(28 Jan 2000) English/Nat
Speaking during his last State of the Union Address, U-S President Bill Clinton proposed a 350 (b) billion dollar tax cut and big spending increases for schools and health care on Thursday.
This amounted to the final agenda of his presidency.
Clinton said that next month the United States will achieve the longest period of economic growth in its history.
Speaking before a joint session of Congress, he called on Americans to "set great goals for our nation".
The president also proposed a gun-licensing plan that would require congressional action.
Republicans responding to Clinton's address argued they have proposed bigger tax cuts and better approaches to improving health care and education.
The president offered a long litany of initiatives, many of them sure to be rewritten or ignored by an election-year Congress.
His tax cut proposals were intended primarily to promote educational opportunities and expand health insurance and child care.
Republicans ridiculed Clinton's proposals but did not rule out working with him on such issues as education and health care.
Many of Clinton's proposals were repackaged from earlier years and, in some cases, resubmitted with spending figures double or triple the original amount.
Clinton boasted that the nation has been lifted from economic distress, social decline and political gridlock.
Clinton's tax program includes marriage penalty relief, tax deductions of up to two thousand eight hundred dollars annually per family for college tuition and fees and retirement savings accounts for low and moderate-income families.
He also proposed steps to encourage charitable giving.
The president's tax package joined a mix of proposals urged by Republicans and Democrats as both sides battle for control of Congress and the White House.
Smarting from Clinton's veto of their 792 (B) billion dollar tax-cut package last year, House Republicans are
drafting their own version of educational tax breaks and marriage penalty relief this year.
Presidential candidates have their own proposals, too.
The president's tax package would cost 350 (B) billion dollars over ten years.
However, his plan envisions cutting that price tag by a hundred (B) billion dollars by closing tax havens, shelters and loopholes.
Congress has previously rejected many of those ideas on grounds they are tax increases.
Clinton urged Congress to give China permanent normal trading relations with the United States.
He also asked for one-point-six (B) billion dollars for Colombia to fight narcotics traffickers.
The booming economy and swelling tax revenues give Clinton and Republicans a big purse for any tax reductions or spending increases.
Both sides claim they are dedicated to protecting Social Security and eliminating the national debt.
Like the president, first-term Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Frist of Tennessee said their party stands for protecting Social Security, extending health insurance to more Americans, eliminating the national debt and ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries have access to prescription drugs.
But they said these goals must be accomplished without an explosion of federal spending and new bureaucracies.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: President Bill Clinton
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"To 21st century America, let us pledge these things: Every child will begin school ready to learn and graduate ready to succeed; every family will be able to succeed at home and at work and no child will be raised in poverty."
SOUNDBITE: (English)
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