| Vocabulary:
1) Inflation
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11) Accountability
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| Size of Government
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I thank the vice president for his leadership
and the Congress for its support in building a government that is leaner,
more flexible, a catalyst for new ideas and, most of all, a government
that gives the American people the tools they need to make the most of
their own lives.
We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer. My fellow Americans, we have found a third way. We have the smallest government in 35 years, but a more progressive one. We have a smaller government, but a stronger nation. |
Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, we’ve reduced the federal payroll by 300,000 workers; cut 16,000 pages of regulation; eliminated hundreds of programs; and improved the operations of virtually every government agency. |
| Budget
Deficit
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When I took office, the deficit for 1998
was projected to be $357 billion and heading higher. This year, our deficit
is projected to be $10 billion and heading lower.
For three decades, six presidents have come before you to warn of the damage deficits pose to our nation. Tonight I come before you to announce that the federal deficit, once so incomprehensibly large that it had 11 zeros, will be simply zero. |
I will submit to Congress for 1999 the first balanced budget in 30 years. |
| Tax Cuts | It is the product of hard work by the American
people and of two visionary actions in Congress—the courageous vote in
1993 that led to a cut in the deficit of 90 percent.
And the truly historic bipartisan balanced budget agreement passed by this Congress. Last year, together we enacted targeted tax cuts so that the typical middle class family will now have the lowest tax rates in 20 years. |
My plan to balance the budget next year includes both new investments and new tax cuts, targeted to the needs of working families. For education. For child care. For the environment. But whether the issue is tax cuts or spending, I ask all of you to meet this test. Approve only those priorities that can actually be accomplished without adding a dime to the deficit. |
| Social Security | We’ll start by conducting nonpartisan
forums in every region of the country. And I hope that lawmakers of both
parties will participate.
We’ll hold the White House conference on Social
Security in December. And one year from now, I will convene the leaders of Congress to craft historic, bipartisan legislation to achieve a landmark for our generation: A Social Security system that is strong in the 21st century. |
What should we do with this projected surplus?
I have a simple, four-word answer: Save Social Security first.
Tonight I propose that we reserve 100 percent of the surplus, that’s every penny of any surplus, until we have taken all the necessary measures to strengthen the Social Security system for the 21st century. |
| Education | Expanding public school choice. Opening the
way to 3,000 new charter schools. Working to connect every classroom in
the country to the information superhighway. Committing to expand Head
Start to a million children. Launching America Reads. Sending literally
thousands of college students into our elementary schools to make sure
all our 8-year-olds can read. Last year, I proposed and you passed 220,00
new Pell grant scholarships for deserving students.
Student loans—student loans, already less expensive and easier to repay, now you get to deduct the interest. Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax- free education IRAs. And this year, for the first two years of college, families will get a $1,500 tax credit—a Hope scholarship that will cover the cost of most community college tuition. And for junior and senior year, graduate school, and job training, there is a lifetime learning credit. |
My balanced budget will
help to hire 100,000 new teachers who pass the state competency test. So
I also propose a school construction tax cut to help communities modernize
or build
5,000 schools.
We must also demand greater accountability. It is time to end social promotion in America’s schools. |
| Trade | In the last five years we have
led the way in opening new markets with 240 trade agreements that remove
foreign barriers to products bearing the proud stamp, Made in the USA.
Today, record-high exports account for fully one-third of our economic growth. |
I will also renew my request for
the fast-track negotiating authority necessary to open more new markets,
create more new jobs, which every president has had for two decades.
Again, I ask the Congress to continue its bipartisan work to consolidate the tangle of training programs we have today into one single GI Bill for workers—a simple skills grant so people can on their own move quickly to new jobs, to higher incomes and brighter futures. |
| Asian Monetary Crisis | First, these countries are our customers.
If they sink in a recession, they won’t be able to buy the goods we’d like
to sell them. Second, they’re also our competitors. So if their currencies
lose their value and go down, then the price of their goods will
drop, flooding our market and others with
much cheaper goods which makes it a lot tougher four our people to compete. And finally, they are our strategic partners. Their stability bolsters our security. |
But when nations are willing to undertake serious economic reform, we should help them do it. So I call on Congress to renew America’s commitment to the International Monetary Fund. |
| Welfare | Last year after a record four-year decline
in welfare rolls, I challenged our nation to move two million more Americans
off welfare by the year 2000. I’m pleased to report we have also met that
goal—two full years ahead of schedule.
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We should raise the minimum wage. |
| Health Care | Two years ago, we helped guarantee that Americans
can keep their health insurance when they change jobs. Last year, we extended
health care to up to five million children....
