[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[November 18, 1995]
[Pages 1772-1773]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1772]]


The President's Radio Address
November 18, 1995

    Good morning. Last night I went the extra mile to bring Republicans 
and Democrats together to open the Government up and get down to the 
hard work of balancing the budget. I sent my Chief of Staff, Leon 
Panetta, to Capitol Hill to forge a common ground. I had hoped the 
Republicans and Democrats of good faith would be able to work together 
to reopen Government and to continue our larger debate over national 
budget priorities.
    But this morning it looks like this chance to reopen the Government 
may be slipping away. I hope that's not true, and I call on reasonable 
Republicans to join with Democrats in Congress to pass a bill to reopen 
the Government and open the way to real, serious talks on how to balance 
the budget.
    I know that for many people across our country, all this conflict 
and drama looks just like people in Washington are playing politics 
again. What every American has to realize is that this is way beyond 
politics. There are very, very profound, fundamental issues involved. 
What's at stake is nothing less than two different visions of our 
country and two different futures for our people.
    I believe we must balance the budget. I'm determined to eliminate 
the Federal deficit to avoid passing a legacy of debt on to our 
children. I am proud that in my first 3 years in office, our 
administration has cut the deficit in half and that now we already have 
the smallest deficit of any major economy in the world. It's time to 
finish the job and pass a balanced budget plan.
    So what's at issue is not whether to balance the budget, but how. 
And we and the Republican Congress are offering two very different 
visions for our country and two different futures. You need to know the 
whole reason the Government is shut down is that the Republican 
Congress, following a plan announced last spring by Speaker Gingrich, 
has shut the Government down unless I accept the framework of their 
budget.
    Well, last night the House of Representatives passed their budget. 
This is what they say we have to accept as the price of reopening the 
Government. First, on Medicare, just a few weeks ago the Speaker of the 
House said their goal was to let Medicare, and I quote, ``wither on the 
vine.'' Now we know that's exactly what will happen. We know the 
Medicare program that has worked for everyone and guaranteed a dignified 
retirement for senior citizens, that program's days are numbered, even 
though it's efficient and effective. Under the Republican plan there 
will be two Medicares in America: one for the healthy, one for the sick; 
one for the rich, and one for the poor, with everyone in the middle 
getting squeezed with fewer choices, higher costs, and less quality. 
Most sadly, the oldest, the poorest, and the sickest senior citizens 
will get hit too hard.
    The Republican budget would also deny 360,000 deserving students the 
scholarships they need to go to college and make the most of their 
lives. And it would make college loans harder to get for millions more 
Americans at the very time when more people need to go on to college and 
when the costs are going up.
    Unbelievably, this budget would deny Head Start preschool programs 
to 180,000 young children at a time when we know that on our mean 
streets, too many of our young people are raising themselves. This 
budget of theirs would make it much harder for our Government to 
guarantee the safety of the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food 
we put on the table. Unbelievably, too, their budget would actually 
raise taxes on 15 million of our hardest pressed working families. Oh, 
and by the way, it also cuts the School Lunch Program. And it would even 
prevent thousands of disabled children from being able to live with 
their parents by cutting off assistance for home care.
    In recent days, I've heard from Americans all across our country 
about the real impact this will have on the lives of our people. One of 
my friends called to tell me about a woman he knows with a disabled 
child. This woman rides an hour a day to work on subsidized 
transportation. And she works for barely above the minimum wage. She 
comes home to care for her child. Under their budget she loses three 
ways: Her transportation to work is going to be more costly because 
we're cutting aid to

[[Page 1773]]

transportation in cities under their budget; her ability to help her 
disabled child will be less because the disabled child will lose Federal 
assistance; and unbelievably, at her low income with her child at home, 
she gets a tax increase under their plan so that people in my income 
group can get a tax cut. It doesn't make sense.
    Another friend of mine, the chairman of the board of a technical 
college, wrote to say how important it is that we help our young people 
get scholarships to go on to college today. My friend remembers that in 
the 1960's he got help from Government to pay for his college education. 
And because all of us took a risk in lending him the money for college, 
today he pays a lot more in taxes every year than the total he borrowed. 
He asked a very simple question: If we can't invest in our people, how 
can we ensure the future of our country?
    My fellow Americans, none of these extreme cuts, not one of them, 
are necessary to balance the budget. This extreme budget reflects not 
economic necessity but a philosophy that would strip the ability of our 
National Government to be an instrument of meeting our national goals. 
It would make us a more divided, winner-take-all society, a community 
with fewer connections and less common purpose. Its economic assumptions 
operate on the premise that our country will not grow very much if their 
plan is passed, that our best days are behind us.
    I have proposed a balanced budget rooted in our fundamental values, 
providing opportunity but expecting responsibility from people, honoring 
our obligations to our parents and our children, helping our families to 
be stronger and to stay together, and making sure our country is the 
strongest force for peace and freedom, democracy, and prosperity in the 
world.
    My budget cuts hundreds of wasteful programs. We have already 
reduced the size of the Federal Government by 200,000. It's the smallest 
it's been in 30 years and, as a percentage of the civilian work force, 
the smallest it's been since 1933. But my budget also invests in our 
people and our future. It secures Medicare and Medicaid into the future. 
It invests in education. It ensures the protection of the environment. 
It gives working families a tax cut targeted at education and 
childrearing. Now, that's the right way to balance the budget.
    I'll say again, I want to balance the budget. But any budget that 
cuts funding for disabled children and school lunches, for Head Start 
for our youngest children, for college scholarships and loans, that 
doubles Medicare premiums and undermines the entire Medicaid program 
that provides for nursing home care and home health care for the 
elderly, the disabled, and health care for poor children--this budget's 
dead on arrival when it comes to the White House. And if the price of 
any deal are cuts like these, my message is, no deal.
    The effort to make the American people swallow a budget that will 
hurt our country is over. Let's get back to work, together, to balance 
the budget without unbalancing our values.
    To the Republicans in Congress, I say, listen to the American 
people. Let's all say yes to a balanced budget and no to extremism in 
cuts in health care, education, and the environment. If we do that, 
America will be strong and true to its values and its vision as we enter 
the 21st century. Now let's get the job done.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.