    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 31 (Monday, August 9, 1993)]
    [Pages 1521-1523]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks on the Economic Program

     July 31, 1993

        Good morning, and welcome to the Rose Garden.
        My fellow Americans, 5 months ago when I addressed the Congress in
    my State of the Union Address, I pledged to the American people that I
    would do my best to change the way Washington works; to revive our
    economy by reducing our deficit; cutting spending; reversing trickle-
    down economics and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair
    share of our tax burden; increasing incentives to business to create new
    jobs; helping the working poor to stay out of welfare and stay in the
    work force; and renewing the skills and productivity of our workers, our
    students, and our children. I presented to Congress an economic plan
    designed to achieve those objectives.
        Now the Members of both Houses of Congress are close to deciding on
    a final version of an economic growth plan that meets these objectives.
    The plan will contain the largest deficit reduction plan in our Nation's
    history, about $500 billion, with nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars
    in real and enforceable spending cuts. The plan creates a trust fund in
    which all the spending cuts and all the tax increases are placed and
    dedicated by law for 5 years only to reducing our Nation's debt. Every
    new dollar of taxes will be matched by a dollar of spending cuts. And
    now, thanks to the efforts of the last few weeks, 80 percent of the new
    taxes will come from individuals earning over $200,000 a year, the top
    1.2 percent of our income bracket, people who got most of the economic
    benefits of the 1980's and, unlike most Americans, also received tax
    cuts in that decade. No working family earning less than $180,000 will
    pay a penny more in income taxes. That will be a real change from the
    trickle-down economics of the past dozen years.
        Average families, that is, people with family incomes above $30,000
    and below $180,000, will be asked to pay but one tax, less than a dime a
    day, or about now $33 a year, in an energy tax devoted entirely to
    reducing our deficit. I believe that is a modest and fair price to pay
    for the change we seek and the progress it will bring. I pledged always
    in the beginning of this program to seek the least possible burden on
    middle income taxpayers, and I believe this is the least possible burden
    we can have and still achieve meaningful deficit reduction.
        Because we need the private sector to grow, we also recommended
    investing in the job creating capacity of American business and in the
    education and skills of our people. This plan offers 90 percent of the
    small businesses in the United States of America the chance to actually
    reduce their tax burden if, but only if, they invest more in their
    businesses to strengthen their businesses and their capacity to hire new
    people. The plan offers new incentives, especially to high-tech, high-
    growth companies, to invest more in research and development. It offers
    incentives to larger companies to invest more in new plant and
    equipment. It gives a groundbreaking new incentive to people of all
    kinds to invest in new companies to help them grow the economy. A
    significant percentage of new American jobs come from the creation and
    expansion of new enterprises. And

