Night Owl 9/Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO/032a/wh930603.zip/06-03A.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-03 | 14KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Thu Jun  3 14:02:40 1993
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 12:07-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail],
Subject: Philadelphia Speach

                         THE WHITE HOUSE

                  Office of the Press Secretary
                   (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                           May 28, 1993


                     REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                  TO THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA

                            Courtyard
                            City Hall
                    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

12:19 P.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much, Rosemary Greco.
You know, she's the sort of person that I ran for President to
support -- a person who started out as a bank teller and became
the president of a bank.  That's the American Dream.  (Applause.)

         I want to say how glad I am to be here, back in
Philadelphia, a city that has been so good to me for so long now.
(Applause.)  With your Mayor and Senator Wofford and with the
members of the House delegation who are up here on the platform
with me, and with your State Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll --
I'm glad to be here with all of them.  Give them a hand, will
you?  (Applause.)

         My fellow Americans, since I became President I have
been working to break the gridlock in Washington, to prove that
government could work for you again.  And there have been some
impressive examples of success in that regard.  The Congress,
after eight years of rankling with the President and two vetoes,
voted to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act to guarantee
working people a little time off when the baby was born or a
parent was sick.  (Applause.)  And eventually, after years of
haggling, voted to pass the motor voter bill to open up the voter
registration rolls to millions of Americans and bring them into
the political process.  (Applause.)

         But the real issue was whether we had the courage to
come to grips with the economic problems which have paralyzed
this country.  After years and years of years of gridlock, after
years of leaders talking about economic problems and not doing
much about them, after years in which we ran our national debt
from $1 trillion to $4 trillion and reduced our investment in our
people, their jobs and their future at the same time, last night
the House of Representatives gave the American people a victory
for economic growth over gridlock. (Applause.)

         The plan cuts the deficit by $500 billion, cuts $1
trillion -- a quarter of a $1 trillion in government spending,
asks the wealthy who can best afford to pay their fair share,
invests in education and jobs, and rewards work instead of
welfare.

         (Audience interruption.)

         Let me tell you something -- wait a minute.  You
know one things that's wrong with this country?  Everybody gets a
chance to have their fair say.  My budget did more to fight AIDS
than any in history, and we're having to put up with this.
(Applause.)  Tell them to let me talk.  (Applause.)  If you want
to give a speech -- go out there and raise your own crowd.  We'll
be glad to listen to you.  (Applause.)

         So there were those -- (interruption) -- I'll make
you a deal.  I'll ignore them if you will.  (Applause.)

         There were a lot of people who said we could never
change the way things were in Washington -- the same sort of
people who picked the Phillies to finish last this year.
(Applause.)  By the way, I think the Phillies are looking pretty
good, even that big fellow, Kruk, you know, is a big bat.  I
wonder who cuts his hair?  (Laughter and applause.)

         Let me tell you something, folks, make no mistake
about it, this national capital of yours is beginning to change.
After years in which our House was coming apart with higher
deficits and less investment, a government by special interests
instead of the national interests, middle class working harder
for less -- things are really beginning to change.  (Applause.)

         After years of a lot of hot air and no
responsibility and no willingness to take the tough decisions,
yesterday the House began to throw out the economic program that
ran our debt to $4 trillion, ran the middle class into the
ground, created a new class of poverty and robbed our country of
opportunity and any sense of community.  We are now moving
forward with a plan that reduces the deficit, asks the wealthy
who can pay their fair share, gives the middle class the chance
of having a future with real economic growth, and provides
profound incentives to prefer work over welfare.  These are the
kinds of things you elected me to do.  (Applause.)

         And I want to say one of the most rewarding things
is the people who supported the program -- I mean, after all,
this is a program which asks that  75 percent of the money raised
in taxes be paid for by people with incomes above $100,000.  Any
yet, among the strongest supporters were people who had that
income who believe their country was more important than their
own pocketbook.  And we ought to reward that.  (Applause.)

         We had not just labor leaders and small
businesspeople and mayors of small and big cities and governors
for this program.  There  were people who led some of the biggest
-- lead some of the biggest companies in this country out there
working to give our country a better chance and a brighter future
-- because they know that we have to stop reducing our investment
and running up our debt.  We need to reverse our priorities, and
now we're on the way to doing it.  (Applause.)

         A lot of these decisions were not easy, but they had
to be made.  I tried to set a good example.  I reduced my own
staff.  We've had a reduction in this budget in the federal work
force by attrition, not by laying people off -- but we're going
to reduce the federal government by 150,000 over the next four
years.  That's a lot.  That's a lot of government spending cuts.
(Applause.)  We cut more than 200 specific programs.  We cut $2
in spending for every $1 in new investments and education and
jobs and technology.

         There were things that had never been really
seriously dealt with before -- the budget's sacred cows;
everything from agricultural subsidies to the REA to other
problems that affect the cities.  Demonstration projects that had
never been seriously reviewed; cuts in the Medicare program that
couldn't be justified.  And the federal employees perhaps took
the biggest hit of all, foregoing a pay raise and having a budget
that lowers their raises below the cost of living for four years,
because most of them agreed that they couldn't ask any of you to
pay more -- even the wealthiest Americans -- unless they took
less. That's the kind of spirit it's going to take to turn this
country around and move the country forward.  (Applause.)

