[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[May 24, 1993]
[Pages 725-726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the National Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive 
Airline Industry
May 24, 1993

    Thank you very much. First of all, I want to just thank all of you 
for your willingness to serve. I think I should say, because of the 
coverage that this initial meeting is getting, that the American people 
should know that this is not an ordinary commission; there's only a 90-
day time window. It will require an enormous sacrifice of your personal 
time and effort to do all the massive work that needs to be done, and I 
very much appreciate your willingness to do it.
    I'd also like to say a special word of appreciation to the Congress 
because of the bipartisan nature of the support that this Commission 
had. We all made efforts to appoint people without regard to party and 
instead based upon their knowledge of this issue and their commitment to 
doing something about it. And I think there is a real consensus in 
America that the people who make airplanes and equipment and the people 
who run our airlines are critical to our economic future. It's a big 
part of our trade surplus. There are millions of people whose jobs 
depend upon it.
    In his most recent book, ``Head to Head,'' the economist Lester 
Thurow argues that there are seven major areas of technology which will 
produce the lion's share of the high-wage, high-growth jobs of the 21st 
century, at least as far as we can see into that century, that aerospace 
is one of those areas, and that a nation with a stake in any of these 
technologies gives it up only at its peril.
    We have enjoyed an enormously positive position in aerospace for a 
long time now. But if you look at our airlines, the airlines alone have 
lost as much money in the last 4 years as they made in the previous 60. 
We have got to take a look at what that means for us. If you look at the 
fabulous manufacturers and suppliers that we built up, there's no 
question that the partnership that those manufacturers were able to 
develop, not simply with the private airline companies but also with the 
Defense Department, made the economics of what they were doing work. As 
we build down our defense budget

[[Page 726]]

at the end of the cold war, that imposes major new challenges for the 
airline manufacturers and for the major component parts suppliers and 
producers.
    So these are difficult issues. There are also serious questions 
about international competition. What kind of competition do we face, 
and how can we face it in a way that is fair to the American workers and 
all the American people whose livelihoods depend on this?
    The point I want to make to you is I think that this is one of the 
major issues involved in shaping our competitive position in the world. 
Governor Baliles and I were discussing this whole issue 10 days ago. He 
noted and I will repeat how remarkable it is that almost every major 
economic issue we face today ultimately comes down to whether we can 
compete and win in a global economy. And if so, what do we have to do to 
enable our people to do that, and what kind of partnerships do we need 
in the public and private sector?
    This is an area, I'll say again, where I think we have a major 
potential for bipartisan agreement to move forward, to protect and 
promote an enormously significant sector of our economy. I'm very 
optimistic about what we can do over the long run. A lot of you around 
this table know more personally than do I what great difficulties we 
have faced in the last few years and understand there are still some 
tough challenges ahead. But I feel strongly about this. I think we can 
do it. I think we have to do it.
    If you look at the whole range of challenges facing the United 
States, the things that I've tried to come to grips with in the last 4 
months--trying to get the deficit under control, trying to develop a 
technology policy, trying to develop a more aggressive way of helping 
people adjust from the defense to a domestic economy and all the 
cutbacks that that involves--a lot of that work will be substantially 
undermined unless we have a vibrant aerospace sector in our economy. It 
is critical to building a high-wage future for America not just in the 
States that are obviously affected, like Washington State--and we have 
some Members of Congress from Washington on this Committee--but 
throughout the United States. There's not a State, not a community in 
this country that won't be better off if we have a strong and vibrant 
aerospace economy.
    Now, having said that, I want to introduce formally, for whatever 
remarks he might wish to make, Governor Baliles. I asked him to chair 
this Commission for a number of reasons. I've known him for many years; 
we were colleagues in the Governors' conference together. In my former 
life, I had the privilege to serve with about 150 Governors in the 
seventies, the eighties, and the nineties. If you forced me to make a 
list of the 10 best I served with, Jerry Baliles would certainly be on 
the list. He's one of the most intelligent public servants I've ever 
known. He also has the kind of mind that I think we need to bring to 
this task. He sorts out the wheat from the chaff pretty quickly, gets to 
the bottom line, and synthesizes issues remarkably well. I think you 
will enjoy working with him. I think you will be glad you had the 
opportunity to do it. And I believe, in no small measure because of the 
leadership he will bring to your work, there's a real chance that we'll 
all be very proud of the results that come out.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:20 a.m. in the Indian Treaty Room at the 
Old Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Gerald L. 
Baliles, Chair of the Commission and former Governor of Virginia.