    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 7, 1993]
    [Pages 1347-1349]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    August 7, 1993

        It's a bright, sunny day in Washington in more ways than one. The
    political fog that has surrounded this town for so long is at long last
    lifting. For months we've all been working for this day, a day when we
    can say to the American people that our Government is getting on with
    the business of creating jobs, expanding the economy, and doing better
    by all the American people.
        Members of the House and the Senate showed our Nation how Government
    for the people can actually work for the people. They took the
    courageous step of breaking gridlock, passing my economic plan, and
    putting our Nation on the road to long-term growth.
        This plan plants us firmly on the path to getting so many good
    things done for our people. For the first time in a long time, we'll be
    making a meaningful downpayment on the massive Federal deficit, and as
    we reduce that deficit by nearly $500 billion over 5 years, with more
    spending cuts than tax increases, we'll be strengthening the foundation
    for our future at home and our position in the world economy.
        For the first time in a dozen years the weight of the tax burden
    will be shifted so that it is borne more fairly. Middle class working
    families will pay about a dime a day to bring the deficit down in the
    form of a 4.3-cent gasoline tax--no hidden taxes, no games, no gimmicks.
        But 80 percent of the new revenues will come from those who can best
    afford to pay, with family incomes over $200,000 a year. Those people
    got over half the economic gains, over half the economic gains of the
    1980's and big tax breaks besides. We don't want to punish success. We
    want to reward it. But in order for all Americans to have a chance to
    succeed, we have

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    to bring the deficit down, and it's only fair to ask those best able to
    pay to do so. If family income is less than $200,000 a year, there will
    be no increase in income taxes.
        For the first time in a decade, we're also making a serious effort
    to invest in our children, to reward work over welfare, to strengthen
    our families, and to give real incentives to businesses to grow new
    jobs. Analysts project that our economy will create 8 million new jobs
    now in the next 4 years. We're keeping interest rates down and giving
    real, real incentives for people to invest in new business, research and
    development, and new plant and equipment.
        For all these reasons this plan is an urgent step. But I want to
    emphasize, it is only the first step. We're well on our way, but our
    work is far from finished. We'll continue to look for ways to further
    cut unnecessary spending and trim waste. On that front, we will remain
    tireless, responsible, and accountable to you.
        Soon we expect the Vice President's report on reinventing
    Government. It will help make your Government leaner, smarter, more
    efficient. It will show you that we're trying to have a Government here
    that actually works for the people who pay the bills and takes how their
    money is spent very seriously.
        We want to end welfare as we know it and restore dignity to millions
    of idle Americans who have been dependent too long. We'll do that by
    changing the system so it's a path to a job, not a way of life. The
    economic plan went a long way toward doing that by lifting all the
    people in this country, millions of them, who work 40 hours a week and
    have children in their homes, out of poverty, not through a Government
    program but through the tax system, saying we won't tax people into
    poverty, we'll use the tax system to lift those out of poverty who are
    pro-work, pro-family, and doing their part.
        And we cannot rest while millions of Americans do without affordable
    health care and many, many millions more worry that they won't be able
    to afford the cost of their health care policy or that they'll lose
    their health care coverage if they lose their job or someone in their
    family gets sick. It's not right. And until we give all Americans health
    care that's always there and control the cost, the health care crisis
    will continue to bankrupt our businesses, our families, and eventually
    our Nation.
        So we'll keep moving as fast as we have in these first 6 months of
    the administration and keep taking new ideas to the American people for
    making our country better and putting our people first. With your
    support we've already moved on several fronts to ensure the principles
    that I fought for during the last campaign: providing opportunity,
    encouraging personal responsibility, and rebuilding our communities.
        Just this week, our national service program cleared its final
    hurdles and now will clearly become law. That means 100,000 young people
    will have the chance to help America's communities while helping
    themselves pay for a college education. Also this week the Family Leave
    Act went into effect. And now millions of American workers will be able
    to take some time off to care for their newborn children or an ill
    family member without fearing loss of their jobs. In our Nation, where
    most people have to work, we cannot force people to choose between being
    a good parent and a good worker. Now millions more will be able to do
    both.
        We've also won passage of a new motor voter law to make voter
    registration more easy, more open, more accessible. We've eased the
    credit crunch for small businesses all across America, making student
    loans easier to get and less costly to repay and working to open markets
    overseas to create jobs here at home. We've also changed the
    environmental policies of this administration so that once again America
    is a leader, not a follower, in the effort to preserve the global
    environment and our environmental issues here at home. We've made
    medical research more sensitive to the needs of women and more helpful
    to people with diabetes, Parkinson's, and other diseases where political
    bias kept research that was very needed from going on for too many
    years. We changed the ethics of the executive branch with the toughest
    ethics restrictions in American history, restricting people from
    lobbying for foreign governments or lobbying at all for years after they
    leave top positions in our Government.
        There is more political accountability and more political reform on
    the way. Campaign finance reform, lobby reform, the line-item veto, all
    three of these things have passed at least one House of Congress. We're
    going to work hard to make them law. With these and other measures to
    better the lives of our people, we're putting business-as-usual out of
    business in Washington. That's what you ordered in the last election.

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        This week the majority of the lawmakers on Capitol Hill joined us to
    break gridlock. They voted to move us forward together, to leave behind
    the shameful legacy of debt and deficits, and to give our Nation control
    over our own economic destiny. I congratulate those lawmakers for the
    courage they've shown in winning this tough fight in the face of all
    kinds of charges and misinformation that fill the airwaves. These people
    stood firm. They stood together. And they stood for you.
        As we fought for this plan, we brought together business and labor,
    the cities and the heartland, Americans from every generation. Now, on
    the threshold of a new era of growth and prosperity and a new direction
    for our Nation, it's time for all of us to stand together. And that
    includes those who opposed my plan on Capitol Hill.
        To our critics there I say, all Americans, whatever their political
    stripe, can reap the benefits of the change we can begin today. I say to
    those critics, we must now put aside bitterness and rancor, move beyond
    partisanship, and work together to give the country we all love the new
    direction it needs. In the future, people will not ask whether we were
    Democrats or Republicans, whether we were conservatives or liberals.
    They will ask what we did to face our problems, meet our challenges,
    seize our opportunities, and secure a better future for our children.
    Let us begin that together.
        Thanks for listening, and Godspeed.

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