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

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 26, 1993

Now, secondly, I just want to take issue with you. I, frankly, think that one of the reasons the American people are disappointed about - you said the slow

pace of progress - is because they haven't been told the truth about that. Do you know that if the Congress passes this budget on or before August the 5th when they go on recess, it will be the fastest they have acted in a very long time?

And in terms of the difficulty I'm having getting this through, this is tough stuff. You've been sold syrup and sugar for years. But let me give you an example. Most of the Democrats voted for my program. In the last year of President Bush's administration, 75 percent of the Republicans in the House of Representatives - not the Democrats, the Republicans - voted against his budget. Why? Because no President has tried since 1981 to seriously engage the Congress in a budget that will turn the economic fortunes of the country around. Presidents don't want to be criticized for failing or for compromising, so they have played these political games, sent budgets up to the Hill that they knew had no chance of passing the Congress, and made speeches to the American people. I have gone to work.

Now, I ask you to compare what has actually been done in the first 6 months of this administration with what any previous administration has done in 6 months. We have put a serious budget on the table which will bring the deficit down and which has already brought interest rates down. We led an effort in the world's nations to save democracy in Russia, which will help America by enabling us to reduce defense and define new markets for our goods. We passed the family leave bill to protect families when their jobs require them to leave because they've got somebody sick in the family. We passed the motor voter bill, which will make it easier for people to register and vote. We have passed in one House of the Congress campaign finance reform, lobbying restrictions, and the line-item veto.

We are moving forward with a welfare reform proposal. We are moving forward with a national service plan, which I talked about repeatedly in Louisiana - it's going to be passed in one House this week, and it's going to be law very soon - which will open the doors of college education to millions and millions of young people who can't afford to go now with lower interest loans, and allow many of them to work that off with community service. Now, that is the record of this administration.

I just came back from the most successful meeting of the world's great industrial powers in years, because the United States, for the first time in 10 years, was not attacked at that meeting for its outrageous Government deficit. Instead we were complimented, and we got the other nations to agree to bring down tariffs and open up markets for American manufactured products, which means more jobs for Louisiana.

I would like for you to go back and analyze the first 6 months of the previous administrations and tell me who got more done in 6 months. If you can tell me, I'll be glad to hear it. If there isn't anybody you can find who's done more, then we need to examine why the American people don't know that.