Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930609.zip/06-09C.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-09 | 9KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Wed Jun  9 15:26:42 1993
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1993 10:25-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail],
Subject: Radio Address for June 5, 1993


                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                               June 5, 1993

                      REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                   IN RADIO ADDRESS TO THE NATION

                            Oval Office

10:06 A.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning.  On February the 17th, I
presented to our country a national economic strategy to create jobs
and increase incomes through investments in our future and bringing
our government's deficit down.  This plan is tough, and it requires
real contributions from everyone.  It was written to improve our
economy long-term, but I believe back in February, just as I did in
the campaign of 1992, that this plan could produce positive short-
term results, and it already has.

         Once it became clear that we would take responsibility
for bringing our deficit down, interest rates started coming down.
Analysts say that if we can keep these interest rates down for a
year, we'll put over $100 billion back into this economy.  How?
Because people will refinance their home loans or their business
loans.  Many of you listening to this program have already done that
and have saved a great deal of money.  Think what an extra $100
billion can do, through lower interest rates on consumer loans, car
loans, college loans, home loans, and business loans.  It means more
jobs for ordinary Americans, higher business profits, better consumer
confidence, and more consumer spending.  All that will grow the
economy.  It's already beginning to work.

         Just yesterday, unemployment fell below 7 percent for
the first time in a year and a half.  In just the last four months,
the economy has added 755,000 new jobs.  And last month, as mortgage
rates hit a 20 year low, new home sales reached a seven year high.
That, too, means more jobs for ordinary Americans, and more Americans
realizing the dream of home ownership, building stronger
neighborhoods and stronger communities and making America a better
place to live.  We're moving on the right track.  If we get our
priorities right and our government house in order, more people will
be able to order houses for themselves.  If we drive interest rates
down, jobs and investment will keep going up.

         Now the U.S. House of Representatives has acted
courageously and decisively to approve our economic growth plan, and
it's time for the Senate to do the right thing as well.

         In the plan before the Senate, we cut the deficit $500
billion over the next five years -- the largest reduction program
ever proposed by a President.  The plan is balanced and fair.  About
half the deficit reduction comes from spending cuts and restraints in
federal entitlement programs and health care programs, and about half
of it comes from new revenues.

         Included in the $250 billion of spending cuts are
reductions in more than 200 specific programs.  We also raised some
taxes.  But this time, unlike the last 12 years, we're doing it in a
fair way.  Seventy-five percent of the new money comes from people
with incomes above $100,000 -- people who can better afford it, and
whose tax rates went down in the 1980s.  Middle class Americans are
asked to make a contribution in the form of an energy tax.  For
families of four with incomes of $40,000 a year or more, that amounts
to about $1 a month in 1994, $7 a month in 1995, and no more than $17
a month when the plan is fully in place in 1996 and thereafter.

         For working families with incomes under $30,000, the
income tax system has been changed so that the burden will be
virtually nonexistent.  And for the working poor -- people who are
working 40 hours a week or less -- we put in place the first big
block of our welfare reform program.  Because if this plan passes,
people who work 40 hours a week and have children in their homes will
be lifted above the poverty line for the first time in American
history.

         Now, no one wants to pay any additional taxes or see
anybody else pay taxes.  And we're working hard to minimize the tax
increases and maximize the spending cuts.

         But let me remind you, my fellow Americans, all the
people who are out here calling this a tax and spend program are the
same people who, for the last 12 years, have lowered taxes on the
rich, raised taxes on the middle class, taken the national debt from
$1 trillion to $4 trillion, and reduced our investment in our future
so that jobs went down and incomes did too.  My plan is working to
take us in the reverse direction.  It does require tough choices.
You've had all the easy choices for 12 years and the hidden taxes.
We have given you some very simple and open truths.  We've got to be
tough enough to bring down the deficit, but we have to be smart
enough to keep investing in our people and our technologies to have a
growing modern economy.

         Next week, the Senate will begin considering this plan
for deficit reduction and economic growth.  There are principles the
Senate should honor when it considers our plan, the things I believe
we must have.  Number one, we have to cut this deficit by at least
$500 billion over the next five years.  Number two, there could be no
increases in taxes before there are real cuts in spending, and all
the savings should be locked up in a trust fund for the five-year
life of the plan.  Number three, because of what's happened over the
last twelve years, those who are successful enough to be able to pay
more should pay more and we must minimize the burden on the middle
class and the working poor.  Number four, we have to preserve these
incentives to reform the welfare system and to encourage people who
are working, so that more people will move from welfare to work.
And, number five, when we cut spending, we still have to leave some
investment resources for education and training, for new
technologies, for converting from a defense to a domestic economy,
and for incentives for businesses and private individuals to invest
in communities that are distressed and to create new jobs and new
enterprises.  These are the steps we must take to rebuild our
economy.  We can do it.

         Although the changes I am asking Congress to approve are
difficult, especially after more than a decade of everybody being
told exactly what they want to hear while things get worse and worse
and worse, these changes have to be made.  Our living standards are
at stake and we must rise to the occasion.  That is, after all, the
promise of America -- a community at it's best provides a growing
measure of prosperity for everyone who works hard and plays by the
rules.  But our challenge is to fulfill that promise by ensuring that
as we expand opportunity and growth, everyone has a shot to earn
their share.

         In my lifetime, no one has addressed that challenge with
greater courage or constancy than the late Senator Robert Kennedy.
On Sunday, 25 years after his death, I will be joining his family,
their supporters and friends in celebrating his short but exceptional
life as one of the most candid and unifying public servants our
country has every known.

         At a time when so many citizens feel disconnected from
their political leaders, Senator Kennedy had an uncommon feel for
what people experienced in their daily lives.  He fought to expand
economic opportunity, to remind citizens that our rights are
accompanied by responsibilities.  He sought to close the gap between
working class whites and African-Americans when others tried for
political advantage to keep them apart.

         Most of all, Robert Kennedy reminded us that whatever
our differences with our leaders are and our differences with our
policies, we can and should all love our country.  And that is why,
even as we remember his life and mourn his loss, we must celebrate
his spirit, because his example is what we should be following today.

         I will keep fighting for a society filled with
opportunity for every American, free of discrimination, full of the
hopes and dreams that Bobby Kennedy fought for.  Realizing these
dreams would be the greatest tribute we could offer him and the
greatest gift we could give to our children.

         Thanks for listening.

                          END10:15 A.M. EDT