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1
�I
The President of the united states
American society of Newspaper Editors
April 13, 1994
(Acknowledgements, to come]
I sense a kinship with you. From what I hear, we both have
our battles with reporters.
Actually, you and I have more in common than you know. I
have recently done some light editing on my mother's memoirs. My
job was easy compared to yours. I promised my mother before her
death that I wouldn't touch a word she had written about me. As
with any mother, that meant I had very little left to edit.
My work was a labor of love, and it reminded me of many fond
memories--of our home, of my childhood and of the life we lived
back then.
In many ways, my mother's life was unique. But, in truth, it
was like the lives of so many people after World War II, an
example of the stunning rise of the great American middle class.
My mother's generation survived the ravages of the Great
Depression and the dislocations of war. After all that, they had
one simple dream: To build a better future for their children.
There is a reason why we should talk about that simple dream
now. We stand at the best moment in nearly a generation to
restore the promise of that American dream for the hard working
people of this country.
our mission at this moment in history -- and the purpose
behind everything we do -- is to make sure the middle class
survives and grows for another generation. If we do not sei•e
this moment, we could lose that simple dream and all that it baa
given us.
My mother's generation knew what we have learned: The simple
dream is not so simple. The road is long and often bumpy.
To support me, my mother had to leave home to get a degree
as a nurse anesthetist. My earliest memory is of my grandmother
taking me to visit my mother in New Orleans, where she was
pursuing that degree. I can still see her in the railyard as our
train pulled out on the way back to Arkansas.
But the journey led to a hopeful destination. After the war,
her generation got back to business. They built the houses. They
built the schools and educated their children. They built the
factories, the cars and the suburbs. They made our economy the
most powerful in the world.
1
I
�'
'
Underneath those material mileposts was a set of values.
They believed they had to work hard. They had a duty to do right
by their communities and their neighbors. They were obliged to
take responsibility for themselves. Without those values, almost
nothing else they passed on to their children would have been
worthwhile.
Most of them would never have put it this way, but they
lived by a creed that a Georgetown University professor taught
me. He said our peopl~ have always believed in two things: One,
that the future can be better than the present. And, two, that
every one of us has a personal, moral obligation to make it so.
They lived by one other fundamental principle, what was
really a solemn bargain: our government would help those who
worked to help themselves.
Forty-nine years ago today, Harry Truman spent his first
full day as president. No one ever did more to honor that
bargain. No one ever did more to build the middle class.
Buil4inq the postwar mi44le class
With World War II over, 15 million servicemen and women came
home. And America faced the challenge of helping them find a
future for their families.
Some said America would have to turn its back on the world
and lower its sights. But Harry Truman's America chose the course
of confidence, not cynicism.
We built a stable world economy with the Marshall Plan and
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Global trade grew
from $200 billion in 1950 to $800 billion in 1980.
We lifted the majority of our people into the middle class.
We did not give them something for nothing. We offered chem the
opportunity to help themselves.,
In two months, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
G.I. Bill of Rights. It has helped more than 20 million veterans
get an education and millions more build businesses and buy
homes.
These great achievements were not Democratic decisions or
Republican decisions but American decisions. They reflected the
vision and the values of great leaders from both parties.
President Eisetihower continued that bipartisanship. America
built highways that helped to expand our businesses, our suburbs,
and our middle class. In the face of a recession, we invested in
science and technology, education and transportation.
2
�Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower each were in the seventh
decades of their lives while serving as President. Both men
served not only their peers but posterity. They understood what
we must remember: America is a solemn promise to pass along a
nation even better and stronger than we inherited.
Past Three Deca4es/Failinq to Sustain the Ki44le Class
But, for the past two decades or more, we have failed to
strengthen the middle class and honor its values. Our society
started coming apart when we should have been coming together;
the growth of middle class incomes stalled; and Americans lost
faith in a government grown unresponsive. And they lost faith in
themselves.
Three decades ago, social breakdown began. Births outside of
marriage increased from 5.3% in 1960 to 18.4% in 1980 to 28% in
1990. The fear of violent crime has made neighbors seem like
strangers and strangers seem like enemies. And, as senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan has observed, Americans have begun to "define
deviancy down." We are getting far too used to things we should
never accept.
In the postwar economy, high school diplomas meant
security. In the new global economy, much, much more has been
required. Most middle class families have had to work longer
hours just to stay even. And, in too many neighborhoods, the
vacuum created by the absence of work has been filled by crime,
violence, and drugs.
In the '80s, the world changed dramatically, but
government's response dragged us backwards. Trickle-down
economics cut taxes for the very wealthy. Increases in Social
Security taxes and state and local taxes added to the middle
class burden. From 1981 through 1993, the national debt
quadrupled. Investment, job creation and the living standard of
the middle class all faltered.
.
And people lost faith in a government that neither reflected
their values nor gave them value. Gridlock gripped our national
debate. Too many Republicans practiced a politics of abandonment,
ignoring the problems plaguing the middle class and the poor. And
too many Democrats practiced a politics of entitlement, pouring
more money into programs that asked nothing of the recipients.
You can be proud that so many newspapers called attention to
problems that cried out for new thinking. In its series, America:
Hhat Went Wrong?, the Philadelphia Inquirer showed how Washington
shortchanged the middle class. Of all the facts that reporters
Donald Barlettt and James Steele cited, one tells it all: In
1952, it took the average factory worker one day of work to pay
3
.
�for closing costs on a home in the Philadelphia suburbs. In the
1990's, it takes 18 weeks.
on its front page, the Chicago Tribune has underscored the
epidemic of violence killing many of our children and robbing
others of their childhoods. The Los Angeles Times has explored
the loss of community that helped prompt the riots two years ago
and the social tensions that explode into random violence every
day. And, just a few weeks ago, The Hew York Times reported on
the plight of young wprkers struggling to find jobs in a new
economy that demands high skills.
And, if anyone doubts that the nation's press alerts our
people to urgent problems, just look at the Pulitzer Prizes
awarded yesterday. William Raspberry's commentaries on social and
political subjects in the washington Post. Isabel Wilkerson's
report on children growing up in the inner city in The Hew York
Times. The Ellen Welsome's series in the Albuquerque Tribune
exposing secret government radiation experiments that were
conducted four decades ago -- and I'm proud that Secretary
O'Leary has brought a new spirit of openness to the Energy
Department. The Akron Beacon Journal's examination of race
relations. And the list goes on.
