State of the Union 1994

Title:State of the Union Address before Congress 1994 (as prepared)
Author:The White House
Document-date: Tue Jan 25 21:17:03 EST 1994
Posting-date: Tue Jan 25 21:17:03 EST 1994
Content-Type: text/ascii charset=US ASCII
Length: 35165 (767 lines)




                      President William Jefferson Clinton
                   Address Before A Joint Session of Congress
                           On The State of the Union
                               January 25, 1994


Mr.  Speaker, Mr.  President, Members of the  103rd  Congress,  my  fellow
Americans:

      As  we  gather to review the State of the Union, I recall the memory
of the giant who presided in this  Chamber with such force and grace.  Tip
O'Neill liked to call himself "a man of the  House."  And  he  surely  was
that.   But -- even more -- he was a man of the people, a bricklayer's son
who helped build the American middle  class.  Tip O'Neill never forgot who
he was, where he came from, or who sent him here.

      We too must remember who we are, where we come from, and who sent us
here.

      We must return to the principle that  if  we  give  ordinary  people
equal  opportunity,  quality  education,  and  a fair shot at the American
dream, they will do extraordinary things.

      We gather tonight in a world  of  changes so profound and rapid that
all nations are tested.

      Our American heritage has always been to master  change,  to  expand
opportunity at home, and provide leadership abroad.

      But for too long, and in too many ways, that heritage was abandoned,
and our country drifted.

      For  thirty  years,  family  life in America has been breaking down.
For twenty years, the  wages  of  working  families have been stagnant, or
declining.  For twelve years of trickle-down economics, we tried to  build
a  false prosperity on a hollow base.  Our national debt quadrupled.  From
1989 to 1992, we experienced the slowest growth in a half century.

      For too many  families,  even  when  both  parents  are working, the
American dream has been slipping away.

      In 1992, the American people demanded change.  One year ago I  asked
you  to  join  me and accept responsibility for the future of our country.
Well, we did.  We replaced drift and deadlock with renewal and reform.

      I want to thank  all  of  you  who  heard the American people, broke
gridlock, and gave them the most successful teamwork between  a  President
and a Congress for thirty years.

      This Congress produced:

      A  budget  that  cut  the  deficit  by  half a trillion dollars, cut
spending and raised income taxes only on the very wealthiest Americans.

      Tax relief for millions of  low  income  workers to reward work over
welfare.

      NAFTA.

      The Brady bill .  . .  which is now the Brady law.

      Tax cuts to help nine out of ten small businesses  invest  more  and
create jobs.

      More research and treatment for AIDS.

      More childhood immunizations.

      More support for women's health research.

      More affordable college loans for the middle class.

      A  new national service program for those who want to give something
back to their community and earn money for higher education.

      A dramatic increase  in  high  tech  investments  to  move us from a
defense to a domestic economy.

      A new law, the Motor Voter bill, to help millions of people register
to vote.

      Family and Medical Leave.

      All  passed.   All  signed  into  law   with   no   vetoes.    These
accomplishments were all commitments I made when I sought this office, and
they were all passed by this Congress.  But the real credit belongs to the
people who sent us here, pay our salaries, and hold our feet to the fire.

      What  we  do here is really beginning to change lives.  I will never
forget what Family and Medical Leave  meant  to one father who brought his
little girl to visit the White House last year.  After we talked and  took
a  picture, he held on to my arm and said, "my little girl is really sick,
and she's probably not going to  make  it.   But because of the Family and
Medical Leave law I can take time off without losing my job.  I  have  had
some precious time with my child, the most important time I have ever had,
without hurting the rest of my family.  Don't you ever think that what you
do up here doesn't make a difference."

      Though  we  are  making a difference, our work has just begun.  Many
Americans still  haven't  felt  the  impact  of  what  we  have done.  The
recovery has still not touched every community  or  created  enough  jobs.
Incomes  are  still  stagnant.   There  is still too much violence and not
enough hope.  And  abroad,  the  young  democracies  we support still face
difficult times and look to us for leadership.

      And so tonight, let us continue our journey of  renewal:  to  create
more  and better jobs, guarantee health security for all, reward work over
welfare, promote democracy abroad, and  begin  to reclaim our streets from
violent crime and drugs, and renew our own American community.

      Last year, we began to put our house in order by tackling the budget
deficit that was driving us toward bankruptcy.

