    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [February 21, 1999]
    [Pages 224-231]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Labor Unification Legislative Conference
    February 21, 1999

        Thank you. I would like to--first of all, thank you for the
    wonderful, warm welcome--to express my deep respect and support for the
    IAM president, Tom Buffenbarger, and
    all of the IAM officers; the UAW executive VP, Ruben Burks--I know Steve Yokich
    is in Germany now--and all the UAW members here; and the steel workers'
    president, George Becker, and all the steel
    workers here; and of course, everyone up here on the platform with me.
        George Becker would give his voice, his
    heart, and his life for his members. And he nearly gave his voice
    tonight.

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        I came here to do a number of things, but I'd like to start with
    first things first. The first thing I want to do is to say a simple,
    profound thank-you. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for
    the fight you have waged. Thank you for the miles we have walked
    together these last 6 years.
        I also came here to support the merger of these three great streams
    of American labor, joining into a new river of 2 million strong.
    Throughout the 20th century, all three of you have been at the forefront
    in the struggle for human progress in America. The workers at River
    Rouge and Republic Steel shed their blood for more than their own rights
    and their own families. Their sacrifice gave all of us collective
    bargaining and the minimum wage.
        The founders and members of your three unions gave us things all
    working people now take for granted as essential elements in a humane
    society: vacations, health care, pensions, grievance procedures. You
    have continued to lead the fight for all Americans, the fight to create
    Medicare, to civil rights, to protecting our Nation against the Contract
    With America. The UAW, the steel workers, the machinists have provided
    the minds and muscles for a progressive society in our country.
        Now, in this season of renewal and rebuilding for America, the house
    of labor is growing stronger. The creation of a mighty new industrial
    union, not just a merger but a new organization, will set the stage for
    even greater progress for your members and your families and for all the
    rest of America in the 21st century.
        I believe you have an opportunity and, therefore, a duty every bit
    as real as that which was seized by the great generations that preceded
    you a half century ago. The labor pioneers had it hard. They wore their
    scars proudly. They were not always the easiest of personalities. But in
    spite of their contentiousness, I like to think that Walter Reuther,
    Philip Murray, and Thomas Talbot are up in heaven shaking hands at this
    new merger.
        I thank you all for the strong support you have given not only to me
    and the First Lady and the Vice President and our administration but to
    our Democratic Party, especially in 1998. I'll never forget the sense of
    pride I shared on election night with John Sweeney, when he was at the White House, and we realized that for
    the first time since 1822, the President's party had won seats in the
    House of Representatives in the sixth year of an administration. You
    might be interested to know that the last time that happened, in 1822,
    the other party disappeared. [Laughter] We won't be that lucky.
    [Laughter] But it certainly is a good incentive to continue the fight.
        I want to thank you for your commitment to make your voices heard,
    to advance the issues and the candidates that are pro-worker and pro-
    family. For 6 years, as George said, we've been on a journey together to
    renew our Nation, to restore the American dream. For decades, our Nation
    was buffeted by the winds of economic change. Wages for working families
    stagnated; working people fell further behind. Beginning in 1993,
    together, we put in place a new economic strategy to put our people
    first. Because of what you have done, America is working again, with the
    longest peacetime expansion in history, the lowest peacetime
    unemployment since 1957, nearly 18 million new jobs, the lowest welfare
    rolls in three decades. And finally, after three decades of stagnation,
    in just the last 3 years wages are rising at twice the rate of
    inflation.
        Things are not all as they ought to be, but clearly, at long last,
    we have begun to move aggressively in the right direction. Together, as
    has already been noted, we stood up against the congressional majority
    that was absolutely determined to strip away the victories and undermine
    the rights of working people.
        I was proud to stand with you also to defeat the ``Paycheck
    Protection Act'' in California. I was proud to stop every piece of anti-
    labor legislation sent to me by the Congress. We knew the ``TEAM Act''
    would undermine collective bargaining, so we said no. We knew the
    Republican comp-time bill would be unfair to working people, so we said
    no. We knew that safe pensions and a strong OSHA are vital to working
    people, so when Congress tried to undermine them, we said no.
