[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      A CALL OF ACTION FOR CHANGE

  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, last night President Clinton gave 
the State of the Union Address. I found it to be a call of action on a 
wide-ranging agenda for change. This President was elected in 1992 
because he promised to bring about change. That is what he and the 
majority of this Congress have done for the past year, and that is what 
the Congress and the President must continue to do.
  Last year, gridlock was finally broken. As the President pointed out 
last night, Congress and this administration, working together, enacted 
legislation that cuts the deficit by $500 billion, gives people the 
ability to deal with serious family and medical problems without 
risking losing their jobs, makes voter registration easier to further 
open up our democracy, implements the North American Free Trade 
Agreement and, at long last, makes the Brady bill the law of the land.
  The end of gridlock has been good for our economy. Interest rates are 
at their lowest level in decades. Unemployment is down. Inflation is 
down. Federal deficits are down, down actually by more than 40 percent 
than the estimates of just 2 years ago.
  Job creation, on the other hand, Mr. President, is up. Economic 
growth is up. Consumer confidence is up.
  There is a lot for us of which to be proud. But, as the President 
said last night, there is more to do. Indeed, there is a lot more to 
do.
  I believe the President showed great leadership in laying out a 
comprehensive, ambitious agenda for change. I would like to talk for a 
moment about three of the items on that agenda.
  First, the President talked about health care. At the present time 
some of the forces, frankly, of the status quo--and we have heard some 
this morning--are suggesting doubt that there may be a health care 
crisis in this country. I think President Clinton hit the nail right on 
the head when he said that those who think there is no crisis in health 
care should get in touch with America; 58 million Americans have no 
health coverage at all at some time during the year, and 81 million 
Americans--I am sure, Mr. President, you have heard more complaints 
about preexisting conditions than anything else--81 million Americans 
have preexisting conditions that either prevent them from obtaining 
affordable coverage or locks them into their current jobs. Small 
businesses have to pay 35 percent more than large companies, or the 
Government for that matter, to provide comparable levels of health 
coverage for their employees.
  Talk about employer mandates, Mr. President. The system we have now 
mandates that small businesses pay the most for health care coverage if 
they can obtain it at all. And health care costs continue to grow. That 
is the problem we are currently facing, and that is the reason we 
absolutely have to reform the system. We have to reform it in a way 
that provides the kind of comprehensive coverage that President Clinton 
addressed last night.
  The President made it clear that he wants to work with Congress on a 
bipartisan basis to get the kind of health care reform our country so 
badly needs, and he made one point with which I particularly agree, 
which is that there is no real health care reform unless we ensure for 
every single American health security. Anything we do here must include 
every American, every person. Otherwise, we will not have accomplished 
health care reform at all.
  The President went on to make the connection, Mr. President--I think 
this is really significant--between health care and welfare reform. He 
talked about giving people the opportunity to do for themselves, a 
chance for all who can to work, either in the private sector or, if 
necessary, in the public sector, but giving value back to work and 
giving people an opportunity to participate. The tone of his remarks 
was not punitive; it was not finger pointing; it was not the blame 
game. Instead, this President spoke with real compassion about the 
needs and the concerns and the interests of Americans who are trapped 
in a web of poverty to escape that web and to participate fully in the 
American dream. He talked about the fact that this is, indeed, the land 
of opportunity and that all of our people, all Americans should have a 
chance to contribute to this society. It is for this reason that 
welfare reform is so vitally important.
  But the President last night not only spoke about the importance of 
welfare reform, he made the connection between health care reform and 
welfare reform because, indeed, they are connected; one goes with the 
other. I believe we have a golden opportunity to take these issues up 
in tandem, to effect changes that will give us economies in both 
systems so that we can pay for these reforms within current resources.
  The President made it clear also that education is a real priority, 
and that the Federal Government must be involved in seeing to it that 
our Nation's children have the skills and knowledge they need to meet 
the challenges of an increasingly interdependent and competitive world.
  I believe the President's goals make sense. We need strong standards, 
and we need grassroots reform because those who are closest to our 
neighborhood schools often know best what those schools require. But 
certainly at the same time the Federal Government can do a lot more 
than it has in support of elementary, secondary, and higher education 
to give our youngsters the chance to compete in this global economy. 
The President made it clear that education is a thread which runs 
through preserving the American dream, something that we have to 
preserve, we have to protect, we have to provide support for if, 
indeed, we are to go into the 21st century as strong a nation as we 
came into the 20th. We all want a better life for our children. We all 
want them to have the opportunity and the ability to succeed. That is 
what education provides, and that is what we must provide for them.
