Clinton says growing economy offers historic opportunity to help disadvantagedBy Amy Paulson/CNN
January 13, 2000
Web posted at: 4:20 p.m. EST (2120 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bill Clinton said Thursday "there will never be another time for us to bring economic opportunity to people and places that have been left behind," as he cited the historic length of economic prosperity and low unemployment in the United States.
Speaking in lower Manhattan early Thursday afternoon, Clinton touted the economic record of his administration, saying, "Today we celebrate the fact that the face of wealth is colorblind."
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President Clinton
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The president addressed Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH-Wall Street Project's third annual conference Thursday. The project promotes direct corporate investment in minority-owned businesses in minority communities.
Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said, "This generation must lead a march from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, and build bridges from Silicon Valley to Appalachia, and the Ozarks and the Delta and to the inner cities." Jackson added, "We seek partners, not sponsors. In these underserved areas, there is underutilized talent and untapped capital."
"We have an opportunity to expand the big tent and leave no one behind," Jackson proclaimed, adding that it is his group's goal to teach young members of minorities to invest in the stock market, and to "save instead of spend."
"If we don't do it now, we will never do this," Clinton told the audience of
African-American dignitaries, which included Rep. Charlie Rangel, former Reps.
Floyd Flake and Kweisi Mfume, and former New York City Mayor David Dinkens. Motown Records mogul Barry Gordy and executives from Bell Atlantic, Citigroup, and Coca-Cola also addressed the group. All three companies are sponsors of the Wall Street Project.
"We have a moral obligation to use our prosperity at this moment, especially to
uplift communities in poverty," the president said, explaining that his administration and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan have been struggling with the question of how to keep the booming economy humming along. The answer, he said, was to convince the people who are doing well that it is in their best interests to assist those still struggling.
"It has to be done in a public-private partnership, private sector investment,
private sector expertise, the kind of thing that will change by empowering them
to shape a different future for themselves," Clinton said.
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Rep. Charlie Rangel
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In order to bring employment to the pockets of America that need it most -- both urban and rural -- Clinton said he would resubmit his tax relief package to Congress this year. The Republican-controlled Congress rejected the package last year. He also unveiled his New Markets Initiative, which would give American citizens "the same incentives that we provide in Latin America and developing countries all over the world," he said.
The initiative, he said, would give a 25 percent tax credit to businesses
that invest in new markets. Modeled on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the plan's aim is to urge businesses to expand or relocate to depressed areas.
For every dollar of equity capital a business puts in to a depressed community,
"we'll provide two in government loans -- and may defer payments for five years," Clinton said.
"If you're willing to take the chance, we'll lower your risk."
"If you know there is a marginal increased risk, but a potential big reward, what these intiatiaves will do is say, hey, take a look at these places in America that have been left behind."
Earlier in the day, Clinton spoke to students to mark the
opening of a small business development center at Boriuca College in Brooklyn.
"When I started this odyssey as president, we had national economic distress,
social decline, discredited government," Clinton told the students, one day after proposing a $500 expansion of the earned income tax credit. "We had to turn the ship of state around."
"The new market has changed the old pattern, he said. "The only way to keep
growing without inflation is to find a way to find new employees and new business and new customers at the same time.
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