Bill Clinton: “You know, if I stay healthy--I don't know if I can the way things are in Washington--[laughter]--but if I stay healthy…”

“You know, if I stay healthy--I don't know if I can the way things are in Washington--[laughter]--but if I stay healthy, I retire as President, and I have a nice pension, you know, I'll probably be fine. Their system might be great for me, I could walk away. But what about my responsibilities to everybody else? What about everybody else's--what about our responsibilities? So, again, I would say that the Senate has new leadership and we have--we have identified the savings necessary to secure the Medicare Trust Fund. Why should we go into a work stoppage just because it's election season? Let's go ahead and secure the Medicare Trust Fund for another decade. You know how we're going to save the money and you said okay, and we can do that. I know, you know, we've had a good time today, and I know that I'm here preaching to the saved--[laughter]. It makes it easier. But let me tell you, there is a serious issue here. We have serious questions to deal with. We all know that we're living longer and that the distribution of population is changing. We have to come to grips with these things. The only thing I'm saying is I believe the seniors of this country care about their children and grandchildren and their great- grandchildren. When I was the Governor of my State, I spent most of my time trying to improve the education of our children, and I got most of my support for it from people who were in their golden years, who were more than happy to come up and invest more money or do whatever it took to make sure that their grandchildren had a bright future. I do not want to see the generations in this country pitted against each other. We can find a clearly nonpolitical, bipartisan, evenhanded, sensible solution to any problem the generational changes are going to face this country with, as long as we don't use it as an excuse to divide this country one from another and to be unfair to the seniors in their quest, legitimately, to have a good life. You know it, and I know it. I want to just say two things in closing. While I think we have obligations to you, I am impressed by how many of you still think that you've got plenty of energy to exercise obligations to other people, and I thank you for that. I thank you for that. I thank you for becoming foster grandparents or working with troubled young people or becoming mentors and tutors. Those kids need people like you, and we need more kids with more seniors helping them one on one. I thank those who have joined our National Senior Service Corps. I thank those who work with other seniors who aren't as well off as they are either financially or physically. I thank you for your wisdom and your vigor. And I ask you to bring that wisdom and vigor not just to those who agree with you in the next 4 months, but to others as well. We have here a very clear choice. And in a way that's a happy thing for America because you don't have to guess this time. You know, in lots of elections--in lots of election there's a certain amount of guesswork. But you know what I will do. First of all, you know that we did what we said we'd do, or we got caught trying to do it. [Applause] Thank you. Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!”