      We cut $255 billion dollars in spending, including entitlements, and
over 340 budget items.   We  froze  domestic  spending,  and  used  honest
numbers.

      Led  by  the  Vice  President,  we  launched  a campaign to reinvent
government.  We cut staff,  cut  perks,  and  trimmed the fleet of federal
limousines.  After years of leaders whose rhetoric  attacked  bureaucracy,
but whose actions expanded it, we will actually reduce it, by 252,000 over
five years.  By the time we have finished, the federal bureaucracy will be
at its lowest level in thirty years.

      Because  the  deficit  was  so large and because they had benefitted
from tax cuts in the 1980s, we asked the wealthy to pay more to reduce the
deficit.  So April 15th, the American people will discover the truth about
what we did last year on taxes.   Only the top 1.2% of Americans will face
higher income tax rates.  Let me  repeat:  Only  the  wealthiest  1.2%  of
Americans will face higher income tax rates, and no one else will.

      The naysayers said our plan wouldn't work.  Well, they were wrong.

      When  I  became President, the experts predicted next year's deficit
would be $300 billion.  But because we  acted, the deficit is now going to
be less than $180 billion -- forty percent lower than predicted.

      Our economic program has helped to produce the lowest core inflation
rate and the lowest interest rates in twenty  years.   And  because  those
interest  rates  are  down, business investment in equipment is growing at
seven times the pace of the  previous  four years.  Auto sales are way up.
Home sales are at a record high.  Millions have  refinanced  their  homes.
And  our  economy  has produced 1.6 million private sector jobs in 1993 --
more than were created in  the  previous  four years combined.  The people
who supported this economic plan should be proud of its first results.

      But there's much more to do.

      Next month, I will send you the one of  the  toughest  budgets  ever
presented to Congress.

      It  will  cut  spending  in  more  than  300 programs, eliminate 100
domestic programs,  and  reform  the  way  government  buys  its goods and
services.  This year, we must make the hard choices again to  live  within
the hard spending ceilings we have set.

      We have proved we can bring down the deficit without choking off the
recovery,  without  punishing  seniors  or  the  middle class, and without
putting our national security at risk.   If  you will stick with our plan,
we will post three consecutive years of declining deficits for  the  first
time  since  Harry  Truman lived in the White House.  Once again, the buck
stops here.

      Our economic plan also  bolsters  America's strength and credibility
around the world.

      Once we  reduced  the  deficit,  and  put  the  steel  back  in  our
competitive  edge,  the  world  echoed  with  the  sound  of falling trade
barriers.


      In one year, with NAFTA, GATT, our efforts in Asia, and the National
Export strategy, we did more  to  open  world markets to American products
than at any time over the last two generations.  That will mean more  jobs
and rising living standards for the American people.

      Low  deficits, low inflation, low interest rates, low trade barriers
and high investment -- these are the building blocks of our recovery.  But
if we want to take full  advantage  of  the opportunities before us in the
global economy, we must do more.

      As we reduce defense spending, I ask Congress to invest more in  the
technologies   of  tomorrow.   Defense  conversion  will  keep  us  strong
militarily and create jobs.

      As we protect our environment,  we  must invest in the environmental
technologies of the future which will create jobs.  And this year we  will
fight for a revitalized Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, and a
reformed Superfund program.

      And  the  Vice  President  is  right:  We must work with the private
sector to connect every classroom,  every clinic, every library, and every
hospital in America to a national information  superhighway  by  the  year
2000.   Instant  access  to  information  will increase productivity, help
educate our children, and provide  better  medical care and create jobs, I
call  on  Congress  this  year  to  pass  legislation  to  establish   the
information superhighway.

      As  we  expand  opportunity and create jobs, no one can be left out.
We will continue to enforce  fair  lending  and fair housing and all civil
rights laws, because  America  will  never  complete  its  renewal  unless
everyone shares in its bounty.

      We  can do all these things, put our economic house in order, expand
world trade, and target the jobs  of  the future.  And we will.  But let's
be honest: this strategy cannot work unless we also give  our  people  the
education,  training  and  skills  they need to seize the opportunities of
tomorrow.

      We must set tough,  world-class  academic and occupational standards
for all of our children -- and give our teachers and students the tools to
meet them.   Our  Goals  2000  proposal  will  empower  individual  school
districts to experiment with ideas like chartering their schools to be run
by  private  corporations,  public  school choice -- so long as we measure
every school by one  high  standard:  Are  our children learning what they
need to know to compete and win in this new  economy.   Goals  2000  links
world  class  standards  to  grass roots reforms.  Congress should pass it
without delay.

