[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1430-S1435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 REPORT OF THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT--
                                  PM 4

  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the President of the United States, together with an accompanying 
report, which was ordered to lie on the table.

  Mr. President. Mr. Speaker. Members of the 104th Congress. My fellow 
Americans:
  Again we are here in the sanctuary of democracy, and once again our 
democracy has spoken. To all of you in the 104th Congress, to you, Mr. 
Speaker: Congratulations.
  If we agree on nothing else, we must agree that the American people 
voted for change in 1992 and 1994. We didn't hear America singing--we 
heard America shouting. Now, we must say: We hear you. We will work 
together to earn your trust.
  For we are the keepers of a sacred trust, and we must be faithful to 
it in this new era. Over two hundred years ago, our Founders changed 
the course of history by joining together to create a new country based 
on a powerful idea Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to 
be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed 
by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are 
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It has fallen to every 
generation since to preserve that idea--the American idea--and to 
expand its meaning in new and different times. To Lincoln and his 
Congress: To preserve the Union and end slavery. To Theodore Roosevelt 
and Woodrow Wilson: To restrain the abuses and excesses of the 
Industrial Revolution, and to assert America's leadership in the world. 
To Franklin Roosevelt: To fight the failure of the Great Depression and 
our century's great struggle against fascism. To all our Presidents 
since: To fight the Cold War. Especially to two, who struggled in 
partnership with Congresses of the opposite party. To Harry Truman, who 
summoned us to unparalleled prosperity at home and constructed the 
architecture of the Cold War world. And to Ronald Reagan, who exhorted 
us to carry on until the twilight struggle against Communism was won.
  In another time of change and challenge, I became the first President 
to be elected in the post-Cold War era, an era marked by the global 
economy, the information revolution, unparalleled change and 
opportunity and insecurity for ordinary Americans.
  I came to this hallowed chamber two years ago on a mission: To 
restore the American Dream for all our people and to ensure that we 
move into the 21st Century still the world's strongest force for 
freedom and democracy.
  [[Page S1431]] I was determined to tackle tough problems, too long 
ignored. In these efforts I have made my mistakes and learned again the 
importance of humility in all human endeavor. But I am proud to say 
that, tonight, our country is stronger than it was two years ago.
  Record numbers of Americans are succeeding in the new global economy. 
We are at peace and a force for peace and freedom throughout the world. 
We have almost six million new jobs since I became President.
  We have the lowest combined rate of unemployment and inflation in 
over 25 years. We have expanded trade, put more police on our streets, 
given our citizens more tools to get an education and rebuild their 
communities. But the rising tide is not lifting all boats.
  While our nation is enjoying peace and prosperity, too many of our 
people are still working harder and harder for less and less. While our 
businesses are restructuring and growing more competitive, too many of 
our people can't be sure of even having a job next year or even next 
month. And far more than our material riches are threatened: Things far 
more precious--our children, our families, our values.
  Our civil life is suffering. Citizens are working together less, 
shouting at each other more. The common bonds of community which have 
been the great strength of this country from its beginning are badly 
frayed.
  What are we to do about it? More than 60 years ago, at the dawn of 
another new era, Franklin Roosevelt told the nation: ``New conditions 
impose new requirements on government and those who conduct 
government.'' From that simple proposition, he shaped the New Deal, 
which helped restore our nation to prosperity and defined the 
relationship between Americans and their government for half a century.
  That approach worked in its time. But we today, we face a new time 
and different conditions.
  We are moving from an Industrial Age built on gears and sweat, to an 
Information Age that will demand more skills and learning. Our 
government, once a champion of national purpose, is now seen as a 
captive of narrow interests, putting more burdens on our citizens, 
instead of equipping them to get ahead. The values that used to hold us 
together are coming apart.
  So, tonight, we must forge a new social compact, to meet the 
challenges of our time. As we enter a new era, we need a new set of 
understandings, not just with our government, but more important, with 
one another.
