[Budget of the United States Government]
[I. The Budget Message of the President]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
I. THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT
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Table I-1. RECEIPTS, OUTLAYS, AND SURPLUS OR DEFICIT
(In billions of dollars)
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Estimates
1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actual 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
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Receipts.................................... 1,579 1,658 1,743 1,794 1,863 1,949 2,028 2,123 2,227 2,329 2,444 2,566
Outlays..................................... 1,601 1,668 1,733 1,785 1,834 1,860 1,945 2,013 2,090 2,165 2,228 2,307
Reserve Pending Social Security Reform...... NA NA 10 9 28 90 83 109 137 164 216 258
Deficit (-)/Surplus......................... -22 -10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT
To the Congress of the United States:
The 1999 Budget, which I am submitting to you with this message, is a
balanced Federal budget, marking the first such budget in 30 years and
bringing an era of exploding deficits to an end.
By reaching balance, my budget represents a remarkable turnaround in
our fiscal policy over the last five years. It brings to an end three
decades of fiscal chaos, a period in which Americans had lost confidence
in their Government and the ability of their leaders to do the people's
business.
This budget is not just balanced, it is balanced the right way. It
not only ends the deficit, it reflects the values that Americans hold
dear--the values of opportunity, responsibility, and community. The
budget reflects my commitment to continue helping working families with
their basic needs--to raise their children, send them to college, and
pay for health care.
The budget invests in education and training and in research to raise
the standard of living for average Americans. It invests in the
environment and in law enforcement to raise the quality of life across
our Nation. It invests in our communities at home while providing the
resources to maintain a strong defense and conduct the international
relations that have become so important to our future.
In the public and private sectors, prospects for a budget surplus are
spurring a wide array of ideas about how to spend it. At this point, the
Government has not yet reached the surplus milestone, and I continue to
believe strongly that we should not spend a surplus that we don't yet
have.
More specifically, I believe that the Administration and Congress
should not spend a budget surplus for any reason until we have a
solution to the long-term financing challenge facing Social Security.
With that in mind, my budget proposes a reserve for the projected
surpluses for 1999 and beyond.
Preparing the Nation for a New American Century
Five years ago, my Administration took office determined to restore
the American Dream for every American. We were determined to turn the
economy around, to rein in a budget that was out of control, and to
create a Government that once again would focus on its customers, the
American people.
Five years later, we have made enormous progress. Our economy is
strong, our budget is headed toward balance, and our Government is
making noticeable progress in providing better service to Americans.
We are beginning to bring Americans together again, to repair the
social fabric that has frayed so badly in recent decades. All across
America, crime is down, poverty is down, and welfare is down. Incomes
are rising at all levels, and a new spirit of optimism is sweeping
through many of our urban and rural communities that are rebounding from
decades of lost jobs and lost hope.
Now that we have turned the economy around, our task is to spread the
benefits of our economic well-being to more Americans, to ensure that
every American has the chance to live out his or her dreams. As we move
confidently ahead as a Nation, we want to ensure that nobody is left
behind.
A century ago, the economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing,
changing the way that Americans lived, the way they worked, the way they
related to one another. Today, the economy is shifting once more, this
time from manufacturing to services, information, technology, and global
commerce.
We can ensure that every American fully enjoys the benefits of this
exciting new age, but only if we continue to give people the tools they
need and create the conditions in which they can prosper. That is what
my budget is designed to do.
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Creating a Bright Economic Future
When my Administration took office, the Nation was mired in economic
problems. The economy had barely grown over four years, creating few
jobs. Interest rates were high. Incomes remained stagnant for all but
the most well-off. The budget deficit, which had exploded in size in the
early 1980s, had reached a record $290 billion and was headed higher.
Clearly, the Nation needed a new course.
We launched an economic policy with three central features that had
never before been tried together: We set out to reduce the deficit,
invest in the American people, and open up markets abroad. Only by
pursuing all three elements could we restore the economy and build for
the future.
My 1993 budget plan, the centerpiece of our economic strategy, was a
balanced plan that cut hundreds of billions of dollars of Federal
spending while raising income taxes only on the top 1.2 percent of
Americans. By cutting unnecessary and lower-priority spending, we found
the resources to cut taxes for 15 million working families while
investing in education and training, the environment, and other
priorities.
