On the recordJuly 16, 2014
Thank you, Madam President. Thank you very much. I don't know who got this idea and where those 17 years go, but I guess we are going right ahead with the 18th. The dinner is our biggest fundraising event, and it reaches out to a whole number of people at all different levels, and it also shows what can be done when you can work together and work and achieve a goal. We have brought, I think, with the dinner, focus on what this group is. There is frankly more intelligence in this group than anyplace you want to put it together. It is an incredible bunch of people that we have here who have given back to this country and continue to give back. And as I look around and see the different friends who worked on it and made a difference, all I can say is thank you. It was never a one-person deal. It was always a deal, a partnership deal. The partnership has grown a lot bigger for us, and this dinner itself is becoming not easier, it is just bigger. As a matter of fact, Madam President, this was the most productive dinner that we have had. I think we raised, Pete, over--what?--$500,000, give or take a penny here and there, but never lost its focus. In a great country, we have a problem because nobody knows what we have. We have a country where everybody knows basketball terms and so forth and that and knows how to play the game, but we have a question of people understanding.…
Source
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