    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [February 22, 1997]
    [Pages 186-187]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    February 22, 1997

        Good morning. Today I want to talk with you about our economy, what
    we can do to keep it growing, offering opportunities to all Americans
    who work for them.
        When I took office 4 years ago, my most important job was to renew
    our economy. We put in place an economic plan that cut the deficit even
    as we increased investments in our people and expanded exports to record
    levels. We cut the deficit by 63 percent, from $290 billion a year in
    1992 to $107 billion last year. Proportionally, it is now the smallest
    of any major economy. This has created the conditions for American
    businesses and workers to thrive, and they have.
        Over the last several weeks, we've received the full data on our
    country's economic progress for the last 4 years. The economy created
    11\1/2\ million new jobs for the first time ever in a single term. That
    includes a million construction jobs and millions of other good paying
    jobs. Entrepreneurs have started a record number of new businesses,
    hundreds of thousands of them owned by women and minorities. We've had
    the largest increase in homeownership ever, a big drop in the poverty
    rate, and a big increase in family income. And just this week, we
    learned that the combined rate of unemployment and inflation over the
    last 4 years is the lowest for a Presidential term since the 1960's.
        Now we must continue our progress. We cut the deficit by two-thirds;
    it's time to finish the job. We must balance the budget to keep interest
    rates down and investment up and jobs coming in. But we must do it the
    right way. Today our economy is growing steady and strong. If we want to
    keep it growing, producing jobs and opportunity for our people as we
    enter a new century, then we simply must finish the job of balancing the
    budget, and we must do it this year. That is the only way to keep
    interest rates low, to keep confidence high, to give businesses the
    ability to innovate for tomorrow. We must pass a balanced budget plan
    this year or face the consequences in years to come.
        This month I submitted my plan to balance the budget by 2002. Our
    plan makes the hard decisions necessary to lock in the savings achieved
    and to ensure that the budget remains in balance in the future. It saves
    $350 billion over the next 5 years, enough not only to balance the
    budget but also to cut taxes. It makes

    [[Page 187]]

    tough and specific cuts in spending and ensures that those cuts will be
    carried out by imposing strict limits on the amounts Congress can spend
    each year. It ends hundreds of wasteful Government programs and
    projects, eliminates $34 billion in corporate subsidies businesses don't
    need, and makes reforms in entitlement programs so they'll cost less in
    the future, extending the life of the Medicare Trust Fund for a decade
    while preserving quality health care for elderly Americans.
        Even as the plan balances the budget, it also maintains the balance
    of our values. To prepare our people for the 21st century, I have
    challenged our Nation to build the world's best educational system. My
    plan increases investment in education and training to $51 billion in
    1998, a 20 percent increase. It provides tax cuts to help families pay
    for college, increases Pell grant scholarships for deserving students,
    advances the America Reads initiative to help every 8-year-old read on
    his or her own, and advances our goal of connecting every single
    classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000. It invests in
    our people in other ways as well, giving them tax cuts to help them
    raise their children or buy a home, extending health care coverage to 5
    million more children, protecting the environment.
        That is the right way to balance the budget. And balancing the
    budget only requires Congress' vote and my signature; it does not
    require us to rewrite our Constitution. We must balance the budget, but
    a balanced budget amendment could cause more harm than good. It would
    prevent us from responding to foreign challenges abroad or economic
    trouble at home, if to do so resulted in even a minor budget deficit.
    And because it would write a specific economic policy into our
    Constitution, it could force the Secretary of the Treasury to cut Social
    Security, or drive the budget into courts of law when a deficit occurred
    when Congress was not working on the budget. In a court of law, judges
    could be forced to halt Social Security checks or to raise taxes just to
    meet the demands of the constitutional amendment.
        These are results no one wants to see happen, but a balanced budget
    amendment could surely produce them. Instead, we should simply act this
    year and act together, for Democrats and Republicans have an historic
    opportunity to reach across party lines to enact the first balanced
    budget in a generation. Soon we will begin discussions with bipartisan
    leaders in Congress to craft a final plan. By coming to an agreement
    this year, we can take a giant step to prepare our country for the 21st
    century and give our children the future they deserve.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 5:17 p.m. on February 21 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    February 22.