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SOTU [State fo the Union] 1999 Speech Drafts 1/14/99 - 1/15/99 [Binder] [5]
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�Since the Cold War ended, Republicans and
Democrats have worked together to streamline
our military while ensuring that it remains second
to none. In the last year, I have asked for, and
Congress has appropriated, six billion dollars to
keep our forces ready for action. Now, we must
get them ready for the new century. My balanced
budget calls for an increase of $12 billion for
defense readiness and modernization -- the start
of a sustained six year reversal of the decline in
defense spending that began in 1985. It will
ensure that our troops can deploy rapidly in any
�crisis ... that they remain the best trained, best
equipped in the world ...that we develop the TK
weapons they need, and that their service is not
only rewarding, but well-rewarded.
They stand ready at a moment's notice to go
where comforts are few and dangers are many,
doing what needs to be done as no one else can
They always deliver for America. We must
deliver for them.
A new century also demands new
partnerships for peace and security.
�In Europe, NATO has helped keep the peace
and defend democracy for half a century, NATO
has kept the peace and defended democracy in
Europe. This spring, the leaders of a new NATO
will gather in Washington. . . to welcome
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic as our
first new allies from Central Europe and to update
its capabilities for the next 50 years and beyond.
Together we can make sure that Europe is never
again divided by concrete and barbed wire, and
that Europe always stands with America.
�More than ever, we know that the security of
America is linked to the stability of [Europe and]
Asia. I have worked to strengthen our
relationships with Japan and Korea. Last year,
the First Lady and I also traveled to China to see
first hand the enormous changes going on in the
home of one fifth of the world's people. I spoke
candidly about our shared interests as well as our
differences. I said then to the leaders of China -and I will say again tonight: in the information
age, stability cannot bought at the expense of
liberty.
�But we must also remember: China will not
change if we isolate the Chinese people from the
forces that have brought change to so much of
Asia and the world. The more we bring China
into the world, the more the world will bring
freedom to China.
Economic freedom, political freedom, respect
for human dignity -- these are the birthrights of
people everywhere. 'The cause of America," said
Thomas Paine, "is the cause of mankind." On
every continent, democracy has flowered in the
final years of this century. We must make sure
�that it takes hold, and is not uprooted by
prevailing winds of crisis, financial or political.
The friends of freedom must always find an ally in
America.
Last spring, Hillary and I saw an Africa being
transformed by democracy and economic reform.
But we also the scars of violence and the scourge
of disease. We must intensify our efforts to end
conflict, to fortify the foundations of African
democracy, and to promote the progress so many
nations there have made. And because trade and
investment are the keys to African prosperity --
�we must finally pass the Africa Growth and
Opportunity Act.
In our own Hemisphere, every government but
one is freely chosen by its people. We are
determined that the people of Cuba, too, will
know the blessings of freedom. To that end, we
have taken new steps to help the Cuban people
without helping the Castro regime.
We also will strengthen our ties to our neighbors
in the Americas -- to help build a hemisphere
where the rule of law prevails, where children are
�educated and healthy, and where markets are
open. In the wake of Hurricane Mitch, we will
continue to help rebuild roads and homes and
lives.
More than 5000 American troops have
helped rescue stranded victims, deliver emergency
aid, clear debris, and repair bridges. Many are
there still. I am proud of them -- and proud of the
generosity of the American people, who have
opened their hearts to our neighbors, our families
and our friends, [thank hillary and tipper and
members of both parties?]
�ONE AMERICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
If we want to exert influence in the world, we must
set an example here at home. We must come together
as One American community - and we begin by
strengthening our communities.
Strong communities, first, are communities where
hope and opportunity flourish,
[move this to economics section...]
[unusual alliance btween rainbow coalition and wall st.
businesses....this investment corporation will help them
do that?...gene: I say to companies looking around the
world for opportunities, don't forget to look right here at
�home...]
Last Friday I travelled to Wall Street to speak to the
leaders of many of America's biggest corporations. I
challenged them to invest in poor urban and rural
neighborhoods. My balanced budget includes tax credits
for new investment, 100,000 housing vouchers to help
poor people move out of public housing. And we should
create a new American Private Investment Corporation,
modeled after our Overseas Private Investment
Corporation to do X. [new POTUS sentence re
empowerment zones etc. goes here] The most important
untapped markets are here at home.
�And strong communities are safe communities.
This year, we will reach our goal of putting 100,000
community police officers on the street - ahead of
schedule and under budget. The Brady Bill has stopped
a quarter million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from
buying guns - enough guns to fill this chamber shoulder
high. Last year, the nation's crime rate dropped for the
sixth straight year, and the murder rate is the lowest in
[30] years.
But too many neighborhoods still are not safe.
Tonight, I propose a 21st Century crime bill to marshall
�the latest tools, technologies and tactics in the fight
against crime.
My budget provides funds to put up to 50,000 more
police on the beat in the areas hardest hit by crime. Our
crime bill will give law enforcement 21st Century tools,
from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.
We must keep working to [keep] guns out of the
hands of criminals. Congress should restore the
mandatory 5-day waiting period for buying a handgun
that expired last year, and extend the Brady Bill so that
juveniles who commit violent crimes won't be able to
�buy handguns for life.
[And we should follow the lead of South Carolina,
Maryland and Virginia and say, nobody needs to buy
more than one handgun a month.]
We must finally begin to break the deadly cycle of
drugs and crime. Too many prisoners go back on the
street addicted to the drugs that made them commit
crimes in the first place. My budget strengthens support
for drug testing and treatment. It says to prisoners: If
you stay on drugs, you must stay behind bars. And it
says to those out on parole: If you want to keep your
�freedom, you have to keep free of drugs.
[Even though most of our schools are safe, Last year no
more traumatic killings in America...than the ones in our
schools.
And for all the progress we have made to restore
discipline and order in our schools by imposing a
zero-tolerance policy for guns in schools and getting
districts to adopt school uniforms, I ask Congress to pass
my plan to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School
Act this year. And we should hire and train 2,000 new
community police and school resource officers to keep
kids safe in our classrooms and playgrounds. No child
�should go to school feeling terrorized by classmates. No
parent should worry that his child become the target of
deadly violence. Our schools [ought to be] the safest
place in every community.
Strong communities are livable communities,
[move global warming to international section ~ put
in red rocks, global warming he likes, ocean dumping
from Monterrey, Lands Legacy separate, VP
livability]
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt set
our nation on the course of conservation. He defined
�our nation's "great, central task" as "leaving this land
even a better land for our descendants than it is for us."
