European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday february 19 emf tags and Clinton we Are All in this together washing ton a tax Tiff president Linton i address a delivered wednesday to joint session of Congress or president or. Speaker member of the House and the senile distinguished american Here a visitor in this chamber As am i it is Nice to have a fresh excuse for Long speech. When presidents speak to the Congress and the nation from this podium typically they comment on the full Range of challenges and opportunities that face the United states. But this is not an Ordinary time and for All the Many tasks that require our attention 1 believe one Calls on us to focus to unite and to act and that is our Economy. For More than anything else our task tonight As american is to make our Economy thrive once again. Let me begin by saying that it has been too Long at least three decades since a president has come and challenged americans to join him on a great National journey not merely to consume the Bounty of today but to invest for a much greater one tomorrow. Like individuals nations must ultimately decide How they wish to conduct themselves How they wish to be thought of by those with whom they live and later How they wish to be judged by history. Like every individual Man and woman nations must decide whether they Are prepared to Rise to the occasions history presents them. We have always been a people of Youthful Energy and daring spirit and this historic moment As communism has fallen As Freedom is spreading around the world As a global Economy is taking shape before Pur eyes americans have called for change and now it is up to those of us in this room to deliver for nation needs a new direction. Tonight i present to you a comprehensive plan to set our nation on that new course. Believe we will find our new direction in the Basic old values that brought us Here Over the last two centuries a commitment to Opportunity to individual responsibility to Community to work and to Faith. We need to break the habits of both political panics and say there can be no More something for nothing and admit frankly that we arc All in this together. The conditions which brought us to this Point Are Well known. Two decades of Low productivity and stagnant wages persistent unemployment and underemployment years of huge government deficits and declining investment in our future exploding health care costs and Lack of coverage for millions of americans legions of poor children education and Job training opportunities inadequate to the demands of this Tough global Economy. For too Long we drifted without a Strong sense of purpose or responsibility or Community and our political system so often has seemed paralysed by special interest groups by partisan bickering and by the sheer complexity four problems.1 believe we can do better because we remain the greatest nation on Earth the world s strongest Economy the world s Only military superpower. If we have the vision the will and the heart to make the changes we must we can still enter the 21st Century with possibilities our parents could not even have imagined and enter it having secured the american dream for ourselves and for future generations. I Well remember 12 years ago Ronald Reagan stood at this very podium and told the american people that if our debt were stacked in thousand Dollar Bills the stack would reach 67 Miles into space. Well today that stack would reach 267 Miles. 1 Tell you this not to assign blame for this problem. There is plenty of blame to go around in both branches of the government and both parties. The time for blame has come to an end. 1 did not seek this office to assign blame. I come her tonight to accept responsibility and i want you to accept responsibility with me. And if we do it right by this country i do not care who gets the credit for plan i offer you has four fundamental components first it shifts our emphasis in Public and private spending from consumption to investment initially by jump starting the Economy in the Short term and investing in our people their jobs and their incomes in the Long term. Second it changes the rhetoric of the past into the actions of the present by honouring work and families in every part of our Public , it substantially reduces the Federal deficit honestly and credibly by using in the beginning the most conservative estimates of government revenues not As the executive Branch has done so often in the past using the most optimistic ones. And finally it seeks to earn the Trust of the american people by paying for these plans first with cuts in government waste and inefficiency second with cuts not gimmicks in government spending and by fairness for a change in the Way the additional burdens Are borne. Tonight i want to talk with you about what government can do because 1 believe government must do More. But let me say first that the real engine of economic growth in this country is the private sector. And second that each of us must be an engine of growth and change. The truth is that As government creates More Opportunity in this new and different time we must also demand More responsibility in immediate priority is to create jobs create jobs now. Some say Well weve in a recovery and we Don t have to do that Well we All Hope we re in a recovery. But we re sure not creating More jobs. And there is no recovery Worth us Salt that does t put the american people Back to create jobs and guarantee a Strong recovery i Call on Congress to enact an immediate package of jobs investment of Over $30 billion to put people to work now to create half million jobs jobs to rebuild our highways and airports to renovate housing to bring new life to Rural communities and spread Hope and Opportunity among our nation s youth. President Clinton prepares to address the joint session of Congress in the House Chambers wednesday. And especially i want to emphasize after the events of last year in los Angeles and the countless stories of despair in our cities and in our poor Rural communities this proposal will create almost 700,000 new summer jobs for displaced unemployed Young people alone this summer. And tonight i invite America s business leaders to join us in this Effort so that together we can provide a million summer jobs in cities and poor Rural areas for our Young people. Second our plan looks beyond today s business Cycle because our aspirations extend into the next Century. The heart of this plan deals with the Long term. It has an investment program designed to increase Public and private investment in areas critical to our economic future. And it has a deficit reduction program that will increase the savings available for the private sector to invest with lower interest rates will decrease the percentage of the Federal budget claimed by interest payments and decrease the risks of financial Market disruptions that could adversely affect our Economy. Over the Long run All this will bring us a higher rate of economic growth improved productivity More High Quality jobs and an improved economic competitive position in the world. In order to accomplish Public investment and deficit reduction something no american government has Ever been called upon to do at the same time before