[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[May 12, 1999]
[Pages 749-751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Secretary of the Treasury Transition
May 12, 1999

    The President. Please be seated. I'd like to welcome all of you here 
today, especially the families of the people who are at the center of 
this announcement, and members of the Cabinet, Members of the Congress, 
Mr. Greenspan, ladies and gentlemen.
    For 6\1/2\ years now, I have worked hard to build an economy that 
gives all of our people a chance to prosper and to live out their 
dreams. When I took office in 1993, it was a time of record deficits, 
high unemployment, decades of stagnant wages. It was clear then that we 
needed to make difficult and too long deferred choices.
    So we put in place a new economic strategy rooted in the realities 
of the emerging information age. By now, the elements of that strategy 
are tiresomely familiar to those of you who have been a part of this: 
fiscal discipline, investment in our people, expanded trade. But the 
results are plain: over 18 million new jobs; the lowest unemployment and 
inflation in three decades; the strongest economy in a generation, 
perhaps ever, ushered in by new technologies; the productive energies of 
the American people; and sensible policies.
    In 1992 I told the American people I would focus on the economy like 
a laser beam. The first step was to establish within the White House a 
National Economic Council, modeled on the National Security Council, and 
then to pick Bob Rubin to lead it.
    As the first Chair of the National Economic Council, Bob forged a true team and built an enduring and vital 
institution, now ably led by his successor, Gene Sperling.
    Four years ago, when Secretary Bentsen resigned, I appointed 
Bob to be Secretary of the Treasury. 
Alexander Hamilton, our first Treasury Secretary, insisted that the 
United States pay

[[Page 750]]

its debts and practice fiscal prudence. That then-controversial proposal 
gave the new Nation a chance to grow into the powerhouse it is today. 
Bob has been acclaimed as the most effective Treasury Secretary since 
Alexander Hamilton, and I believe that acclaim is well deserved. I thank 
again the Members of Congress who have come here, both Republicans and 
Democrats, in testament to that.
    He has upheld the highest traditions of 
the office. He has merged old-fashioned fiscal conservatism with new 
ideas to help all Americans benefit from the new economy and to maintain 
and enhance America's leadership in the world economy. He understood the 
importance of fiscal discipline and the accountability and the impact 
that it would bring, not only low interest rates but also intangible 
economic confidence, both of which have brought us more jobs, more 
businesses, higher wages, lower mortgage rates, and a rising standard of 
living for all Americans.
    He cares very deeply about the impact of 
abstract economics on ordinary people. I can tell you that for all these 
years, he has always been one of the administration's most powerful 
advocate for the poor and for our cities, for the investments that we 
put into the empowerment zones, for the earned-income tax credit, for 
the community development banks and the Community Reinvestment Act, and 
for the new markets initiative that I was out promoting in Atlanta 
yesterday. He has also tried to help our friends abroad when they needed 
it, knowing that our friends and trading partners need to do well if 
America is to do well.
    We were reminiscing in the Oval Office just a moment ago about the 
night just before he was appointed Secretary 
of the Treasury when we decided we had to give assistance to Mexico. At 
the time, I think 11 percent of the American people thought we were 
doing the right thing. But since then, I think almost always, the 
American people have concluded that Bob Rubin's recommendations have 
been the right thing for our country.
    It's no secret to all of you who know him that Bob has been pining for private life for a long time now, and 
I have been pleading for all that long time for him not to pine too 
much. But 2 weeks ago, he told me that he was ready to go. I will miss 
his cool head and steady hand, his sharp mind and his warm heart. I also 
want to put him on notice that I expect him to show up here regularly 
for the next 2 years until we're done, for lots of free advice.
    I used to joke that Bob Rubin came to 
Washington to help me save the middle class, and he'd stayed so long 
that by the time he left he'd be one of them. [Laughter] He just wants a 
little time to prove me wrong. [Laughter] But I thank him from the 
bottom of my heart for being a true patriot and a true friend.
    To carry forward our economic strategy, I will nominate Larry 
Summers to be the next Secretary of the 
Treasury. He is brilliant, able, a critical part of our economic team 
during the entire life of this administration, therefore, deeply 
knowledgeable and more than ready to help steer our Nation through the 
strong and sometimes turbulent currents of the new economy.
    Rarely has any individual been so well prepared to become Secretary 
of the Treasury. For the past 6 years he 
has been a senior official at Treasury, first Under Secretary of the 
Treasury for International Affairs, and then for 4 years as Deputy 
Secretary. He has always been Bob Rubin's 
partner in many, many ways, working with him to balance the budget, to 
strengthen Social Security, to reform the IRS, to build a stronger 
economy at home and abroad. He has a close working relationship not only 
with Chairman Greenspan but with key finance 
ministers and central bankers around the world. He has the rare ability 
to see the world that is taking shape and the skill to help to bring it 
into being.
    I will also nominate Stu Eizenstat 
to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. I have known him now for well 
over 20 years, since he was President Carter's Domestic Policy Adviser. 
He has served our administration very well in several positions: 
Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for 
International Trade, and most recently Under Secretary of State for 
Economic Affairs.
    Of all the people on this platform today, the person making the 
greatest sacrifice for the national interest is Secretary Madeleine 
Albright. And I appreciate her 
presence here and the absence of tears in losing a man as able as Stu 
Eizenstat. [Laughter]
    Stu has handled many of our 
Nation's most difficult missions over the last 6 years, from our 
successful efforts to lift food and medicine sanctions on trading 
partners--or non-trading

