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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 25, 1994
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
BY THE PRESIDENT
The House of Representatives
9:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President,
members of the 103rd Congress, my fellow Americans:
I'm not at all sure what speech is in the TelePrompter tonight --
(laughter) -- but I hope we can talk about the state of the Union.
I ask you to begin by recalling the memory of the giant who presided
over this Chamber with such force and grace. Tip O'Neill like to
call himself "a man of the House." And he surely was that. But,
even more, he was a man of the people, a bricklayer's son who helped
to build the great American middle class. Tip O'Neill never forgot
who he was, where he came from, or who sent him here. Tonight he's
smiling down on us for the first time from the Lord's Gallery. But
in his honor, may we, too, always remember who we are, where we come
from, and who sent us here. (Applause.)
If we do that we will return over and over again to the principle
that if we simply give ordinary people equal opportunity, quality
education, and a fair shot at the American Dream, they will do
extraordinary things.
We gather tonight in a world of changes so profound and rapid that
all nations are tested. Our American heritage has always been to
master such change, to use it to expand opportunity at home and our
leadership abroad. But for too long, and in too many ways, that
heritage was abandoned, and our country drifted.
For 30 years, family life in America has been breaking down. For 20
years, the wages of working people have been stagnant or declining.
For the 12 years of trickle-down economics, we built a false
prosperity on a hollow base as our national debt quadrupled. From
1989 to 1992, we experienced the slowest growth in a half century.
For too many families, even when both parents were working, the
American Dream has been slipping away.
In 1992, the American people demanded that we change. A year ago I
asked all of you to join me in accepting responsibility for the
future of our country. Well, we did. We replaced drift and deadlock
with renewal and reform. And I want to thank every one of you here
who heard the American people, who broke gridlock, who gave them the
most successful teamwork between a President and a Congress in 30
years. (Applause.)
This Congress produced a budget that cut the deficit by half a
trillion dollars, cut spending and raised income taxes on only the
wealthiest Americans. (Applause.) This Congress produced tax
relief for millions of low income workers to reward work over
welfare. It produced NAFTA. It produced the Brady bill, now the
Brady law. And thank you, Jim Brady, for being here, and God bless
you, sir. (Applause.)
This Congress produced tax cuts to reduce the taxes of nine out of 10
small businesses who use the money to invest more and create jobs.
It produced more research and treatment for AIDS, more childhood
immunizations, more support for women's health research, more
affordable college loans for the middle class; a new national service
program for those who want to give something back to their country
and their communities for higher education; a dramatic increase in
high-tech investments to move us from a defense to a domestic high-
tech economy. This Congress produced a new law, the Motor Voter
bill, to help millions of people register to vote. It produced
Family and Medical Leave.
All passed. All signed into law with not one single veto.
(Applause.) These accomplishments were all commitments I made when I
sought this office. And, in fairness, they all had to be passed by
you in this Congress. But I am persuaded that the real credit
belongs to the people who sent us here, who pay our salaries, who
hold our feet to the fire.
But what we do here is really beginning to change lives. Let me just
give you one example. I will never forget what the Family and
Medical Leave law meant to just one father I met early one Sunday
morning in the White House.
It was unusual to see a family there touring early Sunday morning,
but he had his wife and his three children there, one of them in a
wheelchair. I came up, and after we had our picture taken and had a
little visit, I was walking off and that man grabbed me by the arm
and he said, "Mr. President, let me tell you something. My little
girl here is desperately ill. She's probably not going to make it.
But because of the Family Leave law, I was able to take time off to
spend with her -- the most important time I ever spent in my life --
without losing my job and hurting the rest of my family. It means
more to me than I will ever be able to say. Don't you people up here
ever think what you do doesn't make a difference. It does."
(Applause.)
Though we are making a difference, our work has just begun. Many
Americans still haven't felt the impact of what we've done. The
recovery still hasn't touched every community or created enough jobs.
Incomes are still stagnant; there's still too much violence and not
enough hope in too many places. Abroad, the young democracies we are
strongly supporting still face very difficult times and look to us
for leadership. And so tonight, let us resolve to continue the
journey of renewal; to create more and better jobs; to guarantee
health security for all; to reward work over welfare; to promote
democracy abroad; and to begin to reclaim our streets from violent
crime and drugs and gangs; to renew our own American community.
(Applause.)
Last year we began to put our house in order by tackling the budget
deficit that was driving us toward bankruptcy. We cut $255 billion
in spending, including entitlements, and over 340 separate budget
items. We froze domestic spending and used honest budget numbers.
Led by the Vice President, we launched a campaign to reinvent
government. We cut staff, cut perks, even trimmed the fleet of
federal limousines. After years of leaders whose rhetoric attacked
bureaucracy but whose actions expanded it, we will actually reduce it
by 252,000 people over the next five years. By the time we have
finished, the federal bureaucracy will be at its lowest point in 30
years. (Applause.)
Because the deficit was so large and because they benefitted from
tax cuts in the 1980s, we did ask the wealthiest
Americans to pay more to reduce the deficit. So on April 15th, the
American people will discover the truth about what we did last year
on taxes. Only the top 1 -- (applause) -- yes, listen -- the top 1.2
percent of Americans, as I said all along, will pay higher income tax
rates. Let me repeat -- (applause) -- Only the wealthiest 1.2
percent of Americans will face higher income tax rates and no one
else will. And that is the truth. (Applause.)
Of course, there were, as there always are in politics, naysayers who
said this plan wouldn't work. But they were wrong. When I became
President the experts predicted that next year's deficit would be
$300 billion. But because we acted, those same people now say the
deficit is going to be under $180 billion -- 40 percent lower then
was previously predicted. (Applause.)
Our economic program has helped to produce the lowest core inflation
rate and the lowest interest rates in 20 years. And because those
interest rates are down, business investment and equipment is growing
at seven times the rate of the previous four years; auto sales are
way up; home sales are at a record high. Millions of Americans have
refinanced their homes, and our economy has produced 1.6 million
private sector jobs in 1993 -- more than were created in the previous
four years combined. (Applause.)
The people who supported this economic plan should be proud of its
early results. Proud. But everyone in this chamber should know and
acknowledge that there is more to do.
Next month I will send you one of the toughest budgets ever presented
to Congress. It will cut spending in more than 300 programs,
eliminate 100 domestic programs, and reform the ways in which
governments buy goods and services. This year we must again make the
hard choices to live within the hard spending ceilings we have set.
We must do it. We have proved we can bring the deficit down without
choking off recovery, without punishing seniors of the middle class,
and without putting our national security at risk. If you will stick
with this plan, we will post three consecutive years of declining
deficits for the first time since Harry Truman lived in the White
House. And once again, the buck stops here. (Applause.)
Our economic plan also bolsters our strength and our credibility
around the world. Once we reduce the deficit and put the steel back
into our competitive edge, the world echoed with the sound of falling
trade barriers. In one year, with NAFTA, with GATT, with our efforts
in Asia and the National Export Strategy, we did more to open world
markets to American products than at any time in the last two
generations.
That means more jobs and rising living standards for the American
people; low deficits; low inflation; low interest rates; low trade
barriers and high investments. These are the building blocks of our
recovery. But if we want to take full advantage of the opportunities
before us in the global economy, you all know we must do more.
As we reduce defense spending, I ask Congress to invest more in the
technologies of tomorrow. Defense conversion will keep us strong
militarily and create jobs for our people here at home. (Applause.)
As we protect our environment, we must invest in the environmental
technologies of the future which will create jobs. This year we will
fight for a revitalized Clean Water Act and a Safe Drinking Water Act
and a reformed Superfund program. And the Vice President is right --
we must also work with the private sector to connect every classroom,
every clinic, every library, every hospital in America into a
national information super highway by the year 2000. (Applause.)
Think of it -- instant access to information will increase
productivity, will help to educate our children. It will provide
better medical care. It will create jobs. And I call on the
Congress to pass legislation to establish that information super
highway this year. (Applause.)
As we expand opportunity and create jobs, no one can be left out. We
must continue to enforce fair lending and fair housing and all civil
rights laws, because America will never be complete in its renewal
until everyone shares in its bounty. (Applause.)