The Family and Medical Leave Act was the very first bill
I was privileged to sign into law as president in 1993. Since then...
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I ask you to extend that law to cover 10 million more workers and to give parents time off when they have to go see their children’s teachers or take them to the doctor. |
| Child Care | Last year I co-hosted the very first White House conference on child care with one of our foremost experts—America’s first lady. | Scholarships and background checks for child care
workers and a new emphasis on early learning. Tax credits for businesses
that provide child care for their employees,
and a larger child care tax credit for working families. Now, if you pass my plan, what this means is a family of four with an income of $35,000 and high child care costs will no longer pay a single penny of federal income tax. |
| Crime | Violent crime is down. Robbery is down. Assault
is down. Burglary is down. For five years in a row, all across America.
Now, we need to finish the job of putting 100,000 more police on our streets.
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I ask Congress to pass a juvenile crime bill that provides more prosecutors and probation officers to crack down on gangs and guns and drugs. |
| NATO | For 50 years, NATO contained communism and kept America and Europe secure. Now these three formerly communist countries have said yes to democracy. | Within days, I will ask the Senate for its advice and consent to make Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic the newest members of NATO |
| Bosnia | This Christmas, Hillary and I traveled to Sarajevo with Senator and Mrs. Dole and a bipartisan congressional delegation. We saw children playing in the streets, where two years ago they were hiding from snipers and shells. The shops were filled with food. The cafes were alive with conversation. | To take firm root, Bosnia’s fragile peace still needs the support of American and allied troops when the current NATO mission ends in June. |
| Iraq | The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly remarkable job, finding and destroying more of Iraq’s arsenal than was destroyed during the entire Gulf War. Now, Saddam Hussein wants to stop them from completing their mission. | I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans
and Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein: You cannot defy the
will of the world.
And when I say to him, you have used weapons of mass destruction before. We are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again. |
| Campaign Finance Reform | First, we have to continue to reform our government, the instrument of our national community. Everyone knows elections have become too expensive, fueling a fundraising arms race. This year, by March the 6th, at long last the Senate will actually vote on bipartisan campaign finance reform proposed by Senators McCain and Feingold. Let’s be clear—a vote against McCain-Feingold is a vote for soft money and for the status quo. I ask you to strengthen our democracy and pass campaign finance reform this year. | This year, by March the 6th, at long last the Senate will actually vote on bipartisan campaign finance reform proposed by Senators McCain and Feingold. Let’s be clear—a vote against McCain-Feingold is a vote for soft money and for the status quo... I will formally request that the Federal Communications Commission act to provide free or reduced cost television time for candidates to observe spending limits voluntarily. |
| Environment | Our communities are only as healthy as the
air our children breathe, the water they drink, the earth they will inherit.
Last year, we put in place the toughest ever controls on smog and soot.
We moved to protect Yellowstone, the Everglades, Lake Tahoe. We expanded
every community’s right to know about toxics that threaten their children.
Just yesterday, our food safety plan took effect using new science to protect consumers from dangers like E. coli and salmonella. |
I ask you to join me in
launching a new clean water initiative, a far reaching effort to clean
our rivers, our lakes, and our coastal waters for our children.
This past December, America led the world to reach a historic agreement committing our nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through market forces, new technologies, energy efficiency. We have it in our power to act right here, right now. I propose $6 billion in tax cuts and research and development to encourage innovation, renewable energy, fuel-efficient cars, energy- efficient homes. |
| Race Relations | I have launched this national initiative on race to help us recognize our common interests and to bridge the opportunity gaps that are keeping us from becoming one America. | I ask you help to end the
backlog at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sixty thousand
of our fellow
citizens are waiting in line for justice, and we should act now to end their wait. |
| Scientific Research | Now, think about this—the entire store of
human knowledge now doubles every five years. In the 1980s, scientists
identified the gene causing cystic fibrosis. It took nine years.
Last year, scientists located the gene that caused Parkinson’s Disease in only nine days. Within a decade, gene chips will offer a road map for prevention of illness throughout a lifetime. |
I propose a 21st century
research fund for pathbreaking scientific inquiry, the largest funding
increase in history for the National
Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute. |
| Technology
(Internet/ Space) |
Now, in schools and libraries, homes and
businesses, millions and millions of Americans surf the net every day....
Even as we explore this inner space in the new millennium, we’re going to open new frontiers in outer space |
I asked Congress to step up support
for
building the next generation Internet. It’s getting kind of clogged, you know? And the next generation Internet will operate at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than today. Beginning this year, 1998, men and women from 16 countries will build a foothold in the heavens. The international space station, with its vast expanses, scientists and engineers will actually set sail on an uncharted sea of limitless mystery and unlimited potential. |
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