The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

we must end the race to create new nuclear weapons by signing a truly comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty you have to pay to pay as we remember what happened in the japanese subway we get outlaw poison gas or never if the senate ratifies the chemical weapons convention this year we can intensify the fight against terrorists and organized crime rules at home and abroad of congress passes the anti terrorism legislation are proposed after the oklahoma city bombing we can help more people move from hatred to hold all across the world and our own interest of congress gives us the means to remain the world's leader for peace

my fellow americans the city's challenges i have just discussed or for all of us are seven sounds is really america's challenge for those of us in this household a night to reinvent our government and make our democracy work for than last year this congress apply to itself the law that applies to everyone it's been this congress banned gifts and meals from lobbyists this congress forced lobbyist to disclose who pays them and what legislation they're trying to pass or kill this congress did that and i applaud

you for how our talent congress to go forward the current special interest and floods in politics bypassing the first truly bipartisan campaign it's been you republicans and democrats alike and show the american people that we can limit spending and we can over the airwaves to all candidates i also deal with congress to address the line item veto you've promised the american people administration

is working hard to give the american people a government that works better and cost less thanks to work for vice president gore we are eliminating sixteen thousand pages of unnecessary rules and regulations shifting more decision making out of washington back to states and local communities as we move into the era of balanced budgets and smaller government we must work in new ways to enable people to make the most of their own lives we are helping america's communities not with more bureaucracy but with more opportunities you are successful empowerment zones and community development banks are helping people to find jobs start businesses and with tax incentives for companies that clean up abandoned industrial property we can bring jobs back to places that desperately desperately need but there are some areas that the federal government should not leave and should address an address strong one of these areas is the problem of illegal immigration after years of neglect this administration has

taken a strong stand to steph and the protection of our borders we are increasing border controls about thirty percent we're increasing inspections to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants and tonight i announce i will sign an executive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal it's been let me be very clear about this we are still the nation of immigrants we should be proud of we should honor every legal ever been here working hard to be a good citizens working hard to become a nuisance but we are also a nation of us i would say a special word now to those who work

for our federal government today the federal workforce is two hundred thousand employees smaller than it was the day i took office as president the peak today is the smallest it has been in thirty years and it's getting smaller every day most of our fellow americans probably don't know that there's a good reason a good reason the remaining federal workforce is composed of hard working americans who are now working harder and working smarter than ever before to make sure that all of our services does not decline it's been the pain

his name is richard lee is a forty nine year old vietnam veteran whose work for the sole security administration for twenty two years now last year he was hard work in the federal building in oklahoma city when the blast killed on and sixty nine people and brought the rubble down all around he re entering that building for the save the lives of three one he's here with us this evening and i'm a lawyer recognize region and applaud both his public service and his extraordinary personal heroism ms bee rage against our a dozen and there

was last november he was forced out of his office when the government shut down and the second time the government shut down he continued health and social security recipients what was working without pay on behalf of richard deane and his family and all the other people who are out there working every day to do a good job for the american people i challenge although he would never ever showed as on behalf of all

americans especially those who made their social security payments beginning of march i also challenge the congress to preserve the full faith and credit of the united states to honor the obligations of this great nation as we have for two hundred and twenty years to rise above partisanship and passed a straightforward extension of the debt limit and show hey it's b i know that this evening i have asked a lot of congress and even more from america but i am confident when americans were together their homes or schools or churches synagogues and civic groups their workplace they can meet in a jones i say again

the air of a garment is all but we can't go back to the era of fending for yourself we have to go forward to the era of working together as a community as a team as one america with all of this reaching across these lines that divide his division the discrimination or either we have to reach across and to find common ground we have got to work together if we want america i want to make two more people tonight who do just that leisure is right is a teacher in the jackson mississippi public school

