Bill Clinton: “Good morning. In my State of the Union Address, I issued a call to action to prepare our people for the 21st century. I…”

“Good morning. In my State of the Union Address, I issued a call to action to prepare our people for the 21st century. I said that to do that we first had to finish the unfinished business of America, beginning with balancing the budget. Today I am submitting to Congress my plan to balance the budget by 2002. It will spur economic growth, promote education and our other priorities, and eliminate the Federal deficit for the very first time in three decades. I am proud of this budget, and I want to thank the people here on the economic team who worked with me on it. Thank you. For too many years, it seemed as if our deficit would grow forever, that there was nothing we could do about it. As a result, our economy and our people suffered. Four years ago I took office with a plan to reduce the deficit in half in 4 years, as we invested in our people. In fact, the deficit has been cut by nearly two-thirds, from $290 billion in 1992 to $107 billion in 1996. That makes it, as a proportion of our economy, the smallest of any major nation in the world. Our economy, therefore, has gotten stronger. It's the strongest it's been in a generation. The American people have produced over 11 million jobs--that's the most ever in a single Presidential term--along with record numbers of new businesses and rising incomes. Finishing this job of balancing the budget will not be easy, but it is vital for the continued health of our economy.…”