thank'you forwhat you've done. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I know we've got to wrap up. If you don't remember
anything else when you leave, remember what Cathy said -- not just the $500 million,
although that's real money even in 1999; that's very impressive. This. is a good
business opportunity here .. If we cannot fully develop the Delta now when we have the
strongest economy in our lifetime, when will we ever get around to it? '
And remember -- put yourself in my position. I sit in Washington all the time, .
trying to think about how can we keep this economic recovery going, adding more jobs,
raising incomes, without having inflation? If we get inflation, then the Federal
Reserve will have to raise interest rates so much the economic recovery will slow down.
The only way to do it -- I will. say again to all of America -- the only way to do it is
more customers which then makes possible more employees, when you can do that
with higher productivity and no inflation. The best place in America to do that is a place
which has not yet felt the recovery. This is a big deal.
.
And I want to thank all of our business leaders for coming, and all of our great
entrepreneurs here in the Delta. I want to thank you -- I know we could stay here until
tomorrow if we could all keep breathing.
5
�I do want to point out that except for the occasional reverend of the cloth and the
odd politician, the head of the electric utility is the only guy still wearing his coat
because he wants you to use more juice. (Laughter.) And I think that is very
impressive. I want to thank our friend from Greyhound because we may always need
some people to be able to get to and from jobs that aren't in the small towns of rural
America, but who want to live in rural America. That's been one of the big challenges
Secretary Slater has tried to face with welfare reform, even; trying to make sure people
who live in the inner cities can at least get to the suburbs, or who live in small towns and
get to a big city so they can take a job without having to undermine their ability to be
good parents.'
.
And I want to thank my friend, Bob Cabe from Blue Cross. You need to know that
in our former lives, we were both lawyers. And he's a very special economic
development expert for me, because in 1981, I was the youngest ex-governor in the
history of America with very limited future prospects, and he and his firm offered me a
job. So I am living proof that economic development works, thanks to Bob Cabe -- and I
thank you very much. (Applause.) And I want to thank, again, all these people
for their wonderful work.
'
The story needs to go out across America: This is a good investment. This is a
good deal. We will help you. We will help you. We have institutions to help you. We
have tax relief to help you. And more and more, our financial institutions are coming up
with the money. But America needs to wake up and recognize thafthe best new market
for American products and for new American investment is right here in the U.S. of A.
Thank you very much and God bless you. (Applause.)
EI\JD
11:10A.M.CDT
6
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(East St. Louis, Illinois)
For Immediate Release
July 6,1999
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE EAST ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY
.• ' Walgreen's Plaza
, East St. Louis, Illinois
5:27 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, I used to
think that I was reasonably astute at public affairs, but I don't have any better sense
than to get up here and try to speak behind Mayor Powell, Cathy Bessant and Jesse
Jackson. I don't know how smart I am today.
Let me say to all of you, it is wonderful to be here. Madam Mayor, thank you for
making us feel so welcome and for your sterling leadership. I'm delighted to be here
with Jackie, your hero,and my friend who is all of our heroes. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, Dave Bernauer fore this wonderful Walgreen's store. I'm going to go in and
, shop in a minute, add to the local community.
Thank you, Mel Farr, for bringing jobs and opportunities and cars, even in two
months' installments, to every community in this country. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, Reverend Jackson, for believing that we could keep hope alive in every city
and rural area in this country and it could be good business to do so. (Applause.)
I want to thank some others who are with us here today -- Joe Stroud of Jovan
Broadcasting; my good friend, AI From, the Democratic Leadership Council; David
Wilhelm, the former Chairman of the Democratic Party from Illinois, who is here with me
today.
I want to thank Senator Durbin and Congressman Costello, two of the ablest,
finest people 'in the United States Congress. (Applause.)
I want to tell you that they are joined here today by other members of Congress,
including Congressman Jim Clyburn, who came all the ":lay from South Carolina;
Congressman Paul Kanjorski, from the state of Pennsylvania; and Congressman Dale
Kildee from Michigan, all of whom care about this community and communities
like it all across America. I thank them. (Applause.)
And I want to thank your neighboring Mayor, Clarence Harman, for coming over
from St. Louis, and your former Mayor, Gordon Bush, for being here with me.
(Applause.) And I want to thank Secretary Cuomo, Secretary Glickman, Secretary
Slater and all the other people from the administration.
�We have had a great time these last two days, going across America. We are
going to finish this day, first by shopping at Walgreen's.,.- (applause) -- and then we're
going to get in an airplane and fly to.south Dakota, where we will begin tomorrow at the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
So from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to East St. Louis to Pine Ridge.
(Applause.) It' has been a wonderful trip. But let me ask you something: If you look
around this crowd today, I have to make .,.- this is a happy day, a happy day. But I
want to say one serious thing off of ~his subject today, because of a remark that was
made earlier by Cathy that I believe in community development; emphasis community.
You have been very good to me, to the First Lady, to Vice President Gore and
Mrs. Gore. You have supported our initiatives and especially the Vice President's
leadership of all of our community development. But what's the first thing that
makes it work? Look around this crowd today. 'We have people from all kinds of
backgrounds, all different colors, all different religions. (Applause.) Everybody -- all
different ages, working for something good.
,
,
So this is the first chance, my first stop in Illinois since the tragic string of
shootings in Illinois and Indiana these last couple of days, that have come to end with
the apparent suicide of the alleged gunman. Now, I don't want to say a lot, but I think
it's important to note that while we have to wait for all of the details to come in, the early
reports indicated that this shooting spree, against Jews, Orthodox Jews, against the
young Asian students, taking the life of a former basketball coach at Northwestern, an
African American, all were motivated by some blind racial hatred against anybody who
didn't happen to be white.
Isn't it ironic that this occurred duringthetime we celebrated the birth of our
nation on the 4th of July? That action was a rebuke to the very ideals that got us
started. Also a stern reminder to us that even as we celebrate this, even as we
stand up against racial and ethnic and religious hatred in Kosovo, in Northern Ireland
and the Middle ~ast and Africa, we've still got work to do here at home. (Applause.)
So I say to you: I. want to get back to the celebrating, but I issue an appeal here
from East St. Louis to every community and every citizen in this country: We must
search the hearts of our citizens and search the strength of our communities, that
Congress should pass the hate crimes legislation, but we should rid our hearts of hatred
immediately. ,(Applause.)
Now, I want to tell you what got us going on this. In 1992, when I ran for
President, I came to East St. Louis, and I said I wanted to create a country in the 21.st
century where there was opportunity for every citizen, responsibility from every citizen
and a community of all American citizens. I said that we ought to have a new role for
government, that government couldn't solve all the problems, but walking away from
them did not work very well, either; and that we had to focus on creating the'conditions
and giving people the tools to make the most of their own lives and to get together
~
across lines that had divided them for too long.
2
�Goodness knows, in the inner cities and the rural areas of our country, lines have
divided those who worked hard that 'ha<!l no money and those who had plenty of money,
but didn't believe it could be very well spent in the inner city or in rural areas.
Now, if you look at what has happened since, we see in this community both
poverty and great promise, retail returning, new jobs, new residents, new hope,
Walgreen putting up 400 stores across America, many of them in inner-city areas. But
still, there are many unmet needs and unmet opportunities.
.
You heard what Cathy said about opportunities. Let me tell you, the economists
talk about something in our inner cities called the "purchasing power gap." Let me tell
you what that means. That means most people in East St. Louis, even though the
unemployment rate is higher than the national average, most people get up and go to
work every day. (Applause.), And ifyou take the money that you earn here as against
the money you are able to spend here because of the jobs that are here and the stores
that are here, in America as a whole, there is 25 percent more money earned than
spent in the inner cities. In Los Angeles, it's 35 percent; in East St. Louis it is 40 .
percent. So you can handle this Walgreen's and a lot more besides, and we want to
see them coming here. (Applause.)
And we thank Bank of America for the library, and we thank those involved in the
hotel, the bank, the homes being built near here. We also want you to know that we
want to do our part. Secretary Cuomo's Housing and Urban Development block grants,
along with Bank of America, and many department stores are helping Jackie build the
Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center near here. (Applause.)
So this is what Vice President Gore and I have tried to do with our empowerment
zones and our community banks and our vigorous enforcement of the Community'
Reinvestment Act. It says you're supposed to loan money everywhere in America; That
law has been on the books for 22 years, but over 95 percent of the money loaned under
it, billions of dollars has been loaned since the Clinton-Gore administration has been in
office. And I am proud of that. (Applause.)