This is the vision we are fulfilling today, protecting
California's ancient redwoods, the Florida Everglades,
and Yellowstone, the world's first National Park. At a
time when our economy is the strongest in a generation,
our air and water are the cleanest in a generation - and
the American bald eagle, the symbol of our national
strength, soars once again. But there are new
environmental challenges we must come together to
meet.
�The most profound challenge is the threat of global
warming. The deadly heat waves, crippling ice storms,
and near-biblical floods of the past year are but a hint of
what future generations may endure if we don't act now.
So tonight, I propose a clean air fund to help
communities reduce both greenhouse pollution and
smog; new grants for developing clean energy sources;
tax cuts for buying energy-efficient cars, homes, and
appliances; rewards for companies that take early action
to reduce greenhouse pollution; and vigorous new
diplomatic efforts to meet this global threat with a global
response.
�Another new challenge is, quite literally, in our very
neighborhoods. At a time when so many more citizens
are buying new homes and sharing in the American
Dream, our communities are losing about 7,000 acres of
farms and open space every day.
So Vice President Gore and I propose an
unprecedented $2 billion initiative to help communities
save open space, enhance city parks, ease traffic
congestion, and grow in ways that enhance every citizen'
s quality of life. We must keep our growing
�communities livable and green.
AmeriCorps
'shrink americorps - first four years gave
100,000. It took peace corps 20 years to reach
this milestone. And america is better place...
From our earliest days, the ethic of service -the belief that all Americans have a duty to give
something back to our communities and to each
other -- has been the hallmark of American
citizenship. Six years ago, I fought to create
AmeriCorps to give today's generation a new
�chance to serve America, earn money for college
and work side by side with peers from all walks of
life.
In just four years, AmeriCorps have built thousands
of low-income homes with Habitat for Humanity. They
have helped churches in Dallas tutor children and raise
reading scores by more than half. They have worked
with the American Red Cross to comfort families hit
hard by Hurricane Georges.
�Nothing in my time as President gives me greater
pride than this: as of today, 100,000 young people now
have served our nation through AmeriCorps - more than
served in the Peace Corps during its entire first two
decades. Some of them are with us tonight, and we
should thank them for their service.
I ask this Congress to thank these young people as
only you can: by increasing support for AmeriCorps.
Democracy [shorten this section]
And as we work to strengthen our
communities, we must work to renew our
democracy.
Our campaign finance system is
�broken -- our laws overwhelmed by an out of
control fundraising arms race. Last year, a strong
bipartisan majority in the House of
Representatives passed strong campaign finance
reform. But obstruction by a partisan minority
blocked reform and preserved the status quo.
Today, Reps. Chris Shays and Marty Meehan
introduced their bill again. I ask the House to
pass it quickly once again -- and I ask the Senate
to say no to big money and yes to a strong
democracy in the Year 2000.
[gift to 21st century america?]
[free TV]
�ONE AMERICA
The greatest opportunity facing our nation is
also our oldest challenge: building One America.
What can we do to build one nation for the 21st
Century?
[The PIR issued their final report X. Here's what
they said. 1,2,3. Economics and education,
which I have already addressed tonight....]
For the past year and a half, our Initiative on
Race has sought to bridge the divides between
�our people. What we discovered was that the will
to bring our people together across all racial lines
is strong in America.
But there is much more we can and must do
to close the opportunity gaps that deepen the divides
between the races.
We believe that all citizens should have the chance
to rise as far as their God-given talents will take them.
No arbitrary distinctions should bar the way.
�Denying opportunity because of race or any other issue
[ancestry or religion, race or gender, disability or sexual
orientation,] is wrong. It is un-American. And it should
be illegal. I call upon the Congress to make the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act the law of the
land.
[REFERENCE TO BYRD & SLEPIAN] [With us
tonight are Judy and Dennis Shepard of Casper,
Wyoming. Dennis is an oil rig inspector. Judy [stayed
at home and raised two fine sons]. This fall, they were
proud when their elder son Matthew enrolled in his Dad'
s alma mater, the University of Wyoming.
�But barely a few months into his freshman year,
Matthew was beaten, tied to a fence, and left for dead on
a deserted country road. He was killed, police say,
because he was gay. My fellow Americans, this should
never have happened to the Shepards and their son - and
it should never happen to any family in America.]
[WE are all God's children]
I call on Congress to pass the Hate Crimes
Prevention Act this year and declare unequivocally
that America will never tolerate violent intolerance
in this great land of freedom and equality.
�The face of America will change
immeasurably in the next century. Today, one in
ten people in America was born in another country. By
the end of next year, California will have no
majority race.
I believe our newest immigrants are good for
America. They are revitalizing our cities, energizing our
culture, building our new economy, just as their
forerunners settled the frontier and powered the
�Industrial Revolution.
[
My fellow Americans, just look at our immigrants
and you will see yourselves, your parents, your
grandparents. ]
We say to our newest immigrants: You are
welcome here, to share and enlarge the bounty of
America. But you must take responsibility - to learn
English, to enter the mainstream of American life. That
is why my balanced budget will enhance our efforts to
teach immigrants English, our laws, and our system of
government.
�Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower
or on slave ships, whether they landed on Ellis Island or
Los Angeles International Airport, [whether the came on
foot a thousand years ago...we can and we must be One
America.] they arrived yesterday or have been here
thousands of years, if you believe in the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution, if you accept the
responsibilities as well as the rights embedded in them,
then you are an American.
PERORATION: THE MILLENNIUM
�Barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross
that bridge into a new millennium. This is a moment, as
the First Lady has said, to honor the past and imagine
the future. I honor her - for leading our millennium
project...to represent our country at home and abroad,
and to give our children a better future.
Last year, Hillary traveled across our country to inspire
more communities to work together to Save America's
Treasures. [...]
I thank the Congress for its support of
our efforts to restore the Star Spangled Banner and other
national treasures.
�By preserving the places in which our forbears lived and
worked, from Thomas Edison's laboratory to Louis
Armstrong's house in Queens, we ensure that children
today and in the next century can better understand who
we are and where we came from. So I call on cities and
towns to strive to become "Millennium Communities" working to mark the millennium through one shared
endeavor, whether by restoring historic places, cleaning
up a river or a park, recruiting a volunteers to help
children.
Six years ago tomorrow, I came to office in a
�time of doubt for America. Our economy was
troubled; our deficit was high; there were those
who wondered whether America's best days were
behind us. But a year earlier, traveling across this
country through a thousand neighborhoods, in
living rooms, churches, and community centers, I
had seen, even amidst the pain and uncertainty of
recession and division, the strength, the idealism,
the bold, big hearted character of America.
I had no doubt of what we, together, could do
for our country.
�Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the
Union message of the 20th Century, no one can
doubt the enduring strength of America. And no
one can doubt our enduring obligation to ... more
perfect union of our founders' dreams.
We are in the final months of a century when
generations of Americans answered the call to
greatness, overcoming Depression, lifting up the
dispossessed, bringing down barriers of racial
prejudice, building the largest middle class in
y/
history, winning two world wars, and the long
�twilight struggle" of the Cold War.
Perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash
of controversy, we do not see our time for what it
truly is - a new dawn for America.
A hundred years from tonight, an American
President will stand in this place to report on the
State of our Union. He - or she - will look back
on a 21st Century shaped in so many ways by
the decisions we make here and now.
�Let it be said of us then that we were thinking
not only of our time, but of their time; that we
reached as high as our ideals; that we put aside
our divisions and found a new hour of healing and
hopefulness; [that we kept George Washington's
sacred fire of liberty" burning brighter than ever.]
With pride in our purpose and the grace of our
God, we joined together to serve and strengthen
the country we love.
�Let us lift our eyes as one nation, and from
the mountaintop of the American century, look
forward to the next one.
Let us go to work together for the American
people.
�Clinton Presidential Records
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sotu99.12
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
UNITED STATES CAPITOL
January 19,1999
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow
Americans:
Tonight, we begin anew our work together for the people of America. And let me
begin by saluting the new Speaker of the House. On the day you were sworn in, you asked us
to work in a spirit of civility and bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly that.
Tonight, I have the honor of reporting on the State of our Union.
I stand before you to report that we have created the longest peacetime economic
expansion in American history - with wages rising at twice the rate of inflation and nearly 18
million new jobs.
I stand before you to report that homeownership is the highest in history — the welfare
rolls are the smallest in 29 years - and the peacetime unemployment rate is the lowest it has
been since 1957.
I stand before you, the first president in three decades to report, not just that the budget
is balanced, but that we have a $76 billion surplus - the highest in American history.
And I can report that we are now on course to run a surplus year after year for the next 20
years.
I stand before you to report that violent crime is at its lowest point in a quarter century.
I stand before you to report that the environment is the cleanest in a quarter century,
and that in six years — even as our economy has boomed — we have cut pollution from
factories in half.
I stand before you to report that America stands strong - a peacemaker in lands torn by
ancient hatreds, from Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, to the Middle East.
I stand before you to report that once again our government is a progressive instrument
of the common good. Thanks to the pioneering leadership of Vice President Gore, America
has a government for the Information Age. We have the smallest government since ~ well,
since John Glenn first orbited the Earth. A flexible, creative government driven not by stale
ideology, but by fresh ideas that work; devoted to fiscal responsibility and determined to give
the American people the tools they need to make the most of their own lives. A 21st Century
�government for 21st Century America.
My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the State of our Union is
strong.
And the promise of our future is limitless.
Stunning scientific discoveries; remarkable advances in the health of our people; a time
when cancer will be cured; when new technologies will make it easier for parents to succeed
both at work and at home; when children will acquire new knowledge in new ways - all
moving us into a new time of longer, healthier, more rewarding lives.
Yes, America is working again. But we cannot realize our promise if we allow the hum
of our prosperity to lull us into complacency. How we fare as a nation far into the 21st
Century will depend upon what we do today. So with our budget surplus growing, our
economy expanding, and our confidence rising, let's get to work.
AGING OF AMERICA
Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed opportunity to address a remarkable new
challenge: the aging of America.
We are blessed with the longest life expectancy we have ever known. With the number of
elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the Baby Boom will become a Senior Boom.
So first and above all, we must save Social Security. Early in this century, being old
meant being poor. When President Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote
to thank him for eliminating what one woman called the "stark terror of penniless, helpless old
age." Even today, without Social Security, half our nation's elderly would be forced into
poverty.
Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013, payroll taxes will not cover retirement
obligations. And by 2032 the Trust Fund will be exhausted, and Social Security will be unable
to pay out the full benefits older Americans have been promised.
Last year, from this podium, I said we must set aside the surplus until we save Social
Security.
The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in
benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; and not to drain resources from Social Security in the
name of saving it.
There is an alternative: Tonight, I propose to you that we make the historic decision to
�invest the surplus to save Social Security.
Specifically, I propose that we commit half the budget surplus for the next 15 years to
Social Security. And by investing a small portion of the Trust Fund in the private sector -- like
any private or state government pension would — we will eam a higher return and we will keep
Social Security sound for 50 years without benefit cuts or tax rate increases.
We need to make other changes, too. We need to reduce poverty among elderly widows,
which is twice the overall poverty rate for older Americans. We need to eliminate the earnings
test which limits what senior citizens on Social Security can eam for themselves. And we need
to work on a bipartisan basis to make the difficult but achievable choices that can put Social
Security on a sound footing for at least the next 75 years.
I know this will not be easy - and I also know this is something we have to do. So
together, let's save Social Security now.
Second, once we have set aside sufficient funds from the surplus to save Social Security,
we must fulfill our obligation to save and improve Medicare. Already, we have extended the life
of Medicare by 10 years -- but for the health care of our seniors to be on solid ground, it must be
extended for at least another decade beyond that.
So tonight I propose that we use one out of every five dollars in the surplus over the next 15
years to guarantee the soundness of Medicare until at least the year 2020.
And, if we work together across party lines and review the work of the panel chaired by Sen.
John Breaux and Rep. Bill Thomas that will report in March, we can not only add to the life of
Medicare ~ we can improve the lives of our seniors by covering their greatest growing need,
access to affordable prescription drugs.
Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, to save, to invest, to
create wealth. Today, tens of millions of people still retire with little to live on other than Social
Security. And ever even if we save Social Security, Americans living longer than ever must save
more than ever. Tonight I propose a new initiative for retirement security in the 21st Century.
I propose that we use 10% of the surplus to establish Universal Savings Accounts -- USA
Accounts. Americans will be able to save in their own personal pension accounts, investing as
they see fit, with the government matching a portion of their savings, with the most help for
those least able to save.
The USA Account will give all Americans a greater stake in our prosperity. . . a greater
hand to create wealth , . . and to retire in comfort, security, and dignity.
�Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. In my balanced budget, I will propose a tax
credit of $1,000 to help families as they provide for ailing, aged or disabled loved ones. The care
our families can provide at home is invaluable; let us begin to show how much we value it.
With these four measures ~ saving Social Security, strengthening Medicare, establishing
USA accounts, and the long-term care tax credit ~ we can begin to meet the historic
responsibility of our generation to establish true security for 21st Century seniors.
I was born in 1946, in the first year of the Baby Boom. And I know that I speak for my
generation: None of us wants our growing old to place an intolerable burden on our children and
their ability to raise our grandchildren. There is no better use for our surplus than lifting that
burden.
