SEN. BAYH: I think we just heard from a future Governor or Senator from the state of Delaware. In the meantime, he's doing an outstanding job as the State Treasurer. We've got a lot of other folks that we can be very thankful for today that have made this very impressive turnout possible. I'd like to start with the leader of our group. I said to the press this morning, he got a little nervous when I said this, I said they've taken a paternity test involving Al From and it revealed that he is the father of the new Democratic movement. We're very proud of Al. He's from Indiana. He's done a wonderful job. I can't think of anyone who's done more to drive good public policy in this country over the last two decades than Al From. We're very, very grateful to you.
Bruce Reed is with us, the intellectual Godfather of the new Democratic movement. For those of you haven't had the chance to hear Bruce, he's a funny guy and the good thing about Bruce is that he knows that it's his jokes that are supposed to be funny not the public policies. Sometimes that gets lost in Washington these days. So, Bruce we're very grateful, and Chuck as well, and everyone else over at the PPI. Let's give them a big round of applause this morning. We're very, very grateful to them.
Jennifer Mann, who I'll introduce following a few brief framing remarks of my own, is the head of our State and Local Advisory Board. She's done a wonderful job along with all of the folks from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in hosting this event. We're very, very grateful to Jennifer and all the other people from this great state. We've got a lot to be grateful for this morning. This is the seventh conversation we've conducted. This the largest conversation in the history of the DLC. As Jack was mentioning, more that 330 state and local officials, and if you look around a lot you are mighty young. That's a good thing. We're talking about the leadership not only of our party but of America for many, many years to come. We've got, as Jack mentioned, 43 different states represented. We have seven wonderful Governors, including three who are already in attendance. Kathleen Sebelius from Kansas, Jennifer Granholm my neighbor from Michigan, and Janet Napolitano from Arizona. I've got to say I have some nostalgia from my days in the Statehouse. These are the folks that have to make the hard decisions. They're the ones who have to make things happen. We're very, very grateful. I know I speak for all of us when I say out of the busy schedules that the chief executive of the state has, that you take the time to be with us today. Let's give our governors a big round of applause. We're going to be hearing from them a little bit later today.
This is a significant event because of the number of elected officials, the breadth and the depth of our representation here. For those of you have been part of this movement and for those of you who have been attracted for the first time, you will quickly learn that the significance and the power of the Democratic Leadership Council lies not in our numbers but in the persuasiveness and the strength of our ideas. As we gather here in Philadelphia this morning I can't think of a crossroads for our country in which the need for new ideas compelling public policy agendas was more important than it is today. With the anxiety abroad and the uncertainty at home, brought about by a host of challenges: The globalization that imperils our economic security and prosperity; The rise of global terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction that threatens our security; The demographic changes that will affect our own retirement security and the fiscal and economic well-being of our children and our grandchildren. All of these things, and more, confront us with a host of challenges we need to meet, and meet soon. At a time when the national government too often is run by those on the far ideological right, and our party once again is under threat from those on the far ideological left, it is up to us to pursue and fulfill our historic mission of keeping both our party and our country grounded firmly in the vital center. Where progress is made toward meeting these challenges. And it's up to us to offer an agenda to the American people that promises a future that is more secure, more prosperous, and more just. The stakes could not be larger. It's ironic, next year in the election, the future of our economic well-being is at stake, it will be very much on the ballot. It's ironic that two-and-a- half short years ago when the Republican party gathered here in Philadelphia, they inherited from the Democratic party an economy that was among of the strongest in the history of our country. Twenty-two million new jobs during an eight year period. Two and half million new businesses, the lowest rate of unemployment in a generation, and the highest rate of home ownership in the history of our republic. Just think how times have changed, just think.
During the first two and half years of this administration, 3.1 million hardworking Americans have lost their jobs, 9.4 million today are unemployed, 4.6 million are working in part time jobs because they can't find full time work, and four and a half million of our fellow citizens have given up because they've been looking for jobs without success for so long. They just don't think that it matters any more. We can do better than that. We have done better than that. It's up to us to offer a blueprint to how to get that done.
At stake on the ballot next year is going to be the fiscal health of our economy. Think about the changes over the last two-and-a-half years since President Bush accepted the nomination here in Philadelphia. Under New Democratic leadership this country balanced the budget for the first time in a generation. We began to pay down the national debt and in so doing shored up Social Security and Medicare, and there was actually talk, as a matter of fact, Al Gore pledged in his Presidential campaign to pay off the national debt for the first time since Andrew Jackson was President. Instead, as was reported two weeks ago, we have the largest deficit, more than $450 billion, all truth be told it will be probably closer to $500 billion, when all is said and done, the largest deficit, even adjusting for inflation, in the history of our country. And that's not all, unfortunately.
That doesn't factor in the impending retirement of the baby boom. Which promises to take the unfunded liabilities in our retirement and medical programs for senior citizens from $7 trillion today to $22 and $24 trillion. That promises to drive up interest rates, drive down investment, and along the with it productivity, wages, and the standard of living for working men and women across our country. We must not let that happen. We must not let that happen. We must not.
At stake in the election next year are some of the basic freedoms and liberties that we've begun to rely upon in this country. Whether this President will have the ability to pack the federal courts with right wing ideologues who will change the definition of opportunity and equality in this country not from one election to another, but from one generation to another. Will our country continue to value diversity? Will we honor equality of opportunity? Will we ensure that individual Americans can make some of the most intimate decisions, in consultation with their clergymen, or will the government make them for them? All of those things, and more, are at stake in the next election too.