But we all know, too, we can do all these things -- put our economic
house in order, expand world trade, target the jobs of the future,
guarantee equal opportunity -- but if we're honest, we'll all admit
that this strategy still cannot work unless we also give our people
the education, training and skills they need to seize the
opportunities of tomorrow. (Applause.)
We must set tough, world-class academic and occupational standards
for all our children and give our teachers and students the tools
they need to meet them. Our Goals 2000 proposal will empower
individual school districts to experiment with ideas like chartering
their schools to be run by private corporations, or having more
public school choice -- to do whatever they wish to do as long as we
measure every school by one high standard: Are our children learning
what they need to know to compete and win in the global economy?
(Applause.)
Goals 2000 links world-class standards to grass-roots reforms. And I
hope Congress will pass it without delay.
Our School to Work Initiative will for the first time link school to
the world of work, providing at least one year of apprenticeship
beyond high school. After all, most of the people we're counting on
to build our economic future won't graduate from college. It's time
to stop ignoring them and start empowering them. (Applause.)
We must literally transform our out-dated unemployment system into a
new reemployment system. The old unemployment system just sort of
kept you going while you waited for your old job to come back. We've
got to have a new system to move people into new and better jobs
because most of those old jobs just don't come back. And we know
that the only way to have real job security in the future, to get a
good job with a growing income, is to have real skills and the
ability to learn new ones. So we've got to streamline today's
patchwork of training programs and make them a source of new skills
for our people who lose their jobs.
Reemployment, not unemployment, must become the centerpiece of our
economic renewal. I urge you to pass it in this session of Congress.
(Applause.)
And just as we must transform our unemployment system, so must we
also revolutionize our welfare system. It doesn't work. It defies
our values as a nation. If we value work, we can't justify a system
that makes welfare more attractive than work if people are worried
about losing their health care. (Applause.) If we value
responsibility, we can't ignore the $34 billion in child support
absent parents ought to be paying to millions of parents who are
taking care of their children. (Applause.) If we value strong
families, we can't perpetuate a system that actually penalizes those
who stay together.
Can you believe that a child who has a child gets more money from the
government for leaving home than for staying home with
a parent or a grandparent? That's not just bad policy, it's wrong.
And we ought to change it. (Applause.)
I worked on this problem for years before I became President, with
other governors and with members of Congress of both parties and with
the previous administration of another party. I worked on it with
people who were on welfare -- lots of them. And I want to say
something to everybody here who cares about this issue. The people
who most want to change this system are the people who are dependent
on it. They want to get off welfare. They want to go back to work.
They want to do right by their kids.
I once had a hearing when I was a governor and I brought in people on
welfare from all over America who had found their way to work. The
woman from my state who testified was asked this question: What's the
best thing about being off welfare and in a job? And, without
blinking an eye, she looked at 40 governors and she said, "When my
boy goes to school and they say what does your mother do for a
living, he can give an answer." These people want a better system
and we ought to give it to them. (Applause.)
Last year we began this. We gave the states more power to innovate
because we know that a lot of great ideas come from outside
Washington, and many states are already using it. Then this Congress
took a dramatic step. Instead of taxing people with modest incomes
into poverty, we helped them to work their way out of poverty by
dramatically increasing the earned income tax credit. It will lift
15 million working families out of poverty, rewarding work over
welfare, making it possible for people to be successful workers and
successful parents. Now that's real welfare reform. (Applause.)
But there is more to be done. This spring I will send you a
comprehensive welfare reform bill that builds on the Family Support
Act of 1988 and restores the basic values of responsibility. We'll
say to teenagers, if you have a child out of wedlock, we will no
longer give you a check to set up a separate household. We want
families to stay together. Say to absent parents who aren't paying
their child support, if you're not providing for your children, we'll
garnish your wages, suspend your license, track you across state
lines, and if necessary, make some of you work off what you owe.
(Applause.)
People who bring children into this world cannot and must not walk
away from them. But to all those who depend on welfare, we should
offer ultimately a simple compact. We'll provide the support, the
job training, the child care you need for up to two years. But after
that, anyone who can work must -- in the private sector, wherever
possible; in community services, if necessary. That's the only way
we'll ever make welfare what it ought to be -- a second chance, not a
way of life. (Applause.)
I know it will be difficult to tackle welfare reform in 1994 at the
same time we tackle health care. But let me point out, I think it is
inevitable and imperative. It is estimated that one million people
are on welfare today because it's the only way they can get health
care coverage for their children. Those who choose to leave welfare
for jobs without health benefits -- and many entry jobs don't have
health benefits -- find themselves in the incredible position of
paying taxes that help to pay for health care coverage for those who
made the other choice to stay on welfare. No wonder people leave
work and go back to welfare to get health care coverage. We have got
to solve the health care problem to have real welfare reform.
(Applause.)
So this year, we will make history by reforming the health care
system. And I would say to you, all of you, my fellow public
servants, this is another issue where the people are way ahead of the
politicians. (Applause and laughter.) That may not be
popular with either party, but it happens to be the truth.
(Laughter.)
You know, the First Lady has received now almost a million letters
from people all across America and from all walks of life. I'd like
to share just one of them with you.
Richard Anderson of Reno, Nevada, lost his job and, with it, his
health insurance. Two weeks later, his wife, Judy, suffered a
cerebral aneurysm. He rushed her to the hospital, where she stayed
in intensive care for 21 days.
The Andersons' bills were over $120,000. Although Judy recovered and
Richard went back to work, at $8 an hour, the bills were too much for
them and they were literally forced into bankruptcy.
"Mrs. Clinton," he wrote to Hillary, "no one in the United States of
America should have to lose everything they've worked for all their
lives because they were unfortunate enough to become ill."
It was to help the Richard and Judy Andersons of America that the
First Lady and so many others have worked so hard and so long on this
health care reform issue. We owe them our thanks and our action.
(Applause.)
I know there are people here who say there's no health care crisis.
Tell it to Richard and Judy Anderson. Tell it to the 58 million
Americans who have no coverage at all for some time each year. Tell
it to the 81 million Americans with those preexisting conditions --
those folks are paying more or they can't get insurance at all, or
they can't ever change their jobs because they or someone in their
family has one of those preexisting conditions. Tell it to the small
businesses burdened by the skyrocketing cost of insurance. Most
small businesses cover their employees, and they pay on average 35
percent more in premiums than big businesses or government. Or tell
it to the 76 percent of insured Americans, three out of four whose
policies have lifetime limits. And that means they can find
themselves without any coverage at all just when they need it the
most.
So if any of you believe there's no crisis, you tell it to those
people -- because I can't. (Applause.)
There are some people who literally do not understand the impact of
this problem on people's lives. And all you have to do is go out
and listen to them. Just go talk to them anywhere in any
congressional district in this country. They're Republicans and
Democrats and independents -- it doesn't have a lick to do with
party. They think we don't get it. And it's time we show them that
we do get it. (Applause.)
From the day we began, our health care initiative has been designed
to strengthen what is good about our health care system: the world's
best health care professionals, cutting edge research and wonderful
research institutions, Medicare for older Americans. None of this --
none of it should be put at risk.
But we're paying more and more money for less and less care. Every
year fewer and fewer Americans even get to choose their doctors.
Every year doctors and nurses spend more time on paperwork and less
time with patients because of the absolute bureaucratic nightmare the
present system has become. This system is riddled with inefficiency,
with abuse, with fraud, and everybody knows it.
In today's health care system, insurance companies call the shots.
They pick whom they cover and how they cover them. They
can cut off your benefits when you need your coverage the most. They
are in charge.
What does it mean? It means every night millions of well-insured
Americans go to bed just an illness, an accident or a pink slip away
from having no coverage or financial ruin. It means every morning
millions of Americans go to work without any health insurance at all
-- something the workers in no other advanced country in the world
do. It means that every year, more and more hard-working people are
told to pick a new doctor because their boss has had to pick a new
plan. And countless others turn down better jobs because they know
if they take the better job, they will lose their health insurance.
If we just let the health care system continue to drift, our country
will have people with less care, fewer choices and higher bills.
Now, our approach protects the quality of care and people's choices.
