From Mail-Server@lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu  Sat Aug  7 01:06:32 1993
To: Clinton-News-Distribution@campaign92.org,
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 23:59-0400
From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
Subject: President's Remarks After the Senate Vote  8/6/93

	     

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                             August 6, 1993     

	     
                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                        ON THE SENATE PASSAGE
                        OF THE BUDGET PACKAGE  

                          The North Portico
	     
11:05 P.M. EDT
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very 
much.  
	     
	     What we heard tonight at the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue was the sound of gridlock breaking.  (Applause.)  It was the 
sound of progress and change which can now resound throughout every 
corner of our great and beloved nation.  
	     
	     I want to thank the United States senators who voted for 
change tonight, especially the Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell 
for his untiring efforts, and all the others who worked so hard for 
so long to see this night come about.  I want to thank the Vice 
President for his unwavering contribution to the landslide.  
(Applause.)  
	     
	     I thank the economic team who worked so hard on this 
from last November:  Leon Panetta, who is here; Secretary Bentsen; 
Mr. Rubin, and all the people who work with them.  I thank Mr. 
McLarty and all the members of the White House staff.  I thank Mr. 
Altman and the war room for the work they did in the last several 
weeks.  (Applause.)  I thank especially Howard Paster and Steve 
Ricchetti and all those who worked for us in the Senate.  (Applause.)  
I hope that they will get some well-deserved rest.
	     
	     After 12 long years, we can say to the American people 
tonight we have laid the foundation for the renewal of the American 
Dream.  The days of endless gridlock, rising deficits, and trickle-
down economics are over.  The days of economic growth and real 
opportunity for the working families of this country have begun.
	     
	     This was not easy, but real change is never easy.  It is 
always difficult.  It is always easier to sustain the status quo and 
to talk as if you were changing.  But that is not why I was elected 
President, nor is it why we were sent here.  
	     
	     When we came here, our national debt had quadrupled in 
12 years.  And the incomes of our forgotten working families had been 
stagnant for nearly 20 years.  Our heritage of investment in our 
people and our economy had been gradually forsaken and the people of 
our nation questioned whether anyone here in this city would take 
responsibility for our future, change the direction of our country, 
and ensure a better life for them and their children.  
	     
	     After a long season of denial and drift and decline, we 
are seizing control of our economic destiny.  To be sure, as I have 
said repeatedly, this is just the beginning -- just the first step in 
our attempts to assert control over our financial affairs, to invest 
in our future, and to grow our economy, to deal with the health care 
problems, the welfare reform problems, the problems of crime in the 
streets and the other things that deal with the daily fabric of life 
for our people.  But make no mistake about it, this is a very, very 
important beginning.  
	     
	     The economic program that Congress passed tonight puts 
$500 billion into a trust fund locked away for deficit reduction; 
$255 billion in specific real, enforceable spending cuts; tax cuts 
for 20 million working Americans with marginal incomes who are trying 
to raise their children.  This will reward their desire to choose 
work over welfare.  It is an important advance in the fabric of 
opportunity and responsibility in this country.
	     
	     This new direction includes new opportunities for the 
sons and daughters of middle class families to go to college because 
it reforms the student loan programs in ways that make student loans 
more accessible to more people and cuts the cost in the program 
through waste reduction.
	     
	     It provides immunizations to give a healthy start to 
millions of American children.  It provides significant new 
incentives for small businesses to grow and expand.  
	     
	     In this sharp departure from business as usual, this 
program will create jobs, reduce the deficit and put the American 
people first.
	     
	     In the lifetime of this country, the courage and wisdom 
of the American people in difficulty have always prevailed when we 
faced a challenge and needed a change.  Sometimes in the past they 
have prevailed by the narrowest of margins in the beginning, but 
always picking up steam, always marching confidently toward the 
future.  That will be true in this time as well.
	     
	     We're determined not to let the American Dream founder.  
We are determined to stop avoiding our problems and start facing 
them, to embrace them as challenges, to turn them into opportunities, 
to seize the future that rightfully belongs to every American willing 
to work hard, play by the rules, and take care of their children.  We 
are determined that the next generation of Americans will inherit a 
brighter future than we have known, just as we did from our parents.
	     
	     For more than two centuries, that has been the promise 
of the American Dream.  Tonight, because of the bold action taken by 
courageous men and women in the House and the Senate, that dream will 
not be deferred, but rather be fulfilled.
	     
	     I am profoundly grateful tonight for the opportunity to 
stand here, not simply as President, but as an American citizen 
seeing our nation once again roll up our sleeves together, tackle our 
problems, and march to tomorrow.
	     
	     Thank you, and God bless you all.  (Applause.)

                                 END11:11 P.M. EDT

