2001-01-18 Farewell Address by the President to the Nation
Press Secretary
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 18, 2001
FAREWELL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION
The Oval Office
8:00 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens, tonight is my last
opportunity to speak to you from the Oval Office as your President. I
am profoundly grateful to you for twice giving me the honor to serve --
to work for you and with you to prepare our nation for the 21st century.
And I'm grateful to Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet
Secretaries, and to all those who have served with me for the last eight
years.
This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have
risen to every new challenge. You have made our social fabric stronger,
our families healthier and safer, our people more prosperous. You, the
American people, have made our passage into the global information age
an era of great American renewal.
In all the work I have done as President -- every decision I
have made, every executive action I have taken, every bill I have
proposed and signed, I've tried to give all Americans the tools and
conditions to build the future of our dreams in a good society, with a
strong economy, a cleaner environment, and a freer, safer, more
prosperous world.
I have steered my course by our enduring values -- opportunity
for all, responsibility from all, a community of all Americans. I have
sought to give America a new kind of government, smaller, more modern,
more effective, full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time,
always putting people first, always focusing on the future.
Working together, America has done well. Our economy is
breaking records, with more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest
unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership ever, the longest
expansion in history.
Our families and communities are stronger. Thirty-five
million Americans have used the Family Leave law; 8 million have moved
off welfare. Crime is at a 25-year low. Over 10 million Americans
receive more college aid, and more people than ever are going to
college. Our schools are better. Higher standards, greater
accountability and larger investments have brought higher test scores
and higher graduation rates.
More than 3 million children have health insurance now, and
more than 7 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty. Incomes
are rising across the board. Our air and water are cleaner. Our food
and drinking water are safer. And more of our precious land has been
preserved in the continental United States than at any time in a hundred
years.
America has been a force for peace and prosperity in every
corner of the globe. I'm very grateful to be able to turn over the
reins of leadership to a new President with America in such a strong
position to meet the challenges of the future.
Tonight I want to leave you with three thoughts about our
future. First, America must maintain our record of fiscal
responsibility.
Through our last four budgets we've turned record deficits to
record surpluses, and we've been able to pay down $600 billion of our
national debt, on track to be debt-free by the end of the decade for the
first time since 1835. Staying on that course will bring lower interest
rates, greater prosperity, and the opportunity to meet our big
challenges. If we choose wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal with
the retirement of the baby boomers, invest more in our future, and
provide tax relief.
Second, because the world is more connected every day, in
every way, America's security and prosperity require us to continue to
lead in the world. At this remarkable moment in history, more people
live in freedom than ever before. Our alliances are stronger than ever.
People all around the world look to America to be a force for peace and
prosperity, freedom and security.
The global economy is giving more of our own people and
billions around the world the chance to work and live and raise their
families with dignity. But the forces of integration that have created
these good opportunities also make us more subject to global forces of
destruction -- to terrorism, organized crime and narco trafficking, the
spread of deadly weapons and disease, the degradation of the global
environment.
The expansion of trade hasn't fully closed the gap between
those of us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the
billions around the world who live on the knife's edge of survival.
This global gap requires more than compassion; it requires action.
Global poverty is a powder keg that could be ignited by our
indifference.
In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson warned of
entangling alliances. But in our times, America cannot, and must not,
disentangle itself from the world. If we want the world to embody our
shared values, then we must assume a shared responsibility.
If the wars of the 20th century, especially the recent ones in
Kosovo and Bosnia, have taught us anything, it is that we achieve our
aims by defending our values, and leading the forces of freedom and
peace. We must embrace boldly and resolutely that duty to lead -- to
stand with our allies in word and deed, and to put a human face on the
global economy, so that expanded trade benefits all peoples in all
nations, lifting lives and hopes all across the world.
Third, we must remember that America cannot lead in the world
unless here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into
the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work
harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity. We
must work harder to overcome our differences, in our hearts and in our
laws. We must treat all our people with fairness and dignity,
regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, and
regardless of when they arrived in our country; always moving toward the
more perfect union of our founders' dreams.
Hillary, Chelsea and I join all Americans in wishing our very
best to the next President, George W. Bush, to his family and his
administration, in meeting these challenges, and in leading freedom's
march in this new century.
As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more
full of hope than the day I arrived, and more confident than ever that
America's best days lie ahead.
My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of
service, I hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a
position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of President of the
United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that
of citizen.
Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.
END 8:10 P.M. EST