<font color=fuchsia>White House Fact Sheet: President Clinton and Vice President Gore: A
Remarkable Moment of Progress and Prosperity
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a fact sheet released today
by the White House:
In his speech to the 2000 Democratic Convention, President Clinton will discuss
the remarkable progress America has made during the Clinton-Gore Administration.
Eight years ago, President Clinton and Vice President Gore put in place an
agenda to get America back on its economic feet while restoring the values of
opportunity, responsibility and community that made this country great. As a
result of the hard work of the American people and the tough choices of the last
eight years, America has made remarkable progress. A sea of red ink has been
turned into the largest surplus in history, with the nation on track to pay off
the debt by 2012 while strengthening Social Security and Medicare, expanding
retirement savings and increasing college opportunity. Eight years ago,
unemployment, crime and poverty were all high, now they are at the lowest levels
in a generation. Today, more Americans are working, children are receiving a
better education with high academic standards, our communities are cleaner and
safer, and government now reinforces our national values of work, family,
service and community.
Reversing the Deficit and Creating the Best Economy in a Generation
President Clinton and Vice President Gore launched a new economic strategy of
fiscal discipline, strategic investments in the American people and opening
foreign markets so that American workers can compete abroad. Their 1993 Economic
Plan put us on a path of fiscal discipline that created the conditions for the
longest economic expansion in history:
-- The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by
this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $211 billion and we are on
track to pay off the entire debt by 2012.
-- 22 million jobs have been created in under eight years. -- Unemployment has
dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4 percent today.
-- Inflation has averaged 2.5 percent, the lowest rate since the Kennedy
Administration.
-- The homeownership rate is the highest on record. -- Economic gains have been
made across the spectrum as incomes are up for all Americans, and poverty rates
for African American families and single mothers are the lowest ever recorded.
Ending Welfare the Right Way President Clinton and Vice President Gore have
transformed the welfare system to one that moves families from welfare to work,
but they refused to do so in a way that punished children. They rejected two
punitive welfare reform bills before signing the bipartisan 1996 Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which removed barriers that keep people
trapped in the welfare system and provided incentives like job training,
expanded child care and increased child support enforcement to help them go to
work. Because of these efforts:
-- Welfare rolls have been cut in half -- from over 14 million people in 1993 to
less than 7 million today -- to the lowest level since 1968.
-- The number of welfare recipients moving to work has increased by 82 percent.
-- Federal and state child support collections have doubled from $8 billion in
1993 to $16 billion last year.
-- Investments in child care have doubled and now help parents provide care for
1.5 million children.
Giving Every Child a Quality Education President Clinton and Vice President Gore
launched a revolution in public education with standards and accountability at
the core. Their Goals 2000 initiative gave states assistance and encouragement
to adopt high standards and require accountability. Clinton-Gore budgets have
doubled investment in education and training by focusing on things that work,
like charter schools, teacher quality, smaller class size, after-school and Head
Start. And they launched the largest expansion of college opportunity since the
GI Bill. Their strategy has delivered results:
-- In 1992, just 19 states had any sort of academic standards at all. Today, 49
states have adopted rigorous standards for core curriculum subjects and
standards-based assessments as a result of Goals 2000.
-- Their initiative to hire 100,000 quality teachers is reducing class size to
18 students in lower grades.
-- Reading and math scores have increased, SAT college entrance scores are up
and the number of students taking AP exams has increased by two-thirds.
-- The number of charter schools has increased from just 1 in 1993 to over 1,700
today.
-- Nearly 900,000 children benefit from higher-quality Head Start opportunities.
-- New HOPE Scholarships and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits help 10 million
students pay higher education costs.
Tough and Smart Anti-Crime Policy is Reducing Crime Rates President Clinton and
Vice President Gore implemented a crime strategy that emphasized both tough
anti-crime laws and smart prevention measures. Their 1994 Crime Bill enacted
"three strikes and you're out," mandatory minimum penalties, and more money for
prisons and prosecutors as well as a ban on assault weapons, a commitment to
fund 100,000 community police officers and a historic response to violence
against women. They fought for and signed the Brady Bill, and they have worked
with states and local governments to increase total gun crime prosecutions by 22
percent since 1992. As a result of their tough and smart strategy:
-- The Brady Law has prevented 500,000 fugitives, felons and stalkers from
purchasing weapons.
-- Gun-related crime has dropped 35 percent since 1992. -- Crime rates have
declined for 8 consecutive years -- the longest continuous drop on record.
-- The violent crime rate has dropped 25 percent since 1993 after quadrupling
during the previous three decades.