        After 12 years in which my predecessors exploded deficits and
    quadrupled our national debt, all the while talking about a balanced
    budget and accusing my party and our friends in organized labor of being
    the big, irresponsible spenders, we actually balanced the budget and did
    it in the right way, while nearly doubling our investments in the
    education and training of our people, and having big increases in things
    like medical research.

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        We're in the second year of surpluses, with years and years more
    projected in the future. America is working again. But as I said in my
    State of the Union Address, this is not a time for complacency. For one
    reason, as all of you here know, especially the steel workers, we are
    living in a very dynamic and somewhat troubling international economic
    environment where things can change overnight. For another, in a world
    that is changing this fast, we have to take advantage of this moment of
    prosperity to deal with the big challenges facing America in the 21st
    century. We cannot rest until America works for every American, until
    prosperity extends to every working family in every community. America
    must do more.
        Among other things, we must remain a great industrial nation. So I'd
    like to talk to you tonight about three aspects of our challenge. First
    of all, before the baby boomers retire, and with life expectancy
    increasing at a dramatic rate, with people over 80 being the fastest
    growing part of our population in percentage terms, we must use this
    moment and this surplus to save and strengthen Social Security and
    Medicare for the 21st century.
        Now, here in Washington there is now a great debate about what to do
    with the surplus and how it should be applied, and whether, to Social
    Security and Medicare. I won't take time tonight to talk about the
    competing visions of Social Security and how we should deal with that,
    but I will work with you on that. What I want to talk about is, what
    should be our first priority with the surplus? I believe it should be to
    save Social Security and Medicare, and in so doing, to pay down the
    national debt that was quadrupled in the 12 years before I took office.
        Now, I am pleased that even though we will have our disagreements
    about what to do with Social Security, the Republican leadership in
    Congress has agreed that we should set aside 62 percent of the surplus
    to save Social Security. I think it's important that we do it in the
    right way: We should put 75 years of life on the Trust Fund; we should
    do something about elderly women whose poverty rate is twice the rate of
    seniors; and we ought to lift the earnings limit so that seniors who
    want to work can do that.
        Now, unfortunately, we do not agree on whether to set aside another
    15 percent of the surplus to save Medicare. Of course, we will have our
    disagreements about how Medicare should be reformed. I think it should
    be reformed and kept solvent for 20 years, and also, we should add a
    prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program. And I don't want to
    kid you. I think because of the numbers of people that are going to
    retire in the baby boom generation, and because we're all living longer,
    and because of medical advances which at least in their early years are
    more expensive, we will have to make some further reforms in Medicare,
    even if we do what I want.
        But if we set aside 15 percent of the surplus for the next 15 years
    for Medicare, we can at least guarantee that it's all right till 2020.
    If we don't, we'll be faced with possible changes in Medicare that could
    undermine the universality of the program and its absolute reliability
    for seniors and for the children and grandchildren of seniors who don't
    have to pay those out-of-pocket medical expenses. So this is a huge
    issue.
        Now, our friends in the other party say that we ought to just reform
    Medicare and maybe shift some of the costs to seniors--who may not be
    able to afford it--and maybe get away from Medicare as a defined benefit
    program. I am against that. I do not want to see Medicare turned from a
    defined benefit program into a defined contribution program.
        But think of what we can do if we set aside part of this surplus,
    which will allow us to pay down even more of our debt and put 20 years
    on the Medicare Trust Fund's life, and then we can figure out how to
    make what other changes need to be made to strengthen the program and
    how to add the prescription drug program.
        Now, that will cost more money in the short run, but over the long
    run, adding the prescription drug benefit will cut down on doctor
    visits; will cut down on hospital costs; will cut down on critical care
    costs, because with all these advances in medical research, people will
    be able to stay healthier. The best way to cut down on the cost of the
    Medicare program is to keep seniors healthier for longer periods of
    time, and the medicine will help us to do that.