  That is what I want to talk to you about tonight. I call it a New 
Covenant, but it is grounded in a very old idea: That all Americans 
have not just a right, but a responsibility to rise as far as their 
God-given talents and determination can take them, and to give 
something back to their communities and their country in return.
  Opportunity and responsibility go hand-in-hand. We can't have one 
without the other. And our national community can't hold together 
without both.
  Our New Covenant is a new set of understandings for how we can equip 
our people to meet the challenges of the new economy, how we can change 
the way our government works to fit a different time and, above all, 
how we can repair the damaged bonds in our society and come together 
behind our common purpose. We must have dramatic change in our economy, 
in our government and in ourselves.
  Let us rise to the occasion. Let us put aside partisanship, 
pettiness, and pride. As we embark on a new course, let us put our 
country first, remembering that regardless of our party labels, we are 
all Americans. Let the final test of any action we take be a simple 
one: is it good for the American people?
  We cannot ask Americans to be better citizens if we are not better 
servants. We've made a start this week by enacting a law applying to 
Congress the laws you apply to the private sector. But we have a lot 
more to do.
  Three times as many lobbyists roam the streets and corridors of 
Washington as did 20 years ago. The American people look at their 
nation's capital, and they see a city where the well-connected and the 
well-protected milk the system, and the interests of ordinary citizens 
are too often left out.
  As this new Congress opened its doors, lobbyists were still at work. 
Free travel, expensive gifts . . . business as usual. Twice this month, 
you have voted not to stop these gifts. Well, there doesn't have to be 
a law for everything.
  Tonight, I challenge you to just stop taking them--now, without 
waiting for legislation to pass. Then, send me the strongest possible 
lobby reform bill, and I'll sign it.
  Require the lobbyists to tell the people who they work for, what 
they're spending and what they want. And let's curb the role of big 
money in our elections, by capping the cost of campaigns and limiting 
the influence of PACs, and opening the people's airwaves to be an 
instrument of democracy, by giving free TV time to candidates.
  When Congress killed political reform last year, the lobbyists 
actually stood in the halls of this sacred building and cheered. This 
year, let's give the folks at home something to cheer about.
  More important, let's change the government--let's make it smaller, 
less costly and smarter--leaner, not meaner.
  The New Covenant is an approach to governing that is as different 
from the old bureaucratic way as the computer is from the manual 
typewriter. The old way protected the organized interests. The New 
Covenant looks out for the interests of ordinary people. The old way 
divided us by interests, constituency or class. The New Covenant unites 
us behind a common vision of what's best for our country.
  The old way dispensed services through large, hierarchical, 
inflexible bureaucracies. The New Covenant shifts resources and 
decision-making from bureaucrats to citizens, injecting choice, 
competition and individual responsibility into national policy.
  The old way seemed to reward failure. The New Covenant has built-in 
incentives to reward success. The old way was centralized in 
Washington. The New Covenant must take hold in communities across the 
country.
  Our job here is to expand opportunity, not bureaucracy: To empower 
people to make the most of their own lives; to enhance our security at 
home and abroad.
  We should not ask government to do for us what we should only do for 
ourselves. But we should use government to do those things that we can 
only do together.
  We must go beyond the sterile debate between the illusion that there 
is a program for every problem and the illusion that government is the 
source of all our problems.
  Our job is to get rid of yesterday's government so our people can 
meet today's and tomorrow's needs.
  For years before I became President, others had been saying they 
would cut government, but not much happened. We did it. We cut over a 
quarter of a trillion dollars in spending, more than 300 domestic 
programs, more than 100,000 positions from the federal bureaucracy in 
the last two years alone. Based on decisions we have already made, we 
will have cut a total of more than a quarter million positions, making 
the federal government the smallest it has been since John Kennedy was 
President.
  Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, our initiatives have 
already saved taxpayers $63 billion. The age of the $500 hammer is 
gone.
