Abroad, the young democracies we are strongly supporting still face very difficult times and look to us for leadership.

And so tonight, let us resolve to continue the journey of renewal, to create more and better jobs, to guarantee health security for all, to reward welfare—­work over welfare, to promote democracy abroad and to begin to reclaim our streets from violent crime and drugs and gangs to renew our own American community.

Deficit Reduction

Last year, we began to put our house in order by tackling the budget deficit that was driving us toward bankruptcy.  We cut $255 billion in spending, including entitlements, in over 340 separate budget items.  We froze domestic spending and used honest budget numbers.

Led by the vice president, we’ve launched a campaign to reinvent government.  We’ve cut staff, cut perks, even trimmed the fleet of federal limousines.  After years of leaders whose rhetoric attacked bureaucracy but whose actions expanded it, we will actually reduce it by 252,000 people over the next five years.  By the time we have finished, the federal bureaucracy will be at its lowest point in 30 years.

Because the deficit was so large and because they benefited from tax cuts in the 1980s, we did ask the wealthiest Americans to pay more to reduce the deficit.  So on April the 15th, the American people will discover the truth about what we did last year on taxes.  Only the top one—­the top 1.2 percent of Americans, as I said all along, will face higher income tax rates—­let me repeat, only the wealthiest 1.2 percent of Americans will face higher income tax rates and no one else will, and that is the truth.  Of course, there were, as there always are in politics, naysayers who said this plan wouldn’t work, but they were wrong.  When I became president, the experts predicted that next year’s deficit would be $300 billion, but because we acted, those same people now say the deficit’s going to be under $180 billion, 40 percent lower than was previously predicted.

The Economy

Our economic program has helped to produce the lowest core inflation rate and the lowest interest rates in 20 years, and because those interest rates are down, business investment and equipment is growing at seven times the rate of the previous four years.  Auto sales are way up, home sales at a record high.  Millions of Americans have refinanced their homes and our economy has produced 1.6 million private-sector jobs in 1993, more than were created in the previous four years combined.

The people who supported this economic plan should be proud of its early results—­proud.  But everyone in this chamber should know and acknowledge that there is more to do.  Next month I will send you one of the toughest budgets ever presented to Congress.  It will cut spending in more than 300 programs, eliminate 100 domestic programs, and reforms the way in which governments buy goods and services.