THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050482
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 144 lines
President Clinton challenged the Republican Congress on Tuesday night to join him in a bipartisan crusade to strengthen American education and clean up the nation's unfinished business, beginning with balancing the federal budget.
In his fourth State of the Union message, Clinton laid out a lengthy four-year plan of action - crowned by those twin proposals - that he said would prepare the nation to compete in the global economy of the 21st century.
``We face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy: The enemy of our time is inaction,'' the president said.
``The greatest step of all, the high threshold for the future we must now cross - and my No. 1 priority as president for the next four years - is to ensure that Americans have the best education in the world,'' he said.
``Let's work together to meet these goals: Every 8-year-old must be able to read; every 12-year-old must be able to log on to the Internet; every 18-year-old must be able to go to college; and every adult American must be able to keep on learning.''
The president's proposals would boost education spending by 20 percent, to $51 billion for fiscal 1998. The increase - including the cost of tax breaks for college - would total 40 percent by 2002.
Two weeks after his second inauguration, the president lectured the Republican-led Congress to ``complete the unfinished business of our country'' - balancing the budget, enacting long-stalled campaign finance reform and reopening last year's welfare law to restore benefits to legal immigrants.
His tone was both conciliatory and challenging, calling for racial and political harmony but also pressuring Congress for action.
Balancing the budget by 2002 ``requires only your vote and my signature,'' Clinton said, brushing over the wide gulf with Republicans over how to achieve that goal.
He said the Republican-driven proposal for a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget was ``unnecessary and unwise,'' adding: ``We don't need a constitutional amendment. We need action.'' That line drew groans from Republicans.
Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, a 39-year-old Baptist minister who exercises his oratorical powers regularly from the pulpit, gave the traditional Republican response to Clinton. In his remarks, Watts struck the traditional GOP themes of returning power to local communities, family values and balancing the federal budget.
Watts reminded his audience of the basic differences between the two political parties, stressing the Republican preference for a smaller national government and greater individual responsibility in governing the lives and fortunes of families and small businesses.
``The strength of America is not in Washington,'' Watts said. ``The strength of America is at home. . . . The strength of America is not on Wall Street but on Main Street, not in big business but in small businesses. . . . It's not in Congress, it's in the city council.''
For the moment, at least, Republicans and Democrats alike are stressing bipartisanship and cooperation, although neither side pretends there won't be legislative fights.
Still, there was none of the bitterness and distrust that reigned a year ago after budget battles forced two government shutdowns that outraged Americans and tarred the GOP. Indeed, Clinton accepted an invitation from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich to visit Capitol Hill next Tuesday to discuss the legislative agenda.
Clinton's call for bipartisan action found sympathetic ears among lawmakers representing Hampton Roads, though Republicans and Democrats alike admitted they're not sure that Congress can get beyond the partisan bitterness of last year's election campaign and ongoing fights over political ethics.
``Congress gets motivated by how people in communities react,'' observed U.S. Rep. Owen B. Pickett, a Virginia Beach Democrat. If Clinton can persuade the country that divisions in Washington must end, partisan disputes will fade, he said.
``The president's call to heal the divisions in our society was right on the money,'' said Rep. Norman Sisisky, a Democrat who represents much of Chesapeake, Suffolk and western Tidewater.
Rep. Robert C. Scott, a Newport News Democrat who also represents parts of Norfolk and Portsmouth, said there already are signs that Republicans and Democrats are ready to put aside at least some of their differences. ``There is a feeling that we need to work together and what (Clinton) outlined is what we can do if we do work together.''
But state Republicans were skeptical about the president's ability to finance so many educational, welfare and national security initiatives while balancing the federal budget.
The speech ``brought us to the water's edge of (going) back to big government,'' said Sen. John W. Warner, the state's senior member of Congress.
However, Warner said he was ``heartened by what I heard'' about Clinton's determination to focus on improving education.
Local lawmakers also said they were pleased by the president's statements of support for a strong defense and in particular for more spending on new, modern weapons.
``In two days (when Clinton's budget figures are released), we'll find out where the money is,'' Sisisky observed.
Obliged by the Constitution to report to the nation on its health, Clinton told Congress: ``The state of our union is strong, but now we must rise to the decisive moment, to make a nation and a world better than any we have ever known.''
He set a July 4 deadline for Congress to enact campaign finance reform, warning that delay ``will mean the death of reform.''
The president talked at length about national security and foreign policy, devoting more time to it than he ever has in his State of the Union addresses. He said NATO must expand eastward toward Russia by 1999 and that the United States must pursue more dialogue with China - despite his recent acknowledgment that this course has not produced acceptable results.
``An isolated China is not good for America,'' Clinton said.
Education was the centerpiece of Clinton's speech. Promising to use the bully pulpit of the presidency, Clinton said, ``I pledge to take this call to action to our country so that together, we can make American education, like America itself, the envy of the world.''
He said the government will pay for the development of national tests measuring fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math and will encourage every community to measure students by those standards.
Clinton stopped short of saying the government would require students to be measured by the tests. That will be up to individual states and school districts.
Clinton also said he wanted to make health care available to more Americans by broadening coverage for unemployed workers and needy children. He proposed expanding the family leave law to provide unpaid time off for doctors' appointments and school visits.
Over the past four years, more than 2 million people have moved off the welfare rolls, Clinton noted. He set a goal of moving 2 million more people off the rolls by 2000 with tax incentives for businesses to hire the needy.
Clinton's address was just a teaser for the dollar-and-cents budget that he will submit Thursday.
He will recommend $100 billion in middle-class tax cuts over five years - to be offset by $80 billion in tax increases on corporations and airline travelers.
A centerpiece of Clinton's education proposals is a $1,500 tax credit for the first two years of higher education, provided that a student maintains a B average. Alternatively, families could opt for a tax deduction of up to $10,000 a year for higher education or job-training.
The president also is proposing a $500-per-child tax credit for families earning up to $60,000, with lesser credits for families making as much as $75,000. Republicans have a more generous proposal. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press,
Knight-Ridder News Service, The New York Times and staff writer Dale
Eisman. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
``We may not share a common past, but surely we share a common
future,'' the president said.