Education
Our time brings not only the largest group of old people in our history. Today, there
are more children in our public schools than at any time in our history, and their education is
more important than ever, for the new economy prizes knowledge, creativity and skills as
never before.
Today we can say what we could not say six years ago: with more affordable student
loans, more Pell grants for deserving students, 1 million new work study jobs, education
IRAs, and the HOPE scholarship tax cut that more than 5 million Americans will receive this
year, we have opened the doors of college to all.
To renew our public schools, nearly every state has set higher academic standards, and
we will soon have a voluntary national test to measure the progress of our students. Thousands
of schools have cracked down on drugs, gangs, and violence, and improved learning and
discipline with school uniforms. We have supported teaching values and finding a proper place
for religious faith in our public schools.
With our help, there are 9 times as many classrooms connected to the Internet as there
were six years ago. And with 2 billion additional dollars coming this year to make Internet
connections affordable for all schools, we can meet our goal of connecting every classroom
and every library in America to the Internet by the Year 2000.
We have begun to marshall a volunteer army of students from hundeds of colleges to
teach young children to read and to mentor middle school children and prepare them for
college.
To bring more discipline, more attention, and more learning to every young child, we
reached across party lines last fall and began to hire 100,000 new highly-trained teachers to
reduce class size in the early grades. I ask this Congress to finish our mission of hiring
100,000 new teachers.
�Our children are doing better. SAT scores are up. Math scores have risen in nearly all
grades nationwide. But there is a problem, while our fourth graders outperform their peers in
other developed countries in math and science, our eighth graders are around average, and our
twelfth graders rank near the bottom.
Each year the national government invests over $13 billion [ck] in our public schools.
I believe we must change the way we invest that money. We know what works -- so we have
no excuse for continuing to invest in what doesn't.
Later this year, I will send Congress a plan that for the first time will hold states and
school districts accountable for progress and reward them for results. I propose that every
community receiving federal help for their schools must take the following four steps.
First, aU schools must end social promotion. Too many students move from grade to
without
basics.
grade without mastering the basics
Because we know they can learn, we must help all young people to meet higher
standards. My new balanced budget triples the funding for summer school and after school
programs. We can keep one million students learning in the hours after regular school lets out,
when parents work and juvenile crime soars. Our children should learn their lessons in the
classroom, not on the streets.
Three years ago, under Mayor Daley's leadership, Chicago ended social promotion.
Students who fail to master the basics go to summer school and get special tutoring until they
do pass — and most do. Citywide math and reading scores are up three years in a row. Some
of the biggest gains have come in what were some of the worst schools.
Second, all states and school districts must turn around their worst-performing schools
or shut them down.
That is the policy established by Gov. Jim Hunt in North Carolina -- and last year, that state's
test scores made the biggest gains in the nation. My budget includes $200 million to help states
adopt this policy and turn around their failing schools. We can no longer tolerate schools
anywhere in America that deny any young Americans the opportunity to learn and earn their
way up.
Third, all states and school districts must be held responsible for the quality of their
teachers. None of us would be here tonight if not for our teachers. We must lift them up, not
tear them down. But in too many schools, teachers don't have college majors—or even
minors-in the subjects they teach.
All new teachers must pass skills tests and all teachers should be required to know the subject
�they are teaching.
To attract talented teachers to the toughest teaching assignments, my balanced budget
calls for a five-fold increase in scholarships for college students who commit to teach in the
inner city, in isolated rural areas and on Indian reservations.
Fourth, we must empower parents by creating more charter schools and giving them
better information on their children's education. In too many communities, it is easier to get
information on the quality of local restaurants than the quality of local public schools. From
now on, every school district must issue report cards on every school.
We must create a public school system driven by more information, more competition,
more choice.
There was one independent, public charter school in all of America when I became President.
There are 900 today. My budget assures that by early in the next century, there will be 3000.
If we do these four things - end social promotion, turn around failing schools, demand
and support qualified teachers, promote innovation and competition — we will begin to meet
our generation's historic responsibility to create 21st Century schools for our children.
Let's do one more thing for our children. Today, too many of our schools are so old
that they're falling apart. Too many others are so overcrowded students must learn in trailers.
Last fall, Congress missed an opportunity to create a tax break to modernize or build 5000
schools. This year, for the sake of our 53 million schoolchildren, Congress must not miss that
opportunity again.
BUILDING STRONG FAMILIES FOR THE 21st CENTURY
We must do more to help the millions of working American parents who give their all
every day to succeed at home and at work.
No government can raise or love a child. Mothers and fathers do. But government can
empower parents with the tools they need to meet their most vital responsibilities.
The most basic tool of all is a decent income. So first, let's agree to raise the minimum
wage by $ 1 over the next two years.
One of the biggest hurdles working parents face is how to provide quality child care.
I ask the Congress once again to enact a comprehensive plan to make quality child care
more affordable and more accessible than ever. My balanced budget provides tax credits for
working families, child care subsidies for small business, and high standards and training for
child care providers. Our child care plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home mothers.
�They need help too.
I am proud that the Family Medical Leave Act was the first bill I signed into law. Since
then, it has helped nearly [20 million] Americans care for a new baby or an ailing relative
without risking their jobs. Now let's extend this to workers in smaller companies, and guarantee
Family Leave to 10 million more Americans.
And parents who work to support their families should never face discrimination in the
workplace. I will send legislation to Congress that prohibits companies from refusing to hire or
promote workers simply because they have children.
America's families deserve the world's most advanced medical care - and we must
continue our commitment to cutting-edge research and pathbreaking innovation.
We have begun testing the first drugs to prevent or reduce risk of cancer. In just the past
six years, medical researchers introduced the first effective drugs to treat AIDS. They have made
new discoveries about the process of aging itself - increasing the odds of developing new
treatments to prevent or delay diseases from Parkinsons to Alzheimers to arthritis.
My balanced budget will keep us on track to increase the budget for the National
Institutes of Health by fifty percent. I ask Congress to fund this scientific research, and commit
our nation to finding a cure for cancer and AIDS early in the new century.
And as our medical advances race ahead, we cannot let our health care system lag behind.
Managed care has transformed medicine in America ~ driving down costs, but
threatening to drive down quality as well.
Let's make [him and] all Americans a promise: This year, we will pass the patient's bill
of rights ... so every American can have the right to the best care, not just the cheapest. The right
to see a specialist. And the right to emergency care.
Within my power as President, I have acted to extend these rights to the 85 million
Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health plans. But only Congress can
enact the Patients Bill of Rights for all Americans. Last year, Congress missed that opportunity.
