    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 28, 1995]
    [Pages 1691-1692]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    October 28, 1995

        Good morning. I want to talk to you today about what's at stake for
    the American people in the great budget debate now taking place in
    Washington. But first, I've got some good news to report.
        Our country is on the move. Our economy is the strongest in the
    world, and it's growing. Yesterday, the official report on the economy
    for the last 3 months showed continued strong economic growth with very
    low inflation. And this week we also learned that we've cut the budget
    deficit nearly in half since I became President. It has dropped for 3
    years in a row for the first time since President Truman was in office.
    The American people should be proud of their accomplishment.
        Now it's time to finish the job and balance the budget, so that we
    don't pass a mountain of debt on to our children and we free up more
    funds to be invested in our economy. But we need to do it in a way that
    reflects our core values: opportunity for all Americans to make the most
    of their own lives; responsibility--we all must do our part, no more
    something for nothing; and third, recognizing our community, our common
    obligations to preserve and strengthen our families, to do our duty to
    our parents, to fulfill our obligation to give our children the best
    future possible with good schools and good health care and safe streets
    and a clean environment; and finally, a determination to keep our Nation
    the strongest in the world.
        I have proposed a balanced budget that secures Medicare into the
    future, that increases our investment in education and technology, that
    protects the environment, that keeps our country the strongest in the
    world. Because working people do deserve a tax break, it includes a tax
    cut targeted at education and childrearing. My balanced budget reflects
    our national values.
        It's also in our national interest. We now have 3 years of evidence
    that our economic strategy works. Reduce the deficit, sell more American
    products around the world, invest in education and technology--it gives
    you more jobs, more new businesses, more homeowners, a stronger future
    for all Americans. But this week the Republican Congress voted to enact
    an extreme budget that violates our values and I believe is bad for our
    long-term interest.
        All Americans believe in honoring our parents and keeping our pledge
    that they'll live out their last years in dignity. But the Republican
    budget cuts $450 billion out of the health care system, doubles premiums
    for senior citizens. And the House budget actually repeals the rule
    called spousal impoverishment. What this means is they would let a State
    say to an elderly couple that if the husband or the wife has to go into
    a nursing home, the other has to sell the house, the car, and clean out
    the bank account before there can be any help from the Government. They
    say, ``We'll then help you, and how you get along afterward is your own
    problem.''
        The Republicans say they support Medicare. They say they just want
    to reform it. But just this week we learned that the Senate majority
    leader is bragging that he opposed Medicare

    [[Page 1692]]

    from the beginning, and the Speaker of the House admitted that his goal
    is to have Medicare, quote, ``wither on the vine.'' When they say those
    things, it's clear that the Republicans come not to praise Medicare but
    to bury it.
        All Americans believe we have a fundamental duty to provide
    opportunity for our young people and to protect the world that God gave
    us. But the Republican budget singles out education and the environment
    for deep and devastating cuts.
        And it's a basic American value to honor hard work. But the
    congressional Republicans impose billions of dollars in new taxes and
    fees directly on working people. On average, families who earn less than
    $30,000 a year get a tax hike, not a tax cut, under their plan. Let me
    put it another way. They want to increase taxes on working families with
    children living on $20,000 a year or less and give people in my income
    group a tax cut. That is wrong. A country where Medicare withers on the
    vine, where our children are denied educational opportunity, where
    pollution worsens, where working people get a tax increase, that's not
    the kind of America I want for the 21st century. I want a nation that
    promotes opportunity and demands responsibility; that preserves
    families, increases work; that recognizes the duty we owe to each other;
    and that still is the strongest country in the world.
        The more the American people see of this budget the less they like
    it. That's why the Republicans in Congress have resorted to
    extraordinary blackmail tactics to try to ram their program through.
    They have said they won't pass a bill letting the Government pay its
    bills unless I accept their extreme and misguided budget priorities.
        Well, for more than two centuries, through war and depression, the
    United States has always paid its bills, always honored its obligations.
    For all their loose talk, the congressional leaders know that a default
    would have a severe impact on our country. By making it more expensive
    for the Government to raise money, it would expand the deficit, unsettle
    financial markets, and increase interest rates. Higher interest rates
    mean higher mortgage rates for homeowners, especially the 10 million of
    them whose mortgages are tied to Federal interest rates. Higher interest
    rates means higher credit card rates for consumers and bigger borrowing
    costs for businesses.
        Now, I'm not about to give in to that kind of blackmail. So Congress
    should simply stop playing political games with the full faith and
    credit of the United States of America. They should send me the debt
    limit bill to sign, as every Congress has done when necessary throughout
    American history.
        Just yesterday the Secretary of the Treasury once again asked
    Congress to remove the debt limit from the budget bill or, at the very
    least, to extend it through mid-January. That way we can resolve this
    budget impasse without hurting our economy. Even this offer was brushed
    aside.
        I will not let anyone hold health care, education, or the
    environment hostage. If they send me a budget bill that says simply,
    ``Take our cuts or we'll let the country go into default,'' I will still
    veto it. And hear this: Before or after a veto, I am not prepared to
    discuss the destruction of Medicare and Medicaid, the gutting of our
    commitment to education, the ravaging of our environment, or raising
    taxes on working people.
        So I say to the Republican leaders: Back off your cuts in these
    vital areas. Until you do, there's nothing for us to talk about. You say
    your principles are a balanced budget, a tax cut, extending the life of
    the Medicare Trust Fund. I want all those things. They're my principles,
    too. But there are other important principles, the ones that I have
    outlined. They are morally right for America, and they're good for our
    economy.
        This is a time of genuine promise for our country. We're on the
    move. Our economy is the envy of the world. No nation on Earth is better
    positioned for the new century than America because of the diversity of
    our economy and our citizens, because of our commitment to excellence,
    because of our technological advantages. The 21st century will be ours
    if we make the right choices and do the right thing for the American
    people.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 5:25 p.m. on October 27 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October
    28.