system vietnam veteran he's created groups helped inner city children turn away from gangs and build futures they can believe in sergeant jennifer rodgers is a police officer in oklahoma city like richard day and she helped to pull her fellow citizens of the rubble and deal with an awful tragedy she realizes that in their response to that atrocity the people of oklahoma city lifted all of us with their basic sense of decency and community was just like and jennifer rogers special americans and i have the art to announce tonight as i are doing very first of several thousand americans who will be chosen to carry the olympic torch on its long journey from los angeles to the centennial the modern olympics in atlanta the song not because they are star athletes but because they are stark services community heroes be america's challenges they are real he's been

now each of us was told how the torch of citizenship and our allies none of us can finish the race along we can only achieve our destiny together one hand one generation one american connecting to another there have always been things we could do together dreams week it might reel which we could never have gone on our own we americans have forced

identity are very union from the very point of view that we can accommodate everyone on the planet every different opinions but we must be bound together by faith more powerful than any doctrine that divides us by belief in progress i love of liberty and our relentless search for common ground america has always sought always risen to every child who would say that having come so far together we will not go forward from here who would say that this agent possibilities not for all americans our country isn't always has been a great and good nation but the best is yet to come if we all do our poor thank you god bless you and god bless the united states of america we have if the president's state of the union address

shaking hands with speaker gingrich and the vice president to leave all our jails in particular here with me still bothers madeleine albright's his unit congratulations on his cabinet their own world the aisle and then i'm enough and about five minutes after the president leaves the hall we would have a read the official republican response from senator bob dole the senate majority leader and of course the leading contender for the republican presidential nomination shaking hands is suppose the democrats on the president's right and left who is at show ability of republican congressman from new york aspirational chrysler

fiat word he spoke for just over an hour about an hour and two minutes or until the folks here in county certain things he was there were he won applause is not counting one of the various areas to go that's that is official escort for it behind him because the chrysler behind him and tom davis and minority leader from south dakota the president and the members of the pages of the most of the door and rather excited pages to shake hands with the president is you

know he's going the pages and the other's no to mark andrew for mark for small overview as a political comedian i had to had to borrow a phrase well the republicans of the conservatives were in spending bill clinton stole their ideological i mean he came out with a speech tonight i don't know other than such an environment it was confrontational with the republican congress and i don't know a week i knew it i mean it was said he was in favor of work schools and they were family's favorite programs that strengthen those i mean i thought it was a as a campaign document a preemptive the present to start the fifty yard line on our way down about that cannot fly ha ha hee in the republicans and with iran say were there issues go i had to it was a more effective as a political document that was a speech

read more as a laundry list of some ways that i think the most memorable eye eyes probably in some ways the most surprising that figure of big government is over but which you said twice he didn't say who ended at it and say that may be an effort that ended the first two years of his administration unlikely teen pregnancy a religious groups as a substitute for welfare cut bureaucratic red tape require school uniforms deadbeat dads portability of health care one strike and you're out immigration it was but he really did say on on two things which was the temporary don't close the government and forty engaging a tremendous ovation so the democrats obviously this don't ever ever close the government down again and let's don't let the debt limit go on the store floor now is that constitute a comfort confrontational approach far i think again i think that the president sounded responsible voice i think who

could stand up intimidated easy thing to take cheap shots against nameless faceless bureaucrats you get which again standing there the presidential box and i who three times four times went back into the building obama said rescue three with it i have three co workers worked without pay under the clothes and the shutdown of the government and to make sure that people get there so security gains in and i read for that that it's so i looked at the face on government that is awfully tough to oppose him to criticize today i think that the president went that one sees the high ground very much innovation at american republicans well i don't think he made any friends with the republicans with those with those lines and i think that they probably feel that the president politically and that shutting down the government line was really rubbing their noses at what they believe was now a mistaken strategy and they are paying for it you could see some of the republican heads shaking their heads know i think that there

