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THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
12-18-95
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
40 METUM At>
October 5, 1995
Beth E. Dozoretz
240 Corporate Boulevard
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Dear Beth:
Thanks for your letter of September 28 and for
following up on our conversation. I appreciate
your continuing support for the Administration,
and I've asked Bob Nash, Director of
Presidential Personnel, to look into potential
opportunities for you here.
Thanks, too, for your kind words about my
speech. We have a lot of work to do in the
months ahead, and I'm grateful for your
willingness to help.
Sincerely,
BETH E. DOZORETZ
Maurees -
" Dongs
September 28, 1995
Haroed
B. nash
The Honorable William Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Clinton,
As always, it was wonderful to see you Tuesday night at the Ritz Carlton Dinner. I hope you
know how you captivate and inspire people. I listened with great pride to everyone emote after
you left the dinner. You would have been pleased to hear the level of commitment and support.
I consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity to be with you at so many wonderful
events. I will, however, express a slight frustration. I have been totally committed to helping
your administration for the last three years. I consider this work my main priority. It has been
a wonderful experience and I can truly say I have gotten as much out of it as I have given; but
I am thinking about the next year. I have a wealth of experience and as we have not really spent
any quality time together, I assume you are not aware of my background. I have twenty years
experience in business and have spent all of my career focusing on the middle class consumer
as a womens apparel manufacturer. Most recently I have worked in the health care business and
have volunteered my efforts for your administration in a variety of ways. I would like to offer
my services to you if there is a meaningful way to do so. You mentioned that there might be
a project or role for me to play. I hope to have the opportunity to explore this further with you
and would appreciate your guidance on how to follow up. Please know that I have a sincere
desire to help and a steadfast commitment to you.
Warmest personal regards,
Beth Dozoretz
BED/vk
SDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1995
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
12-18-95
Tous Sauroy
wut's the Deal ou This?
shon't we have
OC
With One Disease Nearly Erased,
Assault Is Planned on Another
By WARREN E. LEARY
parasitic condition, should be entire-
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - Armed
ly eliminated within a year.
Guinea worm disease occurs when
with a new confidence that it is possi-
ble to wipe out diseases that have
people drink water containing tiny
plagued humans for centuries, inter-
water fleas that have ingested mi-
national health and development offi-
croscopic Guinea worm larvae. The
cials announced today a final assault
larvae mate in the intestine and the
on one debilitating tropical malady,
females move to the outer parts of
river blindness, even as they cele-
the body. A year after infestation,
brated the imminent demise of an-
mature worms up to three feet long
other, Guinea worm disease.
emerge through painful blisters,
United Nations health organiza-
sometimes causing muscle damage
tions, the World Bank and private
and crippling similar to polio.
Guinea worm disease has been
groups announced a 12-year interna-
tional program to control and even-
controlled by use of a chemical that
tually wipe out river blindness in
purifies contaminated water and by
Africa, an effort they said should
educating infected people not to
save millions from the blindness and
wade in sources of drinking water.
Officials said the Guinea worm has
disfigurement of the disease formal-
been eliminated in the Indian sub-
ly known as onchocerciasis.
continent and most of Africa, with
The new program is modeled on
most remaining cases confined to
the highly successful Onchocerciasis
Nigeria, Niger and the Sudan.
Control Program that since 1974 has
River blindness is caused by a'
largely eliminated river blindness as
parasitic worm that is spread by the
a major health problem in an 11-
bites of tiny black flies that breed in
country region of West Africa. Under
fast-moving river water. Larvae pro-
the initiative, community treatment
duced by adult worms migrate in the
programs will be established in parts
skin of humans, causing lesions and
of 16 nations not included in the origi-
blindness when they reach the eyes.
nal program, officials said.
This disease is fought by spraying
James D. Wolfensohn, president of
to kill the flies and treating victims
the World Bank, said several coun-
with the drug ivermectin, which kills
tries and organizations had pledged
newly hatched worms with an annual
$20 million of the $124 million needed
dose. Merck & Company of Rahway,
for the river blindness program
N.J., which developed the drug, has
Former President Jimmy Carter,
donated it to eradication programs, a
whose Carter Center in Atlanta is
contribution Mr. Carter said was
coordinating the effort, said the Unit-
worth $250 million over 12 years.
ed States refused to contribute,
The new attack on river blindness
follows an announcement on Monday
that Guinea worm disease, another
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
12-18-95
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
95 DEC 15 P5: 57
December 15, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
CAROL H. RASCO CHR
Thin
SUBJECT:
Teen Pregnancy Initiative:
Memo from Kathy Sylvester
As we discussed this afternoon during my briefing, attached is
the memo from Kathy Sylvester. She will come with me to the
Monday morning briefing scheduled for 10 a.m.
In addition to the private entity she recommends which would also
have a media component (both of which we are underway as a result
of your large meeting), she suggests:
National Commission on Adoption and Foster Care Reform
Some foundations are looking at this issue now and before we
announce any initiative I am trying to learn about the work being
done currently. I recently spoke at a large Annie E. Casey
Foundation meeting on this issue and am working particularly with
that group to determine the next steps.
Domestic Violence
The suggestion is to expand the role of our Domestic Violence
initiative to include the proposition that sexual abuse is a root
cause of teen pregnancy. Kathy is doing some good work with
states in this area, and I am making plans to have her meet with
Bonnie Campbell in early January.
Summit on Media Responsibility
I'm not sure how effectively this can be done in 1996; certainly
you and the Vice President made a good start on this at the
Nashville conference, and there is follow up work being done as a
result of that conference.
Teen Pregnancy Awareness Month
Kathy suggests this for May, and we can certainly pursue it.
Please call me if you read through this material and wish to
discuss it further prior to Monday.
Thank you.
TO: President Clinton
FROM: Kathleen Sylvester
RE: A National Teen Pregnancy Strategy
You have a rare opportunity to unite the American people on an issue of common
concern and to catalyze an effective, broad-based response to the problem of teen
pregnancy.
Why now? The welfare debate generated renewed public concern about the issue.
We know enough now about all of the elements of the problem to attack it
intelligently. Most of the "pieces" of the solution are available; they have not been
linked together effectively or in a sustained fashion.
And you can provide national leadership-the element missing in past
efforts-and a sense of urgency. In a nation where more than a half million
teenagers are having babies and another half million are having abortions each
year, you must insist that there is no time to waste.
You can remind Americans that the problem touches many families in a nation in
which 43 percent of young women become pregnant once during their teenage
years. Finally, you can tell them that the problem is solvable-that in a nation of
263 million, we can surely join together to influence the life circumstances and
decisions of the 1.2 million teens who become pregnant every year.
The challenge to you as a national leader is to leverage an effort that will take
place at the local level and be guided by the private sector. To make this effort
succeed, you must announce a new "bargain" between government and
communities: Public-sector institutions must become team players in the new
approach to solving social problems. To accomplish that transformation, you can
lead the nation in bold national exercise in problem solving. It should be guided by
common sense and by these principles:
*
Government cannot solve this problem. The problem will be solved by families
and communities, reinforced by all institutions of society, including government.
* This initiative will reestablish the importance of values-those of communities
and families-in social policy.
* This will be a national initiative focused on prevention. Abortion is not
prevention; this is not about abortion.
1
The long-term goal of the initiative should be to reestablish the social presumption
that there are appropriate ages and circumstances-in effect, a rite of
passage-that women and men must achieve before they become parents.
