[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1993)]
[Pages 957-974]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks in the ``CBS This Morning'' Town Meeting
May 27, 1993
Budget Proposal
Paula Zahn. Here comes President Clinton, cup of coffee in hand--
decaf coffee.
The President. Good morning.
Ms. Zahn. We wanted to start off by talking about the late night you
kept last night. Word of an agreement that was struck between Democratic
leaders and conservative members of your party on your economic plan. Do
you think you now have the votes to carry this plan through in the
House?
The President. I think it will help. This is an agreement that I
have wanted for a long time, because I think that the people are
entitled to know that if we pass these budget cuts that they're actually
going to be made. I've been concerned that someone who was a Governor
who came from a State with a very tough balanced budget law, I've been
very concerned--can you hear me? Can we start again?
Q. You have two mikes on you now, Mr. President.
The President. There was an agreement made last night that I had
been supporting for a good long while sponsored by the conservative
Democrats essentially to put a mechanism in the budget to force us every
year to make the budget cuts that we say we're making in this 5-year
budget. That is, obviously it's very hard to predict what will happen in
every year for the next 5 years. If you had to do a family budget for 5
years, it might not be possible, or a business budget or a farm budget.
So these numbers are as good as we can make them, but this amendment
actually says that every year, if we miss the deficit reduction target,
the President has to bring in a plan to meet it and the Congress has to
vote on it. And if they want to change it some, they can, but we've got
to meet the deficit reduction target.
We have been working for days to get this done. And finally,
yesterday afternoon they gave up. So I called the folks that had given
up, and I said, go back to the table. We've got to have some discipline
in this budget, so that if we tell people we're going to make the cuts,
we do it. And that's what this amendment says.
Ms. Zahn. What happens if you don't get this through in the House
today?
The President. We keep working until we get a budget through. The
real problem is, I think, that--there are two problems: One is that the
details of the plan have been lost in the rhetoric; the second is that a
lot of the Republicans who might otherwise want to vote with us got into
a position where they said they wouldn't vote for any tax.
Over 60 percent of this money, of the tax money, over 60 percent
comes from people with incomes over $200,000. Seventy-four percent of it
comes from people with incomes over $100,000, people whose taxes went
down in the eighties while their incomes went up. People with incomes
under $30,000 are protected even from the Btu tax. And next year people
in the middle will pay about $1 a month, and it goes to $7 a month and
then about $15 a month.
I think that a lot of--we have to get all of our votes apparently
from the Democrats this time. I hope it won't happen anymore.
Ms. Zahn. No help from the Republicans?
The President. Well, with the Senate we might get some Republican
votes. We're working on it.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Accomplishments
Harry Smith. We are live in the Rose Garden with over 200 people
from many States around the country, a couple of foreign countries as
well. We're here with President Clinton. We thank you, first, for
inviting us in to do this town meeting.
I know you don't pay attention to this sort of stuff: polls. You
never pay attention probably, right? The negatives are now higher than
the positives in the polls. And I want to tap into something here,
because there's a feeling in the country, and I think the people here
reflect it. I think people in America want to see you succeed, but I
just want to see a raise of hands this morning, and don't be intimidated
just because you're in the Rose Garden. [Laughter] Do you feel like he
could be doing a better job? Raise your hand if you think so. Don't be
intimidated.
[[Page 958]]
Don't be intimidated. There's a lot of folks who feel that way. Do you
feel like there's been a gap between the promises of the campaign and
the performance thus far? If you think so, raise your hands. A lot of
folks feel that way. What went wrong?
The President. First of all, I don't know that anything went wrong,
except I'm glad nobody found our about the manicure I got in California.
[Laughter]
Ms. Zahn. Let's check it out.
The President. I'll tell you what went wrong. What went wrong was I
was not able to keep the public focus on the issues that we're working
on after I gave the State of the Union Address, even though that's what
we kept doing.
Now, look, we've been here 4 months, and look what's happened in 4
months. And they give you a 4-year term. Look what's happened in 4
months. We had a major foreign policy challenge in Russia right after I
got in office. If Yeltsin had gotten beat in Russia and a militant
regime had returned, we would have had to turn around with the defense
budget and a lot of bad things could have happened to America. The
United States went to work, organized the rest of the world, supported
Yeltsin. He won the election. We're back on track there making this
world a safer place. That's my number one job. I think that's pretty
impressive.
The Congress passed a resolution committing to do a budget that
reduced the deficit by $500 billion on time for the first time in 17
years. Congress passed the family leave bill they've been fooling around
with for 8 years to guarantee people some time off without losing their
jobs. They passed the motor voter bill they've been fooling around with
for years. No one now asks are we going to reduce the deficit. The
question is how much and how. No one now asks are we ever going to do
anything about health care. The question is when and exactly what are we
going to do. I think that's a pretty good record for 4 months.
Now, if you do a lot of things and you try to change a lot of things
overnight, you may break some eggs, and it's not an exact process. And
controversy always is better news--you know that--than the lack of
controversy. So one of the things that happened--we were laughing about
this yesterday--is I'll bet you most people in this audience and most
people in this country have no earthly idea that we're going to cut way
over $200 billion in spending off of this budget over the next 5 years,
because the people who normally fight spending cuts supported it this
time, and we rolled through the spending cuts without controversy. So
the only controversy is over whether we should raise any taxes and from
whom.
Now, I think we're doing pretty well, but I think we've done a lousy
job of being able to cut through the fog that always surrounds this town
and communicate that. I'll admit that.
Public Perception
Ms. Zahn. Why? Why have you had a tough time doing that?
The President. Well, you tell me. I don't know. All I know is, I
went to Cleveland the other day, and I talked to these four television
folks locally. And they said--I'll just lay it out--this guy said, ``I
was for you, but I'm mad at you because since you've been in Washington,
you've spent all your time on Bosnia and gays in the military.'' I said,
``How do you know that?'' He said, ``I watch the news every night.''
[Laughter] And I said, ``Well,'' I said, ``okay, let me tell you,'' I
said, ``I just did an analysis of what I did the first 100 days. I spent
25 percent of my time on foreign policy, all foreign policy, including
going to Canada to see Mr. Yeltsin. I have to. That's my job. No one
else can do that. I spent 40 percent of my office time and about 55
percent of my total time working on the economy and health care''--let
me finish--``and 20 percent of the time working on other domestic
policies and seeing people and doing that.'' He said, ``How much time
have you spent on gays in the military?'' I said, ``Two and a half
hours.'' He said, ``I don't believe that.'' I said, ``That's the truth.
You can look at the calendar.''
So all I'm saying is controversy gets news. And when we're out here
working on things that aren't controversial, it's often not reported in
the news. And I have to find a way to do a better job of communicating
directly to the American people as well as--I'm not saying we haven't
made any mistakes. If you
[[Page 959]]
do a lot of things, you're going to make some mistakes. But the major
failure since February 17th is not being able to communicate directly
what we are doing and answer directly the questions and the criticisms
of the American people. That's been the major problem, and I've got to
figure out how to do it.
