Remarks to the community in Charleston, West Virginia - Aug 9, 1993 - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, August 16, 1993 by Bill Clinton

Thank you very much. And hello, West Virginia, it's good to be back again.

I want to thank my longtime friend, Senator jay Rockefeller, for that wonderful introduction. And I want to thank Jay and Sharon for the work they have done for the people of West Virginia and the people of our country. I thank my friend Governor Caperton for being here and Mayor Hall and Congressman Rahall and Congressman Wise. I'd like to thank Congressman Mollohan and your fine Senator Robert Byrd in their absence for their support of our program.

I learned something about West Virginia that I already knew, but I saw it writ large in the last few days of the debate in the Congress when we really had to make tough decisions, when people who talked tough and they talked about talking tough, and they talked about talking about talking tough, finally had to act tough. West Virginia was there. And there was no wiggle or wobble or waffle or wonder. They were just there. They said, "This is good for America. I know it's tough. I know we'll be criticized. I know there are people who will find fault, but we're going to do what is right for the people of West Virginia, right for the people of America. Sign us up. We're moving toward the future." And I appreciate that.

I want to thank all the people who made this rally possible today. And I want to thank you and the people of this great country, who have endured hard times with hope, for helping us to break the gridlock in Washington. Now we can truly say change has come to America.

Last week Congress voted for the values of the American heartland, the values of the middle class, the values of the small business economy, the values of the small towns in the hills and hollows of West Virginia and my native State. They voted for work and family, for reducing our deficit and increasing our investment in our people and their future, for jobs and growth for those who work hard and play by the rules.

After 20 long years of stagnant incomes, after 12 years of exploding deficits and reducing investment in our people, after 12 years of partisan gridlock and talking, tough and acting soft, we reversed the direction. Now there is a new direction in America; opportunity for those who are responsible; no more something for nothing; a sense of community again. We're all in this together, and everyone must do his or her part.

And again I say to you, I am very grateful to the West Virgin delegation and to all the others who voted for this program because they remembered amidst the withering fog of misinformation that surrounded it that, after all, none of us were sent to Washington to keep our jobs; we were sent to Washington to help you keep your jobs.

And so we have taken, my fellow Americans, a first but major step to regain control of our economic destiny. We cut the deficit. We cut spending. We reward work. We ask those who can pay more to pay their fair share. We give the private sector incentives to grow jobs and invest in the future of our people. This is a good beginning.

This plan will help our Nation's economy to create 8 million new jobs over the next 4 years. just last month in calendar year 1993 we saw the one millionth job come into the American economy. That's about as many as were created in the previous 4 years. We are beginning.

Is it enough? Of course it isn't. West Virginia still has the highest unemployment rate in the Nation, although you may have the highest percentage of willing workers in the Nation. If ever there was a Place where people wanted to go to work, this is it.

We cannot turn this around overnight, but we can never turn it around unless we show a willingness to change, and that is what last week was all about. In the last 12 years we added $3 trillion to our national debt. That's right. From the beginning of our Nation until 1980, we had a $1 trillion national debt. By 1992 it was $4 trillion. We were running annual deficits in the range of $300 billion a year over 5 percent of our annual income going to Government deficits.

When that happens, interest rates are too high, businesses cannot expand, and we cannot spend the money we need to spend to educate people; to create jobs; to deal with all the military cutbacks from California to Connecticut, and help those people start a new life; to deal with the declines in mining and manufacturing in a State like West Virginia. It takes more money. And if you're up to your ears in debt,paying more every year on interest in the debt, more for the same health care with an out-of-control budget, it cannot be done.

This plan cuts the deficit more than ever before by about $500 billion. There are $255 billion in specific spending cuts - no rhetoric, no hot air, no plugs, no "we'll think about it later" - specific cuts. And by the Executive order that I have signed, we will lock both the new taxes and the spending cuts away in a deficit reduction trust fund, an idea so long championed by Congressman Bob Wise. And when the Congress returns in September, with the help of Nick and Bob and Jay, I hope we will be able to persuade the entire Congress to create that trust fund in law.