Five years later, we have cut the deficit dramatically, and this
budget will finish the job by reaching balance and keeping the budget in
balance for the foreseeable future. We have invested in the education
and skills of our people, giving them the tools they need to raise their
children and get good jobs in an increasingly competitive economy. We
have expanded trade through global as well as bilateral agreements,
generating record exports that create high-wage jobs for millions of
Americans.
The economy responded almost immediately to our policies. When I
announced my 1993 budget plan, interest rates fell, and they fell even
more as I worked successfully with Congress to put the plan into law.
These lower interest rates helped to spur the steady economic growth and
strong business investment that we have enjoyed for the last five years.
Our policies have helped create over 14 million jobs, while interest
rates have remained low and inflation has stayed under control.
As we move ahead, I am determined to ensure that we stick with the
policies that are working. We must maintain our fiscal discipline so
that we not only reach balance, but also keep the budget in balance.
Improving Performance Through Better Management
We are balancing the budget the right way, by reducing the size and
scope of our Government.
We have done more than just eliminate hundreds of Federal programs
and projects. We have cut the civilian Federal work force by over
316,000 employees, giving us the smallest work force in 35 years. In
fact, as a share of our total civilian employment, we have the smallest
work force since 1931.
But we set out to do more than just cut Government. Under the
leadership of the Vice President's National Performance Review, we set
out to make Government work, to create a Government that is more
efficient and effective, to create a Government focused on its
customers, the American people.
We have made real progress, but we still have much work to do. We
have reinvented parts of departments and agencies, but now we are
determined to turn our agencies around from top to bottom. For 1999, the
Vice President will lead an effort to improve the performance of
agencies that interact most with the American people. We want to enable
Americans not only to quickly enjoy better service from our Government,
but to regain confidence in Government as well.
At the same time, I am determined that we will solve the very real
management challenges before us. A good example is the challenge of
ensuring that our computer systems can accurately process the year 2000
date change. I have directed my Administration to take the necessary
steps to meet the problem head-on.
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Preparing for the 21st Century
Nothing is more important to our future than education. It has become
the dividing line between those who are moving ahead and those who are
lagging behind. That is why I have devoted so much effort to ensure that
we have a world-class system of education and training in place for
Americans of all ages. Over the last five years, we have worked hard to
ensure that every boy and girl is prepared to learn, that our schools
focus on high standards and achievement, that anyone who wants to go to
college can get the financial help to attend, and that those who need a
second chance at education and training or a chance to improve or learn
new skills can do so. My budget significantly increases funds to help
children, especially in the poorest communities, reach challenging
academic standards and makes further progress in implementing voluntary
national tests. It proposes to build more classrooms and pay for 100,000
more teachers so that we can reduce class sizes. For higher education
and training, my budget increases Pell Grants and other college
scholarships from the record levels that we have already achieved;
expands College Work-Study to a record one million students; streamlines
student loan programs and cuts student fees; and expands access to job
placement services, training, and related services for dislocated
workers and others. Now that anyone who wants to attend college can find
the means through Hope scholarships, Pell Grants, and other assistance
that we worked so hard to enact, I want to provide the same universal
opportunity for job training and re-training to those who need it.
Over the last five years, we have worked hard to help working
families. We cut taxes for 15 million working families, provided a tax
credit to help families raise their children, ensured that 25 million
Americans a year can change jobs without losing their health insurance,
made it easier for the self-employed and those with pre-existing
conditions to get health insurance, provided health care coverage for up
to five million uninsured children, raised the minimum wage, and
provided guaranteed time off for workers who need to care for a newborn
or address the health needs of a family member. Now, with my new Child
Care Initiative, I am determined to provide the help that families need
when it comes to finding safe, high-quality, affordable child care.
Parents should know that, when they go to work, their children are in
safe, healthy environments. I also propose to address the problems faced
by a particular group of working families--legal immigrants. In signing
the 1996 welfare reform law, I said that I would try to restore the cuts
in benefits for legal immigrants that were not only harsh and
unnecessary but that had nothing to do with the fundamental goal of
welfare reform--to move people from welfare to work while protecting
children. My budget restores Food Stamps to 730,000 legal immigrants and
lets States provide health insurance to the children of legal
immigrants.
