[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[June 20, 1994]
[Pages 1098-1101]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel on ``Today''
June 20, 1994

    Q. Forty years ago, Harry Truman, who was staying at the Waldorf 
Astoria Hotel here in New York City, decided to take a morning stroll 
down West 49th Street. There, the story goes, he noticed a group of 
onlookers watching the ``Today'' show through its street-level glass 
window. He decided to join the crowd, and thus this unusual picture.
    Today, minus the stroll, we are pleased to welcome another President 
to our street-level digs. Mr. President, good morning. Welcome to Studio 
1A.
    The President. Good morning, Bryant. I wish I were with Harry Truman 
today, out there on the street, looking in.

North Korea

    Q. Well, Katie and I are very grateful that you're allowing us the 
opportunity to interview you this morning. Thank you for taking the 
time.
    Let's start with North Korea, if we might. Former President Jimmy 
Carter, just back from the Korean Peninsula and meetings with Kim Il-
song, has said that he believes the crisis has been defused and at this 
point any sanctions would be counterproductive. Do his opinions reflect 
the views of your administration in any way? And if not, could you 
detail the extent to which his views and his trip may have changed your 
approach?
    The President. Well, the North Koreans asked President Carter to 
come as a private citizen.

[[Page 1099]]

He called me, and we agreed that the trip might be productive, that he 
would go, he would listen, he would faithfully state the views of our 
administration and reaffirm that our interest is in seeing that North 
Korea honor its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 
and its commitment to a nonnuclear Korean Peninsula.
    While there, when he notified us about what they were saying, we put 
out a statement, which he reaffirmed, which simply said that if North 
Korea wishes to talk and is willing to freeze their nuclear program, 
that is, not continue reprocessing or refueling while they talk, then 
that would be a step forward. He says that Kim Il-song made that 
commitment to him. Now we have to verify that. So that's the question.
    We have, surely, something to gain by talking with the North 
Koreans, by avoiding further steps toward a crisis. But we have to know 
there's been a change. So we'll be looking to verify that. And that's 
really the question. This is a question of fact now.
    There are some hopeful signs, the willingness to meet between North 
and South. But the critical question is, are they willing to freeze this 
nuclear program while we try to work these differences out?
    Q. You say there are hopeful signs. Are you prepared to respond with 
positive signs of your own, or have you reason to believe that Kim Il-
song's history suggests there's a wide divergence between what he says 
and what he does?
    The President. Well, I think what we have to do is to look to the 
present and the future and say we will evaluate words in terms of 
actions. We have the capacity, if the international inspectors and the 
equipment are going to be left there, to evaluate whether, in fact, the 
nuclear program has been frozen. If it's going to be frozen, then 
clearly that is grounds for talking. But we have to know what the facts 
are, and we'll be attempting to determine that.

Health Care Reform

    Q. Mr. President, moving to matters closer at home now, yesterday on 
``Meet the Press'' Senator Moynihan, chairman of the Finance Committee, 
said that there was no chance that Congress will pass a health care plan 
that will give all Americans immediate insurance coverage. If that, in 
fact, is the case, will you accept a plan that will provide universal 
coverage somewhere down the road?
    The President. Well, Katie, our plan required a phase-in. It's going 
to take some time for the States and for others who would have to 
provide the insurance who don't now to phase it in. But I think the 
important thing is that we should not walk away from this Congress 
without a commitment to cover everyone. The so-called 91 percent 
solution, if it's a permanent solution, essentially would guarantee what 
we have now. The poor would get health care; the wealthy would get 
health care; the middle class would be at risk of losing it. One in ten 
Americans would not have any health care all the time, and others would 
be losing it.
    Keep in mind, we now have 3 million more Americans without health 
insurance than we had 3 years ago. The situation in terms of coverage is 
getting worse, more and more middle class Americans at risk.
    All I want to do is to give the American people what the President 
and the Congress and the Federal Government employees have. And my 
proposal would cost small businesses much, much less than the last 
minimum wage increase that President Bush signed.
    Now, I admit that we needed to make some changes in our original 
proposal. I always said we would. We want it now to be less bureaucratic 
and less regulatory, and the proposals are. They reflect some changes 
that we have agreed to. But we have to cover all Americans. And that's 
the real issue.
    Q. So you're saying some of the bills that are being discussed in 
Senate Finance which will provide insurance coverage for 91 percent, 
that if those bills, or a bill like that comes to your desk, you'll veto 
it?
    The President. What I'm saying is I don't think it will come to my 
desk for the simple reason that if you look at what the bill does, the 
bill that covers 91 percent of Americans, the proposal would cost middle 
class taxpayers more tax money, essentially subsidize low-income people, 
and leave middle class workers either without health insurance or at 
risk of losing it because of all the problems we have in the system 
today. So I really don't believe it is a solution.
    I know that there had been tens of millions of dollars in special 
interest money spent to convince the American people that our plan is 
wrong. I know that we needed to make some changes in our plan. But I 
also know that the right thing for America is to do what every

[[Page 1100]]

other advanced country has done in guaranteeing middle class working 
people health care that can't be taken away.
    When Harry Truman stopped by the ``Today'' show 40 years ago and 
looked in at Dave Garroway--who, by the way, was the first fellow I ever 
saw that wore a bow tie, so I remember this very well--he knew that. And 
they beat him to pieces over health care. And they drove the popularity 
of his proposal down. And he was never able to pass it. But Harry Truman 
was right then, and we're right now.
    The right thing for America's values, for work, for family, is to 
provide health care for all Americans. It doesn't have to be done 
tomorrow. It ought to be phased in over a period of just a few years. 
But we ought not to walk away without a bill that provides health care 
to all Americans.

