Bill Clinton

“ My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the state of our union is strong.
Now, America is working again. The promise of our future is limitless. But we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our prosperity to lull us into complacency. ”

“ Thanks to the pioneering leadership of Vice President Gore, we have a government for the information age, once again, a government that is a progressive instrument of the common good, rooted in our oldest values of opportunity, responsibility and community, devoted to fiscal responsibility, determined to give our people the tools they need to make the most of their own lives in the 21st century, a 21st century government for 21st century America. ”

“ If we work together, we can secure Medicare for the next two decades and cover the greatest growing need of seniors — affordable prescription drugs.
Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, to save, to invest, to create wealth. From its beginning, Americans have supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings. Yet today, millions of people retire with little to live on other than Social Security. Americans living longer than ever simply must save more than ever. ”

“ Two years ago from this podium, I asked five companies to lead a national effort to hire people off welfare. Tonight, our Welfare to Work Partnership includes 10,000 companies who have hired hundreds of thousands of people. And our balanced budget will help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and pride of work. I hope you will support it.
We must do more to bring the spark of private enterprise to every corner of America, to build a bridge from Wall Street to Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to our Native American communities. ”

“ My fellow Americans, this is our moment. Let us lift our eyes as one nation, and from the mountaintop of this American century, look ahead to the next one, asking God's blessing on our endeavors and on our beloved country. ”

“ We should make it easier for small businesses to offer health insurance. We should give people between the ages of 55 and 65 who lose their health insurance the chance to buy into Medicare, and we should continue to ensure access to family planning. No one should have to choose between keeping health care and taking a job. And therefore, I especially ask you tonight to join hands to pass the landmark bipartisan legislation proposed by Senators Kennedy and Jeffords, Roth and Moynihan, to allow people with disabilities to keep their health insurance when they go to work. ”

“ Managed care has transformed medicine in America — driving down costs, but threatening to drive down quality as well. I think we ought to say to every American: You should have the right to know all your medical options — not just the cheapest. If you need a specialist, you should have a right to see one. You should have the right to emergency care if you're in an accident. ”

“ That's why we created AmeriCorps — our national service program that gives today's generation a chance to serve their communities and earn money for college.
So far, in just four years, 100,000 young Americans have built low-income homes with Habitat for Humanity, helped to tutor children with churches, worked with FEMA to ease the burden of natural disasters, and performed countless other acts of service that have made America better. I ask Congress to give more young Americans the chance to follow their lead and serve America in AmeriCorps. ”

“ Therefore, in addition to saving Social Security and Medicare, I propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st century.
I propose that we use a little over 11 percent of the surplus to establish universal savings accounts — USA accounts — to give all Americans the means to save. With these new accounts, Americans can invest as they choose, and receive funds to match a portion of their savings, with extra help for those least able to save. ”

“ America's defenders today still stand ready at a moment's notice to go where comforts are few and dangers are many, to do what needs to be done as no one else can. They always come through for America. We must come through for them.
The new century demands new partnerships for peace and security. The United Nations plays a crucial role, with allies sharing burdens America might otherwise bear alone. America needs a strong and effective U.N. I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts. ”

“ We're now at the end of a century when generation after generation of Americans answered the call to greatness, overcoming Depression, lifting up the dispossessed, bringing down barriers to racial prejudice, building the largest middle class in history, winning two world wars and the "long twilight struggle" of the Cold War. ”

“ Specifically, I propose that we commit 60 percent of the budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small portion in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social Security sound for 55 years.
But we must aim higher. We should put Social Security on a sound footing for the next 75 years. We should reduce poverty among elderly women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as our other seniors — and we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security can earn. ”

“ We must continue to deepen our ties to the Americas and the Caribbean, our common work to educate children, fight drugs, strengthen democracy, and increase trade.
In this hemisphere, every government but one is freely chosen by its people. We are determined that Cuba, too, will know the blessings of liberty.
The American people have opened their hearts and their arms to our Central American and Caribbean neighbors who have been so devastated by the recent hurricanes. Working with Congress, I am committed to help them rebuild. ”

“ Our new immigrants must be part of our one America. After all, they're revitalizing our cities, they're energizing our culture, they're building up our new economy. We have a responsibility to make them welcome here, and they have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American life. That means learning English and learning about our democratic system of government. There are now long waiting lines of immigrants that are trying to do just that. Therefore, our budget significantly expands our efforts to help them meet their responsibility. ”

