[Charles Fishman, editor] Please Distribute 10/08/92 THE ESSENTIAL BILL CLINTON: THE ECONOMY (Part I) "The incumbent president says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins. But unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. And, Mr. President, you are that man. THE VISION --------------------------- "I want a government that works with business to spur growth, create jobs, and increase incomes. I want a streamlined government that does what the government of every other advanced country does: work aggressively promoting private sector growth." "At the end of World War II, when I was born, our country rebuilt Europe and Japan. At the end of the Cold War, we must rebuild our own nation, re-train our people, re-tool our factories, revitalize our business sector, restore our ability to compete." "Surely we can do for America what we once did for Europe and Japan. If we do not, make no mistake about it, we can go from being a military superpower to an economic has-been in one generation." "I know that entrepreneurs need less regulation, not more. I know that small businesses need more credit, not less. And I know that exploding health care costs place a heavy burden on small businesses." "A Clinton Administration will meet these challenges head on--and create an environment where entrepreneurs and government can work together in a real partnership." PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST --------------------------- "we have two deficits: a budget deficit and an investment deficit. And we cannot grow this economy until we put people back to work, and until we invest in those things that will give us a high wage, high growth future." "And so I have put before the American people a plan I call 'Putting People First.' It says we don't mind people making money. I want to make a lot of millionaires during my term as President, but. . . . I'd like for them to make it the old-fashioned way by putting the rest of America back to work, not by cutting deals or moving jobs. . . ." [My plan is to] "put the American people first. Invest in their potential, in their jobs, their education, their health care. [To] make government a partner with business and labor and education [and to] help America compete and win in the global economy. . . . A FALSE IDEA --------------------------- "Our country has been in the grip of the false idea. . . . The idea was advanced by our [last two] presidents but has been ratified by our Congress, that if you just cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on our corporations at high incomes and got out of the way, they would invest, take care of all the rest, and we would grow. Well, it was a bad idea. And it hasn't worked that way. Seventy percent of the economic growth for a dozen years has gone to the top one percent of our people." "for the first time in 70 years, the top one percent of Americans control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent." "don't let anybody tell you that we can grow this economy again without more investment. We're investing less in high speed rail, and new airplane transportation, and new highway technologies, and new water and sewer and waste systems; things that would put millions of people to work." "We are told we can not afford $50 billion a year but Taiwan, Taiwan, a country less than one-tenth our size, is spending $50 billion a year in the next six years to build new roads, to build new industrial technology, to clean up their environment. They have decided that they want to be as rich as Germany and Japan and the United States, and you know something, they will be, and then some, unless we do what it takes to invest in our country. WHAT MUST BE DONE --------------------------- "Give up the idea of a capital gains tax cut that doesn't distinguish between short-term investments in speculation and long-term investments in new technologies and new jobs. "Make America the best educated, best trained, best paid work force in the world, linked by the world's best systems of transportation and communications. Invest in civilian research and development. Turn American innovation in the laboratories into American jobs in the factories. Open the doors of college opportunity to all Americans. Take on health care cost increases . . . and provide a basic package of affordable health care to every family in this country. Reinvest every last dollar of defense cuts in retraining defense workers, retooling plants, and reinvesting in an American economy for the twenty-first century. Rebuild our cities, our suburbs, our rural areas. Ask the wealthiest one percent of Americans to pay their fair share of the taxes again. . . ." "We should honor and encourage work, invest in our people, rebuild our communities. We should reward those who play by the rules and do the reverse for those who don't. Don't let this election be about Willie Horton or Murphy Brown. . . . Let us be bold and chart a new course." RUNNING A TIGHTER SHIP --------------------------- "I want to reduce the federal employment by 100,000, not by firing people but by attrition. There are 600,000 federal employees who leave their jobs every year. We can reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy and put that money into investing in our future." "I want to cut the administrative and paperwork costs to the federal government by three percent a year. . . . I want to freeze consultants' contracts, like those $600-an-hour lawyer fees for the Resolution Trust Corporation in the S&L bailout." "we're going to cut 3% across the board out of the administration of all the federal programs in the next three years and put it into direct delivery of services to people." "I'm going to cut the White House staff by twenty-five percent, ask the Congress to pass a bill cutting Congressional staffs by twenty-five percent. I'm going to stop handing down mandates to you, and regulating you to death, and not giving you the money to do it with." INVESTMENT IN AMERICA --------------------------- "We need a new direction in this country. . . . we need a partnership. We cannot go forward unless we go forward together, without regard to race or region or income. We need a partnership. . . . And it can't be trickle down. We've tried that for 12 years." "We need a plan, a plan that puts people first, a plan that says trickle down didn't work; we've got a $400 billion deficit, so tax-and-spend won't work; we've got to invest and educate, cooperate and grow. We've got to create jobs and incomes." THE PRESCRIPTION --------------------------- [the New Covenant] "says to entrepreneurs and business people: We will give you more incentives and more opportunity than ever before to develop the skills of your workers and create American jobs and American wealth in the new global economy. But you must do your part; you must be responsible. American companies must act like American companies again--exporting products, not jobs." "We also have to say to foreign companies, there's something wrong with our tax code, if your income went up sixty-five percent in the 1980s and your taxes went down fifteen percent. And that's exactly what happened. You've got to pay your fair share if you want to do business in this country." [This will be] "an America . . . in which the wealthiest few--those making over $200,000 a year--are asked to pay their fair share." [This will be an America, in which] "when you can, you must work, because welfare should be a second chance, not a way of life." "The end of the Cold War permits us to reduce defense spending while still maintaining the strongest defense in the world. But we must plow back every dollar of defense cuts into building American jobs right here at home." {Please see Part II}