It builds on what works today in the private sector -- to expand
employer-based coverage, to guarantee private insurance for every
American. And I might say, employer-based private insurance for
every American was proposed 20 years ago by President Richard Nixon
to the United States Congress. It was a good idea then, and it's a
better idea today. (Applause.)
Why do we want guaranteed private insurance? Because right now nine
out of 10 people who have insurance get it through their employers.
And that should continue. And if your employer is providing good
benefits at reasonable prices, that should continue, too. That ought
to make the Congress and the President feel better.
Our goal is health insurance everybody can depend on --comprehensive
benefits that cover preventive care and prescription drugs; health
premiums that don't just explode when yo get sick or you get older;
the power no matter how small your business is to choose dependable
insurance at the same competitive rates governments and big business
get today; one simple form for people who are sick; and, most of all,
the freedom to choose a plan and the right to choose your own doctor.
Our approach protects older Americans. Every plan before the
Congress proposes to slow the growth of Medicare. The difference is
this: We believe those savings should be used to improve health care
for senior citizens. Medicare must be protected, and it should cover
prescription drugs, and we should take the first steps in covering
long-term care. (Applause.)
To those who would cut Medicare without protecting seniors, I say the
solution to today's squeeze on middle-class working people's health
care is not to put the squeeze on middle-class retired people's
health care. We can do better than that.
When it's all said and done, it's pretty simple to me. Insurance
ought to mean what it used to mean -- you pay a fair price for
security, and when you get sick, health care's always there, no
matter what.
Along with the guarantee of health security, we all have to admit,
too, there must be more responsibility on the part of all of us in
how we use this system. People have to take their kids to get
immunized. We should all take advantage of preventive care. We must
all work together to stop the violence that explodes our emergency
rooms. We have to practice better health habits, and we can't abuse
the system. And those who don't have insurance under our approach
will get coverage, but they'll have to pay something for it, too.
The minority of businesses that provide no insurance at all, and in
so doing, shift the cost of the care of their employees to
others, should contribute something. People who smoke should pay
more for a pack of cigarettes. Everybody can contribute something if
we want to solve the health care crisis. There can't be any more
something for nothing. It will not be easy but it can be done.
(Applause.)
Now, in the coming months I hope very much to work both Democrats and
Republicans to reform a health care system by using the market to
bring down costs and to achieve lasting health security. But if you
look at history we see that for 60 years this country has tried to
reform health care. President Roosevelt tried. President Truman
tried. President Nixon tried. President Carter tried. Every time
the special interests were powerful enough to defeat them. But not
this time. (Applause.)
I know that facing up to these interests will require courage. It
will raise critical questions about the way we finance our campaigns
and how lobbyists yield their influence. The work of change,
frankly, will never get any easier until we limit the influence of
well-financed interest who profit from this current system. So I
also must now to call on you to finish the job both Houses began last
year by passing tough and meaningful campaign finance reform and
lobby reform legislation this year. (Applause.)
You know, my fellow Americans, this is really a test for all of us.
The American people provide those of us in government service with
terrific health care benefits at reasonable costs. We have health
care that's always there. I think we need to give every hard-
working, tax-paying American the same health care security they have
already given to us. (Applause.)
I want to make this very clear. I am open, as I have said
repeatedly, to the best ideas of concerned members of both parties.
I have no special brief for any specific approach, even in our own
bill, except this: If you send me legislation that does not
guarantee every American private health insurance that can never be
taken away, you will force me to take this pen, veto the legislation,
and we'll come right back here and start all over again. (Applause.)
But I don't think that's going to happen. I think we're ready to act
now. I believe that you're ready to act now. And if you're ready to
guarantee every American the same health care that you have, health
care that can never be taken away, now -- not next year or the year
after -- now is the time to stand with the people who sent us here.
Now. (Applause.)
As we take these steps together to renew our strength at home, we
cannot turn away from our obligation to renew our leadership abroad.
This is a promising moment. Because of the agreements we have
reached this year, last year, Russia's strategic nuclear missiles
soon will no longer be pointed at the United States, nor will we
point ours at them. (Applause.) Instead of building weapons in
space, Russian scientists will help us to build the international
space station. (Applause.)
Of course, there are still dangers in the world --rampant arms
proliferation, bitter regional conflicts, ethnic and nationalist
tensions in many new democracies, severe environmental degradation
the world over, and fanatics who seek to cripple the world's cities
with terror. As the world's greatest power, we must, therefore,
maintain our defenses and our responsibilities.
This year, we secured indictments against terrorists and sanctions
against those who harbor them. We worked to promote environmentally
sustainable economic growth. We achieved agreements with Ukraine,
with Belarus, with Kazahkstan to eliminate completely their nuclear
arsenal. We are working to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of
nuclear weapons. We will seek early ratification of a treaty
to ban chemical weapons worldwide. And earlier today, we joined with
over 30 nations to begin negotiations on a comprehensive ban to stop
all nuclear testing. (Applause.)
But nothing, nothing is more important to our security than our
nation's armed forces. We honor their contributions, including those
who are carrying out the longest humanitarian air lift in history in
Bosnia; (applause) -- those who will complete their mission in
Somalia this year and their brave comrades who gave their lives
there. (Applause.)
Our forces are the finest military our nation has ever had. And I
have pledged that as long as I am President, they will remain the
best equipped, the best trained and the best prepared fighting force
on the face of the Earth. (Applause.)
Last year I proposed a defense plan that maintains our post-Cold War
security at a lower cost. This year many people urged me to cut our
defense spending further to pay for other government programs. I
said, no. The budget I send to Congress draws the line against
further defense cuts. It protects the readiness and quality of our
forces.
Ultimately, the best strategy is to do that. We must not cut defense
further. I hope the Congress without regard to party will support
that position. (Applause.)
Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a
durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere.
Democracies don't attack each other, they make better trading
partners and partners in diplomacy. That is why we have supported,
you and I, the democratic reformers in Russia and in the other states
of the former Soviet bloc. I applaud the bipartisan support this
Congress provided last year for our initiatives to help Russia,
Ukraine, and the other states through their epic transformations.
Our support of reform must combine patience for the enormity of the
task and vigilance for our fundamental interest and values. We will
continue to urge Russia and the other states to press ahead with
economic reforms. And we will seek to cooperate with Russia to solve
regional problems, while insisting that if Russian troops operate in
neighboring states, they do so only when those states agree to their
presence and in strict accord with international standards.
(Applause.)
But we must also remember as these nations chart their own futures --
and they must chart their own futures -- how much more secure and
more prosperous our own people will be if democratic and market
reform succeed all across the former communist bloc. Our policy has
been to support that move and that has been the policy of the
Congress. We should continue it.
That is why I went to Europe earlier this month -- to work with our
Europeans partners, to help to integrate all the former communist
countries into a Europe that has a possibility of becoming unified
for the first time in its entire history -- its entire history --
based on the simple commitments of all nations in Europe to
democracy, to free markets and to respect for existing borders.
With our allies we have created a Partnership For Peace that invites
states from the former Soviet bloc and other non-NATO members to work
with NATO in military cooperation. When I met with Central Europe's
leaders including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, men who put their
lives on the line for freedom, I told them that the security of their
region is important to our country's security.
This year we must also do more to support democratic renewal and
human rights and sustainable development all around the world. We
will ask Congress to ratify the new GATT accord. We will continue
standing by South Africa as it works its way through its bold and
hopeful and difficult transition to democracy. We will convene a
summit of the Western Hemisphere's leaders from Canada to the tip of
South America. And we will continue to press for the restoration of
true democracy in Haiti. (Applause.)
And as we build a more constructive relationship with China, we must
continue to insist on clear signs of improvement in that nation's
human right record. (Applause.)
We will also work for new progress toward the Middle East peace.
Last year the world watched Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat at the
White House when they had their historic handshake of reconciliation.
But there is a long, hard road ahead. And on that road I am
determined that I and our administration will do all we can to
achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace for all the peoples of the
region.
Now, there are some in our country who argue that with the Cold War,
America should turn its back on the rest of the world. Many around
the world were afraid we would do just that. But I took this office
on a pledge that had no partisan tinge to keep our nation secure by
remaining engaged in the rest of the world. And this year, because
of our work together -- enacting NAFTA, keeping our military strong
and prepared, supporting democracy abroad -- we have reaffirmed
America's leadership, America's engagement. And as a result, the
American people are more secure than they were before. (Applause.)