We made East St. Louis an enterprise community in our first round of
empowerment zones and enterprise communities way back in 1994, and because you
have done so well, East St. Louis is designated as an empowerment zone for our
second round, which means more money being spent here by the government, more
tax incentives for the private sector to put businesses h~re, and to hire the people from
East St. Louis and give them good jobs. (Applause.)
.
Senator Durbin, Congre~sman Costello and every member of the Congress here
is committed to creating that second round of empowerment zones and funding them
this year. We need help from Republicans and Democrats alike. This is not a party
. issue. All Americans benefit when all Americans work. (Applause.)
.
Now, let me tell you why else we came here today. We want to make two points
which all the previous speakers have made. I just want to be very explicit. Starting with
what the Mayor said about, location, location, location, accessibility -- boy, that was ~
3
�good rap, wasn't it? I liked that. That was good. (Laughter.) The first point we want to
make is, when the Wallgreen President comes, or when an executive from Bank of
America comes, or when Mel Farr comes, and comes to places'like this, or the
Mississippi Delta, or Appalachia, the other places we're going, is, hey, there are
business opportunities out here. If you've got people who want to go to work and
people with money to spend, and they're both in the same place, it's a good place to
invest. (Applause.)
The second thing we're doing is promoting what you have heard referred to as the
New Markets Initiative. Now, let me just tell you what that is. That's a bill we're going to
put before the Congress that says that if people invest in any high unemployment, high
poverty area, anywhere in America,' inside or outside one of our empowerment
communities, they can geta tax credit for the money they put up, and they can go to the
bank and borrow money and have it guaranteed -- a guaranteed loan, by the federal
government, which will lower the interest rates, which will mean it will be much cheaper
for people to invest in communities like' East St. Louis than it otherwise would be.
(Applause.)
:
Now, the government is not going to do it. Nobody is going to put any money
here if they think they're going to lose it. If you put up $1.00 and you irwest it and I give
you a 25-percent tax credit, if it's a bad investment, you still lose $75. But it makes it
more likely that people will do it. It makes it more likely that they will take a look. It
makes it more likely that you will build the kind of relationships which will make people
know you, and trust you, and want to build a common future with you. And that is what
we're trying to do. It is not a handout, but it is darn sure a hand up, and you are entitled
to it. (Applause.)
And let me say to all of you, it is something that is good for the rest of America.
We've had almost 19 million new jobs; the longest peacetime expansion in history; the
lowest African American and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded in this
country to date -- but the unemployment rates are still higher than they are for the rest
of the country.' Incomes are rising, but they're still lower than they are for the rest of the
country. There is room to grow and to learn.
Look, we're all going to have to work hard at this. Nobody's got all the answers.
There is no magic wand. But we know one thing: people make these investments one
at a time, just like Mel Farr sells his cars: one at a time. You can only build one
Walgreens on this spot. And somebody had to come up with the money. Somebody
, had to make the decision. Somebody's got to hire all the people that work here.
Somebody's got to,train them. Somebody's got to make all these decisions.
But what we can do is to create an environment in which more people will want to
hold hands with you and walk into the 21 st century, so that nobody is left behind, and
we all go forward together. (Applause.)
You know, in 1960, Look Magazine said East St. Louis was an all-American city.
It was because of stockyards and shipping yards. It was because of private enterprise.
4
�The government can help, but private enterprise will make East St. Louis that all
American city again, if we go forward together. (Applause.)
And I just want to make one last pOinito everybody else in America who's looking
at this. I spent a lot of time as your President, now, trying to figure out, how can I keep
this economic good time going? When we started, nobody believed we could have an
economic expansion that would go on this long. When we started, no con'ventional
economist believed you could have unemployment rat'es under four and a half percent
nationwide without having inflation and high interest rates, which would wreck
everything. When we started, no one thought so.
But, you know, all of these young, technological geniuses are figuring out all this
new computer technology, and it's rifling through what we all do, and it's making us
more productive. And we're. doing a good job.
But now I say to myself every day when I get up, now what can I do to keep this
going? The only way to keep it going -- more growth with no inflation; more jobs and
higher wages without bringing it to a halt -- is to have new people working, and new
people buying. New people producing.
Where are those people? Those are the people you move from welfare to work.
Those are the people who are disabled -- and we're going to let them keep their health
insurance when they go into the workplace, so they can move into the workplace.
(Applause.) And most important of all, those are the people in the inner cities and the
rural areas, on the Native American reservations that have been passed by this
recovery.
~ee
America has been blessed by this economic recovery. Now we are determined to
that all Americans are blessed by it as we move into the 21 st century.
Thank you, and God bless you. (Applause.)
END
5:45 P.M. COT
5
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Pine Ride, South Dakota)
For Immediate Release
July 7,1999
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION COMMUNITY
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
12:00 P.M. MDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very. much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President,
and thank you to all of you here from Pine Ridge and all the other tribal leaders who are
here for HUD's Shared Vision Conference. I am profoundly honored to be in Pine Ridge
and in the Lakota Nation. In fact, to try to demonstrate my appreciation and respect, I
would like to try -- to try to say something in Lakota. (Applause.) Mitakuye Oyasin.
(Applause.)
My neighbors, my friends, we are all related. (Applause.) Consider those who have
come here today to join hands with you, along with Secretary Cuomo, Secretary
Glickman, your great congressional delegation, our Democratic leader, Tom Daschle in
the United States Senate and Senator Johnson, Congressman Thune. You don't know
this, but we have members of Congress from all over America who have come here to
express their support and their commitment to join you in building a better tomorrow.
Congressman Ed Pastor from Arizona; Congressman Dale Kildee, from the state of
Michigan; Congressman Jim Clyburn, from South Carolina; and Congressman. Paul
Kanjorski, from Pennsylvania, he has come all the way from Pennsylvania to be here.
(Applause.)
I want to thank the other people from the administration, especially Assistant
Secretary of the Interior, Kevin Gover and Lynn Cutler, in the White House, who work
with all of our Native American leaders around America, for what they do. (Applause.)
want to thank the CEO of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines; the CEO of Northwest, Mark
Omen; the PMI President, Roger Horton; Mortgage Bankers Association President bon
Lang; Champion Homes CEO Walter Young -- for all the work that they are prepared to
do in building a better future and they're here today. (Applause.)
I want to thank my good friend, Jesse Jackson, for never letting us forget our
common obligations. (Applause.) I thank the other members of our delegation today -
Bart Harvey, from Enterprise; AI From, from the Democratic Leadership Council. I'd
like to thank the young AmeriCorps volunteers who are here today for all the work they
do. (Applause.)
�I would like to finally say a word of appreciation to all the people who live here on this
reservation, who welcomed me into their homes, who talked to me today as I walked
down their streets. I thank especially Geraldine Bluebird, who Secretary Cuomo
mentioned -- she let me sit on her porch and she told me how she tries to make ends
meet for the 28 people that share her small home and the house trailer adjoining.
I thank the children who stopped their playing and shook hands witQ me and listened
to me while I encouraged them to stay in school and to go onto college and to live out
their dreams. (Applause.) I want to bring you greetings from two people who are not
here -- first, from Vice President Gore, who has headed our empowerment zone effort
that Pine Ridge became a part of today. (Applause.) And, second, just a little over an
hour ago, I talked to the First Lady, and Hillary has spent more time in Indian Country
than any First Lady in history. She is intensely committed to this effort, and she asked
me to say hello to you. (Applause.)
President Saulway said today I was the only President ever to come to an Indian
reservatio'n for a nation to nation business meeting. I remember,back in 1994, I invited
all the tribal leaders in America to the White House, and it was the first such gathering
since the presidency of James Monroe in the 1820s. Now, I know that Calvin Coolidge
came to Pine Ridge in the 1920s, and that President Roosevelt visited another Native
American reservation, but no American President has been anywhere in Indian Country
since Franklin Roosevelt was President. That is wrong, and we're trying to fix it today.
(Applause.)
I was profoundly moved by the pipe ceremony, just as I was when your
congressional delegation took me last night not only to Mount Rushmore, but to the
Crazy Horse Memorial, and to the museum that is there with it.,
But I ask you today, even as we remember the past, to think more about the future.
We know well what the failings of the present and the past are. We know well the
imperfect relationship that the United States and its government has enjoyed with the
tribal nations. But I have seen today not only poverty, but promise.
And I have seen enormous courage. I came here today for t,hree reasons. First of
all, to celebrate the empowerment zone and the housing projects that are going on here
now. Second, to talk about my New Markets Initiative and what else we can do. But,
third, with the business leaders who are here -- and I've already introduced them, but I'd
like to ask the business leaders I just mentioned to stand up. We want to send a
message to America that this is a good place to invest. Good people live here. Good
people live in Indian country, they deserve a chance to go to work. (Applause.) Thank
you. Thank you. (Applause.)
