Bill Clinton: “I think we are. There are some who say no. Today in Washington there are 80,000 lobbyists. It's a growth industry. I'll…”

“I think we are. There are some who say no. Today in Washington there are 80,000 lobbyists. It's a growth industry. I'll guarantee you one thing, I created some jobs since I got to be President. But the Congress is now dealing with two bills which will help to reform the way our politics work. They just passed the motor voter bill, something young people of America really wanted and which I'm very proud of, which I hope and pray will continue the trend of increased voter participation. But now Congress is dealing with two tough other issues. The United States Senate passed last week a bill--finally, believe it or not, in the year 1993--finally requiring everybody who actually lobbies them to register as a lobbyist and requiring that the gifts that they give to Members of Congress or the expenditures they make on trips or whatever all be reported. Believe it or not, they weren't done before now. The Congress passed that with only two dissenting votes--the Senate did. The bill is now going to the House. In addition to that, last Friday I proposed a comprehensive campaign finance reform law which will lower the cost of congressional campaigns, reduce the influence of political action committees, and open the airwaves to challengers as well as incumbents for more honest debate. It is a tough, good bill. If we can pass these bills, they will help to open the system too. People are full of hope now. We've received in 3\1/2\ months more letters than the White House got in all of 1992. If you haven't gotten yours answered, I hope you'll be patient. We've got over 200 volunteers coming in just to open the mail and trying to sort it and read it. But it is a wonderful reaffirmation, the critical and the complimentary and support letters alike, that Americans really want their system to respond to them again. And we must do that. If the first issue is the economy--or in the vernacular of my old campaign sign, ``It's the economy, stupid''--that means deficit reduction, investment for jobs and technology, and education. It means controlling health care costs and dealing with that crisis. I should tell you that no matter how much we reduce the deficit in the next 5 years, it will go right back up again if we don't address health care costs, because that's the fastest growing part of the Federal budget deficit. It must include all these things, as well as political reform and changing the way Government works. And change is hard. It doesn't happen overnight. You have to do what Lincoln did: Ask hard questions, give strong answers, and hope the American people rally. We can move forward. We can have a whole new partnership in this country, one that goes beyond the things that normally divide us, beyond the dividing lines of party, of race, of gender, of region, of income. We can do that. Ideas and energy can replace drift and delay. We can grow in wealth and wisdom and liberty. But this requires more than good ideas and more than political energy. If I may say, if you don't remember anything else I say, I hope you'll remember this: The human condition in the end changes by faith. And faith cannot be held in your hand. The Scripture that I carry to my place of worship every Sunday says, ``Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.'' But make no mistake about it, it is by far the most powerful force that can ever be mustered in the cause of change. Today we are seeing too much cynicism and too little faith, an obsession with the moment, an obsession with the politicians and their wins and their losses, an obsession with blame and division, an obsession with paralysis, an obsession with always pointing out the pain of change and never embracing its promise. Without faith, in the end we always wind up resorting to the easy and the immediate: Tax the other guy; cut that other program, not mine; wait for somebody to deliver the goods to me, or wait for it not to happen till I can blame somebody else for what didn't. But faith changes all that. Lincoln's cause in 1860 was to keep our house from dividing. Our cause today is to put our house in order. If ``a house divided against itself cannot stand,'' surely a house in disarray will not provide shelter and a home. Surely a house where problems are denied or blamed on someone else in the next room can never be a home for America. To preserve the American dream in our time and for your future, yes, our leaders must ask tough questions and give strong answers. But people must rally to the cause of change with faith. We have to believe again, believe through the ``frustrations and the difficulties of the moment,'' as Martin Luther King characterized them, believe through the inevitable rocks in the road to the ends of the journey. We must believe through the smallness and the spite that conflict always brings out in all of us. We must believe through that, to the spirit and generosity and courage that is America at its essence. Mr. Lincoln closed his Cooper Union speech with the following words: ``Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.'' My fellow Americans, our clear duty is to revive the American dream and restore the American economy. And for as long as it takes, with energy and joy and humility, let us dare to do that duty. Thank you very much.”