  Deadwood programs like mohair subsidies are gone. We have streamlined 
the Agriculture Department by more than 1,200 offices. Slashed the 
Small Business loan form from an inch-think to a single page and thrown 
away the government's 10,000 page personnel manual. FEMA--the federal 
disaster agency--has gone from being a disaster to helping people. 
Government workers--hand-in-hand with private business--rebuilt 
southern California's fractured freeways in record time and under 
budget. And because the federal government moved fast, all but one of 
the 650 schools damaged in the earthquake are back in business 
educating our children.
  University administrators tell me that they are saving weeks of time 
on college loan applications because of our new college loan program 
that cut costs to the taxpayers, cuts costs to students, and gives 
people a better way to pay back their college loans, and cut out 
bureaucracy.
  Previous government reform reports gathered dust. We are getting 
results. And we're not through. There is going 
[[Page S1432]] to be a second round of reinventing government. We 
propose to cut $130 billion in spending by shrinking departments, 
extending our freeze on domestic spending, cutting 60 public housing 
programs down to three. Getting rid of over 100 programs we don't 
need--like the Interstate Commerce Commission and the helium reserve 
program.
  These programs have outlived their usefulness. We have to cut 
yesterday's government to help solve tomorrow's problems.
  And we need to get government closer to the people it's meant to 
serve. Where states and communities, private citizens and the private 
sector can do a better job, we should get out of the way. We're taking 
power away from federal bureaucracies and giving it back to communities 
and individuals. And it's time for Congress to stop passing on to the 
states the cost of the decisions we make here in Washington.
  For years, Congress has concealed in the budget scores of pet 
spending projects--and last year was no different: A million dollars to 
study stress in plants, $12 million for a tick-removal program that 
didn't even work. Give me the line item veto and I'll save the 
taxpayers money.
  But when we cut, let's remember that government still has important 
responsibilities: Our young people hold our future in their hands; we 
owe a debt to our veterans who were willing to risk their lives for us; 
the elderly have made us what we are. My budget cuts a lot, but it 
protects education, veterans, Social Security, and Medicare and so 
should you.
  And when we give more flexibility to the states, let's remember 
certain fundamental national needs that should be addressed in every 
state.
  Immunization against childhood disease; school lunches; Head Start; 
medical care and nutrition for pregnant women and infants--they're in 
the national interest.
  I applaud your desire to get rid of costly, unnecessary regulations. 
But when we deregulate, let's remember what national action in the 
national interest has given us: Safer food for our families; safer toys 
for our kids; safer nursing homes for our parents. Safer cars and 
highways. And safer workplaces. Clean water and clean air.
  Do we need more common sense and fairness in our regulations? You bet 
we do. But we can have common sense and still provide for safe drinking 
water. We can have fairness and still clean up toxic waste dumps. And 
we ought to do it. Should we cut the deficit more? Of course, we 
should. We must bring down spending in a way that protects the economic 
recovery and does not punish the middle class or seniors.
  I know many of you in this chamber support the balanced budget 
amendment. We all want to balance the budget. Our administration has 
done more to bring the budget closer to balance than any one in a long 
time. But if you're going to pass this amendment, you have to be 
straight with the American people. They have a right to know what you 
are going to cut and how it would affect them. And you should tell them 
before you change the Constitution. Everyone should know, for example, 
whether this proposal will endanger Social Security, which I would 
oppose.
  In the New Covenant there are problems we have the responsibility to 
fact.
  Nothing has done more to undermine our sense of responsibility than 
our failed welfare system. It rewards welfare over work. It undermines 
family values. It lets millions of parents get away without paying 
child support.
  That is why I have worked so long to reform welfare. We have made a 
good start. In the last two years, my administration has given more 
states the chance to find their own ways to reform welfare than the 
past two administrations combined. Last year, I introduced the most 
sweeping welfare reform plan ever presented by an administration.
