○  克林顿总统1999年联邦国情咨文演说  ○

jan. 19, 1999.

mr. speaker, mr. vice president, members of congress, honored guests, my fellow americans. tonight i have the honor of reporting to you on the state of the union.

let me begin by saluting the new speaker of the house and thanking him especially tonight for extending an invitation to two guests sitting in the gallery with mrs. [j. dennis] hastert. lyn gibson and wei ling chestnut are the widows of the two brave capitol hill police officers who gave their lives to defend freedom’s house.

mr. speaker, at your swearing in you asked us all to work together in a spirit of civility and bipartisanship. mr. speaker, let’s do exactly that.

tonight, i stand before you to report that america has created the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history. with nearly 18 million new jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare roles in 30 years, and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.

for the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. from a deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last year. and now, we are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25 years.

thanks to the pioneering leadership of all of you, we have the lowest violent crime rate in a quarter century and the cleanest environment in a quarter century.

america is a strong force for peace – from northern ireland to bosnia to the middle east.

thanks to the leadership of vice president gore, we have a government for the information age, once again a government that is a progressive instrument of the common good, rooted in our oldest values of opportunity, responsibility and community, devoted to fiscal responsibility, determined to give our people 1 2 下一页