Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/clin0610.zip/ZQ000007.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-10 | 14KB | 281 lines

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    June 7, 1993


                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                      TO LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

                           The Rose Garden



2:23 P.M. EDT


         THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much, Becky, for that
wonderful introduction.  I want to thank you and Gracia (phonetic)
Hillman and all the leaders of the state and local chapters of the
League of Women Voters from around the country who are here.  I know
there are at least three members from my home state here.  (Laughter.)
I'm glad to see you all.  Karen Stevens, Bobbie Hill and Linda Polk, I
thank them for coming.

         This is your house.  And I'm glad to have you back here.
When I ran for President, I did so with the conviction that we had to
create a new season of opportunity and a new climate of
responsibility in America so that together we could rebuild the
American community.

         And there were some very specific commitments that I
made in that regard:  an economic program that would be 2good for
America's families and working people; a health care program that
would control cost and provide basic coverage to all Americans; a
program of national service and reform of the student loan program to
open the doors of college education to all Americans; a program to
change the welfare system to move families from dependence to
independence; and a program of political reform to open the system of
this country so that ordinary Americans could pull the levers of
power and have their voices heard.

         Your presence here today for the first time since 1980,
after decades and decades, the League of Women Voters coming to the
White House without regard to party, in a bipartisan fashion, coming
back here for the first time since 1980, is a symbol of the
importance of opening the political system to informed citizens to
let them have influence over the decisions that are made affecting
the lives of ordinary Americans.  and I welcome you here today.
(Applause.)

         Not long ago, as Becky said, we gathered here to sign
the motor voter bill -- again, a strong priority of the League of
Women Voters, without regard to party, opening the franchise more to
all Americans, and especially to many younger Americans who were so
terribly interested in this issue.  That was a very, very important
day for all of us.  It was not only good for voter registration, it
was in a very fundamental sense a civil rights law and a real advance
for all the people of the United States.

         Not long before that, I gathered here with other
Americans to sign the family leave bill into law, which is a very
important thing because it attempts to unite two of our most
important values, work and family, guaranteeing ordinary citizens
that if they have to take a little time off for a baby to be born or
a parent to be cared for, they won't lose their jobs.

         These are the kinds of things that government ought to
do with the American people, not to just do things for people, but to
empower people to take care of their own business.  That's what motor
voter does; that's what family leave does; that's what we ought to be
about in this country.

         Now, we are moving ahead in the Congress with the
economic plan, soon to be followed by the health care plan.  And
there is a very ambitious agenda of political reform before the
Congress.  I know that's what you're here about, so I'd like to say
just a word about that, if I might.

         There are actually two important political reform bills
in the United States Congress today.  And I urge you to embrace them
both.  The first one you know about, and that is the campaign finance
reform bill in the United States Senate.  The bill does exactly what
we ought to do -- it lowers the cost of campaign, reduces the
influence of special interest groups, and opens the airwaves to more
honest debates, so that incumbents are not unduly protected and
wealth is not the primary determinant of whether a person can wage a
credible campaign.  It is a very, very important advance.

         And we have proposed to -- you can clap for that, I like
that.  (Applause.)  We have proposed to pay for this by repealing a
tax deduction that is only 30 years old, and that is the tax
deduction for lobbying.  (Applause.)  We've proposed to repeal it and
pay for campaign finance reform.  (Applause.)

         No other money will go into campaign finance reform
except that which is voluntarily contributed by the American
taxpayers if this bill passes as it has been proposed.  So I urge you
to go up there and plead with the United States Senate and talk to
the House members while you're at it and say, give us a bill we can
be proud of to give the election process back to the American people.
(Applause.)

         One of the reasons more people voted in the presidential
election in 1992 that hadn't voted in a long time is because of all
the debates, all the town meetings, all the open forums, all the ways
that people found to say this is your place, not the politicians'
place.  This is your country.  This is your government, take it back.
And campaign finance reform will help us to do that.  (Applause.)

         The second bill has already been passed by the Senate
and is now in the House.  It is a bill long overdue, which will
require all people who lobby the United States Congress to register
and report and will require the reporting of virtually all funds
expended on members of Congress by lobbyists.  It is a very important
bill, and I urge you to support that.  (Applause.)

         Secondly, I appreciate your support for health care
reform.  Let me say that the First Lady and the hundreds of people
who worked on the task force and the people in the administration who
are still reaching out over America to the health care providers and
the health care consumers and the business community, the labor
community, everybody affected by this, deserve a lot of credit.  They
have done more complex, exhaustive work in less time than any other
group like this, I think, in the entire history of the United States.
And I'm very grateful to them for that.  And soon we will have a
health care proposal that I believe will be self-evidently in the
interest of the vast majority of the American people, not only to
provide universal coverage, but to do it in a way which preserves
what is best about American health care, and brings these costs down
before we bankrupt the United States with health care costs and
without universal coverage.  (Applause.)