        I believe the American people should have some tax relief out of
    this surplus, but I think we should save Social Security and Medicare
    first. Then I think we should focus the tax relief on helping working
    people and the middle class begin to save from their first day on the
    job, so they will have a piece of this enormous

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    wealth that America has enjoyed in the last 6 years. That's what our USA
    accounts, our Universal Savings Accounts, will do.
        So the choice the American people will face is our plan, which
    invests the surplus for tomorrow and focuses the tax relief on working
    families and the need to save, and theirs, which spends a lot more of
    the surplus today. Ours favors savings; theirs favors consumption. Ours
    focuses tax relief on the middle class, and theirs--well, theirs is a
    Republican tax plan. [Laughter]
        I think at least this administration and our leaders in Congress
    ought to be entitled to the benefit of the doubt, based on the
    performance of the economy in the last 6 years. Their economic theory
    gave us 12 years of rising deficits and declining incomes. Our economic
    strategy has given us growth and surpluses. When I took office, the
    national debt had risen to one-half our annual income. If we adopt my
    plan for the surplus, in 15 years, it will be just 7 percent of our
    annual income. That's the lowest it's been since right before we entered
    World War I in 1917.
        What that means in practical terms to you is that when I took
    office, we were spending over 14 cents of every dollar you paid in taxes
    just to make our interest payments on the debt. In 15 years that will be
    down to 2 cents on the dollar. The rest can be spent on you and your
    children and your future. And within 18 years, the United States of
    America would be debt-free.
        Think of it: If we just have the discipline to do the right thing--
    and I'll say more in a minute why it's good for the economy--we could
    save Social Security for 75 years, save Medicare for 20 years, and get
    the United States of America out of debt. I think that is the right
    thing to do.
        But I don't want to pretend that their plan won't sound good, sound
    sweet, and sound simple. All I ask you is to look at the performance of
    our country in the last 6 years and give us the benefit of the doubt and
    support us. Let's save Social Security. Let's not let Medicare be
    dissolved. Let's not let it be changed fundamentally in its character.
    And let's pay down this debt to keep America's economy strong.
        Now, the second thing we have to do is to keep the economy growing
    and to deal with crises as they occur. We have to have a strategy to
    keep the global economy working for Americans, as well as to increase
    the economic development here at home.
        For the first 5 years of my Presidency, 30 percent of our economic
    growth came from increasing exports, and manufacturing employment in
    America increased. But last year, because of the global financial
    crisis, which has left Russia, most of Asia, in a deep recession, and
    has slowed growth dramatically in most of Latin America, the
    manufacturing sector in our country was hit very hard. We saw many, many
    jobs lost, and we know many more than those that were lost are still
    threatened. Industrial America is hurting now.
        I have worked hard to limit this global financial crisis, to try to
    right the things that are out of whack, to help our trading partners
    return to economic growth in a healthy way so that they could buy our
    products instead of dump on our markets. We need a 21st century
    financial and trading system that limits the cycle of boom and bust,
    that strengthens social safety nets, that works for ordinary working
    people and their families in every country. In short, the United States
    must lead a crusade to put a more human face on the global economy.
        While we are doing that--and I expect to spend an enormous amount of
    time this year working on that, so that we can reduce the likelihood
    that we'll have years in the future like the last year has been--we
    cannot let other economies' difficulties be a justification or an excuse
    for them to violate trade laws and engage in unfair trade practices.
        Make no mistake about it. It was not economic difficulty and the
    declining value of currency which made foreign goods cheaper, which
    precipitated the present crisis in steel. This was not an ordinary
    economic event. We know it was the result of unfair trade practices. We
    have used tools that are unprecedented in this kind of dispute to
    respond.
