[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.