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

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-23 | 12KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Tue Jun 22 03:42:01 1993
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:50-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Presidential Interview on WCBS Radio, NEW YORK, 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 TIM SCHELD, WCBS-RADIO, NEW YORK

                      The Oval Office

           Q   Good afternoon.  President Bill Clinton, joining us
from the Roosevelt Room of the White House this afternoon.  A good
decision, Mr. President, since it is as hot and muggy as you're going
to get in New York City today, be happy you're inside and in
Washington, D.C.

           THE PRESIDENT:  It's pretty hot and muggy here, too,
Tim.

           Q   I heard you were jogging this morning in a lot of
fog.  No fog anywhere in New York City.  We're looking for some, so
bring some up here, please, next time you come.

           THE PRESIDENT:   I had a great time today, for all the
joggers listening to you.  I got to run with John Fixx who is the son
of the famous runner, Jim Fixx, who died about nine years ago, but
made a real contribution to what all of us who love jogging know as
the sport.

           Q   Yes, but the question now is do you run with
Michael Jordan tomorrow?

           THE PRESIDENT:  I'd love to do it if he were willing.

           Q   I appreciate you taking the time with us here on
WCBS this afternoon.  The Senate begins debate on the all-important
economic package, but its ultimate shape, as you know, will be
determined by the Joint House Senate Committee probably beginning the
1st of July.  Will we see the Btu energy tax proposal be reborn out
of that committee, Mr. President?  What kind of specific new energy
taxes should the American people expect?

           THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first let me say that before we
can start that conference, Senator Moynihan has got to shepherd this
bill through the Senate, and that' not going to be all that easy.  I
think we can do it.  But there's been so much rhetoric around this
economic program and so much inaccurate information put out there
that it's not going to be easy to get the senators to make the tough
choices to pass the bill.  I think they will do that, and I think in
no small measure they will do it because of the leadership of your
Senator in leading the Senate Finance Committee.

           But after that, the House and the Senate will get
together.  And I think there will -- they'll try to agree on a
provision with regard to energy which will do what all of us agreed
to do, which is to reduce the energy tax somewhat below where it was
in the House version; have some more spending cuts; make it clear to
the American people there are more spending cuts than tax increases
in this program; and that they are fair and balanced.

           The Secretary of the Treasury, Lloyd Bentsen, had a good
suggestion, I thought, for reducing the Btu tax, reducing its impact
on jobs through lowering the industry and agricultural provisions and
cutting the rates across the board on middle class Americans; but
still leaving it in there so there would always be an incentive for
energy conservation, environmental cleanup, and switching to American
natural gas.

           But one of the senators on the Senate Finance Committee
had said he would never vote for a bill based on the heat content of
energy, which meant that they had to change the form of the energy
levy.  And we'll just have to see what comes out of the conference.
I don't know what will happen.

           Q   This is pretty complicated, but the American people
were so well informed a couple of months ago exactly how much it was
going to cost.  I think people were -- at least in this area, I think
we got the impression that people were willing to bite their bottom
lip and to pay for deficit reduction.  Are you taking that attitude
back to the Senate and saying, listen to the American people?

           THE PRESIDENT:  I'm really trying to.  And I think what
happened was that from the time I gave my speech outlining the plan
in February to the American people directly, including telling
everybody exactly what we were going to cut and exactly what it would
cost, after that the details got lost in all the word games going
back and forth and the shouting.  And what I tried to do last week by
giving a prime time news conference and doing a number of other
things was to let the American people know exactly what was in this
bill.  Maybe it's worth restating.

           There are $250 billion of spending cuts, and $250
billion of revenue increases, and $500 billion of deficit reduction
in this package.  Of every $10 in cutting the debt, $5 comes in
spending cuts; $3.75 comes from people with incomes above $100,000;
$1.25 comes from people with incomes below $100,000, but above
$30,000.  People below that are held harmless.  That's about how it
works.

           Q   One member of Congress over the weekend, I think,
was quoted as saying that's engaging in politics of envy -- pitting
the higher income brackets against those that can't afford it.

           THE PRESIDENT:  No.

           Q   Well, what do you say to that?

           THE PRESIDENT:  I have a clear answer to that.  I don't
seek to punish anybody for their success.  But if you look at what
happened in the 1980s, we had the reverse of the politics of envy.
In the 1980s taxes went up on the middle class while their incomes
went down.  Taxes went down on upper income people while their
incomes went up.  This has nothing to do with the politics of envy.

