The day following his 1999 State of the Unionmessage, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore came to Bufalo,New York to expound on this message to the nation.
In the previous two weeks, the city and thesurrounding areas were hit by nearly 60 inches of snow &endash;something which happens here once in a decade or so, and we knew thatthe inevitable jokes about winters in Buffalo would not be farbehind.
The lines at the Marine Midland Arena started toform very early in the morning for the President's announced noonappearance. By 9 o'clock a long line wound its was all around thehuge stadium. After patiently waiting in the brisk January air fortwo hours, the warmth of the already nearly full sports arena wasappreciated by everyone who managed to get inside.
Several bands entertained the waiting crowd of22,000 supporters and well-wishers; among these the most interestingwas the performance by the Haudenosaunee, the People of the LogHouse, representing the six Indian peoples of this area with theirnative dances.
At high noon, to the sound of the "Hail to theChief", President Clinton and his entourage entered the arena, andwere greeted by standing applause from the friendly crowd of WesternNew Yorkers.
Anthony Masiello, the Mayor of Buffalo, welcomedthe visitors. The President, Al Gore, and their wives Hillary andTipper were touched by the reception they received on their secondvisit to Buffalo. "As we were approaching the stadium, we looked outof the car windows and gasped with surprise as we saw the long lineof people waiting to get in," said Al Gore in his fiery andcrowd-stirring opening address before President Clinton took themicrophone.
After brief speeches by Hillary, Tipper Gore andthe Vice President, President Clinton was greeted by standingapplause and cheers from the crowd. "Let me ask you, have you everseen the Vice President so fired up? I want you to know that justbefore we came in here, we went off to a little room and had a hit onthe Buffalo chicken wings and Flutie Flakes," joked thePresident.
Then he continued: "I am quite confident that inthe entire history of the United States no Vice President has hadremotely the responsibilities and had the positive impact on theUnited States that Al Gore has had. We're here today in thismagnificent arena and, I just have to say one thing about the VicePresident: he compared me to the goalie for the Sabres, DominikHasek. I was flattered, but I thought--I just wish one day, theywould give me a mask, and a few pads, when I dodge that stuff." Andthe whole arena resounded with laughter and applause.
This was the only vague reference the Presidenthas made to his continuing problems related to the ongoing "MonicaAffair," which has become an obsession with some American politiciansand the media. How do people in Europe look at this from theirperspective?
Kurt Arentz, a prominent German sculptor, who hasmade portrait-busts of many top personalities such as Ronald Reagan,Willy Brandt, Helmut Kohl, George Bush, Herbert von Karajan, MstislavRostropovich, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Sir Peter Ustinov and manyothers, had this to say in a recent interview: "Our television isconstantly full of these reports from America about Bill Clinton andhis past romances and indiscretions. It is painful to see how youpeople are dragging down the image of the most powerful president onthe Earth, how you drag down the image and prestige of America bythis sorry spectacle. Power and sexuality is nothing new. Look at thehistory and the lives of the great men: Alexander the Great. JuliusCaesar. Henry VIII. Napoleon. Thomas Jefferson. John F. Kennedy. EvenHenry Kissinger, Richard Nixon's famous Secretary of State once said:'Power is the greatest aphrodisiac,' and I don't think he was talkingabout Mrs. Kissinger. Power and sexuality is not so unusual in humanhistory; it is part of life," concluded the artist.
Then the President turned to the purpose of hisvisit. "Today I only want to speak to you about one of the issues,and that is how we are going to meet the challenge of the aging,because it affects all of us, not just the old, but the young aswell. And I want everyone to understand exactly what I was trying tosay last night, and why. But let me make a bigger point. It was AlGore has already said, six years ago at noon that I took the oath ofoffice as President. And it seems impossible to me that those sixyears have flown by, they have been, to put it mildly, quiteeventful. But I want you to focus on this: you know as well as I do,the world is changing rapidly.
You know this community, and there is not muchresemblance to the way it looked 30 years ago, in terms of living,diversity of population, how we relate to each other. So, I don'tbelieve we can just sit around and pat ourselves on the back and say,'isn't is great that we have the longest peacetime expansion inhistory, we got the lowest welfare rolls in 29 years, and that allthe social problems are getting better.
But the real issue is: what are we going to dowith this?
So what I want to say to you is we ought to befocused on two big things.
Number one, bringing the opportunities that thelast three decades have brought to most America, to the rest ofAmerica.
Second thing we need to do, is to address thelong-term challenges of America. I want to speak about the aging ofAmerica. The aging of America affects everybody: the seniors today,but when we baby-boomers retire, there will be a "senior-boom." In 30years the number of senior citizens, people over 65, is going todouble. How will we manage this? This is an issue for all America.Now this is the problem: Social Security.