      Our school-to-work initiative will  for  the first time link schools
to the world of work, and will provide at least one year of apprenticeship
beyond high school.  After all, most of the people we're  counting  on  to
build our economic future do not graduate from college.  It's time to stop
ignoring them and start empowering them.

      We  must  transform  America's  outdated  unemployment system into a
reemployment system.  The old system just  kept you going while you waited
for your old job to come back; but we have to have a new  system  to  move
people  into  new and better jobs, because most people don't get their old
jobs back.

      The only way to get a real job with a growing income is to have real
skills and the  ability  to  learn  new  ones.   We simply must streamline
today's patchwork of training programs and  make  them  a  source  of  new
skills  for  people  who lose their jobs.  Reemployment, not unemployment,
will be the centerpiece of  our  program  for economic renewal, and I urge
you to pass it this year.

      Just as we must transform our  unemployment  system,  we  must  also
revolutionize  our welfare system.  It doesn't work.  It defies our values
as a nation.

      If we value work, we cannot justify a system that makes welfare more
attractive than work.

      If we  value  personal  responsibility,  we  cannot  ignore  the $34
billion in child support  that  absent  parents  ought  to  be  paying  to
millions of mothers and children.

      If  we  value  strong  families,  we cannot perpetuate a system that
penalizes those who stay together.  Can you believe that a child who has a
child gets more  money  from  the  government  for  leaving  home than for
staying with a parent or a grandparent?

      That's not just bad policy; it is wrong.  And we must change it.

      I worked for years on this welfare problem, and I can tell you:  the
people  who  most  want to change welfare are the very people on it.  They
want to get off welfare, and get back to work, and support their children.

      Last year, we began.  We gave  the  states more power to innovate --
because we know that great ideas can come from outside Washington  --  and
many states are using it.

      Then, we took a dramatic step.  Instead of taxing people with modest
incomes  who  are  working  their  way  out  of  poverty,  we dramatically
increased the Earned Income Tax  Credit  to  lift  them out of poverty, to
reward work over welfare, to make it possible for people to be  successful
workers and successful parents.

      But there is much more to be done.

      This   spring,   I   will  send  you  comprehensive  welfare  reform
legislation that builds on the  Family  Support Act and restores the basic
values of work and responsibility.

      We will say to teenagers, "If you have a child out  of  wedlock,  we
will  no  longer give you a check to set up a separate household.  We want
families to stay together."

      To absent parents who  aren't  paying  child support, we'll say: "If
you're not providing for your children, we'll garnish  your  wages,  we'll
suspend  your  license,  we'll  track  you  across  state  lines,  and  if
necessary, we'll make some of you work off what you owe.  People who bring
children into this world can't just walk away."

      And  to  all  those  who  depend  on  welfare,  we offer this simple
compact: We will provide the support, the job training, the child care you
need for up to two years.  But  after  that, anyone who can work must work
-- in the private sector if possible, in community service  if  necessary.
We  will  make  welfare what it ought to be: A second chance, not a way of
life.


      We must tackle welfare  reform  in  1994,  yes,  as we tackle health
care.  A million people are on welfare today are there  because  it's  the
only  way  they  can  get  health  care  coverage.  Those who choose leave
welfare for jobs without health benefits find themselves in the incredible
position of paying taxes that help  pay  for health coverage for those who
choose to stay on welfare.  No wonder many people leave work and  go  back
on  welfare  to  get  health care coverage.  We must solve the health care
problem to solve the welfare problem.

Health Care

      This year, we will make history by reforming our health care system.
This is another issue where the people are way ahead of the politicians.

      The First Lady has received almost a million letters from people all
across America and all walks of life.  Let me share one of them with you.

      Richard Anderson of Reno,  Nevada  lost  his  job  and, with it, his
health insurance.  Two weeks later, his  wife  Judy  suffered  a  cerebral
aneurysm.   He  rushed  her to the hospital, where she stayed in intensive
care for twenty-one days.

      The Anderson's bills exceeded $120,000.  Although Judy recovered and
Richard went back to work, at  eight  dollars  an hour, the bills were too
much for them.  They were forced into bankruptcy by high medical costs.