were he will not there when a goodwill price from them for that but dye it it even at the polls all show that the border's blame the republicans and the so the president was standing up and say i'm a plain into what about that the quote new and quote confrontation over raising the debt limit which is a rubens robert rubin sector the treasury robert rubin's statement the other day that if they don't raise the debt limit the country's crippling default on march first republicans that were not some other republicans are now set we will never give you a clean debt limit victim of philly that certain things and that the president helped his case for a clean debt limit bill tonight i think he did i think this is a innocence his way of framing that debate in advance to with on stage with a country watching he says if you do that you're going up at an animal pentagon you again youre not gonna be able to blame even though what's my treasury which is a store here under the plane you and i think that is going to make some republicans has

already made some republicans sheepish about doing that because it changes the subject from what they want to talk about which is the size of government and the balanced budget let's talk about the sovereign debt of the united states the idea that you're an american or did the suspects i mean that that there was a county issued america keeps its promises american as its obligations even a break that record and that that i that it was deathly deathly deliberately investigated what about the way he you know just have twenty seconds before we go to a super bowl that you think he handled the attention of his wife hillary in the middle of her problems among them you'll be in every newscaster be the lead i think he had to do it she has been his character witness ii and now every time he's been his own character's villainous all the campaign for what he had to do the same and i think you know now we have to build a soldier goes on his office like it

bob dole i'm here for briefly replied of the president's message on the state of the union require you not be an argument sell our present another view another way of thinking about the problems we face a few years back i met with a group of a hundred high school seniors one young man and woman from every state during an eighty one young man stood up and said senator everybody as somebody who speak for them but who speaks for us he asked me who speaks for the future that's what i want to talk with you about the future of the values that will shape it those values are at the heart of our disagreements with the president president clinton's as our differences are few the budget numbers are close that we should try to find common ground we have tried and tried again and again but such a place appears to be elusive for while we share an abiding love of country we have been unable to agree

why it as we have starkly different philosophies of government and profoundly different visions of america so all the talk in fighting in washington can seem very remote and we political figures can seem detached and betty and far removed from the everyday struggle american citizens and families but the truth is we cannot ignore the future the point of our lives after all is to raise children or smarter and healthier and healthier and older than we are to contribute to a country that is better than today's america to make a world of his veteran fighter for all of god's creation america's greatness all it takes is justified pride in today america's greatness of built my men and women who sacrificed ease and comfort and the joys of a day to build a better future for those who came after how many pioneers faced a hostile and threatening frontier how many immigrants pay their bodies to the

mines and how many soldiers lost their lives on this and battlefields to secure a better future for their children and their children's children in every generations american made these sacrifices and finally making a purpose and a direction to live now we have to do that in this generation and thanks to god in fortune and those were before we don't have to conquer a dangerous frontier we don't have to find another great war what we had to do is to face the fact that god given the water own desires as we just heard president and those who share his vision of america have chosen their ground the president chose an affair with his veto a welfare system that no one can defend for the daily assaults on the badges of self reliance and family he has chosen the defense and education establishment run by liberals whose goal is to operate every school in

america by remote control from washington it shows some of the top defense bill because it provided for defending america against weapons of mass destruction he has chosen a than the status quo in medicare a system on what's widely panned and a program in urgent need of rescue president has chosen to defend and increase the tax burden that has pushed out those families know their own personal recessions and unfortunate is chosen the date of the first balanced budget in a generation offering only a fantasy in its place at the other job the sleeping on the night you probably checked on him or her before you go to bed and as you've downloaded tap your job in think about this if we continue down this path we will place a tremendous burden that on every child in america how can we betray them

and their parents and their grandparents how can we fail to act we cannot and we will not every political movement and every public official was located a poisonous heart where compromise and it's a core of conviction or we keep our conscience there comes a time when even practical leaders must refuse to ban ordeal and republicans and countless democrats and independents we arrived at that time america's troubles are real but our choices are clear and are well a stroll we must rein in a runaway government return power to the people reduce the tax burden but parents back in charge of our schools and tie the hands of our police restore justice to our courts and put our fate once again in the basic goodness was them and self reliance of our people over bratton spoke with great elegance not about a future