Now. We're going to have a big argument about thisand a big debate, and we should, but I believe since we have a $ 70billion surplus this year, we should use a big part of it to saveSocial Security."
Then the President continued with a related topic,the government-sponsored health insurance for senior citizens:"Medicare will run out of money by 2010. It is a "high age" problem.But I hope every child in this audience will live to be over 80. Thekids in this audience will actually have life expectancy of 85 years,if the medical science keeps advancing.
But the older you get, the more you need thedoctor, or the more you need drugs, or you need something, just tokind of get through the day… I'm finding that out already!Everything kind of hurts when it's cold, you've gotta stretch yourlegs, etc. So that's going to happen by 2010.
So what I had to say last night is not as popularas what others can tell you; others will say 'we've got the surplusnow, I just want a big tax cut, I'll give it back to you, you figureout what to do with it." I believe if we save 60 percent of thissurplus for Social Security, this is what we can do: we can make theTrust Fund alright through 2055 -- we can save the Social Securityfor 55 years. Then we'll have a list of all the options. They're alla little controversial, but if we get the Republicans and Democratsto hold hands, we can do it, it wouldn't hurt anybody very much,they're really good things for the long run. And if we do that, thenwe can protect Social Security for 75 years, and we can reduce thepoverty rate among the elderly women on Social Security (they'retwice as likely to be poor), and we can remove the "earning test"which limits what seniors on Social Security can earn for themselves.So I think it is a good use of the surplus.
Now. Same thing with Medicare. If we just save 1/6-- 1 in every 6 dollars of this surplus for 15 years, and set itaside for Medicare, then we save Medicare through 2020. Then, if wecan get Republicans and Democrats together, in March we will have abi-partisan commission that will start a debate, we can make a fewother changes, save it till 2020 and begin to provide forprescription drugs, which is the single biggest need that seniors onMedicare have.
If we save three quarters of this surplus for 15years, to solve Social Security and solve Medicare well into the 21stcentury, what else will happen? We will be holding this money; sowhat do you do with this money? You buy back the privately held debt,we will be reducing the debt of the country.We will take the debt ofAmerica in relationship to our economy to its lowest level sincebefore World War I in 1917.
Now. Why should that matter to you? You say,'fine, Mr. President, give me the money, I'd rather have a new car. Idon't care about World War I; what does that matter?' It does matterto you.
If we keep driving the debt down, then we willkeep the home mortgage rates low, we will keep the interest rates youpay on your credit cards low, we will keep the interest you pay onyour car payments low, you'll have investments coming here toBuffalo, you will have more jobs here. And that's something that wehave to do together, and it will protect us.
You see all this financial upheaval around theworld, and the budgets of these countries are out of balance. Ifpeople run off with their money, they had to put their interest ratesthrough the roof just to get the money to come back.
If we start paying off our debt a little then youwill be somewhat more protected from these global economic events.Long after I'm gone from the White House you will have stableinterest rates, affordable lives, and the knowledge that investmentswould come into Buffalo to build a better future. So I hope you willsupport what I had to say last night."
Then the President came to the end of his spiritedand inspiring speech in front of the largest crowd of people sincehis second inauguration ceremony in Washington two yearsago:
"This country is going to change in a breathtakingway. We are on the verge of finding cures or preventions for diseasesfrom Alzheimers to Parkinsons, for arthritis, for all kinds ofcancer. I think this will happen in my lifetime. There are childrenhere in this audience&emdash;they or their contemporaries will bewalking not on Moon, but on Mars.
This world is going to change! And we have to doour best to prepare. So I will say again: It may sound good ifsomeone says, 'this is your surplus, we ought to give it back toyou,' but you ought to ask yourself: What's America going to looklike in 10, 20, 30 years from now? How are all the families going todeal with the retirement of the baby-boom generation? How we're goingto deal with our responsibilities for medical care for our parentsthrough Medicare, and can we keep interest rates low and the economygoing?
If you like this improving economy, what I'mtrying to do is to give you a way to maximize the chances that wewill have a strong economy for the next 10 to 15, 20 years andprepare for the aging of the baby-boomers. I hope that you willsupport it, I thank you for one of the greatest days of mypresidency. God bless you!"
Buffalo, New York
January 20, 1999
May we recommend some books?
AWorld Transformed, by George Bush
RonaldReagan: An American Story
Primerfor Those Who Would Govern, by Hermann Oberth
SevenYears in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer
ArnoBreker: The Divine Beauty in Art, by B. John Zavrel
Alexanderthe Great, by Robin Lane Fox