So you know thank you, thank you, thank you. For over 20 years, bill clinton has been a determined evangelist for the American Dream. The voters of this country puts him in the white house twice. Not only because he understands what the American Dream is all about, but because he also has a gift for explaining why our party is so committed to defending and promoting the dream. During his eight years as president , he oversaw record job growth, at 22. 7 million jobs created. He also became the first president to balance the budget for years in a row. The stock market went up 226 . It went down 25 under george bush. The years of his presidency were a time when our middleclass felt secure. It was a time when our economy credences stained opportunities for more people to afford college. Created opportunities for more people to afford college. I have supported a constitutional amendment to repeal the 22nd amendment, which says that people cannot reelect a president for a third term. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee cosponsored back with me. He was an opponent of term limits. I went up to him after the election and said henry, im going to put that bill and again. He said fine. On tuesday, we came back. Henry was sitting on one of the seats. He said, i do not want you to put my name on that bill. Henry, you have cosponsored this for five congresses. I discussed it with my staff and they say if we pass that amendment, bill clinton may be reelected. A few days later, he asked me to take when i asked him why, he told me. It was a reflection of the respect and fear they have about bill clinton. He has continued to set his sights on service. After eight years in office, he had seen the terrible effects of poverty and illness of those living in the developing world. In launching the clinton global initiative, he contended to widen the constellation of challenges in which she has applied is extraordinary talents and energy. Limits on religious freedom, at every impediment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. After president of the United States, he could only become president of the world. The praise the respect he receives from both sides of the aisle as big volumes about his character. The man he defeated, former president george h. W. Bush said, if clinton were the titanic, the iceberg would of song. Have sunk. It has less to do with this sharp political acumen and more to do with his deeply held values and ideals. Bill clinton believes in an america that is tied in a single garment of destiny. Our fates are bound together and we should Work Together. A man from hope continues to work to give hope to millions. Bill clinton has taught us that all hope is a powerful motivator, it takes more than that to build the future we dream of. As we revitalize our discussion about how to renew the American Dream, i ask you to join me in welcoming a great proponent of the American Dream who has lived the dream and let our country and leads today, the honorable William Jefferson clinton. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We miss you. Thank you. Sometimes, i miss you. [laughter] most of the time, i like what i am doing. I want to thank steny the introduction. We talked a few days ago when he said, what do you want me to say . I said, tell them you like playing golf with me. And that you did not throw the games. I want to congratulate and thank nancy pelosi for her tireless efforts in the last election cycle and all of your leadership. Thank you, joe kelly, my fellow new yorker. I am stand she had to leave, but i was always reassured to see her on television when i was worried about the outcome. I want to thank steve israel, who i think has been one of the most thoughtful people in the house and you proved once again and who proved once again that if you really want to be successful in the long run in this business, you have to be good politics and policy. You have to think about what were going to do and how will affect people. I have the honor of campaigning for a lot of you in the last election. I am very excited about the new members. [applause] not only because if i were a member of this caucus, i would be in the minority, which i think is a good thing, but because the diversity extends far beyond the categories visible to the eye or that you can put in an adjective. Theres so much difference here in terms of Life Experience and knowledge and understanding the various aspects of are extremely complex society that i think hell have a real chance to do some phenomenally creative and effective things. A few years ago, a writer wrote an interesting book called the wisdom of crowds. Since then, International Surveys of how the brain works. If you took a room and you put in this room 20 or 25 people of average intelligence who cared about a set of problems and you put in another room a genius with a 200 iq and you kept feeding them questions and problems, over time, the crowd would make a better decisions than a genius. It is one of the reasons that we should be supporting diversity to build unity, the old harmony, build a better future. It is one of the reasons that i think where our party is and what we are trying to do so important. I want to offer a few observations about this. I went through both the last few election cycles. I remember i told hillary summer in the process, we are going to take a terrible licking. I said, i do not want this semiconscious. Conscience. I would like to talk about what this means for all d. O. I read the president s remarks and i was very appreciative of what he said and i know Vice President biden was here. I want you to think about what you were going to do the next two years, where you want to end up, and how this is a part of a longterm struggle. People sometimes ask me if id was upset when the whole pattern of budgets i tried to establish was repealed after president bush won and the Congress Went back to tripled downgraded trickledown economics. He have to understand, nothing is permanent. It