      "Mrs.  Clinton," he wrote to Hillary, "no one in the  United  States
of  America  should have to lose everything they have worked for all their
lives because they were unfortunate enough to become ill."

      It was to help the  Richard  and  Judy Andersons of America that the
First Lady and so many others have worked  so  hard  on  the  health  care
issue, and we owe them our thanks.

      There  are  others  in  Washington  who  say there is no health care
crisis.  Tell that  to  Richard  and  Judy  Anderson.   Tell  it to the 58
million Americans who have no coverage at all for some time each year that
there is no health care crisis.  Tell it to the 81 million Americans  with
"pre-existing"  conditions  who  are  paying more, can't get insurance, or
can't change jobs.   Tell  it  to  the  small  businesses  burdened by the
skyrocketing cost of insurance.  Tell it to  the  76  percent  of  insured
Americans  whose  policies  have  lifetime  limits  --  and  who  can find
themselves without any coverage just when  they  need it most -- tell them
there is no health care crisis.  You tell them .  . .  because I can't.


      The naysayers  don't  understand  the  impact  of  this  problem  on
people's  lives.  They just don't get it.  We must act now to show that we
do.

      From the day we began, our  health care initiative has been designed
to strengthen all that is good about our health care system.  The  world's
best   health   professionals.    Cutting-edge   research   and   research
institutions.   Medicare  for older Americans.  None of this should be put
at risk.

      We're paying more and more money for less and less care.  Every year
fewer and fewer Americans even  get  to  choose their doctors.  Every year
doctors and nurses spend more time  on  paperwork  and  less  on  patients
because  of the bureaucratic nightmare the present system has become.  The
system is riddled with inefficiency, abuse and fraud.

      In today's health  care  system,  insurance  companies  call all the
shots.  They pick and choose whom they  cover.   They  can  cut  off  your
benefits when you need your coverage most.  They are in charge.

      And  so  every  night,  millions of well-insured Americans go to bed
just an illness, an accident,  or  a  pink  slip away from financial ruin.
Every morning millions more go to work without health insurance for  their
families.   And  every  year,  hard- working people are told to pick a new
doctor because their boss  picked  a  new  plan, and countless others turn
down better jobs because they fear losing their insurance.

      If we let the health care system continue to drift,  Americans  will
have  less  care,  fewer choices, and higher bills.  Our approach protects
the quality of care and people's choices.

      It builds on what works today  in the private sector.  To expand the
employer-based system and guarantee private insurance for  every  American
--  something  proposed  by President Richard Nixon more than twenty years
ago.  That's what we want: guaranteed private insurance.

      Right now, nine out of ten  people who have private insurance get it
through employers -- and that must continue.   And  if  your  employer  is
providing good benefits at reasonable prices -- that must continue, too.

      Our  goal  is  health  insurance  you  can  depend on: comprehensive
benefits  that  cover  preventive  care  and  prescription  drugs;  health
premiums that don't jump when  you  get  sick  or get older; the power, no
matter how small your business is, to choose dependable insurance  at  the
same  rates  government  and big companies get; one simple form for people
who are sick; and, most of  all,  the  freedom to choose a health plan and
the right to choose your own doctor.

      Our approach protects older Americans.  Every plan  before  Congress
proposes  to  slow  the  growth  of  Medicare.  The difference is this: We
believe those savings should  be  used  to  improve health care for senior
citizens.  Medicare must be protected, and it  should  cover  prescription
drugs.  And we should take the first steps toward covering long-term care.
To  those  who  would  cut Medicare without protecting seniors, I say: the
solution to today's squeeze on  middle-class  working people is not to put
the squeeze on middle class retired people.

       When it's all said and done, insurance must mean what  it  used  to
mean.   You  pay  a fair price for security and, when you get sick, health
care is always there.  No matter what.

      Along with the  guarantee  of  health  security,  there must be more
responsibility: parents must take their  kids  to  be  immunized;  we  all
should take advantage of preventive care; and we all must work together to
stop  the  violence  that  crowds  its  victims  into our emergency rooms.
People who don't have insurance will  get  coverage -- but they'll have to
pay something.  The minority of business that  provide  no  insurance  and
shift  the costs to others, will have to contribute something.  People who
smoke will pay more for a  pack  of  cigarettes.   If we want to solve the
health care crisis in this country, there can be  no  more  something  for
nothing.