        The Secretary of Commerce speeded up
    consideration of the dumping cases. We just announced that both Japan
    and Brazil have been dumping steel into our markets. We've put them on
    notice that the surge in exports is unacceptable, and this means that
    anyone who imports steel from Japan or Brazil must pay large deposits or
    post substantial bonds to the U.S. Customs Service. Paying these duties
    will likely reduce further unfair steel imports from these countries.

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        We've also made it clear to Korea in no uncertain terms that they
    cannot fill the void with unfair trade practices, and so far they have
    been responsive, though we'll continue to watch it closely. As you know,
    we're in negotiations with Russia on a comprehensive agreement to reduce
    their steel exports to the United States.
        The goal of all these actions is to get imports back to their pre-
    crisis level when our steel industry was competing just fine with
    everybody in the world. And again, if we have a fair policy and we don't
    have unfair penetration, that will happen. Now, I know that for a lot of
    hard-pressed plants, workers, families, communities, these trade laws
    work too slowly. But we are accelerating the pace at which they will
    work to the maximum ability to do so. December numbers show a 32 percent
    decline in steel imports across the board, a 67 percent decline in hot-
    rolled steel.
        Now, I would just like to make one observation about that. For all
    those people who said that all these imports were just the product of
    ordinary economic activity and, therefore, we shouldn't do anything, the
    fact that they could cut hot-rolled steel exports from their countries
    to us 67 percent in one month pretty well destroyed the argument that it
    was ordinary economic activity that led to them in the first place.
        In the case of Japan, we have made it clear that if their exports
    don't return to pre-crisis levels, we're prepared to take appropriate
    action, including self-initiation of trade cases, something that is
    almost unprecedented. I will work very closely with you as we move
    forward. This has been a tough year for the steel workers and for many
    other manufacturing workers. We need to do more. And we will keep at it
    until we turn the crisis around.
        The challenge we face, however, goes beyond steel. We have to make
    sure that the world economy works for everyone. As George said in his
    opening remarks, we've had some disagreements about this in the past.
    Trade has divided Americans for a long time. I want you to know,
    however, that I am determined to do whatever I can to find common ground
    on this issue that will enable labor and business, environmentalists and
    government in the United States to work together.
        I support open markets because it has given us higher incomes and
    more jobs, and for the first time in anyone's memory, now the United
    States has the lowest unemployment rate in the industrialized world,
    even lower than Japan. No one can remember a time when that was the
    case. It's been a very, very long time.
        Now, the right kind of trade is good for working families. And when
    a financial crisis hits our trading partners, we can see the devastating
    effect it has on them and on others here at home. But again I say we
    can't allow international economic competition or adversity elsewhere to
    become a race to the bottom here at home or in any other country.
        My goal has got to be to level the world up, not level it down. That
    means we have to press for more open markets that have stronger
    safeguards for workers, not weaker ones, for health and safety, for
    children, for a clean environment. A trade that honors the rights of
    workers and the dignity of work, that respects core labor rights. We
    have to do that.
        We should do more not only through the trade framework but with the
    international labor organizations to raise labor standards around the
    world and to lead the world community to conclude a treaty that bans
    child labor everywhere in the world.
        Now, if we save Social Security and Medicare, if we can keep the
    economy going in the midst of all these troubles, the third thing that
    we have to do is to make sure that the economy works for all of our
    people and that adversity can be quickly overcome. If we can't do it
    now, when will we ever do it? That's why we ought to increase the
    minimum wage again. Ten million working families need it, and we ought
    to do it.
        That's why we should expand the family and medical leave law to
    cover 10 million more workers and their families. It is not broad enough
    in its coverage. If we can't afford it now, when will we ever get around
    to doing it?
        And that's why we have to recognize, also, that there are people in
    this country, in urban communities and rural areas, who have not felt
    any upturn in the last 6 years. That's what my new markets initiative is
    all about.
        You know, we have all kinds of devices to help encourage Americans
    to invest in developing countries overseas, that aren't present here.
