[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 39 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Pages 1873-1877]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Census Bureau Report on Income and Poverty and an 
Exchange With Reporters

September 24, 1998

    The President. Thank you very much. She was terrific, wasn't she? 
Let's give her another hand. I thought she was great. [Applause]
    Congressman Cardin, welcome. I know you're proud of your constituent 
here. Jessica, welcome. We're glad to see you. I think Congressman 
Blagojevich is here. We welcome him, along with Senator Efrain Gonzalez, 
who is the president of National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators; 
and Councilman Robert Cantana of Buffalo.
    Let me once again thank Monique for her remarkable statement and her 
even more remarkable life. I'm delighted to be joined here by our 
economic team--by Erskine Bowles and Secretary Rubin, Secretary Herman, 
Gene Sperling, Jack Lew, Janet Yellen, Larry

[[Page 1874]]

Summers. Their tireless, often literally sleepless work has been very 
instrumental in sparking and maintaining what soon will be the longest 
peacetime boom in American history.
    Officials of the Census Bureau who are here today, I want to thank 
all of you. We're going to be talking a little bit about some Census 
Bureau statistics. Sometimes we take your hard work and statistics for 
granted. The fact is that you ensure that our democracy is truly 
representative. And let me say in that connection once again, Congress 
must not hamstring the Census Bureau's efforts to maintain the most up-
to-date, accurate scientific methods to produce the year 2000 census. 
They deserve the chance to succeed. Monique Miskimon has shown us today 
once again that every American counts. That means every American 
deserves to be counted.

Hurricane Georges

    Now, before I get into the details of the very positive economic 
report which Monique and her daughter so vividly represent, I think we 
all want to say just a few words and reflect on the powerful impact of 
Hurricane Georges. In the Caribbean islands, businesses and homes have 
been swept away; tragically, many lives have been lost. Meanwhile, the 
projected track of the storm places the hurricane center over or near 
the Florida Keys late tonight or early tomorrow morning. As we speak, 
we're helping the people of Florida prepare for the hurricane. We've 
already sent assistance to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Obviously, 
we're working with the officials in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
    James Lee Witt, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, has informed me that FEMA's Region Six Emergency Response Team 
arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, at 10 o'clock this morning. Here in 
Washington, the FEMA Emergency Support Team is operating at level one, 
its highest level, on a 24-hour basis.
    Our support teams and our prayers are with those in the Caribbean as 
they begin to rebuild and those in the Florida Keys as they brace for 
the impact of the storm.

Income and Poverty Report

    Now, as President, from my first day here, I have done my best to 
fulfill a commitment I made to the American people: first of all, to 
restore the reality of the American dream, of opportunity for all 
responsible citizens, of a community in which we all count and work 
together, and secondly, to reclaim the future for our children, to 
strengthen our country for the century ahead.
    To accomplish that mission, we began first with an economic strategy 
to shrink the deficit and balance the budget, to invest in the education 
and skills of our people, and to expand the export of American goods. 
The census report released this morning represents one more year's worth 
of compelling evidence that this economic strategy is working and that 
there are lots more people out there like Monique Miskimon.
    The report shows that last year the income of the typical American 
household grew at nearly twice the rate of inflation. Since we launched 
our economic plan in 1993, the typical family's real income has risen by 
more than $3,500. That's an extra $3,500 that hardworking families can 
put toward their children's education or a downpayment on a first home. 
Income for typical African-American and Hispanic families increased by 
more than $1,000 last year alone.
    This report also shows that our growing economy is giving more and 
more families a chance to work their way out of poverty. The poverty 
rate fell to 13.3 percent, and while we still have plenty of room for 
improvement, the African-American poverty rate fell to another record 
low. Hispanic poverty saw the largest one-year drop in two decades. 
Child poverty has dropped in the past 4 years, more than in any 4-year 
period in the last three decades. And the earned- income tax credit, 
which Monique spoke of a moment ago, has raised more than 4 million 
people out of poverty in the last year alone.
    The report this morning shows that economic growth continues to 
raise incomes, lift millions out of poverty, and extend opportunity. It 
also shows that we have more to do. Since 1993, every income group has 
benefited from our Nation's economic growth, and the lowest 20 percent 
of our people in

