pd09fe98 Acts Approved by the President...

	Web GovRecords.org

here know that when the baby boomers--and I know about this because I'm 
the oldest of the baby boomers--that when we retire there will be a lot 
more people retired compared to people working than there ever have been 
before in American history. And we know that will put new burdens on the 
Social Security system. But if we begin now to prepare for that, with 
all we know and all we can find out, and if we don't make this a 
political thing, if we make it an American crusade across party lines 
and age lines and income lines, we know that we can save Social Security 
for the 21st century in such a way that my generation does not expect to 
bankrupt our children to take care of us and impair our children's 
ability to take care of our grandchildren. We can do that.
    And all I have asked of the Congress is that when we balance the 
budget--it is then projected that we will begin to run surpluses for the 
first time in a coon's age, since anybody can remember. Nobody can 
remember when that happened. It is projected now that we could have 
surpluses as high as $200 billion over the next 5 years. And what I say 
to you is, the easy thing is for us to take the money back in tax cuts 
or spending programs. But I want you to commit to me that you will 
support the Congress in saying, don't do anything with the money until 
you fix Social Security first.
    We can balance the budget and give Americans the finest education in 
the world. Perhaps the proudest achievement of the balanced budget 
agreement last year was that it opened the doors of college to all 
Americans: over 200,000 new Pell grants in the last 3 years; 300,000 new 
work-study positions; education IRA's you can save for a college 
education for yourselves or your children and withdraw from them tax 
free; a $1,500 tax cut; a HOPE scholarship tax credit for the first 2 
years of college; and a lifetime learning tax cut for the third and 
fourth years for graduate school for adults who have to go back for job 
training. If you want to go to college, you can go now. Don't let 
anybody tell you you can't.
    But now we have to make sure that the years of education before 
college are as good as the college education is in America. Everybody 
knows America has the finest system of higher education in the entire 
world. I will never be satisfied until we know we have the finest system 
of elementary and secondary education in the entire world.
    We can balance the budget and put 100,000 more teachers in the first 
three grades to lower average class size to 18, so all our kids have a 
chance to learn. We can balance the budget and build or repair 5,000 
more schools, because if there are more kids and more teachers, you have 
to have more classrooms. We can balance the budget and help the poorest, 
most underprivileged communities in rural and urban areas to achieve 
high standards of excellence, to end social promotion but to get a 
second chance to really learn what all our children are fully capable of 
learning.
    We can balance the budget and make an unprecedented commitment to 
improving the quality of Hispanic education and reducing the 
unacceptably high dropout rate among Hispanic-American students. This

[[Page 188]]

commitment--hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several 
years--will build on the progress of the President's Advisory Commission 
on Excellence in Hispanic Education to lower the dropout rate and help 
young Hispanic-Americans to succeed in school. I want to thank Sam 
Vigil, who is here with us today, and Senator Bingaman, who has worked 
so hard on this issue. We cannot have an America where there is a huge 
racial disparity in the dropout rate. All of our kids need to finish 
high school, and all of our kids can finish high school.
    We can balance the budget and deal with the challenge that Mayor 
Baca talked about earlier. I am very happy and proud of the work that 
our administration has done in partnership with local law enforcement 
and citizen groups to have a big 5-year decline in the crime rate. But 
if you have been following it closely, you know that the juvenile crime 
rate has not gone down as much as the adult crime rate has. There's 
still too many of our kids getting in trouble, and most of that trouble 
happens between the time school closes, about 3, and the time all the 
parents get home, about 8, from work. We must give our children 
something positive to do in those hours, and we can balance the budget 
and do that and keep our kids out of trouble.
    We can balance the budget and help millions of Americans to provide 
child care to their children that is of good quality, that is 
affordable, and that helps people to balance the demands of school and 
work. We can balance the budget and extend health care coverage to more 
hard-working Americans. I'll bet you anything there are people in this 
audience tonight, between the ages of 55 and 65, where your spouse has 
gone on Medicare but you're not old enough for it yet; or you lost a job 
and you haven't gotten another one, so you don't have health care; or 
you took early retirement from a company that promised you health 
insurance coverage and then didn't deliver. I say we should let those 
people have the opportunity to buy into the Medicare program early. It 
won't cost Medicare a dime, and it will be worth all the money in the 
world to them.
    We can balance the budget and continue to clean our environment. 
Compared to 5 years ago, the air is cleaner; the water is cleaner; the 
food is safer in America; there are fewer toxic waste dumps. But we have 
more to do. We have got to deal with the crisis of climate change, do 
something about global warming, and bring our people the benefits of a 
growing economy and a cleaner environment. In New Mexico you know we can 
do that; help us lead the way in America.
    And we can balance the budget and invest in the science and 
technology that can revolutionize our way of life; whether it is in 
cleaning the environment, finding cures for diseases, solving practical 
problems in America, we can do it. I announced today at Los Alamos that 
our balanced budget will put over $500 million into developing the 
fastest supercomputers in human history, 1,000 times faster than the 
fastest one when I took office 5 years ago. We are going to develop a 
computer that will do more calculations in a second than you can with 
your hand-held computer in 30 million years. That is on the verge of 
reality.
    But the last thing I want to say to you is, we can balance the 
budget, and we can do all that, but we have to remember we're living in 
a smaller and smaller world where we're more interconnected, whether we 
like it or not, with people all around the world, not just economically 
but also in terms of the spread of disease or our vulnerability to 
terrorism or drug traffickers or our vulnerability to common, shared 
environmental problems. And yet we can do so much more when we work 
together.
    In a world like this, there is no nation better suited to do well in 
the 21st century than our United States. Why? Because here the price of 
citizenship is believing in America. It is not a function of your race; 
it is not a function of your religion; it is not a function of where you 
were born; it is not a function of how much money you have; all you have 
to do is to be willing to work hard, obey the law, and say you believe 
in the things that have made our country great.
    And I'm telling you, folks, you just look around this crowd today 
and you think about what it means to be in a global society. I tell you, 
we can build one America. We can balance the budget. We can invest in 
our future. And if we do, all these little children