      In  the coming months, I want to work with Democrats and Republicans
to reform our health care system  by  using the market to bring down costs
and to achieve lasting health security.

      For sixty years, this country  has  tried  to  reform  health  care.
President  Roosevelt  tried.   President  Truman  tried.   President Nixon
tried.   President  Carter  tried.    Every  time,  the  powerful  special
interests defeated them.  But not this time.

      Facing up to special interests will require courage.  It will  raise
critical  questions  about  the  way  we  finance  our  campaigns  and how
lobbyists peddle their  influence.   The  work  of  change  will never get
easier until we limit the influence of well financed interests who  profit
from the current system.  So I call on you now to finish the job you began
last  year  by  passing  tough,  meaningful  campaign  finance  reform and
lobbying reform this year.

      This is a test for all of  us.  The American people provide those of
us in government service with great benefits -- health care that's  always
there.   We  need to give every hard-working, tax-paying American the same
health care security they give us.


      Hear me clearly.  If the legislation  you send me does not guarantee
every American private health insurance that can never be  taken  away,  I
will  take this pen, veto that legislation, and we'll come right back here
and start over again.

      But I believe we're ready to  do  it  right now.  If you're ready to
guarantee to every American health care that can never be taken  way,  now
is the time to stand with the people who sent you here.

      As we take these steps together to renew America's strength at home,
we must also continue our work to renew America's leadership abroad.

      This  is  a  promising  moment.   Because  of the agreements we have
reached, Russia's  strategic  nuclear  missiles  soon  will  no  longer be
pointed at the United States, nor will we point ours at them.  Instead  of
building  weapons  in  space,  Russian  scientists  will help us build the
international space station.

      There are still  dangers  in  the  world: Arms proliferation; bitter
regional  conflicts;  ethnic  and  nationalist  tensions   in   many   new
democracies;  severe  environmental  degradation; and fanatics who seek to
cripple the world's cities with terror.

      As the world's greatest power, we must maintain our defenses and our
responsibilities.  This year we secured indictments against terrorists and
sanctions  against  those  who   harbor   them.    We  worked  to  promote
environmentally sustainable economic growth.  We achieved agreements  with
Ukraine,  Belarus  and Kazakhstan to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.  We
are working to achieve  a  Korean  peninsula  free of nuclear weapons.  We
will  seek  early  ratification  of  a  treaty  to  ban  chemical  weapons
world-wide.  And earlier today we joined with over  30  nations  to  begin
negotiations on a comprehensive ban to stop all nuclear testing.

      But  nothing  is  more  important  to our security than our nation's
armed forces.   We  honor  their  contributions,  including  those who are
carrying out the longest humanitarian airlift in history in Bosnia,  those
who  will  complete  their  mission  in Somalia this year, and their brave
comrades who gave their lives there.

      Our forces are the finest  military  our  nation has ever had, and I
have pledged that as long as I am President, they  will  remain  the  best
trained,  the  best  equipped  and the best prepared fighting force on the
face of this earth.

      Last year I proposed a defense plan that maintains our post Cold War
security at lower  cost.   This  year,  many  people  urged  me to cut our
defense spending again to pay for other government programs.  I  said  no.
The  budget I send to this Congress draws the line against further defense
cuts and fully protects the readiness and quality of our forces.

      Ultimately, the best strategy  to  ensure  our  security and build a
durable peace is to support the advance of democracy.  Democracies do  not
attack each other; they make better partners in trade and diplomacy.

      That is why we have supported the democratic reformers in Russia and
in  the other states of the former Soviet bloc.  I applaud the bi-partisan
support this Congress  provided  last  year  for  our  initiatives to help
Russia, Ukraine, and other states though their epic transformations.

      Our support of reform must combine patience and vigilance.  We  will
urge  Russia and the other states to continue with their economic reforms.
And we will seek  to  cooperate  with  Russia  to solve regional problems,
while insisting that if Russian troops operate in neighboring states, they
do so only when those states agree to their presence, and in strict accord
with international standards.  But, as these new nations chart  their  own
futures,  we  must not forget how much more secure and more prosperous our
nation will be if democratic and  market reforms succeed across the former
communist bloc.

