Bill Clinton

Today, the United States is safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

This town is gripped with people who are self-righteous, sanctimonious, and hypocritical.

I believe that our nation will enter that new century stronger, more confident, and more capable than ever before.

We must never fall short when it comes to defense.

But you have begun to change that attitude.

Tomorrow, I want you to laugh today and wake up and be serious tomorrow.

My budget reaches balance in 2002 the right way—cutting unnecessary and lower-priority spending while protecting our values.

It will keep interest rates low, allowing our people to start new businesses, buy a home or a new car.

We should all be repairers of the breach.

With strong growth, low interest rates, low inflation, millions more jobs, record exports, more savings and investment, and higher incomes, the Nation is enjoying what such experts as Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve…

Now, for the first time in decades, public opinion of federal agencies is markedly on the rise.

I think it is neither necessary or wise, and it could have numerous unwanted consequences.

We are in the breach.

I would like to just say a couple of things very briefly.

I am proposing a balanced budget.

I would like to ask all of you to remember the heartbreaking loss that our friends in Israel have sustained.

Government cannot solve all of our problems, but it surely must help us solve many of them.

Congratulations—the credit for this stunning turnaround goes to you.

Raising standards will not be easy, and some of our children will not be able to meet them at first. The point is not to put our children down but to lift them up.

I challenge every state: Turn those welfare checks into private sector paychecks. I challenge every religious congregation, every community nonprofit, every business to hire someone off welfare.

Balancing the budget requires only your vote and my signature. It does not require us to rewrite our Constitution.

We must be committed to a new kind of government, not to solve all our problems for us but to give our people, all our people, the tools they need to make the most of their own lives.

I'm committed to mobilizing a citizen army of a million people to be trained as tutors and to be willing to tutor children in every community in this country.

I wanted to come here because I know a lot about what you've done here and what you're trying to do.

We must start with the elemental principle that there should be national standards of excellence in education.