    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [July 27, 1993]
    [Page 1198]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With Midwestern Governors
    July 27, 1993

    Disaster Assistance and Economic Program

        Q. Mr. President, do you have any problem with Senator Boren's idea
    for a budget summit?
        The President. Let me make a statement, first of all, about what
    we're here for.
        I want to welcome the Governors from the States afflicted by the
    floods to Washington, and I'm very encouraged by the work they've been
    doing here today. Of course, we hope the legislation will pass the House
    today, and if it does then when it moves on to the Senate it is our
    intention, as I indicated when I was in St. Louis, based on Mr.
    Panetta's figures, to ask that the relief package be increased by
    another $1.1 billion which will take us to just slightly above $4
    billion. And of course, we're still collecting damage estimates. It may
    get worse because it's still going on in some places. But I'm very
    hopeful that we can push this through and work this through. And of
    course, there are a lot of other issues the Governors want to talk about
    and deal with that we're going to try to help them on some. I'm
    encouraged by that.
        In terms of the other question you asked me, go back to 1990. You
    know, I will say again, that the strongest reaction I got yesterday in
    Chicago with that highly bipartisan crowd was when I said we need to
    make a decision and go on with other things.
        If you look at what happened in 1990, there was this sort of delay.
    If you delay it a couple of months you're going to have less deficit
    reduction, higher interest rates, more fragility and uncertainty in the
    economy, more consumer confidence going down. We have been working on
    this.
        We have other things to do. The American people want us to solve the
    health care crisis, deal with welfare reform, to pass a crime bill. We
    have a whole range of other issues out there. The Congress is strangled
    from doing anything else until we put this budget issue behind us. So
    the time has come to act. We just need to move and go on and almost
    everything else that needs to be done, I hope and believe we'll have
    bipartisan support and we'll meet the needs of this country. Nobody
    wants to reduce the deficit because--the reason it got so bad as it did
    is that there were tough decisions required to turn it around. And I
    think to delay it while we nibble around the edges would be a serious
    error.

    Note: The exchange began at 1:54 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
    House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these
    remarks.