This Moment/Accomplishments/Agenda
Every day, the nation's newspapers challenge us to think and
to care. Now, this is our moment to act.
The Cold War is over, won in large part because of the
steadfast commitment of the generation that built up the middle
class. The global economy presents opportunities we can only
begin to appreciate. And the economic recovery has restored our
faith in ourselves.
As I travel this country, I see that the American people are
determined to break the gridlock. And even though we live in a
cynical age, the American peop~e are determined to chose hope
over decline. We must not let them down.
We are doing what Americans have always done: shaping our
own destiny in times of great change. The future of our middle
class still depends on American leadership abroad. With trade
agreements here in North America and all across the world, we
create new jobs here. By addressing North Korea's nuclear
program, we protect not only our troops on the Korean peninsula,
.but all Americans. And, by supporting reforms in the former
Soviet Union, we help to destroy missiles once aimed at us and to
create new markets for our goods.
Here at home, for the past fifteen months, we have restarted
the engines of upward mobility. I want anyone who is part of what
4
�some used to call "the forgotten middle class" to know one thing:
you are forgotten no more.
Americans are learning the truth about our economic plan: it
is fair to the middle class; the cuts are -real; the deficit is
declining; jobs are growing; and the economy is on the road to
steady and stable growth.
Last year we.cut 340 programs, including most major
entitlements. This year, our budget calls for cutting 379
programs and completely eliminates 100.
And, as we cut unneeded programs, we are investing more in
the technologies of tomorrow to create jobs now. We are doing it
with defense conversion that will keep us strong militarily. And
we are doing it with investments that protect our planet. This
year, we're fighting for a revitalized Clean Water Act, a Safe
Drinking Water Act and a reformed Superfund program. All three
will create new jobs for everyone from engineers to pipefitters.
As April 15 approaches, the people see we told the truth
last year: While the wealthiest 1.2% will pay more, income tax
rates have not risen for nearly 99% of Americans. And 15 million
are eligible for the Earned Income Tax credit which makes good on
a dream that inspired my mother's generation: If you work
fulltime, you will not raise your children in poverty.
Step by step, we are reinforcing the faith that hard work
will be rewarded. Thanks to lower interest rates, more than 5
million Americans have refinanced their homes. A stronger economy
this year has led to a 20% increase in auto sales. And our
economic plan creates new opportunities to send children to
college and more incentives for investments in small businesses.
The economy has created 2.5 million new jobs in 14 months -90% in the private sector. And we're on the road to creating two
million more in '94.
The combination of declining deficits, steady growth, and
low inflation is leading many of our most respected economists
from Alan Greenspan to Alan Sinai to say the economy is in its
best shape in 20 to 30 years. The Blue Chip Forecast for growth
this year has risen by 0.7 percentage points since January. And
inflation is projected to be lower than last year. Today's new
numbers shows again that we have the lowest core inflation in a
generation.
We've come a long way. But we still have a long way to go.
Too many Americans are unemployed; too many are working for low
wages; and we will not rest until every American has a fair shot
at the American Dream.
5
�America is more than an economy -- America is a community of
shared values. With everything we are doing our goal is to
strengthen the middle class values of work, responsibility, and
faith in the future.
Health care reform is essential to the values of work and
family. The fear of losing coverage discourages people from
moving from welfare to work, or from old jobs to better jobs.
If you doubt that W9 face a crucial moment in our history,
think about the health care reform debate. If we flinch from this
opportunity, we will perpetuate for another generation a system
that is breaking the back of the middle class. But, if we fix
what is wrong with our system, we will give hope and opportunity
back to the tens of millions of people who are without insurance
or live in fear of losing it.
Nothing will do more to strengthen the work ethic than
reforming the welfare system. For all those who depend on
welfare, we will offer a simple compact: We will provide the
support, job training, and child care you need for two years.
After that, anyone who can work, must work.
A generation ago, we had faith in our government as a
partner, not a barrier, to change. To restore that faith, we have
begun to reinvent government with a reduction of 250,000 fulltime
jobs. And this year, we will enact the far-reaching reforms
proposed by Vice President Gore.
And we must ensure that government serves the national
interest, not the narrow interests, by passing substantial
lobbying and campaign finance reform that makes our system more
responsive to middle class citizens.
Hard work without the education to make that work effective
isn't enough. The only tickets to the middle class are worldclass skills and the. ability to keep learning new ones.
That is why we will offer Americans of all ages lifelong
learning. Goals 2000, which I just signed into law, sets worldclass standards for every school and every student. Our student
loan reforms open college doors to all our young people, whatever
their family income. Changing the unemployment system to a
reemployment system means working people have a chance to retrain
for the future.
With National Service, we offer tens of thousands of young
people the chance to serve their country and earn money for
education, just as the GI Bill did for the postwar generation
and still does for our servicemen and women today. But as
important as those loans will be, there is nothing more
6
�meaningful we can do than to reward a renewed sense of civic
obligation in our young.
For all we are trying to do, government cannot--and should
not--do the most important work. Nothing has reminded me more of
that than the headlines in this morning's Washington Post. Two
10-year-old boys were taken into custody yesterday in an
elementary school not far from here in Maryland. They were
charged with planning to sell crack cocaine found in the one of
their school bags.
Even in this jaded age, even with everything they see day in
and day out, school officials said that this arrest shocked even
them.
We can do many things to put this country back where it
belongs. We can and will pass the crime bill that will reduce the
random violence that is making Americans look at each other with
fear and suspicion.
But we cannot live the lives of those children who are going
astray. Everyone of us--every parent, every teacher and every
person who cares about our children--has to tell those children
that their lives matter. That they have to fight against the
temptations. That children having children is wrong. That drugs
will ruin their lives. And that we expect them to behave like the
people they have to grow up to be if this country is going to
have a future worth living.
conclusion
We are marking the end of a year honoring the 250th
anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. For you as
journalists, of course, his commitment to freedom of expression
may have been his greatest gift.
Yet there is a lesson in his life we often overloo~.
Jefferson was, of course, a slaveholder. And he knew slavery was
wrong. "I tremble for my country," he said about slavery, "when I
reflect that God is just, that.his justice cannot sleep forever."
