    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [February 4, 1993]
    [Pages 46-49]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Dinner Honoring the New Jersey Congressional Delegation
    February 4, 1993

        Good evening. Thank you. I know we're not really, but it feels like
    it's nice to be back in New Jersey. And I'm glad to have you here in the
    Nation's Capital. You may or may not be able to see this, but on the way
    in tonight, Bill Faherty gave me a New Jersey tie, which I have proudly
    donned. They even had a mirror outside for me to be able to tie it in a
    straight and appropriate fashion. [Laughter]
        I want to tell you how very glad I am to be here tonight with the
    State chamber, how much I want to welcome you to our Nation's Capital.
    I've just been here as President 2 weeks and a day, and I'm already
    hoping we can keep an infusion of people from the heartland coming in to
    keep us in touch with reality.
        I'm glad to see all the Members of the House here. Senator Bradley
    and Senator Lautenberg are voting tonight as the United States Senate
    attempts to work out the family leave bill. I do want to say a special
    word of appreciation to both of them in front of their constituents for
    not only the support they have given me but for the genuinely good
    advice across a whole wide range of issues. I have the sort of
    relationship with them which I really respect and which I hope the
    Members of Congress here will take to heart. Either one of them is
    liable to call me at any time of the day or night from places unknown.
    Always all right places, but--[laughter]--I mean, when they're around,
    you know. And I'm very, very grateful to both of them not only for their
    support in the recent election but for their involvement in the great
    issues of this time.
        I've been working hard for the last 2 weeks to try to be worthy of
    the trust of the voters of this country who gave me a chance to become
    President, including the people of New Jersey who voted for a Democrat
    for the first time in 28 years. I know you haven't always been able to
    tell it from the news, but I spent virtually all of my time working on
    the economy, the jobs issues, the deficit, meeting in long periods with
    my staff, with people from around the country who know about these
    matters, with Members of the United States Congress, working with people
    in both parties to try to end the gridlock and to reach agreement so
    that we can move forward.
        We've had, as all of you know now, an economic upturn in the last
    few months, and we hope that we are coming out firmly of the longest
    recession we've had in a good long while. There is much to be encouraged
    about in two or three areas. First of all, interest rates have been down
    for a good long while now, and millions of Americans have refinanced
    their homes or been able to buy new homes in ways that have generated
    significant economic activity. Second, and even more encouraging over
    the long run, there has been a big increase in the productivity of
    American businesses and workplaces. That is, after all, the key to our
    economic future. And finally, beginning in December with a little bit in
    November, but a big increase in December in consumer confidence, which
    has strengthened the consumer market in our coun-

    [[Page 47]]

    try, something we hope will carry through for the next few months.
        Still, there are clear challenges before us. With all these good
    numbers coming in, very few new jobs have been created in America yet in
    this recovery. Most big businesses that are doing better are still
    downsizing; it's a part of their productivity. That happened all during
    the 1980's, when in every year of the 1980's the Fortune 500 companies
    reduced employment in total by more than a quarter of a million in the
    United States. But throughout much of the eighties, that reduction was
    more than offset by the creation of jobs in the small business sector.
        In the last couple of years and regrettably even in the last few
    months, small business is not taking up the slack because of the
    crushing burden of health care costs and because of the credit crunch,
    which is much more severe in some States and regions than others but
    which is a very serious problem for our economy.
        We also have a deficit that next year is projected to be $50 billion
    bigger as of December than we were told in August and is growing
    exponentially, even though the Congressmen who are here can tell you
    that they made a good faith effort in 1990 to rein the deficit in with
    spending cuts and tax increases they thought would do it. It didn't
    happen because the taxes didn't bring in as much money as they thought,
    but even more importantly because health care costs have continued
    unabated, rising at breathtaking rates. So that at the end of this
    year--those of you who pay health insurance will know this--but we now,
    alone of all the advanced countries in the world, are spending 14
    percent of our income on health care. No other country except Canada is
    over 9.
        That is a terrific competitive disadvantage. It is costing you a
    great deal of money not only as taxpayers, for what you pay for
    Government health care, but in the private sector. And the hemorrhage is
    such that about 100,000 Americans a month are now losing their health
    insurance, many of them finding their way onto the public rolls and
    leading to explosive increases in the Government's health care burden.
        So as we look ahead to our challenges and as I look ahead to this
    speech I have to give on February 17th to the joint session of Congress,
    I still believe in the fundamental themes on which I ran for President:
    We have to increase job growth and income growth without increasing
    inflation. We have to face the serious problems of our urban areas and
    the serious problems of the underclass in ways that liberate the ability
    of all people to perform at high levels in this economy if we want to
    continue the increase in productivity. That means that we have to shift
    away in the money that you give us to spend, away from consumption, more
    toward investment. We have to increase investment in new technologies
    and education and training, in infrastructure and the things that will
    grow this economy. It also means that we have to provide more incentives
    in our Tax Code for investment in the private sector. And it means we
    have to act at long last to bring health care costs in line with
    inflation. If we did that, it would do more to free up private sector
    dollars to invest in economic growth than any tax cut I could sign into
    law or any spending increase that Congress and I together can enact.
        So we will begin in earnest as soon as this break is over to do
    those things that your National Government has never had to do
    simultaneously before: We will attempt to increase investment and reduce
    the deficit at the same time. It will require an enormous amount of
    discipline and a willingness to try some new things and to cut some
    things in ways that we have not done before.
        I hope you will all wish us well, and I hope you will tell every
    Member of your congressional delegation up here, without regard to
    party, that you know they're going to have to cast some difficult votes
    in order for this country to face its problems, and if they do it in
    good conscience and explain to you why you did it, you will not hold it
    against them. That's what they were hired to do, and you'll stick with
    them if they can do it.
        You know, when I was Governor--and I did that job for a dozen years,
    and I had a good time doing it--there were many times when I had to cut
    spending five or six times in a given year. And people would be a little
    disconcerted at first, but we never got in debt. And I was always proud
    of the fact that my State had such a disciplined system. We paid a
    terrible price for it during the eighties when times were tough. But
    because we rode them out, last year we ranked first or second in job
    growth in virtually every month when I was off running for President,
    not because of anything that happened last year but because of the
    foundations