  The President also made the connection between education and crime, 
and again I wish to talk about connections a little bit because I think 
that was the implicit message in his speech last night, the connection 
between these items of the social agenda, that you cannot separate 
these matters one from the other.
  The President wants to lock up violent criminals, Mr. President, so 
do I, and I think so does everybody else in this Chamber. Those who 
terrorize our neighborhoods and our communities must be made to 
understand that those actions will not be tolerated, that they will be 
held responsible, and that they will go to jail. I join my friend, the 
Senator from Nevada, in emphasizing the importance of the certainty of 
punishment.
  The President also recognized, however, how important it is to 
prevent crime in the first place with initiatives like community 
policing, which will put 100,000 more police officers on the streets. 
Community policing will work, and I am pleased the Congress and the 
President are working cooperatively to turn that commonsense idea into 
a reality again. And I say again because I think many of us had the 
experience with what was called the beat cops a generation ago, or 
close to a generation ago, where policemen were part of the community. 
It worked then. It will work now. It will help us prevent crime before 
the damage is done, before the costs are incurred, before people are 
made victims.
  I am greatly pleased also that the President made it very clear he is 
not content with just signing the Brady bill as a way of dealing with 
the epidemic of handguns on our streets, as important as that 
legislation is. Mr. Brady took a bow last night after all the hard work 
he has done to see to it, after his own tragic injury, that a 
beginning, a first step in sensible gun control take place. I believe 
his recognition last night was altogether appropriate. But the 
President made it clear that he is not content with signing the Brady 
bill; that he views it as a first step in dealing with the epidemic of 
gun violence.
  Mr. President, I come from a law enforcement family. I am accustomed 
to having guns in my house. My father used to hunt, so I am accustomed 
to that as well, and so I do understand the concern legitimate 
gunowners, owners of firearms, have expressed about their second 
amendment rights. But I believe there is no compatibility between the 
second amendment and sensible, responsible gun control. I join the 
President and applaud him for calling on responsible gunowners, people 
who use guns and firearms for lawful purposes, to join in this battle 
to get handguns out of the hands of people who would use them 
illicitly. We have to make certain that the guns are off the streets in 
the first place; that they do not become a deluge so that they are more 
accessible to a youngster than a bicycle, which, in many communities, 
is the unfortunate reality we face today.
  Mr. President, there is a lot more I could say about the State of the 
Union Address, but I do want to end up by talking about the fact that 
the President last night talked about--it was important that he talked 
about it--the interrelationships between these issues, between health 
care reform and welfare reform, between acting on education and job 
training and crime, between creating opportunities and using that as 
the engine to fuel the further economic recovery for our Nation.
  The President was right to talk about the connection, but I suggest 
to you, Mr. President, that it was entirely consistent with the 
platform on which he ran for office. This President ran for office 
talking about bringing Americans together, about ending the years of 
finger pointing and the blame game and focusing on the divisions and 
focusing on the negatives. He ran on a platform of saying to Americans 
we have the capacity in this generation to address the host of problems 
which confront us in a way that is sensible, in a way that is rational, 
in a way that respects our traditional values. That was the basis upon 
which he ran for office, and the American people responded to that 
message.
  Mr. President, I suggest to you his speech last night was entirely 
consistent, was a followthrough on the promise that was made in that 
campaign, on the promise to bring America back to the basics of 
understanding that this Nation is based and predicated on providing 
opportunity, on giving breath to the expression and the creativity our 
people have to give, on making certain we address the concerns of all 
Americans and not just some Americans, and that in the process we treat 
fairly with the concerns and the interests of people wherever and at 
whatever level.
  That is why this President talked about connection because he 
recognized and is giving leadership to the American people, that we are 
all in this together. We cannot separate one from the other. As we 
address these issues, as tough as they may be, as we fix health care, 
we will be well on the way to fixing welfare. As we fix welfare, we 
will be well on our way to addressing the issues of crime. As we fix 
crime, we will be well on our way to making our communities places that 
are safe to live in, do business in, to thrive in, and to grow in.
  So, Mr. President, I want to congratulate the President on his speech 
last night and to say that I very much look forward to working with 
him, to working with the Members of this Congress, in making all of 
that part of the ambitious agenda reality in this 103d Congress.
  Thank you very much.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator from Illinois has 
expired.
  Mr. MATHEWS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.

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