Acceptance speech at the 2000 Democratic National Convention (page 4)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE (cont'd): All of this -- all of this is the change we wish to see in America. Not so long ago, a balanced budget seemed impossible. Now our budget surpluses make it possible to give a full range of targeted tax cuts to working families; not just to help you save for college, but to pay for health insurance and child care, to reform the estate tax so people can pass on a small business or a family farm, and to end the marriage penalty the right way, the fair way...

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... because we should not force couples to pay more in income taxes just because they're married.

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But let me say it plainly: I will not go along with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else and wreck our good economy in the process.

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Let me tell you, under the tax plan the other side has proposed, for every $10 that goes to the wealthiest 1 percent, middle-class families would get one dime, and lower-income families would get one penny.

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In fact -- in fact, if you add it up, the average family would get about enough money to buy one extra Diet Coke a week, about -- it's not nothing. About 62 cents in change. But let me tell you, that's not the kind of change I'm working for.

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I'll fight for tax cuts that go to the right people, to the working families who have the toughest time paying taxes and saving for the future.

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I'll fight for a new tax-free way to help you save and build a bigger nest egg for your retirement. I'm talking about something extra that you can save and invest for yourself, something that will supplement Social Security, not be subtracted from it.

But I will not go along with any proposal to strip $1 out of every $6 dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund and privatize the Social Security that you're counting on.

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That's Social Security minus. Our plan is Social Security plus.

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We will balance the budget every year and dedicate the budget surplus first to saving Social Security. In the next four years, we will pay off all the national debt this nation accumulated in our first 200 years. This will put us on the path to completely eliminating the debt by 2012, keeping America prosperous far into the future.

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But there's...

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There's something else at stake in this election that's even more important than economic progress. Simply put, it's our values. It's our responsibility to our loved ones, to our families. And to me, family values means honoring our fathers and mothers, teaching our children well, caring for the sick, respecting one another, giving people the power to achieve what they want for their families, putting both Social Security and Medicare in an iron-clad lockbox where the politicians can't touch them. To me, that kind of common sense is a family value.

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Hands off Medicare and Social Security trust fund money. I'll veto anything that spends it for anything other than Social Security and Medicare.

Getting cigarettes out of the hands of kids before they get hooked is a family value.

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I will crack down on the marketing of tobacco to our children, no matter how hard the tobacco companies lobby and no matter how much they spend.

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A new prescription drug benefit under Medicare for all our seniors, that's a family value. And let me tell you, I'll fight for it and the other side will not. They give in to the big drug companies. Their plan tells seniors to beg the HMOs and insurance companies for prescription drug coverage.

And that's the difference in this election. They're for the powerful. We're for the people.

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Judge for yourself. Look at the agendas. Look at the facts.

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Big tobacco, big oil, the big polluters, the pharmaceutical companies, the HMOs, sometimes you have to be willing to stand up and say no, so families can have a better life.

I know one thing about the job of the president: It is the only job in the Constitution that is charged with the responsibility of fighting for all the people, not just the people of one state or one district, not just the wealthy or the powerful, all the people; especially those who need a voice, those who need a champion, those who need to be lifted up, so they are never left behind.

I say to you tonight, if you entrust me with the presidency, I will fight for you.

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I mean that with all my heart.

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AUDIENCE: Go Al, go. Go Al, go. Go Al, go. Go Al, go. Go Al, go.

GORE: There's one other word that we've heard a lot of in this campaign, and that word is "honor." To me, honor is not just a word, but an obligation. And you have my word: We will honor hard work by raising the minimum wage so that work always pays more than welfare.

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We will honor families by expanding child care and after-school care, and family and medical leave, so working families have the help they need to care for their children, because one of the most important jobs of all is raising our children.

And we'll support the right of parents to decide that one of them will stay home longer with their babies, if that's what they believe is best for their families.

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We will honor the ideal of equality by standing up for civil rights and defending affirmative action.

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We will honor -- we will honor equal rights, and we will fight for an equal day's pay for an equal day's work.

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And let there be no doubt. I will protect and defend a woman's right to choose. The last thing this country needs is a Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade.

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We will remove all the old barriers so that those who are called disabled can develop all their abilities. And we will also widen the circle of opportunity for all Americans. And we will vigorously enforce all our civil rights laws with the budgets and personnel that are necessary.

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And hear me well: We will pass the Employment Non- Discrimination act.

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And we will honor the memory of Matthew Shepard, and Joseph Ileto, and James Byrd, whose families all joined us this week, by passing a law against hate crimes.

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They are different. We need to embody our values in that new law. It's time.

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