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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
            (Aboard Air Force One En Route to Andrews AFB)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                     July 30, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

The Senate made the wrong choice for America's future today. By pushing through a tax plan that is too big and too bloated, the majority party has pushed aside our vital national priorities.

The Republican tax cut is so large it would undo our fiscal discipline and imperil our prosperity. It would crowd out our commitments to pay down the debt, to save Social Security, and to strengthen and modernize Medicare with a long-overdue prescription drug benefit. And it would demand drastic cuts in defense, education, law enforcement, agriculture, and the environment.

Let's be clear on what exactly this fight is about and what it isn't. It's not about whether to cut taxes. It's about whether to have tax cuts that save Social Security and Medicare, or tax cuts that undermine them. Tax cuts in the national interest, or tax cuts for special interests.

I will not sign a tax plan that shortchanges our seniors and our young people. I will not sign a plan that signs away our future. If Congress passes that kind of plan, I will veto it.

We should put first things first. We should pay down the debt, save Social Security, strengthen and modernize Medicare, and keep our crucial national commitments. We can do these things and still have the right kind of tax cuts. I urge the Congress to put aside plans that are plainly wrong for America, and to work with me for what's right.

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