This year, for the sake of our families, Congress must not miss that opportunity again.
And as more of our medical records are stored electronically, the threats to our privacy
increase. If Congress does not act by this August, I have the authority to act under law and I will
use it — issuing an executive order to protect the privacy of medical records.
Two years ago, we extended health insurance to up to 5 million children. Now, we
should give people 55 to 65 who lose their health insurance the chance to buy in to Medicare.
We should make it easier for small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees.
�And we should pass the historic bipartisan legislation, introduced by Senators Kennedy, Jeffords.
Roth and Moynihan to allow people with disabilities to keep Medicaid health insurance when
they go to work. No one should have to choose between keeping their health care and taking a
job.
Next, we must step up our efforts to treat and prevent an illness that brings pain to
millions of American families -- mental illness. With sensitivity and commitment, Tipper Gore
has led our efforts here -- and I thank her. This year, we will host a [first-ever] White House
Conference on Mental Health. No American should ever be afraid to recognize and treat this
disease.
We must protect our children from the drunk drivers who kill nearly 3000 of them every
year. I ask the Congress to write tough new blood alcohol standards into law to protect every
American, on every roadway. Congress passed up the opportunity to do this last year. This year,
Congress should not miss that opportunity.
As everyone in this chamber knows, our children - the children the tobacco industry has
called "replacement smokers" ~ are the target of a massive media campaign to hook them on
cigarettes. I ask this Congress to resist the awesome power of the tobacco lobby and pass a
bipartisan bill that will safeguard our children while protecting farmers.
For decades the tobacco industry deceived America. They passed too much of the real
cost of smoking - medical care for illnesses from cancer to emphysema ~ onto you, the
taxpayers. It is time to recover those costs, as the states have done.
Tonight, I am directing the Department of Justice to prepare and bring a lawsuit against
the tobacco companies for the costs to Medicare of tobacco-related illnesses. The funds we
recover should be used to strengthen Medicare.
In all these areas ~ minimum wage, child care, health care, family leave and the safety of
our children — we can begin to meet the historic responsibility of our generation to strengthen
our families for the 21st Century.
21st Century economy
But we cannot meet any of our other challenges if we do not succeed in building a new
economy for that new century.
Today, America is without dispute the most dynamic, innovative, competitive, job
�creating, wealth creating economy in history -- because the qualities that mean success in the
global economy are at the core of the American character.
But we can do better.
We must make a place for all our people in the new economy.
Today, there is not so much an income gap as a skills gap. At a time when skills matter
more than ever, one out of four working people reads at less than a sixth-grade level. This past
year I was proud to sign bipartisan legislation to transform our worker training system. With a
simple skills grant, Americans eligible for training assistance can now choose the skills they
need. My balanced budget will build on that momentum, with a national campaign to increase
adult literacy and a commitment that every American who needs training will be able to get it.
We must bring opportunity to places not fully participating in our prosperity.
In the last six years, we have moved [x million people] from welfare to work. Two years
ago, from this podium, I asked five companies to lead a national effort to hire people off the
welfare rolls. As of tonight, our Welfare to Work Partnership includes 10,000 companies. And
my budget provides funds to create jobs to move another [TK,000] people from welfare to work.
My balanced budget also will bring the spark of private enterprise into inner cities and
remote rural areas. It calls for tax credits to create venture capital funds there, supports
community banks, and provides 100,000 vouchers to help people move out of public housing.
We already have an Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to help develop untapped markets
abroad. My balanced budget will create an American Private Investment Corporation to develop
untapped markets at home.
We have another new and urgent priority. The farmers who are the backbone of our
country are in trouble. Dropping prices and the loss of foreign markets have led to dire economic
conditions for too many of our hardworking family farmers. We need to craft a better farm
safety net for rural America, with crop insurance reform and income assistance. I pledge to work
with Members of Congress of both parties to get it done.
And we must strengthen our lead in the new technological economy.
Government investment in computers led to the creation of the Internet. Now I propose a
30% increase in long-term computer research.
Today's consumers need 21st Century protections. We will continue to use antitrust laws
to ensure competition and lower prices in the marketplace. And I will propose a new financial
right to know law to protect investments, combat fraud, and guarantee the information necessary
for informed choice.
�We must be ready for the 21 st Century at its very first moment. That means solving the
"Y2K" millennium computer bug. We have already fixed the Social Security system, and the
checks will keep coming on time. But every business, every city and county, every university
must be ready. But if we keep working hard together, the millennium bug can be remembered as
the last headache of the 21st Century, not the first crisis of the 21st.
It is plain that economic growth at home also depends upon economic growth around the
world.
Until recently, a full one third of our economic growth came from exports. But over the
past year and a half, the financial turmoil that began in Asia has put that growth at risk. Today,
much of the world is in recession. Across Asia, an entire generation that worked its way into the
middle class has been plunged into poverty.
This is the most critical financial crisis in a half century. Last September, I set out a new
strategy to spur global growth, to stabilize the global economy and keep the world trading system
open, free, and fair.
Together with other nations, the United States acted - lowering interest rates, meeting
our obligations to the International Monetary Fund, and taking steps to prevent the crisis from
spreading.
The turmoil is not over. But because of America's leadership, the world's economy is
sounder than it otherwise would have been - and our economy continues to grow, steady and
strong. I thank lawmakers of both parties for your support.
Now we must build a financial system for the 21st Century that tames the cycles of boom
and bust in the world economy. This spring, I will meet with the leaders of the world's most
important economies to lay plans for a world financial system as modem as the markets -- with
open books, stronger international bank regulations, an aggressive to prevent problems that do
arise from becoming global crises, and strong social safety for the most vulnerable victims of
financial turmoil.
We must also build a freer and fairer trading system for the 21st Century -- one that spurs
growth, expands opportunity for ordinary citizens, and supports basic labor and environmental
standards.
For too long, trade has divided Americans, across lines of party and philosophy. We
must find the common ground on which business, workers, environmentalists and government
can stand together.
�We must do more to help American manufacturers hit hard by the global financial crisis.
I ask the Congress to provide $2 billion in new credit to promote U.S. manufacturing exports
abroad. We must resist a protectionism that could start a chain reaction, hurting our exports and
triggering a global recession. Where imports are unfairly flooding into our nation, we will act. I
have already informed the government of Japan that if Japan's sudden surge of cheap steel
imports into our country is not reversed, I will respond.
Five times in the past half century, we have negotiated worldwide agreements that have
opened markets and lifted prosperity. Tonight I propose to launch a new round of negotiations
in the World Trade Organization to expand our exports of farm products, services and
manufactures. We will seek to expand trade with Africa, with the Caribbean and Central
American nations devastated by the recent hurricanes, and by creating a Free Trade Area of the
Americas.
