pd09mr98 Proclamation 7071--Women's History Month, 1998...

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in Congress who have made a proposal that I think would not fit within 
the formula of economic discipline and confidence that I believe we have 
to stay with. Under the guise of reform, they have proposed what, to me, 
is an irresponsible scheme--to eliminate our tax laws without any system 
to replace them.
    Now, at first glance, this might look good. ``Sunset the Tax Code. 
When everybody knows there will be no more Tax Code, that will shake 
everyone up, and then they will come forward with a responsible 
alternative. And trust me, everything will be fine.'' That's the 
message. Once you know that the old code is gone and on a date certain 
it won't be there, well, everyone will surely have to come up with 
something, and it must be something that will be better. ``Don't worry 
about the details.'' That's what this proposal is, and it has a lot of 
appeal. It's like saying you can't go on a diet until the refrigerator 
is empty. But if you think about it, it only works if you know that you 
can fill the refrigerator up again and what will be in there.
    Now, instead of proposing reform, this proposal is really economic 
uncertainty. What we have done is to restore some confidence and 
predictability to the American economy. When you knew that we were going 
to stay on a path of fiscal discipline and the deficit was not going to 
go to $300 billion a year, was not going to go to $370 billion a year--
which was what it was predicted to be for this year when I took office--
instead of $10 billion or zero, which is what it's going to be, this is 
a way of going back to that era--a total economic uncertainty.
    What would it do? Think about your business. It would cripple 
families' and businesses' ability to plan and save for the future while 
the uncertainty existed. It would undermine the fiscal progress of the 
last 5 years. No one concerned about fighting crime would even think 
about saying, ``Well, 3 years from now we're going to throw out the 
criminal code, and we'll figure out what to put in its place.'' No one 
would do that. That is what this proposal is. That is exactly what some 
people in Congress are proposing to do.
    Now, think about what repealing the tax laws with no known 
alternative would mean. It would mean that you would know there would be 
no home mortgage deduction, but you wouldn't know what would be in its 
place. There might be no charitable contribution deduction, but you 
wouldn't know what would be in its place. We would repeal the Roth IRA, 
but you wouldn't know what would be in its place. All that would be 
certain about this proposal is uncertainty. And again I say, as all of 
you in this room well know, uncertainty is the enemy of economic growth.
    We live in a world where there is a lot of change and 
unpredictability and uncertainty by definition in the nature of this new 
economy. But to do well, you have to at least know what the rules are. 
Our economy is growing because consumer confidence and business 
investment are at record highs. Last week the two indexes of consumer 
confidence came out. One was at a 30-year high; the other was at an all-
time high. What people think is going to happen, as all of you know, in 
an economy is just as important as what, in fact, is happening today.
    Almost every business investment has tax consequences. With no 
ability to predict the consequences, businesses might decide to 
postpone, cancel, or pare back on plans to buy new computers, build a 
new factory, hire new workers. How could you plan, construct,