You've already heard President Saulway and Secretary Cuomo recite the statistics.
It's a hot day out here and I know you're suffering in the sun. But I want to send a '
message to America. So I just want to say a few things, and I want you to think about
this. Think about the irony of this. We are in the longest period of eco,nomic growth in
peacetime in our history. (Applause.)
2
�We have in America almost 19 million new jobs. WE have the lowest unemployment
rate ever recorded for African Americans and Hispanics. For over two years our country
has had an unemployment rate below 5 percent. But here on this reservation, the
unemployment rate is nearly 75 percent. That is wrong, and we have to do something
to change it, and do it now. (Applause.)
When we are on the verge of a new century and a new millennium where people are
celebrating the miracles of technology, and the world growing closer and closer
together, and our ability to learn from and with each other and make business
partnerships with each other all across our globe, and there are still reservations with
few phones and no banks, when still three or four families are forced to share two
simple rooms, where communities where Native Americans live have deadly disease
and infant mortality rates at many times the national rate, when these things still persist,
we cannot rest until we do better. And trying is not enough; we have to have results.
We can do better. (Applause.)
Our nation will never have a better chance. When will we ever have this kind of
opportunity where unemployment is low,inflation is low, there's a lot of money in our
country, the value of our stock market has tripled and then some. Business people are
looking for new places to invest, and people who have done well feel a moral obligation
to try to help those who are less fortunate, who have not fully participated.
And we see it from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to the inner cities of our
country, to the Native American comml,lnities. If we can't do this now, we will never get
around to doing it. So let us give ourselves a gift for the 21 st century -- an America
where no one is left behind and everyone has a chance. (Applause.)
We will do our part. You have suffered from neglect, and you know that doesn't
work. You have also suffered from the tyranny of patronizing inadequately funded
government programs, and you know that doesn't work. We have tried to have a more
respectful, more proper relationship with the tribal governments of this country to
promote more genuine independence, but also to give more genuine support. And the
empowerment zone program, as the Vice President and I designed it six years ago, is
designed to treat all communities that way. We're not coming from Washington to tell
you exactly what to do and how to do it, we're coming from Washington to ask you what
you want to do, and tell you we will give you the tools and the support to get done what
you want to do for your children and their future. (Applause.)
President Saulway and a number of tribal leaders came to me at the White House a
couple of months ago. You may have heard in the national press that I repeatedly
referred to this profoundly emotional meeting. I have given a great deal of thought to
what was said then and what I heard now. We can do better. I would like to mention
just a few specific things, for you have all heard years of pretty words.
There is no more crucial building block for a strong community and a promising
future than a solid home. Today, I want to talk about a number of things the
government and the private sector.are going to do to increase homeownership. Our
whole team visited those new homes that are being built not far from here. We talked to
the families that are moving into those homes. I had a little boy take me through every
3
�room in the home, tell me exactly where every closet was, tell me what his sister's room
had that he didn't have, and why it was all right, because she was older and she needed
such things.
This is important. So what are we going to do? Private lenders, like Bank of
America, Northwest, Bank One, Washington Mutual, are going to work with the
. Mortgage Bankers Association and HUD, to more than double the number of
government-insured or guaranteed home mortgages in Indian country in each of the
next three years. (Applause.)
Right here in Pine Ridge, Fannie Mae, under Frank Raines' leadership, has set aside
millions of dollars to help you buy those homes at below-market rates. And they are
spending hundreds of millions of dollars all across this country'to help people just like
you become homeowners for the first time. (Applause.) And Secretary Cuomo's
Partnership for Housing is giving financial incentives and counseling to help families
figure out how to actually get this done, how to buy their own homes and pay for them.
But, as I heard over and over today, even if we went in and tried to repair or rebuild
or build new homes for every family here, and in every Indian community throughout the
United States, we must have jobs if we want these communities to work. (Applause.)
Adults need to have something to fook forward to every morning when they get up. And
if they want their kids to stay in school. and stay out of trouble, and look to tomorrow,
their lives have to be evidence that looking to tomorrow pays off. It is appalling thatwe
have the highest growth rate in peacetime in our history; that we have an
unemployment rate below 5 percent for two years, and the unemployment rate on this
hallowed reservation is almost 75 percent. That is appalling, and we can do better.
(Applause.)
.
No community in America, can grow, however, without basic blocks. No community
in America should be without safe running water and sewer systems. So the
Department of Agriculture will put nearly $16 million in water projects throughout Indian
country, including two right here in Pine Ridge, that will also help you get jobs, as well
as improve the quality of life. (Applause.) .
As you can see, in this Big Sky 'country, it is rather warm and it gets windy from time
to time, as the Natives will attest. The Department of Energy will help you harness the
power and profits of wind and solar energy, to save money and make money.
(Applause.) Owens Corning and North American Steel Framing Alliance will provide
skills training and the promise of quality jobs. And Citibank and Gateway Computer
Company will work with Oglala Lakota College and other schools to help Native
American students get the computer skills that will allow them to get 21 st century jobs.
(Applause.)
.
And ou r Federal Communications Commission will work with you to improve
telephone service throughout Indian Country, an absolute prerequisite for getting any
new business in here.
.
4
�Let me just say that one of the things that We have learned is that the computer and,
the Internet make it possible for many people to do many kinds of work in any
community, anywhere in the United States; indeed, increasingly, anywhere in the world.
The fact that this reservation is a long way from an urban center would have been an
absolute prohibitive barrier to a lot 'of economic development just 10 or 15 years ago.
The explosion of computer technology and the Internet, if you know how to use it and
you know how to deliver for others with it, has literally made the distance barrier almost
insignificant for many kinds of economic activity. So I want to implore you to use your
'tribal col/ege and Vfork with these companies and make the most of the skills they are
offering, and we can get the jobs to come, here orlceyou can do them. (Applause.)
,
•
r
,
Finally, we must seize the vast potential of tourism right here in Pine Ridge by
building a Lakota Sioux heritage cultural center. Every year, millions of f~milies travel
long, long distances to see Mt. Rushmore -- 2.7 million last year. The Crazy Horse
Memorial, about ~ million and a half, even though only the head has been finished. The
Crazy Horse Memorial last year had 1.5 million visitors; only the head has been
finished., I wenUhere late last night. And the Badlands National Park. Now, if you look
at that, you have to ask yourself: lrIow can you have -- how many people, if you did
everything right down here, if we built this cultural center, of all, the people that go to see,
Crazy Horse, of all the people that go to see Mt. Rushmore, ofall the people that go to
Badlands National Park, how many would come here. 1'/1. tell you -- a whole lot. An
enormous percentage, if you give them something to corne and see. That is nothing
more than the simple, profound, powerful story of your eloquent past and your present,
of your skills and your heritage and your culture and your faith.
.
'
"
,
These commitments that we are making today are just the beginning. Thirty-one
years ago this spring, Senator Robert Kennedy came to Pine Ridge. Many of you
probably still remember that visit. Senator Kennedy, seeking medical care for his child,
lying sick in the back ot' an abando,ned car, refUSing to sit and begin an important
meeting until all of the tribal leaders had their proper seats.
,
You may remember his message of hope. Let me say that all across America,
people were watching that. I have:to say, on a purely personal note, one of the most
touching things about this day for me is thatthe wife of our HUD Secretary is Robert
Kennedy's daughter, and she is here today and this is a proud day. I'd like to ask her to
stand. Kerry, please stan~. Thank you. '(Applause.)
We lost all those years; There were a lot of reasons, and a lot of things are better
than they were 30 years ago. But this is the first time since the",early 1960s when we
had this kind of strong American economy, and we have no excuse for walking away
from owr responsibilities to the new markets of America.
, I have asked the members of Congress'to go back and pass legislation that will give
major tax breaks and government-guaranteed loans to people who will put their money
in Indian Country, to lower the risk of taking this chance. (Applause.) We are going to
do everything we can to make your empowerment zone work. But remember -- there is
nothing thatwe can do except.to help you to realize your own dreams.
,
'
5
�So I say to every tribal leader here: The name of the conference you are attending is
Shared Visions. We must share th'e vision, and it must be, fundamentally, yours -- for
your children and their future. If y~u will give us that vision and work with us, we will
achieve it.
Thank you, and-God bless you. (Applause.)
END
12:22
P~M.
.
MDT
,.
t·
6
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Phoenix, Arizona)
For Irnmediate Release
July 7,1999
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
La Canasta Food. Products Factory
Phoenix, Arizona
5:55 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. First, I want to thank Ed Pastor for
making me feelso welcome and for being my friend and doing a wonderful job for you
. back in Washington, D.C. He has the respect of every member of Congress and when
he talks, we all listen.
