`All These People . . . Can Affect My Reputation . . . '; `They Can Do Nothing . . . to Affect My Character'
Before I take your questions, I'd like to make a few comments on a couple of matters that I believe are essential to the strength of America in the 21st century. Five years ago, we started a new economic course for a new economy, a combined strategy of fiscal discipline, expanded trade, increased investment in education, science, technology and our people. Today, we received more good news that that strategy is working.</br></br>The latest economic report shows that in the first quarter of 1998, our economy grew at 4.2 percent. Wages are rising, while inflation remains low. This expansion is not fueled by big government deficits, but by booming business investment.</br></br>In the first quarter, unemployment was the lowest in 28 years, inflation the lowest in 30 years, consumer confidence at its highest level in 30 years.</br></br>For five years in a row now, our economy has been rated the most competitive in the world. We are living in an American economic renaissance in which opportunity is abundant. Communities are getting stronger. Families are more secure and more prosperous.</br></br>But we cannot allow the hum of our growing prosperity to lull us into complacency. As estimates of the possible budget surplus expand, so too do suggestions that we immediately commit to spending that surplus on tax cuts and new spending.