  We have to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not 
a way of life. We'll help those on welfare move to work as quickly as 
possible, provide child care and teach skills if they need them for up 
to two years.
  But after that, the rule will be simple: Anyone who can work must go 
to work.
  If a parent isn't paying child support, we'll make them pay. We'll 
suspend their driver's licenses, track them across state lines and make 
them work off what they owe. Governments don't raise children. Parents 
do.
  I want to work with you to pass welfare reform. But our goal must be 
to liberate people and lift them up--from dependence to independence, 
welfare to work, mere childbearing to responsible parenting--not punish 
them because they happen to be poor. We should require work and mutual 
responsibility, but we shouldn't cut people off because they are poor, 
young, unmarried.
  We should promote responsibility by requiring young mothers to live 
at home with their parents or in other supervised settings and finish 
school, not by putting them and their children out on the street. We 
shouldn't punish poor children for the mistakes of their parents.
  Let this be the year we end welfare as we know it. But let this also 
be the year we stop using this issue to divide America. No one is more 
eager to end welfare than the people that are trapped on it. Let's 
promote education, work, good parenting. Let's punish bad behavior and 
the refusal to be a student, a worker, a responsible parent. Let's not 
punish poverty and past mistakes. All of us have made mistakes. None of 
us can change our yesterday's, but all of us can change tomorrow's.
  Just ask Lynn Woolsey, who worked her way off welfare and is now a 
congresswoman from California.
  I know it has become fashionable to embrace Franklin D. Roosevelt. So 
let's remember exactly what he said: ``Human kindness has never 
weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation 
does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.''
  I know members of this Congress are concerned about crime. But I 
would remind you that last year we passed a very tough crime bill--
longer sentences, three strikes and you're out, more prevention, more 
prisons, and 100,000 more police. And we paid for it all by reducing 
the size of the federal bureaucracy and giving money back to local 
communities to lower the crime rate.
  There may be other things we can do to be tougher on crime and to 
help lower the crime rate, and let's do them. But let's not create a 
raucous political debate in an effort to take back the good things 
we've already done. That's what local community leaders think. And 
that's what the police who put their lives on the line every day think.
  Secondly, the last Congress passed the Brady Bill and the ban on 
nineteen assault weapons. I think everybody in this room knows that 
several members of the last Congress who voted for the assault weapons 
ban and the Brady Bill lost their seats because of it. Neither the bill 
supporters or I believe anything should be done to infringe upon the 
legitimate right of our citizens to bear arms for hunting and sporting 
purposes.
  Those people laid down their seats in Congress to try to keep more 
police and children from laying down their lives in our streets under a 
hail of assault weapons' bullets. And I will not see that ban repealed.


                            National Service

  We shouldn't cut government programs that help to prepare us for the 
new economy, promote responsibility, and are organized from the grass 
roots up, not by federal bureaucracies. The best example of that is the 
national service program--Americorps--which today has 20,000 Americans, 
more than ever served in one year in the Peace Corps, working all over 
America, helping people--person to person--in local volunteer groups, 
solving problems and earning some money for their education. This is 
citizenship at its best.
  It's good for the Americorps members and good for the rest of us. 
It's the essence of the New Covenant. And we shouldn't stop it.


                          illegal immigration

  All Americans are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal 
immigrants entering this country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be 
held by our citizens or legal immigrants, and the public services they 
use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration has 
moved aggressively to secure our borders by hiring a record number of 
new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever 
before, by cracking down on illegal aliens who try to take American 
jobs, and by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.
  [[Page S1433]] In the budget I will present to you, we will do more 
to try to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for 
crimes, and to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace, as 
recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara 
Jordan.
  This is a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of law. And 
it is wrong, and ultimately self-defeating, for a nation of immigrants 
to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in 
recent years.


                            the new economy

  The most important job of government is to empower people to succeed 
in the new global economy. America has always been the land of 
opportunity, a land where if you work hard you can get ahead. We are a 
middle class country.
