Clinton’s Speech Looks Ahead to New Millennium

These are excerpts from the prepared text of the 1999 State of the Union address by President Clinton:

Let me begin by saluting the new speaker of the House [J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)] and thanking him for extending invitations to two special guests who are sitting in the gallery with Mrs. Hastert. Lyn Gibson and Wei Ling Chestnut are the widows of the two brave Capitol Police officers who gave their lives to defend freedom’s house.

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.

For the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. . . .

Violent crime is the lowest in a quarter-century. Our environment is the cleanest in a quarter-century.

America is a strong force for peace, from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to the Middle East. . . .

My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the state of our union is strong. . . .

So with our budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our confidence rising, now is the moment for this generation to meet our historic responsibility to the 21st century. Let’s get to work.

Aging of 21st Century America

. . . With the number of elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the baby boom will become a senior boom.

So first and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st century. . . .

But by 2013, payroll taxes will no longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments. And by 2032, the trust fund will be exhausted. . . .

The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; and not to drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it.

Instead, I propose that we make the historic decision to invest the surplus to save Social Security.

Specifically, I propose that we commit 60% 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. And we should reduce poverty among elderly women . . . and we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security can earn. . . .

Second, once we have saved Social Security, we must fulfill our obligation to save and improve Medicare. . . . Tonight I propose that we use one out of every six dollars in the surplus over the next 15 years to guarantee the soundness of Medicare until the year 2020. . . .

If we work together, we can secure Medicare for the next two decades and cover seniors’ greatest need: affordable prescription drugs.

Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, to save, to invest, to create wealth. . . . Americans living longer than ever must save more than ever.

. . . I propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st century. I propose that we use 11% 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. . . .

Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. I propose a tax credit of $1,000 for the aged, ailing or disabled and the families who care for them. . . .

21st-Century Schools

. . . Our children are doing better. SAT scores are up. Math scores have risen in nearly all grades. But there is a problem: While our fourth-graders outperform their peers in other countries in math and science, our eighth-graders are around average, and our 12th-graders rank near the bottom.

We must do better. . . .

Later this year, I will send Congress a plan that for the first time holds states and school districts accountable for progress and rewards them for results. . . .

First, all schools must end social promotion. No child should graduate from high school with a diploma he or she can’t read. . . .

But we can’t just hold students back when the system fails them. So my balanced budget triples the funding for summer school and after-school programs. . . .

Second, all states and school districts must turn around their worst performing schools--or shut them down. . . .

Third, all states and school districts must be held responsible for the quality of their teachers. The great majority of teachers do a fine job. But in too many schools, teachers don’t have college majors--or even minors--in the subjects they teach.

New teachers should be required to pass performance exams. . . .

To attract talented young teachers to the toughest assignments, I recommend a sixfold increase in scholarships for college students who commit to teach in the inner cities, isolated rural areas and Indian communities.

Fourth, we must empower parents, with more information and more choices. . . . Every school district should issue report cards on every school. And parents should have more choice in selecting their public schools. . . .

Fifth, to ensure that our classrooms are truly places of learning, all states and school districts must adopt and implement discipline policies.

Now, let’s do one more thing for our children. Today, too many of our schools are so old they’re falling apart, or so overcrowded students must learn in trailers. . . .

I ask you to help our communities build or modernize 5,000 schools.

Support for Families

We must do more to help the millions of parents who give their all every day at home and at work.

The most basic tool of all is a decent income. Let’s raise the minimum wage by a dollar an hour over the next two years. And let’s make sure women and men get equal pay for equal work. . . .

Working parents also need quality child care. Again, I ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for working families, improved safety and quality, and expanded after-school programs. Our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home parents. They need support too. . . .

America’s families deserve the world’s best medical care. . . .

I say to every American: You should have the right to know all your medical options--not just the cheapest. You should have the right to see a specialist. You should have the right to emergency care. You should have the right to continuity of care. . . .

I have ordered that these rights be extended to the 85 million Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health plans. But only Congress can enact the patients’ bill of rights for all Americans in all health plans. . . .

As everyone knows, our children are targets of a massive media campaign to hook them on cigarettes. I ask this Congress to resist the tobacco lobby. Together, let’s reaffirm the FDA’s authority to protect children from tobacco, hold the tobacco companies accountable and protect tobacco farmers.

A 21st-Century Economy

Today, America is the most dynamic, competitive, job-creating economy in history.

But we can do even better--in building a 21st-century economy for all Americans.

Today’s income gap is largely a skills gap. Last year, Congress passed a law enabling workers to get a skills grant to choose the training they need. This year, I recommend a five-year commitment in this new system so that we can provide that training for all Americans who lose their jobs, and rapid response teams to help towns where factories have closed. And I ask for a dramatic increase in federal support for adult literacy. . . .

In the past six years, we have cut the welfare rolls nearly in half. . . . Our balanced budget will help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and pride of work.

We must bring the spark of private enterprise to every community in America--to inner cities and remote rural areas--with more support for community development banks, empowerment zones and 100,000 vouchers for affordable housing. . . .

We must bring prosperity back to the family farm. . . .

We must strengthen our lead in technology. . . .

For our own prosperity, we must support economic growth abroad. . . . Today, much of the world is in recession.

. . . we will continue to work on a global basis to build a financial system for the 21st century that promotes prosperity and tames the cycles of boom and bust. . . .

We must tear down barriers, open markets and expand trade. At the same time, we must ensure that ordinary citizens in all countries benefit from trade. . . .

We must enforce our trade laws when imports unlawfully flood our nation. . . . And we must act to help all American manufacturers hit hard by the present crisis--with loan guarantees and other incentives to increase U.S. exports by nearly $2 billion. . . .