         Let me say, before we do that, we have got to get the
government's house in order.  In 12 years -- the 12 years you weren't
here -- it may be because you weren't here. (Laughter and applause.)
In the 12 years you weren't here, the debt of this country went from
$1 trillion to $4 trillion.  Our national deficit was over $300
billion this year.  We have got to do something about it.  But the
most frustrating thing of all -- it's like health care; we spend 35
percent more than anybody else in the world and do less with it.
With our government's deficit soaring, with our debt exploding, we
have reduced our investments in the things that make us a richer,
stronger, more productive country and that offer our children the
chance to seize the American Dream.

         We have to put our house in order and reverse a lot of
those practices -- practices that have, to be sure, the stamp of not
only Republican presidents, but also Democratic Congresses --
practices born of taking the path of least resistance and telling
people what they want to hear.  It is always more popular to cut
people's taxes and send them more money and deplore the government
every step of the way.  But in the end, you have to live with the
consequences of what you have wrought.  And that is what we are doing
today.  And we are determined in this administration to change those
consequences.

         The House of Representatives acted very courageously to
pass the largest deficit reduction program ever proposed by an
administration.  At the same time they did it, I pledged to review
the budget to ensure that we maximized our reliance on spending cuts,
minimized our reliance on new taxes, and kept the burden on middle
class working Americans as light as possible.

         As we move into the Senate this week, we will fight for
all the $250 billion in spending cuts contained in this program,
including $100 billion in reduction in entitlements already in this
program.  We will fight for the fairness of the program, which has
over 60 percent of the new taxes coming from people with incomes
above $200,000, over 74 percent coming above $100,000, which costs
the average family with a $40,000 or $50,000 income $1 a month next
year, $7 a month the year after, and $17 a month at a maximum rate;
and which holds harmless working families under $30,000 a year; and
which has the first incentive in the history of the United States of
America to lift the working poor out of poverty by using the tax
system to say if you work 40 hours a week and you have a child in the
house, you will not be below the poverty line.  If you want welfare
reform, that's it.  (Applause.)

         Now, later today I will meet with Senator Mitchell, the
Senate Majority Leader, and Senator Moynihan, the Chairman of the
Finance Committee, and I will tell them that I intend to designate
the Treasury Secretary, Secretary Bentsen, to work with them to come
up with a budget that the American people will accept and that the
Congress will pass.

         As we complete work on this growth plan, I intend to do
everything I can to say I welcome additional cuts.  But I will fight
to protect the most vulnerable people in this country.  And I will
fight to protect our investments to create jobs.  (Applause.)  For in
the end, this cannot be about passing budgets or reducing deficits.
It certainly can't be about raising taxes or even cutting spending.
What it is in the end is about giving us control over our destiny
again; giving us the ability to create jobs and opportunity and
increase incomes for the American people.

         And let's not lose sight of what has been done.  This
program, which cuts spending, raises revenues, cuts the deficit, and
invests in jobs and technology for the future, has already by its
advocacy and passing, dramatically contributed to bringing interest
rates to their lowest point in 20 years; so that you've got a seven-
year high in home buying, unemployment below seven percent for the
first time in a year and a half, and 755,000 new jobs in this economy
in the last four months.  I think that's something to be proud of,
and I don't understand why people are not glad that those
consequences are flowing from these efforts.  (Applause.)

         I believe the American people want us to move in this
direction.  Last week the Home Builders Association endorsed the
economic program -- not a traditionally Democratic group.
(Laughter.)  The Realtors Association has endorsed it.  More than
half the 100 biggest companies in the United States have endorsed it
along with the largest labor organizations in America.  This is a
program that's good for jobs.  The Congressional Black Caucus voted
for it unanimously because of the empowerment zones in the program
which gives the private sector incentives to invest in putting people
back to work in the most depressed areas in America.  The business
community is please because of the incentives for starting new
business and for helping small businesses.

         If you will look at this program you will see it is no
accident why the interest rates are down, the jobs are up, and
investment is coming back into America.  If we can keep interest
rates down, then all this debt that has piled up in the last 12 years
at least can be refinanced in terms of home mortgages, business
loans, college loans, consumer loans, car loans.  And all that lower
interest rate will then free up money to invest.  That is what is
creating these jobs now, and we cannot turn our backs on it.

         So I say, let's move onto the Senate.  Let's pass the
economic program, then let's move onto health care.  And let's never
forget that it will all work better over the long run if we pass
campaign finance reform and lobbying reform and continue to fight to
open this system to the American people.

         Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

                              * * * * *

         Q      Mr. President, how close are you to a Supreme Court
nomination?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Pretty close.  I have not made a
decision yet, but I'm working on it, talking to people.  I expect a
decision very soon.

         Q         spoken to anyone about the decision --

         Q      Why are you backing off of Babbitt?

         Q         any of the potential nominees?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Stay tuned.

         Q      Why are you backing off of Babbitt?  (Laughter.)

         THE PRESIDENT:  I'm not.  I've never --

         Q      Babbitt's in the race?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I'm not backing off or on anybody.  I
haven't made a decision yet.

         Q      Is he in the race?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I haven't made a decision yet.  When I
do, I'll tell you.  Thanks.

         Q         give him a litmus test?

         Q      Who's going to be Interior Secretary?

                                   END2:40 P.M. EDT