My fellow citizens, tonight is my last opportunity to speak to you from
the Oval Office as your President. I am profoundly grateful to you for
twice giving me the honor to serve, to work for you and with you to prepare
our Nation for the 21st century.
And I'm grateful to Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet Secretaries,
and to all those who have served with me for the last 8 years.
This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have risen
to every new challenge. You have made our social fabric stronger, our families
healthier and safer, our people more prosperous. You, the American people,
have made our passage into the global information age an era of great American
renewal.
In all the work I have done as President--every decision I have made,
every executive action I have taken, every bill I have proposed and signed--I've
tried to give all Americans the tools and conditions to build the future
of our dreams in a good society with a strong economy, a cleaner environment,
and a freer, safer, more prosperous world.
I have steered my course by our enduring values: opportunity for all,
responsibility from all, a community of all Americans. I have sought to
give America a new kind of Government, smaller, more modern, more effective,
full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time, always putting
people first, always focusing on the future.
Working together, America has done well. Our economy is breaking records
with more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 30 years,
the highest homeownership ever, the longest expansion in history. Our families
and communities are stronger. Thirty-five million Americans have used the
family leave law; 8 million have moved off welfare. Crime is at a 25-year
low. Over 10 million Americans receive more college aid, and more people
than ever are going to college. Our schools are better. Higher standards,
greater accountability, and larger investments have brought higher test
scores and higher graduation rates. More than 3 million children have health
insurance now, and more than 7 million Americans have been lifted out of
poverty. Incomes are rising across the board. Our air and water are cleaner.
Our food and drinking water are safer. And more of our precious land has
been preserved in the continental United States than at any time in a 100
years.
America has been a force for peace and prosperity in every corner of
the globe. I'm very grateful to be able to turn over the reins of leadership
to a new President with America in such a strong position to meet the challenges
of the future.
Tonight I want to leave you with three thoughts about our future.
First, America must maintain our record of fiscal responsibility.
Through our last four budgets we've turned record deficits to record
surpluses, and we've been able to pay down $600 billion of our national
debt--on track to be debt-free by the end of the decade for the first time
since 1835. Staying on that course will bring lower interest rates, greater
prosperity, and the opportunity to meet our big challenges. If we choose
wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal with the retirement of the baby
boomers, invest more in our future, and provide tax relief.
Second, because the world is more connected every day, in every way,
America's security and prosperity require us to continue to lead in the
world. At this remarkable moment in history, more people live in freedom
than ever before. Our alliances are stronger than ever. People all around
the world look to America to be a force for peace and prosperity, freedom
and security.
The global economy is giving more of our own people and billions around
the world the chance to work and live and raise their families with dignity.
But the forces of integration that have created these good opportunities
also make us more subject to global forces of destruction, to terrorism,
organized crime and narcotrafficking, the spread of deadly weapons and
disease, the degradation of the global environment.
The expansion of trade hasn't fully closed the gap between those of
us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the billions
around the world who live on the knife's edge of survival. This global
gap requires more than compassion; it requires action. Global poverty is
a powder keg that could be ignited by our indifference.
In his first Inaugural Address, Thomas Jefferson warned of entangling
alliances. But in our times, America cannot and must not disentangle itself
from the world. If we want the world to embody our shared values, then
we must assume a shared responsibility.
If the wars of the 20th century, especially the recent ones in Kosovo
and Bosnia, have taught us anything, it is that we achieve our aims by
defending our values and leading the forces of freedom and peace. We must
embrace boldly and resolutely that duty to lead--to stand with our allies
in word and deed and to put a human face on the global economy, so that
expanded trade benefits all peoples in all nations, lifting lives and hopes
all across the world.
Third, we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless
here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into the fabric
of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to
unite around our common values and our common humanity. We must work harder
to overcome our differences, in our hearts and in our laws. We must treat
all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion,
gender, or sexual orientation, and regardless of when they arrived in our
country--always moving toward the more perfect Union of our Founders' dreams.
Hillary, Chelsea, and I join all Americans in wishing our very best
to the next President, George W. Bush, to his family and his administration,
in meeting these challenges, and in leading freedom's march in this new
century.
As for me, I'll leave the Presidency more idealistic, more full of hope
than the day I arrived, and more confident than ever that America's best
days lie ahead.
My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of service, I
hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher
or a covenant more sacred than that of President of the United States.
But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizens.
