Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930622.zip/06-22A.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-23 | 11KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Tue Jun 22 01:56:21 1993
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:43-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: PRESIDENTial INTERVIEW on WMAL RADIO 6.21.93

E X E C U T I V E   O F F I C E   O F   T H E   P R E S I D E N T

                         THE WHITE HOUSE

                  Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   June 21,
1993


                   INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT
           BY BOB LEVEY, WMAL RADIO, WASHINGTON, D.C.


                         The Oval Office


     Q    I'm pleased to welcome you to Newstalk 630, WMAL.
Thanks so much for joining us.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Glad to do it, Bob.

     Q    Let's begin with a question about the deficit reduction
bill.  It passed the Senate Finance Committee last week.  Does
this now put you on the high road to passage of this bill, or are
we still trembling along somewhere below the high road?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I think it is a high road in the sense
that that probably was the most difficult committee in the Senate
to get such a bill out of.  And the fact that they did it and
they did it in a timely fashion is encouraging.  And I think what
we just have to do now is to try to see that the bill -- let the
bill pass the Senate and send it over to conference where the
senators and the House members can discuss what each of them can
live with as well as the principles that I have laid down.  And I
think we can come out of this with a bill which brings the
deficit down, requires upper income people who are in the best
position to do so to pay the lion's share of the taxes, has more
cuts than taxes in it, protects the middle class and particularly
gives an incentive to the working poor to work their way out of
poverty, and has a lot of economic incentives to grow the economy
-- the kinds of things that have led so many big companies, labor
unions, the homebuilders, the realtors and others to endorse this
plan.  I think that it is a very good and balanced plan, and I
think you'll see that coming out of the session between the
Senate and the House, if the bill will be passed in the Senate
this week and, of course I'm hoping it will be.

     Q    So you know, of course, that the Republicans, cheered
up by the results in Texas, as now going around the country
saying that you, President Clinton, are doing more for them than
they can do for themselves.  What's your reaction to that?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, my reaction is that it is unfortunate
that our side was not, in effect, defended in Texas.  Neither of
the candidates in the Texas Senate race had voted for or
supported my economic program.  So the voters of Texas,
unfortunately, were permitted to cast their ballots in an
atmosphere of unreality, I mean, where one candidate is running
saying the issue is spending stupid and we'd cut $250 billion in
spending programs.  We'd cut veterans, Medicare, agriculture,
foreign aid, defense, just about everything you can see.  And
it's going to be very interesting now, in light of what happened
there, to see the debates that are coming up.

     I have been a strong supporter, because I believe in it, of
the space station and the supercollider.  We had a qualified
panel of experts -- both those projects are in Texas, you know.
Supercollider entirely in Texas; space station largely in Texas.
I had a qualified panel of experts look at the space station.
They recommended ways to redesign the project that would save $4
billion, and to change the management of NASA in a way that would
make the whole space program work better.  And we also reduced
some spending in the supercollider.  And I'm hoping I can save
those projects now.

     But there are strong opponents of those projects in the
Congress and they're saying, well, the voters of Texas voted to
kill them because of the unrealistic atmosphere in which that
whole election unfolded.  And I wish that Lloyd Bentsen had been
able to -- who was Senator from there -- had been able to spend
full-time down there telling the people of Texas he put the
program together and he would not have put a program together
which was unfair to Texas, unfair to the middle class, and which
didn't have spending cuts.

     So I think that -- when you take tough stands and you want
to make tough decisions, you have to expect to suffer some
unpopularity in the short-run as the rhetoric overtakes the
reality.  But every evidence we have is when the voters know the
specifics of the program, that we prevailed.  And the race in
California for Leon Panetta's House seat  where this whole
program became the issue, the person who was elected to Congress,
defended the program, advertised it, Leon got on television and
gave the specifics of the program.  Our opponent attacked us and
said how terrible it was; the voters gave the guy who took my
position a 10-point margin.  And I thought that in view of all
the other problems out there, that was pretty impressive.

     Q    Mr. President, I thought you got off a good line last
week.  You said that Washington has become the home of gridlock
and greed.  Are we really that bad or is this just political
language?

     THE PRESIDENT:  I think we're breaking that.  I think if
this economic program passes, it is fair, it is balanced and it
will bring an end to gridlock.  But what I'm saying is it's been
more than a decade since a President's budget was even taken
seriously by Congress.  Nobody ever wanted to talk truth about
economics to the American people because the truth is that we --
back in 1981 we cut taxes a bunch and we increased spending a lot
and we went from a $1 trillion to a $4 trillion debt and we
permitted health care costs to soar out of control.  We haven't
done anything long-term about our economic health and now we
don't have the money we actually need to be spending on defense
conversion, on education and training, on Head Start, on giving
people incentives to revitalize our cities.

     But if you want to change it's tough because it means we all
have to give up a little something now to get something tomorrow.
What we're getting is lower interest rates, more investment and
an economy that will really produce jobs.  To do it we've got to
break a mentality of "what's in it for me today."  I think we're
on the way to doing that.  I think the era of gridlock and greed
is fading into the distance, and I'll be surprised if we don't
adopt the economic program and a lot of other things that need to
be done around this town like political reform, lobbying reform,
campaign finance reform, national service.  I think we'll get
health care reform.  I'm hopeful -- I'm very optimistic.   But I
want the people to understand clearly that these things don't
happen overnight.

     Q    Sir, speaking of things that need to get done, let's
talk for a minute about statehood in the District of Columbia,
which you greatly favored and strongly swore that you would lobby
for once you got into office.  And I have not heard word one from
you or from your office about that since you took over.  Is this
still on your list?  And, if so, how high?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely.  I strongly favor it.  I think
that it's -- I think it ought to be done.  I think the case --
nothing is clearer to me than when you see the Congress still
trying to make up their mind what the domestic policy of the
citizens of the District of Columbia in nonfederal matters ought
to be.  I think that the District of Columbia should chart its
own course.  And I still believe all the concerns are very
compelling.

     I have to tell you that there has always been substantial
opposition in the Congress.  And a lot of members who might
ordinarily be strongly for statehood are nervous about whether
their own citizens are going to be taxed by the District of
Columbia if it becomes a state.  So there are some -- I think the
question now is since this is going to be a major debate that
will require an awful lot of concentration on the part of the
senators and a lot of focus to work through the issues, when is
the appropriate time for it to be brought up to guarantee that it
will be seriously considered.  Because unless you get serious
consideration, it won't pass.  That is, the easy thing for a lot
of the members of Congress will be is just to vote no.  The only
way it can win is if we can bring it up in a relatively calm
atmosphere where people can really focus on the practical
problems the people living in the District of Columbia face and
on the contribution the District of Columbia makes  to the
country in terms of taxes, people in military service, and in
many other ways.

     So I still very much believe that this ought to be done.
But we have to bring it up at a time when we've got a fair shot
to prevail.  I mean, I could bring it up and make a speech for it
and let it go down.  If we want it to pass, we have to bring it
up at the right time where people can really focus on it.

     Q    Sir, you said the night before you took over, that you
did not want to be allowed to become a captive of the White
House.  You wanted to be the kind of President who got out.  Do
you think you've succeeded in that?

     THE PRESIDENT:  To some extent.  You know, early on here, I
have to stay here a lot and just do the work.  There's just so
much work to be done.

     Q    I guess so.

     THE PRESIDENT:  To get the -- if you're trying to change
things as much as we are, if you want to put on the nation's
agenda a new economic plan and a new health care plan, and then
follow that with a plan to open the doors of college education to
all, the plan to reform campaign finance and lobbying, a plan for
moving people from welfare to work, that requires an immense
amount of effort.  And then, of course, every President has to
spend a significant amount of time on national security and
foreign policy issues.

     But I have traveled some.  I expect to do it more, and I
also try to get out and around in D.C. a lot.  You know, one of
the reasons I try to jog downtown is just so I can stop and talk
to citizens and let them visit with me and kind of make sure I
don't lose touch with the real world.  I wish I could go --

     Q    Well, don't jog when it gets humid out there.

     THE PRESIDENT:  It's pretty hot out there.

     Q    Yes, it is.

     THE PRESIDENT:  But I'm straight.  I expect it to be a
never-ending struggle, but I hope it's one I can prevail in.

     Q    Mr. President, we thank you so much so joining us on
Newstalk 6:30 WMAL.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  I enjoyed it.

                               END