But while Americans are more secure from threats abroad, I think we
all know that in many ways we are less secure from threats here at
home. Every day the national peace is shattered by crime. In
Petaluma, California, an innocent slumber party gives way to
agonizing tragedy for the family of Polly Klaas. An ordinary train
ride on Long Island ends in a hail of 9-millimeter rounds. A tourist
in Florida is nearly burned alive by bigots simply because he is
black. Right here in our Nation's Capital, a brave young man named
Jason White, a policeman, the son and grandson of policemen, is
ruthlessly gunned down. Violent crime and the fear it provokes are
crippling our society, limiting personal freedom and fraying the ties
that bind us.
The crime bill before Congress gives you a chance to do something
about it -- a chance to be tough and smart. What does that mean?
Let me begin by saying, I care a lot about this issue. Many years
ago, when I started out in public life, I was the attorney general of
my state. I served as a governor for a dozen years; I know what it's
like to sign laws increasing penalties, to build more prison cells,
to carry out the death penalty. I understand this issue. And it is
not a simple thing.
First, we must recognize that most violent crimes are committed by a
small percentage of criminals who too often break the laws even when
they are on parole. Now those who commit crimes should be punished.
And those who commit repeated, violent crimes should be told, when
you commit a third violent crime, you will be put away, and put away
for good. Three strikes, and you are out. (Applause.)
Second, we must take serious steps to reduce violence and prevent
crime, beginning with more police officers and more community
policing. (Applause.) We know right now that police who work the
streets, know the folks, have the respect of the neighborhood kids,
focus on high crime areas -- we know that they are more likely to
prevent crime as well as catch criminals. Look at the
experience of Houston, where the crime rate dropped 17 percent in one
year when that approach was taken.
Here tonight is one of those community policeman -- a brave, young
detective, Kevin Jett, whose beat is eight square blocks in one of
the toughest neighborhoods in New York. Every day he restores some
sanity and safety and a sense of values and connections to the people
whose lives he protects. I'd like to ask him to stand up and be
recognized tonight.
Thank you, sir. (Applause.)
You will be given a chance to give the children of this country, the
law-abiding working people of this country -- and don't forget, in
the toughest neighborhoods in this country, in the highest crime
neighborhoods in this country, the vast majority of people get up
every day and obey the law, pay their taxes, do their best to raise
their kids. They deserve people like Kevin Jett. And you're going
to be given a chance to give the American people another 100,000 of
them well trained. And I urge you to do it. (Applause.)
You have before you crime legislation which also establishes a police
corps to encourage young people to get an education and pay it off by
serving as police officers; which encourages retiring military
personnel to move into police forces, an inordinate resource for our
country -- one which has a safe schools provision which will give our
young people the chance to walk to school in safety and to be in
school in safety instead of dodging bullets. These are important
things. (Applause.)
The third thing we have to do is to build on the Brady Bill -- the
Brady Law. (Applause.) To take further steps to keep guns out of
the hands of criminals.
I want to say something about this issue. Hunters must always be
free to hunt. Law-abiding adults should always be free to own guns
to protect their homes. I respect that part of our culture, I grew
up in it. But I want to ask the sportsmen and others who lawfully
own guns to join us in this campaign to reduce gun violence. I say
to you, I know you didn't create this problem, but we need your help
to solve it. There is no sporting purpose on Earth that should stop
the United States Congress from banishing assault weapons that out-
gun police and cut down children. (Applause.)
Fourth, we must remember that drugs are a factor in an enormous
percentage of crimes. Recent studies indicate, sadly, that drug use
is on the rise again among our young people. The crime bill contains
-- all the crime bills contain -- more money for drug treatment for
criminal addicts, and boot camps for youthful offenders that include
incentives to get off drugs and to stay off drugs.
Our administration's budget with all its cuts can paint a large
increase in funding for drug treatment and drug education. You must
pass them both. We need them desperately. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, the problem of violence is an American problem.
It has no partisan or philosophical element. Therefore, I urge you
to find ways as quickly as possible to set aside partisan differences
and pass a strong, smart, tough crime bill. (Applause.) But
further, I urge you to consider this: As you demand tougher
penalties for those who choose violence, let us also remember how we
came to this sad point.
In our toughest neighborhoods, on our meanest streets, in our poorest
rural areas, we have seen a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of
community, family and work -- the heart and soul of civilized
society. This has created a vast vacuum which has been filled by
violence and drugs and gangs. So I ask you to remember
that even as we say no to crime, we must give people -- especially
our young people -- something to say yes to. (Applause.)
Many of our initiatives -- from job training to welfare reform to
health care to national service -- will help to rebuild distressed
communities, to strengthen families, to provide work. But more needs
to be done. That's what our community empowerment agenda is all
about -- challenging businesses to provide more investment through
empowerment zones; ensuring banks will make loans in the same
communities their deposits come from; passing legislation to unleash
the power of capital through community development banks to create
jobs -- opportunity and hope where they're needed most.
I think you know that to really solve this problem, we'll all have to
put our heads together, leave our ideological armor aside and find
some new ideas to do even more. And let's be honest; we all know
something else too: Our problems go way beyond the reach of
government. They're rooted in the lose of values, in the
disappearance of work and the breakdown of our families and our
communities.
My fellow Americans, we can cut the deficit, create jobs, promote
democracy around the world, pass welfare reform and health care, pass
the toughest crime bill in history, but still leave too many of our
people behind.
The American people have got to want to change from within if we're
going to bring back work and family and community. We cannot renew
our country when within a decade more than half of the children will
be born into families where there has been no marriage. We cannot
renew this country when 13-year-old boys get semi-automatic weapons
to shoot 9-year-olds for kicks. We can't renew our country when
children are having children and the fathers walk away as if the kids
don't amount to anything. We can't renew the country when our
businesses eagerly look for new investments and new customers abroad,
but ignore those people right here at home who would give anything to
have their jobs and would gladly buy their products if they had the
money to do it. (Applause.)
We can't renew our country unless more of us -- I mean all of us --
are willing to join the churches and the other good citizens --
people like of the black ministers I've worked with over the years,
or the priests and the nuns I met at Our Lady of Help in East Los
Angeles, or my good friend, Tony Campollo in Philadelphia -- unless
we're willing to work with people like that, people who are saving
kids, adopting schools, making streets safer -- all of us can do
that. We can't renew our country until we realize that governments
don't raise children, parents do. (Applause.)
Parents who know their children's teachers and turn off the
television and help with the homework and teach their kids right from
wrong -- those kinds of parents can make all the difference. I know,
I had one. (Applause.)
I'm telling you, we have got to stop pointing our fingers at these
kids who have no future, and reach our hands out to them. Our
country needs it, we need it, and they deserve it. (Applause.)
So I say to you tonight, let's give our children a future. Let us
take away their guns and give them books. Let us overcome their
despair and replace it with hope. Let us, by our example, teach them
to obey the law, respect our neighbors, and cherish our values. Let
us weave these sturdy threads into a new American community that can
once more stand strong against the forces of despair and evil because
everybody has a chance to walk into a better tomorrow.
Oh, there will be naysayers who fear that we won't be equal to the
challenges of this time. But they misread our history, our heritage.
Even today's headlines -- all those things tell us we can and we will
overcome any challenge.
When the earth shook and fires raged in California, when I saw the
Mississippi deluge the farmlands of the Midwest in a 500-year flood,
when the century's bitterest cold swept from North Dakota to Newport
News, it seemed as though the world itself was coming apart at the
seams. But the American people -- they just came together. They
rose to the occasion, neighbor helping neighbor, strangers risking
life and limb to save total strangers -- showing the better angels of
our nature.
Let us not reserve the better angels only for natural disasters,
leaving our deepest and most profound problems to petty political
fighting. (Applause.) Let us instead be true to our spirit --
facing facts, coming together, bringing hope and moving forward.
Tonight, my fellow Americans, we are summoned to answer a question as
old as the republic itself: What is the state of our union? It is
growing stronger, but it must be stronger still. With your help, and
God's help, it will be.
Thank you and God bless America. (Applause.)