The tactical goal of the project should be a national campaign that seeks to engage
each of the nation's 83,000 communities in a discussion about preventing teen
pregnancy. The campaign will offer support for coalitions of parents, young people,
teachers, politicians, religious leaders, local media, and business leaders in every
community that organizes such a group around a common purpose.
The model would include these four components.
1. A federal government that offers two elements of the solution:
* presidential leadership
* federal resources-including funding and legislative initiatives-that respond to
needs identified by the communities that are solving the problem.
2. A national teen pregnancy initiative-a central entity whose task is to
catalyze and support the efforts of churches, non-profits, businesses and civic
organizations, and state and local governments.
3. A national teen pregnancy research council. This entity, which would be
separate from the teen pregnancy initiative, would monitor the effectiveness of
programs and identify issues that require further research.
4. A national media campaign that complements the efforts of the initiative
and responds to the results of the council's research.
This model is designed to avoid the weaknesses that have characterized the failed
efforts of the past two decades.
* Those efforts were compromised by politics. Since the days of the Carter
Administration's "Alternatives to Abortion" initiative, every teen pregnancy effort
has been complicated by the politics of abortion, contraception, or sex education.
The result is that none of these efforts accomplished anything beyond funding a
handful of demonstration projects.
Your administration faces the same problem: The Department of Health and
Human Services, for example, recently awarded $4.2 million in grants for
abstinence-based programs through the Adolescent Family Life Program. Good
programs that included other elements were told not to apply, even though
evaluations show that abstinence-only programs are less effective than those
programs that combine abstinence and contraception.
2
Federally-run clearinghouses have been rendered ineffective by politics as well.
The most recent victim was the clearinghouse proposal attached to the Second-
Chance Homes proposal in the Senate welfare bill. That clearinghouse plan was
abandoned by the Democrats during the floor debate after Republicans balked and
threatened to withhold support for Second-Chance Homes.
Federal research is limited by political considerations too. Privacy regulations, for
example, have limited the kinds of questions federally funded researchers may ask
about the men who father the babies of teen mothers.
* They were guided by "experts" who rarely provide clear articulations of
the problem or possible solutions. Washington has offered little useful help for
those who are trying to solve the problem. The messages from children's advocates
and policy experts are generally vague and confusing.
There has been a great deal of debate about teen pregnancy, with few practical
recommendations. Some of the debate's participants insist that nothing will work;
some insist that nothing short of ending poverty will work; and others say they
still aren't sure what works because they haven't done enough research. There is
tremendous competition in Washington to be perceived as "right" about teen
pregnancy, but less competition to try to solve the problem.
And even when the experts offer information that might help policymakers or
practitioners, they offer it in a form that is inaccessible. The recent HHS report to
Congress on Out-of Wedlock Childbearing, for example, contained 265 pages of
conclusion such as these: "Strategies must take into account that large numbers of
pregnancies are unintended." and "Different strategies are needed for populations
at greatest risk."
Volumes of research reports in which the academics footnote each other's studies
are of little use to a Girl Scout leader or a minister trying to understand the issue
or simply looking for a good idea.
Policymakers are frustrated as well. They are beginning to understand the
ramifications of teen pregnancy: Most can recite the litany of the social problems
that stem from it. But they're simply not getting any useful advice on what to do.
An unreleased study by the State Legislative Leaders' Foundation concludes that
state legislators are SO consumed by process that they rarely have time to learn
about policy. They want information they can understand; they want specific ideas
about what they can do; they want arguments to build support for those ideas.
They do not want academic research and volumes of government reports.
3
* Most past efforts were narrowly focused on "programs" and pilot
projects. These programs often failed to nurture community leaders or build
community support; they usually disappeared when funding dried up.
While the pilot programs did not achieve any significant reductions in teen
pregnancy, they did provide a wealth of knowledge. Many pieces of the teen
pregnancy problem have already been addressed: There are examples of effective
incentive programs, effective school-based health programs and effective sex-
education curricula. We also know that these limited interventions produced
sustained results only when coupled with other efforts. That's what must happen
now.
I've talked to dozens of people who work with kids, and they all tell me they want
help with the other pieces of the problem. A counselor running a support group for
young black men tells me he can't hope to be a role model for all of them. Where
are the other men who will mentor these boys? A high school principal told me she
can't convince young women that unprotected sex may result in disease or
pregnancy when they spend hours watching TV soaps that portray sex as risk-free
and carefree. What is the media doing to respond to this problem? Social workers
trying to help young women who live in homes where they are abusive men say
there are not enough safe places to send those young women. What are we doing
to solve the foster care crisis or to create group homes for those young women?
A national initiative should not focus on creating programs. It should focus instead
on creating leaders who will decide whether they need programs. These leaders
will also decide where and when they need reinforcement. Once they identify those
needs, it will be the task of the central entities in the venture-the federal
government, the teen pregnancy initiative and the research council-to respond to
those needs.
4
Creating an Effective Teen Pregnancy Campaign
This nation has 15 years of experience and a great deal of information about what
works and what doesn't. That is more than enough to start this effort. We must
launch this effort now; we can adjust the plan along the way. This is what it
should look like at the outset.
* The Money Would Be Private; the Politics Would Be Local
Both the Initiative and the Council should be privately funded. This will allow
them the political independence to offer communities useful assistance and to
engage in relevant research.
By moving the decision-making to the local level, local leaders can negotiate
political obstacles that cannot be negotiated in Washington, where no one has a
real stake in the outcome.
A strong example comes from North Carolina, where a state coalition has
convinced the state legislature to fund a variety of initiatives, including school-
based health clinics that offer contraceptive services. The state group worked with
community coalitions, including representatives of pro-life religious organizations,
to work out the politics ahead of time. Their coalitions were led by local business
leaders with money and clout; the advocates who lobbied legislatures came armed
with citizen petitions and transcripts of public hearings. They gave the legislature
the political cover to fund the clinics.
Building these new coalitions takes time. People need to learn how to manage
organizations, mobilize members of their community, and continually adapt
strategies to changing needs. In the early years in North Carolina, when
community groups were getting established, they had little effect on teen
pregnancy rates. But in the last three years, teen pregnancy rates have dropped
30 percent-the most significant sustained success of any large initiative in the
country.
Under this plan, a national teen pregnancy initiative would perform a function
similar to that of the Southern Governors' Infant Mortality project. As you know,
the advocates who ran that campaign traveled across the south explaining the
medical and social costs of low birthweight babies. They offered evidence that
preventing low-birthweight babies would save money for the states. They offered a
set of solutions-including expansion of Medicaid eligibility and strategies for
improving access to health care for pregnant women. Then they held people
accountable by checking back to measure their progress, and applied constant
pressure by reporting publicly on the states' comparative progress.
5
The goal of the Initiative is to create and nurture a national network of state-
based coalitions. These state-based groups will, in turn, work with communities.
The state coalitions will offer information, resources, and training for local
advocates. Both sets of coalitions will be able influence policymakers.
At the local level, organizers will work in communities to gather data on teen
pregnancy and related problems such as sexually transmitted diseases and
substance abuse. They will survey young people's attitudes towards sex and
present an "Adolescent Health Index" to community groups such as school boards
and churches. Then organizers will plan "summits" with all relevant community
members. At the summits, community members will identify the range of solutions
needed and the pieces of these solutions that are missing in their own
communities.
