The Clinton Administration's policy of fiscal discipline has dramatically improved our fiscal situation, and has changed our task from financing a deficit, to managing a surplus. Now, we have reached a new milestone in our nation's financial history: We are paying down $116 billion of federal debt -- the largest debt pay-down that has ever been achieved in a single quarter, or even in a single year.

It is a great accomplishment for this Administration that we are now reducing the debt. Less government debt outstanding means lower interest rates, higher national savings, more investment and a stronger economy. We have reduced privately held marketable debt from approximately $3.1 trillion in March of 1997, to less than $2.8 trillion -- a pay-down of $320 billion in just over two years. .