This year, we should expand trade with our neighbors in Central America and the Caribbean. And because trade and investment are the keys to African development--we must finally pass the African Growth and Opportunity Act. . . .

We will work with the International Labor Organization on a new initiative to lift up labor standards around the world. And this year, we will lead the international community to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child labor everywhere in the world. . . .

Strong America in New World

No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility we now have to shape a world more peaceful, secure and free.

All Americans can be proud that our leadership helped to bring peace in Northern Ireland.

All Americans can be proud that our leadership has put Bosnia on the path to peace. . . .

All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for lasting peace in the Middle East. . . .

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. . . .

We must increase our efforts to restrain the spread of nuclear weapons and missiles, from North Korea to India and Pakistan.

We must expand our work with Russia, Ukraine, and the other former Soviet nations to safeguard nuclear materials and technology so they never fall into the wrong hands. . . .

With Russia, we must continue to reduce our nuclear arsenals. . . .

It has been two years since I signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. . . . I ask the Senate to take this vital step: Approve the treaty now, so we can make it harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms--and we can end nuclear testing forever.

For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligation to destroy its weapons of terror and the missiles to deliver them. America will continue to contain Saddam--and we will work for the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people.

Last month, in our action over Iraq, our troops were superb. . . . It is time to reverse the decline in defense spending that began in 1985. . . .

America needs a strong and effective U.N. I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts. . . .

It is important not to isolate China. The more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring change and freedom to China. . . .

We must fortify African democracy and peace--and support the transition to democracy now beginning to take hold in Nigeria. . . .

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. . . .

21st-Century Communities

As the world has changed, so have our own communities. We must make them safer, more livable, more united.

This year, we will reach our goal of 100,000 community police officers--ahead of schedule and under budget. The Brady Bill has stopped a quarter-million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying handguns. Now the murder rate is the lowest in 30 years, and the crime rate has dropped for six straight years.

Tonight, I propose a 21st Century Crime Bill to deploy the latest technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer.

My balanced budget will help put up to 50,000 more police on the beat in the areas hardest hit by crime and to equip them with new tools, from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.

We must break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. My budget expands support for drug testing and treatment. It says to prisoners: If you stay on drugs, you stay behind bars. And it says to those on parole: To keep your freedom, keep free of drugs.

Congress should restore the five-day waiting period for buying a handgun. And you should extend the Brady Bill to prevent juveniles who commit violent crimes from buying a gun.

We must keep our schools the safest places in our communities.

Last year, we were horrified and heartbroken by the tragic killings in Jonesboro, Paducah, Pearl, Edinboro, Springfield. We are deeply moved by the courageous parents who are working to keep guns out of the hands of children.

. . . let’s pass legislation to require child trigger locks. . . .

Today, we are restoring the Florida Everglades, saving Yellowstone, preserving the red-rock canyons of Utah, protecting California’s redwoods and our precious coasts.

But our most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming. 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded. Last year’s heat waves, ice storms, and floods are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we don’t act now.

So tonight, I propose a new clean air fund to help communities reduce pollution, and tax incentives and investments to spur clean energy technologies. And I will work with Congress to reward companies that take early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases. . . .

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; second, a $1-billion Lands Legacy Initiative to preserve places of natural beauty all across America. . . .

Last year, the House passed the bipartisan campaign finance reform legislation. . . . But a partisan minority in the Senate blocked reform. To the House I say: Pass it again, quickly. And to the Senate: Say yes to a strong democracy in the year 2000.

Since 1997, our Initiative on Race has sought to bridge the divides between our people. . . .

But we have more to do.

Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or sexual orientation, is wrong. It should be illegal. Therefore I call upon Congress to make the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.

And since every person must count in America, our census must count every American. Let’s have a census that uses the most modern scientific methods.

Our newest immigrants must be part of One America. They are revitalizing our cities, energizing our culture, building our new economy. We have a responsibility to make immigrants 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 seeking to do just that. Therefore, my budget expands significantly our efforts to help them meet their responsibility. . . .

The Millennium

Barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross that bridge into the new millennium. This is a moment, as the First Lady has said, to honor the past and imagine the future. . . .

Last year, I called on Congress and every citizen to mark the millennium by saving America’s treasures. Hillary has traveled across the country to inspire recognition and support for saving places like Thomas Edison’s Invention Factory and Harriet Tubman’s Home. We must preserve our treasures in every community. I invite every American town, city and county to become nationally recognized “Millennium Communities” by launching projects that save our history, promote the arts and humanities and prepare our children for the 21st century. . . .

Six years ago tomorrow, I came to office in a time of doubt for America, with our economy troubled, our deficit high, our people divided. Some even wondered whether our best days were behind us. But across this nation, in a thousand neighborhoods, I had seen, even amid the pain and uncertainty of recession, the heart and character of America.

I knew then we Americans could renew our country.

Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union message of the 20th century, no one can doubt the enduring resolve and boundless capacity of Americans to work toward that “more perfect union” of our founders’ dreams.

We near 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 of racial prejudice, building the largest middle class in history, winning two world wars and the “long twilight struggle” of the Cold War. . . .

Perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of controversy, we do not see our own time for what it truly is: a new dawn for America.

A hundred years from tonight, an American president will stand in this place to report on the State of the Union. He--or she--will look back on a 21st century shaped in so many ways by the decisions we make here and now.

Let it be said of us then that we were thinking not only of our time but of their time; that we reached as high as our ideals; that we put aside our divisions and found a new hour of healing and hopefulness; that we joined together to serve and strengthen the country we love.

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 our beloved country.