    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [November 1, 1994]
    [Pages 1928-1931]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Interview With Bruce Newbury of WPRO Radio, Providence, Rhode Island
    November 1, 1994

        Mr. Newbury. Mr. President, how are you?
        The President. I'm fine, Bruce. How are you?

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        Mr. Newbury. Nice to speak to you this afternoon.
        The President. Nice to speak to you.

    Midterm Elections

        Mr. Newbury. And we're looking forward to having your visit with us
    tomorrow in Rhode Island. Now, you'll be here for a Democratic rally
    among some other things, and I think it's safe to say that 7 days before
    the election, any appearance by the President is a political event. But
    what kind of a message does it send for the President of the United
    States to appear on behalf of campaigning politicians this late in the
    game in their home district? I mean could this be construed as pulling
    out all of the stops?
        The President. I hope it is, because that's what I'm trying to do.
    You know, the people of Rhode Island have been very good to me, and
    you've got some races up there that I'm very interested in and have been
    asked to come and support Representative Kennedy and our candidate for
    Governor and the others on the Democratic ticket, so I'm looking forward
    to being there.
        And after all, our administration has had a good record in Rhode
    Island. In the last 21 months, we've seen over 10,000 new jobs come into
    the State, and in the previous 4 years, you lost almost 10,000 jobs.
    We've been able to give tax cuts to 38,000 working families and almost
    4,800 small businesses, and we've passed the Family and Medical Leave
    Act. We've got middle class student loans available at lower costs than
    before. We're moving this country forward. We're getting things going
    again in the right direction in America, and I want to be able to take
    that message to Rhode Island, and I'd like to have some support from
    people in Rhode Island in the Congress for continuing to do that.
        Mr. Newbury. The Republican contract is going to be a topic of
    discussion when you arrive here tomorrow.
        The President. It should be.
        Mr. Newbury. Is it, as the New York Times did today, is there going
    to be a point-by-point Democratic response to the Republican contract?
        The President. Well, the New York Times gave a point-by-point
    response to it today?
        Mr. Newbury. It's in a graph form, a chart form here in the----
        The President. That's great. I haven't seen it, but let me say what
    we've attempted to do is to show what it would take to pay for the
    Republican contract. I mean, in typical Republican fashion, just like
    they did in the eighties, they made all these wild promises and never
    said how they'd pay for it.
        Now, they've promised big tax cuts, big increases in defense
    spending and Star Wars and a balanced budget. And the House Budget
    Committee did an analysis and said that if they did that, that the only
    way you could keep that promise is to cut Social Security about 2,000
    bucks a year and to cut Medicare about 1,800 bucks a year, because
    that's what's in the rest of the budget. And if they say they're not
    going to do it, then what they're saying is they're not going to keep
    their promise. Instead, they're going to give a tax cut to the wealthy,
    explode the deficit, start shipping our jobs overseas, and put us right
    back in the same hole we were in when they had office the last time.
        So they cannot have it both ways. They can't go out here and give
    the American people a trillion dollars' worth of promises and say,
    ``I'll tell you how I'm going to pay for this after the election.''
    That's what they're trying to do. It's a scam. It's a bunch of easy
    promises. Our approach is to challenge the American people, to say,
    ``Okay, we're going to give you the educational opportunities you need,
    we're going to make this Government work for ordinary people to support
    families again; as with family leave and immunizations for little kids,
    and we're going to get the economy going again. And now you've got to
    make the most of your lives.'' We're not going to give you a bunch of
    promises that can't be kept, that will only put this country back in the
    hole again.
        I think when the American people understand both what we have done
    and what they're offering, that we're going to be in much better shape.

    Health Care Reform

        Mr. Newbury. Of course, the State of Rhode Island has been very much
    involved in the health care reform proposals with Senator Chafee and of
    course, Ira Magaziner. Now, when health care comes back on the table in
    the spring, what input can we expect from these gentlemen?
        The President. Well, I hope they'll both be very much involved. I
    will say this: If we had more Republicans who were willing to support
    Senator Chafee, we'd have a health care bill today, because he was
    willing to deal with us in good faith, and he really wanted to get a
    resolution of this. But as you probably know,