Haiti

    Q. Mr. President, let's turn to Haiti, if we could for a moment. 
It's being reported in this morning's paper that your administration is 
trying to induce Haiti's three top military leaders to leave Haiti for a 
comfortable life in exile, perhaps by managing somehow to pay them off. 
Is that something that's being pursued? And if you can get them to leave 
Haiti, are you at all interested in bringing them to justice after that?
    The President. We have always said, if you go back to the beginning 
of this administration, that we had no interest in trying to persecute 
anybody. President Aristide himself agreed on an amnesty proclamation as 
part of the agreement we had last year. The military leaders broke that 
agreement. We are still looking at any number of options to try to 
restore democracy to Haiti so that that troubled country can begin to 
have some economic growth and the people who have been so oppressed by 
the military dictators can escape their oppression. So we have a number 
of options under consideration.
    What happens to those who violate the law, I think, depends in part 
on what the democratic government decides to do. But President Aristide 
all along has said that he was interested in honoring the original 
conditions of the Governors Island Agreement. It was the other side 
which broke them.

Health Care Reform

[Following a commercial break, it was announced that the President would 
take questions from persons outside the studio. A participant then asked 
if an additional tax would be used to help small businesses pay for 
health care.]

    The President. Well, we propose to make up that difference in two 
ways: first of all, by raising the cigarette tax and, secondly, by 
achieving other savings in Government programs. Then we ask the very 
biggest businesses in the country, who are going to get a big reduction, 
most of them, from our health care plan because we're going to spread 
the cost more evenly throughout the country, to pay a small amount of 
money into a program that will support the subsidies for small business 
and continuing medical research.
    This will work because of the competitive pressures to hold health 
care costs down if we get everybody in the system. That is, I think that 
it's hard for most Americans to realize this, but we're already spending 
about 40 percent more of our income, as a percentage of our income, than 
any other country on Earth. And yet we're the only country that doesn't 
require everybody to have some health coverage.
    So it seems to me that the simplest way to do it is to just take the 
system we have, which is an employer-based system that over 80 percent 
of the Americans are covered by, and just extend it to everybody. But in 
order to do it, because we have so many small employers, you've got to 
give them a discount. And I wouldn't do this in this way if I weren't 
convinced that it would help the economy in the medium term and over the 
long term. We can't do anything that will run unemployment up. This will 
balance out the scales, in my judgment, and help more small businesses 
create jobs.
    Keep in mind, most small businesses are giving health insurance now 
and paying 35 percent or 40 percent more than bigger business and 
Government. And as a consequence, that undermines their ability to 
compete. They can't get fair rates. And the proposal we have, I will say 
again, will cost small business considerably less than the minimum wage 
increase that President Bush signed a couple of years before I became 
President.

[[Page 1101]]

High School Reunion

[A participant from Park Ridge, IL, was introduced.]

    The President. That's a great town.

[The participant, who had graduated from high school with Hillary 
Clinton, asked if their 30th reunion could be held at the White House.]

    The President. That's a decision for her to make. But I'll bet you 
she would like to welcome you here at the White House. I'm trying to 
work out an opportunity to welcome my 30th high school reunion class to 
the White House as well. I think both of us would like that very much. 
And I will tell her that you asked. I'm sure--I hope she's watching this 
morning, but I'll tell her. And I'll bet she would love that.

O.J. Simpson

    Q. Mr. President, let me close, if I could, with one that isn't a 
national issue but one I'm sure you have some feelings on. The entire 
country, as you know, watched the O.J. Simpson drama unfold last week. 
What are your own personal thoughts about the fall from grace of such an 
American hero?
    The President. Well, it's a genuine tragedy. In some ways it's a 
story as old as time; in some ways it's a modern story. It's of course 
the biggest tragedy because two people were killed. Children were robbed 
of a mother, a family's lost loved ones, and a man widely admired in 
this country is now caught in the web of a terrible tragedy. But I have 
to say that, after we all watched it in excruciating detail last 
weekend, the time has now come for the legal process to take its course. 
I think the less the rest of us say from now on in until the legal 
process takes its course, the better.
    Q. Mr. President, we thank you very much for taking the time to be 
with us----
    The President. Thank you.
    Q. ----helping to christen our new studio. We appreciate it and hope 
you'll come back.
    Q. Next time President Clinton, come here to New York and see us.
    The President. Oh, I'd like that. I'd like to be looking--I'd like 
to be on the outside looking in, asking you questions. [Laughter]
    Q. For a change, I guess, right?
    The President. That's right.

Note: The interview began at 7:09 a.m. The President spoke via satellite 
from the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to 
Dave Garroway, original host of ``Today.'' A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of this interview.