    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [May 25, 1993]
    [Pages 731-733]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Older Americans Month Proclamation
    May 25, 1993

        Thank you very much, Senator Pryor and Secretary Shalala. Let me
    also acknowledge in the audience the presence of Senator Bill Cohen from
    Maine, Congressman Marty Martinez, and Congressman William Hughes. We're
    glad to see them. And I also want to pay a special word of respect to my
    good friend, our Vice President's mother, Mrs. Pauline Gore. She's a
    little too young to be here, but I'm glad to see her here anyway.
        You know, Senator Pryor told that story about the 100-year-old man
    who had been against all the changes he'd seen. One of the things I
    think that age does for all of us is it gives us the ability to laugh at
    things that once we would have cried about, something I've needed more
    and more as I've taken this job. [Laughter]
        But David told this story. It reminded me, there's a town in
    Arkansas that has my name, called Clinton, and I was invited there once
    to a nursing home to celebrate the 107th birthday of this lovely woman.
    And I showed up, and she had a beautiful pink dress on. And I said,
    ``Gosh, you're pretty today.'' And she said, ``Don't you go flirting
    with me. I'm not looking for a husband.'' [Laughter] And so I said,
    ``Well, I appreciate that.'' I said, ``You know, I already have one
    wife. Don't you think that's enough?'' And she said, ``I guess so, hard
    as times are.'' [Laughter] Sometimes I think about that.
        This is the 30th anniversary of Older Ameri-

    [[Page 732]]

    cans Month. And I can't think of anybody I'd rather be up here with than
    Secretary Shalala or with Senator Pryor. When I was attorney general and
    David Pryor was Governor, I just reminded him up here, 18 years ago we
    sponsored our State's first conference on long-term care and how to
    provide long-term care for senior citizens. Well, we're still chipping
    away at it, but I just want you to know at least we've got some
    credentials for being in the vineyards.
        We are committed to keeping faith with the senior citizens of this
    country, and we are trying to fulfill that commitment in two very
    important ways that are specific to our senior citizens and one that is
    very important for the responsibility we all seem to feel for the
    future. The first is the White House Conference on Aging to discuss
    providing for older Americans and also for making better use of the time
    and talents of our senior citizens. I feel very strongly that both those
    things are important. Most people I know who are in their later years
    want to be challenged to do more, to bring to bear their energy, their
    experience, their judgment, and their perspective on a lot of the very
    thorny problems and challenges we face today. And I hope our
    administration can do that not only here in Washington but all across
    America.
        I am, in that regard, proud that we have for the first time an
    Assistant Secretary for Aging in the Department of Health and Human
    Services, and I'm proud of Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil who was introduced
    and who received such a warm reception from you.
        The second thing that we hope to do is to deal with some of the
    terrific health care challenges facing our senior citizens while keeping
    faith with the obligations we now have to maintain the integrity of
    Social Security. The fastest growing group of Americans are people over
    80. The largest number of people I met on the campaign trail last year
    with really heartbreaking stories were elderly people just above the
    Medicaid eligibility line who had massive drug bills every month. And
    literally, I met people in State after State after State that made the
    weekly choice between food and medicine because they were just above
    that Medicaid eligibility line and had no way in the wide world to pay
    for medicine that was absolutely necessary to maintain their health.
        So in this health program--I know a lot of you have already heard a
    speech about this from my wife, and she's gotten a whole lot better on
    this subject than I have--but we are committed to a health care plan
    which will provide coverage for all Americans, which will lower the cost
    of health care, which will lower the cost of health care for our country
    in the years ahead--we're already spotting our competitors 35 percent of
    every dollar spent on health care--and which, at the same time, will
    begin to address the problems that I saw out there for a wider range of
    long-term care services and for dealing with the drug problem that our
    elderly people have who are not Medicaid-eligible. These are the things
    that we must have in a comprehensive, long-term care package.
        I also want to say to you that I believe any responsible health care
    plan must encourage and indeed have incentives for health care
    maintenance and for the prevention of bad things happening. With the
    fastest growing group of people being people over 80, with more and more
    senior citizens coming into really dominant positions in our country,
    with the Social Security system starting in a few years to raise the
    retirement eligibility limit by a month a year, as all of you know, as a
    part of the 1983 resolution to resolve the crisis that then existed, it
    is absolutely imperative that we not only think about giving health care
    services but maintaining strong, healthy people. And that has got to be
    a critical part of our health care plan, and I know all of you will be
    out there lobbying for that. We so often strain at a gnat and swallow a
    camel when we don't have enough prevention and maintenance of healthy
    people in our health care plans and even in our own daily habits. And so
    I hope you will all support that.
        The last thing I'd like to say is that it seems to me that those of
    you who represent older Americans are in a unique position, being able
    to have the benefit of memory, to know what is going to happen to us in
    the years ahead if we do not move now and move aggressively to get
    control of this Government deficit, to bring down our interest rates, to
    enable our economy to grow, to give us some more elbow room. Year-in and
    year-out for the last several years, my heart has gone out to Members of
    the Congress in both parties who have struggled to find funds for things
    they think needed to be funded or to just keep things going along as
    they are, as we become more and more consumed by an ever-growing
    deficit, going from $1 trillion to $4 trillion in just 12 years.
        I believe, as all of you now know, that we

