    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [December 3, 1993]
    [Pages 2102-2103]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters
    December 3, 1993

    Personal Security and Responsibility

        Q. [Inaudible]--as far about what you meant by personal security
    when you talked about that theme and also about values?
        The President. Personal security means, among other things, that
    people who are out

    [[Page 2103]]

    there struggling in this country to work for a living and raise their
    kids should be safe on the streets and should have access to health care
    and should have access to a decent education for the course of their
    lifetimes.
        Q. But you also mentioned personal responsibility along with that.
    What responsibility do they have?
        The President. Well first of all, the Government cannot create
    success. The people have responsibilities in the area of work to make
    sure they're educated and trained. They're going to have
    responsibilities in the welfare reform area to take education, training
    and move from welfare to work. They're going to have responsibilities in
    the health care area, those who don't have health insurance, to pay for
    some of their own health care.
        And in a larger sense, in every community in this country we can put
    100,000 more police officers out there. We can train them right. But
    people are going to have to start recovering these families and these
    neighborhoods community by community. The private sector is going to
    have to invest in these neighborhoods. We've got these empowerment zones
    which give people tax incentives to invest in poor neighborhoods, but
    people who live in those cities are going to have to invest in them.
        Q. Are you going to start talking to people about maybe not having
    children they can't afford to take care of? Is this something that
    you're worried about?
        The President. Well, I talked about this a lot in the last couple of
    days. We've got to bring down the number of children who are born out of
    wedlock; that's what we've got to do. And people are going to have to
    think more about their future, more about their children's future, and
    when they do have children both parents are going to have to take more
    responsibility for them. We're going to have to crack down on
    identification of paternity, on child support enforcement. We're going
    to have to demand that people take more responsibility for the
    consequences of their action, including taking care of their children.
        Q. Are you going to be talking about that more in the future? Is
    this something we're going to hear about?
        The President. Absolutely. One of the reasons I asked Dr. Elders to
    be the Surgeon General is because we have been involved in an effort for
    years to try to drive down this teen pregnancy rate. I think that the
    out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy rate is threatening the whole family
    structure of communities in this country and undermining our ability to
    recover as a people.

    Democratic Leadership Council

        Q. Have you made up with the DLC?
        The President. I don't think there's anything to make up about.
    Breaux saved my budget.
        Q. He didn't vote for the Brady bill.
        The President. He saved the budget. But the DLC--well, there's no
    political correctness test here. Nobody can agree on every issue. But
    the DLC endorsed the Brady bill early. The DLC was an early supporter of
    the Brady bill, an early supporter of family medical leave, and----
        Q. You haven't been critical about them, so they've been a little
    critical of you.
        The President. Yes, but that's why I--they said some things about
    the budget earlier on that I thought were not accurate. But Breaux
    didn't; he stayed with us on it and helped us pass it. So did Lieberman.
    So did Steny. So did most of the leaders. But I think they were wrong,
    and I said that.
        On the health care thing, if you go back and read the DLC's health
    care package, which was written by Jeremy Rosner who now works in the
    White House, I think we're much closer on health care than you think. I
    think that a lot of this stuff has been overblown. Every time one of
    them or one of us says, ``Here's what the difference is between our two
    health care plans,'' somebody says, ``Oh, they're dumping on each other
    again.'' I think that it's just an honest discussion. I predict that you
    will see an accommodation that will cause a health care plan to pass
    next year that has universal coverage and good benefits, and that's what
    I want.
        Thank you.

    Note: The exchange began at 11:37 a.m. at the Sheraton Washington Hotel.
    A tape was not available for verification of the content of this
    exchange.