      That is why I went to Europe earlier this month: to  work  with  our
European  partners to help integrate the former communist countries into a
Europe unified for the first time  in history, based on shared commitments
to democracy, free market economies  and  respect  for  existing  borders.
With  our  allies,  we created a Partnership for Peace that invites states
from the former Soviet bloc and  other  non-NATO members to work with NATO
in military cooperation.  When I met  with  Central  Europe's  leaders  --
including  Lech  Walesa  and Vaclav Havel, who put their lives on the line
for freedom -- I told them that  the security of their region is important
to America's security.

      This year we will provide  support  for  democratic  renewal,  human
rights and sustainable development around the world.  We will ask Congress
to  ratify the new GATT accord.  We will continue standing by South Africa
as it makes its bold and hopeful  transition.  We will convene a summit of
the western hemisphere's democratic leaders -- from Canada to the  tip  of
South  America  --  and  we  will continue to press for the restoration of
democracy in Haiti.  And as we build a more constructive relationship with
China, we will insist on clear signs of improvement in that nation's human
rights record.


      We will also work for new  progress toward peace in the Middle East.
Last year, the world watched Yitzakh Rabin and Yassir Arafat at the  White
House  in  their  historic handshake of reconciliation.  On the long, hard
road  ahead,  I  am  determined  to  do  all  I  can  to  help  achieve  a
comprehensive and lasting peace for all the peoples of the region.

      There are some in our country who argue that with the Cold War over,
America should turn its back on  the  rest  of the world.  Many around the
world were afraid we would do just that.  But I  took  this  office  on  a
pledge  to  keep our nation secure by remaining engaged in the world.  And
this year, because of  our  work  together  -- enacting NAFTA; keeping our
military strong and prepared; supporting democracy abroad -- we reaffirmed
America's leadership and increased the security of the American people.

      While Americans are more secure from threats  abroad,  we  are  less
secure from threats here at home.

      Every  day,  the national peace is shattered by crime.  In Petaluma,
California, an innocent slumber party  gives  way to agonizing tragedy for
the family of Polly Klass.  An ordinary train ride on Long Island ends  in
a  hail  of  9-millimeter  rounds.   A tourist in Florida is nearly burned
alive by bigots simply because  he  is  black.  Right here in our nation's
capital, a brave young man named Jason White -- a policeman, the  son  and
grandson of policemen -- is ruthlessly gunned down.

      Violent  crime  and  the fear it provokes are crippling our society,
limiting personal freedom, and fraying  the  ties that bind us.  The crime
bill before Congress gives you a chance to do something about it -- to  be
tough and smart.

      First, we must recognize that most violent crimes are committed by a
small  percentage  of  criminals,  who  too  often  break the laws even on
parole.  Those who commit crimes  must  be  punished, and those who commit
repeated violent crimes must be told: Commit a  third  violent  crime  and
you'll be put away, and put away for good.  Three strikes and you're out.

      Second,  we  must  take steps to reduce violence and prevent crimes,
beginning with more police officers  and more community policing.  We know
that police who work the streets, know the folks, have the respect of  the
kids,  and  focus on high crime areas, are more likely to prevent crime as
well as catch criminals.

      Here tonight is one  of  those  policemen: a brave, young detective,
Kevin Jett, whose beat is eight square  blocks  in  one  of  the  toughest
blocks in New York City.  Every day he restores some sanity and safety and
a sense of values to the people whose lives he protects.

      That's  why we must hire 100,000 new community police officers, well
trained and patrolling beats all  over  America;  a police corps; and move
retiring military personnel into police forces across  America.   We  must
also  invest  in safe schools, so that our children can learn to count and
read and write without also learning how to duck bullets.

      Third, we must build on  the  Brady  bill, and take further steps to
keep guns out of the hands of criminals.  When it comes to guns, let me be
clear: Hunters must always be free to hunt, and law abiding adults  should
be  free  to  own  guns  and  protect their homes.  I respect that part of
American culture.  I grew up in it.

      But I want to ask sportsmen and others who lawfully own guns to join
us in a common campaign  to  reduce  gun violence.  You didn't create this
problem, but we need your help to solve it.  There is no sporting  purpose
on  earth  that  should  stop  us  from banishing the assault weapons that
outgun our police and cut down  our  children.   So, I urge you to pass an
assault weapons ban.

      Fourth, we must remember that drugs are  a  factor  in  an  enormous
percentage  of  crimes.   Recent  studies indicate that drug use is on the
rise again among young  people.   The  crime  bill contains more money for
drug treatment for criminal addicts and boot camps for youthful offenders.
The Administration budget contains a large increase in  funding  for  drug
treatment and drug education.  I hope you will pass them both.


