Bill Clinton 1996 On The Issues
Making Government Work
Better and Cost Less
"Our Administration is working hard to give the
American people a government that works better and costs less ... [We] are
eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary rules and regulations, shifting more
decision-making out of Washington, back to states and local communities.”
—President Bill Clinton
Americans expect and deserve
common-sense government—a government that performs well for them,
uses their tax dollars wisely, views them as valued customers, does not impose
excessive burdens, and makes a positive impact on their lives.
Under the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, this
Administration is creating a smaller government that works better and costs
less by:
Reducing the federal workforce by more than 230,000
positions—the smallest federal civilian workforce since John F.
Kennedy was President. |
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Saving taxpayers $118 billion by cutting wasteful
government practices and spending through Vice President Gore’s
National Performance Review. |
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Eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary government
regulations. We are:
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Reducing regulatory and administrative burdens on
the public by $28 billion. |
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Cutting Environmental Protection Agency paperwork
requirements by 25%, saving industry some 20 million hours of
labor per year. |
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Eliminating over 45% of the Department of
Education’s regulations. |
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Cutting 65% of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s regulations. |
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Eliminating 50% of the Small Business
Administration’s regulations by the end of the
year. | |
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Signing into law the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act
of 1994 to dramatically improve how the federal government purchases
items, saving taxpayers $12.3 billion over the next 5
years. |
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Published customer service standards at more than 200
departments and agencies so the federal government's customers, the
American taxpayers, know what to expect and how to give feedback on
the service they have received. Savings over five years (1995-99) from
the common sense government initiative will total $108 billion, with
another $70 billion in savings over the period of
1996-2000. |
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Eliminating, consolidating, and privatizing government. We
have eliminated agencies, such as the Interstate Commerce Commission,
the Bureau of Mines, the Office of Territorial Affairs, and the
Administrative Conference of the United States. We also are
consolidating hundreds of job training, public health, and
environmental programs to allow states and localities to serve their
residents better. In addition the Administration is privatizing a
number of government functions, including the Naval Petroleum Reserve,
the Alaska Power Administration, and certain water facilities owned by
the Bureau of Reclamation. |
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Forming partnerships with America’s businesses and with
state and local governments to change the way government works. For
example, we have cut the Small Business Administration loan form from
a one-inch thick manual to a one-page document. |
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Signing legislation restricting Congress from passing on
new mandates to state and local governments without paying for
them. |
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Signing the Line-Item Veto, in April 1996, to enhance
significantly presidential authority to eliminate wasteful spending;
allows the President to cancel wasteful special interest projects and
targeted tax breaks that benefit special
interests. |
Building on Our Progress
Vice President Gore, under President Clinton’s leadership, has taken
significant steps toward creating a government that not only is smaller, but
is also more effective in meeting the needs of the American people. The
Clinton Administration is bringing the federal government into the Information
Age, cutting red tape and providing quicker and easier access for our
citizens. The President’s commitment to balancing the budget requires that we
expand the reinvention successes.
These initiatives will provide significant benefits to Americans in either
improved service or reduced costs by:
Continuing to reduce the size of the federal workforce by
cutting overhead and unnecessary bureaucracy. |
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Creating performance-based organizations with executives
hired to get results; tossing out restrictive government rules and
making the executives personally accountable for delivering
results. |
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Improving customer service to give Americans the best
service ever from the government. |
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Increasing the use of regulatory partnerships with the
private sector, abandoning the old way of doing business, and forming
alliances with management and labor that focus on
results. |
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Forging new relationships with communities by creating
performance partnerships in which we set goals together, but each
community decides how best to meet them. |
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Establishing single points of contact for large
communities to help solve their problems with the federal government
more quickly. |
Source: Bill Clinton for President 1996 Web Site |
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