Remarks on Signing the Continuing Resolution and an Exchange With Reporters

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 4, 1999

September 30, 1999

The President. Good afternoon. I wanted to talk to you before I leave for New York about two developments affecting our economy and the progress we are making to build a stronger one.

Today we have further evidence that our economic strategy of fiscal discipline, investment in our people, and expanded trade is working. In the 12 years before I came to Washington, irresponsible policies here quadrupled our debt. That led us to high interest rates and high unemployment, stagnant wages, and low growth. The Vice President and I came here determined to change all that, to put the American people first and give them the tools to turn around the American economy.

Over the last 6 1/2 years, the results speak for themselves: the longest peacetime expansion in history, more than 19 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 29 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years, the first back-to-back surpluses in 42 years, the largest surplus and the highest homeownership in history.

Today I am pleased to announce another economic milestone in the implementation of this strategy. In its annual study on income and poverty in America, the Census Bureau reports that a typical household income rose $1,304 in just one year, from $37,581 in 1997 to $38,885 in 1998. That's a 3.5 percent increase in a year, tied for the largest since 1978, allowing American families more money for things that matter, sending their children to college, buying a home, purchasing a car, saving for retirement.

The report also shows that since we launched our economic plan in 1993, median family income is the highest it has ever been, increasing from $41,691 in '93 to $46,737 in '98. That's over $5,000 more that hardworking families can put to good use. But the best news is that these gains finally are being shared with all groups in America, from the wealthiest to the poorest.

In the 1980's, most working families saw their incomes stagnate, with the worst performance at the bottom of the economic scale. In the last 5 years, finally, we have stemmed the tide of rising inequality, and this new report documents the strong income growth among all groups of people.

This broad-based growth has helped to lift millions of hardworking families out of poverty. The report shows that the poverty rate fell to 12.7 percent. That is the lowest poverty rate since 1979, the lowest rate in 20 years.

While we still have room for improvement, the African-American poverty rate is now at its lowest level on record; the Hispanic poverty rate its lowest level in 20 years. And we know that 4.3 million Americans were lifted out of poverty last year because of our expanded earned-income tax credit, which was a critical part of the economic reform plan in 1993. It is now, inexplicably to me, under attack by some in Congress.

Our economy is now working for all the American people, and it has to continue. That brings me to my second point.

Today is the last day of the current fiscal year. Because the Congress has not finished its work, it must send me a continuing resolution, a temporary spending measure to keep the Government working for 3 more weeks. But it should be sending me spending bills that meet the great challenges and opportunities before us, that protect and strengthen Social Security, that strengthen and modernize Medicare with prescription drug coverage, that make vital investments in education, national security, the environment, medical research, and other critical areas, and that enable us to pay down the American debt so that we can pay it off, for the first time since 1835, over the next 15 years.

Now, a few minutes ago, just before I came out here, I signed that continuing spending bill, not because I wanted to, but because it was the only way to prevent another Government shutdown. Months ago I presented a responsible budget plan that pays for itself, invests in education, saves Social Security and Medicare, puts us on the path to paying America out of debt by 2015(*). Regrettably, the majority in Congress, the Republican majority, has chosen to disregard the way I put this budget together and to disregard the path of fiscal discipline.

Instead of making the difficult choices to finish their work and crafting a responsible budget, they've resorted to gimmicks and gamesmanship, like using two sets of books and designating the fully predictable census, for example, as emergency spending.

But they're doing something else that troubles me more. To disguise the fact that they're spending the Social Security surplus, the congressional majority wants to delay earned-income tax payments to nearly 20 million families. Now, the income and poverty figures 1 announced earlier show that 4.3 million Americans were lifted out of poverty last year, twice the number that were lifted out of poverty by the earned-income tax credit before we expanded it in 1993.

We've worked hard to eliminate barriers to families who are working their way out of poverty. We've got record numbers of people moving from welfare to work, often at very modest wages, eligible for this earned-income tax credit. Delaying their EITC payments would put one more roadblock in their way.