But as we press for open trade, we must also press for trade that promotes the dignity of
work and the rights of workers. We must insist that international trade organizations be open to
the sunlight of public scrutiny. We must insist that trade rules never be used as a pretext to
destroy environmental protections. We must never let vigorous international economic
competition become a race to the bottom among nations.
I ask Congress to move forward with me based on this common approach and pass
legislation granting the President traditional trade authority so we can advance our prosperity.
We will work with the International Labor Organization on a new initiative to lift labor
standards around the world. And we must act, once and for all, to end the most exploitative trade
practices of all: [This year?] I will sign a new international agreement to ban child labor
everywhere in the world.
If we do these things, then we can begin to meet the historic responsibility of this
generation to build a 21 st Century prosperity for America in a more stable and growing world
economy.
A STRONG AMERICA IN A NEW WORLD
No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility we now have to help
shape a world more peaceful, secure, and free.
Today the indispensable nation is the indispensable peacemaker.
All Americans should be proud that our leadership helped bring peace to Northern
Ireland. Now that both Protestants and Catholics there have chosen peace, America will help
�them build it.
All Americans should be proud that our leadership has put Bosnia on the path to peace.
This year, we will help that peace take deeper root - and we will continue to bring our troops
home. In Kosovo we will work to sustain a fragile cease fire and to advance self government.
And all Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for a lasting peace in
the Middle East. Some of you were with me in December as we watched the Palestinian
National Council renounce its call for the destruction of Israel - fully, finally and forever. I ask
the Congress to act now to provide resources to support the Wye Agreement. . .
to protect Israel's security, stimulate the Palestinian economy, and to support Jordan, whose
participation and progress are essential to a lasting peace. We must not, we cannot, let them
down.
As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation's security - including new
dangers such as terror and proliferation. Today, outlaw nations and bands of terrorists can wreak
havoc through fear from the subways of Tokyo, to the streets of Tel Aviv, to our embassies in
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, [reference to US diplomats TK]
We will defend our security wherever it is threatened ~ as we did this summer when we
struck at Osama bin Laden's network of terror in Sudan and Afghanistan.
We will defend our nation against emerging threats on the home front. My balanced
budget includes a 50 percent increase in funding to keep terrorists from disrupting vital computer
networks, to prepare local communities for biological and chemical emergencies, and to support
research into vaccines and treatments.
We will work to restrain the spread of nuclear weapons. To that end, we must continue
to prevent North Korea from producing nuclear materials while deterring aggression... and end
the arms race between India and Pakistan.
And we must keep working with Russia, Ukraine, and the other nations of the former
Soviet Union to safeguard their arsenals and technology as they make the transition to
democracy. My balanced budget will expand our effort to help these countries prevent deadly
weapons from falling into the wrong hands... use their scientific potential for peaceful
purposes... implement arms control agreements... and accelerate the destruction of nuclear
weapons and materials.
Our nation spent trillions in the struggle with the Soviet Union. By making this immeasurably
smaller investment in peace today, we can help make sure the American people never again live
in fear of nuclear war.
There is another vital step Congress can take. I ask the Senate to give its advice and
consent to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In 1963, just two months elapsed between the
time President Kennedy signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty and its approval by the Senate. It's
�been more than two years since I became the first world leader to sign the CTBT. By ratifying
this treaty now, we can make it harder for new nations to develop nuclear arms, and end nuclear
testing forever.
And let me say something to another democratically elected legislature. I ask the Russian
Duma to promptly ratify the START II treaty, for the sake of Russia's security as well as our
own. Together, our two great nations can do more than any other to lift the cloud of nuclear
annihilation from the Earth. For our children, let us do so.
For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligation to destroy its nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. American resolve has contained Saddam -with diplomacy and sanctions when possible, with force when necessary. And we will work for
the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people.
Every American should be proud of the men and women of our military who last month
struck at the weapons of terror in Iraq. Our troops were superb; their weapons powerful and
precise. Their mission was successful - so flawlessly executed that we risk taking for granted
the bravery and skill they brought to the job. [x] flew [x] missions, destroying [x] that made
[chemical weapons][or whatever]. He is here with us tonight. Let us all honor him and the
10,000 other men and women of Desert Fox.
Republicans and Democrats have worked together to streamline our military while
ensuring that it remains second to none. In the last year, I have asked for, and Congress has
appropriated an additional six billion dollars to keep our forces ready for action. Now we must
get them ready for the new century. My balanced budget calls for an increase of $12 billion for
defense readiness and modernization -- the start of a sustained six year reversal of the decline in
defense spending that began in 1985. It will ensure that our troops can deploy rapidly in any
crisis ... that they remain the best trained ... and that we can develop any new weapons we need
... and that we provide properly for the men and women in uniform and their families who
sacrifice so much for us.
They stand ready at a moment's notice to go where comforts are few and dangers are
many, doing what needs to be done as no one else can. They always deliver for America. We
must deliver for them.
A new century also demands new partnerships for peace and security.
Six years ago, I said we had an unprecedented opportunity to build a Europe that is for
the first time united, peaceful and free, and that NATO would be key to realizing that vision.
This spring, the leaders of a new NATO will gather in Washington . . .
to welcome Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic as our first new allies from Central
Europe and to update our strategic doctrine. Together we can make sure that Europe is never
again divided by concrete and barbed wire, and that Europe and America always stand together.
More than ever, we know that the security of America is linked to the stability of Asia. I
�have worked to strengthen our relationships with our allies Japan and Korea. Last year, I also
traveled to China to see first hand the enormous changes going on in the home of one in five of
the world's people. I spoke candidly about our shared interests as well as our differences.
I said then to the leaders of China -- and I will say again tonight -- that in the Information
age, stability cannot bought at the expense of liberty.
But we must also remember: China will not change ifwe isolate the Chinese
people from the forces that have brought change to so much of Asia and the world. The more we
bring China into the world, the more the world will bring freedom to China.
Economic freedom, political freedom, respect for human dignity — these are the
birthrights of people everywhere. "The cause of America," said Thomas Paine, "is the cause of
all mankind." On every continent, democracy has flowered in the final years of this century. We
must make sure that it takes hold, and that it is not uprooted by prevailing winds of crisis,
financial or political. The friends of freedom must always find an ally in America.
Last spring, I travelled to an Africa being transformed by democracy and
economic reform. But I also saw the scars of violence and the scourge of disease.
We must intensify our efforts to end conflict, and to fortify the foundations of African
democracy. And because trade and investment are the keys to African prosperity -- we must
finally pass the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.