         I'll tell you something else.  Every dollar in taxes
and all the budget cuts have to go into a deficit reduction trust
fund.  There will be no taxes without the budget cuts and all the
money will go to bringing the debt down.  And we will have some
left over to do things that need to be done.  Here in
Philadelphia, you know, because of defense cuts, we need to
invest some money to help move our country from a defense to a
domestic economy.  New technologies for new jobs and new
opportunities in the future.  (Applause.)

         Because this debt turned out to be bigger even than
we knew before the election, I did ask the Congress to adopt an
energy tax, some of which will be paid by middle-class Americans.
But I want you to know exactly how it works and you've got to
decide whether you think it's worth it.

         First of all, we have income tax reductions to
protect family incomes below $30,000 from the impact of the
energy tax.  For people above $30,000 up to $100,000, here's what
it costs:  $1 a month next year; $7 a month the year after; and
if you've got a family of four, $17 a month after that.  But
consider this:  Look how much interest rates have gone down.  If
we keep interest rates down and people can refinance their homes,
get car loans at lower rates, get consumer loans at lower rates,
get lower business loans from good bankers like Rosemary, you
will save more in interest rates than you'll ever pay in the
energy tax, and you'll have a healthier economy and a lower
deficit.  (Applause.)

         Just for example:  If someone had $100,000 home
mortgage that was financed at 10 percent and they refinanced it
at 7.5 percent, they'd save $175 a month -- a month, not a year.
This is going to be good economics.  If we can keep interest
rates down by bringing the debt down, that will release another
$100 billion into this economy this year to put the American
people back to work.  (Applause.)

         Yesterday was a historic day, but it was just the
beginning.  Now the bill goes onto the Senate.  And we must work
to pass the bill that meets these principles:  The wealthy must
pay their fair share.  We have to reduce the deficit by $500
billion.  We have to keep the incentives for people to invest in
our jobs and in our cities.  And we've got to give people
incentives to move from welfare to work, not the other way
around.  That's the kind of bill that needs to come to my desk.
(Applause.)

         There are 80,000 lobbyists in Washington.  Many of
them don't want Washington to change.  Think of that.  Maybe some
of you all are in the wrong line of work -- 80,000.  Special
interests that work in the Senate who have now proposed that we
cut Social Security and put more of a burden on the middle class
in order to relieve the burden on the wealthiest Americans, when
many of them are leading the crusade for change.  I think we can
do better.  I think we can do better.  And we're going to do
better in the United States Senate with your help.  (Applause.)

         The process of changing is not easy, not even and
not quick.  But we are moving in the right direction.  The budget
is on the way to being realized.  There is a program now in the
United States Congress with broad bipartisan support to fulfill
the commitment I made to you to open the doors of college
education to all Americans and give our young people a chance to
pay off their college through national service through their
communities here at home.  (Applause.)

         Very soon the national commission on health care,
which my wife has chaired will present their plan   to provide
affordable health care to all Americans and bring down the cost
of health care that threatens our economic stability.
(Applause.)  How many millions of Americans not only lack health
insurance, but have it and are terrified of losing it because
somebody in their family has been sick and they think they'll
never be able to change jobs.  We can do better, and we will with
your support.  (Applause.)

         Finally, there are bills in the Congress which will
help to change the very way your national government works.  a
bill that will require every lobbyist to register and to say how
much money they spend lobbying all the rest of us and report it
to you -- I think that would be a good thing -- already passed
the Senate; can pass the House.  (Applause.)

         And Mayor Rendell was talking about the campaign
finance reform bill, which at long last will lower the cost of
congressional campaigns, limit the influence of political action
committees, and open the airwaves to candidates so they can have
an honest debate.  That bill is in the Congress and we ought to
pass it this year.  (Applause.)

         When I was running for President, I was profoundly
influenced by the series in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Donald
Bartlett and James Steele.  The stories they made into a book
called "America, What Went Wrong?"  They said that after 50
years, the middle class and small business had been helped for 50
years, but things began to change about a dozen years ago.  About
a dozen years ago, the national government adopted tax policies
and economic policies that rewarded those who shut jobs down in
America and sent them somewhere else; rewarded those who laid
their workers off and bailed out with golden parachutes to better
lives.  We stopped rewarding responsibility and work and rigged
the game of economic life against the broad American middle
class.  They were right, but we're fighting to change that.

         And Americans from all walks of life are helping.  I
will say again, to me the most moving thing of all has been how
many genuinely successful Americans, people this country has been
good to, people who have made a lot of money, have come forward
and said, go ahead and raise my taxes if it will bring the
deficit down and put the American people back to work and get
this country going again.  That's the kind of statesmanship we
need everywhere in this country.  (Applause.)

         Yesterday we began the process of saying no to
gridlock, no to special interests, no to the spiraling deficit,
no to increased unemployment, no to the conditions which lead so
many of you to work harder for lower wages every year.  We said
yes to a brighter future to America.  Yes to lower deficits.  Yes
to more jobs.  Yes to higher incomes.  Yes to a future in which
we have a real chance to compete and win.

         Things are going in the right direction.  Stay with
us, fight with us, help to lift this country up, and believe in
its future.  And we can do it.

         Thank you, and God bless you all.  (Applause.)

                               END12:35 P.M. EDT