Jefferson's life teaches the power of redemption. We
remember him now because of the mighty foundations he set that
have made it possible for our future always to be better than our
present.
We, too, all share the responsibility to use what is best in
us to correct what has been done by what is worst in us.
The choice is ours.-The responsibility is ours.
We can risk losing this rare moment. Or we can come together
and get on with the work before us. To insist that Americans
7
�abide by the values that work promotes. To make the fortunes of
the middle class our most important concern.
Part of my job is to make sure the American people know the
consequences of the choices we must make. I believe part of your
job is the same.
If you doubt our jobs are important, think about those
children in that school again.
or about the wide-ranging study by the Carnegie Commission
out yesterday that found poverty, violence, disintegrating
families, and the lack of medical care threatening the future of
millions of our babies. We have to act now to stop the violence,
to provide health care for all our families and all our children,
and to restore the fabric of work and family in every community.
And, even for our children raised in more comfortable homes,
we need to restore our parent's simple dream: If you study hard
and work hard and aim high, there is no limit to what you can
accomplish in this life.
In our hearts and in our souls, we understand there is
nothing automatic about the renewal from generation to generation
of the values that have made us strong. If we do not teach those
values of responsibility and community to all our children--and
demand that they honor them--we will lose them. And much sooner
than we ever imagined possible.
We must all turn that awareness into action. Because we owe
a deep debt to those who came before us. And an even deeper one
to those who are coming after us.
Others sacrificed mightily to give us an even break.
Together, we can give our children a fair shot at that same
simple dream.
8
�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
April 13, 1994
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS
J.W. Marriott
Washington, D. c.
12:31 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Bill, for the
introduction. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the
invitation to come by again.
I can't help noting some satisfaction that the president
of this organization is not only the editor of the Oregonian, which
endorsed my candidacy in 1992 -- the first time it ever endorsed a
Democrat for President. I hope they haven't had second thoughts.
(Laughter.) He also spent the first eight years of his life in
Arkansas, which didn't seem to do him too much harm. (Laughter.)
I am delighted to be here. I want to make a few remarks
and then open the floor to questions. We probably have some things
in common -- both of us battle, from time to time, with reporters.
(Laughter.) And I recently did some light editing on my mother's
autobiography, so I appreciate the difficulty of editing things. It
was a little easier for me -- my mother, when she got very ill, I
said, what are we going to do if.you don't finish your book? She
said, you finish it, don't touch anything I said about you -(laughter); check the facts, don't let me be too hard on the living.
So it was easier for me than it was for you.
But let me say I've been thinking about it a lot lately
because it gave me a chance to relive a period in American history
that ·spanned my mother's life, as well as my own, starting in the
Depression. In many ways, like everybody's family, her life was
unique. But it was in many ways like that of so many people who grew
up'in the Depression and World War II, and exemplified and made
possible the rise of the American middle class.
Most of those people were obsessed with working hard and
taking care of their families and building a better future for their
children; and they never doubted they could do it. There's a reason,
I think, we ought to think about that today -- and that is that there
are a lot of people who doubt that we can continue to do it.
Our mission at this moment in history, I believe, is to
ensure the American Dream for the next generation -- to bring the
American people together; to move our country forward; to make sure
the middle class grows and survives well into the 21st century.
�i·
I
. My mother's generation knew what we are learning, and
that is that the preservation of these kinds of dreams is not as
simple as just talking about it. She had to leave home after she was
widowed to further her education so she could make a good living.
And my earliest memory as a child is of my grandmother taking me to
see my mother in New Orleans when she was in school and then seeing
her cry when I left the train station as a little child.
But our generation is full of parental stories about the
sacrifices that were made for us so that we could do better. And all
of us in this room have been exceedingly fortunate in that regard.
The generation that our parents were a part of built the houses, the
schools, educated the children that built the explosion of American
energy· and industry after the second world war.
Underneath the magnificent material mileposts, which
left us with only 6 percent of the world's population then and 40
percent of the world's economic output was a set of values. They
believed we had to work hard; that we had a duty to do right by our
community and our neighbors; that we were obliged to take
responsibility for ourselves and our families. Without those values,
the successes would not have occurred, and nothing else passed on to
us would amount to much for we would quickly squander whatever
material benefits we had.
Most of my mother's generation, at least that I knew,
would never have put it this way, but they lived by a creed that I
was taught by a professor of western civilization at Georgetown, who
told me that the great secret of Western Civilization in general, and
the United States of America specifically was, that always at every
moment in time, a majority of us had believed that the future could
be better than the present, and that each of us had a personal, moral
responsibility to make it so. In pursuit of that dream, the
Americans in this century have made a solemn bargain with their
government -- government should work to help those who help
themselves.
Forty-nine years ago today, Harry Truman spent his first
full day as President of the United states. No one ever did more to
honor that solemn bargain. After World War II, our country chose the
course of confidence not cynicism, building a stable world economy in
which we could flourish -- with the Marshall Plan and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which we have just concluded the
Uruguay Round.
We lifted a majority of our people into the middle
class, not by giving them something for nothing, but by giving them
the opportunity to work hard and succeed.
In just two months, we'll
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the G.I. Bill of Rights, which
helped more than 20 million American veterans to get an education,
and millions more to build businesses and homes.
These great achievements did not belong to any
particular party. They were American decisions. They were not the
reflection of a country pulled to the right or to the left, but a
country always pushing forward. They reflected the vision and the
values of leaders of both parties. After Truman, Eisenhower
continued the tradition by building the interstate highway system and
by investing in the space program and science and technology and in
education. The tradition continued in the next administrations, all
�working toward greater prosperity but rooted in certain values that
enabled us to go forward.
But the seeds of our new difficulties that we face in
such stark reality today were sown beginning three decades ago, and
changes in our social fabric, and two decades ago in changes in our
general economic condition. We have seen the weakening slowly of the
institutions and the values which built the middle class and the
economic underpinnings which made it possible in theory, at least,
for all Americans to achieve it.
Three decades ago, in 1960, births outside of marriage
were 5.3 percent of total children born. In 1980, the rate had risen
to 18.4 percent; in 1990, to 28 percent. There are many of those who
say, well, Mr. President, you're overstating the case because the
birth rate among married couples has dropped so much. It may be.