Selection of Attorney General
Mr. Smith. You know what it is, though, I mean, given all of that
stuff, motor voter, budget, all that other stuff, on a day-by-day basis,
a week barely goes by that there isn't some sort of story that it sounds
like--and I think people here would say, is the President on sure
footing? One, two, three different choices for Attorney General. Flip-
flop: We're going to get tough on Bosnia, and then we're not going to
get tough on Bosnia.
The President. You want to talk about--that's what people--you can't
lob these things out there.
Mr. Smith. We have 2 hours to talk about all of this. We have 2
hours to talk about all of this, but it seems like a day or a couple of
days doesn't go by when they're putting out fires in the White House.
And people want to know, do you have this thing under control?
The President. Well, let me just mention the Attorney General thing.
First of all, I think I've got a pretty good Attorney General, don't
you?
Mr. Smith. I think people would agree with that.
The President. And the country's not--and I think I did a good job.
Secondly, if you look at what happened there, one of the things that no
one noticed is that I was the first President since anybody could
remember that had every other member of his Cabinet confirmed the day
after I took office. So there is another side to this story. That was a
manifestation of confidence, getting them all up and getting them all
confirmed the next day. That hadn't happened in anyone's memory.
We had some problems with the Attorney General thing, partly because
the American people learned about an issue that we're now moving to
resolve, this whole business about if you have household help, how you
withdraw the Social Security, and what you do. That's a big, tough
issue. I'm sorry it happened. I still think Zoe Baird is a fine person
who made, obviously, a mistake and paid for it. But thousands of other
Americans have, too. And I hope now we're going to get it cleaned up so
people will follow the law and the law will be reasonable. But I wound
up with an awfully good Attorney General, and I'm proud of her.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Ms. Zahn. We're back in the Rose Garden now for a 2-hour town
meeting with President Clinton. We have your first question now from the
audience. Where are you from?
Q. I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm a lab technician.
Ms. Zahn. Fire away.
Health Care Reform
Q. Well, I think I'll stay with my original question. We've seen a
lot of issues being passed lately. We've seen some bills being passed.
But the bigger bills, the things that dealt in the economy and jobs
creation, along with that, especially this health care thing, they look
like they're going to be destined to be locked up in gridlock. Is there
some way that we can be confident that things are going to happen in
this country?
The President. I think you can be. Let me talk about--let's just
talk about health care. And I'd like to talk about health care with this
budget. A lot of Americans say to me what I say to myself every morning,
which is that after we cut all this spending and raise this money and we
reduce the deficit by $500 billion, it's still going to be too big in 5
years because what's driving the deficit now--defense is coming down,
we're holding about everything else constant--what's driving the deficit
is the exploding costs of health care, the same thing that's hurting a
lot of your businesses or maybe your homes or if you buy individual
policies.
In the last 4 months we've had hundreds of people here working on
this health care task force that my wife is chairing. But we've also
really worked hard to reach out to Republicans and Democrats and
independents both in the Congress and around the country,
[[Page 960]]
people who provide health care, people who insure against health care,
all those folks.
I think you're going to see when we get this budget out of the way,
which is the toughest thing--everybody wants to reduce the deficit, but
everybody's got a different idea about how to do it--when we get that
out of the way, I think you'll see an honest debate on health care. Now,
keep in mind this health care thing could be the most important thing
we've done in a generation to provide security to working families and
people who don't have it and people who have to change their jobs.
When President Roosevelt and the Congress put in the Social Security
system it took them 2 years to do it. We're going to try to do it in a
year. We're going to do our best to do it in a year. And then, of
course, we'll have to phase it in over time because of the cost, but I
think we can do that.
I wouldn't be too discouraged. What you're seeing now, this fight
over the budget and the fight over the emergency jobs plan earlier, is,
I hope, the most partisan you will ever see in this environment. I am
doing everything I can to ask the Republicans to help, to ask people
from outside to come in, to open up the process. I hate all this. I
mean, I didn't run for President to get up and fight with the
Republicans every day. It doesn't help America, and I don't want to do
it. And I believe you will see a much more open process when the health
care debate starts.
Now, that's not to say everybody is going to agree with me. They
shouldn't. But I believe there's a real chance we'll get health care
reform, and it will come with bipartisan support from around the country
and within the Congress.
President's Haircut
Ms. Zahn. But the fact is you've also had to do a lot of fighting
with Democrats of your own party. And I think a lot of people were
hoping, with a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress, that
things would have gone more smoothly. Do you think issues like the
haircut and the problems in the Travel Office have made it harder for
you to get this economic plan through?
The President. No. I think this economic plan is--I think it does
because if you publicize something like that and people don't know, for
example, on my haircut, that I asked whether anybody would be held up or
inconvenienced, and I was told no. I asked twice, and I was told no.
Now, I'd never do that, not in a hundred years, not ever. I mean, I
wasn't raised that way; I've never lived that way. That's not the kind
of person I am. So, you know, if something like that happens and it
hurts me on a day-to-day basis, it may slow things up.
But the real problem is, if these problems were easy, somebody else
would have done them. You try to face difficult things and ask people to
take difficult choices and make tough stands; it takes time.
Ms. Zahn. President Clinton, I'm going to have to cut you off.
Someone has to pay for the show today.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. We are back live in the Rose Garden, and we've had a
couple of microphone problems which we think we have fixed now. What did
you just say?
The President. I said if you were a politician and all these mikes
went out, they'd say, are you a failed network, are you a failed
newscaster? [Laughter]
Ms. Zahn. They will be saying that maybe in a half hour from now.
The President. It's just one of those things. Something always goes
wrong.
White House Travel Office
Mr. Smith. You know what, we need to talk about this: Travelgate.
Who knew what, when, and why was the FBI called in, and why did you hire
your cousin, and why did you have a firm from Arkansas take over this
business?
The President. First of all, let's get back to the beginning, okay?
Let's talk about my cousin. She's about my fifth or sixth cousin who
worked in the campaign and ran the travel operations. We had a very
efficient travel operation.
Every operation at the White House was reviewed, because I said I
was going to cut the White House staff by 25 percent. That's not easy to
do, to run the White House on fewer people than your predecessor. We got
[[Page 961]]
more mail in 3\1/2\ months than came to the White House in all of 1992.
It's tough.
We found out that there were seven people working in the Travel
Office, primarily to book travel for the press, and that the press was
complaining that the cost was too high. So there were all these
recommendations made to change it. But nothing was done until an
accounting firm came in and reviewed the operation and found serious
management questions in terms of unaccounted-for funds and things like
that. So then the person in charge of that made the decision to replace
them.
Now, all those questions were raised about whether they all should
have been replaced. Mr. McLarty got on it. He did an internal review.
He'll fix it. But the issue is: Should we work seven people when three
can do the job? And if we saved 25 percent off the cost of the very
first plane flight, isn't that a good thing for the press? That's what
we're trying to do.
