[Budget of the United States Government]
[I. The Budget Message of the President]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
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I. THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT
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Table I-1. Budget Totals
(In billions of dollars)
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Estimates
1999 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total
Actual 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2001-2010
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Receipts......................... 1,827 1,956 2,019 2,081 2,147 2,236 2,341 2,440 2,559 2,676 2,785 2,917 24,202
Outlays.......................... 1,703 1,790 1,835 1,895 1,963 2,041 2,125 2,185 2,267 2,362 2,456 2,553 21,683
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Total unified budget surplus..... 124 167 184 186 185 195 215 256 292 314 329 363 2,519
Debt Reduction:
Social Security solvency lock- 124 148 160 172 184 195 214 224 239 250 260 272 2,169
box...........................
Medicare solvency transfers... ....... ....... 15 13 ....... ....... ....... 26 47 57 61 80 299
Reserve for catastrophic ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... 4 5 7 8 11 35
prescription drug coverage....
On-Budget surplus............. 1 19 9 1 * * 2 1 1 * * * 16
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Total debt reduction.......... 124 167 184 186 185 195 215 256 292 314 329 363 2,519
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* $500 million or less.
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THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT
To the Congress of the United States:
The 2001 Budget, which I am submitting to you with this message, is
the fourth balanced budget of my Administration. This budget upholds my
policy of fiscal discipline and promises new opportunity for our Nation.
We have made great progress in the last seven years, rejecting the
fiscal disarray of an earlier era and in its place, asserting a
steadfast commitment to live within our means, balance the budget, and
uphold fiscal discipline. As a result, we have created the conditions
for unprecedented prosperity. The longest peacetime economic expansion
in American history has produced more than 20 million new jobs.
Unemployment has hit its lowest level in a generation. Today, more
Americans own their own homes than ever before in our Nation's history.
Our success in reversing what once seemed to be uncontrollable growth
in the Federal budget deficit has created more than prosperity. We have
restored to America a spirit of purpose and confidence. This is a rare
moment in history. Few nations are blessed with a combination of
economic prosperity and social stability at home and with the security
of a relatively peaceful world. It is time to make the most of this
moment of promise to extend prosperity to all corners of our Nation.
My first budget of the new century is built upon a commitment to
expanding opportunity, promoting responsibility, and building community.
It includes my New Markets Initiative, which relies on public and
private sector cooperation to spur economic development in areas of our
Nation that have not yet fully benefited from this wave of prosperity.
It includes an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit to lift more
hard-pressed working families out of poverty. It expands health
insurance coverage to more uninsured low-income children and extends
this coverage to their hard-working parents.
Because education is fundamental to creating opportunity, my budget
contains resources to prepare the next generation for the future with
new and expanded efforts to improve the quality of our schools, prepare
our students for college, and make college more accessible. It includes
efforts to narrow the digital divide, the gap that separates those who
have access to information technology and those who do not, so that all
will be equipped with the technological tools they need to succeed. It
also includes a science and technology initiative to lay the foundation
for new scientific breakthroughs.
This budget responds to the pressing needs of today and builds an
America of the future by making our Nation debt free by 2013. To be
prepared for the retirement of the baby boom generation, my budget also
provides a framework to extend the life of the Social Security and
Medicare trust funds, while modernizing Medicare with a needed
prescription drug benefit.
This budget uses the same straightforward approach of relying on
conservative assumptions, as have all the budgets of my Administration.
This conservative approach has built confidence in our budgets, because
when unforeseen results have materialized, an inevitable development in
forecasting, they have always brought good news. In turn, reversing
recent trends, my 2001 Budget builds on the tradition of straightforward
budgets to meet the pressing needs of today in a balanced plan that
adheres to the principles of fiscal discipline and debt reduction. This
budget also maintains a strict set of budget rules upholding our long
commitment to fiscal discipline, which has sustained the conditions for
our economy to flourish.
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The 2001 Budget continues to project that the Federal budget will
remain in surplus for many decades to come, provided that a responsible
fiscal policy holds course, to foster sustained economic growth. Our
challenge now, in this era of surplus, is to make balanced choices to
use our resources to meet the pressing needs of today, and the needs of
generations to come.
Building on the Success of Our Fiscal Discipline
When I took office in 1993, the current strength of our economy seemed
beyond possibility. At that point, both the Federal budget deficit and
the national debt had exploded, threatening our economic future. The
costs of massive Federal borrowing drove interest rates up, incomes were
stagnant for all but the most well off, and the economy had barely grown
during the prior four years. The Nation needed a new course, and we
worked hard to secure the passage of legislation, with the support of
Democrats in Congress, to get the economy moving again.