  Middle class values sustain us. We must expand the middle class and 
shrink the underclass, while supporting the millions who are already 
successful in the new economy.
  America is once again the world's strongest economy. Almost six 
million jobs in two years. Exports booming. Inflation down. High wage 
jobs coming back. A record number of American entrepreneurs living the 
American dream. If we want it to stay that way, those who work and lift 
our nation must have more of its benefits.
  Today too many of those people are being left out. They are working 
harder for less security, less income, less certainty they can even 
afford a vacation, much less college for their children or retirement 
for themselves. We cannot let this continue.
  If we don't act, our economy will probably do what it's done since 
1978: Provide high income growth to those at the top, give very little 
to everyone in the middle, and leave the people at the bottom to fall 
even farther behind, no matter how hard they work.
  We must have a government that can be a partner in making this new 
economy work for all Americans--a government that helps each and every 
one of us get an education and have the opportunity to renew our 
skills.
  That's why we worked so hard to increase educational opportunity from 
Heard Start, to public schools, to apprenticeships, to job training, to 
making college loans available and more affordable for 20 million 
people. That's the first thing we have to do.
  The second thing we can do to raise incomes is to lower taxes. In 
1993, we took the first step with a working family tax cut for 15 
million families with incomes of under $27,000 and a tax cut to most 
small and new businesses. Before we could do more than that, we first 
had to bring down the deficit we inherited. And we had to get economic 
growth up. We have done both.
  Now we can cut taxes in a more comprehensive way. Tax cuts must 
promote and reinforce our first obligation, empowering citizens with 
education and training to make the most of their lives. The tax relief 
spotlight must shine on those who make the right choices for their 
families and communities.
  I have proposed the Middle Class Bill of Rights--which should be 
called a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, because its provisions 
only benefit those who are working to educate and raise their children 
or to improve their own lives. It will, therefore, give needed tax 
relief and raise incomes in the short and long runs in a way that 
benefits all of us.
  There are four provisions: First, a tax deduction for all education 
and training after high school. Education is even more important now 
than ever to the economic well-being of America, and we should do 
everything we can to encourage it. If businesses can get a deduction 
for investing in factories, why shouldn't families for investment in 
their future?
  Second, a $500 tax credit for all children under thirteen in middle 
class households.
  Third, an individual retirement account with penalty-free withdrawal 
rights for the cost of education, health care, first time home buying, 
and care of a parent.
  And fourth, a G.I. Bill for American workers. We propose to collapse 
nearly 70 Federal programs and offer vouchers directly to eligible 
American workers. If you are laid off, or make a low wage, you will get 
a voucher worth $2,600 a year for up to two years to go to your local 
community college or get private or public job training to raise your 
job skills.
  Anyone can call for a tax cut, but I will not accept one that 
explodes the deficit and puts our economic recovery at risk. We must 
pay for any tax cuts, fully and honestly. Two years ago, it was an open 
question whether we would find the strength to cut the deficit.
  Thanks to the courage of many people here, and many who did not 
return to take their seats in this House, we began to do what others 
said they would do for years.
  We Democrats cut the deficit by over $600 billion--that's nearly 
$10,000 for every family of four in this country. The deficit is coming 
down three years in a row for the first time since president Truman was 
in office.
  In the budget, I will send you, the Middle Class Bill of Rights is 
fully paid for by budget cuts, cuts in bureaucracy, cuts in programs, 
cuts in special interest subsidies. And the spending cuts will more 
than double the tax cuts. My budget pays for the Middle Class Bill of 
Rights without any cuts in Medicare. And I will oppose any attempt to 
pay for tax cuts with Medicare cuts.
  I know a lot of you have your own ideas about tax relief. I want to 
work with you. My test for any proposal is: Will it create jobs and 
raise incomes? Will it strengthen families and support children? Will 
it build the middle class and shrink the underclass? Is it paid for? If 
it does, I will support it. If it doesn't, I will oppose it.
