Remarks at the Northeastern University commencement ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts - President Bill Clinton - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 28, 1993

We are beginning to move this country, talking down the obstacles to progress and prosperity, putting our economic house in order, moving toward providing a national plan to provide affordable, quality health care to all of America's families and children, preparing ourselves to compete in the global economy. We have a long road to travel, but we see some hopeful signs.

Because of the progress of the economic plan that I have presented to the Congress to bring down our deficit and increase investment in our people, interest rates have dropped to a 20-year low. That means that when you bring down the deficit and bring down interest rates, you free up money to be invested in productive things. What do lower interest rates mean? They mean lower home mortgages. They mean lower business loans. They mean lower consumer loans and car loans. They mean money that can grow the economy and create jobs. And it also means the Government doesn't have to spend so much of your tax money paying interest on the debt and can pay more financing college loans and an economic future that is worthy of the effort you have made to get here to this place today.

In the first 4 months of this administration, over three-quarters of a million jobs were added to this economy. But we have to finish the job. The United States Senate is now coming to grips with the economic plan. It brings down our national deficit $500 billion over 5 years. And for every $10 we cut that deficit, $5 comes from spending cuts, $3.75 comes from the wealthiest Americans whose taxes were reduced in the 1980's, and $1.25 comes from the middle class. Two-thirds of the tax burden comes from people with incomes above $200,000 because they can best afford to pay.

Now, there are some lobbyists and some legislators who don't like the plan, and they say things that are popular, not the kind of things that your parents told you when you had the kind of take a deep breath and go on but popular. They say, "More cuts, less taxes," but no details. No details. Then when you look at the details, you find that the details hurt the middle class, the working poor, the vulnerable elderly, do less to create jobs and ensure our world economic leadership.

So I say to you, we ought to ask of every American, what is your real alternative, not rhetoric, not chants that sound good, but give the American people as a whole the same sort of truth that every one of your families gave you or you wouldn't be here today. That's what you're entitled to, and that's what I'm determined to give you as President of the United States.

My job is to make your future worthy of the efforts that brought you here today, to try to help to create a national interest that triumphs over anybody's special interests. You have done your part. It is now time for the leadership of this country to do ours.

I ask you only to remember here the lessons you have learned here and the lessons which have already been repeated. Nobody can create for you an opportunity you are not capable of seizing. If you don't continue to learn throughout a lifetime, you can still be left behind. And nobody in this country can fully succeed until more of this country succeeds. We do not walk alone. We walk as families, as communities, as neighborhoods, and as a nation, and we had better start acting like it. We are going up or down together, and we need to go forward.