- Campaign
Literature « 1992
Democratic Presidential Primary «
Clinton for President Committee
1992 Democratic Presidential Primary
Clinton for President Committee
 |
 |
| Booklet - 8 5/16" x 10 7/8", 6 pages. |
A
PLAN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
by Bill Clinton
Dear Fellow American,
Our country is in trouble. We're falling behind economically, and drifting apart with no sense of common purpose or common good. Our people are really hurting. For ten years, the middle class has declined, poverty has exploded, and only the rich are doing better.
When he isn't denying that an economic crisis exists, the President blames Congress for our problems. Then the Congress blames him back. It's time someone took responsibility to change things.
I am running for President with a specific plan for economic change — a plan to jumpstart our economy in the short term and a new long-term strategy to turn our country's economy around and restore the American Dream for all.
The plan includes a tax cut for the middle class, and asks the rich to pay their fair share. It calls for health insurance for every American; dramatic education reform to help our children and our schools to do better; and a public and private investment strategy to create new jobs. And it calls for a revolution in government to provide more choices and more services with less bureaucracy.
I hope you will take the time to read this plan. It's time you had a President who cares, takes responsibility, and knows what he wants to do for America for a change. You deserve more than slogans and 30-second TV commercials. You deserve more than political rhetoric and outdated proposals. In these pages, I spell out in plain language what I intend to do as President.
But I want you to do more than simply read this plan. I want your ideas for making it better; and I want your help in making it a reality.
This is more than a campaign. It's a crusade for change. A crusade to restore the American Dream for the forgotten middle class and build a better life for our children.
If you believe America can compete and win again, I'm your candidate, and I need your support. Together, we can take our country back.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
Short Term Economic Recovery
Ten years ago the American people were told if taxes were cut on the rich and regulations eliminated on banks and businesses, the economy would take off and new wealth would "trickle down" from the rich to the poor.
It didn't work out quite like they promised. Instead of a new era of prosperity, we had a decade of selfish greed where people at the top grabbed everything they could for themselves and forgot about the rest of us. The rich got richer and the middle class now pay more taxes and have less. S & L crooks stole billions from deregulated banks. CEO's gave themselves obscene bonuses and golden parachutes rather than investing to make their companies more competitive. We need to take the following immediate steps to pull us out of the current recession.
Congress should pass a 10% middle class income tax cut and ask those who make more than $200,000 to pay their fair share. We must allow hard working middle class Americans to keep more of what they earn. Putting cash in people's pockets will help build consumer confidence to start an economic recovery.
We also must make the rich pay their fair share of taxes. As President, I will restore basic fairness to the tax code that Republicans eliminated to pass "trickle down economics."
STEP 2: EXPAND THE CHILDREN'S TAX CREDIT
Families with children deserve additional tax relief. I will propose a tax credit of up to $800 per child to ease the burden on working families. For a family in the 15% tax bracket, this would provide the equivalent of exempting as much as $5,330 per year from taxes.
The children's tax credit combined with a middle class tax cut will lower taxes for an average family with two children by up to $1,200 a year.
STEP 3: ECONOMIC LIFELINE FOR THOSE IN NEED
President Bush's recession has put millions of Americans out of work and millions more go home on Friday worrying they will be laid off next week. We must throw an economic lifeline to middle class families who for the first time in their lives face sudden unemployment.
The economic lifeline will enable middle class families to make health insurance premiums and monthly mortgage or rent payments.
Under this national program, individuals would receive financial assistance to restructure or extend their home mortgage loan payments. Health care coverage could be extended by allowing people to buy into the medicaid system or receive help to make payments on existing health plans.
STEP 4: JUMPSTART ECONOMIC DEMAND
A. Fast Track Highway Spending. In order to create more than 200,000 new jobs, we should accelerate the spending schedule for the five year$150 billion highway bill recently signed into law. All of the money scheduled to be spent in 1992 and 1993 should be spent this year. Rebuilding our nation's infrastructure will not only create good jobs in the short-run but will help our economy in the long-run by enabling businesses to move goods more efficiently.
B. Expand Home Loans. In 1991, we had the fewest new homes built in America since World War II. The recession has made it impossible for many families to qualify for a loan to buy a home or to sell their existing home to purchase a new one.
