Photo courtesy of the White House

President Clinton delivers his eighth and last state of the union address to the Congress and people of the United States. Watching are Vice President Gore, left, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Clinton received strong support and applause from the Democrats for his unusually ambitious lame-duck agenda while Republicans gave his initiatives an icy reception.

In his eighth and last annual State of the Union address to Congress and the American people, President Clinton declared: "My fellow Americans, the state of our union is the strongest it has ever been."

The yearly address is the traditional avenue for an American president to outline his administration's priorities and goals to Congress, federal policymakers, the nation, and the world. Clinton ends his eight years in office on Jan. 20, 2001, a week short of a year from the date of his state of the union speech.

Noting that the U.S. is blessed with unparalleled prosperity at a time when the Cold War has ended and U.S. citizens face no major international threats, Clinton termed the beginning of the new century a time of "opportunity" and "obligation" to make the nation even better.

And, in contrast to some predecessors who limited their lame-duck goals to generalities, Clinton used his 89-minute address to set an activist agenda for the last year of his presidency. He offered a broad range of specific programs and challenged the GOP-controlled Congress to work with him to make them happen.

But partisanship was evident. Although Clinton was interrupted by applause 119 times during the address, many senators and representatives on the GOP side sat on their hands as Clinton listed many of the initiatives he wanted them to pass.

He called for the lawmakers to join with him in a revolution to improve American education, to eliminate the national debt by 2013, "to meet the challenges of the aging of America," and to "assure quality, affordable health care for all Americans."

In another reference to education, Clinton called for lawmakers to close the "digital divide" that limits the lives and capabilities of Americans not trained to use the Internet.

And he came out strongly for raising the minimum wage – a priority held hostage by GOP leaders in the House and Senate. "Again I ask you – I implore you – to raise the minimum wage," Clinton told the audience of lawmakers.

He also urged that Congress follow his lead and continue to pay down the national debt. "If we stay on this path, we can pay down the debt entirely in just 13 years now and make America debt-free for the first time since Andrew Jackson was president in 1835," Clinton declared.

"Beyond paying off the debt, we must ensure that the benefits of debt reduction go to preserving two of the most important guarantees we make to every American – Social Security and Medicare," Clinton added. He urged Congress to work with him to credit "the interest savings from debt reduction to the Social Security Trust Fund."

Noting that there are still more than 40 million Americans without health insurance, Clinton urged the lawmakers to follow up on Vice President Gore's plan to make low-income parents eligible for insurance to cover their children.

And he urged the Congress to "strengthen and modernize Medicare to make it more efficient and competitive." Clinton proposed to reserve more than $400 billion of the anticipated budget surplus to keep Medicare solvent past 2025 and provide the funds "to give every senior a voluntary choice of affordable coverage for prescription drugs."

He also urged the lawmakers "to make needed investments to expand access to mental health care."

He also targeted equal pay for men and women. "Today the female unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in 46 years. Yet, women still only earn about 75 cents for every dollar men earn. We must do better, by providing the resources to enforce present equal pay laws; training more women for high-paying, high-tech jobs; and passing the Paycheck Fairness Act," Clinton said.

Affordable child care was his next initiative for the lawmakers. "Many working parents spend up to a quarter – a quarter – of their income on child care," he observed, citing federal programs that already help about 2 million children. He proposed using money saved from welfare reform to "make child care better, safer and more affordable for another 400,000 children."

"Connecting classrooms and libraries to the Internet is crucial, but it's just a start," the president noted, urging the lawmakers to approve his budget plans to train teachers in 21st century computer skills and create technology centers to educate adults.

Media analysts made the point that partisan discord would certainly prevent many of Clinton's initiatives from enactment into law, but the fact that the United States experienced prosperity and low unemployment during the seven years of his watch would certainly sway the public to support many of his plans.