Clinton Was More Ambitious In 1993

By R. Morris Barrett/AllPolitics

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 3) -- In his first State of the Union address four years ago, President Bill Clinton told the American people he would "reinvent" government. Since then, however, it would seem he has mostly reinvented himself.

Much bigger, activist ideas were on display in 1993 than during Clinton's recent re-election drive or in what Americans are likely to see Tuesday night.

Clinton billed the 1993 speech as dealing specifically with the nation's economic ills, a narrower focus than standard State of the Union speeches.

"All our efforts to strengthen the economy will fail unless we also take this year -- not next year, not five years from now, but this year -- bold steps to reform our health care system," Clinton said on Feb. 17, 1993, proposing "a comprehensive plan" to "provide security to all of our families." Don't look for a reprise Tuesday night.

He had some pretty big ideas for taxes, too. While Tuesday night the president is expected to highlight $100 billion in proposed tax cuts in his new budget, in 1993 he spoke more of tax hikes.

"Spending must be cut and taxes must be raised," he said, proposing a raise in the top income tax rate from 31 to 36 percent; a hike in the corporate tax rate to 36 percent; higher Social Security taxes for upper-income beneficiaries; and a broad-based energy tax. Clinton got those tax hikes, although he later apologized to a group of executives for raising their taxes "too much."

Declaring his immediate priority was to create jobs, Clinton proposed a $30 billion "package of jobs investments" to jump-start the economy. But that car wouldn't start, and the package didn't pass.

America "needs a new direction," he declared, announcing plans for a large-scale national service program. Saluting his hero John F. Kennedy, Clinton paid tribute to the former president's creation of the Peace Corps, while pledging a new program with "twice as many slots."

"This program could do for this generation of members of Congress what the Land Grant College Act did and what the G.I. Bill did for former congressmen," Clinton declared. Americorps, as the program was named, made it into law in a more modest form and has since been a favorite target of congressional Republicans.

And the president proposed a job-training program, an expansion of nutrition programs for women and children, and making Head Start a federal entitlement.

"Tonight, the American people know we have to change," he declared. "The test of this plan cannot be, 'What is in it for me?'; it has got to be, 'What is in it for us?'"

The GOP takeover of the 104th Congress in 1994, of course, threw a wrench into many of Clinton's plans (though his health care proposal never was brought up for a vote in the Democrat-controlled 103rd Congress).

Still, while Clinton's era-of-big-government-is-over speech was still two years away, the 1993 address did incorporate some of the centrist themes he used so successfully later to win a second term.

He pledged $246 billion in spending cuts, "eliminating programs that are no longer needed...slashing subsidies and canceling wasteful projects." He promised to reduce the federal workforce by 100,000 saving $9 billion.

He committed himself to ending "welfare as we know it," putting 100,000 new police officers on the street, and expanding the Family and Medical Leave law.

Much of his speech warned against the dangers of deficit spending left unchecked. "In the end, we have to get back to the deficit," he said in line that sounds right out of today's balanced budget debate. "If we don't act now, you and I might not even recognize this government 10 years from now."

So, not all of the re-invented Bill Clinton is new. In fact, as the flap over Democratic fund-raising intensifies, the president's defenders might also wish to highlight another line from his 1993 speech:

"I am asking the United States Congress to pass a real campaign finance reform bill this year."