I will raise the ceiling on Federal Home Mortgage loans to cover 95% of the median price of a home so middle class families will pump up the economy by buying new houses.
C. Help Small Businesses. I will also use the power of the Presidency to insist that federal bank regulators not cause good loans to be called or restrict sound banks from making loans to qualified borrowers. We must keep thousands of small businesses open and expanding.
D. Lower Interest Rates. I will make sure that banks lower credit card interest rates to good customers. Banks can and should not be permitted to charge 18% on credit cards while at the same time lowering the rates paid on deposits to below6%.
We must encourage economic investment here at home and adopt tough trade policies that tear down the unfair barriers which prevent American goods from being sold in other countries. I will put in place tax policies that reward long-term investment in America and penalize those who ship jobs overseas. As President, I will insist we have trade policies that give us fair access to sell our goods in foreign markets.
EMPOWER EVERY AMERICAN
Education is economic development. We can only be a high growth country if we are a high skills country. The only way middle class Americans can keep good jobs with growing incomes is to be lifetime learners and innovators.
That means we must start early — with preschool for every child who needs it and we must fully fund Head Start.
Every student who wants to go to college will have the chance to do so — I will establish a domestic G.I. Bill which will create a national trust fund which any American can borrow from for a college education so long as they pay it back over time or agree to a couple of years of service to their country as a teacher, police officer or health care or family service worker.
We must also train those students not bound for college with the skills they need to get good jobs instead of getting stuck in minimum wage positions that have no future. As President, I will create a national apprentice program designed by local schools and businesses that will enable high school students to learn the skills they need.
As President, I will ensure that every working American has the opportunity to learn new skills each year. I will require employers to offer every worker a fair share of company training dollars or contribute to a national training fund.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Our new economic strategy also includes special efforts to lift poor people out of poverty and empower them to work their way into the American mainstream.
NO DEDUCTIBILITY FOR CORPORATE IRRESPONSIBILITY
Too many CEO's gave themselves huge bonuses and personal salary increases in the 1980's rather than invest in their company and the people who work for them. The average CEO is paid 85 times as much as the average worker. We will end the tax deductions for excessive executive bonuses and golden parachutes. We are going to be a nation that invests in our future. Workers will get the training they need and companies will learn that the more you train your workforce, the more profits you will make.
We will also end the tax deductions for the costs of shutting down plants in the U.S. and shipping U.S. jobs overseas.
RADICALLY CHANGE GOVERNMENT
We need to eliminate massive government waste and have a federal budget that invests in our future and not our past. During my eleven years as Governor of Arkansas, we've balanced the budget every year. We've cut bureaucracy, improved services and treated taxpayers like our customers and our bosses — because they are.
As President, I will maintain a strong defense in a world that is still a dangerous place. However, with the end of the Cold War, I believe we can cut military spending by more than one third over the next five years which will free up more than $200 billion.
I will demand 3% across the board cuts in the administrative costs of the federal bureaucracy every year. As President, I would veto any pay raise Congress voted for themselves and tell them to go earn it first by getting middle class incomes up.
NEW BUSINESSES - NEW JOBS - NEW TECHNOLOGIES
In the Clinton Administration, we will create tax incentives to invest in new businesses that create jobs here at home. We won't provide special tax breaks for rich investors who clip coupons and trade securities — we will give investors in new businesses a 50% tax break on profits for investments held more than five years.
As President, for every dollar we reduce the defense budget for research and development, I will expand the civilian R & D budget to promote development of new products. I will create a new Civilian Research and Development Agency that will help business bring the products of the future to the market.
In the first year of the Clinton Administration, we will offer a plan to deliver quality, affordable health care to all Americans. If we are to be economically competitive in the next decade, we simply must overhaul our health care system.
My health care reform plan does not require any increase in taxes. We will take on the big insurance companies, large drug companies, the health care bureaucracies and demand strict control on health care costs. By eliminating administrative waste in our current system, controlling costs and ending fraudulent billing practices we can generate $100 billion in savings to finance my national health care program.
