    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [March 8, 1997]
    [Pages 265-266]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    March 8, 1997

        Good morning. This week we learned that America's economy continues
    to grow steady and strong, creating almost 600,000 new jobs in the first
    2 months of this year alone and about 12 million in the last 4 years. We
    can make this time one of enormous promise for America, but only if we
    make sure that all Americans who are willing to work have the chance to
    reap the rewards of our prosperity.
        This morning I want to talk to you about what we can do to lift the
    permanent underclass into a thriving and growing middle class and to
    announce new steps the National Government will take to move people from
    welfare to work.
        Four years ago when I became President, I pledged to end welfare as
    we know it. We worked with States to launch welfare reform experiments
    to require work. We cracked down on child support enforcement,
    increasing child support payments by 50 percent. We required teen
    mothers to stay at school and live at home if they wanted to receive
    welfare. Today I'm pleased to report that due to these efforts and our
    growing economy, we've already moved 2.6 million people off the welfare
    rolls, a record number.
        Last summer we took the most dramatic step of all when I signed the
    bipartisan welfare reform legislation that imposed time limits, required
    work, and extended child care and health care so that people can move
    from welfare to work without hurting their children. The new law ended
    the old welfare system when we said to those on welfare: Responsibility
    is not an option; it must be a way of life.
        Now, all the rest of us have our responsibility, indeed, our moral
    obligation, to make welfare reform work, to make sure that those who now
    must work, can work. We must move another 2 million more people off the
    welfare rolls in the next 4 years. And frankly, we must recognize that
    many of these people will be harder to reach and will need more help
    than those who

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    moved off the rolls in the past 4 years. This cause must engage the
    energy and the commitment of everyone in our society, of business,
    houses of worship, labor unions, universities, civic organizations, as
    well as government at every level.
        Above all, we must harness the private sector to bring jobs and hope
    to our hardest pressed neighborhoods. We are working with leaders of
    American business to help mobilize other businesses to hire people off
    welfare. My balanced budget plan would give businesses tax incentives to
    hire people and would give job placement firms a bonus for every person
    they place from welfare into a job.
        States can do more, too. I have called upon every State to use the
    power that has now been given to them under the new welfare law, to turn
    welfare checks into private sector paychecks.
        And the National Government must do its part and set an example. Our
    National Government is now the smallest it has been in three decades,
    but it is still the Nation's largest employer. We must do our part. So
    today I am committing a National Government action plan to hire people
    off welfare. I am formally directing the heads of each agency and
    department of our Federal Government to do everything they can to hire
    people off the welfare rolls into available jobs in Government,
    consistent with the laws already on the books for hiring Federal
    workers. Because this effort is so important, I am asking Vice President
    Gore, who has led our reinventing Government effort and done so much to
    make our Government work better as it costs less, to oversee this
    endeavor.
        I want these agencies to use the worker-trainee program which the
    Government already has in place to train workers quickly and move them
    into entry-level jobs. Then if the people do well for 3 years, they can
    join the civil service. And I am asking every member of my Cabinet to
    prepare a detailed plan for hiring welfare recipients, what jobs they
    will fill, how they will recruit welfare recipients, how they will make
    sure these people have the chance to work hard, perform well, and,
    thereby, deserve to keep their jobs. The members of the Cabinet will
    present these plans to me in one month at a special Cabinet meeting.
        The job of moving people from welfare to work as the law requires
    will not be easy. But we must help them as they help themselves. And we
    need to help all low income Government workers. We need to make sure
    they take advantage of the earned-income tax credit, the tax cut that
    already has helped 15 million of our hardest pressed working families.
    We should give these workers help with transportation to work, and we
    must help them to find affordable child care.
        Government can help to move people from welfare to work by acting
    the way we want all employers to act, demanding high performance from
    workers but going the extra mile to offer opportunity to those who have
    been on welfare and want to do something more with their lives. If we
    all do that, we can move into the 21st century strong, united, and with
    the American dream alive for all our people.
        Thanks for listening.

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