  That's why I will ask you to support raising the minimum wage. It 
rewards work. Two and a half million Americans, often women with 
children, work for $4.25 an hour. In terms of real buying power, by 
next year, that minimum wage will be at a 40 year low.
  I have studied the arguments and evidence for and against a minimum 
wage increase.
  The weight of evidence is that a modest increase does not cost jobs, 
and may even lure people into the job market. But the plain fact is you 
can't make a living on $4.25 an hour, especially if you have kids to 
support.
  In the past, the minimum wage has been a bipartisan issue. It should 
be again. I challenge you to get together and find a way to make the 
minimum wage a living wage.
  Members of Congress have been on the job less than a month. But by 
the end of the week, 28 days into the new year, each Congressman has 
already earned as much in Congressional salary as people who work under 
minimum wage made in an entire year.
  And everyone in this chamber has something else that too many 
Americans go without: health care. Last year, we almost came to blows 
over health care, but nothing was done. But the hard, cold fact is 
that, since we stared this debate, we know that more than 1.1 million 
Americans in working families have lost their coverage. The hard, cold 
fact is that millions more, mostly workers who are farmers, self-
employed, and in small businesses, have seen their coverage erode with 
higher premium costs, higher deductibles, and higher co-payments.
  I still believe we must move our nation towards providing health 
security for every American family. Last year, we bit off more than we 
could chew. This year, let's work together, step by step, and get 
something done.
  Let's at least pass meaningful insurance reform so that no American 
risks losing coverage or facing skyrocketing prices when they change 
jobs, or lose a job, or a family member falls ill. We could start with 
the proposals Senator Dole made last year. Let's make sure that self-
employed people and small businesses can buy insurance at more 
affordable rates through voluntary purchasing pools. Let's help 
families provide long-term care for a sick parent or a disabled child. 
Let's help workers who lose their jobs keep health insurance coverage 
for a year while they look for work. And let's find a way to make sure 
our children have health care. Let's work together. This is too 
important for politics as usual.


                           national security

  Much of what is on the American people's mind is devoted to internal 
security concerns--the security of our jobs and incomes, our children, 
our streets, our health, our borders. Now that the Cold War is past, it 
is tempting to believe that all security issues, 
[[Page S1434]] with the possible exception of trade, reside within our 
borders. That is not so
  Our security depends upon our continued world leadership for peace, 
freedom, and democracy. We cannot be strong at home without being 
strong abroad.
  The financial crisis in Mexico is a powerful case in point. We have 
to act--for the sake of millions of Americans whose livelihoods are 
tied to Mexico's well-being.
  If we want to secure America jobs, preserve American exports and 
safeguard America's borders, we must pass our stabilization program and 
help put Mexico back on track. And let me repeat--this is not a loan, 
this is not foreign aid, this is not a bail-out. We'll be giving a 
guarantee, like co-signing a note with good collateral that will cover 
our risk. This legislation is right for America, and together with the 
bipartisan leadership, I call on Congress to pass it quickly
  Tonight, not a single Russian missile is aimed at our homes or our 
children. And we, with them, are on the way to destroying missiles and 
bombers that carry 9,000 nuclear warheads.
  We've come so far so fast in the post-Cold War world that it is easy 
to take the decline of the nuclear threat for granted. But it is still 
there, and we are not finished yet.
  This year, I am asking the Senate to approve START II--and eliminate 
weapons that carry 5,000 more warheads. The United States will lead the 
charge to extend indefinitely the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to 
enact a comprehensive nuclear test ban, and to eliminate chemical 
weapons. To stop, and roll back, North Korea's potentially deadly 
nuclear program, we will continue to implement the agreement we have 
reached with that nation. It's a smart, tough deal based on continuing 
inspection, with safeguards for our allies and ourselves.
