    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [January 30, 1995]
    [Pages 117-120]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the National Association of Home Builders
    January 30, 1995

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Tommy, for your introduction, and
    thank you for all of the hard work you've done as president and the work
    you've done with us. I also want to send my best wishes to your new
    president, Jim Irvine. I look forward to working closely with you, Jim,
    and with your entire association.
        Let me begin by doing something I wasn't supposed to do. You know,
    my staff told me I didn't have time to stay and answer questions, and
    then the gentleman who preceded me didn't get a chance to answer the
    question. So I'll answer it the best I can here off the top of my head
    with regard to the deficit, because it will set up what I want to talk
    about in a moment.
        When you make your income tax check out in April, about--well, over
    a third of it will go to pay interest on the national debt, and about 28
    cents of it will go to pay interest on the debt accumulated between 1981
    and 1993 in January when I took office, in just that 12 years alone.
        To give you some idea of the contrast: only about a nickel of your
    income tax check would be required to pay for welfare and foreign aid
    put together. So it is a very serious problem. We estimate within a
    couple of years interest on the debt will be more costly than national
    defense every year, which is why I've worked so hard on it.
        I thought I'd start by answering a question to see if I could get
    your attention. I was thinking that, as I was being introduced, of a
    joke I was told by a college president over the Christmas holidays, when
    she said that she identified with me when someone said that being a
    president was a lot like running a cemetery: There are a lot of people
    under you, but nobody's listening. So I thought I could answer your
    question and maybe you would.
        Let me thank each and every one of you in the National Association
    of Home Builders for the support you've given to our administration's
    efforts to get this economy going and to bring the deficit down. Working
    together, we have made a real difference in the lives of the American
    people, and I want you to know I appreciate all your hard work to make
    sure we're a stronger nation as we move into the 21st century and to
    preserve the American dream, including home ownership for all of our
    people.
        I know Secretary Cisneros spoke with you on Saturday, and I'm
    especially glad you had a chance to hear from him on my behalf. The
    efforts he's made at the Department of Housing and Urban Development
    have been a crucial part of what we've all done together to build up
    America. Our work is a prime example of the kind of partnership I've
    tried to build between the public and the private sectors throughout our
    country. Together, our job is to build a foundation upon which American
    families can build up their own futures, share in economic prosperity,
    and keep the American dream alive for another generation.
        Our partnership is part of what I have called the New Covenant. When
    I ran for President, the New Covenant was at the center of my campaign.
    It's a call for more opportunity and more responsibility, recognizing
    that you can't

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    really have one without the other and that unless we have more of both,
    we can't hope to stay strong at home and remain the strongest force for
    peace and freedom throughout the world.
        To build that New Covenant, I've focused on three things that are
    critical to making sure we succeed in the new global economy: first,
    empowering our own people to make the most of their own lives; second,
    expanding opportunity and shrinking and redirecting the Federal
    bureaucracy to meet the needs of our people today and tomorrow; and
    finally, shifting more authority to the State and local levels and to
    the private sector over those things that they can do better than the
    Federal Government.
        The National Association of Home Builders has been a strong partner
    in many of these efforts. Throughout the life of our Nation, nothing has
    been more important as a building block of the American dream than home
    ownership. And that's been especially true in the second half of this
    century.
        Together, we've worked hard to reinforce that foundation and provide
    new building blocks, and the results show that our partnership is
    working. Think about your industry first. America had nearly 1.5 million
    housing starts last year, the best since 1988. Single-family starts
    totaled nearly 1.2 million; that's a 13 percent increase over the
    previous year, the best year of performance since 1979.
        Beyond the homebuilding industry, we see strong evidence that our
    partnership is working as well. In contrast to the 4 years before I took
    office, we've had almost 6 million new jobs in this economy in just 2
    years. Nineteen eighty-four gave us the fastest growth in 10 years and
    the lowest combined rate of unemployment and inflation in 25 years. And
    for the first time in nearly a decade, America was rated as having the
    world's most productive and competitive economy.
        We're doing all of this because, first and foremost, we've worked to
    put our economic house in order. Just 2 years ago, it was an open
    question whether we would find the strength to cut the deficit that had
    exploded out of control during the previous 12 years and had driven our
    interest rates up and our economy down.
        Together, thanks to people like you, we were able to change that
    course. We passed an economic package that's bringing the deficit down
    by more than $600 billion. That's about $10,000 for every family in
    America. And it's going down 3 years in a row for the first time since
    Truman was President.
        You were one of our biggest supporters in deficit reduction because
    you knew it would bring down interest rates and you knew it would get
    our economy going again, and I'll always be grateful for your help on
    that.
        Getting the deficit under control was only a beginning. We've also
    cut the size of Government and focused its efforts where it can really
    make a difference in meeting today's and tomorrow's challenges. We've
    already cut the bureaucracy by more than 100,000, and we're on our way
    to cutting 272,000 positions over a 5-year period without regard to
    anything else that happens in this Congress. So the Federal Government
    is already going to be at its smallest size in 30 years.
        Look at HUD. We closed all the regional offices, eliminating an
    entire layer of bureaucracy. We cut the Department's work force by 10
    percent to make their work, and we hope your work, more efficient. And
    HUD wasn't the only Department. We're closing 1,100 Agricultural
    Department offices and doing a lot of other things that I think all of
    you would approve of.
        But cutting the Government is only part of the job. We're also
    making the Government we have work better for our people. We've
    streamlined many, many programs and given local communities more
    flexibility to solve problems at the grassroots where they can get the
    job done most effectively. In the area of welfare reform alone, for
    example, we have given two dozen States permission to get around
    cumbersome Federal regulations, to try new and exciting ways to move
    people from welfare to work.
        In the housing field, under the leadership of Secretary Cisneros,
    the Federal Housing Administration has already lowered costs and changed
    rules to help home buyers. After the reforms FHA has made, today it
    takes just 3 to 5 days, not 4 to 6 weeks as it used to, to get an FHA
    single-family loan endorsement. That's why FHA insured 1.3 million new
    loans last year, including 450,000 for first-time buyers. That's the
    second best year in its 60-year history.
        Now we're moving to strengthen our efforts. We propose to
    consolidate 60 different narrowly focused housing programs into three
    flexible funds. We want to transform the Federal Hous-

