Remarks to the Southern Governors' Association in Kansas City

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 16, 1996

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you for the warm welcome. Thank you, Governor Carnahan and Governor Allen, Governor Patton, Governor Caperton, Governor Miller, Governor Beasley, Governor Huckabee - nice pen, Governor Huckabee - [laughter] - I like that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to be back at the Southern Governors' Association. I'm glad to be back at a time when I feel good about the direction of our country. And I know we all feel challenged, as Governor Carnahan said, because of our new responsibility in the aftermath of the passage of the welfare reform law.

I have just come from a very moving encounter at the Full Employment Council here in Kansas City. Mayor Cleaver and Congresswoman Karen McCarthy took me over there. I thank them for going. I thank Clyde McQueen and Gayle Hobbs for being there, and I'll talk about the other people who were there in a few moments.

But let me say I am very glad to be back here and to discuss, as the Governor said, a problem that is keeping our people from becoming all that we can be. The country is clearly moving in the right direction. We have the lowest unemployment rate in 7 1/2 years, 10 1/2 million new jobs, the lowest combined rates of inflation, unemployment and home mortgages in almost 30 years. The deficit has gone down 4 years in a row for the first time in a President's term since John Tyler was the President in the 1840's. I always tell everybody, the bad news is John Tyler was not reelected. [Laughter] But it was still a good thing that he did. [Laughter]

The crime rate has gone down for 4 years in a row, thanks in no small measure to efforts made by the Governors here and around the country. The welfare rolls are nearly two million smaller than they were the day I took the oath of office. The Government is the smallest it's been since President Kennedy was in office. We are working hard to help people to succeed at home and at work. The average closing costs for first-time homebuyers has been cut by about $1,000, thanks to an initiative led by Secretary Cisneros and the FHA. The earned-income tax credit reduced taxes for 15 million of the hardest pressed working families on lower incomes. We're immunizing more children and trying to give more parents the power to protect their children through things like the V-chip, the television rating system, the new educational television programming that will be coming forth soon.

The family and medical leave law has allowed 12 million families to take some time off for the birth of a child or the illness of a parent without losing a job. I think it should be modestly expanded to allow parents to go to parent-teacher conferences and regular doctor appointments. It plainly isn't hurting the economy, and anything that helps us to succeed with our families and to strengthen the economy I think is a very, very good thing.

I think it's also important to note that we're trying to change the way Washington works. The thing I loved most about being a Governor was that the job was a lot more about what are we going to do than who are we going to blame. And in Washington, I think in part because it's so far from where people live and you have to pierce through all the layers between you and the folks back home, that too often it becomes more about who to blame than what to do. So I hope we have changed that.

And let me say that -

[At this point, a live local news broadcast at the back of the room interrupted the President's remarks.]

The President. Does that guy want to give a speech back there? [Laughter] We'll be glad to listen to you, but we can't both talk at the same time. [Laughter]

I do believe that this business about what to do and not who to blame is going to be brought into play more powerfully on the issue of welfare reform than any other issue in recent history. And I'd like to ask you all just to stop a few minutes and think with me about what it means.

First, let me say the States should be very proud of themselves. Our administration has now given 77 waivers to 43 States who have moved 1.8 million people from welfare to work. That's a pretty good record, and I'm proud of the States. I'm proud of the community groups that work on this. I'm proud of the employers who have done the hiring. Of course, part of it is due to the rising tide of the economy, but an awful lot of it is due to the special efforts being made State by State, community by community.

There is a passion in this country now to liberate people from the dependency of a welfare system which has not worked, to move people from welfare to work in a way that enables them to support their children and live in greater dignity. It is sweeping the country. It is felt in every corner of the country by people from all walks of life, of all political persuasions, of all racial and ethnic groups. It is running at high tide, and a lot has happened in the last 4 years.

The new welfare reform law dramatically increases the possibilities of moving people from welfare to work and the requirements to do so. And just to basically review what the law does, it says essentially this: There will continue to be a national guarantee, funded by the Federal and State governments of health care, nutrition, and now more child care for people who move from welfare to work, but that portion of our welfare expenditures that used to go in monthly entitlement checks to welfare recipients will now go to the States in a big block of money, and they, in turn, will have to move people who are able-bodied from welfare to work within 2 years, and in no case can able-bodied people have more than 5 years total of welfare benefits unless there are extenuating circumstances in which case the States can keep a little money back to decide to deal with the odd case that always comes up, that doesn't quite fit anybody's formula.