And let’s take a partial step in this direction. Most of you in this Chamber didn’t know what was in this catchall bill and report. Over the past few weeks, we’ve all learned what was tucked away behind a little comma here and there. For example, there’s millions for items such as cranberry research, blueberry research, the study of crawfish, and the commercialization of wildflowers. And that’s not to mention the five or so million ($.5 million) that--so that people from developing nations could come here to watch Congress at work. I won’t even touch that. So, tonight I offer you this challenge. In 30 days I will send back to you those items as rescissions, which if I had the authority to line them out I would do so.
Now, review this multibillion-dollar package that will not undercut our bipartisan budget agreement. As a matter of fact, if adopted, it will improve our deficit reduction goals. And what an example we can set, that we’re serious about getting our financial accounts in order. By acting and approving this plan, you have the opportunity to override a congressional process that is out of control.
There is another vital reform. Yes, Gramm-Rudman-Hollings has been profoundly helpful, but let us take its goal of a balanced budget and make it permanent. Let us do now what so many States do to hold down spending and what 32 State legislatures have asked us to do. Let us heed the wishes of an overwhelming plurality of Americans and pass a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and forces the Federal Government to live within its means. Reform of the budget process--including the line-item veto and balanced budget amendment--will, together with real restraint on government spending, prevent the Federal budget from ever again ravaging the family budget.
Let’s ensure that the Federal Government never again legislates against the family and the home. Last September 1 signed an Executive order on the family requiring that every department and agency review its activities in light of seven standards designed to promote and not harm the family. But let us make certain that the family is always at the center of the public policy process not just in this administration but in all future administrations. It’s time for Congress to consider, at the beginning, a statement of the impact that legislation will have on the basic unit of American society, the family.
And speaking of the family, let’s turn to a matter on the mind of every American parent tonight: education. We all know the sorry story of the sixties and seventies--soaring spending, plummeting test scores--and that hopeful trend of the eighties, when we replaced an obsession with dollars with a commitment to quality, and test scores started back up. There’s a lesson here that we all should write on the blackboard a hundred times: In a child’s education, money can never take the place of basics like discipline, hard work, and, yes, homework.
As a nation we do, of course, spend heavily on education--more than we spend on defense. Yet across our country, Governors like New Jersey’s Tom Kean are giving classroom demonstrations that how we spend is as important as how much we spend. Opening up the teaching profession to all qualified candidates, merit pay--so that good teachers get A’s as well as apples--and stronger curriculum, as Secretary Bennett has proposed for high schools--these imaginative reforms are making common sense the most popular new kid in America’s schools. How can we help? Well, we can talk about and push for these reforms. But the most important thing we can do is to reaffirm that control of our schools belongs to the States, local communities and, most of all, to the parents and teachers.
My friends, some years ago, the Federal Government declared war on poverty, and poverty won. Today the Federal Government has 59 major welfare programs and spends more than $100 billion a year on them. What has all this money done? Well, too often it has only made poverty harder to escape. Federal welfare programs have created a massive social problem. With the best of intentions, government created a poverty trap that wreaks havoc on the very support system the poor need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family. Dependency has become the one enduring heirloom, passed from one generation to the next, of too many fragmented families.
It is time--this may be the most radical thing I’ve said in 7 years in this office--it’s time for Washington to show a little humility. There are a thousand sparks of genius in 50 States and a thousand communities around the Nation. It is time to nurture them and see which ones can catch fire and become guiding lights. States have begun to show us the way. They’ve demonstrated that successful welfare programs can be built around more effective child support enforcement practices and innovative programs requiring welfare recipients to work or prepare for work. Let us give the States more flexibility and encourage more reforms. Let’s start making our welfare system the first rung on America’s ladder of opportunity, a boost up from dependency, not a graveyard but a birthplace of hope.
And now let me turn to three other matters vital to family values and the quality of family life. The first is an untold American success story. Recently, we released our annual survey of what graduating high school seniors have to say about drugs. Cocaine use is declining, and marijuana use was the lowest since surveying began. We can be proud that our students are just saying no to drugs. But let us remember what this menace requires: commitment from every part of America and every single American, a commitment to a drugfree America. The war against drugs is a war of individual battles, a crusade with many heroes, including America’s young people and also someone very special to me. She has helped so many of our young people to say no to drugs. Nancy, much credit belongs to you, and I want to express to you your husband’s pride and your country’s thanks.’. Surprised you, didn’t I?
Well, now we come to a family issue that we must have the courage to confront. Tonight, I call America--a good nation, a moral people--to charitable but realistic consideration of the terrible cost of abortion on demand. To those who say this violates a woman’s right to control of her own body: Can they deny that now medical evidence confirms the unborn child is a living human being entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Let us unite as a nation and protect the unborn with legislation that would stop all Federal funding for abortion and with a human life amendment making, of course, an exception where the unborn child threatens the life of the mother. Our Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes the right of taking a life in self-defense. But with that one exception, let us look to those others in our land who cry out for children to adopt. I pledge to you tonight I will work to remove barriers to adoption and extend full sharing in family life to millions of Americans so that children who need homes can be welcomed to families who want them and love them.