    One of the things that I have proposed is an ``American Private
    Investment Company,'' modeled on our Overseas Private Investment
    Corporation, that would enable us to give both tax credits and loan
    guarantees to people who

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    would invest in high unemployment areas in America, to put in new plants
    and new businesses, to create new markets and new jobs.
        Let me just give you an example of how it would work, because I'm
    going to need your help to pass this. New York City--while America has a
    4.4 percent unemployment rate, the unemployment rate in New York City is
    about 9 percent. Now, when you consider how low it is in some places in
    New York City, that means in a lot of big urban centers, it's well over
    10 percent. If this whole plan passes, and a group of people got
    together, for example, under these laws that I have proposed, to spend
    $300 million and open a plant in a high unemployment area in Brooklyn or
    the Bronx, or they wanted to--to use Congressman Rangel's favorite
    example--they wanted to rehabilitate Yankee Stadium instead of moving it
    away and hire construction workers who live in the Bronx to do it--
    suppose they wanted to do that. Under our plan, if this law passes, they
    put up $300 million; the first $100 million, they get a 25 percent tax
    credit for. The second $200 million, they'd have a loan guarantee for,
    which means they'd only have $75 million at risk for the $300 million
    investment.
        That's a good deal. The best untapped markets for American business
    are here in America, and it will lower everybody else's threshold of
    anxiety; it will create economic opportunity. It's good for the steel
    workers. It's good for the machinists. It's good for the auto workers,
    because if those people have jobs, they'll buy more of everything. And I
    want you to help me pass it.
        I also ask you to help me strengthen our education system, to finish
    the job of cutting class sizes by putting 100,000 new teachers into our
    schools, to pass our proposal to build or modernize 6,000 schools.
        And I ask you to do something that will be quite controversial. I
    hope you will support me in this. Every 5 years, we pass an
    authorization law which sets the terms under which we give our tax money
    back to public schools. And it's about $15 billion a year now that we
    give to schools to help them do their work. We now know--from teachers,
    from principals, from parents, from students themselves, from worlds of
    research--what works in the schools and what doesn't. We know that every
    problem in American education has been solved by somebody somewhere. But
    we know something else: Our kids, a representative sample of our kids--
    represented by race, income, and region--scores at the top of the world
    in the 4th grade math and science tests, drops to the middle of the
    world by the 8th grade, and is nearly at the bottom by the 12th.
        Now, those children do not get dumber as they get older. That means
    we are not doing well enough by them, and we have to do better. We have
    to make sure all these kids can read well when they're in elementary
    school no matter what their family background or where their folks came
    from.
        So I say, we need to change the terms in which we give out this
    money, not because the Federal Government makes it up in a room
    somewhere but because the schools have told us what works. We ought to
    end social promotion, but we ought to do it by saying we want to end
    social promotion, but we don't want to declare the kids failures because
    the system's failing them. So we ought to provide more funds for summer
    school programs, for after-school programs, for tutors--keep the kids
    out of trouble, off the streets, in the schools learning, but make sure
    they know something when they go from grade to grade.
        The teachers organizations have asked us repeatedly to make one
    requirement that every school has not only a written, reasonable
    discipline policy but can prove it's being enforced. That's important.
        They ought to identify schools that are failing and turn them down
    or shut them down. Every State that's done this has found that they
    hardly have to shut any schools down, because they get turned around
    once they know that they're going to be shut down unless they do turn
    around.
        These are elemental things that have worked in community after
    community after community. I think parents ought to get a report card on
    every school, every year, that their children are in. I think if we do
    these things, you'll be amazed at the results we'll have 5 years from
    now, when we have to reauthorize this aid again.
        But this will be real controversial. Some people will say it's too
    tough on the kids that come from poor backgrounds. I think that's
    selling them short. They can do just fine, if they have good schools.
    And I'll tell you something, if they get out of school without a good
    education, the world's going to be real tough on them. And so we need to
    help them.

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        And then some of our friends in the other party will say, ``Well,
    here's the President trying to micromanage the schools. We just want to
    give them the money. We're not trying to tell the schools what to do.''