spending must be Cut and taxes must be raised. The spending cuts 1 recommend were carefully thought through in a Way to minimize and Adverse economic Impact to capture the peace dividend for investment purposes and to switch the balance in the budget from consumption to More investment. % the tax increases and spending cuts were both designed to ensure that the Cost of this historic program to face and Deal with our problems is borne by those who can readily afford it the most. Most importantly to improve the health of american business through lower interest rates More incentives to invest and better trained. Because Small business has created such As High percentage of All the new jobs in our nation Over the last 10 or is years our plan includes the boldest targeted incentives for Small business in history. We propose a permanent investment tax credit for the smallest firms in this country with revenues of under $15 million. That s about 90 percent of the firms i America employing about 40 percent of the work Force but creating a big majority of the net new jobs for the next decade. And we propose new rewards for entrepreneurs who take new risks. We propose to give Small business Access to All the new technologies of our time and we propose to attack this credit crunch which has denied Small business the credit they need to flourish and Prosper. With a new network of Community development Banks and $1 billion to make the dream of Enterprise zones real we propose to bring new Hope and new jobs to storefronts and factories from South Boston to South Texas to South Central los Angeles. This plan invests in our roads our Bridges our transit systems in High Speed railways and High tech information to term. And it provide the my unit Tomt pm Ironim null Tua mip in Tarto Frohip a mate Umi hat of our Lime to put people u wind to the environment it four future standing As we arc on the Edge of the re ctn Truwe know the economic growth depends a Newt be of on opening up new Market Oversea Ami expanding the volume of world Trade and Ifo we will i Sim on Lair Radt Ruk in Ink a National markets pan of National economic a arg Mut be to expand Trade including the completion of North american free Trade agreement with a prop Imie safeguards or our worker and the environment at the same time and 1 say this to you in both parties and across America tonight All the people who Art listening it is not enough to pass a budget or even to have a Trade agreement. The world is changing a fast that we must have aggressive targeted attempts to create the High wage jobs of the future. That s what All our competitors arc doing. The must give special attention to those critical industries that arc going to explode in the 21st Century but that arc in trouble in America today like aerospace. We must provide special assistance to areas and to workers displaced by cuts in Trie defense budget and by other unavoidable economic dislocations. And again i will say we must do this together. I pledge to you that i will do my Best business and labor and government work together for a change. But All of our efforts to strengthen the Economy will fail let me say this again i feel so strongly about this All of our efforts to strengthen the Economy will fail unless we also take this year not next year not five years from now but this year bold Steps to Reform our health care system. In 1992, we spent 14 percent of our income on health care More than 30 percent More than any other country in the world and yet we were the Only advanced nation that did not provide a Basic package of health care benefits to All of its citizens. Unless we change the present pattern 50 percent of the growth in the deficit Between now and the year 2000 will be in health care costs. By the year 2000, almost 20 percent of our income will be in health care. Our families will never be secure our businesses will never be Strong and our government will never again be fully solvent until we tackle the health care crisis. We must do it this year. The combination of the rising costs of care and the Lack of Core and the fear of losing care arc endangering the Security and the very lives of millions of our people and they arc weakening our Economy every Day. Reducing health care costs can liberate literally hundreds of millions of dollars for new investment in growth and jobs. Bringing health costs in line with inflation would do More for the private sector in this country than any tax Cut we could give and any spending program we could promote. Reforming health cure Over the Long run reforming health care is critically essential to reducing not Only our deficit but to expanding investment in America. Later this Spring after the first lady and the Many Good people who arc helping her All across the country Complete their work i will deliver to Congress a comprehensive plan for health care Reform that will finally bring costs under control and provide Security to All of our families so that no one will be denied the coverage they need but so that our economic future will not be compromised either. We will have to Root out fraud and overcharges and make sure that paperwork no longer chokes your doctor. Well have to maintain the highest american standards and the right to choose in a system that is the world s finest for All those who can Access it. But first we must make choices. We must choose to give the american people the Quality they demand and deserve with system that will not bankrupt the country or further drive More americans into me further say that 1 want to work with All of you on this i Cali a this is a complicated Issue but we must address it and i believe if there is any Chance that republicans an democrats who disagree on taxes and spending or anything else could agree on one thing surety we can All look at these numbers and go Home and Tell our people the truth. We cannot continue these spending patterns in Public or in private dollars for health care for less and less each year. We can do better. Perhaps the most fundamental change the new direction 1 propose offers is its focus on the future and its investment which seek in our children. Hach Day we delay really making a commitment to our children carries a dear Cost. Half of the 2-year-Olds in this country Don t receive the immunizations they need against deadly diseases. Our plan will provide them for every eligible child. And we know that we will save 10 dollars later for every one Dollar we spend by eliminating preventable childhood diseases. That s Good investment no matter How you measure it. 1 recommend that the women infants and children nutrition program be expanded so that every expectant Mother who needs the help receives All know that head Start a program that prepares children for school is a Success Story. We All know that it saves Money but today it just reaches barely Over a third of All the eligible children. Under this plan every eligible child will be Able to get a head Start. This is not just the right thing to do. It s the smart thing to do. For every Dollar we invest today Well save three tomorrow. We have to Start thinking about tomorrow. We have to ask Tor in our schools of our students our teachers and our principals and our parents its must continued on Page 8