    [[Page 48]]

    that were laid in investments, in being competitive, and in fiscal
    integrity, in keeping those books balanced. Those are the kind of
    difficult decisions we're going to have to make now.
        Not so long ago, you elected a Governor who had to make some of
    those decisions. And let me say that, again without attempting to be too
    partisan, the truth is that if you live in a State, you don't get to
    print your own money. You can't get in the mess that your National
    Government is in because you can't run that long without having the
    brakes come on, without throwing people through the collective
    windshield that keeps us all in the same boat. And I have to tell you
    that for all the pain that the decisions made by Governor Florio and the
    legislature then caused him and them, the truth is that your house is in
    order now. New Jersey is going to have a balanced budget without a tax
    increase, and you even have a rainy day fund at a time when many States
    are going bankrupt.
        Sooner or later, we all have to face the music. And when we do, we
    are normally rewarded. So New Jersey is being rewarded. Look at your
    credit rating. Look at the overall health of the economy. Look at the
    trends in the State. I hope that together with the Senate and the House,
    with the Republicans and the Democrats in this great Capital of yours,
    we can come to grips with our problems in ways that the American people
    will understand and embrace, perhaps with less political fallout, but I
    hope in the end with the same sort of stability and success that you
    have achieved with Governor Florio. And I hope you're proud of it,
    because I am.
        Let me just mention one other thing. I happened to think of this--it
    really hadn't occurred to me, but I think I ought to mention it. I asked
    Governor Florio, through the Trade Ambassador, Mickey Kantor, to serve
    on our intergovernmental advisory committee, because there's so much
    relationship now between our national trade policies and the policies
    followed at the State and local level for growth. I think he'll do a
    good job on that, but I wanted to emphasize it because a big part of our
    economic strength is in our capacity to export.
        While our administration has found it necessary to take some pretty
    tough positions on trade issues in the last 2 weeks, I want to emphasize
    to you I do not take those positions in the hope of provoking a trade
    war or raising trade barriers in this country but only so that we can
    have expanded trade on fair terms for ourselves and for all nations. We
    cannot grow this economy, and no wealthy nation can grow, unless there
    is global economic growth. And I want to pledge to you that I will do my
    best to help all the world-class companies headquartered in New Jersey
    have an environment in which they can grow and flourish in the
    international economy, with a trade system that is constantly expanding,
    but expanding on terms that are genuinely fair not only to ourselves but
    to our trading partners as well.
        I ask you all without regard to your party to wish us well. And I
    ask you one more time to give the Members of Congress here a pat on the
    back at the end of the dinner tonight. We're going to have a very
    challenging few months ahead of us. But it is an exciting time, and it
    is a fabulous opportunity for us to put our house in order and to deal
    with these problems and to move this country ahead.
        We are now positioned better than we have been in more than a decade
    to reassert the leadership of the United States economically and
    politically in the world in a way that is very positive if we will
    ensure future growth, get job growth along with economic growth, and put
    our financial house in order. I think we can do it if all the American
    people, again without regard to party, agree generally on the goal. We
    will disagree on the details, but in the end we will come to the
    people's business with a resolution. That's what you need, and most
    importantly, it's what your children need. We cannot afford to permit
    the Government to go on out of control, leaving our children with a
    legacy of debt and diminished living standards, when we can do so much
    better now.
        I want to thank you for what you have done, all of you in the
    private sector, to restore America's productivity to the breathtaking
    rates we've seen in this last quarter. We're going to try to give you
    that kind of productivity in your National Government. Thank you very
    much.

    [At this point, the President was presented with a gift.]

        I just want to say, if I ever heard a chamber of commerce speech in
    my life, it was that. He said, ``This is a Parker pen; it's for your
    wife. It's the nicest one they make.'' And then he said, ``And this
    other one's for you.'' [Laughter]

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    [At this point, the President was presented with a second gift.]

        Let me say, I wish she were here to thank her personally. But this
    is a gift for the White House, for the American people. And I hope a lot
    of you from New Jersey will see this when you come in and know that it
    is yours. We'll leave it there for all time from the people of New
    Jersey.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:43 p.m. at the Washington Sheraton Hotel.
    In his remarks, he referred to William H. Faherty, president, New Jersey
    Chamber of Commerce.