In reality, these coalitions won't be addressing teen pregnancy. They will be
addressing the broader-and more appropriate-issue of youth development. We
won't reduce teen pregnancy without tackling related problems such as education
and jobs and substance abuse. But it is easier to begin the discussion around an
issue that generates so much public concern, then allow communities to broaden
the scope of their efforts as they discover the "web" of related issues.
These coalitions will be broad-based and non-partisan. At the state and local level,
the coalitions will include parents, teens, educators, members of community and
neighborhood organizations, and professionals from public agencies that work with
young people. They will also include churches, Chambers of Commerce, United
Ways, Catholic Charities, Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs. Finally, they will include
representatives of the media and the corporate community.
How would these initiatives be funded? The funding requirements will be modest.
At the outset, the national initiative must provide organizers and resources for the
states. These organizers will help build support for state coalitions; the coalitions
will raise funds from corporate and foundation sources for state-level staffs. These
state-level staffs will help build local coalitions. The coalitions, in turn, will raise
money for their own staffs. At the state level, only a handful of people are needed;
at the local level, one person can keep a coalition knitted together.
When communities decide what they need, many of the "pieces" of the solution will
be available though existing public or private efforts. Effective coalitions will be
able to raise funds to fill in the gaps at the local and state levels. Eventually, the
coalitions will be able leverage public funds. In North Carolina, for example, the
state legislature now looks to the state adolescent pregnancy coalition for guidance
about which efforts it should fund.
6
This kind of initiative will complement what many progressive foundations,
including Annie E. Casey, Carnegie and Edna McConnell Clark, are already doing.
These foundations are abandoning pilots and seeking to support strategies that set
new priorities and change governance structures.
* The Campaign Will be Specific and Practical
The role of the "central" entity in this initiative is to catalyze and support efforts
designed and carried out by churches, non-profits, businesses, civic organizations,
and state and local governments. It would accomplish this goal by doing the
following:
1) Breaking down the issue into understandable terms and offering basic, useful
information about the elements of the problem and possible solutions.
The question of teen mothers under age 18 offers a good model. A year ago, I
pulled together these facts about teen mothers under age 18: Most come from
homes strained by poverty and dysfunction. Most do badly in school; many drop
out before they become pregnant. Most have been badly nurtured; many have been
subjected to neglect or physical violence. As many as two-thirds were victims of
rape or sexual abuse at an early age and suffer from mental and emotional
problems. They are easy prey for older men: Two-thirds of teenage mothers have
babies fathered by men who are 20 or older. They have few role models; they don't
know how to be good mothers. Then I looked up one more salient fact. I discovered
that there are only 69,000 of them.
With this information, I looked for a practical solution to address their problems
and came up with "Second-Chance Homes." The Senate embraced the idea as did
governors, legislatures, and community groups in a half dozen states.
2) Offering resources and advice from others who have built effective coalitions for
teen pregnancy campaigns. It will be important to link new state coalitions to
leaders of state coalitions that have been effective. There is no central entity that
links those efforts now.
3) Help in measuring and evaluating results so that state and local efforts have a
means to build support for good results and adjust efforts when strategies don't
work.
4) Appropriate and sustained media reinforcement.
7
* The Campaign Will Divide the Task
Teen pregnancy isn't a single problem, it's a collection of dozens of problems. The
only way to solve such a problem is to break it down, identify the pieces, and
divide the task. That means deciding on appropriate roles and tasks for the
federal government, others levels of government, the media and corporate entities,
community-based organizations, and families. If the tasks are divided thoughtfully
and they are orchestrated to reinforce each other, the results will take some time
to achieve, but they will be significant.
* The Presidential/Federal Role:
You can lead this effort with a series of pragmatic and highly visible responses to
your own observation that "the epidemic of illegitimacy is our most serious social
problem."
1. Announce a new role for the federal government.
End federal money for pilot programs. Tell citizens that the new federal role will
be responding to the needs expressed by communities. Promise those communities
that no politicians or researchers or experts will try to impose solutions from
Washington. Assign a high-raking federal official to handle requests from
community groups for waivers in federal programs and to be a voice for them in
government. They have no such voice now.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, recently announced
grants for AIDS-prevention programs. Teen pregnancy prevention advocates point
out that the money might have been better used if it had been designated for
AIDS prevention and teen pregnancy prevention since AIDS is growing very
quickly in the adolescent population.
In addition to making government a responsive partner for communities, you
should pick several issues where there is a clear federal interest. Then announce
that the Clinton Administration will tackle them. I would suggest the following:
2. Appoint a National Commission on Adoption and Foster Care Reform.
Promise the commission's recommendations by November of 1996 to be considered
by the new Congress.
The commission should study the causes of low adoption rates; barriers to
transracial adoption; and the crisis in the foster care system. You could announce
it by highlighting these problems: 1) Adoption rates are about 1 percent for
African-American teens and 3 percent for whites; 2) despite federal guidelines
8
requiring child-custody cases to be resolved in 18 months, an African-American
child in an urban area may spend an average of 51 months in a first foster care
placement; 3) the Family Preservation Act of 1980 says child welfare agencies
should make "reasonable efforts" to keep families together; this confusing mandate
has caused too many children to stay too long with unfit parents; 4) On any given
day, a half million children are in foster care, and there aren't enough foster
homes for all the children who need them.
3. Expand the mandate of the Justice Department's Domestic Violence
Initiative to include the proposition that sexual abuse is a root cause of teen
pregnancy.
Studies show that as many as two-thirds of teen mothers were victims of rape or
sexual abuse at an early age-crimes often committed by males living in the same
household. Victims of early sexual abuse often develop emotional patterns that
make them vulnerable to the attentions of older men. Two-thirds of teenage
mothers have babies fathered by men who are age 20 or older. Federal leadership
is needed in both public education efforts and criminal justice reform.
4. Commit key administration officials to lend their authority to projects of
the teen pregnancy initiative as needed. Several members of your Cabinet have
enormous credibility on these issues. I hope they will join the effort.
5. Convene a national "Summit on Media Responsibility."
In a nation where the average teenager watches 21 hours of television a week, we
must look to the media as a powerful influence on values. These statistics alone
are enough to provoke a discussion: The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that in
1994, the average number of sexual activities per episode on the average soap
opera was 6.6. The average soap opera viewer also sees unmarried intercourse 2.4
times per episode and rape 1.4 times per episode.
6. Declare May Teen Pregnancy Awareness Month and participate in state
summits during May. May is the month when the highest number of teen
pregnancies occur. The national teen pregnancy initiative should be in full swing
by May, and many state coalitions will be formed. You can boost the effort by
offering them an opportunity to build public awareness and by adding visibility to
some of their efforts.
9
* The Role of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative:
The role of the "central" entity in this initiative is to catalyze and support efforts
designed and carried out by state and local governments, churches, non-profits,
businesses and civic organizations. It would re-engage communities in efforts to
solve the problem; change public attitudes and perceptions about teen mothers
and build support for legislative and community initiatives by highlighting
successful programs. It should be governed by a partnership of business,
community, and public-sector leaders.
Among its specific functions:
1. Offer basic and useful information. Many communities are now going
through goal-setting processes in which they are trying to define goals (such as
reduced teen pregnancies) and need to know what range of services are necessary
to reach that goal. Communities and states also need information that helps them
build support for ideas. The Initiative should offer each state a "cost-of-bad
outcomes" study to quantify the true costs of teen pregnancy and help them justify
spending on prevention.
