pd09oc95 Proclamation 6833--National Children's Day, 1995...

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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page i-ii]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



[[Page ii]]




Addresses and Remarks

    Arts and humanities awards--1765, 1774
    Bosnia-Herzegovina cease-fire agreement--1765
    Freedom House breakfast--1775
    National Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, final 
        report--1756
    National Domestic Violence Awareness Month--1750
    New Jersey, welcoming ceremony for Pope John Paul II in Newark--1762
    Radio address--1749

Bill Signings

    Military Construction Appropriations Act of 1996, statement--1761

Bill Vetoes

    Legislative branch appropriations bill, FY 1996, letter to the House 
        of Representatives--1762

Communications to Congress

    See Bill Vetoes

Communications to Federal Agencies

    Domestic Violence Awareness Campaign, memorandum--1755

Executive Orders

    Compensation Practices of Government Corporations--1773
    Protection of Human Research Subjects and Creation of National 
        Bioethics Advisory Commission--1759

Interviews With the News Media

    Exchange with reporters in the Briefing Room--1765

Letters and Messages

    Yom Kippur, message--1756

Proclamations

    Child Health Day--1753
    Energy Awareness Month--1764
    German-American Day--1785
    National Breast Cancer Awareness Month--1772
    National Children's Day--1785
    National Disability Employment Awareness Month--1784
    National Domestic Violence Awareness Month--1754

Statements by the President

    See also Bill Signings
    Computer export controls reform--1783
    Hurricane Opal--1764
    Mexico, financial recovery--1772
    Political reform, House inaction--1755

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--1788
    Checklist of White House press releases--1787
    Digest of other White House announcements--1786
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--1787



              WEEKLY COMPILATION OF
          ------------------------------
              PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, National 
Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408, the Weekly 
Compilation of Presidential Documents contains statements, messages, and
other Presidential materials released by the White House during the 
preceding week.

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is published pursuant to
the authority contained in the Federal Register Act (49 Stat. 500, as 
amended; 44 U.S.C. Ch. 15), under regulations prescribed by the 
Administrative Committee of the Federal Register, approved by the 
President (37 FR 23607; 1 CFR Part 10).

Distribution is made only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The Weekly Compilation of 
Presidential Documents will be furnished by mail to domestic subscribers 
for $80.00 per year ($137.00 for mailing first class) and to foreign
subscribers for $93.75 per year, payable to the Superintendent of 
Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The charge 
for a single copy is $3.00 ($3.75 for foreign mailing).

There are no restrictions on the republication of material appearing in 
the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.





[[Page 1749]]




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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page 1749-1750]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
The President's Radio Address


September 30, 1995

    Good morning. I want to talk to you about the budget debate now 
unfolding in Washington and about how the wrong decisions can threaten 
the independence and the dignity of elderly Americans.
    I strongly believe we must balance the budget to lift the burden of 
debt off our children and to strengthen our economy. But we must balance 
the budget in a way that is consistent with our values and our vision 
for America's future, giving our people the chance to make the most of 
their own lives, strengthening our families, protecting our children, 
honoring our parents, growing the middle class and shrinking the under 
class, preserving America as the world's strongest nation. Those are the 
values that must anchor our budget decisions.
    For our parents and grandparents who sacrificed so much, no value is 
more important than independence. All Americans deserve to live out 
their lives in dignity, and nobody wants to be a burden to their 
children. So we should do everything in our power to offer elderly 
Americans the chance to live with respect and with independence, and the 
Government shouldn't make it worse.
    But the Republicans in Congress have proposed a budget that will 
undermine the dignity and independence of our senior citizens. Here's 
how: Medicaid's the way our country helps families pay for nursing 
homes, home care, or other long-term care for elderly or disabled 
persons. Some people would have you think that Medicaid just helps poor 
children. Well, it does do that, and that is very important. Almost one 
in four American children are poor enough to need help from Medicaid.
    But the truth is, two-thirds of Medicare--Medicaid--goes to help to 
pay for nursing homes and other care for senior citizens and the 
disabled. Nearly 7 of every 10 nursing home residents gets some help 
from Medicaid. And no wonder, for nursing homes cost an average of 
$38,000 a year, and not many of our families can afford that.
    Now this Republican budget would break this promise to our families. 
It ends the national commitment that any senior citizen, regardless of 
how much money they have or don't have, will have access to quality 
doctors and good facilities.
    This budget actually provides for $180 billion in cuts. Now, we do 
need to slow the rate of medical inflation in the Medicaid program. But 
these cuts are way, way too much. They are far, far more than the health 
care system can handle. Over the next few years, this plan and its cuts 
would deny nursing home care to 300,000 seniors who are eligible for it 
today. And it will also cut off home care services to 300,000 more. 
That's bad enough. But listen to what's buried in the fine print; it's 
even worse.
    Under the plan put forward by the House of Representatives, because 
they know there's not enough money in it to maintain the health care 
system, any State government can force people whose husbands or wives 
have to go into nursing homes to give up their car, their furniture, 
even their home before their spouse can qualify for any medical support. 
Everything they've worked for their whole lives, gone.
    Think about it. Who wants a Medicaid police with vast power to seize 
your assets and put you out of your home and make sure you have nothing 
left to pass on to your children? I don't think it should be a 
precondition that if a husband has to go into a nursing home, his wife 
has to go into the poorhouse.
    Once, this kind of abuse was the norm. In the mid-1980's, one 
elderly couple in Texas was forced to live in nursing homes 700 miles 
apart. Another woman in New York had to actually sue her husband for 
support while he lay helpless in a nursing home.

