    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 18, 1995]
    [Pages 702-703]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Budget Proposals and an Exchange With Reporters
    May 18, 1995

        The President. I want to say something about the discussions now
    going on about the rescission bill. First of all, for me, this is not a
    partisan issue at all. This is about pork. And in this pork battle,
    Democrats aren't blameless either. This is about pork over people.
        Now, let's look at what happened. I worked hard with the Senate to
    get a big deficit reduction bill that would protect people and education
    and our efforts to raise the incomes of the American people as much as
    possible. Then they went into conference behind closed doors and took
    out a lot of the people programs that will raise incomes and increase
    security to put in pork.
        There's one congressional district with nine road projects in it.
    One courthouse cost over $100 million. And those two things alone will
    take over $200 million away from our efforts to make sure our children
    go to safe schools, to make sure that we can fund our national service
    program to let young people do community service work and earn money to
    go to college. There is even a project in there that gives a million
    dollars to a city street. Now, what's the Federal Government got to do
    in that?
        You know, if we're going to bring this budget into balance, we're
    going to have to make a lot of tough decisions. We're going to have to
    have a lot of serious cuts. And we have to change the way we do things
    here, and we have to be very careful about how we spend the money we do
    spend. We've got to spend it on things that matter like education and
    training and building up the American people.
        So, that's my position. If they'll get rid of the pork, we can have
    a bill.

    Budget Proposals

        Q. Mr. President, your administration isn't blameless, either,
    though, is it? These aren't programs that were just put in. These are
    programs that were put in the budget that you signed off on and
    Democrats approved. If it's pork, wasn't it pork then? Why did you
    approve it?
        The President. Because we're going to cut $16 billion out. Because a
    $100 million courthouse is not as important to raising incomes as the
    school-to-work program to give young people who don't go to 4-year
    universities a chance to get good training, or as a program for women
    and infants to make sure they're properly nourished, or as a program to
    let our young people work in their communities and earn money to go to
    college. It just doesn't compute.
        There's nowhere near--you know, special interest road projects, nine
    in one congressional district, are not as important as giving our
    teachers the training they need to make sure our students reach world-
    class standards in education. The judgments are wrong. If we're going to
    get serious about continuing the spending cuts and continuing the cuts
    in the deficit, moving this thing to balance, we cannot afford to choose
    pork over people.
        It is a very simple choice, and it has nothing to do with partisan
    politics. And if they will fix it, we can have a bill.
        Q. If they will put the AmeriCorps program back in and fully fund
    that, would that be enough for you? Would you then let the rescission
    bill go through?
        The President. For one thing, on AmeriCorps, I didn't ask for
    AmeriCorps to be fully funded at the level that we funded it in our
    budget. I only asked that it be funded at the level that the Senate--the
    United States Senate passed a rescission bill with a bipartisan vote.
    And all I asked the conference to do was to leave the people programs,
    the education programs in at the Senate level. I asked the conference
    also to take out some very harmful language on the

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    environment dealing with the forests in the Pacific Northwest which will
    cause us all kinds of legal problems and headaches. I hope that can be
    modified as well.
        But I accepted some cuts in every--I think we're going to have to
    look at everything for cuts, but what I asked was that we not cut below
    what the Senate did. And what happened was, they cut below what the
    Senate did to stick in a bunch of pork projects. And that wasn't right.
        And I want to say this: To the people of Oklahoma and California and
    Louisiana and the other States who need the emergency aid, they can get
    that aid today, they can get that aid tomorrow with more deficit
    reduction than is in this bill that came out of the conference if the
    Congress will just take out the pork and put back the people.

    Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown

        Q. Can I ask you one question on Secretary Brown? Are you concerned,
    sir, that the investigation of Secretary Brown and other Cabinet
    officials is giving at least a perception they haven't lived up to----
        The President. Read what the Attorney General's referral said, and I
    think you will see why I asked him to stay on.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:22 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House, prior to a meeting with congressional leaders. A tape was not
    available for verification of the content of these remarks.