2. Create a central interactive network that helps legislators and successful
practitioners connect to each other. There is no formal linkage between the people
who are working on these issues across the country. Some efforts are based in the
health community, some in social services, some in education. These folks don't
ever meet at a national convention. The Initiative should offer them that central
connection point until they have established their own linkages.
3. Offer a speakers' bureau and a "talent bank" of celebrities willing to
bolster state and local efforts.
4. Set a goal of helping 10 states to hold state summits on teen pregnancy in
the first year.
5. Create a teen pregnancy handbook for state legislators. Offer state
legislators some practical ideas for what they can do to curb teen pregnancy.
These might include opening "second-chance homes" for teen mothers; adopting
new sex education and decision-making curricula; establishing Underage Sex
Offenses Units; establishing Individual Development Accounts for teenagers who
finish school and don't become parents; or creating neighborhood centers for at-
risk teens. A dozen states have already adopted a variety of these ideas, which
were suggested in the Progressive Policy Institute's teen pregnancy paper.
10
6. Work with Congress. Members of Congress are eager for suggestions on
sensible ways to talk about teen pregnancy and for ideas that work. This year, the
Senate embraced two specific "pieces" of the problem for which PPI offered ideas: a
proposal for "Second-Chance Homes" and the notion that sexual predators are a
major factor in teen pregnancy. There are other appropriate "pieces" of the teen
pregnancy agenda for the Congress to address, and they should be offered in the
next congressional session.
7. Task the grass-roots organizations. There are a number of groups that
have money, willing members, and ready-made infrastructures to tackle some
pieces of the teen pregnancy problem. They lack specific goals and a vision of
where those goals should take them.
One such organization is the Coalition for America's Children, a grassroots
organization that includes the Junior League, the NEA, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League, the American Public Welfare Association
and others-representing 40 million members. The second is the Coalition of
Community Foundations for Youth, which now includes a significant number of
the country's 420 community foundations.
8. Work with businesses to explore appropriate corporate involvement in
this issue. Corporate sponsorship of public service ads is not enough. We must
consider how the corporate entities that want to help could offer teens real
incentives-incentives that would change their expectations about life-such as
Individual Development Accounts, mentors, scholarships, summer jobs, or jobs
after graduation. Once we've devised a menu of options, we should work with the
business community to promote those ideas. This same menu can be offered to
business leaders at the state and local level by the state and local coalitions.
I've studied the relevant models of domestic social policy reforms that may apply
to this problem and incorporated the elements of many in this memo. But there is
one element of this project that should be borrowed from Sri Lanka, where the
Sarvodaya Shramadhana Movement offers an important example of David
Korten's "learning organization."
The SSM, which I believe Hillary visited in Sri Lanka, is a rural development
initiative that succeeds because it is open to new goals and strategies, welcomes
criticism, and adapts to the changing needs of its rural clients.
SSM's development from a school teacher's experiment into a national movement
took place in three stages. At each stage, SSM was forced to learn how to address
changing needs in order to survive. Eventually, the organization invited its
external critics to help it form an internal "learning mechanism." The SSM
11
established a research institute to identify and study areas for improvement and
to serve as a self-correcting mechanism for SSM.
While we know enough to design launch an effective initiative now, the initiative
will have to reinvent itself many times before the problem is solved. As this teen
pregnancy initiative grows, the Initiative and the state entities will constantly
modify their roles to serve the grassroots efforts. They must be learning
organizations. Thus the Initiative needs an evaluation component:
* The National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Council
This should be a separate entity, guided by a board of both academics and
practitioners, whose research would complement the work of the Initiative.
The council should offer a challenge to the academic community: Produce
information that is relevant and useful for the people trying to solve the problem.
1. It would guide academic research by working with practitioners to identify
areas in which they need more information.
2. It would offer independent evaluations of prevention initiatives and
insights about the characteristics of what works. This would enable existing
coalitions to modify their efforts continuously and offer up-to-date information to
new coalitions.
3. It would lend credibility to the effort because it would be privately-
funded-protected from politics and freed from the constraints that limit federal
research efforts.
4. It would provide insights for the media campaign by initially identifying
the messages that must be communicated to young people and later evaluating the
effectiveness of those messages. Identifying these messages calls for an unlikely
combination of expertise in youth development, psychology, policy, and media. The
council should convene these entities and help design a media campaign.
* The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Media Campaign
The media campaign will have three stages and many audiences.
1. First, the general public must be educated to disregard the stereotypes
about teen mothers. Conservatives have successfully promoted the myth that these
young women are promiscuous and manipulative. The public needs to know that
many of these young women are essentially vulnerable "children" who have been
badly nurtured, victimized by sexual predators, and raised in isolation from the
opportunities and values of the society that condemns them. Conservatives have
12
also successfully convinced many people that compassion has failed and only
punitive measures will work. Thus, the early media campaign must focus on the
lives of teen mothers and on programs that work.
We know enough to create the first segment of the media campaign and to begin
work on the second. There are many journalists ready to look again at the lives of
teen mothers in the context of welfare reform and to do stories about programs
that work. I've put many in the pipeline already.
2. Next, as community groups put forward possible strategies such as
school-based health clinics, the general public and parents must be
educated about why those strategies are sensible and effective. In other
words, educate the adults who are creating barriers to young people getting
effective help.
Phase two of the media campaign is relatively simple too. Community groups must
be armed with public education materials, data, and stories about programs that
work. Public involvement needs to be stimulated with public service ads that
generate interest and offer immediate followup. We should take our cues from the
Beautiful Babies Campaign, which told pregnant women in Washington, DC that
they needed pre-natal care, told them where to get it, and offered incentives for
those who did. A second model comes from the enormously successful Runaway
Hotline, which offered a toll-free number and immediate help for runaways.
3. Finally, the campaign must focus on young women and the men with
whom they are involved. This will be very difficult. We must direct the largest
and most sustained media effort toward changing young women's attitudes about
early childbearing and changing male attitudes about responsible behavior toward
women and young girls.
I don't believe we know enough yet about the right message for these groups. The
clues will come from the people working to solve this issue at the grassroots level,
from the young women and men who would be the audience for such a campaign,
and experts in youth development, psychology, policy, and media. I've had a
preliminary discussion with Jay Winsten at Harvard and he's expressed interest
in helping pull together this project.
Once we figure out what the message should be, we can challenge the corporate
entities that market successfully to teens-such as Nike, Reebok, Coke, Pepsi, and
Levis-to devise a national advertising campaign that will send the message. Then
it will be appropriate to call on Hollywood for free media and ask entertainers and
sports figures to help bombard young people with messages that reinforce the
messages they're getting in their own communities.
13
TALKING POINTS: WHITE HOUSE MEETING
Fairness
--The fundamental question is one of fairness.
--Each one of the budgets that are on the table get the vast bulk of their
savings from Medicare, Medicaid, domestric discretionaries: that is
seniors, working families, and children. It is low and moderate income
people who work hard and play by the rules.
--Now we are talking about cutting more from these same people. We're
talking about raising our Medicare and Medicaid cuts. We're even talking
about cutting the Social Security COLA.