Mr. Smith. And nobody's going to argue with that. But what they are
going to argue with is why was the FBI called in?
The President. Oh, the FBI, because--the FBI was called in to look
at the auditor's report, not to accuse any of these people of doing
anything criminal but because there were sufficient questions raised
that there had to be a review of it. And the FBI sounds like a huge deal
to you, but when you're in Washington and you're the President, you
can't call the local police or the local prosecutor; that's who you
call.
Ms. Zahn. But even your own Attorney General is now posing the
question about a breach of policy. Is she right or wrong?
The President. Well, to the best of our ability to determine it,
there has never been a policy that if the White House had a local
internal matter, they had to go through the Attorney General to get to
the FBI. The FBI's always been an independent investigative agency. But
I have no problem with doing that, because I trust her. I think she's
got great judgment.
But the report in the auditor's findings made us believe that
someone at least ought to look into this and clear the air. And that's
all we were trying to do.
Ms. Zahn. Was Attorney General Reno justified in questioning the
process?
The President. She can question whatever she wants to, I think.
She's a fine person. I like her. But I'm just saying, to the best of my
knowledge, there has never been a policy that the White House, if they
had some internal activity going on here, would clear asking the FBI to
look into it through the Attorney General. But I have no problem with
doing it. That's not--with me or anybody else--was that the policy
before to the best of my knowledge.
Mr. Smith. But at minimum, it looks like you used the FBI to justify
what in turn ended up looking like what was, in fact, an act of
cronyism.
The President. No. It may look like that, but the bottom line: It
wasn't an act of cronyism. The bottom line is if we can run an office
with three that they were taking seven to run, and we can save 25
percent off a trip because we have competitive bidding when they didn't
have competitive bidding, the press saves money and the taxpayers save
money. That was my only objection. If anything wrong was done, Mr.
McLarty will correct it. This is a do-right deal not a do-wrong deal.
Let's not obscure what happened. We were trying to do the people's work
with less money.
Mr. Smith. Do you have a question?
Q. Yes, I do.
Mr. Smith. Your name is?
Mining Reform Legislation
Q. I'm from Redwood City, California. I was a Clinton precinct
leader in that State, and I'm very happy to see you elected. My
question, however, is regarding the environment. I supported you in
spite of the issue that--was one of the major producers of jobs in your
State. It's also the major producer of pollution in your State. And I
supported you in hope that Al Gore would work on convincing you to be
more of an environmental President than George Bush was. However, I
noticed that you recently backed down when it came to upping the user
fees on mining, grazing, and lumber. This is in spite of the fact that
mining, I believe, is fixed at like under a dollar an acre to mine. This
dates
[[Page 962]]
upon a post-Civil-War law, but you've not upped it. I understand that
you----
The President. Let me ask you----
Q. ----$17 billion to the budget.
The President. Okay. No, no. There wasn't $17 billion, I don't
think. Do you all know what he's talking about? The Federal Government
owns land--that's a very good question. I'm glad you asked it. The
Federal Government owns a lot of land on which there are trees, cattle,
and minerals to be mined. Most people believe, and it's absolutely true,
that essentially people have been permitted to use that land, mostly out
west, to cut trees, graze cattle, and mine minerals at lower than a
market rate. Now, all the people who do that have good reasons why they
think the system is good, and I don't know if we've got any of those
folks in the audience, but I feel that the mining fees should be raised.
Originally we had, originally--he's right--we had that in our
original budget. And we took it out not to take a dive on it but
because, since it's a new issue under the parliamentary rules of the
Senate, we'd be subject to a filibuster. That is, you have to get 60
votes, not a majority to pass the budget.
So we are moving now a new mining reform law through the Congress
which will do exactly what you say. We just had to agree to do it on a
separate track. The mining reform is on track. I believe this year I
will sign a mining reform law which you will be very proud of, which
will require those companies to pay back to the Treasury more nearly the
value of what they have gotten from the United States Government, and it
will be good for the environment.
It's a good question. It's going through on a separate track, and we
had to break it out for parliamentary reasons because of the opposition
to it in the Senate.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
White House Staff
Ms. Zahn. We're back in the Rose Garden live with a 2-hour town
meeting with President Clinton. Before we get back to our audience, a
quick question to you about staff. There has been a lot of criticism
that you've surrounded yourself by young and inexperienced people. There
has been talk that maybe there are going to be some major shakeups over
the next couple of days. Are you entirely satisfied with the White House
staff you have in place?
The President. No, but they're working hard and we've gotten a lot
done. I'm glad I got to talk about that. I think there are always going
to be--you can't--this is the hardest place in the country to work in
some ways. And I think that we've had a period--you know, we came in,
most of us were not from here, we were trying to do things differently.
And there are a lot of things that we didn't handle as well as could
have been handled. This Travel Office is one. What we were trying to do
was good for the country and good for the taxpayers. And there were
glitches in it. We are going to fix that. But I think that by and large,
we'll----
Ms. Zahn. Are you going to fix that by firing people?
The President. We have a--well, just watch and see what we do. We're
going to----
Ms. Zahn. No hints?
The President. No hints.
But I would also say that I wonder whether people think the staff is
younger than it is. I mean, you have the head of my economic team, Bob
Rubin, is in his fifties and was one of the most successful people on
Wall Street. Our major senior staff I think, on balance, is slightly
older than President Kennedy's was. But there are a lot of young people
in other positions here. And sometimes I think that the overall
impression is that the staff is quite a bit younger than it is in terms
of people that are actually making decisions.
Urban Youth
Q. One of the big things about your campaign was hope for the future
and don't stop thinking about tomorrow. My question is about the
children in the country, especially in the inner cities. It seems like
they've kind of lost hope, and it seems like they don't have a future.
And I'm wondering what we can do as a country to instill that back into
them.
The President. I think there are some things that I can do as
President, but there are also some things that are going to have
[[Page 963]]
to be done community by community and block by block.
Let me talk about the things I can do first. My job, I think, for
those kids is to try to do as much as I can to make sure they've got a
fair chance to make it under difficult circumstances. What does that
mean? That they have a healthy beginning, get a good chance to get a
Head Start program and decent nutrition, that their schools are as good
as we can influence them, that their streetsare safer, that they have a
chance to work when they're young, at least with summer jobs, and that
there's some economic opportunity there.
We have presented initiatives in all this area. We're going to have
more police on the street, more investment in Head Start, and a dramatic
increase in incentives for business to invest in those areas.
But frankly, I think also, we have to say to those kids, the only
way you can make it is if you play by the rules. And we know it's
tougher where there aren't as many intact families. We know it's tougher
where there's more violence. But we've got to have more people go in and
deal with those kids one-on-one. A friend of mine said the other day--
someone asked, ``How are we going to rescue all these kids?'' And she
said, ``The same way we lost them, one at a time.''
