Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The detailed budget that we will submit will meet the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
target for deficit reductions, meet our commitment to ensure a strong
national defense, meet our commitment to protect Social Security and the
truly less fortunate, and, yes, meet our commitment to not raise taxes. How
should we accomplish this? Well, not by taking from those in need. As
families take care of their own, government must provide shelter and
nourishment for those who cannot provide for themselves. But we must revise
or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the
moral worth of work, encourage family breakups, and drive entire
communities into a bleak and heartless dependency. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
can mark a dramatic improvement. But experience shows that simply setting
deficit targets does not assure they'll be met. We must proceed with Grace
commission reforms against waste.
And tonight I ask you to give me what 43 Governors have: Give me a
line-item veto this year. Give me the authority to veto waste, and I'll
take the responsibility, I'll make the cuts, I'll take the heat. This
authority would not give me any monopoly power, but simply prevent spending
measures from sneaking through that could not pass on their own merit. And
you can sustain or override my veto; that's the way the system should work.
Once we've made the hard choices, we should lock in our gains with a
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
I mentioned that we will meet our commitment to national defense. We must
meet it. Defense is not just another budget expense. Keeping America
strong, free, and at peace is solely the responsibility of the Federal
Government; it is government's prime responsibility. We have devoted 5
years trying to narrow a dangerous gap born of illusion and neglect, and
we've made important gains. Yet the threat from Soviet forces, conventional
and strategic, from the Soviet drive for domination, from the increase in
espionage and state terror remains great. This is reality. Closing our eyes
will not make reality disappear. We pledged together to hold real growth in
defense spending to the bare minimum. My budget honors that pledge, and I'm
now asking you, the Congress, to keep its end of the bargain. The Soviets
must know that if America reduces her defenses, it will be because of a
reduced threat, not a reduced resolve.
Keeping America strong is as vital to the national security as controlling
Federal spending is to our economic security. But, as I have said before,
the most powerful force we can enlist against the Federal deficit is an
ever-expanding American economy, unfettered and free. The magic of
opportunity--unreserved, unfailing, unrestrained--isn't this the calling
that unites us? I believe our tax rate cuts for the people have done more
to spur a spirit of risk-taking and help America's economy break free than
any program since John Kennedy's tax cut almost a quarter century ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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