    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [December 19, 1994]
    [Pages 2186-2188]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Middle Class Bill of Rights and North Korea
    December 19, 1994

        The President. Last week, I outlined my proposal for a middle class
    bill of rights to help the American people restore the American dream.
    The GI bill after World War II gave a generation of Americans a chance
    to build their own lives and their own dreams. Now we can help a new
    generation of hardworking people get the right education and skills,
    raise their children, and keep their families strong so that they can
    get ahead in the new American economy.
        I want to take just a moment to remind you of the four features in
    that bill of rights. First, for a family making less than $120,000, the
    tuition they pay for postsecondary education, training, and retraining
    would be fully deductible from a taxable income, phased up to $10,000 a
    year; second, for a family with an income of $75,000 a year or less, a
    tax cut phased up to $500 a year for every child under the age of 13;
    third, for families with incomes under $100,000 a year, the ability to
    put away $2,000 tax-free into an IRA and then withdraw that money tax-
    free for costs of education, health care, first-time home, or the care
    of an elderly parent. Finally, we will make billions of dollars
    available that the Government normally spends itself, through separate
    job-training programs, directly to workers who can decide on how best to
    use the money to learn new skills.
        There's only one reason we can afford to do this at this time. We
    have worked very hard to cut Government spending and to bring the
    deficit under control. The Government debt increased by 4 times during
    the 12 years before I took office. I want to remind you what that burden
    means. It means that this April when people make out their checks to the
    Government, 28 cents of every dollar of Federal income tax will be
    necessary to pay interest on the debt accumulated between 1981 and the
    day I was inaugurated. It is our responsibility to turn that

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    around, and we have been working to fulfill it. We have already passed
    budgets that cut the deficit by $700 billion, eliminate 100 Government
    programs, and cut over 300 others.
        A major part of this endeavor has been the reinventing Government
    initiative led by the Vice President. I have worked hard to reduce and
    to redirect governments for many years, since my early days as Governor
    of my State, when we were one of the first States in the country to
    adopt a statewide total quality management program, which resulted in
    cutting regulation and paperwork, eliminating agencies and departments
    and programs that were unnecessary. Now we are cutting things that can
    be cut. We propose to stop doing things that Government doesn't do very
    well and that don't need to be done by Government. And we believe we
    should increase our efforts where Government can make a real, positive
    difference in the lives of ordinary Americans. We have to change
    yesterday's Government and make it work for the America of today and
    tomorrow.
        In the last 2 years, we have made a good beginning. We have begun to
    shrink the Federal Government's bureaucracy to its smallest size in 30
    years. The work force of the Federal Government is already almost
    100,000 below where it was on the day we were inaugurated. We are on the
    way to a reduction of 272,000 positions, cuts that are freeing up money
    to invest in our people. For example, every dollar that goes to fund the
    crime bill, which is a direct transfer of investment to our local
    communities at the grassroots level, comes from the cuts we are making.
        Later today at the Justice Department, I will announce new efforts
    under the crime bill to finish our commitment of putting 100,000 more
    police officers on the street and stop the crime that punishes so many
    American families.
        We have to continue to meet our responsibilities to the next
    generation. We must pay, therefore, for the middle class bill of rights
    with new reductions in Government spending, dollar for dollar, spending
    cuts to pay for tax cuts, with no new cuts in Medicare and Social
    Security. I call on Congress to meet that same responsibility in their
    deliberations.
        Our administration has just completed a review in which we have
    identified $24 billion in cuts in bureaucracy, redtape, and outmoded
    programs to help to do this. And we are committed to continuing the
    freeze on discretionary spending, which will save another $52 billion in
    the next 5-year budget cycle.
        We will do even more to shrink yesterday's Government. I have called
    on the Vice President to review every single Government program and
    department for further possible reductions. He's also going to review
    the Federal regulatory process, and we have spent a good deal of time on
    that already, so that we can get better results for the public with less
    interference in their lives.
        Vice President Gore is here to discuss the details of our next round
    of proposals in reinventing Government, along with Director Alice Rivlin
    and the heads or representatives of five agencies in which we are
    proposing reductions now, including Secretary Cisneros, Secretary Pena,
    Deputy Secretary White, General Services Administration Director Roger
    Johnson, and Office of Personnel Management Director Jim King. I want to
    thank them and our entire economic team for their hard work in the last
    few weeks.
        I also want to say a special word of thanks to people who often get
    overlooked in this, and that is the employees of the United States
    Government. The work they have done in the last 2 years to help us to
    reduce the size of the Federal work force by 100,000 already, to
    implement plans to take it down to a total of 272,000, and even more
    with the announcements we are making today, that work is truly
    exemplary. It would be envied by many of our biggest corporations in
    this country. They have rolled up their sleeves; they have been
    creative; they have found ways for us to save taxpayer money and
    redirect that into the middle class bill of rights and to investing in
    our future.
        This has been--I want to emphasize--a very disciplined, well-
    organized process. We have not let rhetoric and recklessness dominate
    it. This has been about reality. And again, as we go into the New Year,
    that ought to be our motto, as I said the other night: Country first,
    politics-as-usual dead last; focus on reality, not rhetoric and not
    recklessness.
        It is not enough to cut Government just for the sake of cutting it.
    Government is not inherently good or bad. In a new time, with a new
    economy, with new demands on ordinary American families, we need a
    leaner but not a meaner Government. We need to put Government back on
    the side of hardworking Americans. That means I will oppose certain cuts
    if they under-

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    mine our economic recovery, undermine middle class living standards,
    undermine our attempts to support poor people who are doing their best
    to raise their children and want to work their way into the middle
    class, undermine our attempts to improve education, protect our
    environment, and move us into the future with a high-wage, high-growth
    economy.
        As I said last Thursday night, what we really need is a new American
    Government for this new American economy in the 21st century, one that
    is creative and flexible, that's a high-quality, low-cost producer of
    services that the American people need and that can best be provided at
    the national level. The best thing we can do in this process is to
    follow the model that smart companies have done, which is to develop a
    good plan, put good people in charge, and pursue the goal with vigor.
        I am confident that I chose the right person to lead the reinventing
    Government effort. I want to thank the Vice President and all of his
    team. They have done wonderful work. And I'd like now to turn the podium
    over to Vice President Gore.

    [At this point, the Vice President outlined the reinventing Government
    plan and introduced the agency officials who presented the new
    proposals.]

    North Korea

        Q. Can we ask the President a question?
        The President. Let me just--let me make a brief statement. I want to
    say just two things about the North Korean situation. First of all, I
    called the families of the two soldiers involved today to express my
    concern, and in the case of the gentleman who was killed, my
    condolences, to the family. And I told them what I can tell you. I've
    worked on this all weekend. I'm going to keep working on it, and we're
    working on an early resolution of it. We're doing the very best we can.
    I don't have any details to tell you now.
        As you know, I think, Congressman Richardson is in North Korea, and
    he is working with us and also doing a very fine job. I have nothing
    else to say at this time, except it's a high priority, we're working on
    it, and we're going to do our best to resolve it.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:13 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building.