    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [November 27, 1993]
    [Pages 2071-2073]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    November 27, 1993

        Good morning. This week my family celebrated Thanksgiving as most
    American families did. We gathered around a table filled with the bounty
    of our great country, and we thanked the Lord for all we have and all we
    can hope for.
        No holiday tradition is more American than Thanksgiving. Indeed, no
    people have better reasons to give thanks, because no people have been
    more blessed. This holiday also signals the beginning of the end of the
    year, a time that many of us will use to take stock and to reflect. By
    any measure this has been an eventful year for our Nation.
        On the road and in letters from my fellow Americans, I've been
    touched and buoyed by the words of support for the changes we have put
    in place and the progress we've made. It's been a good beginning:
    Inflation is down; interest rates are down to historic lows; the deficit
    is down; investment is up. Many of you listening today are among the
    millions of Americans who've refinanced your homes or your businesses in
    just the last year because of the drop in interest rates. And in the
    last 10 months, the economy has produced more private sector jobs than
    in the previous 4 years. And now that Congress has approved the North
    American

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    Free Trade Agreement and I have gone to Seattle to meet with the leaders
    of all the Asian-Pacific economies, I know we can stimulate our jobs
    machine even more with increased exports.
        There's so much else that we've been able to do to help our workers
    and our families. Congress also passed and I signed into law the family
    and medical leave law. Now workers have a right to take some time off to
    take care of a sick family member or newborn child without losing their
    jobs. It will help to make America a place where you can be a successful
    worker and a successful parent.
        We've also moved to help our students by reforming the college loan
    law so that loans are easier to get, with lower interest rates and
    better repayment terms and stiffer requirements to pay the loan back.
        We signed into law the National Service Act, which 3 years from now
    will allow 100,000 young Americans to earn some money against their
    college education while rebuilding their communities from the grassroots
    up.
        We won passage of our reforms in each House in campaign finance. And
    when the Congress comes back, if the House and Senate can agree, we can
    do a lot more to take special interest politics out of our congressional
    elections and therefore our decisionmaking process.
        We passed an economic program, which will give a real tax break to
    working families with children to try to make sure that everybody who
    works 40 hours a week in this country with a child in the home will be
    lifted well above the poverty line. But there's still a lot to do.
        Under the leadership of the First Lady, we've now got a health
    security proposal. And it's my fond hope that before the end of next
    year, Congress will pass a plan that will give every American
    comprehensive health care that can never be taken away.
        The crime bill has been passed in both Houses. It will put more
    police officers on the street, up to 100,000 of them, build more
    prisons, establish boot camps for young first-time offenders, it will
    ban assault weapons. But we have to resolve those two differences and
    pass that crime bill early next year.
        We're making progress in the fight against crime. Just before the
    Congress left, it adopted legislation requiring a 5-day waiting period
    before anyone can purchase a handgun, so there can be a check for
    someone's age, mental health history, and criminal record. This action
    was a national victory in the fight against crime and violence and a
    very personal victory for Jim and Sarah Brady, a family touched by
    violence who turned tragedy into triumph by fighting for 7 long years to
    pass this important legislation to protect the rest of us from
    individuals who shouldn't be permitted to possess or use handguns. We've
    waited a long time to pass the Brady bill, but it's just the latest
    example of how we brought to Washington the change we promised in the
    last campaign.
        In 10 months we've broken the gridlock. We've won much of what I set
    out to do in my first year. Much of the change that I talked about when
    I ran for President is beginning to be accomplished now. The fact is,
    according to the highly respected Congressional Quarterly, this
    administration, working with both parties, has had more of its major
    legislation adopted in this first year than any other administration in
    the last 40 years.
        Every one of these changes, every step we take, has to be measured
    in a job that a mother or father finds or an opportunity a child gains
    or in better prospects for a business owner or in safer streets and a
    more secure future. Every step forward, if it helps to invigorate our
    economy, our community, our families, is a step worth taking. But
    ultimately these steps will be steady only if we begin together to do
    more to fix America from the inside out.
        We have to be concerned with the number of families that have
    totally broken down, the number of young women giving birth to children
    out of wedlock. It's sweeping the country upward and offward--upward and
    all across racial lines. We have to be concerned that without the
    structure, the discipline, the love of families, too many children face
    a future stripped of hope. Too many kids now live without enough hope or
    enough love or enough discipline.
        We have to be concerned that in both our cities and our rural areas,
    the value of life has been cheapened. Too many children are killing
    children with weapons of destruction that are even more efficient and
    sophisticated than the police, who are supposed to protect the people,
    have.
        For our part, we're working hard to provide economic security,
    health care security, and safety in community and in this way to remove
    some of the stress that hurts our families. We're working hard to open
    opportunities to make the changes sweeping the world friendly to the

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    American working family. It's been said that the family is the test of
    freedom. It tests our freedom and our sense of responsibility. And
    that's the best reason to try to preserve families and to try to
    alleviate some of the terrible, terrible burdens that have aggravated
    the strains on family life for nearly 30 years now.
        So, my fellow Americans, on this most treasured of holiday weekends,
    as we give thanks for what we have, let's remember what so many millions
    of Americans don't have. Let's remember how much both work and family
    mean to civilized life. We can restore and repair the basic fabric of
    our society only if we build up both: work and family. Together, I
    believe we can do that.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 12:15 p.m. on November 24 in the Oval
    Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on November 27.