[[Page 189]]

today, they will be living in the greatest days the United States has 
ever know. Help us do that.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 5:25 p.m. at the Civic Plaza. In his 
remarks, he referred to Evangeline Sandoval Trujillo, director, 
Mathematics, Engineering, Science Association, who introduced the 
President; Arizona State Treasurer Michael Montoya; Arizona Secretary of 
State Stephanie Gonzales; former Arizona Governors Bruce King, Toney 
Anaya, and Jerry Apodaca; Acama Pueblo Governor Reginald Pasqual; 
Santodomingo Pueblo Governor Tony Tortalita; and Mayor Jim Baca.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 189]
 
Monday, February 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 6
Pages 175-225
 
Week Ending Friday, February 6, 1998
 
Statement on Federal Election Commission Action on Campaign Finance 
Reform

February 3, 1998

    I strongly support action to end the soft money raised by both 
political parties. That is why last year I asked the Federal Election 
Commission to ban soft money, under its current legal authority. I am 
very pleased that the agency's General Counsel has proposed a new rule 
prohibiting national parties from raising soft money. Now I ask the 
members of the Commission to step up to their responsibility and act, 
within their legal authority, to end the soft money system.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 189]
 
Monday, February 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 6
Pages 175-225
 
Week Ending Friday, February 6, 1998
 
Statement on the Accident Involving United States Aircraft in Italy

February 3, 1998

    I was deeply saddened to learn a short while ago that a U.S. 
military jet aircraft was involved in an accident in Italy that resulted 
in the deaths of several Italian citizens.
    The plane is part of the U.S. force stationed at Aviano Air Base in 
Italy that is supporting the NATO SFOR mission in Bosnia. U.S. military 
authorities in Aviano have launched an investigation into this accident. 
I have expressed my condolences to Prime Minister Prodi and assured him 
that we will cooperate fully with the Italian Government and do 
everything we can to find out what happened and prevent an accident like 
this from happening again.
    On behalf of the American people I offer my heartfelt sympathy to 
the families and friends of those killed and injured in this accident.

Note: In the statement, the President referred to Prime Minister Romano 
Prodi of Italy.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 189]
 
Monday, February 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 6
Pages 175-225
 
Week Ending Friday, February 6, 1998
 
Statement on the Death of Roger Stevens

February 3, 1998

    Hillary and I were deeply saddened to learn of the death of our dear 
friend Roger Stevens. He will long be remembered as a defining force in 
America's cultural life.
    As founding chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 
Roger can be credited with spotlighting our Nation's Capital as a haven 
for the performing arts. The Kennedy Center, one of America's finest 
cultural showcases, might never have been built if it weren't for 
Roger's dedication and energy. His love of the arts led him to produce 
more than 200 plays, including ``West Side Story,'' ``Bus Stop,'' and 
``Deathtrap.'' Roger served as the first Chairman of the National 
Endowment for the Arts, and won numerous awards for his dedication to 
highlighting the performing arts, including the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom (1988), the National Medal of Arts (1988), the Kennedy Center 
Honors (1988), and the National Artists' Medal (1983).
    Our Nation is mourning the loss of this important cultural figure. 
Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family in this sad 
time.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 189-190]
 
Monday, February 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 6
Pages 175-225
 
Week Ending Friday, February 6, 1998
 
Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report of the Railroad 
Retirement Board

February 3, 1998

To the Congress of the United States:

    I transmit herewith the Annual Report of the Railroad Retirement 
Board for Fiscal Year 1996, pursuant to the provisions of section 
7(b)(6) of the Railroad Retirement Act

[[Page 190]]

and section 12(l) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
February 3, 1998.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]


[Page 190]
 
Monday, February 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 6
Pages 175-225
 
Week Ending Friday, February 6, 1998
 
Message to the Congress Transmitting the Latvia-United States Fisheries 
Agreement and Annex

February 3, 1998

To the Congress of the United States:

    In accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), I transmit herewith an 
Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the 
Government of the Republic of Latvia extending the Agreement of April 8, 
1993, Concerning Fisheries Off the Coasts of the United States, with 
annex, as extended (the 1993 Agreement). The present Agreement, which 
was effected by an exchange of notes at Riga on February 13 and May 23, 
1997, extends the 1993 Agreement to December 31, 1999.
    In light of the importance of our fisheries relationship with the 
Republic of Latvia, I urge that the Congress give favorable 
consideration to this Agreement at an early date.

Other Popular 1998 Presidential Documents Documents:

Other Documents:

1998 Presidential Documents Records and Documents