END10:18 P.M. EST
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 25, 1994
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
BY THE PRESIDENT
The House of Representatives
9:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President,
members of the 103rd Congress, my fellow Americans:
I'm not at all sure what speech is in the TelePrompter tonight --
(laughter) -- but I hope we can talk about the state of the Union.
I ask you to begin by recalling the memory of the giant who presided
over this Chamber with such force and grace. Tip O'Neill like to
call himself "a man of the House." And he surely was that. But,
even more, he was a man of the people, a bricklayer's son who helped
to build the great American middle class. Tip O'Neill never forgot
who he was, where he came from, or who sent him here. Tonight he's
smiling down on us for the first time from the Lord's Gallery. But
in his honor, may we, too, always remember who we are, where we come
from, and who sent us here. (Applause.)
If we do that we will return over and over again to the principle
that if we simply give ordinary people equal opportunity, quality
education, and a fair shot at the American Dream, they will do
extraordinary things.
We gather tonight in a world of changes so profound and rapid that
all nations are tested. Our American heritage has always been to
master such change, to use it to expand opportunity at home and our
leadership abroad. But for too long, and in too many ways, that
heritage was abandoned, and our country drifted.
For 30 years, family life in America has been breaking down. For 20
years, the wages of working people have been stagnant or declining.
For the 12 years of trickle-down economics, we built a false
prosperity on a hollow base as our national debt quadrupled. From
1989 to 1992, we experienced the slowest growth in a half century.
For too many families, even when both parents were working, the
American Dream has been slipping away.
In 1992, the American people demanded that we change. A year ago I
asked all of you to join me in accepting responsibility for the
future of our country. Well, we did. We replaced drift and deadlock
with renewal and reform. And I want to thank every one of you here
who heard the American people, who broke gridlock, who gave them the
most successful teamwork between a President and a Congress in 30
years. (Applause.)
This Congress produced a budget that cut the deficit by half a
trillion dollars, cut spending and raised income taxes on only the
wealthiest Americans. (Applause.) This Congress produced tax
relief for millions of low income workers to reward work over
welfare. It produced NAFTA. It produced the Brady bill, now the
Brady law. And thank you, Jim Brady, for being here, and God bless
you, sir. (Applause.)
This Congress produced tax cuts to reduce the taxes of nine out of 10
small businesses who use the money to invest more and create jobs.
It produced more research and treatment for AIDS, more childhood
immunizations, more support for women's health research, more
affordable college loans for the middle class; a new national service
program for those who want to give something back to their country
and their communities for higher education; a dramatic increase in
high-tech investments to move us from a defense to a domestic high-
tech economy. This Congress produced a new law, the Motor Voter
bill, to help millions of people register to vote. It produced
Family and Medical Leave.
All passed. All signed into law with not one single veto.
(Applause.) These accomplishments were all commitments I made when I
sought this office. And, in fairness, they all had to be passed by
you in this Congress. But I am persuaded that the real credit
belongs to the people who sent us here, who pay our salaries, who
hold our feet to the fire.
But what we do here is really beginning to change lives. Let me just
give you one example. I will never forget what the Family and
Medical Leave law meant to just one father I met early one Sunday
morning in the White House.
It was unusual to see a family there touring early Sunday morning,
but he had his wife and his three children there, one of them in a
wheelchair. I came up, and after we had our picture taken and had a
little visit, I was walking off and that man grabbed me by the arm
and he said, "Mr. President, let me tell you something. My little
girl here is desperately ill. She's probably not going to make it.
But because of the Family Leave law, I was able to take time off to
spend with her -- the most important time I ever spent in my life --
without losing my job and hurting the rest of my family. It means
more to me than I will ever be able to say. Don't you people up here
ever think what you do doesn't make a difference. It does."
(Applause.)
Though we are making a difference, our work has just begun. Many
Americans still haven't felt the impact of what we've done. The
recovery still hasn't touched every community or created enough jobs.
Incomes are still stagnant; there's still too much violence and not
enough hope in too many places. Abroad, the young democracies we are
strongly supporting still face very difficult times and look to us
for leadership. And so tonight, let us resolve to continue the
journey of renewal; to create more and better jobs; to guarantee
health security for all; to reward work over welfare; to promote
democracy abroad; and to begin to reclaim our streets from violent
crime and drugs and gangs; to renew our own American community.
(Applause.)
Last year we began to put our house in order by tackling the budget
deficit that was driving us toward bankruptcy. We cut $255 billion
in spending, including entitlements, and over 340 separate budget
items. We froze domestic spending and used honest budget numbers.
Led by the Vice President, we launched a campaign to reinvent
government. We cut staff, cut perks, even trimmed the fleet of
federal limousines. After years of leaders whose rhetoric attacked
bureaucracy but whose actions expanded it, we will actually reduce it
by 252,000 people over the next five years. By the time we have
finished, the federal bureaucracy will be at its lowest point in 30
years. (Applause.)
Because the deficit was so large and because they benefitted from
tax cuts in the 1980s, we did ask the wealthiest
Americans to pay more to reduce the deficit. So on April 15th, the
American people will discover the truth about what we did last year
on taxes. Only the top 1 -- (applause) -- yes, listen -- the top 1.2
percent of Americans, as I said all along, will pay higher income tax
rates. Let me repeat -- (applause) -- Only the wealthiest 1.2
percent of Americans will face higher income tax rates and no one
else will. And that is the truth. (Applause.)
Of course, there were, as there always are in politics, naysayers who
said this plan wouldn't work. But they were wrong. When I became
President the experts predicted that next year's deficit would be
$300 billion. But because we acted, those same people now say the
deficit is going to be under $180 billion -- 40 percent lower then
was previously predicted. (Applause.)
Our economic program has helped to produce the lowest core inflation
rate and the lowest interest rates in 20 years. And because those
interest rates are down, business investment and equipment is growing
at seven times the rate of the previous four years; auto sales are
way up; home sales are at a record high. Millions of Americans have
refinanced their homes, and our economy has produced 1.6 million
private sector jobs in 1993 -- more than were created in the previous
four years combined. (Applause.)
The people who supported this economic plan should be proud of its
early results. Proud. But everyone in this chamber should know and
acknowledge that there is more to do.
Next month I will send you one of the toughest budgets ever presented
to Congress. It will cut spending in more than 300 programs,
eliminate 100 domestic programs, and reform the ways in which
governments buy goods and services. This year we must again make the
hard choices to live within the hard spending ceilings we have set.
We must do it. We have proved we can bring the deficit down without
choking off recovery, without punishing seniors of the middle class,
and without putting our national security at risk. If you will stick
with this plan, we will post three consecutive years of declining
deficits for the first time since Harry Truman lived in the White
House. And once again, the buck stops here. (Applause.)
Our economic plan also bolsters our strength and our credibility
around the world. Once we reduce the deficit and put the steel back
into our competitive edge, the world echoed with the sound of falling
trade barriers. In one year, with NAFTA, with GATT, with our efforts
in Asia and the National Export Strategy, we did more to open world
markets to American products than at any time in the last two
generations.
That means more jobs and rising living standards for the American
people; low deficits; low inflation; low interest rates; low trade
barriers and high investments. These are the building blocks of our
recovery. But if we want to take full advantage of the opportunities
before us in the global economy, you all know we must do more.
As we reduce defense spending, I ask Congress to invest more in the
technologies of tomorrow. Defense conversion will keep us strong
militarily and create jobs for our people here at home. (Applause.)
As we protect our environment, we must invest in the environmental
technologies of the future which will create jobs. This year we will
fight for a revitalized Clean Water Act and a Safe Drinking Water Act
and a reformed Superfund program. And the Vice President is right --
we must also work with the private sector to connect every classroom,
every clinic, every library, every hospital in America into a
national information super highway by the year 2000. (Applause.)
Think of it -- instant access to information will increase
productivity, will help to educate our children. It will provide
better medical care. It will create jobs. And I call on the
Congress to pass legislation to establish that information super
highway this year. (Applause.)
As we expand opportunity and create jobs, no one can be left out. We
must continue to enforce fair lending and fair housing and all civil
rights laws, because America will never be complete in its renewal
until everyone shares in its bounty. (Applause.)