[[Page 1875]]

terms of income have had the highest percentage increases. That's the 
good news, after over 20 years of increasing inequality.
    But that inequality is still too high, and it simply means there are 
too many American families out there working hard, doing everything we 
could possibly ask of them, and still having a hard time getting ahead. 
We have to use our prosperity and the confidence that it inspires to 
help our hardest pressed families and our hardest pressed communities to 
ensure economic growth for all Americans.
    The most important thing we have to do, of course, is to maintain 
the economic strategy that got us here in the first place, above all, 
the strict fiscal discipline that has given us low interest rates, low 
inflation, big investments, and more jobs.
    Exactly a week from today, we will have the first balanced budget 
and surplus since Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon in 1969. 
Unfortunately, this week in the House of Representatives, the 
Republicans are moving forward with a proposal that drains the new 
surplus to pay for their tax plan. We can cut taxes. Indeed, my balanced 
budget includes targeted tax cuts for child care, for education, for 
environmental cleanup. But tax cuts must be paid for in full if we are 
to expand opportunity in the years to come.
    I say again, we have been waiting for 29 years to see the red ink 
turn to black. We have a huge baby boom challenge coming when all the 
baby boomers retire. Social Security, as presently constituted, cannot 
sustain that retirement. We have to reform Social Security if we want to 
have it for our parents--that's me, when the baby boomers retire--
without undermining the standard of living of our children and 
grandchildren.
    So I say again, let us not get into this surplus we have worked for 
29 years for--or we've waited for 29 years for and worked for 6 years 
for. Let's don't get into that and spend it in an election year tax cut 
until we have saved Social Security for the 21st century, for the sake 
of our children and our grandchildren.
    Second, we have to continue to invest in our people and lift them 
all up. I was deeply disappointed this week when 95 percent of the 
Republicans in the Senate voted not to raise the minimum wage. To reject 
an increase in the minimum wage when there are still so many people 
working full-time and raising children in poverty, when the unemployment 
rate and the inflation rate is so low, I believe is a mistake and sends 
the wrong signal to the American people.
    I thank the 95 percent of the Democratic caucus in the Senate who 
voted for the increase in the minimum wage. Working Americans deserve 
it. I'm disappointed, with only a week left in the fiscal year, we 
rejected this, and I haven't quit fighting for it. I think eventually we 
will get it in the next several months. If we have to wait until next 
year, we will get it.
    But I'm also disappointed--as I said, a week from today we end the 
fiscal year, and we start a new one. And there's still been no action in 
the Congress on our vital education investments. Indeed, what action 
there has been in the House of Representatives has been negative, has 
been a setback for education.
    Congress should work with us to enact my plan, paid for in the 
balanced budget, to reduce class size to an average of 18 in the early 
grades; to hire 100,000 teachers to teach those children in smaller 
classes; to rebuild or to construct or repair 5,000 schools so our kids 
will have good, adequate, safe schools to attend; to hook up all of our 
classrooms--all of them, even in the poorest neighborhoods--to the 
Internet by the year 2000; to improve early literacy by funding the 
program to send volunteers in to make sure that every 8-year-old can 
read; to lift our children's sights with voluntary national standards 
and clear means of measuring them.
    Now, if we hope to maintain our economic growth well into the next 
generation, we have to give every American child a world-class 
elementary and secondary education. So I say again: We've been here for 
months and months; there's just a week left in the budget year; let's 
finally have action to improve our public schools and give all of our 
kids a world-class education.
    The third thing I'd like to say is we have to continue to lead in 
the global economy if we want the American economy to continue to grow. 
We're enjoying unsurpassed economic prosperity, but all of you read the

