[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.