[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[January 31, 1994]
[Pages 144-145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Chancellor 
Helmut Kohl of Germany 
January 31, 1994

Interest Rates

    Q. Mr. President, do you agree with Chairman Greenspan's comments 
this morning that interest rates need to be raised to get ahead of 
inflation?
    The President. Well, I agree that there's no evidence that inflation 
is coming back into the economy. There is still a kind of a gap between 
short- and long-term rates, so it may be that--if they make that 
decision on short-term rates, what I hope is that it won't raise long-
term rates, because there's no need to do it. And I hope that the stock 
market won't take an adverse view because we've still got good, strong 
growth in this economy.
    But we want to manage it with real discipline, that is we don't want 
to have one of these roller coaster things. We want the economy to grow 
in a very stable, solid way. And obviously, low interest rates are 
critical to that. I consider that part of the kind of compact we've all 
made where we'll continue to reduce the deficit, and we've got to keep 
inflation down and interest rates down so that people can afford to 
borrow money and invest.

Northern Ireland

    Q. How does letting Gerry Adams into the U.S. advance the cause of 
peace?
    The President. Well, we hope it will advance the cause of peace. You 
know, that's a very thorny problem. But his comments over the last 
several days on the questions of violence and the joint declaration, I 
thought, justified not a general visa but a very narrow visa for the 
purpose of coming to this conference in the hope that it will advance 
the peace process. Ultimately, of course, that's an issue that's going 
to have to be worked out by the parties themselves, as all these matters 
do. But I thought it was the appropriate thing to do for those reasons, 
because of what he said and because he's in a position, I think, to push 
this process forward.

White House Press Corps

    Q. Have you been sneaking out on us?
    The President. No. I was amazed when I read that. We tried to 
remember if that happened. I don't think so. George and I couldn't think 
of a time.
    Q. You're always willing to take us with you?
    The President. You know, once I went running when the press had gone 
home, but I think they found me before it was over. And then when I was 
home for my mother's funeral, I went out in the town there and went to 
my old high school, but the press found me. I don't think we have. We 
were trying to think of--

[[Page 145]]

we can't--we've not been successful in thinking of five or six instances 
in which that has occurred. I saw the story. All I know is what I read 
this morning, but I'm not aware of it.
    Q. Do you feel cloistered in here, Mr. President?
    The President. Oh yes, I do. I mean, I wish it weren't so. And as 
far as I know, no other--maybe President Bush had these same sort of 
understandings where the press went everywhere but--I take a pool when I 
go to a Christmas party. Hillary and I went to Christmas parties; we 
took the pool with us.
    Q. And we enjoyed it.
    The President. You do enjoy it? Did somebody say that? [Laughter] I 
don't believe that. A lot of times you'd like to dump me.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

Discussions With Chancellor Kohl

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to discuss the Bosnia situation with 
the Chancellor?
    The President. I'm sure we will.
    Q. What will you----
    The President. I want to talk to him about it.
    Q. Are you looking forward to the restaurant, Filomena's, Mr. 
President?
    The President. Oh, yes. You know, he told me about it, and so I went 
there. I took my family and some friends, and we had a wonderful dinner 
there. And I would not have even known about it if Chancellor Kohl 
hadn't mentioned it. So I told the people when I was there that the next 
time he came, perhaps we would both come together.
    Chancellor Kohl. And we'll do that today.
    Q. Will there be--[inaudible]--for Russia today?
    The President. We might discuss Russia.

Note: The exchange began at 12:10 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. During the exchange, the President referred to Sinn Fein leader 
Gerry Adams and Senior Policy Adviser George Stephanopoulos. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of this exchange.