Clinton Challenges Congress, Calls for Education Crusade

President Clinton, warning that inaction “is the enemy,” appealed Tuesday for a national crusade to elevate educational standards and asked Congress to help him complete the “unfinished business” of welfare restructuring, budget balancing and campaign finance reform.

In a generally optimistic State of the Union address, Clinton spoke emphatically about the importance of education and proposed nationwide testing of fourth-graders and eighth-graders to ensure that they get the skills they need to prosper in the global economy.

The president challenged Congress to pass sweeping campaign finance reforms by July 4, gaining a brief standing ovation, and to restore some of the benefits to legal immigrants removed by last year’s welfare reform legislation. In addition, he invited Congress to join him in responding to the “historic opportunity” to balance the federal budget.

“Tonight I issue a call to action--action by this Congress, by our states, by all our people, to prepare America for the 21st century,” Clinton said in the nationally televised address.

The speech before a joint session of Congress closely tracked many of the themes that Clinton highlighted on the campaign trail and in his inaugural address last month, including the value of ethnic diversity and the importance of bipartisan cooperation in solving the nation’s problems.

Entering the chamber several minutes late--and with television commentators and cameras splitting their attention between the president in Washington and the wait for a verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial in Santa Monica, Calif.,--Clinton encountered a sea of applause from members of Congress, the Cabinet and diplomatic corps that traditionally greets the chief executive as he makes his way down the center aisle of the chamber of the House of Representatives.

Clinton explicitly rejected the GOP push for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, declaring: “We don’t need a constitutional amendment. We need action.” But he otherwise hewed to a moderate course that offered few obvious provocations to the Republican majority.

Rather than emphasizing the partisan realities that could imperil his agenda, the president cited the dangers of apathy and seemed keenly aware of the limited time he has left to leave a mark on the White House:

“We face no imminent threat but we do have an enemy. The enemy of our time is inaction.” Near the end of his speech, he added: “We don’t have a moment to waste.”

Indeed, the absence of the Soviet threat and the end of the Cold War was an implicit and explicit theme of Clinton’s remarks and his attempt to sketch a vision of America’s new role on the global stage.

“To prepare America for the 21st century, we must master the forces of change in the world and keep American leadership strong and sure for an uncharted time.”

Clinton highlighted the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, relations with “a democratic Russia” and a “deeper dialogue with China” as among his foreign policy goals, calling for a renewed commitment to American diplomacy overseas. The president’s budget, which will be released Thursday, is expected to call for an extra $1 billion for a range of State Department activities, in addition to money owed the United Nations.

“Let us do what it takes to remain the indispensable nation--to keep America strong, secure and prosperous for another 50 years,” he said, alluding to bipartisan support between President Harry S. Truman and Congress early on the Cold War.

Clinton’s address comes at a time when his White House has been hit by an unusual combination of cross currents. His popularity rating has been measured at a healthy 60% in recent public opinion polls and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have signaled a willingness to take his program more seriously than they have in previous years.

At the same time, the administration continues to be embarrassed by an ongoing stream of disclosures about Democratic Party fund-raising and faces the prospect of highly visible Senate hearings on the subject in coming months.

Programs Show a Retooled Agenda

Clinton’s program underscores how far the president has gone in modifying his legislative agenda, both in response to the Republican majority in Congress and his belatedly embraced goal of balancing the budget.

For instance, the president called for a “step-by-step” effort to provide medical coverage to children who lack it and said that his budget would extend such protection to half of the 10 million children in that situation--a dramatic change from earlier plans for comprehensive, national health care.

“We must continue, step by step, to give more families access to affordable, quality health care,” Clinton said.

Turning to the politically sensitive issue of welfare reform, the president suggested tax credits and other incentives for private employers to hire beneficiaries. He cited five corporations--Sprint, Monsanto, United Parcel Service, Burger King and United Airlines--as spearheading private-sector efforts to achieve that goal.

And he reiterated his demand that Congress restore health and disability benefits to legal immigrants, whose aid will be cut off under last year’s welfare reform legislation. “To do otherwise is simply unworthy of a great nation of immigrants,” he said.

Yet of the numerous topics discussed, the president devoted the largest amount of time to education, an area that symbolizes his notion of “the tools” people need to survive in the economy of the future.

Clinton said that his budget would propose $51 billion next year in an array of education programs and benefits--a 20% increase--including a $1,500 tuition tax credit for the first two years of college, a $10,000 deduction for tuition, increased Pell Grant scholarships and more liberal individual retirement account rules that would allow penalty-free withdrawals for education.

Education Goals Strictly Voluntary

Earlier Tuesday, aides explained that his proposal to test fourth-graders in reading and eighth-graders in math and algebra would remain voluntary for localities. Federal officials would draw up the exams, based at least in part on existing tests, and shoulder part of the cost of administering them locally.

But Clinton clearly was relying on his use of the presidential bully pulpit to encourage school districts to go along with the plan. Education traditionally has been a predominantly state and local endeavor.

“The greatest step of all--the high threshold to the future we now must cross and my No. 1 priority as president for the next four years--is to ensure that Americans have the best education in the world,” Clinton said.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.