[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[September 27, 1999]
[Pages 1603-1605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the National Economy and an Exchange With Reporters
September 27, 1999

    The President. Good morning. In a few moments I will be leaving for 
Louisiana. But before I depart, I want to say a few words about the 
course we're charting for America's future.
    Seven years ago, when I ran for President, it was a time of low 
growth, high interest rates, and high unemployment, a vicious cycle 
driven by deepening deficits. Irresponsible policies had quadrupled our 
national debt and risked our future. Vice President Gore and I took 
office determined to change all that. We put in place a new strategy for 
the new economy, one founded on fiscal discipline, expanded trade, and 
investment in our people and modern technology.
    The success of that strategy now is clearer than ever. By balancing 
the budget, we put in motion a virtuous cycle of budget surpluses, low 
interest rates, and low unemployment. For business, this makes it easier 
to invest, to create jobs, wealth, and opportunity. And for working 
people, lower interest rates makes it easier to own a home, afford a 
car, send a child to college.
    Today we received more good news that our strategy is working. 
According to the Office of Management and Budget, this year's budget 
surplus will be at least--I'm going to write this in; enjoy it--at least 
$115 billion. This triple-digit surplus is larger than projected, larger 
than last year's, and larger, in fact, than any dollar surplus in the 
history of the United States. It is a landmark achievement for our 
economy. And when you consider where we were just 7 years ago, it's as 
great an American comeback as the Ryder Cup was yesterday. It is further 
proof that we're on the right road to prosperity.
    Our Nation has come a long way in a short time. In 1992 the budget 
deficit was $290 billion, projected to rise above $400 billion this 
year. Instead, as you can see, we have posted back-to-back surpluses for 
2 years in a row, and believe it or not, that's the first time this has 
happened since 1957. Now, in 1957, well, that was the year John Lennon 
first met Paul McCartney, and the Braves won the World Series--not the 
Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Braves.
    Our prosperity now gives us an unprecedented opportunity and an 
unprecedented responsibility to shape America's future by putting first 
things first, by moving forward with an economic strategy that is 
successful and sound, and by meeting America's long-term challenges. In 
that spirit, I have asked the Republicans in Congress not to throw in 
the towel but to work with me and congressional Democrats to do the work 
the people elected us to do: to save Social Security with a lockbox that 
extends in solvency until 2050, to strengthen and modernize Medicare 
with a long-overdue prescription drug benefit, to invest in world-class 
education for our children, and to protect important priorities, from 
national security to the environment and agriculture to medical research 
and modern technology to investment incentives for rural and urban areas 
that have not yet been touched by our prosperity.
    We can do all that and still have an affordable tax cut for the 
middle class and pay down our

[[Page 1604]]

debt so that by 2015, we are debt-free for the first time since 1835 
when Andrew Jackson was President. I will work with members of both 
parties to fulfill these fundamental obligations to our people and to 
our future. I hope they will work with me.
    Thank you very much.

Appropriations Legislation Veto

    Q. Mr. President----
    Q. Will you veto Republican spending bills if they exceed the caps?
    The President. Well, I gave them a budget, of course, that did not 
break the caps, but it would require them to raise some revenues from 
tobacco. But the main thing that I would say is, I want them to work 
with me to meet our fundamental priorities. We can give the American 
people an honest, credible budget that extends the life of Social 
Security and Medicare, meets our responsibilities in education and other 
important areas, and leaves us free to pay down that debt and to put 
America on a target to be debt-free in the next 15 years. I hope they 
will work with me in that spirit.
    We have to come together and work together to get anything done, and 
we can do that. I cite these examples over and over again, but the 
Welfare Reform Act in 1996, coming on top of the initiatives we had 
taken in the previous 3 years, has now given us the lowest welfare rolls 
in 32 years; and the Balanced Budget Act completed the work of the 
economic package of 1993, and we now have this $115 billion surplus. So 
the American people know we can do things together, and that's how we're 
going to have to do this.

Social Security

    Q. Do you still plan to offer a plan to reform Social Security? The 
White House had promised more than a year ago that there would be one 
after the last election.
    The President. We have met several times, as you probably know, at 
various levels with Members in the House, and we have tried to get close 
to an agreement on that. The reason I said what I said today is that if 
they would just agree to my plan on paying down the debt and then 
dedicating a few years of the interest savings by locking up the Social 
Security taxes, which would happen a few years in the future, but if 
they would agree to do that, then that, alone, would extend the life of 
Social Security to 2050, which would take us out beyond the life 
expectancy of all but the most fortunate baby boomers. So I would hope 
that at least we could do that.
    Obviously, I would like to do more, and we're still working on that. 
But at the minimum, we could do this.

Working With Congress

    Q. Sir, there's every indication Republicans will not work with you. 
But in the meantime, where does the American taxpayer stand in this 
battle between your rock and their hard place?
    The President. Oh, I think if the past is any measure, one way or 
the other, the taxpayers are going to be all right, because we can do 
pretty well by conflict, I suppose, and eventually drag this out to 
where we've at least got a decent education budget and we're still 
paying down the debt. But they have to work with me if we're going to 
extend the life of Medicare and Social Security and do some of these 
other very important things.
    I'm not pessimistic; we've still got plenty of time. I know it's 
almost the end of the fiscal year, but they know how to extend that; 
they've done that several times by passing a continuing resolution, and 
there's still plenty of time to do this, and I hope they'll do it with 
me.

Indonesia-U.S. Relations

    Q. Mr. President, will our relations with Indonesia remain the same 
while they're torturing the villages?
    The President. Will their what?
    Q. Will relations with Indonesia remain the same as the villages are 
being tortured--torched, torched, sorry.
    The President. They've already been somewhat altered, as you know, 
by the cessation of military cooperation, and obviously our 
relationships with them will have to be dictated by the course of their 
conduct. As you know, they have a somewhat unusual system where they 
have elections. They had elections several weeks ago, but they still 
haven't settled on who the new leader of the country will be.
    This is a time of great instability and uncertainty for them. We 
should stand against those actions which violate human rights and which 
are wrong, but we should also hope that both stability and humane 
policies will be returned to Indonesia as soon as possible. It is a very

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large country with 200 million people, the largest Muslim country in the 
world and capable, as we have seen periodically over the last few years, 
of enormous progress and capable of playing an important, positive role 
in the future of Asia, and that's what I hope and pray will happen. But 
it will require responsible leadership from Indonesia, as well as 
appropriate responses from the United States and others.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:11 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former Beatles Paul McCartney and 
the late John Lennon.