is an ongoing enterprise. One of the oscarnominated movies lincoln is one is about one of the most important areas of history. The heroic battle to pass the 13th amendment banning slavery. If you ask most americans about lincoln, i know he was the present during the civil war. He was assassinated, he issued the emancipation proclamation. They know about the gettysburg address. That is about it. Maybe they know the second inaugural address the finest inaugural address ever given. Almost nobody knows the story of the 13th amendment. Most americans do not even know the emancipation proclamation could only free the slaves and the Southern States that have succeeded seceded. Almost nobody knows why he decided to try to get it through congress when if he had waited until after he was inaugurated, it would have been much easier to pass. He was mortified by the fact that he could not 70 did 75 of the states to ratify the amendment. He practiced politics. What you are doing is a noble thing, but everybody will be watching. If you were doing that, there will be live coverage around the clock. We would all notes, but will be understand it . It requires us to maintain a level of a direct relationships with the voters that in former times was mediated by the way politicians related to leaders and newspaper editors and other things. I would like to talk about this. The last election was an election midAmerican People chose an inclusive future. They also for pretty savvy. They decided they believed in arithmetic after all and they did not like it when somebody said we will do this and we will give you all these tax cuts and then when asked about what it meant and how we can pay for it, they said, a senior about that after the election. That was a good thing. And they voted against going back on a lot of what we had done. Make no mistake about it, this is not just about appealing obamacare and repealing much of what i did. This is about repealing much of the 20th century. Somebody asked me, why are you doing next . I am too old to relitigate the things i thought had been settled in the 1960s and 1970s. [applause] i want us to worry about the 21st century and how to make the most of it. I believe that we are in an interesting and delegates and paradoxical the dish position. If we are clear about where we are and what we have the d. O. What we have to do. There was a brief period at the end of the cold where were the United States was the only military, economic, and political superpower. I did my best to prepare us for an era in which we would still be the leading country in the world, but which others would enjoy on president and prosperity and once that happened, whether we really only military superpower was a question of how they decided to spend their money. And whether we reveal a political superpower was a question of how they decided to spend their diplomacy. Were going to live in a more competitive world. What of the challenges all of you will face is that americans of almost all political stripes have been notoriously resistant to arguments based on what our competitors are doing. Health care, economic policy, education policy, you name it. It is really interesting for a country that is so sports crazy because i can see harbaugh brother is getting ready for the super bowl, examining what every Single Player was doing and trying to figure out where the weaknesses were. Were going to have to get more comfortable being honest about the results the competition gets from doing x, y, and z. We led the world in the development of widespread usage of cell phones, but now on a national basis, south korea is about and a lot speeds are four times as ours. Communities are increasing their capacity. Chattanooga, tenn. , did and now theyre becoming and health care center. Google is spending all of that money in kansas city. We have got to be more comfortable in talking to people about what works. What is working that other countries are doing. The diversity of the representation in the house will be helpful for that. I think also we have to learn something from how historic brave actions by your predecessors in this caucus played out in the electorate. When were they rewarded . When were they punished . And later rewarded . I cannot tell you how many nights in the white house, every single night before i went to bed, four months and months and months after the 1994 election, i thought about the people who were defeated because they voted for the economic program, because they voted for the assault weapons ban. I knew exactly what happened. I thought a lot about those who survived and why they did. As you look ahead and you decide, what are we going to do about the budget, what are we going to do about having the democrats branded as the party of jobs and innovation for the future . Make no mistake about it, the republicans will try very hard not to make it as easy for you to win byreference. There were some places where we won because people saw what they wanted to do when they did not like it. All of you sounded better. We now are going to have to have an affirmative agenda for jobs and innovation. [applause] you have got to do it. It is important to do immigration right. And to do it as soon as possible. I think it is important to take some action now that it is possible on the issue of gun violence, but it is important to do a right. I could go across america if we had time and tell you who survived very well voting for the assault weapons ban and the brady bill in 1993 and 1994, and who did not. And why. I want to say allow that. A little about that. But i think we should us in Going Forward a symbol and for that the people who disagree with us will not make it quite as easy to draw the contrast by the things they do and say as they did last time. That is the message i got out of the House Republican meeting. Were going to put on a happy face. It is easy to sneer at that, but depending on how you navigate troubled waters, and supporting the president s agenda in developing