But we all know, too, we can do all these things -- put our economic
house in order, expand world trade, target the jobs of the future,
guarantee equal opportunity -- but if we're honest, we'll all admit
that this strategy still cannot work unless we also give our people
the education, training and skills they need to seize the
opportunities of tomorrow. (Applause.)
We must set tough, world-class academic and occupational standards
for all our children and give our teachers and students the tools
they need to meet them. Our Goals 2000 proposal will empower
individual school districts to experiment with ideas like chartering
their schools to be run by private corporations, or having more
public school choice -- to do whatever they wish to do as long as we
measure every school by one high standard: Are our children learning
what they need to know to compete and win in the global economy?
(Applause.)
Goals 2000 links world-class standards to grass-roots reforms. And I
hope Congress will pass it without delay.
Our School to Work Initiative will for the first time link school to
the world of work, providing at least one year of apprenticeship
beyond high school. After all, most of the people we're counting on
to build our economic future won't graduate from college. It's time
to stop ignoring them and start empowering them. (Applause.)
We must literally transform our out-dated unemployment system into a
new reemployment system. The old unemployment system just sort of
kept you going while you waited for your old job to come back. We've
got to have a new system to move people into new and better jobs
because most of those old jobs just don't come back. And we know
that the only way to have real job security in the future, to get a
good job with a growing income, is to have real skills and the
ability to learn new ones. So we've got to streamline today's
patchwork of training programs and make them a source of new skills
for our people who lose their jobs.
Reemployment, not unemployment, must become the centerpiece of our
economic renewal. I urge you to pass it in this session of Congress.
(Applause.)
And just as we must transform our unemployment system, so must we
also revolutionize our welfare system. It doesn't work. It defies
our values as a nation. If we value work, we can't justify a system
that makes welfare more attractive than work if people are worried
about losing their health care. (Applause.) If we value
responsibility, we can't ignore the $34 billion in child support
absent parents ought to be paying to millions of parents who are
taking care of their children. (Applause.) If we value strong
families, we can't perpetuate a system that actually penalizes those
who stay together.
Can you believe that a child who has a child gets more money from the
government for leaving home than for staying home with
a parent or a grandparent? That's not just bad policy, it's wrong.
And we ought to change it. (Applause.)
I worked on this problem for years before I became President, with
other governors and with members of Congress of both parties and with
the previous administration of another party. I worked on it with
people who were on welfare -- lots of them. And I want to say
something to everybody here who cares about this issue. The people
who most want to change this system are the people who are dependent
on it. They want to get off welfare. They want to go back to work.
They want to do right by their kids.
I once had a hearing when I was a governor and I brought in people on
welfare from all over America who had found their way to work. The
woman from my state who testified was asked this question: What's the
best thing about being off welfare and in a job? And, without
blinking an eye, she looked at 40 governors and she said, "When my
boy goes to school and they say what does your mother do for a
living, he can give an answer." These people want a better system
and we ought to give it to them. (Applause.)
Last year we began this. We gave the states more power to innovate
because we know that a lot of great ideas come from outside
Washington, and many states are already using it. Then this Congress
took a dramatic step. Instead of taxing people with modest incomes
into poverty, we helped them to work their way out of poverty by
dramatically increasing the earned income tax credit. It will lift
15 million working families out of poverty, rewarding work over
welfare, making it possible for people to be successful workers and
successful parents. Now that's real welfare reform. (Applause.)
But there is more to be done. This spring I will send you a
comprehensive welfare reform bill that builds on the Family Support
Act of 1988 and restores the basic values of responsibility. We'll
say to teenagers, if you have a child out of wedlock, we will no
longer give you a check to set up a separate household. We want
families to stay together. Say to absent parents who aren't paying
their child support, if you're not providing for your children, we'll
garnish your wages, suspend your license, track you across state
lines, and if necessary, make some of you work off what you owe.
(Applause.)
People who bring children into this world cannot and must not walk
away from them. But to all those who depend on welfare, we should
offer ultimately a simple compact. We'll provide the support, the
job training, the child care you need for up to two years. But after
that, anyone who can work must -- in the private sector, wherever
possible; in community services, if necessary. That's the only way
we'll ever make welfare what it ought to be -- a second chance, not a
way of life. (Applause.)
I know it will be difficult to tackle welfare reform in 1994 at the
same time we tackle health care. But let me point out, I think it is
inevitable and imperative. It is estimated that one million people
are on welfare today because it's the only way they can get health
care coverage for their children. Those who choose to leave welfare
for jobs without health benefits -- and many entry jobs don't have
health benefits -- find themselves in the incredible position of
paying taxes that help to pay for health care coverage for those who
made the other choice to stay on welfare. No wonder people leave
work and go back to welfare to get health care coverage. We have got
to solve the health care problem to have real welfare reform.
(Applause.)
So this year, we will make history by reforming the health care
system. And I would say to you, all of you, my fellow public
servants, this is another issue where the people are way ahead of the
politicians. (Applause and laughter.) That may not be
popular with either party, but it happens to be the truth.
(Laughter.)
You know, the First Lady has received now almost a million letters
from people all across America and from all walks of life. I'd like
to share just one of them with you.
Richard Anderson of Reno, Nevada, lost his job and, with it, his
health insurance. Two weeks later, his wife, Judy, suffered a
cerebral aneurysm. He rushed her to the hospital, where she stayed
in intensive care for 21 days.
The Andersons' bills were over $120,000. Although Judy recovered and
Richard went back to work, at $8 an hour, the bills were too much for
them and they were literally forced into bankruptcy.
"Mrs. Clinton," he wrote to Hillary, "no one in the United States of
America should have to lose everything they've worked for all their
lives because they were unfortunate enough to become ill."
It was to help the Richard and Judy Andersons of America that the
First Lady and so many others have worked so hard and so long on this
health care reform issue. We owe them our thanks and our action.
(Applause.)
I know there are people here who say there's no health care crisis.
Tell it to Richard and Judy Anderson. Tell it to the 58 million
Americans who have no coverage at all for some time each year. Tell
it to the 81 million Americans with those preexisting conditions --
those folks are paying more or they can't get insurance at all, or
they can't ever change their jobs because they or someone in their
family has one of those preexisting conditions. Tell it to the small
businesses burdened by the skyrocketing cost of insurance. Most
small businesses cover their employees, and they pay on average 35
percent more in premiums than big businesses or government. Or tell
it to the 76 percent of insured Americans, three out of four whose
policies have lifetime limits. And that means they can find
themselves without any coverage at all just when they need it the
most.
So if any of you believe there's no crisis, you tell it to those
people -- because I can't. (Applause.)
There are some people who literally do not understand the impact of
this problem on people's lives. And all you have to do is go out
and listen to them. Just go talk to them anywhere in any
congressional district in this country. They're Republicans and
Democrats and independents -- it doesn't have a lick to do with
party. They think we don't get it. And it's time we show them that
we do get it. (Applause.)
From the day we began, our health care initiative has been designed
to strengthen what is good about our health care system: the world's
best health care professionals, cutting edge research and wonderful
research institutions, Medicare for older Americans. None of this --
none of it should be put at risk.
But we're paying more and more money for less and less care. Every
year fewer and fewer Americans even get to choose their doctors.
Every year doctors and nurses spend more time on paperwork and less
time with patients because of the absolute bureaucratic nightmare the
present system has become. This system is riddled with inefficiency,
with abuse, with fraud, and everybody knows it.
In today's health care system, insurance companies call the shots.
They pick whom they cover and how they cover them. They
can cut off your benefits when you need your coverage the most. They
are in charge.
What does it mean? It means every night millions of well-insured
Americans go to bed just an illness, an accident or a pink slip away
from having no coverage or financial ruin. It means every morning
millions of Americans go to work without any health insurance at all
-- something the workers in no other advanced country in the world
do. It means that every year, more and more hard-working people are
told to pick a new doctor because their boss has had to pick a new
plan. And countless others turn down better jobs because they know
if they take the better job, they will lose their health insurance.
If we just let the health care system continue to drift, our country
will have people with less care, fewer choices and higher bills.
Now, our approach protects the quality of care and people's choices.