I want to 'say to all of you that I am honored to be back in Phoenix. Arizona has
been very good to Hillary and to me and to the Vice President and Mrs. Gore, not only
in voting for us in the last election,but in proving that the philosophy of government and
the policies we've followed can bring us together and make us a stronger country. So I
want to begin by saying a simple "thank you."
I'd 'like to thank the people who have come here with me today. Congressman
Pastor mentioned Congressman Kanjorski from Pennsylvania, Congressman Clyburn
from South Carolina, our Small BUpiness Administrptor Aida Alvarez, and my Deputy
Chief of Staff, Maria Echaveste; they are all here and others. I thank them. (Applause.)
I'd like to thank the Reverend Jesse Jackson for coming on this tour with me, along
with the business leaders. (Applause.) I know there are some public officials here. I
think Janet Napolitano, your Attorney General. is here; she met me at the airport .. Jim
Hill, the State Treasurer of Orego'l. is here. Thank you both. (Applause.)
I'd like to thank the business leaders here with me. Leo Guzman, Mary Ann
Spraggins, Gene Humphries of Enron, Stephen Burd of .Safeway, John Corella of
.
Corella Electric, Myrna Sonora df KTVW 33; some of you probably watch that.
(Laughter.) Mike Welburn of Bank One, Andy Gordon of Arizona Multibank, Frank
B,allasteros of MICRO; Leonard Mareno of Mareno Welding; Yolanda Kaiser of Builder's
Book Depot. And, obviously, I'd like to thank our host, Josie Ippolito, and all the other
wonderful women in this remarkable family that own this. (Applause.)
Ed already said why we're here, and I'm here mostly to listen to the people here.' But
I want to make a very important point. I want you to know whywe are here. We are
here because we have the longest peacetime expansion in history, almost 18 million
new jobs since I took office, the lowest unemployment rates among Hispanic American.s
�and African Americans ever -recorded. Our country has been really blessed by these
good economic times. It has contributed to giving us the lowest crime rate in 25 years,
the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, declining rates of teen pregnancy and drug abuse.
We have 90 percent of our little children immunized against serious childhood diseases
for the first time in the history of our country.
But we know as blessed as America has been, not every American has been
blessed by this recovery. -All you've got to do is drive down the streets here in South
Phoenix to see that. So what we are doing is "going around the country to say we can
do better, thatmorally, now that we're doing so well, we have an obligation to give every
American who is willing to work for, it a chance to walk across that bridge .into the 21 st
century with us, so we go forward together, leaving no one behind.
And not only that, it's good economics. A long way from South Phoenix, I have to
worry every day about how I can keep creating jobs so you have more people to buy
-these wonderful products you are producing. I mean, 840,000 a day -- that's a lot of
people, you know. Of course, not everybody eats as many at one sitting as I do.
(Laughter.) So, I mean, it's a lot of people. So I think about that.
How can I do that? Well, we can sell more of our products overseas, which we're
trying to do. We can take more people off welfare, disabled people, and help them get
in the work force, which we're trying to do. But the easiest way to keep America's
economy going strong is to get more investment, create more jobs and create more
consumers in the neighborhoods, in the cities and in the rural areas and on the Indian _
reservations which have not yet felt this recovery. That's what this whole thing is about
how we can do this together.
And I'm here to make three points. Number one -- and I want to give some specifics
in a minute -- we've been working at this for six and a half years with our empowerment
zones and our enterprise communities and our community development banks -- you
have one here ,.- with the vigorous support of the Community Reinvestment Act.
Number two, therefore, American business needs to know that there ar:e good
opportunities right now in inner cities and in rural America. This is not about charity; this
is about how to make money by helping people who are willing to work for themselves
get the chance to do it, to start those businesses or become good employees. That's
what this is about. (Applause.)
Finally, it's about supporting our New Markets Initiative, which seeks to make it
easier for people to get equity capital to start or expand their businesses in any poor
neighborhood or underdeveloped area anywhere in the United States of America. So
that's why we're here. And that's the message you're sending out here in South
Phoenix, to every community in America, where there are good people who need
investment and jobs.
Now, let me say that there are a lot of good things that are happening and I want to
thank some of the people who are here. I want to thank Safeway for the new store at
16th Street and Southern Avenue, and the new shopping center that it will anchor.
2
�That will create a lot of jobs. And, interestingly enough, we're trying to highlight this
everywhere, because in almost every city in America, even with high unemployment,
there are obviously a lot more people working than not working and there is more
purchasing power in our cities than there are stores to take it up. So we thank Safeway.
I also want to thank Univison, because they are about to build a new multimillion
dollar broadcast facility for its local station, KTBW 33, and they're going to build it right
here in South Phoenix, and that will help your economy to grow. Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank you.
I want to thank the community 'development institutions like Arizona Multibank, the
microenterprise organizations like MICRO; That's a fancy way of saying they loan small
amounts of money to people to start small businesses who couldn't get the money
anywhere else, and g'uess what? They usually make good loans and they make money
doing it, by giving people a chance who couldn't get a chance anywhere else.
I
I want to thank Arizona Multibank* for launching Magnet Capital, which is a new
venture capital fund, backed by the Small Business Administration that will give lower
income entrepreneurs the equity they need to grow and expand. So thank you very
much, Mr. Gordon. (Applause.)
.
Now, there's lots of other things that all you have to say: Just remember, we came
here for three reasons. One is, t6 show the business community of this countrY that we
have the kind of partnership between government and the private sector that makes
it more attractive to invest in places with higher unemployment and with too few
businesses. Two, to make the point that there is a huge amount of opportunity out here
right now. And the more American business knows about it, and the more they invest in
it, the better they'll do.
.
And, three, we have a proposal before the Congress to go nationwide to give big tax
breaks to people to help provide. equity capital. And I want you to know what I'm doing.
I'm basically ask.ing the Congress to give investors like those on this stage with me
today the same incentives to invest in South Phoenix that we give them'right now to
invest in the developing countrie,s of Latin America and Africa and the Caribbean. I
want to do that, but you should have the same incentives here. (Applause.)
So thank you all for coming and, Congressman, the fioor is yours. You want to
introduce the folks who are going to'talk? I think maybe you're going next -- our
hostess.
'
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Let's give him a hand; I thought that was
good. (Applause.)
If I could -- if I could just make one point. One of the things that I learned traveling
around the country in 1990 and'1991, before I decided to run for President, was that the
crime rate was going down in areas where more police were on the street, and in the
communities, and working with ,their neighbors -- not just because they were catching
people quicker, but because i~ was actually preventing crime from occurring in the
3
�first place.,
In the last six and a half years, We have funded 100,000 more police officers for our
streets -- in small towns and rural areas as well as big cities.' And in the budget I now
have before the Congress, we're trying to get another 50,000 targeted at the highest
crime areas in the country.
So that will help -~ that's something that we didn't come here to talk about today, but
if I can persuade the Congress to do that, that will obviously help yoU and others like '
you to locate more stores and to h<;lve more sub-stations. And it will also bring the '
police in closer contact with the community, and increase confidence and good feeling.
So I thank you very much for that. '
,
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank you for the work that you have done. You know,
we were just together over at Chicano's Porlacasa. And the work you did to help them
set up their micro lending program. The'Vice President, who has supervised all of
our community economic development efforts for the last six years announced this new
SBA initiative with Aida not very 10I1g ago.
,
,
But I just want to emphasize to you, we were in the Mississippi Delta yesterday -- it
was also 100 degrees there -- and we were in a little factory that makes picture frames,
that had been gone' into bankruptcy. And we met a young man that thought he could
turn it around and he had opened the place back up -- a place with terribly high
unemployment.
,'.
•
, ,
,
,
I
"
But one of the people I met the~e was a woman who had worked for a small
business that was doing okay, but the person running it in this little town, for family
reasons, couldn't go on. And she was the only person qualified to take over this
business, otherwise it was just going to disappear. But she made very low wages for a
person who owns a business, and she had no money in the bank.
'
'
And because she was able to get some equity capital from someone as farsighted as
you, her little business in a year went from five employees to 11 employees -- instead of
five people losing their jobs -- and a woman that never made more than a few dollars an
hour in her life is now a successful small business owner. That is that sort of thing we
ought to be doing more of. And if we did more of it in places like South Phoenix, the,
unemployment here would not be higher than the national average and the incomes
would not be lower. So rthank you very much for what you're doing. '(Applause.)
*****
I'd just like to make two pointsifl might, by way of completely agreeing with what you
just said. First of all, for people who think we don't need these SBA programs anymore
'because the economy's doing so well, I would remind you that the SBA is a permanent
example of the kind of approach that I believe we should be taking in the government.