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    they all abandoned him and his plan, his original plan, because,
    unfortunately, the congressional leadership of the Republicans has been
    so bitterly partisan that they would rather defeat a bill than have the
    Democrats involved in helping get health care, even if the Republicans
    got half the credit.
        They tried to do the same thing to the crime bill. The leadership
    tried to beat the crime bill. But again, Senator Chafee and a few others
    said they would not be involved in that kind of bitter partisanship, and
    they did what was right for America.
        So I'm very hopeful that we can get a different and more bipartisan
    approach to crime. It depends in part on how these elections come out.
    You know, we've got Mayor Giuliani, the Republican mayor of New York,
    endorsed Governor Cuomo; the Republican mayor of Los Angeles endorsed
    Senator Feinstein; Nancy Reagan, our former First Lady, has attacked
    Oliver North in Virginia; and Mrs. Heinz, the wife of the former
    Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, has attacked the Republican Senate
    nominee in Pennsylvania. A lot of these mainstream Republicans are
    horrified by the destructive, extremist wing that has taken over the
    Republican Party, either interested in ideological politics or just
    power-grabbing; they don't like it. So there's a lot of good Republicans
    in this country that want to see us work together to solve problems, and
    I'm going to do my best to work with them after this election is over.

    White House Security

        Mr. Newbury. I want to get to the security issue with the White
    House. Of course, you're on the road, and it's probably a wise course
    with what's going on back home there. But let me ask you this.
    [Laughter] Until----
        The President. That's great.
        Mr. Newbury. I got a laugh out of the President; it's not a bad day.
    Until the Secret Service comes back to you with their findings, have you
    given thought to moving your family out of the White House? In all
    seriousness.
        The President. Oh, no, no. You know, the thing with the airplane was
    a fluke. First of all, none of us were there. If we had been there, I
    think under the security procedures it would have been handled
    differently. But there was a guy that just came in under the radar and
    was obviously trying to do something to draw attention to himself, not
    trying to hurt us.
        In terms of the shooting incident, we have shootings in the streets
    of America every day. And what I hope the American people got out of
    that shooting incident was that the people in the Congress who voted for
    the crime bill and the assault weapons were right; you don't need people
    to be able to walk around on the streets of America and pull out a gun
    where you can fire off 20 or 30 bullets in one magazine before you know
    it.
        But the Secret Service does a good job protecting the President. We
    will be prudent; we will be safe. But I'm not going to go into a hole
    and hide in a Democratic country where people are free to move around.
    You just have to keep doing that and take all the precautions you can.
    But I feel good about the job they do, and so I'm going to keep being
    out here among the people and take whatever precautions seem
    appropriate.

    Chelsea Clinton

        Mr. Newbury. Very good. I want to just ask you another quick
    question about Rhode Island. Is Chelsea coming back to Rhode Island next
    summer to take sailing lessons again?
        The President. I don't know. She sure does want to. She loved that.
    She had the most wonderful time up there. She loved the school, she
    loved the people she met. She loved sailing. When I got back from the
    Middle East, I showed her a model of a boat that I brought from the
    Middle East that one of the leaders gave me, and she understood all
    about how it was constructed and how it all worked. So I will say the
    people who taught her last summer in Rhode Island did a good job.
        Mr. Newbury. Well, all right. Well, she's more than welcome to come
    back, and we're looking forward to your visit tomorrow. Well, not
    everybody, the people that have to drive 95 aren't too choked up about
    it.
        The President. Yes, I apologize in advance. I'm trying not to
    inconvenience them too much.
        Mr. Newbury. I hear you, and it's been a pleasure to talk with you
    this afternoon. Thank you very much for giving us your time.
        The President. Are you driving your Chevrolet Impala?
        Mr. Newbury. As a matter of fact, I left it home today because it's
    raining, and it's got the original wipers on it. And those are valuable

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    in themselves so I don't want to use them. But I know you're a car buff.
        The President. I love old cars; '64 was a good year for the Impala.
        Mr. Newbury. It sure was. This is a beauty. It's been in a garage
    for about 15 years. It's got the 230 in it, the six, but it's got some
    of the bells and whistles, and it's just a beautiful car. I'm tickled to
    death with it. I was going to drive it today, but I said, wait a minute,
    he's just going to be on the phone; he's not going to see it. But I'll
    send you a picture.
        The President. Thanks, man.
        Mr. Newbury. All right, sir. Hey, nice to talk to you. You take good
    care.
        The President. All right. Bye-bye.
        Mr. Newbury. And have a safe trip.
        The President. Thank you.

    Note: The interview began at 3:19 p.m. The President spoke by telephone
    from the Westin Hotel in Detroit, MI.