[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 5, 1994]
[Pages 2009-2010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Cynthia Louie and Fred Wayne of KCBS Radio, San 
Francisco, California
November 5, 1994

Midterm Elections

    Ms. Louie. Mr. President, thank you very much for your time, and 
welcome to KCBS.
    The President. Thanks, Cynthia. It's nice to hear your voice.
    Ms. Louie. There is a new poll out today from Newsweek, and I'm 
sorry to give you this bad news, but there is a new poll out today from 
Newsweek showing that your approval rating has dropped to 40 percent. 
And these polls seem to come out fairly frequently with results up and 
down. Why do you suppose you're down now, and do you pay much attention 
to these surveys?
    The President. No, because, first of all, the polls are directly 
related to how much people know about the record of the administration. 
And all the surveys show that about--over 60 percent of the American 
people approve of the work of this administration if they know the 
facts. The frustrating thing is, and the frustrating thing in all these 
elections, is that people have so little way of getting the facts.
    If you look at this California election, it's a classic example. I 
mean, look at the Senate race. Dianne Feinstein has done things in the 
United States Senate in only 2 years that no Senator in our lifetime has 
ever accomplished: the assault weapons ban, a law requiring no tolerance 
for gun ownership--possession for children in school, the California 
desert bill. And she's being opposed by Michael Huffington, who never 
even lived in California until 1991, who bought a race in the Congress 
with his fortune and then, when he ran for the Senate, lost his own 
congressional district in the Republican primary and still looks like he 
has a chance to win because he can spend money to put things on the 
television that aren't true.
    This is a very negative, confused, difficult time. And the truth is, 
in a lot of these polls it depends on what information the voters have 
and how you ask the question. The only things that really count are 
these elections, but it's getting harder and harder and harder for 
voters to make good decisions if all they get is a constant barrage of 
negative information and they never get the facts.
    The truth is, we've got a 4-year low in unemployment; jobs are 
growing 5 times as fast under our administration as they did under the 
Bush administration. We're doing things for working people like the 
family leave law, immunizing all of our children under 2, expanding Head 
Start, lower cost college loans. We're moving this country in the right 
direction. And we are leading the world in moving toward peace and 
freedom and democracy.
    If people think about the record and understand the direction, they 
give us a lot of support. But you can't blame people for not voting on 
what they don't know.

Immigration

    Mr. Wayne. Mr. President, let's get on to the subject of illegal 
immigration. We of course know that you are on record against 
Proposition 187 in this State. That whole issue is causing so many ill 
feelings; there's anger on both sides. What can you tell us about the 
threat that Cali-


[[Page 2010]]

fornia could lose Federal funding if that initiative passes, one, and as 
a second part, what commitment can you make to our listeners about what 
the Federal Government might be able to do to help with the problem of 
illegal immigration?
    The President. Well, first of all, let's try to--let me try to talk 
some sense about this issue. The people of California do have a problem 
with illegal immigration, which is more severe when the economy is in 
trouble. But since I became President, I have been trying to help you 
solve it. I mean, from the day I got in office I knew I had a mess in 
immigration on my hands, and I started trying to fix it 21 months ago.
    What have we done? We have almost doubled the border guards in San 
Diego, along the border down there. We have almost doubled the number of 
illegal aliens who have been convicted of crimes we're sending back out 
of the country. We're giving money to California for the first time to 
help deal with the cost of imprisonment. I've asked Congress to 
appropriate literally hundreds of millions of dollars to help you deal 
with the cost of education and health care. We have increased funding to 
California to deal with immigration by one-third, even though we are 
reducing Federal spending overall for the first time in 25 years. So we 
are moving to deal with this problem. We are also looking at ways that 
we can be tougher on incentives for employers not to hire illegal aliens 
and how we can keep up with the records.
    So I think the people of California should want more done. I think 
the Federal Government should do more. I have been in the forefront of 
doing that, working with Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer, and others.
    I simply don't agree that 187 is the right way to go because, first 
of all, nearly everybody thinks it's unconstitutional. Secondly, it will 
be directed primarily against children. If you kick children out of the 
health clinics, you may run the risk of causing health problems for the 
general California population. If you say kids have got to be kicked out 
of school, you turn the teachers into police officers and you say, 
``We're going to put more kids on the street.'' Well, we've got too many 
kids on the street in America and California today already. It's liable 
to raise the crime rate and cause all kinds of problems.
    So my view is that 187 is not the right way to do this, and it could 
cause California a lot of problems. You know, California is coming back 
economically. You've got the lowest unemployment rate in 3 years here. I 
have worked as hard as I know how to get investment back into 
California, to sell California high-tech products around the world, to 
sell California agricultural products around the world. We're even 
selling California rice in Japan for the first time. The strength of 
California is in its diversity. So the issue is how can we enforce the 
immigration laws and still build on our diversity. And I don't think 187 
is the way to go.
    Ms. Louie. Mr. President, we have so many more questions for you. 
Unfortunately, your people are telling us that you are out of time, your 
time is limited, and you have to go. So thank you very much for joining 
us today on KCBS.
    The President. Thank you. I'm on my way up to the Kaiser Center in 
Oakland at 2:30, and I hope I see some people up there, too. Thanks.
    Mr. Wayne. Mr. President, you'll see us there. Thank you very much.
    The President. Great.

Note: The interview began at 12:45 p.m. The President spoke by telephone 
from the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA.