         | THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For
Immediate Release July 27, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT,
SENATOR TOM DASCHLE AND
CONGRESSMAN DICK GEPHARDT
AT DEMOCRATIC AGENDA EVENT
The Rose Garden
3:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, on behalf of
all of us, I want to apologize -- please be seated -- for keeping you
waiting. But these are the closing hours of the congressional session,
before the August recess. And Senator Daschle and Leader Gephardt and the
other members of Congress have come here today to speak with one voice
about our position. But Congress is packing up and preparing to adjourn
for the summer recess and the two conventions. And I only wish we were
late because they'd been out there passing our bills. (Laughter and
applause.)
Let me say, we're here because we believe the congressional Republican
leadership is leaving town with a trunk full of unfinished business vital
to the health of our economy and the well being of our people. We spent
the last seven years charting a course of fiscal discipline and investment
in our people, and it has paid off, with the longest economic expansion in
history, over 22 million new jobs, the lowest minority unemployment rate in
our history, the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years.
Instead of continuing on that path, in the last few weeks -- indeed,
for the last year, the Republican majority has risked squandering our
progress. They have passed reckless tax cut after reckless tax cut after
reckless tax cut, to drain away our hard-earned surplus and put us back in
the red. When you add them all up, this Congress has passed tax bills that
would cost nearly $2 trillion over 10 years. Even by the most optimistic
estimates, this wouldn't leave a dime for lengthening the life of Social
Security or Medicare -- not one dime; not a dime for voluntary and
affordable Medicare prescription drug benefits or for education and school
construction. And it would make it impossible for us to get America out of
debt by 2012.
There is a better way. We can do all the things I just mentioned and
still give the American people needed, targeted tax relief. Let me be
clear: we do support the right kind of tax cuts for working Americans. I
have proposed a program of cuts that will give a middle-class American
family substantially more benefits than the Republican plan at less than
half the cost; two-thirds of the relief going to the middle 60 percent of
our people, including our carefully-targeted marriage penalty relief.
The tax cuts will also help families save up to $2,800 a year on the
cost of college by making tuition tax deductible; a $3,000 long-term care
tax credit to help millions of Americans shoulder the enormous financial
burden of caring for chronically ill family members. And a tax cut that
will help millions of families pay up to $2,400 a year for child care; to
expand the EITC, providing up to $1,100 of tax relief for millions of
hard-working families.
Today, we have more evidence that our plan will help more of the
people who really need it. We're releasing a state-by-state analysis,
showing that the estate tax repeal, recently passed by the Republican
majority, would benefit only about 2 percent of America's families -- the
wealthiest 2 percent, of course -- providing them of an average tax cut of
$800,000. And fully half those benefits would go to just one-tenth of 1
percent of all Americans.
Let me hasten to say the Democrats offered an alternative which would
have taken two-thirds of the people subject to the estate tax out from
under it, but would have left its progressive character, not repealed it
entirely, and not cost the budget $100 billion over the first 10 years and
$750 billion thereafter.
In contrast to these proposals, our Medicare prescription drug benefit
would provide affordable coverage for 39 million seniors and people with
disabilities, with average incomes of about $20,000 a year. This report
clearly shows that our approach put the interest of American families
first, and ensures that the nation's unprecedented prosperity benefits
everyone.
Let me just mention one other thing -- I never want to talk about this
without mentioning. We also have a report from the Council of Economic
Advisors estimating that if our economic proposals are followed, as opposed
to theirs, giving all this money away with the tax cuts, interest rates
will be 1 percent lower over the next decade. That is the equivalent of a
$250 billion tax cut for home mortgages. It's the equivalent of a $30
billion tax cut for lower car payments and college loan payments.
There is a huge difference here that the American people have to
understand. I think the Republican majority ought to go to work in the
time we have left this year on the people's business.