All I know is that those kids are our future, and the trends are
inescapable and disturbing. And the rates for teen mothers in
poverty and for all mothers without a high school education of outof-wedlock birth rates are far, far higher than the 28 percent that I
just said.
The fear of violent crime has made neighbors seem like
strangers. And as Senator Pat Moynihan of New York has said,
Americans have bequn to "define deviancy down.• We're simply getting
used to things that we never would have considered acceptable just a
few years ago.
In the post-war economy, a high school diploma meant
security. By the time of the 1990 census, it was clear that a hiqh
school diploma meant you'd probably be in a job where your income
would not even keep up with inflation. Most middle-class families
have to work longer hours to stay even. The averaqe workinq family
in 1992 was spending more hours on the job than it did in 1969. And
in too many neiqhborhoods, the vacuum that has been created by the
absence of work and community and family has been filled by crime and
violence and druqs.
In the 1980s, the world continued to change dramatically
economically. And I would arque that, in qeneral, our collective
response to it was wronq; even thouqh many of our best companies made
dramatic productivity gains which are benefitting us today. We
reduced taxes for some Americans -- mostly the wealthy Americans -and we increased the deficit. But increases in Social Security taxes
and state and local taxes put further strains on middle-class
incomes. From 1981 to 1993, our nation's debt quadrupled, while job
creation and the qeneral livinq standard of the waqe-earninq middle
class staqnated or declined.
So we have these problems that, let's face it, brought
me to the presidency in 1992 -- the abjective conditions that
Americans were groping to come to qrips with. You can be proud that
so many newspapers have done so much to not only call attention to
these problems but to make them really real in the lives of people
and to cry out for new thinking.
1
In its remarkable series, "America: What Went Wronq,"
the Philadelphia Inquirer showed how the national qovernment's
policies had undermined the middle class already under stress by a
global economy. Of all the facts cited by Donald Bartlett and James
�Steele, one stood out to me. In 1952 it took the average worker a
day of work to pay the closing costs on a home in the Philadelphia
suburbs. In the 1990s. it took 18 weeks.
The Chicago Tribune on its front page underscored the
epidemic of violence killing so many of our children and robbing so
many others of their childhood. The Los Angeles Times explored the
loss of a sense of community that prompted the riots there two years
ago. Recently when I was in Detroit for the jobs conference, the
papers there talked about the changing job market and the state that
was the automobile capital of the world -- the good and the bad
dislocations that have occurred and what was working.
Recently in the Pulitzer Prizes, which were awarded
yesterday, I noted that Bill Raspberry got a well-deserved Pulitzer
for his commentaries on social and political subjects. And Isabel
Wilkerson's report on children growing up in the inner city in New
York -- The New York Times won.
Our administration owes a special debt to Eileen
Welsome's series in the Albuquerque Tribune exposing secret
governmental radiation experiments conducted decades ago which have
consequences today. And I'm proud of the openness that the Secretary
of Energy, Hazel O'Leary has brought to the Energy Department in
dealing with this.
There are lots of other things I could mention -- the
Akron Beacon Journal's examination of race relations there. The
Minneapolis Star Tribune's editorial board hosted me the other day,
and I had one of the most searching and rewarding discussions of the
health care conditions in our country that I have had in a long time.
Every day, you are challenging us to think and to care
through your newspapers. My job is to act. As I travel the country,
I see that that is basically what people want us to do. They want us
to be careful; they know we live in a cynical age and they're
skeptical that the government would even mess up a one-car parade.
But they want us to act.
The future of our American leadership depends upon what
we do at home, but also what we do abroad. Last year among the most
important developments were the trade agreements -- the NAFTA
agreement, the GATT agreement, the historic meeting we had with the
leaders of the Asian Pacific communities. But we have a lot of
problems, too. By attempting to come to grips with them in a world
increasingly disorderly, we hope to preserve an environment in which
America can grow and Americans can flourish.
Whether it is in addressing North Korea's nuclear
program, which protects not only our troops on the Peninsula, but
ultimately the interests of all Americans; or supporting reforms in
the soviet Union, which helps to destroy missiles once aimed at us
and to create new market opportunities for the future; or by
harnessing NATO's power and the service of diplomacy in troubled
Bosnia, which will help to prevent a wider war and contain a flood of
refugees. our efforts to stop the shelling of Sarajevo and the
attacks on Gorazde, to bring the Serbs back to the negotiating table,
, to build on the agreement made by the Croats and the Bosnian Muslims,
enhanced both Europe's security and our own.
�starting
remember
economic
that are
Here at home, for the past 15 months, we have focused on
the engines of upward mobility -- to try to make sure we can
the values of the so-called "forgotten middle class" with an
plan that is fair -- with cuts that are real, investments
smart, a declining deficit and growing jobs.
Last year, our budget cut 340 proqrams, including most
major entitlements. This year, the budget calls for cutting 379
programs, including the outright elimination of a hundred of them.
As we cut unneeded programs, we're investing more in education, in
medical research, in the technoloqies of tomorrow that create jobs
now -- whether in defense conversion or in environmental sciences.
We're fighting for a revitalized Clean Water Act -- a
safe drinking water act, a reformed superfund program. All of them
will clean the environment, but they will also create the jobs of
tomorrow, everybody from engineers to pipefitters.
As April 15th approaches, people will see that I did
tell the truth last year about our economic program -- 1.2 percent of
Americans will pay more in income taxes, including me and some others
in this room. All that money will go to reduce the deficit. Onesixth of America's workers will get an income tax cut this year
because they are working hard and raising children but hovering
around the poverty line. And we are attempting to reward work over
welfare, and to prove that people even in this tough, competitive
environment can be successful workers and successful parents. That's
why the Earned Income Tax Credit was expanded so much. I believe it
was the right thing to do.
The economic plan creates new opportunities to send
people to college by lowering the interest rates and broadening the
eligibility for college loans and then changing the terms of
repayment so that young people can pay them back as a percentage of
their earnings regardless of how much they borrow.
There is in this economic plan a new business capital
gains tax rewarding investments to the long-term people who make new
investments for five years or more will get a 50 percent tax cut in
the tax rate. And a 70 percent increase in the small business
expensing provision -- something that's been almost entirely
overlooked -- which makes 90 percent of the small businesses in the
United States of America -- those with taxable incomes of under
$100,000 -- eligible for an income tax cut.