--That is fundamentally wrong. It is unbalanced. This is not about a
balanced budget. It is about fairness. Mr. President, your budget has the
best priorities. But even under your plan, only about 6% of the cuts come
from corporations and the wealthy--the groups that have grown even
richer and fatter while everyone else's standard of living has stagnated or
declined.
--Before we even consider cutting Medicare or Medicaid or domestic
discretionaries or cutting the CPI, we need to make sure that everyone has
What
done their part.
-We can raise $60 to $100 billion just by curbing tax incentives that
work to drive companies overseas, without touching any other sweetheart
deals. If we simply held tax expenditures for corporations and the
wealthy to inflation plus one percent, we'd save $200 billion. Senator
Conrad proposed we go after corporate welfare in his budget. Even John
Kasich raised the idea. No Demcorat ought to be proposing we go deeper on
Medicare and Medicaid or the EITC or Social Security COLAs or education
or child care or anything else that benefits seniors and working families
until we address this inequity.
MEDICARE/MEDICAID
--The President's position on Medicare is the equivalent of "Read my
lips/no new taxes." This is the standard on which the American people
will judge him--and the rest of the party as well.
--We are winning this fight. We are right on the merits. We should not go
up one dime in our Medicare cuts. The Republicans are lying awake nights
trying to figure out how to make the differences between the parties look
smaller. We would be insane to help them. We don't need to do it to
balance the budget--and we shouldn't do it at all.
CPI
--Changing the CPI hits right square at seniors, the group we are trying to
protect with our Medicare and Medicaid policy. Seventy percent of the
spending cut comes right out of Social Security. Most of the rest comes
out of senior programs like military retirment and veteran's pensions. On
the tax side, the group that takes the highest proportional hit is working
people who depend on EITC. They lose $7 billion under the Coalition
proposal.
--Changing the CPI for seniors makes absolutely no sense. Even if the CPI
is overstated for everyone else--and it isn't--the best study to date, by
the BLS, says the COPI for seniors is actually understated by .3 percen.
--This isn't just an issue for the Federal budget. It hurts every worker
who goes to the bargaining table--just when we should be trying to raise
real wages.
--It will infuriate every senior citizen and every labor union in the
country.
--We have never in the past imposed a political CPI. We have always
relied on the professionals at the Bureau of Labor Statistices. We should
not change policy now.
Wefense
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY--INCLUDE MEDICARE AND PROTECTING
PENSIONS
--T he President won the debate over the last shutdown, because we were
all fully engaged in a consistent communications strategy. The President
has been involved in Bosnia during the last week. The White House
Communications Operations needs to turn full force to the budget.
--In addition to Medicare, the next best issue is protecting pensions. The
Republican budget would allow corporate raiders to loot workers pensions.
--We should say this has to go and make it a centerpiece of our attack.
Lion/EB THE PRESIDENT 12 is -95 HAS SEEN
fn. Seu Kenney
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THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN 12-18-95
ROUD
TO MAKE
AMERICA
AFGE NEWS
WORK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Diane Witiak
December 16, 1995
Heather Savelle
(202) 639-6421
The American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, released the
following holiday greeting to Congress inlight of the current government shutdown:
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the House
Fill
The Speaker sadistically played cat and mouse.
The government workers were batted about
Reporting to work while their jobs were in doubt.
Their families all huddled around a bare tree
With visions of "fig Newties" setting them free.
And the veterans who fought for the next generation
Were locked out 'cuz Newt snubbed the Administration.
And out on the Hill just like thieves in the night
Some freshman were slashing with feverish delight.
Away to the future they pressed in great speed
Ignoring all programs the citizens need.
The budget which loomed like a perilous plague
Bewildered the public with numbers so vague.
They wished for an answer to all budget madness
So they could make merry in holiday gladness.
When on the horizon he suddenly came
The one loved giving without laying blame.
The man who wins office without an election
"Please, Santa, save us from complete insurrection!"
###
American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO
80 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001
202/639-6419 or 6423
Fax 202/639-6441
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 18, 1995
Mr. President:
Attached are summaries of
the three appropriation bills
you are planning to veto today.
Todd Stern
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 15, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
TODD STERN
SUBJECT:
Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Bill -- H.R. 2076
The CJS conference report passed the Senate 50-48 and the House 256-166. OMB, the
affected agencies and your White House advisors recommend a prompt veto. Highlights:
Overall funding. H.R. 2076 provides $26.8 billion for FY 1996, $3.4 billion below your
request but $0.9 billion above FY 1995. DOJ gets $14.4 billion, $0.7 billion below your
request, but $2.4 billion above FY 1995. Commerce gets $3.5 billion, $1.2 billion below
your request and $515 million below FY 1995. International programs get $4.6 billion,
$880 million below your request and $887 million below FY 1995.
Crime. COPS eliminates your program for 100,000 new cops, replacing it with a block
grant that wouldn't guarantee a single new officer; Other Fails to ensure funding for
"drug courts", Community Relations Service, Ounce of Prevention Council.
Technology. Eliminates funding for Advanced Technology Program. Slashes National
Information Infrastructure grants program, which assists hospitals, schools, libraries in
procuring equipment. Eliminates GLOBE funds to promote science and environmental
learning in schools. Cuts your request for Manufacturing Extension Program (help to small
manufacturers) from $147 million to $80 million. Technology Administration funded at only
$5 million, threatening our commitment for the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology
Commission. Cuts funding for the Defense Conversion program. Harmful cuts for Census
Bureau and other economic and statistical analysis.
International. $220 million (50%) cut for international peacekeeping; $223 million (24%)
cut for international organizations (UN, NATO, IAEA, etc.), affecting activities like
nonproliferation, controlling disease such as the Ebola virus, human rights, sanctions regimes
against pariah states, policing borders such as Iraq-Kuwait, etc. Harmful cuts to ACDA and
USIA, plus a funding cutoff of these agencies and the State Department on April 1 unless the
State Department Authorization bill is enacted.
Legal Services Corp. Your $440 million request (10% over FY 95) slashed to $278 million.
Abortion. Prohibits use of DOJ funds for abortion except in cases of rape or danger to life
of mother. DOJ believes probably unconstitutional as applied to female prison inmates.
Environmental Rider. Imposes moratorium on NOAA and other agencies for future listings
under the Endangered Species Act.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 16, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
TODD STERN RDS
SUBJECT:
VA-HUD Appropriations Bill -- H.R. 2099
The VA-HUD conference report passed the Senate 54-44 and the House 227-190. OMB,
affected agencies and your White House advisors recommend a prompt veto. Highlights:
Overall funding. The bill provides $61.4 billion for FY 1996, $9.3 billion below your
request and $1 billion below FY 1995.
Investments priorities. Provides $11.1 billion for your discretionary investments, 19%
below your request. National Service would be terminated, as would CDFI.
VA. Bill provides $16.6 billion, $402 million below your request for VA Medical Care, and
VA Construction is cut by 75% ($385 million) below your request. The bill funds clinics,
but not the hospitals you requested, at Travis AF Base in California and Brevard County in
Florida. It also cuts funding for Secretary Brown, to impede his advocacy activities.
HUD. Bill provides $19.5 billion, 20% below your request. Cuts include programs to
develop and preserve affordable housing, to support economic development initiatives, for
incremental rental vouchers, and to bring down the most severely distressed housing projects.