[[Page 1876]]

papers every day. You see the news at night. You know there are troubles 
elsewhere in the world. You know our friends in Asia and Russia are 
facing great turmoil. You know we're trying to keep our big trading 
partners and friends in Latin America from having the negative effect of 
that turmoil reach them, even though they are pursuing good policies. 
That's why it's important for Congress to fund our America's share of 
the International Monetary Fund, because the International Monetary Fund 
helps the countries that are helping themselves to return to growth and 
serves as an insurance policy against having the financial crisis spread 
to the countries that are doing the right thing and keeping Americans at 
work by buying our products.
    Again I say, there is no reason not to do this. We've only got a 
week left in the budget year. We've been talking about it all year long. 
The problem has only gotten worse. It is time now to say, we're doing 
this because it's what America owes as the world leader, and more 
importantly, we're doing it because it is absolutely necessary to keep 
American economic growth going.
    Finally, let me say that, with just a week left in this budget year, 
I'd still like to see the Congress pass a decent Patients' Bill of 
Rights, one that covers--[applause]. Our bill would provide protections 
to all Americans, simple ones. If you get in an accident, you can go to 
the nearest emergency room, not be hauled to one halfway across town. If 
your doctor tells you you need to see a specialist, you can see one. If 
it comes down to a dispute about whether a medical procedure should or 
should not be applied, the decision should be made by a doctor, not an 
accountant. Your medical records ought to be protected in privacy. If 
your employer changes health care providers, it shouldn't affect you if 
you happen to be in the middle of a pregnancy or a chemotherapy 
treatment or some other thing that would be entirely disruptive and 
dangerous and damaging to your health care if you had to change doctors 
in the middle of the procedure.
    Now, we do that for everyone. The House passed a bill on a partisan 
vote, completely party-line vote, that doesn't protect 100 million 
people and doesn't provide any of those protections to the people that 
are covered. The Senate majority leader actually shut down business in 
the Senate a few days ago to keep them from voting for it, so they 
wouldn't be recorded--they wouldn't be recorded as killing the Patients' 
Bill of Rights--but they could kill it and still satisfy the insurance 
companies that are doing their best to do it.
    There's still time. We haven't broken for the election yet. We can 
still do the right thing by the American people. But we have to think 
about it. We have to focus on it, and we have to put our priorities 
where they ought to be. I think it's worth fighting for the Patients' 
Bill of Rights in the closing days of this congressional session.
    Again, I want to thank the economic team here and our supporters in 
the Congress, including those who are here today, for giving more 
Americans a chance to live the story that Monique has told us about. I 
want to thank her for coming today and bringing her beautiful daughter. 
I know we all wish them well.
    Our prayers are with the people who are about to be affected and 
those who have been affected by the hurricane. And I ask that all of us 
focus on using these last days of this congressional session to think 
about the American people, to think about our responsibilities, to think 
about what got us here over the last 6 years, and instead of departing 
from it, to bear down and build on it. That is my goal, and that's what 
we ought to do.
    Thank you very much. Thank you.

President's Perspective on the Current Situation

    Q. Mr. President, do you see any way out of an impeachment inquiry?
    The President. Well, let me answer you this way: The right thing to 
do is for us all to focus on what's best for the American people. And 
the right thing for me to do is what I'm doing. I'm working on leading 
our country, and I'm working on healing my family.
    And if you look at what we announced today, what does it tell you? 
It proves, number one, that the course we have followed has been the 
right course for America. That's what it proves. After 6 years, it can't 
be an accident anymore.

[[Page 1877]]

    But the second thing it proves is that it is utterly foolish for 
people to be diverted or distracted from the urgent challenges still 
before us. I told you that we had a record--a record low in African-
American unemployment and poverty; a record low in the poverty rate for 
children, of African-American children. Do you know what that record low 
is? It's about 39 percent. In other words, it's breathtakingly high. 
That's just one statistic.
    So what does that tell me? It tells me that the right thing to do 
is, if we all put progress over partisanship, put people over politics, 
put the American people first--what would we do? Well, we would keep the 
budget balanced. We would save Social Security before we squandered the 
surplus. We would improve our schools. We would clean up our 
environment. We would pass the Patients' Bill of Rights. And we would 
keep the economy going. That's what we would be focused on. That's what 
I am focused on. That's the way out.
    The way out here--and the only way out is for people in Washington 
to do what the folks in America want them to do, which is to take care 
of their concerns, their children, and their future. That's what I mean 
to do, and I'm going to do my best.

Note: The President spoke at 12:20 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Monique Miskimon, administrative 
assistant, Maryland Committee for Children, Inc., who introduced the 
President, and her daughter, Jessica; and State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, 
Jr., of New York, president, National Hispanic Caucus of State 
Legislators.