The SBA basically gives people the tools to make the most of their own lives. They
make the market more likely to work in places where it otherwise wouldn't work. And for
4
�people who don't think it matters -- you know how much all these telecommunications
companies are worth now and what's happened to the stock market in the last six years
-~ it's more than tripled. Thirty percent of our growth coming out.of high tech.
Intel and America Online -- huge companies worth billions upon billions of dollars -
started with SBA,loans. And so, I think, you know, that:s enough to rest our case. The
second thing I ,would say is, there are -- not all the business people that have been on
this trip are right here in Phoenix, and not all the business people who wanted to go on '
this trip can go. But there is a phenomenal amount of interest in this, and I must -- I
want to give credit to Reverend Jesse Jackson. His Wall Street project has been
working on this for years.
1 mean, there is a much higher level of awareness among American business
leaders that there is money to be made and a better soCiety to be made at the same
time in these neighborhoods. So I don't think you have to worry. I think when we .can
finish this tomorrow afternoon in East LA, you will see a much higher level of
commitment and interest in corporate America than we had before. Thank you, Mr.
Corella. You're great. (Applause.) .
. *****
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I want to thank Gene, because, really, Texas is a
classic example -- it's almost exactly like Arizona and Phoenix. The unemployment rate
in Phoenix as a whole is less than 3 percent. The unemployment rate in this section of
Phoenix is twice the national average, maybe a little more. You have the same thing in
Houston.
I just want to illustrate, use Enron, which is: a fabulous and very large energy
company, to illustrate a point that he made, that I think we should emphasize because it
goes back to something John made. One of the reasons we're taking this trip here is
that one of the -- is that even in business, even with a market economy, where people
are always supposed to act in their own self~interest, people cannot do what they don't
know. And people cannot have a ;relationship with people with whom they are not
acquainted.
And one of the things that Enron* did, saying that he worked through a local
community investment group, is to have -- to literally build networks of relationships
between big businesses and people that they would otherwise never, ever, ever come
in contact with.
And so, I say again, I think -- you heard what Steve said about Safeway figuring out
there was a market here. Once you begin to establish these networks of relationships,
and once they become a part of the fabric of American life, then we can build an
economic, a normal economic infrastructure in these distressed areas -- so that the next
time a recession comes along, we won't be hurt so badly here, and then when the
pickup comes, everybody will ben'efit instead of just a few.
So I can't thank you enough. But I do want to emphasize what -- Gene Humphries
was a little too modest here. We do have a SUbstantial number of business leaders
5
�heading companies more or less in the size range of Enron*, who are helping. But we
are nowhere near where we need tobe. We need hundreds, we need thousands of
people with the kind of commitment that he's manifested, because without these
relationships, the decisions cannot be made to put the money there,i.
Thank you. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I'd like to ask a question -- thank you. (Applause.)
I'd like to ask'Frank or Andrew a question: what is the
microenterprise loan that you give?
av~rage
size of a
'
MR. GORDON: For the last 10 years, Mr. President. it has been under $2,500. And
those $2,500 make a difference. Our default rate, after lending over $7 million in
Arizona, sir, the default rate'is less: than. 4 percent.
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say that this is -- give him a hand. (Applause.) This is a
fairly typical experience worldwide.
I got interested in this 15 years ago, when I met a man who was trained in the United
States and went home to Bangladesh and founded -- one of the poorest countries in the'
world -- founded. a community Qank making microenterprise loans to poor village
women, average about -- then -- probably ,$20. Today, they average about $50. But
that's a lot of money, in American terms, given the size of their economy.
And they had a 96 percent repayment rate. Now he's made millions of these loans,
in a country with 100 million people. So I'm -- one of the things I'm quite proud of is that
now, under our administration, we now fund 2 million microenterprise loans every year
in poor, poor villages -- in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America.
But again I say, if it's good enough for us to do for them -- which we need to do, so
those countries can keep their democracies alive, and be good citizens, and not cause
wars, and have a decent life -- it's certainly good for America. And my only regret is that
we don't give ten times as many of them every year. And if we have institutions like
Arizona Multibank* and Micro* everywhere -- we have the networks out there, again, to
make the contacts -- I think there's really very little limit to whatwe can do in getting
more rTlOney for micro loans, because they plainly work.
Is the average person,the average size of the business, a single employee, self'
employed? Or is it two?
MR. GORDON: It's a sole proprietor, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Sole proprietor.
6
�MR. GORDON: Sole proprietor. Although they do get help from their family. It's just
-- it's a family business. It's not only that self-employed -- but that's what makes it, it
guarantees its success, because of the support.
THE PRESIDENT: That's why they repay the mpney back, isn't it?
MR. GORDON: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.,
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I'd like to say something about both these presentations. Firstof
all, the way the New Markets Initiative works in terms of who gets the tax credits and
who qualifies, the way this works is, people that invest in a business enterprise can get
up to a 25 percent tax credit for the money they put up, then they qualify for every dollar
they put up for $2 in bank loans that are government-guaranteed, and the government
guarantee dramatically lowers the interest rates on the bank loan, so that between the
tax credit and the lower interest rates, you reduce the relative risk of investing in these
areas to make it more attractive.
And existing businesses qualify every bit.as much as new businesses do; it is the
area -- where do the people live, what is their per capita income, what is the
unemployment rate, how much do'we need the new Investment here. So we could
never get into -- it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to try to make distinctions
between existing and new businesses. Everybody's eligible. ' It's people we're trying to
help and places we're trying to reach.
I
,
The only other thing I would like to say is to thank you for what Univision is doing
here and for what Univision doubtless will do to publicize this meeting to the Hispanic
world in America. 'As you know, I'm very close to Henry Cisneros and I think that the
American people should know that next to the Vice President, the two people most
responsible for everything we've done in this community development area over the last
six years are the present HUD Secretary. Andrew Cuomo, and his predecessor,
Henry Cisneros. So this is, indeed, something to celebrate. (Applause.)
So the only thing I want to say is when you start building that building down here,
hire some of these folks and make sure it's a good deal. Thank you very much. Thank
you all. (Applause.)
END
6:37 p.M. PDT
7
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Anaheim, California)
July 8,1999
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN DISCUSSION ON YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES
Southwest College
Los Angeles, California
12:00 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please sit down. We're running behind now.
I've got to get to oe more businesslike. Since Alexis has been so fulsome in her kind
comments, that was an example of Clinton's second law of politics -- always be
introduced by someone you've appointed to a high position. (Laughter.)
Let me say to, first, our host here in Representative Maxine Water's district,
we're delighted to be here. I want to thank all of you who. made it possible for us to
come to this beautiful facility. Let me say I am doing something today I never thought I
.
.
would ever do, for those who have been on the tour with me, I came to Los Angeles to
cool off. (Laughter.) It was 100 degrees in Washington when we left; it was 100
degrees in Appalachia; it was 100 pegrees in the Mississippi Delta; it was 100 degrees
in East St. Louis; it was only about94 on the Indian reservation yesterday; and it was
over 100 in South Phoenix. So I came to Los Angeles to cool off, and I thank you very
much for that.
I want to thank Secretary Daley and Secretary Slater who are here. And,
Reverend Jackson, thank you for making this tour with us, and all the business leaders
. who have been with us. I want to thank Congresswoman Millender-McDonald. We
were just over at the transportation academy in her district, and I enjoyed that very
much. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, thank you for being here. Congressman
Javier Becerra; and Congressman' Paul Kanjorski, who came all the way from
Pennsylvania, has been on every step of this tour, and I thank him.
Governor, thank you for making us feel welcome. And, Devon Burke (phonetic),
thank you. And I'd like to thank all the business leaders and all the leaders from
entertainment and athletics and other things that are here today.
I will be very brief because I'want to hear from the young people here. I· have
believed from the beginning of my tenure as President that in order for the American
economy to really work, and in order for the American society to work, every American
should believe that he or she had a chance to be a part of it. And we've worked on this
for some time. And you hear Alexis talking about the economic statistics: we now have
the longest peacetime expansion history, the longest minority unemployment rates
in
�ever recorded. But everyone knows that there are still substantial numbers of people in
our distressed urban and rural areas and on our Indian reservations that basically
have not been part of this recovery.
In Watts, for example, the unemployment rate has dropped almost 50 percent,
but it still is three times above the national average, just for example. And so it seemed
to me several months ago -- and I talked about this in my State of the Union address
way back in January -- that there was a way to tap the enormous feeling that a lot of our
business leaders have that they've done very, very well in a stock market that's more
than tripled in six years and a strong economy, and that they ought to give something
back with the idea that it would actually be good economics to give something back.
