    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 13 (Monday, April 5, 1999)]
    [Pages 535-537]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks on Receiving the Report of the Social Security and Medicare
    Trustees and an Exchange With Reporters

    March 30, 1999

        The President. Thank you very much. Please be seated. I welcome all
    of our guests here, as well as the members of the administration. And I
    thank those who have joined me here on the platform for this important
    announcement.
        Twice in the last 6 years we have strengthened our Nation's future
    in the 21st century by addressing serious, great fiscal challenges to
    America. In 1993 we met the threat of mounting deficits and a stagnant
    economy with an economic plan of fiscal discipline, expanded trade, and
    investment in our people. Thanks to that action, the red ink of the
    Federal budget has turned to black, and we are enjoying the longest
    peacetime expansion in our Nation's history. In 1997 we reaffirmed our
    commitment to fiscal discipline with the bipartisan balanced budget
    agreement. It took important steps to improve Medicare, saving tens of
    billions of dollars in costs while expanding benefits for recipients and
    choices.
        Today we have new evidence that those determined actions were the
    right ones. I have just been briefed by our four Social Security and
    Medicare trustees for the administration--Secretaries Rubin, Shalala,
    Herman, Social Security Commissioner Apfel--who are here with me today.
    The trustees have issued their annual report on the future financial
    health of these vital programs. The trustees' report shows that the
    strength of our economy has led to modest but real improvements in the
    outlook for Social Security. They project that economic growth today
    will extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund to 2034--2
    years longer than was projected in last year's report.
        After that date, however, the Trust Fund will be exhausted, and
    Social Security will not be able to pay the full benefits older
    Americans have been promised. Therefore, still I say we must move
    forward with my plan to set aside 62 percent of the surplus for Social
    Security, investing a small portion in the private sector for better
    return, just as any private or State government pension would do.
        As I said in my State of the Union Address, we then must go further
    with difficult but achievable reforms that put Social Security on a
    sound footing for 75 years, that lift the earnings limitations on what
    seniors can earn, and that do something about the incredible problem of
    poverty among elderly women living alone.
        The trustees have also told us that today the future for Medicare
    has improved even more. The trustees project that the life of the
    Medicare Trust Fund has been extended until 2015. That's 7 years longer
    than was projected in last year's report. These improvements are only
    partially due to the stronger economy. According to the trustees, they
    are also the result of the difficult but necessary decisions made in
    1997 and to our successful efforts to fight waste, fraud, and abuse in
    the Medicare program.
        Now, this trustee report is very good news. We should be pleased;
    Americans can be proud. But we should not be lulled into thinking that
    nothing more needs to be done, because the improvements we see today,
    themselves, did not happen by accident but instead came as a result of
    determined action to make sure that the problems were not allowed to get
    out of hand.
        When I became President 6 years ago, Medicare was actually projected
    to go bankrupt this year. We worked hard in 1993 and 1997 to make sure
    that didn't happen. Some of the actions we took at the time were not
    particularly popular, but we knew they had to be done. They helped to
    strengthen Medicare, and they laid the foundations from the difficult
    challenges we still must face.

    [[Page 536]]

        Social Security and Medicare face long-term challenges, as all of
    you know, with the baby boom aging, with medical science extending the
    lives of millions, with the number of elderly Americans set to double by
    2030. Even with today's good news, Social Security will run out of money
    in 35 years, Medicare in 16 years. We cannot--we will not--allow that to
    happen.
        For three decades, Medicare has protected seniors and the disabled
    while expressing the values of care and mutual obligations that bind
    families and the generations of Americans together. Since my State of
    the Union Address, I have called for devoting 15 percent of our surplus
    to strengthening Medicare, while modernizing the program with real
    reforms and helping seniors with prescription drugs.
        When the Medicare commission completed its work 2 weeks ago, I said
    we must build on their recommendations by adopting the best practices
    from the private sector while also maintaining high-quality services,
    continuing to provide every citizen with a guaranteed set of benefits,
    and making prescription drugs more accessible and affordable to Medicare
    beneficiaries.
        Now we must build on the good news we have received today. We must
    extend the life of Medicare even further, modernize the program even
    more, and make prescription drugs even more accessible and affordable.
    Medicare cannot remain static in the face of the sweeping changes in our
    Nation's health care system, a system today that relies increasingly on
    prescription drugs.
        Today, 13 million seniors each spend more than $1,000 a year, out of
    pocket, for prescriptions. Let me say that again--13 million seniors
    today spend more than $1,000 a year, out of pocket, for prescription
    medication. At the same time, seniors who have no drug coverage do not
    benefit from the lower prices that insurance firms often can negotiate
    from pharmaceutical companies. The higher prices these seniors pay are
    in effect a hidden tax. We must find a way through Medicare to inject
    more competition into the health care system and to provide a
    prescription drug benefit.
        Now, I know that some might say this good news means that we can
    simply delay reform. Nothing could be further from the truth.
    Strengthening and modernizing Medicare requires tough but achievable
    changes. And now is the time to make those changes--now when our economy
    is strong; now when our people have renewed confidence; and now when we
    have time on our side so that modest changes today can have major
    impacts in the years ahead.
        Nothing in this report lessens the need to devote 15 percent of the
    surplus to strengthening Medicare. But nothing in this report lessens
    the need to make tough but achievable reforms either. And nothing in
    this report lessens the need to help seniors with a prescription drug
    benefit. If we wait, we will be condemning ourselves to future changes
    that will be much more costly and wrenching and must less satisfying in
    the end.
        Today, we face a choice that is a test of our wisdom as a self-
    governing people and a test of our vision of 21st century America. Will
    we seize this moment of prosperity? Will we devote these surpluses to
    strengthening Medicare, to strengthening our future? Or will we rush and
    do the most appealing prospect of the moment, a tax cut that will
    explode in later years and avoid our generation's responsibility and put
    the future of Medicare at risk?
        The trustees' report is welcome news, but it also contains a clear
    lesson: Tough, disciplined action is good economics. It's good for
    Social Security; it's good for Medicare; it's good for America. It's
    very good for our children's future and for the future of our families
    across the generations.
        We can extend the life of Social Security and Medicare and have an
    appropriate, affordable amount of tax relief specially targeted to the
    neediest working families and middle class families. But we have to
    apply the lessons we have learned in the last 6 years to the first years
    of the 21st century. I am determined to see that we do so this year. And
    the trustees' report should make it easier for us to fulfill our
    responsibilities.
        Thank you very much.

    [[Page 537]]

    Serbian Proposal To Settle Situation in Kosovo

        Q. Sir, what do you think of Milosevic's offer to withdraw some
    troops if NATO stops bombing?
        The President. I agree with Chancellor Schroeder.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:57 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of
    Germany. The exchange portion of this item could not be verified because
    the tape was incomplete.