“ All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for lasting peace in the Middle East. Some of you were with me last December as we watched the Palestinian National Council completely renounce its call for the destruction of Israel. Now I ask Congress to provide resources so that all parties can implement the Wye Agreement, to protect Israel's security, to stimulate the Palestinian economy, to support our friends in Jordan. We must not, we dare not, let them down. ”

“ Tonight I stand before you to report that America has created the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history — with nearly 18 million new jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare rolls in 30 years — and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957. ”

“ Early in this century, being old meant being poor. When President Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote to thank him for eliminating what one woman called the "stark terror of penniless, helpless old age." Even today, without Social Security, half our nation's elderly would be forced into poverty. ”

“ Whether, whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower, on slave ships, whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they came yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago, our great challenge for the 21st century is to find a way to be one America. We can meet all the other challenges if we can go forward as one America. ”

“ In China last year, I said to the leaders and the people what I'd like to say again tonight: Stability can no longer be bought at the expense of liberty. But I'd also like to say again to the American people: It's important not to isolate China. The more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring change and freedom to China. ”

“ At the same time, we have to continue to work on the long-term project, building a global financial system for the 21st Century that promotes prosperity and tames the cycles of boom and bust that has engulfed so much of Asia. ”

“ Now, the Family Medical Leave Act — the first bill I signed into law — has now since 1993 helped millions and millions of Americans to care for a new baby or an ailing relative without risking their jobs. I think with all the evidence that it has been so little burdensome to employers that we should extend family leave to 10 million more Americans working in smaller companies. ”

“ As everyone knows, our children are targets of a massive media campaign to hook them on cigarettes. Now I ask this Congress to resist the tobacco lobby, to reaffirm the FDA's authority to protect children from tobacco, and to hold the tobacco companies accountable while protecting tobacco farmers.
Smoking has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars under Medicare and other programs. You know, the states have been right about this: taxpayers shouldn't pay for the costs of lung cancer, emphysema, and other smoking-related illnesses, the tobacco companies should. ”

“ I propose — I propose a tax credit of $1,000 for the aged, ailing or disabled and the families who care for them. Long-term care will become a bigger and bigger challenge with the aging of America — and we must do more to help our families deal with it. ”

“ As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation's security, including increased dangers from outlaw nations and terrorism. We will defend our security wherever we are threatened, as we did this summer when we struck at Osama bin Laden's network of terror. The bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania reminds us again of the risks faced every day by those who represent America to the world. So let's give them the support they need, the safest possible workplaces, and the resources they must have so America can continue to lead. ”

“ Now we must work hard to help bring prosperity back to the family farm. You know — as this Congress knows very well, dropping prices and the loss of foreign markets have devastated too many family farms. Last year the Congress provided substantial assistance to help stave off a disaster in American agriculture, and I am ready to work with lawmakers of both parties to create a farm safety net that will include crop insurance reform and farm income assistance. ”

“ We must help all American manufacturers hit hard by the present crisis — with loan guarantees and other incentives to increase American exports by nearly $2 billion.
I'd like to believe we can achieve a new consensus on trade based on these principles, and I ask the Congress again to join me in this common approach and to give the president the trade authority long used, and now overdue and necessary, to advance our prosperity in the 21st century. ”

“ We need to enable our public hospitals, our community, our university health centers to provide basic, affordable care for all the millions of working families who don't have any insurance. They do a lot of that today, but much more can be done. And my balanced budget makes a good down payment toward that goal. ”

“ Working parents also need quality child care. So again this year, I ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for working families, for improved safety and quality, for expanded after-school programs. Our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home parents too. They need support as well.
Parents should never have to worry about choosing between their children and their work. ”

“ Fourth, we must empower parents with more information and more choices. In too many communities, it is easier to get information on the quality of the local restaurants than on the quality of the local schools. Every school district should issue report cards on every school.
And parents should have more choice in selecting their public schools. When I became president, there was one independent, public charter school in all of America. With our support, on a bipartisan basis, today there are 1,100. My budget assures that early in the next century, there will be 3,000. ”

“ Now, all our communities face a preservation challenge as they grow and green space shrinks. Seven thousand acres of farmland and open space are lost every day. In response, I propose two major initiatives: first, a $1 billion Livability Agenda to help communities save open space, ease traffic congestion and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's quality of life. And second, a $1 billion Lands Legacy Initiative to preserve places of natural beauty all across America, from the most remote wilderness to the nearest city park. ”

“ In memory of all the children who lost their lives to school violence, I ask you to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act, to pass legislation to require child trigger locks, to do everything possible to keep our children safe. ”