[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 12 (Thursday, February 10, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H331-H333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES--MESSAGE FROM THE 
                     PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message 
from the President of the United States; which was read and, without 
objection, referred to the Joint Economic Committee:
To the Congress of the United States:
  Today, the American economy is stronger than ever. We are on the 
brink of marking the longest economic expansion in our Nation's 
history. More than 20 million new jobs have been created since Vice 
President Gore and I took office in January 1993. We now have the 
lowest unemployment rate in 30 years--even as core inflation has 
reached its lowest level since 1965.
  This expansion has been both deep and broad, reaching Americans of 
all races, ethnicities, and income levels. African American 
unemployment and poverty are at their lowest levels on record. Hispanic 
unemployment is likewise the lowest on record, and poverty among 
Hispanics is at its lowest level since 1979. A long-running trend of 
rising income inequality has been halted in the last 7 years. From 1993 
to 1998, families at the bottom of the income distribution have enjoyed 
the same strong income growth as workers at the top.
  In 1999 we had the largest dollar surplus in the Federal budget on 
record and the largest in proportion to our economy since 1951. We are 
on course to achieve more budget surpluses for many years to come. We 
have used this unique opportunity to make the right choices for the 
future: over the past 2 years, America has paid down $140 billion in 
debt held by the public. With my plan to continue to pay down the debt, 
we are now on track to eliminate the Nation's publicly held debt by 
2013. Our fiscal discipline has paid off in lower interest rates, 
higher private investment, and stronger productivity growth.
  These economic successes have not been achieved by accident. They 
rest on the three pillars of the economic strategy that the Vice 
President and I laid out when we took office: fiscal discipline to help 
reduce interest rates and spur business investment; investing in 
education, health care, and science and technology to meet the 
challenges of the 21st century; and opening foreign markets so that 
American workers have a fair chance to compete abroad. As a result, the 
American economy is not only strong today; it is well positioned to 
continue to expand and to widen the circle of opportunity for more 
Americans.


                 the administration's economic strategy

  Our economic strategy was based on a commitment, first, to fiscal 
discipline. When the Vice President and I took office, the U.S. 
Government had a budget deficit of $290 billion. Today we have a 
surplus of $124 billion. This fiscal discipline has helped us launch a 
virtuous circle of strong investment, increasing productivity, low 
inflation, and low unemployment.

  Second, we have remained true to our commitment to invest in our 
people. Because success in the global economy depends more than ever on 
highly skilled workers, we have taken concerted steps to make sure all 
Americans have the education, skills, and opportunities they need to 
succeed. That is why, even as we maintained fiscal responsibility, we 
expanded our investments in education, technology, and training. We 
have opened the doors of college to all Americans, with tax credits, 
more affordable student loans, education IRAs, and the HOPE Scholarship 
tax credits. So that working families will have the means to support 
themselves, we have increased the minimum wage, expanded the Earned 
Income Tax Credit (EITC), provided access to health insurance for 
people with disabilities, and invested in making health insurance 
coverage available to millions of children.
  Third, we have continued to pursue a policy of opening markets. We 
have achieved historic trade pacts such as the North American Free 
Trade Agreement and the Uruguay Round agreements, which led to the 
creation of the

[[Page H332]]

World Trade Organization. Negotiations in the wake of the Uruguay Round 
have yielded market access commitments covering information technology, 
basic telecommunications, and financial services. We have engaged in 
bilateral initiatives with Japan and in regional initiatives in Europe, 
Africa, Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and the Middle East. We have also 
actively protected our rights under existing trade agreements through 
the World Trade Organization and helped maintain the Internet as a tax-
free zone.


                  meeting the challenges of the future

  Despite the economy's extraordinary performance, we must continue 
working to meet the challenges of the future. Those challenges include 
educating our children, improving the health and well-being of all our 
citizens, providing for our senior citizens, and extending the benefits 
of the economic expansion to all communities and all parts of this 
Nation.
  We must help our children prepare for life in a global, information-
driven economy. Success in this new environment requires that children 
have a high-quality education. That means safe, modern schools. It 
means making sure our children have well-trained teachers who demand 
high standards. It means making sure all schools are equipped with the 
best new technologies, so that children can harness the tools of the 
21st century.
  First and foremost, our children cannot continue trying to learn in 
schools that are so old they are falling apart. One-third of all public 
schools need extensive repair or replacement. By 2003 we will need an 
additional 2,400 schools nationwide to accommodate these rising 
enrollments. That is why, in my State of the Union address, I proposed 
$24.8 billion in tax credit bonds over 2 years to modernize up to 6,000 
schools, and a $1.3 billion school emergency loan and grant proposal to 
help renovate schools in high-poverity, high-need school districts.