The economy has generated a 20 percent increase in auto
sales and 2.5 million new jobs -- 90 percent of these new jobs are in
the private sector. That's a far higher percentage than the new jobs
of the '80s.
The combination of declining deficits -- which will
amount to three years in a row if this budget is adopted -- we'll
have three years of reclining deficits in a row for the first time
since Harry Truman was the President of the United States. And it
has produced steady growth and low inflation, leading many of our
most respected economists, from the Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, to
Alan Sinai, to say that our economy and its fundamentals has the best
prospects it's had in two to three decades. Inflation is projected
to be lower this year than last year. We've come a long way.
�But there's a long way to go. There's still too many
people out of work; too many people working for low wages; too many
people who know that they can work harder and harder and harder and
they still won't have the opportunity of doing better. And there are
too many people who are left out altogether, living in environments
that are, at worst, downright dangerous.
our country is more than an economy; it is a community
of shared values -- values which have to be strengthened. This year,
we are working on things that will both strengthen the economy and
strengthen our community. We're working on a welfare system which
will continue to reward work and family and encourage people and, in
some cases, require people to move from welfare to work through
welfare reform.
We are working on lobbying and campaign forms which, if
the Congress will pass them, and I believe they will, will help us to
change the culture of Washington in a very positive way. The
National Service program this year will have 20,000 young people
earning money for their college educations by solving the problems of
this country in a grass roots fashion in their communities or in
others all across America. And the year after next we'll have
100,000 young people doing that.
The Vice President's reinventing government program has
been a dramatic example of giving us a government that will work
better for less by slashing paperwork and regulations; and, again, if
this budget is adopted -- thanks to the work already done by the
Congress -- will lead us, in a five-year period, to a reduction of
the federal government by 252,000 workers; in a six-year period, by
272,000 period; so that in the end of five years, we will have the
smallest federal government since the 1960s -- the early '60s. I'll
tell you what we're going to do with the money in a minute.
But we are moving in the right direction. The health
care reform debate is a big part of that. I know there's a lot of
good in our health care system -- we don't want to mess with it, we
want to fix what's wrong. But nobody who has seriously analyzed it
can doubt that we have the worst and the most inefficient system of
financing health care of any of the advanced countries. No other
country spends more than 10 percent of its economy on health care -we spend 14.5 percent of our income. Part of that's because we're
more violent; part of it's because we have high rates of AIDS; part
of it's for good reasons -- we spend more on medical research and
technology, and we wish to continue to do that. No one would give up
that premium. It's an important part of our world leadership and our
global economy. Indeed, we need to find ways to do more in some of
these areas -- in biotechnology, for example.
But a part of it stems from the fact that we have a
system which is plainly inefficient; and which, in paperwork burdens
alone, may cost as much as a dime on the dollar more than any other
system in the world. We are also the only advanced country in the
world that has not figured out how to provide health care to all its
citizens. Everybody else has figured out how to do it. The result
of that is that almost all of you work for companies that pay too
much for your health care; because when people who don't have health
insurance get real sick, they tend to get health care when it's too
late, too expensive, at the emergency room; and they pass the cost on
to the rest of you in higher premiums. If you live in rural areas
�where the costs can't be passed along, the cost is passed along in
another way -- in lower quality of health care when the hospital
closes or the clinic close or the last doctor moves away.
Eighty one million Americans live in families with
someone with a preexisting condition, who's been sick before; so that
they pay too much for insurance, can't get it, or can never change
jobs. This is an important part of rebuilding a faith in the middle
class. It's no accident that the First Lady and I have received a
million letters that people -- telling us their personal stories.
They aren't pikers, they're people who have paid their dues, who work
hard, who want to make something of themselves in this country. And
because of the way we finance health care, they haven't been able to
do it.
The education initiatives of our administration are
important in this regard. The Goals 2000 bill I just signed for the
first time in American history sets national standards of world class
excellence in education and encourages schools to use grass roots
reforms to achieve them. The student loan reforms will open college
education to more young people than ever before.
And finally this year we're going to try to chanqe the
unemployment system into a reemployment system. All of you as
employers pay unemployment taxes into a system that is fundamentally
broken. The average person when laid off was called back after a
period to his or her old job when the unemployment system was
created. And the unemployment system was just sort of a fair way for
the employer to contribute to the maintenance of that person at a
lower wage level while on unemployment. But today most people don't
qet·called back to their old jobs. Instead they have to find new
ones. And we should no longer ask people to pay for a system that
leaves people idle for a period of months after which they're out of
work with no training, no skill and not a good prospect for the
future. So we believe from the day a person is unemployed, he or she
should be involved in a retraininq and a new job placement proqram
immediately. It will cut the period of unemployment; it will
increase the national income; and it will certainly honor the values
of the American middle class if we change this system.
For all of this, there is still a lot of things -- maybe
the most important things about America -- that government can't do.
Nothinq has reminded me more of that than the headlines in today's
Washington Post. I'm sure you saw the story. Two 10-year-old boys
were taken into custody yesterday in an elementary school not far
from here just across the line in Maryland. They were charged with
planning to sell crack cocaine found in one of their school bags.
Even in this jaded age, most everybody, including the school
officials at the school, were shocked.
We can do a lot of things to put this country back where
it belongs. We can and must pass the crime bill to deal with a lot
of these problems. It's a good crime bill -- 100,000 more police
officers; a ban on 28 kinds of assault weapons; the most innovative
prevention proqrams we have ever supported at the national level to
try to keep young kids out of trouble and give them something to say
yes to as well as things to say no to; tougher punishment in what I
think are sensible ways. And how are we going to pay for it -- $22
billion over five years? With a $250,000 reduction in the federal
work force, not with a tax increase.
�But even if you do that, we cannot live the lives of
children for them. so every one of us -- every parent, every
teacher, every person has to somehow find a way to reach these kids
before it's too late. Somehow the younq people who make it know that
they're important; they understand that their lives matter; they
understand that there can be a future; they think about the future in
terms of what happens five or 10 years or 20 years from now instead
of what happens five or 10 minutes from now. They understand that
they have to fiqht to find ways other than violence to solve their
problems or deal with their frustrations. They have to come to
understand that children havinq children is just wronq, and can't
lead to anythinq qood for them; that druqs will ruin their lives.