[[Page 1750]]

The Government had tried to force her onto food stamps, but she refused. 
The Government was literally out of control. Then, a bipartisan law 
signed by President Reagan protected spouses.
    The Republican budget plan will also devastate the quality of 
medical care for seniors who need it. Little more than a decade ago, if 
you went to a nursing home, what could you see? Some patients tied to 
their beds, others in a drug-induced stupor, undertrained nurses and 
fumbling technicians. All told, back then 40 percent of nursing home 
residents were either overrestrained or overmedicated.
    Reforms signed by President Reagan changed all that. But now, the 
Republican plan would eliminate all national standards for nursing home 
care. It would turn back the clock to the days when children worried 
about whether their parents in nursing homes had to actually be afraid 
of danger and degradation.
    Congress should strip these outrageous provisions from the budget 
bill. They're inconsistent with our core values. They're not what 
America is all about, and they are certainly not necessary to balance 
the budget. Congress is trying to cut Medicaid too much, and Congress is 
also trying to cut Medicare too much. It is not necessary to balance the 
budget or to save the Medicare Trust Fund.
    Now, the truth is that we do need--we do need to slow the rate of 
inflation in Medicare and to extend the life of the Medicaid Trust Fund. 
But the congressional cuts of over $270 billion are less than half--and 
less than half of those cuts are going to the Trust Fund.
    Late yesterday, the House Republicans finally told us what these big 
numbers mean. Their massive Medicare cuts, by far the biggest in 
history, now are clear in terms of their impact on individual senior 
citizens.
    Remember now: More than half their cuts don't go to secure Medicare; 
they're using the money for other purposes. How are they going to raise 
the money? They wanted double premiums, double deductibles, lower 
quality, give less choice, and have no Medicare at all for Americans 
under 67.
    I have proposed a balanced budget plan that reflects our fundamental 
values. It eliminates the deficit without destroying education or 
undermining our environment or violating our commitments to working 
families, poor children, or seniors. It gives the American people a tax 
cut targeted to education and childrearing, and it secures Medicare and 
its Trust Fund, and it restrains inflation on Medicaid without imposing 
new costs on seniors, threatening their independence or destroying their 
dignity.
    Let's be clear, of course--of course, we need to balance the budget. 
But we need to do it in a way that strengthens our families, enhances 
opportunity for Americans, and honors our obligations to our parents.
    I am determined to see that people of good faith work together to 
find common ground in meeting this challenge.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 6 p.m. on September 29 in Room 453 of 
the Old Executive Office Building for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on 
September 30.


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[Page 1750-1753]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Remarks in Observance of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October 2, 1995

    Thank you very much, Sergeant Wynn, for your remarks and for 
dedicating your life to this important work. Thank you, Bonnie Campbell, 
for doing a great job as head of the Violence Against Women Program in 
the Justice Department. Thank you, Attorney General Reno, for believing 
in this and for driving it. Thank you, Secretary Shalala, for reminding 
us this is a human tragedy.
    Thank you, Jerry Rossi. You stood up here and you tried to convince 
us that you were really worried about the bottom line, and everybody who 
saw you knew that what you were really worried about was all those 
people out there, right and wrong. And every American who can see you 
would be proud of you and would wish that every person in business in 
this country would have those values and that kind of passion. Thank you 
so much.
    And thank you, Tana Sherman, for being brave enough to tell us your 
story. Before we came over here, Tana and the five people who are on the 
back row with Bonnie Camp- 

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