In our own Hemisphere, every government but one is freely chosen by its people.
We are determined that the people of Cuba, too, will know the blessings of freedom. To that
end, we have taken new steps to help the Cuban people without helping the Castro regime.
We are also strengthening our ties to our neighbors in the Americas - to help build a
hemisphere where justice prevails, where children are educated and healthy, and where markets
are open. In the wake of Hurricane Mitch, we will continue to help rebuild roads and homes and
lives. More than 5000 American troops have helped rescue stranded victims, deliver emergency
aid, clear debris, and repair bridges. Many are there still. I am proud of them -- and proud of the
generosity of the American people, who have opened their hearts to our neighbors, our families
and our friends.
[UN arrears TK]
21ST CENTURY COMMUNITIES
At the world has changed, so have our own communities -- and we must continue to
�strengthen them for a new time.
Strong communities are safer communities.
[Chestnut & Gibson tribute]
This year, we will reach our goal of putting 100,000 community police officers on the
street — ahead of schedule and under budget.
The Brady Bill has stopped a quarter million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying guns.
Last year, the nation's crime rate dropped for the sixth straight year, and the murder rate is the
lowest in [30] years.
But too many neighborhoods still are not safe. Tonight, I propose a 21st Century crime
bill to marshall the latest tools, technologies and tactics in the fight against crime.
My budget provides funds to put up to 50,000 more police on the beat in the areas hardest
hit by crime, and gives them 21st Century tools, from crime-mapping computers to digital mug
shots.
Congress should restore the mandatory 5-day waiting period for buying a handgun that
expired last year, and extend the Brady Bill so that juveniles who commit violent crimes won't
be able to buy handguns for life.
We must keep working to break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. Too many
prisoners go back on the street addicted to the drugs that made them commit crimes in the first
place. My budget strengthens support for drug testing and treatment. It says to prisoners: If you
stay on drugs, you must stay behind bars. And it says to those out on parole: If you want to keep
your freedom, you have to keep free of drugs.
We must make our schools the safest places in our communities. Last year there were no
more traumatic events in America than the traumatic killings in our schools. I ask Congress to
pass my plan to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act, and to hire and train 2,000 new
community police and school resource officers to keep kids safe in our classrooms and
playgrounds.
Strong communities are livable communities.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt defined our nation's "great, central task"
as "leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us."
Today, we are restoring the Florida Everglades, saving Yellowstone, preserving the red-rock
canyons of Utah, protecting California's redwoods and precious coast. But there are new
environmental challenges we must come together to meet.
The most fateful challenge is the threat of global warming. The heat waves, ice
storms, and floods of the past year are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we
don't act now.
�So tonight, I propose a clean air fund to help communities reduce both greenhouse
pollution and smog; new grants for developing clean energy sources; tax cuts for buying
energy-efficient cars, homes, and appliances; rewards for companies that take early action to
reduce greenhouse pollution; and vigorous new diplomatic efforts to meet this global threat
with a global response.
Another new challenge is literally right next door in every neighborhood. At a time
when so many more citizens are buying new homes and sharing in the American Dream, our
communities are losing about 7,000 acres of farms and open space every day.
So tonight, Vice President Gore and I propose two major initiatives: first, an
unprecedented Livability Agenda to help communities save parks from being paved over with
parking lots, ease traffic congestion, and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's quality of
life; second, a historic Lands Legacy Initiative to preserve places of natural beauty across
America - from remote wilderness to city parks. We must never forget that the most
important park is the one closest to home. We must keep our growing communities livable
and green.
To get the most out of your community, you have to give something back to it. That's
why I fought to create AmeriCorps ~ our national service program that gives today's
generation a chance to serve their community and earn money for college.
So far, 100,000 young people have built low-income homes with Habitat for Humanity
... helped churches tutor children ... worked with the American Red Cross during natural
disasters.
Some of them are with us tonight and we should thank them for their service. And I
ask this Congress to thank these young people as only you can: by increasing support for
AmeriCorps.
And as we work to strengthen our communities, we must work to renew our
democracy. Last year, a strong bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives passed
strong the strong campaign finance reform legislation sponsored by Reps. Shays and Meehan
and Sens. McCain and Feingold. But a partisan minority in the Senate blocked reform and
preserved the status quo.
That reform bill was introduced again earlier today. To the House I say: Pass it quickly
again. To the Senate I say: say no to big money and yes to a strong democracy in the Year
�2000.
We will also be a stronger community if we are truly and finally One America.
For the past year and a half, our Initiative on Race has sought to bridge the divides
between our people. The Initiative issued its report last [x]. It reported, first, that the will to
bring our people together across all racial lines is strong in America. Second, that there is
much more we can and must do to close the opportunity gaps that deepen the divides between
the races. [PIR insert to come]
We believe that all citizens should have the chance to rise as far as their God-given
talents will take them. No arbitrary distinctions should bar the way.
Discrimination or violence because of ancestry or religion, race or gender, disability or
sexual orientation, is wrong. And it should be illegal. Therefore I call upon the Congress to
make the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of
the land.
The face of America will change immeasurably in the next century. Today, one in ten
people in America was born in another country. By the end of next year, California will have
no majority race.
Our newest immigrants are good for America. They are revitalizing our cities,
energizing our culture, building our new economy, just as our forbears settled the frontier and
powered the Industrial Revolution.
We must make our newest immigrants welcome here. And they must take
responsibility to learn English and to enter the mainstream of American life. That is why my
balanced budget will enhance our efforts to teach immigrants English, our laws, and our
system of government.
Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower or on slave ships, whether they
landed on Ellis Island or at Los Angeles International Airport, whether they arrived yesterday
or have been here thousands of years - we can and we must be one America.
�PERORATION: THE MILLENNIUM
Barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross that bridge into a new millennium.
This is a moment, as the First Lady has said, to honor the past and imagine the future.
I honor her - for leading our Millennium Project -- for all she has done to represent our
country at home and abroad - and for all she has done for our children -- for her historic role
in serving this nation and advancing our best ideals.
Last year, Hillary traveled across our country to inspire more communities to work
together to Save America's Treasures. I thank the Congress for its support of her efforts to
restore the Star Spangled Banner and other national treasures.
By preserving the places in which our forbears lived and worked, from Thomas Edison's
laboratory to Louis Armstrong's house in Queens, we ensure that children today and in the
century to come can better understand who we are and where we came from. Let us in our
time carry what George Washington called "the sacred fire of liberty." So I call on cities and
towns to strive to become "Millennium Communities" - working to mark the millennium
through one shared endeavor, whether by restoring historic places, cleaning up a river or a
park, recruiting a volunteers to help children.
