I think the Democrats are going to have to be willing to give up, maybe, some short-term political gain by whipping up fears on some of these things - if it's a reasonable Social Security proposal, a reasonable Medicare proposal. We've got to deal with these things. You cannot have health care devour the economy.
Interpretation
Clinton advocates for making sacrifices for long-term solutions in healthcare instead of pursuing short-term political gains.
In this quote, William J. Clinton emphasizes the necessity for political leaders, particularly those in the Democratic Party, to prioritize sustainable healthcare policies over immediate political advantages. He suggests that addressing critical issues like Social Security and Medicare requires courage and a willingness to face fears, ensuring that healthcare does not overwhelm the economy in the long run.
In practice
During a political debate on healthcare, a candidate could quote Clinton to emphasize the importance of sustainable policies over short-term wins.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies.
The power of the State must be invoked for restoring economic freedom just as it has been invoked for destroying economic freedom.
And as a matter of fact, governments don't act, governments only react. The bankers make the decisions, and then governments decide how are we going to adjust to this. Government can't do anything unless the bank gives them the money to do it.
The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.
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