I have a four point plan to reform America's health care system:
1. Control Costs. My health care system will demand insurance reform to end the administrative waste we have under the current system. We now have more than 1,500 different companies who write health insurance policies in this country. We don't need them.
I will also regulate drug prices so they cannot skyrocket, reduce billing fraud and force agreement on what services and hospital bills should cost.
2. Guarantee Universal Coverage. I will guarantee every American access to affordable quality health care.
3. Improve Preventive Care. We will provide primary and preventive clinics in rural areas and inner cities so health care is available and will also increase children's access to health care by putting clinics in certain schools where it is needed. Every child in America will receive the immunization shots they need.
4. Provide Long Term-Care and More Choices.
We should provide health care to elderly when they need it — before they spend themselves into poverty. I believe our senior citizens should make their own choices about how to spend health care benefits they are entitled to. In Arkansas, we created a program that gives seniors the right to take money which used to be available only for nursing home care and spend it on home health care, personal care, transportation to senior centers, hiring a nurse or attending an adult day care center. I want a federal health system that gives seniors all over the country the same choices.
"This is not just a campaign for the presidency. This is a crusade for change...a crusade to restore the forgotten middle class, lift the poor out of poverty, give power back to ordinary people, and build a better life for our children. It's a crusade to build an economy of empowerment and opportunity that will. preserve our social order and make it possible to once again restore the American dream here at home."
VOLUNTEER TODAY:
CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT
(501) 372-1992
Send contributions to Clinton for President Committee, P.O. Box 615, Little Rock, AR 72203
Clinton for President
122 West 3rd Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
[recycle bug] RECYCLED
Paid for by Clinton for President Committee, P.O. Box 615, Little Rock, Arkansas 72203 [union bug]
by Bill Clinton
Dear Fellow American,
Our country is in trouble. We're falling behind economically, and drifting apart with no sense of common purpose or common good. Our people are really hurting. For ten years, the middle class has declined, poverty has exploded, and only the rich are doing better.
When he isn't denying that an economic crisis exists, the President blames Congress for our problems. Then the Congress blames him back. It's time someone took responsibility to change things.
I am running for President with a specific plan for economic change — a plan to jumpstart our economy in the short term and a new long-term strategy to turn our country's economy around and restore the American Dream for all.
The plan includes a tax cut for the middle class, and asks the rich to pay their fair share. It calls for health insurance for every American; dramatic education reform to help our children and our schools to do better; and a public and private investment strategy to create new jobs. And it calls for a revolution in government to provide more choices and more services with less bureaucracy.
I hope you will take the time to read this plan. It's time you had a President who cares, takes responsibility, and knows what he wants to do for America for a change. You deserve more than slogans and 30-second TV commercials. You deserve more than political rhetoric and outdated proposals. In these pages, I spell out in plain language what I intend to do as President.
But I want you to do more than simply read this plan. I want your ideas for making it better; and I want your help in making it a reality.
This is more than a campaign. It's a crusade for change. A crusade to restore the American Dream for the forgotten middle class and build a better life for our children.
If you believe America can compete and win again, I'm your candidate, and I need your support. Together, we can take our country back.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
Short Term Economic Recovery
Ten years ago the American people were told if taxes were cut on the rich and regulations eliminated on banks and businesses, the economy would take off and new wealth would "trickle down" from the rich to the poor.
It didn't work out quite like they promised. Instead of a new era of prosperity, we had a decade of selfish greed where people at the top grabbed everything they could for themselves and forgot about the rest of us. The rich got richer and the middle class now pay more taxes and have less. S & L crooks stole billions from deregulated banks. CEO's gave themselves obscene bonuses and golden parachutes rather than investing to make their companies more competitive. We need to take the following immediate steps to pull us out of the current recession.
Congress should pass a 10% middle class income tax cut and ask those who make more than $200,000 to pay their fair share. We must allow hard working middle class Americans to keep more of what they earn.STEP 1: CUT TAXES FOR THE FORGOTTEN MIDDLE CLASS
Congress should pass a 10% middle class income tax cut and ask those who make more than $200,000 to pay their fair share. We must allow hard working middle class Americans to keep more of what they earn. Putting cash in people's pockets will help build consumer confidence to start an economic recovery.