And we've got to have more people interested in these people as
people. I'm telling you. I just got back from south central LA. Those
kids aren't all that different from everybody else's kids. They just
want a chance to live. And if we can give it to them with more personal
involvement, I think they can make it.
Mr. Smith. When you talk about one-on-one, are you talking about a
giant volunteer corps or are you talking about some kind of system
that's going to cost more money to do it?
The President. No, I'm talking about----
Mr. Smith. In 30 seconds.
The President. I'm talking about--the money should be going to the
things I mentioned. What we need is for people in each of these
communities to be involved with those kids. I can't do that. We need
people in these communities sponsoring schools, involved in the schools,
working with those kids after school and on the weekends. They're good
kids. They just need a chance to make it.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break]
Ms. Zahn. From the Rose Garden we continue our conversation, our
town hall meeting with President Clinton right now. I thought I'd give
the folks that have been staring at our backsides all morning a chance
to ask you a question.
Sir, your question.
Law Enforcement
Q. My question to you is in regards to a law enforcement issue in
this country. We're well aware of the position of the previous
administration in regards to the support of law enforcement. My question
deals with the fact that I heard you mention earlier about trying to get
additional police officers, 100,000 and so forth. We in this city, I
believe, couple of weeks ago, went to the Hill to try to get additional
funding to keep several segments of our police department running,
mainly one of which is the helicopter unit, which provides a lot of
support service for the ground police officers and the Secret Service
and ATF. And they were turned down for, I think it was like $2 million
or something. At any rate, my question to you is, dealing with Congress,
which it seems they have a problem of partisanism now, like I say, as
far as----
The President. Well, let me explain. First of all, let's talk about
the bigger issue here, that this gentleman is an example of a major
national problem. Thirty-five years ago, there were three policemen in
America for every serious crime. Today, there are three crimes for every
police officer. And a lot of cities have had to reduce hiring of police
officers with budget problems they've got. So one of the things I said
in the election was I would try to find a way to put 100,000 more police
officers on the street over the next 4 years.
There's a bill moving through Congress right now which makes a down
payment on that, and the House passed it late last night. If the Senate
passes it, and I think they will this time, it's a smaller bill, but it
will permit us to hire another 15,000 or so police officers. And that
will start the down payment. And
[[Page 964]]
I'm going to support the crime bill, which includes the Brady bill, to
require people to wait so we can check their criminal background before
they buy handguns. It will also have more police officers on it.
We're going to give people coming out of the military incentives to
go into police work. We're going to give young people the opportunity to
pay off part of their college loan by being police officers for a while.
So I think we can get this 100,000 figure. And you will be helped by
that. But this bill that's going through now should help DC and all the
States, because it provides funds specifically for those who want to
rehire people who have been laid off as well as hire new police
officers. And that should help a lot.
Abortion
Q. Good morning. I'd like to know, is abortion going to be covered
under the new health care plan?
The President. I don't think a decision has been made about that.
Let me tell you what the problem is. The Congress has historically not
permitted public funds to be spent for abortion, except to save the life
of the mother. Most private health insurance plans permit some broader
coverage for abortion for people who are covered.
So what the health care task force is trying to resolve is how to at
least provide for the position that we shouldn't--in solving the
national health crisis, we shouldn't take away from people some right
they now have in their health insurance plans. And that's what they're
trying to work through now. And I'm not sure exactly where they're going
to wind up, but I think they're going to try to wind up in a way that
either does that or at least makes it possible that that can be done.
That's the dilemma here.
Ms. Zahn. You mean the continuation of----
The President. That gives people the right to at least access what
they've got now in their health insurance plan, if they're private
citizens and they get that, as a result of this change we've got,
because what we're trying to do is not run this money for the uninsured
through the Government anyway. We want it to be operating outside the
Government and the taxpayers.
Ms. Zahn. Harry's working the other side of the audience over there.
Mr. Smith. We've got a 1-minute question.
Immigration
Q. I'm from southern California, and there we have a lot of problem
with immigration. I kind of have a question for you. Idealistically, I
feel that America should let as many people in as we can. But in our
State it's really taking a toll on Medicare, et cetera, et cetera.
The President. Absolutely. You're from California, you know that----
Mr. Smith. Thirty seconds left.
The President. Quick answer. The Nation does not enforce its
immigration laws. We should let immigrants come in. It makes us a
stronger country. But we can't let everybody in overnight. We should
attempt to enforce the laws more rigorously. And when California, Texas,
Florida, New York, and other States pay a disproportionate burden, the
National Government ought to help them more. We changed the rules to
help California more, because it's not fair for you to pay for what the
National Government does or doesn't do.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
China
Q. I'm from Tarzana, California. I've been going to China since
1980, seven or eight times. I've lived and worked in China for 2 years.
I'm very concerned about what you're going to do with the----
Mr. Smith. Most-favored-nation----
Q. ----most-favored-nation. On the one hand, if you don't give them
this, you feel that you'll pressure the government into changing their
attitude. On the other hand, the people don't want that to happen
because they feel that they will be hurt financially. And then when
they're hurt economically and financially, then they'll get less rights
and privileges.
Mr. Smith. Is this a done deal, your decision on this?
The President. I think it is a done deal for the next year. Let me
explain the issue here. In order for a country to trade with
[[Page 965]]
us, they have to get what's called most-favored-nation status in order
to have big trade. China is a huge trading partner of ours, I think now
our second biggest trading deficit, with China just behind Japan.
They've got one of the fastest growing economies in the world. They're
moving away from communism to market economics very quickly. They still
put political prisoners in jail. They still, we think, have used prison
labor to make products, and we have some other problems with them.
The issue is should we revoke that or should we put conditions on
it. I basically have decided to extend most-favored-nation status for a
year because I want to support modernization in China, and it's a great
opportunity for America there. But I want to make it clear to them that
there has to be some progress on human rights and the use of prison
labor. Our trade disputes and our disputes about arms sales I'm going to
take out of this issue and negotiate directly with them. I think they
will appreciate the gesture I'm making, but I hope they understand that
the United States just can't turn its back on the abuse of lots of
people and especially the use of prison labor and just choking people
off when they say their piece.
Q. I'm from Troy, Michigan. My question, Mr. President, when you
wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, do you lie there and
think what stupid little thing is going to happen today? [Laughter]
The President. Some days I do. What I really think of is stupid
little things happen to everybody, and I just hope that if some stupid
little thing happens to me, it won't overshadow all the big good things
I'm trying to do.
But actually, when I get up in the morning, I say a little prayer
that I won't make any stupid little mistakes and that I'll do right by
America today. That's what I do. Then I go out here and run off old age.
I do my best to do that.
Mr. Smith. Here we go, Mr. President.
Q. Good morning, Mr. President. I'm president of the Bloomingdale
Civic Association in Washington, and you're welcome to come to our
community at any time.
The President. Thank you. I'd like that.
Statehood for the District of Columbia
Q. My question basically is, can you express to the American people
why it is important for the District of Columbia to have statehood, to
have the opportunity to vote for two Senators and Members of Congress?