    Well, that would be true if I had just sat in my office one day and come
    up with this and thought it sounded good. This is what the people at the
    grassroots level have said and done and proved works. And it is simply
    wrong for us to keep subsidizing failure when we can invest in success.
    So I ask you to help us.
        Just two other things, very quickly: I want you to help me this year
    do what we didn't do last year and pass a strong, enforceable Patients'
    Bill of Rights. Now, a lot of you know--a lot of you know, or you're
    about to find out in very difficult ways, that after years of moderate
    inflation in health care costs those premiums are going up again, even
    for managed care. And if you're going to pay for health care, you ought
    to be able to get health care. If you need to see a specialist, you
    ought to be able to see one. If you have options for health care, you
    ought to know what your options are. If you're in another town and you
    get hit in an accident, you ought to be able to go to the nearest
    emergency room, not one that's halfway across town. If you're in the
    middle of treatment with a doctor, you ought to be able to continue the
    treatment even if you change health care providers. These are elemental
    things.
        The last thing I want to say, if you want the economy to work for
    everybody--I want to come back to something I said before--I know this
    is an alien concept; if I had been running for President in 1992--and
    many of you did so much for me--and I said, look, you vote for me and 6
    years from now I'll be coming back to you telling you what great things
    will happen if we pay down the national debt, you would have decided
    that I needed a trip to a doctor, not to be elected President. But we
    can talk about that now.
        We want the economy to work for everyone. You don't know what's
    going to happen beyond our borders. I am doing my best to turn this
    situation around, to do everything I can to make sure we don't have
    another year like the year we just had in the global economy, with all
    the trade problems and other things that came down on us. But if, God
    forbid, we continue to have these kinds of problems, don't we want the
    strongest demand we have here at home? Don't we want to be able to--and
    if we do more to protect our markets from unfair trade practices, then
    it still means that we're going to have to generate more economic
    activity here at home.
        If you pay down the debt, what will happen? Interest rates will stay
    down, much lower than they otherwise would, no matter what happens
    around the world. That means lower home mortgage payments; it means
    lower car payments; it means lower business loans; it means lower
    student loans; it means lower credit card payments. It means greater
    investment in the American economy, more jobs, and lower prices and
    higher consumption. That's what it means.
        Now, I do not know what is going to happen everywhere in the world
    in the next 2 years, much less after I'm gone. But I know this: If
    you'll go along with this and you'll help me do this, for the next 15
    years, every single year the interest rates in America and the economy
    in America will be in better shape, no matter what happens, than they
    would have been if we don't do it and we give away this money right now.
    So I ask you to help me do this. This is a right thing to do for the
    United States of America.
        Finally, let me just say there are a lot of changes going on in the
    world. No one can predict the future with any certainty. Tell you the
    truth, it's all worked out a little better, until this last rough patch
    in the road for us, than I thought it would when I was running. But I
    knew we were doing the right things.
        One of the things we know is, if we put the American people first--
    if we think about how people can balance work and family, if we think
    about how we can preserve the dignity of work, if we think about how we
    can give every child the right to live up to his or her God-given
    capacity--if we do the right things, then in the tough times we'll do
    better than we otherwise would have, and in the good times we'll soar.
        The American labor movement has helped this country to do the right
    things year-in and year-out, decade-in and decade-out. In joining
    together, I am convinced you have done the right thing for your members
    and their families for the 21st century. And I am convinced that you
    will do the right things for America.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

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    Note: The President spoke at 6:45 p.m. in Hall A at the Washington
    Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to R. Thomas
    Buffenbarger, international president, International Association of
    Machinists (IAM); Ruben Burks, secretary-treasurer, and Stephen P.
    Yokich, president, United Auto Workers (UAW); George Becker, president,
    United Steel Workers Association (USWA), who introduced the President;
    and John J. Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO. The IAM, UAW, and USWA had
    pledged in 1996 to unify by the year 2000.