[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 28 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[Pages 1347-1352]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Communications Workers of America Convention in Miami 
Beach

July 13, 1999

    Thank you for that wonderful welcome. You, in particular. [Laughter] 
Thank you, President Bahr, Mrs. Bahr, members of the executive 
committee. President Sweeney, it's great to see you here, to see all of 
you out here and all of those behind. I always knew the CWA was behind 
me, but when I saw so many people up here, I thought it was a literal 
truth today. [Laughter]
    I want to say I also believe that two gentlemen who came with me are 
still here--Florida representatives, our Democratic Congressman, 
Representative Alcee Hastings, and Attorney General Bob Butterworth. I 
welcome them here.
    I came here, first and foremost, to say a simple thank you. Thank 
you for what you do to make America great. Thank you for what you have 
done for me and the Vice President. Thank you for the help you have 
given us to move this country forward.
    Harry Truman once said, whenever labor does well, the whole country 
does well. As usual, he was right. You prove it. The CWA is stronger 
than it's ever been, and America is more prosperous than it has ever 
been. The bounty we enjoy today is in no small measure the result of 
your hard work--every day programming computers, manning customer 
service centers, electronically filing news stories, running MRI 
machines, laying the very cable of the information superhighway. The CWA 
is building the new economy of the 21st century,
    In that endeavor, the Clinton-Gore administration and our allies in 
Congress have been your partners. Remember what it was like when I 
became President 6\1/2\ years ago? Unemployment was high; the deficit 
was huge and rising; poverty and inequality were increasing; our social 
problems were getting worse. We promised to make a new covenant with the 
American people: opportunity in return for responsibility; a community 
of all Americans; and a Government committed to giving the American 
people the tools and conditions they needed to solve their problems and 
make the most of their own lives.
    That strategy was set in motion with our economic plan in 1993. In 
the years since, we have turned the red ink of deficits into the black 
ink of surpluses, lowered interest rates, and fueled an economic 
expansion of truly historic proportions. Meanwhile, we've nearly doubled 
investment in education and training; put more police on the street and 
taken more guns out of the hands of criminals; invested more in 
technology, medical research, in cleaning up the environment; passed 
family leave and other family-friendly measures, including substantial 
tax cuts to help families pay for college and to help families raise 
their children. We showed, in other words, that our Democratic 
administration could balance the budget while honoring our values.
    Now, because we believe it is wrong for any child to be without 
access to the Internet, one of the greatest vehicles of opportunity the 
world has ever seen, we created our E-rate program to make sure every 
classroom--thanks to the leadership of Vice President Gore--every 
classroom in America can be hooked up to the Internet by the year 2000. 
We're well over half way there now, and I thank you for your role in 
that. I also want to thank Morty Bahr for serving on the Advisory 
Council on the National Information Infrastructure, which laid the 
groundwork for the E-rate program, which has brought discount after 
discount after discount to poor

[[Page 1348]]

