Despite the looming budget crisis with Congress, President Clinton Monday gave an aggressively upbeat assessment of the economy, telling an audience, "Your country is clearly on a roll."
The president even found reason for cheer in the sharply partisan debate over how to balance the budget. "The good news is, the leaders of both parties want to finish the job," Clinton said.The president made his remarks before the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. He said the travel industry has a major impact on the nation's economy, generating a $22 billion trade surplus in 1993 and employing more than 6 million Americans.
He said he planned to sign the $37.5 billion Transportation spending bill passed by the House last week and slated for Senate action Tuesday.
"When this bill hits my desk I intend to sign it and we will get the FAA back on the glide path to the 21st Century," Clinton said, praising the measure for easing federal restrictions on Federal Aviation Administration personnel and spending.
Clinton made only the briefest mention of the budget battle with Congress, where Republicans are beginning work this week to reconcile differences in bills to balance the budget over seven years by shrinking Medicare and Medicaid growth and providing a $245 billion tax cut.
The budget impasse between Congress and the White House could lead to a shutdown of federal agencies and a government default on paying its debts.
Instead, Clinton focused on upbeat economic news on which he hopes to build a successful re-election campaign next year.
"Your country is clearly on a roll," the president said. "We have a resurgence of economic growth. We have a dramatic reform in the size and scope in the way of operating our government. And most important of all, we have a reassertion of basic American values in every community in this country."
Reciting now familiar statistics, Clinton said 7.5 million new jobs have been created since he became president and home ownership has grown by 2.5 million to the largest level in 15 years. He said more than 2 million small businesses have been created, the most rapid growth in that sector in U.S. history.
Despite the burst of economic activity, he said, America has "the lowest combined rate of unemployment and inflation in 25 years." That remark drew a burst of applause.
In almost every state, the crime rate is down, the murder rate is down and the welfare rate is down, he continued.
On an issue dear to the heart of travel agents, Clinton acknowledged that America's problem-plagued air traffic control system needs repair.
"There is no point in pretending something's all right when it's not," Clinton said. "It is not all right that the FAA does not have the largest technology, safest most efficient equipment in the world. That is not all right. We have to change that."
He said the FAA has installed a new management team, has drawn up plans to modernize the system and has speeded the replacement of failing computers at some of the busiest air traffic centers.