what i hope you will do, at your own ideas how to promote jobs and innovation and tried to win support, it is important to recognize that we have never except in the searing moment of the debates in president ial elections or the average you did every year for the state of the union or the average you get every year for the state of the union, general images over a specific moments and a strategy of theirs is not necessarily guarantee to fail. There are lots of things we can talk about on the politics. I want to talk about the substance. You were elected because people thought you were a better candidate. Because you had a message people believed gen. Because you ran a political culture that would least except you as a potential member of congress accept you as a potential member of congress. People did not blame our party for the conditions they face today did not like. I think the most important thing is this is a job. It is a job. Keeping it requires you to do its and to sell its simultaneously. It is normally harder at midterms because it is more difficult to draw the contrast in a way favorable to you and because the turnout goes down. We will talk more about that later. Lets focus on the job. Here is the dilemma. We do have a long term the debt problem. That does not mean austerity is the right response. I know i do not know what she said, but she is an impressive person. Here is the problem. By paul krugman is right that you cannot be deceived by what he is right about. When Interest Rates are below inflation, that tells you there is insufficient demand for money. Therefore, you have to keep poking at the economy to get it going again. Since the republicans won the house, the Federal Reserve has tried to fulfill that role and put more money in the economy because they always like austerity when democrats are president. That sounds more cynical than it is. But like to spend taxpayer money on things we think our investment in the future. Did you like to spend taxpayer money on tax cuts and defense programs they think are okay. Their position to decide the debt was the worst problem in the worlds, it is highly determined by who is in the white house. As all the know. As all of you know. We have a big debt problem and it cannot be solved right now by conventional austerity measures. That is why Paul Coughlin is right when he keeps talking about paul krugman is right. You give in to the downward spiral and travel the country back into recession. Dragged the country back into recession. We need a jobs program. I will not go into i have a lot of ideas on how you can do it. We need a strategy to promote innovation, started businesses coming keep the Manufacturing Sector expanding combat repatriate and bring back investment in america, money that is the overseas. I personally would favor letting a lot of that money be brought back if a certain as a percentage of the was investing in Infrastructure Bank in america. [applause] the rate of return on the infrastructure is so high, including a i. T. Infrastructure, you could sell the investments like you would bonds. I will give you 6 taxfree rate of return if you invest here. If you could get some of that repatriated money invested, a lot of Pension Funds would invest and a lot look good looking for higher returns they can get in any conventional bond issue, but have to have solid guaranteed returns. I think we could do a lot of this stuff, but you need a program to do this. I remember i did unavenged for congressman delaney i did an event for congressman delaney and i called our mutual friend. He said more in five minutes about how to create jobs and i have heard anybody say in this campaign so far. People were listening. I think is really important we are not and the majority and they will not do that. When i left office, one of my regrets was that i did not raise more sand about things i thought should be done because i did not want to waste any time talking about things i knew we could not pass the congress. I had this amazing argument once in the white house with chairman greenspan. About the position Financial Derivatives did not need to be regulated like Agricultural Commodities were. Only rich people could buy them and they were fully capable of making those judgments. If you did not have any Capital Requirement and transparency requirements, no class of people is immune from error, ignorance or foolishness. If it all a future not to be wrong, the consequences could be grievous. At the time, the republican majority did not want to find a the sec. They were exercising their oversight function. I did not say as much in public as item private because i was trying to get a lot done. I later tried came to regret that. Sometimes start in the debates are important. We need an economic strategy. If you do not have growth, you cannot fix the debt problem. If you look at what is happening, it is true that the deficits are going to be below a trillion dollars for the first time in several years. It is true that the new revenues and spending that you did not do it is also true the economy is beginning to grow again. This is almost like the reverse of what we did in 1993. I was perfectly well aware that a raise taxes and cut spending, it could have been dragging effect on the economy. But not nearly as much as not nearly as much as having low growth or then having Interest Rates that were too high. So our gamble was that the explosive effect of lowing Interest Rates with a booming bond market and having more disposal income over five10 year period to invest in americas future would more than offset putting the hammer down by raising more money and cutting spending. It turned out to be a good gamble. It will make sense here again. But timing is everything. So i think you should have a budget that does not defy arithmetic and does not follow in the trap that we had for 20 of the last 32 years which is you always get more money when you cut taxes. But it is also important that we recognize if there is literally no grow