    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [January 6, 1995]
    [Pages 20-21]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Economy
    January 6, 1995

        The President. Good morning, everyone. We are here and anxious to
    get to work, but I wanted to make an announcement this morning and chart
    our course for the year ahead.
        Two years ago, I formed a partnership for prosperity and opportunity
    with the Democratic leadership in Congress. Along with then Speaker
    Foley and Majority Leader Mitchell, the Democrats put together
    majorities that we needed in both the House and the Senate to make the
    hardest choices Washington has made in over a generation: to cut Federal
    spending deeply; to raise revenues, largely from income tax increases on
    the top 1\1/2\ percent of our people and corporations with incomes of
    over $10 million; to reinvent and restructure the Government so that it
    would be much smaller and still work better; and to invest in education,
    research, and technology, and tax relief for working families of modest
    incomes.
        Most important of all, the Congress chose to do the right thing,
    rather than the political thing, because they believed it was more
    important to make real life easier for Americans than it was to make
    political life more comfortable for people here in Washington. As a
    result, there was a huge increase in investment and economic growth,
    building on the productivity of American workers and American
    businesses.
        This morning I am pleased to announce that the recovery of which our
    economic plan was such a large part has brought paychecks to more than a
    quarter million more Americans in December alone. And compared with an
    unemployment rate of over 7 percent when I took office, we now see an
    unemployment rate in December of 5.4 percent. We have grown the private
    economy as we have cut Government. That's a real recovery and a real
    bargain for the American people.
        A real recovery means that in 1994 alone our economy created 3.5
    million new jobs, the most created in one year by the private sector in
    a decade. In '93 and '94 combined, our economy

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    has produced 5.6 million new jobs. A real recovery means that after
    losing 2 million manufacturing jobs in the previous 12 years, in 1994
    alone 292,000 manufacturing jobs were added to the economy, and
    manufacturing jobs grew in every month of last year for the first time
    since the 1970's. It means working people can look to the future with
    more hope and more optimism now, especially if we move to protect the
    economic expansion and to get to work to match the expansion with income
    growth increases for ordinary American working people.
        We're ready to build on the progress we've made in cutting spending
    and the size of the Federal work force. As I announced last year, the
    reduction and reinvention of Government will continue with the budget I
    will submit next month. But I will stand against any effort to roll back
    or to rock the foundations of the recovery by proposals that explode the
    deficit or gimmicks that undermine the integrity of the budget we have
    worked so hard to put in place. And to ensure that incomes grow, which
    is, after all, the most important thing to ordinary American working
    families, we have to pair that with the economic growth by arming
    America's families with the tools they need to increase their own
    prosperity.
        Our middle class bill of rights will do just that by ensuring more
    investments in better education and more disposable income for
    hardworking families who deserve some benefits from this recovery. We
    will do it by rewarding investments in education; in the rearing of
    children; in paying for education, health care, retirement costs; paying
    for training. These are things that will generate economic opportunity
    as well as tax fairness. They will ensure that the work ethics and the
    work efforts of the middle class are rewarded with growing incomes.
        We've had a good first 2 years. It's time now to make a commitment
    to keep it going. We, the Democrats, stand ready to work in partnership
    with the Republicans. We want to make sure that we can do as well in the
    next 2 years as we have in the first 2. And I think that they will have
    the same attitude.
        Thank you very much.
        Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what your message to Boris Yeltsin
    is?
        The President. I want to talk about jobs today. I already discussed
    that----

    Note: The President spoke at 10:20 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House, prior to a meeting with congressional leaders.