[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 50 (Monday, December 18, 1995)]
[Pages 2158-2159]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

December 9, 1995

    Good morning. As you all know, we're engaged in a great debate over 
how best to balance the budget. We must balance the budget. Since I 
became President, we have cut the terrible deficit we inherited nearly 
in half. Now, we must finish the job.
    But let's remember why we want a balanced budget: to strengthen our 
economy and lift the burden of debt from future generations. To do that, 
we have to balance the budget in the way that reflects our most 
fundamental values: increasing opportunity; asking all to assume 
responsibility; strengthening our families and the economy; recognizing 
the duty we owe to each other, to our parents, our children, and those 
who need and deserve our help.
    This past week, I took two steps to advance these values. First, I 
vetoed the Republican budget plan that was sent to me by Congress. I did 
it because that budget violates our values and would have hurt our 
economy. I did it because in so doing I vetoed the most massive cuts in 
Medicare and Medicaid in history, a tax increase on working people, and 
deep, deep cuts in education and the environment. This effort to balance 
the budget through wrong-headed cuts and misplaced priorities is now 
over. Then, I sent to the Congress a plan to balance the budget in 7 
years without devastating cuts in these areas. My 7-year balanced budget 
plan reflects our values and protects our investments in the future. It 
reflects a good-faith effort to find common ground on the budget. At 
stake is far more than just numbers and abstract programs and proposals, 
and far more than the normal political debates in Washington. This 
debate is about people, the lives they lead, the hopes they have, the 
desires they have for a better life.
    Nowhere is this choice clearer than in our different approaches to 
Medicaid. For three decades, the Medicaid program has meant that if your 
child was disabled in an accident or your husband got Alzheimer's or 
your parent needed nursing home care, you would get the help you need. 
The Republican budget would cut Medicaid by $163 billion. It would 
repeal the guarantee of health care for poor children, people with 
disabilities, pregnant women, and older Americans. Now, this repeal was 
not an afterthought or an unintended consequence. The congressional 
Republican majority is actually insisting on it. What would this mean?
    Well, in 2002 alone, the year the budget is supposed to be balanced, 
the Republican budget could deny quality health coverage to nearly 8 
million people, deny meaningful health care to over a million people 
with disabilities, even to 150,000 veterans and to tens of thousands of 
people with AIDS, many of whom are able to keep working or who can get 
the help they need without their families being forced into poverty 
because of the assistance they get from Medicaid.
    Today, a poor child who gets sick has access to a family doctor. 
Under this bill, nearly 4 million poor children could be denied quality 
medical care. If they got sick, they'd have to pray for charity care at 
a crowded hospital emergency room. Today, pregnant women know they can 
get prenatal care for their sake and the sake of their unborn children. 
But under the Republican plan, hundreds of thousands of pregnant women 
could be denied regular checkups and other basic services that could 
lead to an increase in infant mortality or children born with 
irreversible problems.
    Today, elderly women who have devoted themselves to their families 
know they can count on medical care, even if they don't have much money. 
But under the Republican plan, as many a 330,000 older Americans could 
be denied nursing home care.

[[Page 2159]]

    Today, middle class parents know that in the awful event their child 
is disabled in an accident and their savings are gone, they'll get help 
to keep the child at home. Under the Republican plan, hundreds of 
thousands of disabled children could lose help for home care.
    Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of meeting the Striggles 
family from Forestville, Maryland. Franklin Striggles works hard as a 
security guard. He and his wife, Denise, have health insurance from his 
job. But it doesn't begin to pay the cost of caring for their son, 
Angelo, an energetic 7-year-old who has spina bifida, and who's now 
confined to a wheelchair. That's where Medicaid comes in. With Medicaid, 
this working family can keep a job, raise and educate their other 
children, and give little Angelo good care. To see Angelo and his 
family, it's clear how much love and learning he gets from living at 
home with his brother and sister. It pains me to think that if the 
Striggles family lost Medicaid coverage, Angelo could be torn from his 
family, even forced to be placed in a State institution.
    If the Republican cuts in Medicaid take effect, the blunt reality is 
that as many as 4 million children will simply be denied needed medical 
care. They'll either be turned away from medical facilities, denied 
preventive care, or be turned out too soon. That is unacceptable in a 
country that cares about its children. And I will not permit it to 
happen.
    Yes, the deficit is a burden on future generations but so is the 
neglect of our children. And we do not have to sacrifice our children to 
balance the budget. That's why I vetoed these cuts last week. Now, some 
Republicans continue to insist on unconscionable cuts in health care for 
our children as part of a balanced budget.
    So I'll say once more: If necessary, I'll veto these deep cuts in 
health care for children again and again and again. I'll do it because 
they are not necessary to balance the budget. And they, too, will place 
an awful burden on future generations.
    My 7-year balanced budget plan trims Medicaid and keeps costs down. 
It cuts Federal spending, lets States be more efficient, targets the 
money more wisely. But it doesn't end the guarantee of health care for 
millions of Americans who depend upon it now.
    We expect every family to pay its bills and to care for its 
children. Well, our country can do the same. We don't have to hurt our 
children to balance the budget.
    It's time for men and women of both parties to put aside their 
narrow interests and extreme ideology and together pursue the national 
interest. I have reached out to bridge the differences between us so 
that our country can move forward. If we'll all just work together and 
keep our eye on the future, we can get this job done.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 5:57 p.m. on December 8 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on December 9.