[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[June 21, 1993]
[Pages 905-907]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Larry King
June 21, 1993

    Mr. King. Welcome back to another hour of ``The Larry King Show.'' 
Great pleasure to have with us--the last time we had him on a radio show 
he was in a car in Detroit during the campaign, getting to the airport. 
In fact, he gave us a visual description of the highway. Do you remember 
that?
    The President. I do remember it.

Economic Program

    Mr. King. President Clinton, a couple of things. First, Senator Phil 
Gramm last week on my television show said--the Republican from Texas--
anytime, anywhere, anyplace he'll come to the White House, he'll meet 
with you, he'll sit down to work out a deal on the economy from the 
Republican Party standpoint. He said, you invite him, he's there. What 
about it?
    The President. I'm always happy to talk to Senator Gramm, but the 
issue is, what are they for? I mean, there at least was a Republican 
budget offered in the House of Representatives, and more Republicans 
voted against it than Democrats voted against my budget. There was a 
bipartisan budget offered in the Senate Finance Committee which by 
common consent probably couldn't get 20 votes on the floor of the 
Senate. So what I want to know is, what are they for? I have met with 
the Republican Senators completely. I meet with the leadership of the 
Republicans along with the Democrats all the time. I am always anxious 
to discuss this. But we need to know what the specifics are. I mean, I 
put out a plan that has $250 billion in tax cuts in it that affects 
agriculture, veterans, defense, foreign aid, the Federal employee pay, 
Federal employee retirement, cuts huge amounts out of all these things. 
They've been trying to convince the American people that there are no 
spending cuts. Senator Gramm tried to do it in his own State of Texas in 
the recent election season.
    So, if we're going to have anything to talk about, we've all got to 
at least say what the facts are. All I'm saying is I'd be happy to have 
any suggestions he has, but we've got to know where we're going on this.
    Mr. King. You're saying it would be pointless to sit down unless 
they come in with a preagenda?
    The President. The Senate Finance Committee met last week on the 
economic plan and dealt with a lot of Republican amendments after they 
went all over the country saying the issue was spending. The Republicans 
tried to lower taxes in a lot of different ways, mostly on upper income 
folks. And everything they offered would have increased the deficit 
because they did not introduce one single spending cut amendment, 
because those are the tough and controversial things, because they know 
how much we've already cut spending in this budget.
    So, all I'm saying is, you know, I'll talk to Phil Gramm; I'll talk 
to anybody. He may want to talk to me this week because I'm trying to 
save the space station and the super collider in his State, two things I 
believe in. After having shaved down the space station by $4 billion and 
shaved the cost of the super collider some, I believe they're important 
for America as investments in science and technology. But there are a 
lot of people who are against these projects who are going to try to 
take his rhetoric and the rhetoric of the recent Texas election and use 
it against him because of the things they said. So, Senator Gramm may 
need me this week because I agree with him on this issue, and I hope we 
can save them for America's sake. But the political rhetoric of some of 
the Republicans in pretending that there are no spending cuts has made 
it tougher.
    Mr. King. So in other words, what everybody wants is, they don't 
want to pay new taxes; they don't want to cut any services. We just want 
a free ride.
    The President. Yes, and we want to do it in a way that looks 
politically palatable. So they

[[Page 906]]

talk about, well, let's put a cap on all this spending or limits on all 
that and not come up with the specifics. My budget has 200 specific 
spending cuts over the previous Bush budget. A hundred of them are more 
than $100 million a piece. And I really have tried to take this thing 
on. For years we listened to all this rhetoric about how we could cut 
taxes and increase spending and somehow everything would be all right. 
And we took the debt from $1 trillion to $4 trillion. We had 
astronomical long-term interest rates. Ever since we've been trying to 
bring the interest rates down by bringing the deficit down, you see 
mortgage rates at a 20-year low, housing starts at a 7-year high; 
construction employment is increased at the highest rate in 9 years. 
We've got 755,000 new jobs coming into the economy. Most of them are 
coming in because people are refinancing their debt and freeing up money 
to invest in the economy. So we're moving this in the right direction. 
But of course, it's not popular to do these difficult things.

