[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 20 (Monday, May 19, 1997)]
[Pages 716-718]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Budget Agreement and an Exchange With Reporters

May 16, 1997

    The President. Good morning. Less than 2 weeks ago, the Vice 
President and I joined with leaders of Congress in announcing a truly 
historic agreement, a bipartisan agreement to balance the Federal budget 
for the first time in nearly three decades. We knew that only by 
finishing the job of putting our fiscal house in order could we keep our 
economy thriving for all Americans. And I knew that because of all the 
progress we've made in the last 4\1/2\ years, we could balance America's 
books while protecting America's values and preparing the American 
people for the 21st century. Last night, we took the next significant 
step toward writing the spirit and substance of that agreement into the 
law.
    I want to begin by thanking Chairman Domenici, Chairman Kasich, 
Senator Lautenberg, and Congressman Spratt for their hard work and their 
earnest commitment to sticking with this very difficult process to put 
our balanced budget agreement in writing. I know from my own negotiating 
team that we would not be here today without their good faith and good 
efforts, and I am deeply grateful to them.
    I also want to thank the congressional leadership who supported this 
process. And I'd like to thank the people who are here: the Vice 
President; Erskine Bowles, who's still a pretty good negotiator even 
though he's left his beloved private sector; Secretary Rubin; Deputy 
Secretary Summers; OMB Director Frank Raines; NEC Director Gene 
Sperling; our CEA Chair, Janet Yellen; and John Hilley, who handles our 
congressional relations and had one of the most difficult and demanding 
jobs of his life in the last few weeks; OMB Deputy Director Jack Lew.
    I'd like to also thank all the people who are here from OMB, 
Treasury, and perhaps from other agencies who were the team that put the 
numbers together that made this agreement possible. Thank you. You ought 
to give yourselves a hand. [Applause] You did a great job. Thank you.
    We have finalized a detailed description of the agreement reached 2 
weeks ago. The document is already before the relevant congressional 
committees who are now moving the balanced budget resolution through the 
legislative process at an expedited pace. This agreement will keep in 
place the economic strategy that has served our Nation so well for the 
last 4\1/2\ years.
    When I took office, I was determined to reverse the failed policies 
of the past. Back then, we faced growing deficits as far as the eye 
could see. It was a time of economic stagnation and high unemployment. 
We moved quickly in 1993 to put in place a policy of invest and grow: 
cut the deficit, invest in our people, open new markets around the world 
through tough trade agreements.
    We are now in the 4th year of the disciplined, tough, 5-year 
economic strategy we put in place in 1993. The results of the strat