The President. Well, I think, frankly, I think having the Senators
and the Members of Congress is not as important as having control over
your own destiny. The District of Columbia now has more people than 5
other States, pays more taxes than 10 other States, and sent more
soldiers to fight in the Persian Gulf war than 20 other States. And yet,
every time they turn around, Congress can overturn anything they do
through their elected officials.
If they became a State, yes, it's true, they would get two Senators
and a Member of Congress, just like the other small States. But the main
thing is they would have more control over their own destiny. It's very
frustrating for the people in the District to know that Congress can do
or not do anything, just like this fellow said here, that they can say,
``No, you can't have $2 million for police.'' And they can't do it on
their own because they don't have the independence. So that's why I've
always supported statehood. Once I saw the facts about the size, the
taxes, and the contribution to the national interest, I thought they
ought to have the right to be independent.
Mr. Smith. We need to take a break. We'll come back with more live
from the Rose Garden.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. We are live at the White House Rose Garden with President
Clinton, the first national network town meeting since you were elected.
We appreciate you letting us come in here. We've got lots of questions
from more than 200 people in the audience.
Paula.
Ms. Zahn. And this man's been braving very patiently for the last
hour. Please stand, and you can fire away.
President's Haircut
Q. I'm from Montana. I work for the Rural Electric. And my question
for you is: With
[[Page 966]]
all the troubles in the world going on now, how do you like being on the
bubble with your haircut?
The President. I just learn to live with it. I think you've got to
learn to laugh at things like that. You know, when little things get
made big, and big things get made little, you know, and you make a
boner--I mean, I really--I told you the truth earlier. I was really
trying to avoid inconveniencing people, not trying to inconvenience
people. It just winds out being embarrassing when something like that
happens to you. And you just have to laugh it off and go on. If you
didn't have a sense of humor in this business, you'd be ground down to
nothing pretty quick.
Ms. Zahn. Earlier this morning, President Clinton, you said that you
would ask your aides on the plane whether the haircut was going to cause
any delays or not, and they said no. There's a piece in the Wall Street
Journal----
The President. The Secret Service said no.
Ms. Zahn. The Wall Street Journal is suggesting that maybe the staff
members don't have enough of a spine to stand up to you. Can you comment
on that report?
The President. Oh, no. The Secret Service asked, and they were told
that there would be no delays. It was just a mess-up. I mean, it was
just a mess-up. But it's just not----
Ms. Zahn. Do you wish you hadn't gotten that haircut?
The President. Yeah. I mean, look, I wear a $40 watch. Do I look
like the kind of guy that would go and sit on an airport--you know, I
mean, it was just a blow-up. I'm glad they didn't find out about the
manicure. [Laughter]
Health Care Reform
Q. Good morning, Mr. President. I am from East Dubuque, Illinois.
Tomorrow I'm graduating from medical school and will be going into----
The President. Congratulations.
Q. Thanks--residency training and family practice. I am graduating
with over $100,000 in student loans for medical school alone. I am
wondering how you anticipate the health care reform will help me to be
able to pay back my student loans, as well as the many colleagues that
have a similar situation as I do.
Mr. Smith. The fear being that doctors aren't going to make as much
money and for folks like this they aren't going to be able to pay the
bills, right?
The President. First of all--don't sit down yet, I want to look at
you--only about 15 percent of our medical school graduates are now doing
what this fine woman is doing, coming out as family practitioners. Most
medical school graduates now want to be specialists partly because they
want to do it, partly because they can have more control over their
hours, partly because they can make more money. What we are going to do
is try to create more incentives for people to go into family practice:
easier to pay off your loans, have Government-targeted assistance to
medical school to lower the cost of medical education, give you more
opportunities to be in family practice course, to bring down the cost of
your debt. And I don't think that your income will be constricted. I
think there will be more reliance on family practice, and we're going to
have to do more in primary preventative medicine in America if we're
ever going to bring the cost of health care down.
Ms. Zahn. I have another health care related question for you from
back here.
Q. Thanks. I'm from Springfield, Missouri. I'm glad to hear that
answer because one of my children is in medical school and going into
family health care.
The President. That's great.
Q. I work for a company that has less than 500 employees. I pay $50
a month for a health plan, a dental plan, life insurance. Our health
plan is self-insured. I don't want to pay more money for health care
individually. I'm concerned that my employer may be taxed and have to
pay more money, and I would receive less benefits than I am receiving,
as well as I want to keep my self-funded health plan. How would the
change in health care affect me as an individual?
The President. Well, let me say first of all, one of the decisions
that has not been finalized yet, at least in our original report, is to
what extent any companies of any size should be able to, in effect,
continue their
[[Page 967]]
self-insurance efforts. And that's a tough issue because what we're
trying to do is get these pools of insurance big enough for small
business to have affordable health care because that's been a back-
breaker for a lot of small businesses.
The requirement that they're working on in terms of financial
contribution would not be a tax over and above what people are paying
now. They're trying to hit the national average, maybe even a little
below the national average of what employers are paying now. And many,
many employers and employees in this country will actually save money if
the health care plan comes into effect.
But if you have a national budget, you have to have some sort of
national standard for what the contribution will be by employers, but
it's not going to be over and above what people are paying now. They're
trying to substitute for it, and they're trying to work out what that
number is now. To your point of view, if you have a low-cost self-
insurance plan, what we're going to try to do is to make sure that the
people with low-cost plans and generous coverage don't have less
coverage and higher cost. That's not what we're trying to do. What we're
trying to do is to broaden the coverage.
Mr. Smith. Fifteen minutes after the hour. We need to take a break.
We'll come back live to the Rose Garden, right after this.
The President. And lower the cost--I'm sorry, I didn't say.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. It's about a perfect day in Washington, DC. I think the
President is probably hoping it's just as nice up the street a little
bit in the Congress. But we've got lots of questions from our audience.
Go ahead.
Affordable Housing
Q. Mr. President, I'm an architect from Seattle, Washington. And the
question I'd like to ask you is what vision do you and your
administration have for the revitalization of housing, both in the urban
areas and the rural areas?
The President. I think the housing economy, first of all, is a big
part of our overall economy. My vision is that we will set in motion
market forces--with a little bit of Government support but not a lot--
mostly market forces, which will enable us to resume a vigorous
homebuilding sector in the American economy. And let me just mention
some of the things that are important to that.
The most important thing is to pass a deficit reduction plan that
keeps interest rates down. Interest rates, mortgage rates now are about
a 20-year low. Last year, only 47 percent of people under 35 thought
they were going to be able to own their own homes. This year, about 74
percent do. That's because interest rates are down, because we're trying
to bring the deficit down first.
Second, I think the low income housing credits, tax credits, should
be extended. That's in our tax bill, to give people incentives to build
houses in inner cities.