We've qot a lot of kids now who are beqinninq to creep back into druq
use just because they think it's hopeless out there. We have to
chanqe that, and we have to help them chanqe that. And a qovernment
proqram, alone, cannot do it. We have to do it with the kinds of
thinqs you do with these special reportinqs in your newspaper, and
qalvanizinq and orqanizinq people all over this country, community by
community.
Finally, let me just say this. A couple of niqhts aqo,
we marked the end of the year honorinq the 250th birthday of Thomas
Jefferson. For you as journalists, of course, his commitment to
freedom of expression was his qreatest qift to us. I don't know how
many journalists I've had quote Jefferson's famous line that if he
had to choose a qovernment without newspapers, or newspapers without
a qovernment, he would unhesitatinqly choose the latter. My response
is always, he said that before he became President. (Lauqhter.)
But there's a line, or a lesson, that we often overlook.
Jefferson was also a slaveholder, even thouqh he wrote three or four
times in various places attempts to limit slavery, or do away with
it. If you qo to the Jefferson Memorial, you find that wonderful
quote when he says, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God
is just and his justice cannot sleep forever." He knew it was wronq,
but he couldn't chanqe it.
But Jefferson's qreat leqacy, in some ways, was the
advocacy of relentless chanqe. He said that we'd have to chanqe our
whole way of doinq thinqs once every qeneration or so. He said the
Earth belonqs to the livinq. In other words, the qreat power of the
idea that chanqe and proqress is possible if rooted in fixed
principles is really the idea we need to brinq to American life
today.
We all share the responsibility in achievinq that kind
of chanqe and proqress. I think we have qot to qet toqether. We've
qot to qo on with the work before us. We cannot afford to be
diverted or divided in this town. We cannot afford to iqnore the
urqent tasks at hand. And we cannot afford to iqnore the possibility
that we can really make a difference; that we can ensure for the next
qeneration of children the values and the life that were qiven to us
by the qeneration which preceded us. And that, I submit to you, is
the job of the President and the job of the American people in 1994.
Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
* * * * *
�Q
The President has agreed to take questions, but I
want you to remember the ground rules for ASNE. You must be a member
of this organization. And you must identify yourself and the
newspaper with which you represent or the company. We have three
mikes on the floor, and I will start over to my right.
Q
Mr. President -- could it be that our abused
children and youth delinquency and crime is merely a symptom? And if
it is a symptom of an epidemic of adult delinquency and abuse, when
can we really qet to the problem of addressing the disease instead of
the symptom?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think -- in some ways I think it
is a symptom. I think it is the outgrowth -- if you think about what
makes all societies work -- basically what makes societies work, what
makes them function, what guarantees a healthy environment -- it is
basically a devotion to the family unit; a devotion to the idea that
everybody ought to have some useful work to perform; and an
understanding that while the rights of individuals are important, the
interest of the community at large are important, too; and that all
of us find most personal fulfillment when we live in a community that
itself is succeeding. So we have obligations to a larger community.
If you go to the places that are in the worst trouble in
America today, all three of those things are in deep distress -- not
very much sense of community, not very much work, and families in
ruins.
And what I'm trying to do, sir, is to try to create an
environment in which we support family, work and community, both with
incentives for people to do the right thing, like giving a tax break
to working people so they won't feel that they'd be better off on
welfare -- they're hovering at the poverty line; to dealing with the
kinds of things that Secretary Cisneros dealt with when he spent the
niqht in the Robert Taylor Homes Project of Chicaqo the other night
-- trying to find ways for the people who live in public housing to
be secure, to build their own communities, take control of their own
destiny and to be safe from that.
But I agree with you, I think a lot of these problems we
identify are the consequences of the fundamental stress on those
three things -- work, family and community.
Q
Mr. President -- we know if truth be told that
presidents tend to think of the press as an interest group on bad
days -- self-absorbed and self-interested. But from this side of the
velvet rope, we like to think of ourselves as guardians of the public
interest and watchdogs, and it's in that spirit that I ask this
question.
·
I'd like to know what more can be done, from your point
of view, to open up the qovernment to the people? And specifically,
what can be done with the new technologies of FOIA, Freedom of
Information Act, which is now -- government records are now
electronic, and we need access to those records in order to do our
jobs to tell the people how you are conducting your affairs.
qo away.
And furthermore, we know problems in the world will not
Our soldiers will be involved and our press must qo with
�them. We've seen some deterioration in Pentagon policies over
access. In keeping with the needs of military security, what can you
do to further democracy and to put yourself behind the idea of an
open qovernment that is responsive to press needs?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I think I mentioned
one example in my opening remarks. And that is, I think that the
Energy Department is doing quite a good job in dealing with the whole
radiation issue. We also have under the review all the sort of, the
secrecy rules of government; and we expect to change them and make
available a lot more records than have been available in the past.
You made a specific comment about technology, and
whether technology can be used to facilitate this. And we do have a
couple people at the White House -- and unfortunately, I'm not one of
them -- who know a whole lot about this. And we've tried to use
things like E-mail more, and things like that. But I have -- that's
one of the thinqs that I've asked our people to study, is how we can
use this so-called information superhighway to hook the news media of
the country into the government more for things that are plainly
available anyway, and whether that could be facilitated. Just the
technoloqical transfers, I think, would make a big difference.
on the fourth question, I can't give you a satisfactory
answer because I haven't made up my own mind yet, and I don't think I
know enouqh to make a decision; and that is, the relationship of the
press to our military operations in time of combat. I'm not
rebuffinq you, I'm just telling you I have not thouqht it throuqh,
and I don't know what my options are.
But on the other three things, I think we're in accord,
and I will try to do a little more work on the whole issue of
technology transfer and interconnection. And I think we are movinq
forward to open more records.
Q
Mr. President -- two years aqo this week while you
were in Peoria, walking the picket lines at Catepillar, Inc., you
called upon President Bush to bring the conflictinq parties to the
White House, to the oval Office, to try to resolve the conflict. You
said that it was the appropriate thinq for the President to do. The
conflict remains unresolved and another strike may be imminent. I
wonder whether you think presidential intervention is still
appropriate, and what form that miqht take?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have worked hard throuqh the
Executive Branch to resolve other labor disputes, as you know,
includinq the one involvinq the airlines recently. so I am not
averse to that. But if you'll remember, at the time I said that
there was an actual strike in place that was of siqnificant duration
for a company -- caterpillar -- that is very important to this whole
country. A lot of you may not know this -- Caterpillar has as much
as 80 percent of the Japanese market for some of its products. It's
a very, very important company.