Bill riders would transfer HUD's enforcement of Fair Housing to DOJ and eliminate Federal
preferences in section 8 tenant program. Bill does not fund HUD reinvention, designed to
provide more freedom and incentives to public housing residents. Bill does include funding
for CDBGs, homeless assistance and sale of HUD-owned properties.
EPA. Funded at $5.7 billion, 22% below your request. Includes 22% cut in enforcement
budget; 25% cut in Superfund; 18% cut in HHS program to train workers in hazardous waste
cleanup; $762 million cut in clean water and drinking water funds for States and cities; and
cuts in environmental technology program, climate change action plan and other
environmental program. Bill includes riders, one of which would prevent EPA from
exercising authority under Clean Water Act to prevent loss of wetlands.
NASA. Funded at $13,8 billion, $439 million below your request. Space Station and New
Millenium initiative fully funded.
Others. FEMA cut by $118 million (16.2%) below your request, with Disaster Relief funds
cut by $98 million -- over 30%. NSF funded at $3.1 billion, $180 million below your
request. CEQ cut by 50%. OSTP fully funded. Office of Consumer Affairs terminated.
Selective Service funded at $22.9 million.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 16, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
TODD STERN
SUBJECT:
Interior Appropriations Bill -- H.R. 1977
The Interior conference report passed the Senate 58-40 and the House 244-181. OMB,
affected agencies and your White House advisors recommend a prompt veto. Key
provisions:
Overall funding. Bill provides $12.1 billion for FY 1996, $1.6 billion below your request
and $1.3 billion below FY 1995.
Interior. Funded at $5.9 billion, $0.8 billion below your request. Native American
programs -- sharp reductions targeted at tribal priorities, included law enforcement, general
assistance, adult vocational training and Indian child welfare. Also, Indian Health Service
(HHS) funded $72 million below your request (though slightly above FY 1995) and Indian
Education Programs (DOEd.) cut 38% below your request, 35% below FY 1995.
Endangered Species Act -- bill contains a moratorium on future listings and critical habitat
designations under the ESA. Marbled Murrelets -- Bill would make permanent the protocol
from the FY 1995 rescissions bill for identifying nests, eliminating DOI's and USDA's
normal flexibility for using new scientific information. California Desert Act -- management
of Mojave National Preserve placed in BLM rather than National Park Service and at
reduced funding levels, undermining purpose of the 1994 Act.
Forest Service. Bill provides $2.1 billion, $267 million below your request. Tongass
Forest -- bill includes objectionable provisions that would dictate use of an outdated forest
plan for FY 1996-97 and require unsustainable timber sale levels. Columbia River Basin
Project bill would continue to impede implementation of comprehensive plan by
prohibiting publication of the final EIS and limiting contents to exclude information on
fisheries and watersheds, thus risking return to legal gridlock on timber harvesting, grazing,
mining and other activities.
DOE. Bill provides $1.3 billion for DOE programs, $217 million below your request and
$280 million below FY 1995. Energy conservation programs funded at $537 million -- 26%
below FY 1995 and 38% below your request.
NEA/NEH. The bill slashes funding for both agencies -- NEA cut to $99 million, 39%
below FY 1995; NEH cut to $110 million, 36% below FY 1995.
THE PRESIDENT 12-18-95 HAS SEEN
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
ce:
UP
95 DEC 8 08
December 7, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
Bruce Reed
good-Thin'u SAciting!
SUBJECT:
Weekly Report New Ideas
Here is a brief update on some of the long-term ideas under development for the State
of the Union and beyond. This list is very much a work in progress: These proposals are
still being vetted with policy and political advisers in the White House and around the
agencies, and some may not stand up to deeper scrutiny. Meanwhile, the search for
additional ideas will continue. Don Baer and I have been working on a process for the State
of the Union to ensure that in preparation for the speech, we ask the Cabinet and prominent
thinkers outside the Administration to submit their thoughts on what you should say.
In the end, the State of the Union may not be the right moment to unveil our whole
agenda -- either because it would be overshadowed by wherever we are in the budget talks,
or because we want to keep enough new ideas in reserve so that you can stay in the news and
put forth a positive agenda while the Republican candidates are attacking us and one another
throughout the spring. But we need to make sure that the State of the Union sets the tone for
our new agenda, and that the FY97 budget leaves room for it.
This week's report will focus on first-tier issues: the economy, crime, education, and
personal responsibility. Next week, I will say more about political reform, the environment,
and other issues.
I. ECONOMY
The best way for you to highlight your strong record of economic accomplishment is
to put forward a positive, optimistic vision of economic opportunity. This is not just a matter
of generating new economic ideas our actual policies have always been more appealing
than the Republicans'. What we need is an overarching theory of economic growth as
1
compelling and simple as their message of cutting taxes and cutting government. Here are
two possible theories of economic growth that are consistent with your record:
1. Economic Reform and Self-Reliance: One way to describe what we have done and
need to keep doing is the idea that there's nothing wrong with the American economy that
can't be fixed by getting rid of old rules, old deals, and old arrangements. That is what
reducing the deficit, lowering trade barriers. and reinventing government are all about --
stripping away laws and habits that were meant for another era and are a burden to American
workers, taxpayers, and business. Now, we must unleash the full energy of individuals and
the private sector by phasing out corporate welfare, reforming the tax code to reward savings
and investment instead of access and privilege, reducing regulation, and continuing to make
government work better and cost less. Our guiding principle would be Andrew Jackson's
motto, "Equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none."
Phasing Out Corporate Welfare: This would not only reduce the deficit, it would
get rid of tax and spending subsidies that distort the economy and discourage
innovation. It's a bigger downpayment on tax reform than the Republicans will ever
offer. We don't have to wait for the State of the Union -- we could capture the issue
once and for all in the budget talks right now. For example, as a good-faith effort to
close the gap between our 7-year budget and theirs, we could propose paying for the
tax cut through a base-closing commission on corporate welfare. We should link the
Lieu
size of the tax cut directly to the size of the corporate welfare cuts: if the Republicans
want to go higher than $100 billion on the tax cut, they'll have to agree to an equally
high number on the corporate welfare cuts. This proposal would win enormous
editorial and public support, put the Republicans on the defensive on their tax cut, and
establish a consensus Democratic position that if there's going to be a tax cut, it must
be fully paid for. The commission could be designed with an annual trigger, so that
each year it proposed enough corporate welfare cuts to pay for that year's tax cut
(which would mean we would face relatively modest corporate welfare cuts in 1996).
Middle-Class Tax Reform: What we can propose next year on tax reform depends
largely on what is left to do after a budget deal. The Kemp Commission is likely to
recommend a flax tax to Dole in January. That will leave us all kinds of running
room, from narrow initiatives like tax simplification to broader proposals that
encourage savings (like Lieberman's Kidsave idea to make the children's tax credit
larger if parents put the money into savings). Rob Shapiro is working on a sweeping
proposal that would close most loopholes but exempt personal savings and education
as well as business research and development.
Ending Bureaucracy As We Know It: We have never made an economic argument
for reinventing government, but we should. The next generation of REGO ideas will
make government smaller and more efficient, streamline regulation, and reduce fraud.
For example:
2
By the year 2000, no American should ever have to set foot in a government
office: We can and should make every government service available by
computer, telephone, or ATM card. (Already, people can pay their taxes, order
1 Wistries
stamps, and take care of their Social Security checks by phone.) That means
we'll be able to close a lot of government offices -- but more important, no
one will ever have to stand in line again. We may want to form a consortium
with the private sector to ensure that this vision comes true.