We also must make the rich pay their fair share of taxes. As President, I will restore basic fairness to the tax code that Republicans eliminated to pass "trickle down economics."
STEP 2: EXPAND THE CHILDREN'S TAX CREDIT
Families with children deserve additional tax relief. I will propose a tax credit of up to $800 per child to ease the burden on working families. For a family in the 15% tax bracket, this would provide the equivalent of exempting as much as $5,330 per year from taxes.
The children's tax credit combined with a middle class tax cut will lower taxes for an average family with two children by up to $1,200 a year.
STEP 3: ECONOMIC LIFELINE FOR THOSE IN NEED
President Bush's recession has put millions of Americans out of work and millions more go home on Friday worrying they will be laid off next week. We must throw an economic lifeline to middle class families who for the first time in their lives face sudden unemployment.
The economic lifeline will enable middle class families to make health insurance premiums and monthly mortgage or rent payments.
Under this national program, individuals would receive financial assistance to restructure or extend their home mortgage loan payments. Health care coverage could be extended by allowing people to buy into the medicaid system or receive help to make payments on existing health plans.
STEP 4: JUMPSTART ECONOMIC DEMAND
A. Fast Track Highway Spending. In order to create more than 200,000 new jobs, we should accelerate the spending schedule for the five year$150 billion highway bill recently signed into law. All of the money scheduled to be spent in 1992 and 1993 should be spent this year. Rebuilding our nation's infrastructure will not only create good jobs in the short-run but will help our economy in the long-run by enabling businesses to move goods more efficiently.
B. Expand Home Loans. In 1991, we had the fewest new homes built in America since World War II. The recession has made it impossible for many families to qualify for a loan to buy a home or to sell their existing home to purchase a new one.
I will raise the ceiling on Federal Home Mortgage loans to cover 95% of the median price of a home so middle class families will pump up the economy by buying new houses.
C. Help Small Businesses. I will also use the power of the Presidency to insist that federal bank regulators not cause good loans to be called or restrict sound banks from making loans to qualified borrowers. We must keep thousands of small businesses open and expanding.
D. Lower Interest Rates. I will make sure that banks lower credit card interest rates to good customers. Banks can and should not be permitted to charge 18% on credit cards while at the same time lowering the rates paid on deposits to below6%.
America needs a long term economic strategy to change our debt-ridden, recession-racked economy into a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity economy.Long Term Economic Growth
Education is economic development. We can only be a high growth country if we are a high skills country. The only way middle class Americans can keep good jobs with growing incomes is to be lifetime learners and innovators.America needs a long term economic strategy to change our debt-ridden, recession-racked economy into a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity economy.
We must encourage economic investment here at home and adopt tough trade policies that tear down the unfair barriers which prevent American goods from being sold in other countries. I will put in place tax policies that reward long-term investment in America and penalize those who ship jobs overseas. As President, I will insist we have trade policies that give us fair access to sell our goods in foreign markets.
EMPOWER EVERY AMERICAN
Education is economic development. We can only be a high growth country if we are a high skills country. The only way middle class Americans can keep good jobs with growing incomes is to be lifetime learners and innovators.
That means we must start early — with preschool for every child who needs it and we must fully fund Head Start.
Every student who wants to go to college will have the chance to do so — I will establish a domestic G.I. Bill which will create a national trust fund which any American can borrow from for a college education so long as they pay it back over time or agree to a couple of years of service to their country as a teacher, police officer or health care or family service worker.
We must also train those students not bound for college with the skills they need to get good jobs instead of getting stuck in minimum wage positions that have no future. As President, I will create a national apprentice program designed by local schools and businesses that will enable high school students to learn the skills they need.
As President, I will ensure that every working American has the opportunity to learn new skills each year. I will require employers to offer every worker a fair share of company training dollars or contribute to a national training fund.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Our new economic strategy also includes special efforts to lift poor people out of poverty and empower them to work their way into the American mainstream.
In the Clinton Administration, we will create tax incentives to invest in new businesses that create jobs here at home.For the working poor, we will expand the Earned Income Tax Credit so that anyone who works full-time will have enough to support his or her family above the poverty line. For low income entrepreneurs, we will support public and private partnerships that extend small loans and advice to poor individuals who are starting their own business.
