[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 26 (Monday, July 3, 1995)]
[Pages 1149-1150]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Plan to Balance the Budget

June 28, 1995

Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. Leader:)

    We share the goal of balancing the federal budget, and I look 
forward to working with you on this important matter.
    But as we work together to reach our shared goal, we must ensure 
that we do so the right way--the way that will raise the standards of 
living for average Americans.
    My plan to balance the budget over 10 years will help raise average 
living standards by cutting unnecessary spending while investing in 
education and training, targeting tax relief to middle-income Americans, 
and taking incremental but serious steps toward health care reform. By 
contrast, the conference agreement cuts too deeply into Medicare and 
Medicaid and cuts education and training both to pay for a tax cut that 
is too large for too many who don't need it, and to meet the 7 year time 
frame.
    Though I am determined to work with you to balance the budget, I 
cannot accept legislation that will threaten the living standards of 
American families.

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    I hope we can work together and avoid a situation in which I would 
have no choice but to use my veto authority broadly. The American people 
want us to work together to balance the budget and to do it the right 
way. I am ready to do that.
    Sincerely,
                                                  Bill Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, and Bob Dole, Senate majority leader.