Bill Clinton: “Good morning. Along with all Americans, my heart goes out to the people across southern California who have lost their…”

“Good morning. Along with all Americans, my heart goes out to the people across southern California who have lost their homes, their possessions, and who have witnessed private property and the natural environment devastated by these terrible fires. More than 400 homes have already been consumed. And evacuations are now occurring, involving thousands of our fellow citizens. This morning, I want to announce several specific actions that I am taking to respond to this tragedy in California. First, I have designated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Ventura Counties as major disaster areas. This makes them available for customary Federal assistance to individuals and to State and local governments. Second, I spoke last night with our FEMA Director, James Lee Witt, and he is proceeding to California this morning, along with the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, who met with Mr. McLarty this morning. Third, I have spoken with Governor Pete Wilson and will be consulting soon with Senators Feinstein and Boxer, to receive their recommendations on how we can be more helpful to the State. Finally, I have instructed the Chief of Staff, Mr. McLarty, to coordinate the full delivery of all appropriate Federal resources and assistance to California. We've already dispatched 20 Forest Service air tankers there and many additional Federal firefighters to the scene. I have asked Secretary Babbitt and Secretary Espy to coordinate with James Lee Witt so that we can have a full Federal response to the problems in California. Many hundreds of people on the ground are engaged in valiant efforts to fight these fires now. Neighbors are helping neighbors. We will offer what we can to help fight the fires, to meet the needs of the victims, to stand with the people who are already doing so much. Now, before I answer questions, I'd like to say just another word on another subject. For the past 9 months, the primary focus of this administration has been on improving the economy in ways that average Americans can actually tell were affecting their lives in a positive way. We've taken some very serious actions to reduce the deficit, to help increase the fairness of the Tax Code, to provide incentives to invest in important areas of our national economy, to try to give working families with modest incomes and children at home a better break. Now, we're beginning to see real results, higher growth rates, lower deficits, things that over the long run will represent real progress for the American people. When our administration took office, the deficit for this year was projected to be well in excess of $300 billion. The Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget have confirmed today that in the end, it turned out to be substantially lower. We finished this year with a deficit of $255 billion, over $50 billion below where it was projected to be. After years of bad policies and bad estimates, when lower deficits actually went far higher, it's pleasing to me to see that a deficit came in lower than it was projected because of efforts directed to lower interest rates which had significant direct and indirect benefits to this economy. Lower deficits and lower interest rates have sparked the beginning of a significant economic recovery. Today, we are seeing a third quarter economic growth rate reported of 2.8 percent. I might say that it would have been substantially higher but for the floods in the Middle West and the drought in the Southeast. Although we know our economy is still not working well enough for most Americans, these numbers make clear that the historic drop in interest rates, following the announcement of our economic plan and its ultimate passage, is sparking a sustainable recovery that is increasing investments in our future, investments in housing, in businesses, and in durable goods. There is a lot more to do. We are, after all, as I have said now for nearly 2 years, dealing with trends that are 20 years in the making, trends of stagnant incomes, trends of exploding health care costs, trends of difficult investment decisions too long postponed in America. But we are beginning to see real progress. We are moving in the right direction, and we have to stay on this course. I am very grateful to the people in the Congress who have supported the economic plan that has produced these low interest rates, that has led to most of the deficit reduction below the projected targets, and I think that this is clearly a good sign that we're moving in the right direction. I also want to say that it clearly means that we have much more to do. That's why I think it's important that before the Congress goes home, we adopt NAFTA. It's important that we take this health care issue on seriously and see it through to the end. And there are a lot of other issues that we'll be dealing with at the end of this year, and especially next year, to keep this economic recovery going. But this is good news.”