  This year I will submit to Congress comprehensive legislation to 
strengthen our hand in combating terrorists, whether they strike at 
home or abroad.
  As the cowards who bombed the World Trade Center can testify, the 
United States will hunt down terrorists and bring them to justice.
  Just this week, another horrendous terrorist act in Israel killed 19 
and injured scores more. On behalf of the American people I extend our 
deepest sympathy to the families of the victims. I know that in the 
face of such evil, it is hard to go forward. But the terrorists are the 
past, not the future. We must--and we will--persist in our pursuit of a 
comprehensive peace between Israel and all her neighbors in the Middle 
East. Accordingly, last night I signed an Executive Order that will 
block the assets in the United States of terrorist organizations that 
threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process and prohibits 
financial transactions with these groups.
  Tonight, I call on our allies, and peace-loving nations around the 
world, to join us with renewed fervor in the global effort to combat 
terrorism.
  From my first day in office I have pledged that our nation would 
maintain the best equipped, best trained and best prepared fighting 
force on Earth. We have--and they are. They have managed the dramatic 
downsizing of our forces since the Cold War with remarkable skill and 
spirit. To make sure our military is ready for action--and to provide 
the pay and quality of life that the military and their families 
deserve--I am asking this Congress to add $25 billion more in defense 
spending over the next six years. Tonight I repeat that request. We ask 
much of our armed forces. They are called to service in many ways--and 
we must give them and their families what the times demand and they 
deserve.
  Time after time, in the last year, our troops showed America at its 
best: helping to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Rwanda. Moving 
with lightning speed to head off another Iraqi threat to Kuwait. And 
giving freedom and democracy back to the people of Haiti.
  The United States has proudly supported peace, prosperity, freedom 
and democracy, from South Africa to Northern Ireland, from Central and 
Eastern Europe to Asia, from Latin America to the Middle East. All 
these endeavors make America's future more confident and more secure.
  This, then, my fellow Americans, is our agenda--expanding 
opportunity, not bureaucracy, enhancing security at home and abroad, 
empowering people to make the most of their own lives.
  It is ambitious and achievable, but it is not enough. We need more 
than new ideas changing the world, or equipping all Americans to 
compete in the new economy. More than a government that is smaller, 
smarter and wiser. More than all the changes we can make from the 
outside in. Our fortunes and our posterity also depend upon our ability 
to answer questions from within, from the values and the voices that 
speak to our hearts, voices that tell us we must accept responsibility 
for ourselves, for our families, for our communities and, yes, for our 
fellow citizens.
  We see our families and our communities coming apart. Our common 
ground is shifting out from under us.
  The PTA, the town hall meeting, the ball park--it's hard for many 
overworked Americans to find the time and space for the things that 
strengthen the bonds of trust and cooperation among citizens. And too 
many of our children don't have the parents and grandparents who can 
give them the experiences they need to build character and strengthen 
identity.
  We all know that while we here in this chamber can make a difference, 
the real differences in America must be made by our fellow citizens 
where they work and where they live. More than ever before, as we move 
to the twenty-first century, everyone matters and we don't have a 
person to waste.
  That means the new covenant is for everybody. For our corporate and 
business leaders: We are working to bring down the deficit and expand 
markets and to support your success in every way. But you have an 
obligation when you are doing well to keep jobs in our communities and 
give American workers a fair share of the prosperity they generate.
  For those in the entertainment industry: We applaud your creativity 
and your worldwide success, and we support your freedom of expression. 
But you have a responsibility to assess the impact of your work and to 
understand the damage that comes from the incessant, repetitive and 
mindless violence, and irresponsible conduct that permeates our media. 
Not because we will make you, but because you should.
  For our community leaders: We've got to stop the epidemic of teen 
pregnancies and births where there is no marriage. I have sent Congress 
a plan to target schools all over the country with anti-pregnancy 
programs that work. But government can only do so much. Tonight, I am 
calling on parents and leaders across the country to join together in a 
National Campaign Against Teen Pregnancy--to make a difference.