The federal government will begin to measure performance, not red tape: If
we end up with block grants in areas like welfare and training, we should make
the most of it by getting out of the business of red tape and regulation and into
the business of rewarding performance. We can't let federal agencies go on
operating the same way as if nothing happened -- we should make a clean
break. For example, we could close down the welfare office at HHS and
replace it with a performance office (either at OMB or HHS) that keeps track
of results but doesn't regulate or tell states what to do. We don't get enough
credit for downsizing government because we never actually eliminate an
office. This would be a chance to get out of the welfare business altogether (at
little sacrifice, since the current bill mandates a 60+% staff cut anyway).
Common-sense regulation will promote economic growth: Paul Weinstein has
been working with NEC, EPA, and Treasury on a Brownfields initiative that
would provide a combination of tax incentives and liability relief to encourage
cities and the private sector to develop abandoned industrial and commercial
property. This proposal combines economic development and environmental
cleanup in a way that appeals to suburbanites tired of seeing their "greenfields"
developed as well as urban leaders who want to revitalize the inner city.
1 lieu the
A high-tech war on illegal immigration, welfare fraud, and other criminal
abuse: We now have the technology (fingerprinting, biometrics, DNA testing)
to stop all kinds of abuses that drive most Americans crazy: trading food
stamps for drug money, applying for welfare benefits in more than one state,
dodging paternity, etc.
2. Democratic Capitalism: Another economic approach, which Bruce Babbitt championed in
1988 and we touched on in 1992, is the idea that enabling Americans to earn a bigger stake
in their companies and their economic destiny will make America richer and more
competitive. This is an optimistic, forward-looking answer to the wage gap: Every
American should have the chance to be an owner, every company that rewards its executives
should reward its employees, and every American who works hard should earn the right to
take their pension, health insurance, and training with them wherever they go. In a Microsoft
economy, the best way for a secretary's wages to keep pace with a star programmer's is for
3
both to own stock in the same company or invest in the same mutual fund. This approach
leads to market-based proposals with a populist edge:
Any company that gives bonuses or stock options to its executives should do the
same for its employees: Stocks and profits are soaring while wages are stagnant, but
it does little good to plead with corporate leaders to "give America a raise." A policy
of bonuses and options for all or none has more teeth -- companies could no longer
deduct bonuses and stock options unless they're universal and company-wide.
Individual ownership and workplace democracy could prove to be one of our most
Thin
powerful weapons in reducing the income gap between the upper 20% and everyone
else. Consider this: Wages and incomes for the average American have been flat for
should
25 years, but the stock market has nearly doubled after inflation. To underscore our
carefuly
commitment to workplace democracy, we could also experiment with citizen-owned
government -- privatizing federal agencies by giving shares directly to citizens.
Companies that overpay their executives shouldn't get a tax break from the
government: In 1993, we eliminated the deductibility for CEO pay of over $1
million, but Congress riddled it with loopholes. We could strengthen it by reducing
the threshold to $250,000 or $500,000, and by adopting Hank Brown's proposal to
apply the rules to private as well as public companies, Brown would eliminate the
deductibility of high salaries unrelated to performance -- for example, utility
infielders who earn $1+ million to warm the bench.
Pensions, health care, and training should be portable, not entirely at the mercy
of the employer: We should be pushing portability in an optimistic way -- as a new
/freedom that will enable people to change jobs when they want, not just as a security
blanket for workers who get laid off. The NEC is working on proposals in these areas
(achieving portability is not as simple as it sounds), but the basic idea is that people
who work hard should earn some independence as a result. In particular, we can put
forward a series of measures on pensions: cracking down on pension ripoffs; warding
off Republican efforts to make raiding easier; and stop making taxpayers pick up the
whole tab for congressional pensions -- members of Congress should have to set
money aside like everyone else.
II. CRIME
Rahm and I are working with the Justice Department on an aggressive anti-crime
agenda for the coming year and beyond. We are focusing on three targets: youth violence,
drugs, and reform of the criminal justice system:
1. Youth Violence: The overall crime rate has begun to decline on our watch, but random
youth violence continues to increase, and is expected to get much worse by the end of the
4
decade as the number of 14-17-year-olds goes up. We are looking at a host of ideas to
stem the tide:
Declaring war on gangs, the way Bobby Kennedy declared war on organized
crime: We would want to know how much we can actually accomplish before taking
on such an ambitious challenge. But there is no question that gangs are responsible
for much of the crime and drugs on our streets, and have literally destroyed childhood
for millions of young Americans. A war on gangs might include:
More aggressive gang prosecution, including: an FBI Most Wanted List of the
10 Most Dangerous Gangs, high-profile indictments of gang leaders, and an
anti-gang community policing initiative through the 100,000 cops program.
Banning gang members from public housing: We've asked Justice for
constitutionally permissible ways to restrict gang activity. One housing
authority is using a two-strikes-and-out policy to evict repeat offenders.
Stiffer sentences for criminals who wear bullet-proof vests.
Target criminals with guns: Justice is developing police gun detectors that can
spot concealed weapons. These could be deployed in combination with more
aggressive use of constitutionally permissible police authority to stop and frisk
suspicious characters for weapons.
Every school should be safe, disciplined, and drug-free: We are working with the
Justice and Education Departments to build upon our record on school safety, which
includes a nationwide youth handgun ban, drug testing of school athletes, zero-
tolerance for weapons in schools.
Put a police officer in every public high school that wants one: We have
talked with Secretary Riley about using existing funds from federal drug
education programs to enable communities to put police officers in every
dangerous school. There are about 10,000 public high schools in America, but
requiring a local match (as we do in the COPS program) would keep the
demand well below that -- probably in the range of $50-200 million a year.
Give schools a roadmap of constitutionally permissible ways to fight crime and
drugs -- ranging from drug testing and locker searches to school uniforms:
The Education Department has agreed to work with Justice on a set of
constitutional guidelines for fighting crime and drugs, akin to the guidelines for
school prayer. The Attorney General met with school officials in Long Beach
this week to announce our interest in school uniforms.
Promote law enforcement ROTC in the high schools: NYPD Commissioner
Bratton is pushing youth police academies as a way to steer teenagers toward
discipline and law enforcement at an early age.
5
Challenge states to change the way they deal with young criminals: Justice has
drafted legislation on federal prosecution of juveniles as adults. But the real challenge
will be to get states to reform their juvenile court systems to ensure that young
criminals are punished. Justice has developed a Youth Violence Action Plan that
includes model standards for states.
2. Drugs: We will need to maintain the offensive on drugs, which Republicans view as our
weak spot. One of our most important initiatives, Drug Courts, is up for grabs in the
appropriations battle. Other possible initiatives include:
Drug testing for parolees: This initiative is ready to be announced at any time.
Zero tolerance for professional athletes: It is time to close the revolving door for
professional athletes like Darryl Strawberry, Steve Howe, and Dwight Gooden, who
are repeatedly suspended for drug use, but manage to make their way back onto the
field. We should challenge baseball and other professional sports to no longer tolerate
drug use -- period. Imagine the message it would send to young people if athletes
actually had to act like role models, and if using drugs meant the end of their
professional career rather than a slap on the wrist. It should be a privilege to play in
the major leagues, not a right.
Challenge high school coaches to adopt drug testing for athletes.