           I want it to be possible for people to have more
successes.  If you look at this bill that is moving its way through
Congress, there are big incentives for people to start new
businesses, for small businesses to hire extra people, for bigger
industries to invest in new plant and equipment, for all private
sector people to actually make money by reinvesting in our inner
cities and our rural areas again.  This is not about the politics of
envy, this is about who can afford to pay the freight.

           In the last 12 years, we had tax decreases on upper
income people and tax increases on the middle class, even though
their income trends were just the reverse.  So this is nothing but
fairness.  This is not about class war, this is about fairness.

           Q   Mr. President, on health care reform, our own
Senator Moynihan -- you brought up his name -- expressed some doubt
over the weekend that health care reform would make it to Congress
this year.  Any update on that?

           THE PRESIDENT:  I still think we can do it this year if
we pass the budget in an expeditious way and if the health care
reform proposal is perceived as fair by the vast majority of the
American people, and if it deals with the problems of the country.
That is, can we bring the cost of health care in line with inflation?
That's good for business.  Can we remove the insecurity that millions
of Americans have that they're going to lose their health insurance
because of the cost or because somebody in their family's been sick
or because they're going to change jobs?  Can we provide a way to
bring coverage to people who don't have it?  Seventy percent of them
work for a living.  Can we do it in ways that are affordable and
balanced, and can we do it in ways that don't in any way affect the
right of Americans to choose their doctors or to keep very high
quality health care.

           If we can do that, then I think you will see a
willingness on the part of Congress to take this up, knowing that the
whole job can't be done overnight.  That is, we could adopt an
omnibus bill and still have to phase in the actual practical
implementation of it so that if there are problems along the way,
they can be corrected.

           Senator Moynihan has a lot of experience about how
slowly Congress acts, but I think the American people are so hungry
and so hurting for something to be done on health care that they'd
like to see it dealt with this year and they'd like to see us at
least make a good beginning.  I believe with a little luck, we can
get it done this year.

           Q   Mr. President, reading The Washington Post this
morning, seeing quotes from a colleague or a friend of yours and
someone who I know, Betsy Wright, I'm wondering whether this claim
from the Paradise, California, man merits any reaction from you.

           THE PRESIDENT:  I'll be glad to give you a reaction, but
let me say, I have tried to call him today and have not talked to him
yet.  And I think I ought to talk to him before I make any public
statement.  But I'll put out a statement about it later on today.

           Q   Fair enough, Mr. President.  Have you heard from
the FBI, by the way, on the inquiry into the alleged plot against
former President Bush in Kuwait a couple of months ago?

           THE PRESIDENT:  I have not received a final report from
the FBI, and I don't think I should say anything about what I will or
won't do until I do get that report.

           Q   So it's either all the wrong questions or all the
right questions I get to ask you.  (Laughter.)

           THE PRESIDENT:  No, they're both good questions, and I'm
sorry, but it's not in the national interest for me to discuss that
until I actually know what I can say about it when I get the report.

           Q   Absolutely.  One other final question for you here.
It concerns when you come to New York -- and I'm sure you will be in
this area for Governor Florio and for Mayor Dinkins campaigning;
that's my guess, at least -- what do you tell the people who are
sitting in traffic sometimes because of a presidential visit?
It's a loaded question, sir.

           THE PRESIDENT:  It really bothers me when I come there.
I told Mayor Dinkins the last time I was there, I was so concerned
that it required so many police officers and firemen.  And it seems
that the President interrupts the flow of events more coming to New
York than any other place because of the density of the population
and the traffic.  It really concerns me.

           One of the things that I can do and one of the things I
did do the last time I came was to land at the airport and then take
a helicopter in as close as I can to where I'm driving so that really
minimizes the disruption to the other people and traffic.  It's
something that -- you know, I love to come to New York and I think
it's a good thing for the President to be in New York and to be on
the streets and to be with the people, and it's such an important
part of our national life.  There are so many people there I need to
talk to and see and listen to.  But it bothers me when I
inconvenience a lot of people.

           Q   Well, we leave you the invitation to always come
back here and talk to people, but this is a way to get through to
them without causing some traffic problems.  But come here anyway.
We'd love to see you.

           THE PRESIDENT:  I'd love to do it.  Maybe we can do it.
Maybe radio can be the best alternative.

           Q   Absolutely, sir.  Thank you for taking the time
this afternoon.

           THE PRESIDENT:  Thanks.

                            END