  Second, if our children are to succeed in the new digital economy, 
they must know how to use the tools of the 21st century. That is why 
the Vice President and I have fought for initiatives like the E-rate, 
which is providing $2 billion a year to help schools afford to network 
their classrooms and connect to the Internet. The E-rate and our other 
initiatives in education technology have gone a long way toward giving 
all children access to technology in their schools. But there is still 
a great ``digital divide'' when children go home. Children from wealthy 
families are far more likely to have access to a computer at home than 
children from poor or minority families. That is why, in my budget, I 
propose a new Digital Divide initiative that will expand support for 
community technology centers in low-income communities; a pilot project 
to expand home access to computers and the Internet for low-income 
families; and grants and loan guarantees to accelerate the deployment 
of high-speed networks in underserved rural and urban communities.
  Third, we must continue to make college affordable and accessible for 
all Americans. I have proposed a college opportunity tax cut, which 
would invest $30 billion over 10 years in helping millions of families 
who now struggle to afford college for their children. When fully 
phased in, this initiative would give families the option to claim a 
tax deduction or a tax credit on up to $10,000 of tuition and fees for 
any postsecondary education in which their members enroll, whether 
college, graduate study, or training courses. I have proposed increases 
in Pell grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and Work 
Study. I have also proposed creating new College Completion Challenge 
Grants to encourage students to stay in college.
  We have seen dramatic advances in health care over the course of the 
20th century, which have led to an inrease in life expectancy of almost 
30 years. But much remains to be done to ensure that all have and 
maintain access to quality medical care. That is why my budget expands 
health care coverage, calls for passing a strong and enforceable 
Patients' Bill of Rights, strengthens and modernizes Medicare, 
addresses long-term care, and continues to promote life-saving 
research.
  My budget invests over $110 billion over 10 years to improve the 
affordablility accessibility, and quality of health insurance. It will 
provide a new, affordable health insurance option for uninsured parents 
as well as accelerate enrollment of uninsured children who are eligible 
for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The 
initiative will expand health insurance options for Americans facing 
unique barriers to coverage. For example, it will allow certain people 
aged 55-65 to buy into Medicare, and it will give tax credits to 
workers who cannot afford the full costs of COBRA coverage after 
leaving a job. Finally, my initiative will provide funds to strengthen 
the public hospitals and clinics that provide health care directly to 
the uninsured. If enacted, this would be the largest investment in 
health coverage since Medicare was created in 1965, and one of the most 
significant steps we can take to help working families.

  As our Nation ages and we live longer, we face new challenges in 
Medicare and long-term care. Despite improvements in Medicare in the 
past 7 years, the program begins this century with the disadvantages of 
insufficient funding, inadequate benefits, and outdated payment 
systems. To strengthen and modernize the program, I have proposed a 
comprehensive reform plan that would make Medicare more competitive and 
efficient and invest $400 billion over the next 10 years in extending 
solvency through 2025 and adding a long-overdue, voluntary prescription 
drug benefit.
  The aging of America also underscores the need to build systems to 
provide long-term care. More than 5 million Americans require long-term 
care because of significant limitations due to illness or disability. 
About two-thirds of them are older Americans. That is why I have 
proposed a $27 billion investment over 10 years in long-term care. Its 
centerpiece is a $3,000 tax credit to defray the cost of long-term 
care. In addition, I propose to expand access to home-based care, to 
establish new support networks for caregivers, and to promote quality 
private long-term care insurance by offering it to Federal employees at 
group rates.
  We must continue to make this economic expansion reach out to every 
corner of our country, leaving no town, city, or Native American 
reservation behind. That is why I am asking the Congress to authorize 
two additional components of our New Markets agenda. The first is the 
New Markets Venture Capital Firms program, geared toward helping small 
and first-time businesses. The second is America's Private Investment 
Companies, modeled on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to 
help larger businesses expand or relocate to distressed inner-city and 
rural areas. Overall the New Markets initiative could spur $22 billion 
of new equity investment in our underserved communities.
  I am also proposing a new initiative called First Accounts, to expand 
access to financial services for low- and moderate-income Americans. We 
will work with private financial institutions to encourage the creation 
of low-cost bank accounts for low-income families. We will help bring 
more automated teller machines to safe places in low-income 
communities, such as the post office. And we will educate Americans 
about managing household finances and building assets over time.
  To further increase opportunities for working families, I am 
proposing another expansion of the EITC to provide tax relief for 6.4 
million hard-pressed families--with additional benefits for families 
with three or more children. We have seen the dramatic effects that our 
1993 expansion of the EITC had in reducing poverty and encouraging 
work: 4.3 million people were directly lifted out of poverty by the 
EITC in 1998 alone. More single mothers are working than ever before, 
and the child poverty rate is at its lowest since 1980.

  Our initiatives to open overseas markets will continue. We have 
successfully concluded bilateral negotiations on China's accession to 
the World Trade Organization and now seek congressional action to 
provide China with permanent normal trade relations. The United States 
will also work to give the least developed countries greater access to 
global markets. We will participate in the scheduled multilateral talks 
to liberalize trade in services and agriculture and will continue to 
press our trading partners to launch a new round of negotiations within 
the World Trade Organization.

[[Page H333]]

  We have a historic opportunity to answer the challenges ahead: to 
increase economic opportunity for all American families; to provide 
quality, affordable child care, health care, and long-term care; and to 
give our children the best education in the world. Working together, we 
can meet these great challenges and make this new millennium one of 
ever-increasing promise, hope, and opportunity for all Americans.
                                                  William J. Clinton.  
  The White House, February 10, 2000.

{time}  1700

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