    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [October 18, 1994]
    [Pages 1793-1794]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles
    October 18, 1994

        Thank you very much, Steve, and Bill Hogland, Tom Denomme, Alex
    Trotman. Senator Levin, Senator Riegle, welcome, we're glad to have you
    here today. I want to thank all those who have worked on this project:
    Secretary O'Leary, Administrator Browner, Dr. Mary Good, and Jack
    Gibbons, our science adviser, and the Vice President.
        This is a perfect project for the Vice President and me to work on:
    all of his obsession with the environment and technology and my
    indiscriminate love of anything that has anything to do with
    automobiles. [Laughter]
        I listened to them talking about regenerative brakes and fuel cells
    and ultra-capacitators. You know, there wasn't a single one of those
    things on the three most important cars in my life--[laughter]--my '67
    Mustang, my '63 Buick Le Sabre, and my '52 Henry J. I could fix
    everything on those cars, except when the hydraulic brakes went out on
    the Henry J. Then I just shifted down into first gear and ran into the
    curb. [Laughter] But I'm going to have to learn all this all over again.
        When I realized what we were asking the auto companies and the UAW
    to do in developing this vehicle that would triple fuel mileage, it
    reminded me of this old Chinese proverb about a businessman who goes to
    an oracle and says he's got a terrible problem. His abacus counters
    can't keep up with the workload, and he can't afford to hire any more of
    them. So the oracle says, ``Well, it's simple. You should just have each
    abacus counter grow another finger on each hand.'' And the businessman
    said, ``That's a wonderful suggestion. How do I get them to do that?''
    The oracle said, ``Don't ask me. I only make policy. It's your job to
    implement it.'' That's the way the Government's been talking to the auto
    industry for years. [Laughter]
        But you saw these prototypes over there, cars that weigh 1,400
    pounds, 2,000 pounds, cars that can get up to 100 miles a gallon--not
    commercially viable yet, still a lot of technical problems, but people
    are working together and doing something remarkable.
        I have to tell you, the reason I believed this would work--
    basically, there were two. One is, as Bill said or maybe it was Tom, one
    of them said, we have to do this. We simply don't have an option. If you
    look at what's happening to greenhouse gas emissions, if you look at
    what's going to happen to automobile growth throughout the world, we
    have to do it. And normally when free people with a lot of energy and
    intelligence have to do something, they figure out how to do it.
        The second reason I believed it would happen is because of what the
    automobile industry has already done in the last few years. You know,
    1994 marks the first time since 1979 when American auto companies will
    sell more cars anywhere in the world than Japanese cars. We are
    literally back to number one in sales for the first time in 15 years. If
    you look at how it's been done, there has been a remarkable partnership,
    a partnership which we have tried

    [[Page 1794]]

    to support and enhance, and I appreciate the remarks that have been made
    about that.
        If the auto industry can get to the point today, after what people
    were saying about it 10 years ago--I was in Michigan just a few days
    ago, and I went out to Dearborn to the Mustang plant there. And don't
    laugh, I didn't drive one. I was safe. They were safe. [Laughter] But it
    was amazing to me, the biggest problem that I heard in Michigan is that
    too many people are working too much overtime. Now, when you consider
    where the auto industry was 10 years ago, 6 years ago, that is what we
    call, where I grew up, a high-class problem. [Laughter]
        And it is a tribute to the massive investment in technology, to the
    absolute determination by labor and management to work together and to
    increase levels of productivity to unprecedented levels, and to
    visionary leadership. It didn't happen overnight. It required a leap of
    faith that was dramatic. It required these companies to continue to
    invest, even in the years when they weren't making money. They did all
    that, and if they did that, they can do this, especially if we work
    together in the spirit of partnership.
        I was thinking the other day, rebuilding a country is not that much
    different than rebuilding the auto industry. People have to get together
    and quit fighting. They have to agree on a common goal. You have to
    invest in the fundamentals, educate and train people, and have high
    standards. I feel very good about where the country is going, and I feel
    very good about where the auto industry is going, and we just have to go
    there together.
        If you look at what's happened in the last 21 months, we have, as
    has already been said, dramatically expanded trade in America and
    dramatically increased the efforts that this Government is making to
    support the American business community as we go into a global economy.
    We brought the deficit down, reduced the size of the Federal Government,
    kept inflation low. We have 4.6 million new jobs now. And I'm proud to
    report that in 1994, more high-wage jobs have been created than in the
    previous 5 years combined, and well over half the new jobs coming into
    this economy this year have been at above-average income levels.
        So America is coming back. We can do this. But if you think about
    the long-run economic development of the country, we can only hope to
    continue to grow and prosper if we find a way to do it that is friendly
    to the environment, that enhances our natural resources, that permits
    that elusive goal we call sustainable development. This car can do as
    much to achieve that goal as anything I can think of. And therefore, it
    is as major a key to our future economy, our strength and success in the
    global marketplace in the 21st century, as anything else we can be
    working on.
        I am very, very proud of what these fine people have done on this
    project after only one year. And we're going to keep going until the job
    is done.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Steve Yokich, vice president,
    United Auto Workers; Bill Hogland, vice chairman, General Motors Corp.;
    Tom Denomme, vice chairman, Chrysler Corp.; and Alex Trotman, chairman
    and CEO, Ford Motor Co.