Those of you who follow the business news know that every time the Federal
Reserve meets there's all this tense speculation, will they raise interest rates or not?
Well, what does that mean to these young people here with their yellow tee-shirts on? It
is that most economists believe that there is a limit to how low the unemployment can
, go, and a limit to how high the economic growth can go, before you have so much
inflation that you have to stop it, which kills the economic recovery.
Now, how can you keep it going? How can we keep this recovery going -- never
mind all these kids we're here to hear about, just for those of you who have done well in
the stock market? How could you keep it going? The easiest way to keep it going is to
go to places where there aren't enough jobs and there aren't enough consumers, and
, create more of both -- create more business owners, create more workers, create more
consu~ers. That's all growth completely without inflation.
It allows America's economic expansion to continue, so there's a real sense in
which every time we hire a young person off the street in Watts and give him or her a
better future, we are helping people who live in 'the ritziest suburb in America to,
continue to enjoy a rising stock market. And it proves beyond any doubt that we are all
in this together, that we're all better off when the least of us do well.
And also, we have a chance here that we've never had before at least in my
lifetime, certainly not since the American economy began to unravel in the late '60s. We
have got a chance to actually build an economic infrastructure in the inner-cities
and in rural America that will restore something like a normal economy to places.
There will always be -- some times are pretty good, some times won't be so
good. But what we want for every American is to live in a community where at least he
or she has the same shot everybody else does.
, Now, thefirst three and a half days,what we spent focusing on is how to get
money into isolated places. That's basically what we've been focusing on. And we
talked a lot about the things we've been doing since 1993. We've had wonderful
business leaders from all over America ..,- by the way, on both parties. This is not a
partisan issue anyplace but Washington, D.C., and I hope it won't be there -- saying,
hey, this is a good business, this is a good deal, we want to be a part of it. And,
.2
�we talked about this new markets legislation I have proposed which would give tax
credits and government guaranteed loans to people who would invest to give equity to
people to start businesses in the inner-city and in rural America.
And basically what I've askea the Congress to do is to give businesspeople the
same incentive to invest in America they get to invest today in poor communities in Latin
America or Asia or Africa or the Caribbean. I don't want to take those opportunities
away; I just want American communities to have the same shot at the future.
- ,
'
(Applause.)
So, now, what we're here today to say is that even if we do all that, in the world
we're living in, there is a high premium in an information society placed on knowledge,
skills, what you know today and what you can continue to learn. One of the young
people I saw today is about to join the United States Army, once in a gang, was working
a computer program in which he was able to match someone in Russia who wanted to
buy tires with someone in Colombia who wanted to sell them, and he could get a
commission off of it in between. Well, I just give you that as one example. I saw a lot of
other -- I saw two young people who were designing automobiles that would be less
wind-resistant and, therefore, would operate at ~igher rates of efficiency.
Another young man who was mixing sound, so that if I -- he told me if I sang a
song flat into his microphone he could tune it up so I'd sound just fine. (Laughter.)
,
- All these things make this point, and that's why we're here, to finish, in a way, with
the most important thing of all--we, can put in place-the financial networks, we can
create a lot of jobs, but our young people -- and 60 percent of the young people, men
and women -- young men and women in the most distressed areas of America are
neither in school or at work still. And so we can do all of these things and provide these
investments, but if our young people don't have the opportunity to learn and to continue
to learn and to continue to get training for a lifetime, we won't be able to do it.
The first place I went in Appalachia, 57 percent of the people who live there never
finished high school. It's very remote. But there's a man there that expanded a firm that
does business with all the high-tech companies in the country from 40 to 850
employees by having all of his present employees do a continuous job training on every
new person they try to take out of the hills and hollows of Appalachia.
So there is no place, even in rural America, that can escape the reality that we
must train and educate our young people if we really want this to work. So that's what
we're here about.
I thank Secretary Herman for this youth opportunities initiative, and all of you who.
are participating. So, Alexis, why don't you take over and let's hear from our folks.
(Applause.)
.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Let me just say, Mel Farr, who is a former all-pro football
player from Detroit, is becoming the largest automobile dealer in America, and it's just
3
�worked .out. One of the announcements we made earlier on our tour is that he has a lot
of big financial institutions who've agreed to buy his car loans in bulk, which·will enable
him to expand all across America and put minority-owned dealerships in every
community in this country·.
And for people who have modest incomes, you know, he has adapted this sort of
car leasing proposal -- you remember, this started a few years ago when people
stopped buying cars and started leasing them and leased them three years. Mel will
lease people cars, give you leases-for as short a perioq as two months. But if you don't
pay, you can't make off with the car, he's got a device thatwill turn the car off.
(Laughter.) So he soon will be responsible for the widest distribution of car ownership in
America with the largest number of cars that won't run. (Laughter and applause.)
This is actually a brilliant thing, because he's giving people a chance to have cars
they never could afford otherwise .. He's recognizing that people who don't have a lot of
cash income have to live from month to month. And he's doing it in a way that is giving
people a chance to run dealerships who never could have run them before; and they will
all train people and hire the kind of people that Toyota Center is training.
So, thank you, Mel, for a brilliant thing you're doing. (Applause.)
*****
. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Let me just briefly say in closing, first of all, I
want to thank all those who have participated and those who are here who have not
said anything, but by the power of their example are doing a great thing for our country.
We have advocates here; we have investors; and we have those are examples -
particularly these young people who have spoken.
To me, this is the best of all endeavors because it is the morally right thing to do
and it is in the self-interest of every American who participates in it. I believe -- I. listen
to these young people, and I read the notes on their lives before I came here ~- you
know, things happen to people in life, and the good things and the bad things, especially
to our children, are not evenly distributed. And yet, among all the poor people in
America, there are people who could help us find a cure for AIDS, a vaccine; there are
people who could help us to -- I talked to one of the young men earlier who developed
composite parts for cars that would be as strong as steel and weigh a thousand pounds
less and get 80 miles a gallon, or 90. There are people who could solve every problem
out there. The talent and the human spirit are evenly distributed across racial and
income lines.
.
But things happen to people and things happen to communities. In our inner~
cities and a lot of our rural areas, the economic bases that once made them organized,
thriving and successful, evaporated .-- and we did a lousy job as a country of replacing
that. We were slow off the up-take. And in other places, like our Indian reservations,
arguably, there never was an economic basis that would be self-sustaining. .
4
�So whatwe·do here is to say that this is not something the government can do
alone, but the government should do it's part. And this is not something the private
sector can be expected to do unless we provide the training and the support for
the young people and provide the framework within which we lower the risk of these
investments as much as is prudent.
But we have to remember th~ human element in all this. We were in East St.
Louis yesterday, visited a WalmartStore in one of the most distressed inner city areas -
I mean, Walgreen's store, this beautiful Walgreen's store -- 30 employees. The
manager of the Walgreen's store was a 24-year-:old African American girl that grew up
in that community and got out of college and was just good at what she did. And that
company believed in her enough to give her a chance at the age of 24 to run a store
with 30 employees. An example. You're an example. You're an example. You're an
example. All of you are examples ..
The rest of us -- who basically had a lot of luck and good fortune in live -- you
know, we all like to believe we were born in log cabins we built ourselves, but most of us
were helped along life's way and we had a lot of luck to get where we are. And most of
us, with all the bad things that happened to us, end life ahead of where we would be if
all we got was what we just deserved. And ",!e should rememberthat.
And we should think about these children 'and remember that it is in the interest of
America -- the talent and the gifts and the richness of their souls and their spirits are
evenly distributed. But things happen to them or things happen to the place where they
happen to be born, or where they happen to live now -- and we can make it better. If we
can't do it now, with this economy as strong as it is, we'll never get around to doing
it.
So when we leave here we should remember that, and we should do it. Thank
you very much.
END
12:53 P.M PDT
. 5
�THE WHITE HOWSE.
Office of the Press Secretary
(Anaheim, California)
July 8,1999
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO NATIONAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Anaheim Hilton and Towers·
Anaheim, California
3:00 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: You know, Hazel, you might consider just skipping that h.otel
business and going right into politics. (Laughter.) I want to thank all of you for your
welcome. And I thank Hazel and her fellow winners behind us for reminding us of why
we're here. Mayor Daley, thank you of making me feel welcome -- and, Secretary
Daley, Secretary Slater. Representative Sanchez, we're delighted to be in your district
and to be here with other members of Congress who are here.
.
I'd like to say a special word of appreciation to my wonderful friend, our former
Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, who is here with us today and supporting this
endeavor. (Applause.)