[[Page 751]]

partners--to the struggle for justice and compensation on behalf of the 
victims of the Holocaust, an endeavor he will continue.
    I would like to say a special word of thanks to him for all the many missions he has undertaken, but 
especially for the work he's done in the Holocaust area. He has done it 
better, more energetically, more completely, and with greater 
sensitivity for all the elements involved than I think any other 
American could have. And not just Jewish Americans and other survivors 
and family members of survivors of the Holocaust around the world, but 
all Americans should be grateful for this unique contribution he has 
made to making the American dream real.
    With his legendary grasp of policy 
and the art of practical government, his long experience, his stamina, 
and his steady judgment, he will be a vital, full member of our economic 
team.
    Our economy continues on its remarkable path, but we must press 
forward with the strategy that has brought us thus far. We have a lot to 
do to strengthen Social Security and Medicare in the months ahead; to 
maintain our fiscal discipline and begin to pay down this debt; to renew 
our public schools so that they can play the role that they must play in 
preparing all of our people to succeed in the economy we are working to 
build; and to bring economic opportunity where it is still not in 
sufficient supply in underinvested urban and rural areas in America.
    With a steady strategy and now, a strong economic team, I am 
confident we can enter the 21st century stronger than ever. But I would 
like to say that more than any other single citizen, Bob Rubin deserves the credit for building all the teams 
we've had with all the members, because he started with his National 
Economic Council. No one had ever made it work before. No one had ever 
made it really a priority to bring together all the strands and all the 
economic actors, to bring together the State Department and the Treasury 
Department and the Commerce Department and the Export-Import Bank and 
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and a lot of other things 
most Americans had never heard of.
    He brought it all together. He got us to work as a team. He worked 
for a consensus. He was always honest with me in presenting 
disagreements. And he built a spirit and a belief that we could actually 
make this economy what it ought to be for our people. That will be his 
enduring achievement, along with the fact that everybody believed as 
long as he was Secretary of the Treasury, nothing bad could happen.
    Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Rubin.
    Secretary Rubin. Thank you.
    The President. You're not used to this.

[At this point, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, Treasury Secretary-Designate Lawrence H. Summers, and Deputy Treasury Secretary-Designate Stuart E. 
Eizenstat made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:48 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Treasury Secretary Rubin, Treasury Secretary-
Designate Summers, and Deputy Treasury Secretary-Designate Eizenstat.