Bill Clinton: “as we begin our work on the 2002 budget, we find ourselves at a crossroads, facing a very big choice. The choice we make…”

“as we begin our work on the 2002 budget, we find ourselves at a crossroads, facing a very big choice. The choice we make will determine whether we pay down our national debt. It will determine our investments in priorities like education, the environment, health care and Social Security. And it will define the quality of life for millions of Americans for years to come. The choice we face is this: Do we continue along the budgetary path that we, as a Government and a nation, have followed in recent years? Or do we make a break from that path, and return to the one we followed 2 decades ago? Let's look, for a minute, at history. Eight years ago our budget deficit was $290 billion--the largest in our history. The national debt was $3 trillion and unemployment had surged to 7.8 percent. At the time, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the deficit would reach $513 billion by this year. This year, the predicted deficit is, in fact, a surplus, likely to reach $281 billion. We are scheduled to pay off $600 billion of the national debt--concluding the largest three-year debt reduction in our nation's history. As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once said, our ``commitment to fiscal discipline has been instrumental in achieving the longest expansion in the nation's history.'' Now debt reduction has meant lower interest rates for college, car loans and home mortgages.…”