So when they go off on vacation, the congressional majority should
take a long list of required summer reading, a list of what we need to get
done when they come back to Washington: to strengthen and modernize Social
Security and Medicare and add that prescription drug benefit; to stand up
to special interest and pass a strong and enforceable patients' bill of
rights; to pass common-sense gun legislation to close the gun show
loophole, require child safety locks for all handguns, ban the importation
of large-capacity ammunition clips; to raise the minimum wage by $1 over
two years. (Applause.)
To continue hiring those hundred thousand teachers; to reduce class
sizes in the early grades; to improve teacher quality; to modernize 6,000
of our schools that are literally falling apart, and repair another 5,000 a
year; and to provide after-school programs and summer school programs for
all the kids in this country who need it so that we can turn around those
failing schools. And we need to stop the delay and pass strong hate crimes
legislation.
This is not a list to be read; it's a list to be acted upon.
(Applause.) Thank you. I hope when Congress comes back, they'll do it.
Again, I want to thank all the members that are here, and another 40 or 50
or so that wanted to come, but because of the way the time table and the
voting is unfolding, they can't.
I'm going to modify the program just a little bit and ask Senator
Daschle to come forward, because he's got to get back to make sure we don't
lose any more votes. Senator Daschle. (Applause.)
SENATOR DASCHLE: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for having us
back. And thank you for your extraordinary efforts these past few weeks to
advance the causes of peace and prosperity here at home and throughout the
world. From the Oval Office to Camp David, to Okinawa, we thank you, Mr.
President, for the extraordinary leadership that you have given us time and
time again. (Applause.) We are inspired by you and indebted to you for
your tireless efforts to make the future better than the past.
Not everyone in government thinks that way. In Congress, instead of
making the future better than our past, our Republican colleagues seem
determined to recreate the past. We've finally gotten rid of the deficit,
and they're hell-bent on bringing it back. (Applause.)
In the last two weeks, they passed two tax cuts that, together, would
cost the American taxpayers more than $1 trillion in the decade after this
one -- the same decade that the baby boomers start to retire. And if
that's not bad enough, the Republican tax cuts give as much money to the
wealthiest 1 percent as they do to the bottom 80 percent of Americans
combined.
If you're among the richest 1 percent of Americans, under the
Republican tax cut plan you get $16,000. But if you're like most
Americans, you get about $200. The Republican tax cuts are also so
irresponsible and so clearly tilted to favor the wealthy, that they're
afraid to even send them to the President before the convention. They
don't want anyone to look beyond the labels and see what the tax cuts
really do; but the American people aren't going to be fooled.
America's families deserve better than what Republicans are offering
them, and we can do better. We should cut taxes this year. Our economy is
strong enough and the surplus is big enough. But there's a right way and a
wrong way to cut taxes. The Republican tax cuts reward the few; our tax
cuts invest in the future. Their tax cut plan benefits the wealthiest 1 or
2 percent; our plan helps the other 98 percent.
Listen to what we can do for less than what the Republican tax cuts
would cost: we can eliminate the marriage penalty for working families who
pay it. We can eliminate the estate tax for nearly all family-owned farms
and businesses faster than the Republicans do under their plan. They do
not remove even one farm from the estate tax rolls for 10 years. That's
just the beginning.
We can also make up to $12,000 a year of college tuition
tax-deductible. And we can help families put their children through
college, or go back to school themselves and learn new skills so they can
move ahead in today's rapidly-changing economy. We can help families care
for the elderly or disabled family members by providing them with a $3,000
long-term care tax credit. We can make child care more affordable by more
than doubling the tax credit for dependent children and providing
additional tax relief for families with stay-at-home parents.
On top of that, we can help middle-class families save for retirement
and increase the earned income tax credit, which Ronald Reagan called "the
best job-creating, most pro-family tax plan ever passed in the Congress."
We can also make the research and development tax credit permanent to spur
innovation, and we can eliminate the phone tax and provide New Market
initiatives that the President has so strongly provided leadership for, to
help bring jobs and opportunities to America's poorest cities and rural
communities.