The third thing we need to do is to move aggressively in areas where
credit is not available to break the credit crunch. And the Government's
working hard on that. There are all kinds of sectors of our country that
have had a huge dry-up of credit because of the collapse of the S&L's
and because of regional recessions. And we're trying to break that.
And finally, we have a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in
Henry Cisneros, the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, who has got a
wonderful raft of ideas about how to go into community after community
and set up partnerships in rural and urban areas to get people to build
more houses. So that's basically what we're trying to do. The dream of
homeownership, and frankly, the importance to the economy are two things
that can merge as part of my vision for rebuilding our country from the
grassroots up.
Ms. Zahn. President Clinton, we only have a couple of more minutes
before we have to take another break. Another quick question for you
from over here.
Public Perception
Q. I'm a finance manager from San Jose, California. My perception is
that your administration is a little infatuated with Hollywood and
celebrities. Is this a valid observation?
The President. No. You know, all these politicians from here run out
to Hollywood
[[Page 968]]
and have fundraisers all the time. Do you know how many fundraisers I
had there before I ran for President? Zero. We've had two meetings here
in the While House where groups of people from Hollywood have wanted to
come in and talk about health care and the environment. We've had a
couple of people from California who have stayed in the Governor's
mansion. When my preacher from Arkansas stayed here, nobody wrote it up.
When the guy who ran my campaign in Florida stayed here last week,
nobody wrote it up. It's another thing where a little thing becomes big
because it makes a good story. It doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
There are some people in Hollywood who helped me, who care about the
country. I treat them like I do everybody else that was part of the
campaign and want to be part of it.
But that is absolutely not true. It is not true now, it's not going
to be true, and it's never been true. I like to go to the movies and
listen to music. Most of you do, too. And that's about the extent of it.
Ms. Zahn. Are you concerned, though, that when these little stories
that you say just simply blow up----
The President. Absolutely. Absolutely----
Ms. Zahn. Let me just ask you this--that people who voted for you in
the election and bought into this image of the man from Hope and that
maybe stories like the $200 haircut with a guy who has one name might
increase their cynicism about what's going on in your administration.
The President. Sure it does. Sure it does, which is one reason
they're so overplayed. But that doesn't mean they're valid. What I keep
telling everybody here is, we have to realize when you're President,
you're a long way from most people in America, and so little things
become big. So you have to bend over backwards not to do things that
you'd never even give a second thought to if you were a private citizen
or a Governor or a Senator because they're going to be taken and blown
all out of proportion and your whole image is going to be gnarled by it.
So we have to be super sensitive not to do things that we would
ordinarily do and not give a second about it because of the way it will
be perceived in the country. That's absolutely right. And we haven't
been very smart about that on a couple of these occasions. But that
doesn't mean----
Ms. Zahn. Whose fault was that?
The President. It means that we have underestimated the fact that
the press will play these things big and people will draw those
conclusions from it. But she asked me a substantive question, not an
image question. She said, has the administration gone Hollywood? The
answer to that is, no, heck no, never, no. Never, Never. [Laughter]
That's a substantive answer.
Ms. Zahn. I think the answer is no.
Mr. Smith. We've got lots more to come live from the White House
Rose Garden with President Clinton. We've got questions about defense
cuts and what happens to the people who are going to lose their jobs as
the defense gets cut. And we're going to come back and get answers to
those questions in just a minute.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Entitlement Programs
Ms. Zahn. Welcome back to ``CBS This Morning'' and our special 2-
hour meeting with President Clinton. We just had to go into a break, and
we were talking about the notion of entitlements for this man back here.
And his essential question was, with entitlements representing about at
least 50 percent of our budget, when is the Government going to get
serious about cutting into these programs? Did I paraphrase that
correctly?
The President. We have in this budget package that I have presented
to the Congress, we have about $100 billion in cuts in various
entitlement programs over the next 5 years in Medicare, in agriculture,
in veterans programs. But they're still going up very rapidly. The only
way ultimately to get control of the entitlements is to control overall
health costs and bring them in line with inflation. For example, we
could cut health care costs even more, but here's what would happen. If
you cut Medicare and Medicaid and you cut what the providers get, the
doctors and the hospitals, what do they do? They shift their costs off
to you in the private sector. That's been happening for years now.
People who have no health insurance get
[[Page 969]]
health care in this country. People whose health care is underfunded get
health care anyway. And the cost gets shifted onto private employers and
their employees in the form of exploding health insurance premiums. So
health care cost in the private sector as a whole are going up as fast
or faster than health care costs in the Government sector. And the trick
is how to get them under control without messing up the programs, like
the gentleman over here who has got a good program where they have
control of their own costs. That's the trick. But you've got to deal
with the private and the public to do that.
Aerospace Industry
Q. The aerospace community is being assailed by the Europeans on the
commercial side, and in some respects the defense budget will assail
them on the defense budget side. A combination of those two are making
aerospace employment a very delicate issue, a lot of unemployment, a lot
of people without jobs. How do you think the new defense budget will
address that as part of their program?
The President. First of all, I want to answer your question, but I
want to make a point since you stood up here, and I appreciate it.
There are budget cuts and budget cuts. Everybody knows we have to
bring the defense budget down. And we have cut it a lot. We are right on
the edge. We should not cut it more right now. I feel very strongly
about that. A lot of the defense cuts are in areas of contracts where
people work in America. The question is what are they going to do when
you lay them off? Why is southern California in so much trouble? Largely
because of all the defense cuts, with no plans to find anything else. We
believe very strongly, in this administration, and I personally believe,
based on my experience as a Governor trying to put people back to work,
that a portion of the defense cuts should be devoted to three things:
one, retraining workers if they need retraining; two, helping companies
to develop domestic markets to make up for the defense contracts they
lost; and three, helping communities that have been devastated to
restructure their economies.
In the aerospace industry, I am convinced that the real key there is
to try to have a competitive airline industry in America that's healthy
and try to make sure the airline manufacturers, the airplane
manufacturers and the parts manufacturers, have access to markets at
home and abroad. The Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, has just been around
the world doing what he can to open up more markets for aerospace
commercially. We cannot afford to lose our world leadership there just
because we're cutting back in defense. Aerospace is one of seven areas
of technology that will produce most of the high-wage, high-growth jobs
for the world in the next 20 years, and we've got to try to maintain our
leadership. I just appointed a commission, along with the Congress,
completely bipartisan on this issue, to look at ways to revitalize
aerospace, and I think we're going to make some progress.
Gays in the Military
Q. Mr. President, I'm the senior pastor at Christ Chapel in
Woodbridge, Virginia. And I would like to say that we in the Woodbridge
area pray for you and your administration regularly and daily.
The President. Thank you.
Q. And allow me to ask the question, give you 2 minutes in the 2
hours and 31 minutes to talk about the issue of gays in the military, if
I may. I'm concerned about the degradation of morality in our Nation and
our society, in the military as a whole, and I'm concerned with the
long-term consequences of actions, not only on the issue with gays in
the military but also with actions associated with health care in terms
of the funding of abortion, issues such as that. The Christian community
is very concerned in this Nation about those issues. And I'm somewhat
disturbed, particularly, about the policy process for developing these
programs.
