Remarks in an interview with members of the Louisiana press - Bill Clinton speech - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 26, 1993

July 20, 1993

The President. Good afternoon. I understand that I can't see you because you're having a rainstorm down there, and I'm sorry that we can't have a two-way, at least visual communication. But I'm glad that you can hear and see me.

First, let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak through you directly to the people of Louisiana. I want to say a few words in opening about the economic program that I have presented to Congress, which is now being debated between the Senate and the House. There are some differences between the two plans, but the essential features are common, and I'd like to review them and what they could mean to Louisiana.

First of all, the plan has $500 billion in deficit reduction over the next 5 years. That is equally divided between spending cuts and tax increases. It's in a trust fund so that the money cannot be squandered on anything else. And if we don't make our targets, the President has a legal obligation to come forward and do some more cutting to make sure we do bring this deficit down.

Secondly, the plan asks the wealthiest Americans, whose taxes went down as their incomes went up in the 1980's, to pay most of the load. And let me be quite specific. The income taxes of Americans do not go up until they have adjusted gross income of $180,000 per family, $140,000 per individual. That means that 70 percent of this tax load will be paid by people with incomes above $200,000, the top 1.2 percent of the American people.

Thirdly, the plan is fair to the middle class and to the working poor. I want to emphasize that. The fuel tax in the plan, now at about 4.3 cents, amounts to about a $50-a-year tax to a family of four with an income of $40,000 to $50,000. That's less than $1 a week directed and dedicated to bringing down your country's enormous deficit. For families with incomes of $30,000 or less - I think that's right at a majority in Louisiana - they will be held harmless or actually get a tax reduction from this plan.

Fourthly, the plan has important incentives for business growth: incentives for people to invest in new businesses and other small businesses; incentives for larger companies to buy new plants and equipment, to put people to work; incentives for research and development in new technologies to help to create new jobs for the 21st century. And perhaps most importantly, it doubles the expensing provision for small business, which means that 94 percent, let me say that again, 94 percent of the small businesses in the entire United States of America will not only get no income taxes increase from this plan but will be eligible for a tax break if they invest in their businesses.

Finally, unlike the Republican alternatives, this plan cuts the deficit more but does it in a way that is fairer to the elderly, to the working poor, and to the middle class. The Republican alternative cuts the deficit less but takes more out of the hides of the folks on Medicare, takes more from the veterans, takes more from agriculture, cuts things that have already been reduced dramatically.

So this plan, once the details are known, I think, clearly is good for America and good for Louisiana. It has already brought interest rates down dramatically. It is leading many, many people to refinance their homes and their cars and their businesses in ways that are putting money in Americans' pockets, not taking them out. And there's no question that without the progress this budget plan has made through the Congress, I would not have been able to lead an effort by the industrialized nations of the world in Tokyo to agree to reduce tariffs on manufactured products, to agree to reduce the Japanese trade imbalance with the United States in ways that will mean hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs to America.

So I believe if we can get the facts out there, I can persuade the Congress to adopt the plan, and we can put it behind us, seize control of our destiny, stop letting the deficit eat us alive, and start putting America back to work. That's the key thing.

Public Opinion

Q. Mr. President, recent polls nationally and here in Louisiana have indicated that a lot of Americans have already lost enthusiasm with your administration, a perception of indecisiveness if you will, a perception of someone who may be a little bit more tax and spend, the traditional liberal Democrat, than the moderate image he sold the American electorate. Why do you think you've suffered so much in the public opinion arena in so short a period of time? And considering you've got Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, Mr. Clinton, why do you think you've gotten so little accomplished in terms of what people expected of the Clinton era?

The President. Well, first of all, let me say I think the public opinion polls are obvious. And that's because the only news coverage we get out of this town is over the fight over taxes, so that the American people, literally by huge majorities, do not have any idea what is in this program. They don't know there's any deficit reduction. They are not aware that there are any spending cuts. They are certainly not aware that 70 percent of the new taxes fall on people with incomes above $200,000. In Louisiana, I'm certain they're not aware that families of incomes of $30,000 or less pay no tax and, in fact, many will get a tax break under this, and that all the working poor, people who work with children in the home still below the poverty line, will get a significant tax relief under this program. They don't know the facts because the only coverage is over where the fight is, and that's been over the taxes. So the Republicans can scream "tax and spend" and all this label stuff, and if the people don't have the facts before them, all they can do is operate on what they know.