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    need to have both spending cuts and tax increases to close this deficit
    and to bring it down. We could all argue until the cows come home about
    whether every last decision has been perfectly right, but it is
    perfectly clear that if you don't do both, you can't get where we're
    going. And it is absolutely imperative that we send a clear signal not
    only to the financial markets but to our children and our grandchildren
    that we are thinking about their future, that we are not going to saddle
    them with so much debt that we won't be able to finance education and
    economic growth and the kinds of things that every generation of
    Americans must be free to spend money on, both private money and public
    funds. If we don't take that opportunity now, we will have squandered
    our responsibilities to those who come behind us.
        You know, I think more about it with each succeeding year that my
    daughter grows older. I think about how it won't be so long before she
    and her generation will be making decisions that now we're wrestling
    over. We owe it to those kids and to the ones who will follow behind
    them to provide the freedom of movement that any great society needs to
    reach the challenges of that time. We today, and this Congress, every
    Member will tell you, those people who occupy Washington today are
    hamstrung by a lack of freedom of movement because we have permitted
    paralysis to drive this deficit up, because we have refused to deal with
    the health care crisis, we have refused to deal with automatic
    explosions and things that we could have dealt with. And the time has
    come to face it and face it squarely. And I hope and pray, for the sake
    of our children and grandchildren, we are about to do just that in the
    next few days in the United States of America.
        I want to say one thing finally. On the tax side of this plan, 74
    percent of the burden falls on the top 6 percent of income earners in
    America, and a lot of the rest falls on the top 20 percent of Social
    Security recipients whom we have asked to subject more of their income
    to taxation so as to avoid reducing cost of living allowances to all the
    Social Security recipients in the land who need that.
        One of the things I think we have not said enough, and I believe
    most people in the Congress would admit this: We have heard very little
    opposition from upper income Americans to paying their fair share of
    taxes as long as they believe we're going to cut spending, bring the
    deficit down, and provide for the basic needs of this country. And to
    me, that's been one of the most rewarding things out there. A lot of the
    opposition is coming from middle class people who think they're going to
    pay a lot more than they are. But the people who are really going to pay
    and who know it, by and large, have been immensely patriotic in this
    last 2- or 3-month period, knowing that they have to make a contribution
    to securing the future.
        All of you here who represent the elderly people of our country, you
    can reach out and embrace this effort in a way that no other generation
    of Americans can. This is a difficult time for the Congress, a difficult
    time for the country. The worst thing we can do is to walk away and do
    nothing and continue the perilous paralysis of the last few years. So I
    implore you to shoulder this. Think of our kids and grandkids. Let's
    move this country forward in a bipartisan and open manner.
        Thank you. God bless you. And let's get on with the signing.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:30 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. The proclamation is listed in Appendix D at the end of this
    volume.