      The  problem of violence is an American problem.  It has no partisan
or philosophical  element.   Therefore,  I  urge  you  to  set  aside your
partisan differences and pass a strong, smart, tough crime bill now.

      But, further, I urge you: As we demand tougher penalties  for  those
who  choose  violence, let us also remember how we came to this sad point.
In America's toughest  neighborhoods,  meanest  streets, and poorest rural
areas, we have seen a stunning breakdown of community, family and work  --
the  heart and soul of civilized society.  This has created a vast vaccuum
into which violence, drugs and gangs have moved.  So, even as we say no to
crime, we must give people --  especially our young people -- something to
say yes to.

      Many of our initiatives -- from job training to  welfare  reform  to
health   care   to  national  service  --  will  help  rebuild  distressed
communities, strengthen families, and provide  work.  But more needs to be
done.  That is  what  our  community  empowerment  agenda  is  all  about:
Challenging  businesses  to  provide  more  investment through Empowerment
Zones; insuring  that  banks  make  loans  in  the  same communities their
deposits come from; and  passing  legislation  to  unleash  the  power  of
capital  through  Community  Development Banks to create jobs, opportunity
and hope where they are needed most.


      Let's be honest.   Our  problems  go  way  beyond  the  reach of any
government  program.   They  are  rooted  in  the  loss  of  values,   the
disappearance  of  work,  and  the  breakdown  of  our  families  and  our
communities.   My  fellow  Americans, we can cut the deficit, create jobs,
promote democracy around the globe,  pass  welfare reform, and health care
reform, and the toughest crime bill in history, and still leave  too  many
of  our people behind.  The American people must want to change within, if
we are to bring back work, family and community.

      We cannot renew our country when  within  a decade more than half of
our children will be born into families where there is no marriage.

      We cannot  renew  our  country  when  thirteen  year  old  boys  get
semi-automatic  weapons  and  gun  down nine year old boys -- just for the
kick of it.

      We cannot renew our  country  when  children are having children and
the fathers of those children are walking away from them as if they  don't
amount to anything.

      We cannot renew our country when our businesses eagerly look for new
investments  and  new  customers  abroad,  but ignore those who would give
anything to have their jobs  and  would  gladly buy their products if they
had the money to do it right here at home.

      We cannot renew our country unless more of us are  willing  to  join
the  churches  and  other  good  citizens  who  are  saving kids, adopting
schools, making streets safer.

      We cannot renew our  country  until  we all realize that governments
don't raise children, parents do --  parents  who  know  their  children's
teachers,  turn  off  the TV, help with the homework, and teach right from
wrong -- can make all the difference.

      Let us give our children a future.

      Let us take away their  guns  and  give them books.  Let us overcome
their despair and replace it with hope.  Let us,  by  our  example,  teach
them  to obey the law, respect our neighbors, and cherish our values.  Let
us weave these sturdy threads into  a new American community that can once
more stand strong against the forces of despair and evil, and lead us to a
better tomorrow.

      The naysayers fear we will not be equal to  the  challenges  of  our
time,  but  they  misread  our  history,  our  heritage,  and even today's
headlines.  They all tell us we can and we will overcome any challenge.

      When the  earth  shook  and  fires  raged  in  California,  when the
Mississippi deluged  the  farmlands  of  the  Midwest,  when  a  century's
bitterest  cold  swept  from  North  Dakota to Newport News, iit seemed as
though the world itself was coming  apart  at the seams.  But the American
people came together --  they  rose  to  the  occasion,  neighbor  helping
neighbor,  strangers  risking life and limb to save strangers, showing the
better angels of our nature.

        Let us not reserve those better angels only for natural disasters,
leaving our deepest problems to petty political fights.  Let us instead be
true to our spirit -- facing facts, coming together, bringing hope, moving
forward.

      Tonight, we are summoned to answer a question as old as the Republic
itself.  My fellow Americans,  what  is  the  State  of  the Union?  It is
growing stronger.  But it must be stronger still.  With your help and with
God's, it will be.

      Thank you.  And may God Bless America.

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This electronic document was obtained from the Almanac Information  Server
at   the  US  Department  of  Agriculture's  Extension  Service,  National
Agriculture Library.