Since this is the last event for me in this week-long odyssey across America to
our-- what we called America's new markets, I'd like to say a s'pecial word of thanks to
the folks on the White House staff'who made it possible, including my National
'
Economic Advisor, Gene Sperling, without whom this never would have occurred.
(Applause.) .
And I want to say a special word of thanks to Reverend Jesse Jackson, who
worked with Sandy Weil on the Wall Street Project, went to Appalachia before it was
fashionable, who always believed that poor people were smart, wanted to work, and
had a right -- a moral right -- to be part of America's future. Thank you, Jesse Jackson.
(Applause.)
And, thank you, Sandy Weil; for the Wall Street Project, which attempts to marry
the investment capacity of Wall Street with the human capacity of all those places we've
been visiting. Thank you for the National Academy Foundation. Thank you for being a
good friend to me and to all these young people and so many others. 'And thank you for
inviting me to this annualconferen'ce.
.
,
..
.
This is really quite an appropriate place for me and those who have traveled with
me this last week on our new markets trip to end our journey, reaffirming your
commitment and ours to prepare all our children for the new century. Over the past four'
�days, as I have traveled across America, we have sought to shine the spotlight on
places still unlit by the sunshine of our present prosperity. A number of you have been
along for what has truly been a remarkable ride.
.
We've seen the power of people in public and private life to work together in the
Appalachians and in the Mississippi Delta. We've seen the spark that retail investment
can bring in the first shopping center built in decades in East S1. Louis, Illinois. We've
seen the impact in the most basic i'nfrastructure and housing opportunities, even in the
remote regions of Indian country in South Dakota, still the most left-behind part of
America.
In South Phoenix yesterday in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, we saw the
enormous benefits of community reinvestment initiatives. And here, earlier today, we
saw what education and job training can bring to young people in Watts -- people who
are normally identified with distressed neighborhoods, showing me how do design
automobiles on a computer, or to c;onduct sophisticated business transactions between
two different countries with' young Americans 17 years old, picking up a commission for
being the middleman.
I took this trip for three reasons. First, I wanted every American businessperson,
every American investor, to see that there are enormous opportunities out there today in
the areas that have been left behind by our economic recovery. Second, because I
wanted to highlight the tools that have already been put in place, to encourage more
'people to invest in those communities .- the empowerment zones and the enterprise
communities which Vice President.Gore has, so ably led for six years now; the.
community development financial institutions that we have supported; the Community
Reinvestment Act, which has led to billions of dollars of reinvestment in our developing
neighborhoods; the education and training initiatives designed to give all of our people a
chance not only to have good, basic skills, but to keep on learning for a lifetime.
And, third, I wanted to highlight our New Markets Initiative, a piece of legislation
simply designed to give American investors who are willing to take a chance on new
and expanded businesses in distressed urban and rural communities access to the
same kind of tax credits and loan guarantees, to lower the relative risk of their
investment in America that they· can get to invest in poor communities from Africa to
Asia to Latin America to the Caribbean. I'm for those investments, but I think America's
.communities should have access to the same capital with the same incentives.
(Applause.)
The idea behind this, obviously, is that the government cannot do this alone, but
business cannot be expected to gq it alone. When government provides the conditions
and tools, acts as a catalyst to bring the power of the private sector to benefit all of our
citizens, and provides the investment and the education and training of our young.
people, this is not only good economics, it is the right thing to do. We can build one
America where nobody is left behir;Jd when we cross that bridge into a new century.
And if we do, we'll all be better off.'
2
�The GEOs and national leaders I have traveled with, we've heard it every stop:
look, we just need a chance; our kids need education, our ad,ults need training, and we
need somebody who believes in us enough to give us a chance. ,
I'll never forget the woman we met in the Mississippi Delta, who was working for a
very small business in a depressed community that had five employees. She made a
very modest wage, and the owner of the business just decided to close up. He said
to her she was the only person capable of running the business. But nobody would give
her a loan because she'd never had any money in her life, she had only worked for
modest hourly wages.
Because there was a community investor willing to take a chance on her, she got
investment capital, she bought the business -- two years later, she went from five to 11
employees and she has just about paid her loan off. There are thousands of stories like
that waiting to be written in America in every community that is still depressed.
So we want to encourage that. And that's why so much of this trip is focused on
how to get financing. A remarkable businesswoman from New York, Mary Ann
Spraggins*, went on this trip. She's trying to set up a vision fund with $250 million in
private sector capital to give venture capital to these kinds of places. If we get our way,
the people who invest in that fund will be eligible for a 25-percent tax credit for putting
that money into high unemployment areas, and they'll be eligible to borrow $2 for every
$1 they put up in that fund and have it guaranteed by the government so we lower the
interest rate. That's the government's contribution; but somebody still has to make the
investment to put these people to work. (Applause.)
So most of the capital we've been talking about these last several days has been
money. We see in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota a remarkable
grandmother, providing school clo,thes for her grandchildren, having to literally buy the
tennis shoes her grandchildren wear to school on the installment plan'all summer long
while the shoes are kept in layaway, so the kids will have them. When there were 11
people living in a house with about 800 square feet, another 17 in an adjoining house
trailer with about 900 square feet. We need money; those people need housing.
We also saw American Indians that have been waiting for nine years moving into
their first homes. A little five-year-old boy, six-year-old boy took me by the hand and led
me all through his new home and showed me his sister's room and explained why it
was okay that she had a bigger room than he did. (Laughter.) She was a teenager,
and teenagers needed things like 'that. (Laughter.) The pride that they felt, these
people, this mother who had worked all her life and finally getting a decent home for
her children to live in.
So a lot of this is a money problem. I used to joke with a lot of my friends -- I still
say this -- that I had about nine or: 10 rules of politics that I kept in my mind all during my
career running for office, and rule number two was, when anybody stands up and tells
you it's not a money problem, theY're talking about somebody else's problem, not theirs.
(Laughter.)
,
3
�So money is a big issue here. But there's another kind of capital that in some
ways is even more fundamental -- human capital, people. When Hazel stood up here
and you clapped for her, you were ,clapping for the astonishing development of human
capital; of what she has done with her life and the chance that her mother took in going
to Hawaii, the risks and the heartache and the difficulties her 'family went through -- it
made you feel good.
And what I want to say to you today is that there are people just like these young
people we're honoring back here on every Indian reservation, in every hill and hollow of
Appalachia, up and down the Mississippi Delta, in every inner city. And they deserve -
they deserve -- the chance to be whatever they're willing to work hard to be. And unless
we're prepared to do that, even our best efforts to bring new investment to these
distressed communities will be less than fully successful.
Now, we have a better opportunity and a better reason to do that now than ever
before. As I tell people, I spend a lot of time in Washington -- Sandy's always saying
that I've done a good job as a Democrat with the economy so more people can live like
Republicans. (Laughter and applause.) And I've done my best to do that.
But you should know that one of the things that we seriously debate back in
Washington, D.C., a long way from Anaheim, is, how can we keep this going. We
already have the longest economic expansion' in peacetime in our history. We have
the lowest African American and Hispanic unemployment ra'tes ever recorded. We
have almost 19 million new jobs, and we have very low inflation. and we've had
unemployment rate below five percent for two years. So a big question is, how much
longer can this go on, and how can we keep it going without having inflation build up,
then having interest rates go up and having the recovery stop ..
This is not an academic issue if you're about to get your first job, of jf you're sitting
there trying to make up your mind whether to take out a huge bank loan to expand your
business. You want to know if we can keep this going.
My answer is, we can keep it going if we can find non-inflationary ways to
promote growth. Now, what are those? Well, we can sell more American goods and
services around the world -- why I hope the Congress will agree to help us expand our
trade with other countries. We can also bring populations that are outside the work
force into the work force. With the ,welfare rolls are now the lowest they've peen in 30
years and there are a lot of people 'still on welfare that are able-:bodied, but they
have limited skills, we could bring more people from welfare into the work force.
You can bring hundreds ofttiousands of disabled people who are capable of
doing more and more kinds of jobs, thanks to technology now, into the work force. And
the Congress, I believe, will soon send me a bill that will enable those that have high
health care costs that are noW being paid by the government to keep that health care
coverage so private employers can afford to hire them.
But by far, the biggest opportunity -- by far -.; in keeping this economy going
without inflation is to get more inve~tments, morejobs, more new business owners,
4
�more new workers ~nd, therefore, Imore new consumers, into the rural and urban areas
that have not yet been blessed by 'this recovery. .
That's why every single American actually has a vested interest in ou r success
here. And more and more businesses are looking for young people like those we
celebrate, because there's a shortage of skilled workers, even though there are people
who are still looking for jobs. In some job categories, a shortage of hundreds of
thousands. Therefore, if Americans are willing to look a few exits off the beaten path,
we can continue to grow this economy and we can continue to have more of the kind of
stories wejust heard.
