The president discussed the federal budget deficit, taxes, defense spending, crime, foreign affairs, education, the economy, free trade, the role of government, campaign finance reform, welfare reform, and promoting the Clinton health care plan.
President Clinton threatened to veto any legislation that did not guarantee every American private health insurance.
He proposed for policies to fight crime: a three strikes law for repeat violent offenders; 100,000 more police officers on the streets; expand gun control to further prevent criminals from being armed and ban assault weapons; additional support for drug treatment and education.
[5] Dole argued that health care in the United States was not in crisis, the Republican opposition to Clinton's plans in the previous year had been popular, and the deficit reduction was the temporary result of tax increases.
Teleprompter operators practiced with the old speech and it was accidentally left in, forcing Clinton to ad-lib for almost ten minutes.