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

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 26, 1993

Let me say one other thing: We want to add something to what the Senate did, though. We want to put back some incentives for people to pay lower taxes if they invest in jobs and growth. And this is a very important point. A lot of these taxes can be avoided by people if they invest in jobs and growth. That is, if you increase the small business expensing provision, if you have opportunities for big companies to invest in new plant and equipment, if you have opportunities for individuals to put their savings into new businesses, and if you don't tax activities of that kind, in fact, you give a big tax break to it, then that will mean that people will say, "Hey, I don't have to pay more taxes if I invest in things that will generate jobs for people in my State and my country." That is the really key thing. We've got to get the job incentives that I originally proposed back into the final bill. And if we do, most folks are going to come out well ahead and this economy is going to grow more.

Q. Hi, Mr. President. Could you repeat again exactly how your plan will affect lower income families, particularly those who aren't working now? Will enough jobs be created for them to get into the job market, have more money to spend in the economy?

The President. Absolutely. There are two kinds of low-income people in the economy. There are those that are working and those that aren't. Believe it or not, about 18 percent of all working people are still below the Federal poverty line. And I want to emphasize how they will both be affected.

Number one, people who are working but are still in poverty will benefit from a change in this law called the earned-income tax credit. It will be increased to the point that we'll be able to say to a working person in a family of four, let's say, that if you work for a living and you have children in your home and you're still in poverty, you will get a tax credit, a refundable tax credit from the Federal Government which will lift you out of poverty. That will mean more money in their pockets, they'll spend more, they'll boost the consumer economy, and that will be very good. It will also be a real incentive for people to move from welfare to work.

For people on welfare, that is, people who want to work but aren't working or people on unemployment, we estimate that this plan will create another 89,000 jobs in Louisiana, which will mean more jobs for unemployed people. For people on welfare, we will have a welfare reform program which will emphasize education and training and will eventually require people who can work to take jobs instead of staying on welfare. So this whole program is designed to help low income people whether they're working or not working. But it's important, especially in a place like Louisiana or my home State to your north, Arkansas, to note that most low income people work.

The last point I want to make is people with family incomes under $30,000 are held harmless in this program because they'll be eligible for an income tax cut to offset the gas tax increase. So most people in Louisiana will come out the same or ahead on the tax side, but they'll win big time when we reduce the deficit, invest some more in education and training, in jobs and new technologies, and grow this economy.