It builds on what works today in the private sector -- to expand
employer-based coverage, to guarantee private insurance for every
American. And I might say, employer-based private insurance for
every American was proposed 20 years ago by President Richard Nixon
to the United States Congress. It was a good idea then, and it's a
better idea today. (Applause.)
Why do we want guaranteed private insurance? Because right now nine
out of 10 people who have insurance get it through their employers.
And that should continue. And if your employer is providing good
benefits at reasonable prices, that should continue, too. That ought
to make the Congress and the President feel better.
Our goal is health insurance everybody can depend on --comprehensive
benefits that cover preventive care and prescription drugs; health
premiums that don't just explode when yo get sick or you get older;
the power no matter how small your business is to choose dependable
insurance at the same competitive rates governments and big business
get today; one simple form for people who are sick; and, most of all,
the freedom to choose a plan and the right to choose your own doctor.
Our approach protects older Americans. Every plan before the
Congress proposes to slow the growth of Medicare. The difference is
this: We believe those savings should be used to improve health care
for senior citizens. Medicare must be protected, and it should cover
prescription drugs, and we should take the first steps in covering
long-term care. (Applause.)
To those who would cut Medicare without protecting seniors, I say the
solution to today's squeeze on middle-class working people's health
care is not to put the squeeze on middle-class retired people's
health care. We can do better than that.
When it's all said and done, it's pretty simple to me. Insurance
ought to mean what it used to mean -- you pay a fair price for
security, and when you get sick, health care's always there, no
matter what.
Along with the guarantee of health security, we all have to admit,
too, there must be more responsibility on the part of all of us in
how we use this system. People have to take their kids to get
immunized. We should all take advantage of preventive care. We must
all work together to stop the violence that explodes our emergency
rooms. We have to practice better health habits, and we can't abuse
the system. And those who don't have insurance under our approach
will get coverage, but they'll have to pay something for it, too.
The minority of businesses that provide no insurance at all, and in
so doing, shift the cost of the care of their employees to
others, should contribute something. People who smoke should pay
more for a pack of cigarettes. Everybody can contribute something if
we want to solve the health care crisis. There can't be any more
something for nothing. It will not be easy but it can be done.
(Applause.)
Now, in the coming months I hope very much to work both Democrats and
Republicans to reform a health care system by using the market to
bring down costs and to achieve lasting health security. But if you
look at history we see that for 60 years this country has tried to
reform health care. President Roosevelt tried. President Truman
tried. President Nixon tried. President Carter tried. Every time
the special interests were powerful enough to defeat them. But not
this time. (Applause.)
I know that facing up to these interests will require courage. It
will raise critical questions about the way we finance our campaigns
and how lobbyists yield their influence. The work of change,
frankly, will never get any easier until we limit the influence of
well-financed interest who profit from this current system. So I
also must now to call on you to finish the job both Houses began last
year by passing tough and meaningful campaign finance reform and
lobby reform legislation this year. (Applause.)
You know, my fellow Americans, this is really a test for all of us.
The American people provide those of us in government service with
terrific health care benefits at reasonable costs. We have health
care that's always there. I think we need to give every hard-
working, tax-paying American the same health care security they have
already given to us. (Applause.)
I want to make this very clear. I am open, as I have said
repeatedly, to the best ideas of concerned members of both parties.
I have no special brief for any specific approach, even in our own
bill, except this: If you send me legislation that does not
guarantee every American private health insurance that can never be
taken away, you will force me to take this pen, veto the legislation,
and we'll come right back here and start all over again. (Applause.)
But I don't think that's going to happen. I think we're ready to act
now. I believe that you're ready to act now. And if you're ready to
guarantee every American the same health care that you have, health
care that can never be taken away, now -- not next year or the year
after -- now is the time to stand with the people who sent us here.
Now. (Applause.)
As we take these steps together to renew our strength at home, we
cannot turn away from our obligation to renew our leadership abroad.
This is a promising moment. Because of the agreements we have
reached this year, last year, Russia's strategic nuclear missiles
soon will no longer be pointed at the United States, nor will we
point ours at them. (Applause.) Instead of building weapons in
space, Russian scientists will help us to build the international
space station. (Applause.)
Of course, there are still dangers in the world --rampant arms
proliferation, bitter regional conflicts, ethnic and nationalist
tensions in many new democracies, severe environmental degradation
the world over, and fanatics who seek to cripple the world's cities
with terror. As the world's greatest power, we must, therefore,
maintain our defenses and our responsibilities.
This year, we secured indictments against terrorists and sanctions
against those who harbor them. We worked to promote environmentally
sustainable economic growth. We achieved agreements with Ukraine,
with Belarus, with Kazahkstan to eliminate completely their nuclear
arsenal. We are working to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of
nuclear weapons. We will seek early ratification of a treaty
to ban chemical weapons worldwide. And earlier today, we joined with
over 30 nations to begin negotiations on a comprehensive ban to stop
all nuclear testing. (Applause.)
But nothing, nothing is more important to our security than our
nation's armed forces. We honor their contributions, including those
who are carrying out the longest humanitarian air lift in history in
Bosnia; (applause) -- those who will complete their mission in
Somalia this year and their brave comrades who gave their lives
there. (Applause.)
Our forces are the finest military our nation has ever had. And I
have pledged that as long as I am President, they will remain the
best equipped, the best trained and the best prepared fighting force
on the face of the Earth. (Applause.)
Last year I proposed a defense plan that maintains our post-Cold War
security at a lower cost. This year many people urged me to cut our
defense spending further to pay for other government programs. I
said, no. The budget I send to Congress draws the line against
further defense cuts. It protects the readiness and quality of our
forces.
Ultimately, the best strategy is to do that. We must not cut defense
further. I hope the Congress without regard to party will support
that position. (Applause.)
Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a
durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere.
Democracies don't attack each other, they make better trading
partners and partners in diplomacy. That is why we have supported,
you and I, the democratic reformers in Russia and in the other states
of the former Soviet bloc. I applaud the bipartisan support this
Congress provided last year for our initiatives to help Russia,
Ukraine, and the other states through their epic transformations.
Our support of reform must combine patience for the enormity of the
task and vigilance for our fundamental interest and values. We will
continue to urge Russia and the other states to press ahead with
economic reforms. And we will seek to cooperate with Russia to solve
regional problems, while insisting that if Russian troops operate in
neighboring states, they do so only when those states agree to their
presence and in strict accord with international standards.
(Applause.)
But we must also remember as these nations chart their own futures --
and they must chart their own futures -- how much more secure and
more prosperous our own people will be if democratic and market
reform succeed all across the former communist bloc. Our policy has
been to support that move and that has been the policy of the
Congress. We should continue it.
That is why I went to Europe earlier this month -- to work with our
Europeans partners, to help to integrate all the former communist
countries into a Europe that has a possibility of becoming unified
for the first time in its entire history -- its entire history --
based on the simple commitments of all nations in Europe to
democracy, to free markets and to respect for existing borders.
With our allies we have created a Partnership For Peace that invites
states from the former Soviet bloc and other non-NATO members to work
with NATO in military cooperation. When I met with Central Europe's
leaders including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, men who put their
lives on the line for freedom, I told them that the security of their
region is important to our country's security.
This year we must also do more to support democratic renewal and
human rights and sustainable development all around the world. We
will ask Congress to ratify the new GATT accord. We will continue
standing by South Africa as it works its way through its bold and
hopeful and difficult transition to democracy. We will convene a
summit of the Western Hemisphere's leaders from Canada to the tip of
South America. And we will continue to press for the restoration of
true democracy in Haiti. (Applause.)
And as we build a more constructive relationship with China, we must
continue to insist on clear signs of improvement in that nation's
human right record. (Applause.)
We will also work for new progress toward the Middle East peace.
Last year the world watched Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat at the
White House when they had their historic handshake of reconciliation.
But there is a long, hard road ahead. And on that road I am
determined that I and our administration will do all we can to
achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace for all the peoples of the
region.
Now, there are some in our country who argue that with the Cold War,
America should turn its back on the rest of the world. Many around
the world were afraid we would do just that. But I took this office
on a pledge that had no partisan tinge to keep our nation secure by
remaining engaged in the rest of the world. And this year, because
of our work together -- enacting NAFTA, keeping our military strong
and prepared, supporting democracy abroad -- we have reaffirmed
America's leadership, America's engagement. And as a result, the
American people are more secure than they were before. (Applause.)
