No lame duck State of the Union address for ClintonBy Douglas S. Wood/CNN
January 26, 2000
Web posted at: 5:36 p.m. EST (2236 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bill Clinton hopes to defy historical precedent Thursday with an another ambitious State of the Union address that belies his lame duck status .
Clinton has often presented himself as an activist president in his State of the Union speeches and he plans to do so again, despite being in the final year of his presidency and facing an election-minded Congress whose Republican majority impeached him a little over a year ago.
Clinton will outline an ambitious "new opportunity" agenda that appears suited for a newly elected president and not one facing the end of his second term.
He also will take some of the credit for the nation's robust economy and an array of statistics behind the economy, including the longest peacetime expansion in U.S. history, lowest welfare rolls in 30 years and the first back-to-back government surpluses in 43 years.
In the weeks before his speech, Clinton has been laying out a laundry list of policy proposals of policies that the president often says can be done due to the nation's booming economy.
But given that this also is an election year, the president's agenda could also be seen as a way to help ensure that Vice President Al Gore succeed him. Clinton sees the election of Gore as an affirmation of his presidency and part of his legacy as president.
Take Clinton's proposal to hike in defense spending by nearly 7 percent, the biggest increase in the Pentagon's budget since the Reagan-era military buildup of the 1980s.
Republican presidential candidates have criticized the Clinton Administration for what they claim is underfunding the military and causing a resulting decline in readiness. Proposing a big increase could blunt some of that criticism and Congress is unlikely to reject an increase.
Clinton also has proposed an ambitious $110 billion program to expand health care coverage for uninsured Americans, including a plan first suggested by Gore to allow parents who children are covered under the government's Children's Health Insurance Program to be covered.
Health care has emerged as a key issue in the Democratic primary campaign and Clinton's plan could be seen as attempt to offset criticism of Gore on the issue by his lone rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.
Health care also cited in many polls as a key issue for Americans in the 2000 elections, and Clinton will likely press Congress to pass the so-called patient's bill of rights, which would give patients some new powers in dealing with their health maintenance organizations (HMO) and other managed care plans.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed over the scope of the bill, which is consistently popular in national polls. One main point of contentions is the Democratic proposal to give patients the right to sue their HMO for punitive damages when denied treatment. Republican lawmakers would resolve such disputes through outside arbitration, saying the Democratic proposal would lead to a rash of lawsuits and drive up health care costs to the benefit of trial lawyers, not patients.
Another Clinton proposal calls for tougher enforcement of firearms laws by proposing funding for more federal agents and prosecutors and to create a program to track gun use through ballistics testing.
The president has been criticized by Republicans for lax enforcement of the nation's existing gun laws while pushing more gun control legislation. With his proposal, the president hopes to take away the GOP's source of criticism while continuing to push for new gun control laws.
When he first previewed the proposal this month, Clinton said Congress should abandon the "stale debate" over whether the country needs to enforce existing gun laws versus passing new gun control measures. The drop in crime rates is due both to enforcing existing laws and new gun control measures such as the assault weapons ban, he said.
"The real answer is we should do both," he said. "That's what we've done with the Brady Bill. That's what we have done with the assault weapons ban and we should do more."
After a spate of high-profile shooting attacks last year at high schools and community centers, Clinton pushed for tougher gun-control measures in Congress. But the legislation stalled over such issues as how to extend Brady law background checks to gun shows, banning large-capacity ammunition clips or whether to require safety locks on handguns.
Clinton said Congress should pass the legislation when it returns to Washington. "It will have the same impact that the Brady law and the assault weapons ban did. It won't cause anybody who's law-abiding any hassle," he said. "It'll save lives. It's important that we do this too."
On taxes, the president is offering what he says is a "substantial increase" of the earned income tax credit program aimed at the nation's working poor.
Clinton's plan could again help Gore as Bradley, has proposed expanding the tax credit for low-wage workers as part of a $9.8 billion "wholesale rescue effort" for the poor.
When Clinton unveiled the idea, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart denied it was a response to any of Bradley's proposals, saying the president has had a long-term commitment to the earned income tax credit program. In 1993 -- Clinton's first year in office -- he pushed for the largest increase in the program's history, which the then-Democratic controlled Congress approved.
"He has been committed to this very successful program from day one," Lockhart said.
Clinton would boost the EITC for working families with three or more children by $500 in 2002, according to White House officials. The maximum credit in that category would be raised from $3,992 to $4,491.
The plan would also boost by $1,450 the earnings limit for married couples. A married, two-wage couple with children could earn up to $14,480 in 2001 and still receive the maximum credit, compared with the $13,030 threshold under current law. The provision would give the couple an additional $250 benefit. Families with two or more children would be allowed to retain more of the credit after they earn the maximum allowed.
The current program has an estimated cost of some $21 billion over 10 years. The EITC program annually helps nearly 20 million low-income, working families by giving them tax credits.
But new proposals will not be all of the speech. The president plans to touch on what he calls "unfinished business," like including a prescription drug benefit in Medicare, raising the minimum wage; and passing legislation to fight hate crimes.
Clinton also will propose:
A massive $30 billion tax credit for higher eduction costs as the centerpiece of a series of initiatives intended to coax more young people into colleges and universities, and keep them there until they graduate.
Spending $27 million to improve education and enforcement of federal laws requiring equal pay for equal work by men and women.
Boosting basic scientific and medical research by $2.8 billion.
Spending $695 million in the 2001 budget -- a 13 percent increase -- to beef up civil rights enforcement.
Spending $20 million -- double the amount in the fiscal year 2000 budget -- to fund a program that helps law enforcement officials solve crimes simply by analyzing the bullets or shell casings found at a crime scene.
Add $204 million for domestic and international programs that provide birth control and other family planning services. It would be the largest annual increase for such services in more than two decades.
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