We can do all of those things, every single one of those things that
I've mentioned for less than the cost of the Republican tax cuts. So the
question isn't: should we cut taxes? The question is: how should we cut
taxes? Who should we help first? The 80 percent of America's families who
are stretched to the limit trying to make a decent life for themselves, or
the people at the top who have already got it made?
We think the answer is obvious. A year ago, Republicans passed a
similar tax cut, then spent the month of August trying to sell their plan
to the American people. Everywhere they went, people told them the same
thing: read our lips. No new tax cuts for the rich. We need to pay down
the debt, cut taxes for working families and invest in America's future.
Mr. President, we're here to tell you: we will support your veto of
every single Republican tax bill. We make that pledge this afternoon.
(Applause.)
But just as importantly, we will work with you and we will work with
our Republican colleagues to pass tax cuts that will help America's
families meet the challenges of the future, not repeat the mistakes of the
past.
And now, it is my pleasure to introduce someone who fights every day
for working families, my partner in the House, Dick Gephardt. (Applause.)
CONGRESSMAN GEPHARDT: Thank you very much. First, let me add a
comment to what Tom Daschle said about the President's work in the last
weeks to try to bring about peace in the Middle East.
He didn't succeed in the end, but he tried very hard. And a lot of
progress was made. And I believe with all my heart that before this
President leaves office, he will achieve the peace in the Middle East that
we all seek. (Applause.)
For these last years, President Clinton, with our support, has kept
this great nation on the path of fiscal discipline, invested wisely in our
people and helped produce the longest economic expansion in the history of
the United States. As a nation, we have made a commitment to paying down
the debt. And that, combined with the entrepreneurial energy of the
American people, has led to the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years in
this country.
More new jobs have been created in this administration than in any
administration in our history. Homeownership is at its highest rate in
history. Our poverty rate is at a 20-year low. And average families in
this country squarely in the middle of the income scale are enjoying the
lowest tax rate since 1978. (Applause.)
So the economic ground on which we stand has never been stronger. We
have before us the opportunity now to do great things for the American
people, to lift the tide for those who may not be riding so high on the
wave of prosperity in our country. But this Republican led Congress has
strived for mediocrity, not greatness. The mediocrity has brought them the
praise of special interests, whose industries benefit from our failure, and
the disappointment of a nation of people who've rightly become cynical
about whose interests are being attended to in their Congress.
Accomplishment in Washington has become an acronym for blocking
progress. Republican chest beating and self-congratulation aside, a
legislative accomplishment is not an accomplishment, by definition, until
President Clinton signs it into law. The Republicans today who claim great
achievement have sent President Clinton only 78 bills this year. One out
of four of those bills named post offices and buildings -- not exactly the
most important matters that are before us. Most involve little debate,
most pass by a voice vote.
The few true accomplishments, bills the President actually signed --
repealing the Social Security earnings test, which was greatly needed; the
E-signatures bill, and requiring disclosure by so-called 527s, secret
campaign organizations were done because of a genuine bipartisan effort to
pass those bills.
Progress and accomplishment doesn't come easily in a Congress that's
as closely divided as ours. Real progress, real, meaningful change can
only come through truly bipartisan consensual efforts. There is no way
around it. That has not happened this year, and it hasn't happened for a
reason. Protecting the interest of the insurance industry, the
pharmaceutical companies and the National Rifle Association has been a
full-time job for the Republican leadership. (Applause.)
Now, we've come agonizingly close to real achievement on a patients'
bill of rights. And I hope we can get one this year. On providing a
prescription drug benefit for our senior citizens. And I still hope we can
get one this year. On passing effective gun safety legislation, and I hope
we can get that done this year. And campaign finance reform -- finally,
let us be able to get campaign finance reform this year.