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or finance a new apartment complex or shopping center if you couldn't 
calculate the return on investment, because you couldn't determine the 
tax consequences? Business growth would stall in that kind of 
uncertainty.
    And economic uncertainty is no friend to families. The scheme to 
abolish the Tax Code could threaten nearly every American family's best 
laid plans for the future. For example, mortgage rates are low now. 
People are refinancing their mortgages all the time. This has been a 
wonderful thing for America. What would happen to family behavior with 
regard to homeownership if people thought the home mortgage deduction 
might disappear? Would students be as serious about going to college if 
they thought the HOPE scholarships and the other tax credits and 
interest deductions wouldn't be there? Would families think twice about 
how much they were going to give to their church or their synagogue or 
their favorite charity if they thought there would be no tax deduction 
for it?
    We were just talking about the Social Security reform and how no 
matter how we reform Social Security, people have to save more for their 
retirement. Will young families who have a hard enough time paying their 
bills really be setting aside money for their retirement if they think 
the tax incentives or pensions or 401(k)'s and IRA's are about to 
evaporate? In other words, I just think it's wrong to shut down the old 
tax system and tell people it's going to be shut down by a date certain 
without saying, at the same time, what is going to be in its place.
    None of us would say that no one on Earth couldn't devise a better 
tax system than we have. There may be better options. But I think before 
we say we're going to get rid of the one we have on a date certain, we 
need to know what we're going to replace it with. And I would implore 
you, if you agree with me, to make that case to your Member of Congress 
without regard to party.
    Again, I don't see this as particularly a partisan issue. I just 
think it sounds great. I will vote for a bill to get rid of this cursed 
Tax Code. Thank you very much. [Laughter] It's almost irresistible, you 
know, but so was the siren's song. We must continue to have 
predictability in the investment climate. We must continue to have 
predictability when it comes to savings. We must continue to have a 
framework, which will keep us doing what we've been doing for the last 5 
years.
    And that means, by the way, it means we have to continue to be open 
to changes in the tax law and in the way the IRS operates, and in all 
these systematic things that we have to continue to modernize. Of 
course, we must. But we mustn't buy a pig in a poke. We have to continue 
to proceed with discipline. Scrapping the home mortgage deductions, 
scrapping other middle class tax cuts without presenting a clear 
alternative is simply reckless for the economy, reckless for businesses, 
reckless for families' budgets. I will not permit it if I can stop it. 
But it shouldn't pass in the first place, and I hope you will help us on 
that.
    Now, again I say, Congress should pass the IRS reforms that are 
before it. It should pass further tax cuts. But we should balance the 
budget, do nothing with the surplus until we have saved Social Security, 
not abolish the Tax Code until we know what we're going to replace it 
with.
    We're going to change around here. This system has proved that we 
are capable of change. No one should stand in the way of constructive 
change, but we should stay with the plan that we know works. You look at 
where we are today in your business compared to where we were 5 years 
ago. Look at where we are today with the people that you work to serve 
compared to where we were 5 years ago. Imagine where you want to be 10 
years from now. Imagine what you want the future to look like for your 
children and your grandchildren, to do those things, which will build 
that future.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:40 a.m. in the Columbia Ballroom at the 
Hyatt Regency Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Marc Smith, 
president, Paul Reid, executive vice president, and Michael Ferrel, 
senior staff vice president/ legislative counsel, Mortgage Bankers 
Association of America; and Mary Ellen Withrow, Treasurer of the United 
States.

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[Page 362]
 
Monday, March 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 10
Pages 351-388
 
