A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

                              THE WHITE HOUSE                            Office of the Press Secretary       ________________________________________________________________________  For Immediate Release                                        May 2, 1997 

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON BUDGET AGREEMENT

Baltimore, Maryland

THE PRESIDENT: For more than four years now, I have worked hard to pursue a strategy that would keep our economy growing and creating opportunity for the American people, giving people a chance to be rewarded for their labors, and also imposing upon ourselves the discipline necessary to prepare for the future and to relieve ourselves of a lot of the problems that had been accumulated over the last several years, especially the deficit.

Now, we have reached agreement in broad but fairly specific terms that I am satisfied will do that with the Republican leaders today that would balance the budget by 2002, continue to increase our investments in education, in science and technology and medical research, require us to continue to show great discipline in other areas and to continue to downsize some government operations.

It would invest in doing what I think is important, to be sure that we can move people from welfare to work who are going to be required to go to work. It would expand coverage to millions of children who presently do not have health insurance. It would restore cuts to benefits for legal immigrants who are in this country who have sustained injuries and other problems for which they would otherwise be eligible for benefits. It will extend the life of Medicare and secure the integrity of the Medicaid program between now and 2002.

It will be the first balanced budget in three decades.

It's a good thing that it's coming today, when we learn that our employment rate had dropped to 4.9 percent for the first time in 24 years. We know that we have the biggest decline in inequality in our work force since the 1960s, and we've seen our economy produce the largest number of new jobs since 1993 ever produced in a four-year period. That happened because a lot of the people standing up here with me right now had the courage to vote for a plan to bring the deficit down in 1993 and get interest rates down and investments up.

This agreement will help us to finish the job. I have spoken several times over the last several days with Senator Lott and with Speaker Gingrich. I want to thank them personally for negotiating with me openly, candidly, and, I'm convinced, in complete good faith.

I have also had occasion to speak with the representatives of the Democratic Caucus, obviously, who were in this budget negotiation -- Senator Lautenberg for the Democrats and Congressman John Spratt from South Carolina, and the Republicans who were represented by their Chairs, Senator Domenici and Congressman Kasich. I want to thank all. I want to thank Senator Domenici and Congressman Kasich. They worked very hard and we know there are significant differences between us in how we look at what is the best way to balance the budget and they tried to bridge these gaps. Congressman Spratt and Senator Lautenberg did as well. And I'm very proud of all four of them. They served America well. They put the interests of the country first in trying to work through to get us as close as we are today. And so I appreciate that very much.

Now, let me say again -- let me give you just some of the details very quickly. The plan will protect Medicare, extending the life of the trust fund for a decade; extending new benefits for annual mammograms and diabetes screening. Home health will be shifted from Part A to Part B, and there will be a modest premium for home health services being phases in at $1 per month, a year.

Second, and perhaps most important, this budget meets my goal of making education America's number one priority on the edge of the 21st century. It will have the largest increase in education funding in 30 years. It will have the largest increase in Pell Grant scholarships in 20 years. It will help us to make sure that every 8-year-old will be able to read, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, every 18-year-old can go into college. I am very, very pleased that it will also include in a tax cut per person aid to help people go on to college and to finance college education.

Third, as I said, it will extend health insurance to 5 million uninsured children. This is a major breakthrough in our efforts to move toward coverage for all Americans.

Fourth, it will give businesses incentives and work with mayors to hire people from welfare to work. It will also, as I said, address the concerns I raised in last year's welfare law -- restoring benefits to disabled legal immigrants and moderating excessive cuts in food stamps, along with giving the states a reserve, so that if people would be unjustly cut off food stamps because they simply cannot go to work, the states will be able to avoid malnutrition and real harm to those people in these cases.

Fifth, it will protect the environment, providing funds to clean up 500 of our most dangerous toxic waste sites, cleaning up toxic sites in urban areas and adding resources for environment enforcement.

Six, it includes tax relief for the American people, but, thanks to the rules of the Senate and the agreement of the leaders, the tax relief will be limited and we'll know the dollar amount not only for the first five years, but for the second five years following, so that we will not run the risk of having an explosion in the deficit as a result of unintended leaks in a tax program -- so that when we tell the American people we're going to balance the budget we know we can keep it balanced and we won't get ourselves back into the difficulties we've seen over the last 15 years.

Like Americans of all political views, I have been deeply committed to this, but I wanted a balanced budget with balanced values. I believe we have got it today. There are things in this budget that -- not everyone will find something that he or she disagrees with; everyone could find something that he or she wishes were in the budget. There is no perfect agreement, but as I said, we know America is more prosperous when we have fiscal discipline, when we invest in our future, and when we do it in the right way. We have evidence of that.

It will never get any easier to do this job. Senator Lott made that point to me on the phone the other night -- he said, you know, when you're doing well, it's easier to balance the budget than it is when you're not. This is not going to get any easier, we have to do it now. And I said, I agree with you, and we are going to do it.

So I ask Americans of all political parties and all philosophies to look at this plan, give it your support. Let's balance the budget and get on about the new business of preparing America for a new century.

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