And so, I guess what I have to tell you is if the strike
occurs and if it is of significant duration, and if there is
something that I think we can do about it, I would be glad to look
into that. But what I have tried to do on all labor disputes is not
to prematurely intervene -- there is no strike at this moment -- not
to prematurely intervene, and to take it on a case by case basis
�depending on what the national interest is, and whether or not there
is a positive role we could play. In the case of the airlines, there
was; and one or two other cases -- a railroad issue, and several
others -- there have been something we could do. And, if it happens,
you can be sure that I will look into very closely.
Q
Many columnists and editorial writers graded your
administration after your first year in office. Turnabout is fair
play; therefore what grades to you give the press for one -- it's
performance in covering your administration generally; and, two, it's
coverage 'of Whitewater, in particular. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me first of all say, the grade
that they gave me is not as important to me as the grade, sort of
objective criteria, that many of the journals here went through -just how much did we get done last year as compared with previous
first-year presidencies. And all the objective analysis concluded
that we had the best first year in a generation, in 30 years or more;
just in terms of the volume and significance and difficulty of
legislative achievements and advances. So I felt quite good about
that, and that's how I measured my own.
Secondly, if I could grade the press, I wouldn't.
(Laughter.) Especially not now. (Laughter.) But let me just say -let me make three points very quickly about it -- either in general
or on Whitewater. If you have any doubts about it, then that's good
because you ought to be having doubts about things like this. But I
want to make three points. one is, you can't generalize about the
press today. You probably never could generalize about the press.
But, believe me, it is far harder to generalize about it than ever
before. There is no way you can do that.
Secondly, I think it is -- the press, at least in this
town, is very different from most of the press outside this town in
terms of what -- how they work and what's important and all of that.
But they are ~nder more competitive and other pressures today than
ever before. I said last night at the Radio and TV Correspondents
Dinner that the Founding Fathers had two points of untrammeled
freedom in our set-up. one was given to the Supreme Court and the
lower federal courts -- that is, they had lifetime jobs. And they
got that because somebody had to make a final decision. They have
limited power, but ultimate freedom. So they have to be careful not
to abuse their freedom. The other was the press, because nobody
could think of any practical way to limit the press. And, in fact,
the limits have become less, not more, with the weakening of the
libel laws over time.
And I just think that always, any kind of unrestricted
freedom imposes great responsibility on people. And what happens
here is, when you've got -- for example, you've got all these
different new outlets; you've got all these channels; you've got all
this time to fill; you have all this competition now from the
tabloids; you have the highly-motivated political outlets posing as
news media, but not really, trying to affect what the news media do.
It is more difficult to be responsible now than ever before. It is a
bigger challenge than ever before.
The third thing I would say is, while I am in no
position to comment on this, you ought to read what Garrison Keillor
said last night at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner.
�It was a stunning speech. I have never heard anyone speak that way
to a group of media people. He obviously was from the heart and he
said some very thoughtful things. And I
if you really care about
the issue, I would urge you to read what he said. I could not add
anything to what he said last night.
Q
That's an A-plus answer.
THE PRESIDENT:
(Laughter.)
Thanks.
Q
Mr. President, the people in my readership area
seem to believe that health care is in need of reform, but nobody can
seem to agree on just how to reform it. I'd like to -- a veteran
wrote in to us, .and I'd like to ask this question on behalf of that
veteran. He said if you ever want to see an example of why
government should not run the health care system, look at the way the
Veterans Administration runs its hospitals. Could you respond to
that veteran?
THE PRESIDENT: That's why we don't recommend a
government run the health care system. But there are -- I have two
responses to that. First of all, our plan does not provide for
government-run health care. In fact, that's very rare in the world.
The British system is the only one where the government actually
delivers the health care, just about. There are some other systems,
like the Canadian system, where the government finances it all. We
have government-financed health care through the Medicare program.
Most people think it's pretty good who are on it. But it's all -you know, if you are on Medicare, you get to choose your own doctor;
it's all private care -- all private.
The veterans hospital system worked quite well, sir, for
a while, but it doesn't work now because the government can't run it
without its being able to compete. I mean, what basically what
happened is, there are fewer and fewer veterans who choose to use the
veterans hospital network. They have other options for pay -they're eligible for Medicare; they have private insurance or
whatever. The veterans hospital can't take that kind of pay, so it
becomes more underfunded while the population it's treating goes
down; and those difficulties feed on itself.
I think we've got a -- basically, we have proposed to
give the veterans hospital network the chance to compete and do well,
but when those Veterans Hospitals are in trouble, that's why they're
in trouble. What I propose to do instead is to have guaranteed
private insurance; and all I want the government to do is to require
guaranteed private insurance for the employed uninsured; give
organized approval to give discounts to small businesses so they
won't go broke providing the insurance; and then organized buyers coops, so small business, farmers and self-employed people, can buy
insurance on the same terms that big business employees and
government employees can. And I don't want the federal government to
do that, I just want it set up so that can be done at the state
level.
But I certainly don't think we ought to have a
government-run health care system. I think the government could
create an environment in which everybody can get health insurance; we
can bring cost in line with inflation -- the right economic
incentives for managed care are there; and the little folks have the
�same chance as the big folks to get affordable care.
want to do.
That's all I
Q
Good afternoon, Mr. President. Not long ago, I was
watching television with my daughter and you were explaining some of
the events that had gone on 15 years ago, or so, in Arkansas. And
you said something about you remembered that there were -- you'd lent
$20,000 to your mother and so on. Essentially, new things were
coming out and changing. And my daughter turned to me and said,
"Dad, you know the problem? He sounds just like me when I'm trying
to explain why I don't have my homework." And I'm wondering, sir,
other than perhaps suggesting to my daughter that she has a future in
politics, what should I tell her?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me tell you, let me give you
an example. I'll just say one thing. Garrison Keillor said last
night, he said, you know, all I know about Whitewater is what I read
in the papers, so I don't understand it. (Laughter.) But he said-he said I -- and let me -- he made two statements; I'm just repeating
what he said. He said, I really wasn't going to talk about
Whitewater tonight, but I was afraid if I didn't say anything, you'd
think I know something about it. (Laughter.) Then he said, I
suppose I ought to tell you that I've never been to Arkansas. But,
he said, I'm reluctant to tell you that, because then you will attack
me for not telling you that 30 days ago. (Laughter.)