-- More than 20 percent fewer women are abused and assaulted by an intimate
partner than in 1992.
Better Health Care for All Americans President Clinton and Vice President Gore
have taken historic steps to improve access to quality health care. They have
cracked down on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare while expanding the program
to include important preventive services like mammograms, cancer screenings and
diabetes management. They proposed and signed the Children's Health Insurance
Program, the largest expansion children's health insurance in 35 years, and took
meaningful steps that allow workers keep their health insurance when changing
jobs, ended drive-through deliveries, and protect the health care coverage of
disabled Americans moving into the workforce. They also paved the way for new
medical breakthroughs by increasing funding for biomedical research by 73
percent over the last eight years. As a result of these steps:
-- Medicare is expected to remain solvent until at least 2027. When President
Clinton and Vice President Gore took office, it was expected to become insolvent
in 1999.
-- Over $50 billion in fraud and waste have been eliminated from Medicare.
-- The State Children's Health Insurance program is providing coverage for more
than 2.0 million uninsured children.
-- 85 million Americans in federal health programs have meaningful patient
protections.
-- The National Institutes of Health invested $18 billion this year to support
the highest level of research ever on nearly all types of diseases and
conditions.
Improving the Environment and the Economy President Clinton and Vice President
Gore set out to prove that America could have a strong economy and a cleaner
environment. Since 1993, they have invested in a sensible approach of new
technologies, tougher enforcement of environmental laws and protecting our
irreplaceable national treasures. They proposed and signed the Safe Drinking
Water Act in 1996 to ensure that families have safe, clean tap water and
proposed the strongest clean air standards in history to reduce smog and soot.
As a result of their efforts:
-- The number of people with safe drinking water has increased from 196 million
in 1993 to 230 million today.
-- 43 million more Americans live in communities meeting clean air standards.
-- This Administration has cleaned up more than three times as many Superfund
toxic waste sites in their 8 years as the previous two Administrations did in 12
years.
-- The Clinton-Gore Administration has protected more land in the lower 48
states than any Administration since Theodore Roosevelt, including red rock
canyons in Utah, giant sequoias in California, and the North Rim of the Grand
Canyon.
Helping Families Succeed on the Job and at Home President Clinton and Vice
President Gore came to office at a time when many middle class families were
struggling to balance the pressures of work and family. While the previous
administration vetoed the Family and Medical Leave Act twice, the Clinton-Gore
Administration made the Family and Medical Leave Act the first law it signed in
1993. The Clinton-Gore Administration also worked to pass common-sense health
care reforms to guarantee coverage for workers who change jobs. And they have
won important victories for children and families including signing a $500 child
tax credit, a $1 per hour increase in the minimum wage, expanding the Earned
Income Tax Credit, enacting the largest expansion of health insurance for
children ever, and creating incentives for adoption and foster care. As a result
of these victories:
-- The child poverty rate has dropped by 16 percent since 1993 to the lowest
rate since 1980.
-- Millions of American families have taken time off to care for a new child or
sick relatives.
-- Teen pregnancy rates have dropped by 20 percent to the lowest level since
record keeping began 60 years ago.
-- Child immunization rates are at an all-time high, with 90 percent of toddlers
receiving crucial vaccinations.
-- Adoptions increased 29 percent between 1996 and 1998. -- The tax burden on
middle class families has dropped to 22.8 percent, the lowest middle-class tax
burden since 1978.
Strengthening the Value of Service President Clinton and Vice President Gore
promised to return America to the values of responsibility and community that
made it great. In 1993, the President signed the National and Community Service
Trust Act, which created AmeriCorps. Since then:
-- Over 150,000 Americans have participated in AmeriCorps, serving thousands of
communities while earning money for education.
-- Volunteers of all ages have helped more than a million children receive
immunizations, tutored over 4 million young people in reading and math skills
and built thousands of homes.
Leading the Quest for Peace and Democracy President Clinton and Vice President
Gore have made America a force for world peace and global democracy. Our troops
remain the best-trained, best-equipped and most effective fighting force, and
the United States has succeeded in opening foreign markets to American good
throughout the world. The global leadership of the Clinton-Gore Administration
has resulted in:
-- Diplomatic efforts that have restored democracy to Haiti, ended hostilities
in Northern Ireland and made historic strides toward peace in the Middle East
and Bosnia.
-- Leading the NATO alliance to victory in Kosovo. -- Nearly 300 market opening
trade agreements to expand markets for American goods and create jobs for
American workers.
-- Reduced threats to American security because of the deactivation of nearly
5,000 nuclear warheads from the former republics of the Soviet Union and
ratification of START II and the Chemical Weapons Convention. |
