[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 39 (Monday, October 2, 2000)]
[Pages 2216-2218]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the National Economy

September 26, 2000

    Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we're here to talk about 
some good news for our economy and what it means for hardworking 
Americans. I want to thank those on our administration team who had a 
lot to do with the results that I will be announcing today.
    I thank John Podesta, and I thank Gene Sperling; our Council of 
Economic Chair Martin Baily, and the other members of the Council of 
Economic Advisers; Jack Lew and Sylvia Mathews at OMB and all the people 
at OMB and the staff at the Council of Economic Advisers; all the folks 
who work in the White House and those who have been part of the groups 
that have helped us and our economic team and the Government to achieve 
the results that the American people have worked for and earned.
    As John Podesta just described, when we took office, the deficit was 
$290 billion and rising. It was projected to be about $450 billion this 
year. Twelve years of irresponsible fiscal policies had quadrupled the 
debt of the United States, giving us low growth and very high interest 
rates. Unemployment was high; confidence was low.
    Al Gore and I worked hard to change that, with a strategy of fiscal 
discipline, investment in our people, and expanded trade. A big part of 
our strategy was to make sure that all the American people could 
participate in the growth of our Nation. We expanded the earned-income 
tax credit, nearly doubling it to make sure that work pays for people 
who work on modest incomes.
    We raised the minimum wage, passed the family and medical leave law, 
enacted a $500 child tax credit, passed the Kennedy- Kassebaum bill to 
make sure people could carry their health insurance with them when they 
changed jobs, created the HOPE scholarship tax credit and other 
increases in college aid for the biggest expansion in college 
opportunity since the GI bill over 50 years ago.
    Now, we all know that the American people have done a lot with these 
changes. We have the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the lowest female 
unemployment in 40 years, the lowest Hispanic and African-American 
unemployment ever recorded. So, the 22 million jobs and the longest 
economic expansion in history have truly had a broad base of benefits. 
The rising tide has been lifting all boats.
    Today I'm pleased to announce that we have reached another economic 
milestone. In its annual study on income and poverty, the Census Bureau 
reports that last year typical household income rose $1,072, to the 
highest level ever recorded, breaking $40,000 for the first time.
    American incomes have been on the rise for 5 years running now. 
Since 1993, when we launched our economic strategy, median family income 
has risen by 15 percent. That means, for the typical family, after 
inflation, $6,300 more a year in real purchasing power for the things 
that matter most: sending their children to college; covering critical 
health care costs; saving for a secure retirement.
    And the poverty rate has fallen to 11.8 percent, the lowest in 20 
years. Since 1993, 7 million Americans have moved out of poverty, 2.2 
million in the last year alone. The equality part of this recovery is 
picking up steam. Last year African-American and Hispanic poverty rates 
took their largest drop ever. Child poverty dropped more than any year 
since 1966, and elderly poverty fell below 10 percent for the first time 
in history.

[[Page 2217]]

    The rising tide of the economy is lifting all boats. Every income 
group is seeing economic growth, with the greatest gains, in percentage 
terms, being made by the hardest pressed Americans. In 1999, as the 
report shows, African-American and Hispanic households experienced the 
biggest boosts in their incomes ever.
    Today, the most important thing we can say about our economy is that 
it works for working families, and its success belongs to all the 
American people. If we stay on the path that got us here, the path of 
fiscal discipline, we can reach even greater heights of prosperity. If 
we add the new markets initiative and an expansion of the empowerment 
zone program the Vice President has led so ably these last years, we can 
extend it even further, to people and places still left behind, so that 
the gains we are seeing in the cities reach as far as our rural 
communities and Native American reservations. We can also achieve 
something once unthinkable. We can make our country debt-free for the 
first time since the Presidency of Andrew Jackson in 1835.
    Months ago, I presented a budget that sticks to the path of fiscal 
discipline and makes critical investments in America's future, that 
saves Social Security, strengthens Medicare, and includes a voluntary 
prescription drug benefit, invests in education, and increases 
accountability, and pays down the debt by 2012.
    Now, there's less than a week left in this fiscal year, and Congress 
still has not passed 11 of the 13 appropriation bills. Congress still 
has not raised the minimum wage or taken other initiatives to keep all 
Americans' lives improving, along with the economy, including a strong, 
enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights, voluntary Medicare prescription 
drug benefits, or tax cuts for college tuition, child care, and long-
term care.
    I was, however, encouraged this week that the Republican leadership 
said that they will work with me and the congressional Democrats in the 
face of the drug companies' opposition, to give Americans access to 
prescription drugs that are cheaper in other countries. I think it's 
wrong when drug companies sell the same drugs for a much higher price at 
home than they do overseas, even when those drugs are manufactured right 
here in America. Some of the most vulnerable Americans, seniors and 
people with disabilities, are paying the highest prices for prescription 
drugs made in America, in the entire world.
    I support the legislation the Senate has passed to right this wrong. 
If fully funded, the Senate bill meets my condition that the 
prescription drugs we import here are every bit as safe as the ones 
already on the shelves of America's pharmacies. With this protection in 
place, we can preserve the safety of our prescription drug supply and 
cut prices for the pharmaceuticals Americans need.
    The idea has potential, as long as the leadership in Congress sees 
it as part of a real solution, not part of a campaign strategy. Of 
course, again I say, it's only part of a solution. A discount doesn't 
help you much if you've got more than $10,000 in catastrophic drug 
costs. What you need, what all seniors need, is something that makes 
drugs cheaper but helps you pay for them, as well. What you need is a 
Medicare prescription drug benefit that is optional, affordable, and 
dependable.
    I'm disappointed by the congressional leadership's suggestion that 
there's not time enough to pass such a benefit, and I disagree. Every 
day Congress is still in session is another day it could be working 
overtime to provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit and to meet our 
other pressing national priorities.
    There is still time for Congress to raise the minimum wage; to pass 
the bipartisan new markets legislation; to help close the growing 
digital divide; to give our American children more opportunities in 
education; to reduce class size with more highly trained teachers; to 
fix crumbling old schools and to build new ones; to support after-school 
programs for all the children in this country who need it; and to 
increase accountability by requiring States not only to identify failing 
schools but to turn them around or put them under new management.
    The remarkable success of our economy, the rising incomes, the 
falling poverty rates, show again how much we can achieve when we work 
hard, make the right choices, and work together. The American people do 
that every day of the year. So for just a few days, the days left in 
this legislative session, I hope

[[Page 2218]]

the Congress will work with me in that same spirit and with the same eye 
toward achievement.
    This is a good day for America. We have proved that we can lift all 
boats in a modern, global, information-based economy. But we have a lot 
to do. The success and the progress should urge us on.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. in Presidential Hall in the 
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building.