    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [July 17, 1999]
    [Pages 1241-1243]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    July 17, 1999

        Good morning. I want to talk to you today about a great debate now
    underway in Washington, the debate over how best to use America's
    recordbreaking budget surpluses. That we can even have this debate is
    remarkable. Just remember, 6\1/2\ years ago, when I first became
    President, we faced budget deficits that were $290 billion and rising.
    In the previous 12 years,

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    those deficits had quadrupled the total debt of America.
        But beginning in 1993, we put in place a new economic strategy of
    fiscal discipline, coupled with greater investments in areas like
    education, training, and technology. That strategy has helped to produce
    a private sector-led economic expansion of historic proportions. It's
    also produced not only a balanced budget but budget surpluses of $99
    billion this year and a projected surplus over the next 10 years of
    about $2.9 trillion, including Social Security taxes.
        Now, America must decide how best to use the fruits of our hard
    work. I believe we should stay with the fiscal discipline that got us
    here and invest the surplus to meet our long-term challenges. That's why
    I've proposed that we set aside the vast bulk of this surplus to protect
    and secure Social Security and Medicare and to modernize Medicare by
    adding a long-overdue prescription drug benefit.
        By saving most of the surplus for Medicare and Social Security, we
    can also pay off all our publicly held debt by the year 2015. That would
    make America debt-free for the first time since 1835. What would that
    mean? It would mean lower interest rates, more business investments,
    more jobs, higher wages, lower car payments, lower house payments, lower
    credit card payments, lower student loan payments.
        Now, my balanced budget would do this, while increasing investments
    in areas like education, technology, the environment, and defense. It
    would also offer a quarter of a trillion dollars in targeted tax cuts to
    help middle income families meet the crucial needs for child care, for
    long-term care for aging relatives, for saving for their own retirement,
    and tax cuts for inducing people to invest in building modern schools or
    rehabilitating those that exist now, and for investing in the areas of
    our country which have not yet fully participated in our recovery.
        But my plan puts first things first. It says, first strengthen
    Social Security and Medicare and pay down the debt, take care of the
    baby boom retirement, take care of our families and our children, take
    care of the long-term challenges to America. Then, we can allocate the
    rest of the surplus for other spending priorities like education and for
    tax cuts.
        Unfortunately, the plan the Republican leadership put forward this
    week does not do that. Their plan would devote virtually all the non-
    Social Security surplus, nearly $1 trillion, to a tax cut, while failing
    to extend the solvency of Social Security and Medicare even by a single
    day. The plan also doesn't go far enough in paying down the debt, which
    will mean higher interest rates and a weaker economy down the road, and
    it would force drastic cuts in areas where we should be investing more.
        In education, for instance, I've proposed an education and
    children's trust fund that will, among other things, guarantee our
    ability to hire 100,000 new highly trained teachers to lower class size
    in the early grades. Yet early next week, the House Republicans will
    offer legislation that would go back on the bipartisan commitment both
    Republicans and Democrats made just last year to the American people to
    hire those 100,000 new teachers. We've hired 30,000 now, or we've given
    the States and school districts the money to do that. We shouldn't go
    back on a commitment that we made last year; that's the wrong way to go.
    But that isn't the worst of it.
        Republican leaders have estimated their tax plan would cost more
    than three-quarters of a trillion dollars between now and the year 2010.
    What they haven't said is what it would cost after 2010 when the baby
    boomers retire and the need for revenues for Social Security and
    Medicare will be most acute. Earlier this week, I asked the Treasury
    Department to analyze the Republican plan's long-term impact. And the
    answer I've received is quite disturbing.
        According to the Treasury Department's preliminary estimate, the
    costs of the Republican plan will explode between the year 2010 and 2019
    from $1 trillion a decade to an unimaginable $3 trillion. At the very
    time the Nation will be confronting the demographic challenge of the
    baby boom, the Republican plan will blow a $3 trillion hole in the
    Federal budget, threatening our ability to secure Social Security and
    Medicare for the next generation and risking return to the era of
    deficits with high interest rates and economic stagnation.
        Tax cuts that size quite simply are bad economic policy. It's bad
    not to save Social Security and Medicare; it's bad not to pay the debt
    off. It is certainly bad to cut education at a time when it's more
    important to our children's future than ever.
        So I say to Congress: Put first things first. Set aside most of the
    surplus for Social Security and Medicare. Make sure we invest enough in

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    education. Then, together, we can budget for the kind of tax cuts we
    need and can afford while we pay off the debt and guarantee a strong
    America in the 21st century.
        This is a very good time for our country. We're on the right path;
    let's stay on it, use our surplus wisely, think about our children's
    future. Then the 21st century will be America's best days.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 3:30 p.m. on July 16 in Room 136 at
    Amos Hiatt Middle School in Des Moines, IA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m.
    on July 17. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on July 16 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.