NO DEDUCTIBILITY FOR CORPORATE IRRESPONSIBILITY
Too many CEO's gave themselves huge bonuses and personal salary increases in the 1980's rather than invest in their company and the people who work for them. The average CEO is paid 85 times as much as the average worker. We will end the tax deductions for excessive executive bonuses and golden parachutes. We are going to be a nation that invests in our future. Workers will get the training they need and companies will learn that the more you train your workforce, the more profits you will make.
We will also end the tax deductions for the costs of shutting down plants in the U.S. and shipping U.S. jobs overseas.
RADICALLY CHANGE GOVERNMENT
We need to eliminate massive government waste and have a federal budget that invests in our future and not our past. During my eleven years as Governor of Arkansas, we've balanced the budget every year. We've cut bureaucracy, improved services and treated taxpayers like our customers and our bosses — because they are.
As President, I will maintain a strong defense in a world that is still a dangerous place. However, with the end of the Cold War, I believe we can cut military spending by more than one third over the next five years which will free up more than $200 billion.
I will demand 3% across the board cuts in the administrative costs of the federal bureaucracy every year. As President, I would veto any pay raise Congress voted for themselves and tell them to go earn it first by getting middle class incomes up.
NEW BUSINESSES - NEW JOBS - NEW TECHNOLOGIES
In the Clinton Administration, we will create tax incentives to invest in new businesses that create jobs here at home. We won't provide special tax breaks for rich investors who clip coupons and trade securities — we will give investors in new businesses a 50% tax break on profits for investments held more than five years.
As President, for every dollar we reduce the defense budget for research and development, I will expand the civilian R & D budget to promote development of new products. I will create a new Civilian Research and Development Agency that will help business bring the products of the future to the market.
In the first year of the Clinton Administration, we will offer a plan to deliver quality, affordable health care to all Americans.QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR EVERY AMERICAN
In the first year of the Clinton Administration, we will offer a plan to deliver quality, affordable health care to all Americans. If we are to be economically competitive in the next decade, we simply must overhaul our health care system.
My health care reform plan does not require any increase in taxes. We will take on the big insurance companies, large drug companies, the health care bureaucracies and demand strict control on health care costs. By eliminating administrative waste in our current system, controlling costs and ending fraudulent billing practices we can generate $100 billion in savings to finance my national health care program.
I have a four point plan to reform America's health care system:
1. Control Costs. My health care system will demand insurance reform to end the administrative waste we have under the current system. We now have more than 1,500 different companies who write health insurance policies in this country. We don't need them.
I will also regulate drug prices so they cannot skyrocket, reduce billing fraud and force agreement on what services and hospital bills should cost.
2. Guarantee Universal Coverage. I will guarantee every American access to affordable quality health care.
3. Improve Preventive Care. We will provide primary and preventive clinics in rural areas and inner cities so health care is available and will also increase children's access to health care by putting clinics in certain schools where it is needed. Every child in America will receive the immunization shots they need.
4. Provide Long Term-Care and More Choices.
We should provide health care to elderly when they need it — before they spend themselves into poverty. I believe our senior citizens should make their own choices about how to spend health care benefits they are entitled to. In Arkansas, we created a program that gives seniors the right to take money which used to be available only for nursing home care and spend it on home health care, personal care, transportation to senior centers, hiring a nurse or attending an adult day care center. I want a federal health system that gives seniors all over the country the same choices.
"This is not just a campaign for the presidency. This is a crusade for change...a crusade to restore the forgotten middle class, lift the poor out of poverty, give power back to ordinary people, and build a better life for our children. It's a crusade to build an economy of empowerment and opportunity that will. preserve our social order and make it possible to once again restore the American dream here at home."
VOLUNTEER TODAY:
CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT
(501) 372-1992
Send contributions to Clinton for President Committee, P.O. Box 615, Little Rock, AR 72203
Clinton for President
122 West 3rd Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
[recycle bug] RECYCLED
Paid for by Clinton for President Committee, P.O. Box 615, Little Rock, Arkansas 72203 [union bug]
Copyright © 2023 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in
Action. 