without unlimited possibilities is a vision we all share for it is a story of the market while the president's words speak of change his deeds are contradiction the president plans to raise the future while playing to the policies of the past for three years this administration is that the dependence on government over self reliance federal power over community federal planning over individual enterprise and has tried a place cure but experts in charge of our economy and our health in our lives ms butler both judges on the bench toward our values and a question is the participation of religious people in public life treating them as fanatics out of step with american president clinton shares of the america of our country's elites a nation of special interest groups not only by dependence on government and dealing with each other for handouts

and held back by outdated values for those oldest you there's only one answer for our problems more government bigger government and more medals on government and if you listen closely allied that's what president clinton talked about presenter it may well be the rear guard of the welfare state he is the chief obstacle to a balanced budget and the balanced budget amendment he's almost the last public defender to discredit the status quo we republicans will not give up the struggle because america around the corner to a brighter future if we prevail i come from russell kansas is how much money there but the people are rich in many other ways life isn't always easy but the bad news or durable love of god and country and family the metadata as the decency and perform responsibility and

self reliance tempered by a sense of community those that has made america the greatest nation on earth and there's no doubt in my mind that we get our country back on track to be re assert them again as a people and if our garden returns to them as a matter a national policy not just like the debate over the budget this water arguments is spreading will sing a maze of conflict in numbers assertions and high sounding words but what really argue about other bad news that will shape our nation our government and the future of their child sleeping down the hall there's some people try to make these matters complicated but they're simple and my hometown and probably where you are as well americans know that hand out about responsibility destroy human dignity will tell whether labor's preferable about a bureaucrat and we know that wealth has created by three individuals in their smarts and their

sweat ever programs and only spend it not a very practical man but i believe in america america and i never got informatics but i do believe we have reached a defining moment it is if we went to sleep in one america and woke up in one another it is is our government in our institutions and our culture had been hijacked by rebels are careening dangerously off course all we know the way back but we must act now my promise the night is we can and we will if there is no agreement we will send president clinton another balanced budget the tax relief for american families regulatory lever small businesses farmers and ranchers and real welfare reform will always be mindful of the poor and disadvantaged education

environment we'll begin the defining a big brother my own funding wasteful programs and medicine departments we will send the president bill after bill returning power and programs to the states and to the people will challenge president clinton again and again the walks the talk he talks a well as we do remember this are battles a lobby about numbers they'll be about the character of our nation yes our country has problems but we can handle that where the staff of the spending or the welfare bureaucracy or local courts the trouble in our schools what's wrong is that the elites in shards don't believe in what the people believe in that we can fix we know what made america great all waiting hours or is all that lead our country better place in the sun and the courage to speak for the future so it was a dark your

childhood and i remember not to like this is a great country our strength has always come from the truth and sacrifice and honor and from a bottomless reservoir of hope and work in courage that is the american people always be a bill for the future they have silent consciousness that we were doing the work of the lord today we feel ourselves beset by many difficulties why violence and resentment by racial and partisan divisions by economic storms by design changes of every kind yet the blood of greatness of noble forebears of men and women of incredible achievement still runs service all the birthright as what it means to bear the name america in this time and this generation in this year we like they can and will overcome

we need only to rededicate ourselves during the name we've inherited thank you god bless america and good night senate majority leader bob dole with the official republican response to president clinton's state of the union address with me still mr shields and poles you go tell fortunes really sure where i thought they owe on the home it seemed that his major goals challenging the president's credibility on the different points that he made during the speech was very clear about the bass line to sum up that was to walk the talk you talk so well and you see there are the outlines of what is quantity of a large part of the republican response you want to steal our issues you wanna talk about the things we have talked about for years we don't think you believe them i didn't meet both statements tonight or campaign statements given that means the days of the bill clinton had not simply with the same as president of the chamber and all someone the other than it