The future of welfare reform, educational improvements, these young people here are members of AmeriCorps. Will national service achieve the standing it deserves in this country or will we allow those who gathered in Philadelphia to cut it by half as it is currently proposed in Congress? So the stakes could not be larger and we have a fundamental choice to make as Democrats. You can hear some of it echoed out on the Presidential campaign trail today. Do we want to offer the American people a true choice about the direction of this country? Do we want to govern again, or are we only going to vent our anger and pent up frustration about what's been happening in Washington for too long. And if the choice is one of governing, then it's up to us to offer the American people more than nostalgia for the past, more than criticisms of the present, but a compelling agenda that promises to make the future even better. Fortunately, thanks to Bruce and Will and Al and a lot of other good people, Mark Warner just arrived, these wonderful Governors, we can do exactly that.
We need to embrace national security as an important part of the Democratic message once again, and in so doing, rediscover our own roots. There was a time when the defense of freedom and liberty was synonymous with being a member of the Democratic party. Thomas Jefferson helped to establish our liberty in this great city and fought the Barbary pirates. Andrew Jackson was a decorated war general. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt helped lead our country through our two greatest military trials. Harry Truman began the defense of freedom in the Cold War, taking a stand against international communism. John Kennedy, who said, "We will bear any burden in the cause of freedom." We must re-embrace this rich heritage that we have and reinsure that the Democratic party is not a conscientious objector in the battle to defend America, but an advocate of freedom abroad. Tony Blair gave a wonderful speech to a joint session of Congress just a week and a half ago and I think the Prime Minister had it exactly right when he said that the American people understand, and the world now understands, that we live in a very different place following the tragedy of 9/11. We are threatened no longer by nation states with standing armies but instead by failed states and rogue nations and superpowered individuals with the possibility of weapons of mass death being brought home here to America. It is no longer enough for us to sit passively back and attempt to defend ourselves. Instead we must have a proactive agenda defending the forward interests of America, because defending against suicidal terrorists is a very hard thing to do because they're perfectly willing to die as long as they can take as many of us with them in the process as they can.
As much as that is important, even more, if we are ultimately going to secure our country against the frustration and anger of the demographic surge taking place across the Islamic world and elsewhere, it's because we do a better job of projecting who we are and what we stand for. The Democrats in America stand for freedom. The freedom to choose our own governing officials. The freedom to enjoy the benefits and fruits of our labor and the ingenuity of our minds. The freedom to worship God and practice our religions and to speak our minds in the way we see fit. This is what the Democratic party stands for, it's what the United States of America stands for, and it's through advocating that idea and that principle, that we'll ultimately ensure our own self defense.
We need to advocate a compelling agenda of ideas to reinvigorate our economy and embrace the innovation economy that awaits us and constitutes America's comparative advantage through constant training and retraining for adult workers, meaningfully improved education for our children and grandchildren, and constant investments in research and development to promote the new innovations, new products and services of tomorrow. Opening up foreign markets to the 96% of the human race to our goods and services, and also pursuing sound fiscal policies that promise more stimulus today and more fiscal discipline tomorrow.
That's an important part of the Democratic agenda as well, returning to balance the budget and being fiscally responsible. But, in accomplishing that we have to ensure we don't return to the days of the lethal stigma of "tax and spend Democrats." We have to show the American people, as these Governors do everyday, that Democrats measure success not only in terms of how much we spend, but instead in terms of how much that investment produces. We have to stand for accountability and results, and in so doing rehabilitate the image of government itself among a skeptical public that too often has begun to doubt our effectiveness. We have to stand for the enduring values that have always made our party and nation great, continuing with the second generation of welfare reform to prove that we understand the importance of both opportunity and responsibility. Continuing to expand the earned income tax credit to reward work and savings and playing by the rules. Expanding AmeriCorps to tap into the well spring of patriotism and enable these young people to translate those good feelings into tangible good works on behalf of a better America. We need to pursue policies that enable families to raise children and instill in them the values we cherish and the skills that will enable them to lead productive and meaningful lives. All of these things we need to do, and more. It's a big task, it's a big fight, but it's one worth waging, because the future of both our party and our country is at stake.
I'm reminded of another Democrat who during some challenging times was willing to tell it like it is and to wage a vigorous effort to both secure our heritage and to build a better future. It was Harry Truman. Imagine the campaign of 1948. Not only did Harry Truman have the Republican nominee Thomas Dewey to contend with, he had Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats on the right and Henry Wallace on the left. There was a four way race. Nobody gave the failed haberdasher from Independence, Missouri a chance. There was a story on the cover of Newsweek. They polled the 50 leading pundits and prognosticators and pollsters of the day. The vote was 50 to nothing, 50 to nothing that Tom Dewey was going to be the next President of the United States. Harry Truman didn't listen to that. He took his campaign directly to the American people, and the crowds began to grow and the enthusiasm began to build. And very often Truman would end up those speeches by saying something a lot like this, and I think it's instructive for how we need to wage the election of the year 2004.
He'd look out at the audiences and he'd say, "I haven't come here today just to ask you to vote for me, and I've not come here today just to ask you to vote for my political party, I've come here today to ask you to vote for yourselves and to vote for a better America. To vote to save Social Security, to vote to extend affordable healthcare to every hardworking American man and woman, to vote to expand educational opportunities to the GI bill, to vote to balance our budget and promote a strong national defense, the defense of America and on behalf of freedom and liberty. And if you vote for those things, then you will support this campaign, and you will support our party, and together we will have the honor and privilege of leading this nation forward to even better times."
That my friends, is the challenge that confronts us as Democrats, but more importantly it's a challenge that confronts us as Americans. I'm proud of each and every one of you for gathering with us here in Philadelphia to plan the course that will make it happen. Thank you.