My three-part economic strategy, built upon reducing the deficit,
investing in the American people, and engaging the international economy
yielded results. The budget deficit quickly began to drop from its peak
of $290 billion, and in 1997, we pressed ahead with our deficit
reduction efforts as Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act on a
bipartisan basis to finish the job. Four years ahead of schedule, the
budget reached balance and is projected this year to produce its third
surplus in a row. We have started to pay down the national debt and are
on a path to make the Nation debt free by 2013 for the first time since
1835.
Throughout the past seven years, my Administration has been committed
to creating opportunity for all Americans, demanding responsibility from
all Americans, and strengthening the American community. The crime rate,
which had tripled during the previous three decades, continues to fall
and crime is down in every region of the Nation. We have reformed the
welfare system, and more than seven million Americans in the past seven
years have made the transition from welfare to work.
Most of all, the prosperity and opportunity of our time offers us a
great responsibility--to take action to ensure that Social Security is
there for the elderly and the disabled, while ensuring that it not place
a burden on our children, that the life of Medicare is extended for
future generations, and that we modernize Medicare with a needed
prescription drug benefit. If we continue to follow sound fiscal policy,
we can provide for the future, produce a balanced tax cut and meet the
needs of today, while sustaining the conditions that have brought us
this current wave of prosperity. All this can be done, but balanced and
sound fiscal policy is the key.
Improving Performance Through Better Management
At the start of this Administration, the Vice President and I set out
to create a Government that works better, costs less, and gets results
Americans care about. We believe that with better stewardship, the
Government can better achieve its mission and improve the quality of
life for all Americans. The success of these efforts is reflected in the
significant changes of the past seven years in the way Government does
business.
We have streamlined Government, cutting the civilian Federal work
force by 377,000, giving us the smallest work force in 39 years. We have
done more than just reduce or eliminate hundreds of Federal programs and
projects. We have also empowered government employees to cut red tape,
and used partnerships to get results.
While we have made real progress, there is still much work to do. We
are forging ahead with new efforts to improve the quality of the service
that the Government offers its customers. My Administration has
identified its highest priorities--24 Priority Management Objectives
listed in this budget, that will receive heightened attention to ensure
positive changes in the way Government works. It is a mark of our
success that in early 2000, we were able to remove last year's number
one objective from the list: Manage the Year 2000 (Y2K) Computer
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Problem. Due largely to the efforts of Federal employees and the
leadership provided by my Council on Year 2000 Conversion, the Federal
Government's Y2K efforts were, beyond all expectation, remarkably
trouble free. We will continue to move ahead to address other
priorities, including modernizing student aid delivery, implementing IRS
reforms, and strengthening the management of Health Care Financing
Administration, which oversees Medicare.
I believe the steps we have taken to change and improve the way
Government works have also changed the way Americans view their
Government, increasing the confidence and trust of the American public.
It is our job to keep at this task, so that the Federal Government
continues to improve its performance and the American public is better
served. I am determined that we will do more to solve the very real
management challenges before us.
Strengthening our Nation in the 21st Century
Education, in our competitive global economy, has become the dividing
line between those who are able to move ahead and those who lag behind.
For this reason, I am committed to ensuring that we have a first-rate
system of education and training in place for Americans of all ages.
Over the last seven 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 another chance at
education and training, or a chance to improve or learn new skills, can
do so. My budget builds on the commitment to make college more
affordable by expanding the tax credits for higher education and
increasing Pell Grants and other college aid beyond the record levels
already reached. It promotes smaller learning environments in high
schools and invests in reducing class size by recruiting and preparing
thousands more teachers and building thousands more classrooms, as well
as providing for urgent and essential school repairs.
My budget includes significant increases to expand access to after-
school and other extended learning time opportunities, a central element
of my accountability agenda to help children, especially in the poorest
communities, reach challenging academic standards while supporting
efforts to demand more from schools and support them in return. It
promotes efforts to recruit teachers in high-poverty areas and includes
a peer review initiative to help school districts raise teacher
standards and teacher pay. The budget proposes improving school
accountability by holding States, districts and schools accountable for
results by providing resources to identify and turn around the worst-
performing schools, and incentives to reward States that do the most to
improve student performance and close the achievement gap. It invests in
programs to help raise the educational achievement of Latino students.
And my budget supports efforts to narrow the digital divide by expanding
resources for technology centers to make computers accessible in low-
income community areas.
During the past seven years, we have taken many steps to help working
families, and we continue that effort with this budget. 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 access to 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 to
address the health needs of a family member.