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egy are now clear and no longer subject to reasonable debate: 12 million 
new jobs, the highest economic growth in a decade, the lowest 
unemployment in 24 years, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the largest 
decline in income inequality since the 1960's. And the deficit has been 
cut already by 77 percent. Our economy is now the envy of the world.
    That progress has brought us to this rare moment in history and made 
it possible for us to balance the budget in a way that balances our 
values. America needs a balanced budget that is in balance with our 
values, that protects Medicare and Medicaid, education and the 
environment, that gives tax relief to working families, and that 
prepares our people for the 21st century. That is exactly what this 
budget does.
    What is important about the agreement is not only what it does on a 
spreadsheet but what it will do for our families and our future. It 
keeps our fundamental commitments to our parents, preserving and 
protecting Medicare for at least a decade, without steep premium 
increases. Because of this agreement, 5 million American children will 
have health care who do not have it today. The agreement protects our 
air, our water, and our land for future generations. I'm especially 
pleased that it includes the funds to clean up 500 of our most dangerous 
toxic waste sites and to go forward with our commitment to preserve and 
restore the Florida Everglades.
    It helps to move people from welfare to work by providing tax 
incentives to businesses to hire welfare recipients and support for 
community service jobs in areas of high unemployment. It restores unwise 
cuts made last year and restores fair treatment to immigrants who 
legally come to America for the promise it provides. It gives middle 
class families tax relief to help sell a home, raise their children, and 
send those children to college. In each of these ways, it honors our 
values.
    At the very heart of this agreement, however, is its historic 
investment in education. This agreement includes the most significant 
increase in education funding in 30 years. Even more important, it 
provides the largest single increase in higher education since the GI 
bill in 1945, more than 50 years ago.
    That landmark legislation gave opportunity to millions of Americans 
and gave birth to the American middle class. That was my goal for this 
budget, to dramatically expand opportunity through education and give 
all our children the tools they need to succeed in a new economy in a 
new century.
    That is why I insisted that this balanced budget also be America's 
education budget. It not only puts our fiscal house in order, it opens 
the schoolhouse door wider than ever before, with $35 billion in tax 
relief for higher education, including our HOPE scholarship tuition tax 
credit to make 2 years of education after high school as universal as a 
high school education is today, and tax deductions for all the costs of 
tuitions after high school.
    It includes the largest increase in Pell grant scholarships for 
deserving students in three decades. It helps to raise standards in our 
schools. It funds our America Reads challenge to make sure every 8-year-
old can read independently. It helps to bring the information age to our 
schools so that we can meet the goal that the Vice President has worked 
so hard for, to connect all of our schools and libraries to the Internet 
by the year 2000.
    All across America last year, I said I wanted a nation in which 
every 8-year-old would be able to read, every 12-year-old could log on 
to the Internet, every 18-year-old could go to college, every adult 
could keep on learning for a lifetime. This balanced budget takes a 
major stride toward these goals. This is not only the first balanced 
budget in a generation, it is an American balanced budget that protects 
our values for future generations.
    So I say to all Members of Congress of both parties, take this 
balanced budget agreement and write it into law. If we stay true to this 
historic agreement, if we have the courage to eliminate the deficit 
while dramatically expanding opportunity through education, we will 
enter the 21st century stronger and better prepared for the challenges 
and the opportunities that lie ahead.
    Thank you very much.

Budget Agreement

    Q. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, we were told that there was a deal, 
and there was

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much hoopla. We came to find out at that point that, if I may use the 
egg analogy, that the shell was relatively thin. How much thicker is the 
shell now, and can this egg still crack up, so to speak?
    The President. Well, first of all, I think we did have a deal 2 
weeks ago. And I think the fact that we've reached agreement in writing 
on the details is evidence that there was one.
    But when you agree on broad principles and you have long hours of 
negotiations, there's still some difficulties involved in writing the 
details of the agreement down, making sure everybody remembers it the 
same way, that you've got the kind of accord you need. So this is a huge 
step forward because now we have a much more detailed agreement commited 
in writing.
    Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, CNN].

Late-Term Abortion Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, I wonder now that the Senate has rejected Senator 
Daschle's compromise proposal on the late-term abortion procedure, I 
wonder if there is any way that you think language could be crafted that 
would avoid your having to veto Senator Santorum's legislation once 
again?
    The President. Well, of course. I have nothing to add to what I have 
said on this all along. What I need to do is to be convinced that no 
woman will be grievously harmed by this legislation, and that no woman 
will be put in the position, for example, of being so harmed that she 
will never be able to have further children because of this legislation. 
You know what my concerns are; I've made them abundantly clear.
    I must say, I regret that Senator Daschle's legislation did not pass 
because it would have reduced the number of abortions by far, far more--
light-years more than the Santorum bill. The Santorum bill may not 
reduce the number of abortions by one.
    So what we don't want to do is to, in effect, not reduce the number 
of abortions in the third trimester, which the Supreme Court permits us 
to do and which I've invited the Congress to do ever since I got here, 
and at the same time put a lot of women's health at risk in a way that 
is unwise and unconstitutional.

Zaire

    Q. Mr. President, what are you thoughts on Mobutu losing power in 
Zaire?
    The President. Well, I want to make a couple of points on it. It 
does appear that he has left Kinshasa. The United States position is 
clear: We want to see a transition to a genuine democracy. The second 
point I want to make is that President Mandela of South Africa has done 
a superb job of exercising leadership in this area, and the United 
States is supporting him and his efforts. And I want the whole world to 
get behind the leadership that Nelson Mandela is showing there and to do 
what we can to support Africa in taking one of the largest and most 
important nations in Africa and promoting a democratic transition. That 
is what I think is important.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Mobutu Sese Seko of 
Zaire and State President Nelson Mandela of South Africa.