Bill Clinton: “Good morning. Before I leave to go home to Arkansas, I want to comment briefly on two matters. First, I want to talk…”

“Good morning. Before I leave to go home to Arkansas, I want to comment briefly on two matters. First, I want to talk about the action we're taking to address the terrible, crippling drought that continues to grip so much of our Nation. Throughout much of this country, we have seen the worst drought since the Dust Bowl days. And as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration will formally announce later today, in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, this is the worst drought for farmers ever recorded. Such a natural calamity can have devastating consequences, not only for farmers but for small businesses and communities that depend upon a thriving agricultural sector and for the electric power systems so vital to our Nation. We're worked hard to help the victims of the drought and the heat wave. But as weather disruptions become even more common, and they will, they will demand a more coordinated response by the National Government. So today I'm directing that the White House immediately convene a task force of the relevant cabinet agencies to coordinate our efforts and focus our attack on this problem. We must do more. It is our duty as a national community. Second, I want to talk a little more about our efforts to continue our prosperity for all Americans. For 6\1/2\ years now, we have pursued a different economic strategy from the previous 12 years; one based on fiscal discipline, investing in our people, selling our products around the world. It has produced sustained prosperity, the longest peacetime expansion in history. Now, it has also produced an era of surpluses after 12 years in which we quadrupled the national debt. This is working. Today we received more evidence. Just this morning it was announced that America's remarkably low unemployment rate remains at a remarkably low rate of 4.3 percent, that inflation is low, and that last month alone, over 300,000 new jobs were created in America. This brings the total since January 1993 when I took office to 19.2 million new jobs. We should not abandon a strategy that is working, especially since now we are beginning an era of surpluses which will enable us to meet our big, long-term challenges for the 21st century, the aging of America, the education of our children, sustaining our long-term economic growth. Therefore I am disappointed, though not surprised, that the majority party in Congress has chosen to pass its massive tax cut; one that plainly would damage our economic future and make it impossible to secure and modernize Medicare. But again, I want to assure the American people--because this tax cut will not save and strengthen Medicare, because it will not add a day to the Social Security Trust Fund, because it will not pay down the debt and pay it off for the first time in over 150 years--this tax cut will not become law. This morning it was reported in the press that the Republican leadership has revealed that actually they have the secret strategy even to spend the Social Security surplus. They very explicitly want to raid the Social Security surplus to pay for huge economic--huge tax cuts and a risky economic scheme. They say they're spending more money now to force that result. Now, that's the sort of thing they did before that got us in trouble and gave us an average unemployment rate that was too high and a growth rate that was too low and huge, huge deficits. This really troubles me because for the last 2 years they have promised the American people they would work with us to save Social Security first. I can think of nothing more cynical and irresponsible. My strategy is still the same. Let's do first things first. Let's save Social Security, save and strengthen Medicare, pay off the national debt for the first time since 1835, figure out what we have to invest in the education of our children and in the national defense and preserving the environment and our essential mission, and then give the rest of the money back to the American people in a tax cut. We can have a tax cut, but it is wrong to put the cart before the horse. It is wrong to plan the vacation before we pay the home mortgage and send the kids to college. That's what they're proposing to do. It is wrong. It will take us right back to the situation that got us in so much trouble in the 1980's, and I will not countenance it. But we can make progress. Just today there was a report that, led by the Republican physicians in the House of Representatives, enough Republicans have joined the Democrats to guarantee that the House will pass a strong Patients' Bill of Rights. This is the sort of thing we can do if we work across party lines, as we did with welfare reform, as we did in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. We can do something that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. We can pay off the national debt, keep interest rates low, and give our children a healthy economy for a generation. We can save Social Security. We can save and strengthen Medicare with preventive benefits and the prescription drug. We can do these things. We can invest in our children's future. We can use this historic opportunity of a lifetime to do our duty by the next generation. This is not a time to walk away from that duty, and again I implore the Members of the Republican majority to come up with their own Medicare plan, sit down with me and talk about it, figure out what we have to spend and invest, and then we can give the rest back to the American people in a tax cut. But we have to do first things first. I will not--I will not see, after 6\1/2\ years of progress, us return to the problems that we faced in the years before I took office. We're not going to do it. It is not right. We should be looking to the 21st century and facing the challenges and doing right by our children. And that's exactly what I intend to do. Drought Relief and Emergency Assistance to Farmers”