  For our religious leaders: You can ignite your congregations to carry 
their faith into action, reaching out to all our children, to those in 
distress, to those who have been savaged by the breakdown of all we 
hold dear. Because so much of what has to be done must come from the 
inside out. You can make all the difference.
  Responsibility is for all our citizens. It takes a lot of people to 
help all the kids in trouble to stay off the streets and in school, to 
build the Habitat for Humanity houses, to provide the people power for 
all the civic organizations that make our communities grow. It takes 
every parent to teach their children the difference between right and 
wrong, and to encourage them to learn and grow, to say no to the wrong 
things in life and to believe they can become whatever they want to be.
  I know it is hard when you are working harder for less money and you 
are under great stress to do these things.
  I also know it's hard to do the work of citizenship when for years, 
politicians in both parties have treated you like consumers and 
spectators, promising you something for nothing and playing on your 
fears and frustrations. And more and more of the information you get 
comes in very negative ways, not conducive to real conversation. But 
the truth is, we have got to stop seeing each other as enemies, even 
when we have different views. If you go back to the very beginning of 
this country, the great strength of America has always been our ability 
to associate with people who were different from ourselves and to work 
together to find common ground. And in the present day, everybody has a 
responsibility to do more of that.

[[Page S1435]]

  That is the first law of democracy, the oldest lesson of most of our 
faiths: That we are stronger together than alone. That we all gain when 
we give. That is why we must make citizenship matter again. Here are 
five shining examples of citizenship:
  Cindy Perry teaches second graders to read in AmeriCorps, in rural 
Kentucky. She gains when she gives: She is a mother of four, and she 
says that her service ``inspired'' her to get her high-school 
equivalency last year. Now, like thousands of other members, she will 
use her scholarship from AmeriCorps to go to college to equip herself 
to compete and win in the new economy.
  With so many forces pulling us apart, we cannot stop a force like 
AmeriCorps that's pulling us together.
  Chief Stephen Bishop gains when he gives: He has worked with 
AmeriCorps to build community policing in Kansas City--and has seen 
crime go down because of it. He stood up for our Crime Bill and the 
Assault Weapons ban, and knows that the people he serves and the people 
he leads are all safer because of it.
  Corporal Gregory Depestre gains when he gives: He went to Haiti as 
part of his adopted country's force to help secure democracy. And he 
saw the people of his native land--Haiti--are restoring democracy for 
themselves.
  Reverend John Cherry * * *
  And Jack Lucas gained when he gave. Fifty crowded years ago, in the 
sands of Iwo Jima, he taught and he learned the lessons of citizenship. 
February 20, 1945 was no ordinary day for a small-town boy. As he and 
his three buddies moved along a slope, they encountered the enemy--and 
two grenades at their feet. Jack Lucas threw himself on them both, and, 
in that moment, saved the lives of his companions. And what did he 
gain? In the next instant, a medic saved his life. He gained a foothold 
for freedom. And he gained this: Jack Lucas--at 17 years old, just a 
year older than his grandson is today--became the youngest Marine in 
our history, the youngest man in this century, to be awarded the 
Congressional Medal of Honor.
  All these years later, here's what he says about that day: ``It 
didn't matter where you were from, who you were. You relied on one 
another. You did it for your country.''
  We all gain when we give. We reap whatever we sow. That's at the 
heart of the New Covenant: Responsibility. Citizenship. Opportunity. 
They are more than stale chapter headings in some remote civics book. 
They are the virtues by which we can fulfill ourselves and our God-
given potential--the virtues by which we can live out, the eternal 
promise of America, the enduring dream of that first and most sacred 
covenant: That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights. And that among these are Life, Liberty and the 
Pursuit of Happiness.
  This is a very great country. And our best days are yet to come. God 
bless you, and God bless the United States of America.


                          ____________________