The President. Let's just talk about the gays in the military,
because we don't have a lot of time to go into all of it.
First of all, I think the military has a great moral fabric. I don't
think you can over--we know there are homosexuals in the military and
always have been. We know that the Tailhook scandal occurred. I don't
think Tailhook reflects on the whole Navy. I think
[[Page 970]]
the military has done more to give people a good, coherent set of values
and a way to live and succeed in a very complicated and disintegrating
world than most of the institutions in this country have. So I think
that you should not worry about that.
Here is the issue: There are and always have been homosexuals in the
military. The question is whether they should be kicked out, not because
of what they do but because of who they are. My view is people should be
judged on their conduct. I have not called for any change in the Uniform
Code of Conduct. I simply believe if people work hard, play by the
rules, and serve, they ought to be able to serve. That does not imply
that the rest of the society agrees with the lifestyle, but you just
accept as a fact that there are in every country and always have been
homosexuals who are capable of honoring their country, laying down their
lives for their country, and serving. And they should be judged based on
their behavior, not their lifestyle. That's my view; it's a behavior
test.
Let me say this: We almost have a compromise here. Most Americans
believe if you don't ask and you don't say and you're not forced to
confront it, people should be able to serve. Most Americans believe that
the gay lifestyle should not be promoted by the military or anybody else
in this country. The issue is a narrow one: Should you be able to
acknowledge, if asked, that you are homosexual? And if you don't do
anything wrong, should you be booted from the military? We are trying to
work this out so that our country does not--I understand what you're
saying--so that our country does not appear to be endorsing a gay
lifestyle, but we accept people as people and give them a chance to
serve if they play by the rules. I think that is the tough issue for us,
and I think we're very close to resolving it here.
Ms. Zahn. Could you be satisfied with ``don't ask, don't tell, don't
investigate''? Might that be where you might end up?
The President. Well, we might end up that way as long as it doesn't
lead to a whole range of deliberate outings. I mean, we don't want to
make it worse. I think we're very close to a compromise along those
lines. And I think most Americans will agree when it works out that
people are treated properly if they behave properly without the
Government appearing to endorse a lifestyle. I think that's what you're
concerned about, and it's a legitimate concern. But I have to deal with
people as people. And I've had so many people in the military come up to
me and say that they have served with homosexuals who served bravely in
Vietnam and other places, who were good people, who did not violate any
rules. It is them that I am trying to protect.
Ms. Zahn. President Clinton, thank you very much. We're going to
take a short break here and be back in just a couple of minutes. Lots
more to come on ``CBS This Morning.''
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. We're back live in the White House Rose Garden. What's
your question for the President?
Health Care Reform
Q. Mr. President, one quick question on the health care issue. It
does not yet appear what the health care plan is going to look like, but
will we be ensured that we know that the less fortunate of this country
and the unemployed will have ready access to quality care?
The President. Yes. But it's not just the people who don't have
health insurance--the people who have it who are afraid of losing it
because somebody in their family's been sick, and they can't change
jobs. There are millions of Americans locked into their jobs today
because they or someone in their family has a preexisting condition. We
need to change the rules so that you can change jobs and you can be
unemployed and your business can fail and you don't have to worry about
getting health care. I think it's very important. And if we do it right,
we can do it and hold down the cost of health care, not drive it up.
Keep in mind, your country spends 35 percent more than any other country
on Earth on health care, more of our income. We can do this.
Homelessness
Q. I've been visiting Washington, DC, and I've noticed a lot of
homeless people on the streets. And it really made me sad and
everything. And I was just wondering if you had
[[Page 971]]
any plans to help them find jobs and get homes.
The President. We do, actually. The Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development, Mr. Cisneros, has just established a commission on
homelessness, and they're supposed to give him a report in September
about what we can do to change this. It's a very complicated problem.
We're now having some people who don't want to go into the shelters at
night because they don't think they'll be safe, and they think they're
safer on the streets. It's a very sad thing.
It's a question of jobs, of education, of drug treatment often. But
we need to do something. I run by, every day when I run out here, I run
by about six homeless people who stop and say, hello, Mr. President. And
I talk to them, and I look at them and think, you know, I ought to be
able to get those people off the street. If I can do anything, I ought
to be able to do that. And we're going to try.
Administration Priorities
Q. Hello, Mr. President, I'd like to get back earlier to what we
were discussing. You were talking about how you were filtered to the
media. And is there a problem with how you're filtered, from the
administration's point of view, and your administration? Or is it
something with a focus on too many issues at once and not a specific
drive, so the public is not confused?
Ms. Zahn. We're really not going to give you much time, 15 seconds,
Mr. President. Sorry.
The President. I think we have to do more than one thing. But we
need to talk about one thing at a time. There's a difference in--we have
to--you can't just shut the whole thing down. If we want to have welfare
reform and student loans done 8 months from now, we have to start doing
them now. But we need to talk about one thing----
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Ms. Zahn. Welcome back to Washington, in the Rose Garden, where we
continue our confrontation with--conversation, not confrontation with--
[laughter]--conversation, talk with, town hall.
The President. The truth comes out. [Laughter]
Ms. Zahn. The President wanted to say something about how it was
more than almost 30 years ago that he was standing in this very spot.
The President. This young man asked me where I was standing when I
met President Kennedy in the Rose Garden when I was a delegate to the
American Legion Boys Nation. He was standing on those steps there, and I
was standing here, because they had us lined up in alphabetical order,
and I was from Arkansas, and we were at the front of the alphabet. I was
also the biggest kid on this side, so when he came over and started
shaking hands, I sort--I'm embarrassed to say this, but I kind of
elbowed the others out of the way to make sure--[laughter]--to make sure
if he only shook three hands, at least I get to shake his hand. He was
good, he shook hands with everybody on the front row.
The Presidency
Ms. Zahn. So if some wide-eyed kid came up to you from that same
position, what would you tell him about being President today and maybe
what some of your misconceptions were about the job?
The President. I would tell him it's an incredible challenge, an
exhilaration, and a great honor. And if it ended tomorrow, it would be
the greatest honor I ever had. You just have to get up every day and do
the best you can.
Abraham Lincoln said one time, if he tried to answer all the charges
against him, he'd never get anything else done. If the end brought him
out wrong, 10,000 angels claiming he was right wouldn't make any
difference. And if the end brought him out all right, then everything
that was said before wouldn't make any difference. You just have to keep
your eye on the ball. The ball is you and your welfare and what happens
to you.
Job Training
Q. Mr. President, I'd like to address the issue of employee
training. I believe in your campaign that you had stated that employers
would be putting forth maybe 1.5 percent towards training. I was
wondering, is this going to be mandated for employers to put
[[Page 972]]
so much into training, or would it be left up to the voluntary action of
employers?
