U.S. Close to Solving Its Worst Social Woes, Clinton Says

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton told religious leaders Monday that the nation appears to be “on the cusp” of reversing its worst social problems and called on them to help create a “spirit of reconciliation” among all Americans to ensure that progress continues.

In a sign that Washington’s perennial combatants may be willing to lay down their arms and work together in this vein, Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich made similarly strong statements in Georgia about his determination to forge a new coalition to address some of the country’s biggest domestic challenges, such as balancing the federal budget.

But even as Gingrich and the president spoke of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans in Congress remained enmeshed in partisan rancor over the future of Gingrich--the subject of an ongoing ethics investigation--and accusations of ethical lapses and fund-raising missteps within the White House.

White House officials conceded that the acrid mood on Capitol Hill could deter Clinton’s effort to strike a theme of bipartisan unity leading into his second term.

Clinton made his provocative assertion about improving social trends during a speech to 100 of the nation’s religious leaders at an annual ecumenical prayer breakfast. His comments were billed as a prelude to his Jan. 20 inaugural address.

“We’re on the cusp here, maybe, of turning a lot of our social problems around,” Clinton said. “We know what we ought to do. Can we do it in the right way, in a spirit of reconciliation?”

The president cited data showing that births to teens have declined little by little over the last four years, the crime rate has gone down steadily over several years and, for the first time in 20 years, the income inequality between wealthy and poor working Americans shrank in 1995.

He conceded that one trend going in the wrong direction is drug use among teens.

The president beseeched the clergy members to join him in spurring on the country to put welfare recipients to work and defuse racial tensions as America becomes more and more diverse through immigration.

Clinton recalled that many religious leaders opposed his decision last year to sign the welfare legislation--presented to him by the GOP-led Congress--that ended the federal guarantee of cash assistance to all eligible poor families. But he called on them to do their part to help welfare recipients move into the working mainstream.

“If every church in America challenged every member of that church who had 25 or more employees to hire another family, the problem would go away,” Clinton said.

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The president’s address reflected his evolving strategy for the second term. He hopes to create his legacy by rejecting big-government solutions and instead using his office’s bully pulpit to inspire the public to heighten its own involvement. The new federal role will be as a junior partner--supporting the private and local efforts with some money and advice.

The president shared a piece of advice that he said one of his college roommates, Kit Ashby, who is now an international banker, gave him a couple weeks ago: “Don’t ever forget that great presidents do not do great things. Great presidents get a lot of other people to do great things.”

While Clinton was urging national harmony to keep social trends moving in a positive direction, Gingrich offered an olive branch to the president whom he has spent much of the last two years fighting head-to-head.

“I think we’re at the edge here of potentially a brand new large coalition that is really able to bring people in from all backgrounds,” Gingrich told reporters in Marietta, Ga., before heading back to Washington for a vote today on whether he will retain the speakership.

By signing the welfare bill last year, Gingrich added, Clinton signaled that he was “inside the same coalition” with Republicans. Similar cooperation could likely lead to a balanced budget and lower taxes, he added.

As Clinton and Gingrich made noises about progress and cooperation, some liberal officials within the administration quietly expressed dismay that the president would put such a positive spin on the state of the country, given that one in five U.S. children lives in poverty, girls younger than 18 are having 200,000 babies per year and drug use among teens has doubled in three years.

One official, who spoke on the grounds of anonymity, said: “I know of no empirical evidence that we are anywhere close to solving our most vexing problems--race and poverty.”

Social-policy analysts also warned that it is too early to know whether the improvements in social trends that Clinton cited will continue.