3. Shutting the Revolving Door: Americans are fed up with the criminal justice system.
We can't solve the problem on our own, since 95% of crime is state and local -- but we can
ill afford to ignore it.
Make swift and certain justice the law of the land: The federal system is actually a
model of swift and certain justice: every defendant gets a speedy trial, every victim
has certain rights, and every convicted felon serves his entire sentence. The real
trouble is in the states. The Crime Bill gives states and localities billions of dollars to
hire police, build prisons, and overhaul their systems. Now we should set forth a
compelling vision of the national standards we expect them to meet. Every state
should have a Speedy Trial Act, a Victims Bill of Rights, certainty of punishment for
young offenders, drug testing for prisoners, and Truth in Sentencing for everybody. A
sound three-strikes policy should be the law of the land.
Every victim has the right to a lawyer: Many lawyers, if they do pro bono criminal
work at all, do it on behalf of defendants on death row. There's nothing wrong with
that, but why aren't we challenging the legal profession to do more to help victims and
not just accused criminals? For example, we should urge the ABA membership to
make a pro-bono national commitment that every victim of domestic violence who
needs a lawyer can get one, free of charge. We should also find out whether we could
make it easier for lawyers to do pro-bono work to assist prosecutors and police.
6
III. EDUCATION
Carol and I met with Secretary Riley this week, and he agreed to come back to us
next week with ambitious proposals on charter schools, school safety, work study, and
technology. All these initiatives build on our achievements thus far, and contrast nicely with
the Republicans' agenda.
Every public school in America should be accountable for results, and any parent
who isn't satisfied should have the right to choose another public school for their
child: One of the best things we could do to spur reform would be to lead a national
campaign for charter school and public choice laws in every state (19 states already
have charter laws on the books, although some are too weak). The Education
Department is also developing a bold federal initiative to provide start-up money for
up to 1,000 new charter schools. Public school choice and competition should become
as universal as public education. Since charter schools have to compete for customers
and most school charters are tied to performance, the marketplace will eventually
ensure parents can see a report card for every school.
Every school should be safe, disciplined, and drug-free: [see Crime section]
We should reward students who work their way through college: Nothing
symbolizes the American Dream more than the value of working one's way through
school, as you did. Yet for all the battles over student loans and national service,
work-study is the form of college aid that gets the least attention. The Republican
budget cuts work-study in two ways -- by cutting the EITC and by taxing adults
whose education is paid for by their employers. We have asked Education to come up
with options for ways to expand work-study -- for example, by getting rid of current
student loan rules that penalize students for working, or by offering grants to
institutions to offer work-study jobs during the summer. Eventually, we could link all
college aid to work or service.
Parent-teacher contracts: [See Personal Responsibility section]
IV. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE
It is always tempting to offer a program for every problem. But as we move toward
an era of block grants and balanced budgets, we should face up to the fact that the
government no longer has the money, the public confidence, or the moral authority to try to
solve all the country's problems.
There is another way to go -- a more refreshing, honest approach that might do more
to put our country and our politics back on track and bring our people together. Instead of
7
new promises, we could set forth new challenges, and call on individuals to take more
responsibility for their own lives, families to stick together, parents to look out for their
children and children to respect their parents, politicians to find common ground and civility,
corporations to share their gains with their workers, and citizens to give something back to
their community and country.
The last 30 years have shown Americans that they can't count on government to solve
all their problems. The last 12 months have shown them that they can't count on getting rid
of government to solve all their problems. Americans don't want to go back -- so where else
can they turn now but inward?
The virtue of self-reliance: I believe this hunger for self-reliance is a good thing,
for us and for the country. Self-reliance is America's oldest, most enduring virtue. It
is not the same as the Republican ideal of every man for himself, which too often
comes at the expense of everyone else. And it is a more powerful idea than our
favorite buzzword, empowerment, because its ultimate goal is to figure out not simply
what government can do for you, but what it will take (from family, from community,
from government, and most important, from within) to make it possible for all
Americans together to achieve the liberty and independence that this country was
founded to secure.
A Challenge to America, not another list of promises: Many Americans are
longing for a crusade to turn the country around before it's too late -- to reverse
family breakdown, moral decay, and complacency, and inspire responsibility,
community, and patriotism. The Million Man March is powerful evidence that
Americans are willing to ask more of themselves, and want their leaders to ask more
of them as citizens.
I'm not sure that a moral crusade needs an agenda, but if it did, the organizing
principle could be a 5- or 10-point challenge to the American people -- instead of a
Contract with America full of easy promises, a Challenge to America that sets forth
honest expectations and demands responsibility from Americans in all walks of life.
For example:
Challenge families to stay together: Restoring the family will do more to solve
our economic and social problems than any government program. Incomes
have gone up over the past 25 years for two-parent families; it's the rising
number of single-parent families that holds household incomes down. You
should repeat your challenge to every man in America never to raise his hand
to a woman.
Challenge parents to get more involved in their child's learning: Under Tony
Blair, the Labour Party has begun pushing parent-school contracts that spell
out responsibilities for parents (to help their children study, stay off drugs, and
8
show up for school) and schools (to challenge children and provide a safe,
disciplined environment). Many charter schools in the U.S. have begun to
enter into these contracts as well.
Challenge young people to stay in school or lose their driver's license if they
drop out for no good reason: This shouldn't be a federal mandate, but it's a
good example of the personal responsibility agenda you pushed in Arkansas
and could push from the bully pulpit.
Challenge companies to invest in their workers and in America: Companies
should let workers share more of the rewards from their hard work. The next
time they open a new plant, they should do it in South Boston, South Texas, or
South Central instead of South America or South Korea.
Challenge politicians to make politics more civil, and citizens to get more
tame agu.
involved in their democracy.
Challenge Americans to give more back to their community: Dan Coats may
be right -- perhaps we should provide more incentives for charity and family,
proposal 1 him the
as we have done for national service.
Challenge everyone to reach across racial lines and come together as a
community.
9
THE PRESIDENT 18-18-95 HAS SEEN
December 15, 1995
95 DEC 15 P4: 09
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
MARK PENN
I am sending you the attached polling memo. Dick Morris concurs.
ecide
you
Keeping the Tax Cut As Part of Our Plan
It would be a serious error to withdraw the targeted middle class tax cut
from our 7-year balanced budget plan.
Our successful strategy has been to agree with the only two elements in
the Republican plan that are popular (having a balanced budget and a middle
class tax cut). As a result, we have created vast differences in public opinion on
the issues that are unpopular for the Republicans - - preserving Medicare,
education, the environment, programs for kids.
The data: 63% overall favor a $500 a child tax credit, and among
Swing I voters the percentage soars to 83/12 in favor of it. This is about as
popular in this group as a balanced budget itself, and it is particularly
popular with our target of families with $35,000 to $60,000 in income with
kids.
It is true that a tax cut is the lowest priority for achieving a balanced
budget, though 20% still consider it their top priority, but this is a reason to limit
as we have, not to jettison it completely. This is especially true given that we are
15 points behind the Republicans on "cutting taxes."
By eliminating any tax cut we would:
*
Do another flip-flop and undermine our own plan's credibility
*
Switch the debate from Medicare and kids to tax cuts
*
Lose with the next key election target group
*Give the GOP 100% of the credit for any tax cut that results,
giving them campaign commercial opportunities
* And be unnecessary since the GOP will not sign a bill without a
tax cut anyway.