    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 28, 1993]
    [Pages 1400-1401]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    August 28, 1993

        Good morning. Thirty years ago today a great American spoke about
    his dream for equality, brotherhood, and the need to make real the
    promises of democracy. His voice thundered from the steps of the Lincoln
    Memorial, across the great Mall in Washington, and into our homes, our
    heart, and our history. That man, of course, was the Reverend Martin
    Luther King, Jr.
        He lived and died in a great struggle to close the gap between our
    words and our deeds, to make good on good intentions, to see that none
    of us can be fully free until all of us are fully free, to make us all
    agents of change.
        In the 30 years since Martin Luther King gave what I believe is the
    greatest speech by an American in my lifetime, we've come a long way.
    But clearly, we've got a long way to go before realizing his dreams. We
    owe it to him, to his work, to his memory to rededicate ourselves today
    to the causes of civil rights, civic responsibility, and economic
    opportunity for every American. In the last 7 months, we've made some
    great strides on that road.
        To begin to turn good words into better deeds, we first had to get
    our economic house in order. That's what we did by breaking gridlock and
    passing a tough economic program to cut our deficit by nearly $500
    billion over 5 years, to give new incentives to businesses to expand, to
    individuals to invest, and to create millions of new high-wage jobs here
    at home.
        Already we've felt some of the good side effects of getting serious
    about our economy. Unemployment has dipped to its lowest level in 22
    months, and interest rates are at their lowest rates in 20 years. We've
    also won some important battles for working families. The Family Leave
    Act now permits people to take some time off from work to care for a
    sick family member or a newborn child without losing their job. And
    changes in the tax laws now provide that no one who works 40 hours a
    week with children in the home will live in poverty. That's a big first
    step in welfare reform and in ending welfare as we know it. It's pro-
    work and pro-family.
        We're moving to open the doors of college education to all Americans
    at a time when education is more important than ever to getting

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    good jobs. We've reorganized the student loan program so that there will
    be lower interest rates, and repayments will be tied to income and,
    therefore, easier to make. We're on the verge of passing the national
    service program to give our young people the chance to use their
    energies and talents to rebuild our communities and, at the same time,
    to help pay for their college educations.
        We've been moving on a massive program of defense conversion to help
    defense workers, military personnel, and communities who won the cold
    war build a brighter future even in the face of defense reductions. And
    because we want America to be a safer place, I've sent to Congress a
    crime bill that, among other things, will put tens of thousands more
    police officers on the streets and will pass the Brady bill to provide
    for a waiting period before handguns can be bought.
        We're moving to change politics as usual. The Senate has passed a
    campaign finance reform bill that gives less influence to political
    action committees and opens the doors of communication to all
    candidates. And they've passed a lobby reform bill to reduce the
    influence of lobbyists. Now we have to get the House to pass these
    bills, too.
        So in the quiet of this August day, as we reflect on what's happened
    over the last several months, we can say that together we've made a good
    beginning, but the job has just begun. There are still great challenges
    out there for Americans. There aren't enough jobs, incomes are too
    stagnant, and there is too much insecurity for too many families.
        Our biggest challenge is to reform health care. It's the main reason
    millions of people can't get pay raises. It's the chief cause of
    insecurity for millions of families. It's the biggest culprit in the
    Federal deficit. And it's a threat to America's business growth because
    we're spending over 14 percent of our income on health care. Our
    competitors, the Germans and the Japanese, are spending just over 8
    percent of their income on health care, and they have every bit as good
    a health care system, in most ways, as we do.
        Soon the First Lady's task force will make its recommendations on
    what we need to do to ensure that every American has access to good,
    affordable health care, a plan that keeps what's good about our health
    care system--our doctors, our nurses, our health care providers, our
    medical research, our great technology--but a plan that changes what's
    wrong: an increasingly expensive and unjustifiable system of finance,
    one that's too bureaucratic, one that has runaway costs.
        Another urgent task for our country is to pass the North American
    Free Trade Agreement. Last year I told the American people this
    agreement with Mexico and Canada could mean more jobs for Americans if
    it could be strengthened to ensure that our jobs would not be lost
    because of low environmental standards or depressed wages in Mexico.
    Today I can tell you we've won unprecedented provisions in this
    agreement that will help to guarantee that it will benefit all
    Americans. When it's in place, we'll open up a whole new world of job
    opportunity for Americans here at home by trading more with Mexico and
    ultimately with the rest of Latin America, the second fastest growing
    area in the world.
        We're also dedicated to fixing our own Government, to reducing
    unnecessary bureaucracy, eliminating waste, increasing the quality of
    service, and giving you more value for your dollar. We haven't
    reexamined the way our Government works or doesn't work for a very long
    time. But for the last several months, Vice President Gore has been
    studying the problem with the best experts in the country, and early
    next month we'll have his recommendations on how our Government can
    serve you better and save you money. Quite simply, we've still got a lot
    to do in a town where change is hard and words too often substitute for
    real action. Congress, however, has already spent about 40 percent more
    time on the job than it did last year.
        Many people say I'm pushing too hard for change. Well, 30 years ago
    today Martin Luther King said, ``This is no time to engage in the luxury
    of cooling off or the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time
    to make real the promises of democracy.'' As our children go back to
    school and, after a great family vacation, I go back to work, I have
    faith that together we can do just that, make real the promises of
    democracy for all Americans.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 9:45 a.m. on August 27 at a private
    residence on Martha's Vineyard, MA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    August 28.