8:00 pm, January 18,
2001
My fellow citizens, tonight is my last opportunity to speak to you from the
Oval Office as your
president.
I am profoundly grateful to you for twice giving me the honor to serve, to work for you and with you to prepare our nation for the
21st century. And I'm grateful to
Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet secretaries, and to all those who have served with me for the last eight years.
This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have risen to every new challenge. You have made our
social fabric stronger, our families healthier and safer, our people more prosperous.
You,
the American people, have made our passage into the global
information age an era of great
American renewal.
In all the work I have done as president, every decision I have made, every
executive action I have taken, every
bill I have proposed and signed, I've tried to give all Americans the tools and conditions to build the future of our dreams, in a good society, with a strong
economy, a cleaner
environment, and a freer, safer, more prosperous world.
I have steered my course by our enduring values: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, a community of all Americans. I have sought to give America a new kind of
government, smaller, more modern, more effective, full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time, always putting people first, always focusing on the future.
Working together, America has done well. Our economy is breaking records with more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest
unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership ever, the longest expansion in history.
Our families and communities are stronger. Thirty-five million Americans have used the
family leave law. Eight 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 three 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 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 that ever before. Our alliances are stronger than ever. People all around the world look to America to be a force for peace and prosperity, freedom and security. The
global economy is giving more of our own people, and billions around the world, the chance to work and live and raise their families with dignity.
But the forces of integration that have created these good opportunities also make us more subject to global forces of destruction, to
terrorism,
organized crime and
narco-trafficking, the spread of deadly weapons and disease, the degradation of the global environment.
The expansion of trade hasn't fully closed the gap between those of us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the billions around the world who live on the
knife's edge of survival.
This global gap requires more than compassion. It requires action. Global poverty is a
powder keg that could be ignited by our indifference.
In his first
inaugural address,
Thomas Jefferson warned of
entangling alliances. But in our times, America cannot and must not disentangle itself from the world. If we want the world to embody our shared values, then we must assume a shared responsibility.
If the wars of the
20th century, especially the recent ones in
Kosovo and
Bosnia, have taught us anything, it is that we achieve our aims by defending our values and leading the forces of freedom and peace. We must embrace boldly and resolutely that duty to lead, to stand with our allies in word and deed, and to put a human face on the global economy so that expanded trade benefits all people in all nations, lifting lives and hopes all across the world.
Third, we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless here at home we weave the threads of our
coat of many colors into the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity.
We must work harder to overcome our differences. In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or
sexual orientation and regardless of when they arrived in our country, always moving toward the
more perfect union of our founders' dreams.
Hillary,
Chelsea and
I join all Americans in wishing our very best to the next president,
George W. Bush, to his family and his administration in meeting these challenges and in leading
freedom's march in this new century.
As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.
My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of service, I hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of
president of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of
citizen.
Thank you. God bless you, and
God bless America.