[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 30 (Monday, August 2, 1999)]
[Pages 1516-1517]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Departure for Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

July 29, 1999

National Economy and Proposed Appropriations Legislation

    Good morning. Before I leave for Sarajevo, I'd like to say just a 
word about our country's continuing prosperity and what we have to do to 
keep it going.
    It was 6 years ago this summer that America made a visionary 
decision to set a new course for our economy; to abandon the large 
deficits and high unemployment of the previous 12 years; and to pursue 
an economic strategy of fiscal discipline, investing in our people, and 
expanding trade in American goods and services abroad. The strategy is 
working and has lifted our Nation to an unprecedented level of 
prosperity.
    Now we have nearly 19 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment rate 
in 29 years, the highest homeownership ever. From a $290 billion deficit 
in 1993, we're moving toward a record high surplus of $99 billion in 
1999.
    The Senate is about to make a pivotal choice--whether to move 
forward with a sound strategy that led us to this point, or to return to 
the reckless policies that threw our Nation into stagnation and economic 
decline. Congress must decide whether to invest our surplus, to honor 
our obligations to the future--saving Social Security and Medicare, 
continuing to invest in education, and paying down the debt--or to 
squander the surplus on a shortsighted, irresponsible, overlarge tax 
plan.
    The right choice for me is clear, putting first things first. First, 
we must maintain our strategy of fiscal discipline and seize this moment 
to address the large, long-term challenges of the Nation. We must 
dedicate the bulk of the surplus to saving Social Security and to 
strengthening Medicare and modernizing its benefits with a prescription 
drug package. I have proposed a balanced budget that honors these 
values. It upholds our commitments to educating our children, protecting 
our environment, promoting biomedical research, strengthening defense, 
and fighting crime.
    The Republican majority, it appears, is determined, however, to pass 
this large and risky tax cut. It would exhaust our surplus without: one, 
devoting a penny to lengthening the life of the Social Security Trust 
Fund; two, devoting a penny to lengthening the life of the Medicare 
Trust Fund; three, it would force huge cuts in education, agriculture, 
the environment, defense, biomedical research, indeed, everything we are 
doing to strengthen our country if we are going to stay on a balanced 
budget.
    If those cuts are not made, it would cause us to revert to the dark, 
old days of huge deficits, high interest rates, low economic growth, and 
stagnation. We tried it that way for 12 years, and it didn't work.
    As the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, told the Senate 
yesterday, this tax cut will cut into the surplus and, quote, ``risk a 
great deal of good to the economy.''
    So I say to Congress, if you send me a tax cut that shortchanges 
America's priorities and our children's future, I will veto it. Let me 
be clear again: I do strongly support tax cuts, but not if they are so 
large they undermine our strength and they undermine our ability to save 
Social Security, to strengthen and modernize Medicare, and to get this 
country out of debt for the first time since 1835.
    My balanced budget contains targeted tax cuts to help ordinary 
families with retirement savings, child care costs, long-term care 
costs. It is responsible in size. This debate is not about whether we 
should have tax cuts; it's about how big they should be and what else

[[Page 1517]]

this country has to do and whether we want to go back to a failed 
economic strategy after being so richly rewarded for doing the right 
thing for our children and our future.
    I hope, again that we can get a bipartisan agreement that will save 
Social Security, save and reform Medicare, continue to invest in 
education, and get this country out of debt. If we do those big things 
first, there's still money left for a good size tax cut. But what is 
being done now is wrong.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:05 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House.