    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [July 22, 1993]
    [Pages 1163-1164]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the American Legion Girls Nation
    July 22, 1993

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please be seated.
    It's wonderful to have you in the Rose Garden today. As I think all of
    you probably know, I, myself, owe a great deal to the American Legion
    for sponsoring this wonderful program that teaches our young people so
    much about our country and the responsibilities of citizenship. Boys
    Nation made a major impact on my life and very much inspired the career
    that I subsequently pursued in public service. Like many of you, I was
    just a high school student from a fairly small town--I had never been to
    Washington before, and I never knew whether I'd ever get to come--when I
    stood here, right over there in that corner 30 years ago this week and
    had the opportunity to hear President Kennedy speak.
        I was reviewing an article in a paper from that week before I came
    out here to speak with you, and I noted that when President Kennedy
    spoke to our group, he actually got into some hot water by saying that
    our group, in adopting a civil rights resolution in the early sixties,
    had acted more responsibly than the Nation's Governors who were meeting
    at the same time. He said we had shown more initiative than the
    Governors. Well, we loved it, but somehow the Governors didn't.
        And so I would say to you, I don't want to make any other group mad,
    but I hope you today will leave here with a real sense of initiative.
    It's very important not only that we have convictions and feelings and
    concerns but that we act on them. Every program that I have pursued,
    every challenge I have laid down has been animated by a desire to get
    the American people to assume more responsibility for themselves and
    their neighbors, to offer more opportunity to all people, and to rebuild
    a sense of community, a sense that we are all in this together, that we
    share a common destiny, and that we will be more likely to achieve our
    individual capacities if we work together.
        With the help of young people all across the country, we were able
    to pass and we had a wonderful signing ceremony on the motor voter bill,
    which many of you will be familiar with, which makes it much easier for
    people to register and vote. Together with other groups of young people,
    again from all over America, we are on the verge of passing an historic
    bill for national service that will make it possible for millions of
    young people to get much lower interest college loans and pay them back
    on more favorable terms and, over the next few years, for hundreds of
    thousands of them to work off a portion of their loans by giving some
    service to their community, either before, during, or after college.
    This will help to build America by strengthening the bonds of community,
    offering people the chance to take more responsibility for their own
    lives, and really creating opportunity that wasn't there before.
        We're also trying to improve your future by cutting the Federal
    deficit by $500 billion over the next 5 years. In 1980, the entire debt
    of our country amassed since George Washington became President was $1
    trillion. From 1980 to 1992, that debt grew to about $4 trillion,
    quadrupling in only 12 years. Now, when a problem like this gets that
    severe, you can't solve it all at once. The spending cuts and tax
    increases it would take just to do away with the deficit in 4 years
    would be so severe as to undermine our economic recovery. But we're in a
    box. If we don't move on the deficit now, we can't have any economic
    recovery, either. And because of the progress which has been made,
    interest rates are coming down, and we're moving forward.
        You should know that you're not only moving into a time when the
    global economy offers you unparalleled, exciting opportunities but where
    it also presents some mysteries to us that no one quite understands. For
    example, almost all of the wealthy countries are having difficulty

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    creating new jobs, even when their economy is growing and certainly when
    the economy is not. And so this economic program that I have offered not
    only seeks to reduce the deficit by cutting spending and raising taxes,
    70 percent of which will fall on people with incomes above $200,000, it
    also seeks to help people to create jobs. Ninety percent of the small
    businesses in America will be eligible for a tax cut in this plan if
    they invest more money in their businesses to create jobs--new
    opportunities for people to avoid higher income taxes, but only if they
    invest in companies that will create jobs. We have got to find a way to
    make sure that if all of you go to college and all your classmates go to
    college and everybody plays by the rules, there will be something for
    them to do when the effort is over.
        Thirty years ago, when the delegates from Girls Nation came to the
    White House in the same summer that I was here, my next-door neighbor
    represented our State at Girls Nation. It was a great thrill for me, and
    she's still one of my closest friends. Just last week when I went home,
    she got some of our high school friends together, and they and all their
    children, there must have been 30 of us in her home having dinner
    together. And when she was here where you are, President Kennedy told
    the young women there assembled that it might be possible for one of
    them to become President, but it was not likely. And almost as a
    consolation prize, he said, ``At least I'm sure I'm talking to a future
    First Lady.'' Well, today a lot of things have changed. First of all, I
    think that it is a very honorable thing to be the First Lady. Some day
    there will be a First Man. And I think it is not unlikely that 30 years
    from now the delegates from Girls Nation may well be in the Rose Garden
    being addressed by a woman President who is in this crowd today.
        Again, let me wish you well, and thank you for coming here. Let me
    tell you that the 30 years that have passed since I sat where you are
    today have passed in the flash of an eye, that I hope for all of you a
    rich and full life, and I would encourage you to focus on the point I
    made earlier: You came here to learn about your country, your history,
    your opportunities, and your responsibilities as citizens. None of it
    matters very much unless you not only think and feel but also act.
        Good luck, and God bless you.
        Let me also say, I'm going to embarrass somebody who's here maybe a
    little bit. There are other things in life after a Girls Nation or Boys
    Nation than being President. I just learned that my military aide came
    to Girls Nation. Raise your hand. This is Major Michelle Johnson, the
    United States Air Force. She is from Iowa, graduate of the Air Force
    Academy, Rhodes scholar, terrific athlete. I told her someday I was sure
    I'd be saluting her and calling her General. So that also is something
    that you might do with your life that you couldn't have done perhaps a
    few years ago.
        I'd like to now ask Joann Cronin to come up and take over the
    program.

    [At this point, the President was presented with gifts, including bills
    and resolutions passed by Girls Nation.]

        I saw the first resolution was the sex education one. That's one I
    said I was for. You may know that tomorrow the hearing begins on the
    appointment I made of an African-American doctor, the director of the
    department of health in my home State, to be the Surgeon General of the
    United States. And we caused a lot of controversy because we tried to
    promote comprehensive family education, parenting education, and we did
    our best to reduce the scourge of teenage pregnancy in our State, not by
    denying it but by embracing the challenge. And I appreciate the
    resolution that you sent. I will also review the other resolutions.
        On Saturday--you mentioned 30 years from now--Saturday your
    counterparts from Boys Nation will be here, and we're going to have a
    30-year reunion of my class Saturday at noon when they're here. So I'm
    looking forward to it. One of the things that happens when you run for
    President is that the people you haven't seen in a long time show up,
    and that's mostly good. So I'm looking forward to it.
        Now are we going to take a picture? Is that the way we're going to
    do it? And then aren't we going to take a group photo also? Okay, great.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:47 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Joann Cronin, national Girls State
    director.