But all of it has been frustrated by powerful, special interests who
haven't wanted these bills to go through -- and the Republican leaders'
sworn allegiance to their efforts.
The American people have a bottom line that's measured in their own
reality: are they safer? Are their families healthier? Are their
families more secure by result of what we do here in Washington? By that
measure, this Congress has failed miserably to live up to our expectations.
A review of what we've been doing is instructive. As Tom said, while
Republicans have put forward a series of tax cuts that total nearly $2
trillion, Democrats join with the President to push for targeted tax relief
for middle-income families, coupled with an agenda that pays down the debt,
strengthens Social Security and Medicare and provides a real prescription
drug benefit for our seniors.
Democrats proposed an affordable, reliable prescription drug benefit
for our senior citizens. We said that if you're elderly and having trouble
paying for your medicine, you need a benefit now -- not next year, not the
year after that -- you need it this year and we need to get it done.
(Applause.)
We need to modernize our schools. We need more teachers. We need
better qualified teachers. We need teachers who are ready to walk in the
classroom and excite and motivate our children, and make sure that every
child in this society is a productive, law abiding citizen of this country.
That's not too much to ask of this Congress. We have not been able to get
them off the dime to do the things this President has asked them to do for
buildings and teachers and computers and pre-school and after-school and
summer school and what we need to do to save the children of this country.
We need it now. (Applause.)
We fought for sensible gun safety legislation. How many more children
do we need to lose in our streets before we put safety locks on the guns
and before we do something to stop this gun show loophole once and for all?
(Applause.) But the NRA didn't want it, so we don't have it.
And then there is the matter of the minimum wage. How cruel is it to
have some family out there trying to live on the minimum wage at $5.15 an
hour -- and there are millions of people stuck on that minimum wage. But
the Chamber of Commerce didn't want it, and so the Republican leaders won't
go forward with it. And the HMOs didn't want the patients' bill of rights
and the insurance companies don't want it. And so we have patients out
there today -- and let me tell you something, if you're a patient and
you're not getting the care that you paid for, you don't need to wait until
next year, you need it now if somebody in your family is sick. (Applause.)
Well, Mr. President, when we come back in September, we're going to
have three weeks left. Three weeks is not a lot of time, but it's enough
time if the Republican leadership will finally come to the table with you,
stop sending you bills that you're just vetoing because they're too big and
too wrong, and sit down with you and work out a compromise and get a
consensus to move this country in the right direction. I pray that they do
that.
I'm often asked, gee, wouldn't that blow up your political plan for
the fall. Well, let me tell you something, I didn't come here to concoct
political plans. All these members came here to do something meaningful
for the people they represent. That is what is in our hearts and minds.
And, Mr. President, we will work with you every day in September and we'll
go into the middle or end of October if we can get these bills done for the
American people. (Applause.)
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Debbie, I want to ask your parents and all your
siblings and family members to stand -- everybody that is here from
Debbie's family, stand up. (Applause.) Isn't that great? Bless you.
I just want to make a couple of points in closing. If the Congress
passed only our college opportunity tax cut, it would be worth ten times as
much to families like Debbie's as the entire Republican tax cut.
The second thing I want to say is, if interest rates rise 1 percent
higher than they otherwise would be because we spend the entire surplus on
tax cuts, it will cost the average family $270 a year, which is more than
they'll get in a tax cut.
The final thing I want to say is this: even if you don't think you'll
get any benefits out of any of these tax cuts we've proposed -- keep in
mind, all this proposed surplus that they want to spend is just that, it's
estimated. We don't have a dollar of it yet.
Now, if you got one of those letters in the mail from Ed McMahon --
(laughter) -- that said, you may have won $10 million, would you go out and
spend $10 million the next day? If you would, you should support their
plan. (Applause.) But if you wouldn't, you better stick with us and keep
the prosperity going and help people like Debbie. (Applause.)
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)
END 3:37 P.M. EDT
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