International Economy

    Mr. King. You're going to have to go to Japan in a couple weeks. 
That's a major economic conference. Let's assume the Senate passes this; 
then they go to House committee, and that of course won't be settled by 
the time you go there. And you go to a country where their leadership is 
going to change. How much of a ball of wax is that?
    The President. Well, it's going to be a challenge to get a lot done 
at this summit. But I'm convinced we can. We have two or three issues 
that we really need to deal with. We're trying to come to grips with the 
need for a new trade agreement for the world, which I think is very 
important, will create more jobs in America. We'd have more jobs today 
if Europe and Japan weren't in the bad economics conditions they're in. 
Their growth rates are substantially lower than ours. If they were in 
better shape, they'd be buying more of our products and we'd have more 
jobs.
    The second thing we're going to try to deal with is what we can do, 
each in our own countries, to promote global economic growth. The 
Europeans and Japanese have been telling America for years, ``Get your 
deficit down.'' So we're doing that. Now they've got to lower their 
interest rates in Europe so they can grow, and they've got to invest 
some more money in Japan so they can grow and buy more of our products. 
And if we do it together, we can bring this world out of the recession 
it's in, and that means more jobs for America.
    Mr. King. But what part does Japan play if they're lame duck?
    The President. Well, I think that depends upon what all the 
political sides in the country will say about the negotiations that 
we're on. I mean, it's pretty clear to me that no matter who winds up 
being Prime Minister of Japan and what faction that person comes out of, 
that they're going to have to continue to open their economy to our 
products. And they're going to have to continue to stimulate their 
economy, because they don't have a budget deficit, they've got a 
surplus.
    What's happening in Japan now I think has more than anything else to 
do with the legacy of the various political scandals and the political 
corruption. I think their economic policy is going to have to take the 
direction that we support almost no matter who gets elected Prime 
Minister. They can't withdraw from the world or shut us out now. They've 
got too much at stake in expanding into China and other countries and 
doing business in a very complicated world that simply won't allow Japan 
to be the only rich country in the world with $110 billion a year trade 
surplus.
    Mr. King. So you're hopeful, no matter who it is?
    The President. Yes, I am. It presents a challenge to get done the 
things I wanted to get done in Japan at the conference. It will be more 
challenging, but I still think that we may be able to do that simply 
because of the limits on their economic options.

NAFTA

    Mr. King. During the campaign you told me, in fact, almost the day 
it happened, when President Bush signed it in San Antonio, you said to 
me the next day that you supported this fair trade concept with Mexico 
and Canada on balance. You had some questions. Do you still have some 
questions?
    The President. Yes, but I'm still for it. As a matter of fact, I 
feel more strongly today, if possible, that it is the right direction 
for us to take. The trade agreement, I thought, had some weaknesses. It 
was negotiated with a greater concern for our financial institutions and 
our intellectual property concerns, that is, patent

[[Page 907]]

and copyright concerns, than for new jobs and environmental cleanup, 
things that I thought were real important.
    So we're trying to fix that. We're trying to make sure that this 
trade agreement with Mexico and Canada has very strong provisions to 
guarantee appropriate investments in environmental cleanups, so we don't 
have more pollution in America or we don't have people going down to 
Mexico just so they won't have to have any antipollution expenses, and 
so we have some labor protections.
    But I think we're getting there. And I believe that the right kind 
of trade agreement can create jobs in America. I don't agree that it'll 
cost jobs. If you look just in the last couple of days, there was a 
notice from General Motors that they're closing an operation in Mexico, 
bringing it back to the United States, going to create 1,000 jobs in 
Michigan and higher labor costs because of the productivity and the 
nearness to the labor parts market, to the auto parts market. And I 
think you're going to see a lot of that. If anybody wants to shut a 
plant down and go to Mexico just because they have cheap wages, they can 
do that today. Nothing is going to change in the NAFTA agreement. But if 
you have more growth on both sides, then you'll have less illegal 
immigration from Mexico, more people will be able to get jobs at home 
and stay with their families, their incomes will rise, and they'll buy 
more American products. Last month, Mexico replaced Japan as the second 
biggest purchaser of American manufacturing products. We have a $6 
billion trade surplus with them. That means we create jobs out of our 
trade with them. So I think it's a good deal for America, and I hope we 
can pass it.

Media Coverage

    Mr. King. One other quick thing. L.A. Times Mirror poll out today 
says 51 percent of the public thinks the press has been unfair to you, 
more unfair to you than your predecessors. Any comment?
    The President. You know, I always trust the people in the end. They 
pretty well get it right.
    Mr. King. You think that's right, about right?
    The President. I think the most important thing now is what I said 
at my press conference last week. The American people know if there's 
something going on and some tension that is not--doesn't have much to do 
with their interests. And I think that's what they have perceived here. 
And so what I have done, clearly, in the last couple of weeks, is to 
reach out a hand of understanding to the capital press corps here and to 
ask them not to stop criticizing me, because that's their job when they 
think I'm wrong or they think there's a story to be pursued, but to 
approach this whole work that we have to do together with an atmosphere 
of respect and greater trust. And I pledge to try to do the same thing.
    I think the American people want to see the flaws in my proposal, 
want to see the contradictions if they are there, want to see me subject 
to honest scrutiny. But they don't like the feeling of feeding frenzy. 
They don't want that. And so, you know, I've done what I could, and I 
hope we'll have the kind of response that the American people plainly 
want.

Chelsea Clinton

    Mr. King. Chelsea going to Japan?
    The President. Well, I hope so. I think it would be educational for 
her, although some people have said that, you know, we ought to consider 
what kind of Asian press coverage she'll get and whether that would 
prohibit her from learning anything or doing anything there. But there 
is a lot of precedent for previous Presidents' families going on trade 
missions. And I'd like to see her do it. I think she'd learn a lot from 
it if in fact she'll be able to function when she's there. So we're 
going to try to figure that out in the next few days.
    Mr. King. Thanks, Mr. President.
    The President. Thanks, Larry.

Note: The interview began at 1 p.m. The President spoke from the 
Roosevelt Room at the White House.