But while Americans are more secure from threats abroad, I think we
all know that in many ways we are less secure from threats here at
home. Every day the national peace is shattered by crime. In
Petaluma, California, an innocent slumber party gives way to
agonizing tragedy for the family of Polly Klaas. An ordinary train
ride on Long Island ends in a hail of 9-millimeter rounds. A tourist
in Florida is nearly burned alive by bigots simply because he is
black. Right here in our Nation's Capital, a brave young man named
Jason White, a policeman, the son and grandson of policemen, is
ruthlessly gunned down. Violent crime and the fear it provokes are
crippling our society, limiting personal freedom and fraying the ties
that bind us.
The crime bill before Congress gives you a chance to do something
about it -- a chance to be tough and smart. What does that mean?
Let me begin by saying, I care a lot about this issue. Many years
ago, when I started out in public life, I was the attorney general of
my state. I served as a governor for a dozen years; I know what it's
like to sign laws increasing penalties, to build more prison cells,
to carry out the death penalty. I understand this issue. And it is
not a simple thing.
First, we must recognize that most violent crimes are committed by a
small percentage of criminals who too often break the laws even when
they are on parole. Now those who commit crimes should be punished.
And those who commit repeated, violent crimes should be told, when
you commit a third violent crime, you will be put away, and put away
for good. Three strikes, and you are out. (Applause.)
Second, we must take serious steps to reduce violence and prevent
crime, beginning with more police officers and more community
policing. (Applause.) We know right now that police who work the
streets, know the folks, have the respect of the neighborhood kids,
focus on high crime areas -- we know that they are more likely to
prevent crime as well as catch criminals. Look at the
experience of Houston, where the crime rate dropped 17 percent in one
year when that approach was taken.
Here tonight is one of those community policeman -- a brave, young
detective, Kevin Jett, whose beat is eight square blocks in one of
the toughest neighborhoods in New York. Every day he restores some
sanity and safety and a sense of values and connections to the people
whose lives he protects. I'd like to ask him to stand up and be
recognized tonight.
Thank you, sir. (Applause.)
You will be given a chance to give the children of this country, the
law-abiding working people of this country -- and don't forget, in
the toughest neighborhoods in this country, in the highest crime
neighborhoods in this country, the vast majority of people get up
every day and obey the law, pay their taxes, do their best to raise
their kids. They deserve people like Kevin Jett. And you're going
to be given a chance to give the American people another 100,000 of
them well trained. And I urge you to do it. (Applause.)
You have before you crime legislation which also establishes a police
corps to encourage young people to get an education and pay it off by
serving as police officers; which encourages retiring military
personnel to move into police forces, an inordinate resource for our
country -- one which has a safe schools provision which will give our
young people the chance to walk to school in safety and to be in
school in safety instead of dodging bullets. These are important
things. (Applause.)
The third thing we have to do is to build on the Brady Bill -- the
Brady Law. (Applause.) To take further steps to keep guns out of
the hands of criminals.
I want to say something about this issue. Hunters must always be
free to hunt. Law-abiding adults should always be free to own guns
to protect their homes. I respect that part of our culture, I grew
up in it. But I want to ask the sportsmen and others who lawfully
own guns to join us in this campaign to reduce gun violence. I say
to you, I know you didn't create this problem, but we need your help
to solve it. There is no sporting purpose on Earth that should stop
the United States Congress from banishing assault weapons that out-
gun police and cut down children. (Applause.)
Fourth, we must remember that drugs are a factor in an enormous
percentage of crimes. Recent studies indicate, sadly, that drug use
is on the rise again among our young people. The crime bill contains
-- all the crime bills contain -- more money for drug treatment for
criminal addicts, and boot camps for youthful offenders that include
incentives to get off drugs and to stay off drugs.
Our administration's budget with all its cuts can paint a large
increase in funding for drug treatment and drug education. You must
pass them both. We need them desperately. (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, the problem of violence is an American problem.
It has no partisan or philosophical element. Therefore, I urge you
to find ways as quickly as possible to set aside partisan differences
and pass a strong, smart, tough crime bill. (Applause.) But
further, I urge you to consider this: As you demand tougher
penalties for those who choose violence, let us also remember how we
came to this sad point.
In our toughest neighborhoods, on our meanest streets, in our poorest
rural areas, we have seen a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of
community, family and work -- the heart and soul of civilized
society. This has created a vast vacuum which has been filled by
violence and drugs and gangs. So I ask you to remember
that even as we say no to crime, we must give people -- especially
our young people -- something to say yes to. (Applause.)
Many of our initiatives -- from job training to welfare reform to
health care to national service -- will help to rebuild distressed
communities, to strengthen families, to provide work. But more needs
to be done. That's what our community empowerment agenda is all
about -- challenging businesses to provide more investment through
empowerment zones; ensuring banks will make loans in the same
communities their deposits come from; passing legislation to unleash
the power of capital through community development banks to create
jobs -- opportunity and hope where they're needed most.
I think you know that to really solve this problem, we'll all have to
put our heads together, leave our ideological armor aside and find
some new ideas to do even more. And let's be honest; we all know
something else too: Our problems go way beyond the reach of
government. They're rooted in the lose of values, in the
disappearance of work and the breakdown of our families and our
communities.
My fellow Americans, we can cut the deficit, create jobs, promote
democracy around the world, pass welfare reform and health care, pass
the toughest crime bill in history, but still leave too many of our
people behind.
The American people have got to want to change from within if we're
going to bring back work and family and community. We cannot renew
our country when within a decade more than half of the children will
be born into families where there has been no marriage. We cannot
renew this country when 13-year-old boys get semi-automatic weapons
to shoot 9-year-olds for kicks. We can't renew our country when
children are having children and the fathers walk away as if the kids
don't amount to anything. We can't renew the country when our
businesses eagerly look for new investments and new customers abroad,
but ignore those people right here at home who would give anything to
have their jobs and would gladly buy their products if they had the
money to do it. (Applause.)
We can't renew our country unless more of us -- I mean all of us --
are willing to join the churches and the other good citizens --
people like of the black ministers I've worked with over the years,
or the priests and the nuns I met at Our Lady of Help in East Los
Angeles, or my good friend, Tony Campollo in Philadelphia -- unless
we're willing to work with people like that, people who are saving
kids, adopting schools, making streets safer -- all of us can do
that. We can't renew our country until we realize that governments
don't raise children, parents do. (Applause.)
Parents who know their children's teachers and turn off the
television and help with the homework and teach their kids right from
wrong -- those kinds of parents can make all the difference. I know,
I had one. (Applause.)
I'm telling you, we have got to stop pointing our fingers at these
kids who have no future, and reach our hands out to them. Our
country needs it, we need it, and they deserve it. (Applause.)
So I say to you tonight, let's give our children a future. Let us
take away their guns and give them books. Let us overcome their
despair and replace it with hope. Let us, by our example, teach them
to obey the law, respect our neighbors, and cherish our values. Let
us weave these sturdy threads into a new American community that can
once more stand strong against the forces of despair and evil because
everybody has a chance to walk into a better tomorrow.
Oh, there will be naysayers who fear that we won't be equal to the
challenges of this time. But they misread our history, our heritage.
Even today's headlines -- all those things tell us we can and we will
overcome any challenge.
When the earth shook and fires raged in California, when I saw the
Mississippi deluge the farmlands of the Midwest in a 500-year flood,
when the century's bitterest cold swept from North Dakota to Newport
News, it seemed as though the world itself was coming apart at the
seams. But the American people -- they just came together. They
rose to the occasion, neighbor helping neighbor, strangers risking
life and limb to save total strangers -- showing the better angels of
our nature.
Let us not reserve the better angels only for natural disasters,
leaving our deepest and most profound problems to petty political
fighting. (Applause.) Let us instead be true to our spirit --
facing facts, coming together, bringing hope and moving forward.
Tonight, my fellow Americans, we are summoned to answer a question as
old as the republic itself: What is the state of our union? It is
growing stronger, but it must be stronger still. With your help, and
God's help, it will be.
Thank you and God bless America. (Applause.)
END10:18 P.M. EST
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