schools and libraries throughout America to make sure everybody can 
afford to be part of the information superhighway.
    Now, because we believe all Americans should have the means to 
upgrade their skills, we unveiled in January a new initiative to offer 
literacy and job training to every single working American who needs it 
now and who will need it in the future. And again, Morty Bahr was there 
with me at the unveiling, having served on our 21st Century Work Force 
Commission.
    And now, because we believe that to be secure means meeting the 
challenge of the aging of America by reforming Social Security and 
Medicare, providing more health care security, more retirement security, 
and strengthening our economy, we have put forward a sweeping proposal 
to use most of our surplus for these purposes.
    Today I want to talk to you in detail about the challenge of 
strengthening and modernizing Medicare for the 21st century. The simple 
problem is that more Americans are living longer. That's a high-class 
problem. But with the baby boom retirement just ahead of us and more 
Americans living longer, the number of Medicare beneficiaries is simply 
growing faster than the number of workers paying into the system. By the 
year 2015, the Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent, just as the baby 
boom generation begins to retire and enter the system, eventually 
doubling the number of Americans over 65 by the year 2030.
    Over the last 6\1/2\ years, we've taken some important steps to 
strengthen Medicare. When I first became President, Medicare was 
scheduled to go broke this year. We've helped to extend the life of the 
Trust Fund to 2015 by fighting waste, fraud, and abuse, and taking tough 
action to contain costs, in 1993 and in 1997.
    But we must do more, not only to extend the solvency of Medicare but 
to ensure that its benefits keep up with the advances of modern science. 
No one, for example, no one would devise a Medicare program if we were 
starting from scratch today without including a prescription drug 
benefit. It wasn't as important back in 1965. Many of the drugs we now 
use to treat heart disease, arthritis, and other conditions didn't even 
exist back then when Medicare was first created.
    When it comes to securing health care and its benefits, nobody--
nobody--has done more than the CWA. When it comes to controlling health 
care costs and maintaining quality of care, no union has worked harder 
or more cooperatively with employers and insurers than the CWA. What you 
have done for your retired members, we as a nation must now do for all 
our senior citizens.
    Last month I set out a plan to secure and modernize Medicare. Here 
are its elements:
    First and foremost, my plan would provide what every single 
objective expert has said Medicare must have if it is to survive--more 
resources to shore up its solvency. The plan would devote 15 percent of 
the Federal budget surplus over the next 15 years to Medicare to extend 
the life of the Trust Fund to 2027.
    Second, the plan will use the force of competition and the best 
practices now in the private sector to keep costs down without 
sacrificing quality.
    Third, the plan will allow Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 
who don't have health insurance, on the job or in their retirement, to 
buy into Medicare in a way that does not compromise the solvency of the 
Trust Fund. This is a huge issue today, with more and more early 
retirees and others who don't have health insurance and simply cannot 
afford it in the private marketplace in the years when they may be most 
vulnerable.
    Fourth, the plan will modernize Medicare's benefits to match the 
advances of medical science. For example, almost every week researchers 
seem to develop a new preventive screening to catch diseases in their 
early stages. Unfortunately, the copayments Medicare charges for these 
tests leads many seniors struggling to pay rent and utility bills to put 
off getting those tests done until it's too late. It makes no sense for 
Medicare to put up roadblocks to screenings and then turn around and 
pick up the much more expensive hospital bills the screenings might have 
avoided. That's why our plan will eliminate the deductible and all 
copayments for all preventive services. We pay for it by requiring 
modest co-pays for lab tests that are often

[[Page 1349]]

overused and indexing the very modest part B premium.
    But we must help, if we're going to do this right, we must help 
seniors to meet their greatest growing need, the need for affordable 
prescription drug coverage.
    Now, many of our friends in the other party say, ``Well, a lot of 
seniors have drug coverage today.'' Well, that's right, a lot do. But 15 
million don't, and more are losing it every single day. And a lot of 
them are paying an arm and a leg for very modest coverage. For those who 
have good plans, they're not having any problems because our plan on 
this is entirely voluntary. It provides voluntary prescription drug 
coverage, paid for largely with resources we will save from making 
Medicare more competitive and innovative, plus a small fraction of the 
surplus that is dedicated to Medicare.
    This benefit will cover half of all prescription drug costs, up to 
$5,000, when fully phased in, with no deductible at all, and all for a 
modest premium that will be less than half the price the average Medigap 
policy costs, and will not apply--will not apply--to seniors up to 130 
percent of the poverty line. This is a good deal for America, and we 
ought to do it. It is a program our seniors can afford, provided in a 
way the rest of America can afford.
    Nobody knows better the value of prescription drug coverage than 
union men and women who have fought hard for drug benefits more generous 
than those I'm proposing. But retired unionists are among the fortunate 
few. I say again, nearly 15 million Medicare beneficiaries lack 
prescription drug benefits altogether. Nearly half of them are not poor; 
they're middle class Americans. With prescription drug prices rising, 
the pressure is on employers to cut back or eliminate prescription drug 
coverage, and it's becoming more intense. Much of that pressure is 
coming from competing employers who don't offer these benefits. You and 
your employers should not have to fight this battle by yourselves.
    Of course, America works best when we work together to meet our 
common challenges. Yesterday at the White House, I met with leaders of 
both parties to discuss the budget and my plan for Medicare. I was 
pleased that Republican leaders expressed a willingness to work together 
with us. But they are putting together a tax plan today that leaves no 
resources available from the surplus for strengthening Medicare. That is 
why I am asking Republican leaders, in the interest of saving Medicare, 
to reconsider the size of their tax cut plan. First things first.
    We worked very hard in putting this plan together to squeeze every 
penny of savings we could out of Medicare without harming the quality of 
care. But to extend the life of the Trust Fund for a quarter century 
without devoting a portion of the surplus to Medicare would mean--listen 
to this--would mean holding spending increases in Medicare to a rate 
that is more than 60 percent below what private insurance is expected to 
grow. It can't be done. That would severely cut both the quality and the 
quantity of health care available to seniors on Medicare, and that will 
not happen on my watch. I won't let it happen. [Applause] Thank you.
    I am pleased that there does seem to be an agreement between the 
Republican leaders and our Democratic leaders and myself to devote that 
portion of the surplus attributable to Social Security taxes just to 
Social Security. But it is critical that we have a so-called lockbox 
that actually locks in the debt reduction that we get from not spending 
that money and gives the benefit of that debt reduction to Social 
Security, so that we can extend the life of the Trust Fund, as my plan 
does, the Social Security Trust Fund, to 2053--adding 53 years from here 
to there. That's important.
    I'll be talking more about this later, but the Social Security Trust 
Fund is expected to last until 2035 now. It's even more important that 
we devote some of these funds to Medicare right now because Medicare is 
expected to be insolvent almost 20 years earlier, in 2015.
    We as a nation have got some big choices to make in the next few 
months. We've got to decide what to do with this surplus. Did you ever 
think a few years ago we'd even be having this conversation? We had a 
$290 billion deficit when I took office; it was supposed to be up to 
$380 billion this year. We quadrupled the debt--4 times--quadrupled the 
debt in 12 years. So I realize that it's

