Presidential Radio Address - 11 September 1993

by William Jefferson Clinton

Good morning. Today I'm in Houston with Vice President Gore. This week we've been talking with Americans in Ohio and California and Texas about our plan to reinvent Government, to make Government work better and cost less.

We're living in truly revolutionary times, with profound changes sweeping the entire world. On Monday, Israel and the PLO will come to the White House to sign a courageous and historic peace accord, the first step in replacing war with peace and giving the children of the Middle East a chance to grow up to a normal life. Here at home, we're trying to face the future with confidence and to face the changes that have confronted us by owning up to our problems and seizing our opportunities.

We've sharply broken with the past of trickle-down economics and huge deficits by adopting an economic program that drives down the deficit, increases investment incentives to smallbusinesses and high-tech businesses, and helps our people to move from welfare to work. We seek other fundamental reforms, including a new trade agreement with Mexico with historic protections for labor rights and improvements in the environment. And we're putting the finishing touches on a health care reform proposal that will restore peace of mind and financial security to homes and to businesses all across America by providing health care that's always there at an affordable price.

In this world of dramatic change, one of the biggest obstacles to our changing is the machinery of Government itself. It's frankly been stuck in the past, wasting too much money, often ignoring the taxpayer, coping with outdated systems and archaic technology, and most of all, eroding the confidence of the American people that Government can make change work for them.

Reforming, indeed, reinventing Government is essential to make our economic, health care, and trade efforts succeed. For the last 6 months, Vice President Gore has been studying the problems in the Federal Government. His National Performance Review has found more than $100 billion in savings that we can claim through serious and lasting management reforms over the next 5 years, reforms that will at the same time make the services we provide to you, the taxpayer, our customers, more efficient and more effective.

Now, I want to ask the Vice President to tell you more about what he's found in this historic review.

Mr. Vice President.[At this point, the Vice President discussed the findings of the National Performance Review.]

The President. And thank you, Mr. Vice President, for the excellent National Performance Review. It is important for all the reasons you've said and for this one: We need to earn the trust of the American people. Until we do that, it's going to be hard to move on these other problems, for the Government has to be a partner in many of the things the American people need to do. We not only have a budget deficit and an investment deficit, we've got a real performance deficit in this Government. And that's led to the trust deficit that you're doing so much to help us overcome.

I am determined that these changes will come about. Where Executive action is recommended to bring change, I will take that action. Where legislation is needed to bring change, I will work with the Congress, with members of both parties, to win that legislation. Those of us in the business of Government owe the American people no less than making it the best it can be. Make no mistake about it, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. But we're all going to win on this.

Again, I thank you, Mr. Vice President, and I believe the American people do too, for a job very well done.

Thanks for listening.