THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
President Clinton Calls For Bipartisan Season Of Progress
On Key Domestic Challenges Facing The Nation
Georgetown University
June 25, 1999
President Clinton today called for a bipartisan "season of
progress" on the key domestic challenges facing the nation. In his first public event since his trip to Europe following the end of the US/NATO air campaign, the President expressed his determination to get the people's work done by joining with Congress and, when necessary, by Executive action. He addressed the following issues:
Progress On Issues Where Bipartisan Consensus Already Exists:
Protect Health Insurance For Disabled Americans Who Want To Rejoin
The Workforce. The Kennedy/Jeffords bill -- or Work Incentives
Improvement Act -- is historic new legislation which has bipartisan
support in both the House and the Senate under the leadership of
Senators Jeffords, Kennedy, Roth, and Moynihan and Representatives
Lazio, Waxman, Bliley, and Dingell. The bill removes significant
barriers to work for people with disabilities by: improving access
to health care through Medicaid; extending Medicare coverage for
people with disabilities who return to work; and creating a new
Medicaid buy-in demonstration to help people with a specific
physical or mental impairment that is expected to lead to a severe
disability without medical assistance. The President has urged
Congress to pass this important and long overdue legislation by
July 26, the ninth anniversary of the ADA.
Pass A Strong, Enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights For Millions Of
Americans In HMOs. Tens of millions of Americans who receive their
health care through Health Maintenance Organizations lack adequate
protections. They are not ensured access to specialists. They can
be forced to change doctors in mid-treatment. They do not have
adequate recourse when a health plan provides less than adequate
care. And worst of all, they have no guarantee that their doctor
-- not an insurance company accountant -- makes their treatment
decisions. The President's "Patients' Bill of Rights" legislation
addresses all of these problems families face.
Raise The Minimum Wage To Make Work Pay And Strengthen Families.
We have the best economy in a generation. And yet there are too
many families working full-time, 50 weeks a year who don't earn
enough to support a family. Currently, a person working full-time
and earning the minimum wage receives only $10,300 -- not enough to
move families from dependency to self-sufficiency. In his State of
the Union Address, the President called on Congress to pass the
Kennedy-Bonior proposal to raise the minimum wage by $1 over two
years, from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour. Over 11 million Americans
would benefit from this increase -- for a full-time worker, it
would mean an additional $2000 in income. Seventy percent of those
who would benefit are adults over 20 and 59 percent are women, many
of whom are trying to raise families.
Provide Americans With Targeted Tax Cuts For Retirement, Child Care
and Long-term Care. The President's budget provides for targeted
tax cuts for American families, including:
USA Accounts, which will give 124 million Americans the opportunity
to build wealth and to save for their retirement through a
progressive tax cut. A middle income married couple that
participated for 40 years, could accumulate over $253,680 in
today's dollars -- enough to produce $20,121 a year of after-tax
income in retirement.
Long-term Care Tax Credit to help pay for formal and informal
long-term care services for about 2 million Americans, including
1.2 million older Americans, over 500,000 non-elderly adults, and
approximately 250,000 children. The budget includes $5.6 billion
over five years.
Child Care Tax Credits, which provide tax relief for child care for
three million working families, plus tax relief to parents who stay
at home. The President's budget proposal will provide parents with
young children an average tax credit of $178 and will benefit 1.7
million families. Overall, the budget includes $6.3 billion over
five years for this combined proposal.
Pass Strong Campaign Finance Reform To Renew Our Elections. The
President remains committed to the enactment of bipartisan campaign
finance reform. There is bipartisan support for passage of the
Shays/Meehan bill in the House and the McCain/Feingold bill in the
Senate. Congress should act on these measures. Real reform must
meet the following five criteria: 1) it must be bipartisan; 2) it
must be comprehensive; 3) it must reduce the amount of money that
is raised and spent on federal elections; 4) it must help level the
playing field between challengers and incumbents; and 5) it cannot
favor one party over the other.
Progress On Fundamental Challenges Facing Our Nation:
Pass A Budget That Maintains Fiscal Discipline And Makes Key
Investments In The American People While Strengthening Social
Security And Medicare. The President sent the Congress a budget
proposal earlier this year that maintains fiscal discipline and
makes strategic investments in the American people -- a combination
that has resulted in the best economy in a generation. The
President's plan invests in key priorities like education and the
environment. It dedicates most of the budget surplus to
strengthening Social Security and Medicare. And it does all of
this while remaining within the budget caps established by the
Balanced Budget Act in 1997.
Enact A Credible, Comprehensive Plan To Strengthen And Modernize
Medicare, Including The Creation Of A New Prescription Drug
Benefit. President Clinton will soon unveil his comprehensive plan
to modernize and strengthen Medicare. The President has already
proposed that 15 percent of the budget surplus be dedicated for
this purpose. The President's proposal will include a new
prescription drug benefit as part of a broader set of reforms for
the Medicare program.
Maintain Commitment To Hiring 100,000 New Teachers To Reduce Class
Size -- And Pass The President's Plan To Increase Accountability
For States And School Districts. Last year, Congress agreed to
begin funding the President's initiative to hire 100,000 new
teachers in our schools to reduce class sizes and improve
education. This year, the first of those teachers will be hired
and in the classroom. The budget proposal President Clinton sent
to Congress earlier this year continues this commitment. And the
President expects Congress to continue and build on this investment
in Education, rather than back away from it.
In addition, the President wants the Congress to enact his plan to
strengthen accountability, improve teacher quality and dramatically
boost student achievement in our public schools. The President's
proposal includes measures to insure that states and school
districts: fix failing schools; hire teachers that are prepared to
teach the subjects they are assigned; provide parents with annual
report cards on school performance; and end school promotion the
right way.
Enact The President's "New Markets" Tax Credits To Bring Economic
Opportunity To Underserved Rural and Urban Communities. The
President will soon announce his plan to bring economic opportunity
and new private investment to America's most underserved rural and
urban communities. We have the best economy in a generation and
these communities have benefited, along with the rest of America.
But we have an opportunity to do more, to build on the
Administration's earlier efforts and lift these "New Markets" into
the economic mainstream.
The President will unveil legislation including a series of
proposals to bring capital and private investment to underserved
communities. Then, in early July, the President will tour
America's New Markets with CEOs, members of his Cabinet, members of
Congress and others -- to highlight both the problems and the
potential these communities possess.
Protect Our Children From Gun Violence By Enacting The Moderate,
Common Sense Gun Measures Passed By The Senate. On April 20, 12
young people were shot to death at school in Littleton, Colorado.
In response to increasing acts of school gun violence, the
President took comprehensive action -- calling on everyone from
parents, teachers and students to entertainment executives and gun
owners and gun dealers to take more responsibility. As one
element of that strategy, the President called on Congress to close
the glaring loopholes in the law which allow kids and criminals to
obtain guns - most importantly the gun show loophole.
While the Senate passed many of the President's common sense
proposals, the House narrowly voted against closing the gunshow
loophole and defeated the bill on June 18 -- almost two months to
the day after the Littleton tragedy.
Today, President Clinton called on Congressional leaders to appoint
negotiators and quickly send him a bill that includes the Senate
passed gun measures.
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