[[Page 1350]]

tempting for a Congress to say, ``Well, 16 months before election, let's 
do what is most immediately pleasing, whether it's right for America 
over the long run or not.'' This is a big test for us, for our wisdom, 
for our judgment, for our concern for our people and their future.
    I think the right choice is to devote most of the surplus to saving 
Social Security and Medicare. Let me tell you--and let me walk through 
this with you again, because under our plan, besides reforming and 
saving Social Security and Medicare, this plan will allow us to pay off 
publicly held debt to make America debt-free in 15 years for the first 
time since 1835.
    Now, what does that mean to the Government? It means when you pay 
your tax money, we're not spending 13, 14, or 15 cents on every dollar 
of your taxes just to pay interest on the debt. It means that future tax 
burdens can be lower.
    What does it mean to ordinary citizens right now and every year from 
now on? It means if America is on a path to becoming debt-free, interest 
rates will be lower. That means businesses can borrow at less cost. That 
means more new investment, more jobs, and more money for higher wages. 
It means average families can borrow at less cost. That means lower home 
mortgages, lower credit card payments, lower car payments, lower college 
loan payments. I'm telling you, the average family will save a whole lot 
more under this plan looking after our future than they will under the 
tax cut plan offered by the other party.
    Now, because their plan spends almost all the non-Social Security 
related surplus on a tax cut, it would not only do nothing to restore 
Medicare, it would require deep cuts in those things we need to be 
investing the most in: in education, in hiring those 100,000 teachers, 
in medical research, in technology, in preserving the environment, in 
modernizing our national defense. We won't have the money to do that.
    And again I say, this is a mistake because our plan has a sizable 
tax cut, nearly a quarter trillion dollars for middle-income families to 
meet their crucial needs, for child care, for long-term care, for saving 
for retirement. It provides tax cuts for building world-class schools, 
for developing and installing new environmental technologies, for 
funding the new markets initiative, which I highlighted on my tour to 
the poorest parts of America last week, simply to say we will give you 
the same tax breaks to invest in poor areas in America we give you to 
invest in poor areas overseas. It is the right thing to do.
    So here's the choice: We can save Social Security and Medicare and 
make Medicare better. We can make America debt-free, giving our children 
a stronger economy and all of you lower interest rates. We can still 
have a good-size tax cut, but not as large as the one the Republican 
leaders propose.
    Again I say, their plan would spend almost the entire non-Social 
Security portion of the surplus on tax cuts. It wouldn't extend the 
solvency of Medicare by a single day. Depending on how they do it, it 
might not extend the solvency of Social Security by a single day. It 
would force drastic cuts in education, research and technology, defense, 
and the environment. It would mean not paying off the debt and leaving 
us and our children more vulnerable to higher interest rates, a higher 
level of Government spending for interest payments alone, higher taxes 
in years to come, a weaker economy, itself more vulnerable to the kind 
of global financial turmoil we've all seen in the last couple of years.
    So that's the choice: an America debt-free, with Social Security 
intact and Medicare even better, and a substantial tax cut; or a return 
to the ``spend now, pay later'' approach that will not save and 
strengthen Medicare, may or may not lengthen the life of Social 
Security, will certainly cut education and other vital programs, and 
again I say, over the long run will be far more costly to every person 
in this room and every working family in the entire United States.
    I believe we all want--Republicans and Democrats and independents--
the strongest possible America for our children. I'm encouraged by the 
tone and the substance of the meeting I had yesterday with the leaders 
of Congress in both parties. So I ask again the Republican leaders in 
Congress, for the sake of saving Medicare and strengthening our future, 
to reduce the size of your tax cut and join us in putting first things 
first.