Let me also say to you, if we can't do this now, with the strongest economy we
have ever had, when it is manifestly in the self-interest of every enlightened decision
maker in the country, when will ever get around to doing it? (Applause.)'
Let me tell you some of the things that we saw on the human capital front. We
walked down the dusty streets on an Indian reservation., We saw the boarded-up
storefronts in a town in the Mississippi Delta, famous for its role in the civil rights
struggle. We saw desperate living conditions in a little hollow in Appalachia where
everybody had a jOb and they still 'couldn't afford a decent house to live in.
But every place we went, nobody wanted charity, nobody wanted a handout.,
What they wanted was a hand up. That's why this will work. What people want is a
good private sector job, the simple dignity of a paycheck, the ability to house and
educate their c~ildren and provide health care for them. And what you know here, what
these young people behind me demonstrate, is that intelligence and ability and drive
arid dreams are equally distributee;! in this country among the poor and the non-poor.
(Applause. )
I've often said, things happen to people that derail their lives, and then they have
to work hard to getthem back on track. Things happen to places like that, too. I know
the M'ississippi Delta, which includes a big part of my own home state, the economy that
once sustained that area has been gone a long time. Nobody was ever able to figure
out how to put a new economy in its place. But there's a new economy out there that
could fit in that place.
There are new economies that could fit in the most remote villages of the
Appalachian Mountains. There are new economies that could go into the Native
American reservations. How many data pr:ocessing jobs do American companies ship
overseas on airplanes every nightto go to poor countries and other places? They could
be done on Indian reservations, for example. We have got to think about that.
We all can identify with a human story. If Hazel stands up here and tells us the
story of her fam,ily, it grips us' and 'we pull for her. But what you need to know is, all
these places have stories like that. We got the land and the mineral rights away from
the Indians, and we said, oh, we'll make a deal, we'll have a nation-to-nation
relationship with you, and we will provide for the education and health care and housing
5
�of your people; but we'll do a poor job of it and we'll spend just as little as we can get
away with. And then, we'll say'you must not really want to do any better.
We have to write new stories for these places. And it takes a commitment to
money capital and tile human capital. And what Sandyand all of you who have been
involved in this magnificent project show, this is Exhibit A that we can do it.
Now, let me say on a very positive note, I'm quite optimistic that I am quite sure
that one answer to this in the United States and all across the world is better dispersal
of technology. When I went to Africa, I went to these little villages where people had·
maps -- these children were in these little village schools that had maps that still showed
the Soviet Union and other nations that haven't existed in a long time. But if those kids
just had one computer for the school and a printer, they would never have to worry
about that. We could change the map of the world every day, and all those little kids
would have an updated map. Right?
Technology will enable some of these areas to skip a whole generation of
development if it is broadly dispersed. Secretary Daley referred to the Department of
Commerce report today on technology. Let me tell you what it says. It confirms
what you already know. More and more Americans than ever are connected to the
Internet. It is the fastest-growing method of human communication in all of history by
far.
But it also shows, this report; that there, is a growing digital divide between those
who have access to the digital economy and the Internet and those who don't, and that
the divide exists along the lines of education, income, region and race. It might have
pointed out, of course, that all of us parents are not as good as our kids. That divide's
not so serious, but the real one is.
And yet, we know -- I will say again -- that the very information technology driving
this new economy gives us the tools to ensure that no one gets left behind, that' gives us
the tools to provide a story for these communities, to literally provide a self-sustaining
economic infrastructure for the 21 st century. Millions of Americans now on the
economic margins can join the mainstream in the enterprise of building our nation.
A child in South Central L.A., in the most remote part of Indian country, can have
access to the same world of knowledge in an instant as a child in the wealthiest
suburban school in this country. Now, just imagine if not s'imply, a fraction, but
all of our young people entered the work force, had access to the Internet always, and
had mastered the skills of the new, information economy.
.
So if we want to unlock the potential of our workers, we have to close that gap.
We've done what we COUld. We have provide the Hope scholarship and other tax
credits so that we've literally opened the doors of college to all Americans. We have
. emphasized higher standards, smaller classes, and more teachers. We're connecting
every American classroom to the Internet, and I think we'll make our goal that the Vice
President and I established here in California in 1994 of having all the classrooms
connected by the year 2000.
6
�,
The $8 million in corporate commitments made today by this group are so very
important, as are the information technology academies to which Sandy referred earlier.
Sandy has said often that today'sstudents are tomorrow's employees, today's students
are tomorrow's economy. They're not just somebody else's employees, they are
tomorrow's economy.
So, bringing these skills to distressed families in distressed communities can
have more to do with our ability to restructure the economy in these areas than perhaps
anything else. I also want to thank AT&T, and I think, Ann Hesse*, the CEO of AT&T
Wireless, is here for'committing more than $1.4 million to increase access to the tools of
the high-tech economy.
I want to thank America Online, George Franberg* of AQL is here, for providing
more than $1 million in grants to help narrow the digital divide. I want to thank Oxygen
Media on the cable network it will launch next year. They will offer ~Iigh-tech training on
TV so more embarrassed adults cim learn what their kids already know. (Laughter.)
This is the kind of thing we have to do. If we have money c?pital and human
capital, we can bring hope to the places that have been left behind.
The last thing I want to say to you is this: This tour, this last four days that we
have all spent together has been a significant s~ep toward opening America's new
markets. But it can't be ,the end of the journey. It has to be, instead, the opening salvo
of a battle to build a real economy in every community in this country. The real
measure of our success is not whether CEOs join the President on a trip ,like this which
moved the nation, but whether the same CEOs and others will return to those markets
and move the lives of the people there. (Applause.)
So I say to you, you have to do that. The real test of the success is not whether
I've got a legislative idea, but whetherCongress will set aside its partisan differences
and put that idea into law so we can have more investments in these communities.
(Applause. )
Next week I will send our new markets legislation to Congress. Over the next
several weeks we'll announce a new national effort to promote the business link
partnerships, pairing big businesses with smaller, often disadvantaged companies -- an
idea the Vice President has so strongly championed.
And this fall we're going to take another tour. I am going to,start in Newark to
challenge the owners of professional sports teams and professional athletes to follow
the example set by the owners of the New Jersey Nets -- Ray Chambers and Lou Katz
-- who set up the ownership of the Nets in a way that 35 percent of the profits of the
franchise are reinvested in downtown Newark, to give the future to the people there.
(Applause.)
You might know that the Nets have now -- those gentlemen have joined in a joint
partnership with the New York Yankees; they now have a big partnership, and they
7
�have dedicated a significant percentage of the profits of the joint venture to reinvest in
inner city New York, in the Bronx, ~md in Newar~. (Applause.)
So I'm going to go up there, :I'm going to highlight what they're doing, I'm going to
see what we can do to help. Arid we're going to make another round here to show
people that there are things that we can do together that are both morally right and good
business.
,
Often on this trip Reverend Jackson has referred to the fact that Dr. Martin Luther
King, just before he was killed, thought that he had done about all he could do to get the
legal changes necessary to get rid of the stain of racial segregation: and that the great
disadvantages and discrimination still alive in America could only be eliminated if there
were a new alliance ofpeople across racial lines to create genuine economic
opportunity for all Americans.
It's hard to believe to somebody like me, anyway, at my age, that's it has now
been more than 30 years since Dr: King was killed and his dream was put on hold. One
of the lesser known passages in his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August
of 1963 involved language in which he challenged America, and I quote -- "to refuse to
believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this 'nation."
Well, my fellow Americans, today those vaults of opportunity are more full than
they have ever been in the entire ~,istory of this country. And we have more evidence
than we have ever had that when children like those that we talked about today, and '
when young people like those we celebrate today -- Hazel, and her peers behind me -
do well, we are all strengthened; that there is a fundamental sense in which our futures
are bound up together, from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to the Native American
reservations to the inner cities to the wealthiest corners of our land.
All our kids need a chance to live their dreams. And the American Dream needs
for all Americans to be blessed by the opportunity that has given so much to us. Thank
you for what you do to achieve that goal. And God bless you. (Applause.)
END
3:32 P.M. PDT
8
�
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Andrew Rotherham - Events Series
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Andrew Rotherham
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Within the Domestic Policy Council, Andrew “Andy” Rotherham was Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy from 1999-2000. Before working for the Domestic Policy Council, Rotherham was Director of the 21st Century Schools Project for the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). This series of Events includes records relating to education events and the corresponding background materials. The records include reports, memoranda, email, congressional correspondence, press releases, and speech drafts.
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POTUS - New Markets Trip
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Box 13
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