Six years ago tomorrow, I came to office in a time of doubt for America. Our economy
was troubled; our deficit was high; our people were divided. There were those who wondered
whether America's best days were behind us. But over the previous year, traveling across this
nation through a thousand neighborhoods, in living rooms, churches, and community centers, I
had seen, even amid the pain and uncertainty of recession, the strength, the idealism, the bold,
big hearted character of America.
I had no doubt then of what we, together, could do for our country.
Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union message of the 20th Century, no one can
doubt the enduring strength of America. And no one can doubt our enduring resolve to work for
that "more perfect union" of our founders' dreams.
We are in the final months of a century when generations of Americans answered the call
to greatness, overcoming Depression, lifting up the dispossessed, bringing down barriers of racial
prejudice, building up the largest middle class in history, winning two world wars, and the "long
twilight struggle" of the Cold War.
�Perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of controversy, we do not see our time
for what it truly is - a new dawn for America.
A hundred years from tonight, an American President will stand in this place to report on
the State of our Union. He - or she - will look back on a 21st Century shaped in so many ways
bv the decisions we make here and now.
Let it be said of us then that we were thinking not only of our time, but of their time; that
we reached as high as our ideals; that we put aside our divisions and found a new hour of healing
and hopefulness; that in these next two years, with pride in our purpose and the grace of our God,
we joined together to serve and strengthen the country we love.
Let us lift our eyes as one nation, and from the mountaintop of the American century,
look forward to the next one.
Let us go to work together for the American people.
God Bless the United States of America.
�Draft 1/14/99
sotu99.12
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
UNITED STATES CAPITOL
January 19,1999
�Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of
Congress, honored guests, my fellow Americans:
Tonight, we begin anew our work together for the
people of America. And let me begin by saluting the new
Speaker of the House. On the day you were sworn in,
you asked us to work in a spirit of civility and
bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly that.
Tonight, I have the honor of reporting on the State
of our Union.
�I stand before you to report that we have created the
longest peacetime economic expansion in American
history — with wages rising at twice the rate of inflation
and nearly 18 million new jobs.
I stand before you to report that homeownership is
the highest in history - the welfare rolls are the smallest
in 29 years ~ and the peacetime unemployment rate is
the lowest it has been since 1957.
I stand before you, the first president in three
decades to report, not just that the budget is balanced,
but that we have a $76 billion surplus - the highest in
American history.
�And I can report that we are now on course to run a
surplus year after year for the next 20 years.
I stand before you to report that violent crime is at
its lowest point in a quarter century.
I stand before you to report that the environment is
the cleanest in a quarter century, and that in six years even as our economy has boomed - we have cut
pollution from factories in half.
I stand before you to report that America stands
strong - a peacemaker in lands torn by ancient hatreds,
from Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, to the Middle East.
3
�I stand before you to report that once again our
government is a progressive instrument of the common
good. Thanks to the pioneering leadership of Vice
President Gore, America has a government for the
Information Age. We have the smallest government
since - well, since John Glenn first orbited the Earth. A
flexible, creative government driven not by stale
ideology, but by fresh ideas that work; devoted to fiscal
responsibility and determined to give the American
people the tools they need to make the most of their own
lives. A 21st Century government for 21st Century
America.
�My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report
that the State of our Union is strong.
And the promise of our future is limitless.
Stunning scientific discoveries; remarkable advances
in the health of our people; a time when cancer will be
cured; when new technologies will make it easier for
parents to succeed both at work and at home; when
children will acquire new knowledge in new ways - all
moving us into a new time of longer, healthier, more
rewarding lives.
�Yes, America is working again. But we cannot
realize our promise if we allow the hum of our
prosperity to lull us into complacency. How we fare as
a nation far into the 21st Century will depend upon what
we do today. So with our budget surplus growing, our
economy expanding, and our confidence rising, let's get
to work.
AGING OF AMERICA
Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed
opportunity to address a remarkable new challenge: the
aging of America.
�We are blessed with the longest life expectancy we
have ever known. With the number of elderly Americans
set to double by 2030, the Baby Boom will become a
Senior Boom.
So first and above all we must save Social Security.
?
Early in this century, being old meant being poor. WTien
President Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security,
thousands wrote to thank him for eliminating what one
woman called the "stark terror of penniless, helpless old
age." Even today, without Social Security, half our
nation's elderly would be forced into poverty.
7
�Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013,
payroll taxes will not cover retirement obligations. And
by 2032 the Trust Fund will be exhausted, and Social
Security will be unable to pay out the full benefits older
Americans have been promised.
Last year, from this podium, I said we must set aside
the surplus until we save Social Security.
The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid
guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in benefits; not to
raise payroll tax rates; and not to drain resources from
Social Security in the name of saving it.
8
�There is an alternative: Tonight, I propose to you that
we make the historic decision to invest the surplus to save
Social Security.
Specifically, I propose that we commit half the
budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security.
And by investing a small portion of the Trust Fund in the
private sector - like any private or state government
pension would — we will eam a higher return and we will
keep Social Security sound for 50 years without benefit
cuts or tax rate increases.
�We need to make other changes, too. We need to
reduce poverty among elderly widows, which is twice the
overall poverty rate for older Americans. We need to
eliminate the earnings test which limits what senior
citizens on Social Security can eam for themselves. And
we need to work on a bipartisan basis to make the difficult
but achievable choices that can put Social Security on a
sound footing for at least the next 75 years.
I know this will not be easy — and I also know this is
something we have to do. So together, let's save Social
Security now.
10
�Second, once we have set aside sufficient funds from
the surplus to save Social Security, we must fulfill our
obligation to save and improve Medicare. Already, we
have extended the life of Medicare by 10 years ~ but for
the health care of our seniors to be on solid ground, it
must be extended for at least another decade beyond that.
So tonight I propose that we use one out of every five
dollars in the surplus over the next 15 years to guarantee
the soundness of Medicare until at least the year 2020.
11
�And, if we work together across party lines and review the
work of the panel chaired by Sen. John Breaux and Rep.
Bill Thomas that will report in March, we can not only
add to the life of Medicare -- we can improve the lives of
our seniors by covering their greatest growing need,
access to affordable prescription drugs.
Third, we must help all Americans, from their first
day on the job, to save, to invest, to create wealth. Today,
tens of millions of people still retire with little to live on
other than Social Security. And ever even if we save
Social Security, Americans living longer than ever must
save more than ever. Tonight I propose a new initiative
for retirement security in the 21 st Century.
12
�
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
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Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
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
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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
SOTU [State of the Union] 1999 Speech Drafts 1/14/99 - 1/15/99 [Binder] [5]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 46
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36403"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 1
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.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg1-046-002-2015