    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [May 22, 1993]
    [Pages 718-719]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 22, 1993

        Good morning. For the first time in more than a decade, Washington
    is changing, and we've begun to break the logjam that has kept our
    economy from growing. We're moving away from trickle-down special
    interests, anti-middle-class policies, toward fairness and opportunity
    for all Americans.
        Congress is moving our economic plan, which makes real record cuts
    in the deficit. After a decade of neglect and decline, it also makes
    carefully targeted investments to create high-skill, high-wage jobs
    again and to better educate and train our people to fill those jobs so
    that we can restore our economy now and leave a prosperous America for
    our children. Our plan challenges the status quo, and this is always
    hard to do in Washington, especially when there are tough choices
    involved.
        For starters, we take on Government spending, beginning with a cut
    in the White House staff of 25 percent, a freeze in Federal pay, a
    reduction of 150,000 in the size of the Federal work force, and cuts in
    more than 200 specific spending programs, including huge entitlement
    programs affecting almost every special interest group. These are tough
    decisions, but they're the right thing to do because they move America
    forward.
        The plan also raises taxes to bring the deficit down. Seventy-four
    percent of the new revenue comes from people with incomes over $100,000,
    just 6 percent of the American people, who got most of the tax cuts in
    the 1980's. The rest comes from the middle class in the form of an
    energy tax which will help to clean up our environment. What will it
    cost you? If your income is between $30,000 and $100,000, the energy tax
    will cost you $1 a month next year, $7 a month the year after, and
    between $14 and $17 a month, depending on how many kids you have, in the
    years after that. All the money, the cuts, and the taxes will go into a
    deficit reduction trust fund. There will be no taxes without the cuts.
        Is it worth it? You be the judge. Millions of Americans have already
    refinanced their home mortgages and business loans. Lower interest rates
    on car loans and student loans are also coming, because the interest
    rates are down following our clear determination to reduce the deficit.
    If you're one of the Americans who has already refinanced a home loan or
    a business

    [[Page 719]]

    loan, if you're getting lower car loans or student loans, the chances
    are that this year you will save more than you will pay in 4 years under
    the economic program in the energy tax.
        For example, if you have a $100,000 mortgage on your home at 10
    percent, due to lower interest rates we're experiencing that mortgage
    can be refinanced at about 7.5 percent. What does that mean for you? It
    means $175 a month or $2,100 a year that you save in interest payments,
    $2,100 a year in interest savings on home loans alone, just because the
    interest rates have gone down since we've been working to bring the
    deficit down.
        All told, experts estimate that if we can maintain these lower
    rates, we can pump another $100 billion into our economy. That means
    more jobs for Americans, $100 billion more spent on our families,
    spurring investment, raising incomes. It all creates jobs. That's a
    definition of a plan that will work.
        When you put that with all the incentives we've given to lower taxes
    for families with incomes under $30,000, increases in small business
    expensing provisions, investment incentives for bigger businesses, real
    incentives for people who invest in new businesses, this means more
    jobs.
        The plan is also fair because it asks contributions from everyone
    while asking the most from people who have the most and who have
    benefited the most from trickle-down policies. It cuts Medicare costs
    and some retirement benefits. It does include the energy tax. But it
    requires the wealthy to pay their fair share and the lion's share of the
    load.
        When I presented the plan to Congress I said then that if the
    interest groups picked the plan apart the whole principle of shared
    contribution could be lost. Now, just days before the plan will be voted
    on by Congress, the opponents and the special interests are trying to
    get their way. Some of my opponents want to cut Social Security and tax
    credits to working families with incomes of under $30,000 just to get a
    tax cut for the rich. The big oil lobby is trying to wiggle out of its
    contribution to deficit reduction and force senior citizens barely above
    the poverty line to get lower Social Security benefits and senior
    citizens who are better off, who are already being asked to pay taxes on
    more of their income, to pay for a second time.
        It's simply wrong for a powerful interest to try and opt out of this
    program by asking the elderly and the working poor to contribute more so
    they can contribute less. Making middle America pay more may be business
    as usual in Washington but to the rest of the Nation it must be unjust,
    unfair, and unacceptable.
        I regret that otherwise good and responsible legislators would even
    consider this proposal, but I will fight it. The principles of fairness
    in reducing the deficit, the principle of resisting special interests
    and having uniform contributions from all, these must be protected to
    make this plan work.
        And if we don't pass the package, what will happen? If we don't
    continue to cut the deficit, our new and carefully won credibility will
    crumble as a nation and interest rates will start to rise again,
    squeezing out the investments we need to make to grow new jobs. And if
    interest rates take off again, it will further increase the deficit,
    ultimately consuming not only ours but our children's standard of
    living.
        We can't let this happen. We can't. We have to instead bring the
    deficit down, keep the interest rates down, make available some funds to
    invest in new technologies and in helping communities and companies and
    individuals hurt by defense cuts, doing those things to create jobs and
    make us competitive.
        That's why I need you to raise your voices. Ask Congress to turn
    down the special interests and to preserve this program that asks fair
    contributions from everyone so that we can reduce the deficit and create
    more jobs and provide benefits to everyone.
        Together we can all win. In just a few months, working together,
    we've tackled tough problems with new ideas. And we're stronger for it.
    Congress has passed laws from family leave to motor voter, long stalled
    by gridlock, proposals from welfare reform to national service to pay
    for college education to putting more police on our streets or on deck.
    But we have to get this economy moving.
        The spirit of new hope I believe will prevail. Staying together we
    can make it work until there is a permanent rebirth of hope in every
    household across this great Nation. I need your help and so does
    America.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The address was recorded at 1 p.m. on May 21 in the Oval Office at
    the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 22.