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    ing Authority into an entrepreneurial, Government-owned corporation. And
    we propose phasing out direct subsidies to housing authorities and to
    end public housing as we know it. Instead of subsidizing bureaucracies,
    we want to give money directly to residents so that they have the
    opportunity to take more responsibility for their own lives. This is
    progress all of us can be proud of. Our partnership is working.
        But as much progress as has been made, you and I know it's not
    enough. Too many people are working harder for less. They have less
    security, less income, less certainty they can even afford a vacation,
    much less the downpayment on a new home. That's why I proposed a middle
    class bill of rights, which could be called and probably should be
    called the middle class bill of rights and responsibilities because for
    every opportunity it offers, it requires responsibility in return.
        The middle class bill of rights is about ensuring that the American
    dream stays alive for everyone willing to take responsibility for their
    future. It will help with your piece of the American dream and with a
    lot of others as well. To foster more savings and personal
    responsibility, the middle class bill of rights will enable people to
    establish individual retirement accounts and then to withdraw from them,
    tax-free, for the cost of education, health care, the care of a parent,
    and to buy a first home.
        Because of our work in the last 2 years, we've already seen the home
    ownership rates for young families actually go up for the first time in
    more than a decade. The middle class bill of rights will help even more
    Americans to buy a home. It says to our young couples in particular,
    owning a home is not out of your reach. There is a reason to save and
    real hope that your hard work and responsibility will pay off for your
    family.
        Education is another critical building block in the strong
    foundation for our country. And the middle class bill of rights also
    includes a deduction for education and training costs after high school.
    That eases the burdens on families by helping them to educate themselves
    and their children. Furthermore, the middle class bill of rights offers
    a $500 tax break for families with young children and collapses nearly
    70 different Federal job training programs into a grant which will
    provide for direct vouchers to unemployed workers or low-wage workers
    who are willing to go back to school and learn more skills so they can
    earn more money.
        Now, all of this will be an important part of keeping the American
    dream alive. And I should emphasize that this middle class bill of
    rights is fully paid for by spending cuts and that I will send Congress
    more than twice as many cuts as are necessary to pay for the middle
    class bill of rights, so we can keep driving the deficit down.
        In the housing field, we want to do even more. As you know, I set a
    national goal of boosting home ownership to an all-time high by the end
    of the century, to forge a national home ownership strategy. Secretary
    Cisneros has been doing a great job to put those goals into action,
    working with you, with mortgage lenders, with Fannie Mae and Freddie
    Mac, with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of
    Cities, and with national civic organizations and advocacy groups. The
    strategy will aim to lower regulatory barriers so we can step up
    construction of starter homes. It will give communities more power to
    rebuild themselves. And it will give citizens more information so they
    can take hold of their opportunities.
        Secretary Cisneros will submit the strategy to me in March, and I
    look forward to working with you to act on it and to make the dream a
    reality for more Americans. The key to our success with this new
    strategy will be strengthening the same partnership that has served us
    so well, so far. We've shown how we can succeed for the American people
    when we work together to bring the deficit down and get the economy
    going again.
        I was eager to talk with you today because I believe that we must
    recommit ourselves to building a stronger America and to giving our
    people even more opportunities in the years to come. That's what the new
    national home ownership strategy is all about. It's what the middle
    class bill of rights is all about. It's what the New Covenant is all
    about.
        We have to keep the recovery going; we have to increase opportunity;
    we have to support more responsibility from all of our people. These
    building blocks will build a stronger future for our children. Together,
    we've built a strong foundation. This country's in better shape than it
    was 2 years ago. Now, let's move forward to finish the job for America
    and for the American people.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

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    Note: The President spoke by satellite at 1:02 p.m. from Room 459 of the
    Old Executive Office Building to the association's annual convention in
    Houston, TX. In his remarks, he referred to association president Tommy
    Thompson.