    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [April 27, 1996]
    [Pages 642-644]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    April 27, 1996

        Good morning. This has been a very good week for America. On Friday
    I signed a bipartisan budget to keep the Government operating for the
    rest of the year. After a year of intense and sometimes heated debate,
    Republicans and Democrats in Congress came together and

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    worked with us to craft an agreement that is good for the American
    people.
        First of all, it keeps the deficit on the downward path we started
    in 1993. This budget cuts billions of dollars in spending. At the same
    time, the budget upholds America's most basic values, as I have pledged
    to do, by honoring our commitment to our elderly, to our children, and
    to our future by protecting Medicare and Medicaid, preserving our fight
    against crime, investing in education and in the protection of the
    environment.
        Look how far we've come. A year ago, many in Congress insisted we
    could only move toward a balanced budget by imposing extreme measures
    and walking away from those commitments. I knew that wasn't true, and I
    was determined to hold the line. So now we aren't going to break our
    promise to put 100,000 new police officers on the street. We aren't
    going to stop enforcing antipollution laws and risk severe damage to our
    environment. We aren't going to abandon our effort to shrink class size
    and raise teachers' standards, to keep kids in school safe and make
    college more affordable. We aren't going to abandon our commitment to
    AmeriCorps, our national service program, which also helps young people
    pay for college as they serve in their communities.
        But here's what we are going to do: We are going to cut the deficit
    for the 4th year in a row. This is the first time that has happened in
    almost 50 years, since Harry Truman was President. We're on the way to a
    balanced budget. The deficit this year will be less than half of what it
    was when I took office. And now we've got to finish the job.
        Earlier this year I proposed a plan to balance the budget, and
    Congress' own economists have certified that plan will balance the
    budget in 7 years. Republicans in Congress have their own balanced
    budget plan. If you laid my plan and their plan side by side, you would
    find enough cuts in common to both plans to balance the budget and
    provide a tax cut for working families. So the ingredients for a
    balanced budget are clearly at hand. All we have to do is sit down
    together and assemble a final agreement based on the things we already
    agree on.
        But that's the problem. I have made it clear that I want to meet
    with Congress and work this out as soon as possible. I said this week
    I'm willing to meet with a large group of lawmakers or a small group of
    Republican and Democratic leaders. When Senator Dole said that maybe the
    two of us ought to get together and work it out, I told Senator Dole I'd
    be more than happy to meet with him alone. I don't care how we do it. My
    singular goal is to work together with the Republicans to craft a
    bipartisan plan to balance the budget in 7 years while upholding our
    values and our commitment to the future.
        I'd like to take a minute to speak directly to the Republicans in
    Congress. I know some people in your party are urging you to reject
    bipartisan negotiation in favor of more partisan confrontation. That
    would be a terrible mistake. Let me be blunt. I refused to accept
    extreme proposals for the last year and a half, and I will not accept
    extreme proposals for the future. If it is your political strategy to
    concoct a budget that you hope I will not sign, you ought to think
    again. If you torpedo these negotiations today, after so much progress
    has been made on a balanced budget, simply to create a campaign issue
    for later, the American people will see through that with their eyes
    closed.
        So I urge you this morning to take the high road to progress. Do
    what we did with this year's budget, with the antiterrorism bill, with
    the telecommunications bill, with the lobby reform bill. Come meet with
    me and let's finish this job together. This is an historic chance to
    balance the budget. We're within inches of agreement, and nothing--not
    politics, not partisanship, not Presidential campaigns--nothing should
    be allowed to stop us.
        Just about a year ago I gave a speech to the American Society of
    Newspaper Editors. I told them then I did not want a pile of vetoes. I
    told them I wanted to work with Congress and get things done for the
    American people. But I also said I'd never accept extreme and
    unnecessary measures that would jeopardize our ability to care for our
    elderly, educate our children, and protect our environment.
    Unfortunately, a lot of Republicans in Congress didn't believe me. They
    shut the Government down. They refused to cooperate. But look what
    happened. When they tried to impose these drastic measures I was forced
    to stop them, just as I said I would. But then last week we worked
    together, and we quickly agreed on a budget plan that accomplishes what
    I said could be done all along: The deficit is going down, and our
    commitments are secure.

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        Today the Republican leaders in Congress face a similar choice. They
    can go it alone and we will end up going nowhere, or they can come on
    down to the White House and we will get a good job done for the American
    people together. That's how our system works best. That's how we should
    reform health care and help working families.
        Every United States Senator, for example, every single one, 100 of
    them, voted to pass the bipartisan Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform
    bill. Now, Republicans can work with us to make that health care more
    available to 43 million Americans by passing a bill that says that you
    ought to be able to keep your health insurance if you change jobs or
    lose a job, and you ought not to be denied health insurance just because
    somebody in your family has been sick. We can agree on that, or the
    Republicans can send me a more partisan bill that has special provisions
    for special interests.
        The Republican leadership can work with us to raise the minimum
    wage, or they can go on ignoring working families and moderates in their
    very own party, and do their best to obstruct even a vote on the minimum
    wage.
        Now, if you look at what's been done that is good in the last year
    and 4 months--this year's budget, the antiterrorism bill, the
    telecommunications bill, the lobby reform--every single good thing has
    been done because Democrats and Republicans in Congress worked together
    and worked with me. That's how to get things done.
        The only way for us to move forward is to do it together. That's the
    right thing to do on balancing the budget, the right thing to do on
    health care reform, the right thing to do on the minimum wage. That is
    what we are here for: to move America forward. So let's get together,
    and let's get to work.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 5:21 p.m. on April 26 at the DuPont
    Hotel in Wilmington, DE, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on April 27.