President Clinton Thursday declared the state of the union "the strongest it has ever been," in part due to a smaller, stronger federal workforce.
With the smallest federal workforce in 40 years, the government has cut crime, improved education and turned deficits into surpluses, the President said in his final State of the Union address to Congress.
"We reinvented government, transforming it into a catalyst for new ideas that stress both opportunity and responsibility, and give our people the tools to solve their own problems," Clinton said.
The speech focused heavily on education and health care, with proposals that would make large investments in health care and offer more financial assistance for college education.
Clinton also focused on the economic boom times the country is experiencing. He attributed the nation's prosperity in part to advances in information technology-and credited the federal government for its part in the national technology boom.
"We should keep in mind: Government-funded research brought supercomputers, the Internet and communications satellites into being," he said.
In background materials for the address, the Clinton Administration said improving citizen satisfaction and trust in government are the goals of reinvention. The materials also noted that the government has served as a model employer of former welfare recipients, hiring 16,000 since 1997.
In his speech, Clinton declared victory over the national debt, saying "we will pay off our national debt for the first time since 1835" within 13 years.
Accordingly, he discussed plans for the federal budget surplus, recommending that savings from debt reduction be used to preserve Social Security and Medicare as well as help fund a proposed $350 billion tax cut.
Clinton thanked the nation's armed forces who served in the war in Kosovo and proposed salary increases for service members. He also stressed the importance of increasing the nation's defense against biological warfare and cyber terrorists. His fiscal 2001 budget proposal will call for $2 billion in infrastructure protection investments, including $25 million to recruit, train and retain federal information technology experts; $621 million for federal research and development in computer security; $50 million to create an Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection; and $10 million to design a Federal Intrusion Detection Network, which would alert the federal government to cyber attacks.
Other proposals for federal agencies included:
- Increasing the number of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents by 500 and adding nearly 100 more federal gun prosecutors in U.S. Attorney's offices
- Increase funding for the Head Start program by $1 billion
- Give the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission $10 million to fight wage discrimination
- Harness government purchasing power to offer low cost private long-term care insurance to federal employees
Though Clinton praised the virtues of smaller government, Republicans criticized him for outlining proposals for more government spending.
"Instead, he should help us eliminate waste and abuse, and direct those resources to better uses," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., echoed Armey's sentiments.
"If we enacted all the new programs the President has talked about, we'd spend just about the entire surplus on bigger and more expensive government," he said.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Clinton proposed $343 billion in new spending.
This was "the most expensive speech ever," Domenici said.
NEXT STORY: Software is the new tool for catching crooks