SUNS  4358 Friday 22 January 1998

United States: Clinton extends hand to Republicans



Washington, Jan 19 (IPS/Jim Lobe ) -- US President Bill Clinton, brushing aside his ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate, used his annual State of the Union address to Congress here Tuesday night to extend his hand to Republicans on a range of policy issues.

Announcing initiatives to bolster the troubled social security system, raise standards for primary and secondary education, increase defence spending, and launch a new round of global trade negotiations, Clinton appeared eager to quench what polls suggest is a thirst by the public for policy issues after the last five months of Washington scandals.

He spoke just a few hours after his attorneys made their opening statements against his impeachment for allegedly perjuring himself about his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and obstructing efforts to bring him to justice. But Clinton never once alluded to the case.

Recent polls have shown that about two-thirds of the public continues to strongly support Clinton's performance and oppose efforts to drive him from office.

That percentage has been remarkably stable since the Lewinsky scandal broke almost exactly one year ago, just one week before his 1998 State of the Union address.

A major reason for that stability, according to the pundits, is the strong state of the economy and general satisfaction by the public with the state of the nation, points made forcefully by Clinton Tuesday night.

Republicans in the audience appeared to understand that. Despite the partisan atmosphere that has prevailed over the last six weeks, especially in the House of Representatives, Clinton's welcome by his political foes was cordial, if predictably restrained.

In recent days, Republican leaders have stressed that they are eager to work with the administration on a range of issues.

Noting that the country continues to experience "the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history," Clinton stressed that levels of violent crime were at their lowest level in 25 years, while
unemployment was lower than at any time since 1957. In 1998, the budget surplus was $70 billion, and White House economists now project surpluses for the next 25 years," he said.

"My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the state of our union is strong," he declared, before setting forth his 1999 agenda for the next 80 minutes.

That agenda is to be dominated by domestic issues, beginning with social security. Clinton said that he wanted to earmark 60% of the budget surplus over the next 15 years to bolster the system, and, in a bid for Republican support, added that he will back proposals that some of that money be invested in the stock market.

His second priority, he said, was building "21st century schools" to raise educational standards, which has also emerged as a Republican theme over the past two years.

In a bow to his left, Clinton called for increasing the minimum wage by one dollar an hour over the next years. In a bid for Republican support, he also endorsed offering a new tax credit for parents who stay at home with their children.

On foreign affairs, Clinton, as he did in the last two years, stressed trade, particularly in light of what he called "the most serious financial crisis in a half century."

He said he will again seek "fast-track" authority to negotiate new trade agreements. He called for a "new round of global negotiations to expand exports of services, of manufactures, and most of all, farm products."

Clinton does not need "fast-track" authority to enter into such talks, although it will be needed to conclude them (particularly if it involves changes in US laws or concessions by the US, beyond that
allowed by the various trade law provisions). He has been frustrated in the past in his efforts to get such legislation due to opposition among his own Democrats to trade legislation that does not include tough protection for labour and the environment. Clinton said he will also resurrect other trade initiatives which have fallen by the wayside; specifically, new trade preferences for exports
from Africa and the Caribbean Basin. And, he said, Washington will "insist that international trade organisations be open to public scrutiny."

On foreign affairs, Clinton called for Congress to support his efforts to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East.

He stressed that Washington is "pressing the Serbian government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo, to bring those responsible to justice, and give people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve."

He said US actions to stop nuclear proliferation and deal with "outlaw nations," such as Iraq, whose president Saddam Hussein was, for the second year in a row, the only foreign leader explicitly named in Clinton's annual address.