    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [September 4, 1993]
    [Pages 1439-1440]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1439]]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 4, 1993

        Good morning. On this Labor Day weekend, we honor the working men
    and women who are the strength and the soul of America. For people who
    work hard all year, this weekend offers the opportunity to relax with
    our families at a picnic, a barbecue, a beach, or just in our own homes.
    In the calm and the quiet of these last days of summer, there will be a
    moment when most of us think about our families and our future. Maybe it
    will come during a walk on the beach, a stroll through a park, or when
    we watch a son or a daughter take a swing at a softball or build a
    castle in the sand.
        We'll think of the faith of our parents that was instilled in us
    here in America, the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules,
    you'll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for
    your children. Filled with that faith, generations of Americans have
    worked long hours on their jobs and passed along powerful dreams to
    their sons and daughters. Many of us can remember our own parents
    working long hours on their jobs and then coming home and helping us
    with our homework. The American dream has always been a better life for
    people who are willing to work for it.
        In 7 months as your President, I've been deeply inspired by the
    people I've met who are working hard and studying hard, building their
    futures in a time of turbulence and change. I'll never forget a woman I
    met from Detroit who had to support her children after her husband died.
    Determined not to be on welfare, she enrolled in a 6-year advanced
    training program and found a job as a machinist. I'll never forget the
    men and women I met at Van Nuys Community College in California, people
    who had lost their jobs as aerospace workers and auto workers and were
    learning new skills from film production to computer science. And just
    yesterday in Delaware, I spoke with young people who are combining their
    high school education with specialized job training for highly skilled
    jobs in the aviation industry. Young and old, these people are the
    heroes we honor on Labor Day, people who take personal responsibility
    for making their lives better and making our Nation stronger.
        Every morning when I go to work in the Oval Office, I think about
    how we can offer our hard-working Americans the opportunities they
    deserve, opportunities too many have been denied for too long.
        When Congress passed our economic plan last month, America took an
    important step toward building the high-wage, high-skill, high-growth
    economy where hard work is rewarded. We're beginning to pay down the
    deficit we inherited, get our economic house in order, cut wasteful
    spending, and invest in education and training and new technologies. We
    changed the tax laws to make sure that no one who works 40 hours a week
    with children at home will live in poverty. That means tax cuts for
    millions of American families with incomes below $27,000 a year. It's a
    pro-work, pro-family approach that's not about building bureaucracies
    but about encouraging people to keep doing the right things.
        We've also made it possible for over 90 percent of the small
    businesses in this country to reduce their taxes, but only if they
    invest more in their businesses. And we've opened the doors of college
    education to millions more Americans with lower interest loans and
    easier repayment terms and the opportunity for tens of thousands of our
    young people to pay off their college loans or earn credit against
    college through the national service program and building their
    communities at the grassroots level. These policies too are pro-work and
    pro-family. We're taking the values that are central to our own lives,
    values of work and family, and putting them at the center of our public
    policies. We've got to keep America moving, and we've got to pull
    America back together.
        In just 7 months we've done a lot. But for 20 years, because of the
    pressures of the global economy and problems here at home, Americans
    have been working harder for less. And after 12 years of trickle-down
    economics, which worked for just a little while but then left us with no
    fundamental change except a huge, huge national debt and a massive
    annual deficit, we've still got a lot more to do.
        In the weeks ahead we'll be taking three new steps on the journey of
    change toward a new American economy and a stronger American community.
    First, we'll reform the health care

    [[Page 1440]]

    system to provide health care security to all Americans and affordable
    costs so that this health care system doesn't bankrupt the economy while
    failing to cover millions of Americans. Second, we'll try to create more
    jobs through expanded trade through the North American Free Trade
    Agreement and a general agreement with the other trading nations of the
    world. And third, we'll try to give you more value for your tax dollar
    by reinventing Government to make it more efficient and less expensive.
    These are the things we can do to give our people the tools they need to
    build a stronger economy. Health security, expanded trade, and
    reinventing Government really aren't separate goals. They're part of a
    comprehensive strategy to promote long-term growth, increased incomes,
    more jobs, and a stronger American community, part of our effort to make
    all these changes our friend and not our enemy.
        In our own lives we understand that we often have to do several
    things to reach one goal. Think about the talk at your kitchen table
    when you discuss the challenges facing your own families. You might be
    talking about whether you can afford to buy a home or send your youngest
    child to college or whether to build a new business of your own or go to
    night school to learn a new skill. Of course, these are separate
    questions, but they all add up to one challenge: building a better life
    for you and your family.
        It's the same with building our country's future. These pieces must
    all fit together. To control the deficit, we have to reform health care
    and give families more security. To create new jobs for our workers, we
    have to open new markets for our companies and our products. And for
    Government to be a help and not a hindrance in economic growth, we must
    make it less bureaucratic and more productive. Business and labor and
    Government must work together as partners to achieve these goals.
        This Labor Day weekend is a good time to remember that a free
    society needs a strong and a vibrant labor movement. From the struggle
    against communism in Poland to the struggle against apartheid in South
    Africa to the struggle for social justice in our own Nation, we have
    seen what working men and women can accomplish when they work together
    in the spirit of solidarity. Now more than ever America needs the spirit
    of solidarity and the courage to change, the understanding that we're
    all in this together and that we have to move forward together.
        Together we can make the changes that our people deserve and our
    times demand. And then on Labor Day weekends years from now, our
    children and our children's children will look back on the work we did,
    and they will say with gratitude and pride that we kept faith with the
    American dream.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.