This past year, we continued to improve health care for millions of
Americans. We strengthened Medicare by extending the life of the trust
fund until at least 2010, while we also invested in preventive benefits,
introduced more choice of health plans, and strengthened our expanding
array of activities to combat fraud and abuse. We extended health care
coverage to up to five million uninsured children. We created the
Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health
Care Industry and we later endorsed its Health Care Consumer Bill of
Rights. With this budget, I propose that we build on our achievements on
a host of important fronts. I want to work with Congress to enact
national bipartisan tobacco legislation; nothing is more potentially
important to the health of our people, particularly children. My budget
also proposes to expand health care coverage for some of the most
vulnerable Americans aged 55 to 65, to enroll more eligible children in
Medicaid, to provide for unprecedented levels of investment in health
research, to expand access to powerful AIDS therapies, to expand access
to cancer clinical trials, to increase funds for substance abuse
treatment and prevention, and to help reduce health-related disparities
across racial and ethnic groups.
Last year was a remarkable one for the environment, and I am
determined to build on our progress. Led by the Vice President, the
Administration reached an historic inter
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national agreement in Kyoto that calls for cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions. We also issued new, more protective air quality standards to
better safeguard public health, and we strengthened our citizens' right
to know about toxic chemical releases. We continued to protect our
natural treasures, such as Yellowstone National Park and Florida's
Everglades, and to make further progress toward my goal of cleaning up
900 hazardous waste sites under the Superfund by the end of the year
2001. With this budget, I am proposing an Environmental Resources Fund
for America that will support increases for many of our key
environmental programs. It provides for more construction, maintenance,
and land acquisition for national parks, forests, refuges, and other
public lands; for a new effort to improve the quality of our water; for
improvements to community drinking water and wastewater facilities; and
for continuing our efforts to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites.
My budget also includes a new, five-year, $6 billion program to prevent
global warming, and more resources to protect endangered species,
control pollution, and preserve the global environment.
I am proposing a Transportation Fund for America, reflecting my
commitment to provide the resources to ensure that our transportation
infrastructure remains safe, integrated, and efficient enough to serve
our growing needs. Investment in infrastructure is good for America
because it helps grow the economy, improve safety and public health,
strengthen our competitiveness abroad, support our national security,
and increase the mobility, access, and choice for Americans who need to
travel. We must build upon our vast network of roads, highways, and
bridges to meet the demands of the next century for a system that links
our various modes of travel, that is cleaner and safer, and that helps
bring together and support our urban and rural communities. My budget
maintains the Administration's record support for transportation, and
the Fund includes all of the Transportation Department's highway,
highway safety, transit, and air transportation programs.
Scientific and technological advances have created a world vastly
different from the one our grandparents knew. They have helped generate
huge leaps in the speed and economy of transportation, enormous
increases in farm productivity, lightning-fast flows of information and
services across national borders, and advances in treating and
preventing diseases and protecting the environment. Because I am
committed to America's continued leadership in science and technology, I
am proposing a Research Fund for America, from which many of our
important investments will flow. It includes record increases for the
National Institutes of Health, higher funding for the National Science
Foundation, new resources to address global climate change, and a wide
variety of investments in basic and applied research. These investments
are vital; they help to create new knowledge, train more workers, spur
new jobs and industries, address our health care challenges, strengthen
our understanding of environmental problems, better educate our
children, and maintain a strong national defense.
Our anti-crime strategy is working. Serious crime is down five years
in a row and, in 1996, we witnessed the largest drop in violent crime in
35 years. But, because crime remains unacceptably high, we must go
further. My budget expands our community policing (COPS) program, which
is already putting 83,000 more police on the streets toward my goal of
100,000 by the year 2000. The budget also proposes a new Community
Prosecutors Initiative to help prosecutors prevent crimes from
occurring, rather than simply prosecuting criminals after the fact. And
it provides the necessary funds to prevent violence against women, to
help States and Indian Tribes build prisons, and to address the growing
law enforcement crisis on Indian lands. To boost our efforts to control
illegal immigration, the budget provides the resources to strengthen
border enforcement in the South and West, to remove illegal aliens, and
to expand our efforts to verify whether newly hired non-citizens are
eligible for jobs. To combat drug use, particularly among young people,
my budget expands programs that stress treatment and prevention, law
enforcement, international assistance, and interdiction. It continues to
build on our innovative Drug Courts initiative, proposes School Drug
Prevention Coordinators for our schools, sup
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ports local efforts that target drug-using offenders, expands drug
testing, and strengthens our efforts to make our ports and borders more
secure from drugs while disrupting drug trafficking organizations
overseas.
