    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [October 26, 1993]
    [Pages 1827-1828]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1827]]

    Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With Members
    of Congress
    October 26, 1993

    NAFTA

        The President. Let me say, I'll take a few questions, but I intend
    to have the NAFTA legislation introduced next week, and we're hoping for
    a vote in November right before the, well, before the recess and before
    I go out to Washington State to the meeting of the Pacific leaders.
    We're pushing right ahead on it. I feel good about that.
        I did have a conversation this morning with the Prime Minister-elect
    of Canada. I complimented him on his stunning victory and on the
    remarkable similarities between his campaign and the issues that he ran
    on and our campaign last year. And he said, ``Yes,'' he said, ``here
    they accuse me of copying you, but I told them that I had been in the
    Parliament longer than you've been around, so I figured you copied me.''
    [Laughter] We had a great talk about it. We agree that we would see each
    other in Seattle. I'm looking forward to that. That will probably be our
    first opportunity to meet.
        I understand that a lot of you have questions about what impact this
    election means on NAFTA. From my point of view, it will have no impact
    at all. I see no reason to renegotiate the agreement, or any grounds or
    basis for it. And I think we should just go ahead, and I think that all
    the countries involved have a lot at stake in proceeding. So that's what
    we plan to do.
        Q. Mr. President, did he reassure you on that issue?
        Q. Does the Prime Minister want to reopen----
        The President. Why don't we take one question at a time.
        Q. Did he reassure you on that issue? Does he want to reopen it?
        The President. We didn't have any detailed conversation about it. I
    think that he didn't want to talk about it this morning. He's just,
    after all, come from a breathtaking victory. I don't want to
    characterize his position. That wouldn't be fair. But we had nothing
    occurred in the conversation which made me have any doubt that our
    course of proceeding is the right course.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. Mr. President, the National Association of Manufacturers has
    again today said that the health care plan is too cumbersome, too
    complicated, too expensive, should be scaled back. Are you going into
    some real headwinds on this as you unveil it tomorrow?
        The President. No. I don't know what their position is. After their
    position was reported last time, the next day they called and
    apologized.
        Q. But only for leaking the letter, not for their position. They
    repeated the position.
        The President. No, they called and said that it overstated their
    position. All I know is that most manufacturers are going to save money
    under this. And if they want to look a gift horse in the mouth, that can
    be their decision.
        Q. But have you--scale it back?
        The President. No, absolutely not. If they don't want lower
    premiums, they can keep higher premiums and rising costs. It's their
    decision. But almost all manufacturers, nearly 100 percent of them,
    provide health insurance. And they will be the biggest gainers in the
    private sector under this. Now, if they want to walk away from having
    their retiree burdens alleviated and having their premiums costs go way
    down, that's their privilege. But I think when the constituency out
    there, if we can get people to look at the evidence, I think that they
    will want to do that. I think that all they're doing is--here, this
    organization is like everybody else--they're going to lobby for the best
    deal they can get. They're going to lobby for fewer extra services so
    their premiums will go down even more. But keep in mind, they're already
    among the big winners in this thing. And I think that they're just out
    there staking out a negotiating position like everybody else. We've just
    started this, and it will go on for several months. And you'll see a lot
    more of it. I'm not discouraged by that at all.

    Canadian Prime Minister-Elect

        Q. [Inaudible]--Mr. President, has the stunning victory made you
    take the pressure off the Prime Minister-elect----
        The President. I would think it would be--

    [[Page 1828]]

    well, he certainly had a stunning victory. It was a real referendum in
    Canada. The way the press characterized it this morning, I think, is
    fairly accurate. People want a job-generating strategy, and they want
    the deficit dropped down, and those are the two things that he ran on.
    And obviously because he has a big parliamentary majority, he has some
    flexibility there. But I don't think it would be right for me to
    characterize, in any way, his attitude, position. It's just not the
    right thing to do. We had a really good conversation. Our two countries
    are as close probably as any two countries in the world. We have
    differences from time to time; we always will. But I feel very good
    about my conversation. And I think it's a good thing that now that he's
    been elected, he'll have the support he needs in the Parliament to
    govern. I think that's a good thing.

    Spending Cuts

        Q. Did you make your commitment to Senator Kerry this morning, Mr.
    President, with the spending cuts? Did you meet your commitment to
    Senator Kerry?
        The President. They'll have another announcement about that. That
    was a whole different issue. The administration promised House Members;
    there weren't any Senators involved in that. There were House Members
    who wanted a chance to vote on at least $10 billion more in spending
    reductions before the end of the calendar year, without regard to what
    we're going to be doing next year in trying to finish the implementation
    of the reinventing Government report. And so, that's what we did today.
    And we gave them more than that because we also would like to have some
    cuts to fund an expansion of the crime bill to pay for more police
    officers and to make sure that we fully implement that.
        Q. Did he ask you about----
        The President. We didn't talk about that.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:46 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister-elect Jean Chretien
    of Canada. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
    these remarks.