[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.