[[Page 1351]]

    If we would sit down at the table like responsible family members 
and figure out how much it would cost us to meet our current obligations 
to education, defense, and other things, what we have to do to save 
Social Security and Medicare, not just for the baby boom generation but 
for their children and grandchildren who otherwise will be spending 
money they need to get along, to pay for education, to pay for the 
future on their parents, then we could figure out how much is left over 
for the tax cut. That's what I've tried to do, because I think it's the 
right thing for America. First things first, putting people first. It's 
the American way.
    And to my fellow Americans who may think that this is just one of 
those Washington debates, and one side makes their side sound good and 
the other side makes their side sound so good, and it's all just a bunch 
of politics, all I can offer is the record of the last 6\1/2\ years.
    I ask--think about it--with your help, we have nearly 19 million new 
jobs, the longest peacetime expansion in history, the lowest crime rate 
in 26 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, the highest 
homeownership in history, the lowest minority unemployment rates ever 
recorded. We have declining rates of teen pregnancy, smoking, and drug 
abuse. We have cleaner air, cleaner water, and safer food. We've got 90 
percent of our children immunized against serious childhood illnesses 
for the first time. We've had 100,000 young people working in our 
communities in AmeriCorps, making America better and earning their way 
to college. The record indicates that when we say something is good for 
America's future, it probably is good for America's future.
    That's why we're trying to pass this Patients' Bill of Rights 
they're debating up there today. Think how you would feel-- that's what 
I asked the Senators to do today--think how you would feel if it was 
your child, your wife, your husband, and the question was, your doctor 
says you need to see a specialist and your HMO accountant says you 
don't. Should you have to hassle it out for 3 months? And then, if the 
damage is irrevocable, shouldn't you be able to hold somebody 
accountable? Think how you would feel.
    Think how you would feel if--God forbid--you got hurt in an accident 
outside this convention hall and the ambulance had to drive you past two 
or three hospitals until they finally got to one covered by your HMO. 
Depending on what kind of injury you had, it could just be much more 
painful or terribly devastating.
    Think how you would feel if your small employer changed health care 
providers in the middle of your wife's pregnancy or in the middle of the 
husband's chemotherapy treatment, and they said, ``I'm sorry; I know 
this is traumatic. I know you're 6 months pregnant and you've had a 
terrible pregnancy, but here's a new doctor for you. I know your life is 
on the line and you've got great confidence in this doctor supervising 
your chemotherapy treatment, but here's a new doctor for you.''
    I just try to think about what's right for the American people. Oh, 
they'll tell you how much it costs up there. But we put in the Patients' 
Bill of Rights for the Federal employees; its cost, less than a buck a 
month a policy to comply with. The Congressional Budget Office says 
that, at the most, it would cost $2 a month a policy. Don't you think 
it's worth $24 a year to know that when you need to see a specialist, 
you can see one?
    So that's what we're trying to do--with our proposal to modernize 
schools, to finish hiring 100,000 teachers, to put even more police on 
the street, and take even more guns out of the hands of more criminals. 
And that's what we're trying to do by shining the light of enterprise 
and opportunity at America's poorest communities. And most of all, 
that's what we're trying to do with our plan to save Social Security and 
Medicare, provide that prescription drug benefit, and make America debt-
free.
    You know, in a year and a half, I'll retire with a pretty nice 
pension. I'll be all right, regardless. Thanks to the CWA, most of you 
will be all right, regardless. But you know, if we haven't learned 
anything in the last 6 years, it ought to be that the policies that help 
the least of us help all of us; that when we strengthen America's 
families and workplaces and communities, we're all better off.
    A lot of people that have made a lot of money out of the stock 
market in the last

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6\1/2\ years, when it's more than tripled, they'd have been all right if 
the stock market hadn't gone up. But they're a lot better off because 
the lives of average Americans have gone up. That's why the stock 
market's done better.
    And so again, I'll say to all of you, we've got this phenomenal 
opportunity, the opportunity of a lifetime, of a whole generation, to 
use the last 16 months of this century to get the 21st century off to a 
rousing start for America. We just have to be faithful to the covenant 
we made with the people in 1992. We have to put first things first. We 
have to put people first. And if we do it, watch out, you ain't seen 
nothin' yet.
    God bless you, and thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:35 p.m. in Hall D at the Miami Beach 
Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Morton Bahr, 
president, Communications Workers of America, and his wife, Florence; 
John J. Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO; and Robert A. Butterworth, State 
attorney general.