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    this plan will open the door of college education to millions of
    Americans by dramatically changing the way the student loan programs
    works.
        And next week when the national service plan passes, these two plans
    together will enable us to say to the young people of this country: If
    you want to go to college now, you need not fear the costs. You can
    borrow the money, but you won't have to pay it back until you actually
    have a job. And if the job is a lower paying job, you will not be asked
    to pay more than a certain fixed percentage of your income in paying
    back the loan. But this time, you will have to pay it back, because the
    tax system will be used to help collect the loan. And if you want to
    work the loan off, you can do some of that by participating in a program
    of service to your community before, during, or after college. That will
    give us the chance to solve a lot of America's problems and educate a
    whole new generation of young Americans. All this is done without
    imposing harmful cuts on older Americans. We build a better future for
    our children without asking unreasonable sacrifice from their
    grandparents.
        It is time for Congress to pass this plan. It is time for Washington
    to show the courage to change. It is time for the Members of Congress to
    roll back the fog of misinformation that has shrouded this whole debate
    for the last 5 months. To the people who have told the American people
    there is no deficit reduction, there are no spending cuts, and the
    burden is on the middle class, the facts of this plan stand in stark
    contrast. This plan will keep interest rates down and grow the American
    economy.
        This week I had the honor of meeting with many Americans from all
    walks of life who are taking personal responsibility for their families,
    their workplaces, and their country. On Monday, I attended a conference
    that our administration sponsored in Chicago where workers and managers
    talked about how they could work together to improve the quality of
    their goods and services and increase the security of their jobs and
    incomes. I met an executive from Missouri who turned around a failing
    plant by sharing information and giving a sense of ownership to workers
    who previously had been totally shut out of all those decisions. Once he
    did that and the employees understood the big picture, they did better
    at their jobs, they turned the company around. Their jobs and incomes
    were more secure, and they're making money. I met a widow from Detroit
    with no prospect of a job, thinking she would have to go on welfare
    because of her children, perhaps forever. Instead, she found a job as a
    machinist after enrolling in a 6-year advanced training program. When
    she completes that program, instead of being on welfare she'll have the
    equivalent of a master's degree in engineering.
        On Wednesday, I met with more than 60 corporate executives from all
    over America, from all kinds of companies. Many of these executives were
    Republicans who will have to pay higher taxes under this plan. But they
    had made the hard-headed decision that it was important to pass this
    economic plan because they knew that their companies, their
    shareholders, and their country would be better off if we reduced the
    Federal deficit, kept interest rates down, and got investment going back
    into the American economy. As the chief executive officer of one of
    these corporations said, it's time to quit fooling around and act.
        And I want to tell you about one more group of people who are quiet
    heroes of this economy. On Thursday, I met with three families who work
    hard for low wages from the States of Georgia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
    Thanks to the earned-income tax credit in our Tax Code, which reduces
    the tax burden on low income workers, they are supporting their children
    instead of going on welfare. Now, this is very important, because 18
    percent, almost one in five, of American workers today actually work for
    wages that will not support a family of four above the poverty line.
    This plan has a revolutionary expansion of the earned-income tax credit
    so that for the first time ever, we can say to American workers: If you
    work full time and you have children in your home, you will not live in
    poverty. The tax system will lift you out of poverty, not drive you into
    it. This is the biggest incentive for people we have ever provided to
    get off welfare and go to work, to reward work and family and
    responsibility. It is not a partisan issue; it is an

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    American issue. And it will empower all kinds of Americans to seize a
    better life for themselves.
        I'm proud a lot of Americans have decided to do what is right for
    themselves and their families. They're looking for new skills, looking
    for new ways to work with their bosses in the workplace. They're
    choosing work over welfare. I'm proud so many people now are tired of
    the old divisions in our country. They don't want to see this country
    divided between labor and management or Democrats and Republicans. They
    want us to unite as Americans.
        As your Senators and Representatives conclude work on this budget,
    I'd like to say a special word to those of you here in the Rose Garden
    and all of those listening to me across the country. The time has come
    to act. Unless the Congress acts on this budget, we cannot remove the
    uncertainty that exists in the economy, we cannot continue to bring
    interest rates down, and we cannot possibly move on to the other
    challenges that await us. We still have to provide security and health
    care to all Americans and bring the cost of health care down within
    inflation. We still have to face the fact that we have to reform our
    welfare system. We still have to pass a crime bill to put 100,000 more
    police officers on the streets over the next 4 years. There are many
    challenges awaiting this Congress and our Nation, and we cannot move on
    unless we pass this plan. And most importantly, we will not have a
    framework within which we can work for jobs and higher incomes for the
    American people.
        If you believe we ought to do it, now is the time to make your
    voices heard. Your Senators and Representatives have been subject to an
    amazing amount of unfair pressure and flat wrong and false information.
    I need your help. Tell your Senators and your Representatives if they
    have the courage to finally bring this deficit down and turn the country
    in the right direction and create jobs, you would appreciate it, you
    will support it, and you will stand with them. Now is the time to act.
    We have talked and dawdled for long enough.
        In 1980, this country had a $1 trillion national debt after 200
    years. Today, it is $4 trillion. We have got to turn this around for our
    children, for our grandchildren. And funny enough, this is something
    that will help us all today, right now, too. I need your help, and I
    hope you'll tell your Senators and your Representatives the time has
    come to move forward.
        Thank you, and good morning.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:52 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House.