I am proposing a significant expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit
to provide support to America's hard working, low-income families,
especially larger families who are more likely to be poor than families
with only one or two children. My budget also significantly increases
21st Century Learning Community Centers and expands after-school
learning time. It makes child care more affordable by expanding tax
credits for middle-income families and for businesses that provide child
care services to their employees,
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by assisting parents who want to attend college meet their child care
needs, as well as making a child care tax credit available to parents
who choose to stay at home to raise a young child. My budget proposes to
create an Early Learning Fund and builds on our expansion of the
successful Head Start program to help meet the goal of serving one
million children by 2002. And it promotes responsible fatherhood by
proposing tough new measures to ensure that all parents who can afford
to pay child support do so, while providing support to increase the
employment earnings and child support payments of low-income fathers. My
budget includes efforts to increase access to food stamps for the
working poor, in part by proposing that low-income working families, who
need efficient transportation to get to work, be permitted to own a
modest vehicle and retain food stamp eligibility. And, it proposes
resources to provide health care to legal immigrant children, to restore
Supplemental Security Income benefits to legal immigrants with
disabilities, and to restore food stamp benefits to legal immigrants in
families with eligible children.
We have continued to improve health care for millions of Americans.
Since the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program
in 1997, two million children have enrolled in programs across all 50
States. I am proposing a significant expansion of this successful
program to extend health coverage to more children in hard working, low-
income families. My budget also extends this coverage to their parents,
low-income working adults who lack health insurance, which will help
increase the enrollment of their children by enabling entire families to
receive coverage through the same program. My budget contains other
significant incentives to increase access to affordable health care,
including tax credits for small businesses and a provision to allow
hundreds of thousands of Americans aged 55 to 65 to purchase Medicare
coverage.
My budget puts forth a plan that extends Medicare solvency to at least
2025, respects fiscal discipline, and eliminates the national debt. My
plan will modernize Medicare with a needed drug benefit, expand access
to preventative benefits, and improve Medicare management. I intend to
keep pressing ahead and working with Congress to enact essential patient
protections including emergency room access and the right to see a
specialist. By Executive Order, I have extended these rights to 85
million Americans covered by Federal health plans, including Medicare
and Medicaid beneficiaries and Federal employees.
Most Americans are enjoying the fruits of our strong economy, yet we
must do more to bring this prosperity to all corners of our great
Nation. We must use this moment of promise to spread the values of
community, opportunity, and responsibility, and to help create the
conditions for all to share in our prosperity. My New Markets
Initiative, an expanded approach built upon the same public-private
cooperation at the center of last year's plan, will provide tax credit
and loan guarantee incentives to stimulate tens of billions of dollars
in new private investment in distressed rural and urban areas. It will
build a network of private investment institutions to funnel credit,
equity, and technical assistance into businesses in America's untapped
markets, and provide the expertise to targeted small businesses that
will allow them to use investment to grow. I am also proposing to expand
the number of Empowerment Zones, which provide 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 includes significant
funding increases for Native American communities to help this
generation and future generations receive greater opportunities. It
provides additional funds to enforce the Nation's civil rights laws, and
strengthens the partnership we have begun with the District of Columbia.
In addition, my budget proposes an $11 billion package for farmers in
need and to help mend the farm safety net by providing assistance when
crop prices are low.
Our anti-crime strategy is working. Serious crime has fallen without
interruption, and the murder rate is at its lowest point in three
decades. Building on our successful community policing (COPS) program
that is helping communities fund 100,000 cops on the beat, the 21st
Century Policing initiative
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was enacted last year to put us on track to fund new anti-crime
technology and 50,000 more police. This year, I am launching the largest
gun enforcement initiative ever, adding funds to hire 500 new ATF
agents, 1,000 State and local gun prosecutors and funds for smart gun
technology. The budget also provides funds to prevent violence against
women, and to address the growing law enforcement crisis on Indian
lands. To boost our efforts to control illegal immigration, the budget
provides resources to strengthen enforcement, particularly on the
Southwest and Northern borders, and to remove illegal aliens. To combat
drug use, particularly among young people, my budget expands programs
that stress treatment and prevention, law enforcement, international
assistance, and interdiction.
During the past seven years, I have sought to strengthen science and
technology investments in order to serve many of our broader goals for
the Nation in the economy, education, health care, the environment, and
national defense. Building on the balanced portfolio of basic and
applied research in the 21st Century Research Fund, my budget includes a
Science and Technology Initiative which places special emphasis on high-
priority, long-term basic research, including nanotechnology, the
manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular level, which offers
the promise that medical science may one day be able to detect cancerous
tumors when they are comprised of only a few cells. My budget also
increases resources for the Information Technology research and
development program to invest in long-term research in computing and
communications. It will accelerate development of extremely fast
supercomputers to support civilian research, enabling experts to develop
life-saving drugs, provide earlier tornado warnings, and design more
fuel-efficient, safer automobiles. The budget provides strong support
for the Nation's two largest sources of civilian basic research funding
for universities: the National Science Foundation and the National
Institutes of Health.
