[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E227-E228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 12, 1997

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert my Washington 
Report for Wednesday, February 12, 1997, into the Congressional Record.

                     The State of the Union Address

       Declaring that we have no imminent threat and that the 
     enemy of our time is inaction, President Clinton issued a 
     call to action in his State of the Union address. It was a 
     call to keep our economy and our democracy strong, to 
     strengthen education and harness technology, to build 
     stronger families and communities, and to keep America the 
     world's strongest force for peace, freedom, and prosperity. 
     The President used more of the ``bully pulpit'' in the 
     speech, often using rhetoric and challenges to the American 
     people rather than urging new federal programs.
       In many ways, the address distilled the President's 
     thinking about what is needed to prepare the American people 
     for the 21st century. He said we need to ``take the tough 
     decisions in the next four years that will carry our country 
     through the next fifty years''.


                           role of government

       The President sought to define himself, his agenda, and his 
     presidency for the American people, and he certainly summed 
     up his view of government. He said we must be committed to 
     ``a new kind of government--not to solve all our problems for 
     us, but to give all our people the tools they need to make 
     the most of their own lives''.
       The President clearly focused on small, incremental 
     proposals rather than the sweeping federal initiatives he 
     proposed when he first took office, such as health care 
     reform. Even when the President promises to focus time, 
     energy, and money on an issue--like education--he proposes 
     something less than an all-out federal assault. Overall, he 
     brought together many proposals from his recent speeches in 
     an effort to frame a program that seems significant but would 
     cost relatively little.


                          domestic priorities

       His discussion of his domestic priorities was by far the 
     most detailed portion of his

[[Page E228]]

     speech. Often he spoke about problems that the nation's 
     governors have been talking about, such as education and 
     crime.
       The President spoke crisply, and with conviction. He showed 
     genuine passion as he talked about his number one priority 
     for the next four years--ensuring that Americans have the 
     best education in the world. Recognizing widespread concerns 
     about education, he called it ``one of the critical national 
     security issues for our future''. He then dealt in rapid-fire 
     fashion with most of the policy areas on the nation's agenda. 
     He wants to expand Head Start, extend the family and medical 
     leave law, expand medical research and technology, mount a 
     full-scale assault on juvenile crime, and clean up 500 toxic 
     waste sites. He wants low-tax empowerment zones in urban 
     areas to encourage revitalization.
       His education proposals call for a 40 percent increase in 
     federal spending on education by the year 2002. He set out a 
     ten-point plan to renew education at all levels; especially 
     noteworthy for me was his emphasis on teachers. So much of 
     the discussion on reforming education has omitted the key 
     importance of teachers. More controversial was his call for 
     education standards. Most everybody is demanding improvement 
     in the quality of education, recognizing the wide variety in 
     what schools teach and students learn among the states and 
     the counties. Most past efforts to create national education 
     standards have been either ignored or diluted, and the U.S. 
     is one of the few industrialized countries without specific 
     national requirements for what students should know. The 
     challenge here is to help students and teachers to know what 
     to strive for in class without creating more federal 
     intrusion into the schools.
       The most moving portion of the speech came at the end when 
     he called for one America, emphasizing that diversity is our 
     strength, not a weakness, and that we must all be ``repairers 
     of the breach''. Even after a long speech, the audience was 
     clearly moved by the president's conclusions and plea for 
     unity amidst diversity.
       His bluntest statements were in opposition to the balanced 
     budget amendment to the constitution, even as he made a 
     strong plea to balance the budget. He stated that a 
     constitutional amendment would cripple the country in time of 
     crisis and force unwanted results upon the country. I 
     strongly applauded his call for bipartisan campaign finance 
     reform, and I was not surprised to see him make a plea for 
     improving welfare reform. And I liked his challenge to 
     employers to make the new welfare system work by giving 
     someone on welfare the chance to work.
       The most dramatic change in the President's thinking is on 
     health care. He has clearly abandoned his plans for sweeping 
     changes, and is now proposing more incremental steps by 
     extending insurance to at least half of the ten million 
     children in our country who have no health insurance.


                            world leadership

       The President gave major emphasis to keeping American 
     leadership in the world strong. He spoke for some time and in 
     considerable detail about what that means. He wants an 
     undivided democratic Europe and an America that looks to the 
     East no less than the West. He also wants an America that 
     prospers in a global economy, free to conclude new trade 
     agreements that open new markets to our goods and services, 
     even as we preserve our values. He expressed his confidence 
     that with the best workers and the best products, we can out-
     compete anybody in the world in a truly open market. The 
     President made a very strong and direct appeal to Congress to 
     approve the chemical weapons convention, and to support the 
     necessary resources to carry on our diplomacy. He urged 
     Congress to take the steps to keep America strong, secure, 
     and prosperous for another fifty years.


                               conclusion

       I thought the State of the Union address was one of the 
     President's better speeches. It gave a very clear indication 
     of his priorities. The President hit the right themes of 
     improving education and better preparing our nation for the 
     future, but he spent very little time discussing the tough 
     decisions and shared sacrifices that will be needed to tackle 
     the problems of balancing the budget, shoring up Social 
     Security and Medicare, and reforming the campaign finance 
     system.
       The President tried to convey a sense of decisive and 
     coherent action by setting out the agenda for the next four 
     years but without proposing ambitious new federal programs. 
     He was clearly aware throughout the speech of the limits 
     imposed by the fiscal realities. The President still speaks 
     of offering opportunity, demanding responsibility, and 
     preparing us for the 21st century, but his proposals reveal a 
     diminished means for accomplishing those goals.

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