State of the Union Address
Essay
President Clinton has declared that "the enemy of our time is
inaction," pledging to forge bipartisan agreements on a balanced budget and campaign
finance reform within months, and to lead a "national crusade" to improve education by
the turn of the century. Education, Clinton vowed, would be his "number-one priority for
the next four years," and he devoted the longest portion of his
address to this. He appealed for "national standards" to improve
student performance and pledged to promote such standards with voluntary tests prepared
by the federal government.
Most of the ideas Clinton presented last night first appeared as
poll-tested proposals in his reelection campaign last fall: expanding the 1993 "Family
and Medical Leave Act" to include time off from work for parent-teacher conferences;
school curfews; and tax credits and deductions to subsidize college education. But he
presented these ideas using more encompassing and urgent language than before.
"We face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy: The enemy of
our time is inaction," Clinton declared at the start of his speech. He finished, as he
did in last month's address, by invoking the symbolism that the nation is about to pass
into a new millennium. "We don't have a moment to waste," he said. "Tomorrow, there will
be just over 1,000 days until the year 2000. . . . One thousand days to work together."
The speech proved shorter than predicted and far more organized and disciplined
than some of his previous appearances before Congress. The annual speeches to Congress
have served as markers of Clinton's ideological migration. In 1993, he announced that
government must do more and unveiled a raft of big-government proposals, including a $30
billion "stimulus package" that was vastly more expensive than any single proposal he
offered last night.
Also as part of his pitch for more low-tax empowerment zones in
urban areas, Clinton made reference to his newfound commitment to rescue the troubled
District of Columbia. He said, "Together, we must pledge tonight that we will use this
empowerment approach, including private-sector tax incentives to renew our capital city,
so that Washington is a great place to work and live, and is once again the proud face
America shows to the world"
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