All I can tell you, sir, is I have done my best to
answer the questions asked of me. Maybe you have total and complete
recollection of every question that might be -- not is -- might be
asked of you at any moment of things that happened to you 12, 13, 14
years ago. Maybe you could give your tax records up for 17 years
and, at the moment, answer any question. Or maybe, instead, you want
to go back to the hallmark question -- you think I should have shut
the whole federal government down and done nothing but study these
things for the last two months.
I would remind you that I was asked early on by the
press and the Republicans to have a special counsel look into this on
the grounds that then everyone could forget about it, and let the
special counsel do his job, and I could go on and be President. I
could give all the records up, and then when he had a question in his
document search, he could ask me, we could work it out, and the issue
could be resolved. So I said, sure, even though the criteria for
appointing a special counsel weren't met -- no one had accused me of
any wrongdoing; certainly nothing connected with my presidency or my
campaign for the presidency -- I said, let's do it so I can go back
to work. And that is what I have tried to do.
Since then, the same people who asked for the special
counsel so that these issues could be resolved in an appropriate and
disciplined way and I could go back to work, have decided they were
kidding. And they wanted to continue for us to deal with this.
Well, I'm sorry, I'm doing the best I can while I do the job I was
hired by the American people to do.
I have been as candid and as forthright as possible.
Sam Dash, the Watergate special prosecutor, said this is a very
different administration than previous ones. These people have
resisted no subpoenas. They have claimed no executive privilege.
They have cooperated. They have turned all the documents over. I
�have done everythinq I know to do.
But can I answer every question that anybody might ever
ask me about something that happened 10, 15, 17 years ago on the spur
of the moment and have total recall of all of that while trying to be
President? No, sir, I cannot. But the special counsel has a process
for dealing with that which would permit us to focus on the truly
relevant questions and deal with it. And I have cooperated very
well. I will continue to do that.
I will also do my best to give information to the press.
But I would just like to point out that the people who asked for the
special counsel asked for it and said, the president ought to do this
so we can clear the air and he can go on and be president. Now the
suggestion is, the implication of your remark, sir, is that instead
of that, I should stop beinq president and do my homework on this
issue.
Q
All I was asking is what I should tell my daughter
for her response, and I think the response was wonderful. And I
thank you very much for it.
THE PRESIDENT:
Q
Thank you.
(Applause.)
We have time for one more question riqht here.
Q
Mr. President, I'm Tom Dearmore (phonetic), retired
from the San Francisco Examiner and a native of your home state.
THE PRESIDENT:
Q
Mountain Home (phonetic), Arkansas.
-- who used to long ago stir up lots of trouble in
Arkan~as.
THE PRESIDENT: You're still leqendary down there, Mr.
Dearmore (phonetic). (Laughter.)
Q
years aqo --
My father helped run your campaign for Congress 20
THE PRESIDENT:
He sure did.
And I'm grateful to him.
Q
-- in northern county. But I'm leaping a long way
from the Ozarks havinq leapt to Washinqton and San Francisco since
then. I'm going to ask a question related to foreign affairs which
is also a hiqhly controversial matter domestically. And, as you
probably know, the United Nations Commission riqht now is tryinq to
formulate a 20-year plan for the spendinq of money the U.N. receives
for population control. And as presently written, the plan calls for
the use of abortion funds it receives only in cases of rape or
incest.
The Associated Press reported last week that our State
Department had protested that and wants it liberalized so that it can
be used more or less across the board for population control. And I
wonder if your administration really favors the unrestricted use by
foreiqn countries of u.s. money that qoes abroad for population
control, for the unrestricted use for abortion, as in the case of
some countries that perform these, of course, far into the third
trimester? Do you favor any limitation at all on the use of American
�taxpayers' money for abortion -THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I do. I do, and let me say first
of all, I have asked -- I did about two days ago -- I saw a story on
this, and I received a couple of letters about it. And I have asked
to see the language that we are advocating and the language that it's
in the present draft so that I can personally review it.
My position on this, I think, is pretty clear. I think
at a minimum that we should not fund abortions when the child is
capable of living outside the mother's womb. That's what we permit
to·be criminalized in America today under Roe against Wade. And,
secondly, we should not, in any way, shape or form fund abortions if
they are enforced on citizens by the government -- if they're against
people's will.
There may be other restrictions I would favor, but I can
just tell you that on the front end, I think that those are the two
places where I would not support our funding going in. And so I
think that we ought to be very careful in how we do this.
On the other hand, I don't necessarily think that we
ought to write the Hyde Amendment into international law, because
there are a lot of countries who have a very different view of this
and whose religious traditions treat it differently.
So I think that there is some room between the original
draft and where -- it appears, from the news reports, some folks in
the State Department may be going to write a policy that most
Americans can support. But I'm glad you brought it up.
I, myself, did not know about this until just a few days
ago; and I have asked for a report, and I've asked to see the
documents myself so I can get involved in it and at least try to have
some influence on what happens. Of course, it's an international
conference; we don't know exactly how it will come out in the end,
and there will be countries and cultures that have widely clashing
views on this.
But, anyway, I've answered you what I think.
Q
Thank you.
Q
Mr. President, thank you very much. (Applause.)
We're looking forward to a more informal gathering with you Friday
night.
you.
THE PRESIDENT:
(Applause.)
I'm looking forward to it, too.
END
Thank
1:27 P.M. EDT
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Don Baer
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Communications
Don Baer
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994-1997
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36008" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431981" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0458-F
Description
An account of the resource
Donald Baer was Assistant to the President and Director of Communications in the White House Communications Office. The records in this collection contain copies of speeches, speech drafts, talking points, letters, notes, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, excerpts from manuscripts and books, news articles, presidential schedules, telephone message forms, and telephone call lists.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
537 folders in 34 boxes
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
ASNE [American Society of Newspaper Editors] 4/13/94
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Communications
Don Baer
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0458-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 27
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0458-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431981" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1/12/2015
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
42-t-7431981-20060458F-027-020-2014
7431981