Most Americans are enjoying the fruits of our strong economy. But
while many urban and rural areas are doing better, too many others have
grown disconnected from our values of opportunity, responsibility, and
community. Working with State and local governments and with the private
sector, I am determined to help bring our distressed areas back to life,
to replace despair with hope. My budget expands my national service
program, giving more Americans the chance to serve their country and
help solve problems at the local level while earning money for college.
I am proposing to create more Empowerment Zones and Enterprise
Communities that offer tax incentives and direct spending to encourage
the kind of private investment that creates jobs, and to provide more
capital for lending through my Community Development Financial
Institutions program. My budget also expands opportunities for
homeownership, provides more funds to enforce the Nation's civil rights
laws, maintains our Government-to-Government commitment to Native
Americans, and strengthens the partnership we have begun with the
District of Columbia.
Because America continues to have a tremendous stake in world
affairs, my budget proposes the necessary funds to maintain national
security, to conduct our diplomacy, to promote democracy and free
markets abroad, and to increase exports. Last year, my Administration
worked with Congress to increase international affairs spending. But,
Congress faces an unfinished agenda to provide financial support for,
and fulfill America's obligations to, a number of international
organizations that benefit our economy and serve other objectives,
including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations
system, and the multilateral development banks. Congress should continue
to support the decisive action of the IMF as well as our leadership in
that institution by providing the supplementary contingent IMF funding
that the Administration has sought and replenishing the IMF's basic
financial resources. Congress also should give the President traditional
trade negotiating authority to help fuel our surging exports into the
next century. To enhance national security, my budget maintains large-
scale funding to support the Middle East peace process, continues
assistance to Bosnia to carry out the Dayton Accords, supports NATO
expansion, and increases aid to the New Independent States of the former
Soviet Union to support the development of democracy and free markets. I
am also proposing a major initiative to provide critical, targeted
assistance to African countries that are undertaking difficult economic
reforms, and my budget increases counter-narcotics aid to Latin American
countries and supports the Summit of the Americas.
Our military serves as the backbone of our national security
strategy, and I am committed to maintain a strong and capable military
that protects our freedoms and our global leadership role as we approach
the 21st Century. The budget continues the Administration's plan to
complete the careful resizing of our military forces, to fully support
military readiness, to strengthen quality of life programs for our armed
forces, and to provide increased funding to modernize our forces as new
technologies become available after the turn of the century. My budget
reflects the recommendations of the Quadrennial Defense Review and of
the Defense Department's recent Defense Reform Initiative to achieve a
leaner, more efficient, and more cost-effective organization by
improving management and business practices. To implement these
improvements, the Defense Department will send legislation to Congress
in conjunction with this budget, including a request for two more rounds
of base closures and realignments.
Investing in the Common Good
Our commitment to balance the budget, and to keep it in balance, will
mean that the Administration and Congress must use taxpayer dollars as
wisely as possible. If we are to continue funding Federal programs, they
will have to show that they are reaching the goals set for them. That
is, they will have to show that they are well-run and that they can
produce results.
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In 1993, I actively supported, and was eager to sign, the Government
Performance and Results Act. With this budget, I am delighted to send
Congress what the law envisioned--the first comprehensive, Government-
wide Performance Plan.
In developing this budget, the Administration for the first time
could rely on performance measures and annual performance goals that are
now included in agency Annual Performance Plans. We have made a good
start on the process that the Administration and Congress outlined in
enacting the 1993 law.
As we continue to implement this law, my Administration will focus
more and more attention on how programs work, whether they are meeting
their goals, and what we should do to make them better. We look forward
to working with Congress on our shared goal of improving Government
performance.
William J. Clinton
February 2, 1998