[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 21 (Monday, May 30, 1994)]
[Pages 1141-1143]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

May 21, 1994

    Good morning. Hillary and I join our Nation in mourning the loss of 
former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She inspired all of us 
with her grace and courage. She loved art and culture, all the things 
that express the better angels of our nature. She and President Kennedy 
made people believe that change for the better is possible, that public 
service is a noble calling, and that we ought to be about the business 
of building our country up, not tearing it down or pulling it apart.
    This is a time of considerably more cynicism and pessimism, when 
harsh rhetoric of division and distraction and outright destruction 
sometimes dominates discussion of public issues. But it is well today to 
remember the examples of President and Mrs. Kennedy. They changed our 
lives for the better because they helped us to believe we could change 
for the better. That is still true. It is ultimately pointless and self-
defeating to believe any other way.
    Today I want to talk about two things we can all do to change our 
future for the better: improving our economy and solving the health care 
crisis in America. Although we're still in the dawn of our economic 
recovery, we've clearly begun to turn the economy around, to set the 
stage for long-term and sustainable economic growth. The deficit is 
down. Inflation and unemployment are down. Growth, the stock market, 
jobs, and consumer confidence are all up. In the first 15 months of our 
administration nearly 3 million jobs were created, over 90 percent of 
them in the private sector, more than in the previous 4 years combined.
    When Congress passes our budget this year we'll have 3 years of 
declining deficits for the first time since Harry Truman was President. 
With our effort to reinvent the Government to do more with less, we're 
reducing the size of the Federal payroll by over 250,000 people. And 
when it's done, we'll have the smallest Federal Government in over 30 
years, since Kennedy was President.

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And all the savings will go in to pay for the crime bill for safer 
streets, for more punishment, 100,000 more police officers on our 
street, and an aggressive prevention strategy to give our young people 
something to say yes to, to turn away from a life of violence. We're 
investing in new technologies and in new trade opportunities for all the 
things Americans make.
    What's most important to me is that inside these statistics there's 
good news about real people: an entrepreneur hanging out a shingle for 
the first time, a worker getting a raise for the first time in years, a 
person finding a new job after having been out of work for months and 
months, a parent finally able to buy toys for a baby. Economic security 
is our first major battle, one we're still fighting in places like 
California where too many communities have not yet tasted the fruits of 
recovery.
    But the economic battle will never be fully won until we face our 
second great crisis, reforming a health care system that costs too much 
and does too little. Health care now is the only part of our Federal 
budget that is really contributing to the deficit. And still millions 
are trapped in a system that offers them no coverage or because of 
previous illnesses, costs them too much or means that they can never 
change jobs.
    After 60 years of fits and starts, of roadblocks and dead-ends, 
we're finally making real progress toward comprehensive health care 
reform. This week, for the first time ever, the relevant committees of 
Congress in both Houses have begun to review and modify our proposal to 
guarantee all Americans private health insurance, to give small 
businesses, farmers, and self-employed people the ability to buy 
insurance like big business and Government can today.
    Their action follows more than a year and a half of debate and 
discussion in town hall meetings, in doctors' offices, hospitals, and 
around kitchen tables. There have been twists and turns along the way. 
There are no doubt more ahead. But steadily our country is moving closer 
to a goal, passing major health care reform legislation this year. And 
as with the economy, the victory of passing health care reform will be a 
victory for America's families.
    As I've traveled our country, I've heard firsthand from some of the 
more than one million people who have written to Hillary and to me 
describing their problems with the current health care system. Each of 
these letters is a little different, but the message is always the same: 
Do something and do it soon. Some people say we should wait awhile and 
study the issue further. To them I say, we've studied it quite a lot 
already. Many Members of Congress have studied it for years. And you 
ought to come to the White House and read these letters if you want to 
wait, read the letter from the mother who was forced to sell her home 
and go on welfare just to provide medical benefits to a sick son; the 
letter from a nurse who had to leave the bedside of a cancer patient to 
attend a meeting on how to fill out even new insurance forms; the one 
from a little boy who was afraid to tell his parents he felt sick 
because he knew they couldn't afford a visit to the doctor; the 
thousands of letters about people who have been sick or had someone in 
their family sick, so they can't get insurance or they have to pay more 
than they can afford or they can never change jobs; and the hundreds of 
letters from small business people who are paying 35 percent to 40 
percent more than they ought to be paying for coverage that's 
inadequate.
    Now, for 60 years Presidents of both parties have tried to do 
something to fix this health care system, to solve its problems without 
hurting what's best about our health care system. We don't need to wait 
any longer. The committees in Congress are well on the way to passing a 
bill that will make the health care nightmares detailed in these letters 
a thing of the past.
    Of course, there will be obstacles ahead. There are genuine 
disagreements. It's a complicated subject. But we can surmount these 
obstacles. We know there are models today that are like what we're 
trying to do, models of managed competition in places like Minnesota, 
where 91 percent of the people have coverage, it's of high quality, and 
the cost increases are much lower than they are in the rest of the 
country or models like the new small business cooperative in California, 
where over 2,300 small businesses, representing 40,000 employees, have 
joined to- 

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gether to buy health insurance that's lower in cost for the same or 
better coverage for everyone.
    In 1935, Congress passed Social Security after much of the same 
debate we read about today in the press, people saying that it would 
wreck the economy, that it would be terrible, that it was not the right 
thing to do. But from that day forward, older Americans knew they could 
face retirement in old age with dignity.
    In 1965, Congress passed Medicare, guaranteeing that people over 65 
would never again be bankrupted by medical bills they couldn't pay. 
Again, there were those who said it would just be a terrible thing for 
the country. Now we're all proud of the fact that older Americans are 
less poor than the rest of us and don't have to worry about their health 
care.
    We're closer than ever before to making 1994 the year that Congress 
makes history once again by guaranteeing Americans private health 
insurance that can never be taken away. Let's work together now to tone 
down the divisive rhetoric, to stop the shouting, to starting talking 
with each other, listening to each other, and working with our sleeves 
rolled up and our heads and hearts engaged in the job.
    We can get this done this year. We will get it done this year with 
your help. Tell the Congress to move, and move now. We can do it. 
America needs it.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at approximately 3:25 p.m. on May 20 at 
the Costas Sports Center at the University of California-Los Angeles for 
broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 21.