[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.