Week Ending Friday, March 6, 1998
 
Proclamation 7071--Women's History Month, 1998

March 2, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The Preamble to the Constitution begins, ``We, the people.'' Yet 
that phrase, inspiring as it is, has not always included all Americans. 
Women's history in America has been the story of the struggle of women 
of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds to be included in that 
simple but powerful statement. It is the story as well of how, in 
striving to reach their own great potential, women have strengthened and 
enriched our Nation.
    In every era of American history, women have braved enormous 
challenges to change our world for the better. Women of faith in the 
early 17th century dared a dangerous journey and the unknown wilderness 
to seek freedom of conscience in a new land. As our Nation struggled for 
independence and to establish a new, more enlightened form of 
government, women like Esther DeBerdt Reed and Sarah Franklin Bache 
supplied food, clothes, and funds for Washington's soldiers. Freedom 
fighters like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman led hundreds of 
enslaved men and women to liberty through the Underground Railroad, and 
social reformers like Gertrude Bonnin advanced the human rights of 
American Indians. Suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, and Luisa Capetillo challenged the conventions of their times 
and sought to secure for women one of the most basic rights within our 
democracy.
    This year marks the 150th anniversary of the women's rights movement 
in America and its immeasurable contributions to our Nation's promise of 
justice and equality for all. The visionary women and men who gathered 
in Seneca Falls, New York, in July of 1848 for the first Women's Rights 
Convention in history gave voice so powerfully to women's aspirations 
for inclusion and empowerment that their vision continues to shape our 
world today.
    Once disenfranchised, American women now serve at the highest levels 
of government, as Justices of the Supreme Court and in increasing 
numbers in the Cabinet and the United States Congress. Once denied the 
resources and opportunities to play organized sports, American women 
made sporting history this year by winning the first-ever Olympic Gold 
Medal in women's ice hockey. Women are cracking the glass ceilings of 
corporate management to lead some of our country's most prominent 
businesses. As parents and partners, entrepreneurs and artists, 
politicians and scientists, women are helping to build an America in 
which all citizens, regardless of gender, are free to live out their 
dreams.
    Thanks to the efforts of women leaders, little girls across America 
today know far fewer limits than did their mothers and grandmothers. But 
there still remains work to be done to create a more just America, and 
we must rededicate ourselves to ending the discrimination that women 
still face. We must continue our efforts to help women succeed at work 
and at home, to be free from violent crime, and to enjoy quality health 
care. In doing so, we will confirm our conviction that ``We, the 
people'' includes us all.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 
1998 as Women's History Month. I encourage all Americans to observe this 
month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities, and to 
remember throughout the year the many voices and stories of courageous 
women who have made our Nation strong.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of 
March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:31 a.m., March 3, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on March 
4.

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[Page 363]
 
Monday, March 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 10
Pages 351-388
 
Week Ending Friday, March 6, 1998
 
Statement on the United Nations Security Council Vote on Iraq

March 2, 1998

    Tonight's unanimous vote of the United Nations Security Council 
sends the clearest possible message: Iraq must make good on its 
commitment to give the international weapons inspectors immediate, 
unconditional, and unrestricted access to any suspect site, any place, 
any time. All of the members of the Council agree that failure to do so 
will result in the severest consequences for Iraq.
    In the days and weeks ahead, the inspectors will renew their mission 
to find and destroy Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons 
capacity and the missiles to deliver them. Iraq now has the 
responsibility to turn the commitment it has made into full compliance.


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[Page 363-365]
 
Monday, March 9, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 10
Pages 351-388
 
Week Ending Friday, March 6, 1998
 
Remarks at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation Dinner

March 2, 1998

    Thank you very much, Senator, Vicki, Caroline and Ed, other members 
of the Kennedy family, Paul Kirk. And I say a special word of thanks to 
all of you who have made this evening possible. I thank Senator Jeffords 
and Senator Thurmond and Senator Hatch for being here tonight to 
restrain the partisan impulses that might otherwise overtake Senator 
Kennedy and me. [Laughter] I thank Yo Yo Ma and Jill and all the other 
musicians who have come here. Mr. Secretary General, thank you for the 
wonderful job you do here at the OAS.
    I think I should begin by saying that for me this is not an 
obligation, it is an honor, not only because like every other member of 
my generation I was inspired by President Kennedy but because Hillary 
and Chelsea and I have been profoundly moved by the uncommon kindnesses 
of this family to ours.
    In 1991 I had an event in New York when no one in New York knew my 
name, and I looked up and John Kennedy was there. I think it would be 
fair to say that his name recognition was 5 times higher than mine among 
all in attendance. [Laughter] Early in 1992 Mrs. Kennedy came to an 
event for me and later went out of her way to be helpful and kind to 
Hillary and to Chelsea in ways that are difficult to relate but 
impossible to overestimate.
    The other day we were spending a weekend in Camp David, and I went 
out with a couple of Members of Congress, cavorting around in the lousy 
weather. Hillary stayed home with her friends and watched Jackie 
Kennedy's White House special, marveling again about the incredible work 
that was done to preserve America's house by Mrs. Kennedy.
    And I do believe that, no matter who writes the history books, when 
people look back on this century, they will say that Edward Kennedy was 
one of the ablest and most productive, most compassionate, and most 
effective men who served in the United States Senate in the entire 
history of the country.

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