[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 29 (Monday, July 26, 1993)]
[Pages 1428-1430]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the American Legion Girls Nation

 July 22, 1993

    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please be seated. 
It's wonderful

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to have you in the Rose Garden today. As I think all of you probably 
know, I, myself, owe a great deal to the American Legion for sponsoring 
this wonderful program that teaches our young people so much about our 
country and the responsibilities of citizenship. Boys Nation made a 
major impact on my life and very much inspired the career that I 
subsequently pursued in public service. Like many of you, I was just a 
high school student from a fairly small town--I had never been to 
Washington before, and I never knew whether I'd ever get to come--when I 
stood here, right over there in that corner 30 years ago this week and 
had the opportunity to hear President Kennedy speak.
    I was reviewing an article in a paper from that week before I came 
out here to speak with you, and I noted that when President Kennedy 
spoke to our group, he actually got into some hot water by saying that 
our group, in adopting a civil rights resolution in the early sixties, 
had acted more responsibly than the Nation's Governors who were meeting 
at the same time. He said we had shown more initiative than the 
Governors. Well, we loved it, but somehow the Governors didn't.
    And so I would say to you, I don't want to make any other group mad, 
but I hope you today will leave here with a real sense of initiative. 
It's very important not only that we have convictions and feelings and 
concerns but that we act on them. Every program that I have pursued, 
every challenge I have laid down has been animated by a desire to get 
the American people to assume more responsibility for themselves and 
their neighbors, to offer more opportunity to all people, and to rebuild 
a sense of community, a sense that we are all in this together, that we 
share a common destiny, and that we will be more likely to achieve our 
individual capacities if we work together.
    With the help of young people all across the country, we were able 
to pass and we had a wonderful signing ceremony on the motor voter bill, 
which many of you will be familiar with, which makes it much easier for 
people to register and vote. Together with other groups of young people, 
again from all over America, we are on the verge of passing an historic 
bill for national service that will make it possible for millions of 
young people to get much lower interest college loans and pay them back 
on more favorable terms and, over the next few years, for hundreds of 
thousands of them to work off a portion of their loans by giving some 
service to their community, either before, during, or after college. 
This will help to build America by strengthening the bonds of community, 
offering people the chance to take more responsibility for their own 
lives, and really creating opportunity that wasn't there before.
    We're also trying to improve your future by cutting the Federal 
deficit by $500 billion over the next 5 years. In 1980, the entire debt 
of our country amassed since George Washington became President was $1 
trillion. From 1980 to 1992, that debt grew to about $4 trillion, 
quadrupling in only 12 years. Now, when a problem like this gets that 
severe, you can't solve it all at once. The spending cuts and tax 
increases it would take just to do away with the deficit in 4 years 
would be so severe as to undermine our economic recovery. But we're in a 
box. If we don't move on the deficit now, we can't have any economic 
recovery, either. And because of the progress which has been made, 
interest rates are coming down, and we're moving forward.
    You should know that you're not only moving into a time when the 
global economy offers you unparalleled, exciting opportunities but where 
it also presents some mysteries to us that no one quite understands. For 
example, almost all of the wealthy countries are having difficulty 
creating new jobs, even when their economy is growing and certainly when 
the economy is not. And so this economic program that I have offered not 
only seeks to reduce the deficit by cutting spending and raising taxes, 
70 percent of which will fall on people with incomes above $200,000, it 
also seeks to help people to create jobs. Ninety percent of the small 
businesses in America will be eligible for a tax cut under this plan if 
they invest more money in their businesses to create jobs--new 
opportunities for people to avoid higher income taxes, but only if they 
invest in companies that will create jobs. We have got to find a way to 
make sure that if all of you go to college and all your classmates go to 
college and everybody plays by the rules, there will be

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something for them to do when the effort is over.
    Thirty years ago, when the delegates from Girls Nation came to the 
White House in the same summer that I was here, my next-door neighbor 
represented our State at Girls Nation. It was a great thrill for me, and 
she's still one of my closest friends. Just last week when I went home, 
she got some of our high school friends together, and they and all their 
children, there must have been 30 of us in her home having dinner 
together. And when she was here where you are, President Kennedy told 
the young women there assembled that it might be possible for one of 
them to become President, but it was not likely. And almost as a 
consolation prize, he said, ``At least I'm sure I'm talking to a future 
First Lady.'' Well, today a lot of things have changed. First of all, I 
think that it is a very honorable thing to be the First Lady. Some day 
there will be a First Man. And I think it is not unlikely that 30 years 
from now the delegates from Girls Nation may well be in the Rose Garden 
being addressed by a woman President who is in this crowd today.
    Again, let me wish you well, and thank you for coming here. Let me 
tell you that the 30 years that have passed since I sat where you are 
today have passed in the flash of an eye, that I hope for all of you a 
rich and full life, and I would encourage you to focus on the point I 
made earlier: You came here to learn about your country, your history, 
your opportunities, and your responsibilities as citizens. None of it 
matters very much unless you not only think and feel but also act.
    Good luck, and God bless you.
    Let me also say, I'm going to embarrass somebody who's here maybe a 
little bit. There are other things in life after a Girls Nation or Boys 
Nation than being President. I just learned that my military aide came 
to Girls Nation. Raise your hand. This is Major Michelle Johnson, the 
United States Air Force. She is from Iowa, graduate of the Air Force 
Academy, Rhodes scholar, terrific athlete. I told her someday I was sure 
I'd be saluting her and calling her general. So that also is something 
that you might do with your life that you couldn't have done perhaps a 
few years ago.
    I'd like to now ask Joann Cronin to come up and take over the 
program.

[At this point, the President was presented with gifts.]

    I saw the first resolution was the sex education one. That's one I 
said I was for. You may know that tomorrow the hearing begins on the 
appointment I made of an African-American doctor, the director of the 
department of health in my home State, to be the Surgeon General of the 
United States. And we caused a lot of controversy because we tried to 
promote comprehensive family education, parenting education, and we did 
our best to reduce the scourge of teenage pregnancy in our State, not by 
denying it but by embracing the challenge. And I appreciate the 
resolution that you sent. I will also review the other resolutions.
    On Saturday--you mentioned 30 years from now--Saturday your 
counterparts from Boys Nation will be here, and we're going to have a 
30-year reunion of my class Saturday at noon when they're here. So I'm 
looking forward to it. One of the things that happens when you run for 
President is that the people you haven't seen in a long time show up, 
and that's mostly good. So I'm looking forward to it.
    Now are we going to take a picture? Is that the way we're going to 
do it? And then aren't we going to take a group photo also? Okay, great.

Note: The President spoke at 4:47 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Joann Cronin, national Girls State 
director. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.