[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[August 5, 1993]
[Pages 1343-1344]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on House of Representatives Action on the Economic Program
August 5, 1993

    Thank you very much. I want to congratulate the Members of the House 
and their leaders for breaking gridlock tonight and entering a new era 
of growth and control over our destiny. In

[[Page 1344]]

the future, the American people will thank them for their commitment to 
moving away from the horrendous legacy of debt, underinvestment, and 
slow growth of the 1980's and putting the national interest ahead of the 
narrow interest, putting tomorrow ahead of today's pressure.
    The margin was close, but the mandate is clear. I will continue to 
fight for this economic package with everything I have. And I urge the 
Members of the Senate to act on it in a positive way tomorrow. The fight 
is still on, and we have just begun to fight.
    This economic plan represents an important first step in changing 
America. For the first time in a very long time we are making a 
meaningful downpayment on the Federal deficit, with deep spending cuts 
locked away in a trust fund that cannot be spent for anything else. For 
the first time in a dozen years the tax burden that is a part of the 
deficit reduction trust fund will be borne largely by those best able to 
bear it, with 80 percent of the new revenues coming from those with 
incomes above $200,000. And still, there will be shared contributions. 
The middle class is asked to make a modest contribution to paying down 
the deficit and growing the economy. For the first time in a decade we 
are making a serious effort to invest in our children, reward work over 
welfare, strengthen our families, and give genuine incentives to 
business to grow new jobs. These incentives are very, very important 
because the purpose of bringing the deficit down is to keep interest 
rates down, be able to control our financial destiny, and permit people 
with the right incentives to put the American people back to work.
    Finally, as I said, this is just a first step to putting our 
financial house and our economic house in order. This program is shared 
sacrifice for shared benefit. We're all in this together, but we have 
just begun.
    If the Senate acts favorably tomorrow, and as soon as the August 
recess is over, I am committed to further steps for discipline in the 
Federal budget, in getting rid of unnecessary spending and waste, 
including reenacting the controls that the House originally passed and 
that I embodied in my Executive orders of yesterday. After that, we will 
move on to the Vice President's report on reinventing Government, which 
will contain a myriad of exciting possibilities for making the 
Government more efficient and reducing unnecessary and inefficient 
spending.
    Then we will move on to deal with the health care issue, to provide 
the security of affordable health care to all families and to lower the 
growth in health care costs over the long run, without which we will 
never bring this budget into balance or restore real financial health to 
the private sector. Then there is the process of ending welfare as we 
know it, making our streets safer, and most important of all, putting 
all this together in a program to restore jobs and growth for the 
American people.
    We have set our sights high, but for 20 years our people have 
struggled harder on stagnant wages with too little investment and too 
few new jobs and exploding debt. For 12 years we have tried trickle-down 
economics while the debt went up and investment went down. Now we want a 
new direction to invest and grow this economy.
    We began by seizing control of our destiny on a daily basis with 
this heroic vote today by the House of Representatives. I congratulate 
those who voted. I urge the Senate to follow their lead. And I look 
forward to continuing the battle tomorrow.
    Good evening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.