Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary Herman and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Martin Baily, and especially…”

“Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary Herman and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Martin Baily, and especially, thank you, Marvin Dawkins, for your remarks and for the power of your example. This is a very different time than we were experiencing 7 years ago this month. When I ran for President in 1992, it was a time of economic distress and uncertainty for our country. While some people were moving from the industrial to the information economy with optimism and purpose, many others felt fear and uncertainty because of the problems in our economy, high unemployment, big deficits, high interest rates, low productivity gains, falling real wages for average Americans. Too many Americans couldn't tell the story that Marvin just told. They lacked the skills they needed to succeed in the new economy; they felt threatened by the changes; and they had no access to the tools that would lift them up. But when I traveled around the country in 1992 with the Vice President, we saw a lot of signs of hope. We saw a lot of people who were winning. And we became even more convinced that our country, as a whole, could do very well in this new global information economy, if we could create the conditions and provide all Americans the tools necessary to succeed. It seemed to me that there were three absolutely pivotal elements. First, fiscal discipline: We had to get rid of the deficit and get interest rates back down and get investment back up.…”