hasn't announced inches he's not count for nominations own party several could speak to the nation it's because general election bob dole was speaking to republican primary electorate lewis said he was still contesting making his case in that contest to feel and as the line struggling to begin funding a big open rather than finding wasteful programs and nettles in part and that's really what he's saying to the conservatives in his own party especially in the congress i will fight your fight i'm on your side to snatch the set this nomination for my grasp i know struck by that too on in the language of the liberal elite wouldn't we use that term shovel confident more support gingrich in the languages of neither and i just missed that it is a it it actually is something of a change rhetorically from what we've heard from bob dole during the debates even where he had all seen various have assumed that he's

won the nomination and forwards louis was having a general election strategy vis vis did have strong elements of of a primary campaign about i did have also some some some directors like to attack for the present i thought that with that this promise went with the credibility are reporting didn't do i thought well maybe didn't at the time was to actually say this is what the country is my vision was of more of a reaction to the president's no mention of the debt limit problem no no nothing about spending bill to shut down or not keep the government from being shut down but he did say very specifically if there's no agreement we're going to get some of those up their trouncing keep sending bills up there which is so what he read that well i think i didn't have a leading pollster new interest on independent he said they're finding it had bob dole at thirty percent in the entrance steve forbes twenty two why and there that that's get nothing close to the margin are you

for four percent either way and i think i think that it affected and influenced and shaped synagogues in his article has to be mindful of that that he has to win iowa and new hampshire but to be the nominee and i think he's so he's is tamping down i don't try to reassure the right are you still have gotten into a major doubts about it but that they're there something else or to the table and get beyond the primaries and that is that i think you're seeing the president wanted to move to the center and cultural values and blur the distinctions can change between the two parties on those subjects and get off the issue of a balanced budget and old say i accept your argument of the size of government you only go this specific thing that the government does the republicans want to make sure that there are still distinctions on those issues and that's why you see him say well for one the senate vacancy to balance budgets were to make improve his boss fires on these issues we're not going to get away with say dna in addition to pick up on march point in here and you're bored more in tune with the

republicans learned that she also think that goes about that if you speak you'd think correctly to the republicans the active republicans who are likely to vote in new hampshire and iowa and elsewhere it aside and the nominee one to be given the right message he didn't know what any in the way that bob often does which was in a partisan way to go at some of these wedge issues what i was surprised that there was no mention of the economy there was no any mention of some of the forced into steve forbes frankly has been striking with which is the reagan era optimism that just tax reform but here's how to lift all boats and i thought that was a big ovation from the speech especially because who knows what the economy is going to be like in july and august bob dole was the nominee i would have tried to set the stage here jamaican economic case against present it also struck me about it if you will that he had a president who would never say nothing notable saddam hussein it's the law weaker to president say he would not that far or

as we forget the house and senate bills and we are all we got yeah this is a defining moment we are we are we are choosing were choosing the future this country in its destruction that's not what the president's saying that no no and i thought that those that one i say was a campaign directors icann the most contagious when he hijacked by liberals who deletes three times i mean they all whine about whenever you knew nelson rockefeller former governor of new york account for president he talked about bomb thoughts about a good man the fatherhood of god i think bob dole able to add a writer certainly and indeed in india there's an incident and i don't know i mean it just it sounded to me like a fellow who was was it was a little wobbly sosa leads out to get us in a hijacked our culture and it does kind of it was the fact that the republicans have dominated presidential politics this country overwhelmingly

for the past generation he's a technical union president clinton made a bigger deal about the media all it's going to be chips and all of which is also been a polish champion for twenty years republicans one of the reasons republicans dominate the presidency was because they want that cultural debate to bill clinton in nineteen ninety two was the first democrat to understand betty you had to go to the middle on those issues divide the death penalty arkansas he did it done welfare reform and bill clinton is now attempting to do that again he's not remind people joycelyn elders of gays in the military in the culture and values debate is moving right to them or capture them and as yet i mean are you yet speaking off the table we are ok thank you both for a whiskey again tomorrow night as well as friday night and we'll be back tomorrow night with the regular edition of them is are these two guys will be there when we're some

more reaction of wealth and a nice beaches until then on july thank you could not this is nice as both