[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[July 27, 2000]
[Pages 1479-1481]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on the Legislative Agenda
July 27, 2000
The President. Well, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, on behalf
of all of us, I want to apologize--please be seated--for keeping you
waiting. But these are the closing hours of the congressional session,
before the August recess. And Senator Daschle and Leader Gephardt and
the other Members of Congress have come here today to speak with one
voice about our position. But Congress is packing up and preparing to
adjourn for the summer recess and the two conventions. And I only wish
we were late because they'd been out there passing our bills. [Laughter]
Let me say, we're here because we believe the congressional
Republican leadership is leaving town with a trunk full of unfinished
business vital to the health of our economy and the well-being of our
people. We spent the last 7 years charting a course of fiscal discipline
and investment in our people, and it has paid off, with the longest
economic expansion in history, over 22 million new jobs, the lowest
minority unemployment rate in our history, the lowest unemployment rate
in 30 years.
Instead of continuing on that path in the last few weeks, indeed,
for the last year, the Republican majority has risked squandering our
progress. They have passed reckless tax cut after reckless tax cut after
reckless tax cut, to drain away our hard-earned surplus and put us back
in the red. When you add them all up, this Congress has passed tax bills
that would cost nearly $2 trillion over 10 years. Even by the most
optimistic estimates, this wouldn't leave a dime for lengthening the
life of Social Security or Medicare--not one dime; not a dime for
voluntary and affordable Medicare prescription drug benefits or for
education and school construction. And it would make it impossible for
us to get America out of debt by 2012.
There is a better way. We can do all the things I just mentioned and
still give the American people needed, targeted tax relief. Let me be
clear. We do support the right kind of tax cuts for working Americans. I
have proposed a program of cuts that will give a middle class American
family substantially more benefits than the Republican plan at less than
half the cost; two-thirds of the relief going to the middle 60 percent
of our people, including our carefully targeted marriage penalty relief.
The tax cuts will also help families save up to $2,800 a year on the
cost of college by making tuition tax deductible; a $3,000 long-term
care tax credit to help millions of Americans shoulder the enormous
financial burden of caring for chronically ill family members; and a tax
cut that will help millions of families pay up to $2,400 a year for
child care; to expand the EITC, providing up to $1,100 of tax relief for
millions of hard-working families.
Today we have more evidence that our plan will help more of the
people who really need it. We're releasing a State-by-State analysis,
showing that the estate tax repeal, recently passed by the Republican
majority, would benefit only about 2 percent of America's families--the
wealthiest 2 percent, of course--providing them of an average tax cut of
$800,000. And fully half those benefits would go to just one-tenth of
one percent of all Americans.
Let me hasten to say the Democrats offered an alternative which
would have taken two-thirds of the people subject to the estate tax out
from under it but would have left its progressive character, not
repealed it entirely, and not cost the budget $100 billion over the
first 10 years and $750 billion thereafter.
In contrast to these proposals, our Medicare prescription drug
benefit would provide affordable coverage for 39 million seniors and
people with disabilities, with average incomes of about $20,000 a year.
This report clearly shows that our approach put the interest of American
families first and ensures that the Nation's unprecedented prosperity
benefits everyone.
Let me just mention one other thing. I never want to talk about this
without mentioning--
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we also have a report from the Council of Economic Advisers estimating
that if our economic proposals are followed--as opposed to theirs giving
all this money away with the tax cuts--interest rates will be one
percent lower over the next decade. That is the equivalent of a $250
billion tax cut for home mortgages. It's the equivalent of a $30 billion
tax cut for lower car payments and college loan payments.
There is a huge difference here that the American people have to
understand. I think the Republican majority ought to go to work in the
time we have left this year on the people's business.
So when they go off on vacation, the congressional majority should
take a long list of required summer reading, a list of what we need to
get done when they come back to Washington: to strengthen and modernize
Social Security and Medicare and add that prescription drug benefit; to
stand up to special interest and pass a strong and enforceable Patients'
Bill of Rights; to pass commonsense gun legislation to close the gun
show loophole, require child safety locks for all handguns, ban the
importation of large capacity ammunition clips; to raise the minimum
wage by $1 over 2 years; to continue hiring those 100,000 teachers; to
reduce class sizes in the early grades; to improve teacher quality; to
modernize 6,000 of our schools that are literally falling apart and
repair another 5,000 a year; and to provide after-school programs and
summer school programs for all the kids in this country who need it so
that we can turn around those failing schools; and we need to stop the
delay and pass strong hate crimes legislation.
This is not a list to be read; it's a list to be acted upon.
[Applause] Thank you. I hope when Congress comes back, they'll do it.
Again, I want to thank all the Members that are here, and another 40 or
50 or so that wanted to come, but because of the way the timetable and
the voting is unfolding, they can't.
I'm going to modify the program just a little bit and ask Senator
Daschle to come forward, because he's got
to get back to make sure we don't lose any more votes.
Senator Daschle.
[At this point, Senator Thomas A. Daschle
and Representative Richard A. Gephardt
made brief remarks.]
The President. Debbie, I want to ask
your parents and all your siblings and family members to stand.
Everybody that is here from Debbie's family, stand up. Isn't that great?
[Applause] Bless you.
I just want to make a couple of points in closing. If the Congress
passed only our college opportunity tax cut, it would be worth 10 times
as much to families like Debbie's as the
entire Republican tax cut.
The second thing I want to say is, if interest rates rise one
percent higher than they otherwise would be because we spend the entire
surplus on tax cuts, it will cost the average family $270 a year, which
is more than they'll get in a tax cut.
The final thing I want to say is this. Even if you don't think
you'll get any benefits out of any of these tax cuts we've proposed--
keep in mind, all this proposed surplus that they want to spend is just
that; it's estimated. We don't have a dollar of it yet.
Now, if you got one of those letters in the mail from Ed McMahon--
[laughter]--that said, you may have won $10 million, would you go out
and spend $10 million the next day? If you would, you should support
their plan. [Laughter] But if you wouldn't, you better stick with us and
keep the prosperity going and help people like Debbie.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 3:10 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to George Washington University
student Debbie Boudoulvas, who described how proposed tax legislation
would benefit her family; and Ed McMahon, Publishers Clearing House
Sweepstakes spokesperson. The President also referred to EITC, the
earned-income tax credit. The transcript released by the Office of the
Press Secretary also included the remarks of Senator Daschle and
Representative Gephardt.
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