The President. We don't want a mandate. That is about the average of
what employers in the country spend. And what we're trying to do is to
work out a system of lifetime training that doesn't have mandates on
employers but will give them more incentives to do that. You know, there
are a lot of employer mandates right now on Social Security and other
things that are just very expensive.
Let me tell you where we're beginning. What we're beginning is with
the kids who just get out of high school and with older people who come
back into 2-year vocational training programs. We're going to try to
help to set up a system by putting a little Federal money in and by
giving States and localities more flexibility over the money we spend
now to guarantee that people will always be able to go back and get at
least 2 years of education after high school even if they don't go to
college. And then we want to move from there to see what we can do to
give the employer community more incentives to do that kind of training
or access those things, because the average 18-year-old will change jobs
eight times in a lifetime. And if we want to raise incomes in America,
we've got to have a very well-trained work force, and people have to
think of education as something they do always. We're going to have
workers in their sixties going back to school and learning new skills.
And if it is a source of security, they will be excited about it. We've
got to find a way to make change the friend of Americans, instead of the
enemies. That's the idea. But I don't want to mandate it.
Excellence in Education
Mr. Smith. We have a couple of young women here who are about to
become teachers, right?
Q. Correct. The standardized test scores for students in countries
like Japan, France, and Canada exceed the ones in America. And as we're
going into the 21st century, what changes will you propose to make sure
that the students in America--in other words, we become the leader?
Mr. Smith. Competitive, competitive--one minute.
The President. We are trying right now to write in the national
Goals 2000--law of the land. I then want some national standardized
exams that really mean something and aren't bogus and that are updated
annually. And we want tougher and higher standards for teachers that
have some national credibility, national standards.
I want you to understand, however, we don't go to school as long as
a lot of other countries do. And we have a much more economic and social
diversity than other countries, more immigrants, a lot more poor people,
a lot of differences. But our system can achieve international
excellence if we have clear standards and clear ways of training people
and then if we judge the schools more based on their results rather than
the bureaucratic inputs. So that's basically what we're trying to do.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. We will be back with more live from the Rose
Garden and President Clinton in just a second.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. We're back live in the Rose Garden at the White House
with President Clinton.
Did you vote for President Clinton?
Q. Yes, I did.
Mr. Smith. And have been worried about him a little bit?
Q. Yes, I have been.
The President. So has my mother. I'm glad you--[laughter]----
Q. I'm old enough to be his mother, but I'm the wrong gender.
[Laughter] No, I was concerned. But frankly, since being here this
morning, I am reinforced in my hopes or belief that you'll do a good
job. I really am. I think you're on the right track. You've given me a
lot more confidence. Thank you.
Health Care Reform
Ms. Zahn. Well actually, I have one question about Chelsea here, but
before we get there, before we go off the air, I just wondered if you
could give us a little more information on health care this morning. We
know that some of your economic advisers have been advising against
going with the big bang theory of doing this health care reform all at
once. What exactly are their fears?
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What are they worried about and are those fears warranted?
The President. Well, they're afraid that we won't be able to get
saving out of the system. Basically, to go back to this man's question
here on the health care issue, if you look at America compared to other
countries, we spend more on insurance and paperwork, Government
regulation, and other things than any other country does. What our
attempt is going to be is to get savings out of all of that and use that
to cover the uninsured and to make it cheaper for farmers, for small
business people, and for self-employed people to get insurance. That's
the deal. Some of them are afraid we can't get the savings quick enough,
so they say we ought to have just a major medical coverage and protect
people from disaster. But if you look at the economics, the economics
are a disaster. If you have a--I don't know--a $3,000 deductible or
something like that, well, what have you got? You don't have much.
That's what a lot of people have today. So what I want to do is to phase
in the coverage, but when you give it to people, give them something
that's worth having, that really gives family security. I think the
American people would rather us phase it in and do it gradually and do
it right and then give people something that's worth something, than do
it overnight but give them something that's not worth a nickel.
Ms. Zahn. Can we talk about a family member now?
The President. Yes.
Chelsea Clinton's Education
Q. Hi. I'm a freshman in high school. My question was, sometime ago
you said that our schools are safe. And if so, how come you won't let
Chelsea go to a public school?
The President. No, I didn't say our schools are safe, I said they
could be. The question of personal safety had nothing to do with it. My
daughter was always in a public school, and her public school education
is serving her quite well now. She's doing well in the school she's in.
She and her mother and I reviewed all the possible schools we could send
her to, including--we looked at three private schools and three public
schools. We examined, and we thought a lot about it. We decided that
this was best for her for a number of reasons. One is my daughter is not
a public figure. She does not want to be a public figure. She does not
like getting a lot of publicity. And frankly, she has more privacy and
more control over her destiny where she is than she would if she were at
the public school that she was also interested in attending. All three
of us made a family decision that it would be best for her under these
circumstances.
I also think the school that she decided to attend has some very
special things about it, including a requirement that children do
community service. There's a whole approach that the Friends have to the
education system that she was interested in exploring. But it was not a
rejection of the public schools. It was a decision that because of who
she is and where she is and the circumstance she's in, she would be
happier in a--she'd feel that she could be more of a normal kid if she
could do that. That's the only reason we did it. We didn't reject the
public schools.
Mr. Smith. We've got just a little bit less than a minute right here
and a real important question, Mr. President.
Community Involvement
Q. I'm going to ask you the question that President Kennedy
admonished us all to ask 33 years ago: What can we do to help our
country?
Mr. Smith. And the clock is running, 30 seconds.
The President. You can do what you're doing today. You can keep
asking us questions and keep saying to people: Put aside the partisan
politics and try to solve the problems of the country. Get something
done. You're going to make mistakes if you try to do something, but move
us forward. The second thing you can do is to let everybody know that
you're willing to do your part if everybody else does theirs, if it's
fair. The third thing you can do is to go back home and ask, what
problem do we have in this community that Bill Clinton can't do anything
about, except maybe set an example and try to deal with some of these--
the family problems we've got, the children's problems we've got, a lot
of the value problems we've
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got, they have to be dealt with one-on-one from the grassroots up. And
every American needs to be involved in community service like that, that
the Government cannot solve some of these problems, and if we did more
at the local level our Government would function better.
Mr. Smith. We're going to wrap things up from the White House when
we come back.
[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]
Mr. Smith. We got Josh here from Indianapolis. What's the title of
your paper you just wrote?
Q. Arkansas: The State Where the People Rule.
Mr. Smith. And you don't think you'll get extra credit for getting
it signed by the President? [Laughter]
Ms. Zahn. This wraps our special 2-hour edition of ``CBS This
Morning,'' our town meeting with President Clinton. Thank you so much
for your time today.
The President. Thank you very much.
Ms. Zahn. Will you ever invite us back into the Rose Garden here?
The President. Absolutely. I'd like for all of you to come back.
Ms. Zahn. All right. Have a good day everybody. See you in the
morning.
Note: The town hall meeting began at 7:03 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the
White House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
these remarks.