[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 51 (Monday, December 25, 2000)]
[Pages 3102-3103]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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The President's Radio Address

December 16, 2000

    Good morning. This week, as I work to conclude the last budget 
negotiations of my Presidency, I'm reminded how far we've come these 
past 8 years. We now live in a time of unprecedented peace and 
prosperity. But we didn't get there by accident. We made tough choices, 
based on core values of opportunity for all, responsibility from all, 
and a community of all Americans.
    Today I want to talk about two elements critical to our continued 
success: first, our progress in moving people from welfare to work; and 
second, our continuing commitment to fiscal discipline and a budget that 
puts our people first.
    Vice President Gore and I took office in 1993 with a pledge to end 
welfare as we know it. Thanks to comprehensive welfare reform, a renewed 
sense of responsibility, and the strongest economy in a generation, 
millions of former welfare recipients now know the dignity of work.
    Today I am pleased to announce that over the past 8 years we've cut 
welfare caseloads by more than 8 million people. Last year alone 1.2 
million parents on welfare went to work, determined to build better 
lives. Nationwide over the last 8 years, welfare rolls have dropped 
nearly 60 percent and now are the lowest in more than 30 years.
    We've been able to sustain this progress year after year because 
Government, the private sector, and welfare recipients themselves all 
have done their parts. Together, we are finally breaking the cycle of 
dependence that has long crippled the hopes of too many families.
    When we enacted landmark welfare reform in 1996, I insisted that 
Congress provide incentives to reward States for helping people to find 
jobs and to keep jobs. Today I'm pleased to announce that 28 States will 
receive a total of $200 million in bonuses for doing just that. These 
grants will enable States to help even more parents go to work and 
succeed on the job. I urge States to use these resources to provide the 
necessary support--from child care to transportation to training--that 
can make a critical difference between welfare checks and paychecks.
    We've also worked hard to help families leaving welfare meet the 
challenge of affordable health care. In the bipartisan budget package I 
will soon sign, we will extend Medicaid coverage so that thousands of 
parents who leave welfare can keep the health coverage protecting them 
and their children. This budget also includes funding to help cover more 
uninsured children, speed coverage for patients with Lou Gehrig's 
disease, and increase payments to hospitals, teaching facilities, home 
health agencies, and nursing homes in order to ensure quality health 
care.
    We have also secured an extra $817 million to help working families 
afford child care, to meet their responsibilities both at work and at 
home. These and other child care resources will serve over 2.2 million 
children next year.
    In this budget, we're also passing our historic new markets and 
community renewal initiative, the most significant effort ever to help 
hard-pressed communities lift themselves up through private investment 
and entrepreneurship. With the help of our new-

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markets tax credit, 40 strengthened empowerment zones and 40 renewal 
communities, this initiative will spur billions and billions of dollars 
in private investment to communities that have not yet shared in our 
Nation's great economic revival.
    From the streets of our central cities to the hills of Appalachia to 
the rugged vistas of our Native American reservations to the Mississippi 
Delta, we are giving people the tools of opportunity to make the most of 
their potential.
    Finally, this budget also includes vital investments in our children 
and their education. With over $900 million dedicated for the very first 
time to school renovation, thousands of local school districts finally 
will be able to give our children the classrooms they deserve.
    We've increased funding by 25 percent to stay on track to hire 
100,000 highly qualified new teachers to reduce class size in the early 
grades. We have nearly doubled funding for after-school programs to help 
more than 1.3 million students, while increasing support for teacher 
training and for turning around failing schools. And to open the doors 
of college even wider so that more of our young people can walk through 
them, we've increased the maximum Pell grant to an all-time high of 
$3,750. That's up nearly $1,500 since 1993.
    If we continue to invest in our people and create opportunities for 
them, if we continue to honor and reward work, our possibilities are 
truly without limit. By reaching out and working together, our best days 
still lie ahead. This budget proves it. The work of the American people 
prove it. The successful desire of people to move from welfare to work 
proves it.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 10:49 a.m. on December 15 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on December 16. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on December 15 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.