Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
And seventh, we must get the federal deficit under control. We now have in
law, enforcable spending caps, and a requirement that we pay for the
programs we create. There are those in Congress who would ease that
discipline now. But I cannot let them do it. And I won't. My plan would
freeze all domestic discretionary budget authority which means "No more
next year than this year". I will not tamper with Social Security but I
would put real caps on the growth of uncontrolled spending. And I would
also freeze federal domestic government employment. And with the help of
Congress, my plan will get rid of 246 programs that don't deserve federal
funding. Some of them have noble titles, but none of them is indispensible.
We can get rid of each and every one of them.
You know, it's time we rediscovered a home truth the American people have
never forgotten: the government is too big and spends too much. And I call
on Congress to adopt a measure that will help put an end to the annual
ritual of filling the budget with pork-barrel appropriations. Every year,
the press has a field day making fun of outrageous examples, a Lawrence
Welk Museum, a research grant for Belgian Endive. We all know how these
things get into the budget, and maybe you need someone to help you say no.
I know how to say it. And you know what I need to make it stick. Give me
the same thing 43 governors have--the line-item veto--and let me help
you control spending.
We must put an end to unfinanced government mandates. These are the
requirements Congress puts on our cities, counties and states without
supplying the money. And if Congress passes a mandate, it should be forced
to pay for it and balance the cost with savings elsewhere. After all, a
mandate just increases someone else's tax burden, and that means higher
taxes at the state and local level.
Step Eight: Congress should enact the bold reform proposals that are still
awaiting congressional action: bank reform, civil justice reform, tort
reform, and my national energy strategy.
And finally, we must strengthen the family, because it is the family that
has the greatest bearing on our future. When Barbara holds an AIDS baby in
her arms and reads to children, she's saying to every person in this
country, "Family Matters".
And I am announcing tonight a new commission on America's urban families.
I've asked Missouri's governor, John Ashcroft, to be chairman, former
Dallas Mayor Annetter Strauss to be co-chair. You know, I had Mayors, the
leading mayors from the League of Cities, in the other day at the White
House, and they told me something striking. They said that every one of
them, Republican and Democrat, agreed on one thing: That the major cause of
the problems of the cities is the dissolution of the family. And they asked
for this commission, and they were right to ask, because it's time to
determine what we can do to keep families together, strong and sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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