The Nation does not have to choose between a strong economy and a
clean environment. The past seven years are proof that we can have both.
We have set tough new clean air standards for soot and smog that will
prevent up to 15,000 premature deaths a year. We have set new food and
drinking water safety standards and have accelerated the pace of
cleanups of toxic Superfund sites. We expanded our efforts to protect
tens of millions of acres of public and private lands, including
Yellowstone National Park, Florida's Everglades, and California's
redwoods. Led by the Vice President, the Administration reached an
international agreement in Kyoto that calls for cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions. My budget significantly expands support for the environment,
by establishing dedicated funding and increasing resources for the
historic interagency Lands Legacy initiative to preserve the Nation's
natural and historic treasures. My budget also supports the Clean Energy
initiative to reduce the threat of global warming, and the Greening the
Globe initiative to save tropical and other forests around the globe. It
provides resources to support farm conservation to upgrade water
quality, the Clean Water Action plan to clean up polluted waterways, and
climate change technology efforts to increase energy-efficient
technologies and renewable energy to strengthen our economy while
reducing greenhouse gases.
In the past year, America's leadership was essential to the success of
the NATO alliance in halting the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's ethnic
Albanians and containing the risk of wider war at the doorstep of our
allies. The United States has played a critical role in the strides made
toward lasting peace in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and Sierra
Leone. The United States has worked to detect and counter terrorist
threats and continue efforts with Russia and other former Soviet nations
to halt the spread of dangerous weapons materials. My budget seeks to
build on these efforts, proposing funding to build a democratic society
and stronger economy in Kosovo, initiatives to further protect our men
and women overseas, and a 2000 emergency supplemental to provide
critical assistance to the Government of Colombia in its fight against
narcotics traffickers. My budget also proposes funding to promote
international family planning, contain the global spread of AIDS,
promote debt forgiveness to help people in the world's poorest
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countries join the global economy, and promote trade by opening global
markets.
The Armed Forces of the United States serve as the backbone of our
national security strategy. As it did successfully last year in Kosovo,
the military must be in a position to protect our national security
interests and guard against the major threats to U.S. security. These
include regional dangers, such as cross-border aggression; the
proliferation of the technology of weapons of mass destruction;
transnational dangers, such as the spread of illegal drugs and
terrorism; and, direct attacks on the U.S. homeland from
intercontinental ballistic missiles or other weapons of mass
destruction. To ensure that the military can fulfill this mission, I
made a major commitment last year to maintain our military readiness,
which this budget builds upon with additional resources to ensure that
the services can meet required training standards, maintain equipment in
top condition, recruit and retain quality personnel, and procure
sufficient spare parts and other equipment. To help improve the quality
of life and strengthen the Department's ability to attract and retain
quality individuals, this budget includes a major initiative to reduce
servicemembers' out-of-pocket costs for off-base housing. In addition,
this budget provides resources for the Department of Defense and other
agencies to combat emerging threats, including terrorism and weapons of
mass destruction, and to provide for critical infrastructure protection.
It provides funds to support counter-narcotics efforts, including a 2000
supplemental to increase assistance to the Government of Colombia in
their fight against narcotics traffickers. It also provides additional
funding for contingency operations in Southwest Asia, Bosnia, and
Kosovo.
Building Prosperity for the Future
This is a rare moment in American history. Never before has our Nation
enjoyed so much prosperity, at a time when social progress continues to
advance and our position as the global leader is secure. Today, we are
well prepared to make the choices that will shape our Nation's future
for decades to come.
By reversing the earlier trend of fiscal irresponsibility, balancing
the budget, and producing a historic surplus, we have restored our
national spirit and produced the resources to help opportunity and
prosperity reach all corners of this Nation. We have it within our reach
today, by making the right choices, to offer the promise of prosperity
to generations of Americans to come. If we keep to the path of fiscal
discipline, we can build a foundation of prosperity for the Nation's
future.
My plan to extend the solvency of Social Security and Medicare allows
the United States to become debt-free in the next 13 years, for the
first time since 1835. Eliminating the debt will strengthen our economy,
devote resources to Social Security, and prepare us to meet the
challenges of the aging of America. Through fiscal discipline and wise
choices we can extend the life of Social Security to the middle of the
century, extend the solvency of Medicare until 2025, and modernize
Medicare with a needed prescription drug benefit.
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By continuing to maintain discipline, we can provide for the aging of
America and for the investments of the future--including education, the
environment, research and development, and defense--which are central to
our economic growth, health, and national security. By making choices
that respect fiscal discipline, we can make room to provide both for a
balanced tax cut and for investments that will help this Nation stay
strong in the future.
This new century is filled with promise, for we live at a remarkable
time. By making wise choices, we have it within our power to extend the
same promise and prosperity to generations to come.
William J. Clinton
February 7, 2000