    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [February 6, 1993]
    [Pages 60-61]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    February 6, 1993

        Good morning. This is Bill Clinton. And this morning, on my first
    radio address, I want to talk with you about the most important
    challenge facing our country and the challenge that has consumed almost
    all my time since I became your President on January 20th: how we can
    build a strong and growing economy for ourselves and for our children.
        Lately we've had some good news about our economy. Our business
    productivity is up. Our people are producing more at lower cost. And
    lower interest rates are giving people the opportunity to refinance
    their home mortgages and to show more activity in the housing market.
    Now that change is in the air, people have more hope. Consumer
    confidence is up, and the financial markets are performing well. And all
    of that is good news for the economy.
        But chances are, you're not satisfied. And neither am I, because our
    economy isn't numbers, it's people and how their lives are affected. And
    still today, all across America, more than 16 million of us are looking
    for full-time jobs and can't find them. Our unemployment rate, at 7.1
    percent, is over 7 percent for 14 months now and still higher than it
    was at what we thought was the bottom of the recession. Our country is
    simply not producing enough new jobs, even in the recovery. And we're
    having a harder time hanging on to the good jobs that give people a good
    standard of living and give their children a good future. Too many
    people are working longer and harder just to stay even, living in fear
    that their families will be devastated by a serious illness. And too
    many parents are wondering if their children will live as well as they
    have or even if they'll be able to afford a college education.
        As I traveled across our country last year, I spoke with many
    thousands of you about my ideas for creating new jobs and increasing our
    families' incomes. Now, in my first weeks as President, I've learned, as
    you have, that the economic situation has some greater problems than we
    thought. Shortly after the election, the Federal Government announced
    that the proposed deficit for next year and the year after that and the
    year after that was about $50 billion more than we'd been told last
    August. The difference between what the Government spends and what the
    Government takes in is much larger than we had thought before and poses
    new challenges for our administration.
        For the past 12 years, our leaders haven't completely leveled with
    us. They loved to tell us how much they cared about us and how much they
    hated big Government. But Government kept spending more money, and the
    deficit kept growing. And even worse, all the time Government took care
    of a privileged elite while our country's real problems kept worsening.
        So today we have to do something no generation has ever had to do
    before. We have to build a high-growth, high-skilled, high-wage

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    economy by investing in the health, the education, the job training, and
    the technologies of our people and their future. And at the same time,
    we have to cut that enormous Federal deficit before it chokes off our
    ability to invest in our future and undermines your living standards and
    those of your children. When the Government keeps borrowing more and
    more money, it becomes more difficult for business and Government and
    for our own families to make the investments we all need. Today the
    government is spending about a $1.20 for every $1.00 it takes in taxes.
    We've got to act and act now. There is simply no alternative.
        In the days ahead, I'll be discussing with you in greater detail my
    plan to put our economy back on track. But this morning I just want to
    tell you about my guiding principles. They are the same ones that got me
    into this campaign well over a year ago, that kept me going all through
    the year 1992, and that I carry with me to work every morning in the
    Oval Office.
        We have to ask everyone to contribute something to get the job done.
    But we're going to ask the most from those who have got the most and
    gave the least during the past dozen years, those at the top of the
    ladder. And we're going to do everything we can to protect people who
    are suffering the most from declining incomes and vanishing jobs, the
    middle class and the working poor.
        First, we've got to control the cost of Government, starting with my
    own people. I'll be making big cuts in the White House staff, cutting
    payrolls and perks and privileges. I want to set an example so that I
    can take the fight to the rest of the Government to eliminate
    unnecessary commissions, to reduce the Federal payroll, to get rid of
    needless luxuries like posh dining rooms. And we're going to take on the
    lobbyists for the special interests that have grown used to getting
    special favors from our Government.
        Then we'll ask the people who have benefited most from the eighties
    to give something back to their country. While most Americans paid
    higher taxes on lower real incomes, the privileged few paid lower taxes
    on much higher real incomes. We're going to ask them now to pay their
    fair share, along with corporations whose tax burden has been
    dramatically reduced in the last 12 years. I'm going to cut the cost of
    our Government and get rid of windfalls for the wealthy before I ask any
    of the rest of the American people to make a contribution that is fair
    and essential to grow our economy.
        I'd ask you to remember that we didn't get into this mess overnight.
    In the last 12 years, our debt has grown to 4 times what it was before.
    We're now spending 14 cents of every tax dollar paying interest on past
    debt, almost as much as we're spending on our social services and our
    defense budget. We can't get out of this overnight, but we have to make
    a beginning.
        Together we can return to the time-honored American values of
    rewarding work, offering opportunity, demanding responsibility, and
    providing for our future as a community. We're all in this together.
    We're going up or down together. I'm convinced we're going up, if we
    have the courage to invest, if we have the courage to reduce our
    deficit, and if we have the courage to do it in a fair way.
        Thank you, and good morning.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the White
    House.